While I work on that, how do I create markers? I've searched the creation kit wiki and cannot find a tutorial for that. BTW Thanks for your help in this.

Markers? You just...add them. They're under Miscellaneous if you're looking for idlemarkers. Just drop them into the Render window.

Your page doesn't exist and thought I've set a drinking time for point two-five hours, he still doesn't leave.

You set the drinking time under conditions? As in, IF GameTime >=20 AND IF GameTime <= 24

No, I did it in the schedule. There is no condition function called IF (or IFGameTime). My Marker is also not working. I've placed the marker (DrunkIdleMarker), I've assigned it a reference code, and I've linked my "Travel to" package to that specific marker and he still ends up in the back room when entering the pub.

Morning bump. I need to know how to overcome the NPC Alcoholism problem.

I have another couple of questions. How do I get potions/food to display hours in hours and days in days rather than everything in seconds? Also, do food types/potions that fortify stack? What I mean is if I drink two fortify health potions that fortify you by 10 points, do I get a 20 point increase?

I have a merchant that sells, amongst other things, Stews and Soup. They are not added to the chest as levelled items nor is there a global variable assigned yet they are not showing up in the merchant's sales inventory. Why would this be, please?

Nobody able to help me?

1. You're talking in riddles. It's hard for me to understand what exactly you want
2. If you feel new to this you should probably do any of the basic tutorials on the http://www.creationkit.com/Main_Page, most if not all of your questions get answered there

What do you mean with NPC alcoholism problem?

What does that mean?



Did you go through http://www.creationkit.com/Creating_a_Merchant tutorial?

Go read something.

I'll put it as plain as I can but I wouldn't need to had you read the entire chain of posts.

The first issue I have is with the known problem of NPC Alcoholism. The suggested condition doesn't exist so I'm unable to get around this known problem and since the suggested page for reading doesn't exist either, and nor does Google searches return anything nor does researching it on the Wiki, I'm asking for clarification on precisely how you get around this apparent known problem. Again, had you bothered to read the entire post you'd know that.

The second issue I have is that when I set a potion or food's bonus to last for 24 hours, it shows up in-game as seconds despite my selecting the "D" option in the CK. Again no searches that I've done can find a suggested work around so again, I'm asking this community for assistance in the appropriate forum.

The third issue is exactly as I asked. If I take two health potions that increase health by 10 points, do I get a 20 point increase or do they stack reducing the second or eliminating it entirely? That's not a terribly complicated question so I fail to see what's riddle-like about it.

The fourth and final issue (as it stands now) is that my merchant that I just-so-happened to create because I was just-so-happening to be following the tutorial does not work correctly. Meat vendors do not display all meats added to their chest. Vendors that sell Soup and Stews do not show Soup or Stew for sale despite having all Soups and Stews added to their Chest.

Tutorials are all well and good as a starting point but they do not cover everything which is why they're invariably accompanied by modding forums so that when, as in my case, there is an issue with something in the tutorial not working, you can ask for help. Rather than telling me to go read something, why don't you lean to read.

There is the nav mesh bug which may stop NPC's working. I have been working with NPC's for a while and have complex packages worked out. The nav mesh bug stops most of these from working how I want them to after travelling away or sometimes even from the beginning. Just saying...

And with markers make sure you tick the patrol box and assign a time (in seconds) for them to perfrom a task, I do not set keywords for them (not the basic ones anyways). Then link the markers to other markers. I have my NPC's doing various chores (like farming, singing, sweeping, reading ect) in certain orders and for certain times of the day (with packages). Then for eating and sleeping I just use default packages unless I want them in specific beds.

Hope that helps I'm not too sure if those were the things you were looking for.

First of all, thank you for answering genuinely and not trolling me like the dike head above. I understand quite a lot but there's also gaps in my knowledge that aren't being filled by the tutorials.

What you say does make sense and it may actually work. I'll give it a go tomorrow. Have you any idea on the missing vendor items issue, please?

Please, please, someone help me because I cannot get this character to work. I cannot find tutorials that cover character scheduling and I'm fumbling around in the dark with bloody markers. Here's the issue in as plain language as I can provide:

1. I created a merchant in Whiterun.
2. His house is located outside the city.
3. I can get him to sell, I can get him to stand where I need him to stand but I cannot get him to go home.
4. I created an AI Package stating very clearly "go to your home outside the city" (i.e. the Cell). He stands there and doesn't leave.
5. So I created patrol markers leading to his house and added an AI package that says "Go to the linked ref within his house". He stands there and doesn't leave.

So what the hell am I doing wrong?

I can help you with the packages. If it were me I would have 3 packages on him for starters.

• Sleep package, have his assigned bed set as the reference and set it to start at 1AM (0100) and run for 6 hours (this takes you up to 0700)
  
• Stand behind vendor stand (it sounds like you already have this one, but change your time to 0700 hours for 8 hours.
  
• Drink in bar sandbox package in the bar you want him to go to. Set this to any time any hour. Link it to some reference in the bar and give it a wide sandbox radius of 1000 or so.

What this should do is when it hits 0100 wherever he is he will evaluate and realize it’s time to sleep for 6 hours. He will leave wherever he is, and head to where his assigned bed is. You shouldn’t need a travel package for this. After he sleeps for 6 hours he’ll wake up and evaluate that he is supposed to go to his stand for 8 hours.

After his work shift, the only other package that will be valid is his sandbox in the bar, so he will head there for some drunken revelry until he has to go sleep it off.

EDIT: Also, just to clarify a couple of things. Depending on how long it takes him to walk from the bar to his bed, that may have an effect on his sleep package. You may have to set him to sleep at 2200 hours or even 2000 hours to give him time to actually walk from the bar to his house and get in a little shuteye. As you’re backing the start time for sleep back into his sandbox at any time you’ll be fine. But when you overlap the start time for one package over the end of a package that has not fully finished running, they get confused and just stand there. You may be running into that with your timing of your current packages.

Also, since you’re dealing with specific references in your mod (his bed and vendor marker), you’re better off making your own packages than trying to use the default ones in this situation IMO.

The main key however, is that you set their hourly schedule up so that the sleep and vendor package don’t overlap their time. As the tutorial says, the higher one will take precedence.

Yeah, it's package timing (and order).

Set up the packages so that the most important is at the top and the least important at the bottom (so vendor, pub, sleep ... I would imagine)

However, you could make your life a bit easier by removing the sleep package ... and just adding DefaultHomeOwner Package instead (at the bottom of the tree). He may or may not sleep while in that mode (there's eating and cleaning to do, too), but he will be at home and he won't have such a full schedule that he gets confused

So, I would do: Merchant -> Pub -> DefaultHomeOwner (merchant and pub need schedules) - If he ain't working and he ain't drinking, then he's at home doing something (including sleeping if he feels like it)

And you don't really need linked refs. Just a marker to send him to in the DefaultHomeOwnerPackage. He'll sandbox around there quite happily (set a radius of about 1500 and you should be fine .... depending on how big you made his house)

Merchant Chest
Did you add the items to the Merchant List? Did you follow this tutorial: http://www.youtu.be/Hh8NFbigVTQ?hd=1 ? (I made my first merchant that way, so proceedure is all OK)

Potions Stacking
Don't know ... never bothered looking into it. Easy for you to test that in game yourself, though (so drink some and see)

Potion Time
Not sure ... but I think it always displays in game, in seconds ... but (to make it easy for you) you can enter it into the CK in sec, hour or day ... I might be wrong though and testing stuff isn't on my schedule for the day

Effect stacking: http://www.creationkit.com/Magic_Effect#Effect_Archetypes Essentially, it depends upon which Effect Archetype it is. Value Modifiers stack, while Peak Value Modifiers do not.

For the merchant problem, yes I did. Making Merchants is child's play. It's just one particular merchant that's having an issue and I don't know why. I even gave her a selection of items (armour, weapons, books) to see what would show and what wouldn't and none of them show. Give her bread, that shows. Give her meat and vegs, that shows. It's very peculiar.

Back to the main problem. Bingo, it works. Sort of. Timing is all correct (I set it to 15 minute intervals for testing purposes) but by jove, the guy is blind or something because he can't find his way to his house. He's trying but he's trying to walk through trees and buildings instead of down the main thoroughfare and out the gate. No buildings or trees are in the way of any paths so it doesn't seem like a mod conflict issue. Also, for some odd reason, the Sandbox doesn't include drinking. This isn't a major deal, more a curiosity.

@susurruss, thank you. That's exactly what I needed

Try setting the package to home to use preferred pathing.

Nope, did that and he's still trying to take short cuts through buildings and scenery.

Sounds like it could be a navmesh issue if he’s running into collision objects. You might try an experiment to test what you come up with. If you aren’t testing your mod by using the console to coc into the game before it actually starts, you could try that like this: Load the main menu, open the console and coc into your NPC’s house. You could try following him from there. If it helps you could ~ tmm1 to show all your map markers and use fast travel to help as well. I would try this with no other mods checked in my load order. You might be getting anomolies if you're using a regular save game.

As for the drinking issue, if you’re referring to the animation where they chug ale and do their little jig when the bards play? You have to add them to the bards audience faction and they will have a merry old time. (That’s not the exact name, but if you pull up all factions and filter it with the word bard you’ll find it.)

Hope that helps.

I don't see how it would be a navmesh issue, the problem is with Skyrim's already distinctly dodgy pathfinding. I start (as does the new guy) in Whiterun market. The stall's location is outside of Arcadia's, between two wooden beams. He attempts to go to The Banded Mare and gets stuck on the beam nearest the path. After a minute or so of attempting to move, Skyrim does it's normal trick of moving him to a new location just past the obstacle (the same thing it does when there's a pebble in the way of your character...). He then goes where I want him to. Same thing happens on the way back. He goes the wrong way. Rather than exiting the pub and going down the road, he tries to go around the back streets of Whiterun, getting stuck on all manner of scenery. It's not that the packages aren't working, they are. It's the route he's taking that's all pear shaped.

Done some more testing and here's what happens.

1. At 18.05 he moves one step to his right.
2. At 18.06 he begins to walk, trapped on the pillar that's part of the outside of Arcadia's shop.
3. At 18.07 Skyrim re-spawns him a few paces forward and he enters The Banded Mare.
4. At 18.10 He exits The Banded Mare, turns left and heads down behind Arcadia's.
5. Rather than follow the path as it swings to the right to exit between Arcadia's and Belathor's, he attempts to go over rough ground, getting stuck on a tree (yes, I can remove the tree).
6. After a moment Skyrim respawns him on the other side of the tree. He stands dazed and confused for a few seconds.
7. He begins to walk again and enters Belathor's shop from the rear entrance.
8. He stands for a few seconds then turns around and exits the shop, following the path this time.
9. When he reaches the alley at the side of Arcadia's, he just stops and doesn't move any more.

Points of note:

*His house doesn't have a map marker.
*His house is located opposite Owl Pearch Inn.
*His AI packages make no mention of Belathor's.

OK, I'm looking at Whiterun, and if he's running into the post in front of Arcadia's, you might consider moving his vendor stand a little more towards the center of the courtyard area. It's not necessarily important at this moment, but you will want to edit the vanilla navmesh for his stand at some point. That, and moving it away from the obstacle might help you with that part. As for leaving the Bannered Mare, where exactly is his house outside of Whiterun located? That behavior does sound kinda wonky.

I too think you may have a navmesh issue ... And some of those are impossible to fix (without a fix from Beth) - But, that said:

If you made the house yourself, did you "adjust" the navmesh after placing the doors in and out of it?

This may cause you the dreaded navmesh problems, but you must check. The little arrows that appear on the navmesh from a placed door (well, the yellow block that denotes the door transport location) must be fully positioned on the navmesh.

So you must check that the door can be accessed (both internally and externally!)

If it is not fully on the grid, then try to MOVE THE DOOR MARKER a little bit; do not touch the navmesh in an EXTERIOR CELL if you can help it! Position the marker so that it does sit nicely on the grid

(You should be OK to change and refinalise the navmesh in the interior, although a similar slight move might be easier)