FALLOUT3 Weapon Mods Patch ALPHA (by TheGreatBugsby)

[Kelmych]

Weapon Mods Patch ALPHA is working on a compatibility patch for Fallout 3 mods to provide better compatibility across FWE, EVE, WMK, RH_ironsights, and the DLC. There is an initial partial version of the patch available, and the author is asking for help in creating and testing the patch.

 

It's hard to determine whether this is best done with a single patch (as is being done for this mod) or a set of patches, as SRB has been doing doing for Fallout NV. Elminster posted on STEP a while ago about the capabilities being added to the next version of xEdit to better support using sets of patches for compatibility.

[Bugsby]

It's a single patch for purely selfish reasons. Those just happen to be the mods I like to use and it annoyed me that after all these years they don't work better together. I will be making at least two smaller plugins that don't require EVE or RH_ironsights respectively. In the end the main file will probably not require EVE and things like EVE or other mod support will go into additional plugins. It's pretty open ended right now though so I welcome any suggestions as to where I should go with this. This weekend I'll be releasing a beta version that will more accurately represent the final form of the patch.

 

The only big weapons mod I know I won't be covering is FOOK. Otherwise anything that affects weapons is fair game. So you would need to run Blackened as well if you're also using MMM or Project Beauty.

 

There's one big question someone here might be able to answer. What's the modding community's stance on the Paradox merged mods? I'm using them as masters for convenience and because the latest version of EVE requires it, but I don't like the one-size-fits-all aspect to them. I'd imagine a community of tweakers like this one would feel the same way, so is there a market for something like Blackened but for the separated versions? I'd be open to going in that direction with my mod if that were the case.

 

Lastly I'm very curious about those teased features for FO3edit. Can you give me a link to that?

[Kelmych]

Personally I like the Paradox merged mods since they reduce the plugin count and, perhaps more important, are more up-to-date than the original plugins. They often have fewer unclean records (ITMs and UDRs) than the original plugins. If you are writing compatibility mods like Blackened it's a lot easier to write for the merged versions than to have to maintain multiple versions of the patch, and I've been using Blackened patches because they are being maintained and are updated when needed. The one-size-fits-all approach in Paradox has problems with Enhanced Blood Textures, but I haven't seen any other significant issues. You can see the Paradox mods I'm using in the STEP Fallout 3 guide listed in my signature.

 

I've looked at FOOK and I prefer FWE; FWE also has a lot wider support which is particularly important.

 

Ghostwise has been also been working on some FO3 patches, and has what seem to me to be a nice scheme for organizing the patches. It seems consistent with the approach that ElminsterAU described in this forum thread about how patching could be made easier and how the next release of xEdit will support this (ModGroups). I think it's also compatible with your goal of having patches for various mods that are compatibility for FWE, WMK, EVE, RH_Ironsights (when feasible), and all the DLC. The only difference might be about having one mod for all the weapons of interest vs. having groups, and eventually with ModGroups it should be possible to more easily merge the individual patch mods.

 

STEP recently moved some of the discussion about xEdit (FO3/FNV/TES4/TES5Edit) to a new forum on the site. You'll see it under Support and Troubleshooting. The Bash Tagger thread has a lot of information on using xEdit scripts and the new beta xEdit, and includes posts from a number of the key modders working on useful xEdit capabilities.

[Ghostwise]

I will be making at least two smaller plugins that don't require EVE or RH_ironsights respectively. 

As a guy who can't hit the broad side of a barn with RH_ironsights (I really need a HUD reticle), I appreciate that.

[Bugsby]

Modgroups looks interesting as a convenience but I never really had any problems determining what did or didn't still need to be patched. Maybe it's just because of the scope of my mod, but I just went sequentially through every relevant category in every one of my masters. Existing patches were a good template for what needed to be patched - not perfect but good.

 

I'm kind of working in the opposite direction of this modgroups method. I'm making the big patch first, then getting rid of all elements that rely on, say, EVE, and making a plugin out of that. If we're all careful enough, both ways should accomplish the same thing. I don't see an advantage one way or another, though maybe I had to do a bit more work by scratch.

 

What kind of patches are you making Ghostwise? I hope we're not working on the same thing.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Bugsby