Merge plugins Stand alone load order

[billiamus]

So, im using the merge plugins standalone and going off the guide by gamer poets.

 

as i select my plugins, i notice that armor keywords and cross cosmetic framework are above the masters they depend on; all the dlc except for the hd texture packs.

 

I used loot to reorder, they arent in that order in nmm, and arent in that order in fo4edit.

 

how do i fix this or am i better off using fo4edit to merge the mods instead.

 

please help, i need an adult.

 

 

i have the latest versions of loot, f4se, nmm, fallout.

the only thing that has changed the load order is when i went into my game folder and sorted the data folder by date.

now only 2 of the DLC are below the plugins they are masters to.....

Edited February 24, 2018 by billiamus

[Greslin]

I really, really, really wouldn't attempt merging the ESMs. Too many other mods depend on those assets and some expect to find them under their original filenames. I don't think I would touch Armorsmith, either.

[billiamus]

thanks you for.

 

I know, im not trying to, the pic was just to show that my masters are in wrong order. because of that i cant merge anything that depends on them. i tried deleting and re-downloading armor keywords, cross cosmetic framework, and armorsmith; to no success. the 3 dlcs below them are their masters, so any of the armor mods i want to merge that depend on them or the dlc wont.

 

thats my issue.

[Greslin]

Okay, I had to go revisit Merge Plugins Standalone for myself. It's been a while, and I wanted to get you something other than lame guesswork.

 

That "Plugin Selection" window is MP's way of saying, "This is what your plugins.txt file says about your current load order." The red files are the masters that the other checked plugins depend on, so you're going to want to check those. But you can't AFAIK rearrange the load order from this screen. Right click and uncheck all, then select the plugins you'd like to merge. Then check the plugins/masters that are now in red, and get things to where the OK button unlocks. MP will then start scanning through your plugins.

 

The window after that is the one where you're actually doing the merge building. The window above is basically the same as the plugin selection popup that appears when you first open FO4Edit.

 

If the load order problem persists, go take a look at it in NMM and see if the screwy load order is happening there. If so, you can fix it from NMM.

 

If I'm still not grasping your problem, PM me your plugins.txt or post it here. Don't try to fix it in MP. We'll see what the root problem is.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Greslin

[billiamus]

ok, so here goes. in merge plugins the masters are in the wrong sequence. it doesnt matter what i check, because the mods that depend on dlc are above the dlc. so nothing that depends on either will be merged. the problem isnt what im checking. the screenshot was just to show that there are mods, even though its an esm, above the dlc it requires.

In loot, nmm, and fo4edit the plugins are in the correct sequence.

IN merge plugins standalone, they are in the wrong order.

[bill8872]

I have this issue with NMM. What you have to do is edit the plugins.txt file by placing all those red DLCs pluss Fallout4.esm into it. NMM delete's those lines from the plugins.txt file every time you modify your load order.

 

The plugins.txt fils is not easy to find, as it is in a hidden file location. The location is as follows,

username/AppData/Local/Fallout4

Username is your computer name.

[clconnelly]

I have this issue with NMM. What you have to do is edit the plugins.txt file by placing all those red DLCs pluss Fallout4.esm into it. NMM delete's those lines from the plugins.txt file every time you modify your load order.

 

The plugins.txt fils is not easy to find, as it is in a hidden file location. The location is as follows,

username/AppData/Local/Fallout4

Username is your computer name.

 

I found out what the error that causes this. A user esm file after the esm block. Moving the displaced esm file fixes the problem so all the masters load before esl and esp.

[ZeroAndOne]

I tend to keep the mergers limited to the same type of content. Even then it's usually planed out as modular & composites. Then merge plugins works better if it's a quarantined action. It's a workflow that is set up & when merge plugins is loading up it only loads what is required & what is going to be merged. You'll need over 600 mods to make FO4 fun, and to do that it's very difficult. So I suggest patience & planning, and separating it all into it's own content type makes this process cleaner.

 

 

The workflow is pretty simple, it's just a folder for FO4 inside a tools folder on the hard drive, you know, it's all hidden & accessed via the start menu & some of the tools are shortcuts that are placed on the taskbar. So start menu tools goes to the folder that has FO4 tool shortcuts or applications inside it as well as a shortcut that goes to the hidden load order files in app data, bam bam bam, NMM & xedit with a F4SE launcher links on the taskbar which are all just shortcuts hidden inside a links folder. The workflow is just the ability to move quickly between places & applications to be used for this purpose of merging.

 

 

Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCNukaWorld.esm
ArmorKeywords.esm
HUDFramework.esm
Worsin's Garage.esm
Damage Threshold.esm
Retro_Style.esm
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
Armorsmith Extended.esp
Armorsmith All DLCs Patch.esp
Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul.esp
RadioMergerI.esp ALL THE RADIO
LooksBodyHairI.esp ALL THE LOOKS BODY HAIR
Immersive Fallout (DLC).esp
SurvivalOptions.esp
Depth of Field Removal.esp
Immersive HUD.esp
WorsinMegaMergerI.esp ALL THE WORSIN'S COMPATIBLE MODS
Impervious Power Armour.esp
UNnaked Power Armor.esp
CTHHostileNPCsAndWeaponDrawn-NSL.esp
CraftingHoBenchesI.esp ALL THE CRAFTING WORKBENCHES
YM_CF_Outfits.esp
3DNPC_FO4.esp
3DNPC_FO4_DLC.esp
3DNPC_FO4Settler.esp
Shino Clothes.esp
ThickRimGlasses.esp
LovelyLadyLingerie.esp
HoodieOutfit.esp
ChineseStealthSuit.esp
Femshepping_WastelandPinup.esp
DX_Harley_Quinn_Outfit.esp
rpampas.esp
LatexNurseSuit.esp
tschutschiWardrobe2.esp
Elegant Hardware.esp
Elegant Hardware AWKCR.esp
Elegant Hardware DEF_UI.esp
NanoSuit.esp
NanoSuit_AWKCR_AE.esp
PreWarDressSA.esp
PreWarDressSAPlus.esp
Armorsmith Siraxx Extended.esp
Armorsmith Siraxx Plus Extended.esp
NukaRadBans.esp
SexyEveningDress.esp
SteevinsClothesPack.esp
TheKite_Railroad_Handmaiden.esp
Military Outfit Pack.esp
SDPSCMIII.esp ALL THE CLOTHING ARMOR

 

 

So all the mergers always end with a Roman numeral, I II III IV V ect. Then the hardest part is the clothing & armor because there are so many clothing an armor mods, more than there are weapons, hence why it's one of the first things to do if attempting for 600+. The previous 4-5 attempts failed or I got bored, sometimes it needs a update. Still though, difficult, and it requires a bunch of work just to do a 254 standard load order. The mods in red are remaining clothing & armor which had errors or navmesh problems, though this was resolved by a typical ordering & override instead of direct editing.

 

 

So most of the work today was removing the mods in red as a master to the SDPSCMIII.esp huge merge which also included merging a merge patch of the leveled lists that these clothing/armor mods added, removed those to prepare the mods in red to be merged into a second clothing armor mod which loads before the main one & is quarantined from SDPSCMIII.esp because there were errors in those clothing armor mods, more easy to test it or repair it in the future if there was a problem. The main problem was navmesh between Elinora's store, YM_CF_Outfits, 3D NPC, and Shino Clothes. Which was resolved by a typical load ordering override to ignore & circumvent the issue.

 

 

Then the mods in red only have to be merged because of the addition of a few other mods in the ending load order once it's gone beyond 300/400/500/600. So you see, it is getting ahead of what will come later, though I only know that because of making 4-5 merged builds & began the last starting with the hardest part. Then in order to make this more easy the power armor was separated from clothing armor, just as combat armor will be separated from the other two.

 

 

Adjustments & loading with xEdit to work on pre-merge checks & planing on this red amount, the final steps would be setting plugins.txt, loadorder.txt, and DLClist.txt to all match (with the Fallout4.esm & DLC added inside those specifically for xEdit & merge plugins to have the correct order). Load up the colored in red .esp, error check, error ignore, create new merge, build merge, and watch for any errors in the merge & attempt to take a guess if it will be a type of error that will break the content or the game. Then clean up, which means grabbing all the now merged .esp to move it into a backup folder to keep because it's going to break eventually (practical to backup everything during the process). Then test it in the game.

 

 

The first 4 mergers only had to be made to allow the 5th merger because SDPSCMIII.esp is over 200 clothing & armor mods, and it took 7 or 8 attempts just to find a way to merge that amount in a clean way, which III was from only loading what was required for those particular mods now inside SDPSCMIII.esp. Unexpected! And the mess is created from required mods to play the game verses my patience to slowly work & build toward a much better final result instead of playing & grabbing bunches of random stuff which are only serving to ruin the plan. It's quite difficult to work on it without breaking it. So remember, patience, make back ups of everything, try various ways before settling on a design of merge for your plan, and don't forget to test it for functionality as you go. Composite build & quarantined by content type (only what's needed).

[ZeroAndOne]

The merge of those red mods did not go well. For one thing there were many that had errors (which is why it was separated from the others) One of the mods had to have the Form Id renumbered from 000EA6 to allow it to be merged with the rest, but it was able to merge inside another merger as well, I just decided to test renumbering the Form Id's to accomplish it inside on merge. Then the first attempts to merge produced scary looking errors instead of the general type of errors we typically think of as benign. For that we started over & attempted to repair the errors automatically with Merge Plugins fix errors (just hit no on the save .esp) because it's fixed in RAM & about to become a new .esp in the final merge file, which in this case contained far fewer errors & it appeared benign mostly. Though that only allows it's possibility to be tested while in game if it turns out that it can be used. It is over 200 mods merged into two, though, the original amount decreased from the mods in red which had errors & the practice of not merging those to simplify the build. Though, got into trouble & attempted to merge these error plug ins later inside it's own .esp for testing & quarantine purposes.

[billiamus]

thanks everyone. i am reinstalling everything now since my last pc is no longer with us. if i get the same problems i will update this post. i will attempt your solutions soon.