Probably may have some interest to some here.
Skyrim's "Merge Plugins xEdit Script" seems to work also with FNVEdit and probably also with FO3Edit.
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37981/?
Just tried combine a couple of FNVmods (esp-files) and seems to work nicely.
Yes it does, I use it and it is also recommended by S.T.E.P.
It's pretty awesome, earlier versions had some issues with certain aspects, but 1.9 pretty much works with almost every mod.
I've done mod merging by following S.T.E.P. instructions, but haven't tried it on my own beyond that. Curious about how do you know which mods can be merged together. I mean, I saw in deadboy's TWEC thread:
In my experience it's probably safe and easiest to use FNVEdit to load JUST the basegame files, TTW essential for this exercise, and the mods you want to merge.
Make a merged patch.
If it doesn't have any of the mods you want to merge together conflicting then you should safely be able to use the Merge Plugins xEdit Script to just mash it all together.
What do I look for to know if mods are conflicting?
I watch the tutorials videos on Nexus mod page and know to check for errors, etc. But don't feel I really know what to look for to know what could/should be merged.
For example: I believe I've seen on this site people say you shouldn't merge the TTW optional mods (though may be misremembering), but if that's the case and I hadn't seen that, I would think of those as a good place in my order to start. So these are the ones I have right now:
I mean, I'd check them in FNVEdit for errors and follow the instructions on the tutorial video to fix the errors and combine them into one. Would that work? If not, why not? I've downloaded the NVEdit manual and can read that if that's my best option. I've poked around in it and I'll probably look for YouTube videos, but curious if folks here would suggest any other resources?
And just for reference, here's my full load order at the moment.
[collapsed title=Load order]
[/collapsed]
Edit: haha, forgot I had Two Bears Highfiving installed. Guess there's no reason for it with TTW. Still, don't want to uninstall it...
After extensive testing with the script I can honestly say hand merging is the way to go.
My project Dash is on Kickstarter!
I've been using the merge script to merge my little mods. The only mods I've noticed it has issues with are the ones that include complex records like dialog. Cell edits, objects, things like that merge without issue. Nice thing about it is that if anything fails it tells you what failed, which lets you make the end decision of cancelling the merge and not saving or going ahead and fixing whatever issues arose.
Unless it gets masters mixed up and winds up trying to inject everything in the merged plugin into mods that are not it's masters. It doesn't tell you about that. Also it tends to cause unresolvable errors in some cases where it clearly shouldn't.
Long story short: do your own testing. If you're merging simple mods or some patches it'll probably be fine. If you're merging 5+ mods or extremely complex mods you're most certainly better off doing it by hand, or at the very least attempting the merge a handful of times and checking the output plugin for issues.
My project Dash is on Kickstarter!
