De-hardcoded Tooltips

Description

If you're like me and consider mods like More Detailed Tooltips a must-have, you've probably run into an annoying issue: after installing mods that change item stats or icons, the tooltips/descriptions of those items can revert to the vanilla version, stripping away custom details like stat values. For example, Elfroot's tooltip being:Chewing elfroot restores a small amount of health, and those with skill can use elfroot to make more potent elixirs.instead of:

Chewing elfroot restores 10 health, and those with skill can use elfroot to make more potent elixirs.even though you have installed More Detailed Tooltips.

This happens because when items (UTI files) are exported via the Toolset, the item name and description are, by default, hardcoded to the vanilla English strings and embedded in the item, instead of being referenced in the talktable entries via an index in the item file. As a result, the game no longer looks at the talktable file for that item (or at least, that is what my intuition tells me). Even if the talktable has been modified by a mod like More Detailed Tooltips, the game will ignore it and display the description embedded in the item file, effectively overriding any custom changes made to the talktable.

This mod is a collection of patches for popular mods (or at least the ones in my load order). I've compiled a list of affected items from these mods, extracted the vanilla versions of the relevant game files, and then applied the mod's changes to those vanilla files. For example, if Mod A changes the Icon filename field in the Elfroot file to 'foobar.dds' and inadvertently hardcodes the description, my patch will provide the Elfroot file with the de-hardcoded description and the updated Icon filename field ('foobar.dds'). The same approach applies to mods that edit item stats.

Since I don't include any textures, meshes, or other assets from the original mods - only the vanilla assets with the corrected fields - you will still need the original mods for everything to work correctly.

Installation

Each patch can be installed by being copied to the override folder. Make sure the patches load (alphabetically) after the mods they are patching. For example, if using the patch for More Detailed Tooltips + The Icons Project, make sure it loads after both of those mods.

Compatibility

The patches only contain UTI files, that is, files pertaining to in-game items. Any mod that alters these files - except the ones addressed by these patches - will be incompatible.

I recommend using Conflict Scanner to find incompatibilities.