Vortex Pros and Cons and Suggestions for the Future

[HadToRegister]

After using and fighting with Vortex the past couple of nights using it on a fresh install of Fallout 4, I've noticed things I absolutely love, and things that either don't work or aren't conducive to a efficient workflow.
I assume all of the different tabs in Vortex are to keep things separate for the developer right now so they can be worked on in chunks, and will be integrated together better in future releases, but until now, here's my take.

1. Absolutely LOVE the "Mod/Plugin Name Search Filter on the Mods and Plugins tab, I used this CONSTANTLY as it helped me keep my load order and dealing with conflict resolutions much clearer when I was able to just use the filter to focus on problem mods/plugins, or to just focus in a bunch of mods with similar names.
Absolutely invaluable to the modding process, and I can't praise this feature enough

2. I really like the autosort on the plugins tab, I was wary about LOOT sorting etc, but Vortex actually does a damned fine job of sorting plugins properly.

3. Conflict resolution wasn't as much of a problem or as tedious as I thought it would be, (although I've only got 104 mods active, much less than I usually do), I did have a couple of confusing snags on the Mods page with a couple of texture mods, but I got them sorted after a couple of minutes.
I "get" the Mod and Plugin tabs now, and it has similarities to Mod Organizer, (which I also spent a lot of time with)

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Out of everything clicked and used in Vortex, I found myself mostly mostly bouncing back and forth between the MOD tab and the Plugins Tab.
I hope in the future that the Mods and Plugins Tabs can be set up to be "side by side" panes, with maybe a draggable vertical bar between the two (like those "Before and After" screens showing the difference in graphics), to cut down on the amount of flipping back and forth between the two.

Also, the plugins display has a nice feature of showing a Spray Bottle Icon to show which mods need to be cleaned, it would be nice if the top area of Vortex would have a toolbar, where I could just click on FO4Edit, or SSEEdit etc, instead of having to completely leave the PLUGINS tab and go to the Dashboard in order to access the Mod Cleaning tools.
Because right now, the cleaning Info is on one tab, and the tools to clean them are on a completely different tab.

The Save-games screen, while having the ability to Restore Mods based on the save-game is a GREAT feature, however, I'd also love o see a list of the mods for each save-game like you can with WryeBash/Flash/Smash

I ended up downloading everything manually using the Premium Server, because downloading mods over 50mb for me, Vortex would just claim they were finished downloading, even though I saw the bar go to 40% or 85%, which in turn would lead to failed deployment because of a "broken Archive"

The Download meter in 0.15.2 is still showing a couple of download I made a couple of days ago, stuck at 21% and 15% with the word "MORE..." below it (unclickable) and Speed Meter at 0/bs
I don't know how to reset this area or if it has been disabled for now, but it WAS working in 0.43 (or whatever the stable version number is)

The Notifications at the top right are nice because you can click ENABLE on a newly installed mod, but it's a very "needy" section of the interface that can obscure the rest of the work screen if you don't click on Dismiss, especially when you're downloading a lot of mods in rapid succession.
However, I DO like the color of the Notifications, because I use two monitors, so while I have Vortex on my right monitor, I can see out of the corner of my eye, while I'm looking for more mods on the nexus, Red notifications that something went wrong.
It'd be nice to be able to MOVE those notifications anywhere on the interface.
I know that I'd like to move the notifications down int that "Drag and Drop area, because my mouse cursor is usually down towards the bottom of my monitors to begin with.

A problem I'm having with some mods is that they just refuse to show their proper names.
I have "Commonwealth Cuts KS Hairdos" , "CBBE Bodies" and "DEF_UI" and they all insist on being named "Robco Fun2", and at First "CBBE Bodies" was being renamed "repaired god 44 pistol", and this was after I filled in the proper info and MOD ID.

All in All, I understand this is in Alpha, and has a ways to go yet, but I am EXTREMELY impressed with the Load Order and Mod Management so far.
Good Job.

[Tannin42]

1. A well-hidden feature is that you can ctrl-click on a tab to open it side-by-side with the current one. It's a horizontal split though, as the ui tries to avoid horizontal scrolling if possible

2. I think the ability to start tools from the top bar (the part of the window that doesn't change between tabs) is planned for the next UI revision. This would of course allow you to start xedit without leaving a tab

3. Not sure how wrye bash stores which mods (in contrast to plugins) were used with a savegame but eventually Vortex will be able to search for mods providing the plugins, which is what MO does.

4. If you can reproduce downloads producing broken archives, could you please do so (reproduce it I mean) and then send in a feedback where you attach the log file (from "attach special file")

5. The download area in the bottom left just shows incomplete downloads from the download page so you can go to the download page and cancel them there. Ensure you don't have a filter active on the table and maybe try clicking "View all downloads"

6. No matter where you put the notification on the ui they will obscure something. In new versions you shouldn't get as many notifications anymore as "similar messages" are grouped together (e.g. all "download completed" messages get grouped into one notification)

7. The incorrect naming of mods (or rather the downloads) is curious, I will see if I can reproduce it

[HadToRegister]

All of those upcoming things sound great.
Thanks for the ctrl-click tip, I didn't know about that one.

Also, one feature I used in NMM A LOT, that I liked was if you right clicked on a MOD, it gave you the actual name of the ARCHIVE, which made it handy to know when you're searching in a folder for an Armor mod and can't find any archive with the word ARMOR in it, so thanks to the right click, you can see that the archive is actually named something like "THIS ONE.7z" instead of something easy and obvious like "Armor Mod.7z", it made it a lot easier to find poorly named archives.

 

4. OK, will try

 

7. I was going to give you the names of the mods that kept getting renamed to Robco Fun2, by clicking on "NEVER INSTALLED" and seeing what the actual name is, and now it's telling me a different mod is renamed Robco Fun2 (I've never even downloaded RobcoFUn2 BTW)

Now it's saying that Raider Overhaul-AE Patch-Restored Content I Full File-17895-2-1, and DEF-UI are the ones being renamed

[wout25]

1. Absolutely LOVE the "Mod/Plugin Name Search Filter on the Mods and Plugins tab

 

I was going to suggest a filter option, but it's already here...? Where can I find it? I'm using v15.2

I like the priority system and how Vortex works as a whole. I like the advantages it has over NMM. Sure, no manual sorting, but once you understand the priority system, you start to love it.

Especially the groups-system and the per mod file priority (the lightning icon) which can be altered after the installation of the mods (in NMM you can only do this while installing the mods).

Thank you for creating Vortex. I'm definitely a convert now. I'm not going back to NMM.

Edited June 13, 2018 by wout25

[Grestorn]

Enable "Advanced Mode" in the settings to activate the filter function in the table's header.

[AugustaCalidia]

For me the "pros" of Vortex so outweigh the "cons" that it is now my one and only mod manager (except for OBMM for Oblivion).

 

One "pro" that stands out for me is the group settings feature of the latest versions of Vortex.

 

Once Tannin moved Vortex 0.15.2 from "testing" to "stable," I installed it and replaced v. 0.14.3. The latter version served me well, but I was very curious about "group" settings for plugins in v. 0.15.2.

 

I quickly found the group settings feature to be very easy to use. When I installed v. 0.15.2, all plugins in FO4 save the unofficial patch were placed in the default group. Among those plugins was one I had previously given the highest positive global setting in 0.14.3. This was to ensure last place in the load order. (I'm not sure it had to be absolutely last, but that was a position where I knew the plugin would work.) The switch to 0.15.2 did not preserve that order, and the plugin did not work properly. I then placed it in the group "dynamic patches," and the plugin immediately dropped to the bottom of the load order. It was a quick and easy move, and the plugin is now working properly.

[sopmac45]

I have not had the need to move any plugin to any Group except all my patches to Dynamic Patches and everything is working fine.

 

Vortex is super easy to use, setup rules in the MODS tab when installing/enabling mods, let Vortex to auto-sort your plugins and play. This process is invaluable for me and probably my favorite "pro" of the entire mod manager. It is very simple, precise and direct, no more moving here and there and getting crazy about where do I put this or that one.

 

As I said, except for 2-3 patches that I created in xEdit and placed them in the Dynamic Patches, I have not had the need to do anything else. Both of my games, SkyrimSE and Fallout4 are working like a charm. Switching from one game to another is fast, just activate the game you want to play and go for.

[Khumak]

My only real complaint with Vortex at the moment is the way it handles loose file conflicts.

 

1. There's no option to sort my mods by conflict status so that I can easily see any red conflicts

2. The graphical "cyclic conflicts" option is very hard to understand and is extremely slow, I always just end up deleting them all and starting over. For mods with lots of conflicts I sometimes have to do this 10 or more times before I find a combination that does not create any cyclic conflicts.

3. No way to see specifically what conflicting rules already exist (just knowing there is one doesn't do me much good without having to go find that mod and then look up that rule to see if it's what I want)

4. No option to hide individual files in cases where I want mod A to win most conflicts but I want mod B to win conflicts for a few specific files while losing all other conflicts to mod A.

5. No option to require all conflicts to have a rule instead of allowing "no rule" ideally allowing you to either override all conflicting rules with your new one or to adopt whatever rule already exists. That way I can always see how any conflicts will be resolved regardless which mod I'm looking at.

[kamikatze13]

1. A well-hidden feature is that you can ctrl-click on a tab to open it side-by-side with the current one. It's a horizontal split though, as the ui tries to avoid horizontal scrolling if possible

 

will we be seeing a vertical layout or is it something we are going to have to css together ourselves? cause i'm fairly confident most of us have horizontal screen space to spare, not vertical

 

I mean, c'mon, i'm able to make out two whole mods at a time. well, ok, two and a half:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tannin42]

Technically it's very easy to turn it into a vertical layout (it's really just one css rule), the problem is that you then have two lists alongside each other that both have two scroll vertically and horizontally. So realistically we'd need a "simplified" view of each table with fewer columns so they can actually fit alongside one another.