Land retextures and mod-placed buildings

[dragon wench]

OK, I'm slowly re-installing Morrowind. This time, I did the intelligent thing, and made a data file backup as soon as I had loaded in all of my mesh and texture replacers. I have also created a test character, and each time I add something, I load my game up to ensure everything appears to be working smoothly.

Of course, I had forgotten about the fact that when you use landscape retextures, elevations are often altered, and thus conflicts occur with many buildings that rest on hills.

I just installed Balmora Expanded, and discovered that most of the upper districts are covered by rock...
Now, considering the main storyline of the game.. I can easily imagine this to be the consequence of a severe seismic disturbance and simply enjoy the areas of BE that are available, this isn't a problem, and I'm not unduly fussed.

However, I am curious... has anyone ever discovered a work around for this issue? I mean, BE is a popular mod, and most people these days like to use graphic enhancements, so I'd be a bit surprised if this were not the case. I looked around Google, though, and didn't really find anything.
BTW, before anyone asks, I am already using the land texture fix designed for BE by Slartibartfast . This repairs the usual seams and such, but it doesn't seem to deal with the elevation issue.

[Magelord648]

I don't understand the problem.

Texture replacers shouldn't modify the landscape. They just replace the texture files.

What other mods do you have installed?

[fable]

He's right. It sounds as though something else is actually replacing objects in the landscape. Try placing BE close to last in your loading order, and see if that solves it. If not, you may want to run TESPCD to see what could be affecting the mod.

[dragon wench]

OK... now that's just bizarre...

So, I just followed Fable's suggestion of putting BE at the end of my load order.. and voila! With the exception of a small area around the bath house (not a big deal, that's what the river is for.. right? )... the entire area is now clear.

What is odd though, is that when I first loaded BE into my game, it was the first non-replacer. Everything else was just replacing textures and some meshes... and excepting a couple of mods like Leeloo's Lantern replacer, all of the stuff I had put into my game didn't have a esp/esm...
So really, I have no idea what could have been causing the problem...
Oh well....

At any rate, cheers, that seems to have essentially fixed the issue.

[fable]

What is odd though, is that when I first loaded BE into my game, it was the first non-replacer. Everything else was just replacing textures and some meshes... and excepting a couple of mods like Leeloo's Lantern replacer, all of the stuff I had put into my game didn't have a esp/esm...
So really, I have no idea what could have been causing the problem...

BE does replace some things, all of them in the higher area, adjacent to the city. It sounds as though you had something else replacing meshes in the same region (and probably elsewhere), so they were fighting it out. I just suggested loading BE last, so it would win the turf battle. So to speak. Glad it worked out!

Be sure to run mlox, by the way. Practically nothing to set up, and it will give you clues about problem areas with loading, or mods that aren't in their latest versions.

[Magelord648]

Sometimes when making mods someone will accidentally modify the landscape or something and then just control and Z it. This is saved as a change despite being the same as the original ESM. So unless removed by TESAME or a similar program the "change that is not a change" so-to-speak will be present if loaded after another mod that changes the landscape such as BE. This is something I keep doing with Uvirith Awakes and it's really annoying as well as easy to miss.

I'm guessing something like this happened to you.

If you send me your esps I can have a look at them for you if you'd like.