I've been playing my Bethesda games modded for years, but there's a concept I never quite grasped (I think). I've got too many mods in Fallout 4 for the lead byte that handles the load order, and need to trim back below 255.
I loaded up FO4Edit after a LOOT sort and selected every ESM and ESP that wasn't a Bethsoft original. The merge created with the only errors being on some armor textures, so I thought it would work. When I took the merged patch back into NMM, it showed my merge had some dependencies I needed to re-enable:
Even after re-enabling them, MANY features are missing from my Fallout that have nothing to do with conflicts. Things like survival console override, a shell casing discharge mod, and Northland Diggers were just not present in the game. I think maybe I don't get the point. The understanding I had of a merged patch was:
1. Have too much stuff to load
2. Sort with LOOT
3. Run FO4Edit
4. Create merged patch (right click bottom plugin in load order and choose merge.
4. Start NMM
5. Disable all plugins, then re-check the plugins not a part of your merged patch
6. Check the merged patch
7. Load Fallout4 and enjoy 255+ mods and/or increased stability
My understanding was that the merge created a single reference pointer collection that targets all of the files used by the plugins which have been merged. Clearly I've missed a beat. I tried Googling this, but inevitably the instructions for making a merged patch all referenced similarities to creating a bashed one, and bashed instructions referred to how to make a merged one. After going in circles, it's been hours and I still have yet to actually play. What'd I miss? Is there a "For Dummies" version of the instructions out there for those of us who let our brains relax on the weekend?
Best Answer
Not a part of making a merged patch: "Step 5: Disable all plugins, then re-check the plugins not a part of your merged patch"
Merged patch instructions are:
̶1̶.̶ ̶L̶a̶u̶n̶c̶h̶ ̶F̶O̶4̶E̶d̶i̶t̶ ̶ ̶2̶.̶ ̶E̶n̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶l̶u̶g̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶e̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶(̶.̶e̶s̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶.̶e̶s̶p̶)̶.̶ ̶ ̶3̶.̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶O̶K̶"̶ ̶ ̶4̶.̶ ̶W̶a̶i̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶t̶i̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶e̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶"̶B̶a̶c̶k̶g̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶L̶o̶a̶d̶e̶r̶:̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶i̶s̶h̶e̶d̶"̶ ̶ ̶5̶.̶ ̶R̶i̶g̶h̶t̶-̶c̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶e̶l̶,̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶"̶O̶t̶h̶e̶r̶"̶,̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶C̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶c̶h̶"̶ ̶ ̶6̶.̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶Y̶e̶s̶"̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶n̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶t̶c̶h̶,̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶"̶F̶O̶4̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶"̶ ̶ ̶(̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶e̶l̶o̶p̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶r̶y̶e̶ ̶B̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶w̶e̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶o̶r̶p̶o̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶u̶t̶i̶l̶i̶z̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶x̶E̶d̶i̶t̶ ̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶c̶h̶)̶ ̶ ̶7̶.̶ ̶E̶n̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶.̶e̶s̶p̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶i̶v̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶t̶o̶m̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶.̶
FO4Edit Merged Patch is unsupported as heck. Do not use. The priority rules are jacked for the time being.
Disabling pieces of a Patch is more of a Wrye Bash thing, and even then you're better off taking a second and finding out why they're to be a part of the BP.
As far as merging plugins themselves - that's different than creating a merge patch. Creating a Merged Patch allows xEdit, using its rules, to assign higher priority to resources inside of a low-priority plugin.
From Diennes (paraphrased): If you have a mod that gives Piper black skin, and another that gives her a fancy hat, and it's loaded/installed like this: fallout4.esm piperblackskin.esp piperfancyhat.esp
Then you'll likely end up with a fancy-hatted piper, but no black skin because the fancy hat mod overwrote the black skin.
FO4Edit sees that fallout4.esm's Piper and piperfancyhat.esp's Piper are identical, except for the fancy hat. FO4Edit then assigns the other piperfancyhat.esp's Piper resources a low priority (because they're the same as the master), which allows piperblackskin.esp's skin resources to take priority over piperfancyhat.esp - even though it's lower in the load order.
HOWEVER - it doesn't take more than a few minutes to learn, via youtube, how to merge plugins by yourself with FO4Edit. In this Piper example, once you know how to do it, it would literally take less than a minute to merge them. (this is not a merged PATCH, it's "merging plugins"
•Load with FO4Edit
•See conflicts highlighted in red in the left panel - click them
•See details in spreadsheet in right panel - click and drag her skin to overwrite the "fancyhat" default skin
•Done (once you save)
For Fallout 4, you will be able to get by very nicely with this approach:
• RTFD - read the fallout descriptions, on nexusmods, especially the install/uninstall parts, and compatibility.
• In the "Mods" tab of NMM, sort by install date to get an idea what order they're installed in.
• Download LOOT (the one in NMM is wonky for a lot of people) and use it
• Pay attention to what's overwriting what - for famous mods this is usually covered in the "install" part of the mod's description.
We should all probably be using Wrye Bash for everything, but most of us remember it as a leveled list merger for MO Skyrim. And there's no GamerPoets or Gopher videos for using it as a mod manager.
Alrighty - done.