DLC Cleaning xEdit

[Tulsa299]

Hey guys, LOOT is just refusing to work for me, I don't need it but I need to know which files need cleaning, particularly the DLC & FO3 DLC (For TTW).

Could someone post a list of the esms that need cleaning?

Thank you :)

[dubiousintent]

The recommendation of the experienced modders and people who develop the tools like xEdit is "don't clean the vanilla ESMs" in FNV. That cleaning advice is a hold-over from earlier games.

 

And if you can't get LOOT to work for you, you have other problems. Might want to work on that first.

 

-Dubious-

Edited August 20, 2017 by dubiousintent

[Tulsa299]

Hmm, I did not know that, would that apply to FO3?
As for LOOT, I can't figure out why it won't work and it's pretty much useless to me so unless I really need it, I'll leave it be.

Thank you.

[dubiousintent]

The internet is full of mixed advice, and it varies over time. We know more now than back in 2010. The argument is that it should be the responsibility of the mod author to clean a plugin, as they presumably know what needs to be there for their mod to work correctly. By the time of FO3 and FNV, the "dirty edits" and ITMs/UDRs in mods were well known to be an issue. Any present in the DLCs presumably are either necessary or harmless. So, as a general rule the advice is to leave the vanilla and DLC master files for both games alone unless you have very specific reasons for doing otherwise. BOSS and LOOT are based on user reports of what they found. The mere fact that ITM/UDR records exist is not a reason to clean them out.

The "Tales of Two Wastelands" (TTW) team has had to look into the matter in order to get FO3 to run on the FNV game engine. Their FAQ page has the following:

» I read everywhere that we should clean Skyrim core files (.esm & .esp), so by association I decided to do the same to my Fallout games, did I do the right thing?
I am sorry, but you did the wrong thing. Fallout is not Skyrim, and so not everything that works for one also works for the other, they don't even use the same game engine. If you clean the Fallout 3 and/or Fallout New Vegas and/or their DLC's you will break your game since you are removing things that are necessary things that fix things in other things and make things run properly.

I accept and follow their advice on the matter.

-Dubious-

Edited August 20, 2017 by dubiousintent

[Ladez]

It's quite simple, really: if you don't know what a record is doing in a plugin, leave it alone.

[Tulsa299]

I've been working off of the idea that cleaning the DLCs was common practice for Skyrim & FOx.

Thank you for clearing that up.

And Ladez, where is the fun in that.