New to Vortex. Is Wrye Bash still needed?

[bartz824]

Trying to get back into modded Fallout 4 after 3 years away and a getting a new hard drive for my computer. Decided to use Vortex instead of NMM and because I am doing this on a new hard drive, it's all new, fresh installs. Is it still necessary to use Wrye Bash when mooding Fallout 4 in Vortex? I can play the game through Vortex using the FO4SE and a few mods but once I start getting conflicts among mods, and even though I use the tools in Vortex to load mods as suggested, it's a no go. Game still loads but I can't start playing a new game or continuing a saved game.

[showler]

Wrye Bash would be needed for a Bashed Patch for certain. I haven't used it for anything else in some time.

[jaydawg55]

While not a mod author, I have hundreds of hours experience using Vortex. I also used Wrye Bash as my mod manager with Skyrim Special Edition after it was introduced since Vortex was not available at that time and I didn't like NMM. Mod Organizer was another mod manager I liked and used back in those days, but I changed to Vortex in hopes of being able to use it for multiple games.

 

I don't use Wrye Bash anymore. Today as I understand it, Wrye Bash is mostly used to create a Bash patch to resolve conflicts between mod plugins and reduce the number of active plugins in a game's load order (since the patch replaces individual plugins). I have experienced good results with how Vortex manages mod conflicts for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim AE.

 

What version of Vortex are you using? It should be the most recent STABLE version. Don't use a Beta version unless you are helping test it for reliability. Based on personal experience, I have found that Beta versions can have broken features that make the game more crash prone. It is meant strictly for testing and finding bugs.

 

Which mods are you using? Some mods will not work well with others and some contain errors that need to be cleaned or avoided. Personally, I don't trust most mods that are more than 3 to 5 years old with no updates. If you have mods that break pre-combines it can make the game crash prone. Avoid mods like this or add mods that restore pre-combines to avoid crashes.

 

Did you try to test each mod individually? If you only have a few mods, you could disable them all then launch the game and save. Then activate one mod and re-launch. If the game crashes, then you have probably found the source of your problem. If no crash occurs, then activate another mod and re-launch again. Keep going until you find the one that causes the crash.

 

Did you check for LOOT messages that apply to your mod plugins? LOOT (Load Order Optimization Tool) functionality is built into Vortex. LOOT messages can alert you to any special instructions you need to follow for certain mods.

 

Are all required mods or files installed? Make sure any mods or files each mod depends on is installed and active or you will have problems.

 

Check out this article (below) and related mod. It can help you collect more crash related data that can be used to troubleshoot your problems.

 

FO4 - How To Install Buffout 4 And Resolve Most Common Crashes at Fallout 4 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)

 

Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

[Zanderat]

I use Vortex as my mod manager but use Wrye BASH to created a BASH patch, which is essential. For SSE, it no longer merges mods for FO4 and SSE as it it is not needed because of ESPFE and ESL files. Make sure you grab the latest from the Wrye BASH Discord. I use the latest WIP build, but the stable build is probably a better choice if you don't want to deal with a beta.

[HeyYou]

The bashed patch will merge leveled lists. At least, those that aren't script injected..... A must if you are using multiple mods that affect the same lists.