Generalized (Non-Specific) Mod Order Rules

[WolfireRaf]

I realize all, or at least most of the mods come with readme's, and these are often quite helpful. The problem I am having is I'm not quite seeming to grasp how the mod ordering in general works. I've read through a ton of stuff and thought I saw something about it once but for the life me I can't remember where or find it now. Is there somewhere that lists a generalized list of how the mod ordering works. I mean besides the obvious like Load all ESM's first before esp's and always make sure that any mod a mod is part of is loaded before that mod and such. For example, I notice the group thing in FOMM and have been trying to use it to help me out a bit but sometimes its more confusing too. Is that why not many, if any of the mods come with groupings allready set? But what I'm basically asking is there a place where it shows me to load all environmentals at this stage of the load order and all mods with only esp's in this section of the load order (thats a poor one I know but I meant for the more simpler mods), then mods dealing with companions at this stage of the order\, mods containing replacement textures and meshes in this part of the load order, etc. Part of the reason I am a bit confused is that I generally see that the mods with the major changes to many different parts of the game tend to say to load as far towards the bottom as possible but then it says you have to load all of the ones that go with that after it and if you have two or three main ones like AWOP / WMX / UNHV / FOOK and Project Nevada, my own particular case, this gets just a might confusing. I don't expect anyone to hold my hand through this as I know it doesn't work that way but any general help for a fairly new person just getting into modding would be greatly appreciated. Yes I know and have the BOSS and LOST NVSE etc but I would like to try to get them as close to being right before using any of those so that there will be minimal work after running them as possible as they can be sometimes a bit confusing themselves, at least I find that for NVSE in particular. I will read more of that now that I found what looks to be a good help file / manual for that though as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thanks in advance , from an old fart that is trying to keep up with all you younger minds out there.

[deu58]

The way it works is the mod that loads last is the information that gets loaded into the game. That is why many of those read me's you mention will say " Make sure my mod is the last mod in your load order" Where problems really start as far as missing mod content in a game is when two or more mods make different changes to the exact same item or to a global game setting.

Each mod is read by your PC in its entirety and that information is added. Then the next mod is read and the new information that is in that mod is added. If part of that new information involves an item that the previous mod changes the new information over writes the previous mods edits and they do not show up in the game.

As an example mod A and mod B both change the player carry weight.

 

mod A = 2500 lbs

mod B = 1000 lbs

 

In the load order B is last so 1000 lbs shows in the game and A's changes are never used. For A to work you would have to change your load order to,

mod B = 1000 lbs

mod A = 2500 lbs

Now mod A is last and the 2500 lb weight will be used and B is ignored. The question you asked seem to sound like can I load the group from mod A and the items from mod B via choice? No not really. The closest you can come to something like that is juggling the load order around but you are going to lose some changes from one mod or the other if they both make changes to the same items and globals.

 

The best tool to use with FOMM is FNVedit.

 

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34703

 

FNVedit will show what mods are in conflict with each other and what items are being overridden. There is a manual for it. The manual is huge but the pages dealing with how basic conflict detection works is just a couple of pages and there is a table of contents.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38413