Deleting cells without Enchanted Editor : III

» Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:00 pm

I've been trying to delete some cells to make two mods compatible with each other, but Enchanted Editor keeps corrupting the file. It's done this on every operating system I've tried (7 & 8, plus XP, Vista and 7 in virtual machines) in a variety of different folders/admin permissions combinations and I'm starting to think that EE just can't handle the file for some reason.

tes3cmd seems to have the capability, but I'm struggling with the syntax. Would someone be able to give me a few pointers on how to use tes3cmd or suggest another program that can delete cells and other records easily?

The commands I've tried:

Spoiler

C:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Morrowind\Data Files>tes3cmd delete --type cell --match "Fort Frostmoth" "Morrowind Rebirth 2.71.esp"
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth (-22, 17)
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth (-22, 16)
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth, armory
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth, carius' chambers
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth, imperial cult shrine
DELETED: CELL fort frostmoth, supply room
Output saved in: "Morrowind Rebirth 2.71.esp"
Original backed up to: "Morrowind Rebirth 2.71~1.esp"

C:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Morrowind\Data Files>tes3cmd delete --type cell --match "Fort Frostmoth (-22, 17)" "Morrowind Rebirth 2.71.esp"
Morrowind Rebirth 2.71.esp was not modified

Interior cells seem quite straightforward since the cell id is totally unique, eg "Balmora, Guild of Mages" but trying to delete exterior cells isn't quite so easy and I haven't been able to find any examples. Trying the format in the output logs leads to the second, unsuccessful output. I restored the automatic backup between the two commands so it shouldn't have been a case of it trying to find a cell that no longer exists.

So, I guess my primary questions are 1) what is the correct syntax for deleting exterior cells with tes3cmd 2) is there an easy way to selectively mass-delete cells? eg is there another program that can do that, or will that involve bat files and regular expressions?

Thanks!

» Fri Jun 13, 2014 4:23 am

Have you tried http://mw.modhistory.com/download-95-5289?

» Fri Jun 13, 2014 4:21 am

The best tool for doing this IMO is still the CS:
start it, menu File\Data Files, click the mod, click Details... button, click the column headers to sort by ID or Description so you can easily find/group cells to delete, CTRL (or SHIFT) click the cells to delete, press Delete key, Confirm, you should have cells marked I (Ignore, that means these cells and related refrences will be ignored on loading the mod in Cs), Close, OK, save the mod.

After this, you can clean it with TESTool and/or
tes3cmd.exe clean --replace modname.esp

[EDIT]typos

» Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:33 am

As suggested, TESAME or CS are best candidates for this. If you would still be interested in command for tes3cmd, I would try this:

tes3cmd delete --type cell --match "Fort Frostmoth" --no-match "Fort Frostmoth," "Morrowind Rebirth 2.71.esp"

provided you are trying to delete both exterior cells, i.e. (-22, 16),(-22, 17). Problem with your command is the fact, that tes3cmd takes regular expression as argument for match and no-match function, so it finds any references that are of type cell and contain string "Fort Frostmoth".

More on tes3cmd commands here: https://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd

Basic info about regular expressions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression