Manual VS Managed Modding

[SK796]

Hi all,

 

I apologise if this is elsewhere on the forums but i am tired of looking on the internet for an answer.

 

Basically, I'm new into modding, and started out with Nexus Mod Manager to mod Fallout 4. Eventually i ended up with a lot of mods installed, and started to have problems with some mods not working - and even after looking into load orders and whatnot some mods just refused to be installed through NMM and got me frustrated.

 

so i did a complete uninstall and reinstall of Fallout 4 to start fresh and started compiling a list of all my desired mods. I've even looked into how to use FO4edit to merge plugins of similar mods.

 

 

Now the big question is, if i don't mind the time and effort of full manual installation of mods (as some mods require that anyway), what are the true benefits of a mod manager like Nexus mod manager other than 'it speeds things up'. I've also heard of Mod organiser (2?), but can't find any helpful information on what this is or if it's any good.

 

So which is the best way to mod....

• NMM (Nexus Mod Manager)
• Mod organiser
• Manual installation - which i am confident in doing now

 

Thanks in advance

[ShinraStrife]

NMM, although it is in beta, offers the easiest and (in my opinion) best way to install mods. You can click "download with NMM" on any mod page and it will open NMM and begin downloading through the application automatically. You can also see if your installed mods need updating (they will have a little triangle warning ion next to the version) Many mods also have installer scripts that allow you to pick and choose what parts of the mod you want installed so this is another reason why NMM is a great choice. NMM can also manage your mods for many other games, not just Fallout 4.

 

Manual installation is very dangerous. For large mods it would be extremely difficult to keep track of all the files you are copying into the Data directory, making removing these mods a painstaking task.

[DizzasterJuice]

I've been manually installing mods since Morrowind, way before there were any mod managers and I don't see any reason to change that. I always like to explore the individual files first before I even think about installing them. If I know exactly what a mod is going to do first I will know what to expect.

[DexesTTP]

Depending of the mod manager you use, you can have several advantages over manual installation :

• Speed.

You already know that, but with mod packages as the ones used by NMM, you can actually choose the install options for your mod in a matter of clicks, instead of having to copy exactly the files you need, often one by one, if you do it manually.

• Automatic list of mods

Using a mod manager stores all data about what you did install, and it is much easier to use one than to keep track of every file you put in your mod folder manually.

• Virtual folders

This is something pretty new and I'm actually not sure if it is already there for FO4, but NMM and MO handle virtual folders at least in Skyrim : basically they install each mod in a special "mod folder" and, when launching the game, "combine" all these folders into the game folder. This makes deleting a mod really easy (just ask the manager to remove the folder), and solving "easy" conflicts even easier (just say which folder replaces the last).

 

So, what are the advantages of installing mods manually ? I'd say none. It's slower, and you have nearly no easy way to track mods or to uninstall them. The only reason you'd want to learn to do it manually would be either for the challenge or if you want to start creating mods.

 

As for the manager, if I'm not mistaken MO isn't officially released for Fallout 4 yet. So I'd recommend using NMM, unless you want to help test MO.

[SK796]

Thanks, i appreciate the quick replies so far.

 

The reason I considered doing everything manually is that i would feel more in control - whereas NMM sometimes wouldn't let me set certain options or like i said would sometimes just not install the plugin for some reason - I just want to be careful with it all and don't want NMM to fail me again.

 

I do however plan on merging plugins with FO4edit as so many mods i'm interested in change similar things.

 

Fallout 4 is the only active game on my computer at the moment so i don't mind dedicating time to knowing everything that's going on and make sure i save backups of all mods so i know what to delete when uninstalling.

 

Any advice please, if going down the fully manual route?

[SK796]

just while this is still active, a quick quick question;

 

With regards to copying Mod folders over into the Data folder, should i just copy over the root folder or is it okay to put the end files in the appropriate folder if one already exists from another Mod?

 

or will the associated .esp get arsey if the folder name isn't exactly right?

 

e.g LaserWeapons and laserweapons (the capital letters are different)

[Boombro]

If you not using many big mods, not using NMM should be okay, but if you were using 103 and more mod with large data files. Use NMM.