Copying content from 1 mod to 2nd mod without 2nd mod needing 1st

[AutisticAussie]

Okay I am working on a big mod that adds several player homes to the game. I have some existing released mods with homes that I would like to copy and paste into the main big mod. However I want to do it in a way that does not make the main mod require the extra mods as an extra master to run it. I'm sure its possible, and probably easy. Anyone know how to do it? I use the GECK only as other programs just don't work on my computer.

Edited April 5, 2019 by AutismSucks

[skittered]

GECK was made for modding, not merging .. everything loaded, including mods, seems to be considered the 'default' state of things until something is changed, and then only those changes are saved ..

It is possible to 'merge' mods using GECK, but it is NOT easy ..

.. because GECK only saves changes / differences .. the only way to get all the content from several mods saved into a single mod without 'mod' dependencies seems to be ..

Set your 'main' file up as the first mod in the load order .. sort all other mods to be included after it ..

Load your main file as the active file in GECK .. with all the mods to be included also selected so that they are also loaded ..

Make some sort of small change to every part of every mod that you want included in your main active file .. save .. exit .. load your main mod in GECK all by itself and check the results.

Rinse and repeat until you've got everything in one file .. (trial and error until you get it figured out)

 

EDIT:

Upon further thought .. using purely Vanilla GECK, this may not even be possible without a LOT of editing. It's likely you'd need to do it one mod at a time, and make sure you get ALL the changes the first time, otherwise you'd end up with a whole bunch of duplicates if you were try to load your combined mod and the child mod together again.

 

The reason for that being that each child mod that you want to 'merge' into your combined mod would otherwise need to have that mod as a master, so that when they are loaded after your combined mod differences are considered changes rather than duplicates. This is especially true for mods with unique / new assets and entries.

;-----------------------

Being able to use FO3Edit would make it slightly easier to do, but even that still requires a decent understanding of how the assets and changes are handled.

Edited April 5, 2019 by skittered

[GamerRick]

You can use the GECK to create new assets. if you want to merge MODA-esp into MODB.esp, you would put MODA above MODB in the load order and then select both in the GECK, making MODB the Active mod.

 

Then you need to edit everything in MODA that you want in MODB to create a new FORMId for them. For an interior cell, you can of course duplicate the entire cell, but then you have to open it and replace everything in it from MODA with your new assets in MODB. After that, you then need to reconnect everything, such that items that use a script in MODA now use the new script in MODB. The same goes for any items that have Linked Refs, Enable Parents, Activate parents, and emittances. Your new doors need to be reconnected with each other.

 

The cell copy will copy the navemshes for the interior cells. However, you can't do this for exterior cells. You will have to redo any landscape and navemesh changes that in the exterior cells. You will need to finalize the navmeshes of all interior cells, and the exterior cells where the doors are after you have replaced all doors with new ones and connected the interior ones with the exterior ones.

 

Once you have duplicated everything from MODA into MODB and connected everything, you then have to use FO3Edit to "clean masters". This is the ONLY way to remove MODA from the dependencies of MODB.

 

FO3Edit is also needed to remove dirty edits that the GECK adds to all mods, and is essential for finding things you may have missed that keeps MODB dependent on MODA.

 

FO3Edit is a crucial for mod development, since it handles numerous things the GECK cannot do.

 

So no, it is not easy.

Edited April 6, 2019 by GamerRick