I am new to modding and FO4edit, so pardon if this is a Modding 101 question. I have made a number of Google queries looking for an answer, but the search terms I used were just not precise enough to find an answer.

I have created a set of new objects for Fallout 4 in a new .esp file, but I want to give them a consistent FormID so that the mod and its related .bat files work consistently for other people.

I believe I understand how to Override an existing fallout4.esm object using a mod.

I also learned to use a script that will reindex the FormIDs of a .esp file.

But I can't seem to reindex them to be considered part of the 00 load order.

I have seen it done (in FO4edit, the mod's .esp file displays such objects in italics. How do I set up new objects so their FormIDs always start with 00?

the 00 is referencing the games master file, you can not change that at all. All you can do is make your ESP the fisrt to load AFTER all the masters, which means that as Bethesda releases DLC, your esp will fall in the load order every time it happens. It will also fall when another mod is installed that contains a master (esm). It is folly to try and lock your mod into any specific position in everyone's load order, and even more so if you are trying to make batch files do the work. Use scripts not batch files.

Thank you! Scripting is not a skill I have yet, alas.


Folly though it may be, having seen it done, it must be possible.

Edit: also, load order may not be exactly what I'm after, specifically, so much as declaring objects that don't get reindexed, as you described happens as a result of load order.

The only way you can get your content to ref as 00 is to add it to the fallout4.esm, and you can not redistribute it legally if you do manage to modify it (the fallout4.esm).

That makes sense. The mod I saw definitely had the objects in its own .esp file.

What you are talking about is referred to as injecting a record into another plugin. I forget the exact steps you use to do it in xEdit but you change the formID of your new record to start with the index of the plugin you want to inject into as it appears in the header of your plugin. So if your plugin has masters Fallout.esm, DLCRobot.esm, and Foo.esp and you want to inject a new record created with FormID 03001234 into Foo.esp you would change its FormID to be 02001234 (indexes start at 0). You have to make absolutely sure that you aren't using the same formid as a record that already exists in the plugin you are injecting into. And that nobody else is injecting a record with the same formid either.

DON'T INJECT INTO FALLOUT.ESM! First there is no way to be sure bethesda won't add more records at some point and if they add one with the same formID as your injected one your mod will crash when starting fallout. Second if mods do it there is no way to be sure someone using your mod doesn't have another mod that also injects records into fallout.esm and if they both use the same formid fallout will crash if both records aren't the same type (like ones is an NPC_ and one is a WEAP) or if they are the same type one mod will silently overwrite the other's. And because of how xEdit assigns new formIDs there is a very high likelihood that you are using the same formID another modder will.

In the past injecting records was a was to share them between mods without requiring a shared master plugin and it required modders establishing what records and with what formIDs would be injected. With the changes to scripting in Skyrim it is no longer necessary since you can do getFormFromFile() but I do not know if there is a similar way you can do it with a bat file.

Thank you! That is apparently how it had been done in the example I was trying to emulate: one can press F2 in FO4edit to manually enter a FormID, and starting the FormID with 00 will cause it to be injected into Fallout4.esm, as you indicated (and warned against). I had been warned of the potential for conflict posting an object to Fallout.esm, but for this particular mod, I was opting to risk it.

That would be awesome, but I imagine very hard to manage in a community of this size.

That said, since the automation script I rely on to reindex the FormIDs (from this: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49373/?)kicks back an error when I try to start it with 00, it would have to be done manually.


And I have 1000 objects I'd need to manually reindex. That alone may push me towards learning more about scripting.

I may just have to go this route:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3015/?