Follower mods in TES5Edit

[CheddarTrauma]

I've been cleaning various mods I use in TES5Edit and what I've noticed is that many follower mods modify vanilla entries.

Some of them do, some of them don't. Vanilla entries like HairColorList in FormdIdList, races, head parts, even spells.

 

I don't know as much as I'd like to about how plugins work, so I have to wonder - are these changes necessary for follower mods?

In the case of follower mods changing entries such as HairColorList forms - how are these necessary to a follower or are they not?

If 2 mods change the same vanilla entry isn't the mod that's loaded last the one that wins the conflict anyway?

 

If I removed those entries would it break the follower or is the change meant for if you wanted to use the hair color on your own character?

How do follower mods changing race entries apply to this as well? Why are they changed and is it needed?

 

I know that follower mods which change the mana costs of vanilla spells for a follower also change those spells for my character, which is what makes me question these changes.

 

The more I see changes like these in plugins the more curious I am as to what was meant to be changed versus what was mistakenly added.

If anyone has experience and information on all this I'd love to read it.

[myuhinny]

I don't have any experience or information but I wouldn't mess with anything that affect the followers themselves. But if they affect a world cell or something like that those could be cleaned up but the followers actual edits I would leave alone or you might break them.

 

You'll also want to make sure the mods you are cleaning don't say anywhere to not clean them as some mods have dirty edits that are required for the mod to work correctly and if you clean them then you'll break them.

[worik]

At best, you should _always_ contact the mod's author and talk to her/him about your points. Sometimes it's simply in the mod by accident, sometimes it's highly important for the mod to work.

Whatever the result - everybody will profit from it. May it be an updated and "cleaned" version by the author or just an extended FAQ on the mod's page.

[Guest]

It should be fine to remove the edits to hair colour and spell costs if you want to. They were probably done for a reason, but the examples you describe are bad edits and sound like they were made by noobish modders, who didn't realize the impact they would have(or just didn't care). If you want a special mechanic or appearance for a follower, you should create new records instead of editing vanilla records. The worst thing that could happen is that your follower won't look exactly as the author intended, or won't be as effective in combat.

 

If the modder lowered the spell costs, then delete those spells and increase the follower's magicka instead. That's my advice. Making your own edits is fine as long as you know what you're doing. Just don't mess with ai, dialogue, or scripts. Some modders add content on top of vanilla to expand on it, and in that case they have to edit vanilla records.

 

But as worik said, it's best to contact the mod author(and give them some well deserved flaming ). If they reply this year, consider yourself lucky.