This page contains three tutorials of varying difficulty on how to create an ESP Replacer Patch:

This page is part of a series of guides on Patches

See Creating a Patch for an ESP for more information on what patches are and how they work.

Tutorial 1:

Scenario:


Scenario:

  • MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1a.esp adds a house to Caldera.
  • MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1b.esp adds a thatch tower to Caldera in the same place.

Follow the tutorial to create an ESP replacer for Replacer_1a.esp which solves the conflict:

Tutorial Requirements and Files

  • Difficulty level:Beginner
  • Requirements:
    • Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon
    • CSSE
  • Tutorial Files:
    • MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1a.esp
    • MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1b.esp

Download mmw-patches-esp-replacer-v1.zip

Step 1: Navigating to the Cell

  1. Open the Construction Set (‘CS’), open the Data Files window and double-click Replacer_1a.esp and Replacer_1b.esp to load them. Set Replacer_1a.esp as ‘Active’.
  2. Click show modified only in the Cell View window. This will make it display only cells modified or added by the active plugin - in this case, Replacer_1a.esp
  3. In the Cell View window, under Cell Name, locate the cell Caldera, -2,2 where our mod conflict is, and double-click it to bring you there in the Render Window.
  4. Show modified only not only filters the list of cells modified by the active ESP: it also filters the list of references in that cell to only display references modified or added by the active ESP. Under Object ID in the right-hand panel in Cell View, double-click on ex_nord_house_02

Step 2: Identifying the Conflict

We can clearly see some kind of conflict here. The house added by Replacer_1a.esp overlaps with the thatch tower (ex_common_tower_thatch) added by Replacer_1b.esp, covering up the door to the tower.

Warning

Before making any changes, we need to differentiate between what references come from 1a.esp and 1b.esp, as we can only make modifications to references from 1a.esp.

There are two ways we can do this:

Browse references with Cell View:

With Show modified only enabled, only references added or modified by 1a.esp are displayed. We can double-click on each of these to locate them in the Render Window.

Show Reference Data:

Holding ctrl + shift + R + clicking middle-mouse-button on a selected reference brings up Reference Data, telling us which plugin is adding or modifying that reference.

Tip: Hiding references in the Render Window:

You can temporarily hide references in the Render Window without editing them.

While having one or more references selected in the Render Window:

  • press Q on your keyboard to bring up the Context Menu.
  • Select Hide Selection to hide the reference. This can be reverted with Restore Hidden References in the Context Menu

Step 3: Patching

We need to move the house and associated references added by MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1a.esp so that they don’t overlap with the tower from Replacer_1b.esp.

First, there are some steps we can take to prepare:

Preparing to move the house

To make it easier to select what we’ll be moving, we can use the Hide Selection option with CSSE to hide some references from Replacer_1b.esp.

Hide the following Replacer_1b.esp references:

  • Door — ex_nord_door_01
  • Doorframe — ex_nord_doorf_01
  • The tower entrance — ex_common_house_addon
  • The tower itself — ex_common_tower_thatch

Figure


Using the Hide Selection option from the Q Context Menu in CSSE, we can temporarily hide any references that are covering up the ones we want to move.

With these hidden, we can select the references we want to move from Replacer_1a.esp. Hold ctrl and left click each of the following references from 1a.esp:

  • Chimney — ex_nord_chimney_01
  • Windows — ex_nord_win_01 and ex_nord_win_02
  • Doorframe — ex_nord_doorf_01
  • Door — ex_nord_door_01
  • Doormarker — DoorMarker
  • House — ex_nord_house_02

It’s best to have the house ex_nord_house_02 selected last, because in CSSE the last reference selected is what the CS will base movement and rotation off when moving a group of objects in the Render Window.1 This is of particular importance when moving a group of objects arranged with gridsnap.

If you have not selected the house last, you can ctrl + left click to de-select it without de-selecting everything else, then ctrl + left click it again, making it now the last reference selected.

With our group now selected, we can now move it to a position that does not conflict with Replacer_1b.esp:

Moving the house

We can move the house south along the Y-axis to a position where it no longer overlaps with the thatch tower, leaving a gap in-between the two buildings. This is the position we will be moving the house to for this tutorial:

New location:


This is where we want to move the house.

See the video below for how the house was moved in the CS:

Moving the house - Video:

We can move the house south along the Y-axis and east along the X-axis

With the house moved, the patch is nearly complete: all that is left to do is to make some touch-ups.

Step 4: Final Touches

There are a few things we can do before publishing the mod:

Check for floaters and buried objects

Check around the house to ensure that no parts of it are now floating off the ground.

We can also check whether there are any references that completely covered up (or ‘buried’) by the house that could be either moved or deleted. Here are two examples:

Check the northmarkers of interior cells

MMW_Patches_ESP-Replacer_1a.esp also adds an interior cell for the house:
MMW_Patchguide_01a_Int.
While moving the house, we moved the both the door and the doormarker to the house. Because we rotated these, the northmarker in the cell MMW_Patchguide_01a_Int needs to be updated.

For more information on northmarkers and how to orient them, see the Project Tamriel Wiki article Interior Guidelines

Cleaning the mod

Cleaning mods is an important step to ensure your mod functions correctly, as well as reducing the potential for mod conflicts.

This tutorial will not cover how to clean mods, but information on this can be found in:

And information on two of the main ‘low-level editor’ tools used for mod cleaning:

That being said, here are some possible dirty edits you may make during the process of following this tutorial:

Naming the ESP

With your ESP Replacer completed, consider whether the name will be identical to the ‘original mod’, or have a unique name to distinguish it. See Creating a Patch for an ESP for more information.

If a unique name is given for your ESP Replacer patch, consider adding [conflict] and [order] mlox rules to enable correct automated plugin sorting.

Conclusion

Congratulations — should now be able to create a basic ESP Replacer patch! The next two tutorials will cover creating patches for more complex mod conflict scenarios.


Tutorial 2:

Coming soon to a Morrowind Modding Wiki near you

Footnotes

  1. In the vanilla CS it is the opposite: it uses the first object as a point of reference for movement and rotation when moving a group of multiple selected references.