Dismal result in attempt to create Companion Mod

[Suilebhain]

I have been having nothing but failures in my attempts to create companion mods, so I decided to try something radical - I read the instructions. However, the results were still the same. I got a No Start condition from Oblivion that would only go away when I unchecked my mod.

 

Background

 

My character was and is a demon created using the excellent Chingari/Ismelda Demon Race.

 

I had been running a game where I cloned off four excellent companions using Showracemenu, then createfullactorcopy, then changing back to my original form. The problem with this is that it created numerous copies of house deeds and improvement forms as well as the various rings and things that a character gathers through the wide assortment of mods I have been playing. To top it off, I had gone through Dall's Molag Bal mod and was wearing the unique set. Sufficed to say, my save games became corrupt and I was unable to start the game without being asked if I wanted to notify Microsoft about the problem. I decided to start over.

 

This time I decided to start by generating the characters as if I was going to run them, using a Saved Game for face information. There was a post by someone requesting people to create companions and I used his instructions for importing the face - open Oblivion.esm in the Construction Set, do not set an active file, Save and Name the mod, then go into Wrye Mesh and import the face.

 

Then I followed the instructions set forth in the CM Partners 1.9 Read Me for creating custom characters.

 

Using Wrye Mesh I copied Demonrace.esp into Demonrace.esm. I then opened Oblivion.esm, CMPartners.esm, CMPartners.esp, and Demonrace.esm. Using these as the Masters, I was able to create the character. Afterward, I deactivated Demonrace.esm and gave the demonrace.esp the ability to be recognized as a master using the Wrye Mesh "esmify me" command. In the Master window, I changed the name of demonrace.esm to demonrace.esp.

 

Using cmBeth as a basis for setting up the AI scripts (the character is a mage) I pulled in all of the racial abilities from the Characters-Races box. Basically I had Beth's AI window open and just imitated her setup. I gave my companion basic spells - Novice through Master level Fire spells, and group and ranged heal. I also made sure that she had the Heal Group AI script. Finally I placed her on the beach across the river from the exit from the prison.

 

When all was said and done, the mod saved and so forth, I tried booting up the game. The game would not start, it just flickered open a black box (probably OBSE) then closed and went back to desktop. Unchecking the mod, the game starts. I went back into the CS and tried moving her, this time to a place in the Elven District thinking the problem had to do with placement in uneven terrain, but still no good.

 

I tried detecting conflicts using the OBMM and nothing showed. I cleaned the mod in TESGecko every time I made a change, the mod came up clean, but made no difference.

 

Remember, the crash comes before the game even starts, so it is not a matter of conflicting with my current save. I am not even give the chance to start a new game.

 

Any help will be appreciated. If there is another tool I can use to check, I will be happy to do so. Thanks in advance. If I get this straightened out, I will be more than pleased to share the resulting companion mods.

[Suilebhain]

Well, strange enough as it may sound, I deleted a few esp's for mods I was not using from the Data folder and now it works, sort of. No wings and no flight, but those are a different issue.