3.1 Understanding Conflicts
Conflicts are when 2 mods ship files with the same name and are also routed to the same location.
There are 3 types on conflicts shown in the conflicts tab
- If a mod contains a file called
SomeFile.dlland another mod has the same file. A lightning icon will appear in the conflicts tab. Below are examples of what these mean
Mod A contains a file or files that "win" over mod B
- What if we want Mod B to win over Mod A?
Simply swap them around, Mod A is now fully overwritten by Mod B (White lightning icon) as in none of the files in Mod A are used
Here Mod A contains files that overwrite other mods,
Mod B contains files that overwrite other mods as well as files being overwritten by other mods
Mod C is fully conflicted
Here is a real example of where loose conflicts really matter, Norden UI is a mod that must override most other UI related mods so that the files within it show in game
The exception is the Main Menu ReShaped mod, I want Norden UI but don't want to use its main menu replacer. So I leave my main menu replacer above it.
Another example within the below screenshot is Detection Meter AE Support. It must overwrite Detection Meter-v1.11 as Detection Meter-v1.11 contains files that are not compatible with the current version of the game. Detection Meter AE Support is a mod that fixes these incompatible files but both are still required
These are harder to understand, But the main thing is these are less important that loose file conflicts. A BSA/BA2 file is just like a zip file that contains normal game files and are used by Bethesda games
First we have to understand how the games that use BSA/BA2 archives load mods
- They first unpack BSA/BA2 files in plugin load order
- If a file in 1 BSA/BA2 conflicts with a previously loaded file, that file wins
- Once all BSA/BA2 archives are unpacked the game then loads loose files.
- If any loose files overwrite the already unpacked BSA/BA2 files, They win the conflict
So in short, A loose file will always overwrite a BSA/BA2 file. There is nothing you can do about this other than unpacking the BSA/BA2 files to turn them into loose files
Here's some example of how to understand how BSA/BA2 conflicts interact with the manager and how they are shown
This shows that files in SkyUI's BSA win conflicts with files in Racemenu
Notice that swapping the mods does not change this
When clicking skyui and looking at the plugins panel it will show the following
- Orange is the plugin belonging to Skyui
- Green is the plugin of a mod that contains a BSA that SkyUI wins over
- Red is not shown but would be a mod that contains a BSA that SkyUI loses over
Here I have swapped the plugins in the plugins panel. And now the flags are different to above. This is because the plugin load order affects in which order the BSA files are loaded and therefore the conflicts change
This shows a mod with a loose file conflict flag, This is because Loose File Mod contains a loose file that wins over Racemenu. Remember that loose files always win over BSA files so it does not matter where I position these mods or plugins, this will always be the case
There is an option in the settings menu to hide BSA/BA2 conflicts under user interface
This will not show any BSA/BA2 conflict flags or calculate them. Use this if you don't care about seeing these or think BSA/BA2 conflicts clutter the conflicts column
To open this either right click a mod > show conflicts. Or simply click one of the conflict flags
This opens an interface that will give a more detailed breakdown on exactly which files are overwriting or being overwritten by which exact mods
The mod files tab will also show in red and green, files that are winning or losing conflicts
Clicking a BSA/BA2 file in the mod files tab will allow you to inspect its contents
