How do I open a mod?

[MichaelTorr]

I've downloaded a few weapons and clothing mods. They come with meshes and textures and all that good stuff.

What I want to do is open the esp file and fiddle with the stats.

One way I can so this is to manually download the mod and merge with my game's data folder, then it can be opened with GECK.

However, I hate doing that because it makes the merge a permanent part of my game, and I want to be able to enable and disable mods on the fly from my Mod Manager.

If I double click the esp file, it just opens the GECK, but the esp isn't loaded, there's no active file etc.

 

[MichaelTorr]

OK, one method that just dawned on me.

Unpack the mod archive. Take only the esp out of the mod folder, place it in the New Vegas data folder. Now the esp can be opened by starting up GECK. Then do the changes needed, save the esp, and put the esp back into the downloaded mod folder, re-compress the folder into an archive, and install the archive with your mod manager like any other manually downloaded mod.

 

That's one way of getting it done. It just dawned on me out of no where that I don't really have to merge all the textures and misc files.

But I'm still wondering if there is an easier way. Because even though this works for my needs, I'd hate the think there's still an easier way of doing this.

[Deleted53139156User]

Your using FOMM. Vortex or MO2 would be more ideal for this.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Guest

[dubiousintent]

If you are just interested in changing the values of some records, then you want to use FNVEdit (AKA xEdit). (See the "online docs" called the "Tome of xEdit".)

 

However, much depends upon just what you want to alter. Things in this game tend to quickly get more complex than one might imagine. (For instance, with weapons you can't ignore the projectiles which have their own properties.) When that happens, suggest you start by looking at the appropriate section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article for tutorials and Tips.

 

Also, a mod does not get "baked" into your game until you make a "save game" file. If you do your testing in a "new game" or make sure you know which "save file" was prior to starting your experiments and resume from that point, you will be fine. (You can delete unwanted "save game files"; just remember to either disable the "cloud storage" or also remove those files from there as well.)

 

-Dubious-