SSS is not a generic replacement for tes3cmd or an ESP patch. Its strength is live object-level world patching after OpenMW has resolved the content set.
Good SSS candidates
Use SSS when the problem is a placed reference:
- a rock, tree, tower, chest, or NPC is in the wrong place;
- a specific placed object should not exist;
- a live object needs a different state;
- a mesh needs contextual replacement;
- a one-shot placement script only moves one object.
The real-world translations demonstrate this boundary. They use content_file_target, cell constraints, transform, teleport, and disable without reproducing the original patch plugin.
Keep plugin surgery
Keep using a plugin patch or the relevant build-time tool when the conflict is in plugin resolution itself:
- removing a
CELLoverride; - removing a
PGRDrecord; - deleting
LANDdata; - deleting dialogue
INFOrecords; - removing or forwarding a base NPC record override;
- filtering plugin records before OpenMW resolves the world.
The Modding-OpenMW actions catalog contains examples of these operations. They are valuable compatibility work, but they are not SSS conversions. A runtime object rule cannot change which plugin record wins resolution.
The rule is simple:
placed reference is wrong or unwanted → SSS
plugin record must not participate in resolution → plugin patch / tes3cmdSamarys Ancestral Tomb Corpse Fix remains on the plugin side of that line because it combines persistence and dialogue INFO behavior with object changes. SSS should not claim a translation where it cannot preserve the original contract.