Civil War military forts, why do they respawn the way they do?

[tattuvamasi]

So, I played Skyrim a lot back in the day, I am gonna start again with the special edition, but, this was one thing I could never figure out.

If you have not yet joined a side in the Civil War, and you clear out one of the military forts from the bandits or whatever who are there originally, sometimes the fort gets occupied by soldiers who are neutral to the player. But, sometimes the original hostile inhabitants respawn there.

Does anyone understand what triggers one result as opposed to the other? Cause obviously it would be good to have friendlies in all these places, especially the ones in Dawnstar, Winterhold, and Morthal cause they are along major roads. Also you can potentially use them for player housing, which is neat.

Seems to me from past experience, that the first such fort you clear on a playthrough will always switch to soldiers the next time you go back there. But, if you subsequently clear other forts, they respawn like a normal hostile location. Then, the only way to get friendlies there is to do Season Unending (takes too long) or the Civil War questline (turns the other side hostile to you).

I want to know what are the actual trigger rules around this, does anybody know from like mods or stuff like that? I am not wanting to use mods or console commands, if possible.

[charlea]

I've no idea, I also encountered that once or twice but not very offen.

[Ihateeverybody]

I wonder (Guess) if it is determined by their actual use in the Civil War quests (or a mod).

Is it the location of a Civil War Capture the fort Quest (is it on the list). OR is it the number of flags on the Maps in Castle Dour, or other Jarl place (the Maps with Flag pins you can click to add location to your map).

OR is it actually fully clearing it (outside, main building and Jail).

I really don't know. I never do the Civil war quest line (did it once for each side) so I mainly just clear the outside or special buildings like the Sabercat Tavern.

[Death Approaches]

Originally posted by Ihateeverybody:

I really don't know. I never do the Civil war quest line (did it once for each side) so I mainly just clear the outside or special buildings like the Sabercat Tavern.

that's it in a nutshell. if you never choose sides, what repopulates it when the cell regenerates will be the last occupants, but if CW is in progress, it's based on how the fight is going, and respawns/ownership of the various forts are set by CWFortFaction for each...

if you want to know the mechanics of how/when the changeover works tattu, just extract your papyrus source scripts (that huge zip file in Scripts\) and read through all the CW fort ones.