felesnoctis / xedit-scripts

A general repository of scripts I've made myself, worked on with others, or were made for me.

xedit-scripts

A general repository of scripts I've made myself, worked on with others, or were made for me.

00_Persistentify_Those_Plugins.pas

• Applies persistence to prevent breakage of references when converting a plugin file (.esp) to a master (.esm/ESM flag).
• Modders' Resource intended to emulate best practices Creation Kit behavior, but can also be run by any user to convert a plugin.

NEXUS: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/76750

Designed to be a more intelligent implementation than its predecessor, the "ESMifyer", which took a blanket approach to how it handled actor references (and only actor references). While that approach did help keep affected actors functional, it also dramatically lessened the benefit of what converting a plugin to a master is intended to accomplish.

The "Persistentifyer" (name may change) not only targets all relevant reference types that may need to be updated (currently ACHR/REFR/PHZD), but also uses a number of filters to cut out every false positive it can conceivably target without live human intervention, using the same logic the Creation Kit does regarding persistence. This list of filters continues to grow as we discover more edge cases in the various mods we test.

Ideally this script is intended to be used as a Modders Resource, encouraging and teaching Mod Authors (alongside the future accompanying documentation) how to implement "best practice" persistence in master files the way Bethesda originally intended. It can however also be substituted for the ESMifyer in any similar use case, applying persistence flagging to a more refined list of references and lowering those persistent reference handle counts even further.

• To enable plugin edits with this Beta version, find dryRun under USER SETTINGS and change it to false .
• To also enable ESM flagging of the plugin, find ESMify under USER SETTINGS and change it to true .

Credits

• FelesNoctis: https://www.nexusmods.com/users/336042
  Framework, basic implementation of ACHR handling, logging and cleanup
• Eddoursul: https://eddoursul.win/
  Overhaul of functionality to include all important reference types, CK behavior research, and filter implementation
• Robertgk2017, JonathanOstrus, Zilav
  Critique of filters and optimization suggestions, extensive testing and suggestions, general moral boosting