Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

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Darklocq
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Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by Darklocq »

I've been testing out various Morrowind companion mods built on Grumpy's (later Emma's) codebase (which is generally considered among the best developed and tested), including Wolf Companion 3.1, Beryl 1.1, and its male variant Hurd 1.1. In all three cases, they appear at first to work perfectly, including with Companion Role Play Plus (RPP) and other general NPC mods.

That is, until you exit the cell after picking up the companion. At this point, the companion goes into combat mode against enemies that aren't there, and cannot be fixed. The best you can do is use the companion's summoning ring to bring them back to you and very quickly open an interaction with them (within about 1.5 seconds), and you can "talk" to them (use their menu) again, but as soon as you exit the interaction, they return to paranoid freak-out mode. This is best tested with Beryl or Hurd, since the Wolf just runs around; Beryl and Hurd issue combat dialog and attack the air.

This may relate to problems people have had with other companion mods by Emma (best known as author of Children of Morrowind or CoM), such as Laura Craft Romance and Adventure, and The Witchgirl Adventure, mentioned on the Mod status#List of Catalogued Mods wiki table. Not much detail provided, and both listed as blue icon (in need of testing since last attempts to resolve issues with them); I don't find much about them in the forums. The mods I'm testing are not listed on the Mod Status page.

I don't know anything about the "Julan, Ashlander Companion" mod, which is said to be working now with a bunch of work-arounds, so I have no idea if the stuff that's making it mostly work would also work with Grumpy/Emma companions. Given how many companion mods are based on Grumpy's code, that's possible.

Deets:
  • I'm using English-language OpenMW 0.41.something, the OpenMW-controller-fix-9e8e9aef8.dmg version of 28-Jan-2017. I'm not sure exactly what version it is, since when you do "Get info" in the Finder, the Version field is just "--", something that should be fixed; so should the fact that when OpenMW is running, it's main system menu, "OpenMW" has no "About OpenMW" option, another expected way to get version info. The bottom of the GUI says "OpenMW development (9e8e9aef8).
  • System is macOS Sierra 10.13.3, on a Mac Pro Mid-2010, 12-core, with 48 GB RAM and enough disk space to store all of Texas.
  • This bug triggers, 100% of the time, with whatever character I test it with; with no other mods loaded but the stock Bethesda ones from the GoY edition (Tribunal.esm, AreaEffectArrows.esm, etc.), all vanilla except the one companion being tested; with clean savegames; and a clean Morrowind directory. Tests I did with UCS and RPP were in a different copy.
  • The mods are being added the old-fashioned way by manually moving the files into the Morrowind/Data directory and subdirectories thereof.
PS: This makes me super-bummed, since I want to run the majority of Emma's mods, and also want to try building an army of sorts out of the numerous Grumpy-based companions, to take on enemies that are notably above my main character's present pay grade.

PPS: I know jack about game development and modding; to the extent I'm a coder at all it's bash, Perl, PHP, JS, and a bit of Python, Ruby, and Lua. I haven't even used OpenMW-CS yet, and as a player not a dev I haven't had much interest in delving into it, though I'm of course willing to do stuff with it to get stuff to work, if necessary.

PPPS: I have not tested a "pure" Grumpy companion, but I don't think Emma did much to his code after his death, just built new companions on his widely available template (Companion Project 3.1). That barebones companion codebase may be useful for debugging this issue.
Last edited by Darklocq on 26 Jul 2017, 12:33, edited 5 times in total.
Loriel
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Beryl 1.1, etc) go berserk

Post by Loriel »

There was, and still is, a script naming problem with many of Emma's mods.

For convenience, Emma tended to start her script names with a "1" or "11" so they are at the top of sorted lists. Initially OpenMW rejected leading numbers in script names, so the scripts failed to compile, which made the companions relatively useless.

After this problem was fixed, a variant surfaced - some scripts have version numbers in their name, particularly movement scripts as I recall, and the decimal point in such numbering was rejected, scripts failed to compile, and companions didn't behave well.

Last time I tested, quite recently, Morgana (Withgirl) behaved relatively well, though a couple of scripts failed to compile, and movement was a little erratic. Laura had more serious problems - wouldn't follow the player.

I've not tested any of Emma's other mods recently, and I've not tried the ones you specify, so I don't know if your problems arise from this or another source.

Possible route to identify the problem - open the mod in the OpenMW CS, select "verify" (under "File") and see what problems it throws up. Most are warnings, and many of the errors appear to have no effect, but it does identify the "fail to compile" problems with the scripts, including the reason.

Loriel
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Darklocq
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Beryl 1.1, etc) go berserk

Post by Darklocq »

Thanks for the CS tip. I've very green at this; I haven't played with game mods since (quite literally) the days of Doom II. Took a moment to figure out how to get into that code (have to select the main game, then dependency mods, then the target mod). The verify job reports no "compile error", but lots of mostly trivial-looking stuff. Then again, I don't know how this system works, and something that sounds trivial to me might really be fatal.

In the "Error" class (maybe that's what you meant by "compile error"?) they are all one of the following:

[EDIT: Trimmed this list of stuff that isn't relevant, since it was long. No one should waste time reading that part.]
  • Spell, 1a_comp_wolf_wb, has an empty name [That's the always-waterbreathe script. Can I put any name in that, like a space? Or does it have to be something specific?]
  • NPC, BM_werewolf_maze1, personality has zero value [I presumed that's fixable by setting it to a positive number]
  • [unrelated stuff deleted]
Anyway, I also have no idea what controls companions going into combat mode. My hope was that simply fixing the if/elseif/endif error will resolve the main problem. But even with everything else above I've done so far, it did not work. The wolf still flips out as soon as we go into another cell.
Last edited by Darklocq on 19 Feb 2017, 01:33, edited 1 time in total.
Loriel
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Beryl 1.1, etc) go berserk

Post by Loriel »

Darklocq wrote: [*] Spell, 1a_comp_wolf_wb, has an empty name [That's the always-waterbreathe script. Can I put any name in that, like a space? Or does it have to be something specific?]
That one is clearly from Emma's Wolf mod - unfortunately I don't have an answer to what restrictions there are in choosing a name, nor do I know what the implications would be if that spell was "broken" because of the empty name...

I think all the others come from the main game - it's probably worth doing a similar "verify" exercise on the main game with no mods selected to see what errors are reported there.

Loriel
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Darklocq
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by Darklocq »

This was basically "operator error" (see below) in part, though the Wolf 2.1 script did have bugs in it (bad if/elseif/endif's, etc.), and presumably other mods from this team based on the same core source will share them; I haven't looked in their code yet. [Some of them (e.g. Beryl and Hurd) remain malfunctional in OpenMW; see later posts.]

However, Wolf Companion 3.1 (which I just found) fixes those and introduces companion behavior improvements and other-mod-compatibility fixes. So far, it appears to work in OpenMW as well as can be expected (all companions can cause some problems, like getting you stuck in tight spaces, etc.)

The "going berserk" problem was not a bug, but situational. What was happening was that Beryl and Hurd are hired from the shop in Seyda Neen. The moment you walk out the door, you are at the water, and the fish can see you. They have a very long range of aggression, so they put you and thus the companions in combat mode. The companions can't reach them from that place, or even in the middle of Seyda Neen, so they just freak out and fight the air. You have to move well away from there, with a clear path to the water, and warp the companions to you so they can get their fish-fighting fix. Or just kill the fish yourself. With the wolf, I got him just outside Seyda Neen and let him back, and same thing happened. So it looked at first like Emma companions had a bug triggered by being in Seyda Neen. The tip off that it was the fish: Every time I loaded a savegame from the middle of Seyda Neen, it would start combat music, even though nothing hostile was visible. Took a while to figure out it was fish quite a long distance away.

Anyway, I have roamed all over the place with this wolf now, and it is working exactly as expected. I've even made an omwaddon (my first baby-step into modding!) to adjust his behavior (slow him down a little, and give him a longer warp "leash"), give his control ring a unique name, and fix typos in text relating to him. I'll upload this somewhere, and update the wiki as to the compatibility of the base mod after some more testing. Going to work on Hurd and Beryl next.

[Update: The Beryl and Hurd problems run deeper; see later posts.]
Last edited by Darklocq on 08 Apr 2017, 01:54, edited 2 times in total.
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Darklocq
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by Darklocq »

Update: Wolf Companion 3.1 works pretty well. Earlier versions do not.

Beryl and Hurd remain totally malfunctional. So do the staff and companion of Domehome if you take them out of there. They all go into fight-mode for no reason and seemingly cannot be gotten out of it. The wolf's combat is working as expected, though. The only thing to watch out for is if he wants to fight something you can see and he can't reach he'll just run at a wall or whatever, until you move somewhere a) far enough away he'll warp to you, and b) with a clear path to his victim. This seems to be an issue with companions in general, though.

I may try using an omwaddon to change the script names, per the above discussion and see what happens with the other Emma/Grumpy mods.

As I noted at the end of the Julan thread, I am having much better luck with "generation 3" companions that have scripts that others have worked on but based ultimately on the Grumpy/Emma scripting. Both Jasmine and Dawn appear to be fully functional, though I've only used Dawn for a day. Used Jasmine for about a week, and she only seems to break when I try to test other mods that were not present when the game started, or remove ones that were. [Update: I've now been using Dawn for about a week, and she's remarkably robust. Jasmine is a little more brittle, but the PositionCell trick mentioned in one of the longer Julan threads also works with her to recover her from the void, without gear lossage, if she disappears.]

PS: I can confirm that Laura Craft still will not follow, in OpenMW 0.41.0. If I try to fix one of these by script-renaming, that's probably the one I would try, since she has a highly desirable specific-skill training feature.

[Update: Later posts identify how to fix Laura. Jasmine eventually breaks, when player character Reputation 3 is reached.]
Last edited by Darklocq on 08 Apr 2017, 01:56, edited 4 times in total.
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psi29a
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by psi29a »

I've been talking with Emma and she wondered if this (her latest) works as expected?
http://lovkullen.net/Emma/lokken.htm

She is aware of this thread, perhaps we can convince her to post here. ;)
Loriel
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by Loriel »

psi29a wrote:I've been talking with Emma and she wondered if this (her latest) works as expected?
http://lovkullen.net/Emma/lokken.htm
Probably not.

Attempting to verify the mod generates a lot of script errors, of the form "Unexpected special token" - apparently related to the underscore in the name "AA_Laurenna" (or similar) so it appears that over-strict name checking is still a problem

The scripts which error don't appear to be critical, so it might be possible to play through the mod, but many of the "extras" wouldn't work as intended if these scripts error and don't compile.

Tested with OpenMW 0.41
She is aware of this thread, perhaps we can convince her to post here. ;)
Good luck with that.

Loriel
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Emma
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by Emma »

Good luck with that.
Well, here I am :).
But, I have yet to install OpenMW and check through the old scripts to see what I can recapitulate and possibly understand.

I do remember that we used a draw/sheath thing with a dagger in the Constance/Beryl scripts in order to fix another problem, I think this is possibly the trigger for their attack behaviour. I'll see if I can recall what it was about, but there is a lot to catch up with, especially as it was Grumpy who did the majority of the brain work behind these scripts. And, sadly, he isn't there to ask anymore...
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AnyOldName3
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Re: Emma/Grumpy MW companions (Wolf, Beryl, Hurd)

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Hi, Emma. I know it's somewhat off-topic, but I'm going to say thanks for creating my favourite (by far) Skyrim mod. Vilja really adds so much to the game that I could probably go on for paragraphs and paragraphs explaining why (but I won't, as then there's no way this thread could stay focused :)). I could just have praised you on the Nexus (and I probably have written something here before), but it feels more personal here.
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