Creating a quest mod; every time I move an NPC to a different start location it breaks the dialogue!

[NikaCola]

So I've been working on a mod for about 5 months and making good progress with the dialogue system and scripting, etc.

 

But I've consistently struggled with changing the location of my NPCs and talking activators (like intercoms) in the CK. Whenever I do this, even just moving a character from one side of the room to another, it breaks the dialogue/quest scripting in the savegame I was using to test the mod--and I have to load a completely different character's savegame to get it to work again. For example, once I move an NPC/companion from one side of a room to another (even in the same cell) I simply can't talk to them or start a conversation until I load a different character/savegame that has never visited the cell I created. (so far I haven't changed anything in the vanilla/base game world.)

 

I am admittedly new to modding, and have been able to figure a lot of stuff out on my own through trial and error, but this is seriously getting in the way of being able to do simple things and progress!

 

If any of you guys could help me out or share how you've approached something similar I would be so very grateful. Even just a point in the right direction would be wonderful!

 

<3

[llamaRCA]

I have to load a completely different character's savegame to get it to work again. For example, once I move an NPC/companion from one side of a room to another (even in the same cell) I simply can't talk to them or start a conversation until I load a different character/savegame that has never visited the cell I created. (so far I haven't changed anything in the vanilla/base game world.)

 

 

This is the important part.

 

When you are modding you need to test in a clean save; one that's never had your mod active in it before. I keep a collection of these saves (I call them "pristine"). During testing you should load into, every time, one of the untouched saves to test your changes.

 

This is how I do it (there will be many ways to accomplish this, but this one works for me because my mods can always be played right from the beginning of the game).

 

In every game I mod I start the game with zero mods (or as few as necessary to create my character) and take my character through to a location that makes sense for starting out each time. In FO3 it was the cave entrance to V101, in New Vegas it's inside Doc Mitchell's house (easiest game by far), in Skryim I'd play through until I was in Riverwood Trader and in FO4 I run through until I get out of V111 and then run down to the basement in Sanctuary. Once I'm in those locations I make at least one save and exit the game. This save should not be made in the same cell where you need to test. It should be cell where you've made zero changes.

 

I then copy those "pristine" saves into a separate folder and label them as such. If the game is still getting releases I add what version they were saved in.

 

Then every time I want to test I tick my mod (and any others I want active), move a copy of that "pristine" save into my proper saves folder and play from there.

 

Unfortunately, that only works for mods you can access right from the start either by turning on map markers and traveling there right away, etc. I also have to play through the game without my mod ticked if I need to test later in the game. For that I follow the same method. I save all "priistine" saves into separate folders and then move the one(s) I need into the proper saves folder when I'm ready to test something at/near a particular point in the game.

 

It's important to remember that once you've tested in a particular save (and newly created saves) in your proper folder you can't use them reliably for testing again. You might be able to test a particular thing a couple of times, if you are lucky, but sometimes the only way to see results is to start over again with another copy of a pristine save to work with.

[NikaCola]

Thank you so much!! That makes so much sense. I did as you suggested and made a new pristine save, and everything actually works and shows up like it should!

 

But the process you described seems almost...tedious? I hate to say, but geez. =( I asked a techie friend of mine if there would be a way to automate it so that every time I exited the game my computer would automatically overwrite the pristine save I "corrupted" by testing my mod with it, with the actually pristine one (copied over from dropbox).

 

He made me a windows command file that does exactly that! It launches the game as normal, and then when I exit I just have to press a button in the command line window that's still open and it automatically copies my pristine save from dropbox and overwrites the old one in my saves folder. I think it's a really cool system for this, but I wanted to hear from you and maybe other modders too if this really is a good idea? I don't want to cause inadvertent harm by doing it this way.

 

But it seems to make sense for testing purposes, at least the way *I* mod--because I'm so inexperienced that I have to make a few changes in the CK and then test them in game in case I broke something LOL.

 

Thank you again so much for your help and any other advice!!

[llamaRCA]

Automating seems fine if it suits your purposes. I don't find the save management stuff tedious because the process takes less than a minute. Relative to the tedious drudgery of actual testing it's almost enjoyable :tongue: (I spend less than a minute doing the file thing and tens of hours testing). Also, depending on what I'm testing I may be using one particular save out of tens/hundreds of saves. I do have the one pristine save in Sanctuary that I use frequently, but I also use many others routinely because I'll do an entire playthrough of the game without my mod so I can go test it during whichever part of the game I need.