correct mod load order? (without BOSS)

[Gothic_mando]

hey guys just wondering if anyone can tell me the proper order mods should be loaded in. am currently using boss however there are about 4 mods which arent recognised by it, so i assume ill have to place those manually in the order somewhere to prevent possible CTD. The problem is in having searched the web for this info i havent yet stumbled upon it, so could someone kindly tell me how it works? im guessing youd group mods of similar nature (ie weapons with weapons etc) together? so i tried out this method with some new mods i downloaded, manually placing them BEFORE i used boss to see if my reasoning was correct, however when i used boss it moved some of them around, effectively proving my 'category' theory wrong. So i now have 4 mods boss doesnt recognise and ive no clue where to put them. Any ideas? thanks ^^

Current boss-sorted mod load order:
lightning during thunderstorms
wilhelm scream (<--- because which self-respecting skyrim-er can live without this?)
dragonknight armor
fable armor
magicka sabers
nightingale crossbow
bandoliers
elvenwood
camping kit northern ranger
spellpack 3
spellpack 4
pet bear oslo
followers can relax
cartographers map markers

unrecognised mods (where the heck do they go??)
summon bears / bear followers
summon big cats / big cat followers
polymorphy (transform into any creature spell / power)

[Gothic_mando]

oh. and theres an unrecognised werebear follower mod too! ^^

[frogprincess_q4]

The main things with load order is that:

- a mod that relies on a masterfile needs the masterfile to be higher in the load order than the mod that depends on it. An example might be a mod which has an NPC that needs a hair mod. The hair mod goes higher than the NPC mod. Otherwise the game will crash at the Bethesda logo.

- if two mods alter the same thing the lowest in the load order will overwrite the mods that are above it.

- some mods are a lot more sensitive to load order than others, but your "big brushstrokes" mods go at the top and your "fine detail" mods go at the bottom generally. If your mods aren't recognised by BOSS you may need to experiment a little, but most mods that are sensitive to load order will have a note on the mod page.

If there are no notes by the modder let them load where they are. If they aren't showing up in game move them lower in the order. Don't worry too much. Load order isn't vital for a lot of mods, especially if you don't get mods that overlap in what they do.

[Gothic_mando]

thanks for the info man ^^ yeah im aware of the masterfile dependency thing, its just my game has for some reason started ctd immediately after i select 'continue'. Considering the game was running flawlessly about a month ago i am rather concerned. Though i am aware it can be down to alot of things besides mod load order.. am gonna try uninstalling then reinstall.

[Trigger]

All game .esm files load first, then any other .esm from mods load under the game .esm's. After the .esm files i highly recommend you install the unoffical Skyrim, Dawnguard, Hearthfires and then Dragonborn patches. only install one mod at a time to make sure it works first, then load another

[Gothic_mando]

ok thanks for the tips ^^ where do i download the unofficial patches from? also when you say 'one mod at a time', what exactly do you mean? download one, play the game to see if it works, then do another?

[Trigger]

unoffical Skyrim patch is only on the Nexus as the file is to big for Steam workshop, the other patches are on steam workshop. lets say you saw two mods you want to try subscribe to both but in skyrim data files uncheck one until you know the other is working then install the other one

[Gothic_mando]

ok thankyou very much for being so meticulous in your description! ^^

[Trigger]

do you have all the D.L.C's and do you have The Nexus Mod Manager

[ShocksVR #AirLink]

In addition to the above, BOSS has a feature called "Edit User Rules". This allows you to place unrecognized mods anywhere in the BOSS load order.

As a second addition, if you do not know where to place such a mod, in the "Edit User Rules" tab, there is another tab called "Masterlist", which gives you a guide on where to approximately place your mod.

[Gothic_mando]

oh thanks guys ^^ and yes i have all dlcs, i have the legendary edition and yes i have nmm

[Trigger]

On your nexus page under Pluggin's your load order should read as follow; Skyrim.esm, Updates.esm, Dawnguard.esm, Hearthfires.esm, Dragonborn.esm and then any other .esm files you might have. Next comes your .esp's, For me it goes as follow- Unoffical Skyrim patch.esp, Unoffical Dawnguard patch.esp, Unoffical Hearthfires patch.esp, Unoffical Dragonborn patch.esp and if you use the Offical Hi Res Texture pack, there is a patch for it to and it should be placed under the unoffical Dragonborn patch and then the offical Hi Res Texture packs 1, 2 and 3 come after the patches. If your load order looks like the above then you shouldn't have any game bugs messing up your game of skyrim- i know i don't and i am just 10 hours shy of 4,000 hours played

[Gothic_mando]

thanks man but do you know if theres a certain method to the order for category specific mods? for example do all weapons mods come before armour or quest mods? etc.. im aware of esm and esp files : )

[Trigger]

no, it doesn't matter if it's only a .esp, but sometimes mods will overwrite each other- just exchange the load order of the two mods

[Gothic_mando]

really? how do you know this? ^^ i thought the whole point of the BOSS program was to sort these mods in an order that was more complicated than simply '.esp's after .esm's' or 'mods dependent on other files come later than the files they depend on.'

[frogprincess_q4]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Lunar_mando:

really? how do you know this? ^^ i thought the whole point of the BOSS program was to sort these mods in an order that was more complicated than simply '.esp's after .esm's' or 'mods dependent on other files come later than the files they depend on.'

I don't think it's that complicated, but some mods are sensitive for one reason or another in ways that aren't obvious. For example I have the mod that causes lightning to strike guards that mention knees and another that causes guards that mention stolen sweetrolls to turn into sweetrolls. The lightning one seems to be quite robust in regards to load order, but the sweetrolls one only works if it's at the bottom of the tree or very close to it. For mods that are well known enough they will have this sort of information in BOSS.