Manual mod installation vs. MO2/Vortex

[SeranaUser]

Do other people find it practical to use Vortex/MO2 for Starfield yet?

 

Or am I right in thinking manual mod installation is the way to go for the time being?

 

The mods I've looked at mostly seem to require manual .ini editing anyway.

 

We'll supposedly be getting various patches soon and eventually the modding tools will be out. I'm just hoping to avoid a complete game reinstallation with each update.

[kamoewarrior]

MO2 uses its own copy of the game's .ini files and can be edited anytime. Assuming it works for starfield exactly how like how it did for other games then I cannot see myself manually modding it if MO2 is an option.

[Decopauge123]

I've manually modded most of the games I've played over the years: Skyrim, SSE, FO4, many other games, and now Starfield.  I've also used Mod Managers to mod the games I played.  MO2 has been a good mod manager to use, with lots of features, active support and a huge user base.

 

I initially manually modded Starfield, but decided to try Vortex for the first time with Starfield.  I find it to be very well written, with many features designed to support modding activities (No, no list of features here; you can read about them here if you want).

 

It is always a personal choice whether to mod manually or with a mod manager.   For the time being I'll be using Vostex:  it lets me make the changes I want easily and helps me maintain the mods I've installed.

 

Quote

Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) was the in-house modding solution used by Nexus Mods between 2011 and 2016. It was declared End-of-Line and no longer supported in December 2016. The last official version of NMM was 0.65.2. The current version of NMM is maintained by DuskDweller and Squidbox on GitHub.

 

Vortex is the new, modern mod manager from Nexus Mods. It’s designed by Tannin, the creator of Mod Organizer, taking the lessons learnt during the development of MO and Nexus Mod Manager to provide the most powerful and intuitive modding experience available. It’s designed for general use.

 

Mod Organizer 2 was developed by Tannin to support 64bit games like Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4 in addition to all the 32bit games MO1 already supported. But Tannin discontinued the project when he was hired by the Nexus team to develop their new Vortex mod manager. MO2 is now an open project in the hands of the community.

 

Reason why MO2 isn’t the “main mod manager” is that it was made for Bethesda games. That was also the problem with Nexus Mod Manager. It was derived from old Fallout mod manager.

 

Excerpted from Mod Organizer 2 vs Vortex vs NMM: Which Is Better?

Edited September 24, 2023 by Decopauge123

[hitmanh]

MO2 for Starfield here, never got on with Vortex, and manual modding quickly gets out of hand.

[sen4mi]

From my perspective:

 

(a) Having mods installed under My Games gives me a level of independence that I did not have with earlier games. It's trivial for me to wipe the whole collection of mods and rebuild it (which is basically how Vortex operates), and

 

(b) There's not enough good starfield mods yet for manual modding to be a problem (for now, I am only using asset mods), and

 

(c) I am going to revisit every mod decision I make after good modding tools are available.

 

But I think it's great that other people are working with mod managers.

[davisev5225]

MO2, just waiting for them to officially release support.

 

In the meantime, I'm just manually installing mods.  I've got SFSE, a menu mod (to eliminate all the bullshit intro screens), and the Baka Achievement Enabler.  Nothing else so far.

 

That's not difficult to manage by hand.

[RazorCannon2999]

Been using Vortex for a while for FO4 and SSE, even for FONV.

 

Haven't had many issues, aside from when I built the new computer and had to redownload mods(some had gone missing due to being pulled).

 

Planning on using it for Starfield(and CP2077 once I get the DLC). So far, I can see lots of mod potential for Starfield.

 

Vortex does have a learning curve, and make sure to keep your password handy occasionally when they log you out of the Nexus. Lost my original account due to that(and not having access to that e-mail account for the same reason, lol).

 

My biggest problems with manual installs, is when the game updates or I need to remove mods, if there isn't a standard mod folder to drop into. Had that issue with CP2077 when 2.0 hit, had to uninstall and wipe everything, just to get the game to play.

[Bluegunk]

On 9/27/2023 at 10:55 PM, davisev5225 said:

MO2, just waiting for them to officially release support.

Available on Discord - 2.5.0 Beta 11.  Works for Starfield and now installs ESPs/ESMs as normal. I am using it.  However, a lot of mods are not set up for MO2 or Vortex right now, so there's plenty of leg-work to do!

Edited October 4, 2023 by Bluegunk

[Mr. Otaku]

Always god with MO2 for Bethesda games there's no reason not to use it. Vortex fucking sucks (imo) and i absolutely hated using it for Cyberpunk which is already kind of a pain to mod anyway.

[Travestea]

On 9/20/2023 at 11:39 PM, SeranaUser said:

Do other people find it practical to use Vortex/MO2 for Starfield yet?

 

It's always practical because it keeps the install directory clean. That said, I'm waiting until they officially release 2.5 in normal locations. The one on Discord is a beta and I have an arguably unhealthy hatred of Discord exclusive mods so I wouldn't download it from there regardless.

[SeranaUser]

I've been using Vortex and haven't tried the beta MO2. Vortex works well for my modest list of 14 mods (mostly related to building larger, more powerful ships).

Edited October 8, 2023 by SeranaUser

[Travestea]

Vortex is perfectly fine for most users. It gets a lot of hate because it has a habit of being pretty unwieldy and constantly fighting the user when you have large, complex mod lists. Folks with just a handful of mods often won't run into any of the limitations.

Edited October 8, 2023 by Travestea

[Aylis]

MO2 all the way. The Beta from Discord works fine with mods for Starfield and i use it for Cyberpunk 2077 too. No issues so far...

[davisev5225]

19 hours ago, Travestea said:

Vortex is perfectly fine for most users. It gets a lot of hate because it has a habit of being pretty unwieldy and constantly fighting the user when you have large, complex mod lists

 

That hatred is well-deserved and consistently gets ignored by the Vortex evangelicals.  It's literal only selling point vs MO2 is that it integrates better with Nexus.