Can't open container for Shadow Armor

[MadMike710]

OK I found it. :P

Open the Construction Set.

Load up Oblivion.esm and ShadowArmor.esp (Click ShadowArmor.esp and click "Set as Active File" at the bottom-right of the window).

 

Then Object Window, click "[+] Items > Armor".

At the top of the list that comes up in the right part of that window should be "01BlackArmorH".

Find the armor you want then click its name once, drag it into the window that says "Render Window"

 

Did that make sense? :)

[MadMike710]

If the quest is bugged finding out why it's bugged instead of trying to disable scripts and other half-ass solutions would be the much better approach. Disabling quest related items and such never has positive results. What you should be using the Construction Set for is to examine the quest and scripts attached to see if there are any glaring problems that you might notice. If you're not familiar with these things you should be posting your issues directly on the page related to the mod in question, and also read all other comments to see if other users have experienced other issues. If that doesn't net any results you should try to PM the author for assistance.

 

You should also make sure you have all necessary prerequisites installed, such as OBSE, if there are any required by this mod. What steps have you taken to rule out the fact that another mod is conflicting with this mod preventing the script(s) from properly functioning? Have you tried using only this mod and nothing else to ensure the mod works? If not you should. Others seem to report that this mod has indeed worked for them so it has to be something in your Load Order interfering or, you improperly installed the mod or are missing some other required step.

 

But like I mentioned, if you're unfamiliar with the CS and general workings of mods the last thing you should be doing is altering other mods that you are even less familiar with and expecting positive results. You need to familiarize yourself with the basic workings of quest mods and the CS before attempting such tasks. The Construction Set Wiki has much information to offer.

 

Good luck!

 

That's some good generic mod issue help. :)

 

But I really tried helping him, he is new to the Construction Set so he couldn't really find errors in the script. He did check if others had the same problem (one or two others did) and he did post on the comments page with his question. I looked on that page too to check for the authors' advice.

And instead of calling my attempts to help him "half-ass" you should try being a bit more considerate.

I did give him useful information and sometimes mods are just broken and the only way around that is to fix it yourself.

[Schattenu]

It does make sense, but when I dragged the stuff over (should have been placed in front of the eastern door of the Bruma chapel) and went in-game, nothing was there. Appreciate all the help, though, thanks for everything! :)

[Smooth613]

I'm not really interested in bickering back and forth with you about why you think this or that is wrong or right. However telling someone to disable quest related scripts in another mod that they are 100% unfamiliar with is half-assing it. Simple as that. I could use other phrases or adjectives such as terrible, horrible, awful, bad, etc... but the end result is the same. It's not the proper way to diagnose and resolve said issue. Whether you want to agree or disagree, believe or not believe it's simple fact. As I've already stated disabling quest scripts as a "workaround" is never a good idea and will likely only create further problems. Especially if this is not the final step in said quest related script. And as you're already mentioned the user would not know if this is or is not the final stage in this script due to limited knowledge. I'm not putting you down, Schattenu, for not knowing this stuff so please don't take it like that. We all started out knowing absolutely nothing about this stuff at one time or another. You've got to start somewhere.

 

I've already taken into account the users' proclaimed amount of experience with said mods and the CS. That's why I pointed them to the author of said mod and the CS Wiki for any curiosities they might have regarding the use of that particular mod and/or the Construction Set. I also provided solid advice in the second paragraph which would be a much better approach to find out if the mod actually works or if you have a conflict from another mod, or the mod is simply not working at all. I could have mentioned the use of TES4Edit to examine conflicts in detail and all that jazz but again, that's not the right approach for someone that's simply unfamiliar with these types of utilities.

 

That's all I've got for this. I've said my recommended approach for diagnosing and resolving the issue at hand and mentioned why it's a "bad" idea to disable random scripts in others' mods. In the end I hope the OP can resolve the issue at hand, as that was my primary reason for posting.

Edited December 23, 2010 by Smooth613

[Schattenu]

Got it. I went back to the mod's original thread and saw someone say they had the wrong human heart for the ritual to work, so I went back into the game and switched out the heart I was using with the one that has a different ID, and it worked. Still, MadMike's advice worked; I disabled the script, put the stuff in there, and then enabled the script again and I got the armor with no problems.

 

I was pretty confident this method wouldn't cause much trouble, because this mod isn't really what I would call a "quest." It was just a matter of finding the location, which was given in the readme, putting the right stuff in the container, and casting the right spell, and everything's done. Thank you for all the help, I greatly appreciate it! :)

[Smooth613]

I'm glad you got the issue sorted out. You, and MadMike, are most likely correct that with this particular mod disabling the script will cause no ill side-effects now or later on. But this has to be handled on a case by case basis and should be left for folks that are knowledgeable in the area of scripting, regardless of the contents of said script. It should not be offered as general advice to fixing errors of this nature. Especially since, as you've found out, nothing was "wrong" with the script but the "proper" item was not placed in the chest. Everything works as intended when the "proper" items are in the chest. However the author could have better wrote the script to accept multiple different IDs of known ingredients. But that's beside the point.

 

I've already spoken with MadMike in PM about our last few posts and everything is all good. What I was trying to do is point you on the right track for proper troubleshooting procedure for deducing the actual source of the problem instead of ignoring and/or bypassing it. Here's a bit of the conversation I sent to Madmike. Please take the following scenario into consideration as to why I discouraged you from disabling scripts.

 

However what if this does work and the user thinks this is a viable solution when stuff "breaks" and doesn't work? It's just going to lead to bad procedure and a false sense of problem solving. Consider the following scenario. The user will think "Hey it worked before with that Shadow Armor mod and no problems occurred, it should work again with this problem!" Then 20 hours later they have a broken quest that is unrepairable, without losing 20hours of game-play, due to bypassing a script earlier. See what I'm getting at? The scenario I just described is exactly why I was enforcing the fact that it's a bad practice to mess with scripts, especially when you have very limited or absolutely zero, knowledge about what you're doing.

[Schattenu]

But there was a problem with the scripting; I still had to disable it to put the stuff in the container. Nothing would have worked if I didn't. Even so, the majority of the mods I've downloaded -- and I've downloaded a lot -- have been put together well enough that I haven't had scripting problems before, and I'm aware enough to know that messing around with scripts is potentially devastating. In this case I was confident enough that I didn't think anything too catastrophic would happen, but I'm smart enough to know not to do it with every single problem I run across.

[Smooth613]

But there was a problem with the scripting; I still had to disable it to put the stuff in the container.

Oh silly me. :wacko: I forgot about that! I do apologize for getting sidetracked. Now with all this talk about this and that not working with this mod my curiosity got the best of me. I had to check it out for myself. So I went and downloaded it to to have a look and see if it would work for me. And if not, to find out why. You are indeed correct that you cannot open the Urn. You can click until your finger falls off but the icon just flashes and it never opens the menu. I loaded it dead last to be sure the mod was making it into the game without chance of any overrides happening. No dice. I took a look at it in TES4Edit as well, and nothing in my LO of around 200 mods even comes close to touching this object or script, or anything else in this mod. So I took a look at it in the trusty ole Construction Set and edited the script a bit. Very simple edits, nothing spectacular.

 

The mod will now work as intended. Below is the edited script in case you're interested in the changes that were made or just want to add it to the ESP. Then you can save the modified ESP for future use with other characters, etc... That way you don't have to jump through hoops to get this mod to work for you if you decide to use it again in the future. I guess I should shoot the author a PM to let him know about this as well.

 

Fixed Urn Script:

 

;ShadowArmor.esp
;0x001D6A
;01RitualUrnScript
scn 01RitualUrnScript

int once
ref self

Begin OnMagicEffectHit STRP
set self to getself
if once != 1
	if RitualUrnContRef.getitemcount varlastone == 1
		if RitualUrnContRef.getitemcount daedraheart == 1
			if RitualUrnContRef.getitemcount humanheart == 1
				if RitualUrnContRef.getitemcount vampiredust == 1
					Cast 01magicexplosion GlowyRitualRunesRef
							player.addspell 01SummonBlackArmor
							player.addspell 01SummonBlackWeapon
							player.addspell 01UnSummonBlackArmor
							player.addspell 01UnSummonBlackWeapon
							player.addspell 01SummonBlackArrow
							player.addspell 01SummonBlackBow
							GlowyRitualRunesRef.disable
							RitualUrnContRef.removeitem varlastone 1
							RitualUrnContRef.removeitem daedraheart 1
							RitualUrnContRef.removeitem humanheart 1
							RitualUrnContRef.removeitem vampiredust 1
							set once to 1
				endif
			endif
		endif
	endif
endif
End

Begin OnActivate
if once == 1
	player.addspell 01SummonBlackArrow
	player.addspell 01SummonBlackBow
	set once to 0
Else
	Activate
endif
End