Need some help figuring out the compacting process for ESLifying plugins.

[natranr]

So I already know what to look for in xEdit to add the ESL flag for plugins that do not need to be compacted, but what about the ones that do need to be? What I thought was that when you compact a plugin, you need to load your whole plugin list and compact them, and if you added another plugin (whether or not it was a patch to the ESPFE you compacted) you would need to go through and redo the whole compacting process.

 

So is that true, or do I only need to re-compact the ESP when it comes to another plugin that is patching it that has the ESL as a master down the list?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Algabar]

Not sure if I understand correctly....

 

- You should never blindly compact anything (let alone your whole load order) without knowing exactly what you're doing. That part about "compacting the whole plugin list" is definitely wrong - and possibly dangerous.

 

Compacting changes the formIDs within the plugin. This can be problematic for several reasons:

 

- Items you are using in your savegame will be gone. Because of the changed IDs, the game won't find them anymore. If you compact e.g. a weapon mod, the weapons from this mod that you already have in your inventory or containers will be gone. In short: Don't compact plugins that are active in a savegame you still want to use.

 

- Compacting plugins that are masters for other mods is an absolute "NO-NO""! Same reason as above: Mods depending on the compacted plugin won't find the stuff they're looking for any more.

 

TLDR: Be very careful with compacting plugins. Never compact anything that other mods depend on. Never compact anything that's used in a savegame you care about.

 

If you really want/need to compact stuff, do it before starting a new playthrough - and keep in mind that your older savegames from other characters won't work any more.