Install Order is Suddenly Messed Up

[Poorman65]

I started to have a BlackFace bug with the Bijin Warmaidens mod in Skyrim. As I was going through the Mods to see if somehow I had messed up the install order, I noticed that the mods are mostly being installed alphabetically.

 

I know that it doesn't generally matter when there aren't conflicts, but it appears to be completely ignoring the Rules that are set.

 

For example, right now Majestic Mountains is being loading at position '0', but there are several Mods that it is supposed to come after.

 

Until very recently the mods were in the order that I installed them unless there was a rule. Not sure what is going on.

[AugustaCalidia]

If you're confident that your file conflict rules are correct, then forget about install order and look somewhere else to solve your "black face bug" problem. As far as I can tell, install order does not determine file conflict winners and losers. Only user defined rules ("load after," etc.) do that. (Remember, install order is not the same as load order.)

 

I have several "load after" mesh and texture mods in Skyrim SE whose install order lists them before the mods they in fact overwrite. However, this order does not negate the "load after" rules for these mods. How do I know that? By simply looking in the game and seeing that the "load after" meshes and textures are actually there in the game.

 

The "black face bug" is an old and persistent problem in Skyrim LE for which I have never found a satisfactory solution. In most cases, however, I could remove the black face by moving to a different cell and/or saving, loading an earlier save, and then reloading the later save. If that failed, I simply exited the game and then re-started it.

 

EDIT. I have never used Bijin Warmaidens and so cannot comment on that mod specifically. HadToRegister in the following post suggests a load order (not install order) that may work for you.

[HadToRegister]

I started to have a BlackFace bug with the Bijin Warmaidens mod in Skyrim. As I was going through the Mods to see if somehow I had messed up the install order, I noticed that the mods are mostly being installed alphabetically.

 

I know that it doesn't generally matter when there aren't conflicts, but it appears to be completely ignoring the Rules that are set.

 

For example, right now Majestic Mountains is being loading at position '0', but there are several Mods that it is supposed to come after.

 

Until very recently the mods were in the order that I installed them unless there was a rule. Not sure what is going on.

 

 

"Install order" on the mods tab is just that, it shows you the order you installed your mods in, however, in Vortex Install Order does not matter, unlike NMM where you cannot LOAD BEFORE and LOAD AFTER

Don't chase "Install Order" as I said, it just shows the order of Install, it's the load before and load after that determines what overwrites or is overwritten.

 

If there are several mods that are supposed to come AFTER Majestic Mountains, then according to your screenshot, you should be setting Majestic Mountains to LOAD BEFORE the Files in your Screenshot.

 

Also, Majestic Mountains will certainly NOT cause the Black Face "bug",

 

Here's the way I have Warmaidens in my load order in the PLUGINS tab, I have Bijin All In One as the LAST ESP that changes NPCS, then I have stuff like Realistic Water, and any other ESPs that change Merchant Gold, Lighting Patches etc.

 

 

 

 

[Poorman65]

I was just using Majestic Mountains as an example since it was installing first and should have some before it and some after it.

 

I guess I still don't clearly understand the Install Order usage of Vortex. I thought that in cases where there are file conflicts, that the Install Order was important, as it would lay the files on the files system in that order. This would mean that the version of the files written by the first installed Mod would be overwritten by the subsequent Mods with conflicts.

 

I thought load order was the order in which Skyrim would load the Mods into memory when the game loaded.

 

So, my understanding was that "Install Order" was a "Deploy" time activity and "Load Order" was a "Runtime" activity.

 

Is this not correct?

 

As far as the Load Order, I was trying yesterday to get that under control by using Groups to get the NPC Mods co-located so that I could more easily see their Orders. Is there a particular Group that is recommended for NPCs? None of them seemed obvious to me and I was afraid I was messing things up even more..

[AugustaCalidia]

I was just using Majestic Mountains as an example since it was installing first and should have some before it and some after it.

 

I guess I still don't clearly understand the Install Order usage of Vortex. I thought that in cases where there are file conflicts, that the Install Order was important, as it would lay the files on the files system in that order. This would mean that the version of the files written by the first installed Mod would be overwritten by the subsequent Mods with conflicts.

 

I thought load order was the order in which Skyrim would load the Mods into memory when the game loaded.

 

So, my understanding was that "Install Order" was a "Deploy" time activity and "Load Order" was a "Runtime" activity.

 

Is this not correct?

 

As far as the Load Order, I was trying yesterday to get that under control by using Groups to get the NPC Mods co-located so that I could more easily see their Orders. Is there a particular Group that is recommended for NPCs? None of them seemed obvious to me and I was afraid I was messing things up even more..

 

As both HTR and I have recommended, ignore install order when dealing with file conflict resolution. Focus on your rules for loading before and after.

 

In regard to load order, that is the order in which Skyrim and many other Bethesda games load plugins, not mods. (Plugins are listed on the Plugins page and Mods, on the Mods page.)

 

As for plugins and load order on the Plugins page, let Vortex sort the load order using integrated LOOT. Trying to second guess LOOT group assignments is something you should do only as a last resort. In the year and a half I've been using Vortex, I've made less than five group re-assignments. I have five games running, multiple profiles, and hundreds of mods.

[Poorman65]

I did a purge, reinstalled the Warmaiden mod and wiped out all the groupings that I had done and now they are back to normal.

[AugustaCalidia]

I did a purge, reinstalled the Warmaiden mod and wiped out all the groupings that I had done and now they are back to normal.

Has that solved your "black face" problem, or is it still there? If the problem persists, then let's hope HadToRegister returns with some helpful suggestions. He's quite knowledgeable about these matters.

[Poorman65]

The blackface went away. It was strange because when I was checking earlier, it wasn't all of the Warmaidens.

 

I wish I understood this better. I wanted to tweak the Bijin characters at one point, but as soon as I modified anything in CK and saved it, they would end up with Blackfaces. Even generating the Facegens from CK didn't help. There may be some sort of battle between the Bijin Customizers and changin anything in the Bijin mods. Or maybe some issue with the hi-resolution textures or the Hair. I don't understand how all of this works together to cause the problem.

[AugustaCalidia]

Good to know your problem has been resolved. :thumbsup:

[Poorman65]

Thanks for the help!