Mods can't be deployed...

[Lagruej]

So I'm turning here because I'm at my wits end.

I'm trying to mod Fallout 4 for the first time, and it refuses to deploy mods. Every single topic online states this is because mods and the game aren't on the same drive... well I only have one drive, the game and mods are both installed on :C.

Even more puzzling is that Skyrim SE has always worked fine for me in Vortex. This is starting to get frustrating because literally every single option for deployments is greyed out and unavilable, which makes 0 sense to me. Surely I would fit in ONE of the categories....

I didn't change any file paths or anything...

Somebody please help? What could be wrong? Should I just dump Vortex and go back to NMM which worked 100% reliably for me since... forever?

EDIT: I should note, Vortex does see Fallout 4 because it allows me to edit the plugin list of anything I put in manually (didn't have to deploy)

Edited August 27, 2018 by Lagruej

[Tannin42]

What do you mean "every single option for deployment is greyed out"? That's not how it works, Vortex doesn't show deployment methods as greyed out, it doesn't list them at all.

 

When no deployment methods are available you get an error notification that tells you the reason they are unavailable for each one, what's the reason stated for "hardlink deployment" being unavailable?

[Lagruej]

What do you mean "every single option for deployment is greyed out"? That's not how it works, Vortex doesn't show deployment methods as greyed out, it doesn't list them at all.

 

When no deployment methods are available you get an error notification that tells you the reason they are unavailable for each one, what's the reason stated for "hardlink deployment" being unavailable?

I misspoke (used to saying greyed out for something you can't select). I can see the options from the tooltip - but when I go to the fix area it's a red box and says No Deployment Methods Available.

 

When I click the error message for more it doesn't actually give me a reason that could be used to extrapolate what it truly wants from me. It throws a generic issue that just says with the current settings it can't deploy - then suggest you can usually make hardlink work.

 

otherwise I can't find any information as to why reployment is failing... it just suggest I check the 4 methods - and all it says for Hardlink is that everything must be on the same drive, which it already is.

 

Edited August 27, 2018 by Lagruej

[Tannin42]

Ok, but then please answer the second part of the question: What does it state as the reason hard link isn't available?

[Lagruej]

Ok, but then please answer the second part of the question: What does it state as the reason hard link isn't available?

I edited it in, sorry. It doesn't actually give a reason unless I'm looking in the wrong spot. It literally just says that with the current settings they can't be deployed. The only settings available to me are the 3 filepaths, set up by default, and the red box that says No Deployment Methods Available.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Lagruej

[Tannin42]

The reasons for why the deployments are unavailable show when you click on the "More" button in the notification.

 

There are two possible reasons I can think of:

a) With Hard links it still requires write access. If your user account doesn't have write access to the Fallout4 and Fallout4\data directories no deployment method will work. But no other modding tool (apart from MO) nor manual mod installs will work in that case either. And Vortex should have notified about that specifically.

 

b) When it says everything has to be on the same drive it actually compares operating system device ids so I can't see it being wrong on that.

"Same drive" here however means "Same physical partition" if we're going to be precise. Since NTFS allows you to mount one partition into a directory of another partition it doesn't actually suffice that they are both c:.

Lets say you have your system partition on c: you could then create another partition (even on another disk) and instead of giving it the letter d: you mount it to c:\games. In that case c: and c:\games would not be the same drive.

Is it possible this is the cause?

[Lagruej]

This is what I see on my end when I click that More - it really doesn't seem to even know what's wrong itself:

https://imgur.com/a/6iLSOBa

I'm going to poke around my permissions - I haven't had issues before, as mentioned, and I've already taken ownership of my PC before but I do know MS likes to push nanny updates for W10 and change user changes in the security regards....

Hmmm well permissions were fine - and I took ownership of FO4 and Vortex directories for good measure but the issue still persists so I don't think it's a permissions issue :/ I must be experiencing some weird, obscure issue :( the worst kind -_-

Edited August 27, 2018 by Lagruej

[Tannin42]

It does know what's wrong. On hardlink deployment it says "Works only if mods are installed on the same drive as the game." - It only says this because windows reports different device ids for the mod directory (as configured in Vortex) and the game installation directory.

It is not a permission problem then, if there was a permission problem the dialog would say so.

 

Please first check if Vortex has actually detected the correct directory for Fallout 4 by going to the games tab and then clicking the little plus symbol on Fallout 4, the popover will state the game path.

If that is indeed on C: and your mod directory is configured as C: then there has to be either a link/junction point or ntfs mount point involved in such a way that the game or the Vortex mod directory is not actually on the same drive even though they both show up as C:.

[Lagruej]

It does know what's wrong. On hardlink deployment it says "Works only if mods are installed on the same drive as the game." - It only says this because windows reports different device ids for the mod directory (as configured in Vortex) and the game installation directory.

It is not a permission problem then, if there was a permission problem the dialog would say so.

 

Please first check if Vortex has actually detected the correct directory for Fallout 4 by going to the games tab and then clicking the little plus symbol on Fallout 4, the popover will state the game path.

If that is indeed on C: and your mod directory is configured as C: then there has to be either a link/junction point or ntfs mount point involved in such a way that the game or the Vortex mod directory is not actually on the same drive even though they both show up as C:.

I didn't realize that was an error - I thought it was just a descriptor of that method. I only have one hard drive so I'm certain they are both on there :/

 

But yes, the Vortex shows :C for both the Fallout directory and the Vortex directory, I can even see and manage what's already in the Fallout directory.

 

Sadly I don't know anything about links and junction points, etc. that's not something I've ever messed with or done manually. How would I go about investigating and fixing that?

[Tannin42]

Ok, please do this:

• open the windows start menu and type cmd. You should see "cmd.exe" at the top of the search results. click that. Alternatively you can click "All Programs->Windows System->Command Prompt"
• in the window that opens type

  wmic volume get driveletter, name, filesystem, label, deviceid

  to list the volumes on your system.
• Then type

  wmic volume get driveletter, name, filesystem, label, deviceid | clip.exe

  to put the same into your windows clipboard
• Reply and paste the list of volumes here