CLEANING MODS!!!!

[CaptMitch]

I cannot stress how important it is to clean your mods before uploading them to the Nexus!!!!!

A mod that is not cleaned can cause mod conflicts with other mods that you as the mod creator may not even know about. or by a mistake you made creating your mod that you did not realize you did.

 

A mod that copies scripts or objects and even deleted references (even mod creators can be unaware of these) will overwrite any mod that uses these and is loaded before your mod making other mods inoperative. And can cause all kinds of crazy things to happen including broken quests, broken dialog, CTD's and much much more.

 

There is a simple program called FNVEdit that makes cleaning your mods SUPER EASY!

 

I recently was helping a mod creator with his mod, And i downloaded there mod to help with it and i loaded the mod into FNVEdit and

FOUND OVER 4,000 POSSIBLE MOD CONFLICTS and the mod creator did not even know about them.

 

So please please people learn this simple to do process and keep the mods as conflict free as possible!

Edited November 6, 2012 by Capt Mitch

[nivea]

I wish some mods wouldn't crash after I clean them, that is always annoying to figure out what it going on. D:

[CaptMitch]

I wish some mods wouldn't crash after I clean them, that is always annoying to figure out what it going on. D:

 

The newly released FNVEdit is a lot better at detecting and cleaning. Give it a try. http://forums.nexusmods.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif

Edited November 6, 2012 by Capt Mitch

[tizerist]

While we're on the subject, what about cleaning the DLC's? Is it necessary? What about F3 DLC's?

Reason I ask is Gopher posted on youtube how to clean the Skyrim DLC's with Skyedit or whatever it's called.

[CaptMitch]

While we're on the subject, what about cleaning the DLC's? Is it necessary? What about F3 DLC's?

Reason I ask is Gopher posted on youtube how to clean the Skyrim DLC's with Skyedit or whatever it's called.

 

From what i hear Dawnguard is a very dirty mod.

[Xaranth]

While we're on the subject, what about cleaning the DLC's? Is it necessary? What about F3 DLC's?

Reason I ask is Gopher posted on youtube how to clean the Skyrim DLC's with Skyedit or whatever it's called.

 

From what i hear Dawnguard is a very dirty mod.

 

How about all the leftover junk in FalloutNV.esm? Personally I'd be embarrassed to put something out with so much excess garbage. Shame on you, Obsidian.

[CaptMitch]

While we're on the subject, what about cleaning the DLC's? Is it necessary? What about F3 DLC's?

Reason I ask is Gopher posted on youtube how to clean the Skyrim DLC's with Skyedit or whatever it's called.

 

From what i hear Dawnguard is a very dirty mod.

 

How about all the leftover junk in FalloutNV.esm? Personally I'd be embarrassed to put something out with so much excess garbage. Shame on you, Obsidian.

 

 

I agree there are a lot of leftover data in the FalloutNV.esm I have seen it for myself.BUT with that being said for the most part it should not matter as this content will be overwritten by ANY mod loaded after which is ALL MODS.

 

The bigger issue here is when a mod creator does not clean there mod for example: by mistake a mod maker copys a riffle into there mod and there mod does not even use this riffle, Then you install a rifle mod which is loaded before the uncleaned mod, Now any changes made by the rife mod were just reverted back to vanilla making the rifle mod useless. Which could of been avoided with a couple clicks of the mouse.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Capt Mitch

[Xaranth]

 

I agree there are a lot of leftover data in the FalloutNV.esm I have seen it for myself.BUT with that being said for the most part it should not matter as this content will be overwritten by ANY mod loaded after which is ALL MODS.

 

The bigger issue here is when a mod creator does not clean there mod for example: by mistake a mod maker copys a riffle into there mod and there mod does not even use this riffle, Then you install a rifle mod which is loaded before the uncleaned mod, Now any changes made by the rife mod were just reverted back to vanilla making the rifle mod useless. Which could of been avoided with a couple clicks of the mouse.

 

On this subject: Just how smart is the game about these things? Specifically: My DARC mod adds as suite of custom weapons (Weapons designed and produced by the DARC, of course). I've gone through and added each of these to the various lists so they're properly picked up by assorted challenges and the like.

 

But my DARC mod uses exclusively base game content. Does this mean that my now-modified lists will obliterate all the DLC items from the challenges and such? Or is the game smart enough (Or the DLC authors clever enough) to take the differences from my new form lists and the DLC lists, check them against the master's form list, and compile a new list from that?

[CaptMitch]

I agree there are a lot of leftover data in the FalloutNV.esm I have seen it for myself.BUT with that being said for the most part it should not matter as this content will be overwritten by ANY mod loaded after which is ALL MODS.

 

The bigger issue here is when a mod creator does not clean there mod for example: by mistake a mod maker copys a riffle into there mod and there mod does not even use this riffle, Then you install a rifle mod which is loaded before the uncleaned mod, Now any changes made by the rife mod were just reverted back to vanilla making the rifle mod useless. Which could of been avoided with a couple clicks of the mouse.

 

On this subject: Just how smart is the game about these things? Specifically: My DARC mod adds as suite of custom weapons (Weapons designed and produced by the DARC, of course). I've gone through and added each of these to the various lists so they're properly picked up by assorted challenges and the like.

 

But my DARC mod uses exclusively base game content. Does this mean that my now-modified lists will obliterate all the DLC items from the challenges and such? Or is the game smart enough (Or the DLC authors clever enough) to take the differences from my new form lists and the DLC lists, check them against the master's form list, and compile a new list from that?

 

If your mod uses a ref that is produced by the FalloutNV.esp and if that ref is changed by a DLC and then your mod would not work as you wrote it. Now if your mod modified these lists then your mod would overwrite the DLC's this is where load order comes into play.

 

Whenever i write a mod i try to make as much as impossible unique to my mod.

Example:

When i add dialog to a NPC i try to use unique topic ID's and not the ones that exist withing the game, that way i do not have to worry about a DLC or other mods overwriting my dialog.

[Xaranth]

If your mod uses a ref that is produced by the FalloutNV.esp and if that ref is changed by a DLC and then your mod would not work as you wrote it. Now if your mod modified these lists then your mod would overwrite the DLC's this is where load order comes into play.

 

Whenever i write a mod i try to make as much as impossible unique to my mod.

Example:

When i add dialog to a NPC i try to use unique topic ID's and not the ones that exist withing the game, that way i do not have to worry about a DLC or other mods overwriting my dialog.

 

I wonder how the official DLCs do it?

 

But I think that the 'best practice' way would probably be to dynamically append my new forms to the appropriate list via a script.

 

Example: Cowboy determines whether a weapon is valid by checking against the form list 'PerkCowboyWeapons'. If I make a new revolver, I need to add it to that list somehow. So would the best way then be to script the revolver using an OnAdd blocktype and AddFormToList? Is there a best practice guide somewhere that I can read to figure this stuff out?

 

And if not, why not?