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[HELP] Creating an "All In One" Mod?


Sparowe Chan

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So from reading the title alone I'm sure a lot of people who read this would more than likely just tell me to use "Merge Plugins". While I normally do use that program and don't have a problem with it whatsoever, I want to know how to do this without having to "Merge" multiple ".esp" files into one.

 

Mainly, so I will know how to do this for when I'm finished working on the handful of random projects I am hoping to release. 

 

Secondly, I also want to combine another author's mods into a single mod. NOT TO RELEASE as my own, but for simplicity. From what I understand and what I've always done in the past after merging mods together is that I would just deactivate them and leave them in my load order just above the newly created ".esp", instead of removing them or deleting them completely. This was done in case I ever had to rebuild my merge in the future, either because I wanted to add more mods to it, or remove mods I no longer wanted.

 

Normally when I do merges I merge together mods that are either, from a particular author, mods that are all weapons, mods that are all armor, basically mods that are the same, in a sense. I like to keep things organized as I'm sure a lot of other people do the same, either the same way I do or in their own way. 

 

Currently, I have 251 active plugins (right pane in MO); Along with 457 activated mods total (left pane in MO). This already includes MANY merged mods, my biggest merged mod is just over 80 mods merged into a single plugin, all armor mods. My second biggest merge contains all of my followers and mods pertaining to NPC's. (I don't normally merged any mods together that contain scripts. Don't know why, habit? Superstitious?) 

 

I can keep explaining how I have my load order setup and in the process scare away anybody else that might've known an answer or solution/tutorial that would help me, but I'll try and cut this short.

 

One last thing is that when I do merges that contain "BSA" files along with an "ESP", I always unpack the "BSA" into the folder containing the "ESP" before I do merges. This is going to sound retarded, but I never understood how it worked with "Merge Plugins". I know it can do, I know I have it set up to do it and I know it actually does it when I just leave the "BSA" as is and merge. I do this because it was my understanding that in order to have the game load the "BSA" it has to be named the exact same as the "ESP" loading it. Only "Merge Plugins" doesn't rename the "BSA" files. I realize that if I have 10 mods merged together, that I can't have all 10 of their respective "BSA" files all having the same name. So I'm guessing that when it merges mods together that contain "BSA's" it does the whole renaming process by some other means, so when looking at the output folder I'd see all the "BSA" files as they were prior to the merge, the newly merged "ESP" doesn't see them that way and instead sees them all magically having the same name. (This is how I explained it to myself when I was trying to wrap my head around how the program actually accomplishes this.)

 

OK, now that I've scared off even more potential helpers, TLDR: Let's say for example I download all the mods from "ModAuthor" and they all happen to be "Weapons" or "Armor" not both. After downloading them and unpacking them all into a newly created folder, followed by unpacking all of their "BSA" files into the newly created folder. Keep in mind this new folder now contains "Meshes" ; "Textures" ; "Scripts" ; "Sounds" folders respectively. None of the mods overwrite each other, the only thing I did was unpack them all into the same "Data" folder. Now I want to zip up this folder and put it back in my load order, under one newly created (not merged) ESP.

 

Am I overthinking this whole situation? Meaning can I just create an archive (7z or Zip) containing the new data folder and add it to my load order? Or do I need to first create a "dummy" ESP file in the CK and then add all the files into the "pack archive" window in the CK? Cause that's what I did, I loaded up the CK, Skyrim ESM and Update ESM, then when I tried to add them to the archive window it wouldn't accept them unless I added them as actual files and not folders. So I then proceeded to do so, going through about 40-50 folders and dragging the files from each into the archive window. Then clicked create archive and named it the same name as the one I gave my ESP file when I first loaded up the CK and after I set my new ESP as the active plugin for the CK to work in. 

 

Now I'm lost, after I created a new mod from the ModOrganizer "overwrite" folder and added it to my load order, followed by activating it, it comes up as a "dummy" esp in my right pane saying that I need to deactivate the esp file and make sure I leave the BSA for it activated in the archive tab, which is what I did and what I've done for numerous other mods in the past. Still confused, I loaded up TESVEdit and noticed my newly created ESP only had a "header" and absolutely nothing else. Is this normal? Shouldn't there be more to it, my esp? Considering the fact that I have scripts and sound files in the BSA that was made from the CK?

 

If so then why is it that other mods, either weapon mods or armor mods, don't have you un-check their ESP's when they have a BSA in archives tab as well? Most of the time and the ones I checked in my own load order, these only consist of meshes and textures, nothing else. This is why I'm so confused! I know if I'm using assets, either my own creations, or assets from other authors or ports from another game, that they are supposed to have an esp file to go along with them so the game knows to load these new assets correct? So I do I attach or tell the new ESP I made to load or read them or notice them??? 

 

I'M SO LOST!!!

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