Just a couple of suggestions for added ease of use.

[RedMachine1972]

1. When trying to change locations of folders, force the actual location. I had to completely uninstall and re-install Vortex to get it to make the changes I had to do when shifting to a different HD. Had the downloads and mod staging on one HD and had to shift as it started failing. Vortex kept telling me that the folder had to be empty......why? Same file structure, just a different location (was not a problem in NMM). This problems leads into the next....

 

2. A retrieve info button that actually gets the information for mods from the Nexus that have already been downloaded and backed up in case of anything going wrong. In the process of having to do the above (tried just a re-install first without wiping out everything), Vortex decided all the metainfo that I had had to be purged in order to keep functioning, which stops Vortex from recognizing the mods I had already downloaded. Back to square one on any information that Vortex had on my mods.....otherwise all it had was the name, no other information available such as Version or Categories (which is how I install everything).

 

Just the above two things could make life a lot easier for people that have problems with a rig that losses an HD (like me) and they already have other ways around the loss, but not from Vortex. I have over 3000 mods backed up in folders for each game that I can mod, but it does me no good if Vortex does not get the metainfo from Nexus. Now to get the metainfo for Fallout 4, Skyrim and SkyrimSE, I have to download over 1200 mods all over again. Let alone Fallout 3 and NV along with Morrowind and Oblivion.

 

I tried the Query info button on the downloads page along with the guess ID on the mods page. It did retrieve the Metainfo for around around 30 mods, but that was it. that was for Fallout 4 and there are still over 300 without info.

[Tannin42]

re 1. Not going to happen, it's just to easy to make a serious mistake with that. If you have an existing directory with existing files you want to merge with the Vortex downloads, you do it. Rename that directory, let Vortex create a new directory like it requests then you move the files you had there before into that directory.

Moving files doesn't take long (as long as it's on the same drive) and you're not using a lot of disk space, so what's the problem? But I need the user to make a conscious choice that that is really what they want and since people don't read the warnings we put up and just press continue on everything, I'd rather you f up your computer in the windows explorer than in Vortex.

 

Because, believe it or not: I know for a fact that the moment I "force" the location, maybe 30 minutes after the release I will get the first bug report of a user (of course someone who disabled UAC) who selected c:\windows\system32 as the download directory and then he was confused by all the dlls in the download tab so he deleted them all and now his windows is broken and it's our fault somehow.

 

re 2. "Vortex decided all the metainfo that I had had to be purged" where do you get that? Vortex doesn't decide to drop meta information. It loses meta information when you make it impossible for Vortex to track it. And we can't fix the impossible, if you move downloads around manually to somewhere Vortex can't see them any more it can not keep the meta information intact.

Also: there is a query info button so I'm not sure what you're on about. If it doesn't work you need to file a bug report which includes details about the mod in question and ideally the application state (which you can include in a bug report from the "Attach Special File" dropdown).

[RedMachine1972]

re 1. Not going to happen, it's just to easy to make a serious mistake with that. If you have an existing directory with existing files you want to merge with the Vortex downloads, you do it. Rename that directory, let Vortex create a new directory like it requests then you move the files you had there before into that directory.

Moving files doesn't take long (as long as it's on the same drive) and you're not using a lot of disk space, so what's the problem? But I need the user to make a conscious choice that that is really what they want and since people don't read the warnings we put up and just press continue on everything, I'd rather you f up your computer in the windows explorer than in Vortex.

 

Because, believe it or not: I know for a fact that the moment I "force" the location, maybe 30 minutes after the release I will get the first bug report of a user (of course someone who disabled UAC) who selected c:\windows\system32 as the download directory and then he was confused by all the dlls in the download tab so he deleted them all and now his windows is broken and it's our fault somehow.

 

re 2. "Vortex decided all the metainfo that I had had to be purged" where do you get that? Vortex doesn't decide to drop meta information. It loses meta information when you make it impossible for Vortex to track it. And we can't fix the impossible, if you move downloads around manually to somewhere Vortex can't see them any more it can not keep the meta information intact.

Also: there is a query info button so I'm not sure what you're on about. If it doesn't work you need to file a bug report which includes details about the mod in question and ideally the application state (which you can include in a bug report from the "Attach Special File" dropdown).

Re1. Very understandable. There are people out there that do not know what they are doing and could end up messing up something in windows. Was asking as Vortex states the downloads folder has to be empty when trying to move the folder, instead of just recognizing what is already there.

 

Re2. Mods were moved, downloads and mod staging, that was why it stated that the metadata needed to be purged as I had to move it because of a HD starting to fail. I did used the Query Info button on the downloads tab as I stated in my original post, and I also tried using the Guess ID on the Mods tab and only about 30 mods had the information after. That was why I asked about the retrieve info button.

 

On another note, maybe a way to move folders from within Vortex so the information remains intact? Like with Steam, an entire game folder can be moved thru the Steam console to another drive. Just throwing that out there.

 

Vortex has been one of the most intuitive programs that I have used and I know it is still a work in progress. I do love that it recognizes conflicts and sorts load orders without having to resort separate programs for those functions and I will keep using it......even if I have to re-download my mods to get the metainfo again.

 

One more thing......HARD DRIVE FAILURES SUCK!!!

[Rattledagger]

 

On another note, maybe a way to move folders from within Vortex so the information remains intact? Like with Steam, an entire game folder can be moved thru the Steam console to another drive. Just throwing that out there.

 

Vortex, Settings, Downloads, "Download Folder"..., change this to something else, and Vortex will start moving all the downloads for you, a process that can take some time.

 

Vortex, Settings, Mods, "Mod Staging Folder"..., change this to something else, and Vortex will start moving the installed mods for you, for the active game. Again, the move can take some time.

 

So, Vortex can already do this, and at least in my experience you'll also keep the information, like all the rules etc. created between mods.

[RedMachine1972]

 

 

On another note, maybe a way to move folders from within Vortex so the information remains intact? Like with Steam, an entire game folder can be moved thru the Steam console to another drive. Just throwing that out there.

 

Vortex, Settings, Downloads, "Download Folder"..., change this to something else, and Vortex will start moving all the downloads for you, a process that can take some time.

 

Vortex, Settings, Mods, "Mod Staging Folder"..., change this to something else, and Vortex will start moving the installed mods for you, for the active game. Again, the move can take some time.

 

So, Vortex can already do this, and at least in my experience you'll also keep the information, like all the rules etc. created between mods.

 

Did not know that, hopefully will not have to do it in the future, but good to know.

[RedMachine1972]

Got Query info to work......for some reason it was not working when I had the mod staging folder and the download folder on the same drive. When I did a total re-install of everything (again), I changed the location of the downloads folder to a different drive. Now I have the staging folder on an SSD with the games, and the downloads folder on a mechanical storage drive. Tried the Query info button after selecting one mod and hitting ctrl+a to select all, and it actually started getting all the information. All but 4 now have their metainfo....which is a heck of a lot better than over 300 needing it.

[Tannin42]

Fetching the meta information requires the server and because it usually happens automatically in the background we don't want to put up an error message every time something goes wrong.

So maybe you were just unlucky before and the server was unreachable at the time you first tried to query info.

 

> instead of just recognizing what is already there.

 

Yeah, I thought about it when this was first developed and it wouldn't be any work on our part, the check is really only there to prevent users from messing up. One of the more common issues we get is users putting silly things in as staging or download folder and then being confused by the results, e.g. at least 2 people now hat

"c:\something something\mods\skyrim" as the staging folder for one game and then

"c:\something something\mods" for another and then wondered why their skyrim mods showed up in the other game.

 

So we actually have to put quite a bit of effort into restricting what users can do so they are less likely to shoot themselves into the foot. That's basically 90% of the job when doing user applications, not adding features but restricting things.

[HadToRegister]

Fetching the meta information requires the server and because it usually happens automatically in the background we don't want to put up an error message every time something goes wrong.

So maybe you were just unlucky before and the server was unreachable at the time you first tried to query info.

 

> instead of just recognizing what is already there.

 

Yeah, I thought about it when this was first developed and it wouldn't be any work on our part, the check is really only there to prevent users from messing up. One of the more common issues we get is users putting silly things in as staging or download folder and then being confused by the results, e.g. at least 2 people now hat

"c:\something something\mods\skyrim" as the staging folder for one game and then

"c:\something something\mods" for another and then wondered why their skyrim mods showed up in the other game.

 

So we actually have to put quite a bit of effort into restricting what users can do so they are less likely to shoot themselves into the foot. That's basically 90% of the job when doing user applications, not adding features but restricting things.

 

 

I believe another path the person had was...

 

"c:\something something\mods\skyrim\fallout4"

 

 

[RedMachine1972]

Fetching the meta information requires the server and because it usually happens automatically in the background we don't want to put up an error message every time something goes wrong.

So maybe you were just unlucky before and the server was unreachable at the time you first tried to query info.

 

> instead of just recognizing what is already there.

 

Yeah, I thought about it when this was first developed and it wouldn't be any work on our part, the check is really only there to prevent users from messing up. One of the more common issues we get is users putting silly things in as staging or download folder and then being confused by the results, e.g. at least 2 people now hat

"c:\something something\mods\skyrim" as the staging folder for one game and then

"c:\something something\mods" for another and then wondered why their skyrim mods showed up in the other game.

 

So we actually have to put quite a bit of effort into restricting what users can do so they are less likely to shoot themselves into the foot. That's basically 90% of the job when doing user applications, not adding features but restricting things.

I do not know why Query Info was not working, but I tried it on 3 different installs and now that the folders are on separate drives it is working. In fact, I tried it back in December last year when I first got my new PC and transferred my drives, files and settings over and it would not work for me then. I could download and sign in thru Vortex, it just would not retrieve the information for the mods that I already had in a backup folder that I transferred to the downloads folder. But it is all cool, I will continue to use this great modding tool and manager.

 

Thank you for the work on this.