I just gave this a test, and it's suggesting a VERY wrong order for Julan and any mods that patch him. Any patches MUST load AFTER the plug-in they modify, and MLOX has Julan loading after the patches. So.. sticking with PLOX, for now. Sure, I could use the suggested load order, and then manually place Julan in the correct spot, but given such a fundamental error, I'm unsure whether I want to trust the remaining results.
This is the load order MLOX (latest version) proposes for the relevant mods: *245* Julan and Ashfall patch.ESP *246* Julan and Astrologians Guild.ESP *247* Julan and OAAB_Data patch.ESP _025_ TR_Factions.esp _026_ KS_Julan_Ashlander Companion_3.0_beta.esp _027_ KS_Julan_OnPCHitMe_patch.esp
"_026_ KS_Julan_Ashlander Companion_3.0_beta.esp" should be placed before #245 "Julan and Ashfall patch.ESP."
EDIT, it occurs to me, this might be due to the fact that I'm using Julan 3.0 Beta? Still, though, it's something to be aware of.
EDIT 2, On a different note, MLOX is also suggesting a patch that adds FCOT clothing to Tamriel Rebuilt.
| "[With "Westly FCOT clothes in Tamriel Rebuilt" by Aoimevelho] some Tamriel Rebuilt NPCs are now wearing wonderful outfits from Westly's "Fine Clothiers of Tamriel"."
This patch should NOT be used; it was released in 2016 and is badly out of date. Using it with the current version of TR will result in all kinds of errors.
EDIT 3 I decided, in the end, to test this out, by manually placing Julan, and, of course, ignoring the FCOT suggestion.. So far, it seems fine, But yeah, for anyone using this (or, for that matter, any auto-sorter, no matter the game even), it's a good idea to double check things.
I don't know, that's the first time I've heard of that one in... um... seven years.
All mlox is doing is changing the Last Modified Date for your loaded ESPs and ESMs, so it'll read morrowind.ini but not change/write to it.
Try editing morrowind.ini, change the [Game Files] bit so it's just [Game Files] GameFile0=Bloodmoon.esm GameFile1=Morrowind.esm GameFile2= Tribunal.esm
It's weird, when I do what you say, the launcher's data files option works just fine, lol.
This is how the .ini file looks w/o any changes, bar running mlox: http://puu.sh/qpaCw/225c137b4e.png
I'm using wrye mash anyway, so I guess I can live without the launcher's data files option, but still kinda weird and jarring. What do you think, harmless & can be ignored?
Are you running mlox whilst Wrye Mash is launched? Maybe there's some weird interaction there. IIRC, Wrye Mash has a Lock Times feature.
Maybe WM is setting the read-only attribute for morrowind.ini? Gotta admit I'm scratching.
You don't have the most complex of mod lists, check the Rebirth documentation to ensure you've got the load order it recommends and then forget about it.
If you start adding a bunch more mods then things start to get complex (there's quite a few load order rules for plugins which overlap / conflict with Rebirth).
is there a switch to only update the ini and not touch the plugin files? I didn't realize mlox would edit the dates on the thousands of plugins I had been maintaining over the years, I just wanted to see what the new ini would look like.
Just don't click the "Update Load Order" button and the Last Modified dates of your files won't be touched. mlox doesn't change what mods are loaded so it doesn't affect morrowind.ini
Wow I love this! Coming back to morrowind as I do every couple years, I was still using version 1.0.3 and now discover the latest versions which not only run faster but actually do good sorting, specially now that I am on linux, love these little pieces of software that make life for us modders much simpler!
Literately from the time I posted my last comment to now I already fixed 5 conflicts, found 2 updated versions of mods and removed 4 incompatible buggy mods.
The "newer" versions aren't linux capable it appears but the old one was...so it has lost some functionality, I'm guessing? I run OpenMW on Linux Mint, I really would like a way to sort my mods - even if I have to find a "hacky" way to do it.
Thanks, that's good news - I have got other python stuff to run before on linux - but last time I tried MLOX .py file - it gave some python error - and then there's the whole OpenMW aspect of it regarding where the mods are installed
"python error" could be anything. Yeah, you'll need to trick it (I used a dummy .ini and a Data Files folder full of symlinks. It's a PITA but it's not something you need to do every day.
I suppose it's outdated (but anyway still pretty valid)
Anyway I read from other modders advice using the rfuzzo version, it's the most updated, I know the author wrote about it here in post/ comments, but the main page is still un-updated..
I'm using Wrye Mash (Polemos fork) to manage my mods and access mlox thru it to sort the load list. I made a my_rules file for mlox to use. However, there are several esm/esp files - morrowind.esm, tribunal, bloodmoon, Tamriel Rebuilt, SHotN, Province Cyrodil, etc. - that I always want to load first as a group in a specified order with no other mods being inserted. mlox has the NearStart rule and Order rule, but I haven't seen anything in the documentation showing how I can force mlox to load them first in that sequence and to not insert any other mods within that sequence.
I can use Wrye Mash to edit and lock the file modification time and force a load order sequence using WM, but if I use mlox to refine the load order, mlox overrides the lock times option I set in WM. It sounds trivial, but I'm having to then re-do all the file dependency checking I did in Wrye Mash which wastes all the previous time I spent to get everything squared away in the first place.
So is there a way in mlox to specify/name/identify a group of mods that you always want loaded first in a specific order and not insert any other mods into that load order?
Not as far as I know, it's how mlox works. It doesn't have a single monolithic load order list, like BOSS, but works by moving round chunks of your load order. Check out "mlox_guts.txt" (that seems to have been dropped from recent versions).
One thing you could try is editing [NearStart] in your mlox_user.txt to have this load order you want in. If that doesn't work then I don't think you can do what you want.
TBH, I'm not 100% sure why you want to do this. Is the "file dependency checking" updating plugin headers? Are there really that many?
I would always like these esm/esp files to load first in this order
Morrowind.esm
Tribunal.esm
Bloodmoon.esm
TR_Mainland.esm
Tamriel_Data.esm
Sky_Main.esm
Cyr_Main.esm
TD_Hotfix.ESP
TR_Hotfix.esp
abotSiltStriders.esp
abotBoats.esp
That load sequence does not produce any warnings in MW itself and forms the core for my games. It makes it easier to troublshoot problems as I add new mods. When I use mlox I will find other mods inserted or the tamriel_data.esm loading before TR_mainland.esm Also, I load a number of wares related mods and see WM warning that the mod dependency needs updating after I run mlox. I haven't kept track of the exact count, but it seems like updating the dependency list of about 10 mods every time in Wrye Mash every time I use mlox because mlox has sorted them for whatever reason. I find another odd mlox behavior, that when I use mlox to sort the order, have mlox update the load order based on that, that mlox again suggests a slightly revised load order.
Try adding that into a [NearStart] entry in mlox_user, although I believe people maintaining the mlox rules use both _user and _base files for some reason.
When I was maintaining the mlox rules I only ever added Order rules that were needed and not ones for just cosmetic reasons, that could be why you're seeing that with the TR .esm files
Danae uses the French version of Morrowind, I think, so her .esm files will be different sizes and so the Wares plugin headers will need updating.
The rest I dunno, it's been 5(?) years since I did anything with mlox.
Thanks. I'll give it a try. I somehow think it's a logic problem re: setting the order sequence. It seems like (but probably not true) that there should be a way using the ? and the * characters to write an order rule that makes a de facto command to load a group of mods first. Does the person maintaining mlox read this thread anymore? I use nexus rather than github to comment. The latest release of mlox (rhuzzo?) uses a text file called my_rules to incorporate custom order sequences.
I didn't realize that the language version of MW would result in the issue about the plugin headers. I use mlox to sequence the load order for my mods based on what the community has found to work best and using it as an advisor to spot if there are mods I should have or conflicts I was not aware of.
If you're not set-up on GIthub then Discord would be the way to contact people who still do mlox stuff.
Plugin headers record the file size of ESMs, different language versions are a different number of bytes. Differences lead to that error message "One or more plugins could not find the version of the master file they depend on" (or whatever).
The * and ? are wild card characters, * is any number of any character and ? is any single character
First I sorted the mods with LOOT - Load Order Optimization Tool, then I ran MLOX, but it didn't change anything in the mod list. Does this mean that LOOT is as effective as MLOX and can be used as a good alternative?
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I just gave this a test, and it's suggesting a VERY wrong order for Julan and any mods that patch him. Any patches MUST load AFTER the plug-in they modify, and MLOX has Julan loading after the patches. So.. sticking with PLOX, for now. Sure, I could use the suggested load order, and then manually place Julan in the correct spot, but given such a fundamental error, I'm unsure whether I want to trust the remaining results.
This is the load order MLOX (latest version) proposes for the relevant mods:
*245* Julan and Ashfall patch.ESP
*246* Julan and Astrologians Guild.ESP
*247* Julan and OAAB_Data patch.ESP
_025_ TR_Factions.esp
_026_ KS_Julan_Ashlander Companion_3.0_beta.esp
_027_ KS_Julan_OnPCHitMe_patch.esp
"_026_ KS_Julan_Ashlander Companion_3.0_beta.esp" should be placed before #245 "Julan and Ashfall patch.ESP."
EDIT,
it occurs to me, this might be due to the fact that I'm using Julan 3.0 Beta? Still, though, it's something to be aware of.
EDIT 2,
On a different note, MLOX is also suggesting a patch that adds FCOT clothing to Tamriel Rebuilt.
This patch should NOT be used; it was released in 2016 and is badly out of date. Using it with the current version of TR will result in all kinds of errors.
EDIT 3
I decided, in the end, to test this out, by manually placing Julan, and, of course, ignoring the FCOT suggestion.. So far, it seems fine, But yeah, for anyone using this (or, for that matter, any auto-sorter, no matter the game even), it's a good idea to double check things.
All mlox is doing is changing the Last Modified Date for your loaded ESPs and ESMs, so it'll read morrowind.ini but not change/write to it.
Try editing morrowind.ini, change the [Game Files] bit so it's just
[Game Files]
GameFile0=Bloodmoon.esm
GameFile1=Morrowind.esm
GameFile2= Tribunal.esm
And then re-launch the Morrowind launcher
This is how the .ini file looks w/o any changes, bar running mlox: http://puu.sh/qpaCw/225c137b4e.png
I'm using wrye mash anyway, so I guess I can live without the launcher's data files option, but still kinda weird and jarring. What do you think, harmless & can be ignored?
Maybe WM is setting the read-only attribute for morrowind.ini? Gotta admit I'm scratching.
You don't have the most complex of mod lists, check the Rebirth documentation to ensure you've got the load order it recommends and then forget about it.
If you start adding a bunch more mods then things start to get complex (there's quite a few load order rules for plugins which overlap / conflict with Rebirth).
O well, I appreciate your support though.
Thanks, man, for the great tool and the suggestions!
I
LOVE
YOU ARE THE BEST
The "newer" versions aren't linux capable it appears but the old one was...so it has lost some functionality, I'm guessing? I run OpenMW on Linux Mint, I really would like a way to sort my mods - even if I have to find a "hacky" way to do it.
Yeah, you'll need to trick it (I used a dummy .ini and a Data Files folder full of symlinks. It's a PITA but it's not something you need to do every day.
Anyway I read from other modders advice using the rfuzzo version, it's the most updated, I know the author wrote about it here in post/ comments, but the main page is still un-updated..
https://github.com/rfuzzo/mlox/releases
I can use Wrye Mash to edit and lock the file modification time and force a load order sequence using WM, but if I use mlox to refine the load order, mlox overrides the lock times option I set in WM. It sounds trivial, but I'm having to then re-do all the file dependency checking I did in Wrye Mash which wastes all the previous time I spent to get everything squared away in the first place.
So is there a way in mlox to specify/name/identify a group of mods that you always want loaded first in a specific order and not insert any other mods into that load order?
Thanks.
One thing you could try is editing [NearStart] in your mlox_user.txt to have this load order you want in. If that doesn't work then I don't think you can do what you want.
TBH, I'm not 100% sure why you want to do this. Is the "file dependency checking" updating plugin headers? Are there really that many?
That load sequence does not produce any warnings in MW itself and forms the core for my games. It makes it easier to troublshoot problems as I add new mods. When I use mlox I will find other mods inserted or the tamriel_data.esm loading before TR_mainland.esm Also, I load a number of wares related
mods and see WM warning that the mod dependency needs updating after I run mlox. I haven't kept track of the exact count, but it seems like updating the dependency list of about 10 mods every time in Wrye Mash every time I use mlox because mlox has sorted them for whatever reason. I find another odd mlox behavior, that when I use mlox to sort the order, have mlox update the load order based on that, that mlox again suggests a slightly revised load order.
When I was maintaining the mlox rules I only ever added Order rules that were needed and not ones for just cosmetic reasons, that could be why you're seeing that with the TR .esm files
Danae uses the French version of Morrowind, I think, so her .esm files will be different sizes and so the Wares plugin headers will need updating.
The rest I dunno, it's been 5(?) years since I did anything with mlox.
I didn't realize that the language version of MW would result in the issue about the plugin headers. I use mlox to sequence the load order for my mods based on what the community has found to work best and using it as an advisor to spot if there are mods I should have or conflicts I was not aware of.
Plugin headers record the file size of ESMs, different language versions are a different number of bytes. Differences lead to that error message "One or more plugins could not find the version of the master file they depend on" (or whatever).
The * and ? are wild card characters, * is any number of any character and ? is any single character