Modding and MASTERFILE... Lookup ID: 0x00012584 error

[primem0ver]

I am new to skyrim/elder scrolls modding but not to modding in general.

 

I downloaded the Creation kit a week or so ago and tried it out, just to see what it was all about. I didn't change anything, Well... actually I think I tried but they were just minor changes to existing mods. Everything worked fine.The creation kit loaded without any errors except to tell me that one of my installed mods was not of the correct file format. (This was NOT one of the ones I played with).

 

Then I tried making my own mod. I wanted to add a new quest to an EXISTING NPC. I spent almost an entire day following the procedures for making quests, items, etc... placing a new NPC (the bad guy) and attempting to add my quest dialog to the existing NPC (Vivienne Onis). I followed the guides on the offical creation kit tutorial pages as closely as possible for my mod ideas though I may not have added features in the exact same order. Even the quest itself was similar except that it added a "waiting" step about halfway through. I did NOT skip any details for adding dialog.

 

When I felt like I was finished enough to try it out I was not expecting perfection the first time through, Especially because my "waiting part" was very experimental. I WAS expecting to see the initial dialog option. I loaded up Skyrim making sure the mod was included, went to find Vivienne on my existing character and tried to talk to her. The dialog option I added was not there. So at first... I decided to try troubleshooting the problem by removing the quest stage check from the dialog conditions and left only the check for Vivienne (so that the dialog only appears on Vivienne).

 

As soon as I loaded my mod this time I got the MASTERFILE: LOCALIZATION: Lookup failed for ID:0x00012584 from strings file:STRINGS/Skyrim_ENGLISH.DLSTRINGS.

 

This had never happened before. I assumed it was a problem with my mod. (Though today I tried to start over and now I can't load even the skyrim.esp without getting that error.)

 

Back to yesterday... I went back to the tutorial and realized I had not created the SEQ files in one of the NOTES! that I usually skip (since most don't apply and are not issues even when I do read them). Obviously I should have read this note. I followed the instructions and tried the mod again. (starting from the point where I had gone to solitude to talk to Vivienne... a save made AFTER my mod was installed). I tried the dialog again and it is still not there.

 

So a few questions have arisen out of this experience.

• I have tried adding the sLanguage=ENGLISH (I am an English speaker) to the SkyrimEditor.ini file and that has not worked. Did my mod cause this problem since it started after trying my mod? I.e. was the Skyrim file corrupted by something I did since I am adding dialog to existing characters?
• Did not creating the SEQ file before I tried the mod make it so that I cannot have the dialog? I am going to go back to try and load a save that was made without the mod installed and see if that changes things because of the newly existing SEQ file... perhaps loading the mod before the SEQ file was made created the problem so that the dialog never starts... but I want to post this just in case that isn't the issue.
• I cannot find any tutorials on adding quests to existing characters. Does this need to be done differently than the instructions in the creation kit tutorials? If not...(and if its not a matter of loading an uncorrupted save)... the instructions are not working and I am not sure if I can trust them. Overall this has been a lousy experience. I had ideas for a nice mod too...now I wonder about its feasibility...