Like mysteries? Here's one - part of Plugins.txt erased by -- ???

[DeathApproaches]

First: this is just a technical mystery to solve, don't need help getting the game running - I'm a meticulous PC user, with enough burnt fingers to know I need to I have backups of backups (of backups!); Restoring took 2 seconds.

 

No, I want to know what did it! How many of the standard Beth editing utilities we use, actually write to Plugins.txt? Almost none! The file wasn't corrupted, it was an intentionally edited by something, apparently chopped some and reordered.  The game itself do this? If you search for "skyrim part of plugins.txt missing" you get lots of unrelated hits, but nothing relevant on the first 5 pages so I gave up and posted here.

 

(and before the idea pops in your head, nope, LOOT was not ran anytime recently, nor do I use mod managers except to play with them in sandboxes to understand how they work - yep I'm one of those, the manual mod installer you've read about. Also game under linux with wine/proton, not Windows, and without any frontend or installers like PoL/lutris. Shh. Do you hear it? I hear it. I hear the Emperor calling me to the Dark Side.)

 

This is the *start* of my Plugins.txt as I found it today.

Spoiler

 

*Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
*SexLab.esm
*SexLabAroused.esm
*3DNPC.esp
*ZaZAnimationPack.esm
*Devious Devices - Assets.esm
*Devious Devices - Integration.esm
*Devious Devices - Expansion.esm
*Devious Devices - Contraptions.esm
*FlowerGirls SE.esm
*Heels Sound.esm
*Schlongs of Skyrim - Core.esm
*Toys.esm
*hdtHighHeel.esm
*SkyUI_SE.esp
*Immersive Wenches.esp
*CBBE.esp
*Classic Toy Box.esp
*SexLab_Solutions.esp
*troublesofheroine.esp
...20 lines is enough...

No default game files, no cc* esm/esp from the AE update like curios or survival, and while not that crazy of an order, it's not my order...

 

Anyone seen this before? I use the same tools you use. CK, BS/OS, NIFScope, Wyre, Blender w/ NIFTools, xEdit4, MaterialEditor, xwmaencode, etc. Nothing crazy, nothing self-coded or esoteric, just standards-for-years kind of stuff. I swear the game itself did it.

 

Well, this is why you make backups, huh? Still, I hate technical mysteries. Going to start running a file access logger on that directory so I can see what processes open handles for Plugins.txt for write access, if nothing else. Just leave it running 24/7 for the rest of my life, I guess. Cause I clearly have untreated OCD and will never be able to let this go...

 

Anyway, thanks for reading.

[anjenthedog]

idk, but I think you should be able to regenerate the list by deploying your current mods, no? Isn't plugins.txt created/written-into during the assembly of the game prior to running it? I use Vortex, so it's "not the same" but I get a new plugins.txt every time I deploy changes automatically.

 

It looks like that particular load was part of some sort of debugging or "new game" approach, (especially considering the "good enough" end-of-file comment), although I don't know for sure either way.

Edited February 26, 2023 by anjenthedog

[traison]

Typically only mod managers and the official launcher (ie. if you launch the game without skse) reorder plugins.txt. If you were on Windows I'd suggest you get Procmon from Sysinternals (Microsoft) as it will show you the answer. Fairly certain Linux has a similar system built-in that works per-file if I'm not mistaken?