Is it possible to have two seperate game folders?

[OccamsRaz0r]

I want to play the new Fallout London when it eventually releases after the dust has cleared from the "ModPocalypse: Next-Gen Edition". It will certainly require the Next-Gen Update and will not be backwards compatible. However I want to be able to have access to my old mods that have been broken by the new update and have either been abandoned or unlikely to be updated.

Can I have two instances of FO4 installed on the same computer but different drives?

[blackninja50]

You can buy the GOG version ($10 right now) and thus have two separate game installs, but if you use NMM CE there doesn't appear to be a way to manage mods for both game versions :s. Otherwise, I don't think you can have two installations of the same game. NMM CE does allow you to swap mod loadouts, but that may be a pain to get working.

[skannerz22]

you can have as many as your hard drive can store

[fraquar]

Think about it.   

By the time Fallout:London makes the changes they need to make to get their mod to play nice with the update it will be the middle of the summer.

That said, when it eventually does drop I'm all in.    No way on the planet I'll be jockeying between modded Fallout:Boston and unmodded Fallout:London.

These guys spent year of their own life. their own money trying to make this a thing - I want to experience what they created unmolested by other mods first.

[ZigmondWarden]

Vortex allows many different profiles give it a look

[Prinitor]

Few months ago I found following guide to do it. It worked for me. The guide is for Skyrim but I have used same instance for Fallout 4 as well.

You can duplicate the Vortex shortcut ( Do it by sending: C:\Program Files\Black Tree Gaming Ltd\Vortex Vortex.exe to desktop ), give the new shortcut a different name and edit the executable-line by  ( I pointed it outside appdata folder to C:\Vortex_2 by adding  --user-data c:\vortex_2  ( + made the folder I pointed  it )

"C:\Program Files\Black Tree Gaming Ltd\Vortex\Vortex.exe" --user-data c:\vortex_2

Example, by using --user-data %appdata%\vortex_steam you'll have a second vortex_steam instance. Each instance will have their separate settings including location of Skyrim, "Mod Staging Folder" and downloads. They'll also use their separate mod rules.

Note 1, it's possible to share /downloads/-directory between instances, just remember you need to re-name current /downloads/-directory before configuring on second instance and afterwards move mod-archives to the old /downloads/-directory.

Note 2, "Mod Staging Folder" while in theory can also be shared, in practice this is a bad idea, since each Vortex instance uses a random identifier for each mod and it's very unlikely same mod on different instance will have same identifier. Meaning, in practice you'll need to double disk-usage for installed mods.

Note 3, not sure then it comes to swapping between Gamepass and Steam, but you should check if plugins are disabled then switching between instances.

LINK TO ORIGINAL GUIDE:

 

 

Edited April 28 by Prinitor
Added link to original guide by Rattledagger