EDP

There are tiny patches to make two mods compatible on the Nexus, so I suggest that you create a mod and publish it, with the two incompatible mods as dependencies. Then suggest that it be added to the STEP guide.

If you happen to know the console commands to easily access the new player home and acquire some of the gnomes, then I could test the new load order. Because the DCIARWAV script refers to some 'TTWInt...' entries, I searched online and found this refers to Tale of Two Wastelands, which is a mod collection that supports DCIARWAV (and the mod supports TTW). I don't know what will be disabled when you load the FWE plugin after DCIARWAV. You mention a garden gnome stand in the Megaton / Tenpenny Tower homes. Is that what the default Bobblehead Collector's Stand is with DCIARWAV? And is that what is disabled by changing the load order?

I disabled DCInteriors A Room With A View in the left pane of MO. This obviously disables this mod's added functionality, but this is the easiest fix. A more difficult fix would be to merge the scripts from both FWE and DCInteriors A Room With A View: this is necessary because the FWE script references some special Bobblehead references (unique to FWE) and the script from DCInteriors A Room With A View references to (what I think) the player placing a Bobblehead in the new player home added by the mod. Either FWE or DCInteriors A Room With A View must be made compatible with the other by its authors with a patch.

The ‘aaIBH....’ references apply to Bobblehead references that are added by FWE, but DC Interiors A Room With A View doesn't work with those aaIBH Bobbleheads. The display stand from Moira Brown is also a FWE addon, so it is no wonder they work well together. The DC Interiors A Room With A View modifies the player homes without taking FWE into account. I'm disabling the mod for this reason and I'll report back here if that works. This issue has also been noted on the mod's nexus page (see posts): https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20959

Thanks. I've looked into it and it appears that DCInt_ARoomWithAView.esp modifies both the BobbleheadDisplayMegatonScript and the similar script for the Tenpenny Tower home. Some of the global references that were added by FWE are not included in the DC Interiors plugin, so they are removed again. I don't know whether or not this is intended, but it might cause the malfunction of the Megaton house stand, while the stand that can be bought still works. See below for some of the references (from FWE) that are not carried over by DCInt_...esp.

I also tried starting a new game: no luck either. I guess the stands are scripted, so if I find their IDs in FO3edit, I could check what mod removes the script (while it shouldn't). Can anybody help me to find the entries in FO3edit?

I can't use the Bobblehead Collector's Stand (the large Vault-Tec metal look thing) in the Megaton house. I have the Medicine Bobblehead in my inventory, but when I activate the stand the game says ‘You have no Bobbleheads in your inventory.’ I also tried the Strength Bobblehead, which is the easiest to find in the beginning of the game, but with both Bobbleheads in my inventory I still get the same message. I also tried the Bobblehead Display Stand (this is a different, smaller and portable wooden version) that can be bought from Moira Brown: this one work perfectly fine! Is this behaviour a bug or a feature? Should the Bobblehead Stand (the original one from the Megaton house) be activated before it can be used somehow? Am I missing something? Or is this actually a bug?

Ok, thanks for all your info and help. Still, DIFF.esp is a master of that particular TWPC patch. I've done the following now: Disable TWPC in the left pane of MO. Sort with LOOT. Rebuild Bashed Patch with Wrye Flash. Enable TWPC in the left pane of MO. Sort them after the Bashed Patch. Ignore the warning of the TWPC patch that misses masters, as these master's records actually do exist in the Bashed Patch or elsewhere. Run game.It is such a relief that (re)installing or enabling/disabling a mod is a few clicks with MO! The game seems to run ok, but I wonder how I can find out in-game whether or not some correct changes by the TWPC patches are actually applied.

‘(TWPC) DIFF3-UUF3P-FWE Patch.esp’ is missing two masters: ‘DIFF.esp’ and ‘FO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.esp’. They are missing, because they have been merged by Wrye Flash and therefore these plugins are diabled, however their contents exist in the Bashed Patch. I use the following TWPC files: BBB-UUF3P-FWEBRCC-PBDIFF3-UUF3P-FWERIL-UUF3P-DMWMK-UUF3P-FWEOne solution could be: Move TWPC patches to very end of load order -> run Wrye Flash -> tag the currently missing masters as NoMerge -> rebuild Bashed Patch. Would this work? Another solution could be Himself's idea: use FO3Edit to edit the TWPC patch's masters. Or simply ignore the warning of the missing masters.

Great idea. If that actually is the way to do it, it should be in the guide's instructions so everybody will be happy.

Thanks, Himself. The mod author contradicts himself on the Nexus plugin description page. See https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/21671/ In the first red text the author says ‘AFTER any Merged/Bashed patches’, but further down the text under ‘Incompatibility’ he/she says ‘before your Merged and Bashed patches’. So, I really don't know what order the patches should be in! Furthermore, if they are skipped in the Bashed Patch, then what do I do with ‘(TWPC) DIFF3-UUF3P-FWE Patch.esp’, as it depends on some of the mods being merged into the Bashed Patch?

Finally, I made it to the end of the guide. Yay for me! But I also need some elements of The Wasteland Patch Collection. I have a question about it. I read on the mod description page this mod goes after everything, including the Bashed Patch. So I wonder: why does LOOT sort the ‘(TWPC)...esp files’ to different spots in the load order? Is it ok to leave them there, or do I manually move them to the very end? (I did the latter to be safe). On of the final steps is to build a Bashed Patch, but how do I do this with the TWPC ESPs being loaded after the patch? Do I simply run Wrye Flash and does it know to leave mods with a higher priority alone? Or do I first disable TWPC in the left pane of MO, then build the patch, then enable the TWPC ESPs again? I did the latter, but since the Bashed Patch merged DIFF3 (among others), the ‘(TWPC) DIFF3-UUF3P-FWE Patch.esp’ is missing multiple masters! So, what to do now? Will the mod still work fine, because even without the masters they are merged and therefore working correctly through the Bashed Patch? Or do I disable ‘(TWPC) DIFF3-UUF3P-FWE Patch.esp’? Or do I let LOOT sort the TWPC ESPs and merge them with Wrye Flash into the Bashed Patch? I believe this mod deserves some special sorting, (not) merging, etc. instructions, more than it already has!

The guide has tagged FWE with Cleaning. How do I do this? The guide mentions I have to look at LOOT. There some of FWE's esp's are marked for cleaning with FO3Edit. Is it the same process as cleaning the vanilla ESMs? I open FWE, load only one of the files to clean, apply filter for cleaning, remove identical to master records, undelete, exit, save and backup, repeat for all plugins? Just asking to be sure! :) Another mod, More Map Markers, is also tagged for cleaning. However, LOOT doesn't advice any cleaning. What do I do with this one in that case?

Thanks for your elaborate answer! It is very clear and it helps me understand better how the installation order you recommend has come to be. I'll check later whether or not I have to redo some of my installation to ensure the correct mods were installed before some others that might depend on previously installed mods. I'll check later if I can find a smart way to merge the various interfaceshared0.dds files. I already have an idea for this. I'm not a programmer, but I use mathematical software (MATLAB) that can deal with images. I will try to import the .dds files, compare them, mark the differences and let the user choose which of the different options to keep. Finally, I will generate one merged interfaceshared0.dds file that will end up in the Overwrite folder. If this method proves successful, a programmer might write a small tool (maybe one of the MO developers?) that replicates my program. The same method may be applied to different .dds files that contain multiple interface elements (if any others exist). I'll create a topic about this after I look into this.

I have a few things I'd like to discuss. Sectioning & Sorting When you get to the mod list of the guide, you don't start at the first section, Core Fixes, but at Base UI Mods, which is strange. Why not turn the sections around and order them in the way they should be installed? After Base UI Mods comes Core Fixes (or Supplemental UI? The use of main sections and sub(sub(sub))sections can help users a lot here! I'm confused...). The sections and their children all look the same (except for a hard-to-see font size difference). My points of discussion: Why are the sections not ordered in a more user-friendly manner? Why do I have to install them in an order that is not clearly listed, but vaguely described in the text? I'd like to see the use of numbered 1. Chapters, 1.1 Sections, 1.1.1 Subsections, etc. FWE installation FWE is the second mod being installed, after DarNified UI. FWE is a hard one, because not only its installation requires some work, the in-game settings can be tough for inexperienced modders. FWE mentions a requirement: MMM. MMM is near the bottom of the page (which again is confusing, because if you install MMM before FWE, it is actually the second(!) mod installed). MMM is also a complicated install, becuase its section has multiple mods. Here's what I did: DarNified UI (Down the page) MMM Paradox Iginition MMM Merged (I skipped the two body texture replacement fixes, as I won't use them, but I wonder: in what order should these mods end up, because at this point you're nowhere near the body replacement mods these two fix...) Zeta Turret and Drone Karma Fix (Back up the page) FWE ... next mod in Base UI Mods...Is this the correct order for my installation? Or do I have to sort the mods differently? And do I do this now, or after I have installed other mods at some unknown point in the guide? Changing the installation order Because of my confusion, I forgot to install the Supplemental UI mods. I installed Base UI Mods, Core Fixes and now I'm at the point I want to install Supplemental UI. Can I just install them now and in the left pane of MO put them before the mods from Core Fixes, is that how it's done? Intermediate testing I want to test the installed mods after I complete installing each (sub)section. I wonder if this could cause problems. E.g. after having installed the Base UI Mods, there's Vault Boy in the guide telling me to test the game. What does this do with e.g. the unfinished installation of FWE and MMM? They require some compatibility patches, don't they? These are near the end of the guide, so they are not installed at this point. So, what's the point of testing the installed mods? When I test, I play for at leat 15 minutes in both interiors and exteriors (to test stability/crashes/performance), so both FWE and MMM are probably used in that time, but I wonder if this can go noticeably wrong at some point. Multiple interfaceshared0.dds filesWhen installing mods like Smaller Crosshair, Better High Detail Map And Icons, Complete Vault Girl Interface, etc. a different interfaceshared0.dds file is installed, located in \textures\interface\. This is a problem, because every overwrite of this file replaces the previous. The last mod in load order wins, unfortunately. Is there a mod that merges the various interfaceshared0.dds files that are installed? This could be done manually, but this isn't very user friendly. Also, Complete Vault Girl Interface simply replaces the interface, while it should have a plugin that detects the gender of the player character and replace files accordingly. Wrapping it up Thanks for reading and answering! This guide is awesome and I hope I can contribute after I finish installing it.