Switching from NMM to BOSS+Wrye Bash

[Aelius28]

I started playing Skyrim two days ago, and at first I was using the Nexus Mod Manager. But then I came across STEP and it seems to recommend using BOSS + Wrye Bash. I'm just wondering how I should go about switching from using NMM to Boss + Wrye Bash. Do I just uninstall NMM, or should I deactivate the mods in NMM first?

 

Thanks.

[EssArrBee]

Yeah you would have to do a clean install by uninstalling everything you install with NMM. We actually recommend Mod Orgainzer and STEP is now the official support forum for MO. MO has a NMM import feature, but it isn't fully fleshed out. I've used it with success on FNV and Skyrim though, so you could give it a shot.

 

Wrye Bash is a good program and still works really well, and I use it with MO to generate a bashed patch to merge some mods and leveled lists. Those are more advanced features that a new user should probably read up on before using. We have both Wrye Bash and Mod Organizer Guides that you can use as well.

[Aelius28]

So you'd recommend I use MO and BOSS, or just MO? Also, should I get TES5Edit too?

[Smile44]

All of those plus Boss Userlist Manager (BUM). Have a lok at Skyrim Revisited, it is an excellent way to learn how to set up Skyrim with all the correct tools, as well how to use them and what they are for. The guides also help but it is useful to be working on your set up whilst learning how to mod Skyrim properly.

Once you get the hang of it, you can put together STEP or similar with confidence.

:)

[EssArrBee]

I wouldn't mess with BUM or TES5Edit until you are more familiar with modding. Don't let all these programs come at you at once. It can be overwhelming and mess up your game really fast.

[Smile44]

True, but I had little clue about anything but Boss and NMM, before I discovered SR.

 

:)

 

Edit: It is useful to learn how to use the tools, whether just starting with MO and BOSS or getting to grips with all of them, at present SR is the best resource for learning these tools. You don't have to install all of SR to get an idea of how the tools work, at least at a basic functional level to be able to install STEP confidently.

[z929669]

SR is not appropriate for new users, as there is way too much unnecessary information for those wishing to improve Skyrim without making it a huge, 1-6-month project (unless that is what the new user wants to do, which is definitely not the case most of the time).

 

All users need is BOSS and MO and Skyrim and Steam ... and STEP.

 

The 2.2.8 guide will be our simplest follow & play yet. We'll also be pointing users to Packs for the first time ;)

[Aelius28]

Thanks for the help guys, I have a couple more questions though.

 

My SSD is really packed full and I'd prefer not to have MO use the default path (on my SSD, C: drive) to store the mods I have installed. I changed the path to a new folder I created within my HDD (the non-SSD one, my E: drive), entitled "Mod Organizer Mods". Then I went into settings and checked "Advanced" and changed the "Mods" directory to the "E:\...\Mod Organizer Mods", but the old location ("C:\...\Mod Organizer\mods") still has all of the mods I had installed before I changed the directory in the settings. Should I copy-paste all the stuff in the old place into the new place I created, or just delete them and reinstall them?

 

Also, since I have MO, what do I use BOSS for? If I understand correctly, BOSS is kind of a priority ordering program, but MO seems to handle all of that priority stuff.

 

Thanks a lot for your help guys, STEP is awesome and I'm thrilled to have found it. Is there any way I can donate? :)

[z929669]

Thanks for the help guys, I have a couple more questions though.

 

My SSD is really packed full and I'd prefer not to have MO use the default path (on my SSD, C: drive) to store the mods I have installed. I changed the path to a new folder I created within my HDD (the non-SSD one, my E: drive), entitled "Mod Organizer Mods". Then I went into settings and checked "Advanced" and changed the "Mods" directory to the "E:\...\Mod Organizer Mods", but the old location ("C:\...\Mod Organizer\mods") still has all of the mods I had installed before I changed the directory in the settings. Should I copy-paste all the stuff in the old place into the new place I created, or just delete them and reinstall them?

• If MO is already installed and mods are already installed within MO, you can move all mods from your old MO/Mods directory to the new one.
• If you are talking about the MO downloads directory, the same can be done by moving from old downloads dir to new.

Basically, MO needs a place to store the packages downloaded from the Nexus or it needs to know where to find the ones that you already downloaded (these are the 'source' packages). From these, MO 'installs' the packages into the virtual directory 'source', which is basically just the extraction of all necessary files from within each package from the MO downloads directory into the MO mods directory. Both can be moved wherever, but you need to point to those new locations within the MO settings.

Also, since I have MO, what do I use BOSS for? If I understand correctly, BOSS is kind of a priority ordering program, but MO seems to handle all of that priority stuff.

BOSS is absolutely essential for telling MO (i.e., Skyrim) how to order the plugin load hierarchy. MO only defines install order ... it does not define plugin load order, which is different. All programs should be launched from within MO, so you will need to configure those paths as well so that they may be launched (see the MO guide and post in the MO support forums for help).

Thanks a lot for your help guys, STEP is awesome and I'm thrilled to have found it. Is there any way I can donate? :)

[Salvinha]

Hey Guys,

Taking advantage on this post, I would like to make my first question as a STEP member.

Yesterday I made a full clean install of Skyrim after having many game breaks and save losses in the last install. This new installation took me hours of job (about 6 hours) for to download and setup everything. But I could play a bit already, since I'm on vacation from job, I played about 3 hours, got to level 8, and I had already one crash. (And as always, the CTDs becomes more constant with the game progression. Despite I use 2k texture, Project Parallax, ENB and light mods in everything, the VRam usage NEVER passes the 2.6GB from 3GB, so, it is not textures).

 

As my friend above, I did everything with NMM, and one of the things I always seeked in NMM is the mod isolation, and not overwrite, I think it brings much more stability for the game. I came across STEP Commnuity and found out that MO has it, I so much heard about MO but never wanted to try, now I want to remake my skyrim install with MO.

My Skyrim is heavy modded, and since so many ages I came searching for a new way to make my Skyrim stable, I see people running +200 mods with no problems, I install around 150, being around 15 scripted mods only, and everything falls.

 

I see Gopher videos, he runs so many mods without problems, which makes me want to cry. T-T (I have almost the same list as his)

 

I'm not a new in modding, I heavily mod my games since Oblivion and Fallout 3, and in Skyrim I clean mods with Te5Edit, sort them in BOSS, Bashed Patch in Wrye Bash, but in the end of all things, it has no other way, my game always brakes.

I'm not used to include scripted mods in a running save game and even less take them out, I already get scared of what an update can cause. :D

And besides installing mods with NMM, I never run mods in the STEP Community "blacklist".

 

The thing is:

Do I need to reinstall skyrim, or is it only necessary to uninstall all the mods?

About the files (.zip, .rar, .7zip) I already downloaded with NMM, if I place them in MO folder can I install them without any problems?

About my already existing savegame, if I install the same mods with MO, I can play it without any problems, right?

 

Thanks!

[Glanzer]

Adding my own experience to this thread....

 

I used NMM for months until I decided to finally try MO since I kept reading how much better it is. Now I would NEVER go back to NMM. MO does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you understand the concepts you'll see how much more flexible it is. If you only have a dozen mods or so, then using NMM is probably fine. But if you want to install the STEP mods or have 250 different mods (like myself) MO is a requirement. Otherwise you will have a NIGHTMARE when organizing and configuring your mods.

 

Here is the basic fundamental difference between NMM and MO:

 

--  NMM installs files directly into the Skyrim game folders. If files conflict you will be prompted to overwrite them. Period.

 

--  MO installs files into SEPARATE folders (one folder for each mod) OUTSIDE the Skyrim game folders, and since the files are separated they NEVER OVERWRITE any other mod's files. How does it do this? MO does this by making the files only appear to exist inside the Skyrim game folders when the game is started. In other words, MO is basically a VIRTUAL FILE SYSTEM that is created dynamically when the game starts. That's why you have to start MO first, then start Skyrim from inside MO. What about conflicting files? MO resolves conflicts by "masking" conflicting files (files that have the same name and location in different MO mod folders) according to the load order of the mod. So if mod one has /textures/blah.dds and mod two has /textures/blah.dds, mod two will take precedence and that's what the game will use (assuming mod two comes later in the load order).

 

This allows gamers to simply move mods around in the load order to choose which mod's files should be used in cases where there are conflicts.

 

But what about ESP load order? That is handled SEPARATELY from the mod load order. You have to run BOSS from MO too so that it can see all the ESPs inside all the different MO mod folders. So when BOSS runs it will create its load order list for the ESPs and Skyrim will use that load order when the game is started.

 

All the above info is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG about how much better MO is than NMM when it comes to mod management. There are LOTS more advantages. Let me mention just one more advantage: The installation process. During the installation of a mod MO allows you to use the regular FOMOD installer, i.e. the GUI "wizard" that modders use to allow you to choose mod features during the install. That works perfectly. BUT in addition to that you can also use a Manual install method that allows you to look at all the files and folders in the installation package, and YOU can choose what you want included and what you don't want included. For example, a lot of times the mod author will make a mistake like misnaming the Texture folder or something like that. MO allows you to RENAME that folder on the fly during the install. Or sometimes an author will include a readme file which wouldn't get installed normally because it's not in the Data folder; but MO allows you to drag/drop the files around in the folder structure however you want, so you can drag that readme file into the Data folder before you install it.

 

Sometime I'm going to create a youtube video comparing and contrasting NMM with MO.