Or does it matter?

Merged Patch first, so it gets masterupdated as well.

They do different things, so... Yeah. ^_^

I'm quite new to the whole Merged Patch/Master Update thing (more used to the Oblivion scene), but wouldn't the Master Update take all of the MERGED lists from the Merged Patch and give each of the Masters the identical MERGED lists?

They may do different things but I would assume Kai is right in that each of the masters of the Merged Patch get updated with that data.

All MasterUpdate does is flag all your esps as esm, nothing else.
The reason this is done is because esps have certain problems that esms dont suffer from.

Ah, OK. Well I guess I just have an issue with the name then because it sounds like it does something more (Like update the ESP's Masters).

Now that I know it's a less scary procedure, I will do it once I finally am done play testing my mod stack and have finalized my LO for my New Game.

Aright, did em both in the right order. Thanks for the help. Here's hopin my PC doesn't melt when I try this for the first time.

This is Not correct. Taken from the Fo3Edit manual:

Master Update Mode is activated by creating another copy of the program, and renaming it to, “FO3MasterUpdate.exe”. When FO3Edit runs, it will recognize its filename and run in Master Update Mode accordingly.
When Master Update Mode is activated, the following operations are performed without further user interaction:

? All modules in the Data folder are assigned into 2 groups, masters and Plug-ins, based on their file extension (.esm or .esp).
? The modules in each group are sorted by file modification date/time.
? All module files are re-dated, first all masters, then all Plug-ins, in 1 minute intervals.
? All active modules are then loaded, the ESM flag set in the file header if not yet present, and the ONAM sub records build if required.
? Any temporary overriding world space record that has at least one previous version that is persistent is marked as persistent.
? All modified modules are saved.

This process will result in a better-integrated group of mods, and will likely result in less crashes than without having run Master Update Mode.

The link to the manual is in my sig, it should answer most of your questions. let us know if you have any more.

Cheers,

Kris

Which is fancy talk for saying "it flags esps as esm and doesn't screw up your load order or break the mod's records in the process"
MasterUpdate has basically the same effect as setting the esm flag in FO3Edit(which also automatically updates ONAM subrecords as soon as you save a file flagged as esm)
I was simplifying up there, but the gist is really that it flags esps as esms. Not arguing with what you said there since it's absolutly correct.

Here is what I do when I install an update for a mod:
Open FOMM and check / fix my load order, and delete my old MergedPatch.esp file. Exit FOMM.
Open FO3Edit, and create a new MergedPatch.esp (and do a couple quick edits on it). Exit FO3Edit.
Run Master Update.
Open FOMM and make sure MergedPatch.esp is active. Exit FOMM.
Launch Fallout3.

It takes only a few minutes, and it's really not as painful as people make it out to be.

Started it up and everything worked fine.

You know your right here.

Cheers!

Miax