Inactive and WIP mods in load order questions.

[StormWolf01]

Hi all.

So I was typing out my load order after doing some sorting, just a bit ago. And I got to wondering.

I've got about 24 esp files in my data folder that are either there as reference material, or WIP mods of my own. None of them are actually active, but there still sitting there in my data folder.

Does the game actually scan these esp files,if they're not marked as active? Should I be concerned about where they sit in my load order?

 

I'm really not too concerned about mod count, right now. My current build is only at about 138, (Including the esms from Fallout and all DLC) with a few that I've already decided that I'm gonna remove. About 4 of them that are staying are ESL files, which, do count but not against the 254 limit. But 24 of those 138 are files that I mentioned before. Either there for fast reference material, or WIP stuff.

 

I'm not sure if having them in there slows down my load up at game boot or not. Mine is wierd. Sometimes it fires up like I doused it with gasoline, other times, it's average or kinda low. Not worried about that, but wondering if these files could slow it down.

 

TIA!

Cheers after surviving the Update Fiasco!

-Storm

[G4M3W1NN3R]

pretty sure inactive mods do not affect the load order at all.

 

and if they were never active the game will also not read them.

 

example: say mod 1 that is active is 1e in the load order, and then you have 10 inactive esp files between mod 1 and mod 2

 

mod 2 will still be 1f in the load order. meaning that all 10 files between them do not affect the load order at all. and likewise will also not affect the game.

 

just to be certain however, move all inactive mods to the end of the load order, so that they definitely cannot affect any of the active esp/esm/esl files.

Edited November 25, 2019 by G4M3W1NN3R

[StormWolf01]

Heya Gamewinner, thanks much for chiming in. I was thinking earlier, that I need to get back to this thread and re-word my query a tad bit.

 

With them never having been activated, or... not active in a save game ( When I'm testing mods, I CnP my save games into a seperate folder, then CnP my test characters into my saves folder which (USUALLY Occassionally I forget) get deleted afterwards.

 

I guess what I should have said.... is like this

Are having those files in there, affect my my load times starting up the game. Is my computer spending time looking at those files, even if they're not active?

I've been thinking about moving them to a seperate folder, where I can CnP them back and forth, as I do with my save files. But, since this is a HDD that it's installed on, I'm trying to avoid file fragmentation in that area of my HDD.

 

Also on that note, does the game scan for texture/mesh files that may not be in use? (I have a few folders from mods that I've removed, for tex and mesh, that I still need to track down and delete. Been lazy about that.)

 

Edit- Most of the mods that are reference, or WIP are at the bottom of load. Anything that I've copied out of the master esm's are pretty much just for Xedit use only. So they've never been loaded up as active. My WIP projects, are still at the bottom, because it makes them easier to find when loading them in Xedit, plus, when manually activating/deactivating them in the ingame menu (I'm still not using a mod manager).

It's only when I get them to a "live" or "working" stage that I move them around into the LO.

I have a some face preset .esp files that stay inactive (since I can use looksmenu to make presets of them on PC) that are arranged in my LO, but I keep them, so that I can use them if I ever want to use their data for permanently changing a NPC via a custom esp.

 

The main reason for that, being that Xedit has an issue on my win8.1 install. If it has to try to search for what I'm looking for, longer than about 2 minutes, it locks up. LOL Obviously, that really sucks if it locks up before I save my work!

Edited November 26, 2019 by StormWolf01