I'm making a new topic from my "empty properties" topic because I found out my issue was fundamentally different than I thought.

I want to add some things on top of a "basic needs" mod that I downloaded; however, when I made a separate mod that referenced some data from that basic needs mod, it did not set properties and such correctly, because it said it couldn't find the data when the game loaded.

I've seen mods that say they use other mods, are dependent on other mods, etc, but looking at the Creation Kit wiki, it says that plugin files CANNOT use data from other plugin files. Does this mean that it is impossible to make a separate mod that adds a layer of functionality on top of an existing, separate mod, and that I'm misunderstanding what various mod descriptions mean when they say they are "dependent" on other mods? If you can make mods that use data from other mods, is there somewhere you can point me with information about how to do that? Thanks for the help.

You'll need to false flag the ESP as an ESM, in order to allow the CK to use it as a master. Then change the flag back to an ESP.

This can be done with Wrye Bash. And a hex editor as well if I remember correctly.