Finding leveled lists in xEdit/FNVEdit?

[GeminiContractor]

So, I want to make a Bashed patch, but it is somewhat difficult to go through all of the mods looking for leveled lists and containers (I have 246 files to go through), and the EditorID search feature in xEdit does not seem to be able to find what I am looking for.

 

Is there any way to search for "Leveled Item", "Leveled NPC", "Leveled Creature" and "Container" in plugins?

If not in xEdit, is there any other way to look for those?

 

Also, when making a Bashed patch, do I need to include the Fallout and DLC files or the unofficial patch files since they have containers and leveled lists?

[dubiousintent]

First, a bit of clarification to avoid some pending confusion. Technically a "Bashed Patch" is generated by Wrye Bash/Wrye Flash, which uses an algorithm. A few data record types, such as leveled lists, can be merged automatically in the "Bashed Patch" avoiding the need to manually create a compatibility patch for these.

 

The xEdit/FNVEdit tool has the ability to also generate a "Merge Patch" using a similar algorithm, but also the ability to override the individual record conflict "winner" result with different choices. Many people create a "Bashed Patch" first, and then create a "Merge Patch" manually to override specific records as desired with earlier loading records or unique values, which has the advantage of reducing the number of manual edits required. While both are very similar, the resulting patch files can both be included in the "load order", with the "Bashed Patch" loading before the "Merge Patch". This can be handled automatically by LOOT if the files are named correctly.

 

See the wiki "Merged Plugin Guidelines for Personal Use" article on how to merge plugins (which is not the same as a "merge patch" file) to get your active count down while still keeping the mods, and for the naming conventions recognized by LOOT.

 

Regarding which files to include when creating either type of patch file: You need to load your entire "load order" (including all ESM and ESP files), or your resulting patch will fail because the "mod indexes" will be off when the game loads them. The "mod index" of each plugin is determined at the time it loads into the game engine, which is why you have to rebuild such patch files anytime you make ANY changes to the "load order".

 

To address your question regarding "Leveled Lists": Please see the "S.T.E.P. Guide to Merging Plugins" article section on "xEdit Merge Patch" for a more complete discussion of potential issues. (The advice is to disable "leveled lists" using that tool.) Suggest you take a look at the "Filter Menu" tab of the "Tome of xEdit" documentation to identify "Circular LIst" conflicts and restrict the view. If you scroll down the list in the middle of the screen you will find:

* LVLC - Leveled Creature

* LVLI - Leveled Item

* LVLN - Leveled NPC

 

Suggest you be very cautious about attempting to manually merge leveled lists. Might want to bring the question up on the xEdit "[WIPz} TES5Edit" forum or Discord Server first.

 

-Dubious-

Edited September 13, 2020 by dubiousintent

[GeminiContractor]

First, a bit of clarification to avoid some pending confusion. Technically a "Bashed Patch" is generated by Wrye Bash/Wrye Flash, which uses an algorithm. A few data record types, such as leveled lists, can be merged automatically in the "Bashed Patch" avoiding the need to manually create a compatibility patch for these.

 

The xEdit/FNVEdit tool has the ability to also generate a "Merge Patch" using a similar algorithm, but also the ability to override the individual record conflict "winner" result with different choices. Many people create a "Bashed Patch" first, and then create a "Merge Patch" manually to override specific records as desired with earlier loading records or unique values, which has the advantage of reducing the number of manual edits required. While both are very similar, the resulting patch files can both be included in the "load order", with the "Bashed Patch" loading before the "Merge Patch". This can be handled automatically by LOOT if the files are named correctly.

 

See the wiki "Merged Plugin Guidelines for Personal Use" article on how to merge plugins (which is not the same as a "merge patch" file) to get your active count down while still keeping the mods, and for the naming conventions recognized by LOOT.

 

Regarding which files to include when creating either type of patch file: You need to load your entire "load order" (including all ESM and ESP files), or your resulting patch will fail because the "mod indexes" will be off when the game loads them. The "mod index" of each plugin is determined at the time it loads into the game engine, which is why you have to rebuild such patch files anytime you make ANY changes to the "load order".

 

To address your question regarding "Leveled Lists": Please see the "S.T.E.P. Guide to Merging Plugins" article section on "xEdit Merge Patch" for a more complete discussion of potential issues. (The advice is to disable "leveled lists" using that tool.) Suggest you take a look at the "Filter Menu" tab of the "Tome of xEdit" documentation to identify "Circular LIst" conflicts and restrict the view. If you scroll down the list in the middle of the screen you will find:

* LVLC - Leveled Creature

* LVLI - Leveled Item

* LVLN - Leveled NPC

 

Suggest you be very cautious about attempting to manually merge leveled lists. Might want to bring the question up on the xEdit "[WIPz} TES5Edit" forum or Discord Server first.

 

-Dubious-

 

Thank you for the reply and information, but now I am even more confused.

Are you saying that when I build the Bashed and Merged patches, I need to include all of the plugins in both patches?

 

About disabling leveled lists, am I supposed to disable them by deleting the "Leveled x" categories in xEdit's Merged Patch?

Also, the S.T.E.P. guide says to remove the "Leveled Item" category, but I am not sure if that means the "Leveled Item" category or all of the leveled categories.

 

As for manually merging leveled lists, I was not going to combine the lists in xEdit.

I just thought that I needed to only include mods with leveled lists and containers in the Bashed patch.

[dubiousintent]

Thank you for the reply and information, but now I am even more confused.

Are you saying that when I build the Bashed and Merged patches, I need to include all of the plugins in both patches?

Yes, the entire load order of plugins, from the FalloutNV.EXE downwards. The "Bashed Patch (BP)" will be the winner of all prior conflicts before the "Merged Patch (MP)" is created, so the MP should not have any conflicts to resolve until you make manual changes. But the later loading MP needs the "mod index" number of the BP within the entire load order, which means you have to have ALL the plugins loaded.

 

You don't want to try to guess exactly which plugins need to be included, because you aren't examining all the file dependencies manually. That's was those tools' algorithms are for; to save you that drudgery and potential errors.

 

About disabling leveled lists, am I supposed to disable them by deleting the "Leveled x" categories in xEdit's Merged Patch?

Also, the S.T.E.P. guide says to remove the "Leveled Item" category, but I am not sure if that means the "Leveled Item" category or all of the leveled categories.

When instructions are very specific with terminology (such as with "Leveled Items" instead of a more broadly encompassing term like "Leveled Lists") then you should interpret it strictly. (Good catch that my reply used the broader term incorrectly.) Again because they should already have merged/conflicts resolved in the BP.

 

If the results are not what you expect, then you can try again with a looser interpretation. (Because you are creating your own custom files, it's easy to try again.)

 

-Dubious-

Edited September 14, 2020 by dubiousintent