Dear users, we’ve noticed a recurring issue where some players are experiencing difficulties with the mods not loading, often due to not following the installation instructions. To address this, we’ve outlined some basic debugging steps applicable to any ESM mod. Steps are same for basically any ESM mod.
Do not use ESM mods with Beta
Big Steam betas draw in people, which is good. But please note that usually SFSE and/or Plugins.txt Enabler are NOT compatible with the beta releases, and their authors will release new version of their mods when beta becomes stable. This means that beta will most likely NOT work with ANY mods that require SFSE / Plugins.txt Enabler, which is most ESM mods. Please confirm that you are using stable release channel for your modded game, and that you have downloaded SFSE / Plugins.txt Enabler compatible with the same version.
Disable TestFiles
If you’ve used TestFiles before and your INI files contain blocks like this:[General]
sTestFile1=blah.esp
sTestFile2=blah.esp
Please ensure you remove all references and remnants of it before attempting to use this mod or any ESM mod that relies on Plugins.txt Enabler. Only proceed once you’re confident your installation is back to its original state.
Correctly Install Plugins.txt Enabler
Have you installed Plugins.txt Enabler ? Are you certain it’s functioning properly? If not, please conduct another test.
Add a reputable ESM mod, such as Starfield Community Patch, load a game, make a hard save, and exit the game to Desktop. Then, go to Plugins.txt and remove the line containing the community patch. Yes, remove it. Reload the game and try loading your hard save. If you don’t receive a complaint message as seen below, your Plugins.txt Enabler was not installed correctly. Please ensure you have correctly installed and tested Plugins.txt Enabler before proceeding.
Many things could cause this, but they are not related to any ESM - it could be OS issues, game version issues, SFSE not installed correctly, placing txt file in the wrong path. Please only proceed once you have done this test and it ended up with exactly the same message as in the screenshot above. To fix your installation at this point, please consult the official instructions posted by Plugins.txt Enabler.
Check Load order
While this mod doesn’t require a specific load order (unless you want icons in the vanilla UI), please test these two scenarios:
- this mod as first in load order
- this mod as last in load order
If either of these scenarios works, please check your other mods for possible conflicts. There has been a situation where another mod was changing vanilla items using overrides (editing vanilla records "in place"), and issues observed were actually fault of the other mod, not this one. This is hard to spot, so please check the reputation of other mods changing outpost mechanic, changing or adding items (specially replacer mods), and similar.
Try this mod alone
Try running this mod by itself. This should always work. If it doesn’t load, please revisit all the steps and tests from the beginning of this guide. Thousands other users can vouch that mod itself does work correctly.
If this mod loads when used as the only mod, but you are still seeing unexpected behaviour, please open a bug report with all the details of what you have tested and how. But please - read this article to the end for additional information!
Try without this mod
Ensure you have another ESM that is easy to confirm working, and make sure you don’t have something else like BAT files or console commands running that produce the same effect. For example, if you have Rich Merchants as an ESM, ensure you don’t have another BAT/console mod giving merchants more money. Confirm that vendors really have more money with that ESM installed, and less money without that ESM installed. If anything seems off, start again from the beginning of this guide.
Share Your Plugins.txt Contents
Before asking for further help, please complete all the previous steps. Then, upload your "Plugins.txt" file to a platform like Pastebin, and include the link in your bug report.
Please note, any bug reports that do not confirm they’ve followed all these steps and do not post the contents of Plugins.txt will be put on a 24-hour hold for the user to provide more proof, or will be closed after the 24-hour period. We appreciate your understanding!
P.S. We’d love to spend more time enhancing our mods rather than debugging installation issues. We hope you understand the importance of following the instructions and ensuring Plugins.txt Enabler is installed and working correctly. Thank you!
*Special thanks to MXNovaKnight (from OCE) for redacting this article :-)
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