TerminusVitae

In response to post #50032012. #50032057, #50032732, #50052427, #50054092 are all replies on the same post. @TechAngel85 oh my everloving frak... Skyrim Modpacks?!? hell to the yes, my god... modded Minecraft better step up their game, if that ever comes true. :)

In response to post #50007057. #50020977, #50024497 are all replies on the same post. I feel much the same way as you guys, but perhaps not quite so vehemently; at least not about Vortex, that is... :P Keep in mind that this is comin from a guy who hasn't touched NMM since i first learned of MO, way back before Fallout 4 was even suspected to ever exist... :P nor do i wish to suffer NMM ever again. :P But I don't feel the symbolic link route is necessarily as much of a death nell as it was in NMM, not if Vortex does it better/properly. The key, IMO, would be a mixture of MO's and NMM's approach to file priority; one would organize the mod file load order exactly as one would in MO, mod separation/overwrite, the whole shebang; from that organized setup, a list is formed (dare i say, a manifest) of what files get deployed, what gets overwritten with what, beforehand, etc, blah. Luckily, (and of major benefit to dev sanity,) you'd only need a manifest of the current moment, not a detailed log of every moment since beginning the install... :P In all honesty, a simple list of file paths would suffice, but I bet there'd be benefit to adding a few more features. :) From that list of files to be loaded, symbolic links are made from .\ Data\___ to the relevant files in the Mods folder of Vortex, and when one re-prioritizes mods, the files linked to are simply updated with the new file as priority determines; essentially, it'd build what would have been housed in the VFS and then link every file therein individually instead of all at once through virtualization... and unlike VFS, it'd do it on a low level that the .EXE is (indeed, all EXE's are) natively designed to interact with, instead of one that has to be injected; there's a lot of simplicity, compatibility, and stability benefit to that, beyond simple avoidance of false positive viral reports. With relatively easy debug options like the Q&A's mentioned "emergency purge" button which would (presumably) wipe out any file system entries in the whole folder tree that are symbolic, and a polar opposite feature I'd also recommend (if you're readin this, Tannin) which would purge and re-deploy a fresh and unsullied set of links, even problems like @TwoArmedMan15 had (which i agree, would suck donkey balls to recognize/fix, otherwise) would be two button presses away from solved, and would honestly become as ubiquitous and quick a procedure as LOOT sorting, where you'd do it every time, just to be sure. :P I'm not sayin VFS doesn't have major benefits, or that it is isn't a preferrable option; there's a reason i do some multi-step trickery with a third party file browser, some esp shuffling and manually copying lists of .esp's into relevant .txt's to use LOOT on MO2 with FO4, :P but with the *right* implementation, I wouldn't consider a non VFS approach entirely unusable, at least not without first giving it the benefit of the doubt and a good try. :)

In response to post #50022052. Ah, but what is a Vortex but a Vertex? :P XD A Nexus of swirling, curved lines? :P XD

In response to post #50017357. #50023137, #50026827 are all replies on the same post. @Pabulum not Tannin either, but I'd dispute your last assertion; the "purge" feature that the Q&A describes would *effectively* uninstall all mods without un/re-installing the whole game, much like trying to run a game outside of Mod Organizer. For those who don't know, when running a game with MO, the VFS makes it seem to the game as if the files are there when they aren't, (Virtual File System; think of it like a Virtual Reality headset that MO puts on the game's head, so the game can see and interact with files that aren't technically there.) But when not running the game through MO, the folders are clean of all those files, and the game is essentially entirely unmodded. No mod files visible, thus no mods installed. Ostensibly, the purge feature would allow instant access to the exact same thing even in a symbolic link set-up, instantly and easily removing the file system links that made the files visible and the game modded at all. (For symbolic links, imagine that instead of making the game wear a headset, you just tie a bunch of strings to it's fingers, and tie the other end to stuff that's not usually in reach. The purge button feature would cut all the strings, until you pressed a different button to re-tie them.) You'd theoretically almost never have to "empty out the whole game folder and reinstall" again, as any files that are mod related could be automatically and precisely removed without ever touching or otherwise damaging the original game files (or, for that matter, the mod files at the other end of the strings), as opposed to the usual "wiping everything to make sure nothing got missed". Additionally, the intent from day one to support a wide range of games means that unlike NMM or even MO, the manager would theoretically be able to handle a wider range of folders within the game's files than usual, as it'd have to... not all games are as cleanly organized as Bethesda's "stuff it all in .\ Data" mentality. :P This would still help Beth games though, because by being able to handle (for example) the main Skyrim folder (as opposed to only the Skyrim\ Data folder) even stuff like ENB presets and SKSE loaders can be handled (and for ENBs, even easily switched between) by the manager and thus purged by it if needed, even if only needed temporarily.

In response to post #41097055. #41098705, #41108050, #41131275, #41131535, #41138630, #41173615, #41174715, #41181405, #41185030, #41185770 are all replies on the same post. first rule is uniquity; make them all different, so that if they steal one, they don't have them all. second rule is long length, and high character complexity, but that is conditional on rule three, which is memorizability. as the obligatory xkcd (i know which one, without even clicking) states, we've trained ourselves to pick short, symbol complex passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess. short? too few different character types? easy for computer to guess by brute force trial and error. too many random symbols? you'll have trouble remembering it, or worse, your keyboard might not support it's characters, and you're royally screwed. but xkcd messed up, on this one, sadly; actual word? dictionary attack'll force that open, in a similar way, probably even faster. the xkcd actually sets you right up for a dictionary attack, so while it's good inspiration for an actually good plan, (and generally an awesome webcomic) it in itself is a bad plan. i avoid most of these issues, with my technique; i create a suitably long nonsense word that doesn't exist, but is easily pronouncable. example, right off the top of my head... "Gablorfingloingy." just made it up, have never used it; feel free, since i definitely won't use this publicly posted one, now... :P if you need inspirational nonsense, calvin, morty, rick, and hobbes are your new best friends. anywho, capitalize the word, give it a punctuation character that changes the tone of it's pronunciation, and slap some numbers on it. you're done! it's long, because it's a long word, it's dictionary immune because it doesn't actually exist, and it's hard to brute force because of its length and because it always has at the very least four different types of characters, uppercase, lowercase, the punctuation and the numbers. (Brute forcers slow down immensely the more characters they have to try per spot, so more types = much longer to crack. complexity is your friend.) and best of all, it's easy to remember, because your mind can simply say it in your head, complete with "tone of thought" reminder about the accompanying grammar. perfect score, 5/7; highly recommend.