Mod Manager Guide
Hello there!
If you have little time, read the "The Basics" chapter to get started. Otherwise, grab a cup of your favorite hot drink and read through it.
If you're coming from v1, it might also be helpful to read the What changed? page. There is also an extra migration chapter in this guide to help you transition to v2: Migration from v1
Table of Contents
Before you can use the mod manager, you first need to pick the game path, if you haven't already.
To do so, click on the game edition in the lower left corner:
Select the correct profile and click the pen button ("Edit profile").
Here you can enter the game path:
Press the button with the folder icon to pick a folder in a dialog.
If the path is invalid, it will show a red border around the text field with an exclamation mark.
If you're unsure, click on the button with the search glass icon ("Attempt auto-detect") next to it:
This will search your computer to find where Fallout 76 is installed automatically. If it finds something, it will let you pick and confirm the location.
Also make sure that the mods path is set correctly under the Advanced options:
This is the folder where mod files will be stored. This folder can grow large as you install mods. It defaults to putting it into the game's folder under "Mods".
Again you can press the button with the folder icon to pick a folder in a dialog.
To restore the default, simply press the button with the two arrows ("Reset"):
Read more about profiles here.
If you have trouble finding the game location, see: FAQ: Where is the Fallout76.exe located?
When you first navigate to "Mods", you'll be greeted with this view:
At the top, you can see the tabs for "Mod order", "Resource list", and "Settings". For now, we'll stick with the "Mod order" tab.
Underneath that is the tool row which contains all control elements you'll need.
As you can see, the mod list is currently empty.
At the bottom is the status row showing you how many mods are installed and enabled as well as whether mods are globally disabled or enabled.
Ready to mod the game now? Good! Let's continue:
Have you already modded Fallout 76 before trying out the mod manager? If not, skip to the next chapter (3. Install a mod).
You might want to import mods you've already installed.
You can do this by clicking on "More → Import installed archives":
This will allow you to select specific archives and create a new mod with a name of your choice:
Repeat this for every mod you want the manage.
To install a mod, click on "Install mod" and pick "Install from file" or "Install from folder":
Or open the drag and drop window, to drag and drop files (see also Troubleshooting):
After you selected a file or folder to install and everything has been copied, a dialog will present ifself:
From here, you can change...
- the mod details:
- "Mod name": The name you want to give the mod
- "Version": The version of the mod you downloaded (optional)
- "URL": The url (web link) from where you downloaded the mod (optional). You need this if you want to use the NexusMods integration, otherwise the app doesn't know which mod it is.
- the installation options:
- "Install into": The so called root folder where mod files are copied to. A simple dot
.means that files will be copied into the Fallout 76 folder itself.Datameans that files will be copied into the Fallout 76\Data folder, and so. - "Mod folder name": The name of the mod folder, usually inside of the "Mods" folder. This is where all of the mod's files will be stored.
- The mod manager trys to auto-detect the correct root folder where the mod needs to be copied to. But it might be wrong.
- "Install into": The so called root folder where mod files are copied to. A simple dot
- the folder contents:
- Here you can sort out any files that aren't needed, such as readmes, etc.
- If a mod comes with multiple ba2 files to choose from, here you can pick from those
Besides that the app will try to detect if a mod isn't setup correctly and display a warning at the top.
However, it doesn't pick up on everything that could go wrong, so you have to make sure, you read the mod author's instructions carefully.
Here's an example of how the warning might look like:
If you ever need to correct anything, you can go into the temporary folder and move files around before installation. Simply click the button with the folder icon ("Open mod folder") in "Folder contents" to open it:
Once you're done moving files around, renaming folders, etc., click on the reload button next to it:
Then you can pick the files you want to move again. At the end, you may have filled it out like this:
Once you're satisfied with the configuration, click the "Install" button at the bottom:
Once you installed a mod, you can select it from the list:
This will open the side panel on the right:
This exposes the same options as you had in the installation dialog before. But there's also an extra "Notes" text field where you can, well, takes notes.
The final step is to deploy mods. The mod manager will makes this obvious to you by highlighting the "Deploy mods" button and "Deployment necessary" showing up in the status row below:
Click on "Deploy mods" in the tool row:
The mod manager then starts to go through the list, from top-to-bottom, to install every mod you enabled.
It will also write all ba2 archive names into Fallout76Custom.ini's "sResourceArchive2List" by default. (You can configure it to use a different archive list.)
That's it, you successfully modded Fallout 76 and finished the chapter "The Basics".
Read on to learn more about the mod manager, or simply enjoy the mods.
Apart from editing the sResourceIndexFileList or sResourceArchive2List in the *.ini file manually,
you can also manage it directly from the mod manager.
Select the "Resource list" tab:
The archives will be listed in the order from least to highest precedence. The list also shows to which mod the file belongs (or "-/-" if not belonging to a mod), the file size and whether the file even exists.
None of the archives have to belong to any mod. In fact, you may just use the "Resource list" tab and ignore the rest of the mod manager entirely if you so desire. And different from v1, the mod manager will not overwrite your changes in the ini file (as long as you do the changes while the mod manager is closed that is).
From here, you can simply rearrange the archives by dragging them from the left-most drag handles (the six dots). The "Remove" button will remove the archive from the list but it will not delete the file from the "Data" folder.
The tool row also features these buttons:
- "Add archive name" let's you add additional archives to the resource list.
- "Add unlisted archives" will search the game's "Data" folder and add all missing archive names that do not belong to the game (aka. starting with "SeventySix -")
- "Remove non-existant archives" will remove non-existing files from the list, effectively cleaning up left-overs.
Any changes you make will be saved automatically. It usually takes 5 seconds to do so or immediately when closing the window.
If you're coming from v1, you cannot use the mod manager before migrating old mods.
When the mod manager sees the old files, it will show this view:
It gives you two options:
- "Migrate old mods to the new v2 format", or
- "Delete old mods and start fresh"
When you click on one of the buttons, it will tell you exactly what it will do. For example, when clicking on the first option:
After deciding on an option and confirming it with "Yes", it might take a while to reformat all mods.
If it fails, you can always go for the "nuclear" option. For that, open the game's folder and delete the "Mods" and "FrozenData" folders. After that, the mod manager shouldn't bother you about migrating anymore. However you'll need to reinstall all mods, or at least import them. Note that removing the "Mods" and "FrozenData" folders do not remove mods from the game. They remove the tracking done by the mod manager.
See Archive2.
If you wish to use these buttons on NexusMods:
- You have to be logged in to NexusMods. See NexusMods Integration
- Go to the "Settings" tab in the "Mods" view:
- Scroll down and tick the 'Open "Mod Manager Download" links with this app' switch:
That's it. This should register the app as an nxm protocol handler globally.
Example:
- You have to be logged in to NexusMods. See NexusMods Integration
- Copy and paste the link of each mod into the "Webpage (URL)" textbox of the side panel
(otherwise the tool doesn't know what to do with it)
- Click on "NexusMods Integration → Download mod info and thumbnails"
Same as above, but you click on "NexusMods Integration → Check for updates".
You have to do so manually. It will not automatically check for updates.
When an update is available (and you use the NexusMods API), the version of the mod in the list is shown like this:
There is currently no "auto-update" for mods, so you need to reinstall the mod or replace it's folder contents.
You could update the mod's folder content like so:
- First, download the latest version of the mod from NexusMods.
- Extract it, if it's an archive.
- Open the mod's folder by first selecting the mod in the list which opens the side panel. Then in the side panel, click the button with the folder icon ("Open mod folder") to open the mod's folder:
- Delete all folder contents.
- Drag-and-drop the mod's files into the mod folder.
- Click on "Set latest version" (if you're using the NexusMods API).
- Deploy mods (even if it says that everything is up-to-date).
You can pick where to store mods in the profile options.
If you already have mods installed, you'll have to move the folders to the new location.
By default, it stores mods in the game installation path under "Mods".
For instance, let's say you set the profile up like so:
Game path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout76
Mods path: D:\My mods\Fallout 76\Mods
Then, you'll have to move the "Mods" folder from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout76\Mods
into that new path:
D:\My mods\Fallout 76\Mods
Restart the app afterwards.
You can pick how the mod manager copies the mod's files.
On Windows, I recommend hard links if (and only if) the mod files are on the same hard drive / partition as the game. This is generally the case if you haven't changed the default mods path. Hard links are like copies of a file that share the same contents. You cannot tell the difference between copies and hard links just by looking a the files in the Windows Explorer, but they waste less space and are quicker to deploy.
Symbolic links are another option to waste less space, however, I haven't tested them yet. I do not recommend using them on Windows, as you'll have to either run the app as an administrator or turn on Developer Mode in Windows. Otherwise it will fail.
Lastly, "Copy files" is just that: Copying files. If all else fails, this is the old reliable option. Pick that if you have issues deploying mods.
Note
Changing the resource list after having already installed mods will not transfer archive names between the lists. You may have to edit the ini files manually beforehand.
You can pick whether the mod manager uses sResourceIndexFileList or sResourceArchive2List.
As far as I know, it makes no difference. Defaults to sResourceArchive2List.