Manually placing Mod order with LOOT?

[mooit]

Hi,

LUX needs to have certain load order placement in the right pane with some mods like Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim.

So I placed Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim under LUX.esp like this.

Then I edited the mod and put it in 'Load After' like below.

Now, when I go to Sort with LOOT, Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim moves and doesn't stay placed after Lux - Arthmoor's Helarchen Creek patch.esp.

I've personally never needed to manually sort mods till now, and I assumed this is how it's suppose to work.

If this is correct how I did this with the 'Load After' function, why then is Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim moving when I sort with LOOT, how do I keep it where I want to manually place it?

I know you can right click mods in the right pane and lock them in place, I just assumed the 'Load After' function was more appropriate.

THANKS

Edited June 20, 2023 by mooit

[mooit]

I said the heck with it, I moved Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim in the right pane, then right clicked and locked the mod. Now it was automatically placed showing in 'Load After' with Lux.esp listed in it. So, maybe if you edit in this LOOT window, or you move it in the right pane, you always have to right click in the right pane and lock the mods?

THANKS

P.S. I sorted with LOOT and now it stayed put...

Edited June 20, 2023 by mooit

[Mousetick]

4 hours ago, mooit said:

Now, when I go to Sort with LOOT, Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim moves and doesn't stay placed after Lux - Arthmoor's Helarchen Creek patch.esp.

I've personally never needed to manually sort mods till now, and I assumed this is how it's suppose to work.

If this is correct how I did this with the 'Load After' function, why then is Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim moving when I sort with LOOT, how do I keep it where I want to manually place it?

Yes, this is all correct. But did you save the changes? There's a Save button:

4 hours ago, mooit said:

I said the heck with it, I moved Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim in the right pane, then right clicked and locked the mod. Now it was automatically placed showing in 'Load After' with Lux.esp listed in it. So, maybe if you edit in this LOOT window, or you move it in the right pane, you always have to right click in the right pane and lock the mods?

I never use MO2's lock feature but I tried it out of curiosity. I can't reproduce your results: LOOT ignores MO2's locked order completely.

Are you using MO2's built-in plugin sort feature by any chance? You should be using LOOT as a standalone tool instead:

You should be able to set custom rules in LOOT without manually reordering or locking anything in MO2. I use a few LOOT custom rules myself and they work just fine.

Also consider that

• MO2 Locked Order only applies to that specific MO2 profile.
• LOOT Custom Rule applies in any context with any profile or any mod manager (or lack thereof).

[mooit]

For the most part, I do just let LOOT Sort, but LUX is one mod in particular, that it needs to have some mods manually placed, like Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim, that is why I am moving it.

I run LOOT from inside MO2, and when I ran LOOT, I scrolled down to the mod I wanted to manually move, right clicked on it and clicked 'Edit Metadata'.

Then under the Load After tab, I clicked below 'Add new row' and then I was able to type in a mod name to load after, and then I clicked Save.

Then when I tried to sort with LOOT the mod moved position.

So it seems like you can do this two ways, manually like I just pointed out, or simply right click on the mod in the right pane of MO2 and lock it, and where you locked it at, that mod name then gets automatically added in the Load After tab.

I did the latter and found out later it works this way.

So I'm assuming, if you do it like the first way I did, then you also need to right click it in the right pane in MO2 and still lock it.

Here's a screen shot, where I did the latter, right clicked in the right pane and locked it.

Then LOOT automatically added the mod at the Load After tab.

Now when I sort with LOOT Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim stays put.

It seems like no matter which way I do this, I still have to lock the mod, which I wasn't aware if it was needed. I always assumed, if you just set up the Load After section, it automatically stays there without needing to be locked as well.

OR, is this problem I am seeing, becuase of running LOOT from inside MO2? Running LOOT from inside MO2 so far hasn't been a problem for me, so I just run it this way.

THANKS

Edited June 21, 2023 by mooit

[Mousetick]

If something isn't clear, you can ask for specific clarifications. There's no need for repeating your whole story verbatim.

How things should work for everyone following best modding practices:

There's no need for any manual ordering or locking in MO2 in order to override LOOT automatic sort. Custom 'Load After' rules are created in LOOT, nothing is done in MO2. LOOT doesn't know anything and doesn't care about MO2's locked order. LOOT is the only tool used to sort load orders. There is no split between LOOT and MO2. MO2 passively applies the load order sorted by LOOT.

RTFM links:

• STEP System Setup Guide
• STEP SSE Tool Configuration
• STEP SSE Sorting Plugins with LOOT
• LOOT Editing Plugin Metadata

As things are seemingly working differently and unexpectedly for you, you must be doing something different.

If you don't care to figure out why, and are happy with your current situation, then there is no point in having this discussion. You can just skip the following.

• How do you sort with LOOT in MO2? Describe precisely the steps you use to do so. Which menu do you select, which buttons do you click on?
• What is the version reported by LOOT when you sort with LOOT in MO2? LOOT > Help > About.

[z929669]

Mooit runs on Linux using a non-standard config for most tools, I think. So these use cases are atypical.

[Blackread]

On 6/21/2023 at 7:15 AM, mooit said:

For the most part, I do just let LOOT Sort, but LUX is one mod in particular, that it needs to have some mods manually placed, like Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim, that is why I am moving it.

I run LOOT from inside MO2, and when I ran LOOT, I scrolled down to the mod I wanted to manually move, right clicked on it and clicked 'Edit Metadata'.

Then under the Load After tab, I clicked below 'Add new row' and then I was able to type in a mod name to load after, and then I clicked Save.

Then when I tried to sort with LOOT the mod moved position.

So it seems like you can do this two ways, manually like I just pointed out, or simply right click on the mod in the right pane of MO2 and lock it, and where you locked it at, that mod name then gets automatically added in the Load After tab.

I did the latter and found out later it works this way.

So I'm assuming, if you do it like the first way I did, then you also need to right click it in the right pane in MO2 and still lock it.

Here's a screen shot, where I did the latter, right clicked in the right pane and locked it.

Then LOOT automatically added the mod at the Load After tab.

Now when I sort with LOOT Water for ENB Shades of Skyrim stays put.

It seems like no matter which way I do this, I still have to lock the mod, which I wasn't aware if it was needed. I always assumed, if you just set up the Load After section, it automatically stays there without needing to be locked as well.

OR, is this problem I am seeing, becuase of running LOOT from inside MO2? Running LOOT from inside MO2 so far hasn't been a problem for me, so I just run it this way.

THANKS

There are two ways to tell LOOT where to put a plugin: load after rules and groups. If you tell LOOT to load WfE after Lux.esp, it only ensures that WfE loads after the main Lux.esp. You would have to specify a load after rule for each Lux patch you need WfE to load after. So in this case it's probably better to use groups instead. The LOOT masterlist assigns Lux.esp into the Interior Lighting group I think. Because all the Lux patches have Lux.esp as a master, this ensures that all the Lux patches are effectively placed in that same group, even if they haven't been assigned to it. So in order to load WfE after Lux and all its patches, it should be assigned in a group that loads later than Lux. You can see the groups and their order through Game -> Edit Groups (this can't be opened if you have metadata for a plugin open). For example in my setup WfE is assigned to the group Late Loaders.

[mooit]

On 6/21/2023 at 3:02 PM, z929669 said:

Mooit runs on Linux using a non-standard config for most tools, I think. So these use cases are atypical.

 

I use Linux, but I'm not gaming in Linux with SSE, I'm using Windows 11, and I'm doing everything by the book for modding in Skyrim with MO2, LOOT, xLODGen, TexGen, Dyndolod, and I've always done so.

I brought up before I was using Linux, I was ranting over how I like to do things manually by hand, was all that conversation was about. I think it had to do with updating in MO2, where as I was manually download the mods off of Nexus and install/update this way, not through MO2.

Edited June 25, 2023 by mooit