"specific" world interactions -- should they be repeatable?

[BlackPete]

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but there are several world interactions in the game that only occur once (during a given game), even though it logically seems like they should be repeatable and be able to occur multiple times. I was hoping for some opinions from people who understand the data in the creation kit (better than I do) before I make a Tracdown issue for any of these, because I don't know whether they are bugs or not.

 

Example:

Hired Thugs (for theft)--sent to teach the player a lesson for stealing from a given NPC

It just seems weird that this only happens once in a given playthrough, especially if you play a thief character. 

 

Here are a few other examples (I have also tested these and they only occur once in a given playthrough):

• WIDeadBody01 (A crowd gathers): guard asks you if you know anything about a dead body
• WIKill04 (An enemy's gratitude): a rival of someone you kill sends you a letter of thanks
• WIRemoveItem01, WIRemoveItem02, WIRemoveItem03, WIRemoveItem04, WIRemoveItem05: various comments and scenes initiated by NPCs when the player drops an item
• WIChangeLocation03 (Wizard Duel): A mage challenges the player to a duel
• WIChangeLocation04 (Magic Student): A magic student ask for the player's help with a spell
• WIChangeLocation05 (Gift from a friend): An NPC will give you a miscellaneous item as a gift

[NightStar]

After a quick glance, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be repeatable.

[Screwball]

 But are they bugs? Some of those I've never had, the first one (thugs) I'm pretty sure I've had more than once within a single game.

[BlackPete]

Some of those I've never had, the first one (thugs) I'm pretty sure I've had more than once within a single game.

There are two different instances where the thugs can be sent to "teach you a lesson." 1) as mentioned above, when stealing from an NPC and 2) when murdering an NPC, a relative or friend can send the thugs after you.

 

I almost 100% certain that the thug encounter from stealing happens only once on a given character. I have tested this on a number of games, each of which had hundreds of hours put into them.

[Screwball]

Could well have been 2 sets of thugs for 2 different reasons. The question remains though - bug or "wouldn't it be nice if..."? because if the latter then it's not really appropriate for Tracdown (AIUI anyway).

[BlackPete]

The question remains though - bug or "wouldn't it be nice if..."? because if the latter then it's not really appropriate for Tracdown (AIUI anyway).

That was the main reason that I posting about this, in case it was unclear. I'm not very experienced at understanding all of the coding in the creation kit, so if somebody is willing to take a look to see if there is a bug or some reason to believe it was not intentional to make these one-time events (if time permits), I would appreciate it. The checkbox for "run once" in the creation kit is not checked for any of these, which was why I found it to be odd that they don't occur more than once in a given game.

[PrinceShroob]

They're all part of a node which has "do all before repeating" checked, and not all characters are guaranteed to complete all the quests contained in that node, thus allowing them to complete.

 

That said, unchecking this box makes some events happen too often -- like the wizard duel, for example.

[Arthmoor]

Funny thing is, most of these are events I've only ever seen on ONE character, and all occured very early on in the game's lifespan. My 2011 save has seen all but the last 3. None of my other characters, all of whom started life after the first few patches, have seen any of those events except the thugs.

 

I'd say it's a bug that they're not running at all, but at the same time I'd agree with Shroob that if fixing them causes them to run wild and show up too often that's not any better.

[PrinceShroob]

It is not fun to get challenged by that asshole just about every tenth time you visit a city, particularly since he won't take "no" for an answer and kills townspeople with his spells.

[Arthmoor]

The nastier ones like the wizard duel could get shoved off to a different node or something that won't fire as often but I'd rather not start engaging in too much node shuffling either. May just have to be one of those things we leave be because any effort to fix it would lead to Bad Things™.

[tyrel68]

isnt there a delay or something? wouldnt it be possible to just put events on hold till a 30day reset or something?

[BlackPete]

isnt there a delay or something? wouldnt it be possible to just put events on hold till a 30day reset or something?

I would think there would be a way to do this, but I don't understand the coding well enough to know for certain. PrinceShroob and Arthmoor are probably right that it's not worth messing with if it will just cause additional issues to occur in the game.

 

By the way, I experienced the WIChangeLocation04 WI in my current game for the first time yesterday. The magic student came up to me in Whiterun asking if I would help cast a ward, so he could practice his spells. I still don't have a clue what triggered it all of the sudden though.

[tyrel68]

actually can you do this? have a counter for each random encounter, instead of ALL them having to fire for them to recycle how about simply 25% of them or 50% then reset the encounters

 

this would stop say the mage guy firing 16 times in a row

[BlackPete]

Interesting idea. I wouldn't have a clue how to do that though, but I expect others who have better knowledge of how these scripts work could. The mage guy is definetly the biggest problem, because he tends to go crazy killing people. Right now, it sounds as if Arthmoor is leaning against doing anything to these at all, from his comment about bad things happening. I have no idea what kind of a mess this could possibly make in the game, so if he thinks it would be best to leave it be, I will be fine with that.