Creations or Nexus for mods?

[mor57]

Who prefers Creations or Nexus for adding mods or who prefers a mixture of both? Excluding the whole debate about the rights and wrongs of payed for mods, i'm just looking for the options of people that play and like Starfield. Not looking for or interested in getting into a discussion or argument with any of the crazy amount of Bethesda bashers on this form.

[dragoonknight]

I kinda mix and match I have a collection of nexus and creations.

[Caolán_The_Wolf]

you can use both, just be aware theres currently a limit for mods of roughly about 110 due to the limited number of mod indexes available to use.

[Mephitic]

Originally posted by Crown:

They both work fine for me. So I don't really prefer one over the other. Yes I do use mods from both at the same time and I've not had very many problems.

Same, on all counts.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by mor57:

Thanks everyone for the reply's, l'm defensively leaning towards Nexus as being the best option out of the two. Starfield is the first game that i have really started adding a lot of mods too, so i'm still on a bit of a learning curve and just starting to figure out how important the load order can be. Any advice i receive on here is much appreciated.

I already tested a few hundred mods or so since the Creation Kit came out and have no issues although I follow a few rules that have served me well because even in a perfect world modding can go sideways quickly.. I modded many other games, Skyrim and FO4 are 2 that I modded extensively. Starfield is still very early in the modding stages so more caution than usual is advised right now.

The following are some things that will help keep your load order safe from issues. There are plenty of other things that can go wrong so eliminating the basic known issues will go a long way towards a successful load order.

Use a mod manager. I suggest Vortex[www.nexusmods.com] although MO2 is a fantastic powerful mod manger. Vortex is pretty basic which is great for starting out (it can get pretty deep as well but it's basics are simple imo).

June 9th or later
When adding mods to Starfield I only use those mods made after June 9th which is the day the Creation Kit came out. Yes there are some well made mods from before hand but should there be any issues you encounter as you mod it's best to have eliminated as many possible issues as you can.

No esp's
Another important detail is to use the file preview on each mod. Nexus places a "Preview file contents" under each mod where the "Mod Manager Download" button is. All located under the "Files" tab on each mod page. What you are looking for is that the mod does NOT contain an esp. Starfield is not designed to use esp's. esm's are fine. That's important.

80 mod limit
I doubt you'd use that many anyway but that's a safe number for now and it only pertains to mods that contain an esm which is a lot of them. In Vortex you can see how many you have in the "load order" section. Not all mods contain an esm for example pure texture mods do not so they do not count towards that limit. As of now and until Bethesda does something about this that's what we are dealing with.

There's more to it of course but those are some basic rules to avoid known issues.

Also, almost forgot, it's never a good idea to remove mods that contain a esm mid game so choose your mods wisely and test them as you install them, this way you can remove them before you start making saves. the if you remove it after testing you must go back to save dfrom before you tested that mod and play from there. Data gets baked into your save and then starts looking for that corresponding data, if it's not there things start going wonky or often your game crashes.

[mor57]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

Originally posted by mor57:

Thanks everyone for the reply's, l'm defensively leaning towards Nexus as being the best option out of the two. Starfield is the first game that i have really started adding a lot of mods too, so i'm still on a bit of a learning curve and just starting to figure out how important the load order can be. Any advice i receive on here is much appreciated.

I already tested a few hundred mods or so since the Creation Kit came out and have no issues although I follow a few rules that have served me well because even in a perfect world modding can go sideways quickly.. I modded many other games, Skyrim and FO4 are 2 that I modded extensively. Starfield is still very early in the modding stages so more caution than usual is advised right now.

The following are some things that will help keep your load order safe from issues. There are plenty of other things that can go wrong so eliminating the basic known issues will go a long way towards a successful load order.

Use a mod manager. I suggest Vortex although MO2 is a fantastic powerful mod manger. Vortex is pretty basic which is great for starting out (it can get pretty deep as well but it's basics are simple imo).

June 9th or later
When adding mods to Starfield I only use those mods made after June 9th which is the day the Creation Kit came out. Yes there are some well made mods from before hand but should there be any issues you encounter as you mod it's best to have eliminated as many possible issues as you can.

No esp's
Another important detail is to use the file preview on each mod. Nexus places a "Preview file contents" under each mod where the "Mod Manager Download" button is. All located under the "Files" tab on each mod page. What you are looking for is that the mod does NOT contain an esp. Starfield is not designed to use esp's. esm's are fine. That's important.

80 mod limit
I doubt you'd use that many anyway but that's a safe number for now and it only pertains to mods that contain an esm which is a lot of them. In Vortex you can see how many you have in the "load order" section. Not all mods contain an esm for example pure texture mods do not so they do not count towards that limit. As of now and until Bethesda does something about this that's what we are dealing with.

There's more to it of course but those are some basic rules to avoid known issues.

Also, almost forgot, it's never a good idea to remove mods that contain a esm mid game so choose your mods wisely and test them as you install them, this way you can remove them before you start making saves. the if you remove it after testing you must go back to save dfrom before you tested that mod and play from there. Data gets baked into your save and then starts looking for that corresponding data, if it's not there things start going wonky or often your game crashes.

Cheers Vlad 254, a lot of good advice in your post. i'm currently using Vortex, i haven't tried out MO2 yet, but do intend to sooner or later. I don't plan to add a huge number of mods to Starfield but sometimes while looking through all the mods i get the kid in the candy store feeling so i'll keep track of the amount i'm adding. I have already gotten into the habit of using a save from before i install a mod if i remove that mod because i think its causing problems or decide its just not for me. Thanks for explaining the whole esp, esm thing because i wasn't to sure what that was all about.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by mor57:

Cheers Vlad 254, a lot of good advice in your post. i'm currently using Vortex, i haven't tried out MO2 yet, but do intend to sooner or later. I don't plan to add a huge number of mods to Starfield but sometimes while looking through all the mods i get the kid in the candy store feeling so i'll keep track of the amount i'm adding. I have already gotten into the habit of using a save before i install a mod if i remove that mod because i think its causing problems or decide its just not for me. Thanks for explaining the whole esp, esm thing because i wasn't to sure what that was all about.

Back at you mor57, cheers.

As for the limit it's a little more involved than that but those are the basics in a nutshell. The actual number no one knows because it's different for every load order depending on which mods and the actual order they load. The number is between 80 and 125 mods with esm's so 80 is a good safe number for now considering you won't know you've hit the limit until you hit it and things go wonky so best be safe and stick to the low number. Again there's more to it but staying under that number keeps, lets just say, strange things from happening in your game, sometimes very strange. Good luck out there.

There's also a way to read what number you're at via the Starfield Engine Fixes mod by using the ini file that comes with it. See the mod page for specifics.

[oak]

FWIW to add another voice to this one, I'm using a mix.
But in a twist, I'm not using in-game Creations functions to manage Creations.

I add the Creation in game, obviously, but then once it's done I copy the files out (keeping them in a zip file), go back into the game and remove the Creation. Then I'm using MO2 and adding the Creations I've zipped as mods, and moving them to the top of the load order where the game would put them itself. Around/after that I'm installing my other mods from Nexus.

I'm doing this with both a couple of paid Creations and a handful (8?) of free ones plus about 100 mods from nexus.

Touch-wood, so far so good.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by oak:

FWIW to add another voice to this one, I'm using a mix.
But in a twist, I'm not using in-game Creations functions to manage Creations.

I add the Creation in game, obviously, but then once it's done I copy the files out (keeping them in a zip file), go back into the game and remove the Creation. Then I'm using MO2 and adding the Creations I've zipped as mods, and moving them to the top of the load order where the game would put them itself. Around/after that I'm installing my other mods from Nexus.

I'm doing this with both a couple of paid Creations and a handful (8?) of free ones plus about 100 mods from nexus.

Touch-wood, so far so good.

I've used the mix on SSE for testing purposes. My biggest beef with that is for those of us who use a mod manager you can, without getting into the details here, eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager.

I do plant to test it myself with this game soon.

[oak]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

I've used the mix on SSE for testing purposes. My biggest beef with that is for those of us who use a mod manager you can, without getting into the details here, eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager.

I do plant to test it myself with this game soon.

This bit specifically concerns me, and I'm waiting for it to bite: "eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager"

Because when I look inside Starfield, even though I have nothing activated officially through Creations, it does give me an "Installed" list, and it's not *just* Creations, nor is it all the mods I'm using, so I'm waiting to see if it borks the whole lot (again, touch wood).

[nzguzzi]

Creations
I grabbed most of the free stuff
( I tried the POI outposts but they are broken, next time you visit them you just clip through it all ), the rest have been fine
Starfield Fleet Expansion ~ all you need ;) It is like a whole new game and you can capture the ships ~ I mean gunboats, heck they wreck you

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by oak:

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

I've used the mix on SSE for testing purposes. My biggest beef with that is for those of us who use a mod manager you can, without getting into the details here, eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager.

I do plant to test it myself with this game soon.

This bit specifically concerns me, and I'm waiting for it to bite: "eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager"

Because when I look inside Starfield, even though I have nothing activated officially through Creations, it does give me an "Installed" list, and it's not *just* Creations, nor is it all the mods I'm using, so I'm waiting to see if it borks the whole lot (again, touch wood).

If you combo Nexus and Creation I hear you shouldn't use the Creations "Update All" feature or it will also replace any Nexus mods in your load order which are also available as a Creation with the Creation. I don't combo yet so I can't say for sure. Just a heads up.

[Ruin]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

Originally posted by oak:

This bit specifically concerns me, and I'm waiting for it to bite: "eventually find the in-game load order management fighting with your mod manager"

Because when I look inside Starfield, even though I have nothing activated officially through Creations, it does give me an "Installed" list, and it's not *just* Creations, nor is it all the mods I'm using, so I'm waiting to see if it borks the whole lot (again, touch wood).

If you combo Nexus and Creation I hear you shouldn't use the Creations "Update All" feature or it will also replace any Nexus mods in your load order which are also available as a Creation with the Creation. I don't combo yet so I can't say for sure. Just a heads up.

Yeah, I found this out the hard way the other day... Thankfully I only had to reinstall about 4 mods via Vortex, none of which broke anything in the process...