WORK IN PROGRESS
Content of this page is subject to changes, while I am working with the series and formatting the text.
Welcome to Sim Settlements.
This guide is a collection of posts, which includes modding basics and tutorials for popular tools.
In this post
1. Activate modding
First steps to take is to activate modding for your game. What does this mean? Game does not read third party resource file archives by default. This feature must be activated from configuration files. You will need to edit in to 2 files to make this happen.
Make sure that you have run the default launcher of the game at least once. This will generate proper configuration (INI) files for your game.
You will do these edits in your Documents > My Games Fallout 4 section. First I recommend setting File name extensions visible.
To: Fallout4Prefs.ini
To: Fallout4Custom.ini
If you do not have Fallout4Custom.ini file
2. Nexus Mods and Bethesda.net - quick look
There are two standard locations to get mods for your games.
This guide will have specific instructions for both locations. As a fast overlook, both of these sites are free and both require registration. Neither of these services spam you e-mail, like some other would.
3. File extensions and load order basics
Fallout 4 uses several files. This section helps you to understand what they are and what they do.
Files appearing in your load order
Files in your Data folder
See more about load order and tools to manage it from following chapter of this guide. Mod Manager specific articles will explain how to work with your load order with them.
In the series
Content of this page is subject to changes, while I am working with the series and formatting the text.
Welcome to Sim Settlements.
This guide is a collection of posts, which includes modding basics and tutorials for popular tools.
In this post
- 1. Activate modding
- 2. Nexus Mods and Bethesda.net - quick look
- 3. File extensions and load order basics
1. Activate modding
First steps to take is to activate modding for your game. What does this mean? Game does not read third party resource file archives by default. This feature must be activated from configuration files. You will need to edit in to 2 files to make this happen.
Make sure that you have run the default launcher of the game at least once. This will generate proper configuration (INI) files for your game.
You will do these edits in your Documents > My Games Fallout 4 section. First I recommend setting File name extensions visible.
- Open the location folder. Click the small gray arrow next to question mark at right top corner to expand the view. (See picture)
- Select File name extensions active from the list. (See picture)
To: Fallout4Prefs.ini
[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
To: Fallout4Custom.ini
[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=
If you do not have Fallout4Custom.ini file
- Open Notepad. This will create a new file for you.
- Add the content that was supposed to go in to Fallout4.Custom.ini
- Save the file with Save as... option. Select Save as type: All Types (*.*)
Make sure to save the file as Fallout4.Custom.ini and not accidentally as Fallout4.Custom.ini.txt.
2. Nexus Mods and Bethesda.net - quick look
There are two standard locations to get mods for your games.
- Fallout 4 in Nexus Mods and Community
- Bethesda.net Workshop
This guide will have specific instructions for both locations. As a fast overlook, both of these sites are free and both require registration. Neither of these services spam you e-mail, like some other would.
- You can create an account to Nexus Mods, by filling the registration form. Please read their Terms of Service. The login page might look a bit taunting at first, because Nexus lists all optional memberships first on their page. You do not need to select any of these. Proceed to create your free account from the bottom of the page. You can now download and install content from Nexus mods with your account. It is recommended that you use a mod manager like Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex. These tools are presented in further articles of this guide.
- You can access to Bethesda.net Workshop directly from your in-game Mods menu. You can download and install mods from this location, after filling the registration. You do not need third party mod manager to install mods from Bethesda Workshop. However, you will still need to pay attention to load order. Bethesda Workshop content only uses archived resource files (see BA2 from below) and has few other restrictions in place. Bethesda Workshop works well for Sim Settlement purposes. People looking to install more advanced mods may want to consider creating account to Nexus Mods.
3. File extensions and load order basics
Fallout 4 uses several files. This section helps you to understand what they are and what they do.
Files appearing in your load order
- ESM: Elder Scrolls Master file. Official files and DLCs are shared with this extension. They are greater files in terms of modding, allowing mod authors to assign keywords and forms, so that they are properly used by lower tier plugins (ESP.) Sim Settlements main file is called as Sim Settlements.esm. As a rule of a thumb, ESM files always load above ESP files, though some ESP files might especially be made to appear in the middle of them.
- ESP: Elder Scrolls Plugin file. This is the most standard file type you will see. Addons to Sim Settlements are using this file type, using Sim Settlements.esm as their master. All Sim Settlement addons should load after Sim Settlements.esm file.
- ESL: Elder Scrolls Light Plugin file. This plugin type was added to game, when Creation Club was released. It does not interfere with standard plugin limit (256) of the game. While the file type is mostly used by Creation Club, mod authors might also use the file. ESL is fairly limited file type, so it is rarely seen in standard mods you might download.
Files in your Data folder
- BA2: Bethesda Software Archive 2. These archive files include textures, meshes, scripts and similar resource files. They are loaded with respective plugin file, according the load order in your game.
- Loose files (no archive). Files distributed outside of archives. These files will win conflicts against all resource files in your archives. These files do not have any respective plugin files to load them. Loose files can be both beneficial and problematic. They are beneficial, because you can usually just swap loose file textures in and out from your game, without causing problems with it. They can be problematic, if you are not certain what you have installed and something is overwriting your archived files in unwanted ways. Loose files are one big reason to use mod managers, to avoid problems with multiply files lingering around your installation folder.
See more about load order and tools to manage it from following chapter of this guide. Mod Manager specific articles will explain how to work with your load order with them.
In the series
- Load order and resource priorities
- Save file safety instructions (Coming soon)
- Modding from Bethesda Workshop (Coming soon)
- Modding from Nexus Mods (Coming soon)
- Modding with Mod Organizer 2 (Coming soon)
- Modding with Vortex (Coming soon)
- Creation Club (Coming soon)
- Advanced: Merged Patch and Bashed Patch (Coming soon)
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