Jaxonz Lights Please Patches for Light Mods: More Light Spells (AdditionalLights)
ver. 1.0, 2019-04-12
by Darkloq and foamyesque (using some original code by Jaxonz, spell IDs from nickudell)

• This is the version for More Light Spells (AdditionalLights). If you use More Magic of Light (MoreMagicLight), that version is here.
  

This is part of a series of patches for Jaxonz' Lights Please (JLP), a mod that gives you hotkeys for Candlelight and Magelight, and auto-casts Candlelight for you while toggled on.  The patches make it work with mods that add improved versions of these spells, to use the best available version that you have in your spell list.  This does not take up an additional mod slot, but replaces JaxonzLightsPlease.esp and one of its scripts.

There's no way to auto-detect such spells in the spell list, so this has to be patched on a mod-by-mod basis. As of 1.0, two mods have JLP patches:

•  This patch is for: More Light Spells (AdditionalLights.esp) by nickudell
• The other patch is for: More Magic of Light (AKA More Magic Light, MoreMagicLight.esp) by Andrey059918
  

Each patch is available in separate variants for fast and "potato" PCs.  The fast-PCs version checks for new light spells from the mod automatically, every time the script fires. The version for low-end machines does not; if you get a new spell and want to use it with JLP, you have to register it (see below).  You can also manually add custom spell entries, in all versions.

Requirements

•  More Light Spells (AdditionalLights) – Use ver. 1.1, the SECOND not top available download, since 1.0 lacks the Magelight versions. Also: ESP must be named AdditionalLights.esp
• Jaxonz' Lights Please
• This patch, specifically for JLP with AdditionalLights. It replaces the ESP and one script of JLP.
  

Install and load them in that order.  Load order otherwise should not matter, since no known other mods interfere with any of these.


Installation - New

If you are NOT already a Jaxonz' Lights Please user, just install the requirements, and make sure that JaxonzLightsPlease.esp loads after the other light mod (on which it will have a hard-coded dependency). 

Fire up the game, and set your JLP hotkeys in its MCM.

If using one of the "fancy" versions of More Light Spells, with a name like "AdditionalLights_coloured_with_shadows.esp", it must be renamed to the base "AdditionalLights.esp". It's not possible for this patch to have all four name variants as masters.


Installation - Upgrading

If you are already a Jaxonz' Lights Please user, start the game before installing, and make a save in which no JLP effects are running (i.e., that you do not have an active Candlelight or Magelight). Quit the game, then do the installation.

The patched version of JLP you're installing has a dependency on the other light mod you've chosen now, and must load after it.  Because this dependency is a hard-coded master relationship, LOOT should not interfere with this, but depending on your mod-management app (WryeBash, MMO, etc.), you may have to manually change your load order to comply.

If using one of the "fancy" versions of More Light Spells, with a name like "AdditionalLights_coloured_with_shadows.esp", it must be renamed to the base "AdditionalLights.esp". It's not possible for this patch to have all four name variants as masters.

After getting the load order set, you should rebuild your Bashed Patch in Wrye Bash.

Load the game using your clean "no JLP effects" save, and go to JLP's MCM and ensure its hotkeys are set to what you want.  I actually recommend temporarily resetting them (as described in the first bullet under "Registering New Light Spells" below), to ensure that JLP knows that something changed, and will re-initialize.


Uninstalling

Make sure all JLP effects are OFF (no active Magelight or Candlelight). Save. Quit the game. Remove this mod. Reinstall the original JLP, if that's your intent, then restart the game, and reload the save.  Save again, quit and restart again, load that second save, save again, reload THAT save.  You are now in a save-cleaned state.

If you also intend to remove MoreMagicLight.esp or AdditionalLights.esp, remove any spells added by them from your spell list, using a spell-deletion mod or the console, after making sure none of them are active, and go through the same kind of clean-save routine.


Merging

To merge this mod and save mod slots, use Merge Plugins xEdit Script by MatorTheEternal. This "merges up", preserving the FormIDs of the master. Do not use the stand-alone Merge Plugins app (which merges down, changing the master's FormIDs to fit into those available in the mod that has the dependency on the master).  I'm not 100% certain that would break in this case, but it's very iffy.

In TES5Edit, use the "Check for errors" feature on all the to-be-merged mods, and resolve any issues that reports.

Merge order: First merge this version of JaxonzLightsPlease into either MoreMagicLight.esp or AdditionalLights.esp (which ever you use). Use "Check for errors" on the merged mod, to make sure the merge worked properly. If it did, then quit TES5Edit and let it save the merged light mod.  Then merge THAT into whatever your "merged magic pile" ESP is, and check for errors again.  Do not try to merge in reverse order or merge them both in one pass, or it's likely to produce an unusable mess.


Registering New Light Spells

If you are using the "potato PC" version (or the fast-PCs version, but having some kind of issue), acquiring new and better light spells from your light mod will require that you register them with JLP so it knows about them. This can be done either of two ways:

• Go into JLP's MCM, change one of the hotkeys temporarily, exit MCM back to the game, wait a little while to let all running scripts do their business, re-open the MCM, and set your hotkey back to what you want, and return to the game.  This will set JLP's "something changed" condition, which will trigger it to re-check your lighting scripts the next time you use either of JLP's hotkeys.
• Use a spell-deletion mod or the Console to remove the old, weaker version of the spell from your spell list (Google around for how to do that; this is not a Console tutorial).Both of these should be done when NO JLP EFFECTS ARE RUNNING (no Candlelight or Magelight is active). Otherwise, it may not actually result in the reset you want.
  

Troubleshooting

If it doesn't seem to work, try the first technique listed above under "Registering New Light Spells", above.

Also, since this is scripted (albeit with light-weight scripting), it does add to the script load and could have a minor effect on frame rate. A more likely consequence is that if you suffer from "script pile-up" (a typical symptom is Soul Trap taking a long time to actually do anything after you kill a critter) then this mod (like the original JLP, and any other scripted mod) will contribute to the pile-up and delays.  If you're getting a pile-up, turn off JLP's auto-launching of Candlelight spells, and wait around for all the running scripts to catch up before using it again.

If you're using the fast-PC version and it always seems to take too long for either JLP hotkey to work, you need to switch to the potato-PC version even if you feel the honor of your rig is being insulted. :-)  You may simply have an over-modded game.

It can also help (for any of the above issues) to do a quick clean-save routine, to clear out junk from the game's memory: turn off JLP effects, save, quit the game, restart, and reload the save, then try JLP again.

If worse comes to worst, try turning off all JLP effects, saving, quitting, removing the mod, restarting the game, loading the save, answering "OK" to the warning about missing content, saving again, quitting, re-installing and enabling the mod, re-starting the game again, loading the last save, saving again, then loading THAT save. This a total save-cleaning routine.  (It's a general cleanup approach, but it does not work on running scripts from mods, so it is NOT a cure-all way to remove mods in mid-game.)


Customization

To add or remove spells from the list of available spells for JLP, you can simply edit two FormID Lists in the patched JaxonzLightsPlease.esp (using the Construction Kit or TES5Edit - I recommend the latter as faster, easier, and more stable).  You do not have to change any other records or edit any scripts.  The FormID Lists to edit are:

• CandleLightList [FLST:xx00182A]
• MageLightList [FLST:xx00182B]
  

The entries in these lists are ordered from weakest to strongest spells, top-to-bottom. This is important. The patched mod selects the strongest you have available.

So, if you have a Candlelight variant that is too bright in your ENB for most circumstances, or too weak to bother with, just delete its entry from CandleLightList.  For example, you may find that in your ENB settings (or lack of any) that MoreMagicLight's "Firefly IV" and stronger variants of Candlelight produce too much glare for you, and thus wish to exclude them.

If you have another mod (e.g. a total Alteration overhaul) that has also added variants of these spells, you can add them into the mix by adding that mod as a master for this one, then adding entries for those spells to the proper FormID list above, and then moving those entries to their relevant spot in the list's hierarchy of weakest to strongest light spells (how nit-picky you want to be about that order is up to you; the lowest spell in the form ID list that you have in your spellbook when the script is fired is the one it will use).

Warning: the more spells you add, the longer it takes to parse the list.  On a fast PC this won't be noticeable, but it may be on a potato.


Cheat Potential and Other Unintended Consequences

This mod can't "magically" know what you're adding to its FormID lists, to nag/warn about them.  If you add a mod-provided light or shielding spell that does all kinds of damage to undead and vampires, and leave it running, you're going to walk around frying baddies at all times (including any that you shouldn't be, like your own vampire followers, your own or allies' undead summons, etc.). More Light Spells (AdditionalLights) 1.1 may already have a little of an issue in this regard, as the author says that version attempts to have your light cause fear in undead and other night-dwellers.

Also, while the vanilla spells JLP was written to use are low-end and provide very few experience points, if you add a mod spell that has enormous casting requirements, then you're going to jack up your Alteration at a cheaty rate if you run around with JLP's Candlelight toggled on and have that high-end spell as the one to use. Some mods, like SkyTweak, allow you to adjust the rate at which you earn XP with various skills, and you may want to adjust it for Alteration if you find this mod makes it level too quickly.

In such a case, you're also apt to run out of Magicka at inopportune moments, since the JLP script doesn't know whether you're in combat or not, and will blissfully re-cast your Candlelight-replacement spell when the last one expires, even if you're about to cast something important that requires all your Magicka.

If you have a mod that has you auto-drink Restore Magicka potions, you may thus also burn through those potions faster.


Boilerplate

I (Darklocq) do not add any restrictions of any kind to this mod, though a credit (to Jaxonz, Darklocq, and foamyesque) would be nice if you reuse it or parts of it for something.  Most of the original work was that of Jaxonz, who released JLP without any restrictions on reuse, patching, redistribution, etc.  More Magic [of] Light is by Andrey059918, and More Light Spells (AdditionalLights) is by nickudell (Nicholas Udell), but none of their code was used, only a few spell ID numbers.

Special thanks to foamyesque, whose separate FormID-list-checking script I adapted to a routine in this patch, along with some other tweaks like function consolidation for efficiency. Without foamyesque's help, this mod would not have been possible (not from me, anyway).