Load Order Help

[The_Pillsbury_Doughboy]

I need someone to carefully explain load order to me. I've looked towards many tutorials but nothing helps. I'm especially confused on where certain plugins are supposed to go, Many people tell me to put one group of mods in one place but then another tells me to put it into another place. I nailed down the crashing issue to my load order but i do not know how to organize my mods so my game doesn't crash. I would appreciate if anyone could help me.

[SuperSledgeNY]

To put it into very simple terms, whatever mod or file loads last, thats the one that "wins".

For example, lets assume you've installed two mods that retexture the vanilla vault suit.
Mod A colors it white and Mod B colors it black. If Mod B loads after Mod A in your load order, your vault suit will be BLACK in game. If you reverse those two mods, your vault suit will be white. This is the basic idea of what mod or file "wins". In reality, its a lot more complex.

There's an app called LOOT (google it) that will sort your load order according to "rules" that have been contributed by mod authors and users. It's a very effective tool but its not 100% reliable. With certain mods, you still have to manually adjust your load order.

This is where your MOD MANAGER come in. I use VORTEX so I can only speak for that. Vortex has LOOT built into it so its pretty much plug and play. You can also manually adjust your load order withing Vortex if you need to. Without a mod manager, you'll have to edit your plugins.txt file which is the file the game uses to get the load order. I strongly recommend against this. Definitely let your mod manager handle this.

If you're a novice at this, I strongly suggest you install your mods with a mod manager and if you choose Vortex, it will do most of the load order sorting for you.

[The_Pillsbury_Doughboy]

I usually see people put their specs and load order so here's mine

MSI Gaming Trio RTX 3070
Ryzen 3900x processor
Samsung 970evo SSD 500GB
MSI B550 motherboard

I dont think my PC specs are the issue here but if it is, help.


NMM
I do not use loot or any other mod plugin organizer because many people told me it only screws up your load order than actually helping

So i currently unistalled all my mods and just deleted all my old saves so basically im starting out fresh with a dummy playthrough so i can check if all my planned mods will work and then make a complete new playthrough.

My mod load order

Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCDLCNukaWorld.esm
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
Natural Landscapes.esl
Natural Roads.esl
Natural Rocks.esl
ArmorKeywords.esm
WorkshopFramework.esm
HUDFramework.esm
76HUD - Caps.esl
76HUD - PlayerLevel.esm
BostonFPSFixAIO.esp
Armorsmith Extended.esp
Consistent Power Armor Overhaul.esp
Brotherhood Power Armor Overhaul.esp
MojaveImports.esp

I plan to have more mods than this so if someone can help me understand load order i can do the rest for myself. If anyone sees this please help.

[SuperSledgeNY]

You definitely MUST disable WEAPON DEBRIS in the game launcher. WIth your video card, weapon debris enabled is guaranteed to crash your game.

And whoever is telling you to use NMM and / or that LOOT is screwing up your load order, is giving you terrible advice. Its up to you but using either Vortex or MO2 will make your mod installing a lot easier.

Stay away from NMM. Its method of installing mods is old fashioned and no longer supported by Nexus. That should give you a clue as to why it should be avoided.

If you want a more detailed explanation, https://www.reddit.com/r/nexusmods/comments/aypsfn/what_is_vortex_and_what_happend_to_nexus_mod/

[The_Pillsbury_Doughboy]

@SuperSledgeNY I have tried to use Vortex in the past i had issues with it not loading any mods into my game so i use Nexus Mod Manager. Also i do understand that once applying a mod the contradicts another it will load the one more recently applied instead of the other mod. I however am not sure when it comes to having 2 mods that effect different things and which one should be above or below or whatever

[SuperSledgeNY]

I've used Vortex for years and I've never had any issues with it. As a matter of fact, I'm running 2 different profiles, each with different mod configurations, and it handles both flawlessly. Your past problems with Vortex may stem from choosing the wrong options during installation or maybe your user permissions.

Concerning which mod should be loaded first, in most cases LOOT makes that decision for you, but since you choose to not use LOOT, the only way you can determine the correct load order is by :

1. Trial and error

2. Reading the mod pages and see if any incompatibilities have been reported.

Lastly, keep in mind that in some cases, load order doesn't really matter. The author's mod page would be the best source of info on this.

[The_Pillsbury_Doughboy]

Sorry for the disappearance, caught up with something. Anyway I’ve got Vortex to work for surprisingly. I just had to change where my mods was going to, in this case for me it was going into my C directory instead of the D directory where my Fallout 4 was. It may take some time to get used but so far I like it. I’ve downloaded the same mods from the ones I had on nexus and I haven’t had any crashes so far. I usually go ahead into Boston since it’s the hotspot for my crashes. Besides from -10 frame drops sometimes when exploring certain areas like Boston it works perfectly. But I’m not sure how I can organize my load order. I used loot and change some plugins myself but I’m not so sure how I’ll be able to manage at least 200 mods. I only have 31 thus far. How should I approach adding more mods?

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

crashing issues should not really be with load orders but the mods themselves.

There is a way to load stuff to make it easier to load / startup the game
but
tbh I don't think it really matters. What does matter is you load items before things like say an animation you need to install AAF (standard animation plugin) before adding the animation mod(s). Other mods like say a certain say outfit then the bodyslide files. You obviously wanna download the main mod THEN the bodyslide files.

Also sometimes mods may tell you to load or install another mod before/after or else it won't work. Typically Vortex will ask you which to mod you wanna load first or overwrite first.


But yeah the load order doesn't really matter. It helps make your mods more organized and pick out stuff that's for sure.

it may be something else.

then again i could be wrong.

[SuperSledgeNY]

Originally posted by The_Pillsbury_Doughboy:

Sorry for the disappearance, caught up with something. Anyway I’ve got Vortex to work for surprisingly. I just had to change where my mods was going to, in this case for me it was going into my C directory instead of the D directory where my Fallout 4 was. It may take some time to get used but so far I like it. I’ve downloaded the same mods from the ones I had on nexus and I haven’t had any crashes so far. I usually go ahead into Boston since it’s the hotspot for my crashes. Besides from -10 frame drops sometimes when exploring certain areas like Boston it works perfectly. But I’m not sure how I can organize my load order. I used loot and change some plugins myself but I’m not so sure how I’ll be able to manage at least 200 mods. I only have 31 thus far. How should I approach adding more mods?

My friend, I think you're getting a little too involved with load order. Since you've gotten it to work properly, Vortex will handle this task for you automatically since LOOT is already built in.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, in many cases, load order doesn't really matter and IF a mod requires a certain position, you can bet that the mod author will mention this on the mod page.

Your best tool for having a stable, enjoyable game is simply READING. Read the mod page, read the bugs section and read the posts from other users. If there's an issue with a mod, its almost certain that its been reported already. Once you do your research, you'll be prepared to make an informed decision as to whether you should install the mod or not, If there's one thing I've noticed from being on this forum since the game's release it's that most of the mod "problems" posted here are from players that don't bother to READ.

Don't be one of them. Make informed decisions, install your mods and enjoy the game.

[NC_EDGERUNNER]

Originally posted by The_Pillsbury_Doughboy:

I need someone to carefully explain load order to me. I've looked towards many tutorials but nothing helps. I'm especially confused on where certain plugins are supposed to go, Many people tell me to put one group of mods in one place but then another tells me to put it into another place. I nailed down the crashing issue to my load order but i do not know how to organize my mods so my game doesn't crash. I would appreciate if anyone could help me.

I hate VORTEX( for certain reasons) but It helps with the load order a bit more unlike NMM(which I like the layout more)

[Toyosatomimi no Miko]

Originally posted by The_Pillsbury_Doughboy:

I usually see people put their specs and load order so here's mine

MSI Gaming Trio RTX 3070
Ryzen 3900x processor
Samsung 970evo SSD 500GB
MSI B550 motherboard

I dont think my PC specs are the issue here but if it is, help.


NMM
I do not use loot or any other mod plugin organizer because many people told me it only screws up your load order than actually helping

So i currently unistalled all my mods and just deleted all my old saves so basically im starting out fresh with a dummy playthrough so i can check if all my planned mods will work and then make a complete new playthrough.

My mod load order

Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCDLCNukaWorld.esm
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
Natural Landscapes.esl
Natural Roads.esl
Natural Rocks.esl
ArmorKeywords.esm
WorkshopFramework.esm
HUDFramework.esm
76HUD - Caps.esl
76HUD - PlayerLevel.esm
BostonFPSFixAIO.esp
Armorsmith Extended.esp
Consistent Power Armor Overhaul.esp
Brotherhood Power Armor Overhaul.esp
MojaveImports.esp

I plan to have more mods than this so if someone can help me understand load order i can do the rest for myself. If anyone sees this please help.

Where do you get this order from? I'm trying to get my load order for some troubleshooting help but I can't find a list anywhere in vortex and the only list in game is in the mod config menu. Is there a simple list in some file somwhere I can copy-paste for easy sharing or do I have to type it out the long way.

[SuperSledgeNY]

Originally posted by Toyosatomimi no Miko:

Where do you get this order from? I'm trying to get my load order for some troubleshooting help but I can't find a list anywhere in vortex and the only list in game is in the mod config menu. Is there a simple list in some file somwhere I can copy-paste for easy sharing or do I have to type it out the long way.

On the left side of Vortex, click "PLUGINS" and there is your load order

You can also get a cleaner, txt file version in
Users/Your user name/AppData/Local/Fallout4/Plugins.txt

This is the file that the game actually uses to load in your plugins so it's not recommended to mess with this unless you know what you're doing.