RFC: Script mods that have served their purpose

[Blinxys]

Curious what the consensus is for limited lifetime/utility script mods, especially game fixes and restored content.

 

Several scripted mods patch, or enhance game play but go their course after x hours of gameplay.

e.g. Dr. Feelsgood fix, Covenant Peaceful Solution, Shortcut to Curie, Library Database Fix, GOAT Test, Curie Romance Fix, to name a few.

 

Generally, avoiding them is perhaps most prudent, (but FOMO works in mysterious ways).

IMO, many of them should likely be in an official or unofficial patch update, for they are small but tasty morsels of flavor individually.

 

Nevertheless, with xxx hours of gameplay remaining these are taking up load space/resources needlessly, but if removed jiggers the load order resulting in instability.

 

What this the best (recommended way to deal with these).

a) Don't use them they are a waste of space.

b) Place at end of load order, and remove when finished (order being an issue here).

c) Replace with a dummy esp.

d) Other (please explain).

 

Conversely:

e) is there a good guide to reliably combine scripted mods so at least some of these can be rolled to a single patch esp?

 

Have bumbled around in xEdit and CK, but the more I look into things the more things seem to elude me.

 

Any direction/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[SKKmods]

I have published several "one time" scripted mods in the Fast Start series, they do their fast start thing to accelerate new game or quests and then go idle.

 

I have structured them so that when they complete their quests all stop, they don't hold pointers to any ObjectReferences and scripts are idle with no active processes or event registrations.

 

These are quality indicators to look for in a scripted mod description. As that is a lot of extra work which generates no flashy user attention grabbing headlines for downloads or ratings, and removing mods is "unsupported" not many mods enjoy that level of engineering investment. Or documentation.

 

I have run extensive tests on disabling/removing these "engineered for removal" mods with or without a blank placeholder ESP to fill their slot to avoid index shuffle down the order. Whilst I have not found anything that breaks after ~24 hours of play across ~10 games (~240 hours testing), all I can observe is that I don't have any crap mods that break when they are removed or the load order index changes.

[Zorkaz]

What SKK50 says is right but given that you can't decompile every foreign script and go through it it's best to look at what they do and make your assumptions from there. And looking to the bugs section.

 

The ones you have listed aren't bad as far as I remember. They do simple things and have no looping scripts or fancy quest aliases. Maybe it's even possible to merge them but that would be a bit experimental.

 

But avoid removing settlements. It should be clear, but many mods feature extra settlements in their content (E.g some companion mods)

[SKKmods]

Even if a mod claims it has been engineered for removal (like many of mine), you can never know what the impact is on the rest of your load order until it is too late.

 

So if you have a low threshold for irritation or anxiety best not remove any.

 

ps my take on merging my own scripted mods, let alone OTHER PEOPLES is total madness and forlorn hope.

[Zorkaz]

Sometimes even removing mods that add armor, bobbleheads, etc... shouldn't be removed.

 

Come to think of it it would be very cool if those Mod Managers featured a way to make mods enabled/disabled depending on your save game.

[SKKmods]

Come to think of it it would be very cool if those Mod Managers featured a way to make mods enabled/disabled depending on your save game.

 

The "SKK manual mod manager" does that by using the console to generate unique named full saves [save "MQ102.50 Run 32768"] and a powershell script which monitors the save directory for file changes and creates a same name copy of plugins.txt [copy plugins.txt "MQ102.50 Run 32768.txt"]. I have a library of thousands of 'em.

[Zorkaz]

Neat, I'll take a look at it. Edit: Did you include it in one of your mods?

[SKKmods]

No that is Windows Powershell scripting, Papyrus does not have access to the file system.

[Blinxys]

The "SKK Manual Mod Manager" I would SO use that!
At least have a trail of breadcrumbs for the way back to when what went where.

 

TBH, I do more experimentation/learning than full play-throughs.

(Looking for the Holy Grail of form and function load-out here).

 

Frustration, anxiety are par for this course, gradually getting way better (results) overall...

 

For the most part, I have taken to heart SKK's maxim:

Avoid anything that boinks main game files.

 

And general advice:

READ: Descriptions, Stickies, Articles, Posts and Bug Reports for mods whenever possible... BEFORE installing them.

Avoid companion mods, (in lieu of AFT currently).

Avoid Mods that mess up Previs/Precombines.

Have forgone most Quest mods until install base is tight.

 

Can't stress this enough to people, a big part of "computer literacy" involves... READING! Have been inching my way up an extremely long and twisted learning curve just over a year with this, establishing a comfort zone before expanding further into the void. Generally, achieving pretty interesting, high-density builds (currently mostly stable with 322+ mods), but sometimes something will kick out somewhere.

 

Regarding my initial inquiry;

Best case scenario:
SKK and Zorkaz join forces and make a single unofficial patch for these fixes? :ninja:

 

Short of that though:
It sounds like conservatively speaking "don't mess with 'em" is good advice. :unsure: :wallbash: :ermm:

 

It's great to hear from both of you SKK50 & Zorkaz, IMO you are among the most esteemed mod authors on FO4 Nexus.

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Edited August 8, 2020 by Blinxys

[Balx2]

1: Read the mod page

2: Read the bugs/discussions

3: Read that s#*! again

* 1-2-3 make sure you really grasp what the mod is trying to do

Then if the mod doesn't provide source ask for it. If they refuse to provide it either don't use it or learn to decompile it.

 

Fallout 4 has no set standard for anything. You'll find ten quests that all do the same damn thing, written 12 different ways. Most quests in the game that should cleanly exit, don't.