Optional ESPs Not Showing under Archives Tab w/ MO Manage

[aba42]

I am now in STEP 2292 Section 2.K.  I have just installed Better Weapon Swing Sounds.  Following STEP Detailed Instructions, I moved the optional file BSW.esp from the lower pane to the upper pane.  [i believe that this is the second file for which this has been recommended, outside of the initial HighRes files].   All of the HighRes Files, moved at the beginning of this STEP 2292 Approach are in the "Have MO manage Archives section under the right pane Archives Tab.  However, neither of the two Esp files that I have moved subsequently have appeared in that listing.  I have closed and restarted MO, nothing changed.  I've rerun LOOT, no errors.  Any guidance here?  Got any idea where these two optional esps went, and/or where they should physically be located in the file structure?  Thanks!!

[Greg]

Is the Better Weapon Swing Sounds mod checked in the left pane? If it is, right click Better Weapon Swing Sounds in the right pane, click Information, click the Filetree tab, and verify BWS.bsa is showing. If you don't see BWS.bsa in the file tree, you may need to reinstall the mod.

[aba42]

Yes, Better Weapon Swing Sounds mod is checked in the left pane.  I cannot right-click on BWS.eps in the right pane, as it is no longer there (it disappeared as soon as I double-clicked on Better Weapon Swing Sounds in the left pane, selected Optional ESPs, highlighted BWS.esp and moved it from the lower pane to the upper pane...it's still sitting right there in the upper pane).  I then open FileTree in that same window, and BWS.esp is listed under "optional" folder, and is listed as BWS.esp.  BUT when I close that window, selecte the Archives tab in the right pane, there is NO BWS.esp listed.  There is no optional folder listed.

[Nebulous112]

Greg meant right-click the mod in the left pane and click Information. Same as double-clicking the mod.

In that Filetree window, is there a file called BWS.bsa? This is different from BWS.esp which is in the optional folder (since you already did that part of the process).

[aba42]

No, there isn't.    There are two folders (optional, which has the BWS.esp file in it, and sound, which consists of files only, no bsa and no esp) and the meta.ini file.  That's it.  The title at the top of the window says Better Weapon Swing Sounds.

[Nebulous112]

That means that somehow you have unpacked the BSA into loose files.

 

Try removing and re-downloading the mod. Instead of the folder with sounds there should be a BWS.bsa file. 

[aba42]

Yes, it is unpacking it during the installation.  I start to install it with MO, I get the window that states "No game data on top level", I right-click on "data" and set that as the Data Directory.  The next window shows

 

<data>

     BWS.bsa

     BWS.esp

 

and Looks Good

 

I click OK and it installs in a split second.  BUT, it must be unpacking the bsa file when it does so.  Do I need to do this one manually?  MO has been default unpacking since about the first mod.

Please don't tell me I gotta go back and do all this over...although I will to get the desired result.  It was not unpacking bsa's earlier, but somewhere in there, near the beginning, I could have sworn that there were instructions to go ahead let MO unpack 'em as it installed 'em.  So, I selected that, and it's been doing so automatically since the beginning (207 mods ago, left pane).

[Greg]

You don't need to unpack the BSAs, but there's no difference between BSAs and loose files when using Mod Organizer so I wouldn't worry about it.

[GrantSP]

"Settings" -- 'Reset Dialogs'

 

If at some point in the past you were asked to unpack them you were given a chance to have this done automatically with a checkbox, this resets that.

[Nebulous112]

You don't need to unpack the BSAs, but there's no difference between BSAs and loose files when using Mod Organizer so I wouldn't worry about it.

Out of curiosity, Greg, do you know where this setting is (to automatically extract or stop extracting BSAs)? I looked through MO and did a few minutes of Google-fu and I couldn't find a reference.

 

Edit: Thanks GrantSP. Found it in FAQ section in the guide, when I fact-checked an upcoming suggestion to include it. My fault for searching "unpack" instead of "bsa" in the MO Guide. Lol

[aba42]

Sorry about the time between your response and mine...just got up (5:30a, PST, US).  Anyhoo, so when I read that, at that point in the installation, I assumed that I was supposed to let MO unpack everything from that point forward.  I'm going to check all of the Detailed Instructions again to see where the heck I saw that.   Well, now, THAT's INTERESTING.  In the Detailed Instructions for Fuz Ro D'oh, it says to create an ini file.  OK, no problem.  BUT, where am i REALLY supposed to put it?  The reason that I ask is that, since Fuz Ro D'oh has been unpacked, there's a SKSE folder UNDER the Fuz Ro D'oh Data folder.  It has a plugins folder within that.  This is at <Data><Fuz Ro Doh><SKSE><plugins>.  BUT, if I scroll to <Data><SKSE> folder, there's NO Plugins folder within that (I assume because every time a MOD added a plugin, it placed it within its MOD-specific Data Folder.

 

What's your recommendation?  Should I REALLY go back and redo all of this and NOT let Mod Organizer unpack everything?  OR, should I just let it sit?  Which approach will lead to the better, smoother-playing game?!!!

 

Advice, please!!

 

Meanwhile, I'll keep looking for where I THOUGHT I saw the need to unpack all the bsa's.

[aba42]

P.S.  ALSO, someone told me, or the instructions stated earlier, that the BSA files go in the left pane of MO, and the ESP files go in the right pane of MO.  SO, IF I double-click on, say "Brawl Bugs Compatibility Edition" in the left pane, isn't that the BSA file?  If I then open the FileTree tab and do NOT see a BSA file listed (which was the question someone asked me earlier, then what the heck is the "Brawl Bugs Compatibility Edition" that's sitting in the left pane of MO?  Either way, as soon as I moved the "Brawl Bugs CE.esp" to the upper pane under Optional ESP's, it disappeared from the right pane of MO.  It IS listed under the "optional" folder in the FileTree for "Brawl Bugs Compatibility Edition".  BUT, under Archives, in the window below where "Have MO manage archives" is checked, the ONLY things listed are the initial Skyrim bsa's, and the DLC bsa's (including the three HighRes Texture Packs).

[aba42]

Nebulous 112, I cannot find where I was told to go ahead and check the box to have all the BSA files unpacked.  As you know, I erroneously started out using the SR:LE approach (thinking I was using the official STEP approach).  It's very possible that this option was mentioned early in that approach, right before one of you moderators pointed out that I was using the incorrect (for me, at this time) approach to getting a clean Skyrim up and running.

[Greg]

No, that's not quite right. You install the mods in the left and this includes everything in the mod -- plugins, BSAs, and loose files. The right pane is divided into tabs that show the load order (for the plugins and masters), archives, and data (a combined view of all files from all active mods in the Data folder). Basically the right pane just represents different ways to see the mods that are installed in the left pane.

 

The Fuz Ro D'oh.ini file needs to be edited manually. To do this:

1. While in Mod Organizer, right-click the Fuz Ro Doh mod on the left-hand side
2. Select the menu option Open in explorer
3. Within the new window, navigate into the SKSE\Plugins folder
4. Right-click within the folder and select the menu option New > Text Document
5. Name the file Fuz Ro D'oh.ini (make sure you are showing File Extensions - click here to see how)
6. Open the new file and copy the below contents, pasting them into the file

   [General]WordsPerSecondSilence=2

7. Save and close the file

[Nebulous112]

Ok. I think you have missed one major piece of documentation. Read and absorb this. It will increase your quality of life. https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Mod_Organizer

 

The left pane of MO shows the mods themselves. By default, it is arranged by priority number (akin to NMM installation order). Mods can have different types of files, including .BSAs and .ESPs.

 

The right pane of MO shows different views. There is a plug-ins tab that only shows the plug-ins for the mods, arranged by load order. There is also an archive tab that only shows the BSAs. There are other tabs, but you get the point.

 

You would know all of this and more, and would have been able to answer some of your own questions, if you had read that guide.

 

Anyway, moving on.

 

Fuz - Do as the guide says. Right-click the mod in the left pane, choose Open with Explorer. You will see where MO stores the mod files. Anyway, just do what the guide says. In the window where you opened the Fuz mod in Explorer, there should be an SKSE folder. Go in there and there should be a Plugins folder. Navigate inside there.

 

You'll know you're in the right place if "Fuz Ro D'oh.dll" is in there. Create a new text document with the info in the guide. Name it exactly what the guide says, "Fuz Ro D'oh.ini", or it won't work. Make sure Windows is letting you actually see the file extensions (.ini or .dll, etc.). If not, let us know and we'll walk you through fixing that.

 

BSAs - I trust Greg and GrantSP more than I trust myself regarding modding. You should follow my lead. If Greg says the BSAs and Loose Files are the same to MO, then I trust him. Don't worry about it.

 

Brawl Bugs - Are you using STEP Core or STEP Extended? If you are using STEP Extended, then you don't need this mod, as the description says. It is included in Enhanced Blood Textures. If using Core, just move the ESP to optional as you have under Optional ESPs.

[aba42]

Again, I apologize for not speaking clearly.  I was not looking at FileTree's view.  I opened Windows Explorer, trying to find out where the actual BSA's, if any, had been placed.  It was in the Windows Explorer view, OUTSIDE of Mod Organizer, that I discovered that the <Skyrim><Data><SKSE> folder only has skse.ini in it...nothing else, no other ini's, no other files, and no <plugins> subfolder. 

 

So, I looked at <Skyrim><mods><Fiuz Ro Doh> and inside that folder, I found <SKSE>, <sound>, Fuz Ro D'oh_readme.rtf, and meta.ini.  Inside Fuz Ro Doh's <SKSE> folder is its specific <plugins> folder.  That's where I had earlier put  Fuz Ro D'oh.ini (folllowing the STEP instructions; and yes, that's where Mod Organizer had put it, NOT me, physically).  So that ini IS in the plugins folder inside SKSE inside Fuz Ro D'oh. 

 

This is not the File Structure I'm used to, having used NMM for the past four years (rightly or wrongly). 

 

In Windows Explorer View:  Under MO's placement of stuff, the <plugins> folder is NOT under <Skyrim><SKSE>.  Instead, MO places a <SKSE><plugins> folder under every <mods><Modname> folder that requires one.

 

In Windows Explorer View:  Under NMM's placement of stuff, the ONE skse-related <plugins> folder is placed under the <Skyrimj><SKSE> directory, as <Skyrim><SKSE><plugins>.  Then ALL plugin inis for SKSE go into that one folder.

 

My question, therefore, was:  When I caused the BSA's to unzip, and it put SKSE-related stuff under each individual Modname folder, was that going to harm my game?

 

I assume now, based on the Guide:Mod Organizer and all of your inputs, that my question's stupid and I should go work in the garden or something (but it's pouring down rain).  The two "organizers" just store identical information in a completely different file structures, and I got confused.

 

So, it doesn't matter whether MO unzips the BSA's or not.  Either way, if a MOD has a SKSE plugin, MO's going to create a <SKSE><plugins> folder for each such specific Mod.