Any manual mod sorter apps out there?

[RowanSkie]

I like using LOOT, though sometimes my mod orders goes way worse and some items don't appear at all due to "optimization" (no offense LOOT users).

 

I also like to categorize each of my mods, but then famous mod order guides whack me out and causes me to panic. And installing/updating mods as well. NMM has a nice categorization, but it's making me dizzy sort out plugins. (Does Armor and Weapons come after Locations?)

 

Anyone have some sort of mod sorter app that goes like, it will have some sort of pre-made list and then you assign plugins to the list, and the app will give you a load order from the list you created?

 

Also, if there isn't, can someone link me up to how to make a batch/javascipt/C++ file that does that? And also some tutorials on scripting as well.

Edited November 9, 2017 by RowanSkie

[PeterMartyr]

Just use LOOT user customized meta data capabilities.

 

Next time learn how to use LOOT, before you post. There way more to it than just one click sorting.

 

Use it's Advance Features!!!

[RowanSkie]

How do I do that? I guess filters?

[Valyn81]

How do I do that? I guess filters?

I have known about the custom data but I never bothered to learn it. It is rather simple though.

 

Set priority, load after, requires, and a few other things I have not bothered to learn yet. It has helped be quite a bit with making mods and testing them but needing to make sure the load order is done correctly.

 

Other than that use the in game Mod load order sorting or Mod Organizer*.

 

 

Note: the Mod Organizer is epic in that it does not corrupt your data folder, and you have extreme load order customization for both the data files and the ESPs. And, While it looks intimidating it is rather easy to learn. It is by far the best Organizer I have ever used.

 

We will see how Vortex turns out.

 

 

===============================

 

Just use LOOT user customized meta data capabilities.

 

Next time learn how to use LOOT, before you post. There way more to it than just one click sorting.

 

Use it's Advance Features!!!

@PeterMartyr

DON'T BE AN ASS! As I am sure you still are about other things, You were just as ignorant of the features in LOOT at some point and only learned it because you had need.

[montky]

I think you will find

GameModul's NMLister framework handy in this regard...

you could, hypothetically,

hand that to your AGI/GAH or QNN,

and ask that to evaluate combinatorial mod orders that way.

 

then, your favorite modders and mod reviewers could use

a QR/ Q-Dotler system, to share mods and mod-order indices

 

it takes a lan-club distributed computing network a little while, around 9 hours or so.

 

alternately, you could combine it with say,

Alexa, Majestic or Google Analytics and meta-scrape that together,

much less reliable of a kludge.

 

I'm hoping the folks who worked on

"visual similarity reference index"

will work on 'mod load order optimization' as a backburner project,

they did great stuff!

[RowanSkie]

I think you will find

GameModul's NMLister framework handy in this regard...

you could, hypothetically,

hand that to your AGI/GAH or QNN,

and ask that to evaluate combinatorial mod orders that way.

Â

then, your favorite modders and mod reviewers could use

a QR/ Q-Dotler system, to share mods and mod-order indices

Â

it takes a lan-club distributed computing network a little while, around 9 hours or so.

Â

alternately, you could combine it with say,

Alexa, Majestic or Google Analytics and meta-scrape that together,

much less reliable of a kludge.

Â

I'm hoping the folks who worked on

"visual similarity reference index"

will work on 'mod load order optimization' as a backburner project,

they did great stuff!

Oh, wow, that's really great, thanks.

 

Hmm... no offense, but who else knows what the acronyms mean?

 

Well... looks like I need to get some items to get myself prepared then.

[Sharlikran]

The syntax for LOOT is simply Yaml syntax. It's used in things other then LOOT like a Ruby based web compiler I just started using called Jekyll. Which put another way is like saying LOOT speaks this syntax and the syntax is globally used in many programs. Web browsers use HTML syntax and XML syntax but many other programs use XML also like NMM for its all in one installers.

 

To know what specific rules or syntax you need to add then you would look at the LOOT documentation to find out which keywords are available for use, using the Yaml syntax. Which using my XML and NMM example, to make NMM install a mod you need to first know XML syntax but then you have to know which keywords are used by NMM to make it install the files correctly.

 

Before you go researching all that though you should actually try the GUI out for LOOT. It adds the Yaml syntax to the user rules like BOSS did so you only need to add Yaml to a file if it's not covered by the GUI.

 

Now as Valyn81 was saying, you could sort of group things together and then figure out where the conflicts are. That is a great idea except by design, there are no groups in LOOT. The best thing is simply, don't panic. Your game does not care about how your mods are grouped. In fact with ESL files they now load last, always because they are in memory running now a FE or 254. So you can have mods now from 00 or Fallout4.esm up to FD 253. That's all the game cares about.

 

The other thing Valyn81 mentioned is that after you group things (again not available) then determine the conflicts. Groups or not you still determine conflicts the same way. You would never load a massive list of mods. You load the mods you think might conflict and see if anything does conflict. If it does then you add the metadata.

 

So say ModA.esp, ModB.esp and ModC.esp are in this virtual group in your mind of mods that alter the same things. Load only those three mods and xEdit will automatically load the masters so you end up with only what is going to conflict. If you determine that ModB.esp conflicts with ModC.esp and therefore must load after ModC.esp then you add that to the after tab in LOOT. Now here is the great part, you just go to the after tab and do that. No editing of any Yaml syntax anyway. You click the three vertical dots, then the "+" and add a file name.

 

You would go to ModB because that is the mod that has to load after some other mod. LOOT asks for a file name so you add ModC.esp because you determined that ModB.esp has to load after ModC.esp. As you type the file name LOOT will suggest the exact mod name you need. Then click the small disk icon to save the change. Then that mod will have a small icon by it that indicates it has a user rule. If at some point you make a mistake you can clear the metadata from the GUI.

 

Note, there is no Before data because ModC.esp before ModB.esp is the same as ModB.esp after ModC.esp, so that would be redundant.

 

Once you set those rules then LOOT will sort to eliminate the conflicts per your user rules. It will not group things up in tidy little categories that make things look visually ascetic, which is my pet peeve in regards to how people perceive LOOT sorting. If you have 250 mods installed, or any number such as 50, if you ever were to load all of them and apply a filter to show only the conflicts most of the records and mod names will become hidden. Because the vast majority of mods add new records. New records never conflict.

 

Note about the after metadata. Once LOOT sorts the mods load in the order needed. Mods with after metadata do not load immediately after the mod indicated. They simply load "somewhere" after. This is because some mods alter more the one record type and could require that they load sooner or later then other mods. That is all determined by LOOT.

 

The conflicts occur when multiple mods alter the same records. The typical conflicts are with vanilla records. The others are implicit or explicit dependencies. Implicit meaning that someone didn't want to add the master to their mod but copied a record from another mod anyway to create some kind of compatibility between the two. I don't like it when authors do that because it makes it harder to find conflicts.

Edited November 11, 2017 by Sharlikran