Valdacil's and Radrose: More Merging plugin Questions

[TheAlmightyOS]

I would not call myself a modding "noob" as I have been adding mods to my games since KOTOR. However, I am a noob when it comes to merging mods and even after watching some tutorials, reading what I could find and trying a few experiments myself, I just can't seem to make a merged plugin that works as expected. It is possible that I am creating the merge correctly but not installing it properly. If someone could take a look at what I am doing and point me down the right path I would be grateful.

 

Disclaimer: I am using "Merge Plugins" to create the merge files and "Vortex" as my mod manager. Yes, I am well aware Vortex is in Alpha and that problems may arise as it is still in development. As my problems appear to be more procedural in nature (aka, I am missing a step or merging mods that don't work when merged) I believe my issue is not related to Vortex. However, I am willing to try other managers in order to test (including NMM or MO2, the second one I have no experience using).

 

Now that we have that out of the way, on to the issue at hand.

 

On a quick scan of my FALLOUT 4/DATA folder, I find that I have 276 mods (or *.esm/*.esp files. Yes, that number includes the FALLOUT.esm and all DLC's). My understanding is that the limit (imposed by the mathematical limit of mod index) is 256 meaning I am over said limit by ~20.

 

After some reading looking through what I have installed, I decided I would try to first work on Valdacil's Item Sorting and Radrose Usability Enhancements / VIS Patches. Between the two of them a whopping 37 esp's! Ideally, if I can get this to work, I can turn that 37 into 2 and reduce my total mods from 276 to 241.

 

Here are the files in question:

Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Armorsmith Extended.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - BetterCompanions.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Craftable Armor Size.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - CROSS_PlasRail.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - DX Courser X-92 Power Suit.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - FO4Hotkeys.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Fusion Gun.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - HoloTime.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Immersive HUD.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Journal.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - LegendaryModificationMisc + DLC Far Harbor.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - My_Minutemen.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - OWR.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - OWR2.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - SettlementKeywords.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Snap n Build.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Snappy_HouseK.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - Synth Overhaul.esp
Radrose - Valdacil Patch - visiblecompanionaffinity.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-AidWeightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-AmmoWeightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ArmorBySlot.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-CosmeticsByType.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ExplosivesSortBottomWeightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-JunkWeightless+DEF_INV.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-MiscWeightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ModsWeightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-NotJunkJustMoney.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-Perks.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZY-DLCAutomatron-Weightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZY-DLCContraptions-Weightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZY-DLCFarHarbor-Weightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZY-DLCNukaWorld-Weightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZY-DLCVaultTec-Weightless.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZZ-DLCArmorBySlotOverride.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZZ-DLCCosmeticsByTypeOverride.esp
ValdacilsItemSorting-ZZ-DLCWeaponsOverride.esp

The goal here should be two Merge Plugins, one for VIS and one for RADROSE. So I went through the trouble of creating a new profile, only enabling these two mods and their requirements, then hopped over to Merge Plugins and created the two Merges. There were no errors that I could see. After I closed the program I zipped up the new esp's and their corresponding merge folder into two zip files. I then installed the zip files using Vortex. However, after I build those Merges and install them (making sure the VIS_MERGE loads before the RADROSE_MERGE) and load up the game, it is as if neither of them is loaded.

 

I do notice, on comparison, that the installed RADROSE mod has an "Interface" folder and the Merge Plugin does not. Same with VIS.

 

My question(s) is: What am I overlooking? Am I using the wrong program (Merge Plugins) and should be using FOEDIT? Can these types of plugins not be merged? Is there a better way?

Edited April 1, 2018 by TheAlmightyOS

[Ivory0102]

I would like an answer to this question as well, as I am just starting to look into merged plugins due to the large number of Valdacil's Item Sorting patches. I have 27 VIS patches and would like one plugin.

 

I would like to avoid a more painful learning curve if I can. I can't tell with the multiple tutorials what will work as of today 10/26/18. Is it SSEEdit or TESV, Vortex, Merge Plugin standalone? I loaded Creation Kit, Champ? and papyrus, then got lost in chaos, as there was no TESV and looking for scripts? Afterwards, the files were very uncooperative in Nexus Mod Manager. Now I have wiped the drive to start over....I hope my new set up will last longer.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Ivory0102