Is there a way to bundle light mods' esp into 1 to save esp slots?

[Fraying9981]

Hi,

 

I'm wondering if there is a way to save some ESP slots by bundling light mods (for private use of course, no aim at sharing them).

I understand ESP slots are limited to 254 and I'm aware ESL flagged mods are a way to circumvent the limits.

 

I'm thinking in particular of mods that add locations/player homes such as skyrimlazz's great player home mods. or Schlitzohr's additional locations

 

Every download of skyrimlazz requires a new esp slot. Therefore, is it doable for private use to download all the homes I like and bundle them into 1 esp "my bundle of mods" to save esp slots?

 

Edited September 21, 2025 by Fraying9981

[traison]

Of course it's possible, that's the entire point of the plugin load order - to decide which record takes precedence when everything is merged.

 

I do it by hand in xEdit. Partially because it seems the other plugin merging utilities are built into mod managers, and I don't like the idea of running a mod manager in my mod manager; and partially because I like to have full control over things and I like to customize stuff.

 

A script could be made for xEdit to merge plugins based on their load order. Maybe such a thing already exists.

[Fraying9981]

1 hour ago, traison said:

Of course it's possible, that's the entire point of the plugin load order - to decide which record takes precedence when everything is merged.

 

I do it by hand in xEdit. Partially because it seems the other plugin merging utilities are built into mod managers, and I don't like the idea of running a mod manager in my mod manager; and partially because I like to have full control over things and I like to customize stuff.

 

A script could be made for xEdit to merge plugins based on their load order. Maybe such a thing already exists.

 

Thanks.

Do you have a quick opinion of what these do? 👇🏻

= which one I should focus on

 

I found this guide, looks very complete, but with multiple options, hard to pick:

https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/Guide:Merging_Plugins

also this mod to prepare the merge:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/47791?tab=description

This one to do the merge:

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37981

 

Wondering if anyone had tried any of these?

 

Also wondering:

• Locations/playerhomes sound like safe merges because the same mod author will not create another mod at the same location (please correct me if my reasoning is wrong or incomplete). 
• Outfits should be fine too right?
• Any other "mod types" that should be clean to merge?

[traison]

24 minutes ago, Fraying9981 said:

Do you have a quick opinion of what these do?

 

I don't know what the deal is with zEdit. First impressions suggest it could be a dick measuring contest between disgruntled "employees" and xEdit. Maybe a fork of xEdit with the mantra "watch, we can do it better!". Maybe it isn't. Just seems odd we're developing 2 identical applications side-by-side.

 

I think zEdit is sometimes considered more advanced. I roll with xEdit, never had issues, never had an excuse to switch.

 

S.T.E.P. is in general the thing to follow when starting with Skyrim. It tends to be correct in most things.

 

Wrye Bash is the thing most use to merge plugins, but I'm fairly certain this can't be separated from it's mod manager component, or rather the merger is a component of the mod manager. People obviously still use it with NMM/Vortex/MO2, even if you're running a mod manager in a mod manager at this point.

 

24 minutes ago, Fraying9981 said:

Also wondering...

 

There's no such thing as an unsafe merge if we're just talking plugins. Wrye Bash occasionally messes things up, causing a crash here or there, but that's more of an implementation error rather than a flawed idea (Edit: or the use a merged plugin makes it easier for people to forget about things and it's actually user error rather than a problem with Wrye Bash).

 

Issues with merged plugins come from 3rd party things that reference forms, and if anything, that sort of behavour is on a massive rise at the moment. People like these SKSE plugins that can swap out outfits, and change static meshes on the fly presumably because doing it properly takes a bit longer. If there's something you can count on, it's humans doing everything they can to be lazy and comfortable.

 

To put that another way, the idea of merging plugins is not unsafe, but in practice you can't merge any mod before you've inspected it and all it's systems. There's no such thing as "house mods are safe to merge", because that house mod esp might contain a dildo that is referenced in a CBPC addon mod with a releative form id. In addition to that, once you've merged something you need to remember this as it will continue to be a potential problem for all eternity (maybe you install the dildo physics addon mod 2 years after the merge).

• A script can require or reference an object based on its form id and plugin file name.
• A plugin can reference another non-master plugin.
• There's hundereds of SKSE plugins that reference things by file name and relative form ids, and these are becoming increasingly popular.

Also the more you merge, the more you lose the benefit of using a mod manager. Sure you can save 240-ish ESP slots by merging everything into one plugin, but changing the load order after that is not going to work without rebuilding the entire setup from which the original merge was made. Maybe this is where having a mod manager within a mod manager is a benefit: maybe one can hold the plugins as they were before, and the other just loads the merged plugin.

Edited September 21, 2025 by traison

[Fraying9981]

31 minutes ago, traison said:

I don't know what the deal is with zEdit. First impressions suggest it could be a dick measuring contest between disgruntled "employees" and xEdit. Maybe a fork of xEdit with the mantra "watch, we can do it better!". Maybe it isn't. Just seems odd we're developing 2 identical applications side-by-side.

 

 

🤣

 

31 minutes ago, traison said:

Issues with merged plugins come from 3rd party things that reference forms, and if anything, that sort of behavour is on a massive rise at the moment

 

do you mean mod A and mod B using the same hex reference for a certain obj or property, totally by coincidence?

 

32 minutes ago, traison said:

with a releative form id

 

ah yes, the relative form ids in Skyrim, makes sense!

 

Thanks a lot, I understand the risks

[traison]

The way I do this is I have a merged_patch.esp that I update by hand in xEdit. In this plugin I do all the small things that would otherwise take up one plugin each, had I installed a mod for each fix. So, if the change I want to do is already available as a mod I go download it, install it as usual. Then I open xEdit and drag-n-drop the changes over to my merged patch. Then I uninstall the mod. Takes about a minute to do typically.

 

My merged patch contains ~60 fixes, with everything from rebalancing the weight of linen wraps and adding a recipe to craft 10 iron ingots at once, to moving Arcadia's door down by 8 units and buffing dualcasting magic.

 

...and if you haven't already seen that Arcadia's door is floating, I'm sorry, that thing is a b*tch to un-see.

[belegost]

41 minutes ago, traison said:

.and if you haven't already seen that Arcadia's door is floating, I'm sorry, that thing is a b*tch to un-see

 

14 years have I been oblivious to this.

 

I will hate you for ever and ever for bringing that to my attention.

 

Also, cut the self-censorship. We ain't on Fagbook, Jewtube, Twatter or RED-it.

Edited September 21, 2025 by belegost

[traison]

1 hour ago, belegost said:

I will hate you for ever and ever for bringing that to my attention.

 

Love me forever instead?

 

Edit: Oh, I should clarify (considering what I said earlier) that this door mod was actually made by myself. I used the console to measure how much and in which axis I needed to move it, then finalized it in a plugin. This is not a stolen mod.

 

arcadia_door_patch.esp

Edited September 21, 2025 by traison