Hmm no idea what that means.

Sorry, misspoke the bit anyways. That's the localized strings bit. *facepalm*

Anyways: did you just re-save as an esm? If that's all you did, the other thing you want to do is double click on the TES4 record (that's before all the GRUP's) and check the first option on it (it'll be the 0x00000001 (Esm file) marking there). That's the file flag that says it's a master file.

I decided to use Tes4gecko to turn it into an esm. Basically deleted everything, plugins, esm, lod stuff, the lot. Reproduced the file through annwyn, ran it up to esm in gecko, then went into tesvsnip.

If in future I do it through tesvsnip what exactly do I click, change, edit, etc before clicking save as esm. I presumed save as esm would actually do that, but seems it just tags esm on the end of it.

Yeah, saving as an esm in TESVsnip just changes the file ending. It's the exact same as just renaming it with a different ending. There's, under 'Spells', a 'Make esm' button that'll automate that process. Alternatively, you just have to change that bit... Here's an image -> http://i.imgur.com/qSZD0.png for instructions.

It says version 4.2 when I launch it.

Why not just turn an .esp into an .esm with Wrye Bash for Skyrim? Works perfectly for me, including the correct 0.94 header.

Because that's not going to be a helpful or useful thing to do. Changing your .esp into a false-flag .esm will mean any changes you've made to vanilla data WILL NOT SHOW UP in the game. At all. Unless they fixed this with patch 1.5. Which I seriously doubt, since false-flagging is non-standard behavior.

Could be something borked in the newer versions then. Even if I just create a new plugin straight out, it auto-sets to a .94 header. I'll give it a shot later for confirmation then.

Is this something I am doing using TES4Gecko. I thought changing from esp to esm was fairly simple for a program, which is why Gecko does it but cant merge esp to esm because it doesnt understand the complexities of Skyrim. Changing esp to esm is easy for it. Is the process I have so far followed going to cause issues? I have no intention of changing vanilla stuff. Mesogea will use items from Skyrim but wont change anything in the Skyrim.esm

Flipping the flag by itself should be fine. You only run into problems if you're trying to edit vanilla content.

If you use Wrye's "Copy to ESM", as apposed to the "Esmify self" option it works fine. That's how I've always done things.

Yes, but genuine .esm files also have the same problem with editing vanilla content. I've already made the attempt with OCS only to observe that all edited content was ignored. Only newly added content takes hold.

Ah, that would explain it. I've only got new content in my esm.

Why should I turn a .esp into an .esm if it only includes changes to vanilla content? The sole reason why I'm using .esm is because I'm introducing new content. Turning .esps into .esms for the reason of bug fixing and preventing bugs, is like fighting the symptom but not the cause. I repeat. Using Wrye Bash to make an .esm works perfectly, even if you change vanilla content. Go, figure for yourself. I'm working on a huge mod since December and been using Wryes to make .esms without a single problem.

No, it doesn't work. You think I would have mentioned it without having tested it first? I specifically tested for that as a possible band-aid fix for OCS and it did not work. Sure, my added navmeshes and my added copies of all the buildings and stuff worked fine, but not a single thing I edited vanilla took. Not the navmeshes I connected to, not the objects I had to swap for something else, not the landscape I had to tweak, not the load doors I had to edit. None of it.

I found out it actually can work, but not by simply toggling on the ESM flag in the header and the file extension. MERP uses ESM files that overwrite each other's contents properly, not just adds new things.

I can't explain technically why it works, but for some reason if the ESM is modified by the CK's Version Control (Yes VC does work, you don't need PerForce) it apparently changes something inside the ESM that makes it work. I tested this thoroughly and specifically for this reply I did a test with 3 ESM's overwriting and changing each other's content. It works perfectly, I afterwards replaced the last ESM with one that was simply converted to .esm and with the ESM header flag turned on without using Version Control, and then indeed it only adds, it doesn't change the previous ESM's contents.

I expect you guys to be sceptical since I don't have a technical explanation, but point me to any ESP mod that makes changes to vanilla content and I'll send you a link to a converted ESM version that works.

Thats interesting, as I'll be using esm's to modify the master esm in some respects, land changes etc as bit work is undertaken by others to the main landmass. Its the LOD that will then be difficult though, I guess.

You should provide a plugin that loads cleanly into the CK (no errors, doesn't have to be a complex one, preferably simple, actually), and an associated converted ESM, so I can take a look at the binaries and cross-reference anything that's changed. Could mean something updated in the formats that means our tools need updated?

Hi I would like to ask if I can use safely this tool for merging plugins... ?

Nope. You'll need to wait on something like Gecko for that.