Vortex or nexus mod manager

[sniperwolf89]

somewhat familiar with modding, which is better nexus mod manager or vortex? i alos heard about a program called mod manager which of the three is best and why, thank you!

[HadToRegister]

There was already a thread like this and it got shut down because threads like this always end up being nothing but flame wars.

[sniperwolf89]

There was already a thread like this and it got shut down because threads like this always end up being nothing but flame wars.

i was not aware of that, so which one do you prefer and what the difference between mod arganizer and mod organizer 2? Also what happened to the nexus mod manager client or do we have to use vortex now? sorry for the dumb question im still some what new to modding.

[HadToRegister]

Vortex is written by the person who wrote MO and MO2.
Once you get the concept of Vortex you'll like it, but it takes some time reading the knowledge base and watching built in tutorials if you get stuck.

NMM does NOTHING, it lets you make the most non-functional load order you can dream of.
It's like a Mr. Coffee that's just made of a funnel that you pour hot water through


Vortex automatically sorts your ESPs, so you don't need to micromanage them, that allows you sort the important stuff like Meshes and Textures (where the real conflicts happen) and it notifies you when a conflict happens, and shows you the mods that are conflicting.
It's like Keurig machine

[Arioch13]

I didnt dislike Vortex myself. At least not just for the sake of it. I still regard it as ''okay''. But I think it is fundamentally flawed at the design level. It doesnt autosort for s***. It actually makes things worse after when it comes to trying to pin down or resolve a problem. Whereas, NMM had the big value add of easily moving the load order up and down, easily and with some clarity concerning the final result.

 

It is trying to do too much with variables outside of your control. It is trying to be Bethesda Mod program or Steamworks. That is the very last thing on God's green earth that i want to see more of.

 

I fear it is also becoming Nexus dependant. The entire antithesis of why a lot of people come here. If you want a homogenous vendor. In time, you wont chose this site unless you're particularly attached to it, as am I. This site has to be MORE vendor agnostic, not less. I wonder how many of your users have the odd japanese, or other mods from brilliant modders which they love and wont want to live without. So, the load order, plugin sorter is confusing for new users, and useless if you use anything from anywhere else. It is either going to need to be way more invasive or intelligent, or both, or removed.

 

Particularly if you get mods from some of the japanese modders and others all over the world outside of the nexus. I feel a bit like Nexus has just entered that space where it is beggining to lose its unique selling point.

 

Not as a criticism, but, I am just being frank. WHAT IS THE UNIQUE SELLING POINT OF VORTEX? I genuinely want to know why this is better as I havent yet seen anything that makes any difference at all overall. I was enthusiastic at first. For a while it was the cure for cancer. When things get complex, it became the cancer. Dont take that too harsh please. I am a huge supporter of this site and what it meant for a very long time. But this does feel like a mis step.

 

The time taken to learn how to use it well and to deal with problems is simply far far outside of the balance of value added. I'm sorry, I wanted it to be better.

[sniperwolf89]

I didnt dislike Vortex myself. At least not just for the sake of it. I still regard it as ''okay''. But I think it is fundamentally flawed at the design level. It doesnt autosort for s***. It actually makes things worse after when it comes to trying to pin down or resolve a problem. Whereas, NMM had the big value add of easily moving the load order up and down, easily and with some clarity concerning the final result.

 

It is trying to do too much with variables outside of your control. It is trying to be Bethesda Mod program or Steamworks. That is the very last thing on God's green earth that i want to see more of.

 

I fear it is also becoming Nexus dependant. The entire antithesis of why a lot of people come here. If you want a homogenous vendor. In time, you wont chose this site unless you're particularly attached to it, as am I. This site has to be MORE vendor agnostic, not less So, the load order, plugin sorter is basically useless if you use anything for anywhere else and actually gets in the way, a lot.

 

Particularly if you get mods from some of the japanese modders and others all over the world outside of the nexus. I feel a bit like Nexus has just entered that space where it is beggining to lose its unique selling point.

 

Not as a criticism, but, I am trying to help you out in my own small way by being honest. WHAT IS THE UNIQUE SELLING POINT OF VORTEX? I genuinely want to know why this is better as I havent yet seen anything that makes any difference at all. Well, not to me as a player at least.

My biggest concern is that Vortex is going to kill off the next generations of mod users and mod installers which feels like something EA or Bethesda might do.

so which is the best option for a modding noob? Also what is LOOT and esvedit used for?

[HadToRegister]

 

so which is the best option for a modding noob? Also what is LOOT and esvedit used for?

 

NMM is the best for a modding noob because it doesn't do anything.

It's basically a glorified Downloader and Installer, and that's about it.

It let's you fiddle with the order of your ESPs, which doesn't really matter.

 

Vortex is good, but has a learning curve, but it also notifies you of file conflicts, and instead of physically overwriting them like NMM does (which, if you overwrite the wrong mod files, requires you to uninstall the mods and install them again in the 'right' order.)

Vortex on the other hand, installs both mods, then tells you that the two mods conflict with each other, it then allows you to tell Vortex to Load mod B AFTER Mod A, and if that's wrong, all you have to do is pick load Mod A AFTER Mod B, and vortex automatically restores all of the overwritten files for you.

 

It also automatically sorts your ESps, so you don't have to mess around with unnecessary micromanaging of ESPS that NMM makes you believe is important, instead Vortex does this, and you can basically download and play.

 

If you spend the time to familiarize yourself with the concepts that Vortex uses, you'll find it's really powerful.

[Jannifer]

The short answer for which modding program is best -- the program that you like and find easiest to use. All of them will do the basics of installing mods and allowing you to manage your load order. Mod managers like Vortex or MO2 offer extras which give a user more control over their mod installation. LOOT is a mod sorting tool. It's a good tool, but it's not perfect and will make mistakes. It's fine as a place to start, but be sure that you read all the mod description pages carefully and take notes if you need to. Those pages will tell you important things like conflicts and requirements. Many of them have installation and uninstallation instructions. Some modders even include a FAQ. TESVEdit (aka XEdit) can help you run down conflicts and track down missing masters (other mods or DLC that a particular mod needs to work). It can also clean files of unnecessary junk that can muck things up. Experienced modders clean their files before uploading them, but new modders may not know the necessity of doing so.

 

Personally, I'm still using NMM. I'm even using the last version of NMM that wrote directly to the data folder. I don't like things that get between me and my file structure. :P I've been modding TES games since Morrowind, and I'm perfectly capable of managing my own load order. For me, programs like MO2 and Vortex are more complicated than I want to fool with, and they are less than intuitive.

[Arioch13]

I may seem to contradict myself a little for your scenario.

I agree with pretty much all of Jannifers comments above.

 

For a person completely new to modding, vortex may have its place. Vortex may help you because it autosorts load order and if you dont know the rules this would be helpful in the short term. But just aware that it will get confused if you use mods outside of the nexus in particular and if it does, you wont know what to do. In fact, it tries to do way too much and gets super cumbersome at times. For example I have mods from all over and it has become the problem for me rather than the mods themselves.

 

If you are going to use DLL loaders and non nexus mods then NMM is a better option. At least you can manually just click a mod up or down the mod order without it second guessing you or being unsure if it is doing anything. Agree with Jannifers point that it can actually just get between you and what you are trying to do.

If I could offer you just one piece of advice, then this would be it: Load order is everything. You may think your game is broken and needs a resinstall. You might try to find the mod causing it for ages. Only to find it is something really basic and the last thing you might think would cause the issue. A clothing or follower mod for example. But persevere. The reason I am moving away from vortex is that it is getting in the way of doing this quickly but what it is trying to do is automate the basics. I just think it is trying to do too much.

[HadToRegister]

Load order is everything.

 

 

Load order is everything, when it comes the Meshes, Textures, BA2s, BSAs, not so much with ESPs etc, which is why Vortex eliminates that micromanaging of people unnecessarily chasing the perfect PLUGIN load order, when the important thing is the MOD load order. Something you can't change in NMM.

 

I used to argue against Vortex for not having manual ESPs ordering, until I found out I didn't need to waste my time doing it anymore.

 

Thankfully, Vortex will tell you if your load order needs fixing, and doesn't let you blindly "guess' or follow some poorly written reddit guide.