I've just noticed that instead of deleting an old object and replacing it with a new object, Arthmoor changes the underlying base object, keeping the old reference ID. Probably a great idea for compatibility. How is that done?

I've tried Edit Base, but that seems to change the base object itself. Something is not obvious to me here, so feeling newbie, I've missed this concept for months....

Select the object in the reference window, then use ctrl+f to replace it with whatever you want

- Hypno

When editing base objects you will want to change the "Editor ID" when you close the editing window it will prompt you about saving changes and if you want to create a new form. You absolutely do, this essentially duplicates the object but makes it safe compatibility wise.

Turns out that doesn't work in the reference window. I had to select the render window instead. But it does exactly what I wanted, replacing the base object without losing the object ref number (instead of editing the base object itself).


Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for editing the base object. That's not what I needed this time.

Seems like it wouldn't really do much for compatibility, unless it's a very specific unique weapon, of which there are few in Skyrim... but really, how many scripts are going to refer to a particular reference of a unique weapon? I cannot even think of a reason that I'd need to do that. It seems like just editing the cell would be much more likely to have conflicts with other mods. Well, it's fine to leave the same reference ID, but I think it's unnecessary, unless you know that particular reference is already part of a quest or something. But I think most quests and scripts would only need to do anything if the weapon is in someone's inventory, in which case they can just check if the person has a reference of that base ID. Ah, but maybe if you're editing an NPC or something that is only used in the world once. But in that case, why not just edit the base? If you use a different base for the reference, it will be incompatible with changes to the original base anyway because there will be no references of the original.

Actually, it turns out to be needed for a number of reasons.

1) mods that overlap. If 2 mods change the same doorway (the problem I was trying to solve), they need to replace the base reference (not edit the base object as I incorrectly made this subject), but keeping the same object ref. Otherwise, you have overlapping scenery.

2) NavMesh. There are Crashing To Desktop problems with deleted or replaced NavMesh, so you have to maintain the same object ref, as it's also a reference inside the NavMesh itself.

3) as you mentioned, scripted object references, although not my problem here.

Again, I thank folks for helping me with this issue.