(Oblivion) Vilja isn't fighting

[valandril]

So, currently in a plane of Oblivion with Vilja, Fergus, Arren, Wolfgang and a CM Partner (one of the basic ones that comes with one of the CM Partners Basic .esp files). Vilja has her armour on and will draw her melee weapon (well, a staff, but I think that counts?) but during fights she just stands there looking a bit dazed, and her head sort of flickers back and forth. It's all a bit unnerving!


Vilja is currently set to melee/attack when we're attacked, but having her set to ranged and/or attack all enemies on sight has changed nothing. She's learned some spells and enabling/disabling using them doesn't make any difference.

Is there anything simple I can do to sort this? Have I got too many followers? All her gear is in decent condition.

[valandril]

Remembered the Vilja start combat spell, doesn't seem to work, either on enemies or on Vilja to 'reset' her if she's 'acting strangely'. Forgot to say, both Arren and the CM Partner seem to like using summons, don't know if that could be causing a problem (too many AI on the dancefloor, so to speak)?

[valandril]

Never mind, apparently she's back to her usual self. Not sure what changed, but the last couple of fights have been less summon-y on behalf of Arren and I-forget-her-name, so maybe it was that?

[jgf]

The only issue I've had with Vilja in combat is that she doesn't recognize magic as a "weapon", so will gladly stand there and watch a troll or ogre pound me into the ground if all I'm using are spells. (I was told this is a limitation of the game scripting.) So, even if playing as a pure mage (my preferred character) I must draw a weapon at the start of combat to get her to join in; I carry a cheap dagger for cutting tripwires and a powerful staff (expensive to recharge so used sparingly), but it still wastes a few seconds to take one out and put it away.

I wonder if your problem was some odd interaction with other companions.

FWIW, I experience a couple of combat related anomalies with Vilja that, so far, don't affect the game, they're just strange. They only occur outdoors, and only when we are standing still; she will suddenly yell, don her armor, brandish her sword, and run off in the field, stop, remove the armor and sword, and run back to me (there are no enemies nearby); or she will put on her armor and crouch in sneak position for a few seconds, then remove the armor and stand up.

And while I use a mod that makes most animals non-aggressive, so they ignore us and we ignore them, Vilja will occasionally run off and kill a wolf. Apparently a specific wolf, since she may run past a couple of other wolves to get to her target.