jackalhead Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 (edited) Don't ask me why I want to do this, but is it possible to somehow directly modify Skyrim.esm so no ESP files are involved? If someone were to do this, would it allow people to play the mod without loading anything up under 'data files'? If one was to do this, would they be able to re-distribute the Skyrim.esm file and let anyone play the new mod without using an ESP file? Edited November 21, 2011 by jackalhead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werne Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Modify .esm directly, yes.Not loading any plugins, yes.Distributing it, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackalhead Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Modify .esm directly, yes.Not loading any plugins, yes.Distributing it, no. Oh. Why can't you distribute it? If say, you gave someone a copy of your modified Skyrim.esm and they dropped that in their Data folder, replacing the old Skyrim.esm, why wouldn't that work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowderdToastMan Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Tampering with the original makes it so that you cant revert back to to original. Its one of the first things you learn regarding making esp's. Messing with the original esm is not a bear you want to poke. You probably wouldnt be able to validate your steam cache after you did it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackalhead Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Tampering with the original makes it so that you cant revert back to to original. Its one of the first things you learn regarding making esp's. Messing with the original esm is not a bear you want to poke. You probably wouldnt be able to validate your steam cache after you did it too. If I just made a backup wouldn't that fix the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Brasher Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Distributing a modified version of the .esm would qualify as piracy and you could get into big trouble. You could modify your .esm for personal use but that would be a difficult and inefficient way to work. In Oblivion modding, the software is all geared towards editing .esp files, and it is more difficult to work with an .esm. So it is easy to make .esps and hard to make .esms. You can create and edit .esm files if you wish, it just takes more steps, more clicks, more keystrokes, more thought, and more cautious attention to detail. The game is also designed so that if you royally foul things up with a bad .esp, you merely remove it and things are fixed again because you have your nice pristine .esm. In my opinion, this is a good system, and it has saved my hide many times. If you change the .esm, at some point things might get royally fouled up, and then your only real recourse will be to scrap your edited .esm and reinstall the unmodded one. It sounds like you think it is a pain having .esp files in your load order or are worried that you will exceed the 250 .esp limit or whatever Skyrim will use. Having .esps in your load order is not such a bad thing, and there are some fairly simple and effective ways to merge .esps to free up more space in your load order for simplicity or to create space for additional mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ocyris Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 You're trying to mod a console version aren't you. Only reason I can think of why you'd want to modify the main ESM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceburg Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I hadn't thought of that Ocyris. I'd assume that modding a console version would void your warrenty, but would it constitute piracy (if he didn't distribute it) / would modding the console be 'bad'?Kind of an interesting train of thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimhsu Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 ESP files are there for a reason. Screwing around with game original content (even to make a total conversion) - easy way to totally bork your install. If you're concerned about too many ESPs, wait until the inevitable Wrye Bash release that will allow you to merge ESPs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorya Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) ESP files are there for a reason. Screwing around with game original content (even to make a total conversion) - easy way to totally bork your install. If you're concerned about too many ESPs, wait until the inevitable Wrye Bash release that will allow you to merge ESPs. I can think of a somewhat valid reason to want to edit the skyrim.esm. Say there's something that you want to remove from Breezehome. In my case the fire pit in the living room. Your esp does this. But for some reason the firewood in the centre of the darn thing still pops up through your living room floor. These objects only appear because something calls them. What could be doing that other than an un-editable file? I'm pretty certain there are no other mods running that affect Breezehome. Edited March 13, 2012 by Shorya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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