My mod house won't show up in S.I. ... Help please

[Snowsong]

Hi. I hope someone here has suffered through the same frustration. I know how to make mod houses that show up in Tamriel in Oblivion and work great ... but I just tried to make one in Shivering Isles and no matter what I do, the house won't show up in the game. I'm sure it has something to do with my trying to "mod a mod."

 

I have the Unofficial Shivering Isles patch. This couldn't be affecting it, could it? I've tried placing the house using Shivering Isles as my "active" file in the Construction Set, and it didn't work. Then I tried doing it again using the Unofficial Shivering Isles patch as my "active" file, and it still didn't work. Then I tried not having an active file at all, and it still didn't work.

 

What am I doing wrong? A big plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies for anyone who answers.

[tungol]

I'm sure someone will soon give a better answer. But here's some hopefully helpful comments.

 

You can't mod SI because it's a .esm file. You have to open SI in the CS, without setting a file as your active file. Then when you save your changes, it will prompt you to name your new mod. (You probably know all that--just trying to be thorough. On the odd chance that you don't know the difference between an esm and a esp, an esm is a master file that can't be changed through the CS. The CS won't let you set an esm as your active file, actually.)

 

I don't know if the unofficial SI patch is a .esm or .esp. If esm, you've probably got the same problem. If esp, I would've expected that to work.

 

You might try this:

1. start CS.

2. check oblivion and SI esm's. Do NOT set a file as "active".

3. Plop a house down somewhere convenient (not in the Fringe, since it gets swapped out with an "ordered" version in the main quest line). Don't do mush with your house--you just want to see if you can get it to show up, so don't waste your time.

4. Save. It should prompt you to name your file.

5. Try it out.

6. If it doesn't show up, exit Oblivion. Disable all your mods, leaving only the official SI expansion and your house mod. Then try it again.

 

Hope this helps.

[Snowsong]

Thanks. I tried all your suggestions, and my house mod STILL won't show up in Shivering Isles. I didn't make anything my "active file" in the Construction Set and it prompted me to save my game. Sure. I saved it as "Strymon House." I went into the "Data Files" in the game and checked the box next to "Strymon House" that appeared. Loaded up the game and it still didn't show up.

 

I then unchecked all the mod boxes in the Data Files. The game wouldn't load at all since my character is a mod girl. So I had to re-check the boxes next to the mods that directly made up my character (duh ... I'm an idiot). I then restarted the game again, and the house mod still didn't show up. I'm sort of at my wit's end, here.

 

I'm trying to figure out why I can make a perfectly functional house mod in regular Tamriel with no problems, but can't even get one to show up in Shivering Isles. Weird.

[jaysus]

MAYBE you placed your house in a cell that only loads during a quest?

try placing somin somewhere else and if that works it was a quest cell...

[Snowsong]

MAYBE you placed your house in a cell that only loads during a quest?

try placing somin somewhere else and if that works it was a quest cell...

Thanks. I'll try this, too. I'll get back with you to tell you whether it works.

[Snowsong]

It worked! I discovered the problem. I'd been trying to place a house in Shivering Isles in the "SENSBliss" file in the Construction Set because I wanted the house next to the City of Bliss. Didn't work. I completely deleted that mod I was attempting and tried again from scratch, this time placing the house using a spot in the SEWorld file in the Construction Set (I placed it next to the Cylarne fortress). Success! Apparently it just wouldn't let me mod using SENSBliss. I wonder if that file is a quest file? Hmmmmm ....

 

Lots of chocolate chip cookies for everyone who answered. Thanks bunches! I hope this post helps someone else someday.

[tungol]

It worked! I discovered the problem. I'd been trying to place a house in Shivering Isles in the "SENSBliss" file in the Construction Set because I wanted the house next to the City of Bliss. Didn't work. I completely deleted that mod I was attempting and tried again from scratch, this time placing the house using a spot in the SEWorld file in the Construction Set (I placed it next to the Cylarne fortress). Success! Apparently it just wouldn't let me mod using SENSBliss. <snip>

 

Ah! Well there's your problem. If you were putting the house OUTSIDE the city in SENSBliss, you'd never be able to see it. SENSBliss is a separate worldspace. When you leave the city, it takes you out of the SENSBliss worldspace and sends you to the SEWorld worldspace. So you never actually go outside the walls in SENSBliss. If you stand close to where you put your house, and enter flying camera mode ['tfc], you can fly through the wall and should be able to see everything you put out there (unless its too far away from your character to render).

 

You should be able to put your house where you want it. Just do it in the SEWorld worldspace if you want it outside the walls. If you put it in SENSBliss, you'll only see it if it's inside the walls of Bliss.

 

Jaysus offers a good caveat, too, though. Test it before you do too much work.

[Khet]

Dunno a whole lot about SE myself as I haven't bothered modding it yet, maybe after I finish my city I'll take a look at it. Guess you learned a lesson from this though, that you gotta make sure you're in SEWorld to place something outside of a city, whereas if you're modding Cyrodiil you gotta be in Tamriel to place outside of cities. :biggrin:

[jaysus]

hehe good to hear it worked :) had the same problem with my first mod... not in si but tamriel nevertheless its quite annoying till you find out why...