Separators

Sorting Mods

How you manage and sort your mods should first depend on ideal asset conflict management and second on whatever makes the most sense to you because you have to be able to keep an overview. Whatever system you come up with needs to make sense to you.

In the following, I will introduce you to my system which, as usual, is neither the best nor most efficient but it works for me. For the most part I mirror my mod and load order with some notable exceptions and this is reflected in the order of my separators.

My System

Preview a work-in-progress TPF mod order.

I split the mod order of my setups into eight major blocks:

1. Essentials: Baseline mods, frameworks, utilities, fixes, tweaks, interface.
2. Visuals: Main texture pack, mountains, water, trees, landscape, lighting, weather, ENB, etc.
3. Retextures: Many, many hand-picked texture and mesh replacers.
4. Gameplay: Overhauls for perks, crafting, combat, enemy types, quests, dialogue, etc.
5. DLC-Sized: AE integration, big mods like LOTD, Bruma, Wyrmstooth, etc.
6. Locations: City, interior, misc location, and landscape overhauls.
7. Content: New spells, armors, weapons, enemies, companions, foods, etc.
8. Late Loaders: Integration, distribution, final patches and patcher outputs.

For separators, I try to make them as specific as possible, favouring more separators with fewer mods each.

You can sort the mods beneath each separator alphabetically as long as the correct assets overwrite. I personally prefer sorting according to dependencies, mirroring the load order, and according to whatever makes sense to me otherwise.

If you are building a setup around a specific theme or mod like Survival, Requiem, or Legacy of the Dragonborn, this will obviously impact your mod order and you may want to structure your separators differently.

Colours

As you can see in the preview above, you can see that I spend an unreasonable amount of time figuring out nice colour schemes. Of course, the separate blocks are colour-coded.

These are the hex colour codes:

Separators

Essentials

• Skyrim Script Extender
• SkyUI
• Utilities & Frameworks
• Essential Mods
• Console Improvements
• Better Controls
• General Fixes
• Script Fixes
• Texture & Mesh Fixes
• Grass & Terrain Fixes
• SKSE Plugin Fixes
• General Tweaks
• SKSE Plugin Tweaks
• Maps & Markers
• Interface

For interface overhauls like NORDIC UI or widescreen support I keep additional separators at the bottom of the Essentials block.

Visuals

• LOD Resources
• Mesh Improvements
• Graphics Baseline
• ENBSeries
• Weather & Sky
• Lighting
• Fire & Candles
• Visual FX
• Mountains & Rocks
• Water & Splash FX
• Snow & Ice
• Improved Trees
• Grass Overhaul
• Plants & Mushrooms
• Appearance

Depending on how many mods there are, Lighting can be combined with Fire & Candles.

For ENB presets I keep one or several additional separators at the bottom of the Visuals block. For example, there may be an Obsidian Weathers separator with presets made for OW and another separator for a different weather overhaul with its own presets.

Retextures

• Architecture
• Misc Structure
• Interiors & Dungeons
• Various Clutter
• Valuable Objects
• Food & Ingredients
• Clothing & Jewelry
• Armor & Weapons
• Unique Artifacts
• Wild Creatures
• Undead Daedra Dragons

You can also use unique separators for each location (Whiterun, Riften, etc) instead of one Architecture separator.

Gameplay

• Third Person Gameplay
• Gameplay Overhauls
• Crafting & Enchanting
• Alchemy Cooking Farming
• Horses & Fast Travel
• NPC Dialogue & Behaviour
• Marriage & Adoption
• Combat & Encounter Zones
• Enemy Overhauls
• Quest Start Adjustments
• Improved Vanilla Quests
• Immersion
• Miscellaneous
• Sound FX
• Skeleton & Animation

Sound FX definitely does not fit the category, I know. Currently, I am not sure where else to put it though.

DLC-Sized

• AE Integration
• Legacy of the Dragonborn
• Beyond Skyrim: Bruma
• Wyrmstooth
• Interesting NPCs
• …

Locations

• Major Cities
• Towns & Villages
• Faction HQs
• Palaces & Castles
• Shops & Temples
• Roads & Wilderness

You can also name separators after a series of mods. For example, depending on the setup I have a Cities of the North or Great Cities separator.

Content

• New Mechanics
• New & Expanded Quests
• New Armors & Weapons
• New Spells Staves Scrolls
• New Food & Ingredients
• New Misc Items
• New Non-Player Characters
• New Companions
• New Animations
• New Music

Late Loader

• Integration & Distribution
• Final Patches
• Outputs