Mysterious error is destroying my mod.

[ub3rman123]

I made a very simple new monster. To create this monster, all I did was the following:

1. Opened the vanilla daedroth ID.

2. Changed the editorID.

3. Set the monster to be levelled, altered the health multiplier and level offset.

4. Added a new AI package and removed the old one.

5. Hit OK.

Now, whenever it's loaded in the CS, I get hit with a barrage of error messages. I haven't a clue what they mean. There are no new models or skeletons used anywhere in this. I can't ignore these messages, because the monster also crashes the game when it's enabled. I've never run into this before, despite having done this many times in the past.

Sorry about the topic location, I don't know where this would go.

[Khettienna]

Seems like you may have somehow in your editing un-pathed the creature skeleton or model to something else, or to nothing. If you can open the creature's edit dialog, make sure "Creatures\Daedroth\Skeleton.NIF" is showing in the field under "Death Item". If not, you may have to extract that mesh from the .bsa, drop it into that folder, and browse to it in the CS to fix it. If it is, then on the ModelList tab, make sure there is an "x" in the box next to daedroth.nif.

If neither of those are true or you can't seem to fix it without crashing, use TES4Edit or TES4Gecko to remove the new object entirely. Then load up the CS & re-implement your new daedroth manually, this time avoiding changing the models. Hope this does it for you!

[ub3rman123]

After some toying with it, I found that this happens with the vanilla daedroth as well. So I'm now checking to see if the vanilla one's been edited by my mod through some accident.

Nope. Completely normal. Might be a problem with the skeleton itself. I'll try re-unpacking the .bsa and see if that fixes it.

Edit: Unpacked the creatures folder from the .bsa. No luck. I've done some looking around as well, because I'm getting the problem with the vanilla. So when I place the vanilla daedroth anywhere with my mod, I get the errors and the crash. When I go to a cell that already has a daedroth in it (TestRyanOgre), I don't get the crash. I dun get it. I've tried deleting and remaking the creature a couple of times now, and when I send the .esp to a different computer with a fresh Oblivion install, it crashes too.

Edited December 13, 2010 by ub3rman123

[Khettienna]

I dunno either, but before my first post I tried to re-create your problem and couldn't. I plopped an edited Daedroth in the testing cell, and he was fine, and reloading the plugin didn't give me any errors.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Khettienna

[ub3rman123]

I've done some staring at the errors, and it only occurs with the DodgeForward and DodgeBackward animations. I'll have to look more in detail with it later.

If it's not too much effort, could you try taking a look at the .esp itself? I've not uploaded any meshes or textures, but I sent it to Pronam and he seemed to be getting the error as well. So this is mostly now trying to discern if the problem's only on my side.

Download link

If you try it, you'll find the problematic creatures in the worldspace WSBlackwoodSummoning.

[Khettienna]

I opened it in the CS and got no errors. I compared it to the original Daedroth, and it looks like the only differences are "no low level processing" isn't checked, PC Level offset is checked (with value of 2, minimum of 1), and a custom AI package instead of the defaults. I dropped one of each of your Daedroth in the Testinghall, one scripted and one not, one at a time, and both did crash the game on cell load.

So I duplicated the original Daedroth twice to new IDs with your changes, one with your script and one without, but with no AI changes, and tested those the same way. No crashing. This led me to believe that the AI package is the cause of your crashing, and not the model. Further inspection of the AI packages revealed that you had the "Target" box checked but no target actually chosen. So I unchecked that box on your AI package, dropped your Daedroth in the Testinghall again, and the crashing went away.

This doesn't account for your CS errors, though - that could be a separate problem, in the case that you have bad replacer animations or something else that you're unaware of. Consider using mTES4 or even manually setting up multiple installs so you can test against stock, and you won't have that worry again. Make sure also that you have the UOP & UOP Supplementals installed and up-to-date. My testing install, which I used for this, actually has the UOP/S resources packed back into the .bsa files; so maybe the vanilla ones are bad, and that would explain why you are getting errors and I'm not. I find it reasonable to expect any users of any mod to have the UOP, and it helps me to know which bugs are my fault or not, and which have already been fixed by the UOP or not.

[WillieSea]

I have none of the UOP and run a mostly vanilla game.

I made a copy of the CreatureDaedroth (MyCreatureDaedroth) and placed it in Alswer Inn. I then traveled there and killed it. No crashes, no problems.

[Khettienna]

Well, that solves that, then - you've got two separate problems, something mucking with your animations or meshes, and the AI packages. I hope you're able to figure out the animations/meshes business, I don't envy you that one bit!

[ub3rman123]

It worked! Aside from the animation errors (Which, as they seem to only be on my side and the errors don't mess with the CS, can probably be ignored), it's all functional now! I never would've guessed that an AI package would do that. Thanks for the help!

[Khettienna]

Quite welcome! Good luck with it all! :sleeping: