Elder Scrolls Forum: Inventory bug when enabling or disabling mods that rename items

Inventory bug when enabling or disabling mods that rename items
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Summary:

When you enable or disable a mod that renames items an existing character has in their inventory, the game may resort their inventory the next time the character is loaded. This can cause items in the character's inventory to disappear or to be duplicated, equipped items to be unequipped, or unequipped items to be equipped.

(I've included two demos further down so you can fairly quickly see this problem for yourselves.)

This is NOT a bug in the mods, but appears to be a problem with the way the game processes inventory data when loading a saved game after enabling or disabling a mod that changes the names of items in the character's inventory.

This bug will only affect existing characters, and then only if the name of an item in their inventory is changed by enabling or disabling a mod. It won't affect new characters created after a mod is installed, and it won't affect existing characters if they don't have any items in their inventory that will be affected by the name changes.

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To avoid problems with this bug:

Before enabling or disabling a mod that changes the names of items that can be placed into inventory, first make sure none of your existing characters have any affected items in their inventories.

Using Srikandi's Potion Sorter mod as an example:

This mod renames booze (mazte, etc.), bug musk, and store-bought potions so they sort in a more logical order in your inventory.

Before enabling or disabling this mod: load any existing characters and temporarily remove any booze, bug musk, or store-bought potions from their inventory (you can just put them on the ground). It's not necessary to drop any custom (home-made) potions, since the mod doesn't rename them.

Then save game for each existing character, exit, and enable (or disable) the Potion Sorter mod on Morrowind's Data Files menu.

Once you've enabled (or disabled) the mod, go ahead and reload the saved game and put the potions, etc. back into your character's inventory.

As long as the potions, etc. are not in your inventory when their names change, the game won't try to resort your inventory and you shouldn't encounter the bug.

Note:

As I said above, this is NOT a bug in Srikandi's mod; it's a bug in the game itself. I use that mod as an example because it's a popular mod that can trigger this bug, and also because it's the mod that led me to identifying this bug.

For modders:

If you create a mod that renames any items that can be placed in a character's inventory, I recommend adding information in your readme file warning players to remove any items that might be renamed from their characters' inventories before enabling or disabling your mod. My example above for Srikandi's mod might be helpful as a starting point that could be adapted for inclusion in readme's for other mods.

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Demonstrating the bug:

Through trial and error, I managed to come up with a very short inventory list that seems to reproduce the bug consistently. I did the demos with a newly created character and no mods installed (except the Potion Sorter or test mod when called for); you could try doing them with an existing character and using the console to give them the specified items, but I don't know if that will trigger the bug reliably.

This bug seems to be fairly finicky about what combination of items in a character's inventory will trigger it, so please get rid of everything (including gold) except the exact items specified for the test. Having even one extra (or different ) item in the character's inventory may prevent the bug from making an appearance.

Demo 1 (requires Srikandi's Potion Sorter mod):

1. Create a new character with no mods enabled (including the Potion Sorter mod).

2. Fix the character up with the following inventory, equipped as specified (all items are available in Arille's Tradehouse):

Equipped items: Iron Saber, Iron Arrow, Imperial Chain Cuirass
Unequipped items: Chitin Short Bow, Mazte

Drop or sell all other items (including clothes, gold, etc.), as not all combinations will trigger the bug.

3. Save the game with that inventory.

4. Select the Potion Sorter mod and reload the above saved game.

5. Look at your character's inventory. If this works the same on your computer as on mine, it should now be:

Equipped: Chitin Bow*, Iron Arrow, Imperial Chain Cuirass
Unequipped: Iron Saber*, Imperial Chain Cuirass*, -Mazte-

The *'s indicate changes; in particular, note the second Imperial Chain Cuirass that has appeared. Interestingly, its weight is not included in your character's encumbrance: so we have yet another way to foul up a character's displayed encumbrance.

Demo 1A: if you drop the Chitin Short Bow in step 2 and replace it with Fury (everybody's favorite sword!), then you should wind up with Fury equipped in step 5. Fortunately, none of its nasty effects will be activated, since this bug appears to bypass at least some of the normal code for equipping and unequipping items.

(To add Fury to inventory, open up the console and type

player->AddItem "Fury" 1

and hit <Enter>.)

Demo 2 (doesn't need the Potion Sorter mod, but you'll need to create a very small mod that renames one ingredient)

1. Create a new character with no mods enabled.

2. Fix the character up with the following inventory, equipped as specified (most items are available in Arille's Tradehouse):

Equipped items: Iron Saber, Iron Arrow, Imperial Chain Cuirass
Unequipped items: Chitin Short Bow, Bread, Spore Pod (available in or near Seyda Neen)

Drop or sell all other items (including clothes, gold, etc.), as not all combinations will trigger the bug.

3. Save the game with that inventory.

4. Create and select a small test mod that renames 'Spore Pod' to 'Flower Spore Pod', then reload the above saved game.

5. Look at your character's inventory. If this works the same on your computer as on mine, it should now be:

Equipped: Chitin Bow*, Iron Arrow, Imperial Chain Cuirass
Unequipped: Iron Saber*, Imperial Chain Cuirass*, Bread, Flower Spore Pod

The *'s indicate changes; in particular, note the second Imperial Chain Cuirass that has appeared. Interestingly, its weight is not included in your character's encumbrance: so we have yet another way to foul up a character's displayed encumbrance.

I didn't try this version with Fury.

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There seem to be a variety of different combinations of inventory contents that will trigger this bug, and a variety of other combinations that aren't affected by it. It may be related to the relative alphabetical order of some of the equipped and unequipped items, but I haven't investigated enough to identify the exact pattern.

I do know there's definitely a reproducible bug, and that it's very easy to avoid (as described above).

All I've seen is items being duplicated, equipped, or unequipped unexpectedly. Srikandi reports one instance of an item disappearing from inventory, but I don't know if we'll be able to figure out how to set up the exact conditions to duplicate that again.

The bug is reproducible, and I'm fairly confident of my conclusions about it and about the methods for avoiding it. However, there are so many possible permutations of factors involved that I'm going to call this a 'preliminary' bug report: I'm fairly certain it's accurate, but there's always a possibility that I've overlooked something. (I.e., this disclaimer is here to cover my butt in case I missed something obvious!

)

Many, many thanks to Srikandi for her cooperation and rapid responses in helping confirm this bug.

Once again: it's not a bug in her mod, and I highly recommend her mod to anyone who uses many potions in Morrowind.

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How to avoid the most common problem encountered by new modders: "Dirty Saves: Causes and Cures"

http://www.elderscrolls.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=tesconstsethelp&Number=1909624&fpart=1&PHPSESSID=

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