Warning on installing too many crafting/settlement building mods

[eldiabs]

Pretty sure it's well known by now that there are conflicts with the more popular settlement building mods reaching a limit with categories, and parts of those mods menus missing or completely non-functional due to that limit being reached.

Turns out, this limit is also tied to any mods that add menus to the crafting stations (or add new crafting stations) as well. Keep this in mind when deciding which mods you wish to keep. The two biggest menu adding mods from my tests are crafting workbenches and alternate settlement. Not the fault of the modders, but those two mods create a ton of new menus/categories. If you wish to use them with just about any other menu/category adding mod, be it via crafting stations or settlement building, load them last. This is also a great way to test if you've reached the menu limit. If those mods don't work, or are missing menus/categories, you've reached the limit.

Just a heads up for anyone trying to work on fixing their load order. I finally figured this out this morning. Consider crafting station and settlement building mods together when troubleshooting.

[SkunkMonkey]

I've actually got several mods that modify the Workshop menu and haven't run into any limits. Of course, I create my own merged patch for the menus so they aren't overwriting each other, but I've got tons of stuff in my workshop menu. I don't think the issue is as much about limits than it is about mods overwriting each others workshop menu changes.

[eldiabs]

You'll hit it eventually. Merged patch or not. As a test, install homemaker, greenhouse, PX farming, crafting stations, robot home defence, crafting stations, reloading workbenches, and alternate settlements. That should be enough to do the trick.

 

And it's not just the workshop menu. The crafting station menu limit is tied into the settlement workshop menu limit. This is what I'm posting about. The workshop menu limit is a well known issue amongst the people making the more popular settlement building mods already. What may not be known just yet is there is a link between crafting stations and the workshop menus/categories.

[eldiabs]

Wanted to update this for anyone having menu limit issues. Hell...not sure if this is even going to get read much by anyone having issues. Most people will probably just blame modders on their pages...or make silly demands. That's probably not a good idea...

To sum things up from what I think we've all learned these past few days:

- esp "Blockers" do not work, they only block the menu out of the workshop, but the keyword still remains, and takes its number in the que. No point using them.

- There is a very real limit of some type on keywords...or menus that use keywords...or whatever the hell that is.

- If you're going to go all crazy with workshop and crafting mods, always load workshop mods first, then crafting mods after (do this one mod at a time until you hit the limit, adjust from there). This is because crafting stations/mods take the menu hit with some dignity and just default to whatever the last workshop menu is that hits this 'limit'.

- There most likely is not a tier system involved with the menu system. Seems to all count towards that same 'limit', regardless of how the menus are structured by the modders. (still testing this, but I'm pretty sure it's what is happening)

Users can mitigate their issues by proper load orders and using the correct merged patches (or creating their own), and just finding a happy middle ground between the menu limit and what they enjoy the most. Modders can minimize some issues by reducing the number of menus/categories/keywords/whatever the hell to make more room for other mods. Obviously I'm not asking this. mcface already did that with the last update of OCDecorator and it released 32 spots. I'm sure homemaker and AS, and all of the crafting mods could probably do this to one degree or another. If they so chose. But that's already being done from what I've read recently.

[psykoticspoon0]

I read.

I thanks.

 

I understand the need to be organized, but I dont understand why they cant just throw their stuff in existing categories? Hardened Prefab? Throw it in Metal Prefabs. A greenhouse? Throw it in wood prefabs. Plantable crops? Already got a tab for that. Multiple workbenches? Put em all in the crafting tab.

 

But I dont really know anything, just my two cents.

[eldiabs]

psykoticspoon0 - You can move their stuff into existing categories. FO4Edit is pretty easy to learn. I picked it up and figured out a great deal in less than two hours of reading. Someone spent a very long time explaining how to use that program in their in depth tutorials. Everything from modding to mod conflict resolution. It's absolutely doable. In fact, it's probably the only way(currently) to get all of the more popular workshop and crafting mods working properly with one another. But let's be honest, practically no one is going to do it themselves. They expect it to be done for them. It's not the responsibility of the modders, not even a little. They've all put way too many hours into building their own menu trees. And they work just fine if used correctly. Compromises have to be made, but they work.

Hell, from what I've seen, most people can't even figure out how load orders and conflict resolution works. No different from the bethesda games before. Won't be any different with Fallout 4. ;]

[aabret]

psykoticspoon0 - You can move their stuff into existing categories. FO4Edit is pretty easy to learn. I picked it up and figured out a great deal in less than two hours of reading. Someone spent a very long time explaining how to use that program in their in depth tutorials. Everything from modding to mod conflict resolution. It's absolutely doable. In fact, it's probably the only way(currently) to get all of the more popular workshop and crafting mods working properly with one another. But let's be honest, practically no one is going to do it themselves. They expect it to be done for them. It's not the responsibility of the modders, not even a little. They've all put way too many hours into building their own menu trees. And they work just fine if used correctly. Compromises have to be made, but they work.

Hell, from what I've seen, most people can't even figure out how load orders and conflict resolution works. No different from the bethesda games before. Won't be any different with Fallout 4. ;]

since you know how to move stuff into existing menus in FO4Edit can you pls either tell me or point me to a read up thats posted on how to thanks

[czarinavella]

 

psykoticspoon0 - You can move their stuff into existing categories. FO4Edit is pretty easy to learn. I picked it up and figured out a great deal in less than two hours of reading. Someone spent a very long time explaining how to use that program in their in depth tutorials. Everything from modding to mod conflict resolution. It's absolutely doable. In fact, it's probably the only way(currently) to get all of the more popular workshop and crafting mods working properly with one another. But let's be honest, practically no one is going to do it themselves. They expect it to be done for them. It's not the responsibility of the modders, not even a little. They've all put way too many hours into building their own menu trees. And they work just fine if used correctly. Compromises have to be made, but they work.

Hell, from what I've seen, most people can't even figure out how load orders and conflict resolution works. No different from the bethesda games before. Won't be any different with Fallout 4. ;]

since you know how to move stuff into existing menus in FO4Edit can you pls either tell me or point me to a read up thats posted on how to thanks

 

I know this is an old thread but I would like to know this too, I have been looking around and being new struggling on finding just what I am looking for. but this is absolutely it.

[wax2k]

The issue is not that big of a deal anymore, since with the releases of Settlement Keywords and the latest Armor Keywords, an expanded standard set of categories is provided and most of the bigger settlement mods already require it or provide full port patches.

 

- Settlement Keywords 0.8

- Homemaker 1.32e (+ SK patch)

- Snap 'n Build 1.5 (plus the separate SK patch overwriting the .esm. Don't enable the .esp files)

- OCDecorator 1.05 (choosing the SK framework version when installing)

- Alternate Settlements 1.2 (fully incorporating SK)

- NX Pro Farming 1.65.4 (fully incorporating SK)

- Expanded Settlement Buildings 1.5 (uncategorized version)

- Atom Bomb Paintings 4.0 (SK version)

 

and any other workshop mod that either incorporates SK or only uses vanilla categories work fine together and don't hit the category cap anymore.

 

AWKCR, Crafting Workbenches and Armorsmith Extended provide a similar approach on crafting mods. Consult Gambit77s advice on load order in his post on Armorsmith Extended.

Edited January 26, 2016 by wax2k