[LE] Help with editing existning interior cells

[TyrAVB]

Ok, I feel quite frustrated. People say ther are a zillion of instructional videos on YouTube, and when I try to find them about things I wanna do, there is nothing that gives correct and specific instructions about what I am looking for. In this case, I want to do something that seems simple (at least to me haha, but I have no modding experience so...), basically I would like to edit existing interior cell (not create new one, my own, but change existing interior from the game) in a way to add or remove some items or elements to/from it, and than to save this changes as my mod (for me, not for sharing) and place it in Data folder, so that original cell is not permanently edited/change, but that it changes in the game through mod I installed in a Data folder. In a way something like overhoul mods work, but on a much smaller scale. I cannot find a single video that says how to do that. Can anyone help with some instructions or links to some place where I can learn how to do that? Thanks :smile:

[greyday01]

This video will be useful for basics of opening the CK and naming and saving your mod, which is the first step you need to do even before making any changes.

 

 

The video also goes over some basic editing of an existing cell, the "Unowned Cell". This is pretty much how you would edit a vanilla cell but with one exception. It is not a good idea to delete vanilla items. Instead if you want to make changes to an existing vanilla cell moving items causes no problems, nor does adding items, but if you want something like a table removed you can r click on it and Disable (NOT delete) it or simply drag it out through the walls or floor so it is not visible from within the cell.

 

Actually that whole video series is very useful for someone just getting started. I have watched the whole series many times .and they were incredibly useful.

 

Any changes you make to an existing cell while your mod is set as the active esp only exist within your mod. It does not change Skyrim's esm (the master data). Delete your mod and all the changes you made in the CK while creating your mod will be gone and the game back to it's original state.

 

Anyway just practice by making a mod named "Test" and play with editing the Unowned Cell like in the video. When you've learned all you need you can simply delete your Test.esp from the Data folder and all will be back to the original state.

[TyrAVB]

Thank you for your kind reply. Eventually I'll probably have some other questions, but for now I'll do my best to learn as much as possible from those videos and from your informative reply as well :)

[Skybroom]

You will also need to learn how to use Tes5Edit. It's much easy to disable objects and save changes as an esp with the help of Tes5Edit and without launching CK.

[greyday01]

Two other useful tips. When you make a mod and you want to make a renamed chest or new texture set or script or really anything name it with a 4 letter prefix like the initials of your mod so that you can filter the object window with that prefix to find all the objects that your mod added. Do the same if you create new textures or meshes or new folders inside the meshes or texture folders. Makes things so much easier to find all your changes.

 

Another tip with your test mod practice making unwanted changes to vanilla cells. Then using Tes5 to find and remove those changes. It's an easy process. Just open Tes5, select only your mod. You will get a window on the left showing all changes to the vanilla game your mod makes. Expand the tree of changes and if there is a cell listed, if there was no purposely made changes to that cell that you want to keep just delete that listing in Tes5. It will not delete the vanilla cell only remove any changes that you had made to it. Often while taking apart some vanilla cell to see how it was put together you forget to NOT save after doing so and end up with unwanted changes in your mod. I would use Tes5 often to clean up all those little errors so they don't accumulate and you forget if it was an intended change or an accident.

[TyrAVB]

Thanks, that was very useful info :smile: That's exactly the type of tips I was lookng for online and couldn't find. Instructions people usually make online are either to vague or to complicated for beginers to understand. This kind of tip is exactly what beginer needs, simple enough for me to understand and informative enough to be useful.

 

There is one thing I want to ask so to be sure I understand how changing cells work. After I open existing cell in CK and make changes, when I save it as my mod and place it in Data folder, it basically means that my mod contains completely that cell with different items added, new placements etc, but basically whole cell designed diferently and not only things that are changed. In other words, game reads my mod from data folder as the cell that needs to be uploaded instead of original one. In order for mod to tell the game only what changes to make and not overhul of complete cell, it would need to be a script who does that. Is that correct? :smile:

Edited May 20, 2020 by TyrAVB

[greyday01]

Not really. In the data folder the skyrim.esm (the master file) has a list of all vanilla cells and a list of all uniquely identified references (a specific copy of an item in the object window) along with a listing of its position and rotation in that cell). When you hit save in the CK after moving an item, your test.esp lists that single reference that you moved along with its new position and rotation. If you made no other changes that is all your esp will contain. Since your esp is listed after the esm the game knows to show that item in its new location not the original. Remove you mod and the item will show in it's original position again. Basically it's a spreadsheet with items(references) listed along with position and rotation and size for each reference. Anything you did not change in that cell will have no entry in your mod. It only saves things you moved, added, disabled or deleted(Do not delete vanilla items, can cause game to crash)..

[TyrAVB]

Oh ok, I see...yeap, it's very clear now, thanks. So then, where game saves changes made through console command? I can change many things through console that affects those references in master file, like disable things, change npcs weight etc, so in order for game to know to apply those changes over master file references, those console changes needs to be saved somewhere, and work in a similar way my mod will, right?

[greyday01]

Console code changes are different. They will not show up in your mod in the CK or in the Skyrim.esm . Probably are stored only in your game save.

[1JAY4ME2]

Hi .. Did you finally manage to successfully edit interior cells?!.. For two days I have been looking for a tutorial on how to edit a existing cell and I can't find anything exactly... I also watched the tutorial suggested by "greyday01" as well as dozens and dozens of other tutorials, but I can't find any that edit an internal vanilla location (like Solitude, Whiterun, etc).. More precisely, it is about Dragonsreasch interior cell that I want to edit.. I want to add some furniture and I can't do that. (In fact, I did this in CK but the mod does not load in the game. Everything is unchanged).

Here's how I did it: I started CK and I duplicated a interior cell (WhiterunDragonsreach), I changed its name, saved it

and without editing anything I closed CK... Then I reopened CK, I selected "Skyrim esm.", "Update esm." and my mod set as

active... I added some furniture, I saved and then I closed CK... Then I activated my mod in plugin list and started the

game (before loading the mod, I created a hard save far away from Whiterun) but everything is unchanged.. I also started

a new game but it still doesn't work.. I have tried several times but still fail..

Is there something I did wrong ?! I mean, are there certain steps to follow in CK that I skipped (except as I mentioned

above)?!

I mention that this is my second attempt to create a mod.. The first time I modified Whiterun exterior cell (I added some

houses, trees) without any problem, but it seems that editing interior cells is more complicated.

Edited February 4, 2021 by vasisilevasile