Making an ESP a Parent Master?

[BadlyDrawnRhino]

Hey guys,

So I've been working on a mod this evening. First one ever, so it's been interesting. Basically, the mod I've been working on takes some items from another mod, and adds a script to enable an extra bit of functionality. The problem I've encountered, however, is that when I try to test it in game, it doesn't work. At all. I've tested the same script on some items from the vanilla game, and it works fine there. I have a feeling the problem is that my mod doesn't have the other mod listed as a parent master. So here's my question: is there a way to add an ESP to the list of parent masters for my mod?

I realise I could convert the other mod to an ESM, but I'm worried that that could cause problems. I'd much rather leave it as the original author distributed it, if possible. There's also the fact that, should I want to share my mod, I wouldn't want to force people to mess around with converting another mod's esp if I can avoid it.

I hope that all made sense...

Thanks in advance for your help!

EDIT: Okay, I figured out a possible way to do it shortly after posting this. I opened up both my esp and the esp I wanted to be a master in FNVEdit. Changed the other mod's file header so that it was listed as an ESM, and then added it as a master file to my mod. I then closed FNVEdit, making sure to only save the changes to my mod. It now has the other mod listed as a master in FOMM, but unfortunately it didn't solve the problem.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Meat Axe

[DrakeTheDragon]

Don't know about Fallout, but if it's of any help, in Oblivion this was caused by the Construction Set "only". Using an ESP as master for a plugin simply couldn't be saved or loaded.

 

You had to use Wrye Bash's ESMify tool to temporarily turn the ESP into an ESM (the header flag switch you already mentioned), then the CS could save it and maintained the parent relation through the save or load.

Afterwards you simply turned it back into an ESP via the ESPify tool again, before starting the game.

But you had to keep in mind "always" to ESMify the parents again before opening the plugin in the CS, or the relation would again simply get lost on load or save!

 

So in short, ESMify parents before editing, and ESPify parents back again before starting the game. No 'permanent' change, so nothing could be messed up this way.

 

Later the CS Extender (an OBSE plugin) was introduced with full ESP-mastering support natively built in. But I don't know if something similar exists for Fallout.

 

However, this only worked because Oblivion itself supported ESP-mastering quite fine. If Fallout itself doesn't even support this, there's no use in circumventing the Geck's potential weakness.

[blove]

It is a shortcoming of the GECK. Set the ESM flag for the would be master, load it and your plugin in GECK, and recompile those scripts. The best example of plugins with ESP masters would be merged patches and also with scripts would be Weapon Mod Kits.

[BadlyDrawnRhino]

Thanks for your replies! So after I've done all of my editing with the ESM flag set on the master file, would I then simply change it back to an ESP and test my mod? Or does it always have to be flagged?

 

EDIT: Just tested it, and it's now working as intended! Thank you so much for your help, guys!

Edited May 3, 2013 by Meat Axe

[Polyfemus]

I have no further comment except thanks for the answers from this thread. I have learned something I didn't know how to do before.