Is it possible to somehow preserve player items inside the cell when updating a housing mod?

I just overhauled the lighting in my mod and did a few minor tweaks and I'd hate to clean out the people who auto update via Steam. Is there any workaround for this?

Also... when can you post an URL? Can't seem to find an answer to that in the help topics.

If you mean stuff in containers, then there shouldn't be a problem so long as you don't delete any container that was in the previous version.
If you're talking about items the player has 'decorated' the house with, by grab-moving them onto shelves, tables etc, then I think they should be ok as well so long as you don't move the tables/shelves around.

If for any reason, you do need to delete a container, don't - just move it somewhere instead and the items will stay in it. If you absolutely have to get rid of the container, move it outside the walls, and put in a run-once script to move the items from it to some other container that is accessible in the new version.

I could of course be completely wrong. Please don't take this as certain, just a starting point for the discussion.

Ahh well if that's how it works that's great. Thanks.

I was concerned that every update I did I was demolishing all their stuff, whether stored in containers or strewn about. At this point I'm happy with the containers I have so there shouldn't be issues then.

I have a 'decorate the house' questline that I made from studying Bethesda's examples. It uses markers set to be disabled or enabled depending on whether the upgrade has been bought. Will it save the enabled/disabled condition of the marker as long as I'm not removing it? Also would linking more items to it via enable parent during an update reset it if so?

Edit: As I write this it occurs to me I should just test it.. lol. I will report back with results.

I don't think you get an item loss unless you delete chests or containers holding items. The game handles all that.

I've got a mod I'm creating for experimenting, and these are the test I did when I had your same concern:

- Placed a chest.
- Stored items there.
- Modified a couple things around the place, and also moved the chest.
- Items were still inside.


- Placed 5 salmon steaks. 4 in a table, 1 in a different place.
- In game, picked up the separated steak. Saved.
- In the editor, moved the separated steak with the other 4.
- Loaded the game, the steak was NOT there (correct, as I picked it up and should be in my inventory).
- Loaded a game before a took the steak, and it was there with the other 4, where I put it in my last mod update.

I guess that all items get their own unique ID, so as long as you don't delete them, they will remain were the player put them (inventory, other part of the house, etc.).

Also, make sure you set your Cell as "no reset zone".

I'm no expert modder, so any correction to what I said is appreciated if the information is wrong.

Hope that helps clearing things up.

Thanks, that helps a lot! I didn't know about the noreset so that was a close one.

I just tested to see if the markers stayed enabled and it looks like they do. I even stored an item in a chest, used ctrl-f to replace it with another one and it kept it's inventory when I came back after the update.