Fixing the Body/Face tone mixmatch

[Radioactivelad]

So, with my Five Aces mod, I made the mistake of not using an ESM "bank" for all of the new npcs and instead added them directly in the esp, which means they have the annoying issue of mismatched body/face tones.

 

Now I tried simply converting the ESP to a master, but that causes a lot of things to break, most notably the scripted Trigger boxes that I used at numerous points in the mod.

 

 

So, what would be the smartest way to fix this? Would it be simpler to just figure out why my triggers break?

For the future 2.0 update I plan on doing it the smart way and have a Bank ESM, but that still leaves the original NPCs.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Radioactivelad

[dubiousintent]

This (converting an ESP to an ESM) was discussed in general terms recently. You can see the results in the 'ESM & ESP Files' entry under the 'Misc Topics' section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article. You might want to also check over the 'Tips' under the "Custom NPCs" section.

 

Having said that, "scripted Trigger boxes" were not specifically covered. I suspect those are something that needs to be done only in an ESP.

 

-Dubious-

[madmongo]

How many NPCs are we talking about? You may just want to make new copies in an esm and then swap those in place of your esp versions in the esp. If you do a search and replace on the refs in each cell then the scripts that reference those refs won't be broken, but conditions in conversations, packages, etc. will need to be updated for the new NPCs.

[EPDGaffney]

So, this hits on a question I've had for a while. I was starting to believe that an ESM was generally the best way to finalise a mod unless you needed load order freedom. Why do the trigger box scripts break? Is this normal?

[Radioactivelad]

How many NPCs are we talking about? You may just want to make new copies in an esm and then swap those in place of your esp versions in the esp. If you do a search and replace on the refs in each cell then the scripts that reference those refs won't be broken, but conditions in conversations, packages, etc. will need to be updated for the new NPCs.

 

Probably an afternoon's and half's worth, so not unreasonable. It's actually what Initially planned to do but was hoping if there was a more streamlined way to go about it.

 

So, this hits on a question I've had for a while. I was starting to believe that an ESM was generally the best way to finalise a mod unless you needed load order freedom. Why do the trigger box scripts break? Is this normal?

 

I thought the same. As far as I can tell it's only the Trigger Boxes that break. I first noticed this because one quest used a boxso the guards would only attack if you actually entered the restricted area. It simply stopped working in the esm version, even when I created an entirely new esp and adjusted the box to "refresh" it.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Radioactivelad

[EPDGaffney]

How many trigger boxes broke, approximately? Do they have anything in common? I'm almost certain that mine were all intact when I tested my mod as an ESM. At least, I came away from it thinking that it would be a good idea to switch once I was done, so I know none of them broke that I noticed, but I can't remember how comprehensive my testing was (I wasn't testing for them specifically, but rather testing my mod in a general sense and especially navmeshes, which if you were unaware, should generally be in an ESM as well).

[Radioactivelad]

All of them. They all do different things, but use OnTriggerEnter for the Player to activate.

 

One is used to turn a group of neutral npcs hostile with SetEnemy.

Another causes a group of enemies to spawn with a standard Enable setup.

And the last one causes a talking activator to say a line of dialogue.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Radioactivelad

[EPDGaffney]

I've been going under the assumption that you are starting a new game for this kind of test. Are you?

 

And there are rules for using ESMs. I don't remember them now but Dubious probably has them in his compilation guide here:

http://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Getting_started_creating_mods_using_GECK

 

Mongo knows them as well. I think a major one is to avoid deleting any references. So, if you've deleted stuff rather than disabling it, that could do it. Another modder was trying to use destruction data on lights and it wouldn't work until he cleaned his mod of deleted references. The lights were completely separate additions that you'd expect logically to be unrelated.