Fo4 Mod Load Order

Setting the right load order for your TES IV: Oblivion, TES V: Skyrim, TES V: Skyrim Special Edition, TES V: Skyrim VR, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4 and Fallout 4 VR mods is a crucial step to enjoying a stable modded game. The Load Order Optimisation Tool (LOOT) can help with that, by providing automated load order sorting that's simple to use and fully customisable.

This article explains what 'load order' is, how you can adjust and how it should be.

Importance of Load Order and when you should start adjusting it

Load order can be extremely important, it can be the difference between 'playing the game' and 'crashing every time you run the game'. You probably won't have to adjust the load order often if you run like 2-3 mods but if you've got 5+ mods you may have to adjust it, load order isn't just for people that create mods, it's mostly for people that USE mods.

Tools needed to adjust the load order

Grab Timeslip's Fallout Mod Manager here, not only is this tool vital to adjusting load order but it's also very handy when managing or making mods.

What is Load Order

Load order is like the name suggests the order your mods are loaded into the game in, the mods at the top of the load order will be loaded into the game first, the mods at the bottom will be loaded last.

How does Load Order work

For example, let's say you put a piece of white paper down on the floor, then you put a rock on top of that, if you placed the objects in the 'White Paper -> Rock' order you will be able to see both the rock and the paper at the same time.

If you however place the rock down first, THEN the piece of white paper the paper will cover the rock and you won't be able to see the rock. That's basically what load order is, the piece of white paper is Fallout3.esm and the rock is YourPlugin.esp, you've got to adjust the load order so you see all your objects.

Let's say you use a mod that gives Moira Brown of Megaton a blue hat, then you have Fallout3.esm which basically creates Moira and gives her a brown hat, if you load the plugin that gives moira a different hat FIRST then what will happen is:

WRONG Load Order:

1. YourPlugin.esp: Loads, Moira doesn't exist, she doesn't get the blue hat.
2. Fallout3.esm : Loads, Creates Moira, Gives Moira a brown Hat.

If you load Fallout3.esm first, then YourPlugin.esp:

RIGHT Load Order:

1. Fallout3.esm : Loads, Moira is Created, is given a brown hat.
2. YourPlugin.esp: Loads, overwrites Moira's brown hat, gives her a blue hat.

Example Load orders of a few popular mods / DLC

RIGHT Load Order:

1. Fallout3.esm :Loads, creates all the vanilla weapons, gameplay options etc.
2. Fallout Overhaul Kit (FOOK) :Loads, modifies all vanilla weapons, gameplay options etc

WRONG Load Order:

1. Fallout Overhaul Kit (FOOK) :Loads, tries to modify all vanilla weapons, gameplay options etc
2. Fallout3.esm :Loads, creates all the vanilla weapons, gameplay options etc, overwrites everything FOOK did.

When SHOULDN'T Fallout3 be first in the load order?

Those are only in extremely rare cases, it should be specified by the author, I'm not sure if there are any mods so far that have to be loaded first.

Mods that require other mods to run

If you've got mods that require other mods to run then the mod required to run should be loaded before the mod that requires that mod to run.

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Example:

1. Fallout3.esm
2. WeaponModKits.esp
3. WeaponModKitsADDON.esp

More example load orders:

1. Fallout3.esm
2. DLC's.esm
3. Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esp
4. FOOK.esm
5. MMM.esm

Well, I think that's all, PM me if you see any errors

References

• 4How To Manually Install Fallout 4 Mods
• 5How To Manually Uninstall Fallout 4 Mods

WARNINGS

THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE GENERALIZED. ALWAYS FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS THAT MAY BE PROVIDED BY THE MOD AUTHOR.

OVERWRITING GAME FILES IS RISKY AND MAY COMPROMISE THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR GAME INSTALL. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

USAGE OF GAME MODIFICATIONS MAY RESULT IN SAVEGAME INSTABILITY. ALWAYS KEEP BACK-UPS!

How To Enable Fallout 4 Mods

How to enable modding

1. Navigate to your Fallout 4 Folder at the following location 'DocumentsMy GamesFallout4'
2. Within this folder you'll find a number of .ini files.
3. Open (or create, if missing) Fallout4Custom.ini with your favourite text editor (we use Notepad++).
4. Add the following lines to your Fallout4Custom.ini

   [Archive]

   bInvalidateOlderFiles=1

   sResourceDataDirsFinal=

5. Save and close Fallout4Custom.ini

That's it, you're ready to get modding! :)

Nexus Mod Manager

Manually installing mods can be tricky and there is always some risk of damaging your game installation. The Nexus Mod Manager makes this process safer and easier by providing users with an easy way to download, install, enable, disable, and remove Fallout 4 mods, all from a centralized interface.

NMM is now a community project, and its development /support has been moved to GitHub:

- Releases (Downloads)

- Issues

How To Manually Install Fallout 4 Mods

Archive Extractors

You will need an archive extractor such as 7zip, WinRar, or other solution.

Finding Your Data Folder

This is where you will install Fallout 4 modification files.

• The default location for your data folder is within your steam games installation directory:

C: Program Files Steam steamapps Common Fallout 4 Data

• An alternative method for finding your installation directory:

In Steam, right-click the game title > Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files > Then open the “data” folder.

You have now found your data folder. Remember this location.

Installing Loose files

'Loose files' refers to a mod who’s content files are separate, individually contained within an archive that must be extracted to your data folder.

• To install, extract the contents of the mod archive to your data folder.

If the archive already contains a ‘data’ folder, extract it directly to your installation directory instead.

That’s it! You should now be able to load the game and see the installed mod in action.

Installing Plugins

Plugins are mods that are packaged as self-contained ESP files (.esp). These plugins must be extracted to your data folder and unlike loose files, must be enabled via the plugins.txt file.

• To install a plugin, simply extract the archive to your data folder.

If the archive already contains a ‘data’ folder, extract it directly to your installation directory instead.

After installation, plugins must be enabled before they will be active in-game.

Enabling Plugins

Plugins, unlike loose files, must be enabled in Fallout 4 by adding them to your plugins.txt file before they are active in-game.

Thanks given by:,. Installshield developer 8.01.

• Locate your plugins.txt file in your Fallout 4 AppData folder

This folder is hidden by default. To ensure that you are able to see hidden files in windows file explorer, access Tools > Folder Options > View > then select “Show Hidden Files”

The Fallout 4 AppData folder can be found in “C:/Users/[YourUsername]/AppData/Local”

Alternatively, in windows explorer, you can type “%LocalAppData%/Fallout4” into the browser bar and be taken directly to this folder.

• Run the Fallout 4 Launcher (do not run the game) then quit the launcher. This will populate your plugins.txt file with the newly added ESP file.

• Open the plugins.txt file located in Fallout 4's AppData folder with a text editor such as Notepad++

• Ensure the new ESP file is listed.

If you enabled modding correctly as described in the 'How to Enable Fallout 4 mod support' section at the top of this page, the mod (ESP file) you are installing will be now listed in this file, after the Fallout 4 launcher is run. If not, you may try manually add the mod to this list as a whole filename with extension (ie. yourmod.esp).

After confirming the ESP file is listed in your plugins.txt file, you are done! You should now be able to see the mod you installed active in-game.

How To Manually Uninstall Fallout 4 Mods

WARNING: DO NOT REMOVE GAME FILES

Removing files from your installation directory can be risky and might result in having to reinstall the game. We recommend using Nexus Mod Manager to make the installation and removal of mods safer and easier.

Removal of loose files

Verify the files used by the mod you would like to remove by examining the original archive. Remove files you confirm to be used by the mod.

Be very careful about removing core game files that the mod may have over-written. Doing so may damage your game installation.

Removal of plugins

Removing plugins is somewhat safer than loose-files in that plugins are self-contained and will not affect the integrity of the game installation when removed.

Verify the files used by the mod you would like to remove by examining the original archive. Remove files you confirm to be used by the mod.

Deactivating Plugins

Plugins can be deactivated by modifying the plugins.txt file (as described in the installation process) and removing the line that references the plugin you wish to deactivate.

How to verify game integrity

Should you ever find yourself in need of repairing your game installation, Steam has a handy tool that will help:

In Steam, right-click the game title > Properties > Local Files > Verify Integrity of Game Cache

This will ensure that your game installation is valid and in working order, though this may disable / invalidate any mods that were installed before starting the process.