Making low-impact mods?

[CarrotTop]

Is there any information out there on making low impact mods. For example, how to add an NPC to Tenpenny Tower without overriding all the other mods that also mod Tenpenny Tower, or adding a new item to a bag in a Megaton shack without overriding those, or how to add a new building to the wasteland without overriding that whole wateland section.

 

Basicly, I want to try to make my mod as low impact as possible.

 

Thanks

[pkleiss]

Adding an NPC to TenPenny tower won't cause a conflict as its would be a new record. Conflicts occur when two mods make changes to the same record. Like if I make all vault door blue and another mod makes them red. That would be a conflict because both mods are affecting the very same record. Of course, if you place a building in the same location as another mod places a building, you won't have a mod conflict, but you will see a fusion of the two building meshes stuck together. When you make a mod, you don't overwrite the original, instead, you append records. Like, you can't modify the fallout.esm. If you try, you will be asked for a new file name and all the work you have done will be in this new file and not in the fallout.esm. In general, if you make your own objects in the geck (by making a copy of an existing one and giving it a new ID) you will not cause mod conflicts. But if you want to add an item to the inventory of a vanilla locker, you just might. There are some tricks to editing vanilla objects like this. Instead of modifying the object directly, one can use a script command to add to the container. This won't cause a mod conflict.

[BadPenney]

You've gotten good advice already. Replacement mods are popular, but you can avoid conflicts with overhauls by not replacing vanilla items in your own mod.

 

I strive to make my mods as conflict free with the Fallout3.esm and the DLCs as possible. As long as other mod authors do the same then there is a better chance that our mods won't conflict.

 

Using FO3Edit for cleaning your mod is essential in my opinion. Your mod will make copies of most every vanilla asset that you interact with in the GECK. Not removing those identical-to-master copies from your mod is a sure way to create conflicts with other mods. FO3Edit can help you clean up your mod after you have completed it. It will reduce the overall size of your mod by eliminating unnecessary files and make it more friendly to other mods as well.

[CarrotTop]

Thanks both of you, these were exactly the kinds of answers I was looking for.

 

Sooo... so long as I'm "adding" I shouldn't have "too" many problems. Glad to hear it :)

 

And I shall have to play around with FO3Edit. I only ever used it for Merged Patches before. I didn't realise it had other purposes.

 

If anyone else has more to add that's great, but as far as I'm concerned, this topic has been answered wonderfully :)

 

Thank you :)