it's great way to keep 2 environment on Mo2 unless create the mod or change setting on data folder. however, when change setting such as f4se plugin that install directly to data folder on base environment, it seem happen problem. also, when changed a lot of mod setting on this profile, I caught the ctd after loading, so I couldn't load anymore even if remove mods. if create mod by ck or change data folder contain, I think the good way are building to fo4 data folder that are copied. on a previous pc, I put mod directly and wrote to mod lists files without mod manager tool so this run without ctd.
Overcomplicated & wasteful, just how many "GLOBAL" Instances of a game do you need? The answer is ONE., Each of your "Instances" needs the same mods Installing multiple times, even if using the same game install & largely they will share a lot of our "Must have" mods.
Why not use one Global instance & use separate profiles, as intended, with one ALWAYS Vanilla, install of the game, how MO is designed to be used?
Simply make Fallout London into an MO2 Mod for Fallout 4, as that is what it is. You can use the Fallout London GOG installer to install the mod to an empty folder, INSTEAD of in F4.
Then that entire Data Folder is the Fallout London Mod, archive that Job done. The _AppData & _Config folder contents go in your Fallout London Profiles" folder in MO2. The installer,exe FL provides can be moved to game folder, but it's not doing anything MO2 need Caveat: I assume it just sets _AppData & _Config content to F4 default locations & I didn't want my Vanilla Inis changed. MO2 controls my Inis & I can just copy them to the profile manually & of course you need F4SE, though you likely already have that installed.
With MO2 there is a simple rule, if it's not installed with the base game, it gets made into a mod. You let MO2 control Saves & ini's for the profile, to keep them dedicated, & maybe Make a Backup FL-Default profile, to go back to defaults if needed..
The entire point of using a GLOBAL Instance of MO2, is you only need one instance installed for ALL games. You keep the games Data Folder vanilla, install mods once & simply enable/disable them to use per profile. With FoMod options, you either just run the FoMod again, or you can split the FoMod options into separate MO2 mods that you can enable/disable as needed. I find this is best only if you actually make different choices though, if you always keep the same choices, just use the FoMod once.
The power of MO2, is that you keep the base game vanilla & use profiles to have many separate modded builds, but using the same set of files.
This gives you maximum adaptability using as little drive space as possible.
Listen, I have no doubt you're correct but can you explain profiles in the same 3 or 4 steps that it took to show how to install it directly into it's own instance?
>You can use the Fallout London GOG installer to install the mod to an empty folder, INSTEAD of in F4.
Nowhere did we install it into F4, it *was* installed to an empty directory.
>Then that entire Data Folder is the Fallout London Mod, archive that Job done.
Correct, and you can do the same, archiviving the /data/ folder that was created in /mods/. Move the archive somewhere else and you can reinstall later.
>The _AppData & _Config folder contents go in your Fallout London Profiles" folder in MO2.
Step.. like 15, yes this is what was suggested.
> I assume it just sets _AppData & _Config content to F4 default locations
It doesn't. It will just install them wherever /data/ is installed. Yeah, idk.
Anyway, yes profiles are better, but also just slightly more complicated. Using multiple global instances does necessitate installing mods multiple times (once per instance), but it's easier to manage manually or wrap one's head around.
Anyway, put together a guide using profiles and I'll happily like through to it.
@UhuruNUru I'm afraid your approach is correct as long as you consider FL as *a mod of Fallout 4*. But when it comes to install FL's own mods, your approach is not the best one. Not any longer.
And Nexus, right now, is treating FL as a *new game* on its own. Now what? What about mod infos, nexus ID's, what about updates? See e.g. post of AlexintheVerse, themodleyfool and all the people in Discord rising the very same issue.
So said, the simplest approach is not always the best one. Better wait a fix from MO2 devs. My two cents.
Not needed, but doesn't hurt anything (except drive space).
The upside, and why I have 58 instances is it keeps everything sandboxed and easy to physically find. With a new instance you will have literally 1 mod in Mo2/Fallout London/mods/, "Fallout London". That and any london specific mods won't be mixed in with fo4 only directories, etc.
Anyway, there's about a dozen ways to skin a radrager, whatever works best.
Profiles are like settings. They can define what save folder to use, what Fallout prefs to use (like screen res) and what *mods are enabled*.
That last bit, for most people equates to "what mods are installed". But, if you have 600 mods installed all 600 will be visible in every profile. Maybe only 15 are Enabled in profileA, while 100 might be in profileB.
This is why I prefer two instances instead of two profiles. With seperate instances you know that all the mods you see, whether enabled or not are folon (or folon compatible) mods, while in your fo4 instance you'll know all are fo4 mods.
Depends (a little) on how you're running the game. Essentially though, you simply create a plugin the same way you would for Fallout 4 but with LondonWorldSpace.esm loaded and active as well.
Lots of great authors for Fo4 modding out there, seddon4494, fliteska, saladbar, kinggath just to name a few.
When you open Mo2 you have this or similar (what's mostly important is the stuff on the right)?
Note the check marks in both windows, those are the active mods. Typically they install unchecked on the left, but when you check that, they should check on the right also.
Is the options window coming up for the mist/fog plugin when you install it?
Is it showing in the two windows as checked (it could be 3 plugins on the right window)?
The only time I've had this happed was in skyrim which marked plugins.txt as read only. But london's plugins.txt file didn't come flagged as such. I would double check that the files in /profiles/ aren't read only.
A lot of people have had issues modding (any steam beth game) due to steam placing them in /program files x(86)/.
You could try a manual install of something obvious, placing an esp directly in the /Fallout 4/ game folder and typing it into the plugins.txt led by an asterisk.
This is obviously not ideal but might give you an idea of what's going on or at least confirm the game is allowing plugins.
I’m doing this from memory so I might be a bit off. on the right side of mo2, click the f4se (f4se_loader for me) dropdown, click on edit and where it says “conflicts” I think, add (-forcesteamloader), no “()”. If that doesn’t work let me know.
I have followed this to the letter and i do think my actual downloads were screwed up because FOLON is completely lacking music files, thus making the vanilla menu music play, and leading to infinite loading screens.
I will have to figure out what is going on with how the stuff is downloaded before i can actually properly finish this installation
There are probably better "manual install" guides or even videos out there, but here goes..
----
If nothing is working / last resort (imo) Long post, read everything first. You need about 100GB of free space to do this.
First, so this can be later undone, backup the entirety of your /Fallout 4/ folder (the one with Fallout4.exe in it. Yes, backup Fallout4.exe, FalloutLauncher.exe, etc as well to make things easier to undo). The base game with DLCs is about 30GB.
Now drop everything created by the GOG installer in that folder (although you only absolutely need to copy in /src/, /data/ and the 5 files prefixed with f4se_), about 30GB as well.
You can skip the above step by instead "installing" Fallout London to /Fallout 4/ using the setup installer that was downloaded with the GoG files.
Next backup .../My Documents/My Games/Fallout4/ (these are, most likely, your base game settings and saves)
Drop the 2 INI files created by the installer found in /_Config/ into this folder (should be overwriting 2 files)
Now backup .../Users/[computer name]/AppData/Local/Fallout4/ (your load order among other things)
Drop the 4 (3 TXT & 1 fo4viewsettings) files created by the installer found in /_AppData/ in here (overwrite 4 files)
(Optional, but recommended) Run "Fallout4Launcher.exe", and you should get a "video hardware" pop-up. Hit ok>ok>then exit the splash screen (this adds your video card to fallout4prefs.in).
At this point your game should be, at minimal, functional. From within /Fallout 4/, clicking the f4se_loader.exe should give you a good title screen and allow you to start playing the game.
Worth noting, even a perfect install on an NSA grade super computer may bug out from time to time at launch. Try launching it a couple more times if it bugs out the first time. Something with the intro music is causing issues.
If yes, play on! Keep in mind though that you won't be able to play regular Fallout 4 with everything set up like this.
But it should be the most stable it's going to get. ..before applying all the fixes of course.
----
To play regular Fallout 4 just delete everything in /Fallout 4/ (the folder that contains Fallout4.exe) and copy in everything you backed up earlier.
Then copy > overwrite the backups you made of /my docs/fo4/ and /local/fo4/. Delete / move any Fallout london saves first if you don't want to keep those.
----
All the above is a real pitb and a lot harder to undo than use a mod manager, but should at minimal be functioning. If not, either your Fallout 4 or Fallout London files are broken.
The High-Quality Texture Pack DLC needs to be disabled for London. (as stated by the London team) You can't simply uncheck it in the Plugins tab. How do you disable it within the MO2 instance?
That's going to be an official DLC, that I deleted long ago because potato. Anyway..
I do a lot of modding to the base game so all my DLCs are zipped up into archives. Take Far Harbor for instance. It consists of 6 files in /Fallout4/Data/, all prefixed with DLCCoast.
Highlight all of these > add to archive.
Rename and move the archive somewhere, delete the 6 (or whatever) files found in /data/
You can now install the DLC the same way you would any mod (except it will automatically be put at the top of your load order). But it can be enabled or not in Mo2.
Well unchecking that setting seems to disable all the DLC and base game files automatically when switching to different tabs and launching the game. Is there a way to prevent that issue?
Hah, well this is dumb. Guess that's why it's a workaround. Works fine in FNV but not Fo4 or Skyrim. Idk. Tried several things but yeah, couldn't get it to stick.
You don't disable it in the MO2 instance - you navigate to the original Steam install via the Library, right-click, select properties, then click on the DLC tab and uncheck the HighRes pack. Then verify/validate the files and that's it. Then when you launch regular FO4 - you should see the HighRes pack not enabled.
This is gonna be tough, because it took me over 5 minutes to figure out how to "create a new instance".
...and now I'm nailbiting over "Configure your profile settings," which was also skipped in this tutorial.
And now that I see that the MO2 that I just downloaded from Nexus is already outdated, what am I supposed to download from the Github page, "Mod.Organizer-2.5.2rc1-pdbs.7z"? Or maybe "Mod.Organizer-2.5.2rc1.exe"? Perhaps the second one? I really have no idea, but based on the size of the MO2 I'd downloaded, I'm guessing the latter.
Yeah, you really do need to keep it simple for us folks.
Thanks! Updated the guide for both creating and configuring!
The Mod Organizer 2 linked to under requirements (Skyrim) is fine for this. The newest version "...2rc1" is release candidate. Ie. Newer features, but not fully tested. The *.7z is the same as the *.exe but "zipped" up (smaller, easier to distribute).
56 comments
however, when change setting such as f4se plugin that install directly to data folder on base environment, it seem happen problem.
also, when changed a lot of mod setting on this profile, I caught the ctd after loading, so I couldn't load anymore even if remove mods.
if create mod by ck or change data folder contain, I think the good way are building to fo4 data folder that are copied.
on a previous pc, I put mod directly and wrote to mod lists files without mod manager tool so this run without ctd.
The answer is ONE.,
Each of your "Instances" needs the same mods Installing multiple times, even if using the same game install & largely they will share a lot of our "Must have" mods.
Why not use one Global instance & use separate profiles, as intended, with one ALWAYS Vanilla, install of the game, how MO is designed to be used?
Simply make Fallout London into an MO2 Mod for Fallout 4, as that is what it is.
You can use the Fallout London GOG installer to install the mod to an empty folder, INSTEAD of in F4.
Then that entire Data Folder is the Fallout London Mod, archive that Job done.
The _AppData & _Config folder contents go in your Fallout London Profiles" folder in MO2.
The installer,exe FL provides can be moved to game folder, but it's not doing anything MO2 need
Caveat: I assume it just sets _AppData & _Config content to F4 default locations & I didn't want my Vanilla Inis changed.
MO2 controls my Inis & I can just copy them to the profile manually & of course you need F4SE, though you likely already have that installed.
With MO2 there is a simple rule, if it's not installed with the base game, it gets made into a mod.
You let MO2 control Saves & ini's for the profile, to keep them dedicated, & maybe Make a Backup FL-Default profile, to go back to defaults if needed..
The entire point of using a GLOBAL Instance of MO2, is you only need one instance installed for ALL games.
You keep the games Data Folder vanilla, install mods once & simply enable/disable them to use per profile.
With FoMod options, you either just run the FoMod again, or you can split the FoMod options into separate MO2 mods that you can enable/disable as needed.
I find this is best only if you actually make different choices though, if you always keep the same choices, just use the FoMod once.
The power of MO2, is that you keep the base game vanilla & use profiles to have many separate modded builds, but using the same set of files.
This gives you maximum adaptability using as little drive space as possible.
>You can use the Fallout London GOG installer to install the mod to an empty folder, INSTEAD of in F4.
Nowhere did we install it into F4, it *was* installed to an empty directory.
>Then that entire Data Folder is the Fallout London Mod, archive that Job done.
Correct, and you can do the same, archiviving the /data/ folder that was created in /mods/. Move the archive somewhere else and you can reinstall later.
>The _AppData & _Config folder contents go in your Fallout London Profiles" folder in MO2.
Step.. like 15, yes this is what was suggested.
> I assume it just sets _AppData & _Config content to F4 default locations
It doesn't. It will just install them wherever /data/ is installed. Yeah, idk.
Anyway, yes profiles are better, but also just slightly more complicated. Using multiple global instances does necessitate installing mods multiple times (once per instance), but it's easier to manage manually or wrap one's head around.
Anyway, put together a guide using profiles and I'll happily like through to it.
And Nexus, right now, is treating FL as a *new game* on its own. Now what? What about mod infos, nexus ID's, what about updates? See e.g. post of AlexintheVerse, themodleyfool and all the people in Discord rising the very same issue.
So said, the simplest approach is not always the best one. Better wait a fix from MO2 devs. My two cents.
So that's not the way it works anymore? (I haven't used MO for years)
And I'd already installed FOLON last week and was hoping this guide would deal with that. Apparently not.
"create a new instance"<--No, this is not needed.
*a mod of Fallout 4* <--Yes, I successfully installed it.
The upside, and why I have 58 instances is it keeps everything sandboxed and easy to physically find. With a new instance you will have literally 1 mod in Mo2/Fallout London/mods/, "Fallout London". That and any london specific mods won't be mixed in with fo4 only directories, etc.
Anyway, there's about a dozen ways to skin a radrager, whatever works best.
Profiles are like settings. They can define what save folder to use, what Fallout prefs to use (like screen res) and what *mods are enabled*.
That last bit, for most people equates to "what mods are installed". But, if you have 600 mods installed all 600 will be visible in every profile. Maybe only 15 are Enabled in profileA, while 100 might be in profileB.
This is why I prefer two instances instead of two profiles. With seperate instances you know that all the mods you see, whether enabled or not are folon (or folon compatible) mods, while in your fo4 instance you'll know all are fo4 mods.
Lots of great authors for Fo4 modding out there, seddon4494, fliteska, saladbar, kinggath just to name a few.
Note the check marks in both windows, those are the active mods. Typically they install unchecked on the left, but when you check that, they should check on the right also.
Is the options window coming up for the mist/fog plugin when you install it?
Is it showing in the two windows as checked (it could be 3 plugins on the right window)?
A lot of people have had issues modding (any steam beth game) due to steam placing them in /program files x(86)/.
You could try a manual install of something obvious, placing an esp directly in the /Fallout 4/ game folder and typing it into the plugins.txt led by an asterisk.
This is obviously not ideal but might give you an idea of what's going on or at least confirm the game is allowing plugins.
You would copy it over what you installed before then it's suggested you run the LondonWorldSpace - ClearUp.bat.
This removes the now unnecessary baka stuff.
If you installed it the first time using the galaxy installer to the fallout4 directory (not to mo2's /mods/ folder), see here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fallout4london/comments/1eo5hby/gog_has_patch_available/
and i do think my actual downloads were screwed up because FOLON is completely lacking music files, thus making the vanilla menu music play, and leading to infinite loading screens.
I will have to figure out what is going on with how the stuff is downloaded before i can actually properly finish this installation
----
If nothing is working / last resort (imo)
Long post, read everything first. You need about 100GB of free space to do this.
First, so this can be later undone, backup the entirety of your /Fallout 4/ folder (the one with Fallout4.exe in it. Yes, backup Fallout4.exe, FalloutLauncher.exe, etc as well to make things easier to undo). The base game with DLCs is about 30GB.
Now drop everything created by the GOG installer in that folder (although you only absolutely need to copy in /src/, /data/ and the 5 files prefixed with f4se_), about 30GB as well.
You can skip the above step by instead "installing" Fallout London to /Fallout 4/ using the setup installer that was downloaded with the GoG files.
Next backup .../My Documents/My Games/Fallout4/ (these are, most likely, your base game settings and saves)
Drop the 2 INI files created by the installer found in /_Config/ into this folder (should be overwriting 2 files)
Now backup .../Users/[computer name]/AppData/Local/Fallout4/ (your load order among other things)
Drop the 4 (3 TXT & 1 fo4viewsettings) files created by the installer found in /_AppData/ in here (overwrite 4 files)
(Optional, but recommended) Run "Fallout4Launcher.exe", and you should get a "video hardware" pop-up. Hit ok>ok>then exit the splash screen (this adds your video card to fallout4prefs.in).
At this point your game should be, at minimal, functional. From within /Fallout 4/, clicking the f4se_loader.exe should give you a good title screen and allow you to start playing the game.
Worth noting, even a perfect install on an NSA grade super computer may bug out from time to time at launch. Try launching it a couple more times if it bugs out the first time. Something with the intro music is causing issues.
If yes, play on! Keep in mind though that you won't be able to play regular Fallout 4 with everything set up like this.
But it should be the most stable it's going to get. ..before applying all the fixes of course.
----
To play regular Fallout 4 just delete everything in /Fallout 4/ (the folder that contains Fallout4.exe) and copy in everything you backed up earlier.
Then copy > overwrite the backups you made of /my docs/fo4/ and /local/fo4/. Delete / move any Fallout london saves first if you don't want to keep those.
----
All the above is a real pitb and a lot harder to undo than use a mod manager, but should at minimal be functioning. If not, either your Fallout 4 or Fallout London files are broken.
I do a lot of modding to the base game so all my DLCs are zipped up into archives. Take Far Harbor for instance. It consists of 6 files in /Fallout4/Data/, all prefixed with DLCCoast.
Highlight all of these > add to archive.
Rename and move the archive somewhere, delete the 6 (or whatever) files found in /data/
You can now install the DLC the same way you would any mod (except it will automatically be put at the top of your load order). But it can be enabled or not in Mo2.
Better solution! (In most cases)
Tools > Settings > Workarounds > uncheck "Force-Enable Game Files"
This should allow you to only enable the necessary DLCs.
I'll dig in a bit later and see if I can spot the issue.
I've has success using Amazing Follower Tweaks with v.1.0.0 of this mod:
Pip-Boy Restoration
It doesn't seem to be working like expected (supposed to replace the Atta-Boy with Pip-Boy), but it fixed AFT being invisible so.. yeah.
...and now I'm nailbiting over "Configure your profile settings," which was also skipped in this tutorial.
And now that I see that the MO2 that I just downloaded from Nexus is already outdated, what am I supposed to download from the Github page, "Mod.Organizer-2.5.2rc1-pdbs.7z"? Or maybe "Mod.Organizer-2.5.2rc1.exe"? Perhaps the second one? I really have no idea, but based on the size of the MO2 I'd downloaded, I'm guessing the latter.
Yeah, you really do need to keep it simple for us folks.
The Mod Organizer 2 linked to under requirements (Skyrim) is fine for this. The newest version "...2rc1" is release candidate. Ie. Newer features, but not fully tested. The *.7z is the same as the *.exe but "zipped" up (smaller, easier to distribute).