[LE] Ordering Parent Masters of .esp

[ANative]

Hi guys,

I've two .esps A & B and I want to copy a cell between them via duplication while having them both loaded.

That cell uses files from both Dawnguard & Dragonborn.

 

In the "Parent Master List" of .esp A they are ordered as

 

Dawnguard.esm

Dragonborn.esm

 

while in the other as

 

Dragonborn.esm

Dawnguard.esm

 

 

That means after copying and reloading the cell all assets used from Dragonborn and Dawnguard are removed as Skyrim basically just remembers

.esp A uses object Nr. 1234 from Masterfile 2.

When it then tries to load the same cell with a changed Parent Master List, Object Nr. 1234 of previously Dawnguard is now refereing to Object Nr. 1234 of Dragonborn. As that object likely doesn't exist it gets deleted and the whole cell is broken.

 

Is there a way to fix that? Basically I need to rearrange the .esm of the .esp.

I know there is this guide in the CK Wiki that talks about changing the order of master files, but the solution doesn't seem to work. As the objects still get deleted, even though the list has changed.

As far as my understand goes, an .esp remembers the the objects with respect to the position of the .esms in the masterlist which doesn't get changed for each individual object with that suggested solution and thus it doesn't work.

 

Anyone has some experience with a problem like this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IsharaMeradin]

Use TES5Edit to re-order the master files in the plugin that has Dragonborn before Dawnguard.

Then before loading the plugins in the Creation Kit make sure you false flag them as ESM files. Wrye Bash can be used for this. Right click on the desired plugin and choose "esmify". Whenever you want to test in-game, reverse the process by using the "espify" option and adjust load order as needed.

[ANative]

Use TES5Edit to re-order the master files in the plugin that has Dragonborn before Dawnguard.

Then before loading the plugins in the Creation Kit make sure you false flag them as ESM files. Wrye Bash can be used for this. Right click on the desired plugin and choose "esmify". Whenever you want to test in-game, reverse the process by using the "espify" option and adjust load order as needed.

 

Thanks! I'll try that!

Why do I have to make that switching between .esp and .esm? When both .esps are an .esm and I duplicate the cell I create a new .esp and don't copy the cell to the target .esp that has now become a .esm?

[IsharaMeradin]

You stated that you needed the change the order of the parent masters in one of the plugins so that the two would match. You even linked a guide which could do that and I indicated that TES5Edit could be used as well. This part of your problem should be resolved now.

 

However, you also stated that the objects you've worked with have disappeared even when the parent masters of both plugins are the same. I do not know the specifics of what you are trying to do and as such there could be more than one reason as to why you are getting the results you are. That said, the primary reason why Creation Kit changes to records in a loaded but non-active plugin do not get saved is simply that the Creation Kit will not save an existing ESP record within a different ESP. To work around this, the data bit that indicates to the Creation Kit that the plugin is an ESP or ESM needs to be temporarily set to ESM. But this does not need to be done to every ESP. The ESP you wish to save the changes to needs to remain untouched with the data bit still indicating it is an ESP. In essence, you do not need to change the plugin you are working on, just the ones whose records it needs to access.

 

An example:

ESP A contains a sword

ESP B contains a follower

User wants the follower to have the sword pre-equipped when met.

User would need to "esmify" ESP A in order to add the sword to the follower.

User saves changes to ESP B

User would need to "espify" ESP A in order to properly test the two plugins together in the game.

I hope this clears things up.