I have over 200 active mods in Morrowind, and I never delved in to clean any of the mods, but I finally downloaded TES Tool.

Now... Is there anything I should know before I click Just Fix it without any prior knowledge on how to clean mods?

Well i've not used the program before i will warn you that some mods require you not to as testool will remove some vital function of it. Check the readmes for mods before cleaning. They might tell you not to.

But there's so many read mes! That'll take me forever.

I'll quote from Slartibartfast
http://www.freewebs.com/slartibartfast1/tutorial.htm
There are more modern tools that do better jobs of anything TESTOOL can do.

If you don't mind using a command line program, my http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd (http://code.google.com/p/mlox/downloads/detail?name=tes3cmd-0.37s-2012.08.29.7z&can=2&q=) has an improved fixit:

tes3cmd fixit

I can help you with that if you want.

Yes. Don't click Just Fix It.

That'll create a Merged Dialogues plugin. Whilst a valiant attempt by Ghostwheel it in fact causes more trouble than it fixes.

Merged Objects is fine (although it has been known to bork when there're lot of objects needing merging).

Merged Lists (I think that's what it's called) needs a second tool: Aerelorn's levelled list resequencer.

The Just Fix It command will also clean your active plugins. I'd recommend (for safety's sake) ensuring that Restricted Dialogue Cleaning is enabled in Options.

If you're just after cleaning mods I'd recommend tes3cmd (and that will create a merged levelled list plugin as part of its multipatch feature).

For levelled lists you're better off with tes3cmd or Wrye Mash's Mashed Lists (just for not needing a Resequencer, as long as you use that with TESTool you should be fine).

What cleaning does is to compare a mod's records against those in the relevant ESM files. If a record is the same as in one of the Morrowind masters then that record can be removed. TESTool will also clean out empty cells. Read the TESTool readme which gives some ideas as to when its cleaning could be a bad idea, and the options are available for you: Restricted Dialogue Cleaning and Restricted Cell Cleaning.

@ eldrig: Which mods should not be cleaned? I think there's a lot of FUD about that.

[Edit: http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd#multipatch_-_Patches_problems,_merges_leveled_lists,_etc. and something I didn't mention: Era Scarecrow's http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1367045-smartmerger-3/ which can apparently duplicate TESTool's Merged Objects functionality without falling over. I haven't tried SmartMerger but have used tes3cmd quite a lot, yet to run into any problems].

I have been using john.moonsugar's tes3cmd from within Wryemash (standalone Yacoby fork). There is a "fixit" command for tes3cmd which has caused me *no* issues and created the multipatch. This is the most stable run I've ever had in Morrowind.

I HIGHLY recommend tes3cmd. As others have said, TESTool is obsolete. It was made before certain issues were discovered and is overzealous with things it doesn't understand. To my knowledge, the author isn't supporting it. One of the wonderful advantages of tes3cmd is that if you happen to have an issue, john is active (see above) and he is always willing to help you sort out any problems.

As always, regardless of which tool you use, be aware cleaning your mods *may* redate them and therefore change your load order. Changing your load order during a playthrough may cause doubling or make any current savegames unplayable. One way to avoid this is to use Wrymash's "lock times" feature before attempting to clean anything or flat-out be ready to start a new game.

It seems easy...almost too easy. Is it really just navigate to data files in cmd, type tes3cmd fixit and be done?

Whoo, am I glad I made this thread before clicking Just Fix It. I'll try out your suggestions, thanks a bunch.

BTW, can you clean ti with Wrye Mash alone?

Yup. It might take a little while if you have tons of mods. The main things tes3cmd fixit does is clean plugins and merge leveled lists.
One thing tes3cmd doesn't do is merge objects, but TESTOOL is okay for that, but SmartMerger may be better.

Wrye Mash merges lists as well doesn't it? Because I right click my Mashed List and click import>merge lists every time I add in a new mod. Is that the same thing?

I think I get Merge Objects and Merge Lists mixed up a lot. I don't exactly understand what the difference is or what mods needs Merge Objects or how to Merge Objects.

The only version of Wryemash that includes tes3cmd is https://github.com/Yacoby/Wrye-Mash/downloads. No other version contains any cleaning tools at all. I recommend updating the version of tes3cmd that comes with Yacoby's by downloading and overwriting the tes3cmd.exe with the http://code.google.com/p/mlox/downloads/detail?name=tes3cmd-0.37s-2012.08.29.7z&can=2&q=.



EDIT: Merge Objects concerns if two (or more) mods alter the same object, for instance, a weapon.

If they do not both alter the exact same properties of the weapon, Merged Objects will prevent mod A from overwriting the changes made by mod B.

EX:

mod A changes the weapon's damage
mod B changes the weapon's weight

Merged objects will create a patch which changes both damage and weight. Without it, the mod that is last in the load order will win and the other mod's changes will be lost.

Merged lists and multipatch do not handle changes to objects.

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up. Now to find out which mods needs Merge Objects!