LE Merging ESP into parent ESM

[Haptly]

So I have a master file EpicRestoration.esm. It has two child plugins for DLC, EpicRestorationDawnguard.esp and EpicRestorationDragonborn.esp. Those both depend on the ESM master. And it all works! These versions are just groovy.

 

I wanted to make changes to the master, though. So I started a new plugin file, EpicRestoration2.1.esp, and made my changes there. I now want to merge the ESP into the existing ESM. It is very important that the Form IDs in EpicRestoration.ESM do not change, because they need to stay the same for the DLC child plugins to keep working. I want to override existing forms in the ESM with the versions in the 2.1 ESP, and I want to add the new forms in the 2.1 ESP to the ESM.

 

Is that even possible?

 

Tes5edit can let you merge plugins, but that doesn't work when the plugins already have a parent/child relationship (references from the child to the parent get messed up in the resulting merged ESP.)

 

There is apparently a tool called tesv-snip that lets you copy-and-paste forms from one file to another, but basically everywhere says that tool is out-of-date, unsupported, not to be used, etc. So it doesn't seem worth the download.

 

Also, for future reference, is it possible to convert the ESM back into an ESP, edit that ESP, then convert it back to a master? Would doing that have spared me this dilemma?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

-Haptly

[gezegond]

afaik tes5edit does whatever tesv-snip does and more.

 

Also, for future reference, is it possible to convert the ESM back into an ESP, edit that ESP, then convert it back to a master? Would doing that have spared me this dilemma?

Yes. Afaik that's the method everyone uses. iirc in wrye bash you can right click an esp and "esmify" it and vice versa.

 

I haven't used these tools for a while so my memory is a bit hazy...

[MotoSxorpio]

Yes. Its possible.

 

Throw Snip away. Its old. Its Broken and hasn't been updated since I dunno when.

 

Get TES5Edit.

 

Read up on TES5Edit. Records weren't proper in Snip.

[Haptly]

Thank you. I have Tes5Edit, and I've tried using it to merge the ESP and ESM. But when I used the "Deep copy as override into..." option, the resulting .ESP is invalid -- references in the master ESM forms to child ESP stuff don't work. Furthermore, using the "Deep copy as override into..." requires you to change all the Form IDs in both files. I can't do that -- I have other plug-ins that need the Form IDs to remain stable.

[zilav]

http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/2383-installing-the-creation-kit-with-version-control/

[gezegond]

Thank you. I have Tes5Edit, and I've tried using it to merge the ESP and ESM. But when I used the "Deep copy as override into..." option, the resulting .ESP is invalid -- references in the master ESM forms to child ESP stuff don't work. Furthermore, using the "Deep copy as override into..." requires you to change all the Form IDs in both files. I can't do that -- I have other plug-ins that need the Form IDs to remain stable.

 

Have you tried copy pasting forms like you said you would with tesv-snip? I dont remember if it's possible in tes5edit or not.

[Haptly]

http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/2383-installing-the-creation-kit-with-version-control/

 

THANK YOU, zilav. I knew I was missing something big and obvious. Let me see if I can get this to work.

 

Everyone else, thanks for the tips, but the above link is apparently how BethSoft updates the main ESM files, so it ought to work. *whew*

[agerweb]

Or just convert the esm to an esp merge the esps and convert the resulting combined esp back into an esm.

[StupidDunmer]

Yeah, merging them as ESPs is a much easier method, which I am in fact using now for my project. I use TES5Edit for it.