I want to add a few small camps in exterior cells (in remote, desolate, unpopulated and unpopular areas around the exterior of the Ghostfence). So far so good. At some point I'd like to direct the player there, both because they're the only services in those areas and for eventual quests.

My dilemna is that I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to rename the exterior cell where they are so the locations can be marked on the map. It would be more convenient for the player then giving text directions through dialogue (I'm even worst then the default NPCs for giving directions). However, I know it can screw up compatibility with other mods if I rename cells, and I'm not sure if it's worth it for such small camps. They're about 4-5 tents at most and a few NPCs hanging around outside in the area, which is smaller then the Ashlander camps.

Is being able to mark them on the maps worth the possible incompatibilities?
Are there "best practice" rules about how large a camp/settlement should be in order to justify having its own named cell?

Thanks!

You can change the names - however if someone then loads a newer mod than yours as well it will mess up yours as the names will be overwritten by the originals again - I believe john.moonsugar's Mlox program fixes that issue however not everyone uses it.

If you are not making large settlements it seems to me that they would not be on a map anyway and if someone was giving directiosn they could mark a nearby landmark/settlement and tell you how close and what compass direction the camp was from there.

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, that's my worry about renaming exterior cells. I think I'll just forget about renaming the cells.

My issue with landmarks is that there aren't any close and obvious ones. The closest ones are still rather far, and usually on the other side of big obstacles you have to walk around. Since there are no straight lines or roads to follow, it's easy to get lost.

Another option I thought of was to make some kind of path that's easier to follow, by adding rocks and a suspended bridges. That would minimize possible incompatibilities, but kind of force players to follow that exact path, instead of planning their own depending on what travel/teleport mods they have. Still, it would be better then the hassle of renamed cells.

Actually, it's the "http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd?ts=1278809072&updated=Tes3cmd#multipatch_-_Patches_problems_in_your_active_plugins" command in the new version of tes3cmd (still in alpha development) that will fix it, when it's possible to do so. In the old version of tes3cmd this was a separate function called "cellnamepatch".

But as you say, few people use tes3cmd to do this at the moment.

Edit: As for best practice on whether a mod should rename exterior cells, I think the modder should do it if they think it will enhance their mod. As long as it's mentioned it in the Readme, and perhaps tell the user how to make sure the renaming isn't reverted, then I don't see any problems.