Editing/Combining Mods

[Strifur]

So I've been trying to take a castle mod (Castle Almgard) and edit some of the guards with a custom race and custom armor (CuteElf and Serenity armor + various other armors). I've been reading about how to do this (de-isolation I believe) and have not had much luck.

 

The closest I've gotten is this:

 

Make CuteElf and armors master files

Select CuteElf.esm and armors.esm and activate Castle_Almgard.esp in CS

Make changes in CS and load game with mods active

 

That actually saved the changes I make to Castle Almgard's guards and everything looked good... until I ventured out into the world only to realize the entire landscape was missing... I read about it online and from what I can tell this happens when you play around with Master files (masters should not edit masters). I also tried combining plugins using TESGecko but the same thing happens when I load the edited Castle_Almgard.esp.

 

Is there any easy way I can accomplish my task? Clear step-by-step instructions would be amazing. I'm not very familiar with TESEdit, TESGecko, or Wyre Bash and the tutorials I've read so far aren't helping me understand the situation any better.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Tomlong54210]

Use Wrye Bash to esmify the plugins. Then you do not have to worry about the master file constriction. You must remember to espify them afterward. To espify or esmify a plugin, right-click on it in Wrye Bash, and you will see the relevant plugin action. With that, you can load the plugins up in the CS and work as if you were using three ESM files.

[yeldarb]

You can create your own esp using the CS to modify the Npc's-,just make sure you place it after Castle Almgard's esp in the load order.I use the blank.esp from Bash for something like this because I can delete it if I make a mistake and reinstall a new blank.esp easily from the original data files of Wrye Bash.It is in the same folder as the bashed patch. 1. Rename blank.esp to Almgardelves.esp or whatever you prefer. 2. open the CS with your new esp as the active file and the click the other files you are using as resources. 3. Make the changes you want to the Npc's in the CS. 4. Save and exit -then test to see if it worked.