Modding guidance for a first time poster, LONG time viewer.

[flyers2142]

Hey, my friends. I have been privy to (and have referred others to) these forums for years. I haven't always had an account, but I've been around and the community/support is phenomenal. I'm hoping someone out there can answer a few questions re: modding for me. I fancy myself a pretty decent modder, I managed to do without guidance allot of the things that are now automated for us over the years -- however a couple things have popped up while I work on a massive endeavor to mod a packed 2k19 roster from scratch (for the second time.)

I apologize for the lengthy explanations. I try to keep the question brief but the explanation of the issue and what I've done to fix it as detailed as possible. I have tried everything I can think of regarding these issues over several weeks before reaching out here. Any assistance or guidance would be appreciated.

1. Slot ID 574 - was not working for me. I have CCT and PerfectPlextra installed. Slot 336 (which was also an unused render slot) worked fine initially, but 574 would not open up for me. I have tried everything I can think of. Slot 336 is also gone after weeks of working fine (I may have mixed up my profile_dat.pac files while troubleshooting on that one.) As I type this, both 336 and 574 are now showing. I did probably a dozen things to troubleshoot, so I don't know what exactly fixed it. But is there a reason these 2 slots would show up and then disappear? It seems (by that I mean I have been able to recreate these slots disappearing 100% of the time) to coincide with rebuilding my chunk0.def, but I genuinely fail to see the correlation. Is there a possibility that there are base file redundancies that are causing this? I have replaced the base profile_dat, mvs, and pro files as directed by the main thread about PerfectPlextra, so I'm totally lost here.
2. Renders - Is there a way to correct renders not being replaced when the chunk.def regenerates? The typical renders (Dana Brooke, Taker '91, Sheamus, etc) seem to come and go as they please. I've followed essentially every troubleshooting post to a T and cannot stop it. I thought I had it fixed at one point by utilizing a pac editor application -- but that was short-lived.
3. Eye Holes - This is pertaining to visual issues with downloaded mods. I've been noticing a weird issue with modded wrestler's eyes. There will sometimes be holes around the eye area that you can see through - some small, some very large. Using a Kushida mod (an excellent one, in my opinion the best), after I injected the file and started a match, the eye holes were about twice the size of his eyes and I could see the crowd through his head. I deleted it and searched for another Kushida mod, only to settle for the one I previously used. I loaded it up again, this time downloading fresh and unpacking using 7zip... and it's fine. Is there a suggested or preferred method for downloading, unpacking a mod file? It seems very weird to me that the same file from the same source comes through on the game in two vastly different quality states. My first thought is that it was due to the quality of the downloaded file, but they look identical to me. Would this be an issue perhaps with CCT? or with my game display preferences? For reference this has happened at least a dozen times. A Dreamer mod did the same thing as this Kushida mod did, and a Scott Steiner mod went so far as the eyes leaving the head through the holes as he moved around.
4. Older Mods - I have since 2k19 came out, sought quality mod makers and have compensated them over the years either through commissions or through patreon/etc. I have modded games like the Sims and Fallout 4 myself, so I know how complicated it is to create these. Given that this game is now 6 years old, many of the mods I seek to re-download are on dead links and/or the creators are no longer creating/active. Is there a resource for folks who may share ch.pacs? Almost every modder I've utilized grants sharing permissions "with credit" and I've found a few people with index links (some dead, some incomplete) but I haven't really found any one spot for folks to share ch.pacs that may not presently be accessible.
5. NPC Slots - I'm narrowing down the NPC slots to "usable" or "not usable" -- and from there "wholly usable" and "usable with concessions" For example, I know you cannot use slot ID 504 "dad" at all.  But even some of the usable slots will replace characters in a match (one of the cameraman slots if overwritten will show a wrestler at ringside sometimes sitting with Jojo, and 3 of the security guard slots are utilized in backstage brawl, so you'll see those wrestlers there when overwriting.) -- But I did overwrite 192 (moveset man: attire slot 1 / moveset woman: attire slot 2) to be Lance Storm with 2 attires.. which is great because I love him and him being in the moveset animations as a "Trainer" really scratches my fandom where it itches. I also overwrote 194, because that is just the moveset woman that 2k used as a model for cutscenes. Is there a comprehensive guide on what can/can't be done with these NPC slots or is it just trial and error for me at this point in time?
6. File Redundancies - It dawns on me as I write this that some of these issues could pertain to file redundancies between my mod programs and the base files. I think in week one I had an issue with the same ch being loaded in a match for both wrestlers and had to delete a base file of some sort. I am thinking this could rectify some of my issues; is there a guide which files to keep/delete/overwrite with regard to CCT/PP?