Looking for further clarification of Profiles

[HadToRegister]

Is there a way (other than right before installing any mods) of making a profile from an original profile, but with ZERO mods installed?
Say I have a profile with 240 mods installed, and I want a profile with Zero mods installed so I can "preview/test" mods in that profile without it affecting my 240 mod load order in my other profile.
How would I go about that?
Would I have to uninstall all the mods from the cloned profile, and would that leave the Original profile untouched?

 

 

[AugustaCalidia]

Would the following procedure work for you? Clone the 240 installed mods profile, disable all mods in the clone, and purge the clone for good measure. When creating the clone, opt for separate saved games and separate game settings. Then you have a testing profile with 240 installed but disabled mods.

 

However, do not uninstall any mods in the testing profile. If you uninstall a mod in that profile, you will uninstall it in all other profiles. However, if you disable a mod in that profile, you don't disable the mod in any other profile. To disable the same mod in other profiles, you have to enable each profile and then disable the mod individually.

 

Because you have separate game settings, mod experimentation in the testing profile should not affect the settings of your other profiles. (Caveat: if you're testing with FNIS or BodySlide, that may affect the settings in other profiles.)

[HadToRegister]

Would the following procedure work for you? Clone the 240 installed mods profile, disable all mods in the clone, and purge the clone for good measure. When creating the clone, opt for separate saved games and separate game settings. Then you have a testing profile with 240 installed but disabled mods.

 

However, do not uninstall any mods in the testing profile. If you uninstall a mod in that profile, you will uninstall it in all other profiles. However, if you disable a mod in that profile, you don't disable the mod in any other profile. To disable the same mod in other profiles, you have to enable each profile and then disable the mod individually.

 

Because you have separate game settings, mod experimentation in the testing profile should not affect the settings of your other profiles. (Caveat: if you're testing with FNIS or BodySlide, that may affect the settings in other profiles.)

 

I've already cloned the 240 mod profile, and what you described is exactly what I'm hoping for.

 

However, when you say "Disable" the mod, are you talking about Disabling the mod from the MOD tab or the PLUGIN tab?

Because I'm still 'iffy' on what exactly happens between a "disabled" on the Mods tab, vs an uninstalled mod on the Mods tab.

Because to me, if I pick disable it looks like it's uninstalling the mod.

 

Or are you talking about disabling the Mods on the Plugins tab? Because that would still leave textures etc enabled.

[AugustaCalidia]

"Disabled" from the mods tab. I have a clone of a Fallout 4 game wherein I disabled about one quarter of the mods, some with plugins, some not. The disabled mods are still installed, and I can "bring them back to life" at any time by enabling and deploying them.

 

However, better safe than sorry. You may first want to test this proposal in your game testing profile by disabling a small mod or two of lesser importance and then re-enabling to determine if the mods are installed and working. When you re-enable, remember to deploy as well.

[HadToRegister]

"Disabled" from the mods tab. I have a clone of a Fallout 4 game wherein I disabled about one quarter of the mods, some with plugins, some not. The disabled mods are still installed, and I can "bring them back to life" at any time by enabling and deploying them.

 

However, better safe than sorry. You may first want to test this proposal in your game testing profile by disabling a small mod or two of lesser importance and then re-enabling to determine if the mods are installed and working. When you re-enable, remember to deploy as well.

 

So, when you 'disable' a mod, and go to the dashboard, does your "Mod Count" go down by the numbers of mods you've disabled?

 

IE, Profile #1 says "240 active mods", I switch to profile #2, disable 10 mods, so now Profile #2 will say "230 active mods"?

[AugustaCalidia]

Yes, the mod count goes down. Using your example, on the dashboard you will see "230 active mods." When you go to the Profiles tab, you will see "Mods Enabled 230."

[HadToRegister]

Yes, the mod count goes down. Using your example, on the dashboard you will see "230 active mods." When you go to the Profiles tab, you will see "Mods Enabled 230."

 

OK, now....if I were to go to my DATA folder, would I still see those 10 mods that were "Disabled", with their esps, and texture and meshes folders still there?

 

This is the conceptual problem I'm having with Vortex and why I'm having a problem fully trusting it.

It's the "Deploy" stuff that's confusing me, because when I see "Deploy" I'm thinking "Writing and Overwrite to the physical Disk"

When I'm starting to think that "Deploy" really means just "re-enabling a LINK" without physically removing or adding something?

[chanchan05]

How I roll is I have one profile with no mod other than USLEEP, then another profile that contains essential mods which serves as base for all my future profiles (I just clone it and add to it).

 

Anyway, if you disable from mods, it will remove the esps from your data folder. If you disable from plugins, you'll still see them in the data folder. Heck if you disable from mods tab, the plugins disappear from the plugins tab.

[AugustaCalidia]

When you disable a mod from the mods page, you remove its hardlink in the game data folder. Disable a mod, click on "Open Game Mods Folder," and you will no longer see the mod (i.e., its hardlink) there. However, the mod hasn't been uninstalled. Click on "Open Vortex Mods Folder" and you will see the mod there.

 

The "enable/disable" button on the mods page is a kind of "on/off" switch. Enable a mod, and you turn on a hardlink. Disable a mod, and you turn off a hardlink.

 

So your remark about "Deploy" is getting close to the truth. When you deploy after enabling or disabling a mod, you commit your hardlink decision ("to be or not to be") and make it an integral part of your game until the next time you decide to change it.

[HadToRegister]

When you disable a mod from the mods page, you remove its hardlink in the game data folder. Disable a mod, click on "Open Game Mods Folder," and you will no longer see the mod (i.e., its hardlink) there. However, the mod hasn't been uninstalled. Click on "Open Vortex Mods Folder" and you will see the mod there.

 

The "enable/disable" button on the mods page is a kind of "on/off" switch. Enable a mod, and you turn on a hardlink. Disable a mod, and you turn off a hardlink.

 

So your remark about "Deploy" is getting close to the truth. When you deploy after enabling or disabling a mod, you commit your hardlink decision ("to be or not to be") and make it an integral part of your game until the next time you decide to change it.

 

OK, but does Vortex remember the "Sort Order" of each disabled mod?

 

IE, HUD mods that need to be installed in a certain order in order to work, such as aHUD, iHUD, DarNified UI

The install order is UIO, DarNified UI, Advanced Recon Tech, aHud,, iHUd. this allows you to move the hud elements on the screen, if you install them in the wrong order the elements won't move.

 

Now, if I disable all of those and later re-enable them, does Vortex remember their "load before, load after" state, and do I have to re-enable them in the order they were installed, or can I just go down the list, re--enabling mods and Vortex will handle the rest?

 

 

 

The "enable/disable" button on the mods page is a kind of "on/off" switch. Enable a mod, and you turn on a hardlink. Disable a mod, and you turn off a hardlink.

Excellent