Are Bashed Patches needed anymore?

[Rydis]

So Ive been trying to learn about making merged patches and such for better compatibility, but it seems from all the information ive gathered, bashed patches shouldn't be needed if you use merged patches via Fo4edit correct? Because bashed patches only work on leveled lists, while merged patches work on basically everything, including leveled lists. So you just make your leveled list edits in fo4edit and forgo ever having a bashed patch, correct?

 

And to clear up any conflicts, I should really only make 1 patch with all my mods and make all the changes I want there right? Or is selecting specific mods and smaller patches better?

 

I just always seem to fall into the habit of spending a week or 2 trying to mod, thinking no conflicts, then eding up with random crashes few minutes into the game I can't figure out and end up not playing at all.

[vegawagon350]

 

 

So Ive been trying to learn about making merged patches and such for better compatibility, but it seems from all the information ive gathered, bashed patches shouldn't be needed if you use merged patches via Fo4edit correct? Because bashed patches only work on leveled lists, while merged patches work on basically everything, including leveled lists. So you just make your leveled list edits in fo4edit and forgo ever having a bashed patch, correct?

 

You can do most things you need to in FO4edit for basic editing and merging of mods. (and I haven't used a merged patch since Fallout NV)

 

 

 

And to clear up any conflicts, I should really only make 1 patch with all my mods and make all the changes I want there right? Or is selecting specific mods and smaller patches better?

 

Using multiple patches works best (for me) due to some mods needing to overwrite certain mods at certain levels in the load order. Having one big patch causes some mods I use to not function correctly or to have different outcomes because of overrides further down the load order (see rule of 1). I find it's best to sort your load order with the least amount of conflicts then create compatibility patches. This has provided me with the greatest amount of stability.

 

 

 

I just always seem to fall into the habit of spending a week or 2 trying to mod, thinking no conflicts, then eding up with random crashes few minutes into the game I can't figure out and end up not playing at all.

 

Welcome to Modding, some weeks I don't even get to play because I'm adding another mod and then re-doing my load order and reworking all my compatibility patches to get it stable again (you should see the boneyard of broken saves on my back-up drive). Best practice is to go slow and add mods either one at a time or in like bunches (ie. clothing mods, or armor mods, or weapons mods) Then load the game in FO4edit and check for issues, build a compatibility patch, Play the game for a few hours, then start on the next bunch of mods.

[Rydis]

 

 

 

So Ive been trying to learn about making merged patches and such for better compatibility, but it seems from all the information ive gathered, bashed patches shouldn't be needed if you use merged patches via Fo4edit correct? Because bashed patches only work on leveled lists, while merged patches work on basically everything, including leveled lists. So you just make your leveled list edits in fo4edit and forgo ever having a bashed patch, correct?

 

You can do most things you need to in FO4edit for basic editing and merging of mods. (and I haven't used a merged patch since Fallout NV)

 

 

 

And to clear up any conflicts, I should really only make 1 patch with all my mods and make all the changes I want there right? Or is selecting specific mods and smaller patches better?

 

Using multiple patches works best (for me) due to some mods needing to overwrite certain mods at certain levels in the load order. Having one big patch causes some mods I use to not function correctly or to have different outcomes because of overrides further down the load order (see rule of 1). I find it's best to sort your load order with the least amount of conflicts then create compatibility patches. This has provided me with the greatest amount of stability.

 

 

 

I just always seem to fall into the habit of spending a week or 2 trying to mod, thinking no conflicts, then eding up with random crashes few minutes into the game I can't figure out and end up not playing at all.

 

Welcome to Modding, some weeks I don't even get to play because I'm adding another mod and then re-doing my load order and reworking all my compatibility patches to get it stable again (you should see the boneyard of broken saves on my back-up drive). Best practice is to go slow and add mods either one at a time or in like bunches (ie. clothing mods, or armor mods, or weapons mods) Then load the game in FO4edit and check for issues, build a compatibility patch, Play the game for a few hours, then start on the next bunch of mods.

 

 

Is a compatibility patch just a merged patch? Just going into Fo4edit and checking off the red boxes until they are all gone basically? Is this an easy thing to figure out when you have about 100 mods? How do you decide? Sure armor mods you can do with other armor mods, but do you do those with overhauls that change who gets armor? Like Elianoras armor mod with better settlers and Minutemen redone mod.

 

Most was just curious as to why people used 2 patches (bashed and merged) deleted the leveled lists out of one to do them in another program creating a 2nd patch that the first one already did. Just didn't make much sense.

[vegawagon350]

 

 

Is a compatibility patch just a merged patch? Just going into Fo4edit and checking off the red boxes until they are all gone basically? Is this an easy thing to figure out when you have about 100 mods? How do you decide? Sure armor mods you can do with other armor mods, but do you do those with overhauls that change who gets armor? Like Elianoras armor mod with better settlers and Minutemen redone mod.

 

Well yes and No, A compatibility patch (to my understanding) is used to join different aspect of two mods - I use them for Eli's Armor Compendium and My Minutemen to get the level lists to use all armor from both mods. I use the 'copy as override into' function so I don't have to mess with FormIDs. Whereas if I am joining two mods I would 'copy as new record into' and change formIDs, and make sure that models, textures, and meshes were all referenced correctly. It just depends on what is required for each. Another Example is AWKCR/Armorsmith compatibility patch which applies aspects of AWKCR/Armorsmith to Eli's mods to make them craftable at workbenches and allow add-ons like ballistic fiber ect.

Or Vadicil's Compatability patches which adds sorting tags to Armor, Weapons, and Loot (these don't change the mods but add additional features so they will work together).

 

As far as deciding which mod gets the win, it depends on the mod (and the features you want to keep), take for instance Eli's Armor Compendium and Better Settlers. This one is clearly defined by the author of Better Settlers as to which needs to load where. Eli, Azar, then Better settlers then the CCAP2.0. Since the author has already merged the leveled lists then there is little to no conflict. However when you add My Minutemen (WATM Basic) or another Minutemen mod then it needs to be added after CCAP2.0 and then have a compatibility/override patch created so that it can use all the armors in the leveled list without breaking the features of Eli's or Better Settlers (this may also depend on scripted leveled lists which require more work to combine).

 

The best advice I can give is to not overload your load order with mods that all do the same thing, or merge those mods that use game play changes or leveled lists for equipment and weapons for better compatibility and stability.

http://bit.ly/2F6Jk2I - Picture of my compatibility patch for Eli's and My Minutemen