SirDanest Posted November 28, 2017 Share Posted November 28, 2017 So I'm trying to use the program to merge my mods -- NOT a compatibility patch, but the actual mushing of many mods into one, to keep my load order down below the maximum. I've read and watched and followed tutorial after tutorial on the subject, my eyes are bugging out from all the tutorials. And yet... The merged mod when the process is complete was supposed to be "merged.esp" but ends up being called "merged.esp.save" which is not an esp file and not apparently useful to me. Any advice, anyone? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirDanest Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 I thought I'd gotten it to work. But the merged esp still needs the other mods active, blowing the whole point. Ugh! I'm not going to be able to figure out how to reduce my load order with google for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 The terminology of this can get quite confusing due to the similarity of the terms for different types of "merges". What you want is called a "merged plugin". If your merged plugin still requires the ESP "master files" to be active, then you didn't build it correctly. (Wrong tool, options, or procedure.) But only certain files can safely be "merged" into one. You can't merge "ESM" files for instance. They still have to remain installed and active. Don't know which tutorials you have been reading, but the wiki "Merged Plugin Guidelines for Personal Use" article explains the differences and which tools are needed for which purpose, and how to choose candidate mods for a particular merge. It goes beyond a simple "do this and then this" to explain "why this is necessary". OTOH, it does go into technical details because those are what trip people up. But presumably reducing your plugin count is important enough to you to wade through those details. Feel free to ask for clarifications. -Dubious- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirDanest Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 Yeah the terminology threw me for a bit at first.I assume anything with a bsa also can't be merged. Mods that require another patching download can't be merged either, as then the patch can't find the original, although I'm looking if the patch can be just merged directly with its "master" mod. I'll go over that link thoroughly, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Yes, you can merge a "patch" file into it's master first for record level conflict resolution, and then merge that combined plugin into another "non-conflicting" plugin, as long as you use the "merge up" technique to preserve the FormIDs and it's not a "compatibility patch" to get another mod to work with the master plugin. But you want to cleanup the "master files" in the resulting "merged patch" File Header using FNVEdit before merging plugins. BSAs (like ESMs) can technically be merged, but frankly I don't find that worth the effort so it isn't covered in an already lengthy and technical article. Plenty of easier candidates. -Dubious- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirDanest Posted November 29, 2017 Author Share Posted November 29, 2017 One of the mistakes I appeared to be making, that I should have probably thought of in the first place: I'd merge a bunch of mods, and then with nexus mod manager, remove the originals to reduce my load order. But that also removed the assets (like graphics) as well, that the merged mods still needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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