Weird issue with original cep horses/ponies

[pturner487]

Howdy,
I'm not sure if this is a bug, or if I am trying to do something impossible, but here goes...

I have made "Mount" and "Dismount" widgets for use by PC riders and DM-possessed riders, which use tag-based script lines in my OnActivateItem script.
I have also made a "Hitching Rail" placeable using an OnUsed script.
The relevant scripts are given below.....

Now, if I paint an instance of a mounted NPC set to, say, the "Brown Horse" phenotype, and then possess it in-game, when I use the Hitching-Rail the riding NPC duly vanishes and is replaced by a standing version of the NPC and the appropriate Brown Horse model. So far, so good. That is what should happen, of course.

However, if I use the Dismount widget rather than the Hitching-Rail, the riding NPC duly vanishes, but ONLY the standing version of the NPC shows up!!
NO horsey!!!!

Weirder still, if I use the hitching-rail to dismount, then use the Mounting widget to mount the newly-spawned horse, and THEN use the Dismounting widget, the darned thing works properly!!! I.E. the man-horse combo vanishes, to be replaced by the standing NPC and the new horse!

I just can't figure out why the dismount widget refuses to work properly in isolation, but only does its job after the NPC has dismounted via the placeable, or if a standing NPC has first mounted a separate horse!

Any guidance as to why this is happening will be very gratefully received, since there are many occasions in multi-player when I want DM-possessed NPC riders such as scouts, messengers and cavalry troopers to ride up to a party of PCs, then dismount to interact with them, and I don't want to litter areas (particularly forests, hills and plains) with a plethora of hitching-rails which have absolutely no good reason to be there!
I know I could paint down a separate rider and horse, then possess the rider and mount via the appropriate widget, but I want to spawn the already mounted NPC in on the fly during the game.
Perhaps I should also say that I do not use the "newer" horse system at all since it would require major revisions to my base modules.

Module OnActivateItem script:

#include "x2_inc_switches"
#include "zep_inc_phenos"
void main ()
{
object oPC = GetItemActivator();
object oTarget = GetItemActivatedTarget();
// Dismount Widget Code
if (GetTag (GetItemActivated()) == "dismount")  //tag of dismount widget
   {
   zep_Dismount (oPC);
   }
// Mounting Widget Code
if (GetTag (GetItemActivated()) == "mount")  //tag of mounting widget
   {
   zep_Mount (oPC, oTarget);
   }
// Rest of regular code follows here
}


Placeable Hitching-Rail OnUsed script:

"include "zep_inc_phenos"
void main ()
{
object oPC = GetLastUsedBy();
zep_Dismount (oPC);
}

Needless to say, the Dismount widget has Cast Spell: Unique Power, Self Only, Unlimited Uses/Day, while the Mounting widget has Cast Spell: Unique Power, Unlimited Uses/Day.

Many, many thanks to anyone who has the time (and patience!!) to read this post!
Cheers,
Paul.

[kalbaern]

I'm not sure if anyone is left around here that uses the old CEP Horse System.