[LE] Help with an aspect of my Unique Loot Mod

[MisterB1969]

Hey there peeps, I am adding new containers that are lootable. Now aside from manually finding the crates within game and swiping them out and replacing there. Is there an easier way of doing this within the object data ?Can't I just replace the object with the new object. But I am unsure how to get the reference number.

[TheWormpie]

Could you try to explain what you're trying to do again?

 

Now aside from manually finding the crates within game and swiping them out and replacing there.

The above doesn't really make sense.

Edited July 17, 2017 by wormple12

[MisterB1969]

I have duplicated the meshes of specific static items, to use as containers. Now with the creation kit I can find the areas those items have been placed (which I have duplicated ). And I have already set up the containers with the appropriate leveled lists. So can I simply replace the containers in world with the ones I have created by modifying the Object Properties, or am I limited to replacing them by hand?

 

The Issue I have with replacing them Manually, is having to reposition the crates in the exact locations they appear. So I want to edit the current items in world properties to replace it with all the exact positioning by editing the item in question.

[TheWormpie]

So can I simply replace the containers in world with the ones I have created by modifying the Object Properties, or am I limited to replacing them by hand?

Yup, you can replace them and it would definitely be the best way to go. Just open the container object in question, then change the model so that it leads to the mesh of the static item you desire instead of the original mesh.

[MisterB1969]

Ah, thats why it wouldn't originally work for me then. Cause I extraded the model from the skyrim bsa's using the same name. I need to change the name of the model then.

[TheWormpie]

Nope, you don't need to change the name of the mesh. You should just change the object so that it leads to the right path. So if you want to make the container look like a cheese wheel for instance (cause why not) then the object's file path should lead to Meshes\Clutter\Food\cheesewheel02a.nif.

[MisterB1969]

That I don't get. Cause I'm using the exact same mesh of the original static object. So if they both point to the same location, nothing is going to change I would assume.

Edited July 17, 2017 by MisterB1969

[TheWormpie]

Let's say that you want to replace all instances of a certain type of chest with piles of firewood. Then you should edit the container's base object (the chest), not the static object that you want it to resemble (the firewood). So you double-click the chest object, then you change the file path so that it leads to the firewood .nif file instead of the chest .nif file. That means that all references of the edited chest in the entire game now uses the firewood mesh instead of the chest mesh -- in this way effectively "replacing" them all. Is that what you've done? (or have I misunderstood what you're trying to accomplice?)

[MisterB1969]

Essentially but in reverse i guess , lol. I took the static object and created a container out of it, by copying the mesh of the static object and replacing the mesh of a chest container. So now i want to take said container and replace the static object in world with the container.

[TheWormpie]

Aaaah, in reverse, okay :laugh: That's quite a bit harder, yes. You want a lot of static references that already exist all around Skyrim to become containers. It's just not possible to change a base object's type -- not as far as I know at least. Perhaps somehow with TES5edit, idk.

 

So I think there's two ways to proceed if at all.

 

1. You could, as you said yourself, track every single reference of the static down, then replace them with your container object. This is actually relatively easy to do. Just select one static reference in the render window, then press CTRL+F to open the find-and-replace menu. Tick "Current World Only" and untick "Same base object type only", then find your container object in the "Replace with" field and press OK. Do this for every worldspace that the static appears in. You can check which cells/worlds an object appears in by right-clicking it, then clicking "Use Info" in the scrolldown. This might be the easiest solution, but it would make your mod incompatible with tons of mods because it alters so many different cells.

 

2. You could replace all the references by script which is possible but definitely not easy. I'm actually not a 100% sure where to begin. It might be with a conditioned quest alias that finds references of a chosen object or it might be a frequent game check that replaces references of a chosen object in whatever cell the player enters. It would also require to find the exact position and angle of the original reference so that you can create a new reference on the same spot.