merging mods?

Post » Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:42 pm

i've played this game a few times and now i've decided to try out some mods. i was wondering how i could go about merging a bunch of them together to reduce clutter? i am also wondering if it is safe to merge these mods.

bethesda mods merged together:
bcsounds
ebq_artifact
lefemm armor
siege at firemoth

lgnpc mods merged together:
all of them except the soul sickness patch and the patches for other mods (which I don't have)

vality mods merged together:
bitter coast
ascadian isles
balmora

now i would also like to install morrowind advanced (which contains a patch for the next mod) and passive healthy wildlife. can i merge these two mods together plus the mwa-phw patch?

i would also like to use the morrowind 1.6.3 unofficial patch. can i get that to load before the other mods, and if it does load first, will i experience conflicts with the mods i listed above?

one more thing (sorry!) is there a patch that gets rid of the sotheseim dialog topic that everyone including the freakin' god has? and is there a patch that puts the tribunal assassin attacks at a later level?
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Alisha Clarke
 
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Post » Mon Apr 12, 2010 1:27 am

I'd say Vality's is OK, it's mostly added trees and stuff.

Merging the Besthesda mods together is probably fine but careful with Siege at Firemoth.



LGNPC is more difficult with all the dialogue, I don't know if you can use anything else to merge them besides the CS, but if you can, I'd avoid doing so it could break the dialogue.


Here's one I use for the DB attacks:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2487


Here's another that is like the above, but the point at which they start attacking is -much- sooner:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=mods.detail&id=7132



I don't know about the "Solstheim topic" though, LGNPC Bloodmoon might do that, but I haven't really checked.
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Music Show
 
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Post » Sun Apr 11, 2010 4:17 pm

i didn't even know there was an lgnpc bloodmoon, but i did a search and not only came up with that one but two others! :) the bloodmoon one does remove the topic :) :)
that first link you posted for the db attacks is even better than what i was looking for. thanks!!

how do i merge the mods together? do i just load them all up in the cs and save? and how could the dialog break by merging them?

i figured there had to be some way to add the modifications of one mod into another, and so on. for example i take the morrowind advanced mod, add in the passive healthy wildlife mod, then add in the mwa-phw patch.

apologies for my noobness
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Mark Churchman
 
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Post » Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:21 am

Merging the mods stated shouldn't cause you any problems with the exception of LGNPC.
These have to be loaded in a specific sequence in your loading order so merging would be problematical.
Check http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Mlox for further details.
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Alex Vincent
 
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Post » Sun Apr 11, 2010 9:46 pm

i didn't even know there was an lgnpc bloodmoon, but i did a search and not only came up with that one but two others! :) the bloodmoon one does remove the topic :) :)
that first link you posted for the db attacks is even better than what i was looking for. thanks!!

how do i merge the mods together? do i just load them all up in the cs and save? and how could the dialog break by merging them?

i figured there had to be some way to add the modifications of one mod into another, and so on. for example i take the morrowind advanced mod, add in the passive healthy wildlife mod, then add in the mwa-phw patch.

apologies for my noobness

http://gmml.pbworks.com/MergeMods

Load the mods in the TESCS, and select Combine Loaded Plugins.

(It's under "Files" in the top menu)

Yeah, don't just save it, I did that once and it didn't keep all the changes the mods I wanted combined made.
You actually have to hit "combine", THEN save it.


So basically Siege at Firemoth is not really safe to merge (Or anything with a quest/journal entries/complex questchains and scripts like Firemoth, like the Propylon one which I think has a questchain), I don't know about LaFemme (Don't have it), all the other Bethesda mods are OK to merge.
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Rusty Billiot
 
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Post » Mon Apr 12, 2010 3:03 am

okay, so here's what i just did with the lgnpc mods (all 19 of them).
i checked out the plugin conflicts in tespcd. there was one entry where a door had been modified on the overriding esp from another door that had a script on it so I deleted that. i deleted all the entries marked "deleted". i checked the conflicting scripts - they were all the same. same with the npc entries, the creature entry, and the book entries. the real conflicts were with the dialog entries, of course. so i loaded up testool and merged dialogs. then i loaded up the construction set and checked morrowind, bloodmoon, tribunal, all the lgnpc mods, and the merged dialog mod. then i 'combined loaded plugins'. all the lgnpc mods together take up about 16.1 mb of space and my merged mod takes up 15.9, which probably accounts for those npc, creature, script, and book entries that were identical (and now only 1 exists). did i do everything right here? also, galahaut's (the link posted above) mentions that tespcd cannot report on conflicts within cells. when i ran it it didn't mention any conflicts with objects or leveled lists. however, i can create a merged leveled lists and objects mod in testool which has a few entries. when i load up all the mods in the construction set does it take into account different changes within cells (if there are any? such as a bottle on one table added by a mod and another mod that adds another bottle to the table)? are those merged leveled lists and objects from testool these kind of cell changing objects? did the merged dialog mod overwrite conflicting dialog from the other mods?

is there a program like i described in a previous post that works by taking a mod on the bottom, and applying the changes to it from the mod above it, and so on? or is this what the cs does?

lots of questions, i know! i'll clarify if it's all a confusing mess!
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Roberto Gaeta
 
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Post » Mon Apr 12, 2010 1:02 am

Never use merge dialog in testool. It is broken and will break your game. You are better of not merging the lgnpc mods because they are always being updated.
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Laura Ellaby
 
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Post » Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:30 pm

Merged leveled lists deal with combining changes to the same leveled list from multiple plugins that are used when spawning creatures and generating random items. All plugins are equally weighted when merging (last loaded plugin does not get highest priority).

Merged objects deal with combining changes to the stats of an object id if more than one plugin makes changes to the stock object. If only one plugin makes changes, then it's excluded from the merged esp since the change will override the stock entry due to the plugin loading after the stock esm which holds the stock object record. Plugins that load last have priority over other plugins when merging objects - so if two plugins change the same stat, the change from the last loaded one will modify that stat. If the earlier plugin also changes other stats not touched by the one loading last (or any other plugin loading later), then its changes will also be applied.

Changes to the position of the same object reference cannot be merged, the last loaded plugin will always override. And esps can only affect position of references in esms (master plugins) they are dependent one, not other esps. If two plugins add different objects directly to the same cell (i.e. your bottles on the table example), merging objects will not merge them either since the game engine and tools like TESTool always considers objects with unique ids as separate instances.

Merging takes into account both exterior and interior cells. Your better off using Wrye Mash to merge leveled list tho, its method is superior to TESTool.

As weatthin mentioned, merging dialog with TESTool is not recommended - it was developed at a time before extensive knowledge of the inner workings of MW dialog was understood, and should be avoided.

is there a program like i described in a previous post that works by taking a mod on the bottom, and applying the changes to it from the mod above it, and so on? or is this what the cs does?

Check out eeeickythump's http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1067443-wip-new-merge-objects-program/. :thumbsup:
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Amelia Pritchard
 
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