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Bethesda Modding Diary - 22 June 2022


gregaaz

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Welcome back, folks. It's been a little while since I've been able to put in some serious modding time, and today is mostly going to be a catch up session on some of the lower effort items that have been accumulating in my backlog. In the days ahead we are going to finish up integrating immersive jewelry and then we'll be doing some cleanup in our script environment. For now however, let's stick to the easy stuff. Going into today, here are our mod counts:

 

  • Skyrim
    • Mods Installed: 1705
    • Plugins Active: 1657
    • Final Load Order Index: E7
  • Fallout
    • Mods Installed: 481
    • Plugins Active: 540
    • Final Load Order Index: A5

 

Unrelated Nerdy Stuff

Spoiler

The Star Trek expanded universe is an interesting beast. Unlike Star Wars pre-Disney, the expanded universe never had pretentions of being canonical, which resulted in a lot of discontinuities and inconsistencies. It also results in some interesting an unexpected emergent histories that don't quite follow the fairly direct narratives that are common in franchise fiction like this. The more or less official explanation - and its a fitting one considering this franchise - is that these inconsistencies are the result of the various licensed work happening in parallel universes or divergent timelines. This was first really explicitly spelled out in the novel The Needs of the Many and in games like Star Trek: Timelines, and then was wholeheartedly embraced with the Coda trilogy that officially wrapped up the long running Post-Nemesis novel continuity and passed the torch to the new Paramount+ TV offerings and their tie-in novels.

 

But I digress. What got me thinking about the Star Trek expanded universe was my Skyrim mod count. 1705 and 1657 are both hull numbers of Federation heavy cruisers that have kind of interesting histories. In particular, both of them are part of the curious procurement strategy for what became the U.S.S. Excalibur

 

The Class 1 Starship Program and What Came Before

Spoiler

Going into the early 23rd century, the Federation Starfleet was right in the middle of integrating its diverse naval services into a single, relatively uniform organization. Part of that is simplifying logistics by settling on standardized parts and hulls across the whole fleet. Thus, while the Romulan war was fought with Earth, Tellarite, Vulcan, Andorian, and so forth ships, all of which had entirely separate manufacturing, operations, and sustainment pipelines, the 2250s Starfleet seldom fielded vessels where their planet of origin was obviously recognizable - a fact that would be exponentially more apparent once you peel back the skin of the ship.

 

However, the building philosophy of the fleet still wasn't entirely a settled question going into the Klingon War of 2256. Based on what we see on screen, the prevailing wisdom in the Starfleet appears to be oriented towards a "big box navy" that emphasizes large hulls. Based on glimpses we've seen inside the Crossfield class, part of that is a lot of interior void space to allow for multi-mission capability between refits, but the (false) confidence of the Federation fleet going into the Battle of the Binary Stars suggests that these designs were also built with a strong defense capability in mind. Unfortunately for the Federation, they were about to receive an ugly wake-up call in terms of understanding their neighbors' strength - and especially that of the Klingons, for complex historical reasons that are beyond the scope of this discussion.

 

Based on the limited information we have about the era before the 2240s, this approach seems to be an outgrowth of the way ships were being built in that earlier era. For example, the Einstein class that the U.S.S. Kelvin belongs to (and which predates the split with the Kelvin timeline, meaning it existed in the Prime timeline) was pretty congruent with the 2250s Starfleet 'scale,' featuring a very large saucer and an overall length of 315 meters. 

 

The reason I say the philosophy wasn't settled is because there were a few voices out in the wilderness arguing for a completely different approach. Specifically, Robert April and his allies. Even as the military industrial complex plowed forward with progressively larger construction (such as the 440-meter Cardenas class), April argued for smaller, leaner, faster ships that were capable of longer deployments suitable not only for exploring the large swathes of uncharted territory claimed by the Federation, but also for quickly responding to crises at distant Federation outposts. Especially revolutionary was the idea of deploying relatively independent ships on five year missions with only minimal interruptions for repair and refit between deployments. While the program underwent a number of changes over its life, the end product largely met April's vision: long-duration cruisers supported by more specialized support ships built from a common sparing pool. These ships were the so-called first-class starships, and their philosophy would go forward to heavily influence Federation shipbuilding for many years to come.

 

The Procurement Push and Pull

Spoiler

While the Federation may have achieved a largely post-scarcity economy on the individual level, it did not have truly unlimited resources. This was particularly true for the Starfleet, which not only had to commission and maintain a large force of starships, but also had responsibility for constructing orbital and deep-space infrastructure such as starbases, repair yards, and all manner of other megastructures. Consequently, for the Starfleet, resources were anything but unlimited, and significant competition existed for access to naval construction authorization.

 

From the start, the Class 1 program involved some level of adaptation of existing construction. Robert April's 'foot in the door' with the Federation Council consisted of authorization to refit a number of older ships that had previously been slated for decommissioning, using these are concept demonstrators for his claims relating to crew endurance and long-term mission suitability. Even after winning support for his program, the Council repeatedly pressured April to substitute refits for new builds (while, at the same time, occasionally inserting other new builds for political or commemorative reasons). 

 

This particularly impacted the "Starship Class Mk IX", which later came to known as the Constitution class. The Federation Council initially authorized 12 such vessels, as well as mandating proof-of-concept refits on U.S.S. Constellation (NCC-1017) and U.S.S. Republic (NCC-1371). We don't know what class either of these refits started their life as; Constellation belongs to a series of hull numbers that include canonical Engle and Crossfield class ships, as well as at least one special-purpose vessel. Outside of canon, there are a number of 10xx-series NCC numbers, including several that are serial to 1017, which are associated with Miranda and Constitution type ships, suggesting that these may similarly be refits of older hulls. Star Fleet Battles identifies Republic as part of the "R" Class, with U.S.S. Reshadije and U.S.S. Ramilles as sister ships. Given that we may yet encounter U.S.S. Republic in the Strange New Worlds series, it's fruitless to speculate about its original identity until we can see the canonical explanation.

 

Those two refits, however, wouldn't be the last. This brings us back to 1705 and 1657, and the building history of U.S.S. Excalibur

 

The Ship That Couldn't Find a Contract

Spoiler

The original Mk IX authorization included naval construction contract NCC-1705 for the construction of U.S.S. Excalibur. Had it been completed on schedule, Excalibur would have been built to the original Constitution configuration. However, a series of contract changes and production delays derailed this. We don't know exactly what prompted the decision, but early in the building program, the Federation Council reassigned NCC-1705 for U.S.S. Yamato. Given that the TNG-era Yamato (NCC-71807) is also referred to as NCC-1305-E, one possibility is that the original NCC-1305 Yamato was lost under heroic circumstances in this timeframe, prompting a commemorative renaming of Excalibur

 

This wasn't the first time the Council ordered a name change for one of the Class 1 heavy cruisers. NCC-1702 was originally ordered as U.S.S. Potemkin, and was later mandated to change to U.S.S. Farragut, with Potemkin receiving the then-unassigned NCC-1711. By the time of the Yamato mandate, however, both Potemkin and Farragut had been cancelled, and would instead be built under revisions to NCC-1657 and NCC-1647, respectively. We don't know what the original planned configuration for those two contracts was. Several 16xx hulls are canonically known to be Malachowski and Hoover class cruisers, and in the Kevlin timeline at least one ship of the unknown-class Mayflower type had a contract number in this range. The Mayflower type is rather similar in configuration (ignoring the absence of an engineering hull) and it's possible that the large number of 16xx Class 1 heavy cruiser hulls are refitted Mayflowers. This would also nicely explain the entire absence of that class in the Prime timeline.

 

With NCC-1711 already surpassed by other construction authorizations, U.S.S. Excalibur's contract was reassigned to that number to free up 1705 for Yamato. By this time, however, the Federation Council had clearly warmed to the idea of converting the incomplete 16xx builds rather than authorizing total new construction, and work never resumed under the 1711 contract. Instead, the Federation Council cancelled 1711 entirely and modified NCC-1664 to require a Class 1 Heavy Cruiser rather than the previously-unknown configuration. While we know nothing about how these events transpired, I imagine that the partially-constructed engines and/or engineering hull were transferred to the 1664 project in order to minimize waste.

 

Despite its contractual woes, U.S.S. Excalibur launched relatively early. She was operational in the early 2250s during the time of Captain Pike's first five year mission, and may in fact have been active in the 2240s, concurrent with the earliest Class 1 heavy cruisers. In many ways however, she was more capable than the original Constitution design; equipped with enhanced command and control facilities similar to U.S.S. Lexington, she represented something of an intermediate stage between the original Constitution and the subsequent Bon Homme Richard subclass. While she was functionally still a heavy cruiser, Excalibur was officially classified as a command cruiser.

 

Visually, it's unclear if the ship remained in the original "Cage" configuration or received some or all of the modifications that we see on U.S.S. Enterprise in the period immediately after the Klingon war. If she launched with lasers at all, she almost certainly received the same phaser refit as Enterprise during or just before the Klingon War. While Excalibur's enhanced capabilities made her a low priority for a full refit to the BHR or Achernar specification, she did receive Achernar subclass engines; if she ever had the swept pylons of the SNW era Enterprise, she lost them at this point.

 

Death and Rebirth: Return to 1705

Spoiler

Excalibur was lost on 2268 during the disastrous M-5 computer experiment. The Federation Council had previously authorized four re-builds of lost Class 1 heavy cruisers, notably Constellation II, Farragut II, Intrepid II, and Valiant II. The loss of Excalibur created some interest in commissioning an Excalibur II in line with this tradition, but the Council had only recently authorized construction of a large number of Achernar subtype cruisers, and this move was already starting to become controversial, with much talk of cancelling a large portion of the orders to free up resources for other projects. Ultimately, rather than authorize another new hull, the Council mandated that NCC-1788, U.S.S. Mirazh, instead launch as U.S.S. Excalibur II. The construction schedule had already meant that Excalibur II would be one of the last Achernars built, and her launch was further delayed by multiple resource reallocations and cancellations. 

 

Ultimately, her career as NCC-1788 would be a short one. Not long after Excalibur II's launch, she was selected for refit along with Lexington, Enteprise, Farragut II, Exeter, Hood, El Dorado, and Krieger. For reasons that remain unclear, most of the ships in this refit series had their hull numbers changed, mostly to align with their original numbers under the initial Class 1 authorization. Yamato had originally also been targeted for this refit program, but by that time there were already plans in place to decommission her for use as a training ship and she only received a greatly reduced version of the refit package. With a classified authorization already in place for the next U.S.S. Yamato (NX-5626), the Federation Council returned NCC-1705 to U.S.S. Excalibur II after the completion of her refit to the Enterprise Refit configuration.

 

Like her predecessor, Excalibur II incorporated the enhanced command and control facilities and was classified as a command cruiser rather than a heavy cruiser. She retained those facilities after refit and almost certainly also received further refits with improved Auxiliary Warp Reactors and improved point defenses over the course of her service life. We don't know the final disposition of Excalibur II, but the relatively low contract number on her Excelsior class success (NCC-2004) suggests that she was one of the many victims of Starfleet's general drawdown of the Class 1 heavy cruisers in the late 2280s and into the 2290s. 

 

Thank you for Coming to my Ted Talk

New back to your regularly scheduled Bethesda Modding

 

Back On Topic... Fallout Mods

Spoiler

I've got a few different Fallout mods lined up, a number of which involve increasing the diversity of enemies (and allies) in the game. Specifically, I'm looking at:

 

 

Defective Synths was a pretty easy install: it just required ESL flagging (it was already in the reserved form ID range). This mod was built as an add-on for More Feral Ghouls, and its conflicts were all simple single-record overrides that didn't need any conflict resolution.

 

The police mods also required some ESL flagging (and the main dependency also needed compacting); they also required conflict resolution on outfit records.

 

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In the process of doing this, I discovered the reason why my DC guards were frequently naked under their armor -- the sidearm piece that Armorsmith Extended adds uses Slot 39 (left leg), but their under-armor clothes also use that slot (among others). I patched that issues at the same time as when I merged the leveled lists. So funny as it was, the era of security streaking at Diamond city is over :(

 

We've also got a few more snap-point add-ons which should be fairly easy to integrate. I'm talking about:

 

 

However, on review both of these are already covered by Workshop Rearranged, so we can skip these two.

 

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Some Attention for Skyrim

Spoiler

We've also got a few lightweight Skyrim mods lined up to install. Let's square these away before we look at anything more involved.

 

 

 

Except for Blessings of Nature, these were all very simple installations - the only thing I needed to do was hide one file in Lux to prevent it from overwriting a single model from GGGIS. I noticed that Flute Animation Fix has native support for FK Diverse Racial Skeletons, which was a really nice bonus.

 

Blessings of Nature was a little more complicated, with a plugin and a script override. Fortunately, the script was unconflicted, so that didn't require any editing. The plugin was an uncompacted, 15-record ESP, so the first thing that I did was compact it and add an ESL flag. It also contained 2 ITMs, but fortunately no other errors or deletions. The only conflict in the mod was a neccessary edit to Danica Pure-Spring to add factions that enable her functionality. To avoid the black face "feature", I had to patch this with my appearance mod - a pretty straightforward operation.

 

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So while there was some room for improvement on the Blessings of Nature mod, everything here looks pretty good and should improve the gameplay experience.

 

Some More Fallout Fun

Spoiler

Those first mods were pretty painless to install, so let's loop back to Fallout and get some more content installed. Here's what we'll tackle next:

 

 

None of these mods have any asset conflicts, but I see already that some of them are uncompacted and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some conflicts in the records. Let's take a look in xEdit.

 

The paint mod and the timed connectors were both full-sized plugins even though they didn't need to be, so I compacted them. Fortunately, none of the three mods had any errors or dirty edits, and only the paint mod had conflicts. It was a conflict with the UFOP, and fixing it was a simple matter of merging the edits.

 

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Looks good! Let's visit Abernathy Farm and see how the new paint job looks on the robot we built a while back.

 

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Not bad!

 

 

Well, today was a pretty quick session but we squared away a bunch of stuff that was clogging up my to-do list at least. See you all soon for the next installment!

1 Comment


Recommended Comments

I like the idea of the Timed Connector do you have a guide on compacting mods or know of one?.

 

Also your blogs have been a great read and very helpful while I'm setting up my Fallout load order the only thing I need to-do is see about setting up AFF so I can use violate ( I like death alternative mods) , the stripper pole mod because I've also wanted a Vice city type settlement for while and I'm determined to do it this time and the mod your using that places the bound captives at different locations. 

 

Thank you.

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