SSE Moving an NPC - Location (LCTN) Record

[Taffer42]

I've been working on converting and "re-imaging" an old Skyrim mod for my personal use (Instant Merchant - Goonie). I've got everything just about the way I want it, thanks in large part to a number of helpful people on this forum! There's just one more thing I need help with, and that's moving her.

 

I've created her own little Cell, and I'd like to move her there, rather than Whiterun. Now, moving her, I can do. However, the original mod author also put in a Location (LCTN) record, which lists her in Whiterun, along with several hundred other entries. I thought perhaps I could just delete it, but when I compare it to Skyrim.esm, the DLCs, and USSEP, it looks like the original author did a fair bit of work here.

 

Unfortunately, my search of the Internet has come up with very very little regarding LCTN records, so at this point I am not even in a position to really interpret what's going on here! If there's somewhere online that explains LCTN records, could someone direct me there? Barring that, could someone tell me wtf is going in in these things?

 

Thanks in advance!

[JonathanOstrus]

What you're seeing in the location record override is CK at it's finest. A bunch of garbage mostly. What it's writing there is

• A list of cells that belong to the location
• References of unique NPCs that have a persist location set for that location
• Any static placed references set for persistent (non-unique NPCs, containers, etc)
• Any references which are in the location and have a special location keyword set.
• probably many other things I'm not thinking of right now.

Most of that is probably unnecessary, but since the NPC was placed in the location it copies and rewrites it with a full reparse of everything in the location. In fact once you move the npc the override is likely to not be needed at all and can be removed.

 

Once you've relocated the NPC check the reference record and see if the persist location is set for Whiterun. If so change it. Most appropriately would be making a location for her custom cell that you made (if you didn't already make one) and set it for that.

 

When you're done, you can load up the current test version of xEdit from GitHub (3.2.72d as of this writing) and use the option "Hide no conflict and empty rows" on the spreadsheet cell view right click menu. It's a little smarter now than previous versions about detecting same references but in different orders. So it can filter it out and show you only the unique changes on the record. If the view becomes empty you can then remove the edit. In fact the Remove ITM function should handle that for you when doing normal cleaning if appropriate. I would check it anyway just to be sure.

[Taffer42]

Okay, I have created a custom LCTN record for her home-made cell. I've given it a new EDID - Editor ID and a new FULL - Name. Other than that, is there anything else I'm supposed to do with it? (I have no idea how to add her in properly, if I'm supposed to.) If it matters to what I need to add, this is a cell "in the middle of nowhere"...the only way to get in is to COC here.

 

I've moved her to the new cell, changed her XLCN - Persistent Location to be the new location I created (mentioned above). Now, even without changing anything in the Whiterun LCTN, when I use "Hide no conflict and empty rows", the whole pane goes blank. It literally shows me nothing but the mod headers, even when I have every mod I have installed loaded into SSEEdit. This means I can just safely delete it?

[JonathanOstrus]

Yes. If you use the cleaning filter and have xEdit remove the ITMs it should take care of that for you. It might even find other records you've missed.

[Taffer42]

I think perhaps I'm going to just leave her where she is. Upon further examination of the .esp, she has two Packages, both of which refer to her being in Whiterun. I know even less about packages than I do about the CK, so probably best I don't muck around with them.

 

Thanks for all your help...I always learn something new and useful whenever you're around!

[timsterse]

old thread but I was looking for the same - now I guess the right way to do this would be to create a custom quest and set a state with a load marker. like beth does when they place ysolda in the market even though her CK location is in her house.