Question about creating a bashed patch and OBMM

[Dutchfingers ●]

I've been reading around lately and it seems that many people reccomend creating a bashed patch with Wrye Bash when using a large number of mods. If I understand correctly, this is to ensure that mods which effect the same thing load in the correct order and do not conflict or cancel each other out?

My question is this: How do I create a bashed patch, and how will that effect mods which are installed with OBMM? I have most of my mods installed using Wrye Bash, but I have OCO v2 installed with OBMM. Will creating a bashed patch cause problems because I have mods installed on two different managers? Or will it be ok? I don't believe I have any other mods that effect NPCs like OCO does, so I imagine that a bashed patch would not effect it at all?

[VirtualWeasel ●]

I would imagine BOSS (https://boss-developers.github.io/) is a much easier alternative and can solve your problem. It will sort the load order based on a massive masterlist, and is completely unrelated to Wrye Bash or OBMM (not to mention much more lightweight), allowing it to organize any mod no matter what platform it was installed on.

[waltererdman ●]

Bashed Patch is just a mod file created by Wrye Bash. It should be loaded like any other mod. You can launch the game using OBMM and Bashed Patch should work correctly. I suppose.

[RandyBonnette ●]

BOSS is no longer available on The Assimilation Lab. But you can download BOSS v2.3.2 from GitHub.

But has anyone tried to create a Bashed Patch with WryeBash recently? Any recommendations? Or maybe I could try TesModManager.

[Wolfborn ●]

Late reply here, I know, but I'll post this anyway in case someone out there digs this thread up and is wondering.

There seems to be some confusion here about what Wrye Bash's Bashed Patch does and doesn't do. What it doesn't do is sort your mod load order in any way--that's BOSS's job. What it does do is create a patch so that otherwise conflicting mods can both be used together.

For example, let's say you're running Oblivion with two mods, Mod A and Mod B (boring names, I know). Mod A changes a certain NPC's face to make it look better. Mod B changes the same NPC's inventory to have better items. Normally, these two mods would be incompatible--the changes one mod makes will overwrite the changes of the other mod, depending on their load order. If Mod B loads after Mod A, the NPC will get the new inventory in the game, but not the new face. If Mod A loads after Mod B, the NPC gets the new face, but not the new inventory. The two mods are in conflict since they both make changes to the same NPC.

This is where Wrye Bash comes in. When asked, what Wrye Bash will do in this case is scan the edits made by both Mod A and Mod B and incorporate both sets of edits into a new mod--the Bashed Patch. Now, when you run the game with the Bashed Patch included in the load order, the NPC will get both the new face added by Mod A and the new inventory added by Mod B, something that would be impossible without the Bashed Patch (and without manually creating a patch for the two mods).

Depending on the nature of the edits in a mod, it is also possible sometimes to merge a mod entirely into the Bashed Patch. This allows you to deactivate the mod and saves a mod load slot, thus allowing you to effectively run more than the 255-mod limit. For example, in my current playthrough I have 6 mods merged into the Bashed Patch, reducing the number of mods I'm effectively running with from 22 down to 16.

Anyone using Wrye Bash should always create a Bashed Patch if running with more than a single mod, and should always rebuild the Bashed Patch every time the mod list changes (additions, subtractions, or changes to the load order).

The Bashed Patch isn't magic. Wrye Bash can't always reconcile conflicting edits between different mods; some mods are simply going to be incompatible with others. But it goes a heckuva long way toward making sure your mods all play nicely together.