How To Fix Load Order On Vortex Nexus Mod Manager

The following covers in slap-up detail the answer to i of the most frequently asked questions regarding Vortex: why we chose to forsake the established plugin drag and drop approach in favour of what we are convinced to be a more hassle-complimentary solution to load order direction.

1 Why can I non manually adjust my plugin load lodge by dragging and dropping like in other mod managers?
- 1.1 The elevate and driblet approach: determining a working load order
- one.2 The Vortex approach: automated load club sorting combined with custom rules
  - 1.2.1 Elevate and driblet
  - i.2.2 Vortex
- 1.iii Custom rules / manual load order manipulation
- 1.iv Reporting technical issues with Vortex load order sorting and contributing to the LOOT masterlist

Why can I not manually adjust my plugin load guild by dragging and dropping like in other mod managers?

To answer that question, permit us focus on what the end goal of any sort of load order direction is: to create a stable setup.

The elevate and driblet approach: determining a working load order

Dragging and dropping plugins freely is one fashion of achieving a stable load social club and likely the main mode many veteran modders of Bethesda Games (The Elder Scrolls and Fallout serial) volition accept employed in the past. The downside of this approach, however, is that it requires noesis of mods, plugins, the way they interact, and ultimately: the mod content itself.

To make up one's mind a working load gild is a lengthy procedure that requires inquiry into mod descriptions, forum posts, and at times even into the plugins themselves via external tools such every bit xEdit.

While this may be fine for experienced veterans, newcomers or intermediate modders might find it daunting and oftentimes difficult to decide where to elevate a given plugin.

Further, mod authors volition frequently exist overly cautious in their recommendations regarding where their plugin needs to go in the load order and just opt to tell users that it needs to load terminal. However, there is more often than not no need for a plugin to load expressionless last in the load order. All that matters is that information technology loads before/later on other plugins that conflict, or otherwise interact with it - which to determine requires knowledge about both plugins in question.

Given the sheer volume of available mods, it is inconceivable that mod authors could mayhap test their plugin confronting every other existing plugin, allow lone business relationship for future plugins.

Lastly, it is likewise possible that information provided by a mod author or someone compiling a working load order at one point is simply outdated and no longer accounts for the most recent versions of plugins by the time you lot read near it.

Ultimately, without knowing about the mod content, the edits a given plugin makes etc. you are fighting an uphill battle in creating a stable load order with drag and driblet.

The Vortex approach: automatic load gild sorting combined with custom rules

With Vortex, on the other hand, you are delegating load lodge direction to a powerful tool: LOOT - the Load Social club Optimisation Tool - designed to automatically sort your plugins in a sensible way. Not only that, just Boodle will also alert you to issues in your load order such as missing patches (patch plugins) that you demand in gild to make ii or more mods compatible with each other.

Without Loot, y'all are relying on your own knowledge of mods and plugins in order to determine, which mods need patches in order to exist made uniform, which mods need to load before one other, but after even so another mod etc.

In essence, Loot is a curated masterlist that is constantly being updated by modern authors and knowledgeable users alike. You can think of it as a load order management tool powered by the combined load gild related knowledge of thousands of users.

In the vast majority of cases, you will exist perfectly fine with relying on LOOT to sort your plugin load order automatically.

In very rare cases where it might exist necessary, nevertheless, yous are still able to override LOOT past applying a custom dominion for a plugin to eastward.yard. load before some other plugin even though Boodle decided on the opposite order. Please annotation, that by doing and then yous are essentially maxim "in this case, I know better than LOOT and this plugin definitely needs to exist loaded before/after that other plugin". In those cases, yous can create a custom rule to attain the aforementioned affair as with manual dragging and dropping of plugins. The difference, however, is that custom rules are more flexible.

For example:

Drag and drop

Let's say nosotros have a plugin load gild, and we know that "Example Plugin 1.esp" has to load before "Example Plugin 2.esp" (= "Example Plugin 2.esp" needs to load afterwards "Case Plugin 1.esp").

To accomplish that with elevate and drop, we would drag "Instance Plugin 2.esp" and drop it in the position subsequently "Example Plugin 1.esp". Relying on this organisation and manual load society management, even so, ways that we volition continue those two plugins, for example, in load order position 20 and 21 for the foreseeable future. There is, however, no technical reason neither for the 2 plugins to remain in those exact two slots nor for "Example Plugin 2.esp" to load right later "Example Plugin 1.esp". Remember: all that matters is that "Example Plugin 2.esp" loads somewhere after "Example Plugin ane.esp".

Vortex

In the rare case that Vortex/Loot will not automatically sort a plugin correctly, nosotros would simply create a custom rule to override LOOT like in the case below.

And that's it. This custom rule volition ensure that "Example Plugin two.esp" will exist loaded after "Instance Plugin one.esp". Whenever your plugins are sorted now, this rule volition hold. It does not mean that both plugins will necessarily stay together (which is not needed) or that they won't move in relation to other plugins (which is technically irrelevant), but it will ensure the correct load club human relationship between those two plugins.

Custom rules / manual load order manipulation

We take established that both, the traditional elevate and driblet every bit well equally the custom rule approach allow you to manipulate your load lodge manually when needed.

However, only very rarely should this be the example and you should be able to mod your game with very few custom rules like in the case above.

To give y'all an example, in our own heavily modded installations of eastward.chiliad. Skyrim Special Edition with ~250 mods installed via Vortex, we did not have to create a unmarried custom rule to create a stable setup.

Manually tinkering with your load social club should exist the absolute exception, not the rule. It as well makes it a lot harder for people to help you troubleshoot any potential issues you might feel, every bit a load order that has been manually created via drag and drop is more prone to errors.

To sum it upwards, given our years of commencement-hand experience with not just modding various games, but with actual development of mod managers and mod direction tools, we have arrived at the conclusion that the all-time manner to reliably create a stable load order is a combination of automation and the rare, infrequent custom rule, rather than the previously established elevate and drop arrangement equally a base for load order direction.

We capeesh that your opinion(s) may differ, and we take heard many of y'all express opposing viewpoints. However, afterward evaluating the input we received, we institute that this reaction is oft down to the user in question but beingness accustomed to the established drag and drop organisation, rather than an actual, technical reason.

Ultimately, we want to motility towards a future where load gild optimisation is entirely automated and constantly enhanced/maintained by our community of millions of modders, rather than taking a step dorsum to the previously established drag and drop system. If you lot are in doubt, please consider giving the automatic load social club sorting Vortex provides a shot and you might discover that it takes a huge load of work off your shoulders.

Reporting technical issues with Vortex load order sorting and contributing to the Loot masterlist

If you do encounter an actual technical outcome with the automatic load order sorting, please, consider contributing to LOOT directly and do not hesitate to inform us providing concrete examples of plugins that are existence sorted in the wrong club via our Vortex support forums.