Merging "Location" mods and NAVI: 00012FB4

[BinakAlgo]

Sorry if I don't give the required info that the guide says but I have a very concrete question to anyone who has ever merged plugins and modded locations in the game. I tried to merge in several locations mods with Merge Plugin from Mator but no matter which ones I choose at the end of the merging it gave me this same message:

 

 

Googling a little, it seems that this reference NAVI:00012FB4 directs to lots of things and it is part of Skyrim.esm and many people have seen this same message, with some people suggesting to delete it with the CK which I don't think it is a good idea.

 

So, I'm wondering if this is normal and I can go ahead and merge those plugins? or, is it better to never merge location/towns mods?

 

I'll be thankful for any insight about this. Thanks

[DarkRudra]

Okay, basically, NAVI:00012FB4 is a record that is automatically generated from navmesh records when a mod is saved in the CK. Skyrim will combine the NAVI:00012FB4 in multiple esps when the game runs so it can handle them correctly. Merge Plugins can't combine this record from multiple plugins like Skyrim does, so your merged plugin will have only the last instance of the record in the merge's load order (ignoring that of other mods in the merge). This is why Merge Plugins is showing that message you posted - to let you know that it can't handle this record and you need to do a little more work.

 

The easiest way to handle this is to just not include more than one mod with a NAVI record in each merge. That can be annoying though and defeats the purpose of merging when it comes to town/city mods. And some pretty weird mod combos can come up if you try that... even apparently simple armor mods sometimes have NAVI records.

 

If you're going to be merging multiple plugins with NAVI records, what you need to do is regenerate that record using the CK. The steps for this are:

 

1) Load the merged plugin in TES5Edit.

 

2) Find and delete the NAVI:00012FB4 record on the merged plugin. This is fine because we're gonna rebuild it later.

 

3) Look at the master files for the merged plugin. If any of these are not .ESM files or .ESP files that have the ESM flag set in their header, you need to edit the header's flags and turn on the ESM flag for each master. This is done so the CK will load all the master files for the merged plugin. Exit TES5Edit, be sure Backups is turned on if you had to set the ESM flag on any files.

 

4) Load the merged plugin in the CK, setting it as the active file. Wait for everything to load.

(Side Note: If the mod has a lot of master files, you may need to rethink the merge because the CK won't load that much info. 5 to 8 masters is okay - Skyrim, DLCs, USLEEP, plus one or two mods that's good. 10 to 15 masters is overkill. If the CK gives you a " Default out of handle array" error when loading, this is the case.)

 

5) When the CK has loaded everything, click the Save button in the CK. This will regenerate the NAVI record. Once Saving is done (note the status bar at the bottom will tell you), exit the CK.

 

6) If you had to set the ESM flag on any of the master files in step 3, replace those files with the backups TES5Edit made. Or reverse the changes in TES5Edit by removing the ESM flag manually, either will work.

 

7) You're done; providing there weren't other issues with the merge, it should all be good to go.

 

This is based on my own experience and the Nexus wiki on merging: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Merged_Plugin_Guidelines_for_Personal_Use

 

I will say that if Merge Plugins ever mentions a NAVM record in that little box after the merge, I don't think that is worth trying to manually resolve unless you are experienced in editing navmesh in the CK. It's a completely different kettle of fish.

Edited May 22, 2018 by DarkRudra

[BinakAlgo]

Okay, basically, NAVI:00012FB4 is a record that is automatically generated from navmesh records when a mod is saved in the CK. Skyrim will combine the NAVI:00012FB4 in multiple esps when the game runs so it can handle them correctly. Merge Plugins can't combine this record from multiple plugins like Skyrim does, so your merged plugin will have only the last instance of the record in the merge's load order (ignoring that of other mods in the merge). This is why Merge Plugins is showing that message you posted - to let you know that it can't handle this record and you need to do a little more work.

 

The easiest way to handle this is to just not include more than one mod with a NAVI record in each merge. That can be annoying though and defeats the purpose of merging when it comes to town/city mods. And some pretty weird mod combos can come up if you try that... even apparently simple armor mods sometimes have NAVI records.

 

If you're going to be merging multiple plugins with NAVI records, what you need to do is regenerate that record using the CK. The steps for this are:

 

1) Load the merged plugin in TES5Edit.

 

2) Find and delete the NAVI:00012FB4 record on the merged plugin. This is fine because we're gonna rebuild it later.

 

3) Look at the master files for the merged plugin. If any of these are not .ESM files or .ESP files that have the ESM flag set in their header, you need to edit the header's flags and turn on the ESM flag for each master. This is done so the CK will load all the master files for the merged plugin. Exit TES5Edit, be sure Backups is turned on if you had to set the ESM flag on any files.

 

4) Load the merged plugin in the CK, setting it as the active file. Wait for everything to load.

(Side Note: If the mod has a lot of master files, you may need to rethink the merge because the CK won't load that much info. 5 to 8 masters is okay - Skyrim, DLCs, USLEEP, plus one or two mods that's good. 10 to 15 masters is overkill. If the CK gives you a " Default out of handle array" error when loading, this is the case.)

 

5) When the CK has loaded everything, click the Save button in the CK. This will regenerate the NAVI record. Once Saving is done (note the status bar at the bottom will tell you), exit the CK.

 

6) If you had to set the ESM flag on any of the master files in step 3, replace those files with the backups TES5Edit made. Or reverse the changes in TES5Edit by removing the ESM flag manually, either will work.

 

7) You're done; providing there weren't other issues with the merge, it should all be good to go.

 

This is based on my own experience and the Nexus wiki on merging: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Merged_Plugin_Guidelines_for_Personal_Use

 

I will say that if Merge Plugins ever mentions a NAVM record in that little box after the merge, I don't think that is worth trying to manually resolve unless you are experienced in editing navmesh in the CK. It's a completely different kettle of fish.

 

May the Divines bless you forever and ever.

 

Lot's of errors while loading and saving in the CK but I guess that's always "normal". Besides that, all seems to be working very fine. The only masters were the provided by the game.

 

I'll test and play a little to see how all turned out, but thanks a lot, even if there are errors your explanation has helped me.

[dbwolford]

I'm a bit of a newbie working with the Creation Kit. How do you "find and delete NAVI:00012FB4"?

I've tried searching for all the variants I can think of, but the search comes up empty.

Edited July 4, 2019 by dbwolford

[BeranabusBarnes]

I'm a bit of a newbie working with the Creation Kit. How do you "find and delete NAVI:00012FB4"?

 

I've tried searching for all the variants I can think of, but the search comes up empty.

You can search for it at the top. Right click remove it from the merged plugin once you find it.