Question about Essential NPCs

First of all I'm new here, so hello everybody and thanks for your work! I discovered this project just 2 weeks ago and i'm currently enjoying Morroblivion :D

I decided to open this topic to discuss about the (in)famous "essential" flag that Oblivion introducted. I always kinda disliked it, not because i want to go around killing everyone but because i think it is a solid limit to the freedom of TES. Example (imaginary situation):If i'm an assassin and someone assist to one of my crimes i would want to kill that witness. Unfortunately a long time ago that guy gave me a spoon that was important for a stupid side quest, so now it is immortal and he's like "Buck you Nerevarine, i gave you that spoon". It's quite mood-breaking.

Now, i know that Morroblivion is not Morrowind, so my question is: why the decision to keep the "essential" system and not to introduce a "fail quest" option for killing important npcs? Are there good sides that i don't know? Is this "fail quest system" difficult to implement with the construction set/creation kit?

I really don't want to sound annoying, i respect your hard work for this mod! It's just that i really don't like this "essential flag". You can see in Skyrim how many immortal NPCs there are, the situation is getting worse!

p.s. uh, I'm not english so there are probably a few grammar mistakes :D

Essential

The essential flags are on set Quest related npc to Make shore they do not Dissapear and they are with in reason of the location they need to

Near shore there is an artical here i think it won of Dave B explaned

I dont understand, every npc

I dont understand, every npc is confined in a determined place, isn't it? I mean, even if they are non-essential the dark elves in the Council Club are always there and no one disappear (there is an essential npc among them, actually, in the mission of the homicide of Ralen Hlaalo it gave me problems chasing me all around Balmora. That's an example of the lack of freedom caused by immortal NPCs).

And even so, why make them immortals?(EDIT: They could be immortals to other but killable by our PG so they wont die when attacked by, for exaples, wild animals!)

I searched for other topics or articles about essential NPCs, but i didn't find anything.. I'll retry later

Some quest-givers out in the

Some quest-givers out in the Wilderness are set to essential so they don't get horribly killed by wild animals the moment player enters the area (yes, they are very weak).

Also, I think, 'main quest' related NPC are essential too (not sure why, but that's how its done).

Theoretically, the best option would be to remove essential flag when relevant quest is started/finished, but this involves quite a lot of work and there ain't many people willing to do it.

qwertyasdfgh wrote: Some

qwertyasdfgh
Some quest-givers out in the Wilderness are set to essential so they don't get horribly killed by wild animals the moment player enters the area (yes, they are very weak).

Also, I think, 'main quest' related NPC are essential too (not sure why, but that's how its done).

Theoretically, the best option would be to remove essential flag when relevant quest is started/finished, but this involves quite a lot of work and there ain't many people willing to do it.

Ok, that's quite what i thought. All this Essential thing has been used quite lazily by Bethesda. They could easily have set the npc only killable by the player, but they chose the easy way as usual.

They could easily have set

They could easily have set the npc only killable by the player, but they chose the easy way as usual.

"Only killable by player" flag was introduced in Skyrim. In Oblivion it's "all or nothing".

I think about 90% of the

I think about 90% of the essential NPC's in morroblivion had their "essential" flag added because they were getting killed - either due to a creature or a conflicting quest.

Yeah, I usually kill the

Yeah, I usually kill the annoying pilgrim after her quest. Couldn't do that in morroblivion without the console code.

Essential

Thermador is Correct that the Essential Flags were added by Me during testing and my Playthrough. In Morrowind NPC's did not get eaten by Monsters, and, therefore, were in close proximity to each other in ways that Oblivion never intended. A 4th Level, Unarmed, Unarmored NPC does not last very long against Kagouti. In my playthoughs, over and over again, Key NPC's were killed by various monsters before I even entered the cell they were in, so did not even have the chance to help them. All NPC's were given basic wander packages in conversion, as are all Oblivion Creatures. Put these two together, and I HAD to make every quest-giving NPC Essential that appears in the Wilderness. The option, is to have them all die before you get to them, and not get any of their quests...

qwertyasdfgh wrote: They

qwertyasdfgh

They could easily have set the npc only killable by the player, but they chose the easy way as usual.

"Only killable by player" flag was introduced in Skyrim. In Oblivion it's "all or nothing".

Really? But half of Skyrim population is immortal... Are you saying that Bethesda programmers could make all NPC killable without the problem of accidental deaths but they still didn't want to introduce the option to fail a quest? But if Skyrim has this option will Skywind use it?

@Thelmador and @Dave: yes I understand now that with the "all or nothing" thing this was the only way.

Essentials

Sorry to Harp see Question got Answered

Under Morroblivion History By Darth South Essentials was first Address in

V012 then Readressed In V031 finaly Set in Place in V033 i did finaly Remember where i read it

Attachments

Building Morroblivion to Date V056.txt