Question for Modders Smarter Than Me :D

[Shadowhawk827]

Simple question here (I hope).

 

I'm curious about mods like Better Sorting and some of the other mods (crafting overhaul type mods come to mind) that have separate .esps for all three DLCs.  I've always hated that they take up 4 or more slots on my load list.  Isn't there a way that the mods could be made to work with just one .esp file regardless of the DLCs a player has?

 

Sorting mods in particular, this SEEMS fairly easy.  The mod might have an option for a Dragonbone Sword to become Sword: Dragonbone (for example) but if the player doesn't have Dawnguard, is the game going to break because the sorting mod never sees one in your inventory?

 

Crafting and Item Recycling type mods, I can see it being more of an issue... 

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Maybe ask the mod author if they can combine their various .esp's into one for people who have Vanilla, DG and DB? 

[Shadowhawk827]

Maybe ask the mod author if they can combine their various .esp's into one for people who have Vanilla, DG and DB? 

 

Too simple 

 

I also know we could use TES5edit and merge .esps.    Seriously though, I should have been a bit more clear in my initial post.  I'm kicking around creating a crafting mod myself and I'm wondering what the pitfalls are of trying to make such a mod that works with any combination of DLCs with only one .esp file.

 

[Guest]

It can be absolutely NOT so easy @Shadowhawk827.

 

All depends on how many dependencies you need, and if you are updating NPCs, Armors, Cells, etc. that are defined by a DLC.

 

 

If a mod just MAY use an item from a DLC, then you can handle it through the normal conditional loading script.

But as soon as you are using (or better, altering) items from a DLC then doing a "Dynamic-Single-Mod-that-do-the-dependencies-by-magic" it is not possible.

 

Keep also in mind that developing mods in a split format will help people without DLC to use the mod (I really hated how Live Another Life did with its mod, right now it is useless for me when I do modding.)

And this has a huge price for the author to create it.

 

Have problems because you have too many mods? Just merge them yourself.

 

 

...

 

 

Too simple 

 

I also know we could use TES5edit and merge .esps.    Seriously though, I should have been a bit more clear in my initial post.  I'm kicking around creating a crafting mod myself and I'm wondering what the pitfalls are of trying to make such a mod that works with any combination of DLCs with only one .esp file.
 

 

Single esp file:

• More easy to develop and upgrade
• Limits the utilization for people the do not have or do not like the DLCs.

Multiple esp files:

• A little bit more complex to develop and update
• More easy to use it in different circumstances by users

[Shadowhawk827]

I figured there was a reason it generally isn't done, CPU.  I like thinking outside the box though, and I was hoping there might be a relatively easy way to do it.

 

One possibility that came to mind for making a unified crafting overhaul was to put the armor, weapons and clothing from each DLC into a quest as quest aliases and either have a script that checks for the DLC and activates the quest, or have an MCM menu option that toggles on each DLC's item quest.  It would be tedious work for sure, but is it viable?

[Guest]

I figured there was a reason it generally isn't done, CPU.  I like thinking outside the box though, and I was hoping there might be a relatively easy way to do it.

 

One possibility that came to mind for making a unified crafting overhaul was to put the armor, weapons and clothing from each DLC into a quest as quest aliases and either have a script that checks for the DLC and activates the quest, or have an MCM menu option that toggles on each DLC's item quest.  It would be tedious work for sure, but is it viable?

 

I repeat. If you just want to use existing items from a DLC, then you can use the usual dynamic loading of items

Armor dgArmor = None
if Game.GetModByName("Dawnguard.esm") != 255
  ; "Dawnguard is here"  dgArmor = GetFormFromFile(a3172, "Dawnguard.esm")
endIf

But if you need to add something (like adding a xMarker to a cell), then there is no way to do this by code.

 

If you put a ReferenceAlias to an armor inside a quest, then the mod (or DLC) that provides the Armor becomes immediately a dependency.

[Shadowhawk827]

OK, gotcha.   I can see how to make it work now, but I also think I want to do some minor changes to a few locations in Dawnguard and Dragonborn, so the hard way it is I guess.