Using hair from a custom race and adding it to another custom race and npc

[tawney]

I've been trying to take hair packaged and used from one mod (Asharas Sirens & Tritons) and add it to another (Corean Race) and a companion npc from the nexus.

 

The companion wasn't originally Corean but I managed to adjust their race by creating a Corean master file. The game ran smoothly at this point. Thing is, it was lacking the hair used by Ashara's that I wanted. Then I ran into some bizarre issues trying to add the hair to the Corean race, then the npc. I attempted to create and add a master file of Asharas race to the Corean esp & npc esp, and finally add the hair.

 

I assume a Corean esm and esp enabled with an Ashara esm and esp plus the npc relying on both masters was really stupid. The hair showed up and saved fine. No crashing after loading. Only issue for whatever reason was my character falling through the ground into the abyss. Erm...

 

After enabling and disabling, nothing made sense so I gave up. Also tried to remove the master files with TES4Gecko but it errored no matter what I did. Anyway I'm sure my lack of experience shows. If anyone has the time to give me step by step instructions to something that seemed so simple, I would greatly appreciate it. :facepalm:

[IkeCoast]

Hey, Tawney.

 

I assume you're using the vanilla version of the Construction Set, hence your need to create new esms and so.

 

I suggest you to install the Construction Set Extender. With it, you will be able to use esps as masters, and will not need to create separate esms for your mods. Anyway, you don't need at all creating new esms for your hair. Working with the original Ashara and Corean mods esp files, the procedure is:

 

STEP ONE: Load the Ashara esp. In the Hairs window, under the hair you want to use, take note of its nif and texture path assets. Write them down. CLOSE THE ASHARA plug-in.

 

STEP TWO: Load the Corean esp and make it active. Create a new hair and use the nif and texture paths you wrote down in the previous step. Add this hair to the Corean race. Save this plug-in with the changes.

 

STEP THREE: if using the VANILLA CONSTRUCTION SET: Create a new esm out of the Corean esp where you added the Ashara hair. If creating a vanilla companion, load the new Corean esm without making it active. Create your character and save it as a new plug-in. Use a third party utility to change its dependency from the Corean esm to the Corean esp. If creating a CM companion, in addition to the Corean esm load also the CM esm and the CM esp. DO NOT REMOVE THE CM ESM DEPENDENCY, just CHANGE the dependency from Corean esm to Corean esp.

 

STEP THREE AND A HALF: if using the CONSTRUCTION SET EXTENDER, do not create a Corean esm. just use the Corean esp where you put the Ashara hair. Load it, do not make it active, create your character, save as a new plugin and leave the dependency untouched. If creating a CM Partner, in addition to the Corean ESP, load the CM esm and the CM esp and create your characer, save as a new plugin, leave the dependencies untouched.

 

However, the issue with your companion character falling throug the ground and into the abyss is completely unrelated to the hair, it's related with where did you put him/her in the game world. The more frequent cause for this behavior is putting them in a custom cell without pathgrids, or badly pathgridded.

 

Or putting him/her in a vanilla cell and forgetting to "drop" him/her to the ground, and then the game will spawn them right in middle of the hair, where you left them in the CS, with lethal outcomes for them. This is another thing the CSE avoids: when you place an ACTOR In the cell, the CSE automatically places them at ground level, not in middle of the air like the statics and containers.

 

Cheers!

Edited February 1, 2015 by IkeCoast

[tawney]

Sounds great but I seem to be running into an issue installing CSE. I've done everything the readme says, installed all requirements, ublocked the archive, extracted to the root, and ran the launcher as admin. It pops up as a black box and disappears. Might there be another work around?

[IkeCoast]

Hmmmmmmmmmm, were you using OBSE before I suggested you using the CSE? I mean, if OBSE does not work on your installation, then no OBSE plugin will work.

 

And how and WHERE did you install every requirement? Everything related to OBSE must ALWAYS be installed MANUALLY.

 

To avoid you going running in circles, I'll summarize you the step-by-step installation of OBSE and the CSE:

 

STEP ONE: INSTALLING OBSE

 

Make sure the OBSE version you downloaded is v21.

 

If you're a Steam user, unpack the OBSE downloaded file to a temporary location (i.e. your Desktop) and from its content, take the folder

 

Data

 

and the files

 

obse_1_2_416.dll

obse_editor_1_2.dll

obse_steam_loader.dll

 

and put all of them inside your main Oblivion installation folder. Allow overwriting when prompted.

 

Now, go to your Steam settings panel and enable the Steam Overlay In Game. Do not anything else.

 

STEP 2: INSTALLING THE CSE

 

Make sure you dowload the 63 version. Unpack it to your Desktop. Take all its content and place it inside your main Oblivion folder.

 

Start the Construction Set with the provided Launch CSE.

 

If you did everything without any divergence but the CSE fails to launch, then OBSE is not running for you. Try this plugin:

 

OBSE Tester

 

Launch the game and as soon as your savegame has loaded, a series of popup messages will appear telling you wether OBSE is running or not. If OBSE tester says you "OBSE is not working properly", then try this:

 

Download this obse_steam_loader.dll unpack and and put it in place of the existing one. This has solved lots of issues with OBSE not working on Steam, as you can see in this Forum Thread.

 

If you're not under Steam but on the Retail Disc, then most likely it's an UAC issue.

 

Cheers!

[tawney]

I was able to get the hair and race working together fortunately, so thank you very much! I had to scrap the downloaded npc however, because changing their race broke something, and they lost the original scripted dialog. Since I don't see any way around it, I'm just going to create a generic CM Partner with the new race. Too bad since the original creator did a wonderful job on the NPC's story.

 

Anyway thanks again for walking me through all that! :thumbsup:

[DrakeTheDragon]

Dialog, just like voice files, are stored in folders according to the race's display name. So if you change the race an actor is off, there goes the dialog.

 

You can, however, also just create a copy of the folder with the dialog of the mod inside and create a new one with the correct name according to the new race the actor's off now. There'll be jumps in voice and tone, of course, the actor now using regular voice files from one race and custom dialog recorded in another, but depending on the races and/or the actor's custom voice files, this may actually work just fine as well.

 

I did the same when I changed Viconia De'Vir into a female dragon of mine to create Kaira, my dragon Drake's companion and fiance. Took me a while to fix up the dialog and voices again, but I got it to work in the end.

[tawney]

It was actually just an esp file with no separate files or voice acting. Is there some way to copy the text? It's strange that when I changed the race and view the character's dialog, it's all there in the CS. Then I load up the game and it has lost all dialog except the CM script. Even with it loaded last in my mod order. :confused: