Not a part of making a merged patch:
"Step 5: Disable all plugins, then re-check the plugins not a part of your merged patch"
Merged patch instructions are:
̶1̶.̶ ̶L̶a̶u̶n̶c̶h̶ ̶F̶O̶4̶E̶d̶i̶t̶
̶ ̶2̶.̶ ̶E̶n̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶p̶l̶u̶g̶i̶n̶s̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶e̶c̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶(̶.̶e̶s̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶.̶e̶s̶p̶)̶.̶
̶ ̶3̶.̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶O̶K̶"̶
̶ ̶4̶.̶ ̶W̶a̶i̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶t̶i̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶e̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶"̶B̶a̶c̶k̶g̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶L̶o̶a̶d̶e̶r̶:̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶i̶s̶h̶e̶d̶"̶
̶ ̶5̶.̶ ̶R̶i̶g̶h̶t̶-̶c̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶n̶e̶l̶,̶ ̶h̶i̶g̶h̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶"̶O̶t̶h̶e̶r̶"̶,̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶C̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶c̶h̶"̶
̶ ̶6̶.̶ ̶C̶l̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶"̶Y̶e̶s̶"̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶u̶n̶s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶r̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶n̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶t̶c̶h̶,̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶"̶F̶O̶4̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶"̶ ̶ ̶(̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶n̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶e̶l̶o̶p̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶W̶r̶y̶e̶ ̶B̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶w̶e̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶o̶r̶p̶o̶r̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶u̶t̶i̶l̶i̶z̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶x̶E̶d̶i̶t̶ ̶M̶e̶r̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶c̶h̶)̶
̶ ̶7̶.̶ ̶E̶n̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶l̶y̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶.̶e̶s̶p̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶i̶v̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶t̶o̶m̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶l̶o̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶.̶
- Learn to manually edit plugins with xEdit (super easy - check out youtube).
FO4Edit Merged Patch is unsupported as heck. Do not use. The priority rules are jacked for the time being.
Disabling pieces of a Patch is more of a Wrye Bash thing, and even then you're better off taking a second and finding out why they're to be a part of the BP.
As far as merging plugins themselves - that's different than creating a merge patch. Creating a Merged Patch allows xEdit, using its rules, to assign higher priority to resources inside of a low-priority plugin.
From Diennes (paraphrased):
If you have a mod that gives Piper black skin, and another that gives her a fancy hat, and it's loaded/installed like this:
fallout4.esm
piperblackskin.esp
piperfancyhat.esp
Then you'll likely end up with a fancy-hatted piper, but no black skin because the fancy hat mod overwrote the black skin.
FO4Edit sees that fallout4.esm's Piper and piperfancyhat.esp's Piper are identical, except for the fancy hat. FO4Edit then assigns the other piperfancyhat.esp's Piper resources a low priority (because they're the same as the master), which allows piperblackskin.esp's skin resources to take priority over piperfancyhat.esp - even though it's lower in the load order.
HOWEVER - it doesn't take more than a few minutes to learn, via youtube, how to merge plugins by yourself with FO4Edit. In this Piper example, once you know how to do it, it would literally take less than a minute to merge them. (this is not a merged PATCH, it's "merging plugins"
•Load with FO4Edit
•See conflicts highlighted in red in the left panel - click them
•See details in spreadsheet in right panel - click and drag her skin to overwrite the "fancyhat" default skin
•Done (once you save)
For Fallout 4, you will be able to get by very nicely with this approach:
• RTFD - read the fallout descriptions, on nexusmods, especially the install/uninstall parts, and compatibility.
• In the "Mods" tab of NMM, sort by install date to get an idea what order they're installed in.
• Download LOOT (the one in NMM is wonky for a lot of people) and use it
• Pay attention to what's overwriting what - for famous mods this is usually covered in the "install" part of the mod's description.
We should all probably be using Wrye Bash for everything, but most of us remember it as a leveled list merger for MO Skyrim. And there's no GamerPoets or Gopher videos for using it as a mod manager.
Alrighty - done.
