Oblivion Mod:Load Order Management

Introduction

There are only one or a few things left in order to finish up the installation: 1) check load order, 2) if using Wrye Bash, check bash tags and build rebuild the bashed patch 3) run TES4LODGen, if you use that utility, and 4) modify the Oblivion.ini if necessary. This brings us to the Wrye Bash Mods tab. The following steps are the most important steps to ensuring that modded Oblivion will work at all. Even if there are no data file conflicts, the game can hang or crash or malfunction in many other ways if there are relevant mistakes in your load order.

Update and Check Your Load Order

A Brief on Load Order

A load order is the "date modified" ordering of your the plugins that are processed in the game from earliest to most recent, the order in which content is processed by the game engine. Active plugins are plugins loaded into the game. Only plugins in your Data folder can be active, but not all plugins in the Data folder have to be active. You can activate and deactivate plugins using any mod managing utility (i.e., Wrye Bash, OBMM, the Oblivion Launcher, etc.) Wrye Bash give the users the most control over managing load orders. With it, users can do anything that the other mod managing utilities allow and much, much more. However, OBMM, over many other mod managers, also supports modifying the load order through its interface. Use ONE utility to manager your load order, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble. If OBMM users use Wrye Bash to modify their load order, turn on the setting in OBMM that keeps it from modifying the load order (except for when adding plugins because that is inevitable.) The best plugin ordering utility, however, is BOSS. It automates the ordering of a large number of plugins, but users should still have some understanding of what organizational structure works for load ordering. If you are unfamiliar with Oblivion plug-in load order, please read the Load Order page if you are still not sure what the significance the load order is before continuing.

Update the Load Order

As a rule of thumb, 'every time you change your load order, you should rerun BOSS or hand place (in OBMM, Wrye Bash or some other utility with a load order feature) added plugins. If you are hand-ordering, if a mod is likely to conflict with other mods, you should check the mod's documentation for load order placement suggestions. On the other hand, if you are using BOSS and you have added a plugin that BOSS does not recognize, it will place that plugin at the end of your load order (unless Bash's lock times feature is enabled and prevents the change) and also list that mod in the "Unrecognised Plugins" section of its BOSS Log file. Mods BOSS does not recognized need to be either hand placed or sorted using BOSS's user rules functionality. If you are unsure about where a particular plugin should be placed, you can reference the BOSS Masterlist or the Load Order Template.

Run BOSS

...if you don't manage your load order by hand.

1. Turn on "BOSS Disable Lock Load Order" (or "BOSS Disable Lock Times"): Right-click on the File header and check "BOSS Disable Lock Load Order" or "BOSS Disable Lock Times", depending on the version of Wrye Bash.
2. Run BOSS (a shortcut with an icon reading "BOSS" can be found at the bottom of Wrye Bash's window)
3. Read the BOSS Log: After running BOSS, the BOSS Log pops up. The BOSS Log contains lots of compatibility information and other info making it worth every minute it takes to read through it, thoroughly.
4. Do you have unrecognized files? (at the bottom of the log file) If so, leave the log file open and keep reading, else close the log file and you can skip to "Bash Tags." BOSS recognizes over 13,000 plugins but there are many more plugins available on the net.

   Note: If BOSS does not work (i.e. the log file does not open), check its readme for troubleshooting advice.

5. If you want to have your unrecognized plugins added to the BOSS masterlist, you need to post them in BOSS's official thread. See the BOSS readme for links to the BOSS thread and information on what you need to post.

Finish Up

Rebuilding the Bashed Patch

You may want to reference Wrye Bash's Plugin Status Indicators.

1. TURN ON LOCK TIMES NOW!!

   Notes: 1) helps prevent accidental user changes 2) if you completely uninstall and then reinstall a plugin while in the Installers tab, its position will not be lost.

2. Check only plugins that need to be activated.
   • Mergeable plugins (green) should not need to be activated.
   • Plugins with the "filter" tag should not be activated.
   • Italicized plugins must be deactivated.
   • Mods that should only be imported (reference BOSS log) should not be activated.
   • All plugins loading after the bashed patch should be activated (if they are being used.)
   • Summary: In general, leave all green text, purple text and italicized plugins deactivated (unchecked) always.
3. Right-click the bashed patch and choose "rebuild."
   • DO NOT MERGE plugins loaded after the bashed patch.
   • Check mods' BethSoft threads for the most current tagging information.
   • See the [index.php?page=bashed_patch bashed patch page] for guidelines on what to check.

     Notes: FCOM users should also check the FCOM-specific bashed patch page for proper settings

   • Rebuilding can take a while...
   • After building, check the beginning of the bashed patch ReadMe for errors.
4. Double check your load order, unchecking any plugins that do not need to be activated.

   Notes: To be safe, if you find that some plugins were accidentally checked that should not have been, rebuild the bashed patch after deactivating them.

Info about Bash Tags

• When a plugin is selected, its Bash tags are listed in the bottom-right corner of the Bash window.
• Right-click in the Bash tag frame to check or uncheck tags.
  
• Some tags are defined directly in the plugin's description (near the top-right of Bash's window.)
  • The definition for a hardcoded Bash tag is {{BASH:<comma separated list of tags>}}

    Note: "BASH" must be capitalized, and tags are case-sensitive

• Tags may also be added by BOSS. (Tag definitions are underneath names in the BOSS log.)
• Correct Bash tags are very important. Certain configurations call for different tags (which is why FCOM users have a detailed version of this section for properly finishing FCOM's installation.)

External Links

• Wrye Bash Patch Option Reference (by Warrudar)