Not a hard requirement but is needed to stop Ballistas from crashing your game.
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Bugthesda
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Version 1.0
initial release
Added an alternative fix by Jelidity
So you ever randomly crash in Dwemer ruins? Maybe directly after killing a Dwemer Ballista?
Crash log look something like this?
Possible relevant objects (3) { [ 0] hkpRigidBody(Node: `NiNode(Name: `Pelvis`)`) [ 2] hkpRigidBody(Node: `NiNode(Name: `RBackLeg3`)`) [ 29] TESObjectCELL(Name: NchuandZel02 `Nchuand-Zel (20+)`, FormId: 00055215, File: `navpatch.esp <- Navigator-NavFixes.esp <- Synthesis.esp <- Lux.esp <- SkyrimSewers.esp <- 3DNPC.esp <- Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp <- Skyrim.esm`) } Well I may have fixed it, either way it doesn't seem to have any negative effects, maybe some people with Havok knowledge can correct me but essentially all I've done is deleted the collision capsule for the RBackLeg3 node on the ballista skeleton.
Sure he might be missing a leg collider now, but did that ever matter?
Anyway let me know if it works for you, maybe his left leg will start crashing now, who knows.
Jelidity has discovered the reason is that they're supposed to have a death animation but this either doesn't exist or is buggy. So instead of modifying the skeleton, we can just prevent the animation from even attempting to play with an ESL-flagged plugin with 1 record modified. This preserves the ragdoll effect, I have uploaded it as an option so use that if you wish.
I was unable to spawn more than 100 ballistas without the game freezing though, but I'm fairly sure this is due to engine limitations processing physics for 200 ragdoll events.
Personally I'm a fan of the ballistas not just falling over when "dead" they look like very sturdy constructs so I'll keep both files up.