fo4edit and LOOT dont recognize active mods, no plugins.txt file

[milkowskip]

I have a series of problems that may or may not be connected. Yesterday I had an issue with fo4edit where all my active mods (plus Fallout4.esm) were supposedly "nonexistent files", but instead it found DLCRobot which plugin I had deactivated on NMM. I thought that odd but just pressed 'invert selection' and continued modding and playing the game with no problem.

Then today, loading a save brings up the "this save relies on..." message but doesn't list anything missing. I ignored it (thinking it would go away once I make a new save as it usually does) and kept playing for a while without a problem. But when I build a wall in a very specific location in Sanctuary (in one corner of one of the homes) then attempt to save the game I get a CTD. I got the result multiple times- build an object in that one little spot, savecrash.

In trying to look up solutions, I found the suggestion to check if plugins.txt is read only. Turns out I dont even have such a file. I also ran LOOT and although it lists all my mods it doesn't recognize them as active or give any information on them. There is just a check on Fallout4 and DLCRobot.

I suspect some of this may be caused by the 1.5 update. I am at a loss as to what to do besides avoid building in that one spot and put up with the annoying error warning messages for now, but Im worried i may get more problems down the line.

[Sertith]

I hate to say this, because it's frustrating when people parrot stuff you already know and tried, but you are looking for the plugins.txt in the correct place, right?

[milkowskip]

I hate to say this, because it's frustrating when people parrot stuff you already know and tried, but you are looking for the plugins.txt in the correct place, right?

C drive / users/ me/ etc... not there

no plugins.txt anywhere at all. That may be why fo4edit and LOOT act like the mod plugins dont exist.

[raatorotta]

Are you sure it's right place? c:\users\(your username)\AppData\Local\Fallout4\plugins.txt

 

Open plugins.txt properties with right click, uncheck read-only cross,

open plugins.txt it, put * (star / asterisk) mark before every mod that isn't official.

 

Short example:

(I don't have any DLCs yet, so only official is Fallout.esm)

 

Fallout4.esm
*Homemaker.esm
*ArmorKeywords.esm
*CROSS_CosmeticFramework.esm

 

After you put * marks on all custom mods, close plugins.txt, open properties and click it to be read-only again.

 

Open fallout either with Fallout4.exe or f4se_loader.exe (if you have f4se), not with any mod manager.

 

This is how i made my game load all plugins with 1.5.

[Royhr]

It's weird but my pluggins.txt is not in the regular location c:\users\(my name)\AppData\Local like it should be. For me the Fallout4 folder is actually located in c:\users\(my name.desktop)\AppData\Local\Fallout4. Took me a bit to discover this when I was trying to check my pluggins.txt file. Not sure what I did or why it's located there but it is and it's working so I just left all like it was. So if you don't see the pluggin.txt where it generally is supposed to be then try looking in other user folders.

[milkowskip]

Well I finally found it.
First, no folders showed up under c/users/myname... but when I tried to create a new AppData folder there it offered to merge. So it exists but is not visible or accessible by normal means. I searched AppData in file explorer and it appeared, but opening it revealed "this folder is empty". I then searched "local", which is in AppData despite the folder saying it is empty. So I opened local/fallout4 and finally found plugins.txt, which the explorer could not find itself. (also, it is not listed as being located in c drive. It just says myname/appdata/local. not sure if that is just shorthand or actually matters)

In my plugins.txt, all the mods had * before them. I unchecked read only, deleted all the * , checked read only back on, and that solved the error messages. I don't know how or why any of this happened. Probably NMM related. I still have to test for that CTD on save and hope it's gone. Trying to get around all these issues just to play the game could earn me like 6 credits in college.


EDIT
[actually that only fixed the errors with fo4edit and loot not recognizing them properly. But it disables the plugins. When i reactivate them, plugins.txt automatically has the * back, and the error messages return. Also, after some experimenting I discovered that the crash doesn't happen 100% of the time and isn't triggered by building in one specific spot. It happens if I use a mod-added wall piece to fill the gaps in any sanctuary house walls. If I use vanilla wall pieces it doesn't occur. If I place mod wall pieces anywhere except inside the house walls, it doesnt occur. But placing a couple mod walls inside the sanctuary house walls gives me like a 70% chance of CTD upon saving. Plus I still get that blank "this save relies on" message. I don't know what to do anymore, it's slowly driving me nuts.]


EDIT 2
I determined that the wall piece causing the CTD was from Homemaker. I went to the mods nexus page and saw an updated version, downloaded it, and that got rid of the "this save..." warning message. It still causes the crash though. I guess Ill just use vanilla walls in those spots instead. My fo4edit and loot issue is still unresolved but maybe i have to update them too. Ill take another stab later.

Edited May 5, 2016 by milkowskip