- Messages
- 2,224
Reposting much of this from another thread as it seems that certain Robco Patcher files are affecting a lot of folks' games, creating a particular set of issues around the unique weapons in SS2 like Stheno and LLP Laser Carbine. Robco Patcher is a great tool that has a ton of features - editing formlists, leveled lists, ingestibles, armor, NPCs, etc. in addition to editing weapons. It is the Robco Patcher files that edit weapons that seem to be causing problems.
To be specific, generally Robco Patcher only edits things you tell it to edit. In that sense, Robco Patcher itself is not a problem, and is a helpful way to resolve conflicts in load orders without having to create additional plugins. It has a filter-based system where you tell it to look for weapons, armor, etc. within a certain plugin that are a specific form or have specific keywords, and then direct it to perform certain edits to that form such as adding keywords, changing various values, etc. It allows for precise changes to precise records, if that's the way you want to go about it.
Some Robco Patcher .ini files make more drastic changes - setting NONE for filters, or just using a keyword for a filter and not a plugin. In those circumstances, Robco Patcher will make changes to every single weapon in somebody's load order at runtime. Robco .inis could use a method like that in order to patch mods with overhauls like Scourge or MAIM or what-have-you by editing weapon records en masse. These types of sweeping edits create issues that are breaking things like Stheno. The fix? Theoretically, someone adept at reading Robco Patcher .inis could look through the .ini files they have loaded in their Data folder under F4SE/Plugins/Robco_Patcher/Weapon, identify the ones that have "NONE" filters, and simply remove those lines from the .ini to potentially correct the issue - but that would also have the affect of undermining whatever the .ini file in question is trying to do through Robco Patcher. They would also only be able to do this for themselves.
That's also why those trying to help people with technical issues on these forums can't really provide much in the way of assistance to folks using Robco Patcher and encountering issues as a result. Robco Patcher .inis do not have to have associated plugins - in most cases they don't as that is a big selling point. They are essentially an invisible part of someone's load order - so when you provide your load order there's no indication what Robco Patcher files you may or may not be using. In addition, you can't look at FO4Edit to see conflicts or the actual effects and edits of a Robco Patcher .ini, because those changes aren't recorded as a plugin and don't appear until runtime when the .ini files are processed. This makes Robco great for trimming load orders, but extremely difficult if not impossible to troubleshoot. Even if users could provide a full list of every Robco .ini they are using, that doesn't help much because you'd have to read every line of every .ini file looking for culprits and know what you are looking at. That's not really feasible or possible because most of the SS2 team and folks that provide support here aren't even familiar with Robco or how the .ini files work.
So again, hate to say it, but if you are using Robco Patcher and you're having an issue as a result there's simply not much we can do for you. I'd suggest you take it back to whoever made the Robco .ini files and tell them something in it is causing issues. Maybe they can look through the .ini and find the issue and also a solution.
To be specific, generally Robco Patcher only edits things you tell it to edit. In that sense, Robco Patcher itself is not a problem, and is a helpful way to resolve conflicts in load orders without having to create additional plugins. It has a filter-based system where you tell it to look for weapons, armor, etc. within a certain plugin that are a specific form or have specific keywords, and then direct it to perform certain edits to that form such as adding keywords, changing various values, etc. It allows for precise changes to precise records, if that's the way you want to go about it.
Some Robco Patcher .ini files make more drastic changes - setting NONE for filters, or just using a keyword for a filter and not a plugin. In those circumstances, Robco Patcher will make changes to every single weapon in somebody's load order at runtime. Robco .inis could use a method like that in order to patch mods with overhauls like Scourge or MAIM or what-have-you by editing weapon records en masse. These types of sweeping edits create issues that are breaking things like Stheno. The fix? Theoretically, someone adept at reading Robco Patcher .inis could look through the .ini files they have loaded in their Data folder under F4SE/Plugins/Robco_Patcher/Weapon, identify the ones that have "NONE" filters, and simply remove those lines from the .ini to potentially correct the issue - but that would also have the affect of undermining whatever the .ini file in question is trying to do through Robco Patcher. They would also only be able to do this for themselves.
That's also why those trying to help people with technical issues on these forums can't really provide much in the way of assistance to folks using Robco Patcher and encountering issues as a result. Robco Patcher .inis do not have to have associated plugins - in most cases they don't as that is a big selling point. They are essentially an invisible part of someone's load order - so when you provide your load order there's no indication what Robco Patcher files you may or may not be using. In addition, you can't look at FO4Edit to see conflicts or the actual effects and edits of a Robco Patcher .ini, because those changes aren't recorded as a plugin and don't appear until runtime when the .ini files are processed. This makes Robco great for trimming load orders, but extremely difficult if not impossible to troubleshoot. Even if users could provide a full list of every Robco .ini they are using, that doesn't help much because you'd have to read every line of every .ini file looking for culprits and know what you are looking at. That's not really feasible or possible because most of the SS2 team and folks that provide support here aren't even familiar with Robco or how the .ini files work.
So again, hate to say it, but if you are using Robco Patcher and you're having an issue as a result there's simply not much we can do for you. I'd suggest you take it back to whoever made the Robco .ini files and tell them something in it is causing issues. Maybe they can look through the .ini and find the issue and also a solution.