Merging Compatibility List.

[rukenninjai]

Anyone out there who is slick when it comes to merging mods, have you guys ever thought about putting together a compatibility list of mods that can be merged. I know the basics and can merge some smaller mods. But seeing as my maxed out 255 mods really are not causing any load issues or major time delays a list would really help those of us who don't have the time to really sit down and get the hang of merging mods. I understand some mods will always have to stand alone. But still, it would be nice. The Race season is hear and I have absolutely no time travailing for work. Ill be at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) next week and as it sits right now I maybe get to game every couple of weeks.

[Greslin]

If you want to merge mods, you'll have to spend the time to merge the mods. Here's what I do.

 

First, use FO4Edit to identify how impactful each one is. Forget trying to merge the big overhauls and ESM masters. Instead, focus on the small mods and the ones that don't tend to have lots of dependencies:

 

1. Game settings mods. A huge number of mods do nothing other than change a few game setting values. They can be merged easily.

 

2. Weapons and armor. When my list starts getting long, it's usually because I have 20-30 separate gun and armor items in there. Since most (if not all) of them simply add new records to the game, they can also be merged pretty easily. Sometimes I have to unpack a few BA2s into loose texture files, but that's usually it.

 

3. Mods that patch themselves. A lot of mods (such as Legendary Modifications) include a core ESP and then supplementary patches that make small changes to the core. Use FO4Edit to make the patch changes in the core file itself, then ditch the patches.

 

I use the Merge Plugins script for FO4Edit to do merges. I know some people prefer the standalone utility, but the script has always worked better for me personally, so that's what I use.

 

As I start merging mods, I create sets of "PACK" and "PATCH" ESP files, named like this:

 

PACK - Weapons.esp

PACK - Armor.esp

PATCH - Weapons.esp

PATCH - Armor.esp

 

etc. with the PACKs loaded high in the order and the PATCH ones at the very end of the order. The PACK files are the merged archives of my past included mods, and the PATCH files are the final conflict reconciliations.

 

Doing this, I've never run out of slots. You have to become very familiar with using FO4Edit, but if you want a stable modded game, that's a skill you're going to need anyway.

[rukenninjai]

If you want to merge mods, you'll have to spend the time to merge the mods. Here's what I do.

 

First, use FO4Edit to identify how impactful each one is. Forget trying to merge the big overhauls and ESM masters. Instead, focus on the small mods and the ones that don't tend to have lots of dependencies:

 

1. Game settings mods. A huge number of mods do nothing other than change a few game setting values. They can be merged easily.

 

2. Weapons and armor. When my list starts getting long, it's usually because I have 20-30 separate gun and armor items in there. Since most (if not all) of them simply add new records to the game, they can also be merged pretty easily. Sometimes I have to unpack a few BA2s into loose texture files, but that's usually it.

 

3. Mods that patch themselves. A lot of mods (such as Legendary Modifications) include a core ESP and then supplementary patches that make small changes to the core. Use FO4Edit to make the patch changes in the core file itself, then ditch the patches.

 

I use the Merge Plugins script for FO4Edit to do merges. I know some people prefer the standalone utility, but the script has always worked better for me personally, so that's what I use.

 

As I start merging mods, I create sets of "PACK" and "PATCH" ESP files, named like this:

 

PACK - Weapons.esp

PACK - Armor.esp

PATCH - Weapons.esp

PATCH - Armor.esp

 

etc. with the PACKs loaded high in the order and the PATCH ones at the very end of the order. The PACK files are the merged archives of my past included mods, and the PATCH files are the final conflict reconciliations.

 

Doing this, I've never run out of slots. You have to become very familiar with using FO4Edit, but if you want a stable modded game, that's a skill you're going to need anyway.

 

Thats what I've been doing still i've had issues. One question I have, lets say I want to merge two Armor mods.

 

Armor one requires fallout4.esm

Armor two requires that plus armorsmith.esm

 

can those two mods be merged or should I only stick to mods that have the exact same dependence. And lets say Armor two also has a compatibility patch for AWKCR can it be merged or is that a no? Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help.

[diskdevl]

From what I've seen you shouldn't have an issues merging in the patches too. Example from my merged armor pack :

 

HN66-SiriusArmor.esp

GlovesOfTheCommonwealth.esp

Gloves of the Commonwealth - AWKCR Patch.esp

WestTekTacticalOptics.esp

WestTekTacticalOptics-AWKCR.esp

Jagimet.esp

MTM-NukaVimPowerArmorPaint.esp

ValdacilsItemSorting - West Tek Tactical Optics.esp

I absolutely second Grelin's comment about collecting things up into like packs though. Not only does it make things easier to keep track of but the merges stay a lot cleaner.

Since I find myself doing a fair bit of updating I also tag the mod names in Mod Organizer with what merge I've put that mod into, that way I can reselect the component mods pretty easily when doing a rebuild - don't know if that's needed when doing merges using FO4edit though (since I use the MergePlugins utility).

Example collections I've got so far:

Merged - Vivid Weathers

Merged - WIPAG

Merged - Weapons

Merged - Fixes and Tweaks

Merged - Crafting

Merged - Clothing

Merged - Armor

Merged - Sim Settlement addons

Good luck !

[Greslin]

 

Thats what I've been doing still i've had issues. One question I have, lets say I want to merge two Armor mods.

 

Armor one requires fallout4.esm

Armor two requires that plus armorsmith.esm

 

can those two mods be merged or should I only stick to mods that have the exact same dependence. And lets say Armor two also has a compatibility patch for AWKCR can it be merged or is that a no? Thank you in advance, I appreciate the help.

 

 

Dependencies usually won't be an issue. And usually compatibility patches merge fine, but I always look them over in FO4Edit first. If they just overwrite mod records rather than add new ones, I tend to leave them out of the merge and just change the merged records by hand in FO4Edit.

 

As I said, I use the Merge Plugins xEdit script because it's always given me the results I wanted. Whether you use the script or the standalone utility, just make sure that you're creating a NEW merge file, and not attempting to merge ESPs into a preexisting merge file. Like if you were merging the following:

 

Armor Mod 1.esp

Armor Mod 2.esp

PACK - My Armor Mods.esp

 

You should merge the three and create a fourth file - say, "PACK - Armor Mods 2.esp" - rather than trying to simply put the first two files into the third. Less chance of record corruption that way. Then just rename the final merge file and go.

 

And don't even bother trying to merge mods without the MP script/tool. Just don't. Trust me, you'll botch it and pull your hair out.

 

One issue that you are bound to run into from time to time, especially with weapon and armor mods, is that many of them bundle their assets (meshes, textures, scripts, etc.) into BA2 archives rather than as a collection of loose files. When you merge those ESPs, the game will longer be able to find the support data (because the BA2 base filename must match that of the ESP), and that causes trouble.

 

So if you're merging mods that have BA2s, you must either combine the BA2s into new archives or unpack them into loose files. I almost always do the latter, mainly because I'm lazy about that stuff.

[rukenninjai]

Some good information here guys, its defiantly a lot more precise then what I have seen and read in the tutorials. I got the basic understanding of it in the tutorials but a lot of the info inst as clear as I would like it to be. Ill keep plugging away in my free time maybe eventually Ill get them knocked down. What I would eventually like to do is clean up everything. I have done a pretty good job at keeping all my mods and files organized but man. After a while it gets harder to keep everything neat.