Problems with construction set crashing

[gwynhefar]

Hi -

 

I'm relatively new to modding, so I suppose it's possible I'm missing something obvious, but the construction set crashes every time I try to save a mod that uses Knights.esp as a base. I can create mods using other bases, just not that one. I have the Oblivion Game of The Year edition running on Windows 7. I've tried reinstalling the entire second disk (with the Shivering Isles and Knights of the Night expansions on it). I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the construction set, but I still have the same problem. I've done several of the KotN quests in game with no problems so the file itself seems to be working.

 

Any ideas?

[Hickory]

When you use another esp as a 'base', you should first 'esmify' it with Wrye Bash (so that it acts like a master file), but MAKE SURE that you espify it when you are finished editing, or your game will crash. Also be aware that the Construction Set is quirky in that it does not like working with very large esps activated.

[gwynhefar]

Yup, tried that. Sadly esmifying Knights doesn't fix the problem. :-(

 

 

When you use another esp as a 'base', you should first 'esmify' it with Wrye Bash (so that it acts like a master file), but MAKE SURE that you espify it when you are finished editing, or your game will crash. Also be aware that the Construction Set is quirky in that it does not like working with very large esps activated.

[Shadowfen]

Yup, tried that. Sadly esmifying Knights doesn't fix the problem. :-(

 

 

I've been told that Knights does not play well with the construction set or with being modded. You should search the forums here or at Bethesda for more details as I know it has been mentioned more than once.

[gwynhefar]

Ok, so I actually figured out a way to make it work. First I make a backup copy of whichever esp I'm trying to tweak, in this case Knights, and save it to the desktop. Then I open CS setting the original Knights as an active file. I make my changes, and save it, so now the file called "Knights.esp" in my Data directory is actually my tweaked version. I go into the Data directory and change the name of the Knights file to whatever I want my mod to be called. Then I move the backup off the desktop and back into the Data directory. Voila! It now works!

 

Not sure how well this method would work on more advanced mods, but for my simple purposes it seems to work fine.

 

Gwyn

[Vorians]

Ok, so I actually figured out a way to make it work. First I make a backup copy of whichever esp I'm trying to tweak, in this case Knights, and save it to the desktop. Then I open CS setting the original Knights as an active file. I make my changes, and save it, so now the file called "Knights.esp" in my Data directory is actually my tweaked version. I go into the Data directory and change the name of the Knights file to whatever I want my mod to be called. Then I move the backup off the desktop and back into the Data directory. Voila! It now works!

 

Not sure how well this method would work on more advanced mods, but for my simple purposes it seems to work fine.

 

Gwyn

 

Bad move, this simply duplicates in-game everything from the mod, one version being the original mod content, the other being your edited content. If this is for personal use only, then you simply edit the original mod, don't make copies and use both.

 

If you plan to release, then you need to ESMify the ESP you want to use as master, and make any edit in the Tamriel worldspace before saving. The CS contains a lovely bug where it will always crash on save if another ESP is loaded, and if the active ESP does not contain the Tamriel worldspace record. Thus making any edit at all in the Tamriel worldspace will bypass the bug.

[gwynhefar]

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Bad move, this simply duplicates in-game everything from the mod, one version being the original mod content, the other being your edited content. If this is for personal use only, then you simply edit the original mod, don't make copies and use both.

 

If you plan to release, then you need to ESMify the ESP you want to use as master, and make any edit in the Tamriel worldspace before saving. The CS contains a lovely bug where it will always crash on save if another ESP is loaded, and if the active ESP does not contain the Tamriel worldspace record. Thus making any edit at all in the Tamriel worldspace will bypass the bug.

 

 

Yeah, I figured that out later when two copies of people started showing up! Thanks for the info about the Tamriel worldspace record. That might have been the problem I couldn't figure out. In the end, I just made a backup of Knights and edited my copy for personal use.

 

Y'all have been really helpful. I'm still just sticking with personal mods for right now, but eventually I want to learn enough to maybe create some for distribution. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions at some point!