Can I change a follower's starting location with TesVedit?

[Mookeylama]

waaay too many followers in the same places. get crashes trying to enter Sleeping Giant lol. can tes5edit be used to change a follower's starting locations? and if so, what are the steps?

i can't get CK to install correctly

[Seijin8]

Yes you can.

 

Step by step (how I do it, maybe not the best way):

1) Load the follower mod up in TES5Edit

2) Look up on Skyrim wiki to find the location you want them to be in. For example, Solitude Hall of the Dead.

3) Find someone in the location that you want the follower to be in, in this case Styrr.

4) Get Styrr's RefID: 198A8 and enter it into the FormID search box. This should produce a "ACHR" record.

5) Right click the record and "copy as new record". Place this into your follower mod.

6) Find the new record in the mod (usually under Cell or Worldspace) and change the reference to Styrr to point to your follower (typically, I check the FormID and use right-click Edit to enter the ID, else it may hang while it tries to search).

7) If it throws an error, select "null" reference and right-click the left pane with the esms/esps and "remove filter", then reopen the collapsibles and do it again, should work that time.

 

Doing this from memory from work, so may not be 100%. Note that the AI package of the follower may be tied to the original location, and if so, they will migrate back there. Changing the package to "DeafultSandbox" should repair that problem, though for some scripted/enhanced followers, that may break things. Best of luck.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Seijin8

[KimberJ]

I would never place a reference in the world with the editor. It's what the CS is for. Just load your companion mod as a master an place it there, or load the mod with it active an change it's location. Plus from what I read it sounds like there is now two of those references for the companion.

[Seijin8]

Not everyone can use the Creation Kit. His question was specific to TES5Edit. I've used this method with no issues, and later loaded that into the CK and it didn't complain about said change.

 

You are correct that the original reference would need to be removed, else it would produce a second copy of the character. To do this in TES5Edit, click on the NPC's listing and check the tab at bottom for "referenced by", then find the other (original) ACHR and delete or disable it.

[KimberJ]

Actually I think it says not to do this, lol. If a person can use Skyedit or (insert game name)edit, they can use the CK. If you don't believe me then go ask other modders for the preferred method of putting new references in the game world.

 

You know it could just be the default settings of the CK that makes people not use it. First thing I do with it is change the windows an close it. So the two lists take up the whole screen, with a empty space between. Then the render window as large as possible. That way I can click what I want to work with. You see a whole list of items. Then you see a huge window of the rendered world, to work with.

 

Then the mouse settings for the CK are really important an completely editable via the render or preview window, or settings in the top of the application. The default CK isn't useable lol, so maybe you guys/gals just didn't use it enough to find that it's totally customizable.

 

Also people don't use CK SDK Official Web Page an there is a page for every game. Besides teaching about how to use the SDK, you can pretty much find out what anything means, a bunch of that applies to Skyedit or (insert game name)edit. I'm not sure if very many if any people actually know about that. Now consider all the modders that didn't when they made your mods. Papa Gadoosh! lol :D

[Seijin8]

Thanks for the opinion gush and CK commercial.

[Deleted30123965User]

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