TeS5Edit colors & what to "really" look for in conflict resolution

[Zegorzalek]

Well, more digging about in the forums!  Glad I found this spot.

 

I have installed SRLE, modifying with SRLE + REGS on Med Systems found here... I have not DDsopt'ed anything yet, mainly utilized the lower value installs to save VRAM. I originally wanted to run some REGS stuff (JK Skyrim) but opted for smooth game without.

 

So this brings me here... I have added a couple tweaks and esp's from CORE, and a few of my own.  Before going forward, I wanted to check for conflicts with what I added.

 

I have looked at the linked conflict resolution video in SRLE, as well as this thread https://wiki.step-project.com/Basics_of_Resolving_Conflicts... https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/3940-skyrim-tes5edit-records-that-merge-at-runtime/... https://ck.uesp.net/wiki/TES5Edit_Documentation... plus some others online. 

 

I am looking at my load order, and am getting a bunch of red and a couple fuchia colored backgrounds (critical conflict?) but not bold print.. mainly centered around CCOR.

 

How do I know what to REALLY look for in conflict resolution and what can I ignore?... I know the last plugin wins the conflict so is there anything that shares where to look for game crashers or is it "experiment" some more? Is the bold print the "trigger"?

 

Please forgive me for asking basic questions, I am just having a heck of a time finding a comprehensive "how to" on the net... lots of old stuff from 2013... feel like I am doing a college term paper for "fun".

 

Input is much appreciated!!!

 

 

 

 

[Harpalus]

Technically, anything not on this list and this list needs conflict resolution. Some records are so minor and irrelevant that they aren't worth deconflicting, however. The Bashed patch takes care of some records, although I don't always agree with its changes.

 

How important you consider various conflicts not on that list (and therefore need resolution) is up to you. I resolve all of them for everything in my load order, with a few minor exceptions. For example: I eliminated ELE to make my life easier, as I was forwarding dozens of lighting changes for cell records and don't even use an ENB preset. I use Remove Interior Fog, however, and I do have to forward fog distances. One could simply ignore these conflicts as it really isn't that important: two dozen odd buildings will have fog again if I don't merge those changes, which isn't a big deal. I do it anyways. Similarly, the UKSP moves a fair number of barrels, bowls, etc around to resolve very minor bugs: I deconflict these as well, but most people aren't going to care. Other changes are more important: how valuable something is, for example. Clothing & Clutter Fixes sets ore to absurdly low prices, and I consider that conflict an important one to get rid of, as it affects my early-game economy. If something is overwriting an enemy that Revenge of the Enemies changes then that is an important conflict to resolve as well, as I'll be nerfing that enemy if I don't fix it. The new version of TES5Edit has an "Apply Filter to show Conflict Losers" filter that is a godsend for fixing conflicts up.

 

Red conflicts with green text indicate that the mod conflict simply undoes a change: for example, the Unofficial Skyrim patch removes the Restoration magic skill from Regenerate Magicka, and Simple Magic Overhaul adds it back in. SMO's change is identical to an Skyrim.esm, so it shows as green text on a red background - these changes are usually simple to deconflict, and often are a result of a mod not properly forwarding UKSP changes. Red text on a red background indicates a more complicated conflict: these aren't as simple to deconflict, as there are several conflicting records. In this case you'll need to "pick and choose" which one you want, or just trust the way LOOT sorted things. (Or clean up your load order by deleting one of them).

 

For my sanity, I try to keep the list of mods that conflict with many things to a relative minimum. I also trust certain authors more than others: if I'm checking conflicts in one of Arthmoor's mods, for example, I don't even look at what the conflict is if it's just conflicting with the UKSP: I can be very certain Arthmoor knows about the UKSP fix and has some reason for ignoring it/changing it. This saves a surprising amount of time, as I can just hold "down" for those records and keep a close eye on what mods are conflicting.

 

Bold text indicates a change that you have made. Some actions (like Clean Masters) cause everything in the mod to turn bold.

 

The standard advice is to resolve conflicts in one of your own patches instead of in the original mod: personally, I only do this for large mods that I know are updated fairly often. Otherwise I just overwrite the original mod to deconflict things: worst case scenario I can redownload the mod, and it saves me some ESP slots at the cost of some minor repeated conflict resolution if it happens to be updated again.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Harpalus

[Zegorzalek]

Indeed, helpful. hehehe.. I have BOTH of those linked pages open on my desktop and bookmarked. I am attempting to digest them, so your post is good confirmation I am going in the correct direction.

 

I don't currently have any bold text, but do have some red background/red text.. even some fuchia/red.... stuff like the pic....well.... that one is fuchia/orange meaning the last plug in wins... I would think the author has done this intentionally?

 

many of the red/red are from the water and fog values.... I will take the above posts and weed through what I really need to look at, then follow Sharlikan's override patch video to make my own patch for resolution.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Zegorzalek

[Harpalus]

I recommend leaving the keyword entries alone: none of the WAF keywords are in vanilla Skyrim, so if they're being overwritten it's probably for a good reason. The particular conflict you're looking at is only between ESPs made by the same author, so in this case it's definitely intended. If you're not sure if you should resolve a conflict, then don't: err on the side of caution. After all, 9 times out of 10 you probably wouldn't even have noticed the conflict you're resolving in-game, so it's better to leave minor problems in if you don't understand what you're deconflicting. Most modders don't even use TES5Edit and get along well enough.

 

The Unofficial Skyrim Patch version history is useful for finding out what exactly the UKSP is trying to fix. (It's by far the most conflicting mod in my load order). Read mod descriptions and the readme if you need to.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Harpalus

[Zegorzalek]

Sage advice. Going to look at the current "don't mess with these" threads, and "look" in tes5... I believe the lion's share of what I have should be stable since it is CORE and SRLE.

 

More learning ;p  Wife asked me today when I was going to actually PLAY the game... can't say I had a good answer.

 

And thanks for the input!

Edited March 9, 2015 by Zegorzalek

[keithinhanoi]

Using the "conflict" override colors in TES5Edit as a way to decide what conflict resolution to do is not a good idea.

 

You can have mod in the last loading plugin which returns a record to be identical to what it is in Skyrim.esm. Although TES5Edit would show that last override is being "good" / green, it may be undesirable because you actually want the edits made by another plugin earlier in the load order.

 

So a lot of conflict resolution depends on two things - 1) Knowing what all the different record /sub-record types do, and 2) Knowing what the intentions of the mods are that make changes to Vanilla / DLC / other mod's records. Also good is being able to decide what you want to happen in your game, because sometimes you may want to override changes made by a later loading plugin.

 

I'd highly suggest going through all of SR:LE's conflict resolution patching instructions, by hand, and give consideration to what you see in TES5Edit along with the notes in the SL:RE guide. You should hopefully start to see patterns in the kinds of records that get overridden in patches. This is the way that I originally started learning how to use TES5Edit for conflict resolution.

[Mator]

I feel obligated to toot my own horn here and point out Smash to you-

Mator Smash

 

It's like Wyre Bash but it provides conflict resolution for all record types and has been reported to be doing pretty good according to my beta testers.  At the very least, you should try using Smash to generate a patch and then look at the conflicts it has resolved and determine any manual changes you want to implement.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mator

[EssArrBee]

Do not overwrite WAF/CCF/CCOR keywords with anything except CRF. The unofficial patches should be overwritten by those mods too.

[Zegorzalek]

Thanks for the input and links.

 

@ Keith... had not quite gotten there yet, next step... opening side by side and looking at what changes.

 

Thanks Mator...will have to take a look at that.

 

@ EssArrBee... brain cramping... what is CRF please?

[Xaviien]

CRF = Cutting Room Floor

[EssArrBee]

Guess I'll have to add some of these abbreviations to the list. There should be a bunch of them with tiny dotted lines underneath so that you know they have hovertext, like so: CCOR