NPC Pathing NG

Unstick humanoid NPCs. Parkour is optional.

SKSE plugin for Skyrim SE/AE. Motion-gated navmesh failsafe, optional SkyParkour
vault/climb, EVG marker routes, and a validated last-resort teleport.

Install · Build · Honest status · Changelog · Nexus

Why it exists

Skyrim NPCs freeze against geometry, doorframes, and short ledges that the navmesh does not cover. This plugin watches for walk intent with no progress, then tries animated escapes before a short, checked teleport.

It is not a pathfinding rewrite and not a combat-AI overhaul.

What you get

• Stuck detection that ignores idle, sandboxing, sitting, swimming, and mounted NPCs
• Optional SkyParkour vault/climb when that mod is installed and enabled
• Follower replay of your recent SkyParkour moves (teammate flag: vanilla followers, NFF, similar frameworks)
• Doorway handling that does not shove NPCs sideways off the only route
• EVG Animated Traversal markers as routes (optional; on by default since 2.5.0) — never furniture activation
• Validated last-resort teleport after repeated stuck cycles against static geometry — not the player body, other actors, or dialogue holds
• MCM via MCM Helper, with Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCPathingNG.ini as fallback
• FOMOD that auto-detects SkyParkour / EVG and picks a matching INI profile

What this mod does not claim

• Not a full AI overhaul. It unstucks and optionally parkours.
• Default climb height is 130 units (steps, vaults, low/chest ledges). Raise toward 250 in MCM/INI for higher climbs.
• Indoor parkour is off by default. Teleport fallback can still clear stuck NPCs indoors.
• SkyParkour climb SFX are 2D (SOMStereo). Parkour only fires within 1600 units of the player (fParkourMaxPlayerDistance; 0 = unlimited).
• EVG is optional. Plugin masters are only Skyrim.esm. EVG and SkyParkour are runtime lookups. NPCs never enter EVG furniture (ActivateRef / Papyrus Activate are engine-rejected for NPCs). With EVG absent, the route layer is inert.
• 2.4.8 was the first genuine native rebuild since 2.4.4. 2.4.5, 2.4.6, and 2.4.7 shipped the identical 2.4.4 DLL (SHA256 9e5616e0...). Do not use 2.4.5.

How stuck NPCs are handled

walk intent + no progress
    → SkyParkour vault/climb (if installed, in range, geometry matches)
    → EVG marker route (if EVG present): parkour along heading, else bounds hop
    → doorway / sidestep
    → validated teleport (last resort, after iTeleportEscalation stuck cycles)

EVG landings are ground-snapped, headroom- and capsule-cleared, never into water, never through actors, and refused in combat near the player. The hop waits until animated routes have had a chance (second stuck trigger onward).

Requirements

Hard

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

Optional

• SkyParkour V3 plus its Nemesis/Pandora (or equivalent) behavior patch — vault/climb and follower replay
• SkyUI + MCM Helper — in-game menu (INI works without them)
• EVG Animated Traversal — marker routes when present; nothing changes when absent

NPCPathingNG.esp is ESL-flagged. No full load-order slot.

Install

Install the FOMOD from Releases or Nexus with Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex.

1. Let the installer detect SkyParkour / EVG.
2. Keep the matching profile unless you want navmesh-failsafe only: SkyParkour + EVG, SkyParkour only, or Navmesh failsafe.
3. Launch through SKSE.

If you already loaded 2.4.5: install 2.4.8 or later and remove leftover Data/Scripts/NPNG_MCMBridge.pex if present. An empty orphan menu may remain on that save until cleaned or a new game is started.

No save cleaning is required for 2.4.8 → 2.5.0. ESP globals, record layout, and FormIDs are unchanged since 2.4.6. Existing saves keep their saved MCM values; the EVG-on default only seeds fresh installs / new games.

Configuration

MCM	NPC Pathing NG (pages: General, Parkour, Followers & Combat)
INI	Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCPathingNG.ini (re-read when you close the journal)
Log	Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/SKSE/NPCPathingNG.log

Defaults: followers included, combat included, indoor parkour off, climb height 130, parkour max distance 1600, EVG marker routes on, teleport escalation 5.

The INI seeds the MCM at kDataLoaded (before a save loads). Loading an existing save restores that save's MCM values. MCM changes still apply instantly.

Build

Windows x64. Visual Studio 2022 or newer with Desktop C++ tools, CMake 3.21+, Python 3.10+, vcpkg (VCPKG_ROOT or VCPKG_INSTALLATION_ROOT), and CommonLibSSE-NG commit b93280e832f263dbef44e44cbe2936622a02f91a. Full recipe: BUILDING.md.

./build_release.ps1

The script pins CommonLibSSE-NG, builds it and the plugin with the static MSVC runtime, runs validation, and writes the Nexus archive to dist/. The compiled DLL lands at package/Data/SKSE/Plugins/NPCPathingNG.dll. This tree does not ship a DLL.

After CommonLibSSE-NG is installed:

cmake --preset windows-msvc
cmake --build --preset windows-msvc-release
python generate_esp.py
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Do not distribute build/, extern/, vcpkg packages, object files, PDBs, nested .git directories, or old ZIP files.

Project map

src/                 SKSE plugin (pathing, parkour, EVG routes, settings)
tests/               packaging / ESP / version unittest (not in-game)
package/             staged Data tree (ESP, INI, SEQ)
fomod_src/           FOMOD installer sources
patches/             StepUpOnto SKSE compatibility patch sources
tools/               release / FOMOD packagers
generate_esp.py      ESL-flagged ESP generator
build_release.ps1    one-command CommonLibSSE-NG + plugin + archive

Honest status

Verified in this tree:

• Version 2.5.0 (VERSION.txt, src/version.h, CMake project(...))
• Python release tests (tests/test_release.py)
• GitHub Actions build that compiles the DLL against pinned CommonLibSSE-NG
• EVG furniture-activation path removed; markers used as routes only

Not claimed:

• A rewrite of Bethesda pathfinding or combat AI
• Mountain climbing at the default 130-unit cap
• In-game screenshots or a complete load-order compatibility matrix
• That 2.4.5–2.4.7 contained native behaviour changes (they did not)

Related: StepUpOnto SKSE

If you use StepUpOnto SKSE with SkyParkour / this mod, install the companion build so StepUp does not fire mid-parkour:

• Dedicated repo: StepUpOntoSKSE-patched
• Patch sources in this tree: patches/StepUpOntoSKSE-V2
• Binary tag: StepUpOntoSKSE-NPCPathing-V2

Credits

SkyParkour V3 by Waffuru (graph events / SkyParkourOngoing). EVG Animated Traversal markers are used as routes when that mod is present. MCM Helper for the in-game menu. CommonLibSSE-NG (CharmedBaryon / REL lineage). Address Library (meh321). SKSE team.

License

GPL-3.0