Multiple people working on the same mod best practices?

[jgreiner1024]

I'm new to the creation kit modding in general but I'm a long time developer and I am working on a project with several others and I wanted to know what are the best practices when you have multiple people working on the same mod. In the software world you would generate difference files that can be merged into the others version of the mod etc. I found a few merge tools for Skyrim but other than FO4Edit I haven't found much for FO4 and my understanding is that the ESP has changed so that the Skyrim tools won't work (I could be wrong here).

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one working with another on a mod, what do you guys do? how do you handle merging in changes?

[cooleo]

fallout 4 merging tools have not been made yet and f4edit is as good as it gets for now. best bet is to only have one person working on something at a time then hand the files off to the next person.

[Sirropoo]

Im sure I will be coming to this issue not in the to far future ...CK, lets say 2 MOD files loaded, saving wouldnt effectively do a merge ?

 

Ya just popped this up on me so I havent had a lot of time to figure this out ..if this appears to be a noob response ..forgive me.

[jgreiner1024]

Only the file marked as active gets the changes saved to it.

[TurelimVampire]

So if you wanted multiple people working on the same mod, for example one person doing the world space & a couple of others doing interiors, then the interior spaces would have to be separate esps? You can't merge them so they are all the same file?

[m0ds1984]

I don't have specific answers or solutions sorry, just some viewpoints. From what little I know as a new and basic user of creation kit, it's all about one file, one esp, which is one mod file. Something working on at a small scale, doing it like this: He is going to do his part, landscaping. He will then send me the ESP file, of course keeping a backup of his copy. I will then do my part, keep a backup, and send it back to him or send it onto the next person who might do a quest etc.

 

The most recent version will just go from person to person. There is no way we could make 2 individual ones and merge them, at least not for what we're trying to achieve with it, a landscape and a settlement. You could certainly have one that sits on the top of the other, but thats 2 seperate mods to do 1 thing. Merging them together with fo4edit... well I can't get my head around that either, for a start you can't just create a settlement that exists nowhere and can be placed at some location later, it needs to be placed on an actual location etc, which mod merging can't achieve in this instance. Well, more like CK can't - I would HAVE to work with his worldspace mod file to add a settlement. It may be completely different for those making quest mods, or weapons mods etc, that's not my field.

 

(At the bottom of this post I've got a mild solution, where you copy the contents of a non-active file into an active one, which would allow for 2 seperate ESP files to be worked on and later merged perhaps, but even I'm confused thinking about it right now :wink: )

 

Therefore a little bit of pre-planning is needed, knowing what the route ahead is, and we also had to make sure we were loading the right ESM's, for example he has automatron and I don't, and we don't want our mod users all to have to have automatron to use it, a bit of pre-planning allowed us to identify these sorts of issues, so that the "pass the parcel" method would be smooth.

 

Ultimately though, as far as I can tell, it is very much like adding your little bits and passing it onto the next person. As long as you can identify the main/master file and keep backups of other stages of the process, all should be fine. This is my view from very limited experience, I'd be interested to know how the larger mod teams have done it, especially if they've been forced to do it like this, passing it round the circle...!!

 

 

 

one person doing the world space & a couple of others doing interiors, then the interior spaces would have to be separate esps

 

Hmm. This is just a guess, as I say above I *think* pass the parcel is the better solution. But maybe there are workarounds and something more experienced users know about. When I think about it, at a later date, someone could load the worldspace mod as the active file, and the interiors mod but not as active. You could then create (effectively duplicate) whats in the non-active file to the active one, ie copying and pasting the interior cells into it. Presumably... I don't know if the active file then relies on the non-active one, which could get messy.... or some other reason... But that's probably more workload than just being patient for your turn in the pass the parcel method.

Edited August 28, 2016 by m0ds1984

[zilav]

Use Version Control in Creation Kit, search for Skyrim guides.

[greekrage]

I don't have specific answers or solutions sorry, just some viewpoints. From what little I know as a new and basic user of creation kit, it's all about one file, one esp, which is one mod file. Something working on at a small scale, doing it like this: He is going to do his part, landscaping. He will then send me the ESP file, of course keeping a backup of his copy. I will then do my part, keep a backup, and send it back to him or send it onto the next person who might do a quest etc.

 

The most recent version will just go from person to person. There is no way we could make 2 individual ones and merge them, at least not for what we're trying to achieve with it, a landscape and a settlement. You could certainly have one that sits on the top of the other, but thats 2 seperate mods to do 1 thing. Merging them together with fo4edit... well I can't get my head around that either, for a start you can't just create a settlement that exists nowhere and can be placed at some location later, it needs to be placed on an actual location etc, which mod merging can't achieve in this instance. Well, more like CK can't - I would HAVE to work with his worldspace mod file to add a settlement. It may be completely different for those making quest mods, or weapons mods etc, that's not my field.

 

(At the bottom of this post I've got a mild solution, where you copy the contents of a non-active file into an active one, which would allow for 2 seperate ESP files to be worked on and later merged perhaps, but even I'm confused thinking about it right now :wink: )

 

Therefore a little bit of pre-planning is needed, knowing what the route ahead is, and we also had to make sure we were loading the right ESM's, for example he has automatron and I don't, and we don't want our mod users all to have to have automatron to use it, a bit of pre-planning allowed us to identify these sorts of issues, so that the "pass the parcel" method would be smooth.

 

Ultimately though, as far as I can tell, it is very much like adding your little bits and passing it onto the next person. As long as you can identify the main/master file and keep backups of other stages of the process, all should be fine. This is my view from very limited experience, I'd be interested to know how the larger mod teams have done it, especially if they've been forced to do it like this, passing it round the circle...!!

 

 

 

one person doing the world space & a couple of others doing interiors, then the interior spaces would have to be separate esps

 

Hmm. This is just a guess, as I say above I *think* pass the parcel is the better solution. But maybe there are workarounds and something more experienced users know about. When I think about it, at a later date, someone could load the worldspace mod as the active file, and the interiors mod but not as active. You could then create (effectively duplicate) whats in the non-active file to the active one, ie copying and pasting the interior cells into it. Presumably... I don't know if the active file then relies on the non-active one, which could get messy.... or some other reason... But that's probably more workload than just being patient for your turn in the pass the parcel method.

Stuff like landscape and navmeshes should be easy to copy over ... I think this goes for most files but i think the key is what has to be done first / after etc... in other words a priority list so you dont have someone building a house for example on a terrain/surface that will be altered..... Still i think it all can be merged if someone that KNOWS what hes doing handles it.... Its not a simple mater of moving a file but to move the files it needs as well (references/dependencies etc... ).

Im not even close to being any kind of expert but working with CK the last few weeks i see how some things work so thats why commented...... If im wrong dont shoot me... :tongue:

Edited August 29, 2016 by greekrage