BSA extraction + Loose files

[Ubeogesh]

So in Interesting NPCs mod there is both BSA file and some loose files.

In Mod Organizer I previously chose to always unpack BSA files.

 

My question is - if there is a file inside the BSA with the same name as in the mod package - will the file that was unpacked from BSA overwrite the loose file, or will the loose file overwrite the file that was extracted from BSA?

 

I have a feeling that files from the BSA could overwrite loose files, because during installation MO first unpacks all files to the target directory, and then only unpacks the BSA... And that could be a problem, could it?

 

Or are my worries in vain and MO first unpacks BSA and then extracts loose files?

[Neuroliquidity]

Cheers for the detailed answer.  Indirectly, you did answer the question (and filled in a few other questions I had) but  (there's always, one of these, right?) ... you mentioned that 'when you manually extract BSAs .... you have to then manually delete the BSA after'.  This is actually what my question was referring to.

 

I don't want to delete the BSA ... I want to keep the BSA in the /mod folder, along with the it's extracted contents.  But I want to disable the BSA in the 'Archives' tab, so that MO doesn't try and load it (loading the extracted loose files instead).  When I uncheck the BSA in the archives tab, it gives me the warning, everything looks okay ... but when I quit/restart MO, all of the BSA's that I've handled like this are then reactivated ... seemingly against what I wanted to do.

 

I was just wondering if the fact MO ignores my request to disable a BSA (but keep it in the /mods folder) between program instances is by design or is possibly just something that wasn't handled correctly. But I think you also answered that with your first sentence ... I can't disable a BSA if there's a matching ESP. Full stop. (even if I extract it, but want to keep it around, it'll always be loaded, then immediately overwritten by the loose files that were extracted from it ....)

 

Though I understand why this is the case (your post, along with 'umpteen' pages on the whole 'BSA extract/intact issue' have made this clear) for some reason the behavior I was seeing in MO wasn't registering as 'correct'.  I'm rebooting my reality now, in an attempt to fix this.  Then I'll go drink some milk.

 

Thanks for the help ;)

[TheBloke]

Yes, MO ignores the request to disable a BSA when there's a matching ESP.  In fact, in the latest version of MO (currently in beta, 1.2.4), you can't even disable them.  When there's an ESP with the same name, MO 1.2.4 won't let you uncheck the BSA in Archives.

 

To be honest, I don't quite understand why it's like that.  It does have to be like that for BSAs in the /data folder, because Skyrim will always load those.  And it's true that if Skyrim seems SomeMod.bsa when there's a SomeMod.esp as well, it will auto-load SomeMod.bsa.

 

What I don't quite get is why MO can't translate "untick SomeMod.bsa in Archives" into "don't show SomeMod.bsa to Skyrim; remove it from the virtual filesystem."  That would achieve what you want, and be more intuitive.

 

But it's possible that Tannin felt that, if you don't want the BSA there, you could just Hide it yourself.  Which of course you can.

 

So if you want a BSA there after you extract it, another thing you could do is to double-click on the mod, click on the Filetree tab, right-click on the BSA, and choose "Hide".  That will rename it: SomeMod.bsa -> SomeMod.bsa.mohidden.

 

That way you can have the BSA still there physically, but never be loaded.  It's perhaps not quite as convenient, because as it doesn't have the .bsa extension it won't be automatically seen by tools like BSAOpt, nor will it appear in any *.bsa listings.  But that will basically achieve what you want - keeping the BSA file alongside the loose files.  And any time you want that BSA back as a BSA, you can right-click it again in MO->Filetree, and choose Unhide.

 

If Tannin reads this thread, maybe he could comment on why "Untick BSA in Archives tab" couldn't translate into "Don't add that BSA to the virtual filesystem, such that it doesn't matter if there's an ESP with the same name."   If he doesn't see this, I might raise that as Enhancement request for him.