toddkay Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) I have just finished my first mod (of many) with the Creation Kit and would like to publish my mods here on Nexus in addition to the Workshop. This mod includes a bunch of new (unique) NIFs and edits to some merchants & merchant chests using the CK. I know I need to ZIP up a package of various files for Nexus, but I am unclear exactly which. Can I just upload my new .BSA? Or does it need the .ESP and raw, loose Data files? I see Nexus has a "Mod Manager" option also - do I need to prepare an alternative package for this method? I apologize if this has been covered; I checked all stickies and did various searches, but could not turn up finite info. Surely there is a help topic about this somewhere, but I seem to have overlooked it. I found this uploading tutorial but am not sure if it applies exactly to mods created using the new Creation Kit. Thanks a lot guys, I just want to make sure I am doing it correctly and in the manner which the community prefers. Edited February 14, 2012 by toddkay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elricshan Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 the most normal thing to do is an esp mesh and texures in a z-zip package to this is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddkay Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks, So is the .BSA proprietary to the CK? I see it was created in my Data directory when I uploaded the mod to Workshop. Is it not recommended to share it here? I also see a .BSL and .CKM file were created upon Workshop upload. Are they just data files for my own CK editing usage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 The BSA format is really not good for people who are trying to keep their mods as compatible as possible. It presents a whole range of bad issues. The tutorial you linked is still relevant to Skyrim (as far as I know) and the preferred packaging method for mods uploaded to the Nexus is to zip, 7zip or rar up your loose files (and not the BSA) along with any .esp. Ensure you retain the folder structure and it will work with NMM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnie Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 (edited) I prefer to zip up the esp and the BSA that goes with it over loose files (meshes/textures/scripts/other assets) since it makes it hella easier to remove the mod by just disabling and removing 2 files. No loose files to try and figure out if they need deleted or not. Edit: Of course that is for stand alone assets. If you are doing mesh/texture overrides then loose files are best. Edited February 14, 2012 by Sunnie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddkay Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 The BSA format is really not good for people who are trying to keep their mods as compatible as possible. It presents a whole range of bad issues. The tutorial you linked is still relevant to Skyrim (as far as I know) and the preferred packaging method for mods uploaded to the Nexus is to zip, 7zip or rar up your loose files (and not the BSA) along with any .esp. Ensure you retain the folder structure and it will work with NMM! Awesome Dark0ne, thanks a lot your info and also thank you for this great community! I am a first time TES modder but have a long history of GTA and Sims 2 modding. It has been about 4 years since I have done any game modding though and am excited to get back into it with Skyrim. This Nexus community seems a bit more "savvy" (if that is the word I am looking for) than the Bethesda forums, so I will surely be contributing here as much as I can. So far I have just edited some existing NIFs, but my next goal is to get some of my own 3D models into the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Good luck! :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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