Fallout 3 GOTY Vortex Utter Confusion to an Old Man

[RedNekedDynamite]

So I am new to PC gaming.  I have only ever had console systems because I can not game with a keyboard and mouse to save my life.  Friends encouraged me to get a console controller for my PC to enjoy, what they call, the best way to play games.  So that is what I am trying to do with Fallout 3 GOTY.  I beat this game years ago like a lot of people their first time with it, but now I hear there are Mods I can use for a whole new experience only available on PC.  And that is why I am here.  After reading a lot of different pages on which way to go and what Mods to choose I came to Nexus.  I tried using something called FOMM that seemed like it was going to work but kept saying that my script editors were not being loaded and I couldn't figure out how to fix it.  The terminology you kids use in some of these forums to work around things was way above my head.  So then I tried this Vortex but it keeps telling me that I am Missing Masters.  And I searched for the files ,on my PC, it is asking for and they are where they should be along with the found ones.  But Vortex will not find them.  That FOMM had no problem finding them.  The only thing I can think of is that Nexus only has the Fallout 3 game to choose from.  And not the GOTY version I have on Steam.  And you are not able to manage DLCs since they are not on the list.  I also did see that they offer a possible way for you to add a game that is not yet supported but two paragraphs in and I had to leave that to the author named Pickysaurus.

So, Vortex keeps asking for the DLCs and I do not know how to show them to it.  I can not code in a new game link to manage so it will look for my DLCs .esm   How is this site gonna have Mods for DLCs to a game that the Mod Manager can not find in the same location as all the other files it can?  I am Utterly Confused. 

Does anyone have a solution besides give up and go back to consoles...LOL

[AaronOfMpls]

Have you asked the Vortex Support forum here, or browsed its documentation (also linked there)?  I don't use Vortex myself, so I don't know its functions and quirks.

Otherwise, worst case, you could try using Mod Organizer 2, if FOMM and Vortex aren't working right for you.  In my experience,* MO2 has no trouble finding the DLCs in my games' Data folders.  Though it likely works a bit differently: it keeps mods in their own folders outside my game's actual Data folder, and uses a virtual file system to "trick" the game into seeing them in the Data folder.  (Which makes adding, removing, and swapping mods all the easier.)

 

* I use MO2 with most of my Bethesda games (Skyrim LE & SE, Oblivion), though I use OpenMW's built-in mod manager for Morrowind.  I also used MO1 (its predecessor) with Fallout 3 and New Vegas on my old PC, but I haven't set MO2 up for them on my current PC yet.  (I likely will when I want to play them again, though.)

[RedNekedDynamite]

No I have not tried any of that because yesterday was my first time on this Forum or even trying Moding...lol I had no idea where to go to even begin looking for answers here so I just threw out a Hail Mary.  I truly appreciate the response.  This is an awesome start for me.   I will definitely look into all of this.  

[Skidgeroonie]

If you can navigate to the Dashboard on Vortex, you should see a tile for Fallout 3 under "Recently Managed" - on the top right of that tile will be 3 dots. If you click that you'll get a bunch more options, but what you'll want is "Manually Set Location" - if you have FO3 GOTY installed, all you have to do is click through the folders until you're in a folder called "Fallout 3 goty" - the directory should look a little something like:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 3 goty

 

That should hopefully fix your Masters issue (and just to confirm for you so it helps you understand a bit more - if Vortex says there are missing masters, it means there are plugins/mods that rely on another mod that doesn't seem to be installed. So this tutorial is assuming the missing masters are the DLC because Vortex can't find them.)

Hopefully this helps a bit.

[RedNekedDynamite]

AaronofMpls and Skidgeroonie.  You have both been more than helpful and it is truly appreciated.