Form/item ID's - how to know what is safe to use?

[Nikonthenet]

I'm looking at creating my first standalone mod...uff, the path ahead feels overwhelming atm :D

 

So my current conundrum is how to choose a FormID? (FormID is the same as Item ID, right?)

 

With all the mods being created, what happens when two modders choose the same FormID?

 

Is there a system to it?

[JJ2198]

Each mod uses a different number at the beginning of a formID, which is why all formIDs for the base game start with 00, the next one will have 01 etc. Not sure what mods above 100 are though, possibly just skips 100, as thats the same as 10.

[Nikonthenet]

Thanks for the reply :)

[Tallon314]

Not sure what mods above 100 are though, possibly just skips 100, as thats the same as 10.

 

FormIDs are in Hexidecimal, (rather than Base 10) so the digits can be: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.

 

There are 256 combinations from 00 to FF, (i.e. 01, 02... 1A, 1B... B9, BA... etc.)

 

This is why there is a hard limit of 255 plugins for Bethesda Games (since the Fallout 4 ESM takes up the 00 address).

 

Edited December 30, 2015 by Tallon314

[JJ2198]

Right, I guess it just completely skipped my mind that formIDs use letters as well.

[hlp]

No relative form ID you create should be less that XX000800 (or 2048 decimal). Those are reserved and will break things.

[th3t3rr1bl30n3]

A common practice in the past has been to include an abbreviation of the mod name and the item you're creating. If you were creating a weapon you might name the id something like

 

ModnameWeaponname

or

Modname_Weaponname