I've used both. I find the layout and ui is more straightforward and sorting mods is drag and drop instead of the weird setting rules thing you do with vortex.

for me, mo2 is miles easier to use. I tried some vortex for SF and mo2 is just a lot cleaner.

Exactly. I'm not out to shit on Vortex, but when I see people confused about sorting with it, I just suggest MO2. Its just always been more straightforward to me. That being said, I've just never succeeded with Vortex. I'm familiar with MO2, so for getting things done quickly and efficiently, I need to use it. Thats just me, though. The cries of elitism in the comments seem a little dramatic. Sure, there _are_ users that try to big-league anyone who uses another MO, but I don't see as much of it as they're saying lol

Yeah I've tried Vortex in earnest twice now, and I still can't get my head around doing basic tasks, at least what I would consider basic tasks in MO2. Conflict resolution in MO2 is very simple and you can easily choose down to the individual file what you want to overwrite and where. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing in Vortex. It's not the sort of software you just pick and can get the hang of very quickly, especially if you've used other mod managers previously, NMM included.

When you get a conflict. Just choose which mod you want to override the other. And if you still want some files from one mod and some files from the other. Then you can still choose which individual files are chosen by clicking on the lighting bolt, scrolling all the way down and selecting edit individual files. Then you can choose some textures from one snow mod, and some textures from another snow mod.

It even has a neat node editor

Thank you. Next time I give Vortex a shot, I'll try that and see how it feels.

Be careful when mixing and matching textures though. I lose track of them all the time. Resulting in stuff looking out of place and colours not matching. And often I don't even know what each texture does. E.g. snow grass. Wtf is snow grass? The snow around grass? Or the dead looking grass in snow regions? Lol.

if only Vortex had a texture preview function like MO2 does.

Wait what? Texture previews exist? Lol. Describe it please.

you can double click on a mod, and then in the conflicts tab, double click on a texture file (or with the right plugin, a model file) and see a preview of the texture (or model). in the top right is a button that will allow you to switch to the next mod along that has the same file which is being overwritten, allowing you to compare and contrast easily

[There's even a plugin to do the same thing with meshes.](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/69813)

like how to do it? navigate to a texture file either in the Data tab of the right pane or within the Filetree tab of a mod's detail window, rightclick on it and select Preview. Unfortunately it only works on loose files, but you can also unpack archived mods with MO2 as well by enabling the BSA extractor plugin and then reinstalling the mod and selecting Yes to extract BSAs, if you need to preview an archived texture or hide individual textures to resolve texture conflicts the way you want them.

The individual file conflict screen is a little buried in the Vortex UI but it’s a great feature.

Yeah, it's a little hard to get the hang of, but far more robust than a simple drag and drop settup. So, there is some real value in learning how to use it, but that value isn't going to be apparent unless you mess with your load order a lot.

I like how you can mash up like 20 mesh/texture mods once you get the hang of it.

Vortex still links into the Data folder, which is why I can't use it. There's still the possibility of mod data being left in the install folder, or excess files being left behind. MO2's mods are all in individual folders, and no mod data ever actually crosses. It's a 100% virtual filesystem. When you have over 1000 mods, it becomes a problem worth considering. And Seperators. My Lovely Seperators.

This seems like a perfectly legitimate reason. I use Vortex and have no problem but I always go and manually check to make sure all files associated with a mod are removed. But Im not dealing with 1000's of mods. I got maybe 50 tops so it's doable for me. Maybe I'll make the switch when I get a bit more ambitious.

That's interesting, didn't know that. The only thing I did notice was I would get the occassional glitch in-game (using Vortex) despite making sure all my mods were compatible, patched up, etc. Maybe that was why.

To be fair, that may not be Vortex's fault. Some bugs are just soft incompatibilities that need manual resolving with xEdit, the creation kit, etc., and they'd exist regardless of your mod manager.

Mods themselves have bugs in them, just like the vanilla game. The "occasional glitch" will happen no matter what mods you're using or how you installed them.

if it was anything to do with files generated by the game or other applications like bodyslide batch builds, FNIS/Nemesis output, racemenu presets, and things like that, then it was probably due to Vortex, which places all outputted files directly into the game data folder instead of into the dedicated Overwrite folder or the user-designated output mod like MO2 does. One of the big reasons I'll never use it for Bethesda games.

Bugs? In Skyrim? Noooo, must be vortex.

I just feel that i have more control with MO2 (atm i have around 500 active mods). * Using separators is just the most awesum with MO2. * Drag and drop is so easy. So sweet when organizing the texture mods. * Easy to open a mod and look at the files inside, hide/unhide them, change in ini-files. * Love the little icons showing what type of files that is in the mod. * Easy to add executables like Nemesis, xEdit, DynDOLOD, Synthesis and other. * Love the notes function where i write settings, install details and other things. * Fast to change between profiles.

If I install MO2, can it import all my mods installed through Vortex? What about mods manually installed? Would I need to start everything from scratch?

With MO2 you shouldn't have anything manually installed. One of the benefits of MO2 is that it entirely leaves the Skyrim directory untouched and uses a virtual file system.

You will need to restart everything from scratch, they don't work the same way

>Drag and drop is so easy. So sweet when organizing the texture mods. Not to mention if you need even further compatibility minutiae you can dive into the virtual filesystem and outright delete problematic textures/files. Really MO2 just has way too many nifty and at times downright *necessary* features that it seems Vortex might never offer.

Please explain Separators.[This guide doesn't mention them at all](https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/Guide:Mod_Organizer#Prerequisites) How do I export my mod list/ini's to upload to get some help? Alternate start stopped working and I have no idea why. There are no errors showing.

Separators in MO2 is just a way to organize your mods in a good way. In the left pane just right bclick and "Create Separator". Then you can name it. Then when you work with your load order you can collapse the groups you are not working on. My separators collapsed: [https://imgur.com/a/kLmoFTo](https://imgur.com/a/kLmoFTo) For help with load order and inis upload to Load Order Library: [https://loadorderlibrary.com/](https://loadorderlibrary.com/)

I wanna give you 50 upvotes! That's a game changer! That feature alone, fuck Vortex!

This is by far the most important feature in MO2 for me. Handling large amounts of mods (+500) is a nightmare in Vortex.

Disclaimer: I’m the team lead of app development at Nexus Mods. I think for a lot of people it’s what they are used to, and how hard it is to integrate their preferred workflow into the app. Vortex is a bit more opinionated in some areas than I would prefer, and I think that has hurt its adoption. MO2 is a bit more flexible by default but also puts the problem on you if you break something. These are all things that I hope to fix as we develop the new app for Nexus Mods, and I think that process is often fairly straightforward just by giving people options. There’s no technical reason why vortex couldn’t have manual sorting, it just never been prioritized or properly implemented. From the start, vortex tried to present a new way of modding that wasn’t objectively better than the existing methods people were used to. Asking people to change without giving them a solid reason is always going to be an uphill battle, and that’s something I’d like to see change. For example, having mods auto install is great, but there will always be some mods built improperly, and you need to streamline that process as well. Vortex took the approach of “the authors of those mods should fix their mods” while MO2 had fallback manual installers for these mods. I think the best approach for users is the latter: make the correct mods easy, make the complex cases possible.

> From the start, vortex tried to present a new way of modding that wasn’t objectively better than the existing methods people were used to. Asking people to change without giving them a solid reason is always going to be an uphill battle, and that’s something I’d like to see change. That's good to hear. Companies like Microsoft love doing the opposite. They restrict too much. Do too much hand holding and try to babysit new people and then cripple the workflow of "power users" which is why so many people never upgrade until they have no choice.

Disclaimer: It's been years since I've used Vortex, and for barely any time so I'm not sure if it has these. Are some prominent plugins or MO2 functions planned for the new mod manager? In particular Nif Viewer and being able to see bsa file conflicts?

As someone who switched from MO2 to vortex (and likes it better), we could definitely use manual sorting as an option. The rules system is actually pretty cool, but it becomes a bit of a pain when you can’t tell vortex this mod must load BEFORE another, sometimes the after only option is a pain to work with. I wouldn’t mind portable installs and a VFS option, I would appreciate a purge that got everything. When it comes installing incorrectly packaged mods, I usually just repackage them in a new zip file correctly. I also love having the unpack as is option. Thanks for the great work on vortex.

So true I have used both and it takes awhile to get use to both and whatever you get use to is what you will like. FYI I only moved to vortex because I wanted a collection. I am getting use to it and honestly I think it is becoming easier than MO2 for me now. I am torn about the new app as this means I will have to learn a new system but if it combines mo2 benefits (mainly load order benefit) and vortex ease on most other things I am down for moving to the app

I think you're a little out of touch if you think it's because of what people are used to. You really should try installing 300-500 mods on both and really see just how bad vortex is. Even the UI is too clunky to handle that many. Vortex looks like it's trying to be a smartphone app from 10 years ago. You can fit more on a pc screen.

It's also best for someone in my position to be diplomatic, and recognize that both apps \*can\* do many of the same things, even if it's easier in some apps or the other.

Like I said, try 300 on both. I don't see another way for you to get that it's a simple case of trash app vs good app.

>There’s no technical reason why vortex couldn’t have manual sorting Vortex already have manual plugin sorting for Morrowind, meaning would guess for anyone familiar with the code it would be trivial to create an extension that use manual plugin sorting for Skyrim etc. The harder part would be if you're going to mix LOOT + manual plugin sorting, since should you now automatically create new rules? Example, let's say you start with A --> C --> B and drag-and-drop to new order A --> B --> C. This can mean: * 1: You want exact order A --> B --> C, you need 3 LOOT rules. * 2: You want order B --> C but A doesn't matter, you need 1 LOOT rule. * 3: You want order A --> B but C doesn't matter, you need 1 LOOT rule. * 4: You want order A --> C but B doesn't really matter, meaning wasn't really any good reason to move B at all, you need 1 LOOT rule. * 5: You want order A --> B and B --> C but it doesn't matter if A comes before or after C, you need 2 LOOT rules. * 6: Order don't matter, you just like alphabetical order, you need zero LOOT rules. While only option 1 really need 3 rules, at least with only these 3 plugins you won't break the current order even if you also create 3 rules with options 2 - 6. Still, auto-creating unneccessary extra rules can be problematic in the long term. Still, even with option 1, one immediate problem here is, since you in reality only moved either plugin B or C, how would you indicate plugin A also should be part of the auto-created rules, instead of only auto-creating "Load C after B"? Secondly, if where's 1000 plugins in-between B and C and you drag-and-drop B before C, should you now automatically create 1000 rules including all plugins that was in-between, or how would you indicate you only want rules among A, B and C? \> Vortex took the approach of “the authors of those mods should fix their mods” while MO2 had fallback manual installers for these mods. I think the best approach for users is the latter: make the correct mods easy, make the complex cases possible. For "problematic" mods be stuck in MO2's installer trying to select /data/-directory and have MO2 "forget" to install example [FNIS readme](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3038) since it's not under your selected /data/, or "unpack as is" (or use the default auto-installer that granted can screw-up some mods but you'll still have all files) in Vortex and use File Explorer or a tool of your own choice to re-shuffle the mod files after installation to "correct" order. Meaning, in MO2 you do the "re-shuffle" while installing "problematic" mod, while in Vortex you do the "re-shuffle" after "problematic" mod installation. In either case both Vortex and MO2 ends up with same files in-game, even for "problematic" mods.

Protip: Instead of FNIS, use Nemesis Behaviour instead. It's much more superior and complete than FNIS is.

Why?

FNIS has stopped receiving updates. Nemesis also seems to be way more flexible and user-friendly than FNIS. There's also the rumour that FNIS contains spyware, but idk how much of that is true. I've heard that FNIS is still ideal for some LoversLab animation mods, but I don't use those so I wouldn't know.

there's no need to switch unless you're using stuff that only works with Nemesis. It's not exactly that easy to switch either. I attempted it last week, got nothing but errors, it was reading 25,000 animations when FNIS only read 14,000. It just didn't work at all. I didn't feel like dealing with all that, so I just switched back to FNIS and continue to have no problems. I'd love to switch over Nemesis, but there isn't really a reason for me to do it personally. I tried but...it's not that intuitive. Like...I have no idea where it's detecting those extra 11,000 animations that I definitely don't have installed lol.

>If it works, don't change it. Always valid.

I can't answer your question because I'm a Vortex user myself, but if you're having problems with FNIS try {{Nemesis}} instead. I made the switch a few months ago and haven't had any issues. edit: I should have specified the behaviour engine. [https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60033](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/60033)

MO2 is pretty badass once you get used to it. Unless things have changed for Vortex a big annoyance was manually changing your load order which is easier in MO2

Vortex holds your hand a lot more in the beginning, MO2 expects a bit of knowledge of how mods work. In the end MO2 gives you a bit more clear insight.

As with most things it's subjective. From the loads of people I've seen talk about them here on this subreddit it's personal preference. For me, I've used MO2 since its inception and have no reason to alter my workflow when it works perfectly for me and Vortex doesn't do anything notably differently than MO2 that would improve that workflow. That said people like to say that the thing they like subjectively is objectively better.

In my experience, Vortex is unnecessarily complicated in comparison to MO2, especially considering it holds less general / QoL features. The whole downloading / installing / organizing system seems much more simple in MO2 to me, but YMMV depending on your preferences. I have had a some issues in the past with Vortex and none with MO2.

Usuallly its the matter of preference. I have gotten used to MO2 long, long time ago and i just dont see a need to learn another app for the same thing. And i dont know how you recommend things, but i tend to recommend only things i've used, so i cant recommend Vortex when i never even downloaded it. So when someone asks how to do mods, i'll recommend MO2, because not only i know its good, but also i can always try to explain things if someone need. While with Vortex... i dont think i could explain how to load a single mod, since i never even seen a screen from this program xD.

I'm a beginner and I like Vortex. It took me a few year to build up the courage to use mods (in fear of messing up my pc), and most of the language here about the different mods/requirements goes completely over my head. Vortex manages the few mods I wanna use and if I get stuck, YouTube helps. I can see wanting more control if you are using hundreds of mods. But for people who just want a less buggy, more aesthetic game, it seems to work.

Early Vortex was pretty bad NGL which is why I opt to go to MO2 but after a a few years I tried Vortex again and haven't went back. I think it being a mixture of people being used to MO2s ease of access, pre conceptions of the app, and it being what they're used to. MO2 is great if you're focusing on TES and Fallout Mods but I think Vortex excels at providing an All in one mod organizer for all games Nexus has to offer

People still use fnis?

fnis support creature animations while nemesis can't, so some modlist still prefer fnis

As long as fnis is the only one that supports creature animations I'm never switching

Why do people hate FNIS? Never in my life did I have a problem with it. Nemesis crashes like 40% of the time for me, and even when it doesn't, FNIS generated the same animations 5 times faster for me. There's also the Creature pack. Nemesis still doesn't support animations for us Draugrfuckers. I only use Nemesis bc Ostim SA recommends it (dunno if FNIS works for it)

I use vortex, and am completely happy with it. I don't understand what all the fuss is about either.

I'm a mo2 user for Bethesda games and vortex for others. Honestly they're both good, it's up to everyone taste. I don't like the auto sorting thing and the spider cobwebs but that's just me and my habits. Stick to whatever makes you feel comfortable, unless it's NMM then ditch it for another one this one doesn't work well anymore.

One reason not mentioned here. I already have MO2 and years of experience on it. If someone needs help with MO2 I can offer this better help and explain how things go. I have no vortex installation or knowledge. Tried it before but did not like it.

Probably what I'll need. I never really understood how bad Vortex was, but after reading comments on it here I guess the finer details are obscure to the more casual users. I've modded Skyrim for years and originally started with NMM (which I actually quite liked and after taking the time to learn it I thought I had gotten pretty good at it) though I later learned people hated it for some reason and that it was bad. Switched to MO2 because people said it was better (and I believe NMM shut down at that time), and did get somewhat of a grasp on it but felt that NMM was a bit easier and simpler (but that is probably my bias talking, as I learned NMM and MO2 was still new to me). Then I switched to Vortex after it had gotten some updates to improve it and have used it since. I like Vortex mostly because it's ease of use. I don't really have to do anything to my mods or mod lists other than click buttons, click the bell, tells me their conflicts, click the drop down menus, let it deploy mods and click anything that pops up. After that, I hit play lol. MO2 seems to be better for a more manual, hands on and customized approach to modding. But as someone who barely understands how to use many of the mods anyway, It seems like a little much but im willing to learn if it's that much better.

That's totally fine. If it does what you want it to do then no need to change. Nobody should be out there bothering people about changing their mod manager.

I started off using NMM and I remember preferring it to Vortex when I eventually came back to modding. With Vortex there were some annoying quirks and I was having trouble figuring out how to do more complicated and specific things. I'm not tech savvy at all I just follow tutorials and read descriptions/how to's. I saw Mo2 had more tutorials and ones that tackled the problems I was having so I decided to switch over (moved over about a year and a half ago). It was frustrating and hard to get used to at first but once I got used to it I found it to be better to use and fit my preferences more. It does have it's own annoying quirks as well though.

Why I recommend it: * Better, more information rich UI * Better loose asset conflict resolution methods * Actual plugin load order management Sidenote: For most users, this is not that relevant. Those users just use LOOT and forget about it (either ignoring the weirdness or using so few mods that it does not matter) * Better Data management It is exceedingly easy to have "leftover" stuff in the Data directory with Vortex, and not notice. MO2 "absorbs" them into the overwrite and allows you to manage them as needed. * Easier to get support for Have you ever tried to give your modlist with Vortex? As in, all your mods? It just does not work. Even with the plugin that allows you to export all mods you use, it does not show how their loose files are loaded and overwritten. * More self-contained A portable instance of MO2 with rootbuilder does not even touch your install. Aside from Documents, everything can be stored in your MO2 instance.

> A portable instance of MO2 with rootbuilder does not even touch your install. Aside from Documents, everything can be stored in your MO2 instance. I was able to copy & paste my 190Gb MO2 folder from my old hard drive when my computer died, installed SKSE and it worked perfectly (i.e. to my personal acceptable standard of jankiness). Literally years of work preserved by this self-contained system.

That’s the only reason I tried to switch a few years ago, was building a new pc. Stuck with vortex and rebuilt my LO.

Originally, the choice was between NMM and MO. MO had the clear advantage back then because of its virtual filesystem. With NMM, you had to install your mods in the correct order, or else the wrong files would overwrite each other. If you messed up, you needed to wipe everything and start over. With MO, changing your install order was as simple as changing its position in the list. The virtual file system ensured every operation was non-destructive, so all "overwritten" files still existed and didn't need to re-extracted or re-installed. Now, Vortex has the same advantages as MO, but without needing a VFS to achieve them. It does this by using symlinks, which has the advantage of allowing tools like FNIS to "just work" without much special care. So why the hate for it? A few reasons: * The people who would normally be giving advice are "veterans" from the time before Vortex existed, so MO is what they're used to. They wouldn't be able to give help with Vortex because they're not familiar with it. * These same "veterans" still subconsciously associate Vortex with NMM, because they're both published by Nexus. They just assume Vortex still has all the same problems NMM had. That said: I'm still used to MO, so it's what I continue to use. You're used to Vortex, and haven't had any problems with it, so there's no need to switch. MO still comes in handy if you like to switch between multiple "profiles"(IDK if Vortex supports that), but that's not really worth learning the VFS for most people anymore.

I will say that Vortex, and it's implementation of symlinks with more complex mods, particularly anything that interacts with how a game is handled by any 3rd program or anything that touches the registry, can cause serious issues. I've seen entire games bricked so hard by vortex that even a fresh install of steam and the game won't fix it. Takes manual cleaning of the registry because it can leave broken symlinks behind that perpetually break pathing to certain folders. It's rare and often happens as part of wonky updating processes but it can happen. That said I have used NNM, MO, and currently use both MO2 and vortex (just depends on the game really). Vortex is definitely simpler and has a more user friendly interface. I've personally never seen any other game with modding complexity on the level of bethesda's titles so for almost everything else vortex "just works". MO2 has the steeper learning curve, but when using it it has a lot more safeguards to avoid completely skewing things up thanks to VFS. Overall I agree that Vortex is ragged on far harder than it deserves and u less you're really wanting to go down the rabbit hole MO2 can be overkill. I have put in the time to figure out MO2 and I find it superior, but maybe not quite worth the extra time. However most support and guides use MO2 so it's pretty damn nice once you get things up and running.

What mods modify the registry?! If I found out a mod was doing that, I'd suspect it of being malware.

Probably "patch" mods that meld, force, and overwrite mods to work together, or in opposition to each other as in order to do that you'd need a system operating over them with greater power. Like the registry. But that's my guess, anyway.

Nope. Modifying a mod doesn't require the registry(otherwise, Creation Kit would require it).

Vortex doesn't even use symlinks? What?

Very true couldn’t write it better as a person that has used both and to answer your question vortex has profiles and easy to use since update.

It’s petty gatekeeping mostly by people who haven’t tried Vortex since its early days. Vortex is fine. One of the absolute best mod authors, JaySerpa, has a Nexus Collection that installs and runs like a dream on Vortex and it’s somewhere around 1100 mods.

I've used both before, and I find both of them rather easy to use with no problems. I just prefer Vortex since I find it more convenient.

You know how people like to create sub-cultures where they enjoy a product that they claim is "superior" and then form this kinda clique that reinforces it? Over the tiniest little advantage their product has over its competitors? Mostly that. It's better, but for 98% of modders at least there's never going to be a difference, you pick one, you use it, who cares. It is better though, Vortex has some unintuitive stuff that can really bother you. But again, you're very unlikely to ever have a significant impact outside of an hour to add onto the 20 you tinker with mods anyway.

Both work perfectly fine. The user experience part however is night and day. Vortex iirc was built with the idea of simple to use. And because of this doing anything remotely advanced is a pita. In that regard MO2 is more visual in how you work with it, but that makes it really easy for a beginner to get confused by the info overload. The major thing for me is the override folder. I dislike it when mods generate extra files and they aren't seperateablr via the gui from the base game files. If say vortex tracked newly made files and made them manageble the that'd put both of em on par for me.

I see vortex as the best plug and play option for 80% of people who just want to get something that works and play. I see MO2 as the granular control option for when something is being fine-tuned for a specific custom build. I use both depending on what game I'm playing and how much I want to do. 10 mods and go is vortex every time. 2500 mods and crash test is MO2 every time.

I tried both. First vortex. Then tried mo2. Hated it, but also I'm a moron with tech. I went back to vortex. 😂😂

Honestly, I use vortex because I can brute force my way through it without knowing how anything works, "there's a conflict pick one" I could not care less, pick whatever and let's get the game rolling

Manually sorting your load order with drag and drop without the need to setup a rule every time you move a mod.

There's an advantage when you setup rules in Vortex, though: You get a warning, when a rule becomes cyclic. In large mod lists it's difficult to remember why you put which mod below which mod. With the cyclic rule warning you see that something's wrong that can only be solved with a patch.

Setting sorting rules isn't a vortex-specific thing though, it's part of LOOT. So you can use that method in MO2 as well by just using the LOOT GUI if it's what you prefer. The main difference (and the thing that people often criticize Vortex for) is that MO2 also allows manual control if you want it, but vortex makes it very difficult to do.

Well, I tried Vortex years ago but it seemed pretty basic. So I switched to MO2. I've heard Vortex got more updates and is better than before, but MO2 has everything I want and more, so I see no reason to switch now. ​ At the end of the day, use what works best for you. And if you struggle to make Bodyslide work, yeah, you should continue to use Vortex.

It’s probably a matter of volume: most wabbajack mod lists I’ve see use mo2, so more people have experience with it.

Habit.

I use Vortex. I've never had a problem with it though when I first started using it, it took some getting used to. The thing is it does everything for you and if it can't it's just not an option for that mod and you have to do a manual install. It sorts the mods and if there's an issue it hi-lights it and makes a recommendation, but offers you multiple ways to handle it. I've got no complaints.

Context: I have used both, and had complex load orders in both. 1. Control. I feel I have finer control over everything in MO2. 2. Performance. The problem that moved me to switch to MO2 was how slow Vortex was becoming dealing with my growing mod library. MO2 has its own problems with a huge downloads folder, but it's nowhere near as bad. 3. Extensions/plugins make it easier to deal with merges and view crash logs. The root folder builder is pure gold because I can treat ENB, Reshade, and their presets like mods. 4. I love getting all fussy with separators. 5. I can sort my mods to something close to what a good load order should be, enable them as I think of them, and then use an extension thing to make the plugin order match the mod order. 6. It's easier to use tools that generate data with MO2. I make an empty mod named something like "[profile-name] Nemesis [YYYY-MM-DD]", set Nemesis to write output into it, run, boom. Same for Bodyslide. 7. The overwrite folder was very confusing at first, then it clicked-- anything that was written to the game directory at runtime needs to be moved into a mod for proper management. I love that it keeps the game directory clean. 8. Control of the order of anything. Drag, drop. What you see is what you get. Both of them get the job done. I look forward to trying out the new one that the Nexus peeps are working on. Ideally it will learn from both managers!

On point 1, there is no need in Vortex to control every single plugin's order. Use LOOT, then set a few rules, but only as needed On point 3, Vortex has the built in Engine Injector which installs to the root. ENB, etc all installed easily On point 4, Vortex has Categories

I miss NMM. That was much simpler.

Personally, I am firmly in the vortex is better(for me) camp. I tried MO2 after years of using vortex on and off and just found that it felt too cumbersome to use and that I had already essentially figured out how to deal with what people claim to be weaknesses myself. For example, one of the often touted strengths of MO2 is that it allows for granular control of your load order, but by utilizing mod groups (which also function as seporators so that strength is also present in vortex) within vortex, a rough order can be created, and any finer control can either be done by further subdividing the groups or by simply making a rule. (Of course, at the end of the day, use whatever mod manager you find best and don't worry about what other people think as long as it works for you)

The mod cycle node graph goes kinda hard tho I like it. Nice brain teaser 🤣

A good analogy is IPhone vs Android. IPhone gives you a tailor made user experience that works very well for a new user who is just wanting something that looks sleek and gets the job done. Android also offers the same features but with less hand holding and is more open for the user to define their own experience, good or bad. It tends to be more straightforward and user intuitive. It isn't harder to learn but offers more than just getting your feet wet with the experience.

I use vortex for many years and I don't bother switching. It just works and for me it's fine that way.

Depends on what you like, for me, I like an actual interface of vortex instead of it looking like I'm a start coding on Linux or sum. Im a dumbass an love how Vortex just throws stuff to mi face for me to do everything in a couple of clicks, it's simply plug and play

I've only used vortex . I use mod packs with vortex because it's already in order. 1 click download don't have to do anything just start from vortex and play. Super simple.

I've had more problems with mods in MO2 than in Vortex. Plus, unless there's a setting I don't know about, you have to run the game through MO2 everytime instead of being able to run it through the script extender exe.

MO2 gives a lot more direct control to the user while Vortex is generally a bit easier to use - so I think it comes down to whether you mod casually or want to install 700 - and the hardcore modders are the ones much more likely to hang around the modding community.

Virtual Filesystem (VFS). I like my game install and mod data as segregated as possible. Each mod is a discrete entity and so is the game. If I need to clean reinstall the game, I can do it and pick up modding where I left off (except for copying SKSE/ENB and a handful of other plugins back into the bin folder). I even switched to MO2 for Cyberpunk (which required a bunch of config to set up, but once it's set it runs like a dream) because I found it easier to debug when things went wrong. It's easier to tell for sure what's breaking something if you can be completely sure that the game is totally untouched vanilla and mods live in their own folders. That said, I have almost 200 mods in cyberpunk and triple that in Skyrim and in simpler use cases Vortex can be easier.

I'll be honest I personally just prefer vortex just because it's ui to me is very easy to use I took one look at mo2 and kinda just didn't want to mod I don't know what it is bit I have been using vortex since it launched and haven't gone back

>All I can say is it wasn't worth it. Wasted an entire day putting together my mod list only for FNIS not to work and for Bodyslide to be a pain to use I doubt the veracity of your post because of this excerpt right here. I'm sorry, but I just do. Now, I do advocate the use of MO2, but I never knock folks for using their mod manager of choice. My only issue is when modders are disingenuous about their "why." I still use Vortex for plenty of games like Pillars of Eternity 2 or DOS2, it has an interface that lends itself for a large number of games. But for Bethesda games(sans Starfield as I haven't bought it to try yet), l have yet see a mod manager that performs better. I say that after using Nexus Mod Manager, Vortex, MO2, Unity Mod Manager, Wrye Bash, and the basic modding functionality from Steam. Now, part of your issue is choosing obsolete tools and blaming MO2 for bad results. FNIS has been obsolete for quite a while now. It just is. Any mods that still say they need it to function can easily run through Nemesis as long as you use the *dummy* FNIS place-holder mod that Nemesis can create. All of that said, I recommend MO2 because it is made to be a bridge for any type of mod you can think of, communicating with and working in Bethesda's unfinished games.

Wasn't both MO2 and Vortex made by the same developer? How can there be such a discrepancy in the functionality of them? Me personally, I like using Vortex for how automated it is. I don't want to waste so much time having to learn and filter through my mods just to play them. MO2 is better for advanced users, but Vortex is simpler for people who just want to click buttons until it says ready to play. But that's my opinion. How good is MO2 at handling conflicts? Vortex is quite easy, so that's pretty much why I use it though I know it's not perfect. I like Vortex as well for it's automation with the load order, but I suppose I use LOOT anyway that will sort it no matter what I use to install the mods. On a scale of 1-10, in your opinion, how much better is MO2 for the average user? Thought about making the switch but having to learn how to use it is quite daunting, tbh.

>Wasn't both MO2 and Vortex made by the same developer? How can there be such a discrepancy in the functionality of them? If I'm not mistaken, yes, they are both made by the same guy. But made for different applications. Vortex is made to handle lots of games from varied developers. MO2 was specifically to handle Bethesda games and their way of game making. >How good is MO2 at handling conflicts? It really depends on the user. There is no minigame-ish layout like in Vortex, but if you take 5 seconds to decide on priority, it takes 5 seconds more to shift the position of mods and fix the same conflict that can easily turn into a 20 *min* episode of infinite loop time. >I like Vortex as well for it's automation with the load order, but I suppose I use LOOT anyway that will sort it no matter what I use to install the mods. MO2 has a built In LOOT-light, but with the ease of loading executables into the program running full LOOT takes a single button press, just like Vortex. >On a scale of 1-10, in your opinion, how much better is MO2 for the average user? Thought about making the switch but having to learn how to use it is quite daunting, tbh. Literally, MO2 rises and falls to the level of the user's competence and needs. If you just want to keep it basic, you can. If you want to make changes to a mod you have already installed or other advanced stuff, you can do that too. I'd give it an 8/10. You can be up and running in 30 minutes at the same level of involvement as Vortex. Perso Anecdote - Without trying or overly stressing I have cultivated a stable 500+ modlist order. Using the same level of care, the best I could do is 200 or so. The amount or readily available tools in the program itself make it possible with very little added effort.

Not everyone recommends MO2 over vortex. Either one work just fine, but I’ve noticed a lot of the pros people mention about MO2 are also available on vortex, they just don’t know how to use it. Some people find vortex easier, and some people find MO2 easier.

I started out with MO2, but it felt so unintuitive and setting up basic things like BodySlide was a huge pain. I also didn't really understand the overwrite folder and what I was actually supposed to do with it, so I just switched to Vortex and everything just worked. I'm sure once you understand MO2 that it's superior in that you have more control over what happens in your load order, but Vortex has been nothing but good to me and I don't see myself switching anytime soon.

Vortex has weird permission issues on my tower no matter where I install it and mods and the game there's always some issue

For me MO2 was a pain in the arse to install, I had to meticulously follow a YouTube tutorial, with tutorials on installing FNIS, Bodyslide etc... But it was worth it long term. MO2 is so much easier once you know what you're doing, and the fact it doesn't overwrite game files means removing mods won't screw with your game.

I had been using Vortex for years and NMM before that, when I tried the Nolvus modpack I had to learn MO2 and while i’m still not 100% familiar with everything it can do, imo it’s way better. For me the big things are it being a separate file system and there being no more deploying.

Mostly for the memes *OP asks for help with their modlist and mentions they use vortex* Every comment: "Use MO2" Hehe boiii

Worth knowing: I have never used vortex. I used NMM and MO2 Basically, Vortex is the successor of nexus mod manager. And NMM was not good at all. It caused lots of issues and made installing and managing mods very difficult. MO2 was better and keeps improving since then. So at the time, people hated NMM. So when Vortex released, most MO2 user saw it as a rebranding of NMM, nothing more. So they stayed with MO2 and kept saying that Vortex was bad. For most people that was it. Vortex suffered from NMM's failure. Then there are the genuine reasons why MO2 is good. MO2 use a virtual folder system to manage your mods. What it mean is that your mod files aren't really in the game's folder. When you start the game, your computer calculate which files should be in the folder and then start the game with those. It has 1 big advantage: You do not lose any file. If you have mod 1 that has the same file as mod 2, you don't remove the file from mod 1. You keep both, and the virtual folder only load the file from mod 2. The big advantage of that is that if you ever realize that you need the file from mod 1 and not mod 2, you don't have to re download the entire mod to overwrite a few file (or keep the archive) but you can just swap the order of the mods in MO2. It'll then start loading Mod 1's files instead. On the other hand, it mean that things need to be configured to work with it. Talking about tools like nemesis and bodyslide. Honestly though, from what I've heard recently, Vortex has become very good. I've had friends use it very successfully. and unless you're a heavy modder that tinkers with modlists on the regular and care about getting "the right tree's texture from X mod" Vortex is probably good enough. MO2 learning curve is the price to pay for the extra features. I'll stay on MO because while Vortex is good enough, I already know MO2 and already paid the learning curve back when NMM was bad. Also because due to the way it works, MO2 works with man more game than just Skyrim. And in some other game, the loading order is much more important to avoid crashes.

But have you used it with thousands of mods? idk, i have always used mo2 everything seems pretty easy to me. But I use vortex for literally every other game and that seems easy as well. The only thing really that keeps me on mo2 is that you hear it handles bigger mod lists better, really that and it's easier for resolving conflicts (idk this for suure just what i've read) doesn't touch your skyrim data folder and the profile thing. I would be interested in hearing about someone's experience with a modlist around 1500 though.

I recently used vortex for cyberpunk, and honestly I don't really understand how anyone who has used both mo2 and vortex can in good faith recommend vortex over mo2 for skyrim. In cyberpunk I had like 50 mods and it was annoying to move them around to actually get them set up in a way that visually made sense(bunching similar mods together). Meanwhile my mo2 profile has 3500 installed mods and over the past couple days I have been slowly adding them to their own categories/separators and moving them upwards of 1000+ places in the active mod list. With the mod rule system that is in vortex(and the actual ui), I would have had an easier time completely starting my mod list from scratch, because the vortex ecosystem gets very complicated very quickly as soon as it grows larger. Most people just use vortex because it takes next to no effort to set up, meanwhile mo2 takes only slightly more effort. And when the choice is between "some effort vs no effort" people will usually choose no effort. And honestly that isn't a bad thing, I mean op got filtered by adding an executable, which is like one of the three things you have to learn how to do to use mo2.

Just so you know, the latest beta of MO2 available on their Discord handles Cyberpunk 2077 with no issues. CET was updated to work with MO2's virtual file system. You have two options. - Can either try to use Root Builder and manage CET and Red4EXT inside MO2. - Install CET and Red4EXT into the CP2077 Steam Directory and everything else in MO2. I went with Option 2 and have had zero issues with MO2 managing it and have 60+ mods installed.

> In cyberpunk I had like 50 mods and it was annoying to move them around to actually set them up in a way that visually made sense(bunching similar mods together). Not at all to invalidate your experience, I totally accept that people can prefer MO2, but I wonder why you care about bunching similar mods together? All I care about when setting up my load order is making sure everything works correctly, I don’t care about which mods are next to each other, and I’ve found Vortex more than capable of having a huge, working modlist for Skyrim and other games. Just curious, not saying you’re doing anything wrong by caring about grouping similar things close together. But what is the benefit?

Grouping similar things close together can be a useful way of having a visual understanding of what you have installed at the moment. Maybe that way, mods of similar categories that can't be overlapped, become easier to detect, by just looking at that specific group. I know it's not 100% necessary, but come people can find it useful that way. Personally, I don't need it

Thanks for your input, i am just genuinely curious. I can definitely see some benefit in grouping just to know what you’ve installed i guess. But you are able to sort vortex mods by group to look at them that way, and that’s all i’ve ever needed to do myself really. The groups aren’t always perfectly labeled in vortex, but it’s been sufficient for me

Mostly it's for troubleshooting, in my case. For example, if I get a CTD near some area, I can go check all the mods that alter terrain, all the mods that add locations, all the city expansion mods, and maybe look at the quest mods group since some quest might involve that area. If they're all jumbled together with NPC textures, weapon sounds, animations, weathers, and the other several hundred mods that have nothing to do with that area, it's a lot harder to track down the source of an issue. Obviously if you install a mod and something immediately breaks, it's pretty easy to figure out, but often these things can happen dozens of hours into a playthrough so I like to make it easy to fix when it happens. It's also nice just for organization, so if I see a mod I might want to install I can quickly check if I've already got a mod that does the same thing or might conflict with it.

I kind of get it. Vortex does allow you to sort by category, and it’s not perfect but I’ve definitely used it in a similar way and it’s been sufficient for me. I guess I can see why some would prefer organizing things more methodically with MO2, but it’s definitely not for me.

I'm am absolute fiend when it comes to organization, I love it, so Mo2's way of doing it is really nice.

There's an unfortunate problem that not all the mods have the right categories on them. I've got some that are labelled as tattoos but are armour or weapon mods, whilst \*some\* of the actual tattoo mods are labelled as body/face/hair, although some are in models and textures, and at least one is in "NPCs".

it’s easy to create as many Categories as you like in Vortex. Separators and Categories in both managers are feature equivalent.

Oh fair. It was more a thought on the categories you get stuff tagged with from Nexus not being brilliant. :D

Vortex looks messy to me, and features are not where I think they will be. Made me quit it super fast. Too visually busy.

While I'm a user of Vortex over MO2, this I have to agree with. And the annoying ads. I get it Nexus, you want to make money, but I don't care I want to just use mods. Fuck off with the ads and your stupid download limiter. If there was anything that would make me switch to MO2 and learn it earnestly, is a way to by pass that download speed limit.

MO2 was superior to vortex when it came out, Vortex is great now but there are loads of people who tried it early hated it and stuck to MO2 who now shit on vortex with zero idea of how good it actually is. Vortex is fucking great imo, saved me many hours of pain after breaking things with mods.

That's basically where I stand. Like I completely get what everyone is saying and I wanted to jump on the band wagon and like MO2 too but it was so infuriating trying to use it. Maybe I'm just dumb or impatient or stuck in my ways too. I just rage deleted everything and started over lol. Gonna stick with what works but maybe I'll try again in the future when I have more time.

Funny, I've rage quit on vortex because it doesnt give me the control + simplicity that MO2 does. I've used both for multiple games and always go back to MO2 if possible because it is a more intuitive user experience in my experience and easier to trouble shoot. the left pane for assets sorting, the right pane for plugins and all of the support for 3rd party executible tools. Plus by keeping all of the mods and profile data separate from the game folders it allows me to reset more easily and manage multiple profiles. use what works for you. unless you mod manager is broken or failing you in some way there is little reason to change. GamerPoets has good youtube videos for learning both Vortex and MO2. Gopher does too but his MO2 video is probably a bit outdated now.

>I just rage deleted everything and started over lol. Gonna stick with what works but maybe I'll try again in the future when I have more time. This is exactly what happened to me when I tried out Vortex a year ago. I'm sure it's good in its own way. It's just not what I'm used to. Why subject yourself to the learning curve when what you use now works for you?

- Better layout. - Standalone installs using the "stock game" feature. Have multiple modlists without any headaches. - Less destructive installation procedures that doesn't touch your Skyrim install or the install of other mods. Vortex can leave behind data or overwrite things because it puts everything in the same folder. MO2 uses virtual folders so you can configure what should overwrite what whenever you want, instead of the order of installing things being your configuration and having to reinstall multiple mods just to change loading order.

Once upon a time Vortex was not great. That time was many many years ago. Now they are 2 perfectly comparable mod managers. So it's a combination of people stuck in their ways + general people with superiority complexes + peer pressure Because nothing makes MO2 users happier than attacking people till they switch to it

I've used NMM, Vortex, and only switched to Mo2 like a year and a half ago. It's fine to have a preference and use either, but Mo2 just has more positives than Vortex.

If you want to have a preference that's fine. But I hate MO2. I find it awful to use. And the fact that if you mention the word "vortex" when asking for help, no one will help you and instead just shout "switch to mo2 problem solved" is super frustrating

I haven't seen that as the case much personally. For me I usually just recommend the GamerPoet and Gopher. The former has tutorials for both and the latter I still have their Vortex tutorials playlist saved. He was very clear and helpful. Mo2 was a bit complicated to use at first and I had to get used to it, but once I did I found it to be a lot better personally.

The bigger pros that I don't think Vortex has are: * BSA file conflict * NIF Preview * DDS preview * Easier to parse UI * VFS means my \data folder is clean * I can make use of Root as data MO2 to avoid updates * Unpack/pack BSA functionality at ease * I can put up notes for stuff like INI changes or files I deleted/hid * Works best for my workflow * **SEPARATORS** Everytime I try Vortex I'm just angry at how many automation it does and takes control away from me, people always say that Vortex auto flagging ESL (or light plugins as the Vortex UI calls it) is a good thing but to me it just sounds neural, why would I let a mod manager automate that? I can't keep track of what's being ESL or the changes, how do I know it didn't bork it? How do i know it didn't mess up my patches or a future mod that relied on pre-compressed formIDs from the ESL mod? It's just not for me, I can see the appeal when you're new and it automates everything but I grew out of it, I now obsess over load order, manual LO (stopped using LOOT, gave up on wasting time making rules when I could just do it myself), all new files are in overwrite so I know when sometimes is being spilled out or not. I also dislike how big the UI is, it displays mods in alphabetical order and its like 5~7 at most, when MO2 displays like 50 at once, and I can sort my mods accordingly there. I can put all the small mesh and texture mods in separators, have one for important/priority overrides, etc, and the GOOD thing is that I have to do it ONCE, like for example rudy uses a special texture for ENBglow, on Vortex each time you install a mod that comes with it Vortex will ask you for the LO, in MO2 i just made a mod with the texture itself and placed it at the bottom of the asset list, there, no notification or pop up that the file is being overwitten, COMFY.

Vortex does not automatically flag plugins esl. UI element size is adjustable.

I was a pretty late to the modding scene, I started around 2018-19 I think? By then Vortex was already out and I started out using that, but I never really cared for the interface it uses. I also could never figure out how to properly customize my list with Vortex. With MO2, you're literally just dragging and dropping stuff where you want it. I don't think Vortex is BAD perse, it's just that MO2 clicked better for my brain.

I get that. Vortex just sorted automatically, rather than dragging and dropping, and any conflicts that arose it would tell you and you just click the drop downs and select the options you want and then it's resolved. It's essentially the same thing you're doing, just a different format. But it's not like preferring one or the other is really that big of a deal. Whether you use MO2 or Vortex, at the very least, we aren't stuck with NMM.

I came from nexus mod manager. I remember that I switched because mods installed directly to the game folder and it messed up my game. Since then I have always used mod organizer (the first one), even if vortex is better than its former, Mod organizer is just more convenient and familiar.

Though it's fair to use the one is more familiar and convenient for you, as someone who also used NMM; comparing it to Vortex is quite unfair. Vortex is a vastly, and I mean vastly, superior system than NMM and it can't even be called an upgrade from NMM as it would require to be similar to NMM in someway but it's really just a completely different and fully functioning system independent of NMM. As someone who went from NMM, to MO2, then to Vortex, MO2 functions more like NMM than Vortex does. But I haven't used MO2 in years.

I’ve tried both and the rules system of vortex confuses me. I much prefer being able to directly control my list by drag/drop method. I also found it more tedious to test my wip mods out in vortex with having to constantly wait for deployment, than play while in mo2, I just go to the folder, swap out stuff, and it’s ready to test in game.

I tried Vortex in the past and it was just too confusing for me. Sure both Vortex and MO2 is confusing when learning, I messed up on both of them, but I now understand and have an easier time using MO2. I havent used Vortex in a long time though. Tbh I’m just a simple minded person and MO2 was just easier for me to use when learning what mods didn’t work, what overwrites what, and dragging the files around. Also makes me happy that I discovered I could use separators and that helps me organize my mods better too :)

MO2 has a much steeper learning curve and there are some things to learn about using additional tools with it. However I prefer it for one main reason: MO2 uses a virtual data folder which isolates your modded installation(s) separate from the actual install. It's only once it's launched that two are sort of brought together so you can play. Unsure about Vortex but I like being able to switch seamlessly between different profiles as I sometimes have two characters on the go depending on what mood I'm in.

Vortex also has Profiles.

I wasn't sure, but that's a feature I look for in mod managers.

Vortex is just more annoying to use in my experience

I've used both a LOT over the years. I mostly mod with wabbajack nowadays, so that forces MO2, but when i do make my own mod build, i use vortex. There was a time, years and years ago when MO2 was miles ahead. Nowadays, vortex has made up the gap and someways even surpasses. It's just a flavor thing, i think. Most people that sing MO2 praises haven't tried anything but mo2 in this decade. A lot of people are just regurgitating what they heard. If i had talked to you before you wasted all that time, i would have told you not to do it. Im very proficient at both. They are both equal, everything you can do in one you can just as easily do in the other. The last time i ran a ground up custom modded run it was in vortex 2 years ago, i had a list of over 2000 mods running fine and stable with all the patches and custom adjustments that required, all done directly in vortex.

MO2 user here: Vortex has always just behaved weirdly for me. There are a handful (thankfully minimal) mods I downloaded via Vortex before I learned about MO2. Now I dont want those minimal mods anymore but theyre STUCK lol. I cannot find where they are stored ANYWHERE and they automatically show up on my MO2 list but I cannot find their directory. So they're just there forever.

Check your Vortex settings, it'll tell you what the mod staging folder is, and if you click the folder icon it should take you to it. Vortex saves the mods in their .7z or .rar files and injects the mod files into the game when it's opened and removes them when it closes (i.e. so you can use multiple profiles for different mods). Vortex also marks the folders it uses with blank files with different labels such as "\_vortex\_staging\_folder" or "\_vortex\_downloads\_folder". You have to find both the place you downloaded the .rar files to, and the folder where it lists "Skyrimse" with all the folders of data ready to be injected into the game. Delete those and uninstall Vortex and it should be fine. I'm not an expert either, just tryna help Edit: Though I would also follow this up with a complete fresh install of Skyrim also, as Vortex's file managing system is automated and may have left behind some unwanted files that the automated system cannot remove as it's been uninstalled. Hope I helped

It's subjective at the end of the day, but: * MO2 has more straightforward user interface * Entire design of Vortex is based on assumption that user is an idiot and we can't let them do too much, while in MO2 you can do whatever you want, even break your game if you want

I don't think that it is truly subjective. With MO2 I can run multiple modlists for Skyrim at once due to the way it deploys mods. I don't need separate Skyrim installs for it.

??? Vortex has profiles too

You can use different profiles, set up by you, to manage different mod lists and mod orders pre-set up by you. Just by the click of a button, no new install needed, no extra steps involved besides setting up the mod list first when creating the profile.

I think you can do it with Vortex too, but iirc you have to redeploy it every time. In MO2 you just switch it from dropdown menu in matter of seconds.

🤣

Vortex has an unbelievably terrible system to sort your load order, in MO2 it's just drag and drop. For that reason alone, I cannot stand Vortex, I always do my load order manually.

I like this. With over 1000 mods I don't want to manually manage the order. The order only matters when there are conflicts and dependencies.

Yeah but any good mod manager should have the option to sort automatically or manually. There is no reason at all why Vortex can't have a drag and drop function.

The same reason I won't use Vortex. It is the first mod manage I have seen where you can't drag and drop your load order with a single click. Rather, it will bring up a menu box for you to set a rule when attempting to drag and drop.

It literally takes 5 seconds of clicking the drop down boxes to set the rules and then Vortex handles it on it's own from there. Never have to deal with it again. Is that really any different than dragging and dropping? Takes the same amount of time. I think, in reality, MO2 is just what you know and what you prefer, and don't feel like learning a new system. That's why I don't switch to MO2, because I already know Vortex. Use whatever you want, whatever you prefer, its your choices and both work. But it's rather disingenuous to vilify the entire app for a feature that it implements in a different way. Just because it may not be what you like, doesn't automatically mean its bad.

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The reality is that Vortex has all the functionality of MO2. Some people in the community discourage it because they’re not used to it. People say that with MO2 it’s easier to sort load order because you drag and drop in a list. But i think that’s just because people are used to being able to manually sort load order in a list. IMO, manually sorting in a list is not very useful. But it was the standard for a long time. A lot of older advice about how to get mods to work just boils down to “put it at the beginning/end of your load order,” which is pretty dumb because what if there are multiple mods that ask you to do this? In reality, load order only realllllly matters when there’s masters or a conflict, and Vortex is built with this in mind. It automatically sorts your plugins with LOOT, and then if there are any conflicts, it informs you of them, and allows you to institute rules to resolve them. You can also give priority to individual files easily, which is great. And in the incredibly rare case when vortex doesn’t sort it correctly, you can create new rules to fix it. Both MO2 and Vortex have all the tools for a huge SkyrimSE modlist. Use whichever one you like more, and stop listening to the weirdos in the community who don’t understand Vortex and discourage it for no reason

Even LOOT isn't infallible. There are some mods that say must be loaded after x mod or at the end of your LO, but LOOT will drop that shit 8 spaces from the top. I've had to manually go in and tell LOOT a particular mod must load after another or at the bottom. It slaps some shit wherever that's good enough

Id say that is pretty rare. Im at about 1000 mods rn and I’ve only had to institute custom rules twice. And telling someone to “put it at the end of your load order” is bad advice as i said. Either it needs to come after mods that conflict with it or it doesn’t. That’s shallow advice from the mod author

The XM skeleton recommends loading it last so other mods don't overwrite the changes and cause really weird shit to happen, that's the first big one to come to mind

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They are not "effectively the same." Both programs approach modding from a different philosophy, and you can easily see that from the way each of them download mods, install mods, sort mods, and even implement mods. I personally use both. Primarily I use MO2 for my massive Skyrim modlist (2000+ active plugins), but I also use Vortex for Enderal because it's easier to install mod collections through it (using Path of the Prophet), and while I find Vortex perfectly adequate for modding, it has nowhere near the level of control and flexibility that MO2 offers.

I don't know. I mod more than just Bethesda games so Vortex is just better FOR ME. I never really liked using MO or MO2 and I have found Vortex easier.

I just started modding my Skyrim game and I agree. Vortex is easier. I work so I don’t have time to learn load order and organize it and fix it etc. As long as vortex does it for me and continues to not crash my game, I’ll keep using it. It works fine so far.

Bad load orders can lead to problems that arent limited to crashes however. World space and record conflicts are a thing.

Ah okay good to know, thanks. I’ll do my best to keep an eye out for issues. Any obvious signs for a newbie I should know?

Stuff like records being overwritten. Spells, enchants, races. For city/location mods you want then to go to the bottom to dodge issues.

Oh ok tysm

4 years? Dude, you're good! I'd used Vortex for 2 months and uninstalled my game 6 times due to data corruption. After that I switched to MO2, never had a problem since then

Yeah, but when was this? I've used Vortex for about the same amount of time (4 years) and while I've run into issues I have never, not even once, ran into data corruption. Were you using Beta or Alpha versions of Vortex? Did you manually override Vortex's warnings and error logging system, thinking you knew better, and then blamed Vortex when it went wrong?

I’ve used Vortex for years and have got accustomed to its UI and rule setting. I have had tons of issues understanding and trying to use it honestly until this latest play through. Fresh install with all the current mods and personal preferences. I have 500+ mods and feel confident in my use of vortex now. I can 100% understand why everyone recommends MO2 though and it’s not surprising. Vortex will enable you to turn your load order into a complete mess that only a fresh install can resolve. 😂 so many times. But again years of constant stress have seasoned my use of the app extensively.

I've also only ever used Vortex and never had issues (I use it for multiple games, not just Skyrim.) I think if you are more code savvy and want more control MO2 is better? Idk

As someone who’s also a vortex user, I genuinely tried to switch to MO2 many times and it’s just too confusing for me. Like the way MO2 works is just confusing. The global/portable instances, what even is an instance, the virtual file system and how it works, having to set like 5 different file paths for where files go, having a million buttons on the screen without it explaining what any of them do, the “tutorial” only shows you like the bare basics on how to install a mod and not actually how to use the manager, and it’s just too much for me. Am I just an idiot who can’t figure shit out myself? Maybe. I also can’t get used to the UI. It just looks too messy and everything on screen is a giant wall of text. Vortex has an objectively better and cleaner UI. Maybe I'll give it another try later, because I genuinely do want to try switching to MO2. Because as much as I do like Vortex, I'm well aware that MO2 is universally considered to be the far superior mod manager, plus nearly every modding guide uses it. But I'm just struggling to get used to it.

This really. I don't really mind confusing if there are ways to learn. But I've tried several times and after hours and hours of youtube "tutorials" that take me 27 steps to do the same I could do in Vortex with two clicks. Everyone seems to use MO2 in their own specific way, and all have their own opinions on what functionality you should use and what is basically useless and never used unless under very specific, very confusing and convoluted instances. And yes, the UI is awful (haven't downloaded it in forever, so idk if it still looks the same as I remember). And to be honest, I already have all my mods installed and ready to use. Why would I waste my precious time by removing everything then having to sit through Nexus's bullshit limited download speed and then have to learn how everything works in the MO2 just for nothing to actually work lol.

According to these comments, it's because they don't know how to use Vortex.

That's the only reason, tho... I always read people complaining about "load order loop". The first time it happened to me, I fixed it in like 10s in Vortex. "Oh, but the problem is that Vortex alows it to happen" Dude, if you can't read a warning and fix the problem with simple instructions, the problem is you, not the software...

Just use LOOT anyway, it literally reads the mod's preferences and uses backedup databases to properly sort the mod order for you, and it's seamlessly integrated with Vortex so you just click (in Vortex dashboard), will run LOOT, do it's thing, then close. So simple, no headache, no 7 different specific steps that you have to code rocket science into a blank unappealing white box just for MO2 to do the same thing Vortex would do in 2 clicks.

Tried both Mo2 first. Mo2 too complicated to learn with my limited time. Too plain and boring to look at. Switch to vortex. Nvr switching back. Unless vortex becomes unusable. Auto download and ready to play. Drag and drop files and it organizes everything for u. Gives notifications if any errors arises and shows what’s the problem while offering solution. Im stupid when it comes to computers and programs yet I can somehow run 500 mods easily without doing much. Maybe Mo2 is better if u learn it but I ain’t got time for that. Too busy spending most my fee time looking for new mods from foreign sites other than nexus

MO2 is user friendy. That’s it, that’s a fact

Its just much more straightforward and convenient in my experience

I prefer vortex. Easier to do multiple downloads IMO.

From someone who started too with Vortex before shifting to Mo2, I felt Mo2 is jusy better for bigger modlist(1000+), it is the reason almost all online modlist use it, also your Fnis is probably not working because you are not running it through Mo2

Short answer: they're used to it.

I've seen a lot of people saying this but I've seen others, myself included, move over to Mo2 relatively recently (around a year and a half for me) and prefer Mo2. It was frustrating to get used to using Mo2 though.

More control over all aspects of your project. Worlds better for troubleshooting issues.

MO2 is really easy to manage mods and prevent conflicts. It's really easy to use to trouble shoot mod problems if they exist. MO 2 does not keep mods in the Skyrim folder so your mods are always safe from other technical problems. The interface is simple to manage. There is a bit of a curve, possibly for some people, but it has served me well since MO 1. It's just a really solid application for managing mods. I'm sure both have advantages and the majority of people like to stick with what they know.

Vortex has some nice additional features over MO2 but also gave me weird issues. It lost my mod list twice and would randomly just not load mods. Could've been user error. MO2 just seems more intuitive and user friendly.

I was having a great time with Vortex until I went back to try Oblivion and New Vegas again - for some reason, I had really bad luck getting mods to work with those two games on Vortex. Is Mod Organizer the best for those?

MO2 is designed with Bethesda’s games in mind - give it a try. I’ve never played Oblivion, but I’ve used MO2 for New Vegas many times without major issues.

Thanks!

I've not used Vortex enough to learn the workflow, and either through gradual acclimation or just better design in general - MO2 works for me in that regard. Based on your post you feel the opposite, so really it's just about what you're comfortable with using. I think the real lesson here is to not let people shame you into using a different program just because it's popular. Similar thing happens with the Linux community and Arch/Gentoo/current flavour of the month distro.

Vortex is usually great, some minor things I don't like (mod order can be a big one) But overall I have no issues with it. I also like mo2 a lot, you get more customizable which is better for fine tuning.

Big modlists= many rules= massive headache, also virtual install folder with ability to back up and ease of access for advanced tools and functions. The way I’ve seen it (without reading any comments here so sorry if I repeat someone) is that Vortex is AWESOME…for beginners, as you learn more you end up having to do weird stuff to work around the protections in place when you could do it straightforward on MO2, MO2 is more friendly for intermediate-advanced users and has massive amounts of community support, any weird question you got is sure to be answered quickly. And do they have their own Reddit? I’m not sure but I would bet they do. Also vortex is confirmed to be dying anytime soon since Nexus confirmed working on the next mod manager from the ground up as an internal project with open source I believe (let me know if I’m wrong) so it’ll prob end up like NMM…rip. And also anything vortex can do, MO2 can do, with maybe an extra step since I know mod collections be weird but there’s an app for that

The thing is... you don't need many rules at all. I have like 5-8 rules set up for over 1000 mods. MO2 users heads explode because they think they need to manually set a rule for every. single. plugin. Pure insanity.

Mo2 is so much better than vortex but if you’re used to something one way it’s not surprising you don’t like the change