Esm woes

[mandilorian]

Hey folks. I'm having some issues with my esm and I could use some advice.

 

I had an esp that has several new models and a bunch of new game objects, such as blah_Bookcase01 etc. I had a hard time figuring out the best way to turn this isn't an esm, but I saw a method in a thread around here that seemed to work. I renamed myMod.esp to be myMod.esm and then loaded it in the CK and saved it. It worked.

 

I then made newMod.esp with myMod.esm as a master, and placed a bunch of these bookcase objects.

 

Now I need to update the esm, so I took my backup myMod.esp and made a few more random objects unrelated to bookcases. I renamed it and reloaded it, same procedure and name, but when I opened newMod.esp with the updated version of myMod.esm, the bookcases were gone in the level but the bookcase objects are still valid objects in the object window.

 

So I'm not sure what the problem is, but the bottom line is that I need to update my esm with new objects.

 

1. Is there a way I can turn the esm back into an esp?

I tried renaming it but it didn't work; it still lists it as a Master file and not a Plugin, I can't set it as an active file, and when I save it forces me to write to a new file.

 

2. Is it possible to merge an esm with another esm or an esp? I know we used to be able to use TESVSnip but I guess it doesn't work now right?

 

3. Is creating an esm via the renaming method the preferred way? I found so many different methods and I'm not sure.

 

4. If the item name is the same in the esm and the esp, is there any other reason why the object wouldn't show up? The model is set correctly and I did recalc bounds because the size was weirdly 0 for no apparent reason... Also, literally no other object was messed up. Just the one bookcase, but it's actually very important since I'm making a library and many hundred have been placed. :ohdear:

 

Thanks for your advice, sorry for the long post, I've been working on this all day with very little results. I even tried the version control method but it never worked for me, totally different topic, I guess.

[mandilorian]

Update: I used TESVSnip to add the new items to my old esm. It works. I've tried to read all the numerous threads about how TESVSnip should never be used though, so I planned to avoid it... however I couldn't get it working another way. I know there are folks who are anti-TESVSnip and pro-TESVSnip, I looked into the skyrim-plugin-decoded-project but it didn't have anything available to use right now. Looks like a good project for the future, though.

 

Anyway my question still stands, what are the best ways to update an esm file or merge two esm files? Is TESVSnip going to mess my mod up big time? If I use it, what should I avoid doing with it? Is it ok for item merges at least?

[AnkhAscendant]

I'm not a pro, but I that Wrye*ash was the best method to esmify and espify your mods. There's a bit that needs flipped that actually determines whether it's an .esp or an .esm, not the extension itself. It seems the the CK does that for you when you rename it to an .esm, but since you can't actually save any changes to an .esm it won't flip it back to .esp.

 

I don't know anything about Snip. I'm afraid of it. :ohdear: