Merging mods

[jimbo4822]

Hello, I have been modding for a few years and have just recently started using Vortex, I like how it works. I never really had the need to merge patches to much so never really did it much, in my recent Fallout build I was using mod manager 2 and was following a post on mator smash. That build of Fallout 4 has over 300 mods but I was able to merge many of them. Now if i remember correctly in mator the mods to be merged have to be next to each other to make the merged patch, cant really do that with Vortex. Also, I really haven't found any tutorials on merging patches with Vortex, and most videos about Vortex are on the first builds and It appears that much has changed. So, anyone able to point me to info on proper merging of mods with Vortex. I am neariing250 active mods in Skyrim and might need to stop adding soon.

 

 

I am really liking Vortex, after the learning curve.

[Grestorn]

To merge mods, you need to use xEdit and/or WryeBash. It hasn't got anthing to do with Vortex.

 

Which plugins can and should be merged together is a whole separate issue. There are some guidlines (like, "merge all mods that concern the same objects and their compatibility patches into one"). Also you have to consider whether a mod is updated frequently, then I wouldn't put it into a merge - updating a merge because one of the included plugins got an update, is really a nuissance.

 

But there are better forums and sources of information for this than the Vortex forum. As far as Vortex is concerned, just create the merged plugin, Vortex will see and list it in the Plugins tab, you can dis- or enable it there, but it won't touch it otherwise.

[jimbo4822]

Thank you I just wanted to be sure there was nothing specifically different with Vortex. I do remember that in Mator smash the plugin to be merged needed to be all next to each other in the load order, which would be problematic in Vortex. I don't have much if any experience with Wyre Bash so I have some reading to do.

 

Thanks again

[HadToRegister]

Thank you I just wanted to be sure there was nothing specifically different with Vortex. I do remember that in Mator smash the plugin to be merged needed to be all next to each other in the load order, which would be problematic in Vortex. I don't have much if any experience with Wyre Bash so I have some reading to do.

 

Thanks again

 

What?

 

I use MatorSmash and the plugins I merge aren't next to each other, MatorSmash even skips some on its own.

There's still some problems with MatorSmash working with Fallout 4, so I've set Mator Smash to just Merge Leveled Lists for now

[kamikatze13]

 

Thank you I just wanted to be sure there was nothing specifically different with Vortex. I do remember that in Mator smash the plugin to be merged needed to be all next to each other in the load order, which would be problematic in Vortex. I don't have much if any experience with Wyre Bash so I have some reading to do.

 

Thanks again

 

What?

 

I use MatorSmash and the plugins I merge aren't next to each other, MatorSmash even skips some on its own.

There's still some problems with MatorSmash working with Fallout 4, so I've set Mator Smash to just Merge Leveled Lists for now

 

they should be, however.

 

you'll get an error if you have a non-contiguous plugin order with masters in-between

[[email protected]]

Wanted Real experience / solutions

wonderful how so many people have answers to questions that weren't really asked but completely miss/avoid answering the questions asked?

everyone seemed to answer the question of contiguous LO being irrelevant to bash patches but no one answered the question of how to deal with the contiguous file LO requirement of MATOR MERGE MOD in Vortex which does not seem to have a way to handle load orders file by file.... Anyone?

I have so many rules and groups that I spend more time dealing with cyclic dependencies than making progress on getting a single file out from between other files!

oh and dumping 400 mods and installing only a few at a time and merging them is an obvious but impractical solution.

 

Please anyone who found good way to get Vortex to listen to your LO choices please help!

[HadToRegister]

Wanted Real experience / solutions

wonderful how so many people have answers to questions that weren't really asked but completely miss/avoid answering the questions asked?

everyone seemed to answer the question of contiguous LO being irrelevant to bash patches but no one answered the question of how to deal with the contiguous file LO requirement of MATOR MERGE MOD in Vortex which does not seem to have a way to handle load orders file by file.... Anyone?

I have so many rules and groups that I spend more time dealing with cyclic dependencies than making progress on getting a single file out from between other files!

oh and dumping 400 mods and installing only a few at a time and merging them is an obvious but impractical solution.

 

Please anyone who found good way to get Vortex to listen to your LO choices please help!

 

 

Stop trying to force your load order on Vortex and turn on AUTO SORT, it will do a far better job than you.

 

Also, the only load order you have to deal with in Vortex is the MOD load order which covers which BSAs, Textures/Meshes load before or after another mod.

 

That is why people are having so many problems with Vortex when coming from NMM, they think they still have to force ESPS to be in the order they want, and that's not the case anymore.

[Guest deleted34304850]

you can go very, very detailed on how you structure your load order - literally telling vortex to put mod x after mod y and so on - but honestly, you are gaining nothing by doing this, except a headache.

using auto-sort, vortex will sort your load order for you, using LOOT rules, and it will be absolutely fine.

 

however - if you insist on manually controlling your load order, you can do that. all you need to do is figure out what groups you want to put certain mods in.

there are several groups out there, and you can see them by going to your plugin screen and you will have a menu option called manage groups. these are the groups that you can use to add an extra layer of control to your plugin list.

 

an example for you, i have several mods that affect lighting - they either change how bright lights are, or add extra lighting in vault 88. i have, previously, grouped these together in the lighting group. its not required to do that, but i was playing around with groups to see what i could/couldn't do.

 

to change the group a plugin is in, double click the plugin and you get a small area on the right of your screen with some information on the plugin. some fields you cannot change, but one you can is the group. Most of them will be set to default, you can change this to one of the other groups if you so wish.

 

after i did that, i went a step further and i wanted my lighting mods to load in a certain order. so i would add a rule to say that lighting mod x MUST load AFTER lighting mod y. and i did this for each mod in the group, so that I was sorting by group and then by mod in that group.

 

doing this will give you absolute control over your plugin load order, which is what i think you're asking about. give that a try and see how you go - but again, i will say - you dont need to do this at all - it will work, but it will give you a headache if you add a mod and that causes a cycle error.

[sopmac45]

Wanted Real experience / solutions

wonderful how so many people have answers to questions that weren't really asked but completely miss/avoid answering the questions asked?

everyone seemed to answer the question of contiguous LO being irrelevant to bash patches but no one answered the question of how to deal with the contiguous file LO requirement of MATOR MERGE MOD in Vortex which does not seem to have a way to handle load orders file by file.... Anyone?

I have so many rules and groups that I spend more time dealing with cyclic dependencies than making progress on getting a single file out from between other files!

oh and dumping 400 mods and installing only a few at a time and merging them is an obvious but impractical solution.

 

Please anyone who found good way to get Vortex to listen to your LO choices please help!

 

 

Excellent advised have been provided to you already but please understand something, if you are new to Vortex, go from simple to complex, in other words, apply what HadToRegister said ( leave auto-sort ON ) and let Vortex to sort out your plugins and later, once you know more about Vortex, you can do what 1aeobfb8 suggested. If you skip, most likely you will get in trouble.