Review

[Dark1Nova]

I posted this in a facebook group I am in for skyrim mods. Posting it here as well for feedback.

 

Vortex Review:

After having a chance the past couple days to install mods and try out the new mod manager from Nexus i've finished my final thoughts on it. Instead of making a huge long post, i'll just simply leave some pros and cons

Pros:
1. Easy switch for NMM users to move to Vortex
2. Common tools such as FNIS and TES5Edit are easily added and configured within the launcher. Even beginners to adding mods should have zero issue running them.
3. Simplistic Interface very easy to switch between games you are managing mods for.
4. A semi virtual file system is in use. The mod files are kept in the roaming profile directory, and hard linked into the skyrim Data folder.
5. Non-destructive uninstall of mods. If you uninstall a mod that overwrote files, the hardlink is updated to point to the previous one.

 

Cons:
1. Individual loose file overwriting rules are not available. Mod order is determined by install.
You can rearrange ESP load order, but the mod files themselves are installed overtop previous mods.
You can control BSA files via rule sets, but lets be honest, over 95% of the mods on nexus are loose files anyway

2. Much less control over managing your game and load order. While rules are a nice feature, the simplicity of just dragging and moving items around is not available.

3. You cannot use MO alongside Vortex. If you install mods with Vortex that are also installed with MO, and you launch MO, everything will work fine....until you uninstall the mod in Vortex. MO will complain about not being able to find files. You have to uninstall and then reinstall the mod with MO and relaunch it for it to see the files are no longer in the skyrim directory. (This is caused by MO scanning the data directory, seeing the hard links and using that instead of the virtual directory) ***This point is not so much for actual release, but something that people testing should watch out for.

 

Final Conclusion:
For the everyday user that doesn't change their mods out a lot, or want a point click use type software. Vortex should be on your priority list to get when it finally releases.
NMM users should upgrade as well.

If you prefer to have far greater control over your mod management, I would recommend you stay with MO until loose base file management comes out for Vortex. When this becomes a thing, i see myself switching, but not until then.

[HellKnightX88]

 

1. Individual loose file overwriting rules are not available. Mod order is determined by install.

You can rearrange ESP load order, but the mod files themselves are installed overtop previous mods.

You can set up overwrite rules on a per mod basis (you can tell Vortex that you want mod A to overwrite the files from mod B regardless of your install order). You can't do it on a per file basis.

[HalfLazy]

Uhm.. I know that this is your report and not a discussion so, first of all, let me say that respect your opinion (It's your opinion after all not mine), said so I think that someting about your analysis is incorrect (or I've understood them incorrectly).

 

Yes, the individual file overwrite isn't available (yet, and I'm not sure, personally, that should be [but this is just me]), anyway the MOD order isn't determinated by install order: you could set a rule that override the install order indipendently from which mod activated first and which last.

 

I'm not sure to have understand your statement about ESP and BSA.

 

Last, using two different mod manager always create mess, MO and NMM were faily "compatible" because they use two REALLY different method, but using both on the same game was never advisable.

[b3snik]

I read somewhere in the forum that resolving conflicts on a per file basis is being worked on. In the meantime I am manually choosing what files to use before deploying my mods.

Let's say I want to use Mod A and Mod B that have a file conflict. I install both Mods and then go into the loosers' folder and delete the file that I don't want to get used. After that I deploy the Mods. This is mainly for Mods that have to be lower in the load order but shouldn't overwrite any file from other mods.
I know, this isn't perfect, but at the moment this is my workaround until this functionality gets added

[HellKnightX88]

I read somewhere in the forum that resolving conflicts on a per file basis is being worked on. In the meantime I am manually choosing what files to use before deploying my mods.

Let's say I want to use Mod A and Mod B that have a file conflict. I install both Mods and then go into the loosers' folder and delete the file that I don't want to get used. After that I deploy the Mods. This is mainly for Mods that have to be lower in the load order but shouldn't overwrite any file from other mods.

I know, this isn't perfect, but at the moment this is my workaround until this functionality gets added

Alternatively if you don't want to use the file and thus avoid a reinstall just rename it to something like filename.bak.

[Dark1Nova]

 

 

1. Individual loose file overwriting rules are not available. Mod order is determined by install.

You can rearrange ESP load order, but the mod files themselves are installed overtop previous mods.

You can set up overwrite rules on a per mod basis (you can tell Vortex that you want mod A to overwrite the files from mod B regardless of your install order). You can't do it on a per file basis.

 

This doesn't work, as i set up a rule for two mods to overwrite each other, yet the outcome is not as expected. As seen in the screenshot below, the hardlinked file that exists in the skyrim data directory does not get updated to show the fact that the file i said to be used is in fact used. It links them based on actual install order, not rule set "install order".

 

AAAAA was installed first, then BBBBB. Rule was set so that AAAAA would overwrite BBBBB....yet the B version is what is showing up.

 

[HellKnightX88]

Did it still do that after redeploying?

[HalfLazy]

Redeploy and, in case, Close Vortex and reopen it, sometimes after setting rules it doesn't get updated until a restart

[Dark1Nova]

Already did that, issue persisted. Again this was a simple review of an Alpha software.

[HalfLazy]

Yes of course, nothing to say about, in any case it's your opinion, nothing to argue :)

 

It's just that I did a similar test and worker right, so I'm trying to understand Why you get an error and I don't, so we could give a more complete report about this issue