Greetings,

I decided to post this question here because i was unable to find a suitable solution for a problem that I am actually experiencing...

How can I modify my own Mod when i saved it and closed the Geck? I started by modifying a couple of weapons (more specifically: a Sniper rifle and a 9mm pistol) cause I am working on an alternative storyline. The thing is that i tested it twice (while having GECK opened and the MOD loaded on it) and it worked just fine. After that i closed teh GECK and on the next day i decided to modify the sniper rifle cause it was kinda of overpowered, when i opened GECK, loaded the mod file, and finished with the changes, i was unable to overwrite it again.

The system displayed an error message (The file is already opened and write protected), so i renamed the modifed weapon, and when i tried to test the rifle it was gone... i tried loading both files (the one overpowered and the one with the modified stats), but the same thing happened. I double checked the DB and the weapon is there and with its stats modified, but when the game loads it either dissapears or just loads the overpowered version of the weapon.

a) Is there any way lo link or merge them in just one MOD file? B) is there any way to modify the mod without loosing all your previous job?

i don′t intend to leave my computer permantly turned on.

Any help or idea is welcome! thanks for sharing your time and knowledge!

To continue working on a mod, you need to use the "Set as Active File" button. If you don't have an active file, GECK assumes you want to use the selected plugin file as a template-collection for a new mod, thus you can't overwrite the loaded template-plugin and only the things you actually modified will be stored to your new mod.

Merging stuff is possible, but it requires either external programs (TESsnip from FOMM or FNVedit) or having two open GECKS, which is somewhat dangerous and thus disabled by default. I wouldn't try either until you have a bit more experience in working with the GECK.

Thank you! It worked just fine!

I got another general question...

If I download a third party mod and want to use in a Vault's mod that I'm actually working in but want to change its location and place it inside my Vault instead on the place the creator originally set it... Is this possible? If affirmative, how can i do it?

I will explain the example,

I have downloaded a desert eagle MOD but I don't want to go the gunrunners store to buy it, instead of it I want it to respawn it on my Vault as reward after clearing the Vault of enemies and opened a hard-lock safe. I dont want to neither change the original MOD (models, textures, etc) nor take credit for it ... My intention is just to change its location or at least add a new respawn location for it.

I dont even know if I am violating any rule or copyright when I intend to do this. Please if so, let me know!.

Thanks for your help!

P.D I ask for some patiente from you, modders community, cause these are my first steps in this superb and interesting modding games world. My final goal is to create a whole new storyline!

Two ways:

1. Tag that other mod as plugin file when you load your mod, then you will have the objects from the other mod in the geck and can edit/copy them so that they're saved along with the rest of your mod. (if it has a * next to the count, it will be saved with your ESP) Don't do ths when the other mod is an ESM, though, or your mod will become dependent on the other mod.

2. Use TESSnip (Included in FOMM) or FNVEdit to open both mods and copy/paste stuff from one to the other.



As long as you're doing it only for yourself, do as you please. If you plan to release your mod, think about how you would feel when someone would take parts of your mod and put it in his own.

So if you want to use someone's stuff in a mod you plan to release, ask him first. No answer = No permission. Some modders already give general permision in the readme or in the "Credits and permissions" section on the Nexus. In either case don't forget to mention the other modder in the readme.

Thanks for the info!

I do not intend to release any MOD yet unless that it works and if I like it enough :cryvaultboy:

Anyway, I have been looking for TESsnip and only found it in Oblivion Nexus. I guess that it works with Fallout because both games uses the same game extensions. But I might ask if my asumptions are correct.

Thanks again,

The Fallout version of TESsnip is included in http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36901 (in the Tools menu)

Alternatively use http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34703. For low level ESP hacking both are almost equally suited, though IMO TESsnip is a bit easier to use for that purpose.

To prevent the green user from accidentally changing mods, FNVEdit only lets you view the entry when you double click it. To edit it, you need to click once on the entry you want to change and then wait until the edit warning opens and then finally can edit. For me FNVEdit's show-stopper is that it doesn't allow me to change the entry's type. I use this frequently, for example to make activators (ACTI) out of vanilla statics (STAT) without having to open the BSA and search and extract the NIF file. (or even Icons - for example I've just made a bag misc item out of a copy of the healing powder)


Both tools are recommendable anyway, no matter whether you make mods or just use them.
(FOMM to manage mods and loading order, FNVEdit to create merged lists to prevent conflicts)

Greetings,

After using TESsnip, i need to ask you the following noob's questions:

- Is there any Tutorial? Cause when i tried to copy elements from a third party MOD to my own, there were things like Sounds and Scrits that I do not have, and I was unable to copy them to my MOD.

I then just did what u told me and opened both MODs in Geck and loaded my MOD as Master and the other as Plugin. Then i just spawned the weapon in GS General Store, it changed its value from 0 to 1, and when i loaded the game the weapon was no there. I checked what u said about the *, and the weapon in the store had a count = 0 and no * on it when the mod loaded in GECK.

Then i made a copy of it changing the ID, in order to create a new element and everything worked fine, but i got a feeling that i have done too many steps or at least redundant ones.

BTW, the weapon loaded fine with its custom textures but the sound wasn't there. What should i do now?

And anolyzing my steps, can u tell me if I did somethingk wrong in the process? What can i do to improve the proccedure?.

Thank you again for your support!

TESnip is very old. The current version is called fnvedit. You can get this, and its excellent training manual, at newvegasnexus. It has some very detailed examples and step by step explanation for this task.

FNVEdit is not the "current Version" of TESsnip. The current version of TESsnip is the TESsnip included in the FNV-Version of FOMM. FNVEdit is primarly a conflict detector/fixer with additional editing capabilities. TESsnip is a low level ESP-editor, one step above editing the file with a hex editor.

TESsnip provides modding functions FNVEdit doesn't have, displays structures FNVEdit hides, allows you to edit values FNVEdit doesn't, and is generally much more user-friendly for the purpose of modifying mods.


@johnnatan:
TESsnip displays the mod as if it were a set of folders in the Windows-Explorer: the folders we call groups, the files we call entries. You can't drag&drop, but you can copy/paste using the menu or Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V.

The ESP structure is very foolproof, every entry has a type-setting that defines to which "folder" it belongs to. So even if you copy an entry to a wrong group, or into the "main directory" of the ESP file, the GECK will sort things out properly.

• Make sure you use the Tessnip intergrated in FOMM and not the stand-alone Oblivion-Version!
  
• To copy stuff simply select it in the original mod, then use Edit/Copy (or press Ctrl+C) and then select the same group in the other mod use Edit/Paste (or Ctrl+V)
  
• if a Group doesn't exist in the other mod, simply copy / paste the whole group (select the mod's name instead of a group).
  
• If you just want to copy a single entry of a large group, just select that entry and copy/paste it to the mod's name. The GECK will create the group automatically next time you save the mod.