Request - Two things the mod manager really needs (mostly solved)

[Mathalor]

Mod organizer needs a way to search installed plugins and to search downloads.  It is very difficult to find a particular mod when I have a great many installed and/or downloaded.  Also, with the ability to merge installations, it really needs a way to tell which particular file was installed by which particular download.  I lost track of whether certain mods needed to be updated, or if I had installed them in the wrong order.

 

I'd like to say that despite these issues, I'm really impressed by this tool.  Thank you for developing and sharing it.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mathalor

[Nozzer66]

It has a search option. Use the 'namefilter' boxes down at the bottom of the panes.

 

It also has the option to see what esp/esm came from where. Mouse over the esp/esm in the right pane and look at 'Origin'.

 

Or am I misunderstanding?

[Xaviien]

I think you may have misunderstood his 2nd request.

I'm pretty sure he wants to be able to mouse over a mod in the left pane (or maybe a plugin as well) and find out which particular download it came from, ie the original file in the download tab.

 

I don't think it's really necessary though.

The end result could easily be achieved by either right clicking the mod and clicking reinstall, which will open the download and allow you to choose new options or whatever else you might need to do, or you could click "Visit on Nexus" to get back to the page where you originally downloaded it from.

 

If you named your mods correctly it shouldn't be an issue to check whether you installed in the right order though. Just cross check your mod list in the left pane against the guide.

Also MO tells you whether a mod needs to be updated, to a point. Right click at the top of your mod list where it says "Mod Name" and make sure "Version" is checked. The version will show in that column, and there will be an icon for any issues, such as an available update. Depending how the Author versioned their mods, it may throw unnecessary errors, but those are usually unsupported mods, so you can just click "Ignore update".

You may need to "Refresh" or "Check all for update" from the "All Mods" area in the right click menu before it correctly shows potential updates.

 

If you click "Check all for updates" it will even filter you modlist to only show mods that have an available update.

The filter menu is in the bottom left of the mod list, and will tell you how to unfilter if you need to.

[Mathalor]

I didn't know about the nameplates thing.  Thank you.

 

The second request was with mods that need to be manually updated by replacing certain files.  I used the merge function while installing to place them in the same folder and replace files, but I lost track of whether I replaced them already or whether I installed the replacements first.  I had a lot of mod files in my downloads section.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mathalor

[Xaviien]

You'll just need to go through the list again.

I started modding just over a month ago. I might have actually played 6 hours since then, with about 100 hours of testing, patching, learning and finding new mods etc.

 

Read through all the instructions again. You'll remember doing most of the things, you won't be sure on a few, but some you can just check (the filetree etc) and the others you can just reinstall correctly as stated above. Make sure they're in their correct places and away you go!

[Mathalor]

Is there a way to automatically sort installed plugin priorities to mirror the LOOT sorting of load order priority, or do I have to do that manually?

 

I actually hadn't found the step guide for mod organizer until just now, I had gotten my info from Gopher's videos.  I'll look through that now.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mathalor

[Xaviien]

I'm not sure I understand the question.

 

LOOT sorts installed plugins.

 

If you mean sorting the mod load order in the left pane, yes, MO can do that, but it won't sort them in the same order they should be in for STEP. They need to be ordered manually to ensure you get the effect desired by installing STEP.

Are you doing a STEP install?

[Mathalor]

I was asking about sorting the left pane mod order, yes.  I thought it might save me a lot of work if it would sort the thing automatically and I could just make a few adjustments where needed.  I'm not sure that I am doing a STEP install.  I was using the STEP 2.2.9 instructions listed here:

 

https://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:Guide

 

But I was going to pick and choose mods that I liked, many of which I was moving over from my Nexus Mod Manager files.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mathalor

[Xaviien]

Ok, that's fine.

 

Just be careful when you get to the patches.

 

Also you may miss some very useful information if you skip parts of the guide, and the whole thing is made to work together.

For example, 1 mod might tell you to choose option x and not y, as y is covered by another mod which you may not be installing.

It should generally work out fine, but it may make it harder to troubleshoot if you have any issues.

[Mathalor]

How do you do the left pane automatic sorting?  Even if it gets it in the wrong order, I'm assuming it'd get it closer than my first attempt.

[gpthree]

I dont think you do left pane auto sorting at all. Thats whats great about MO. For the most part you can determine the overwrite order yourself, but following the STEP guide as the mods are laid out is their recommended left pane load order.

[Xaviien]

If MO thinks your install order is wrong, it will show a red hazard sign in the top right corner. Click that and it will explain the Beta process of reordering automatically, and list the order it thinks your mods should be.

After installing STEP Extended it only wants to move about 7 of my mods, so no, it won't automatically order your whole list unless you've made a complete mess of it, such as having the HRDLC before DB DG HF etc.

 

As gpthree said, just follow the order of the guide. If you have issues, it will be the first thing you'll be told to try.

[GrantSP]

If you follow any of the STEP guides the order in which they are installed mirrors pretty closely the order that the left-hand pane should be in.

 

A note about the 'Potential order problem message'. It is still very much in beta stage and more often than not advises to move many more mods than is needed. Mostly the last installed mod is the only one needed to be moved in my experience.

Despite viewing MO as the best manager around, I would say you should disable that plugin in the settings and just keep an eye on what you install.

It is always better to have a human decide what goes where.