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DOUBLING
please note that the words "plugin" and "mod" are used interchangeably
(THE FOLLOWING ONLY APPLIES TO .ESP FILES WHICH SUFFER FROM THIS BUG. MY MODS HAVE SINCE BEEN CONVERTED INTO .ESM FILES WHICH DON'T HAVE THIS BUG).
Doubling also known as the "Morrowind duplication bug" is a problem with Morrowind's save game system that causes objects in your game to be cloned or duplicated over and over again if you save your game and later uninstall or update/change your current plugins. Many mods that place objects or spawning odjects to the world are susceptible to this. Many players that use many plugins know that eventualy they start to see signs and flag banners duplicated over time. This is the most common type of doubling. Its important to know that doubling is not the plugin's or mod's fault. Its a bug with the Morrowind's save game system. My GIANTS mod (esp) is very vunrable to this doubling problem, as are mods like, Morrowind Additions, Morrowind Advanced and my Wilderness Mod (esp). These mods (like GIANTS) place many new spawning objects. If you don't know what you are doing you can end up with a hundred pack nix-hounds! you should only see up to 12 pack nix hounds at any one time in a pack. If you see more you are having duplications.
These are my experiences and solutions I have learned concerning DOUBLING:
What's causing this?
I have noticed sometimes that this happens when removing and re-installing the same mod OR updating the a mod.... ANY MOD. The problem is not with GIANTS so much as it is with the way Morrowind saves its games. It keeps alot of information mostly "Physical objects" from mods you remove. THIS IS JUST PLAIN STUPID and very frustrating when you are a player that likes to update and your mods on a regular basis, like myself. This "doubling glitch" has become my BIGGEST BEEF with this otherwise excellent game. I would have liked it if Bethesda would have fixed this duplication bug by now! This, of coures, applies only to areas you have already been to. so doubling won't happen EVERYWHERE thank goodness. I'm sorry to say but if you want your GIANTS experience to stay completely pure you need to remove that doubling by "cleaning" your save from GIANTS when you update any mod. Doubling also happens a lot with Morrowind Advanced too and any mod that adds the amount of objects MW advanced does like GIANTS. This duplication problem is directly linked to corruption of saves too. Sometimes a save will become corrupt after uninstalling many, many plugins over time. This will result in Mods not working right and not doing what they are suposed to. I'm also sad to tell you the ONLY way at the moment to completely make sure doubling wont happen is to NOT update ANY MOD while playing a game with GIANTS installed. GIANTS just adds too many new objects to the land. The .esp file alone is over 1 meg if you can believe that. Of coures if your are starting a NEW GAME and you have explored little land you can get away with updating mods much more often simply because you have less area SAVED in your save. I have not updated any mod for weeks because i'm just tired of all the doubling and won't "test" any new mod out only to remove them later since REMOVING mods causes doubling too in my experience.
Please write Bethesda to fix this Duplication Bug once and for all!
Prevention:
When you want to "test" a mod out to see if you like it, try a back-up save wich is not the save you use to play on to test out the new mod. Wait till there is a FINAL version of a mod (or as close to final as you can get) when ultimately deciding to add the mod in to your game. Remember, ADDING a new mod to your game wont cause doubling since your save has no information on it. When using Horatio's Leveled List Merger, ADD IN your new mod to your EXISTING "leveled list master file". DON'T create a BRAND NEW leveled list master file. This will cause doubling.
Not doing these things will result in doubling sooner or later.
A good way to prevent doubling in your game is to keep the time stamp (date) on your save game always more recent than the date on your last updated plugin Esp.
Try these programs:
Touch.exe
Properties Plus
Those programs will alow you to keep your save (ess) file more recent than the last altered mod ESP . As long as your save game file's time stamp is always more recent than the Esp's you should not get doubling. Flag and banner doubling is still known to occur, however.
Use an ESM mod. ESMs (Master Files) will never suffer from the doubling bug.
Fix doubling:
Cleaning:
This is done by going into a interior cell (preferably a small shack with no creatures in it at all) and saving your game. Exit MW. Before you start your game again UNcheck The Mod from data files. Then load the save you just made. There will be many error messages so just ignore them and keep clicking yes to continue. Once done clicking save the game again. Exit MW. Check The Mod now in data files. Now load up the save and everything should be okay.
Note:To prevent headache of clicking "yes" a thousand times I suggest you change your Morrowind.INI file with this little tweak.
In the Morrowind/Data files folder find your Morrowind.ini file (always make a back-up when editing) and add these lines:
In the [General] section:
AllowYesToAll=1
set it to 0 (the default if the setting is not present) to turn off yes to all. This will add a "Yes To All" button to the warning popups.
Try the "CONSOLE" approach instead:
While playing...
a) enter the console by pressing tilde key [~]
b) click on duplicated creature/object
c) make sure you are clicking the creature, its name SHOULD appear on the console"
d) type DISABLE press enter and the creature should disappear
e) exit the console by pressing tilde key [~] and save game.
Be careful not to do this with creatures that are constantly making sounds "looping sounds" in GIANTS like Trolls, Nymphs, Liches,.. because the sounds will not be removed from the spot they were removed.
TESAME:
Those methods, however, will clean up doubling but will not repair any corruption (damage) that may have happened to your save.
Using The Elder Scrolls Advanced Mod Editor (TESAME) to clean and fix your save is the best way to do both in my experience.
You simply get the save from the Save folder. Next, change the extension from .ess to .esp
Now open TESAME and edit the save like you would a plugin. I recomend experimenting with a back up save and try deleting any refrences to the mods that are giving you problems. I also recomend deleting all or most "exterior" cells especially the ones giving you trouble with TESAME. Interior cells have a less chance of not working right but if you encounter wierdness in an interior cell do the same to it. The drawback to this is that cells will "reset" back to their original state so characters you may mave killed will show up again. Same goes for the Seyda Neen start characters and boat. If you encounter this just delete/disable NPCs and objects that should not be there anymore with the console (above steps a - e). Your local map in those areas will also be reset (not the world map). Reseting cells is the only way to fix your save game cells, though.
Lastly, i can't stress this enough. DO NOT use the old GIANTS.esp with the GIANTS.esm. You will get massive amounts of sun-death crimes along with doubling. Always uncheck/remove the esp. You will probably need to clean afterwards too if you've been playing a while like this.
I cannot take responsibility for any permanent problem that may occur by using the above mentioned technniques. Use at your own risk. If you feel you don't understand them don't try them.
