I have two dragon priests inside one of my lairs. Both of them are locked into seperate rooms behind remoteoperated port gate poles.
Outside of this rooms rages a battle between Dremora, Werewolves, Anomalies, etc..

While the battles goes on, something causes the priest to switch to the other side of the poles which makes them become active parts of the battle... but they should stay locked until the player reaches a certain point (== trigger).


Does someone knows, how to prefent them from switching?


Its fine, if the priest joins the battle and are shooting at the creatures outside. Its fine if they get hit too...
But its not okay if they brake loose and actively engage the player! This makes it nearly impossible to survive. Especially, if all other creatures have died allready!

Any hints on the cause or on a solution are very welcome!!
Thx!

note: narrowing the poles closer togehter didn′t help... they still switch side. Breaking the navmesh keeps them inside the rooms but not from switching. And the navmesh should stay connected, because the priests shall move across after being release by trigger...

Umm... what? How could breaking the nav mesh keep them inside but not keep them inside at the same time? Anyway, if disabling nav mesh will solve the problem, check http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1364835-disableenable-navmesh/.

If that's not a solution, script them with http://www.creationkit.com/EnableAI_-_Actor until the doors open.

Okay. with breaking NAvmesh I ment, to divide the navmesh. One for each room, one for the battlefield...

Disabling the AI is not what I want to do... the priests should be fully operational but should stay into their rooms....

I know what you mean by breaking the nav mesh. What I don't understand is what you say happens when you break the nav mesh.


You say that it keeps them in their rooms. But you also say that they will still switch to the other side of the gates. So does it keep them in their rooms, or doesn't it?

Okay, now I understand... the navmesh for the rooms extended the poles a little bit... so the priest switched but stayed at the rest of the navmesh.



But since breaking the navmesh is no option, we can stick to the topic: what causes the priest to switch!

Check my first post. I linked to a topic discussing dynamically enabling/disabling nav meshes.

Okay, will do...

Fine, I red the post, but ít isn′t really helpfull.... would just be a "big" workaround.

Wouldn′t be necessary if the priests wouldn′t switch in the first place. There must be a solution without navmesh cutting and scripting - I hope...

Found a "quick′n′dirty" solution: changed the poles to a prison door.... doesnt look that good, but keeps the priests where they are ment to...

Did you make them the 'Ambush' variety and not normal? I think Ambush has something extra that keeps it down until you trigger it.

This might be a dumb suggestion, but can the player actually SEE the priests before hitting the trigger? If not, just set them to disabled, and enable them with the trigger.

Put a collision block in the doorway, and disable it when the trigger gets hit.

Thx for the replies!

The priests are visible to the player. Imagine them as beasts in a cage, waiting to be released to join the battle!
Ambushes and Collision Blocks arn′t helpful, because the priest should be able to engage the other creatures outside when they still locked inside their rooms.


But I think, I gonna stick with the prison cell doors!
They do fine! Priests stay inside but can shoot thru them... the player knows they are there and he has to deal wth them later...

Poles would have looked better, but I dont care anymore. As long as the battle rages as planed, I am happy




If someone got a good explanation, why the priest switch side, I′m still glad to hear it... thx.

What AI packages do you have set up for them? It might have something to do with that. In fact, you could probably set them up with a hold in place (I think that was what it's called) package, and then swap that for your battle package with the trigger. They should stay put, then the player triggers them and they then come out of their cage. You could do it with stage conditions on their packages then set the stage when the player enters the trigger.

I used the default packages. Didn′t changed something here... maybe I should.

Will the priests still engage the others when I asign a "hold in place" AI or will they stand still and become easy targets? Need them to be active but locked inside...

I looked at a couple of different packages and I see 2 ways they set them up. One is a travel package the other is a sandbox. I think either would work for you. I would try the default sandbox near editor location first. Pull that package up, give it a new name and save yourself a new package when it prompts you to. Then set the radius to 10 or so (something very small) and see how your priests do with that. You might have to play with the radius for your desired effect though.

They shouldn't ignore combat unless you flag them to ignore combat, so they should engage any opposing faction if the enemy gets close enough to them, but should also remain locked into that small radius you gave them. There are a variety of ways you can script your sequence to change their packages on command as well. So, if you need the priests to come out of their holding cells and go to the player to fight, give them a travel to player package and either script it to change when the player enters your trigger or some other way when you need this to happen. To me, the most simple way is to use quest stages, and set up conditions on your packages that will stop the hold in place package when the travel to player (to fight!) becomes valid.