Patching Standards?

[ArkianSoji]

So, I have been wondering about the Patching Standards. I have noticed that a lot of mods with Fomod/XML Installers have patches included. Now, I understand that one reason patches are in a separate ESP has to do with Load orders, but why can't the patches and the Mod be merged by the Mod author and into one .esp saving load order slots?

For example:

 

RealisticWaterTwo.esp

T'Skyrim - True Skyrim.esp

T'Skyrim - True Skyrim - RW2 Patch.esp

 

Could become:

 

RealisticWaterTwo.esp RealisticWaterTwo.esp

T'Skyrim - True Skyrim-RW2.esp or T'Skyrim - True Skyrim.esp

[HadToRegister]

Because they have to make them as separate esps in order that they're modular enough to meet with millions of different load order where people might not be using that same combination of mods/patches.

[ArkianSoji]

Ah, I suppose that makes sense.

[QuagaarWarrior]

Merge them yourself?

[Xeshra]

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/7332621-is-it-possible-to-prevent-massive-esp-bloat-yes-or-no/

You may discus the issue on this topic, more strict to the point. Because i think you are demanding stuff not truly user friendly and maybe there is easyer solutions. "Do it yourself" is not the best kind of advise in my view because the matter is more complex and a slight understanding of the mechanics is necessary.

 

In term a mod is advanced enough, it could just do a patch and merge it into one esp. Means, you do select the patches needed and the mod will create the required patches with only one esp, this may work but is advanced stuff. There is no need to bloat the plugings with up to 20 esps as soon as the mod knows a necessary configuration. Even if there is 400 possible configurations related to 20 affected mods, the mod could be coded in a way it will do the esp merge itself. This is told from a halfway stupid user that don´t know his place nor work, but at least i´m a dreamer and got high imagination, a chield of phantastic approaches.

 

Of course, it can still use the old foolproof option for not auto-merging it, for those who can handle the bloat of up to 20 esp patches.

 

But just to understand my approach: In term a mod knows the required setting, it can auto-build itself to the required version in a single esp, this is not science fiction, very realistic. Checking the load order, all the affected mod is doing is to create a certain setting but the esps used are all in a straight load order, there is no magic in order to load correctly, it´s just bloating because of the "do it yourself mentality". You could basically do 400 downloadable versions for 20 affected mods. However, the mod could build those 400 possible settings itself, very realistic once again. There is no magic involved but the mentality to act friendly to some incompetent users who don´t do all the merging themself for obvious reasons, they simply may not want to risk breaking stuff if not absolutly necessary.

 

Officially, Skyrim SSE is not even supporting merging and it´s not truly advised as long as there is a workaround. I get the impression that the users seems to be forced into doing stuff not even supported, just because they got no other choice.

 

It´s not realistic having a mod eating up to 5-10% of the esp slots unless someone is using almost no mods. But the only answer i and others always get "do it yourself" and support will be closed at this point. I don´t know where this mentality is coming from but it could be more helpful or practical.

 

There is a second approach, i was revealing: In most cases a patch is minor enough in order to become flagged as an ESP-ESL which will be loaded into ESL space, in this term it will not take up a valuable ESP slot. Usually only the bigger or more complex mods need a own ESP, it´s more safe and a ESL got a strict size limit. ESPs can take up to 2 GB i guess, not unlimited but the size can be very big. Retexture will not count as ESP, so the texture size is only limited by what a PC can handle.

More info: https://afkmods.iguanadons.net/index.php?/topic/5079-plugin-files-and-you-esmeslesp/

There is basically 3 types of mods,

 

1. ESM: This is a highest priority master and will never be overridden by a lower master, for example the official DLCs are all ESM.

 

2. ESP: This is a typical master and can only become overridden by a ESM, this means it doesn´t matter at what point a ESM is loaded, the ESM priority is always higher.

 

3. ESL: This is a low priority light master, it can not override higher masters and it will not take any ESP or ESM slots but for patching purposes a ESL is usually sufficient.

 

Retexture will not count as ESP, so the texture size is only limited by what a PC can handle. The later loaded texture will simply overwrite the sooner loaded texture, not much is able to fail. However, the 32-bit oldrim Skyrim engine will most likely crash at extremely demanding graphics, because this dated engine is indeed limited with usable data volume. The new 64-bit SSE engine instead can deal with near endless texture size and RAM usage, as long as the PC got the resources.

 

I got a mod who did the patching properly, tagging the patches as an ESL or merging it into a single ESP, even the black face issue was prevented by doing a facegen patching-process. My big thanks for being awesome, here it is: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20514?tab=description

Edited January 23, 2019 by Xeshra