Is there a way I can point AMUMSS to folders used by Mod Organizer for the purpose of locating folders or files within what would normally be the game's own "MODS" folder?
1 ) - Only to keep it tidy and empty for the next merge/update you'd need to proceed.
2 ) - Again for the lua files only to keep it tidy as MODS folder don't care about those files (no effect), and to avoid raising useless "conflicts" with AMUMSS. About the paks, delete the old ones (the ones you just merged with their appropriate luas) and put in the new merged pak created with AMUMSS (like Mod A had lua A, Mod B had lua B, you run lua A & B through AMUMSS to get Mod C, the merged one, delete Mod A & B from MODS and put in there Mod C).
3 ) - If you edit manually, to change values or else, an lua used in a merged Mod yep you'll need to rerun the luas with your modified one through AMUMSS to have your changes included in your new merged Mod (lua from Mod A modified + lua from Mod B, C etc placed in ModScript to make the new Mod, delete the old one from MODS and replace it with this new one).
good guide, well it was good until it turns out half my mods are in .pak and i cant find any help online. is there any tips you could give for .pak files?
Hmm every single Mod should be a .pak file (that's the standard format for NMS Mods). Some provide some .lua files for merging and updating purposes but that's up to the Mod's Authors to do so, it isn't needed for the Mod to work, the .pak file is in fact needed.
You could find some information/help in AMUMSS description page and .txt files provided in the downloadable archive. You could also find some tips here : NMS STEP Wiki, AMUMSS Quick Tutorial.
All depends what you want to do exactly. If you want to merge Mods where one's got an .lua file and the other doesn't then you can use AMUMSS and creat what's called a "patch". If both Mods don't have any .lua files provided then you'll have to merge them manually, as you can only use one .pak file with some .lua files in AMUMSS.
I might write about the manual merge a bit later on in the description.
I prefer to use the NMS-MCDaMM mod manager as a universal tool to fix mod conflicts. It works with .pak files, making it very nice to use for almost all mods. It also lets you check and choose how to resolve conflicts. I only use AMUMSS in cases where a mod is only in lua format. It's just a personal preference, but I much more prefer the MCDaMM's visual interface and how it doesn't require me to make custom scripts in a programming language that I don't know. To each their own, though.
Okay so as NooBzPoWaH has stated .pak files are generally the standard format for NMS mods. What you can do for most semi-recent mods is run the .pak file through PSArctool.exe and if there is a lua in the .pak file, it will be extracted. I have posted a few other guides that may be of some help also.
@esmartuek NMS-MCDAMM is also a great tool, it's just not the topic of this thread/guide. But it's nice of you to point it out for users to know about it. Nobody asked you to make a script in a programming language you know nothing about, that's the Mod's Author's job, as a user you would just "use" it to merge Mods (or updating one) in one click and a couple of answers. Some might find it less overwhelming than looking at files structure and whatnot. As you said to each his own.
Hey dude, thanks for including my comment! Surely this is going to help more than one player who may try the same thing I did at first hahaha if there is something else that you think I can contribute then I'll be here.
Of course! It definitely will, and same here. :) I figured anything we can get together and bring to the community is very helpful and will help people have a great modding experience.
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Do I need to delete merged .lua's and .pak's from MODS after merge?
2 ) - Again for the lua files only to keep it tidy as MODS folder don't care about those files (no effect), and to avoid raising useless "conflicts" with AMUMSS. About the paks, delete the old ones (the ones you just merged with their appropriate luas) and put in the new merged pak created with AMUMSS (like Mod A had lua A, Mod B had lua B, you run lua A & B through AMUMSS to get Mod C, the merged one, delete Mod A & B from MODS and put in there Mod C).
3 ) - If you edit manually, to change values or else, an lua used in a merged Mod yep you'll need to rerun the luas with your modified one through AMUMSS to have your changes included in your new merged Mod (lua from Mod A modified + lua from Mod B, C etc placed in ModScript to make the new Mod, delete the old one from MODS and replace it with this new one).
I hope that's clear enough and will be helpful.
Some provide some .lua files for merging and updating purposes but that's up to the Mod's Authors to do so, it isn't needed for the Mod to work, the .pak file is in fact needed.
You could find some information/help in AMUMSS description page and .txt files provided in the downloadable archive.
You could also find some tips here : NMS STEP Wiki, AMUMSS Quick Tutorial.
All depends what you want to do exactly. If you want to merge Mods where one's got an .lua file and the other doesn't then you can use AMUMSS and creat what's called a "patch". If both Mods don't have any .lua files provided then you'll have to merge them manually, as you can only use one .pak file with some .lua files in AMUMSS.
I might write about the manual merge a bit later on in the description.
I only use AMUMSS in cases where a mod is only in lua format.
It's just a personal preference, but I much more prefer the MCDaMM's visual interface and how it doesn't require me to make custom scripts in a programming language that I don't know. To each their own, though.
NMS-MCDAMM is also a great tool, it's just not the topic of this thread/guide.
But it's nice of you to point it out for users to know about it.
Nobody asked you to make a script in a programming language you know nothing about, that's the Mod's Author's job, as a user you would just "use" it to merge Mods (or updating one) in one click and a couple of answers. Some might find it less overwhelming than looking at files structure and whatnot.
As you said to each his own.