How to reorder mods?

[Jesse_Dylan]

I feel like everyone knows how to re-order mods besides me, to the point where I'm scared to post about it and ask.

 

I've downloaded BOSS, which worked well for Oblivion, but apparently the 1.5 patch changed things. At the moment, BOSS just screws up my mod order, unchecks a bunch of mods, and then I have to re-order them manually using the information BOSS gives me. I have started just using the "perform trial run" function to get the list, then re-order them myself.

 

Is there a better way to do this?

 

Is there a better way to re-order mods than using the terrible Skyrim launcher? What an awful way to try to re-order things. I did something and accidentally reset my load order, and my soul weeps at the thought of re-ordering them again. I don't even have that many mods, under 50, but it still takes ages.

 

Surely I'm doing things wrong or inefficiently. How does everyone else do it?

[shadowfx78]

which version of boss are you using?

[Jesse_Dylan]

2.0.1, it looks like. I think it's the most current version.

[jet4571]

If you know what the mods you have require and which should load before the other already then you dont need Boss. if the esm is part of a house you just installed and nothing but the esp that came with it requires it then just leave it at the bottom of the list just above the esp that requires it, If its a new race or hairpack esm, top list it. it doesn't cause the game to suddenly kill over and die as some believe it will if you have an esm second from the bottom of the list. Mods with quests or are heavily scripted then move them up towards the top of the list, followers... blah leave them where they land. And I know someone is going to say yes it will break the game but they dont understand load order and follow the "for idiots so its foolproof" instructions and act like its gospel.

[Jesse_Dylan]

Yeah, you're probably right. It's still just such a pain even making small changes to load order with the launcher. If I could at least click and drag stuff in the list instead of clicking it, then furiously clicking the up/down arrow until I want to put my face through my monitor and howl out the back

[jet4571]

If you want to manually set your load order, the instructions below may be of use:

 

Open your plugins.txt in a text editor. plugins.txt is found in your local application data folder. On Windows Vista/7, this is C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Skyrim\plugins.txt.

In plugins.txt, list the plugins you want active in the load order that you want them in. Each plugin goes on a separate line. Master files should go before non-master files. Merged or imported plugins are not active plugins, so should not be listed in plugins.txt.

If you also have a loadorder.txt in the same folder as plugins.txt, then update it so that the plugins in plugins.txt are in the same order in both files.

Save the edited file(s) and quit.

Don't try to then edit your load order through the Skyrim launcher. It has been reported to reset your load order if you set it up manually.

[Jesse_Dylan]

I'll try that! Thanks! anything is better than the awful launcher

[jet4571]

No worries, i got that from the "Load Order and you" thread. had to run so didn't have time to say anything after making the quote. A couple notes, master files does not mean esm only, you can have an esp that needs to go before another esp like in the EFF mod, it has an esm and 4 i think esp files. 1 esp must be before one of the others or one of the functions will not work at all or work incorrectly.

 

Doing the load order this way is great for putting it back together if you just spent an hour or more disabling mods 1 at a time to find a conflicting mod. just make a copy of the plugins.txt and when you are done and know that the armor mod you never use conflicts with the new quest mod and want to keep the quest you just copy everything from the backup that you are keeping and paste into the plugins.txt with the new mod in the best spot for it. takes all of a minute to do rather than move up or down in the launcher or BOSS completely screwing the order up making the game CTD at launch.

[Airklot]

Maybe you didn't know this but if you use the nexus mod manager boss is already in it and will give you the correct load order. If you use nexus mod manager and you still want to re order your list then just drag the file up or down.

[jet4571]

If you like mod managers then yes NMM I am sure is good, except for all the mods I see that have problems with being downloaded or require a loose files version when NMM is used. If like me you dont like mod managers and prefer to manually install, uninstall, and manage the load order yourself then NMM is not the answer. Also doing it all manually you know more about what you have running and how it affects other mods in far more detail thus having a better idea on why you got a CTD.

 

But I digress, and BOSS is BOSS regardless if it is packaged in another program, and it would be impossible to have every mod available in BOSS. if you run it and it breaks the load order you still need to fix it. Best is to know how to do the load order and never use it to begin with because only you really know what mods you installed and I hope read the description, readme, and checked to see if it is dependent on another mod. NMM or BOSS cannot do all that for you, there is no program yet that can.