Skyrim mod manager choices

[CountFuzzball]

Hello everyone, I recently got Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas on the steam sale.

 

Are there any other choices out there for managing skyrim mods, other than NMM?

I dunno if Timeslip ever released a SMM (is he on the NMM project team, I wonder? ;) )?

 

Having used OBMM and FMM extensively to manage my mods in Oblivion/Fallout 3 (and eventually FMM to manage F:NV), I'm a bit wary of NMM's functionality in terms of how I have used OBMM and FMM in the past (Will only use NMM for Skyrim anyway).

My 'workflow' for it consists of extracting any un-omod/fomod'ed to a named folder location (i.e Unzipping foomod to "exported fomods/foomod") and just building the omod/fomod as per normal.

 

Is this more or less the same for NMM?

[Purr4me]

  On 12/27/2013 at 2:48 AM, CountFuzzball said:

Hello everyone, I recently got Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas on the steam sale.

 

Are there any other choices out there for managing skyrim mods, other than NMM?

I dunno if Timeslip ever released a SMM (is he on the NMM project team, I wonder? :wink: )?

 

Having used OBMM and FMM extensively to manage my mods in Oblivion/Fallout 3 (and eventually FMM to manage F:NV), I'm a bit wary of NMM's functionality in terms of how I have used OBMM and FMM in the past (Will only use NMM for Skyrim anyway).

My 'workflow' for it consists of extracting any un-omod/fomod'ed to a named folder location (i.e Unzipping foomod to "exported fomods/foomod") and just building the omod/fomod as per normal.

 

Is this more or less the same for NMM?

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/?

[ripple]

The purpose of a mod manager is just to manage the un/installation of mods. So either the NMM, Wrye Bash/BAINS, or the Mod Organizer (the best of all three, but has a steep learning curve), will be able to do that.

[CountFuzzball]

Thank you both for recommending MO, I'll definitely take a look at it.

 

I'm familar 'in theory' about what NMM does, just not too sure of the specifics of how mods for it should be packaged (i.e directory structure).

Doesn't NMM (in comparision to OBMM or FOMM) do something odd like have the .esp on one directory level, then in another directory beside it, any specific 'data' folders like meshes, textures, sounds etc?

 

For example:

 

Foomod 1.2(Directory)

|

Foomod.esp(File) - Foomod 1.2(Directory)

|

Meshes(Directory) - Textures(Directory)

[taleden]

I never quite trusted MO's "virtual" installation, but I've been quite happy with Wrye Bash. It handles overwrites and underwrites correctly every time that I've seen (which NMM doesn't, not sure about MO), it can tell you (to some extent) which mods would overwrite eachother, it can show you exactly which mods were loaded in which order in a given saved game. It can be confusing at first but once you learn how to use it, I think it's the most powerful of the bunch.

[ripple]

  On 12/27/2013 at 3:10 PM, CountFuzzball said:

I'm familar 'in theory' about what NMM does, just not too sure of the specifics of how mods for it should be packaged (i.e directory structure).

Doesn't NMM (in comparision to OBMM or FOMM) do something odd like have the .esp on one directory level, then in another directory beside it, any specific 'data' folders like meshes, textures, sounds etc?

 

I am not...quite sure what you are asking. The primary purpose of FOMOD installer is really to handle 'optionals' (like optional DLC support plugins and resource files that users can choose when they install the mod). It doesn't have to do with the directory structure of the mod files once they are installed, which all mod archives must conform to. If you are asking how to make a FOMOD installer for your mod that will work with NMM, this might help. I do seem to recall some OBMM and FOMM users would repackage simple mod archives they download with FOMOD installers (if this is what you are asking about), so they can selectively uninstall mods that contain conflicting resources without uninstalling resources from other installed mods. This is no longer necessary regardless of which of the three mod managers you use for Skyrim.

 

 

No offense taleden, but MO is definitely the most "powerful of the bunch." Wrye Bash is a solid mod manager for Skyrim, and you should continue to use it, but there is no reason not to "trust" MO. I've used it, and it works brilliantly to prevent the cluttering of the game data folder by mod resources that has plagued the modding of Bethesda's Gamebryo games since Oblivion, allow modders to maintain a 'vanilla installation' of the game so we can test mods in a 'base game environment', lets users change mod installation order -after- mods have been install (no longer any need to uninstall mods when testing and comparing mods with conflicting resource files, like body or texture replacers, and allows you to easily 'mix-match' stuff), and solves world hunger. Only thing is that some new users may have difficulty with the steep learning curve.

 

NMM is probably the least 'powerful' of all three, but is still a (now) decent mod manager and probably the easiest to learn. It's come a long way from the poop that motivated me to switch to MO in the first place, and NMM is what I currently use.

Edited December 27, 2013 by ripple

[CountFuzzball]

  On 12/27/2013 at 3:56 PM, ripple said:

 

I do seem to recall some OBMM and FOMM users would repackage simple mod archives they download with FOMOD installers (if this is what you are asking about), so they can selectively uninstall mods that contain conflicting resources without uninstalling resources from other installed mods. This is no longer necessary regardless of which of the three mod managers you use for Skyrim.

NMM is probably the least 'powerful' of all three, but is still a (now) decent mod manager and probably the easiest to learn. It's come a long way from the poop that motivated me to switch to MO in the first place, and NMM is what I currently use.

 

 

Ah yes, this is what I was asking. Cheers for that. I'll try both NMM and MO and see how which one I prefer.

Edited December 27, 2013 by CountFuzzball