I'm curious about MO so I tried it, but things aren't going as the tutorial goes.

[Arrowwithnoknee]

Hello,

 

I've installed MO and got myself a clean skyrim install to match it. Afterwards, I went through Gamerpoet's videos to install my mods, but a number of things went wrong as soon as I started playing the game:

 

A) Certain quest mods starting prematurely (Frostfall, etc.)

B) XPMSE skeleton not providing "styles", which leads to Dual Sheath Redux to operate improperly as well

 

C) I don't know how to make sure that XPMSE is not overwritten so it stays on top of everything.

 

 

The videos and guides are nice, but they tend to speak against each other, which confuses me. A lot of extra notes that give warning or small steps just further leave me in bewilderment. I'd really appreciate someone spending some time to elaborate on the simple steps to at least have my game running somewhat decently. I can list my mod list if necessary. 

 

Thank you for your time.

[Nebulous112]

The main points:

• MO does not install things into your data folder. Thus, no files can ever get lost due to overwrite. Everything is in its own file, so it is much safer to use than any other mod manager. You never have to "start all over" and re-download all your mods. The most you would have to do is delete one mod and re-install it. Maybe re-do some patchers that use data from it.
• MO has a profiles feature so that you can have more than one mod profile. While not perfect, it is pretty neat. One thing to keep in mind is that Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini for each profile are handled separately. This means that the copies in My Documents are not being used; instead they will be found in Mod Organizer/profiles/[profile name].
• Left pane acts like your "install order". This handles assets and textures, etc. What you want to overwrite, you put visually lower in the list (i.e. higher priority number). You can see conflicts based on the lightning bolt symbols. Green + means it is overriding another mod, Red - means that it is being overwritten by another mod. You can see what these conflicts are in the properties window.
• Right pane is your load order. You should be familiar with that from your last manager. Use LOOT to sort.
• Archives tab - MO has the ability to manage archives, which means that BSAs are extracted at run-time. They will be loaded in the order set by the associated plugin in the right pane. I believe this feature is enabled by default. It may cause issues if the feature is on and not everything was ticked...verify if everything is ticked in that tab or not.
• Modify Executables (gears icon) - This allows you to run external programs like SKSE, LOOT, Wrye Bash, xEdit, FNIS, etc. through MO. Set up the binary to point to the .exe file. The program will show up in the drop-down list on the top right.
• If you are using multiple profiles to play different characters with different mods or mod options, you must rename all mods installed with different options, or different patcher output files, etc. Anything that is different for the different profiles in the left pane must be renamed accordingly. Otherwise you will screw up your first profile character.

The full guide: https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Mod_Organizer

[Nebulous112]

Also, it is possible that there could be issues from the old install of files in the data folder. I suggest you follow this:

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Make_Skyrim_Vanilla_Again

[Arrowwithnoknee]

Thanks for the response, but I already am aware of most of the things you've mentioned. My skyrim is definitely vanilla, since I deleted everything clean before resintalling off steam. 

 

I was actually hoping to have a more convenient conversation with someone like you who can give more in-depth explanations.

[GrantSP]

There really isn't anything "more in-depth" to discuss. The use of MO doesn't affect the way the game is played only the way you have mods installed.

 

So point 1) is not due to using MO. Points 2 and 3 are down to the order you have them in the left-hand pane as mentioned by @Nebulous112.

 

Make sure you have read the manual and are sure you understand 'priority' and 'mod conflict resolution', those two things will help determine which mods need to be placed in what order.