Just started getting into Skyrim on PC and I love this mod. Brilliant job. So many different pets and am using 2 for my current character with pets planned for my future ones too. Even decided one build based upon pets!
The fact they aren't effected by combat is the icing on the cake.
One feature I do wish for is being able to make them wait outside though as I've had a few clutter mishaps when entering homes. No idea if that's possible.
Glad to hear you like the mod :) . I like your idea of asking them to wait somewhere.
I'll think about how I can implement this. I am always trying to refine convenience features like this, and having them body-block you is rarely convenient. Or do you mean they've been crashing into other clutter/furnishings and making a mess?
Ultimately I'd like to use a dll to disable their collisions entirely, but that's currently a longer-term goal or something I'd need help with from a friend.
Surprisingly they aren't getting in my way too much. The min distace scripting must be working well!
More into furnishings etc. But to be honest it's probably my fault as I did resize the two I'm using via console :3 if they were default mod size I probably wouldn't have the problem and it is actually kind of funny/cute when they do.
Disabling collisions would be a cool end goal I think.
Really though the mod is great as is. Thanks so much :D
Edit: I'm an idiot, I'm using the SE version just for prosperity. Didn't realise ot was for Oldrim too but that just makes this mod even better :)
Thanks - I've been tracking this literally for years - new version seems to work fine, will report if anything strange comes up but so far so good. I unflagged it so I could move it around and didn't see any landscape issues but to each their own I guess, YMMV or whatever.
I had issues with cell grass appearing in unrelated interiors. These were resolved by flagging it as an .ESM, it's safe to leave it like this as the only possible place load-order slightly matters for this mod is for the entrance to the refuge, and this is fairly superficial.
Hello! I've been using this awesome mod for a long time but all of a sudden today my fox started becoming a hostile target toward me when hit with friendly fire. I'm quite sure friendly fire wasn't possible before. It doesn't attack me obviously, but it is treated as a hostile target and shows up as a red dot on my radar. Any help with this issue would be very very appreciated!
Edit: I feel I should clarify that it was the Snow Fox in particular that I'm was having issues with.
Hmm, that really shouldn't happen. Was it hit by friendly fire by you, or an ally of yours? (follower or some other companion perhaps?)
Have you tried using console commands like stopcombat? Can you do a query like GetAv Aggression ? I'm pretty sure I hardcoded all Pet aggression values to be 0 so they shouldn't fight anything even if they wanted to. Could they have been hit by an enemy frenzy spell or some type of scripted ability which changed some of their values?
If we can find out what went wrong, and where, I should be able to code around such situations in the future.
Thank you for your response! And it was hit by me, and I was able to recreate this after reloading, with no enemies around, so it's definitely my attack that's causing it. The pet doesn't attempt to attack, and follows me as normal, but he has a red dot on my radar and I see his health bar. I will definitely try the stopcombat command and GetAv Aggression asap.
Edit: I don't know why, but the issue just seems to have fixed itself, haha. It's impossible to hit the pets again. :)
I was a little worried because theoretically the only things that should be able to target*/affect the pets should be scripts that indiscriminately acquire nearby npc's. Under normal circumstances they should be impossible to hit as you said.
*Enemy AI can still sometimes "notice" them (and then attempt to attack them) simply because the pets actually exist and aren't npc's a given enemy is specifically friendly towards thus hostility, thus some work-around's on my part under-the-hood. TESIV Oblivion had a dedicated NonCombat faction for this express purpose, unfortunately Bethesda neglected to do something as elegant for Skyrim (to my great disappointment & frustration when creating this mod )
Thank you so much for making this mod despite the extra challenges. I've used it for years and it's a mod that I refuse to play without. And thank you for responding to my comment about the issue so quickly. You're awesome!! :)
Oh! I was trying to create precisely this! Almost precisely, really. These types of animals, the location even looks like what I had in mind. But of course I failed long before I even got there. *fistshaking at the vanilla follower system and my own ineptitude ensues* Well, that and I am sure my version never would have been this nice. <3
I'm thrilled to pieces that you made this! I will test the hell out of it with greatest relish! I wonder what effect these companions have on the player's sneak...
This is as wonderful as I expected. I love the sanctuary and how cute the animals are (even the spiders!) and my heart really did melt. XD
Issues that came up so far:
1) Probably because they're ghosts or due to some other setting, my player never looks at them. I use Player Headtracking and I'll admit that looking down at the pets (I imagine fondly) is part of the joy. Not sure if this even is anything that can be helped. Of course the fact that they shouldn't break my sneak like very single other pet I've had (or even created) is awesome.
2) Bigger issue is this: I went to say hi to two skeletons to see what happens during combat and they attacked me all right, but when I stepped behind my cute and relaxing sabre cat pet, the skeletons just started attacking my pet. Which is not taking any damage of course, etc. My cat stopped relaxing but is just standing there while the skeletons unsuccessfully try to harm it, completely ignoring me right next to them. So as a tank that might work but would be OP. But more importantly, it probably means sneak is not going to work for me either, since the enemies still apparently see them. Or maybe just the undead? >_> Edit: A wolf joined the fun and is attacking the pet as well. I went into sneak but as soon as my pet caught up with me, followed by the skeletons and the wolf, I was detected. (And I have crazy overpowered sneak, so that does not bode well.)
1) I'm not sure what can be done about head-tracking. I'll look into it.
2) :/ This is bad news. Antares tested the pets vs Whiterun Guards where he went AFK for 10+ minutes and the guards never attacked any of his pets. We'll look into this RIGHT NOW.
Well, maybe it was my fault because I fast-travelled to the skeletons and that broke something? I found another one and it only attacks me, ignoring the cat. I'll try a dungeon!
Bad news all around, I am afraid. Nothing has changed. Bandits see and hate the pet (which I adopted all fresh, to be sure). Kitty also triggered a rock trap, although I think anyone might? I don't think these are affected by the trap safety perk at all. (We were still hidden, but a bandit came looking for us at this point, saw the cat, though not me, went "Ha! Found you!" running at it with sword raised, and immediately died to a rock. Kitty and I were amused.)
Another fun thing occurred when the skeleton once more was swinging futilely at my kitty and for some reason a nearby mammoth came over to help. I don't think that's every happened to me before, so I don't know if my pet is an ally to mammoths or if this is vanilla behaviour. (Then again, after I adopted kitty another mammoth floated up into the air, only to die in the following crash to earth. Could be my game decides to be glitchy.)
As for the headtracking, I know it sometimes is iffy when new mods are installed, so I disabled it, saved, reloaded, saved, enabled, etc. After that my character was definitely watching the skeleton swing and stared down at a dead deer the moment I went near it, but still no dice with kitty.
So right now it's not looking good. (So sorry about that! ) However! I have been using my current saves and they are rather big as is. In a while I'll try this with an otherwise modless, post-Helgen save to be certain it's not a conflict or general slowness.
Edit: Not any more luck with the pristine game. Although the guards and Whiterun NPCs were definitely attacking me, not kitty, so that's something.
Right. It seems the combat bugs crept in when we added the option to change pets. Antares' original version contained only a rabbit
We've overhauled the combat avoidance measures used by the pets. They no longer rely on faction relations to stay out of the action, instead they now take advantage of a combination of detection mechanics and magic. (scripting magic XD)
I am still not sure what can be done about headtracking. Which mod do you use to enable that? I'll have to get Antares to take a dig
You have to hate me by now. ^^; But... strangeness happened!
So I started over with version 1.2:
First I adopted a white sabrecat. We walked around the sanctuary when I began to have that blue swirly shimmery effect I associate with resistance to some attack or absorption. (This is a very advanced character with massive resistances, so maybe that's a factor as well?) And the sabrecat was see-through! I dismissed it (BTWI love the effect you put on that XD) and adopted a regular sabrecat. The blue swirly thing started up again almost immediately and always from the direction of my pet, so my assumption is that it stems from there. After a few minutes, when I was about to dismiss the pet in mid-swirl (I did not do this on purpose; I just happened to click at a bad time), the game froze. Had to force close it.
So I adopted a white fox (swirlies again every 15 seconds or so) to test out in the wilds! Skeletons beware!
Fox and me went forth and the first thing we discovered is that eventually (not right away, but then for sure) headtracking worked with it. That's particularly excellent since foxes tend to stare a lot at the player too, so there are tons of "focused on each other" moments that truly make it feel you have some connection to your pet.
As for the skeleton attack test, they definitely were hitting me and seemed to ignore the fox. Success!
The bandit test proved interesting. It's hard to say since the fox followed so closely behind me, but it seems to me that when it came near to the bandits they entered searching mode, although they did not find us as long as we moved away. I say it may have been the fox triggering this because that doesn't usually happen when I am by myself. I'd have to make noise or enter line of sight, etc. So I just stayed in sneak, alerting the bandits to our presence with arrows. They eventually found us, my sneak meter still showed me as hidden, but they attacked the fox. Until they saw me as well. But the weirdness is added by the fact that, when I did not react to that at all, they eventually started searching again. Then attacked the fox again. Saw me again, and so on. One time the bandit actually went "There you are!" at the fox right in front of her, and the next second turned around to search. They eventually pushed me off a ledge into water and just kept searching/attacking the fox until I climbed out a few minutes later.
(Fox also triggered the rock trap again which just goes to show that anyone and anything triggers these evil things. It's the nature of the game.)
The headtracking mod I use is this: Player headtracking, although I use version 2.6, since it's stable for me without any of the bugs reported by some for the later versions. I find that headtracking is something that really makes playing in 3rd person feel right. It just makes me nervous when my character stares straight ahead, no matter who is talking to them. Very rude. But your mod does not actually break the functionality, so compatibility is ensured already. And anyway, you certainly have no obligation to make your mod work with every obscure mod someone uses. :3 In any case it seemed to work with the fox, so I will go and test it with some of the other animals.
Further suggestions:
Maybe you could edit the bear sound a little? They look so cute but sound huge and mean. Maybe fiddle with the... what was it, attentuation? That way there wouldn't be need for extra assets.
The blue swirly thing is presumably the cloak spell that is bestowed upon your current pet. This should be completely invisible because all of its Visual Effects data fields are NULL. There must be some interference from a mod you're using. Perhaps one that makes a lot of changes to magic or spell effects?
As to your game freezing, are you able to reproduce this error?
"It's hard to say since the fox followed so closely behind me, but it seems to me that when it came near to the bandits they entered searching mode"
They entered searching mode before detecting you? It might be whatever strangeness you're getting from the pet's cloak spell is the culprit here.
From version 1.2 the current pet is flagged as invisible, always in forced sneak mode, has a sneak skill of 100, various sneak perks, and a (detection) movement noise multiplier of 0.0. They should be nigh undetectable. The cloak is the last line of defence which fires a secondary spell ONLY when the pet is detected as being the combat target of an NPC. The secondary spell forces the NPC in question to choose another target. Neither Antares or myself have ever successfully gotten anything to attack our pets (even momentarily). In version 1.2 we had debug notifications active on the cloak and they never even went off. We tested vs Guards, Bandits, Wolves, Mammoths, Giants, Rieklings, Dwemer Automatons, Draugr, Skeletons, Dragons, Trolls, and Vampires.
Do you have these issues on a new game? Or with no mods installed? I think the issues you are experiencing are as a result of whatever it is that's going on with those blue swirls. Could you possibly post a screenshot or a video (and post your load-order please)?
RE: Transparency This is a known issue, and is a side-effect of the invisibility flag we must apply to the pets. It does self-correct periodically during the course of gameplay. How often were your pets see-through? Did you try the in-game manual fix mentioned in the description? It really should not happen often, if at all. Do you have bad script lag, or run a lot of other programs/applications in the background whilst playing Skyrim?
RE: Bear sounds I'm pretty sure these sound effects are tied directly to their animations. I have no way to edit those animations so I don't think I can resolve this issue I will try one last thing, but if it works it will make that sound effect much quieter for EVERY bear.... :/
I haven't actually tried to reproduce the freezing incident, but I am certain it was just a matter of too many scripts running. As I said, swirls coincided with engaging the dismiss dialogue. And even though I try to keep the script load low, I tend to get a lot of lag there. Probably a one-time thing.
The bandits definitely entered searching mode before detecting me. And yes, the swirly effect was going on. It tends to do that near-constantly.
I haven't been able to get anyone to attack a pet in version 1.3 thus far (yay! ), but in 1.2 it definitely happened. Here's a picture of the attack. As you can see my sneak meter still shows me as completely hidden. They were, in fact, attacking the pet (even though it looks like I am in the way of the axe).
On the bright side, I had a frost atronach pet with me for testing 1.3 and because of pathing issues when it tried to follow me it had to take the long way around, running past a whole bunch of bandits who did not bat an eye or otherwise react to it.
As for the transparency, it did not happen a lot. I remember it once with the white sabrecat while still inside the sanctuary. And just now, when I tested the frost atronach pet, it occurred again, rendering Frosty nearly completely invisible, not so much see-through. (I could have sworn I took a screenshot of that but there isn't any. Sorry about that.) I don't actually remember it happening otherwise, if that helps.
It's cool to have the bear sounds as an optional file. :3 Thanks! This is a small thing in any event.
Getting back to the blue swirly, since that seems to be the only real issue here: I created a profile for testing this out, using my level 88 character and the fresh one at level 1 or so. Cleaned the old saves best I could so they work without all the mods. This is the resulting (minimal) load order:
Also: the HighResTexture packs SKSE OneTweak -----------------
And the swirls still happen for my high-level character. It definitely must be connected to a perk or permanent effect other than what is shown in the effects tab of the magic menu. Can't be a removable effect either because I've had to use the console to remove broken thralls before (which wipes all temporary effects). I wish I could remember at which point in the game this started to happen occasionally (usually in conjunction with spell traps or magical attacks of some kind). I've found a post somewhere (I forget) where someone claimed it was connected to the Atronach Stone, but I don't use that one.
That's all I can come up with for the moment, I'm afraid. ^^
Oh but, the new pets are so cute! I actually squealed when I saw the little draugrs, and the storm atronach is just adorable. XD I wonder if you could (or want to) add a tiny draugr who is wearing his armour? I like how it looks on them. This is not an important request or anything, just a thought. :3
I'm glad to hear you like the Draugr's xD. They are so funny lol. I did initially have them wearing armour but it kinda detracted from their "cuteness" / pet-vibe, that and they shouldn't "need" their armor I'll ask Antares if there's a way he can script them to have different outfits or something?
Hmm, I'm not sure how we can address the transparency if it's sometimes happening inside the Animal Refuge. Pets do get flagged as invisible as soon as you adopt one but the visual effect is not supposed to be applied according to the Creation Kit wiki and certain other 3rd-party sources. Nevertheless we noticed they do turn semi-transparent whenever their 3d-model is reloaded (if you go through a load-screen, etc) so Antares wrote some code to detect whenever that happens and correct the effect. Somehow their 3d-model must be getting updated or re-loaded prematurely? Unfortunately there is no way to query their alpha level (how transparent they appear), if there was this would be so much simpler We'll see if we can reproduce this ourselves and/or improve the code. Thanks
I have an idea regarding the blue swirls, but as this seems to be a soft-clash with certain mods or perks you'll probably have to test this for us. I hope you don't mind? Evidently neither Antares nor myself seem to use whatever mod(s) are producing this quirk.
PS: I just sent you a PM with an experimental version. It should hopefully prevent blue swirls on your character.
Here's my complete report of the experimental version:
Success! No swirls. :D
The white sabrecat went see-through (slightly) the moment we left the refuge. Went solid when I fast-travelled. But went transparent again very fast (possibly when I went into sneak?). And solid again pretty quickly. And so forth.
Found a skeleton who attacked me with frost magic and THAT brought up my swirly shield - but only that. (I also installed STATUS and that mod told me both my frost and magic resistance are over 100. Just a useful thing to know in this context.) The pet stayed semi-translucent throughout the fight, but I couldn't get the skeleton to attack it at all. :)
I went back to my favourite bandits in Lost Knife Hideout and they still entered search mode when pet and I just hid near the two at the bridge. They actually started to attack the invisible pet again! Eventually they stopped and started searching again. Found me this time, attacked me, then suddenly stopped and started attacking my (translucent) pet. @_@ All of that without me moving a muscle. It was bizarre. Maybe it is just these guys (plus whoever came running to join them) who have supernatural detecting ability? '_'
Please let me know if I should look for anything specific. <3
So was your pet staying transparent or the effect was getting fixed after a delay? What happens when you try activate them whilst sneaking? (can't be in combat or inside the Animal Refuge)
Are you able to get those bandits to attack your pet in the non-experimental version (1.3)?
Version 1.41! Love it! All around pretty good results, I think.
FIrst off, the draugr outfits are amazingly cute! And work like a charm. <3
I don't get the impression that my pet in any way draws attention to me now when we sneak (or otherwise, I suppose). There's only really one or two issues remaining, neither of which I expect you to fix because I am thinking this might just be the game doing its thing.
When I make sure the pet (maybe only one big enough, like the sabrecat) is between me and whoever's attacking me (I did this to see if I could tease them into attacking the pet), the attacker takes one last swing at me then just stands there with weapon drawn, spouting the usual attack lines but not doing anything about it. Or maybe they go into searching mode... This may once again be a matter of psychic/confused bandits in Lost Knife Hideout.
In any event! No one is attacking the pet anymore! And the swirls are gone. :3
As for the translucency, I think this happens whenever the pet gets between the camera and the player. Pet goes see-through so the player can be seen - and stays that way. Probably a 3rd person issue? Anyway, owing to that my pet still goes see-through pretty much all the time, but resetting it via the sneak menu works beautifully - if only for a brief time. (Just so you know, I don't have actual complaints about this.) In any event, it seems likely that this will affect smaller pets a lot less than the big ones. Or, anyway, thus far it applies to sabrecats, the white stag, the frost atronach. Did not happen to the oufitted male draugr, or the dwarven spider, the rabbit, or the foxes even when I provoked the effect.
Headtracking the pets is iffy. It seems to kick in after doing some magic or combat or weapon swap or... I really don't know. Either way, that's probably a headtracking issue as such. Pretty sure there's nothing for you guys to do about this and - again - I certainly have no complaints, plus it does work eventually. <3
After this (and as soon as I have time to actually play the game) I plan to take a pet on an extended field test in my actual savegame. Then we'll see if the confused/psychic bandits are an anomaly. XD
Thanks so much for this mod! <3 I wish I knew how to draw attention to it because it deserves so much more than those few endorsements. (Maybe people who want pets for company instead of combat may be rare; who knows?)
When I make sure the pet (maybe only one big enough, like the sabrecat) is between me and whoever's attacking me (I did this to see if I could tease them into attacking the pet), the attacker takes one last swing at me then just stands there with weapon drawn, spouting the usual attack lines but not doing anything about it. Or maybe they go into searching mode... This may once again be a matter of psychic/confused bandits in Lost Knife Hideout.
I believe this is because of actor collision and pathing. Pets are still considered actors and thus require the navmesh system in order to navigate Skyrim (every actor except the player relies on navmesh). It sounds like the large pets are simply blocking the path between you and any aggressors (similar to if you were standing on a rock or something out of reach). They can see you, they just can't figure out how to reach you. I'll try to get a more technically accurate explanation into the Known Issues or Important Information sections of the Description page.
As for the translucency, I think this happens whenever the pet gets between the camera and the player. Pet goes see-through so the player can be seen - and stays that way. Probably a 3rd person issue? Anyway, owing to that my pet still goes see-through pretty much all the time, but resetting it via the sneak menu works beautifully - if only for a brief time. (Just so you know, I don't have actual complaints about this.) In any event, it seems likely that this will affect smaller pets a lot less than the big ones. Or, anyway, thus far it applies to sabrecats, the white stag, the frost atronach. Did not happen to the oufitted male draugr, or the dwarven spider, the rabbit, or the foxes even when I provoked the effect.
Thanks, we've never been able to reliably reproduce this quirk so your information is very helpful. There might be some conditions we can improve to further mitigate this issue.
Thanks so much for this mod! <3 I wish I knew how to draw attention to it because it deserves so much more than those few endorsements. (Maybe people who want pets for company instead of combat may be rare; who knows?)
Aw thanks Your kind words and appreciation of the mod are more than enough <3
Since they have their own follower system, are essential and ghost... can you talk to them? I mean its a really sweet mod, and I want to try it so much! but... im curious if they say something xD just simple curiosity!
Pets don't have any dialogue options. Our aim was to make them as "inconsequential" as possible (whilst still being able to have them share your adventures )
45 comments
The fact they aren't effected by combat is the icing on the cake.
One feature I do wish for is being able to make them wait outside though as I've had a few clutter mishaps when entering homes. No idea if that's possible.
Thanks for the great mod! :)
I'll think about how I can implement this. I am always trying to refine convenience features like this, and having them body-block you is rarely convenient. Or do you mean they've been crashing into other clutter/furnishings and making a mess?
Ultimately I'd like to use a dll to disable their collisions entirely, but that's currently a longer-term goal or something I'd need help with from a friend.
More into furnishings etc. But to be honest it's probably my fault as I did resize the two I'm using via console :3 if they were default mod size I probably wouldn't have the problem and it is actually kind of funny/cute when they do.
Disabling collisions would be a cool end goal I think.
Really though the mod is great as is. Thanks so much :D
Edit: I'm an idiot, I'm using the SE version just for prosperity. Didn't realise ot was for Oldrim too but that just makes this mod even better :)
So glad this is still going and updating. I will most definitely come back to this mod when I play this game again. <3
I had issues with cell grass appearing in unrelated interiors. These were resolved by flagging it as an .ESM, it's safe to leave it like this as the only possible place load-order slightly matters for this mod is for the entrance to the refuge, and this is fairly superficial.
Edit: I feel I should clarify that it was the Snow Fox in particular that I'm was having issues with.
Was it hit by friendly fire by you, or an ally of yours? (follower or some other companion perhaps?)
Have you tried using console commands like stopcombat? Can you do a query like GetAv Aggression ?
I'm pretty sure I hardcoded all Pet aggression values to be 0 so they shouldn't fight anything even if they wanted to. Could they have been hit by an enemy frenzy spell or some type of scripted ability which changed some of their values?
If we can find out what went wrong, and where, I should be able to code around such situations in the future.
Edit: I don't know why, but the issue just seems to have fixed itself, haha. It's impossible to hit the pets again. :)
I was a little worried because theoretically the only things that should be able to target*/affect the pets should be scripts that indiscriminately acquire nearby npc's. Under normal circumstances they should be impossible to hit as you said.
*Enemy AI can still sometimes "notice" them (and then attempt to attack them) simply because the pets actually exist and aren't npc's a given enemy is specifically friendly towards thus hostility, thus some work-around's on my part under-the-hood. TESIV Oblivion had a dedicated NonCombat faction for this express purpose, unfortunately Bethesda neglected to do something as elegant for Skyrim (to my great disappointment & frustration when creating this mod
But of course I failed long before I even got there. *fistshaking at the vanilla follower system and my own ineptitude ensues* Well, that and I am sure my version never would have been this nice. <3
I'm thrilled to pieces that you made this! I will test the hell out of it with greatest relish! I wonder what effect these companions have on the player's sneak...
Thanks so much!
The pet's shouldn't effect player stealth in the slightest. Please do let me know if this is not the case though.
This is as wonderful as I expected. I love the sanctuary and how cute the animals are (even the spiders!) and my heart really did melt. XD
Issues that came up so far:
1) Probably because they're ghosts or due to some other setting, my player never looks at them. I use Player Headtracking and I'll admit that looking down at the pets (I imagine fondly) is part of the joy. Not sure if this even is anything that can be helped.
Of course the fact that they shouldn't break my sneak like very single other pet I've had (or even created) is awesome.
2) Bigger issue is this: I went to say hi to two skeletons to see what happens during combat and they attacked me all right, but when I stepped behind my cute and relaxing sabre cat pet, the skeletons just started attacking my pet. Which is not taking any damage of course, etc. My cat stopped relaxing but is just standing there while the skeletons unsuccessfully try to harm it, completely ignoring me right next to them.
So as a tank that might work but would be OP. But more importantly, it probably means sneak is not going to work for me either, since the enemies still apparently see them. Or maybe just the undead? >_>
Edit: A wolf joined the fun and is attacking the pet as well. I went into sneak but as soon as my pet caught up with me, followed by the skeletons and the wolf, I was detected. (And I have crazy overpowered sneak, so that does not bode well.)
2) :/
This is bad news. Antares tested the pets vs Whiterun Guards where he went AFK for 10+ minutes and the guards never attacked any of his pets.
We'll look into this RIGHT NOW.
I found another one and it only attacks me, ignoring the cat.
I'll try a dungeon!
If you could confirm either way that would be very much appreciated!
Bad news all around, I am afraid. Nothing has changed. Bandits see and hate the pet (which I adopted all fresh, to be sure). Kitty also triggered a rock trap, although I think anyone might? I don't think these are affected by the trap safety perk at all. (We were still hidden, but a bandit came looking for us at this point, saw the cat, though not me, went "Ha! Found you!" running at it with sword raised, and immediately died to a rock. Kitty and I were amused.)
Another fun thing occurred when the skeleton once more was swinging futilely at my kitty and for some reason a nearby mammoth came over to help. I don't think that's every happened to me before, so I don't know if my pet is an ally to mammoths or if this is vanilla behaviour. (Then again, after I adopted kitty another mammoth floated up into the air, only to die in the following crash to earth. Could be my game decides to be glitchy.)
As for the headtracking, I know it sometimes is iffy when new mods are installed, so I disabled it, saved, reloaded, saved, enabled, etc. After that my character was definitely watching the skeleton swing and stared down at a dead deer the moment I went near it, but still no dice with kitty.
So right now it's not looking good. (So sorry about that! ) However! I have been using my current saves and they are rather big as is. In a while I'll try this with an otherwise modless, post-Helgen save to be certain it's not a conflict or general slowness.
Edit: Not any more luck with the pristine game. Although the guards and Whiterun NPCs were definitely attacking me, not kitty, so that's something.
It seems the combat bugs crept in when we added the option to change pets. Antares' original version contained only a rabbit
We've overhauled the combat avoidance measures used by the pets. They no longer rely on faction relations to stay out of the action, instead they now take advantage of a combination of detection mechanics and magic.
(scripting magic XD)
I am still not sure what can be done about headtracking. Which mod do you use to enable that? I'll have to get Antares to take a dig
So I started over with version 1.2:
First I adopted a white sabrecat. We walked around the sanctuary when I began to have that blue swirly shimmery effect I associate with resistance to some attack or absorption. (This is a very advanced character with massive resistances, so maybe that's a factor as well?) And the sabrecat was see-through!
I dismissed it (BTWI love the effect you put on that XD) and adopted a regular sabrecat. The blue swirly thing started up again almost immediately and always from the direction of my pet, so my assumption is that it stems from there. After a few minutes, when I was about to dismiss the pet in mid-swirl (I did not do this on purpose; I just happened to click at a bad time), the game froze. Had to force close it.
So I adopted a white fox (swirlies again every 15 seconds or so) to test out in the wilds! Skeletons beware!
Fox and me went forth and the first thing we discovered is that eventually (not right away, but then for sure) headtracking worked with it. That's particularly excellent since foxes tend to stare a lot at the player too, so there are tons of "focused on each other" moments that truly make it feel you have some connection to your pet.
As for the skeleton attack test, they definitely were hitting me and seemed to ignore the fox. Success!
The bandit test proved interesting.
It's hard to say since the fox followed so closely behind me, but it seems to me that when it came near to the bandits they entered searching mode, although they did not find us as long as we moved away. I say it may have been the fox triggering this because that doesn't usually happen when I am by myself. I'd have to make noise or enter line of sight, etc.
So I just stayed in sneak, alerting the bandits to our presence with arrows. They eventually found us, my sneak meter still showed me as hidden, but they attacked the fox. Until they saw me as well. But the weirdness is added by the fact that, when I did not react to that at all, they eventually started searching again. Then attacked the fox again. Saw me again, and so on. One time the bandit actually went "There you are!" at the fox right in front of her, and the next second turned around to search.
They eventually pushed me off a ledge into water and just kept searching/attacking the fox until I climbed out a few minutes later.
(Fox also triggered the rock trap again which just goes to show that anyone and anything triggers these evil things. It's the nature of the game.)
The headtracking mod I use is this: Player headtracking, although I use version 2.6, since it's stable for me without any of the bugs reported by some for the later versions.
I find that headtracking is something that really makes playing in 3rd person feel right. It just makes me nervous when my character stares straight ahead, no matter who is talking to them. Very rude.
But your mod does not actually break the functionality, so compatibility is ensured already. And anyway, you certainly have no obligation to make your mod work with every obscure mod someone uses. :3
In any case it seemed to work with the fox, so I will go and test it with some of the other animals.
Further suggestions:
Maybe you could edit the bear sound a little? They look so cute but sound huge and mean. Maybe fiddle with the... what was it, attentuation? That way there wouldn't be need for extra assets.
Also, maybe you will want to add a lopeared bunny to the collection. They're adorable!
yurufuwa rabbit
Rabbits of Skyrim
Anyway, this is lovely and testing is a lot of fun, too. Thanks so much!
As to your game freezing, are you able to reproduce this error?
They entered searching mode before detecting you? It might be whatever strangeness you're getting from the pet's cloak spell is the culprit here.
From version 1.2 the current pet is flagged as invisible, always in forced sneak mode, has a sneak skill of 100, various sneak perks, and a (detection) movement noise multiplier of 0.0. They should be nigh undetectable. The cloak is the last line of defence which fires a secondary spell ONLY when the pet is detected as being the combat target of an NPC. The secondary spell forces the NPC in question to choose another target.
Neither Antares or myself have ever successfully gotten anything to attack our pets (even momentarily). In version 1.2 we had debug notifications active on the cloak and they never even went off. We tested vs Guards, Bandits, Wolves, Mammoths, Giants, Rieklings, Dwemer Automatons, Draugr, Skeletons, Dragons, Trolls, and Vampires.
Do you have these issues on a new game? Or with no mods installed? I think the issues you are experiencing are as a result of whatever it is that's going on with those blue swirls. Could you possibly post a screenshot or a video (and post your load-order please)?
RE: Transparency
This is a known issue, and is a side-effect of the invisibility flag we must apply to the pets. It does self-correct periodically during the course of gameplay. How often were your pets see-through? Did you try the in-game manual fix mentioned in the description? It really should not happen often, if at all. Do you have bad script lag, or run a lot of other programs/applications in the background whilst playing Skyrim?
RE: Bear sounds
I'm pretty sure these sound effects are tied directly to their animations. I have no way to edit those animations so I don't think I can resolve this issue
I will try one last thing, but if it works it will make that sound effect much quieter for EVERY bear.... :/
The bandits definitely entered searching mode before detecting me. And yes, the swirly effect was going on. It tends to do that near-constantly.
I haven't been able to get anyone to attack a pet in version 1.3 thus far (yay! ), but in 1.2 it definitely happened.
Here's a picture of the attack. As you can see my sneak meter still shows me as completely hidden. They were, in fact, attacking the pet (even though it looks like I am in the way of the axe).
On the bright side, I had a frost atronach pet with me for testing 1.3 and because of pathing issues when it tried to follow me it had to take the long way around, running past a whole bunch of bandits who did not bat an eye or otherwise react to it.
As for the transparency, it did not happen a lot. I remember it once with the white sabrecat while still inside the sanctuary. And just now, when I tested the frost atronach pet, it occurred again, rendering Frosty nearly completely invisible, not so much see-through. (I could have sworn I took a screenshot of that but there isn't any.
I don't actually remember it happening otherwise, if that helps.
It's cool to have the bear sounds as an optional file. :3 Thanks! This is a small thing in any event.
Getting back to the blue swirly, since that seems to be the only real issue here:
I created a profile for testing this out, using my level 88 character and the fresh one at level 1 or so. Cleaned the old saves best I could so they work without all the mods. This is the resulting (minimal) load order:
----------------
Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Dawnguard.esm
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
HearthFires.esm
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
Inconsequential Pets.esp
Also:
the HighResTexture packs
SKSE
OneTweak
-----------------
And the swirls still happen for my high-level character. It definitely must be connected to a perk or permanent effect other than what is shown in the effects tab of the magic menu. Can't be a removable effect either because I've had to use the console to remove broken thralls before (which wipes all temporary effects).
I wish I could remember at which point in the game this started to happen occasionally (usually in conjunction with spell traps or magical attacks of some kind). I've found a post somewhere (I forget) where someone claimed it was connected to the Atronach Stone, but I don't use that one.
That's all I can come up with for the moment, I'm afraid. ^^
Oh but, the new pets are so cute! I actually squealed when I saw the little draugrs, and the storm atronach is just adorable. XD
I wonder if you could (or want to) add a tiny draugr who is wearing his armour? I like how it looks on them. This is not an important request or anything, just a thought. :3
I'll ask Antares if there's a way he can script them to have different outfits or something?
Hmm, I'm not sure how we can address the transparency if it's sometimes happening inside the Animal Refuge. Pets do get flagged as invisible as soon as you adopt one but the visual effect is not supposed to be applied according to the Creation Kit wiki and certain other 3rd-party sources. Nevertheless we noticed they do turn semi-transparent whenever their 3d-model is reloaded (if you go through a load-screen, etc) so Antares wrote some code to detect whenever that happens and correct the effect. Somehow their 3d-model must be getting updated or re-loaded prematurely? Unfortunately there is no way to query their alpha level (how transparent they appear), if there was this would be so much simpler
We'll see if we can reproduce this ourselves and/or improve the code. Thanks
I have an idea regarding the blue swirls, but as this seems to be a soft-clash with certain mods or perks you'll probably have to test this for us. I hope you don't mind? Evidently neither Antares nor myself seem to use whatever mod(s) are producing this quirk.
PS: I just sent you a PM with an experimental version. It should hopefully prevent blue swirls on your character.
Success! No swirls. :D
The white sabrecat went see-through (slightly) the moment we left the refuge. Went solid when I fast-travelled. But went transparent again very fast (possibly when I went into sneak?). And solid again pretty quickly. And so forth.
Found a skeleton who attacked me with frost magic and THAT brought up my swirly shield - but only that. (I also installed STATUS and that mod told me both my frost and magic resistance are over 100. Just a useful thing to know in this context.)
The pet stayed semi-translucent throughout the fight, but I couldn't get the skeleton to attack it at all. :)
I went back to my favourite bandits in Lost Knife Hideout and they still entered search mode when pet and I just hid near the two at the bridge. They actually started to attack the invisible pet again! Eventually they stopped and started searching again. Found me this time, attacked me, then suddenly stopped and started attacking my (translucent) pet. @_@ All of that without me moving a muscle. It was bizarre.
Maybe it is just these guys (plus whoever came running to join them) who have supernatural detecting ability? '_'
Please let me know if I should look for anything specific. <3
So was your pet staying transparent or the effect was getting fixed after a delay? What happens when you try activate them whilst sneaking? (can't be in combat or inside the Animal Refuge)
Are you able to get those bandits to attack your pet in the non-experimental version (1.3)?
FIrst off, the draugr outfits are amazingly cute! And work like a charm. <3
I don't get the impression that my pet in any way draws attention to me now when we sneak (or otherwise, I suppose).
There's only really one or two issues remaining, neither of which I expect you to fix because I am thinking this might just be the game doing its thing.
When I make sure the pet (maybe only one big enough, like the sabrecat) is between me and whoever's attacking me (I did this to see if I could tease them into attacking the pet), the attacker takes one last swing at me then just stands there with weapon drawn, spouting the usual attack lines but not doing anything about it. Or maybe they go into searching mode...
This may once again be a matter of psychic/confused bandits in Lost Knife Hideout.
In any event! No one is attacking the pet anymore! And the swirls are gone. :3
As for the translucency, I think this happens whenever the pet gets between the camera and the player. Pet goes see-through so the player can be seen - and stays that way. Probably a 3rd person issue?
Anyway, owing to that my pet still goes see-through pretty much all the time, but resetting it via the sneak menu works beautifully - if only for a brief time. (Just so you know, I don't have actual complaints about this.)
In any event, it seems likely that this will affect smaller pets a lot less than the big ones. Or, anyway, thus far it applies to sabrecats, the white stag, the frost atronach. Did not happen to the oufitted male draugr, or the dwarven spider, the rabbit, or the foxes even when I provoked the effect.
Headtracking the pets is iffy. It seems to kick in after doing some magic or combat or weapon swap or... I really don't know. Either way, that's probably a headtracking issue as such. Pretty sure there's nothing for you guys to do about this and - again - I certainly have no complaints, plus it does work eventually. <3
After this (and as soon as I have time to actually play the game) I plan to take a pet on an extended field test in my actual savegame. Then we'll see if the confused/psychic bandits are an anomaly. XD
Thanks so much for this mod! <3
I wish I knew how to draw attention to it because it deserves so much more than those few endorsements. (Maybe people who want pets for company instead of combat may be rare; who knows?)
I believe this is because of actor collision and pathing. Pets are still considered actors and thus require the navmesh system in order to navigate Skyrim (every actor except the player relies on navmesh). It sounds like the large pets are simply blocking the path between you and any aggressors (similar to if you were standing on a rock or something out of reach). They can see you, they just can't figure out how to reach you.
I'll try to get a more technically accurate explanation into the Known Issues or Important Information sections of the Description page.
Thanks, we've never been able to reliably reproduce this quirk so your information is very helpful. There might be some conditions we can improve to further mitigate this issue.
Aw thanks
Your kind words and appreciation of the mod are more than enough <3