LOOT Mod Organizer 2 Instructions | Skyrim Special Edition - Cave Ai (2023)

I'm sure most of you have heard the term load order when modding your game, be it on a forum, modding site or even on my own discord. But what does it do and why is it important? More specifically, how does this relate to the mod's installation order?

What is the loading order?

Let's start with the first question. The load order is exactly as it sounds, it is the order in which the ESP and ESM files are loaded into the game. This process takes place when you start the game for the first time. Remember that these files tell the game what changes are included in a mod. If you need a better refresher on what these files do and what file mods are, check out the MO2 intro video in the top right corner. At this point, you should have the information under control.

Okay, the next logical question is why does the loading order of these files matter? To answer that, I'll give you a chance. Let's say you have 2 mods that alter an NPC, for example Nazim. Well, the last mod uploaded would have the final say on the changes. These types of changes can sometimes lead to groundbreaking conflicts, so a well-organized order can eliminate many of them. But this conflict is not resolved by the order of installation of the mod? no And this is where it can get a bit confusing.

Load order vs. install order

To better understand the difference between load order and install order, let's divide game changes created by mods into two categories. The first type of change is the one that is handled entirely by the plugin file, whether it's an ESM or an ESP. Also, these changes do not require any other files to take effect.

The second type of change is the one made using other files, be they textures, meshes, scripts, etc. These changes have hints in the plugins that tell the game where to find the external files. When we deal with the installation order, we only deal with the last of these two types of changes. That is, only direct filename conflicts. In the case of the loading order, on the other hand, we are dealing with changes that were made internally within one of the plugin files mentioned above. So if plugins 1 and 2 switch Nazim's attire, only the last plugin loaded will have a noticeable impact on gameplay.

Now if that was confusing bear with me because there's a little more to it than that. The load order also affects the order in which the BSA files are loaded into the game. This means that if there are two identical files in each archive, the file contained in the BSA of the last loaded plugin will appear in the game. Again, seriously, go back and watch my MO2 intro video and really remember these files. Basically what this means is that the BSA files are loaded first, followed by any loose files you might have. That is, individual files always take precedence over anything contained within a BSA file.

The loading order is very important.

So if you missed it, that's okay, just rewind the video and listen again. Sometimes I still have a hard time understanding these things. Just do your best to remember this information as it really is the foundation of what the Bethesda mod is all about. If you can do this, you'll have a much easier time resolving mod conflicts, fixing bugs, and actually getting through some frustrating modding moments. Okay let's move on to Mod Organizer 2 so I can show you where to find your load order.

Load order in MO2

In MO2, you can easily see the current load order of your ESMs and ESPs in the Plugins tab in the right pane. If you click and hold on any of the plugins that are not grayed out, you can adjust this loading order manually. Grays are part of the base game, so Skyrim, the DLCs, and the update are all included in the game folder. In the old days of Bethesda modding, before we had fancy tools for sorting the load order, we had to change this manually in the game launcher. This practically meant knowing the changes created by each mod and then organizing them so that there were no game-changing conflicts. Something perfectly doable with a few mods, but a much more difficult task with hundreds of mods.

While now you should be aware of the general changes made by each mod, that kind of broad knowledge is no longer required. Enter the Load Order Optimization Tool, or LOOT for short. This handy little program reduces the learning curve of mod data by automatically sorting and arranging the load order to best fit a so-called master load order list.

This is how LOOT works

The main list is exactly what it sounds like, at least more or less. If you took every mod that ever existed for Skyrim and put them together in one giant load order so everything was in the "right" place, you would have a master LOOT list. Well, that's an ideal world. In case you didn't know, Skyrim has a 255 plugin limit. At this point the game just won't load, so obviously there's no way you're going to be using that many mods, even with workarounds. It's not like you want it.

Secondly, many mods are simply not compatible with each other or cause major problems, so you should avoid using them together anyway. But if you're a regular, smart user making sure your load order is free from such conflicts, you'll find using LOOT to sort your load order very useful, especially if you're a beginner or just someone who tests mods frequently . So this looks great! Now let me tell you about the real world limitations of this tool.

loot restrictions

First of all, as far as I know, each plugin on the main LOOT list is categorized on a case-by-case basis. If you know better let me know, it shouldn't affect the validity of this point anyway. This means that with every major and sometimes minor update to a plugin, there is no way to be 100% sure using LOOT that the parent list information for that plugin is correct because something has changed. . Well, sure, most updates won't add anything major at the moment in Skyrim's modding years, and some mods have made it to the final version, but it's still something to keep in mind.

Where LOOT gets a bit sketchy is in patching plugins that fix issues between another mod or two. And if you're using some sort of patch you made yourself like a Creation Kit mod, hit patch or other spawned plugin, for me that's PerMa, you can forget about LOOT by sorting them without your help. You may not know what they are and that's okay, I'll cover them in the future, just keep this information in mind. The other thing is that you also sacrifice the cleanliness of a self-managed load order, since visually LOOT seems about as organized as a typical college degree.

LOOT is awesome, use it

With that out of the way, I don't want to stop you from using this tool. If you are a beginner I would actually encourage you to use it as it dramatically lowers the knowledge curve when it comes to knowing what each mod has been up to for the last 8 years. And in most cases, it'll even save your ass by spotting any incompatibilities you missed because you didn't read the Posts tab on Nexus. Indicator.

Installation

Okay, that was long and wordy. Let's go ahead and install the damn thing. Access the official LOOT github at loot.github.io. Click the big download button and select loot.installer.exe on the next page. This is of course a tool, so it won't be downloaded to the MO2 even if you got it through the Nexus. Run the installer from your browser or downloads folder. Choose your native language. Point the installer to where you want LOOT to be installed. For us, this is in our Tools folder, or Modding Utilities, whatever you called it in the first video. Click OK and Next. We won't create a desktop shortcut as LOOT needs to run in MO2 anyway. and install. Go ahead and remove the loot because again that won't do anything for us. Go, done.

Download:TAKE OFF

ongoing LOOT

Now if we open MO2 and check the executable dropdown box, we will see that the MO2 developers were kind enough to find the LOOT for us. If for some reason LOOT isn't there, add it like any other tool. Click Edit. Name it LOOT. In the binary, navigate to the Loot installation folder, select and add LOOT.exe. Easy.

Before I go ahead and run the loot, I want to point out the review button here. I know it's really accessible and clickbaity like the title of this video, but for heaven's sake don't use it. You don't get any of the benefits of running LOOT fully, and it further obfuscates the sorting of the load order, which isn't inherently a foolproof process. At least the full LOOT app will show serious modding conflicts and give you some level of control when ordering. Go ahead and run LOOT from the list of executables.

Alright, now is probably a good time to say that I've switched to my actual load order for these tutorials. At this point I think you're knowledgeable enough to realize that everyone's load order is different, so don't panic if you see my mod list is wildly different than yours. If you haven't already, please do so. Also, I'm tired of changing game installs. Anyway, let's go through everything a beginner like you needs to know about LOOT. Not that there's much to it, because LOOT has a really nice interface.

an order

Let's start with sorting, this is done with the icon of 3 horizontal bars in the upper right corner. When you do this, two things will happen. LOOT automatically updates your main list of mods and obviously sorts their load order. This is when most beginners click and start playing. Do not do that. Check out the general information instead. This is essentially a quick overview of everything LOOT detected with your load order.

Obviously, the revision and date of the master list is the version of your master list and its publication date. Total plugins are all plugins in the virtual directory and active plugins are only those loaded by the game. Total messages are all messages marked LOOT after being examined in their load order. That leaves the other 3, plugin warnings, errors, and dirty messages, your main concern. If we scroll down we can see our plugin load order, it's synced with MO2 so what you see is the same after you close the app.

publications

Most of the messages you should see don't have highlighted items. This is only important information that you should read and take into account. Not necessarily something that poses a problem.

Hints

Warnings are highlighted in yellow and indicate issues detected by LOOT. They are usually easily correctable. Most of the time the warnings just tell you that you are missing the necessary patches for 2 mods to work properly. LOOT will actually tell you where to find them and sometimes even link you to their pages. The other type of alert is a dirty plugin notification. These need to be cleaned up with SSEEdit, I'll talk about that in a video or two after this one, so don't worry if you don't already know about it.

mistake

The errors are really easy to spot, they are marked in red. These issues usually indicate that there are two mods that just don't work together. In that case, it's probably best to examine them more closely and figure out why they're not working. Then uninstall one or live with the consequences. As you can see here, LOOT tells me that the Immersive Citizens mod is not compatible with JK's Skyrim. It even links us to the mod's compatibility page. But that's a bunch of nonsense. So look at this example of a time when LOOT is wrong. Remember that at the end of the day it is your responsibility to find these bugs, so I always recommend reading mod descriptions and posts.

Example of LOOT restrictions

Let me tell you what is happening in my specific case. While it's true that Immersive Citizens wasn't designed for use with JK's Skyrim, and that Immersive Citizens won't retain all of its features, the average individual would be hard pressed to find anything extraordinary using them together. This is one of those moments where the LOOT developers take the mod author's words for fact, but what they don't consider is the context.

You see, the author of the Immersive Citizens mod actually claims that any mods that change IC behavior in ANY way are incompatible. While you're right on one point, I think you should tell users to decide for themselves whether they're willing to accept the compromises. But then again, I don't have a mod with nearly 4 million unique downloads either, so I don't know what it's like to be bombarded with questions from non-researchers...or me. ..? Regardless, the moral of the story is: LOOT is not an omniscient machine. So read everything it says and decide for yourself if it's correct.

As you can see I also have many other warnings, most of them are related to patches that I've merged so LOOT doesn't recognize them. The rest are dirty plugins that I save for the SSEEdit video. Now that I've gone through everything and made sure nothing is missing, I can click Apply at the top and that saves the load order.

Set priorities for the manual load order

The last thing I want to show you is how to manually tell LOOT where to load plugins. This is useful if you make a mistake and load a plugin before something you shouldn't. Of course you can always do this directly in MO2 by clicking and dragging the plugins, but you have to do it again next time you order from LOOT. The easiest way is to click on the 3 dots icon for the misplaced plugin. I show it in the Dragonborn DLC, even though it's placed correctly, and select Edit Metadata.

As you can see a new menu will appear and if we select load later we will see a list of plugins that Dragonborn needs to load later. LOOT already has Dawnguard and Hearthfires listed, but also adds Update.esm by clicking the plus icon. After that I type update.esm in the filename and click on disk to save. Vwalla, now Dragonborn will certainly load after the update, also that wasn't necessary since LOOT initially placed it correctly, but now you know what to do when it's not. Dragonborn also now has a profile icon to indicate that we've added our own custom edits.

Conclusion

At this point we can close LOOT and are ready to go. Obviously there's more to LOOT so feel free to explore more if you want, but that's the bottom line. In the future I will be making a video covering everything LOOT has to offer, but that's about it for now. To be honest, most people don't need to know much more anyway.

Please scroll down below this video, leave a comment and subscribe if you haven't already. This helps spread these videos around the internet. Remember to check my discord to ask questions or just chat, there are really nice people there. The following video is on the left if it is not there and the overview of these guides is on the right. Until next time.