Triaged [Review] - Suggestion - Choose which plugins are enabled for multi-plugin mod

[VortexFeedback]

Vortex Version: 0.16.15 Memory: 15.96 GB System: win32 x64 (10.0.17134) For some mods in games like Fallout New Vegas, Vortex shows a message that says "X mod contains multiple plugins" and offers options to "Enable All" or "Dismiss". It would be helpful if there was another option to pick which plugins were enabled. Sometimes mods include optional plugins but don't have the corresponding scripting (FOMOD, etc.) to let you choose which ones are installed, and simply expect you to either delete the unwanted plugins or not enable them.

Reported by: doxxxicle

[doxxx]

Even better: if multiple plugins were detected during the install process, the user is prompted to choose which are installed. It should default to all. This would avoid unnecessary plugins being installed that would just be left disabled. This makes it easier to work with Wrye Flash, etc. since all installed plugins can be assumed to be enabled.

[TanninOne]

Not a huge fan, because it would mean we're introducing a new ui for something you can already do. We have an entire screen to pick which plugins to load. This kind of "contextual" ui can be very confusing to users because they can't be invoked intentionally and if it can be, it loses the "contextuality".

I already know we will get mails from users going

Why is there no button to open the "pick plugins for mod" dialog?

If we add that it's going to be

Why can't I affect the load order for the plugins?

and

It would be useful to see the other plugins I have

In the end we'll just have added a bunch of buttons and dialogs replicating the functionality of the plugins screen.

Regarding "It should default to all" and "since all installed plugins can be assumed to be enabled.": I wholeheartedly disagree.

A disabled plugin that should be enabled is merely an inconvenience: either you will continue playing, eventually finding out the mod doesn't work and come back to enable it, or - if the plugin was previously enabled - you get a warning when you load the savegame.

However, an enabled plugin that should be disabled will become part of the savegame. It might cause crashes that are hard to diagnose and it might "infect" your savegame to the point where, if you're unlucky, you lose hours of playtime or the playthrough entirely.

I will always pick the option that inconveniences users a bit over the option that has the potential of breaking savegames. Doesn't really matter how the probabilities are. Giving the plugins page a quick check after you installed mods is really not much to ask.

[doxxx]

Thanks for taking the time to reply! Those are all very solid points.

I filed this issue while I was modding Fallout New Vegas using the Fear & Loathing guide, which leads to quite a heavy setup that has to use Wrye Flash to create a bashed patch. A significant number of the mods did not have FOMODs and relied on instructions to users to manually delete or copy ESP's to configure the mod. Initially, instead of deleting optional ESPs I just left them disabled, but this came back to bite me when I was building the bashed patch -- I had some weird issues with Wrye Flash trying to use the disabled ESPs or maybe I just failed to comprehend the UI. Basically, having all these unused disabled plugins was making it extra complicated to create the bashed patch. I eventually deleted the unused ESPs from the game's data folder and re-deployed in Vortex to make it pick up the deletions and update the mod's source folder.

My hope was that, since these would plugins that would not have even been installed if the author had bothered to create a FOMOD script, in the absence of that Vortex could provide a sort of "poor man's FOMOD" that allowed the user to pick which ESPs are actually installed from the archive.

That said, I can completely see your argument that it would probably just confuse a lot of beginner modders. Can you think of something else Vortex could do to make this process less error-prone and finicky?

[doxxx]

Did ModOrganizer do something like this with its "Optional ESPs" list in the mod properties?

[HawthorneK456]

https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/issues/1772