Questions about merging .esps and .esms

[GeorgiaCav]

A couple of years ago I managed to successfully merge quite a few weapons plugins for FNV/TTW. I remember the process as being faintly terrifying and very confusing, and I'd been putting it off for Skyrim because it's already so much more complicated (it seems) a game than FNV. I mean, if modding armors is any indication.

 

Now I'm reaching the 255 plugin limit and I need more room. I've dl'd Merge Plugins from the Nexus and I'm watching the Gamerpoets' tutorial, but I have a few questions that I'm not sure they're going to answer.

 

1. My current LO is heavy with, on the one hand, SL mods like SD+, ME, PO, Aroused, Sexual Fame, DD, Deviously Helpless/Enslaved, SL (fill in the blank, I probably have it), etc. etc. and on the other with tweaks to basic gameplay like RND, Water from Wells, College of Winterhold entry requirements, Babette's Feast, Harvest Overhaul, Advanced Mining, etc. etc., and on the third hand with enhancement mods like ETaC (plus a lot of compatibility patches), 3DNPC's, Inconsequential NPCs, various follower mods, various waifu and beautification mods, etc. etc. plus all the various dependencies and requirements for making it all run (jcontainers, papyrusutils, etc. etc.)

 

In general, what types of things can be combined, and what should I try to avoid combining? Stuff that gets updated a lot, like SD+ and Addons and PO Patches, but what else?

 

2. I have quite a few clothing mods (WWCS, various zzjay things, etc.) that I've worked assiduously to find and get Bodyslided to fit my UUNP Special presets. Can I combine those without losing the Bodyslide data/meshes that's taken me so long to build up?

 

Any insights or tips would be greatly appreciated, and if I'm missing some kind of huge pre-made guide to all of this (especially the second question) I'd appreciate a link to it or other similar threads.

 

[valcon767]

thing to avoid merging would be pretty much all sexlab mods (they really REALLY do NOT like being merged) they tend either lose features or just break totally when merged for the most part

 

patches and tweaks are also finicky but some can be merged (please check the OP on them to see if it can be merged, my rule of thumb is if it does not say it can be merged do not do so on tweaks and patches)

 

for follower mods I would personally avoid merging custom voiced and scripted mods (stuff like Ceridwen, Arissa, Vilja, Sofia type mods).

 

basic follower mods (even custom races and looks) should be fine merged (those with in game body changers tend to lose the in game body changer function though).

 

most weapon and armor mods can be merged, provided another mod is NOT looking for the mods specific esp/esm file

 

also some mods will merge fine with the Merge Plugins Standalone others will not, but some of those can be merged with the XEdit script (1.9) for TESVEdit.

using the script in TESVEdit does take a little more knowledge and practice but is not much harder than using the standalone (the script seems to handle facegen files better imho).

 

one final thing to remember is to ALWAYS make a back up somewhere separate BEFORE merging anything. (just imagine trying to get a 500M mod that does not exist on the web anymore - shudder).

 

in answer to #2 yes you can merge them without losing your presets.  just make sure when you run bodyslide to have it send them all to a new mod (not into the originals) that loads after all the mods you are using bodyslide to modify (I personally made a special mod just for this very near the end of my load order).

 

 

[GeorgiaCav]

Thanks, valcon767!