Merge Patches and Bash Patch

[mcollins27]

I modded Oblivion long ago and recall using a Mod Manager and how various mods worked, but haven't played a Bethesda/Gamebryo game since.

 

Running through the guide for F&LNV I had a quick question that I can't seem to find a reasonable answer via google.

 

The point of merging and bashing plugins is to resolve conflicts where multiple mods attempt to modify the same entity in game, but I'm not quite sure I understand why some of the similar mods are merged together in the guide and a bashed patch is also created at the end.  Wouldn't the bashed patch take care of the same thing?

 

 

And just so I really understand what that bashed patch is doing:

 

It goes through all the mods, resolves the conflicts and creates it's own plugin (ESP) file and then it puts that at the end of the plugin list so that it is resolved last?  So you retain all the plugins on the right pane in Mod Manager AND use the bashed patch?

[Nozzer66]

The in guide merges are more designed to lower the total plug in count and are not quite the same as a Bashed/Merged Patch.

 

Your idea of  the Bashed Patch in essence is ok. There will be occasions when a who esp plugin can be rolled into the Bashed Patch and thusly will be unticked.

[Brainfever]

To my understanding a Bashed Patch is also very useful for its function of merging whole mods in it thus leaving those mods' plugins redundant and saving up important space in your load order.

[mcollins27]

Thanks, very helpful information.

 

Another question I had - I've been following the steps of the guide very carefully and added the mods in the order listed.  But if at the end, you run LOOT to sort them anyway, does it really matter?

[GrantSP]

Thanks, very helpful information.

 

Another question I had - I've been following the steps of the guide very carefully and added the mods in the order listed.  But if at the end, you run LOOT to sort them anyway, does it really matter?

Mods are comprised of two distinct parts: plugins which are sorted by tools such as LOOT, and assets (meshes, textures, sounds, scripts, etc.) which are not touched by those tools and need to placed in an order that provides the correct 'conflict resolution'.

 

ie. When you install Mod A with textures first then install Mod B that also has textures, those from Mod B will be used in game, they win the conflict resolution. You can of course change the order of these installed mods in the left-hand pane of MO but the order of installation in the guide is there to avoid this step.

 

This is why MO's left-hand pane has that column with the flags that show conflict and also why the 'Conflicts' tab in the 'Information' window exists. Because MO is vastly different to ALL other mod managers, in that nothing is overwritten upon installation, the order of these mods is only provided to assist with this 'conflict resolution'. To test it try moving some mods around and then look at the 'Data' tab in the right-hand pane and see which mods are providing their assets.