Some questions from a 1st-time installer

[Cretgren]

First off, thank you for creating the STEP guide so thoroughly. However, even though I read the guide, I still have some questions. One thing of note before the questions: I have only modded one game, Morrowind, ever in my life. All I did for that was follow a guide (which was akin to STEP) which told me what to download from Nexus and in what order. There wasn't anything like BOSS, Mod Organizer (I'm using this, not NMM or Wyre) SKSE or TESV Edit. All the load order stuff was from the launcher, and all I did was unpack 7-zips and put the contents in the correct folder, always overwriting/replacing files when possible.

 

In terms of STEP, I am confident that I got SKSE working and can launch it through MO.

 

The questions/issues:

 

I am in the process of downloading mods through MO. The Ancient Nord Armor fix has an alert icon next to its download in MO and it says some information is missing and to "query info" again, but doing so fixes nothing. Is this an issue/does this mean the mod is not working?

 

I cannot see any of the mods MO says are installed in my Data folder. They are, however, in the downloads folder in MO as .7z, .rar, .7z.meta and .rar.meta (including the Nord Armor one) and unextracted in MO's mods folder. Do I extract/copy these into the Data folder to complete installation (I assumed that would have been done by MO when I hit install)?

 

How do I know when to use BOSS and TESV Edit? I know that the latter can fix issues found in BOSS, but should I just wait until all of the mods are installed? I am totally confused with load order as well. I know that this is done in BOSS, but do I wait for the end with this as well, and why is this done in BOSS?

 

Sorry if these seem like very basic questions, or have a very obvious answer to you; I am not used to juggling all these programs.

[TechAngel85]

The questions/issues:

 

I am in the process of downloading mods through MO. The Ancient Nord Armor fix has an alert icon next to its download in MO and it says some information is missing and to "query info" again, but doing so fixes nothing. Is this an issue/does this mean the mod is not working?

I'm not sure on this one. I haven't ran into that myself yet. I'm fairly new to MO myself.

I cannot see any of the mods MO says are installed in my Data folder. They are however, in the downloads folder in MO as .7z, .rar, .7z.meta and .rar.meta (including the Nord Armor one) and unextracted in MO's mods folder. Do I extract/copy these into the Data folder to complete installation (I assumed that would have been done by MO when I hit install)?

MO does not install mods into the game's Data folder. It uses a separate folder in the MO directory that acts as a "virtual" Data folder when the game is ran. This is also why the game must be ran via the launch feature when using MO. This "virtual" Data folder is one of the great things about MO.

How do I know when to use BOSS and TESV Edit? I know that the latter can fix issues found in BOSS but should I just wait until all of the mods are installed? I am totally confused with load order as well. I know that this is done in BOSS, but do I wait for the end with this as well, and why is this done in BOSS?

Yes, just wait until everything is install and then run BOSS via MO. Boss will sort your ESPs to the correct load order automatically so you don't have to maintain the load order yourself. It will also tell you which mods should be cleaned using TES5Edit.

[rootsrat]

The questions/issues:

 

I am in the process of downloading mods through MO. The Ancient Nord Armor fix has an alert icon next to its download in MO and it says some information is missing and to "query info" again, but doing so fixes nothing. Is this an issue/does this mean the mod is not working?

I'm not sure on this one. I haven't ran into that myself yet. I'm fairly new to MO myself.

 

Sometimes MO has problems getting the info about downloaded files. This is not a problem, if you right click and select Query Info and nothing happens, it's fine. In the worst case you will have to double click the mod in the left hand pane, after it's installed and manually input some info (mod version for example). In most of the case that's not a problem at all though.

[youtoo]

Answers in Order:

1. MO giving you alerts: Are you using MO v99.1 beta? I think this is a first attempt to tell you when mods are up to date. Its not working. Ignore it. There are a few mods in STEP, that you are not supposed to run the latest version on anyway. The 2 I can remember are:

-- SkyIU(use 3.4). Not in STEP, but the mod you install after it NACMIM or something like that has a SkyUI patch that only works with SkyUI3.4. If you run the game and open the map with the latest SkyUI running you get an error. So then you know to downgrade

-- HD Textures 1.5. They don't 'say' to do this. What they say is to get the 4 indidivual files. The 1.6 is bundled. It includes a Riften skin. The very next mod you installed Serious HD, has its own Riften Texture which the STEP guys tell us better.

 

So just ignore that part of v99.1. Some guys on here (mixed opinion) have told me to use MO 12.9 and then to make sure I download the option NCC file and install it and stay away from the v99.1 beta. It seems to work ok for me. There are a few annoyances though... I may switch  back.

 

2. BOSS: Boss orders your load order for you. In MO, to the right where you see data tab. See the .esp files? This is what MO orders. The order they load is critical. So some nerds maintain a master list of how to order mods. BOSS just reads that list and orders them for you. Run it anytime and read the report to get familiar with it. Make sure to run it after you install a new mod and run the game. Be warned, you will get errors in the report during STEP installation. Don't worry about it. They should resolve themselves as you get more mods installed. The errors are because mods that are required are not installed yet. with the v99.1 version of MO, I did have a problem with Better Quest Objects that did not resolve. I had to disable the Paarthumex Dilema.esp fix. (dont worry about it unless it happens to you after the game is installed, then post here. )

 

3. TES5Edit: STEP has only 1 STEP where you need to use TES5Edit. I believe its in one of the mods named 'enchanted'. Search for it and find one with Detailed instructions. Read that. Dont worry about this until you get to that point.

 

TES5Edit has another very nice feature. When we install alot of mods, alot of times we crash to desktop and cant figure out why. TES5Edit will simulate running the game and if you get a CTD during load will stop at that point and tell you the culprit and what the problem is. Go to youtube and watch the TES5Edit videos. I think the ones by Gopher explain the details of the report. TES5Edit does alot of other stuff too, but we dont need most of it for STEP. I am still learning this stuff.

 

One Tip: Run your utilities from MO. They run better. At the top I believe the 3rd button lets you add executables. Then on the right at top you see a drop down box with 'run'. I think MO passes them flags and parameters at startup to sync stuff up. So add the executables.

[Omolong]

Actually, youtoo, you don't need to use SkyUI 3.4. There's an option in the MCM menu for SkyUI where you can disable version checking for the map, letting you use that mod with SkyUI 4.

[Cretgren]

Thank you all very much for your answers. I will look them over in greater detail a bit later today and edit this post to reflect how much more I understand.

 

EDIT: For question number one, I will choose to ignore it, since I have continued downloading STEP and noticed that the missing info is in mods without a version number. As for the separate data folder that MO uses, do I still need to move all the unpacked files together (all of them are in separate folders named for the each mod)? If I don't, I guess I don't understand how various files overwrite each other (like in the "conflicting graphics" section: are these just overwritten by the mod order)?  

[Cretgren]

Apparently, updating the post doesn't bump it on the thread list and show it as updated, so this reply is to draw attention to my edit.

[TechAngel85]

Nope, no need to put any files together. MO takes care of all that for you. :)