ErrantPursuits

So, I'll admit this is just me reaching out for some validation on my understanding, or course correction if I'm wrong. I want to install more mods than the load limit of *.esp's allows. I usually try to take advantage of Bash and Merge to reduce these numbers and clean up the process for Vortex. If my reading and user+ level of experience holds true, I should be safe merging mods along these rough groups: Clothing/Armor (Outfits) Animations Textures (Appearances) And then I can fold that into Bash and Proc patchers as required. This may include 50 or more small mods merged at a time. Second line of inquiry: Last time I went through this process some mods had masters that were made obsolete by ultimate edition. Is it safe to edit the required Masters, do I need to check all the references through Creation Kit? Is there a good tutorial or reference document for the process? I just feel like my information on how to resolve some of this has become really out of date and I'm struggling a bit here.

So, I decided to reinstall Skyrim and went around updating my old mods. While sorting out load order and trimming out the obsolete patches I realized that a number of mods still reference the older Unofficial line of patches. Many mods are circa 2013-2015 and are rarely looked at or updated by the original authors. Is there any solution to provide compatibility backwards for them? I'd really rather not continue using the separate and no longer supported Unofficial Skyrim, Dragonborn, Dawnguard, Hearthfire patches going forward if I don't have to. I know that TS5Edit could be involved, but I'm just not that educated on the structure of mods and how to shift references from inside one to point to a new master. I would definitely screw it up and break things. Has anyone looked into this? Any suggestions or ideas out there?