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About this mod
Dragon corpses will no longer follow you or fall out of the sky.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
This mod fixes the bug where dead dragon corpses follow you around or fall out of the sky in random places, affectionately known as "dragon stalking".
Implementation
What's new?
I redesigned this mod to use SPID to add a scripted magic effect to dragons on death, rather than modifying DragonActorScript as it did previously. Additionally, this mod no longer deletes dragon corpses directly and they are now moved to the dead body cleanup cell where they will be deleted by the game after 24 in-game hours. If you miss looting a dragon corpse, you can teleport to the dead body cleanup cell and loot it there, provided you don't mind the immersion break.
What causes dragon stalking?
Well, you see... when a young male dragon likes a young female dragon, but he's not sure how to approach the female dragon, he might lurk around any locations he knows the female frequents, inevitably causing awkward and embarassing encounters with the female...
From her point of view, it starts out sort of cute. Simply an odd, haphazard fluke! What a weird boy dragon just popping out of nowhere twitching all around not able to contain his excitement. Maybe he would make a nice friend who would do stuff for me since he likes me, she thinks to herself. Just look how trusting he is exposing his underside like a silly puppy dog!
The two part ways and the female dragon heads off to the Whiterun markets, when what do ya know? There he is again! And how sweet, he's bought her some tomatoes. What a thoughtful friend this boy dragon is. But wait... how did he get there so fast? Was he... following her?
But she dwells on it not and so our female dragon moves right along. Next stop is Dragonsreach, which is of course, the only fitting place for a dragon to be in Whiterun. Detesting their outspoken impudence, she promptly ingests Heimskr and Nazeem for bastardizing the spoken word, which she finds to be insulting even when done in a language far inferior to her own. Appetite sated, she proceeds onward.
As she climbs the steps to Dragonsreach, there he is yet again! But... oh... oh my. We're talking full-on George Takei OH MY here ladies and gentlemen. Our poor male dragon seems to have himself in a bit of a snare... tsk, tsk, tsk, boys really will stick that thing anywhere won't they? How embarassing...
What? Oh... right, the bug... well I still don't know exactly what causes that. Some problem with the game engine not doing proper housekeeping on dragon corpses which seems to be exacerbated by issues introduced by the Havok physics suite causing exponential amounts of derp on heavily articulated objects such as dragons. In any case and for whatever reason, when the game tries to reload a dragon corpse that was previously unloaded it may fail to do so correctly and ends up dropping the corpse in a default location as a fail-safe, which is usually somewhere near the player. The corpse then proceeds to reload in whatever default location it can find as the player moves to other areas.
How did you fix the bug?
This mod adds a corpse removal spell to all dragons who are members of DragonRace when they die. The corpse removal spell is a self-cast ability which runs a script on the dragon after the player has left the area and the dragon's 3D unloads from the game. The script checks to see if the dragon is in the "deadDisintegrated" state and if so, moves it to the WIDeadBodyCleanupCell where it will get deleted by the game after 24 in-game hours. Alduin and the undead dragons are excluded from corpse removal as they are not members of DragonRace.
To be clear - this mod does not fix the underlying problem which is buried deep in the game engine, rather it imposes a work-around specifically for dragons that have reached a specific state in order to avoid the problem in the first place.
Does the mod work on existing save games?
Indeed it does.
Will the mod conflict with other mods?
Nope.
Does the mod incorporate fixes from the Unofficial Patches?
No need to as there are no conflicts.
How extensively did you test the mod?
Most of the time I spent on this mod was doing testing. I tested it on named dragons like Mirmulnir and Sahloknir in a normal play-through of the game with no problems. I tested it on dragons at word walls by killing them once and then waiting for them to respawn after 30 days and got souls each time. I tested it on dragons spawned randomly in the game and through the console and had no stalking. I tested it on existing saves where dragon stalking was occurring to verify that the fix works retroactively and cleans up any dragon corpses which are currently stalking you on existing saves.
How can I smoke test the mod?
Press [~] on the main menu to open the console.
Type `coc whiterun` to start a new game in whiterun.
Press [~] to open the console again.
Type `tgm` to toggle god mode.
Type `player.placeatme 1ca03` to spawn a basic fire dragon.
Press [~] to close the console. Quickly press [~] to open it again.
Click the dragon that spawned to select it before it takes off.
Type `kill` to kill the dragon and then close the console.
Dragons can't die in the air, so if you miss, wait until the dragon lands and try again.
Absorb the dragon's soul and let it burn to bones.
Open the console and type `coc whiterunorigin`.
Open the console again and type `coc whiterun`.
The dragon's corpse should be missing from where it died.
Open the console and type `coc wideadbodycleanupcell`.
The dragon's corpse should appear in the dead body cleanup cell.
Is there a catch? Are you a wizard?
Not really and that's none of your business.
Glowing Testimonials
And you didn't call it Dragon Corpse Restraining Order? 8D - GlassDeviant
10/10 mod and 10/10 description. - DarthDonut117
I'm happier than a breakdancing drunk Gremlin. :) - FallingStar7777
The description puts my own to shame. - ApolloDown
The image of the dragon at Dragonsreach is saying "LET ME LOVE YOU!" - Reokudo
Very description. Such nice. Wow. - cor3zone
I have never actually seen this bug, but it sounds kind of fun. - XunAmarox
But did the male dragon ever find true love? What happened next? - mcshade
But seriously... are you a wizard? - tatwizard
It works! Thank you! - Aelthas
- keithinhanoi
Credits
Sepherose for his dragon skin textures, which are used in the images: Sepherose Dragon Skins.
powerofthree and sasnikol for extending SKSE functionality.
ianpatt, behippo and the entire SKSE team for SKSE.
The Nexus for hosting the mod and supporting the community.
The Nexus community for testing the mod and suggesting interesting ideas.
Bethesda Game Studios for creating Skyrim.
Implementation
- Implemented as a light master plugin (ESL file flagged ESL and ESM).
- Uses SPID to add a dragon corpse removal spell to all dragons who are members of DragonRace upon death.
What's new?
I redesigned this mod to use SPID to add a scripted magic effect to dragons on death, rather than modifying DragonActorScript as it did previously. Additionally, this mod no longer deletes dragon corpses directly and they are now moved to the dead body cleanup cell where they will be deleted by the game after 24 in-game hours. If you miss looting a dragon corpse, you can teleport to the dead body cleanup cell and loot it there, provided you don't mind the immersion break.
What causes dragon stalking?
Well, you see... when a young male dragon likes a young female dragon, but he's not sure how to approach the female dragon, he might lurk around any locations he knows the female frequents, inevitably causing awkward and embarassing encounters with the female...
From her point of view, it starts out sort of cute. Simply an odd, haphazard fluke! What a weird boy dragon just popping out of nowhere twitching all around not able to contain his excitement. Maybe he would make a nice friend who would do stuff for me since he likes me, she thinks to herself. Just look how trusting he is exposing his underside like a silly puppy dog!
The two part ways and the female dragon heads off to the Whiterun markets, when what do ya know? There he is again! And how sweet, he's bought her some tomatoes. What a thoughtful friend this boy dragon is. But wait... how did he get there so fast? Was he... following her?
But she dwells on it not and so our female dragon moves right along. Next stop is Dragonsreach, which is of course, the only fitting place for a dragon to be in Whiterun. Detesting their outspoken impudence, she promptly ingests Heimskr and Nazeem for bastardizing the spoken word, which she finds to be insulting even when done in a language far inferior to her own. Appetite sated, she proceeds onward.
As she climbs the steps to Dragonsreach, there he is yet again! But... oh... oh my. We're talking full-on George Takei OH MY here ladies and gentlemen. Our poor male dragon seems to have himself in a bit of a snare... tsk, tsk, tsk, boys really will stick that thing anywhere won't they? How embarassing...
What? Oh... right, the bug... well I still don't know exactly what causes that. Some problem with the game engine not doing proper housekeeping on dragon corpses which seems to be exacerbated by issues introduced by the Havok physics suite causing exponential amounts of derp on heavily articulated objects such as dragons. In any case and for whatever reason, when the game tries to reload a dragon corpse that was previously unloaded it may fail to do so correctly and ends up dropping the corpse in a default location as a fail-safe, which is usually somewhere near the player. The corpse then proceeds to reload in whatever default location it can find as the player moves to other areas.
How did you fix the bug?
This mod adds a corpse removal spell to all dragons who are members of DragonRace when they die. The corpse removal spell is a self-cast ability which runs a script on the dragon after the player has left the area and the dragon's 3D unloads from the game. The script checks to see if the dragon is in the "deadDisintegrated" state and if so, moves it to the WIDeadBodyCleanupCell where it will get deleted by the game after 24 in-game hours. Alduin and the undead dragons are excluded from corpse removal as they are not members of DragonRace.
To be clear - this mod does not fix the underlying problem which is buried deep in the game engine, rather it imposes a work-around specifically for dragons that have reached a specific state in order to avoid the problem in the first place.
Does the mod work on existing save games?
Indeed it does.
Will the mod conflict with other mods?
Nope.
Does the mod incorporate fixes from the Unofficial Patches?
No need to as there are no conflicts.
How extensively did you test the mod?
Most of the time I spent on this mod was doing testing. I tested it on named dragons like Mirmulnir and Sahloknir in a normal play-through of the game with no problems. I tested it on dragons at word walls by killing them once and then waiting for them to respawn after 30 days and got souls each time. I tested it on dragons spawned randomly in the game and through the console and had no stalking. I tested it on existing saves where dragon stalking was occurring to verify that the fix works retroactively and cleans up any dragon corpses which are currently stalking you on existing saves.
How can I smoke test the mod?
Press [~] on the main menu to open the console.
Type `coc whiterun` to start a new game in whiterun.
Press [~] to open the console again.
Type `tgm` to toggle god mode.
Type `player.placeatme 1ca03` to spawn a basic fire dragon.
Press [~] to close the console. Quickly press [~] to open it again.
Click the dragon that spawned to select it before it takes off.
Type `kill` to kill the dragon and then close the console.
Dragons can't die in the air, so if you miss, wait until the dragon lands and try again.
Absorb the dragon's soul and let it burn to bones.
Open the console and type `coc whiterunorigin`.
Open the console again and type `coc whiterun`.
The dragon's corpse should be missing from where it died.
Open the console and type `coc wideadbodycleanupcell`.
The dragon's corpse should appear in the dead body cleanup cell.
Is there a catch? Are you a wizard?
Not really and that's none of your business.
Glowing Testimonials
And you didn't call it Dragon Corpse Restraining Order? 8D - GlassDeviant
10/10 mod and 10/10 description. - DarthDonut117
I'm happier than a breakdancing drunk Gremlin. :) - FallingStar7777
The description puts my own to shame. - ApolloDown
The image of the dragon at Dragonsreach is saying "LET ME LOVE YOU!" - Reokudo
Very description. Such nice. Wow. - cor3zone
I have never actually seen this bug, but it sounds kind of fun. - XunAmarox
But did the male dragon ever find true love? What happened next? - mcshade
But seriously... are you a wizard? - tatwizard
It works! Thank you! - Aelthas
Credits
Sepherose for his dragon skin textures, which are used in the images: Sepherose Dragon Skins.
powerofthree and sasnikol for extending SKSE functionality.
ianpatt, behippo and the entire SKSE team for SKSE.
The Nexus for hosting the mod and supporting the community.
The Nexus community for testing the mod and suggesting interesting ideas.
Bethesda Game Studios for creating Skyrim.