Merge Patch into Main Mod

[Blinxys]

Is there a way, or best practices to combine patch .esps with the source mod ESP, in order to to have one file instead of two mods for five different things. (i.e. 5 mods = 10 esps). some even have more than one patch.

 

For instance i have about 6 mods that have AE patches.

 

How can i put the AE patch into the main mod

so it is:

Main Mod [patched for AE].esp

 

instead of:

Main Mod.esp

Main Mod AE Patch.esp

a half a dozen times over.

 

Forgive me if it has been asked, been trying to track this information down, on and off, for the past several weeks. Just can't seem to find anything in this exact context (everything shows up for merge patches).

 

I am aware it is possible to use fo4edit to combine different ESPs even make ESM and ESLs witht ha tor the CK. Just not clear on how best to apply this with the same ESP. (i may be too close to it to see it). Just haven't seen an outlined or plainly stated procedure anywhere, and think that would be extremely helpful and worthwhile for someone to spell it out directly.

 

Main problems are:

AE (half a dozen or more of these)

DLC patches (half a dozen or more of these)

AWKCR (not as much)

Vis-G and Item Sorts (So many I don't even spend the slots on these anymore).

Can use mergeplugins (mostly to make AIOs of FOMOD Option ESPs where possible). Even that has limitations.

i.e.

Main Mod.esp

Main Mod-AIO.esp

 

The latter which contains:

Main Mod Option 1.esp

Main Mod Option 2.esp

Only saves 1 slot (instead of 2).

 

Smash Patch by MatortheEternal is helpful to a fair degree of success in expanding the capacity of a theoretical 255 limit. But removal of unloaded plugins is placebo by Mator's own account.

 

However, it is these dangling redundancies and dependencies that are really gumming up the works and convoluting attempts to streamline load order.

 

Alternatively, outlined procedures on making an ESM for dependent and compatibility plugins would be a really useful set of instructions. Mod authors might particularly benefit from this as well.

 

I have had the game nearly 6 months and have yet to enjoy a full play through, between making the game playable, inis, mods, LO, patches, updates, fixes, corrupt saves, etc. it's been a harrowing education, (made it level 150 once) before everything went pretty sideways.

 

Just wanted to get this all ironed out in latest NMM before moving the whole mess into Vortex. As it seems a complete system rebuild is in the near future at any rate.

 

Unfortunately, NMM still insists that ESLs are "active plugins" and still flags at 255 limit. Even if able to get past that, cleaning this all up would be sweet on the ol' OCD.

 

Sorry if this rambles, just SO MUCH information to filter through, any clearly outlined instructions on how to roll patches directly into main ESP files, or any alternatives to gainful ends would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas (if you're into that sort of thing).

[Blinxys]

Wow, really no takers? Not a one?

 

Still am pretty new to all this, however...

In the interim 5 months since this was posted found a youtube video by Elinora that was quite helpful "Merging Small Plugins with FO4edit". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh3Msli07Ug&feature=youtu.be

Have taken to merging patches with main plugins.

Seems to save quite a bit of hassle, CTDs, Load time and Slots.

 

For those that care,

(Yes, you can exceed 255 plugins, especially by converting a ton to ESLs - BUT this has limitations).

 

i.e.

1) If understood correctly, according to MatortheEternal, it appears there are still only actually 255 slots according to the game engine/logic.

2) ESLs are not good for overrides (90% of the reason to use small plugins in the first place).

3) Merge Plugins by Mator the Eternal appears to make many ESPs behave like ESLs as in, does not actually override, idkw.

4) Scripts and Form references often break (may be reason for 3).

 

So, although there are 316 active mods reported by NMM, (Yes, NMM is still quite useable, and infrequently updated- it's what i used to start, Vortex is an ingratiating UI nightmare with it's own bugs, and MO "rules" are a retrofit for a backport for jury rig that no one should support- for gad's sake they're essentially scripts it should be linear- meaning: in one direction. Overwite or don't- rules are the essence of spaghetti code).

 

Anyway, by putting patches into their respective master plugins, 316 Installed mods results in 252 total plugins, 245 active plugins. That makes roughly 50 patches removed from load order by including them and overriding in main plugin, with room to manuever. There are still many more plugins in my LO that can be merged eg. animations, weapons and armor. Am still testing, dependent and scripted mods are the buggiest/boggiest, and hardest to integrate.

 

NOTE: if FO4Edit does not show you the main plugin for "deep copy with override into..." dialogue, just select and deep copy the actual overrides from the patch, then go back and "copy as new record into..." any remaining non-conflicting records to the main plugin, may resolve the issue.As the patch may have additional information to included in the original mod, i.e. locations,levelled lists, keywords. If not; there is something else going on in there that is beyond my current pay grade.

 

In any case, after merging it is then possible to disable the patch, (and personally have removed from load list by changing file extension to *.es_ (for ESPs) to keep things tidy). That way i can revert to the original if need be but it doesn't clutter my load order or get read by xEdit or Smash, Etc.

 

Generally, ESLs are fairly guaranteed to work with this method, but as a conservative precaution avoid ones with dependencies, i.e. scripts, ba2 files.

 

If any of this is wrong drop me a line, tell me I'm off base or stupid, so far it has gotten me this far.

Thanks for your time and support!

 

Cheers!

Edited June 27, 2020 by Blinxys

[assasinxtg]

Thanks for this tutorial. Just recently change my mod manager from vortex to mod organizer 2. This help me a lot.

Edited February 6, 2021 by assasinxtg