I'm working on a mod of a mod . . . I'm attempting to replace houses of the mod "Home Construction and Decoration". I'm working out the process with a starter... something to get my bearings with how everything will work.

IN CK I did the following:

• duplicated the original cell (the cell czdwarftowerinterior from the mod).
• made some changes.
• renamed the original. > czdwarftowerinteriorORIG
• renamed the duplicate to the name of the original. > czdwarftowerinterior
• saved as a separate esp.

when I try to enter that cell in game thru the door, the ORIGINAL cell shows. When I coc czdwarftowerinterior, the game CTD.

When I use a separate profile without the mod, the coc will crash then as well.

1. Is there any other 'preparation' that I need to do for a cell just to see it in-game? If so where would I find info/docs on that?
   I've done original cells in the past, and there wasn't much to it. This is the first replacer I've tried to do.
2. There's a door marker and a coc marker in the cell. Can I just 'drop in' a coc marker and it will work?
3. Is there a common-problem faq somewhere or am I unique with this CTD? (google was pretty empty on the subject)

Did you add the original mod correctly as a master to your file? You can't just open up another mod in the CK and start editing it, the CK will save all your work incorrectly. The mod you are changing must first be changed into a master file (esm). You don't have to change the actual file name to esm, but you need to flip a hidden flag that marks the file as a master, which you can do using TES5Edit or WryeBash. There are several threads on this forum with instructions about how to do it.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1510159-adding-dawnguard-dragonborn-patches-to-an-existing-mod/?p=23825477

Thanks for 2nd posting with a link.

Is this required step in reference docs somewhere?

Hmm . . . as I'm reading that process, I realize that this doesn't explain why the cell is unusable even when stand-alone . . . without the original mod loaded.

You said you copied the cell from that esp, though, right? If so, it will be corrupted (whether or not the other mod is loaded doesn't matter at that point)

So once I Master the original mod, do I need to rebuild the room? or could I just open the mod and save it as it?

You will probably need to rebuild things from scratch, unfortunately.

I'm not aware of any way to fix that stuff once you edit it in that way with the CK. It might be possible to restore it using TES5Edit but I've never tried, and I suspect that it would be difficult.

Thanks.

does the "making a mod a master" how-to -- and why you need to do it -- exist on the ck wiki or in a repo somewhere that I've missed?

Well, the mod blows out when I make a master of it. The resulting ESM is empty.

Thanks for the info anyway. it will be useful at some point, but since this isn't my mod, well there you go d=