Mods that all add/change the same vendors

[Sabat9]

(title should read add TO/change)

 

I've noticed that a lot of mods coming out which offer new items/spells/whathaveyou for sale are using the same vendors, namely the NPC in Riverwood Trader.

 

I've seen it happen myself, as soon as I'm done with this, i'm gonna go look through my mods and see which one is keeping Midas Magic spells from showing up at the RWT.

 

It would stand to reason then, that unless there is some merge wizardry that Wrye Bash pulls off, that anyone putting out a mod with things for sale should probably just go ahead and make a new vendor for their wares. Placement of these individual vendors could still pose potential problems, but much less than everyone simply piling on the RWT guys.

 

I *think* that using Wrye Bash should solve this problem, but I'm not 100% sure about that, and not everyone is using it these days anyway.

 

Will merging conflicting vendor mods in Wrye Bash solve this problem? What can be done? Won't someone think of the children?

Edited February 17, 2012 by Sabat9

[David Brasher]

To give an example of how this problem works, let's say that there are five cool armor mods. Each one of these mods adds new armor to a certain vendor chest at War Maidens in Whiterun. So does this mean that you get five new kinds of armor in your game? No. You only get one. Only one mod can edit one container. The last mod in the load order wins and gets to edit the contents of the container. These five armor modders should have used a different approach.

 

If modders build a mod where an existing vendor sells new stuff, then I can think of two conflict-free ways to do it. Otherwise they are just asking for trouble and their mods will get broken or will break other people's mods.

 

Approach 1: Put items into a new chest with a new form ID under the floor of the vender's shop. Vender's seem to sell everything that they own if it is in the category of merchandise that they sell. So if you put a new sword in the shop of a blacksmith, he or she will try to sell it to you.

 

Approach 2: Dynamically add the merchandise to the vender or the vender chest. In other words, you use scripting to add the items to the inventories of the vendors.