BSA Packing - of a Mod that's not yours

[PlutoHimself]

So, I'm trying to put the Omegared Armor Compilation through SkyData so that it's easier to uninstall (does anyone use this utility? I love it). It crashes when I try to do the whole thing, so I split into three parts (meshes, textures, and esp) and intended to name them all the same in the program - that is, give them all the same label in SkyData.

 

Unfortunately, I can do 2/3, but then it crashes again.

 

Is it bad form or ill-advised to create a .bsa for this file? Obviously, the author didn't, so I'm afraid not having the files loose would break filepaths or something.

 

Please advise!

[Deleted1308005User]

Why not using creation kit?

You can back the archive of the mod with ease.

[ChampionOfHircine]

I've done this before without a problem. Just use archive.exe. It should be in your Skyrim directory if you downloaded the creation kit.

[David Brasher]

The CK's archiving function totally stinks. Don't use it. You can use archive.exe which does the job properly and you can make a single .bsa.

 

Content in a .bsa may not be accessed unless there is an .esp of the same name. So if you have a .bsa named RustyArmor.bsa, you must also have a mod named RustyArmor.esp to access this stuff. If your mod is named MyArmorMod, then it isn't going to work and you are going to have a lot of invisible armor. I have not used SkyData and do not know how it works, but I can imagine you having terrible problems and two-thirds of your data missing and inaccessible. Or did you build two additional .esp files to go with your two new .bsa files with new names?

 

There should be no difference between running Omegared Armor Compilation with loose files or with with a single .bsa. The file paths remain the same. Just be sure to remove all the loose files for that mod that you had, or else the game will refer to your loose files instead of to your .bsa.

[PlutoHimself]

I've done this before without a problem. Just use archive.exe. It should be in your Skyrim directory if you downloaded the creation kit.

 

 

The CK's archiving function totally stinks. Don't use it. You can use archive.exe which does the job properly and you can make a single .bsa.Content in a .bsa may not be accessed unless there is an .esp of the same name. So if you have a .bsa named RustyArmor.bsa, you must also have a mod named RustyArmor.esp to access this stuff. If your mod is named MyArmorMod, then it isn't going to work and you are going to have a lot of invisible armor. I have not used SkyData and do not know how it works, but I can imagine you having terrible problems and two-thirds of your data missing and inaccessible. Or did you build two additional .esp files to go with your two new .bsa files with new names?There should be no difference between running Omegared Armor Compilation with loose files or with with a single .bsa. The file paths remain the same. Just be sure to remove all the loose files for that mod that you had, or else the game will refer to your loose files instead of to your .bsa.

 

I only split it into subfolders for textures, meshes, esps so I could load each bit separately in SkyData, so as long as I restore the original hierarchy it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thanks for the advice! I also appreciate the warning about the filenames. I thought it was like that but it's good to have it confirmed.

[steve40]

BSAOpt also works well for creating BSAs. You shouldn't need to split anything up, that will cause crashes. Edited November 13, 2012 by steve40