Taejang

Discussion topic: Disk Cache Enabler by enpinion Newer mod back ported from Starfield. Helps the game engine use more RAM and not check the disc so often, supposed to trade increased RAM requirements for significant performance gains on HDD and lesser but noticeable gains on SDDs. Discussion seems that you shouldn't use without 16GBs of RAM minimum, though might need more if you have a heavy load order and/or big textures eating into your RAM. I'm not sure if this is going to be a new "standard" mod to include in nearly all load orders or not. Figured I'd toss it out for discussion.

Discussion topic: FO4 Crash Log Auto Scanner And Setup Integrity Checker (CLASSIC) by TheSoundofSnow4 Another tool that shouldn't be needed but I wanted to bring up as a possible thing to mention for troubleshooting purposes.

Discussion topic: PJM's Previs Patching Scripts by PJMail I don't know that this is required for the STEP guide as is now, but figured I'd bring it up. Seems pretty useful

Bookmarks, those are handy. Thanks! What I want is a diagram map that outlines how different record types are connected. Mostly just labels and arrows really. Tutorials are great for long-term mastery but they're terrible reference materials. The xEdit documentation has tons of good info but again it's not laid out for easy searching or referencing. You wouldn't happen to know of anything like that by chance?

I'm curious if there is a better option for replacing this mod. As pointed out, it conflicts with a huge number of things. It says it is compatible with UFO4P, but it hasn't been updated in 5 years, so all newer UFO4P records are being overwritten. There have been attempts to update patches, like this one, but none I see have actually been completed (and released). I don't really see anything else that does what this mod does, though. I see plenty of mods that add things (like Homemaker, WWE, and of course cVc). Nothing that overhauls things the same way WR does though. Could something be built (or patched) using SMM to make WR more compatible? (I don't know how hard it is to use SMM to build new menu structures.)

Dunno if anybody is interested in this, but I figure I should update with my progress. Unanswered: How do you track what scripts impact a given record? How do you tell a scrapping recipe apart from a crafting recipe? If an item/object has a dedicated recipe, and appears in another recipe by way of form list, which takes precedence? Answered: Yes, scripts can change recipes. Some of these can be found in MCM settings for some mods. There are "form lists" that can contain a list of things all pointed to a single scrap recipe. This is how items without a dedicated recipe can still get scrapped If an item has a scrap/craft recipe and is present in a different recipe by a different name, by way of a form list, xEdit does not show a conflict. It is unclear to me which recipe takes precedence. In the case of the HvacUnit01 bug, it wasn't a real bug. It doesn't have a scrap recipe (for that version), only a craft one, which requires 2 steel, so when scrapped it returns half (or 1 steel). This is only one of many issues I'm seeking to address Changing a recipe and reloading a save file has the changes immediately available, no need to wait 3 days or reload the zone I've learned more about the "Filter" system in xEdit, and it does let me find things easier, though it is not explained how to use it (or the ctrl+F) in xEdit itself and I'm still figuring it out. There is documentation on it here. Finding anything in the documentation can be a challenge at times. Many records (though not all) have a "Referenced By (#)" section. Right pane, bottom tabs. This makes it much easier to track connections and dependencies

Using xEdit. To simplify things, we'll work with only the HvacUnit01 object. I want to understand the factors involved so I can learn to troubleshoot this myself, hence this is not "how do I fix my buggy load order", but instead "how do I track why it is buggy". My current understanding is thus: 1) A "Static" record is basically the object's definition, including many attributes but neither recipe information nor links/references/pointers to any. 2) "Constructible Object" records include crafting recipe information or scrap recipe information. Materials required/acquired, their amounts, any necessary perks, and so forth are outlined. There is a reference back to the item definition in the "Static" record. 3) The item is placed Cell/Worldspace records. These include a callback to the original "Static" record, but I can't see any links here directly to the "Constructible Object" record. I'm not sure how the game knows what action to take when a player initiates the "scrap action"; does the game load all possible scrap recipes alongside all possible craft recipes whenever the player enters workshop mode? 4) It is not possible to modify crafting or scrapping recipes with loose files or archives, only in plugin files (esm, esp, esl). 5) Is it possible to modify them with scripts? If so, how do I track down what script(s) are modifying a given record? 6) Once loaded, do craft/scrap recipes remain loaded until the cell is reloaded? ie if I save in a settlement with recipe version 1, exit the game, modify the recipe into version 2, and relaunch the game, which version will be active upon first loading the save file? Thanks in advance for any answers or guidance! Background info (probably not needed to answer my questions): Using custom filters in xEdit, I've found a few masters referencing HvacUnit01 objects in my load order, with differing FormIDs and EditorIDs. The base game and official DLCs place them but I don't see scrap recipes, Homemaker, and Rebuild AIO. Of the two mods, both have scrap recipes: Homemaker returns 8 steel, Rebuild returns 2 steel. In game, the popup only shows 1 steel for the Rebuild AIO version, which is what is added to the inventory upon scrapping. xEdit shows no conflicts in the scrap recipes or "static" records, which all have unique IDs. The Cell and Worldspace records do overwrite, meaning for each in-game instance I have to use the console to track back exactly which "version" of the HVAC system is present. I have a few dozen such conflicts for various objects and I'm using this as an exercise to increase my understanding before I try making a few compatibility patches between things like the UFO4P and WorkshopRearranged (which are supposed to be compatible but WR hasn't been updated in years).

Man I'm a moron. I'm not sure how I missed that the first time, but the second time I made sure nothing in the STEP directions that was unchecked was accidentally checked in mine- COBJ not being in the STEP list at all of course means it wasn't "unchecked". That's what I get for trying to check it while tired and distracted. Makes me wonder what else I screwed up. My apologies. I did have the linked mod installed, though I have no idea why. It wasn't even in my bookmarks; seems like a fine mod but nothing I want (it's uninstalled already). I need to go through my load order again, I clearly have a few things in here I shouldn't that are causing conflicts. Maybe before midnight this time.

I checked the settings, thinking maybe I had missed the ECO settings from the guide (specifically the "ignore vanilla items" under the recipe section), but my settings there matched the guide. Regenerated anyway, same effect. I disabled the COBJ Converter and regenerated, and that removed the faulty records overwriting good ones. I don't mind disabling COBJ Converter (it doesn't do anything I actually want, now that I'm investigating it further). At no point did I modify the settings for it, at least not until I disabled it entirely. The first part of the default settings (at least, my default ones) for COBJ Converter are attached. Not sure if they are different than what your defaults were, or if something else is going on, but figured if your settings are different from these, it might be something to mention in the guide so others don't have this issue. I can list the entire default settings if desired. To further clarify, I just checked, I downloaded only the main file from this mod, not the two optional files. I verified the installation instructions from "19-Utilities". If desired I can verity the other components that interact with it (4estGimp's addons and such) to see if maybe I have a different version of one of those. I did change some of the sorter tags, but definitely didn't modify the plugins themselves.

I saw the xEdit update from 4.0.4 to 4.1.5 and deliberately didn't upgrade because I couldn't find anything in the patch notes pertaining to Fallout. It was all for Starfield; I figured I wouldn't chance any new bugs that might have popped up in the newer version. I'm sure they'd get patched relatively quickly, but it wasn't worth it for what seemed like no benefit to me. I'll rebuild the sorter and check the details in xEdit, see if something weird happened in the last generation. Triple check my settings as well. I shouldn't have to redo Synthesis patches, LOD, or Tex generations just for the item sorter, correct?

C# is not the easiest language to learn, but it's close. If you're learning it as a first language, the roughest part might well be the concepts and methodology of coding, not the syntax or structures. That said, programming in general can be very difficult to pick up, especially if you aren't fully invested in it. It's a mindset that comes naturally to some, while for others it might as well be differential calculus written in music notation with a mostly-dead yellow highlighter. Like spoken languages, most people will never learn the deeper parts unless they are immersed in it for some time. It's like the people who use Duolingo 15min a day for a year and expect to be fluent in that language- it just isn't going to happen. Now if you don't want fluency, you can absolutely pick up the programming equivalent of "saying hello, asking directions, and ordering a sandwich" without immersion. And unlike spoken languages, you can copy/paste code and spend hours on a "paragraph" that you just can't do in face-to-face conversations. But unlike spoken languages, computers don't "get the gist" of what you're saying, which can be extremely frustrating; you can expect to need hours on some "paragraphs". Fortunately, programming languages have fewer inconsistencies, as they are artificial constructs intended to make sense. There are still weird quirks, but nothing like a spoken language's complexity. If you want to give it a shot, I'd recommend finding a course, book, or tutorial that teaches the actual concepts of programming from a C# perspective. Give it a few hours and if it's making sense or interesting, then continue with that in conjunction with learning some syntax. C# is plenty popular as a beginning language, so you should be able to find something (sorry I don't have any in mind I can refer you to). If you jump right into learning syntax, you might learn to ask the equivalent of "where is the bathroom?", but you won't understand how the sentence is constructed, meaning every new "sentence" you learn has to be memorized from scratch. That's not a fun way to learn any language, programming or otherwise. W3Schools that @DoubleYou mentioned is a fantastic resource for learning the syntax, by the by. I've used it for other languages and recommend it for practice and practical examples. But it doesn't cover the "how" and the "why" in enough detail in my opinion, not for someone with no coding experience anyway. Without that how and why, troubleshooting a piece of code becomes much harder, which leads to frustration and burnout. That said, the pure conceptual stuff can be boring; best to use the two "styles" of learning in concert. As a side note, @GSDFan you say you have no "programming background". If you are familiar with SQL, the intricacies of network protocols, scripting, etc, programming should be easier to pick up. For example, folks may not consider html and CSS work as "programming", but they share certain foundational concepts and paradigms. Modding with tools like xEdit also helps with some of those concepts, though not as many. It's like if you speak French, picking up Spanish is easier than if your native language is Cantonese. Now after that "novel"... Attached is a screenshot showing how my Sorter is editing scrapping recipes, replacing resources like steel or wood with straight bottlecaps. M8r Complex Sorter.esp is the name of the output from "Complex Sorter" and is stored in it's own otherwise blank mod at nearly the end of my load order. I didn't even know the CIS could alter scrap recipes; from initial testing it looks to be only household objects like furniture, not weapons/items/trees/etc, but I haven't tested everything by a long shot. It isn't every furniture piece, but it is enough that correcting it manually would suck. Any ideas how I might have screwed up?

Ah, so it's a limit of 256 main files and 256 texture files? I doubt I have that many *main.ba2 files, but I can check that. The messed up mod is this one, a compatibility patch that organizes existing mod-added weapon crafting recipes to a consolidated (logical) system, then adds missing recipes. The Nexus file listing shows they all come as .esp files, so I'm fairly confident it should be one- doesn't mean the download didn't get botched into somehow thinking it's a ba2 while still having the .esp extension, but it wasn't something I modified directly via some patcher/script/etc. I'll have to redownload it, reinstall it, then test that weapon mod, see if the guns and crafting recipes work as intended. This has all gone rather far afield from the purpose of this thread, sorry for the lengthy sidetrack. EDIT: The messed up file was repaired after a re-download and reinstall.

The second method was perfect, thank you! ...332 .ba2 files totaling 128GB; methinks I need to do some trimming before I get any further in my gameplay testing. Or merging. Or unpacking some of the smaller ones into loose files. Probably all three. And after I paid so much attention to keeping my .esp files down! What does it mean when a file is an .esp but marked as a .ba2, such as the screenshot? Speaking of merging ba2 files... though it'll be tough to troubleshoot issues if I do this, especially if it introduces new problems just from it's own effort to merge files... something to think about before pulling the trigger on whatever solution I pick later tonight.

256 archives as the limit is good to know. Is there an easy way in MO2 to see how many are being loaded? I did a test search in Windows for "*.ba2" in the 'virutal' directories MO2 loads from, but I'm unsure if there are additional archives loaded elsewhere. I'm also unsure exactly what file extensions count against that 256 limit; ba2 and bsa, are there others? There is a list in MO2, but no count. I also don't know how to interpret the list (some archives are checked, others have green boxes like in the screenshot).

I did use this with AWKCR years ago, no issues with it then, but those results are obviously outdated and used AWKCR, so... yeah. In my newest playing I haven't had any troubles, but so far the only creatures I've seen are molerats and mosquitos; both look great, but it needs a lot more testing.

The Ponytails might be alright for STEP, but yeah not CBBE. I actually forgot it required that; I installed the Nevernude version forever ago since so many mods require CBBE. The LITE version you linked to is an interesting alternative. The same mod author also has a Super Mutant version, and a version in progress for creatures+monsters (though I've no idea if/when that one will be done).

Ah, misunderstood what the "Dropped" identifier was meant to indicate.

That doesn't surprise me, but I didn't know it. Haven't gone through all the MCM settings yet, and that mod is new to me. Thanks!

Well that's handy. Thanks!

I love this information. Can it be added to the STEP guide in the appropriate locations? I've adapted what you said and added a little info (a little, most of what's below is a near quote from you), creating what I think would be most vital to a user while keeping it concise. These could possibly be a literal copy->paste operations for you/someone to add to the guide, though I obviously won't complain if further modifications are made before these blurbs are put into the guide. Ironically, it was some of his stuff that caused one of my two CIS problems. I had some Power Armor mods with 4estGimp's patches adding things to the sorter, and the tags weren't going anywhere. Worked fine after I added a dozen~ish tags to 4estGimp's CIS Enhancements tags.ini. I also had some other mods (unrelated to STEP or 4estGimp's patches) that were being processed twice for some reason. The default settings for "Item Sorter Tags (FIS2)" uses "automatic"; I forced it to explicitly use "FIS" and that solved the problem. Or at least, the CIS generation no longer threw errors and warnings at me; I suspect there may still be issues with one or maybe both of my fixes, but I won't know til I find some of those items in game or directly spawn them in for testing. Both fixes were easy once I'd spent enough time wrapping my head around what the item sorters do, how they do it, how the files are organized, what the syntax is (simple as it is), and so on. That's why I'm thinking of laying that stuff out clearly in an article on Nexus or somewhere. What is the limit? Or if you don't know the exact number, is it closer to 50 archives, or 500, or 5000, etc. Again, thanks for the answers, all very informative for me!

Discussion topic: Melee and Throw by jarari Wiki Link Simple mod that separates the "melee" and "grenade throw" hotkeys, and lets you assign whatever key you want to for them (including mouse keys). Not the most user-friendly mod, as it doesn't have any in-game settings and the hotkey assignment is by hex code in a settings file, but I've used it for a hundred hours in a FROST playthrough and never had any issues with it. Testing it now with STEP. There are other mods that do the same thing in different ways, I picked this one because it lets me use any key I want and doesn't touch anything else (no balance changes, no quests, no new grenades, nothing). If there is a better option, or something in STEP already addresses this, my apologies and please let me know. I don't really consider most hotkey oriented mods to be in scope for STEP, as they are mostly personal preference or to address specific issues (like different keyboard localizations), but I absolutely believe the melee+grenade key is a failed design decision made to accommodate console players. It only takes a dozen accidental grenade tosses- or accidental bayonet thrusts- to frustrate anyone.

Modified the OP with that in mind, created a new thread for the second mod.

Discussion topic: Unique NPCs - Creatures and Monsters of the Commonwealth by Thirdstorm Wiki Link I suspect this was excluded automatically due to it requiring AWKCR, but there is now a patch removing that dependency. I'm testing it in my load order now.

I was unaware that Place Everywhere already did a version of this. I always wonder how many little things are "hidden" in mods, especially the ones that lack MCM interfaces. They might have everything clearly documented, but by the time I get through installing ten or a hundred or five hundred mods, I've forgotten such things. When doing this recent install, I actually made a .txt file just for mod-related hotkeys to try and help me remember some of these.

Discussion topic: Unique NPCs - An Overhaul of the Commonwealth by Thirdstorm Wiki Link I suspect this was excluded automatically due to its reliance on AWKCR, but there is now a patch removing that dependency. I'm testing it in my load order now.