Turning an ESP into a master correctly? : V

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:34 am

Simple question, what's the correct way to turn a file that's currently an esp into an ESM?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:08 am

Rename Plugin.esp to Plugin.ESM, load in CK as "Active", save, done.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:06 pm

and make sure the esm has absolutely nothing that edits another esm's records :cool:

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 8:44 am

and make sure the esm has absolutely nothing that edits another esm's records :cool:

Like exterior terrain

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:38 am

and make sure the esm has absolutely nothing that edits another esm's records :cool:

It's fine to do that if you modify worldspace data in your ESM afterwards with Version Control, for some reason it fixes the disappearing land bug.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:43 pm

I mainly work in Oblivion, not Skyrim, and there I don't create esm's, as it restricts where the plug-in goes in the load order. Is Skyrim different in that? I assume you may need to flip the esm bit to keep the CK happy, but is that all?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:09 am

It's fine to do that if you modify worldspace data in your ESM afterwards with Version Control, for some reason it fixes the disappearing land bug.

Does this mean that an esm made through version control can alter data in Skyrim.esm, the same way that an esp does ?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:37 am

Does this mean that an esm made through version control can alter data in Skyrim.esm, the same way that an esp does ?

Yes, at least in our MERP build we have several masters that modify each other, including terrain in worldspaces.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:05 am

and make sure the esm has absolutely nothing that edits another esm's records :cool:

It's fine to do that if you modify worldspace data in your ESM afterwards with Version Control, for some reason it fixes the disappearing land bug.

I'm actually going about changing it to an ESM so I can do the whole Version control thing, from Maegfaer's tutorial but I edited some Vanillla Leveled lists and a few Vanilla NPCs.
I want to separate my changes into their own esps though, so what's the right procedure to turn this into an ESM and split it properly and all that?

Any help here would be extremely appreciated since I haven't the slightest damn clue what the hell I'm doing.

I'm currently at this step: Copy Skyrim.esm and one or more of your own ESM files to Skyrim\Merging\Data.

I dont have an ESM file so I have to figure out how to make one lol.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:23 pm

In that case:

Create a new empty ESP by immediately pressing save after you loaded Skyrim.esm in the creation kit. Exit the CK. Rename the esp to *.esm. Load the ESM in the Creation Kit, and re-save. This toggles the Master bit in your file, now it has became a proper ESM. Copy the empty ESM to the Skyrim\Merging\Data directory. Follow the rest of the tutorial, make sure you load Skyrim.esm, your empty ESM, and your ESP with the contents. Check Out and then Check In the contents you want to move to your ESM.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:25 pm

It's fine to do that if you modify worldspace data in your ESM afterwards with Version Control, for some reason it fixes the disappearing land bug.

Do the resulting ESM files have http://i.imgur.com/XFRca.png?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:31 pm

Thanks a lot for all your help everyone, especially Maegfaer who wrote the tutorial!

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:04 am

Shingouki I sent you 4 - 5 pms can you answer one?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:57 am

Hmm...do I get this correctly...I can't turn a esp to esm (by saving, rename, reload, save) if I changed perk trees and perks already as esp?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 4:58 pm

Do the resulting ESM files have http://i.imgur.com/XFRca.png?

Yes they do.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:25 pm

really? that is awesome. i'm heading over to your tutorial on the CK wiki so i can get it setup asap, thanks very much for that btw

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:26 pm

really? that is awesome. i'm heading over to your tutorial on the CK wiki so i can get it setup asap, thanks very much for that btw

Well if you're excited about this, then it can only be a good thing.

I've had version control on my CK for quite a while, but never used it. Maybe I'll enable it again for my new worldspace and see how it pans out.

@Maegfaer. Is there anything to watch out for ie. don't do this, or that ?...or, is it just straight forward with very little to worry about ?

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:53 pm

if version control lets us create bonafide ESMs with proper ONAM, that is a lot to be excited over. this whole time i never thought ONAM was possible outside of hack-methods using 3rd party fallout software.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:36 am

Amethyst, if what you're excited about is in fact true, would this mean that this is a clean way to convert to esm in order to circumvent navmesh bug problems?

If this is the case then I think I've just been hit with a new burst of modding energy that'll actually make me open up the ck again

- Hypno

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:56 pm

ONAM will let you create properly working esm's that override vanilla skyrim records (including navmesh). without ONAM, any changes to vanilla records on the esm are ignored.

this is especially good for those who need to edit tamriel's exterior navmesh in any way (adding a door teleporter, extending navmesh to accomodate a balcony, etc).

i'm really hoping this fixes the current problems with esm/esp combos (mainly the randomly disappearing unrelated statics like in helgen, db sanctuary etc)

of course the downside with esm's is that you have very little control over load order.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:27 am

MERP has 3 ESM files:

Skyrim.esm
MiddleEarth.esm
Rohan.esm

I've never seen a single bug when Rohan.esm overwrites something of one of the other 2 ESM's, and it has replaced entire forests and such before. ESP files on the other hand do have invisible static problems, but once their content is merged into an ESM using Version Control any such bugs vanish immediately.

MERP is not navmeshing yet so I can't comment on that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it works without any issues as well.

» Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:18 pm

Yes they do.

Awesome! That might very well mean we've already what we need to negate the NAVM bug (w/o using FO3Edit).