What mod belongs to plugin

[Lifferds]

Trying to reload an old save after mod revamp and get the message about missing plugins giving the name of the plugin. Is there an easy way to identify what mod a plugin goes to, such as EFF.esp, or even a more difficult way short of opening each zip file until I find it?

[TheVampireDante]

Eff.esp is from this mod: https://rd.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11829/?

 

Unfortunately, unless the creator of a mod names their esp/esm/esl file in a clear manner, it can be quite irritating to figure out what mod it comes from at times.

Sometimes you can get lucky by searching the esp name in google coupled with the game title, but it's not always going to find what you are looking for.

 

Might help in future to keep a text file with the esp and mod names noted next to each other, that way you can check it before removing a mod, or in your case trying to use an older save from a different mod setup.

[Lifferds]

Thanks for the rather disappointing news. At least you solved the EFF.esp quandry.

[Kodiak412]

Mod authors giving basically unrelated names to files is a common problem. This usually comes into glaring focus when you have a lot of mods and then start to have conflicts. It is bad enough to hunt down the real issue with the conflict but when you do not know what mainone.esp, or thisisit.esp is it can really be a pain.

 

This is what I do and it has never failed me.

 

1. Create a folder on your desktop for "FO4 Mods".
2. Now when you see a mod you like create a folder in that FO4 Mods folder and give it the exact name of the mod on the nexus. Manually download the mod to that folder.
3. Look at the name of the file and if it is something that does not clearly describe what that mod is, go back and add that name to folder after the nexus name.
4. Now you have a folder with the exact nexus name and the file name on the folder that holds the mod.
5. This easily lets you see both the nexus name and file name when searching for a mod. This can be invaluable if you have a lot of mods and the game becomes unstable.
6. As a bonus you always have that mod to reinstall if some HD crash messes up the rig, or you just need to replace your drive.

Good luck.

[ThoraldGM]

EFF was ported from Skyrim by the same author, where it was called Extensible Follower Framework. Not defending its lack of name change, but it's not as random as it seems.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12933/

[jangove]

Personally, I wouldn't be nearly so bothered by the sometimes irregular naming schemes if more authors (as in, all of them) kept in mind that there is, in fact, a description field available to them*. Maybe the CK doesn't make that obvious, but you can get at in xEdit. I understand how, as the scope of a project shifts, you can find yourself stuck with an .esp or .esm name that no longer has any obvious connection to the over arching project. Except for the occasional...person... who has decided it would be the height of wit to be racist, sexist, or political in naming plugins (I've seen all three, over the years). My experience has been that once I link simplewater.esp to "The Super Complex Hydrostatic Overhaul", nine times out of ten the link becomes clear. But in the absence of a willingness to take the couple of minutes required to fill in a sentence --even a couple of words -- in the description field.

 

 

*I've never experimented with the limit on the size of the desc. field entry in the header. But it isn't tiny; I've used the standalone mergeplugins.exe to combine as many as 120 mods, and it was able to list all of them in there.