I was looking at an .esp and then loaded my mod .esp without unchecking the one I was looking at. I added a lot to my mod and then saved it. Now I notice---numerous saves later---that the other .esp is being listed as a master. I can't figure out how to get rid of it since it isn't really a master. Is this something I can do with FoseEdit? I haven't used FoseEdit yet but was getting ready to since my mod is about ready to release. Thanks.

By .esp added as a master, do you mean an .esm? And if by FoseEdit you mean FO3Edit, then yes you can. Load your mod in FO3edit. (It might take several minutes, simply wait for things to appear in the left white box, or it to say load finished in the message box.) Then on the left where it says YourMod.esp, right click and click Clean Masters. Then provided you did not add any items from the undesired master file, it will be removed as a master. Now just close the program, and check your mod and click OK to save and your done.

Right on both--- .esm and F03Edit----stayed up too late last night! : ) Great, that's what I was hoping. Learning F03Edit is on my list. Thanks much Gunmaster95!

Thought I was all set, but I guess not. I have a correction to make of my previous statement. It is an .esp file that has been set as a Parent Master. It's called SydneyFollower.esp and it says in my data that it is a master file and not a plugin. I used FO3Edit like you said and it was not removed as a Parent Master, so I must have done something when I was looking at it. I have gone thru everything I opened---mostly quest/dialogue stuff---and can't find any asterisk showing a modification of any kind. Any other suggestions? Thanks for all the trouble.

I would copy your mod somewhere to back it up, then open it with fo3edit. Go through all the records in it to see if there are any records in it that are overrides to the sydneyfollower.esp. If there are, you can drag fields over from it to your mod to make the records identical. Then run a filter for identical to master records, and 'remove identical to master' records. Then try the clean master bit. If that still fails, you can manually remove the master from the list, close/save and open with the Geck and hopefully there won't be any major errors. There shouldn't be if you have removed all records that are overrides.

Thats odd, it should not add loaded esp's as master. I have opened several ESP's all the time together and they are never mastered to eachother, only does it master the esm's... :shrug:

Exactly....so have I ....that's why it caught me by surprise. Okay, I went thru all of it in FO3Edit and did the remove indentical, but it still comes up as a master. How/where can I manually remove it? I can't find where to do it in FO3Edit or in my GECK data. Sorry to be such a pain.

One thing I can think of to talk about, here.

What makes a file an .esp and not an .esm is actually not the filename. There is a little flag that is internal to the file which tells GECK that it's a master "esm" or a plugin "esp".

I suspect that the Syndey file is named .esp, but internally it has its .esm flag set. I say this because GECK never allows you to add, or retain, a real .esp as a master. In fact, GECK rips .esp files out of your master list if it notices them.

To undo this edit to the Sydney mod, you might try running "FO3MasterRestore" against your mod list, or, you could hand-edit that .esm flag out of the Sydney mod with FO3edit, if you know how to do that ...

At the point where the file is not actually an .esm internally, that's where stuff can start to make more sense as you go through this.

it is possible that the Syndey mod author accidently released the .esp with this flag set. I've done it a couple times myself with some of Phalanx' supporting .esps.

Sydney's mod is absolutely released as an esp with the esm flag set. I'm sure this is done purposefully.

If you removed the master file entery from the mod and saved the mod, it should be gone and not show up again unless something went wrong.

I recommend trying the procedure again to remove the master, save and exit Fo3edit - then immediately re-run Fo3Edit, chose the "Uncheck All" option so that nothing is checked in the loader view, then check Just the mod file in question and click OK. It will load that mod and any dependencies (including master files) that it needs. If it still loads that master file even after you removed the entry, then you either have a fubar mod file or you still have references in the mod file looking back to the master your trying to remove. If the master file is gone in the 2nd load, your good to go.

I would go through the Mod Cleaning process as well, to make sure you don't have anything else astray.

Cheers,

Miax

There's the answer then as to why someone's GECK stealth-added the Sydney mod to someone else's mod's master list, and as to why the GECK keeps adding it back. Maybe there is a reference in the mod somewhere which happens to touch a resource that the Sydney mod does.

I sincerely hope it wasn't an intentional release of the Sydney mod that way. It's important for a user to understand what file does what. An .esm must be named as an .esm to facilitate that.

The game doesn't care what the file extension is, it's only a thing to communicate to the user what the file is. Releasing a file which is misnamed in this way can only have the effect of confusing the user.

Okay, now my head is really spinning. I am totally new to FO3edit and your FO3edit tutorial, Miaximus, and have only read the basics about cleaning a mod, etc. When I have just my mod and it's masters open, as I am looking thru the Sydney folder, I find a few highlighted references---some grreenbacked w/green letters, some yellowbacked with green letters, etc. I guess I don't follow RickerHK's description of "dragging these fields over" from the Sydney mod to mine to to make them identical so that I can run the identical to masters filter. I just did a full clean of my mod as per the tutorial and it did remove a lot of "identicals" ...it's all bright green and clean now : ) Could someone describe to me in detail how to manually "remove the master" from my mod as I can't seem to figure out how to do that...do I do it with FO3Edit? ( there's nothing in the right click menu I can see to delete it)

I really appreciate everyone's input and am sorry I am such a pain in the .........kitchen. :blush2:

Edit: After further reading of Miaximus' tutorial, I now understand what RickerHK was describing, but after thoroughly going thru the Sydney and Crystal (my mod) files I could find no inter-connection between the 2. They are both just tied to the FO3 .esm. Now I can delete Sydney as a master with confidence that all is right, if someone would just tell me how!
:celebration:

What you are trying to do is make sure that you have no records in your mod that are derived from the Sydney mod. So you are looking for those records that have come from the Sydney mod and when you find them, if they show up as different, you want to make them identical again. That's when you would drag the information over from the Sydney side of the table to the side with your mod (it's just the easiest way of copying/pasting the info). And you do this because you can remove the identical records in the cleaning process. Unfortunately, some times dragging won't work,at least that's what I've found, and I've had to go back in the GECK and change something in a record there first and then go back and finish the process in FO3Edit.

Guess we were both posting at the same time.......yeah, all is good now except the clean masters won't remove it. Could you tell me how to manually remove it from my masters list, please.
Thanks

Page 65 of the PDF version of the manual shows you were the master list is. Highlight the header of your mod on the left. (the page number that is acually in the doc, not what Adobe Reader tells you).

just right-click in the field above the master file name and then click 'remove'

Great. It's a done deal. Thanks everyone!