Does Vortex properly handle mod placement for LL?

[ingeloak]

As the title indicates. I was using Vortex I think for a bunch of mods, and it miraculously handled placement and load order seamlessly. No ENB, no BASH file, nothing else was needed. Problem is, I can't recall if it was Skyrim (which I use a lot of Lover's Lab files) or Fallout 4 (which I just use Nexus stuff). Anyone else use it here?

[MadMansGun]

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Does Vortex properly handle mod placement for LL?

nope.

 

[Vyxenne]

Yes. It not only handles LL files perfectly, it installs SKSE64 automatically, requiring only that the user drops the SKSE64 7z archive into Vortex's "Drop files here" box and clicks "Install." It also installs ENB Binaries as well as the presets and does not require a PhD to use.

 

Vortex identifies missing Masters, of course, and also mod conflicts, offering resolution at the mod level ("Give Mod B priority over Mod A") or the File level ("Let Mod A Files 3, 7, 15-42, and 54-58 win (you actually just tick the files in a list) but let Mod B files win all the other conflicts,) or even "Never with this mod" which means if I choose that solution, every time I enable mod B in that profile, Vortex will automatically disable Mod A. That's about as flexible as it gets AFAIK.

 

Vortex will detect any "external changes" (e.g. when I split an armor mesh into separate top and bottom apparel items or add 17 diffuse map dds files in a recoloring frenzy) and ask me what to do about them- "Use newest files" or "Revert all changes" or "Save all changes" which makes them permanent, no need to tell Vortex about those changed files again.

 

Vortex includes the LOOT API, which means it will sort your load order for you whenever you deploy files if you enable that feature (I should say if you do not DISABLE it since it is enabled by default.) You can also manually drag plugins up and down the load order if need be, and tell Vortex to always sort plugin H after plugin Y or whatever. It also integrates with FNIS, which means it will run FNIS whenever it is required (and never when it is not required) which is much more reliable than relying on my memory to determine if FNIS needs to be run after any particular mod redeployment.

 

Of course, Vortex has Profiles, and they work, including (if enabled) separate savegames and ini tweaks for each profile.

 

Vortex not only identifies plugins that could be ESLs or ESPFEs, it has a button to actually flag an esp as an ESPFE on the spot - no more need to use the CK or SSEEdit to lighten your load order. My last playthrough, I had 420 mods, including ~250 ESL/ESPFEs, all managed by Vortex.

 

There are many ppl who hate Nexus's DarkOne (Robin) and that hatred translates into irrational or unsupported hatred of Vortex, generally lacking any evidentiary basis. I hate what Robin is doing with modlists and trampling mod-author rights, but Vortex "works a treat" as our English cousins are wont to exclaim. I don't know why MMG says "nope," but since he didn't explain, I'll just have to contradict him based on my personal great experience with Vortex and let it go at that.

[MadMansGun]

loot a.k.a auto fuckup 9000.

[kmaaier]

My experience with vortex is the same as Vyxenne. It really works great and as intended.

 

[MalibuBattleBarbie]

In my experience,  it's nuanced.  If you're downloading a mod from Nexus and are new to modding, something like Vortex can help streamline the process a bit and lets you wade in to the calm waters of modding without being too overwhelmed or concerned over cross-cutting concerns, versioning and dependencies.  Here on LL, it too depends.  If it's a standalone mod, it's likely not going to hurt anything using vortex.  Where things have sometimes gone south, is when one might find a cool mod post from 2 years ago,  and an even cooler continuation mod created some 2 years later which gets packaged in different file names, with no version control, requires the original MOD to work, and meanwhile that new caretaker person dropped the mod so now the MOD has had multiple people writing for it, and you have no idea whose on first and what's on second... In these cases, I'd skip vortex catch up on the threads, and read the mod author's README file, release notes, and instructions - carefully.

 

(... erma gurd, first post!)

[peterf.keller]

vortex is by far the best mod manager once you know how to control your load order. its all abvout "rules" like "load mod x after mod a" and if you NEED a mod to load last, yeah, you might be setting 40+ rules for that one mod. but then it  works