Compatibility Patch Creation Tutorial

Compatibility Patch Creation Tutorial Version 1_0 6-25-10 This tutorial is aimed at the modder who creates a mod which alters land contours, shading, and other things in an exterior cell, but then discovers that his or her mod conflicts with another much more popular mod and causes things like landscape tears, levitating objects, and objects sunken into the ground. This subject is rather advanced and it is expected that you already have a great number of modding tools and lots of modding knowledge and experience. Modding software you need to create patches: TES CS http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/TES_Construction_Set TES4Gecko http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8665 Wyre Bash http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22368 TES4Edit http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11536 Tutorials that can help bring your knowledge and skill level up to the point where you can create patches: A beginner\'s guide, lesson 1 - The Construction Set Primer http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/A_beginner%27s_guide%2C_lesson_1_-_The_Construction_Set_Primer Landscaping Tutorial - Intro and Landscaping http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Intro_and_Landscaping De-isolation Tutorial http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/De-Isolation_Tutorial Mod Cleaning Tutorial http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Mod_Cleaning_Tutorial TES4EditManual http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8629 Tes4Edit/Mod Cleaning Tutorial with Tes4Edit http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/TES4Edit/Mod_cleaning_tutorial_with_TES4Edit If two mods modify the same exterior cell, the mod latest in the load order wins. Exterior cells are modded as units. Each exterior cell can only have one shape dictated by one mod. Each exterior cell will have the landform and shading characteristics assigned to it by the last mod in the load order which alters it. One tiny change you make to land contour or shading of an exterior cell will put an asterisk by that cell on the list in the CS and register it as changed, so it will override all mods which come before it in the load order. This makes it easy to make your mod dirty and edit exterior cells which are not important to your mod and which will cause more mod conflicts. On the positive side, it makes it so you can clone the exterior landform of a cell and add it to your patch mod with one tiny motion. Let us look at a mod conflict: Vanilla Oblivion has a cell with gentle rolling hills with grass. Mod A.esm makes this cell into low elevation sandy desert. Mod B.esm makes this cell into a high elevation grey lava rock cell corrupted by an Oblivion gate. Here are some load orders and what you will see in the game if you use them: Oblivion.esm (No mods) (Yields a green grassy cell with rolling hills.) Oblivion.esm Mod A.esm Mod B.esm (Yields a grey rocky cell.) Oblivion.