Eyes right/some general modding questions

[gnewna]

So, I'm using Fallout Character Overhaul and had the apparently-infamous and supposedly-fixed bug where everyone's looking to the right. Like so:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=421440748

Only exception was Willow. Tried the child eye fix, it did nothing. Tried installing Hi-Res Eyes[www.nexusmods.com] and it's fixed everyone's eyes! Except now Willow's eyes are, erm... sideways:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=421597158

I tried giving her a pair of sunglasses, but she won't wear them... Anyone know if there's anything I can do? I'm using the FCO/Willow patch provided by the FCO installer. I've tried reinstalling, installing the Hi Res thing before the Child Eye thing, installing it after, etc. The other mod I have that apparently might be affecting it is the Mikoto Beauty Pack although testing disabling it doesn't appear to make any difference. Also, I'm pretty sure that Veronica has her vanilla face, does anyone know if FCO is meant to change her? I have found quite a few people moaning that they 'missed her old face' so IDK if Drumber got fed up and reverted her to vanilla, or if something's wrong. I don't have any other mods that should affect her, I think. Moving FCO down the load order doesn't seem to help, either.

Load order:

FalloutNV.esm
DeadMoney.esm
HonestHearts.esm
OldWorldBlues.esm
LonesomeRoad.esm
GunRunnersArsenal.esm
ClassicPack.esm
MercenaryPack.esm
TribalPack.esm
CaravanPack.esm
YUP - Base Game + All DLC.esm
YUP - NPC Fixes (Base Game + All DLC).esp
Mojave Nights.esp
DarNifiedUINV.esp
durability.esp
The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
gra_assault_carbine_fix.esp
FCOMaster.esm
MikotoBeauty.esm
MikotoBeauty.esp
FCO - GlowingOne.esp
FCO - Mikoto Patch.esp
Imp's Timescale Adjuster.esp
Performance Of The Gods.esp
SomeguySeries.esm
Russell.esp
NVWillow.esp
ProjectRealityMkIv5HDR.esp
Goodsprings Shack.esp
Companion Sandbox Mode3.esp
FCO - Willow.esp
FCO - Russell.esp
Merged Patch.esp

I also have a few more generic modding questions. First off, can you safely remove mods from FNV? I believe it's possible with Oblivion, but not with Skyrim, and from what I can work out, FNV's more structurally similar to Oblivion than Skyrim, but I can't find much of an answer to this question (so I'm erring on the side of caution and operating a 'when it's in, it's in' policy). I'd rather not have the Mikoto pack thing in my game, especiall if it might be causing the issue with the eyes (although, again, disabling it doesn't fix anything, but maybe the issue is already 'baked in'?)

Second, I've noticed a couple of odd (to me, having come from TES modding) things about how LOOT sorts files - a/ as you can see above, there's a bunch of .esm files below .esp files - is that normal? All my .esp files have a notice in FOMM saying they're marked as .esm files - seems to be to do with the fact that I used the FNVMasterUpdate.exe after making my merged patch? (Which I seem to need to do to avoid CTDs if I have any mods at all... But is this something I'm Doing Wrong?) and b/ I've also noticed LOOT doesn't actually sort any files I've just added until after I 'sort' them once, exit LOOT, create a new merged patch, activate it and sort again - again, is this normal?

Third, is it generally recommended to clean the DLCs with FNVEdit?

Oh, and one other question, I noticed some NPCs were, erm... glowing last night. Was walking south from the 188 and thought there were some kind of moving fire thingies coming towards me, but VATS showed them as Great Khans - zoomed in they looked kind of a bit overly bright, but not, you know, firey. Basically, is my game completely borked?

[gnewna]

And apologies in advance if any/all of the above makes people face palm...

[JDC UK]

Don't know about the eyes/faces stuff. Maybe it's a symptom of you marking .esps as .esm?

"can you safely remove mods "
Yes, for the most part, though there are exceptions, such as Freeside/Strip Open, as the relocated doors and NPC positions etc. get saved into your file.

LOOT does weird things sometimes, such as sorting mods to load before FalloutNV.esm.
BOSS may be older, but I've never had such issues with it.

On cleaning the DLCs, I'd say no, it's not worth it. There aren't all that many records that can be cleaned, and if you do it wrong you may end up breaking things in unexpected ways.
(same goes for cleaning mods. It should be the mod author's responsibility.)

Glowing NPCs? You're sure that's not a perk?

[Delta 1038]

Surprised to see you here but anyway it's the same as Skyrim in that you shouldn't remove mods in the middle of the game.

On cleaning, I clean my DLCs and I crash less but that's probably me.

EDIT: Oh and be aware of just how aged the Gamebryo engine is.

[gnewna]

Hiya, Delta! Thanks for the replies, both. It seems to be some kind of a problem with the meshes, apparently it tends to be caused by the (frankly hideous*) hair mod (I installed it for my kid's character) but the Hi Res eye replacer fixes it except for Willow's eyes. I don't really get how eyes get the wrong way round, but there you go. I'll see if only allowing HR to overwrite *some* of FCO's meshes makes a difference, otherwise I guess I'll go back to all my NPCs (and my character) looking like they're trying to remember something...

*Um, no offence to anyone that likes it, it's just really not my taste!

[gnewna]

Hmm, I removed the hi res eyes, reinstalled fco, Willow's eyes went back to normal but the other eyes are worse than before, there's some weird thing where the coloured part of the iris is off to the right, but there's also a sort of clear "lens" thing in the middle of the eyes. Very weird. Trying a fresh install of everything and a new game.

[gnewna]

Okay, well, that worked, I left off Mikoto, reinstalled the game, de-activated all the mods and re-activated the ones I wanted to keep (minus Project Reality, minus properly glowing ghouls in case one of those was to blame for the bright, glowing Khans, minus a couple of other wee things), stuck everything FCO-related at the bottom of the load order, left the child eye fix and hi res eyes well enough alone, and now everyone has normal eyes, hooray!

While I'm here, anyone know which backpack mod is best? I'm happy with Black Wolf (?) 's one for FO3, but I noticed a few bug reports on the comments on the FNV version, although could well be user error, of course... There's one with a bedroll included in it, or something, which sounds good but also possibly a bit gimmicky and thus potentially buggy?

[the smoking mค็็็็็n]

mikoto and FCO are never going to play together nicely,they are trying to edit the same things sometimes
tell me,does willow still look like some ugly little man in your game?
if so i would get rid of FCO to

if you want to make pretty looking chars you would be better off with mojave delight stuff from xazoom,she mucks around with vanilla files far less (and it looks more realistic imo)
i use armour replacers instead of char overall mods for an FCO style effect,they are less conflictive also,izumiko is a good place to start with that kind of stuff

esm's are often marked as esp's
i think this has something to do with last update to the game when modders changed their files to suit,but did not want to change the file headers,which would create whole new files..or something like that
it's nothing to worrry about,unless you are doing it yourself
FOMM and FNVedit is all you should need for mod manipulation really
unless you want to start making your own mods for upload

[gnewna]

Yeah, I assumed since there was an in-built patch for the two, they'd work, but I guess not. I'm not really bothered about "pretty", so much as "not looking like potatoes", and FCO does the best job of that for my tastes :) thanks for the suggestion, though! If I ever get round to making a femme fatale-type Courier, I might give MD a go.

[Delta 1038]

Originally posted by gnewna:

Yeah, I assumed since there was an in-built patch for the two, they'd work, but I guess not. I'm not really bothered about "pretty", so much as "not looking like potatoes", and FCO does the best job of that for my tastes :) thanks for the suggestion, though! If I ever get round to making a femme fatale-type Courier, I might give MD a go.

Offtopic here but you might want to look into this

Fallout New Vegas Redesigned 2 by Dracomies
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39218/?

It changes the art style of the NPCs abit among other things.

[gnewna]

Aye, I like the look of that mod, I was a bit put off by all the flashing warnings about needing to use the GECK... (That said, I use the FO3 version with just a merged patch and it's fine, so...) Not all that off topic, given FCO changes NPCs as well as the PC's looks :) I might try it on another playthrough, it's certainly closer to an 'improved vanilla' which is what I generally prefer (e.g. on Skyrim I go for TCM or XCE rather than the full-on supermodelly mods, generally!)

[Caba da Muleste da Paçoca]

This can be a bit old but i'll post anyway so it can possibly help someone. In my case, i use Willow and Mikoto's, there was this eyes bug and i tried installing & reinstalling with all possible options but nothing solved, then I used the Hi-Res Eyes Replacer and everything is just fine now.

[gnewna]

Thanks, unfortunately, as I mentioned above, that fixed most NPCs' eyes but made Willow's go really weird (like, scary weird). In the end I reinstalled everything (minus Mikoto's) and started a new game and now all the eyes are fine - my kid still really wanted the Mikoto's hair, so we just toggle those .esm/.esps on and switch merged/bash patches when it's my kid's turn to play.

The Hi-Res eyes *should* have fixed stuff, though, so it's worth mentioning for anyone who has this issue in future that it worked for you :)