SSE Duplicating cells and modifying them.

[tsdobbi]

So I am duplicating existing cells and modifying them to save work.

 

Question, some things I try to delete from the duplicated cell freak out about being "used". i.e. if I attempt to delete a patrol path it will give me a warning about it being used.

 

My question is, is it safe to delete things in a duplicated cell. (i.e. can I ignore the fact the CK is telling me something is in use).

 

I'm basically using the cells as essentially, stages almost like in a fighting game. The player and NPC will be transported there for battle. Then the player will be teleported back to their original location. So I am wanting to delete (spawn points, patrol paths etc. Anything that is un-needed).

Edited July 19, 2020 by tsdobbi

[Evangela]

It's safe and is one of the main ways to create a new cell anyway. Most don't know you can create a cell without duplicating another. So long as you don't delete anything from the original cell, it's ok.

[cumbrianlad]

I'm not sure that it is safe to duplicate vanilla cells. You take with it all the references to quests, NPC packages navmesh, load doors etc.

 

I always make new cells from scratch. If I really want to take the statics from a vanilla cell, just to keep the overall layout the same, I set the render window to only select statics and copy/paste the big items like walls floors and ceilings, rocks and pillars. I never touch anything like markers, activators etc. You're almost creating more work by having to spend ages deleting all sorts of things than you are saving work by not having to clutter up a cell.

 

I wish I could find it but I've read a post by someone who duplicated the temple in Whiterun to make a player home... the priests kept turning up in her basement! Obviously, their packages were pointing them to an object that had been duplicated.

[agerweb]

I duplicate cells a lot - but you do have to remove all markers, NPC's and any objects that might be referenced like clutter items, furniture etc. Both those are the things you want to do yourself anyway.

[cumbrianlad]

I see.

 

That's why I just copy/paste with the render window set to static only and then copy the big items. Nobody ever tells an NPC to go and stand in a wall, or a boulder. They use furniture and xmarkers or xmarkerheadings.

 

Agerweb, would the navmesh need to be removed? For me, I'd never want it anyway because I alter so much in the cell that the original mesh is useless. I recently looked at a mod on Nexus and found that the author had deleted the original mesh and that was causing many issues with NPCs. They were using the vanilla cell, though, rather than duplicating it. I reinstated the mesh and dragged it down, then made a new mesh... all NPC problems went away. To me, duplicating cells and deleting the vanilla mesh is bad.

 

If you don't alter things too much and the vanilla mesh is still workable, maybe with a couple of collision cubes set to L_Navcut here and there, would that cause these sorts of issues with vanilla NPCs?

 

I just think that copying the big statics and pasting them into a totally new cell is safer all round.

[tsdobbi]

I see.

 

That's why I just copy/paste with the render window set to static only and then copy the big items. Nobody ever tells an NPC to go and stand in a wall, or a boulder. They use furniture and xmarkers or xmarkerheadings.

 

Agerweb, would the navmesh need to be removed? For me, I'd never want it anyway because I alter so much in the cell that the original mesh is useless. I recently looked at a mod on Nexus and found that the author had deleted the original mesh and that was causing many issues with NPCs. They were using the vanilla cell, though, rather than duplicating it. I reinstated the mesh and dragged it down, then made a new mesh... all NPC problems went away. To me, duplicating cells and deleting the vanilla mesh is bad.

 

If you don't alter things too much and the vanilla mesh is still workable, maybe with a couple of collision cubes set to L_Navcut here and there, would that cause these sorts of issues with vanilla NPCs?

 

I just think that copying the big statics and pasting them into a totally new cell is safer all round.

 

So yeah, for my purposes I am just duplicating existing cells. I have no intention of actually modifying their appearance, save for disabling the functionality of the doors etc. The only intention of this is so they player and NPC have a private location to do battle. (basically player and NPC agree to fight to the death, the premise is the go to a private location to fight I teleport them there when combat is agreed, then teleport the player back to the starting location when the fight is over.) I more or less just wanted to make sure deleting any quest related stuff etc. in the duplicate wasn't impacting the quest since it was shooting out warnings at me when deleting the stuff in the CK. In at least one case I confirmed it isn't (I use a duplicate the Markarth Warrens as one of the locations) and did the quest and didn't see any unwanted side effects.

[Evangela]

Bethesda even tells you to do so and they do it too. It's fairly easy to create a new cell, but it's hidden in the World menu.