the Sim Settlements forums!

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Mod Installation: Manual vs. Mod Manager?

Sanguine

New Member
Messages
12
Hi all, sorry if my google fu has failed me horribly but I'm curious about reasons why installing mods with a mod manager is necessarily safer than installing them manually (drag from archive into data folder). For mods that have specific choices you need to make, I understand the obvious convenience of the mod manager. What about mods that are just dropping files into your data folder and don't even have a fomod folder (I'm assuming the xml file guides the installation?) in them though?

Two examples:
Project Valkyrie and Outcasts and Remnants both come as archives with loose files but no fomod folder. What are the benefits to installing through Vortex over dragging and dropping manually to my data folder from the zipped archives I downloaded from the Nexus?

Sim Settlements 2 DOES have a fomod folder in the archive. It's been a while since I installed it so I don't recall if there were things I needed to select when I installed. Do I need to install with Vortex or again is dragging and dropping an option?

What makes dragging and dropping 'dangerous' in general?
 
Installing mods "manually" is perfectly fine, as long as you put things in the right spots. It's uninstalling that the issues come in, since you probably won't remember which of the loose files came from which mod. Especially if it's a mod that alters a vanilla script and is causing problems down the line (see any mention of WorkshopScript.pex on these forums for that)

I don't use any mod managers myself, only drag and drop 'manual install' - have done it that way since the days of Morrowind - and have never had any significant problems that weren't just The Power Of Todd in general, just random little quirks like somehow making the game lose the texture to specifically the barrel on the vanilla Assault Rifle. Just a matter of being careful and double checking what you're doing.
 
Installing mods "manually" is perfectly fine, as long as you put things in the right spots. It's uninstalling that the issues come in, since you probably won't remember which of the loose files came from which mod. Especially if it's a mod that alters a vanilla script and is causing problems down the line (see any mention of WorkshopScript.pex on these forums for that)

I don't use any mod managers myself, only drag and drop 'manual install' - have done it that way since the days of Morrowind - and have never had any significant problems that weren't just The Power Of Todd in general, just random little quirks like somehow making the game lose the texture to specifically the barrel on the vanilla Assault Rifle. Just a matter of being careful and double checking what you're doing.
Thank you for the response Yaugie! What do you launch Fallout 4 with usually? I've used NMM for years but recently switched to Vortex because that was heavily suggested and now am considering MO2. I've found Vortex to be a bit of a headache with load order management. It was suggested to me that using multiple mod managers was a bad idea also (NMM to manage load order and Vortex to do everything else) but it wasn't clear to me why, I was just told that doing so would lead to me 'having a bad day'. Is there any reason that this would cause issues? I could never get the rules in Vortex to actually work from what I could tell but manually adjusting my load order through NMM and then launching with Vortex seemed to work just fine and the load order changes I made in NMM were immediately reflected in Vortex.

As far as manual installation of files, I can just ignore the fomod folders in those archives and drag the files over like I always have then?
 
What do you launch Fallout 4 with usually?
Shortcut on my desktop to the F4SE loader.

As far as manual installation of files, I can just ignore the fomod folders in those archives and drag the files over like I always have then?
That's what I do. As I understand it, the "fomod" files are for those mod managers to know what to do and/or what to display in their own UIs.
 
Shortcut on my desktop to the F4SE loader.


That's what I do. As I understand it, the "fomod" files are for those mod managers to know what to do and/or what to display in their own UIs.
Oh wow, that is awesome to hear on both counts! Thank you again for responding and sharing Yaugie!
 
Do keep in mind I'm no expert by any means, I just have a technician's mind and have been modding games for ~25 years. For more technicals about how it works for Fallout4 specifically, or those mod managers, you'd need to find someone else.
 
Using a mod manager is mostly for convenience. It makes it easy to install / uninstall and be notified of updates. To me that last bit is very convenient.

Be aware that some mods with a FOMOD installer can change filenames on installation. So if you manually install, if any scripts are looking for the new filename and it doesn't exist, there will be issues. My XDI patch is a mod that does this, but there is no issue with the mod's filename being incorrect. Just some food for thought.
 
Top