mod files location & NMM mod folder

[ninjamaster0420]

Hello, after a while away and completely reinstalling my windows & other needed programs I'm attempting to mod again and wanted to double check some things. Not sure if I backed up my mods into my FO4 data directory or if they're supposed to be there but the order of folders looks like this:

 

Cache

Catagories

downloads

ModProfiles

ReadMe

scripts

Video

VirtualInstall

 

below VirtualInstall there are mixed Zipped folders & files (7Z, RAR, BA2) Like these:

 

Achievements v1-0-5-12465-1-0-5.7z (7Z file)

Adjustable UI Volume Sliders-9970-0-3 (Zipped)

All in 1 Military Skin Pack 1.0-6770-1-0.rar ( RAR )

ccBGSFO4001-PipBoy(Black) - Main.ba2 (BA2 )

 

1. are all the mod related files supposed to be in my C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data ?

 

2. can i place some of these ( mod related BA2/RAR/7Z & Zipped folders) into NMM's Mod Folder to save re downloading them all? ( 30+ Gb worth)

 

if .2 works is there a way to avoid NMM doing the not recognizing them thing?

 

[bbiller]

Well, assuming this a fresh install (as seems to be the case), I myself would have set up a seperate folder for NMM to store your mods. Once that's done (as in my case), you just let NMM know where you want your mods stored. You can keep that and the profile(s) for your Fallout 4 backed up a whole lot easier.

 

As to your questions:

1. I've kind of covered that, but I would suggest moving the mod archives to the new folder I mentioned. You may need to temporarily re-do your fallout 4 install, but that whole directory should only need a few things in it at start (whatever files and sub folders with files you need to have altered to get mods working, and the mod files from the archives themselves which NMM will handle via profile settings). Do make sure you have a base profile that is the game without mods installed, as this will make things easier down the road.

2. If you pick up the mods from the Nexus this should not be an issue. Do note that you're going to have to pick what manages the mods (NMM or the in-game mod manager, I'd pick NMM). The exception to this is Creation Club. Let Fallout 4 handle those. If you go looking in the mod section in game and see an update, get out of Fallout 4, head to the Nexus and once there find the mod. Once you have found it, do note where in your mod order the mod ended up (keeping a list of your mods and any connected downloads from the mod page will help a lot). Once you're this far, uninstall the mod from NMM. This will take a bit, but once it's out, grab the new version from the Nexus. Once NMM has it in, activate it and once it's in, adjust the load order (exporting load order as a text file, opening that file in notepad, and making adjustments and saving that file will help, then just re-import the new altered file you made. (See the plugins tab in NMM for all of this, helps once you have a lot of mods)).

 

Hopefully this helps you. If you need further help, posting here will help, but I would check out Gopher's youtube page for vids on NMM and how to use it, as those go into good detail of how everything works, and he has done vids on Vortex (the new manager everyone will have to go to eventually, it's not quite ready yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on it, as they are making improvements).

[ninjamaster0420]

I will re watch Gopher's vids after posting but maybe I worded my question poorly. All my mods were from NMM originally and it's the only manager i use. NMM doesn't detect my mods tho i have them ( maybe they're in the wrong place ) and I was hoping for a quick fix for this, but Maybe it would be better for me to re DL & install all the mods ( there's a lot of them ). Let me provide some more info relating to where I am in this process. I've re installed windows, downloaded most current versions of NMM, LOOT, FO4Edit & F4SE. I've edited Prefs.ini & custom.ini, the game launches and f4se is displayed. I have the mods in my game directory in Data folder but NMM can't 'find' them, this feels like a silly & easily fixed mistake.

 

Before my windows re install i had a stable modded FO4 with 90 something mods (all these same ones) running with no CTDs( with One exception that I could easily avoid ) As a guy not knowing much about pc's let alone modding it took me 8-10 weeks of researching, learning and reading to get my game to that point, it was a real PITA but totally worth it! I suppose my new question is there an easy way to get NMM to 'see' my mods and try to get my game running like it was ie: Can i click add mod from file then navigate it to the data folder where the mods are OR can I copy the mods from data folder and put them into NMM's mod folder?

 

Thank you Very much for taking the time to try explaining these processes to people like me xD it is Very much appreciated !!

Edited March 15, 2018 by ninjamaster0420

[bbiller]

This may help:

1. Open NMM

2. Click on the gear icon (if your mouse is over it it will say settings)

3. Head to the Fallout 4 tab

4. Have a look at the mod directory option and install info option.

 

I'll post mine in a moment . . . https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jnXaEC1UtxVMCA1jhnOVTa2e-NnT4xz_

 

Take a good look at mine.

That mod directory listing is where my mods are going when fully downloaded.

The next line for Install Info is where the install scripts for the mods with installers are being kept. There is nothing wrong with these being split by the way.

 

I'm keeping my mods away from Fallout 4's directory so that NMM can put things where they need to be when my mods are active. That data folder holds a lot for the game, do move your mods out of there.

 

Hopefully that should clear things up a bit.

[ninjamaster0420]

Thanks for all the help thus far, I Think I'm getting on track.... so i'll need to figure out how to make another drive letter ( i can google that np ) then physically move my Fo4 game directory to that new drive, then in NMM settings options navigate file path for FO4's Dir to that new drive also, Correct?

 

still consider myself new to modding so I prefer to ask and be extra clear over making more mistakes.

 

Side note** because everything's fresh and i have no save game data to worry about corrupting And because I'm impatient and wasn't getting an answer to this subject As far as the putting mods into the NMM Mods folder and clicking fix DL id's and check for updates, It **Seems** to be fixing the mods, i install a few that way, preform a 'mod stability check' run thru of game areas & mod related things & no CTD's so far....

 

Again thnx for all the info & assistance!

[bbiller]

Some further info for you:

If NMM is doing its job, any active mods will have their files show up where needed (ex. the mod has an esp file, then NMM will put a copy of that esp file in the data folder for Fallout 4 and should edit Plugins.txt in the following location: "Main Hard Drive"\users\"Your login name"\appdata\local\fallout4\ . What's in quotes is info you should have no issues with (ex Main Hard Drive" usually is C:), "Your login name" is obvious at this point I hope, though keep in mind Windows loves to hide that appdata folder on you, so admin rights and manually typing it in should get you over that hurdle, after that you should have no trouble getting to the file.

 

If you take a look at that plugins file you'll see each active mod has an asterisk beside it on the left (* - this symbol), that seems to denote active mods, though Fallout 4's mod manager will have something to say about any that don't have the needed dependencies loaded already, so do watch that load order and the order that's in that plugins text file should be right, just be aware that it handles the Creation Club content and the High Resolution Texture Pack. As to what handles all the DLC content, I have no idea at the moment.

 

You don't necessarily need a different drive for the mods and the scripts to be in, just a different location away from Fallout 4 (ex if you have Steam like me, Steam can be told places to store the game files outright and you can make many of these so as to split the load on any one drive (the internet told me how to do this, it can guide you, too). If you installed a new drive and formatted it you should have a new drive to work with and can set up files and folders there as needed. A new directory off of your main drive location will work just as well, so you can make a new folder on the root of your C drive named "Nexus FO4 Mods" and inside that have the folders for the scripts and mods themselves there, then just point NMM to the needed locations, Fallout 4 can still remain in your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\common\Fallout 4\" directory/folder if you want. I just moved mine because I'm using a 1Tb drive as my C drive and tossing all those games there would have shrunk my space by quite a bit, as is I have about 348Gb left right now, but I wanted to have plenty of room for other files. My games are gradually being moved to a 2Tb RAID 1 array (two 2Tb drives), which means loading the games will go quicker for me, but writing them in takes a bit. I haven't moved to SSD's just yet as I don't have the $$ it would take for that and capacities are still low for what I would call affordable ($100 nets me a 2Tb or better 7200RPM drive, same money nets a much smaller SSD, you do the math). Granted I'm on an older system: AMD 8150 black Edition processor, but the processor is up to the task, my video card though is only about a 2 to 3gb card, but it works well for a lot of the other games I'm running (including older ones), so I have a bit of a wait on low settings, but it's not crazy long in part due to the RAID array.

 

If you need more ideas, I'm happy to help (I can even point you to some good RAID drive cages (or you can use the cages for non RAID drives, too), just be aware your system would need to not have any rests in it as these cages are the kind that screws are a must for. Very helpful if you don't want to open your system to change out a hard drive).

[ninjamaster0420]

Thanks so much for all the info, most of the raid stuff and how my system handles mod related stuff...that was all lost on me But I believe I can do what I need to now, thanks to you! here's my laptop info just because.

 

-Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

-Intel Core i7 3740QM @ 2.70GHz

-Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology

-16.0GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz

-CLEVO CO. W35_37ET (SOCKET 0)

-2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M (CLEVO/KAPOK Computer)

ForceWare version: 376.54

SLI Disabled

-465GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB ATA Device

My biggest issue is how Nvidia REFUSES to work in laptops, my FO4 used to auto detect to high or ultra high graphics & now it won't even detect the Nvidia card & I have to play on low, I've rolled back the driver to the last stable ver. And tried re installing the driver that came with my laptop back in 2012...none of this gets my pc to Know it has a Nvidia card installed BUT that's a problem for another day xD

Back to the original issues I believe I can get my mods OR game Directory to another location now so Thank You so very much for all the time & thought you've put into assisting me.

Edited March 17, 2018 by ninjamaster0420

[ninjamaster0420]

One last thing as I wasn't clear on that, when starting a totally new game before i start should there be no mod related files in the Fallout 4/ Data folder? as I mentioned before, my actual mods were in there that's what saved me from re downloading them all, should I remove all those?

[bbiller]

NMM tries to have virtual links set to keep things clean, but this can fail. There is a new version out for NMM but you'll need to head to github for it (just found out a while ago myself).

 

If this new game is to be a modded playthrough, let the manager handle things.

 

Steps if all is going well:

1. Manager knows where your mods are, should have a categorized list to help.

2. You've been to the repositor folder, all mod archives are there, scripts for mods with installers are in their location.

3. Watch out for the Thicket Executions mod, as it is to be enabled after you do the "pull the plug" quest at Thicket Excevations. The other Settlement Story mods don't have this issue, I have heard they may have fixed it, but best to be safe.

4. Enable in sequence the new mods, once you have that Fallout4Custom.ini file made by the game and altered to allow mods (if you need to make it, having the extension for known filetypes not hidden is a big help, the Internet can explain how to do that if you haven't already. A great way to avoid files that try to trick you (this was an issue years ago, MS still hasn't set that to show by default yet). To make the file, create new text document, change the name to "Fallout4Custom.txt", add the needed lines, save the file, select rename when out of Notepad, change ".txt" to read ".ini" at the end of the fully visible file name so that you now have "Fallout4Custom.ini" , job done).

5. Check that load order once all mods are on, make needed adjustments based off general load order guide from Bethesda.net (exporting order to a text file then importing the new file once done should save time. Also lines with a # symbol and no period will be ignored by NMM, so that can help with organizing and even allow you to cheat a bit, so that most of your mods can have their pieces listed together, or at least you can know what came from where, again follow the guide as close as possible).

6. Save this modded profile, and if you haven't added it already, F4SE (the Script Extender), is an addition that a lot of mods need, load it after the unoffical patch.

7. Launch your modded game and if all has gone well, you should see a number of your mods active in the game load order as set. 7A. If the mod section says there's an update for a/several mod(s), write that/them down, and exit Fallout 4. Follow below to update them.

7A1 Proceed to the Nexus to get the new version.

7A2 Confirm updated version available, if yes, uninstall and remove old mod version.

7A2A Add new from Nexus

7A2B Activate new once done downloading.

7A2C Move mod into the proper place in the load order (can be done last for all if you have a pile to do).

7A2D Repeat 7A1 section through 7A2C until all mods are updated.

7B If the updates are now in, save the mod profile, re-launch the modded game, confirm load order, and that the game mod list sees most mods as updated (Sparky the force bubble is one to watch out for, as I believe what's on the Nexus is the latest version, has a patch for Far Harbor as an optional file, and is not evil character friendly (worth grabbing for assistance and carry weight portal, you'll need to do various quests, but those will show up as you level, do bring along a big damage weapon (suggest the M1 Garand that is special, found in the Sanctuary Cellar, moding that will help, but it won't be that cheaty, as ammo is rare for a while, so I've used it as the big bad killer for sutuations where I know somethings lurking, still have to be smart about it though). Keep in mind I'm only level 43 it's still early stages of the game for me and I have a lot of crafting yet to do to get the character armor where I need it (about to deal with vault 81's mole rat and sick kid issue on Survival difficuly, but through mods I can save as I go, so hopefully with Power Armor, Codsworth and Sparky in tow, I can avoid the disease, it's going to be work. I might try the Power Armor AI, to help too, as the mole rats pop up all over down there.