Asking for opinion...

[Synthael]

Since I've reinstalled my Fallout New Vegas due to frequent crashes, bad mod installs / uninstalls and everything, I've been really careful what I install now. More-less all mods currently active in the list are my own mods, with maybe a few mods from other authors...

 

First thing I started doing was getting bug fixes from NVEC and Unofficial Patches, but looking in FNVEdit after that I noticed there are still some conflicts because of how the DLC masters them selves were made. So I started doing something i never thought I'd do...

 

Via Wrye Bash I converted Old World Blues master file to .esp, loaded it up in GECK and fixed the things in there, by restoring values, making new entries, modifying affected stuff etc. After I was done and saved the changes, reverted OWB back to .esm. Few days later started doing the same on Dead Money. But stopped because I haven't really considered how big impact fiddling with official files might have on my game.

 

Yes, I managed to "kill" about 30 different red spots showing in FNVEdit. I managed to make NVEC utterly incompatible with my game (xD)...

But I feel if I keep doing this for my game, eventually I might get rid of many bugs that were killing the game for this or that reason...

 

Also, other part of that is that I managed to put about 40 mods I had installed before in only 4 files: Fixes and Tweaks, Cosmetic Pack, Armament Pack, Gameplay Rebalance... No conflicts, even between mods that killed each other before. And I don't plan on stopping adding new ones...

 

Spoiler'd are the mods I managed to merge so far...

 

 

Cosmetic Mods:
    Type 3M
    Type 6M
    New Vegas Redesigned 2
    Ling's Coiffure
    Zzjay's Hair Pack
    Cazy Hairs
    SKS Ren's Hairpack
    A Better Cass
    Dracomies Veronica
    

Armament Pack:
    Type 3M
    Type 6M
    Sunglasses Collection
    Millenia's Weapon Retextures
    Pancor Jackhammer
    MrRadioaktiv's Weapon Collection
    
Gameplay Changers:
    Project Nevada*
    Advanced Recon*
    
Fixes and Tweaks:
    Max Followers to 12
    Companion Weapon Casino Fix
    Unlimited Companions
    Van Graff Hostility Faction Fix
    Primm Reputation Restored
    Patient Gown at Startup
    OWB Stealth Suit Bug Fixes
    Stealth Suit Mk II Speed Fix
    Emily Ortal Dialogue Restore Fix
    In Shining Armor Perk Fix
    DLC Weapons And Armors Perks Fixes
    Bortherhood of Steel Armor Distribution Fix
    Followers Clinic donation fix
    Old World Blues - Mojave fixes
    NCRCF Alarm Fix
    Poor Meat Never Makes Good Soup Fix
    Euclid's C Finder Fix
    Causeless Rebel, Bonds of Steel and Elijah's Last Words Perks Fixes
    Scribe Counter bug fix
    Travelling Merchant Fix

 

    *still deconstructing to get what I want from the mods, to get rid of the stuff I don't use or was killing the game

 

 

 

What is your opinion on this, is it unwise to continue going the path I started, or should I continue that way?

[ElvenScoundrel]

You're like, halfway there, so why stop? If the game's truly running smoother for you, keep at it.

[DoctaSax]

Personally, I'd stay away from directly editing the DLCs (other than cleaning them) and big packs like Project Nevada, and focus my own compiling on clothes, beauty packs, and weapon packs. But as said, if it works for you, more power to ya.
Caveat about sexout mods though: quite a few use buildref, or are buildref'ed by another mod, and for that the esp's need to stay as they are.

[Synthael]

Personally, I'd stay away from directly editing the DLCs (other than cleaning them) and big packs like Project Nevada, and focus my own compiling on clothes, beauty packs, and weapon packs. But as said, if it works for you, more power to ya.

Caveat about sexout mods though: quite a few use buildref, or are buildref'ed by another mod, and for that the esp's need to stay as they are.

 

I know about Sexout, I was planning to avoid those mods for some time until I make my compilations more-less complete, then install them and hope they work good as they are. xD

[BruceWayne]

Project Nevada is very modular right out of the box.

 

I'd agree with DoctaSax and stay clear of directly editing DLCs. Red fields in FNVEdit are not necessarily a bad thing and unavoidable for bugfix mods. Put differently, they are the whole point of those kind of mods (overwriting bad records). 

 

In the end you have to ask yourself if it is worth the time to comp through official content and all of the popular mods. I'm not saying this to "rub it in", but I've been able to play with the merged and bashed patch a "rock solid" crash-free game. My load order is floating around here somewhere, but from the top of my hat I use mods like: MMUE, Project Nevada, Project Beauty, Lings, WMX, Spice of Life, Electro-City, Project Reality, Sexout and a bunch of other mods.

 

The only mod I merged myself are weapon and armor mods. Merging scripted mods is more trouble than it's worth and most of the time unnecessary. And if it would be necessary, the mod is probably not worth the trouble.

[astymma]

I have never liked wrye so I've always used fnvedit/fnvplugin for all my merging needs and I've achieved the same rock solid stability but have the additional advantage of granularity which using wrye can often not provide. Merging scripted mods is not as hard as you would think. In most cases you don't even need to recompile the scripts.

 

As an example, my merged races/npcs esp contains LPT, NVR2, All Hair Mods (I've lost count), CWDolls, Mikoto, T6M NPC NV and Mojava Delight.

I use all pose mods, Sexout and WSex, groovatron and any number of mods editing animations along side each other with no issues (even a custom Playthings.esm).

Have AWOP, ElectroCity, T6M NPC, Warzones, NVB I+II and MAC with no compatability/navmesh issues.

 

So... to the OP, the road you're on can definitely work if you know what you're doing. If you're not 100% sure, I'd go Bruce's route, it's safer AND easier to manage. I would only go the route I use if you don't mind spending literal hours combing through mods to achieve granular merging.

[DoctaSax]

Question for you about beauty comping then, astymma (excuse me for going off-topic a little, just curious): how did you merge the different ways NVR, mikoto, ling's etc handle head06 meshes and eyelashes/merged mouths? There's probably some overlap, but it's hard to tell which is best there.

[astymma]

I simply decided on one head implementation and used it for all races that were merged races. I chose to use Mikoto since it used merged mouths exposing more slots to be used for eyelashes, etc.. I play almost exclusively male PCs so it was kind of a must anyway since I use so many sideburn and moustache/beard mods that use the mikoto head slots.

 

EDIT: oh I forgot, I took all my sideburn/beard/moustache mods and made them head parts so I guess I didn't really need Mikoto head changes for my males but Mikoto does still expose an enormous amount of jewelry/head ornament mod choices for characters. I guess I could actually convert all the male facial hair mods to wearable "jewelry" if I wanted more "what do I feel like looking like today?" options.

[DoctaSax]

Sounds like a good MO, thanks My private beauty comp project got sidetracked a little before I had to make a decision, but I plan to pick it back up soon, so it's good to have something to go on right away.

[Synthael]

Thanks for the replies, people. I think I'm gonna slowly continue this way, merging mods as I think it's needed... Got more than enough time now, summer break has started for me so I can just sit and merge the mods one by one. Until the end of the summer I think I'll merge all the mods I ever needed/wanted to have...

 

Thanks again.