When to enable mods?

[ztuck]

So, here I am after playing and installing mods to break the game for the NNNN'th time. And it occured to me this is a beth game, is there any point during the game that is sort of a safe place to start enabling mods? After the vault? after concord? or just after the char generation? I googled it but no definitive answer. Just RSE here on LL says do not enable until after getting out of the vault. And I think Kendo said somewhere that you should wait until after concord, the thing is enabling my mods just after getting out of the vault does present some glitches, bugs, permanent doom and so on. 

 

I have been researching and juggling load orders since MW, but alas things tend to tie up your free time as you get older. *Staring intensely at you life, you know you fucked it up* 

 

Basicly, anyone know when to safely activate mods? Or is it just a clusterfuck of luck and happy/deviant thoughts?

[J.O.D.]

My current way of starting a new game with sex mods functional is: Using Another Life 1.08 for starting, with this, BodySlide (and CBBE addons), Looks Menu, Faster terminal Displays. Then after chosen occupation (I usually start as Vault Dweller in Sanctuary anyway) and leaving the Institute chamber with character generated, I let the game start all neccessary quests, then save as "CleanStart".

 

Then I install and activate all the non-sex mods, load the game, load CleanStart and let the game start quests, then set up mods in MCM, setting holotapes etc. Save as "NonSexStart". (Some mods are giving you items on start, but Another Life resets and changes your inventory, which is why I am doing this)

 

And finally install and activate four-play and all other sex mods, load the NonSexStart save, let the game settle down, set MCM/holotapes/whatever settings the mods do use and make final save "RealGameStart". A bit lenghty, but works for me everytime, especially the Four-play animations loader, which usually failed on me before.

[Carabosse]

This applies more to making a mod rather than installing. I register to listen for MQ102 (Out of Time) reaching stage 10. This happens just after leaving the vault. My mods don't do much except wait until this happens (unless it had happened prior to installing the mod). The reason for this is that game time appears to be frozen in some way before you leave the vault. With scripted mods, depending on what they do, that can cause some weird and unexpected behaviour.

 

I suspect that game time is frozen until you put on the pipboy come to think of it. So I could listen for that but I see no real reason to begin actions whilst the player is still inside the vault.

 

So some mods will be safe to have at new start, some won't. It really depends on what steps they individually take for a sensible start.

[ercramer69]

I did two  starts (one male, one female) and saved both right before getting on the elevator. 

Then deleted the excess saves prior to the last one for both runs.

I did these prior to anything else just so when things get updated there are no conflicts with the previous version that may have changed.

Next I load all the mods I want to use and go from there. 

This way when I get on the elevator I can change the appearance and stats to match what I want to do.