samuraitech

z-edit is still available on GitHub by matortheeternal. It has not been updated since November 2022 but seems to still work. Not sure about Next Gen FO4. I still run Pre Next Gen. It has a portable version just like MO2. Just extract and place it somewhere. I put mine in the folder where I keep MO2. I am not sure about running with Vortex but with MO2 you run it within MO2 as an executable. Launch z-edit in MO2. Ensure game path is correct. Should be there already. You need to select Fallout 4 or add profile to z-edit if it does not exist. I think it will default to Fallout NV. z-edit works with FO3, FONV, FO4, Skyrim, etc. Select zMerge. It will default to zEdit. Create name of plugin. I add Merged to end so I know it is the merged plugin. I used Clean (New) for merge method. Click on Plugins tab and select your plugins to merge. I did tactical flashlights just now as it only has two plugins. Click OK. Click Build Merge. Wait for merge. It should pop up with window that says Merge Successful. Close out window. Close out z-edit. Your plugin should be in a folder called merged inside of your z-edit folder. Zip up newly created merged plugin folder and reinstall in MO2. Place below the mod you just merged. In this case Tactical Flash Lights. Ensure original plugins are disabled. You can click on them an hide them in MO2. Ensure new merged plugin is enable. Ensure plugin load order is still correct. Test mod out in game. You can also merge the new plugin into the original mod folder if you don't want two folders. I kept mine separate so I can easily enable the original plugins again in case it does not work in game. I was able to find tactical flash light at the chem station, so it looks like z-edit still works. Not all mods are good candidates for merging. Clothing is normally OK to merge if it the mod does not have a lot of dependencies. Vtaws Mods should be OK. I have all my Vtaw mods merged into one plugin. No need to merge light plugins. z-edit the tool contains zEdit, zClean, and zMerge. I just use the merge portion. Use FO4 Edit for the rest. I would do your merges when testing out your game. You will have a bunch of missing plugins that are burned into a save. Could cause problems. When you go to play for real, start a new game. I use a vanilla save file (No Mods in save) for that. You can redo your character in Looksmenu once game loads. Just ensure you save your character as a Looksmenu profile. This way if you end up starting the game over multiple times during mod installation you avoid having to create your character preset again. There are vanilla saves you can get here. I use one that has saves at multiple parts of the game. You don't need to start out in the vault every time and is safer when using mods anyway. If you load the mod cheat terminal you can use that to access Looksmenu from your Pip Boy. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13285

Dank Rafft has a lot of clothing, weapon, and crafting mods you may want to look into. ECO Equipment and Crafting Overhaul. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/67679 NEO New Equipment Overhaul https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/65761 WOP Weapon Overhaul Project https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/69026 LIF Leveled Item Fixes https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/63914 Armorsmith Extended and AWKCR Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource seem to have fallen out of favor. They cause a lot of overhead and compatibility issues. There are patches you can get on Nexus to replace AWKCR dependency for most major clothing and armor mods. This mod is an example for AWKCR Patches. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/40752 Vortex and MO2 are the most popular mod managers. If you want to load and go then use Vortex. If you want to tweak, use MO2. Mods using BA2 files are all the rage as well. Makes games run more efficiently. Less screen stagger, loading, waiting, etc. If you use any environmental mods then make sure the have ba2 not loose files. Luxor's mods use ba2. A lot of people are using ba2. If you use ENB presets you may need to install them and play around with them in game. An ENB preset that worked well for one person may not look good or perform well for you. Use this to remove ENB preset cleanly so you can try again. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/5347 I will stop for now. Post getting too long.

I have been stuck in workshop mode before. Usually because a mod is not installed correctly. If it happens you can go to console and type coc sanctuaryext I try to remember that one so I can escape. I typically don't use this for game play. You will need to go back and remove or fix the mod you think may be hanging you up in workshop mode. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=680910648 List of other coc commands if anyone is interested.

Workshop Rearranged. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16181?tab=files Had same identical issue. I use the colored concrete all the time so thought I would share this for others.