New .esl format

[JonathanOstrus]

I have 255 plugins plus 5 or so esl files and they still all fall in the FE slot.

As for order, the game reads them as a master so they will load with the esm files near the begining of the order.

From what i have seen patches for esl files will work but tbeg count as an esp and will take a slot. I do not know if you can make a patch for an esl file tbat is itself an esl file. Might try that tonight.

 

Yes making an esl that patches another esl or patches an esm and an esl works. You just can't patch against esps since they load before any esps.

[Caladon]

I have created a Guide to ESL files on the Nexus here Caladons Guide to ESL Files that explains where to get a Version of Nexus Mod Manager 0.63.17 that is ESL compatible, as well as some general rules to creating, installing and activating custom ESL files. Be Aware there is a known issue with NMM 0.63.17 that if you have ANY Creation Club ESL files active in your load order you will not be able to adjust the Load Order in that Version of NMM. This is because CC ESLs are flagged as Master Files, but Custom ESLs created in the Creation Kit are not. As a Work Around, I have both versions installed to separate folders and both are configured to use the same Mod Storage Folders. I use the Official NMM 0.63.14 to adjust the Load Order of my ESP's, and then I Install new mods, Activate ESLs, and Deactivate their matching ESPs, and launch the game using 0.63.17 as it will not disable the Custom ESL files. I currently have 17 Custom ESLs, 3 CC ESLs and 251 ESPs active for a total of 269 Active Plugins ( the CC ESLs don't count in this list ). Creation of custom ESLs is best for small mods that use their own assets such as Armor or Weapon mods.

[JonathanOstrus]

Interesting find and good to know. I had done the original preliminary esl support which has since been expanded on largely. I hadn't tested the latest commits with CC content myself and wasn't aware of the inability to sort if CC esls were present. I don't have any since they're all pretty "meh" IMO. But that's just me. Hopefully someone with more time than me gets to revisit the code base to check into that. I'm not sure why it would be disabling sorting if CC esls are there.

 

Edit: I actually see the problem in the source. I'm just not sure yet how to solve it. The problem came up because I originally had the CC ESLs being put directly after ESMs but before custom ESLs. The new way it does it is it puts the CC ESLs before ESMs which causes the logic I put in to fail and mark the load order invalid from the start. Removing that check allows it to work correctly for the most part but also allows changing the load order of the unmanaged DLCs and CC ESLs which shouldn't be possible. I'm not familiar enough with the code to start throwing in a bunch of other checks and adding in more template structure. This may be something we need to wait on duskdweller to look at.

Edited November 4, 2017 by BigAndFlabby

[pra]

I have a really stupid question: Somewhere I heard that ESLs cannot be updated. The quesiton is: what does it mean? Will the CK refuse to save ESLs back as ESLs? Do you have to keep the original ESP, and convert it to ESL anew each time you make an update? Is converting to ESL non-deterministic, so that you end up with different formIDs each time?

TL;DR how do I make a new version of an ESL I made once?

 

Also, is Fo4Edit capable of editing ESLs?

[bill8872]

I have a really stupid question: Somewhere I heard that ESLs cannot be updated. The quesiton is: what does it mean? Will the CK refuse to save ESLs back as ESLs? Do you have to keep the original ESP, and convert it to ESL anew each time you make an update? Is converting to ESL non-deterministic, so that you end up with different formIDs each time?

TL;DR how do I make a new version of an ESL I made once?

 

Also, is Fo4Edit capable of editing ESLs?

From my experience with .esl's is they can not be updated like .esp's, and compressing the .esp first makes it so the Creation Kit, or Fo4Edit are unable to open the .esp. So you do need to save the old esp.

 

Fo4Edit will not load an .esl. I have tried, and Fo4Edit just hangs up on any .esl. If I had to guess on this one, it is due to the fact that .esl's are not assigned a load order number.

Edited December 23, 2017 by bill8872

[chucksteel]

if you've lost the original .esp or you want to edit a CC .esl just change the file extension from .esl back to .esp and xEdit and the ckit will both be able to edit and save them.

[wim95]

Also, is Fo4Edit capable of editing ESLs?

Download [sSE/FO4] CC club support (ESL plugins)

[JonathanOstrus]

I have a really stupid question: Somewhere I heard that ESLs cannot be updated. The quesiton is: what does it mean? Will the CK refuse to save ESLs back as ESLs? Do you have to keep the original ESP, and convert it to ESL anew each time you make an update? Is converting to ESL non-deterministic, so that you end up with different formIDs each time?

TL;DR how do I make a new version of an ESL I made once?

 

Also, is Fo4Edit capable of editing ESLs?

 

The ESL file itself is not intended to be updated. You as a mod author are supposed to edit in an ESP, then convert that to ESL for publishing. If you're the mod user then you're not expected to screw with it.

 

There is a tool in CK file menu to "Compact Active File Form IDs". It is not absolutely required to compact the Form IDs as long as the internal numbers don't go above the threshold for what an ESL supports, which is ~4k records.This should be done after the initial editing of the plugin as ESP and saved before the first export to an ESL. It may not be necessary to repeat the compact procedure on further editing (there are exceptions). If CK allows you to convert to ESL without compacting then you're fine. If you don't already exceed the 4k record ID limit, compacting has no effect. It will only renumber records that are higher than the 4k limit. Doing it repeatedly without baking the renumber in the base ESP you edit from could cause the records to have different numbers between edits.

 

An exception to where it may require you to compact again is if your editing of the ESP causes the Form ID of any new records to exceed the 4k limit. Then you would need to compact again for it to renumber. So long as you compact your ESPs and save prior to converting to ESLs, and further edit the already compacted ESPs you shouldn't run into any issues where end users would have problems of things going missing or corruption.