Vortex Alpha Release

[AdministrativeSmile]

Does this include virtual install of the mods without touching the data folder?

[Ethreon]

In response to post #57589691. #57598431, #57599596, #57600696, #57607326, #57607936, #57608341, #57609276, #57619976, #57663521 are all replies on the same post.

HelelBenShahaar wrote: At first glance, I can only repeat what I said to SirSalami: this thing frightens me.

I can't really understand anything I see there. Doesn't look very user friendly, all things considered.

I never used Mod Organizer, but I tried Wrye Bash for a short time. Looking back at them, their interfaces looked ancient as hell. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not good in my experience. I never actually got used to WB and I don't think I'll ever be using MO.

However, Vortex's interface looks too modern. Looks more aesthetic than functional to be honest. This may not sit well with some users. Doesn't sit well with me, that's for sure.

To put it the best I can, as far as interfaces were concerned: WB and MO looked like Windows 95 and Windows 2000, respectively. NMM looks like Windows XP. Vortex looks like Windows 10.

I have a feeling that this was a too large of a leap from NMM's simple and very useful mechs. Like you skipped the metaphorical Windows 7.

Highly unlikely that my voice will mean a bloody thing in a long run, but at least I said what was on my soul.

Anqayas wrote: I agree. It feels weird, hard to use.

r0ck7y wrote: i think the whole interface will change after they leave the alpha as they said somewhere else before that's they haven't started on the interface yet and it will be planned later when Vortex is stable and ready. still not sure if that's what they meant or i understood it wrong.

Valyn81 wrote: sound to me like they are never satisfied. "Its old and too simple" to "I don't like xp", now "it is too modern and hightech!" Please, stop being an old fart and learn to adapt.

MO is super simple if you take a little time to learn it; NMM was SUPER simple and cause more issues than it resolved; Vortex should be a happy mid between them or simply a new and inventive way to make our gaming experience easier.

RadioactiveStud wrote: I had trouble understanding at first too but once you get used to it, it is great.

bigd4450 wrote: unfortunately there are a lot of old fart's out here, (I proudly count myself as one, 60 years old really soon). XP was good, a nice step from 98. windows 8 sucked, too big of a change, too much to try to learn for the sake of ... aesthetics. at this point 10, a decent mix, still not really liked. I just want to push a button and have it work, don't want to relearn how to do something that was really simple a couple of months ago for the sake of ... aesthetics?

GeneralJohn wrote: I don't understand what people find hard about using it - I mean if you just sit there and look at it for a minute or two, it's all very self explanatory, I understood how to use it within a few minutes...

KeltecRFB wrote: And easier to use than MO and MO2. People are caught up that since Tannin developed it, it is like MO. This is not even close, MOs were much more involved than this. We will see if it handles TTW as good as FOMM or MO did.

KeltecRFB wrote: Ok, now I see the MO'ism but don't fear them. It actually helps you make your game more stable once you figure how to use them. Look up the conflicts (aka dependencies) at the mod's website and load accordingly. There may be some trial and error. As for those with no masters, just disable those. Make sure to fix loose files. I am thinking for small load orders, you can be a novice and install Vortex but the larger the NMM install is, you may want to be more intermediate level or start from scratch installing your new game.

I am still working on getting me install working.

bigd4450 wrote: I realize that any comment here is like a fart in the wind, no one really notices. From what I'm reading it seems as though a lot of the Nexus community would rather spend the first hour or so of your gamming time checking load order, dependencies, and what ever the words/actions that seem to have to happen when YOU down load mods. Personally I would rather not. One button, activate, two minutes later I'm in game. Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about in most of your post, and I really don't want to know, I don't want to spend the next six months trying to figure out what your talking about or how to implement these things. Push button and play, an occasional mod that didn't meet my expectations, delete, and on with the game. Over 950 times, occasionally run LOOT, I have no idea what LOOT does, I just run it because someone told me it was a good idea. I don't want to delve into the inner workings and I don't want to know how it works. Push button, play game like I do now with NMM.

Any person modding should spend time making sure the mods will work correctly and not expect a plug n play experience which was never really a thing with mods for bethesda's games.

[haguerepairguy]

In response to post #57665311.

Azrubel wrote: Oh jee! I'd love to test Vortex, but sincerely I'm not confident enough of my ability to give proper feedback.
Anyways, I will be following its development and in a future, more complete and less risky release I'll happily test it. I'm really curious about how many improvements it will bring compared to the actual NMM beta.
Good work, people, all my kudos to you!

While there are still bugs, it's actually really stable, or at least for fallout 4. I haven't branched out to test new vegas, nor skyrim yet but I'm going to begin that today and tomorrow. I'm really impressed, as I thought there would be a lot more errors and kinks to work out. lol

[haguerepairguy]

In response to post #57664826.

kranky1260 wrote: Hi,
I have imported my mods from MO and activated them but they still do not show in the plugins and get the error "Mods can't be deployed".
Did fresh install of Vortex (default install location and selective install location) than download fresh mods from Nexus, installed and activated them and still they do not show in plugins and get the same error "Mods can't be deployed".
Ran Fallout 4 and still no mods are active.

Running Win 10 x64, 32gb memory. Any ideas??. Thanks.

I had that happen, and found out partly that I had fallout 4.exe running. I ended the task, and it worked like a charm after.

[haguerepairguy]

In response to post #57637336. #57642081, #57653221 are all replies on the same post.

mcdanielskh wrote: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the plugin order correct.
Sort seems to do nothing at all. for example . Unofficial Skyrim SE patch.exp needs to come after Lanterns of Skyrim_All in One-Main.esm.
I know this and Vortex knows this, there is a rule already passed to Vortex in Unofficial Skyrim patch that states that it must load after Lanterns of Skyrim. However, Lanterns of skyrim is all the way down at Load order 13 and will not move ???

Edit:
now the DLC esm's are out of wack and will not sort either!!! I'm really starting to hate Vortex. I figured out MO in like 15 min. Its been 2 hours just make rules trying to get the plugin order of a few mods right. I could have fixed this in 10 sec with MO. Not happy so far.

Edit:
Somehow Vortex just lost its mind. I reloaded and now it seems to be sorting correctly again. I'm tired, will add a few more mods tomorrow and see if it loses its mind again.

sopmac45 wrote: Go to the Mods tab and you will see either on Lanterns of Skyrim or Unofficial Patch, a red bolt beside the dependency; click on that red bolt and it will pop up a small window with the files that conflict with the Mod red bolt you clicked before.
Now, here is a bit confusing but I figured out I guess : the mod listed has a square box on the left; if you click the dropping arrow on that little box, you will see : No rule, load before, load after, conflict with .... if you know for example ( and you need to read the mod description and this is now SUPER important for every single player to do before installing mods ) that Unofficial Patch must be loaded after Lanterns, then on that box you need to click : load after and save it. You are done.

Now, go to the plugins tab and sort your load order. Then you can run LOOT and you will see on the list of load order provided by LOOT, that Lanterns of Skyrim loaded first and Unofficial Patch loaded after.
Also, the list will be showed on the Plugins tab inside Vortex.

I do like the way Vortex helps you to do this the right way, but I do admit, that there is a learning curve. I am not a master modder nor a programmer, and I was able to figure it out, so if I can, you definitely can my friend. NOTE HERE : for those newbies that download 250 + mods at the same time, let me tell you, you are not doing it easier for you in the first place. Second, quantity is not better than quality. Third, the more mods you have in your load order, the more chances to have conflicts between your mods. Fourth, the more mods you download, the most difficult will be for you to fix dependencies thru Vortex. My recommendation is not to download ( try not to unless you know what are you doing ) two mods that does the same thing. For example, do not download mods that do the same thing. I use only Vivid Weathers + one ENB. I have seen load orders with Vivid Weathers, CoT, etc, etc, etc ... and IMHO, mods that do the same will conflict to each other and it will be most difficult to fix. If you are a newbie, and you want to use Vortex, download a few mods first, let' say : 25. Try to fix dependencies and once you get use to and learn it, download the rest of your mods and go from there. I am not saying that NMM was much better because you could download 250, drag and drop, run LOOT and your game was perfect. Wrong. The point is not to install two mods doing the same thing so it will be much easier for you to fix dependencies in Vortex. Once you know it, go ahead and download 1000 if you want ... lol ... ( just a joke ) ... but for beginners, I do not think it is a good idea to download/install 200 mods in Vortex ( a program you never used before ) and try to fix your mod dependencies. Go step by step and do yourself a favor. But again, it is a free world, if you like headaches, then go for and don't forget to take Tylenol ... lol ... :)


Also, another thing that you can do is to go to the Plugins tab and move the Unofficial Patch under Lanterns. A window will pop up. In the first field, choose from the list, the Unofficial Patch, on the second field choose Load After and in the third field choose Lanterns of Skyrim, click on Add ( this means that whatever you did, will be added to your load order and it will be permanent regardless if you use LOOT. That change only will be undone if you go re-arrange the load order using the same procedure. Save it before you close this window !!

Vortex will automatically tell you ( it will pop up a message in red on the right top corner ) if there are errors in your dependencies. Click on More ( on that red window that will pop up ) and Vortex will list the mods that have been arranged wrongly. Go to the first mod, ( under Mods tab ) and click on the red bolt and fix it. You need to either use No rule, load before, load after or conflict till Vortex does not give you any error. Once you fix it, the red bolt will turn to green, meaning that the conflict has been resolved.
Last night was the first time I dealed with this and I was able to fix all of my errors.
I can vouch now that I like this method of fixing dependencies much better than NMM. Here is the great confusion : in NMM we were able to drag and drop any mod in our load order and that specific procedure was very simple and beautiful ... BUT, BUT and BUT .... that simple procedure did not fix the dependencies of our mods. To fix this, you would have to use SSEEdit or the CK and manually move those red records to the right place and let me tell you ... I screwed up a couple of times trying to do this and creating patches for my game because it was time consuming and very difficult for me to figure out exactly which records to move and which one to leave. Another thing : I have not seen the video by Gopher. There is one but it does not explain all these things. I think that he is still working on it ... point is, I tried last night to figure it out by myself, so do you believe that I am a genius ? No I am not !! Otherwise, I will be working for NASA probably ... lol ... no, I am not a genius and I do have the same level of intelligence of the majority ( my intelligence coefficient is 95 so I am normal .. if you have more than a 100 -up to 130 I guess it is- then you are more intelligent than the great majority of people ) so my point is that Vortex is simple and the only thing you need to do, is to try it till you get used to and have fun in the process. Don't fight it for the sake of yourself ! I am a normal person but I like to learn and I am not a child expecting everybody to teach me everything. I already passed that stage of my life. I like to investigate, ask questions to those that are more knowledgeable than me, read and do things by myself. If I can do it, definitely you can do it.

The great difference with Vortex is that you do not have to go inside the CK or SSEEdit to manually move those red records anymore. The only thing you need to do is what I explained you above and Vortex will continue advising you there are errors till you try a different dependency setup and that is super much easier than what we had to before in NMM. With Vortex, we do not have to move records, just mods by choosing : no rule, load before, load after or Conflict with ... it is much simpler and if you handled before fixing dependencies via CK or SSEEdit, you know exactly what I am saying here. We can also drag and drop and Vortex will automatically tell you to setup your rule in relation to that drag and drop you did. So, it does allow you to drag and drop and at the same time, setup a rule between those two mods in a fly. Much better than NMM. NMM allows us to drag and drop .. BUT .. it does not advise you to fix conflicts or setup a dependency rule with that move. You have to go inside CK or SSEEdit to fix it manually and that is a PAIN IN THE BUTT. With Vortex : forget about moving records. Just drag and drop and set up a dependency rule. Done.
If you are a player that never dealed with patches and fixing dependencies using either the CK or SSEEdit, then, do not worry. Use Vortex in the way I tried to explain above and after some time ( I do not think that you will be trying more than 5 hours to be honest ) you will get used to and you will fix your dependencies.

Bottom line : once you deal with your dependencies, all those records that were conflicting with other mods, will be fixed automatically by Vortex. Before, it was simply a pain in the butt. I said before that I am not a master modder or a programmer, but I was able before to do my own custom mods, patches and fixed dependencies by just reading, investigating, asking questions and trying using SSEEdit. I learned a bit but that bit is helping me now to understand my load order much better than before. If you do not believe what I said, go and try to fix your dependencies with your mods setup in NMM. Use SSEEdit and try to fix all those red records and I can guarantee you that you will get a headache and most likely, your game will CTD.

Vortex is more simple and powerful than you can imagine. Just be patient, try and after a while you will be very happy. I am not going back to NMM and for those that continue thinking that dragging and dropping mods resolved conflicts before, they are wrong in the first place and need to move on and evolute by embracing Vortex. It is simpler, faster and more powerful than NMM. I do not have any experience with MO so I cannot compare Vortex with it.
But this is free world, if you do not like, then don't use it. One day, sooner than later you will be back ( like the Terminator ... lol ... ) to it because Vortex is now and probably for a very long time, the most simple+faster+powerful mod programmer out there and it will get better once LOOT is feeded by modders. :)

mcdanielskh wrote: sopmac45

You did a great job of explaining a few things that many may not have figured out already. I understand what you are saying, but you don't understand what I was saying. I did not have a red bolt on anything. The dependency rules were already made. However, Vortex was not moving them. No matter, its working now. Had to Reload Vortex and it started working as you described, but for 2 hours I tinkered around with rules and the drag method that opens a rule as you explained but it would not move.
I am hoping this was a one time thing. Also I thought the DLC ESM's were not sorting correctly either. However, I was wrong. I turned on the load order columb to see the actual load order after sorting, and the ESM's had not moved. Now I realise that looking at the load order will show the proper load order visually for esp's but not esm's. ESM show no load order in that column. However, the order in the Mod index was correct. Now today I reload Vortex and it is also visually in the correct order as well, but last night it was not??? So something is a little glitchy if you look carefully perhaps you will also see what I have been seeing. I also now see that you can move the install order but only if there is a conflict. I just did not have any conflicts yet :)
I finally downloaded a mod that had a conflict and thus was able to move the order to resolve.
However, this method does not appear to be as full featured yet as MO was.

For example let's take two Texture packs, and lets say Pack 1 has texture examples a, b, f, g, h. Pack 2 has a, f, g, i, and j. Let's say I want Pack 2 a, Pack 1 b, Pack 2 f, Pack 1 G, and Pack 2 i, j. I could select this with MO by using a combination of install order and hiding textures from the overwriting pack that I don't want.
With Vortex, its either Pack 1, or 2. that it. Yes, I will still get the textures from pack 2 that pack 1 did not have but with the ones that they both have it's a "one or the other" deal only. So without this feature that I had with MO now I will have to manually repackage the textures as a Mod before I can install! Actually, I have to install both to "find the conflicts", repackage the two mods as one with the textures I want. Uninstall the original two and then install the repackages mad. Thats a lot of extra steps. To me, this is a step backwards from MO. Granted many people do not need this ability and many will just get confused, but advanced users and probably mod creators when testing textures really need this feature to be available.

From what I'm seeing, it's partly to do with the names of the files. So if 2 texture packs have files named the same, that's where the issue is. Somehow you're supposed to be able to rename a file in Vortex, I haven't had the need yet so haven't discovered it but I'm sure in Fallout New Vegas, with my 100+ mods I will be needing it. lol. I have a few texture packs for Fallout 4 that have a similar problem, but they are loading the combined textures, certain ones are loading from the one mod, others from the other, as it did with NMM. I was expecting to load up my game and find that some textures had red triangles, or simply didn't change, and am pleasantly surprised.

[KeltecRFB]

Message to Tannin or maybe others,

 

When I try to load my current game, it states that Sim Settlements AddOn JtBryant's Foundations is missing even though I reinstalled the mod from the Nexus since receiving that warning message. Even after I enable and deploy mods after that mod's installation, the .esp is still missing from plugins and continue to receiving the missing .esp warning.

Edited February 18, 2018 by KeltecRFB

[KeltecRFB]

In response to post #57589691. #57598431, #57599596, #57600696, #57607326, #57607936, #57608341, #57609276, #57619976, #57663521, #57671206 are all replies on the same post.

HelelBenShahaar wrote: At first glance, I can only repeat what I said to SirSalami: this thing frightens me.

I can't really understand anything I see there. Doesn't look very user friendly, all things considered.

I never used Mod Organizer, but I tried Wrye Bash for a short time. Looking back at them, their interfaces looked ancient as hell. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not good in my experience. I never actually got used to WB and I don't think I'll ever be using MO.

However, Vortex's interface looks too modern. Looks more aesthetic than functional to be honest. This may not sit well with some users. Doesn't sit well with me, that's for sure.

To put it the best I can, as far as interfaces were concerned: WB and MO looked like Windows 95 and Windows 2000, respectively. NMM looks like Windows XP. Vortex looks like Windows 10.

I have a feeling that this was a too large of a leap from NMM's simple and very useful mechs. Like you skipped the metaphorical Windows 7.

Highly unlikely that my voice will mean a bloody thing in a long run, but at least I said what was on my soul.

Anqayas wrote: I agree. It feels weird, hard to use.

r0ck7y wrote: i think the whole interface will change after they leave the alpha as they said somewhere else before that's they haven't started on the interface yet and it will be planned later when Vortex is stable and ready. still not sure if that's what they meant or i understood it wrong.

Valyn81 wrote: sound to me like they are never satisfied. "Its old and too simple" to "I don't like xp", now "it is too modern and hightech!" Please, stop being an old fart and learn to adapt.

MO is super simple if you take a little time to learn it; NMM was SUPER simple and cause more issues than it resolved; Vortex should be a happy mid between them or simply a new and inventive way to make our gaming experience easier.

RadioactiveStud wrote: I had trouble understanding at first too but once you get used to it, it is great.

bigd4450 wrote: unfortunately there are a lot of old fart's out here, (I proudly count myself as one, 60 years old really soon). XP was good, a nice step from 98. windows 8 sucked, too big of a change, too much to try to learn for the sake of ... aesthetics. at this point 10, a decent mix, still not really liked. I just want to push a button and have it work, don't want to relearn how to do something that was really simple a couple of months ago for the sake of ... aesthetics?

GeneralJohn wrote: I don't understand what people find hard about using it - I mean if you just sit there and look at it for a minute or two, it's all very self explanatory, I understood how to use it within a few minutes...

KeltecRFB wrote: And easier to use than MO and MO2. People are caught up that since Tannin developed it, it is like MO. This is not even close, MOs were much more involved than this. We will see if it handles TTW as good as FOMM or MO did.

KeltecRFB wrote: Ok, now I see the MO'ism but don't fear them. It actually helps you make your game more stable once you figure how to use them. Look up the conflicts (aka dependencies) at the mod's website and load accordingly. There may be some trial and error. As for those with no masters, just disable those. Make sure to fix loose files. I am thinking for small load orders, you can be a novice and install Vortex but the larger the NMM install is, you may want to be more intermediate level or start from scratch installing your new game.

I am still working on getting me install working.

bigd4450 wrote: I realize that any comment here is like a fart in the wind, no one really notices. From what I'm reading it seems as though a lot of the Nexus community would rather spend the first hour or so of your gamming time checking load order, dependencies, and what ever the words/actions that seem to have to happen when YOU down load mods. Personally I would rather not. One button, activate, two minutes later I'm in game. Honestly I have no idea what you are talking about in most of your post, and I really don't want to know, I don't want to spend the next six months trying to figure out what your talking about or how to implement these things. Push button and play, an occasional mod that didn't meet my expectations, delete, and on with the game. Over 950 times, occasionally run LOOT, I have no idea what LOOT does, I just run it because someone told me it was a good idea. I don't want to delve into the inner workings and I don't want to know how it works. Push button, play game like I do now with NMM.

Ethreon wrote: Any person modding should spend time making sure the mods will work correctly and not expect a plug n play experience which was never really a thing with mods for bethesda's games.

Yes, Vortex is not transparent and not for users who do not want to do anything but mesh buttons.

[Neato]

Hello everyone, loving vortex so far and for the most part is working for me, just takes a little to figure things out. I do have a question, during a fresh install on a Windows 10, 8 GB ram 512 SSD 64 bits, machine, I get "An unrecoverable error occurred" query command exited with code 1" Error The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value at regKey.get (c:\program Files\black tree gaming ltd\vortex\resources\app.asar\node_modules\winreg\lib\registry.js:632:7 and it list lot's more at errors. I have uninstall it and re-install it several times but the results is the same, if I ignore then say I won't whine it actually boots up and seems to be working fine, so not sure if is affecting any of the operations and or functions. Have anyone else had this problem? fix? ideas? I want to thank the developers for Vortex, I think is going to be my preferred mod manager. Edited February 18, 2018 by Neato

[mcdanielskh]

In response to post #57637071. #57653356, #57654011 are all replies on the same post.

VincentPlays4Keeps wrote: My first impression after just a few hours of using it, this is very well thought out and Vortex will be everything MO users and NMM users want. They just might not know it yet. Seriously, I am very pleased with Vortex so far and once Gopher gets some videos out explaining how to use it from a beginners point of view, I expect Vortex will soon be adopted by the majority of users. Very nice work to all involved in the project. Thank you!

EDIT: removed my confusing words

mcdanielskh wrote: Really? did you find a way to hide texture files in a overwriting mod that you might not want to overwrite? What I see is a one or the other deal. To do what I could do with MO to have the texture diversity that I want I have to repackage my textures manually..

Lazybob1 wrote: I believe Tannin has said that per file overwrites are coming though right now it is one conflicting moid totally overwriting any conflicts with another mod.

Well, I sure hope your right.
Other than missing that feature and the occasionally bugginess with load order, I am quite happy with Vortex now. A simple, reload of Vortex usually seems to fix the stuck load order problem I occasionally see, and i'm sure the controller will become more intuitive with a combination of users getting more fimalar and perhaps a few changes to Vortex.

One more thing, perhaps a bug? On the Dashboard @ the recently managed square, it always says "You don't have any recently managed games". I am using Skyrim SE, shouldn't it show that as recently managed. JUst thought I would point it out. Personally, I see no point to this anyway so I just x closed it. I don't see it as having any real function anyways.

[Stiffon]

In response to post #57637071. #57653356, #57654011, #57682521 are all replies on the same post.

VincentPlays4Keeps wrote: My first impression after just a few hours of using it, this is very well thought out and Vortex will be everything MO users and NMM users want. They just might not know it yet. Seriously, I am very pleased with Vortex so far and once Gopher gets some videos out explaining how to use it from a beginners point of view, I expect Vortex will soon be adopted by the majority of users. Very nice work to all involved in the project. Thank you!

EDIT: removed my confusing words

mcdanielskh wrote: Really? did you find a way to hide texture files in a overwriting mod that you might not want to overwrite? What I see is a one or the other deal. To do what I could do with MO to have the texture diversity that I want I have to repackage my textures manually..

Lazybob1 wrote: I believe Tannin has said that per file overwrites are coming though right now it is one conflicting moid totally overwriting any conflicts with another mod.

mcdanielskh wrote: Well, I sure hope your right.
Other than missing that feature and the occasionally bugginess with load order, I am quite happy with Vortex now. A simple, reload of Vortex usually seems to fix the stuck load order problem I occasionally see, and i'm sure the controller will become more intuitive with a combination of users getting more fimalar and perhaps a few changes to Vortex.

One more thing, perhaps a bug? On the Dashboard @ the recently managed square, it always says "You don't have any recently managed games". I am using Skyrim SE, shouldn't it show that as recently managed. JUst thought I would point it out. Personally, I see no point to this anyway so I just x closed it. I don't see it as having any real function anyways.

+1
Still figuring some of it out, but overall I like it!