Making a mod patch?

[Kasdar]

I was wondering how one goes about making one mod compaitble with another via a patch mod. How do you make an esp a master for another esp?

[deu58]

Most people use FNVedit.

 

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=248639

 

Here is a link to the Nexus thread where they are talking about this very thing you are asking about. Apparently there have been some problems of late and some folks have found work arounds.

[Kasdar]

As I can tell from that page people have been having problems with the master update with the merged patch. I am not asking about a merged patch, I am talking about adding content to an esp mod without actually editing the esp itself. i.e creating a mod in the geck using an esp as a master. I understand that I will probably have to do something to the esp I am using as a master, however I need to know exactly what I need to do, how to reverse it, and I found no information in that thread. Edited May 9, 2011 by Kasdar

[tunaisafish]

One way to do it...

 

Open FOMM

Right click your slave mod and choose TESsnip

Choose Edit->AddMaster (then select the esp you wish to link to)

Edit->Save

 

Now go to GECK and choose the slave mod as your active file. The masters will be loaded automatically.

So now your 2 esp's will both need to be loaded ingame. Supply load order notes to users that the master esp comes first.

 

EDIT:

@deu58

lol we appear to be ninja'ing eachother.

I just noticed totaoy you ninj'd me in another thread yesterday. So my turn today ;)

 

@Kasdar

You also asked how to reverse the op.

To be honest I'd think it best to keep a pre-linkage slave esp around.

 

Once you edit the slave.esp with links to the master.esp then you'd have to keep a track of what you edited that depends on the master.

You can simply open the slave.esp with FNVEdit and delete the master from the header section. which will leave invalid links around. If you then open the slave in GECK it will silently remove *most* of these (formlist entries etc.), but your linked scripts will no longer compile.

Edited May 9, 2011 by tunaisafish

[deu58]

From all that I have read on this you have to convert the esp itself to a master then select the master in geck and make a new esp. There are ways to switch them back and forth editing one or the other but I have never had any reason to do it myself at least yet. Making the esp a master then edit then switch it back but again this involves using FNVedit. Are you familiar with the FNVedit manual that is available here on Nexus? It is like 90 detailed pages in PDF and I do recall them covering a esp/esm switching/editing process that seems to fit what you are trying do.

 

I do not know if there is manual way to do the switching I have never seen any info on that topic.

[deu58]

One way to do it...

 

EDIT:

@deu58

lol we appear to be ninja'ing eachother.

I just noticed totaoy you ninj'd me in another thread yesterday. So my turn today, :)

 

 

I have been working on a bunch of new Ninja weapons for my mod and I have chosen you as my test subject. :)

 

No problem I always learn something from your posts:)

 

I have always been under the understanding that there is only esp and esm. Are you saying that there is away to make a third type of file that is both an esp and a master at the same time? I know that does not sound very clear but it is the best way I can express my question at my current knowledge level. :) I do know that one esp can be setup to call more than one master I thought about the TESnip but I have only used it to look at various mods but never to edit.

Edited May 9, 2011 by deu58

[Kasdar]

Thank you to both of you, I was thinking I had to do it something like deu58 was describing, but the way tunaisafish described it is exactly what I was looking for. Now to create the slave starter do I just create a blank esp in the geck first then use TESsnip to make the other files it's master, then open the slave in the geck and start modding? Edited May 9, 2011 by Kasdar

[deu58]

but the way tunaisafish described it is exactly what I was looking for. Now to create the slave starter do I just create a blank esp in the geck first then use TESsnip to make the other files it's master, then open the slave in the geck and start modding?

 

When it is all done I would be very interested in how you did it if you do not mind posting it up. I may have to do something similar in the near future myself. My actual downloadable mod here does not have any new content but the expansion of that mod I am working is taking on a life of its own. I am already thinking that I may have screwed up by not making the original esp a master and then just adding plugs for all the other changes I am making. I am moving into a lot of modding areas that I have never worked in before so many things I do not know yet either. There is a serious lack of advanced tutorials available it seems. Almost every tut I see only covers the very basics of most things or links to the TES4 wiki.

[tunaisafish]

Now to create the slave starter do I just create a blank esp in the geck first then use TESsnip to make the other files it's master, then open the slave in the geck and start modding?

 

Yep, you got it :thumbsup:

 

I have always been under the understanding that there is only esp and esm. Are you saying that there is away to make a third type of file that is both an esp and a master at the same time? I know that does not sound very clear but it is the best way I can express my question at my current knowledge level.

 

A file *can* have the 'esp' extention and also have the master flag set, but that's not what we are doing here.

FNVMasterUpdate uses that technique. The master flag is needed to make things like navmeshes work correctly.

But FNVMasterUpdate can also break mods (My Sortomatic-AWOP breaks). I believe this is because a flagged-master cannot overide references in another master.

 

I'll try to explain what is happening when you add another file to the Master List.

Say your patchmod has a header linked your your mainmod and foreignmod (by another modder)

The patchmod header is a lookup table (These could just as easily be named *.esm - that's not important)

A = mainmod.esp

B = foreignmod.esp

 

When you edit your patchmod with a link to an editorID in one of the masters, then only the last 6 characters of the EditorID are stored, together with the index in the lookup table.

A,12346

 

When the game loads, all the esm's and esp files have their first 2 digits replaced. So we have another lookup table here.

Depending on load-order mainmod.esp and foreinmod.esp will have all their first 2 digits replaced. (Lets say this is 05 and 0A respectively)

 

So using the 2 lookup tables...

A, 123456 => mainmod.esp, 123456 => 05, 123456

 

So whether the file in the master list actually has the master flag set or not is unimportant.

 

Hope that makes sense :)

[deu58]

Hope that makes sense :)

 

 

It makes enough sense that I can play around with it and get a better understanding of it on my own now. I will down load all this to my little desktop WIKI file and experiment later. Thanks for taking the time to lay it all out for me :)

Edited May 9, 2011 by deu58