NPC Pathing NG 2.5.0

NPC Pathing NG 2.5.0 — Nexus release notes

Short summary

Runtime navmesh failsafe for stuck humanoid NPCs, with optional SkyParkour vault/climb, EVG Animated Traversal marker routes, and follower parkour replay.

2.5.0 makes EVG markers work for NPCs — as routes, not furniture: marker-guided SkyParkour when the geometry matches, else a collision-validated hop across. On by default (MCM: "NPCs Use EVG Markers"; toggle off if you prefer).

Is EVG Animated Traversal required? No.

EVG has never been required. The plugin's only master is Skyrim.esm. There is no hard dependency on EVG or SkyParkour. Forms are looked up at runtime and skipped when absent.

How NPCs use EVG since 2.5.0: the engine only lets NPCs enter furniture through AI packages, so activating an EVG marker as furniture is rejected for NPCs (confirmed from SKSE and Papyrus, and by EVG's own abandoned alias quest). 2.5.0 therefore uses the hand-placed markers as the intended route:

• A stuck NPC approaching a marker from its entry side first tries a SkyParkour move along the marker's heading when real geometry matches (vaults, ledges).
• Otherwise a bounds-derived landing hop: ladders/ledges hop up, drops/rolls/slides hop down, squeezes/vaults hop across. Landings are ground-snapped, headroom- and capsule-cleared, never into water, never through actors, and the hop is refused in combat near the player and until the animated routes have had a chance.
• Followers replay the route after you use a marker.
• Marker scanning (the only cost when EVG is absent) pauses per-cell and re-arms when you travel to a new cell.

The old engine-rejected furniture-activation code path is removed entirely, and the default is ON.

What the mod does (honest)

• Stuck detection only when an NPC is trying to walk but not moving
• Optional SkyParkour vault/climb for NPCs (needs SkyParkour + behavior patch)
• EVG marker routes for stuck NPCs (needs EVG Animated Traversal; on by default)
• Follower replay of your SkyParkour moves and marker crossings (teammate flag; NFF-compatible)
• Doorway handling without sideways shove out of chokepoints
• Last-resort validated sidestep teleport (optional)
• MCM via MCM Helper, or INI without it
• FOMOD auto-detects SkyParkour / EVG and pre-selects a matching profile

What it does not claim

• NPCs entering EVG furniture (engine limit — routes instead)
• Full AI / navmesh rebuild
• Default mountain-scale climbing (default max climb 130 units)
• That animals were playing climb sounds (they were already excluded)

Requirements

Required

• SKSE64
• Address Library for SKSE Plugins
• Skyrim SE 1.5.97 or AE 1.6.x

Optional

• SkyParkour V3 + Nemesis/Pandora (or equivalent) NPC/behavior patch — parkour + follower replay
• SkyUI + MCM Helper — in-game menu
• EVG Animated Traversal — marker routes for NPCs

Files to upload

Prefer: NPC Pathing NG 2.5.0 FOMOD.zip
Alternate plain layout: NPC Pathing NG 2.5.0.zip

Version string on the file: 2.5.0

Updating

Replace the previous version. FormIDs, ESP globals and record layout are unchanged since 2.4.6. A clean save is not required. Existing saves keep their saved MCM values; the ONLY change is the EVG marker-route toggle default, which seeds fresh installs / new games.

Changelog (player-facing)

2.5.0

• EVG markers as routes for stuck NPCs (marker-guided parkour, then bounds-validated landing hop) — on by default
• Removed the engine-rejected furniture-activation path; scan latch re-arms on cell change
• FOMOD presets rebuilt: SkyParkour + EVG (recommended) / SkyParkour only / Navmesh failsafe only
• No save cleaning needed

2.4.10

• Fixed phantom SkyParkour climb sounds (2D SFX from off-screen / distant NPCs)
• New MCM/INI: fParkourMaxPlayerDistance (default 1600, 0 = unlimited)

2.4.9

• City performance: crowd-jam early-out, EVG cell skip, fruitless-scan latch, cached follower faction

2.4.8

• First genuine native rebuild since 2.4.4
• No more vaults onto barrels/crates
• INI/FOMOD preset actually seeds the MCM

2.4.6

• Fixed double MCM caused by 2.4.5 bridge script

2.4.5

• Pulled — do not use

Permissions / credits (page fields)

• Open source under GPLv3 — see GitHub LICENSE
• Uses CommonLibSSE-NG (build-time); runtime needs SKSE + Address Library
• Optional integrations: SkyParkour, EVG Animated Traversal, MCM Helper / SkyUI — owned by their respective authors; this mod does not re-ship their assets

Troubleshooting

• Log: Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/SKSE/NPCPathingNG.log
• SKSE log for load failures
• When reporting: game version, SKSE version, this mod version, whether SkyParkour / EVG is installed, and the NPCPathingNG.log excerpt