SSE Messy Mod

[Necose]

About 10 years ago, I created a massive mod (a floating castle in the sky, with spells, npcs, and much more). When I unpack the BSA, the scripts are the only thing that shows up for it. The ESP is a pretty large file though. How do I sort out what files should be repackaged so I can make the mod distributable or set the mod up on another computer? Right now, the only way I can do that is to copy my entire data directory... Someone had to have figured out how to resolve this problem by now...

 

Thanks.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Necose

[Dashyburn]

It must only contain scripts if that's all it's unpacking, does the mod use any external assets? If it does you would have had to have added meshes and/or texture folders which should be present in the BSA. If you only used vanilla assets there won't be any external meshes or texture folders. If you get a BSL they aren't used in SE you can delete it.

[Necose]

Yeah, there was a BSL generated. My goal is to create a mod that I can install through Mod Organizer 2. For some reason, I am unable to find a way to pack it so it installs correctly and is usable. This is why I was worried that not all the files were there.

 

If I drop the BSA and ESP files into the Skyrim data directory, the mod plays fine. I am also trying to port it over to SkyrimSE.

 

What does the ESP do? Is it basically an instruction file that tells how to load everything else in the mod?

 

Thanks again.

[greyday01]

I would start by adding your mod to MO2. Move your esp and any scripts out of the data folder and place in desktop. Make a zip or rar of your esp. In MO2 use intall new mod from archive and select your zipped esp. MO2 will create a folder for your mod with the esp in it. Open that folder and copy your scripts folder into it.

 

If your mod uses any custom meshes or textures you can tell by opening the CK through MO2 (not directly) and setting your mod to be the active mod. By browsing through you mod's cells if a custom mesh is missing it will show as a red exclamation mark, missing textures will be a strange purple color. If any are missing make a textures and/or meshes folder in the folder MO2 created for your mod and then copy the needed meshes and textures into their respective folders. You might need to edit the file paths for the references with missing meshes or textures. In the CK running through MO2 R-Click the reference with missing mesh or texture, edit, then edit base then at model select edit, then at Model File Name edit again and browse to your mesh in MO2.

 

The nice thing about creating a mod in MO2 is that it is essentially already organized with everything your mod needs already in its own separate folder. To package your mod all you need to do is copy your mod folder to the desktop. put everything in it except the esp into a BSA, then put the esp and the BSA into a zip or rar and you are all done.

 

The esp has a list of cells you created, items in the cells, Their position and attached scripts, and where to look tor the meshes, textures and scripts attached to those items. Among other things. You can have a mod with just an esp with no meshes, textures or scripts at all. You can also have a mod with say just textures and no esp at all.

[Necose]

I would start by adding your mod to MO2. Move your esp and any scripts out of the data folder and place in desktop. Make a zip or rar of your esp. In MO2 use intall new mod from archive and select your zipped esp. MO2 will create a folder for your mod with the esp in it. Open that folder and copy your scripts folder into it.

 

If your mod uses any custom meshes or textures you can tell by opening the CK through MO2 (not directly) and setting your mod to be the active mod. By browsing through you mod's cells if a custom mesh is missing it will show as a red exclamation mark, missing textures will be a strange purple color. If any are missing make a textures and/or meshes folder in the folder MO2 created for your mod and then copy the needed meshes and textures into their respective folders. You might need to edit the file paths for the references with missing meshes or textures. In the CK running through MO2 R-Click the reference with missing mesh or texture, edit, then edit base then at model select edit, then at Model File Name edit again and browse to your mesh in MO2.

 

The nice thing about creating a mod in MO2 is that it is essentially already organized with everything your mod needs already in its own separate folder. To package your mod all you need to do is copy your mod folder to the desktop. put everything in it except the esp into a BSA, then put the esp and the BSA into a zip or rar and you are all done.

 

The esp has a list of cells you created, items in the cells, Their position and attached scripts, and where to look tor the meshes, textures and scripts attached to those items. Among other things. You can have a mod with just an esp with no meshes, textures or scripts at all. You can also have a mod with say just textures and no esp at all.

I got it working. I'm not sure if I missed anything, and I may have moved some things that didn't need to be, but it's working. All I need now is to learn how to fix the faces. I tried pressing CTRL+F4 in the creation kit, but nothing appeared to happen. I have more reading to do I guess. Thanks again for your advice.

[greyday01]

When you hit CTRL-F4 did you have the Object npc selected or the Reference of the NPC that is in a cell somewhere? You need to select the base NPC object not the reference.

Also MO2 when it creates new folders and files won't put them in your mod's folder but in the overwrite folder that is at the bottom of the mod list. It's a sort of semi-mod that MO2 creates . Just double click on it to open the folder and cut and paste its contents into your mod. Though I would open its file tree to see what's in it first.

[Gorgopis]

This is a very interesting thread for modders, but some of us don't use MO2.

 

How might these techniques work for those of us who use Vortex? Would @greyday01's advice work similarly?

[greyday01]

This is a very interesting thread for modders, but some of us don't use MO2.

 

How might these techniques work for those of us who use Vortex? Would @greyday01's advice work similarly?

It might. I've never used it since I found MO to be so organized. When I first started modding I used the CK directly. It was a bloody mess. All my files, the vanilla files and other mods all intertwined. When MO then MO2 came out I never looked back. For Vortex I would look where it stores installed mods and look to see if it has separate folders for each mod. Try making a test mod and then create a script in the ck. It can be an empty script with just a name. You just need to see where it stores it. In Data or in your mod's folder. Let me know. As I said I haven't used it and I'm interested too.

[greyday01]

One other thing about MO2. Some mods while in use create SKSE folders with json files. These folders and files will be created in the overwrite folder in MO2. You can create a Folder called SKSE Plugins and copy the Overwrite contents into it and it will have all the json files created by every mod you are using. I, instead, copy each separate SKSE folder created by each mod into each mod's folder. MO2 doesn't care where they are stored but I like all the files associated with each mod in that mods folder for easy removal. If your mod creates files like this when used, you do not need to package them with your mod for uploading. They will be re-created in gametime when the mod is running.

[Gorgopis]

Vortex stores our (CK) home-built mods in the Skyrim Data folder as .esp's, along with all downloaded mods, and not in any separate folders.

 

Both home-built and downloaded mod-assets are distributed in the native Skyrim SE-Folder-Trees.

 

Similarly, mods with json files distribute those properly into a json file.

 

All downloaded mods contain a "managed by Vortex" sub-folder or "link-director" in all subfolders, while home-built mods do not show any "Vortex subfolder."

 

At least this is the way we understand what we're seeing.