ACCEPTED Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul (by kryptopyr)

[z929669]

2 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

The Ironwood Tree normal map for this mod is misnamed. There is a bug report for this in the Bugs tab on the mod page. Easiest solution will be to instruct to install the CACO Cleaned Textures file and rename

textures\ccor\plants\imp45\ironwood_n.dds

to

textures\ccor\plants\imp45\ironwood01_n.dds

I am running with both optional files myself (see my last post), so I will take your advice and advocate likewise for our instructions.

DynDOLOD complains about this one:

Warning: File not found textures\ccor\plants\imp45\ironwood01_n.dds. Used by Meshes\ccor\plants\imp45\ironwood01.nif Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp CACO_TreeIronwood "Ironwood Tree" [TREE:725A9810]

We should also patch out these references to CACO missing meshes reported by DynDOLOD, since no meshes are available for CACO that I know of (and no vanilla meshes my these names exist):

Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining0500.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining0500 [STAT:72010691]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining1000.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining1000 [STAT:72010693]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining2000.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining2000 [STAT:72010695]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining3000.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining3000 [STAT:72010697]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining4000.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining4000 [STAT:72010699]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettraining5000.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTraining5000 [STAT:7201069B]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\targettrainingstart.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_TargetTrainingStart [STAT:7201068B]
Warning: File not found Meshes\caco\xawabaseparticlesystemcarrier.nif. Used by Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul.esp xCACO_SilverCloudEmitterTEST "Silver Dust Emitter" [ACTI:7201F487]

... well, I guess they would need to be removed from the plugin itself by the user. Maybe they were used in development of the mod?

xCACOBombTestCell "Unowned Cell" [CELL:05006773]

[Mousetick]

On 12/31/2021 at 5:00 AM, z929669 said:

I think we should be using both optional files.

• CACO Cleaned Textures - BC7 format textures instead of uncompressed DDS
• True Fortify Effects for Magic Skills - this make fortify magic effects consistent with other CACO fortify effects and should apply to Odin if I am interpreting that mod correctly (scales spell strength according to skill level)

Regarding 'True Fortify Effects for Magic Skills', I believe you're right, it would make sense to use it. But not because of Odin, which doesn't change magic scaling from vanilla. It's Vokrii which scales spells based on skill level. At least if I'm reading the mod's descriptions correctly. For instance (emphasis added):

Quote

Destruction

Scaling: Levels in Destruction increase the power of Destruction spells and effects by up to 40%, and reduce their cost by up to 40%.
Experience: Gain Destruction experience by using Destruction spells effectively.

Destruction now gains significant damage scaling with level, balanced out by a slight nerf to the elemental damage perks. The net total is about 30% more damage (13% for multi element spells), making up for the general weakness of vanilla Destruction magic without making them overpowered. A perk exists to reduce elemental resistances, making especially frost mages more capable. Underused spell types such as master spells and wall spells get their own buffs.

This would also work well with Fizzle to temporarily bump the magic skill level in order to increase the chances of successfully casting a spell if one is not skilled enough.

 

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

We should also patch out these references to CACO missing meshes reported by DynDOLOD, since no meshes are available for CACO that I know of (and no vanilla meshes my these names exist):

[...]

... well, I guess they would need to be removed from the plugin itself by the user. Maybe they were used in development of the mod?

xCACOBombTestCell "Unowned Cell" [CELL:05006773]

I inferred the same the first time I encountered these warnings. Must be used for development/testing. These faulty STAT records could be patched out or fixed in the STEP CR Patch if desired.

[z929669]

21 minutes ago, Mousetick said:

Regarding 'True Fortify Effects for Magic Skills', I believe you're right, it would make sense to use it. But not because of Odin, which doesn't change magic scaling from vanilla. It's Vokrii which scales spells based on skill level. At least if I'm reading the mod's descriptions correctly. For instance (emphasis added):

This would also work well with Fizzle to temporarily bump the magic skill level in order to increase the chances of successfully cast a spell if one is not skilled enough.

 

I inferred the same the first time I encountered these warnings. Must be used for development/testing. These faulty STAT records could be patched out or fixed in the STEP CR Patch if desired.

Perhaps Vokrii then, yes. Either way, it rang true for me. I'm no magic system guru. I always play warrior or rogue with minimal magic ... like a Witcher.

I must've read right past that detail in your post then or didn't make the connection. I don't think the CACO stuff can be patched out can it, since they are new records to a unique reference? Unless we can recreate those refs and nullify maybe? Never tried that. I wanted to delete them but wanted to see what you all think first.

[Mousetick]

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

Perhaps Vokrii then, yes. Either way, it rang true for me. I'm no magic system guru. I always play warrior or rogue with minimal magic ... like a Witcher.

I didn't make the distinction to mess with you  It seemed important to clarify and document the rationale of why this patch may be or should be included in the guide. If the guide didn't include a mod that scales magic effects based on skill (namely Vokrii, but it could have been another one), the patch would be useless - worse, it would remove a useful vanilla alchemy feature by replacing it with something comparatively useless. 

1 hour ago, z929669 said:

I don't think the CACO stuff can be patched out can it, since they are new records to a uniquer reference? Unless we can recreate those refs and nullify maybe? Never tried that. I wanted to delete them but wanted to see what you all think first.

I suggested that the bogus STAT records be patched in the STEP CR Patch rather than asking users to manually edit them in xEdit. There are at least 2 options for the patch:

1. Duplicate the STAT records in the patch, mark them as Deleted, then duplicate and disable all their references.
2. Duplicate the STAT records in the patch, and edit their mesh path to point to some vanilla mesh that is guaranteed to exist. Arguably easiest and safest.

Hope this helps.

[DoubleYou]

I prefer option two. 

[Greg]

Has anyone asked Kryptopyr if this can be corrected in CACO?

[DoubleYou]

58 minutes ago, Greg said:

Has anyone asked Kryptopyr if this can be corrected in CACO?

It's in the Bugs section. I don't think Kryptopyr is active anymore. 

[Mousetick]

• I had a chance to redo DynDOLOD so I tested patch option #2 for the missing meshes. It works as expected. That is, it suppresses DynDOLOD warnings. No one will notice the dummy vanilla mesh replacement unless they travel to the hidden CACO test cell.
• While Kryptopyr may no longer be active, there must be some maintainer(s) behind the scenes to update CACO's SKSE plugin (as recently as Jan. 8), and compatibility patches (last December for the AE CC content). As a matter of fact, I believe Tech and Z were recently in touch with them... So fixing both the bogus test cell and the bogus ironwood texture normal could be in the realm of possibilities if requested.

[z929669]

I just posted a bug report on the mod. It looks like someone checks that (even if they don't 'close' bugs, which would look better IMO)

[TechAngel85]

Updated mod page for v2.0

[ButchDiavolo]

CACO just got a "bug fix" update, which includes the temporary patch. It now has a FOMOD to select the correct AE version AND the True Fortify Effect optional included for selection. I am not sure if the cleaned textures are also included, but I guess not, since that is the only other file remaining on the mod download page.

DrMonops also mentions more news to come about CACO in a sticky.

[Kattmandu]

It appears that the directory structure for the plugins is incorrect.  The folder 'Plugins' should be within 'SKSE'.

It does install a new BSA named 'Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul - Textures.bsa'.  Maybe it contains the cleaned textures?

 

The filename 'ironwood_n.dds' has not been correctly renamed to 'ironwood01_n.dds' in this release.  Therefore, the STEP guide will need to provide instructions to install and use a tool like Bethesda Archive Extractor or BSA Browser  to be able to extract the archive and rename this file.

 

Or maybe the SSE Creation Kit can be used to rename files within a BSA?  Not sure on this.  However, in order to prevent an application load error when running CK through MO2, the option 'Overwrite Steam AppID' will need to be enabled and '1946180' entered into the field.  Not to mention, CK installs a lot of files in '...\Data\DialogueViews' and '...\Data\Source\Scripts'.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Kattmandu

[z929669]

Ugh. I will need to take a look and see how this may or may not impact latest patch in development.

[ButchDiavolo]

2 hours ago, Kattmandu said:

It appears that the directory structure for the plugins is incorrect.  The folder 'Plugins' should be within 'SKSE'.

It does install a new BSA named 'Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul - Textures.bsa'.  Maybe it contains the cleaned textures?

[snipped]

Ha! You beat me too it. I was just going to list these issues as well, after posting on CACO's page. Thanks for saving me from having to type it out here as well

Anyway, give it a bit of time. In my experience, DrMonops will correct the problems asap.

[Kattmandu]

8 minutes ago, ButchDiavolo said:

Ha! You beat me too it. I was just going to list these issues as well, after posting on CACO's page. Thanks for saving me from having to type it out here as well

Anyway, give it a bit of time. In my experience, DrMonops will correct the problems asap.

Yup, I was going to make a comment on the mod page asking to fix the folder structure and rename the file so BSA extraction isn't necessary but noticed that you just did.