Vortex is a mess

[Stormblade1125]

So, as far as I understand it, the creators think NMM is a mess... well in my opinion that is the exact opposite. Vortex is a huge mess. No categories, viewing it gives me a headache, and its hard to figure out what to do. I wish I didn't switch already because it will be a pain in the ass to disable all the mods, and re install on nmm, especially now that nmm download doesnt work with NMM.

[HadToRegister]

So, as far as I understand it, the creators think NMM is a mess... well in my opinion that is the exact opposite. Vortex is a huge mess. No categories, viewing it gives me a headache, and its hard to figure out what to do. I wish I didn't switch already because it will be a pain in the ass to disable all the mods, and re install on nmm, especially now that nmm download doesnt work with NMM.

 

 

 

OK, let me address everything you got wrong, because there's nothing worse than someone coming in here, and complaining about Vortex, and getting all of their 'facts' wrong, because they didn't understand something about Vortex, or skipped reading any tutorials in the knowledge base or watching any of the tutorial videos.

 

"No categories"

 

Categories are right there on the Mod Tabs

 

 

 

 

"it will be a pain in the ass to disable all the mods"

 

If you want to Disable all Mods, you use CTRL + A, then click DISABLE

 

 

NMM downloads STILL work just fine with NMM, if you had just scrolled a little farther down the 'Download Vortex' Page, you would've found the section (shown below) where you can download the newest NMM from github.

 

 

 

 

"Especially now that NMM download doesn't work with NMM"

 

Well, that's basic "Settings 101"

 

Start NMM in Admin mode, and change the NXM setting back in order to associate NMM with NXM links again.

Right under the SETTINGS menu.

 

 

 

 

 

"Viewing it gives me a headache"

 

Click on SETTINGS----------->THEME------>And either pick the theme you want, OR CLONE the current theme and change the colors etc to your liking

 

 

 

Vortex Load Order Sorting

 

Vortex vs NMM

 

Vortex FAQ

[Frigidman]

True, the OP seems off on his research how to use Vortex, but the thing about "Categories" is (I think) about how NMM had a nice hierarchical view, where you could put things in groups that flip open/closed as you will (much like the macOS does by default for list view in folders etc).

 

Even though vortex has that "Categories" sorting method... its really poor in general vs a good solid hierarchy system. However given the UI choice of Vortex... a good hierarchy view just won't work in that style.

 

All in all, after many years using NMM in other games, I switched to Vortex for FO4, and ... I like it. It works pretty well.

[AugustaCalidia]

@Frigidman

 

What do you mean by a "hierarchy system"?

[rmm200]

A screenshot of NMM hierarchy would help if you can get one.

Otherwise it is kind of hard to visualize.

[Frigidman]

Oh, ah, heres a shot from NMM I just loaded up ... this is of an app that is way out of date I believe, but its what is currently installed in my old Skyrim directory:

 

 

This is what I think of when I hear about categories in NMM and not in Vortex. The little [-] and [+] flip open, and those are the 'categories'.

 

 

[HadToRegister]

I just use the filter

 

 

 

[BigBizkit]

Vortex is different. If you are coming to Vortex expecting it to be just like NMM you are bound to not find what you were looking for. The others have pointed out the alternative approach to NMM's category system that is employed by Vortex.

 

That being said, as the creators of both NMM and Vortex, it is not that we think NMM is a mess, we know that to be the case. We know because NMM was never meant to cater for the scope and scale it caters for now. It was written for FO3 and Oblivion, games that are now over a decade old.

 

To paraphrase the site owner (Dark0ne): chances are your NMM mod setup might appear stable to you because NMM does not inform you of the underlying issues at all (and/or isn't aware of issues itself), making it akin to a time bomb that is bound to go off eventually.

 

And that being said, you can still use NMM to download and install mods using the community maintained version.

[Tannin42]

When we say NMM is a mess it doesn't just refer to the UI, that's certainly a matter of taste (which is why we have this very powerful theming system in Vortex).

It's more about the way NMM stores data that is very prone to breakage and the code that makes it very hard to extend the manager and for external developers to contribute but makes it very easy to break something important.

 

Vortex certainly isn't perfect to every single user but a more robust basis for all further development and it's more open to be adjusted to user needs.

[Frigidman]

Honestly, I had far more troubles with NMM (with Oblivion, Skyrim, and FO:NV)... than I've had with Vortex and FO4. Vortex "just works". The only issues I ran into with vortex are ... benign really, not even worth bringing up ;) Especially not in this thread, as it would derail.

 

I only presented the Category thing as an example why some may get pretty irate about 'that change'. I wasn't saying either way is right, just presenting the info.

 

Personally I like flip open groups with huge lists (kind of like my IDE does with the thousand code files I manage)... but, those lists also have an inherent problem of you can only put something in one, not multiple (without aliasing, which is asking for pain and suffering).

 

For Vortex, its category and giant single list view, is fine enough for modding and managing a mod list which is already supposed to be a sorted list for sanity's sake.

 

"It works" :D