Talk:Mod Merging

Merging Cells in two different esps (detailed example)

(Ed. - I used this to merge an esp containing an interior as the "master" esp into an exterior cell as the active without problem. This is a copy of the instructions that Ch0k3h0ld gave me, augmented with my clarifications as I worked. Hopefully it will be of interest and may be elevated to the front page if the community deigns it to be of merit - --Shalani (talk) 15:59, 7 July 2012 (EDT) )

So the FIRST step is to load the esp you will be copying from (the “master”) along with the esp you will be merging into (the active) set as the active file. Find all of your custom items that you might have created. Lights, fx, keys, messages, whatever. For example, I like to use my own custom lights that are set up just like I want them. [Do this next sentence in the “master” esp before you load it as a master for this merge. If you look at the top of the File> Data> Details window, you will see all of the unique items you have created. Write them down so you don’t miss one.] So go find one of those in the “master’ esp in the Render Window and open it and select Edit Base. Choose to make some simple change to the name, click ok and say no to creating a unique form, and yes you are sure. Then OK to close the Reference pop-up window. Observe the name is changed for that object. That changes all of the lights to be dependent on the new base item that you just copied into the active file. You need to do that for each custom item you have created in your master. If you have multiple instances of that item, just select them (click once) in the cell view object window, and the names should update automatically – you don’t have to rename every instance.] It won't botch up the master because you won't be saving the master. One note, if you convert your master into an esm first you will create a master dependency that you won't have if you keep it as an esp. So i just leave them as esps as it is easier and works just as well.

Once all of that is done, you find the cell [in the “master” .esp] you want to copy in the cell view and right click on it and choose duplicate. [This will create a duplicate cell with the same basic name, but with DUPLICATE001 added to the end of the name.] Once you have duplicated all of your cells, interior and exterior you can save the active file and close the CK. Don't stop with just some of the cells if they have any of the custom objects in them or the names will be wrong if you come back later to finish. That is fixable if you don't but it makes things more complicated. Remember the master will remain untouched as all of the changes are in the active. Load back up the active file without the “master” and you can change the names of your duplicated cells to remove the Duplicate001 from the names. [You must name the cells back to their original name, or objects like weapons racks, that record the original name of the cell in their linkref information, will have errors when your esp is loaded. Either that and make sure all references to the old cell name are changed to the new name.] Then you are ready to add navmesh, connect doors, landscape the exterior, optimize with room boundaries, add the NPC's and whatever else. I usually add the NPC's last thing by the same basic steps I explained above for the other custom objects except you find them in the object window. I give each one of them a name with a prefix like 01 for example, which makes them easy to find when the time comes. Just change the prefix to 001 or add an abbreviation to identify them to your mod in the active file or whatever fits your system, save the active and close the CK. Load the active up by itself and add the NPC's into the cells and you are good to go from there.

So I hope that helps you. Please ask questions if you have any. I don't know what your experience is with the CK so I didn't know how much more detail to give you. I probably left some things out, as there are some aspects of modding Skyrim I haven't tried yet. I have no idea what to do with a voice file for example or how it gets copied. I'm sure there are people on here who are much more experienced than I who will be happy to cover anything I missed.

Q - i am kinda surprised that you don't create a new form on a modified item. Wouldn’t that affect every instance of that object in the game? A - Creating a new form at that point would only affect the one instance of the object that you have selected. All other instances will still refer to the original object. Creating a new form is the method used to copy an object from a true master like Skyrim.esm to specifically avoid affecting every instance of the object in the Vanilla game. For my light example, creating a new form would then leave all the other lights tied to the original version of the light that will not get copied into the active file. If you only have one instance of the object in use, like a custom merchant chest for example, then it doesn't matter and either way works equally well.

To validate this for yourself, you can go into the object window and select any object that is in use by the game and copy it to an new form. You will see that it will have no users while the original remains unchanged. On the other hand (don't do this without a purpose) you could just rename any object and its number of users will not change, but it would be copied into your active file. That is what we are trying to do. That change would not get saved into the master but will affect the master every time you were to load it. So be sure you are not selecting objects to copy that are actually in Skyrim.esm or you will be modifying every instance in the game. To avoid that, be sure your custom objects have distinctive names so you can easily identify them.

As an aside, be sure you are done with your "master" esp before you finish and unload it. Once you have renamed the merged cells back to their original names, the two esp files will conflict. If you find yourself in that situation, just load the “master” esp by itself and delete the conflicting cells you have already merged. Remember that any unique objects that are used in any remaining unmerged cells would need to be copied again because their names will not have been changed in “master” esp. As a result you would end up with another version on a different name for that object, which is usually not a big deal. I suspect the find and replace function would handle that, but I haven't needed to use it yet.