Overwriting a conflict patch

[bcaton]

I used FO4edit to create a conflict resolution patch between a lot of mods. However, sims 2 came out so i had to start all over again. I installed a bunch of different mods because of that, so the old patch is useless.

However, I'd like to leave the name there as I created a rule for overrides in Vortex, and that would be easiest.

I think what I need to do is completely overwrite the conflict resolution esp, or delete the old one and start a new one but that is more awkward. Can I simply force a total over-write of the conflict esp?

Also, is it safe to tag such a patch as an ESL? I'm not sure how ESL tagged ESP files work for load orders etc.

[HeyYou]

Don't tag patches as esl, they will load before esp files, and that could truly screw things up.

 

I would be tempted to just nuke the old file, and create a new one with the same name..... That way, there is less danger of 'wrong' edits being retained.

[VIitS]

Don't tag patches as esl, they will load before esp files, and that could truly screw things up.

 

That is incorrect. If you use the .esl file extension, it will be loaded before .esp files, since that file extension causes the game to treat it as if the mod has both the ESM and ESL flags. If you just set the ESL flag on a .esp plugin as bcaton was planning, it can be loaded anywhere in the .esp loading section after ESMs (including at the end of your load order if desired), same as regular .esp plugins.

 

The only exception to that is if you use the last nexus-released version of NMM, which falsely treated the ESL flag the same way as the .esl file extension and forces them to be loaded there. Vortex, MO2, the game, and even the most recent version of NMM from their github handles ESL-flagged .esp plugins properly.

 

 

That said, I would also agree that it is better at this point to nuke the old file. With the ESL flag, there is little point in having a megapatch at this point. Since compatibility patches pretty much by definition have few if any new new records, that can pretty much always be flagged, and FO4 has been tested successfully with over 4000 ESL-flagged plugins*. Only issue when you have that many plugins is it starts taking a while for the game to start (took over 10 minutes when doing that testing).

 

If you want ultimate modularity (i.e. the ability to update a mod or remove it and only needing to redo the conflicts directly related to that mod), you might want to check out the #Cathedral-of-the-Method channel in the xEdit discord (invite link in xEdit, top right). If you prefer to still have larger patches, such as one patch for all conflicts between weapon mods, you still might want to check it out if you need help understanding modgroups**

 

 

*It seems to have an issue with too many records of the same type (not a limit on number of records, seems to be a limit on the combined data size of all records of a given type), but when that limit was hit during testing it was for fairly large ALCH records, and hit at over 600,000 of them. For loaded REFRs, it was fine until the calculated limit of 2^21 that applies to all plugins, not just ESL, and when they were flagged so that the Temp REFRs were not all constantly loaded, the game handled over 8,000,000 (4000+ "full" ESM+ESLs with 1 new CELL and 2047 new REFRs, since this was tested before the range was expanded for FO4) without issue.

 

** Modgroups are a useful tool for resolving conflicts. Basically, you tell xEdit that you have looked at a selected group of plugins, and resolved any conflicts between them. This then hides all but the first (master) version of the records, and the winning version of the records. The most recent versions of the unofficial patches come with a modgroup for xUP and the base game+DLC, so if you only have the Unofficial patch and the base game+DLC loaded, you will see at most two versions of any given record, and nothing will show with a red background.

 

Modgroups are extremely useful for seeing the "conflict footprint" of a newly added mod. If you are following the Method (either with micropatches or with larger combined patches) on an already built load-order, you can disable all but a few mods, patch them, make a modgroup to hide conflicts once you have resolved them all, then enable the next mod (or group of mods). The only records with a red background will be new conflicts between the newly loaded mod(s) and the ones you made amodgroup for

[bcaton]

Is there a way to nuke the plugin from within FO4edit? It seems like I should be able to have it create a new file with the same name as most editors can, but if not i will just use the file manager.

Thanks for your feedback, I feel a bit more confident about things now.

[VIitS]

You can either select all the groups -> Right click -> remove, or just make a new plugin (copy as override -> new plugin).