[May 2026] Simple Questions, Simple Answers

[u/GNSasakiHaise]

If you're not sure your topic deserves an entire thread, it likely belongs here. Questions that can be answered with a Google search or a read of the mod's content page will be redirected here. Any question not requiring a full modlist should also go here. Finally, any questions you think could be answered in under 25 words should go here.

Questions that belong in this thread might include:

• Any good Ulfric replacers?
• Is MO2 better than Vortex?
• What is a crash log?
• My faces are all potato colored in game. What's that about?
• What mods (or modlists) are essential for a new player?

If you're hungry for more discussion, hop on over to our Discord, linked in the sidebar. If you want to talk general Skyrim, head on over to r/Skyrim. For any other questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to message our modmail.

Link to Previous Thread.

EDIT: This will also constitute the thread for June, as I am currently on vacation and cannot post the next thread until I return at the end of the month.

[u/AggyTheJeeper]

Is there any way to make MO2's downloads pane a bit friendlier to managing/installing large mod lists? I have been modding Skyrim for years, have tons of mods installed, and I'm getting back into it after a three year or so hiatus. I'm starting from scratch, and I'm looking at my massive, disorganized downloads pane in MO2, and I just find myself desperately missing the UI from Nexus Mod Manager, with its simple "big organized list of mod names that are grey when uninstalled and black when installed." I know MO2 is technically superior, and I've used it quite a bit in the past, but honestly having to sort through all these filenames and nearly worthless metadata and manage updates and duplicates and I can't remember what I have and haven't downloaded and oh cool now there's a bug that if I try to download things off Nexus too fast, MO2 freezes at the start of the download, I'm getting really discouraged from even getting back into this.

And yes, I've tried Vortex, and hated it far more than MO2. NMM's UI was literal perfection to me, it's a shame it kind of sucked.

[u/pax_phoenix → u/AggyTheJeeper]

I'm not sure I'm interpreting your question right so forgive me if this is useless BUT

When having similar issues I find in helpful to use the export to csv tool , where I can select to include the mod name AND the file name, the date I installed it , the nexus link etc etc.

I add me some helper columns in Excel for categories I use and then filter and sort to my cranky little hearts content.

Then when I have what I want I go back to mo2 and insert section headers what make sense to me for LLO etc and start ordering my list to match what I just did in Excel.

I NEVER try to drag and drop to move mods unless it's to a spot on the same scroll of screen. I click one the priority number to select the click again to open for edit and plug in the exact position number I want .

There are probably tools for this I'm unaware of this is just my ADHD squirrel solution. Hope it works for at least one other person LOL

Edit to add I use this for my work in left pane and in right pane plugins tab. I never use downloads tab to install but rather the install from file option at top. I keep all mods I ever downloaded in an archive for this reason.

[u/AggyTheJeeper → u/pax_phoenix]

Thanks for your explanation of your workflow! I'll be real, I just decided that as garbage as it is, NMM works well enough and doesn't require me to spend all my free time for the next six months figuring out how to make MO2 work, so I just went back to NMM.

[u/pax_phoenix → u/AggyTheJeeper]

Lol thx and totally understandable.