Modding a mod

[Yippee38]

I'm running a SR:LE install from back in February.  I changed a couple of mods (mostly character looks and armor related), but other than that, it's SR:LE.  I like just about everything about the gameplay.  It's much more challenging, and more immersive.  However, I can't stand parts of Complete Alchemy and Cooking.  I really like a lot of it, so I don't want to get rid of it.  I love the additional components and the new butterflies.  The new cooking recipes are great.  However, I don't like the way potions work now, and I don't like that very little food restores health.  Those two things make the game so much harder that it takes the fun out of it for me.  If I get into a dragon fight, I know going in that it's going to take me a lot of tries to beat the dragon, my follower will die, and I'll only beat it if I can game the game somehow (find a place where it's attacks can't hit me and hide there shooting it or something like that).  Maybe I'm lousy at the game.  Whatever.  I don't care if I am or not.  It's not fun.

 

Anyway, I've looked at the mod in TES5Edit and I want to tweak it a bit to keep most of the functionality of the Complete Alchemy and Cooking mod, but change what I don't like.  My plan is to go through and copy the effect on each of the stock game foods back to their original effects, and do the same on the potions.  The new food, I won't touch.  This seems like a simple thing that shouldn't break anything, but I wanted to get some input from you people first.  I've not created any mods before, so I don't know if what I'm thinking about doing will require me to create a new compatibility patch, or anything like that.  Can I just make those tweaks and play?  Or is there anything else I need to do to make the tweaks without destroying the game's stability?

[Yippee38]

NM.  Figured it out.  Here's what I did in case anybody else wants to do something like this and they come here for help.

 

Open TES5Edit and load only the mod I'm interested in modding, plus any compatibility patches and just to be safe, the conflict resolution patch.

Once that's done loading, go to the mod and find the records you want to change.  Make note of them.

Select the compatibility patch and check for those records.

Select the conflict resolution patch and check for those records.

Start at the bottom (of the load order list in TES5Edit) with mods to mod.  Select the first one that's got a copy of the records you want to modify.

Copy the last column into a new mod, and name it what you want.

Make changes to that mod.

Work your way up the list (conflict resolution, compatibility patches, the main mod) and change all of the records you want to change.

Save your work as you go.  Save when you're done, and exit TES5Edit.

Go to your Mod Organizer/Mods directory and create a directory for your new mod.

Copy the new mod file from the Mod Organizer/Overwrite directory into the new mod directory you created above.

Place it directly after the last file you edited using TES5Edit.  For me, it was after the compatibility patch, as the conflict resolution patch didn't modify any of the items I modified.

Do the same with the .esp on the right side of MO.

Test.

 

Maybe I missed something.  If so, somebody please point it out.  This worked for me though.