I need your help

[AndreiPulaMare]

So after reinstalling Skyrim, I tried the Gates to Sovngarde modpack, and after 3 nights of installation I am greeted with this problem, what should I do? The only thing that I could have guessed, was the fact that the plugins had no Metadata. I tried to reinstall them, but with no success. Please Help.

[WaRi0]

I hate to say it but it probably messed up when installing.  I would delete the collection from vortex and try again.

[AndreiPulaMare]

No, I think I'm done here! I have never seen so much cancer for modding a game. Thank God for Gabe Newell and Steam Workshop, and also for Curseforge, hell even for stuff like moddb for making downloading and installing mods convenient and easy. From the fact that I need to pay so that it will not take an entire aeon to download, to the bullshit mods that don't comply and f*#@ your game to the absolute pain in the ass for the entire application to actually function and detect problems and not f*#@ itself up, every time I used Vortex to mod Skyrim, and even other mods has been a pain. First in like 2022, when I had a few mods and it still barely chugged along, to that time that happened a few months ago this summer when I tried to replay the game and stumbled on a mod that f*#@ed everything up (I don't know which one, I think it was some utility mod, but I'm not sure), I couldn't figure s#*! out. Now with this crap, when I tried to streamline the whole package and sprinkle a few mods that I knew would work, and after waiting for 3 nights, because I needed to be vigilant to download them manually, I am greeted with this s#*!. And i can not reinstall it, because I downloaded in C and it was already full, and so to continue downloading I had to delete like 40 GBs of data out of 55, and I'm not waiting for 40 GBs to be redownloaded and take once more the shitty process of resolving 12k configuration and circles to just play the f*#@ing game.

Honestly, I don't care that the jannies will delete this thread, f*#@ Vortex for wasting my time, patience, and braincells to mod a few games.

Sincerely, a very polite user.

[AndreiPulaMare]

P.S.

The games that I have mentioned and tried to mod were Oblivion and Bannerlord. The first game didn't detect the mods downloaded, and the second I didn't actually play, because Steam Workshop became available. I wanted to be clear, but my point still stands.

 

[wfandrews]

Brings to mind a quote which I rather like; "A poor workman blames their tools."

[melvinius]

18 hours ago, wfandrews said:

Brings to mind a quote which I rather like; "A poor workman blames their tools."

No, Vortex IS actually garbage.  That's why I use Mod Organizer 2.  4,000 mods, stable Skyrim install.

[scorrp10]

Vortex is fine.  Used it for years with no problems.  And plenty of MO2 users crop up here with CTDs and other issues.

25k+ average/42k peak daily SSE players over last 30 days according to Steam.  I'd wager 90%+ of SSE players use mods and tons of people use Vortex - but number of people here with issues is tiny.

A mod manager is just a database that keeps track of mods, their load order and file conflict resolution.  Nothing else.   If one's setup blows up, it is about guaranteed to be because of a bad mod or mod incompatibility, not their choice of manager.  If you 4k modlist is stable in MO2, I'd wager it would be fine under Vortex as well. 

I would say that Vortex takes a bit more understanding with regards to conflict resolution, and maybe MO2 is a bit more newbie-friendly.   I am constantly messing around with my install, I tried MO2, and absolutely hated it VFS approach.

Now, I think that biggest OP problem here is getting that Gate to Sovngarde collection, which right at top shows 54GB size and only 70% success rate - meaning it fails for almost a third of people trying it.  AND it overhauls entire game.   This is like a beginner driver from rural Alabama deciding to brave rush hour traffic in Manhattan.   You wanna go modded?  Start with something more manageable.

[melvinius]

4 hours ago, scorrp10 said:

Vortex is fine.  Used it for years with no problems.  And plenty of MO2 users crop up here with CTDs and other issues.

25k+ average/42k peak daily SSE players over last 30 days according to Steam.  I'd wager 90%+ of SSE players use mods and tons of people use Vortex - but number of people here with issues is tiny.

A mod manager is just a database that keeps track of mods, their load order and file conflict resolution.  Nothing else.   If one's setup blows up, it is about guaranteed to be because of a bad mod or mod incompatibility, not their choice of manager.  If you 4k modlist is stable in MO2, I'd wager it would be fine under Vortex as well. 

I would say that Vortex takes a bit more understanding with regards to conflict resolution, and maybe MO2 is a bit more newbie-friendly.   I am constantly messing around with my install, I tried MO2, and absolutely hated it VFS approach.

Now, I think that biggest OP problem here is getting that Gate to Sovngarde collection, which right at top shows 54GB size and only 70% success rate - meaning it fails for almost a third of people trying it.  AND it overhauls entire game.   This is like a beginner driver from rural Alabama deciding to brave rush hour traffic in Manhattan.   You wanna go modded?  Start with something more manageable.

You have some good points.  And maybe Vortex is better now than it used to be.  I used Nexus Mod Manager and Vortex back in the early days and they weren't good, maybe just due to the large number of games on the nexus and the limited development resources for the mod manager.  Mod Organizer 2 has been a reliable tool for a long time.

A mod manager IS a bit more than what you mention, the folder virtualization system is a big part of MO2 and if you don't understand it, you'll have issues.  There's essentially a layered priority effect at play on numerous levels and you absolutely have to know what folders outputs end up in or which folders take priority or you'll be massively confused about what's going on.  I don't know if Vortex has this now or not.

Absolutely agree on large modpacks.  Actually, I've never used a mod collection and fix and patch everything to play nicely together myself.  Any kind of Skyrim modding is going to be more involved than modding other games.  Skyrim is deeply flawed at the engine level and yet also the most moddable and probably most modded game of all time.  It's going to take some study and effort to successfully mod it extensively.

[scorrp10]

Both Vortex and MO2 keep unpacked mod files separately in their staging directories,  and use priority 'layering' when multiple mods try to provide the same file.   I.e. CBBE  contains textures\actors\character\female\femalebody*.dds files.    When I install Fair Skin Complexion that contains same-path files,   Vortex asks me to decide the priority.   If I say that FSC comes after CBBE, then FCS file take precedence, and will be the ones deployed.

The prime difference is that MO2 is a provider for a Projected File System, so it deploys the files virtually, whereas Vortex deploys via hardlinks, which means the deployed files appear under Skyrim Data directory permanently, even when Vortex is not running.   I strongly favor Vortex approach for MY needs.