Realistic Ragdolls & Force, and XPMSE questions

[Molokkx]

Hey guys.

 

So I only want to be 500% sure about something.

 

XPMSE, according to its download page's description over at Skyrim Nexus, actually requires the Realistic Ragdolls & Force mod. That's fine (I suppose?), it's been known for a long time and has always been clear (to me anyway) that RR&F is a requirement, and not an option. So I always did everything based on that (by "everything" I only mean that I always made sure to use the mod whenever I also use XPMSE).

 

However...

 

One thing that I never was quite sure about is whether or not to prioritize XPMSE over RR&F, or the other way around - with Mod Organizer that is. According to Mod Organizer, both XPMSE and Realistic Ragdolls & Force actually conflict with each other, pretty hard too. So one of them has to be prevalent over the other and win said conflict by being placed under the other (XPMSE being placed under RR&F in the left pane of Mod Organizer, for example, would ensure that it prevails over RR&F).

 

Now here's where my confusions comes in...

 

In pretty much ALL the guides I've seen around that teach how to install, configure and prioritize HDT-related and XPMSE-related mods there's always one specific rule that everyone always clearly points at, namely: to NEVER, ever * under no circumstances * let any other mod with a skeleton file overwrite (or to win a conflict) over XPMSE. To basically just make sure that XPMSE always wins, is always prioritized and is basically always placed at pretty much the bottom of the load order too (in the right pane, with the .ESPs).

 

But...

 

If Realistic Ragdolls & Force is an actual requirement for XPMSE then why would XPMSE actually have to win conflicts? Shouldn't RR&F then be the one winning over the other since it's a requirement? ... O_o

 

Because right now in my MO's left pane I have my XPMSE under RR&F, but it conflicts with a total of 7 files (well, that's 7 files from my own mods setup, doesn't mean that it's going to be same 7 files for everyone)... and they are as follows:

 

- ...meshes/actors/werewolfbeast/character assets/skeleton.nif     <--- Is found in both SOS Schlongs of Skyrim, and RR&F

- ...meshes/actors/giant/character assets/skeleton.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

- ...meshes/actors/draugr/character assets/skeleton.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

- ...meshes/actors/character/character assets/skeletonbeast.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

- ...meshes/actors/character/character assets/skeleton.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

- ...meshes/actors/character/character assets/skeletonbeast_female.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

- ...meshes/actors/character/character assets/skeleton_female.nif     <--- Is found in Realistic Ragdolls & Force

 

So...

 

Would anyone please take a moment to help me make this clear? Which one of those two mods should always win over the other, and perhaps more importantly, why exactly is Realistic Ragdolls & Force actually required for XPMSE?

 

Thanks!

[lollers3000]

Good question!

[Nazzzgul666]

No, generally it's just the other way around. Any requirements should lose any conflicts. Imagine building a house. You need to build basic walls first, then add the doors and other stuff. You can even change the appearence of the wall by adding wallpapers, if you want to see the basic wall itself at some places when finished, you simply leave away the wallpapers there. 

Doing it the other way around, placing the wallpapers first and then building the wall in some places where it looks cool won't work.

 

Of course that's not exactly how it works for modding, here you really replace stuff and don't just change the way it looks. But stil, xpmse requires something from RR&F. It might be a single script that is important, and it replaces the other 99 scripts, but in the end that's what you want: a working skeleton with some ragdoll effects. You don't want cool ragdoll effects with a half working skeleton. So, usually, the mod you actually want is the one that should win any conflicts.

See requirements as basics. They might be ugly, and appearently useless, but other mods can use some of this stuff to make something cool out of it.

 

*edit: thinking about it, my explanation works in this example, not for all others. If you have a nice shiny body mod with it's own skeleton for example that's the mod you want, but you shouldn't let it overwrite xpmse anyways. But there is another reason for that: especially on LL there are so many mods that require xpmse AS IT IS for working, and that's more important than a maybe cool and shiny, but unimportant feature from that body mod.

 

*edit2: I have no clue which script is really required by xpmse, even less why. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with ragdoll effects at all. It just provides some functions that are complicated enough not to write them from scratch to make it worth using a requirement, that's how coding works.