Morrowind modding for smarties, part 8: when masters change...

Something I realized recently working with mods depending on TR_Mainland.esm, but that should be valid as example for any updated .esm dependency...

If you have a mod having TR_Mainland.esm as master and altering some of its references (e.g. my abotWindowsGlowTR.esp, abotTRWaterSound.esp replacing some statics with activators), whenever TR_Mainland.esm/TR_Mainland.esp is updated your mod may be screwed.
What may happen is changes to references you made in your mod work no more (this you can usually detect in the Construction Set) or worse work on wrong objects (this is nasty because you don't know what object may disappear/be moved, you usually only realize late in game), and you have to redo a lot of work in the CS.

Here are my step-by-step suggestions to try and avoid it (keep a backup copy of your mods and TR_Mainland.esm somewhere for safety).

 

Updating your mod having TR_Mainland.esm as master to a new version of TR_Mainland.esm/TR_Mainland.esp

 

A) if your new updated version is TR_Mainland.esm format:

 

  1. copy new TR_Mainland.esm to your Morrowind\Data Files folder naming it TR_Mainland_new.esm
  2. from Mash, click old TR_Mainland.esm, select all (= highlight) and copy to the clipboard  (CTRL+ C) its timestamp (3rd field in the right column)
  3. right click old TR_Mainland.esm, File\Duplicate... old TR_Mainland.esm to TR_Mainland_old.esm
  4. right click TR_Mainland_new.esm, File\Redate... paste the date from the clipboard (CTRL+V), click OK button (TR_Mainland_new.esm should have the same timestamp as TR_Mainland_old.esm so they should have a red background)
  5. right click TR_Mainland_new.esm, Updaters..., remove any updater already present in the list, add TR_Mainland.esm
  6. click your mod having old TR_Mainland.esm as master, right click TR_Mainland.esm on the File column to the right, Change to... TR_Mainland_new.esm, click save button below. Important: Repeat this pass for each of your mods having old TR_Mainland.esm as master. Hopefully Mash will be able to remap changed references correctly.
  7. right click TR_Mainland_new.esm, File\Duplicate... to TR_Mainland.esm
  8. click your mod having TR_Mainland_new.esm as master, right click TR_Mainland_new.esm on the File column to the right, Change to... TR_Mainland.esm, click save button below. Important: Repeat this pass for each of your mods having TR_Mainland_new.esm as master.

 

B) else if your new updated version is TR_Mainland.esp format:

 

  1. copy new TR_Mainland.esp to your Morrowind\Data Files folder
  2. from Mash, click old TR_Mainland.esm, select and copy to the clipboard  (CTRL+ C) its timestamp (3rd field in the right column)
  3. right click old TR_Mainland.esm, File\Duplicate... old TR_Mainland.esm to TR_Mainland_old.esm
  4. right click new TR_Mainland.esp, File\Redate... paste the date from the clipboard (CTRL+V), click OK
  5. right click new TR_Mainland.esp, File\Duplicate... to TR_Mainland_new.esp
  6. right click TR_Mainland_new.esp, Copy to .esm  (TR_Mainland_new.esm should have the same timestamp as TR_Mainland_old.esm so they should have a red background)
  7. right click TR_Mainland_new.esm, Updaters..., remove any updater already present in the list, add TR_Mainland.esm
  8. click your mod having old TR_Mainland.esm as master, right click TR_Mainland.esm on the File column to the right, Change to... TR_Mainland_new.esm, click save button below. Important: Repeat this pass for each of your mods having old TR_Mainland.esm as master. Hopefully Mash will be able to remap changed references correctly.
  9. right click TR_Mainland_new.esm, File\Duplicate... to TR_Mainland.esm
  10. click your mod having TR_Mainland_new.esm as master, right click TR_Mainland_new.esm on the File column to the right, Change to... TR_Mainland.esm, click save button below. Important: Repeat this pass for each of your mods having TR_Mainland_new.esm as master.

 

Now your mods should be updated to the new TR_Mainland master hopefully without screwing references (you can hide TR_Mainland_new.esm to verify by color that your mods are no more depending on it).

I would keep the old TR_Mainland_old.esm for safety

Obviously I suggest you load one of your mod in the Construction Set and verify if your changes to references in the updated version are correct.