Managing a mod with multiple authors.

[devinpatterson]

I'm working with a western theme amusement park. We have several authors and I am trying to think of a way we can integrate changes into the mod. Here is what I'v posted so far for the group;

 

On the practical side of things I'm looking into ways to allow us all to begin actual work in the geck. I'm exploring a few different ideas.

1. a ESM plus ESP. We make a ESM with the world space (Sunset Valley) then everyone can work on their own esp's with the esp's pointing toward the master ESM.

2. A deep record merger using FNV. to combine 1 or more esp's into one.

3. Manually. everyone does their own ESP's and I copy them into a main esp or esm, then I upload it to the project page periodically and everyone else downloads it with the new changes and we go in cycles.

 

None of these seem like ideal situations and I was hoping someone would have some advice

[viking99]

a very usefull question for all of us I vote that this one should be pinned in the forums. everyone that shares my opinion post your comment here!

[Quetzlsacatanango]

You probably want to do 1, with some coordination to make sure peoples' esps don't step on each other.

Then, at intervals or when certain plugins are ready, merge them into the esm with the tool of your choice. Repeat until finished.

[rickerhk]

Item 1 - esm plus esp's in cycles. Each esp has a name based on the developer.

a. Everyone should be working on different parts of the mod.

b. Periodically, everyone uploads their esp to you and they stop working.

c. You open the esm and all the uploaded esps in FNVEdit.

d. You first check for conflicts/overrides/dirty edits between in the esps and resolve those first.

e. You merge their esp's UP into the esm using FNVedit

d. Discard the esps, put the new esm for download

e. Developers start with a new, blank esp, and a cleaned save game - since the formIDs from their esps are changed and in a different plugin now.

f. Rinse, repeat.

[drakeelvin]

I'm new to modding but I don't think Nexus can share endorsements and kudos to a whole group of developers for one big mod? Would be nice if it could.