As I'm putting finishing touches on another village mod, I notice the overlapping use of resources that get called upon regularly. Some more than others. I'm also starting to get the feeling that despite each one adding to the game in its own way that they all feel disconnected from each other through no fault of the game itself. That's the nature of ESP files, isolated units.

Except, wouldn't it be cool if people in one village could be gossiping about something that happened in another? Or having residents in one being able to visit others? Or even having quests which can span more than one village without having to go into all sorts of arcane wizardry with OBSE to pull it off? Or even something as simple as presenting an illusion of trade. Slaughterfish surprise from Vergayun on someone's plate in Feldscar for instance.

Yep, I've been thinking about this too, and have been wondering if it's time to start cooking a common resource master file for all my village mods. Which then got me thinking in general. When is it time to seriously consider doing this in general? When did others who did this before realize it was time?

You might think I'd already know the answer to this since Open Cities uses just such a master file, and it handles the commonly used materials in all of the city modules for both OCC and OCR. Thing is, I'm not entirely sure it's time yet for the villages. There are overlaps, but there are also plenty of things unique to each. It may not look like time, but there's more in the works that get attention in the background, slowly, as ideas come.

So I guess the basic question is: How do you know when it's time to have your own common master resource pool?

Personally I think that's really up to you, because only you can decide when or what should be included in such resource master file.

For example, you could even have this master file where you put all the quest that you have in your village mods to protect the players progress during an update of your mods. On other hand with this resource master file you have actually reach a higher level of the modding community.

In general I like the idea to have a "common resource master file" (CRMF) active in the LO.
So why not just go head to make one and I would definitely use it that's for sure. Good luck!

All that sounds good, but having all those .esms lately makes me grumpy. I would love to just merge them in.

Not that it should mean anything to you, if you think you need it - do it. I will use it.

On the other hand, when the TESA clutterer's guild project started there was some indication that it could become a clutter library. I liked that but now when I look there's TamRes.esm for Fort Akatosh, DC CUORP or whatever for other mods and probably many others. Those can be used for resources, but wouldn't be of any help with quests and dialogue.
I'd prefer esp mastering over esm if that doable. But anyway will ok.

Not really sure how it would make any difference forcing things with ESP mastering vs using a genuine ESM. Either way it's still another plugin to go in the load order. At least as an ESM you can guarantee it loads before the mods that are using it.

If it's the size people worry about, I don't have anything approaching the kind of bulk you're talking about with TamRes or CURP. No multi-megabyte monsters here. I doubt it would even be as big as COBL.

And before someone asks, no, I'm not looking to go with COBL either since it has an awful lot of stuff I don't have a particular need for, and obviously doesn't contain the little tidbits I've hacked up in nifskope that I do need.

As I said, if you think you need it - do it.