SkepticalJoker

Just FYI, when it comes to FNIS, I find it much simpler to just head over to the data tab in MO (which shows the virtual data folder), scroll down to tools and run FNIS from there. It's what you would normally do if you were installing FNIS manually or through NMM. I do the same thing when running SUM to generate the ReProccer, ASIS and other dynamic patches.

Okay, so the conversation seems to have settled on what seems to be a reasonable solution to me. However, I've just discovered that one solution advocated before is a no go. You should NOT put the Unofficial Patches in the data folder, unless you plan on ditching Mod Organizer. It seems to break everything. I was getting infinite load screens when trying to enter several cells and no amount of conflict resolution would fix it. I was also getting crashes that weren't present before. I discovered this when I tried to make a vanilla profile to test certain mods that I thought might be causing the issue, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the game to load through MO. My normal game profile with tons of mods would load (with subsequent ILS/crashes), but a vanilla profile with just the DLCs and Unofficial Patches would not. I decided to remove the Unofficial Patches from the data folder and reinstall them through MO like normal. After that, I was able to load the vanilla profile with no issues. I then went back to my normal profile (now with the Unofficial Patches installed as regular mods) and suddenly the conflict window was showing a ton of mods that needed to be reordered. I then loaded up my save and tried to enter the nearest cell that was giving me a consistent infinite load screen and the issue was resolved; it loaded up just fine. It seems the problem is that since MO can't account for conflicts with mods installed in the data folder, you can end up with a complete mess in your priority sorting unless you completely ditch MO. Meaning no mixing and matching mods through MO and mods in the data folder. But it also seems to create an even bigger issue, since I can't explain why the vanilla profile wouldn't load, but my normal game profile would (albeit with major problems). Why would that be? Even when I tried to deactivate the Unofficial Paches in order to load just vanilla Skyrim, it wouldn't work. tl;dr - It should be strongly advised to keep all mods out of the data folder when using MO, no matter what. The only exceptions I guess would be the official DLCs, although I'm strongly considering just moving those into MO as mods.

That would be a problem, yes. I don't know how likely that is, though? Also, the USKP team spent months debating the original change, so I imagine if the USKP team wanted to switch back for some unknown reason, we would have ample warning.

Excellent. The Bloke's idea sounds great to me. I do have to say that I don't understand the reluctance to treat the Unofficial Patches as special. They ARE special. They fix the game. You need them if you want anything approaching a reasonable expectation of completing the game. They also fix plenty of bugs that aren't game breaking per se, but severely diminish the quality of the game in any case. As far as I know, no other mods do this. Other mods add things to the game, or make subjective changes to it. No other mod simply makes the game playable. I see no contradiction in treating the Unofficial Patches special, while not doing the same with any hypothetical future mods that want to use the same methods as the Unofficial Patches. To be honest, I don't see how any mod could do that without conflicting with the Unofficial Patches in the first place.

Yep, over the last couple days I've been repacking my texture mods and the HD DLC textures into BSAs, as well as packing originally loose file mods into new BSAs. My performance has increased greatly, stuttering has all but disappeared, load times are still reasonable, and crashes are less frequent. My HDD isn't great (Seagate Barracuda), so perhaps that's the issue. If I had an SSD or maybe one of those WD caviar blacks, BSA vs loose file wouldn't be much of a difference.

Tannin, You're putting far too much stock into LOOT. Yes, you should always begin with LOOT in order to have an intelligently sorted starting place. Unfortunately, mods conflict in complex ways that LOOT can't always sort correctly, hence the user list. However, even the user list is inadequate to resolve certain conflicts that must be handled by manually placing plugins into specific positions in relation to other mods. The user list only lets you tell LOOT to sort mod x before or after mod y, but you can't tell it to place mod x into position x. It seems to me you're proposing a regress. We would lose an extremely advantageous feature in favor of a highly restrictive plugin list. I'm no mod author or power modder, I think I represent typical users, and what you propose would ensure that I could never update MO. I would have to stick with the current version to avoid this new restriction. :(

I just want to add my two cents against this option. I used NMM before switching to MO and one of the main things I hated about Skyrim modding was the whole BSA vs Registered BSA vs Loose File overwrite scheme. I understand the desire to adhere to Bethesda standards because they're "official," but when those standards are stupid, I see no reason why you shouldn't try to improve them. MO is a massive improvement, allowing me to completely ignore that priority scheme and just order my mods as I see them. It's the USKP team that has thrown a monkey wrench into all of this, not you. They could solve this themselves by doing what they probably should have been doing all along, which is make different versions of the patches for different DLC setups. Unfortunately, there's just so many bugs (just look at the recent USKP changelog), that the amount of extra work required is too much to expect. I imagine if it were within their capabilities to do, and they thought it wouldn't introduce more problems, then the USKP team would certainly make different versions of the patches. In any case, I think keithinhanoi's solution is the best one, which would be improved by a more automated method using MO. Since the Unofficial Patches have been forced to elevate themselves to vanilla level, they should be treated like vanilla assets. For now, users should move the Unofficial Patch BSAs into the Data folder. MO's archive tab shows that they load correctly. An automated method where MO recognizes the Unofficial Patches and automatically treats them as vanilla assets would be ideal. Nothing else in MO would have to change.