331 Plugin Merging Advice

[AustinandLindsay]

Amateur Modder here,

 

I need some advice as to how I should go about Merging my 331 plugins to get to around ~240 ish LOOT copy load order here . ( if having dowloadable .txt is bad etiquette I can post it directly) Currently I am utilizing MO2 as well as SSEEdit, zEdit, and I have access and little knowledge of the Merge Plugin.exe from 2016 on the LE nexus.

 

As stated my goal is to get to around 240 ish or lower .esp. I am aware of zEdit's zMerge tool suite and have already used it to merge eight or so ( non conflicting) armor .esp. I ensured that there were zero conflicts via SSEEdit as shown here https://i.imgur.com/A5iN5w2.png and checked for navmesh entries ( obviously not in armor mods) here https://i.imgur.com/yDECMzO.png. That brings me down to right around 323 plugins total. I have obviously pored over YouTube watching old Gopher, GamerPoets, WazaLang, Yggdrasil Modding, and CFS 111 videos ( I have done my due diligence). The greatest issue I face is the sheer number of conflicts between mods whenever I bring up SSEEdit to see if thay are good merging candidates. I am not referring to conflicts with Skyrim or the DLCs, but rather conflicts between both ( or many) mods that I am trying to merge. It seems, at least on the face of it, an insurmountable task to try and check every iteration in SSEEdit.

 

I must be missing something, because I have seen numerous wicked modlists running under that threshold of 255. They obviously merged numerous mods, I am just misunderstanding how they can do so without a detriment to their gameplay ( missing textures, meshes, masters, leveled list, etc.). I know its possible, I am just at a loss as to finding an exhaustive guide for merging plugins.

 

I know, based off of GamerPoets video, simple things like keeping plugins of the same kind together as well as some of the red flags he brings up, but I still feel as though I am missing something. For instance I tried to merge numerous LUX patches together. These were all given the green light on zMerge as well as Merge Plugin.exe however when I loaded them in SSEEdit they had numerous conflicts with worldspace cells. Maybe I am over thinking it, but I know as it stands now my game should run perfectly as I have spent right at around 120 hrs play testing all of the combinations of mods together ( I did this by deactivating simple armor or weapon mods temporarily to test the larger combination of major overhauls I have installed). I ultimately don't want to break something in an effort to bring the plugin limit down.

 

@@@ModWatch located here https://modwat.ch/u/Fayz @@@

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Please reach out with any question, comments, or concerns.

Edited January 17, 2022 by AustinandLindsay

[Mercury71]

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[7531Leonidas]

It seems to me that lighting mods and patches SHOULD force overwrites and conflicts in worldspaces, just like water and landscape mods.

[Deleted135840173User]

After asking this myself and searching around i couldn't find any Guide in regards to Safety rules to combine the Records of one Plugin with the other. How is it handled? Rule of One order of overriding? Many use Bashed Patches but for Load Orders where the only thing thats is going to happen is adding stuff that isn't present and re-patching mid-save Bashed Patches are best avoided.

Much simpler to create AIO ESPs.

 

So that's the Guide you're looking for. Take for example Bijin NPCs/ Warmaidens etc. They have 2 AIO Plugin versions. You delete the separate plugins and replace them with the Merge. How was that Merge done? Sounds easy with zMerge but with any Merge there could be Errors arising that need to be addressed.

What would could be these Errors? What are the safety rules?

I don't even know if 2 Mods and the Patches for both of them working correctly are safe to Merge all together as long as its possible to define which Plugins Records are going to take Priority. How's that even done?

 

I'll take a look into Gophers videos again to make sure. Its unlikely we'll get much of Tips here.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Guest

[Deleted135840173User]

An Update: zMerge works. Just make sure you're sure and Finalize the mod Files you will keep and Merge no matter the Playthrough.

Leave stuff that might end up updated as they are. I had to remove a few stuff since i used them in the past and found them boring.

Keep backups just in case. Check Gophers Tutorials. I suppose there either aren't many who use the forums or the enthusiasm died and there isn't much of an exchange of information so you re at your own.

I'll say it again Collections and Curators will only be a blessing.

 

The only other thing i can tell you to help is to not Merge mods for which you aren't sure about. Merge identical mods such Main Mod plus Addons. Merge Mods that do something similar such as Landscape - Water Grass Fix mods and make sure what must be the winning conflict is. If some mods of the same type you can merge like this have patches to function together try to create an AIO solution in one single plugin. If they have patches for other mods leave these Patches separately.

In the end just use a Bashed Patch for leftover Patches.

 

Can't help much with SSEedit you have to see the conflicts yourself and dependant and Load Order mostly decide what should win. Thats all i can share. That's all i know for now.

 

A note: I just discovered that all modding tools work except zEdit. If you had it installed back when it used to work you're lucky. My Game paths are all correct and all tools work. For some reason zEdit doesn't function anymore and doesn't detect any of my Games. Can't remember which version but i downloaded 5 versions from Gitgub and all give me errors. In that case try out the older Merge Plugins extension for SSEedit and Matorsmash. They work.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Guest