Vortex useability

[Kregen]

At first I found vortex a bit confusing when trying to find things I needed in the various dashboards, as I am a bumbling armature who usually works it out in the end I am now getting used to the new look and layout. On the whole I am now quite satisfied with the new software, the only thing that is proving to be a problem is the load order management, strait up conflicts between two mods is doable I understand that and am able to alot which one loads first. It is when it gets more complicated when for instance when a mod does not work, I often fixed this in nmm by high lighting the mod and moving it up or down with the arrow keys. The new system seems at least for me a little over complicated. Any thoughts from either the community or the devs would be gratefully accepted.

[Strykewolf]

I've never used other mod managers, and started with Vortex a couple weeks ago...for me, I find it fairly versatile and (mostly) easy to use. At least, so far. Part of that may be that I never got used to using something else?

 

You can double click the plugin listing and it will open up a panel on the right. And there, you can assign it to a specific group (late loader, for example) and then tell it to sort (second option in, I believe, along the top edge). It will move things around. You can look at the load chain, and add new groups to be inserted where ever you want.

[AugustaCalidia]

At first I found vortex a bit confusing when trying to find things I needed in the various dashboards, as I am a bumbling armature who usually works it out in the end I am now getting used to the new look and layout. On the whole I am now quite satisfied with the new software, the only thing that is proving to be a problem is the load order management, strait up conflicts between two mods is doable I understand that and am able to a lot which one loads first. It is when it gets more complicated when for instance when a mod does not work, I often fixed this in nmm by high lighting the mod and moving it up or down with the arrow keys. The new system seems at least for me a little over complicated. Any thoughts from either the community or the devs would be gratefully accepted.

 

You don't need to drag and drop in Vortex, although you can if you want to. Rather, for load order purposes Vortex allows you to assign a plugin to a LOOT group in the manner described by Strykewolf. (Remember that Vortex load order sorting is LOOT sorting, using the LOOT defined groups.) If you wish to create more groups, you can. However, this is rarely necessary. Furthermore, you can create rules to order mods within groups. For example, Mods A, B. and C in the group "Late Loaders" (a group in Skyrim SE) must load in that order. For Mod A, you need not create a rule. For Mod B, you create the rule "Must Load after A." For Mod C, you create the rule "Must Load after B." Voila! You now have defined a load order A, B, C for that group. By the way, as far as I know, the group colors have no special significance.

 

Most people who have load order problems in Vortex are folk who over-engineer the groups feature, thinking they have to create a whole host of custom groups to handle their load order needs. In doing so, they typically create a nightmare. My strong recommendation is to work with the LOOT groups and not try to second guess the system. I've used Vortex since its alpha phase, and I've never had to create a custom group.

 

Many people new to Vortex are also disturbed by the fact that Vortex sorts most plugins into the "Default" group. However, the truth is that many plugins don't need any special sorting, such as late loading. Therefore,

they are sorted and wind up in the "Default" group. This has somehow given rise to the nonsense that Vortex simply sorts plugins alphabetically. If that's so, why are my "Default" Skyrim SE plugins so totally non-alphabetical? All of my plugins except four are in the "Default" group.

 

To sum up. Install, enable, deploy, and sort your mods without worrying about load order and file conflict issues. If Vortex says you have a problem, then take care of it. Then go play your game.

[Kregen]

 

At first I found vortex a bit confusing when trying to find things I needed in the various dashboards, as I am a bumbling armature who usually works it out in the end I am now getting used to the new look and layout. On the whole I am now quite satisfied with the new software, the only thing that is proving to be a problem is the load order management, strait up conflicts between two mods is doable I understand that and am able to a lot which one loads first. It is when it gets more complicated when for instance when a mod does not work, I often fixed this in nmm by high lighting the mod and moving it up or down with the arrow keys. The new system seems at least for me a little over complicated. Any thoughts from either the community or the devs would be gratefully accepted.

 

Â

You don't need to drag and drop in Vortex, although you can if you want to. Rather, for load order purposes Vortex allows you to assign a plugin to a LOOT group in the manner described by Strykewolf. (Remember that Vortex load order sorting is LOOT sorting, using the LOOT defined groups.) If you wish to create more groups, you can. However, this is rarely necessary. Furthermore, you can create rules to order mods within groups. For example, Mods A, B. and C in the group "Late Loaders" (a group in Skyrim SE) must load in that order. For Mod A, you need not create a rule. For Mod B, you create the rule "Must Load after A." For Mod C, you create the rule "Must Load after B." Voila! You now have defined a load order A, B, C for that group. By the way, as far as I know, the group colors have no special significance.

Â

Most people who have load order problems in Vortex are folk who over-engineer the groups feature, thinking they have to create a whole host of custom groups to handle their load order needs. In doing so, they typically create a nightmare. My strong recommendation is to work with the LOOT groups and not try to second guess the system. I've used Vortex since its alpha phase, and I've never had to create a custom group.

Â

Many people new to Vortex are also disturbed by the fact that Vortex sorts most plugins into the "Default" group. However, the truth is that many plugins don't need any special sorting, such as late loading. Therefore,

they are sorted and wind up in the "Default" group. This has somehow given rise to the nonsense that Vortex simply sorts plugins alphabetically. If that's so, why are my "Default" Skyrim SE plugins so totally non-alphabetical? All of my plugins except four are in the "Default" group.

Â

To sum up. Install, enable, deploy, and sort your mods without worrying about load order and file conflict issues. If Vortex says you have a problem, then take care of it. Then go play your game.

Thank you both for your reactions to be honest I have so far not had the problem I described, but it did occur a few times with the old nmm using loot to sort my load order. It was often with new mods that were possibly not known to loot at the time of downloading, if that is a thing. The real point was that loot although generally reliable did occasionally make mistakes, I found that the older manual sorting mechanism to be quick easy and uncomplicated to use where as new one is at first glance is more complicated. I suppose I will have to watch more instruction videos and fiddle around with vortex a bit more until I get a better understanding of how it works.