Morrowind's NPC drift

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-05-07 07:08am

I recently "rediscovered" this annoying bug- the one where NPCs who are set to stand in one place for eternity gradually change position as the game progresses- apparently, this sometimes results in them moving through walls and disappearing from the game all together, though I've never seen that. I have seen though, for example, the Silt Strider guy at Balmora who's half-way fused into his platform, as well as numerous other frustrating looking crap (it also happens with Shakti's Temple Fences).

Is there a fix for this damn bug anywhere? It's no big deal but it's really pissing me off nonetheless.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2007-05-07 07:37am

...Huh. I have never seen such a bug. Of course, I usually end up giving up with the game not long after doing Dagoth Ur because the crashes just get so damned bad (in fact I wandered onto the board just now having crashed out of Morrowind and lost a good deal of effort because of it).

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-07 07:39am

Morrowind crashes? I never experienced any crashes, and I loaded the poor bitch up with piles of mods.

I've seen this whole 'NPC waist-deep in footpath' thing, though. Happens to NPCs that are fixed.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-05-07 07:39am

I get occasional random crashes upon quickloading, but my crashes during actual play are pretty rare by comparison.

Funny that you've never seen the NPC drift bug, however. This is the second of my PCs that I've seen it on. A google search mentions it a few times (ie. the search < Morrowind "NPC drift" >) but buggered if I know what it's actual name is among the community. All I want to know is how to fix the damn thing. It's an insipid, niggly little annoyance.

Steven Snyder · Post by **Steven Snyder** » 2007-05-07 08:03am

I have seen the same drift myself...

In fact a strat guide for the game mentions that you need to finish up the mages guild quests in Balmora as soon as you can because the necromancer downstairs will eventually vanish through the nearby wall if you let it go on too long, thus killing the quest chain.

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-05-07 08:09am

Jeez. There is a way to recover though- simply use the console to spawn her back. (It's the orc, right?).

EDIT:

And here's the fix:

Open the console and use an RA (Reset Actors) command. This will restore all NPCs in the current cell to their default positions, and usually works to replace a missing Sharn. If that fails, use the following command: PlaceAtPC "sharn gra-muzgob",1,20,1. This will create a new Sharn, allowing you to complete the quest as normal. Note that occasionally the original Sharn may later reappear, and you will have two of them. If this occurs, simply open the console, click on one of them, and type disable, followed by setDelete, 1. (The second command is optional and requires Tribunal, but it helps save a bit of memory.) Alternatively, instead of disabling the double, you can kill her instead, by clicking on her with the console open and typing SetHealth 0. (Killing her by conventional means would be unwise, particularly if you're a member of the Mages Guild.) Then simply dispose of the corpse or wait for it to disappear on its own by not visiting the Guild for a week.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2007-05-07 01:38pm

On the subject of crashes, running Morrowind EXE Optimiser and using Wyre Mash to clean your saves regularily helps with the program's stability.

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2007-05-07 06:36pm

I find that using "ra" in the console every once in a while is useful. It also fixes things like guards wandering off into a body of water, or people getting stuck in a place they can't walk out of.