Is it possible to append files instead of overwriting?

[xaosbob]

While I have not done any Fallout/Oblivion modding, I have been active in modding communities since the late 90s. I started with FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures), dabbled a tiny bit in the original Fallout games, did quite a bit with the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, BG2, but not Planescape: Torment or IWD2) and some with Neverwinter Nights (1). I've always been hugely active with using mods, but I'm usually late to the party with actually making mods, partly because using the mods teaches me a lot of what I need to know about making them.

 

So it is with Fallout 3. Now that New Vegas has been released, of course this is when the modding bug bites. Naturally, I have questions, but hopefully they aren't your standard "WHY R THERE BIG QUESTION MARKZ AND WHY DO I ALWAYS CTD WHEN USING x MODS" sort of noobishness. I have searched for answers to these, have found none, so here I am.

 

So much preamble, but necessary.

 

With Infinity Engine modding, Westley Weimer (online name) created a tool called WeiDU. What this tool does is append modded data onto game files rather than overwrite them. This means that multiple mods can conceivably affect different aspects of the same in-game resource without conflicting. Thus, if a vanilla magic sword is modded for additional damage by one mod, its icon is changed by another and its location is changed by a third, if you load all three mods, they will append their variant information onto (a copy of) the original item resource without overwriting one another, and you have a more powerful sword with a cool icon to be found in the hands of a bad guy instead of in a barrel in town (ugh, the barrels...). If two mods altered the same aspect of a resource, of course, the last one installed would overwrite that info from any previous, but if they changed different things, they would play nice.

 

Studying FO3 mods, their compatibility issues and solutions, looking them over in FO3Edit (and fiddling with them--that's why I got the modding bug, honestly), it seems a huge number of compatibility and stability issues could be solved if there was a way to append modded files instead of overwriting them. Is this even feasible? Is the structure of the file such that it can only be a certain size or contain certain components?

[BadPenney]

So much preamble, but necessary. (not really)

 

Studying FO3 mods, their compatibility issues and solutions, looking them over in FO3Edit (and fiddling with them--that's why I got the modding bug, honestly), it seems a huge number of compatibility and stability issues could be solved if there was a way to append modded files instead of overwriting them. Is this even feasible? Is the structure of the file such that it can only be a certain size or contain certain components?

Sometimes you just have to think inside the box. A jet engine is similar to a steam turbine but the parts are not interchangeable. There are mods that change the same weapon in different ways that are less magical in appearance than what you describe. For instance: start with an assault rifle and add modular components like a scope, flash suppressor, extended ammo clip, etc.

 

So the answer is probably yes and no. No, you can't do the same thing, but yes, you can do something similar. Item IDs are an issue in FO3. I don't know if the programs that you are used to operate in the same way. The people who could answer your question the best would likely be involved with FOIP (Fallout Inter-Operability Program). They make different popular weapon mods co-exist.

[xaosbob]

So the answer is probably yes and no. No, you can't do the same thing, but yes, you can do something similar. Item IDs are an issue in FO3. I don't know if the programs that you are used to operate in the same way. The people who could answer your question the best would likely be involved with FOIP (Fallout Inter-Operability Program). They make different popular weapon mods co-exist.

 

That sounds like a good place to start. Thanks for the reply, BP. :)

 

 

Oh, and the preamble was necessary. Explaining my experience with modding assures that whoever responds is on the same page--like an IT rep, the first response to someone calling with a computer problem is usually "Is it plugged in?" because too often, that does fix the problem. When it comes to modding, I'm not that caller, but there's no way to know that unless I say it outright.

 

And yes, when I talk to IT, I do the same thing. ;)