Extracting BSAs with MO

[rootsrat]

It's preferred to extract the BSAs, as loose files always overwrite the BSA, yes? MO has the option to unpack BSAs, however I'm not sure if I should unpack all the contents, or textures only, leaving everything else within repacked BSA?

[SSL]

If you unpack everything, you are sure files are overwritten by their MO's priority, which seems more sane to manage, that the mess with BSA's being loaded with their .es[p,m] counterparts

[rootsrat]

Do I still need ESPs then?

[Farlo]

Do I still need ESPs then?

That depends on the mod.  See our BSA Guide for instructions on how to tell whether an ESP is needed.  I've found that ESPs <1KB are usually just there as BSA activators, but I wouldn't trust that 100%.  If you come across any others that aren't in that list, please add them to it, thanks!

[rootsrat]

Will do!

 

One more q though: if the esp is there to activate BSA file, will it cause problems in case of that BSA file missing (because it's now extracted and removed)?

[Farlo]

Nope, a missing BSA won't cause any problems. Skyrim will just resort to grabbing the required files from the Data folder. This allows us to customize the installation order (which textures, meshes, etc. get loaded) independently from the load order (which ESPs get priority).