"loose" files

[violetarc]

This may seem like a silly question, but here goes...

 

STEP guide says this (pg 18):

IMPORTANT NOTE: “Loose File†(non-BSA) versions should be used whenever available. All mods should be installed in the order listed. It is intentional that as you progress many mods will overwrite previous mods.

So does this mean I SHOULD NOT use a mod manager for most of these mods? When I did this a few months back, I "installed" almost all of the textures and meshes via copying them from the archive into the data folder. Perhaps I was doing this wrong and I should have, in fact, archived the loose files and then installed via mod manager? Thanks in advance.

[Neovalen]

Always use a mod manager, always. I recommend Mod Organizer in combination with Wrye Bash and BOSS.

[thalastwon]

Using a mod manager is definitely your choice, I recommend Mod Organizer as well. What the note is saying is that if a mod has a choice between using a .bsa or loose files, to choose that for better compatibility and stability. There is also the option to take the .bsa file and extract the files for it to make them loose files. Mod Organizer now gives you the option to extract .bsas when you install mods.

[violetarc]

Ah! I understand now - thanks!