Cant talk to followers after merge

[ASDFGHB]

I had to free some space in my plugin list and armors and weapons were not the best option to merge since I would gain at most only 5 slots. So I decided to merge followers because I had a lot of them installed (I kinda like this sort of mods bc boobies). I used the same zmerge settings used here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ1mdOGosdc that also worked well for weapons and armors. I would understand some followers being bugged, but all of them have the same bug, except maybe a few.

When I press the talk button I dont get dialogue choices, they only say generic comments characters without dialogues say. I tested around 10-12 follower mods of the 70 I had installed and only one had working dialogues (this one concretely with spanish translation patch installed https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/72385).

No follower contained dlls. And only 2 mods had bsa files. My original plan was to merge all of them and if I noticed one bugged, exclude that one from the merge and redo it. But I cant do that if they are all bugged.

Earlier, while preparing the merge list, I got a warning that there was a non-contiguous issue because of EFF and CVR follower voices. I didnt understand this at all but I moved those plugins and their patches to the start of the plugin order and after resetting the PC, the warning was gone.

Someone suggested I was too greedy merging too many mods, so I tried merging 10-15 but it still happens this way.

 

If you have any question or need any more data like the follower plugin list, I can  post it here if necessary.

 

Thanks in advance.

[RW311]

You should not merge mid save and expect it to work this should be something to test before starting a new game. These followers were changed by EFF and CVR as you listed but in the merge ref id's have changed and will not match to what is in the save data, this probably cannot be fixed other than putting everything back to before you made the merge.

[gregathit]

Merging any mods that contain scripts is a bad idea.  The most likely end result will be massive amounts of errors and CTD's.  Instead, pare down your mods.  Rather than adding tons of follower mods, pick the best couple and stick with that.  You can only have a couple followers with you at one time anyway.  If you are looking to add more NPC's to Skyrim, there are plenty of mods that do just that.  Adopt a policy towards mods of "I can't live without it" instead of "gimme gimme gimme".  Your game will be more playable and you will enjoy the mods you did select more.

[ASDFGHB]

33 minutes ago, RW311 said:

You should not merge mid save and expect it to work this should be something to test before starting a new game. These followers were changed by EFF and CVR as you listed but in the merge ref id's have changed and will not match to what is in the save data, this probably cannot be fixed other than putting everything back to before you made the merge.

Im loading a save from before I added most follower mods. So there shouldnt be ref ids in the save data. Should I reinstall EFF and CVR after the merge?

I can easily go back to before I made the merge so that is not an issue, but I want to be able to merge follower mods, not the 70 mods but at least merging 10-15 would be good.

32 minutes ago, gregathit said:

Merging any mods that contain scripts is a bad idea.  The most likely end result will be massive amounts of errors and CTD's.  Instead, pare down your mods.  Rather than adding tons of follower mods, pick the best couple and stick with that.  You can only have a couple followers with you at one time anyway.  If you are looking to add more NPC's to Skyrim, there are plenty of mods that do just that.  Adopt a policy towards mods of "I can't live without it" instead of "gimme gimme gimme".  Your game will be more playable and you will enjoy the mods you did select more.

I know it is a bad idea, but as I read, zmerge has tools to deal with those except the dll ones. What I want to know is how to solve my merge issues as I cant merge any number of follower mods and other people can.

[gregathit]

3 minutes ago, ASDFGHB said:

Im loading a save from before I added most follower mods. So there shouldnt be ref ids in the save data. Should I reinstall EFF and CVR after the merge?

I can easily go back to before I made the merge so that is not an issue, but I want to be able to merge follower mods, not the 70 mods but at least merging 10-15 would be good.

No saves.  Start a new game!  Previous saves can have nonsense in them that can break things.  If it works with a new game, then you can try saved games and see what success you have.

4 minutes ago, ASDFGHB said:

I know it is a bad idea, but as I read, zmerge has tools to deal with those except the dll ones. What I want to know is how to solve my merge issues as I cant merge any number of follower mods and other people can.

Learn more about modding.  Sorry, but there is no tutorial or guide that anyone can point you to.  Learn how mods work, interact with one another and what they do and what they contain.  There are shit tons of videos on youtube on modding that you can watch.  Most likely what those who are succeeding in making these merges are doing involves all of what I just mentioned and using tools like SSE Edit and so on to resolve the conflicts that they know will be generated.  

 

Also, never merge a patch with a mod.  Never.  Unless you are VERY familiar with modding.  The result will be you breaking the mod at minimum or CTD's at the extreme.  I'm sorry I can give you a guide or a 10 step list to follow.  

[ASDFGHB]

You were right Duck and cover, if I start a new game, after the prologue, the followers have dialogues.

 

It would be good if somehow ref numbers could be fixed in old saves but it seems difficult. So thank you for solving it ?

 

Also, one fast question, zmerge has an option called relink scripts, I searched what it is used for but I couldnt find info. Would you know what it is for?