I am currently working on a very large mod which I plan on adding stuff to down the road. I know that it will need to be an .esm eventually, so I can keep adding the stuff I want easily. My questions are as follows: I don't know how easy it is to correct problems in an .esm as compared to an .esp. In other words...should I keep it as an .esp until I have heavily tested/checked the mod for problems and then convert it?.....or is it fairly easy to fix problems in an .esm? If this is the case, how do you do you fix an esm------convert it back to an .esp, make the changes, then change it back to an .esm (I am assuming this would be done with FNVEdit)?
Is there a good, in-depth tutorial/topic I can study anywhere? I read what the TES wiki said, but it was very limited.
Thanks

It is pretty simple. You cannot edit an esm in geck at all. But unfortunately, navmeshes in esp work poorly and NPCs often get stuck. So what I do is work on the esp for a half day or so; use fnvedit to set the esm flag; test the esm in game and make notes; discard the esm and continue working on the esp. It is painful, but not as painful as watching the NPCs get stuck in walls all the time. If the tutorial you read on the TES wiki is the one that is called "de-isolation", then you have found the best/only source of more detail that I know about.

This is how I work on the esm part. First I work on the esp as always, I build test cells to test scripts for quests, weapons or whatever it need to be tested. Then I write on paper how to design the whole structure of the mod.

My mod use a lot of new areas, items etc. So first I'll take care to create all the entities I need for the mod, so at the end the esm will keep all the new data, but for the stuff that need t o modify original game content I wait.

For example, I have a new house that I want to put in Goodsprings, and to do that I want to open one of the blocked houses already in goodsprings. Using an esm for unblock the outside door will not work, as everything inside FalloutNV.esm can't be removed with another esm, so I just create a new interior cell for that house and write on paper where it should go.

At the end when I'll have everything up and running, I'll use another esp along with my esm to modify original content to make that house unblocked from outside.

In the end I use the my esm as Data carrier, everything new nad not tied to the original game go in the esm, what need to be modified in the original FNV esm will be inside the esp.

At the end I'll have:

MyMod.esm
MyMod.esp

It sounds like a pain in the ass, and it is lol. But for me is the best way to work on when you have to build a big mod.

Thanks for the info......looks like I need to do some rethinking/studying before I jump into .esm's! :whistling: