I have a scene in which the player walks into a trigger to start it, and a nearby NPC is enabled. I need that NPC to be on a horse, and to approach at (horse) walking speed. To stop, then after a few dialogue lines get off the horse and walk to a nearby location. (Just in front of the horse) At the end of the scene he then needs to get back on the horse, say a few lines, then ride off.

I've never ever dealt with horses in my entire time modding. What kind of packages do I use for this? How do I make him stay on it at the right times? Is the horse an actor too? Do I need packages to keep it in place? If he's on the horse do they become one combined actor? (Or just 'him')

Thanks for any help!

Alexander J. Velicky

Most AI procedures that involve movement have a flag for RideHorseIfPossible. If this is set to true, the actor will ride a horse if there is one nearby that they have ownership of. While mounted, the horse is controlled by packages applied to the NPC. There aren't commands to force an NPC to mount and dismount, so for example in the first part you'll probably need to do a sequence of procedures, or phases within a scene, where:

1: the NPC travels to a marker with RideHorseIfPossible set to true
2: the NPC speaks their lines
3: the NPC travels to a second marker with RideHorseIfPossible set to false--this should force them to dismount and walk to that second marker

Okay, I'll try that. How will the horse act while he is not on it? Does it simply get it's own packages then, so I just tell it to stand still, etc? I assume it would simply be another actor that I can add packages too, and the only exception here being the flag I need to set (RideHorseIfPossible), and that while he is on the horse, HIS packages are what matters. That all correct?

The bummer is that I can't actually test this ingame for a long time. (Like a week or two) I need to get a whole pile of voice acting from my actors in order to complete things before this...

Yes, horses are actors themselves, and can have packages applied either directly or via alias when not being ridden.

Alright, awesome, thanks. I'll try this out and when I can eventually test it, if I have any issues I'll post here!

One of the scenes in the Vanilla opening Wagonride has Commander Tulus sitting on his horse (talking to some Mer), just after the wagon enters Helgen.

Track back through the setup of MQ101 - there's a whole raft of stuff that puts various people in place - and you should see how Beth got Tulus to sit on his horse (and just stay in place ... I don't remember him having dialogue, but that should be the easier part).

And I THINK you may have to get your NPC to ride to his initial destination, when I tested for short distances I had trouble getting NPCs to use a horse, but it was fine for slightly longer journeys. But, if your NPC starts your scene already astride, then that should be OK

Yeah the two packages in MQ101 I can find that appear relevant just have him doing a 'PatrolStaticPathing' package, with the ride horse as true. I think that should just do the trick. I just need to put him far enough away to actually get on the horse, that's all.