Load Order

A Load Order represents an ordered list of items with ModKeys, where the items later in the list "win" and override the records from previous items. It also acts as a dictionary style object, able to look up entries by ModKey.

Entries

The LoadOrder<T> class is generic, and can contain many types of objects. These are often objects that expose the information you would expect from a Bethesda load order.

Use Your Own

You can use LoadOrder<T> containers to hold other types of objects, as long as they implement IModKeyed and so have a ModKey

Load Order Listing

These are entries that only have information that could be provided by a typical Bethesda load order file.

Field	Type	Description
ModKey	ModKey	The ModKey associated with the entry
Enabled	bool	Whether the entry is to be considered enabled in the game
Ghosted	bool	Whether the entry is "ghosted" and has an extra suffix causes the game to ignore it
FileName	string	File name of the entry, with ghost suffix included, if applicable

ModKey

Mod Listing

These objects expand upon Load Order Listings by providing disk information related to the mod file itself as it exists on disk.

Additional Fields:

Field	Type	Description
ExistsOnDisk	bool	Whether the mod exists on disk
Mod	TMod (generic)	Mutagen mod object (null if missing from disk)

These fields depend on the context in which the LoadOrder object was constructed, such as what Data folder it was relative to.

Interacting with LoadOrder

LoadOrder as a container that is acts simultaneously like a dictionary and a list. You will find the similar accessors of both in its API.

Priority vs Listed Ordering

While LoadOrder is a "list" object, two properties are exposed for when you want to enumerate to help clarify behavior:

• ListedOrder - Enumerates items in the order they were listed
• PriorityOrder - Enumerates the items so that highest "winning" priority comes first

Example

foreach (var mod in loadOrder.PriorityOrder)
{
   // ...
}

Enumeration is exposed like this just for the extra clarification and to reduce confusion of what ordering things are being iterated. This is more clearly iterating the highest priority mods first, and will probably have Skyrim.esm or whatever base game file last.

Accessing Specific Listings

LoadOrder has a lot accessors for checking if certain mods are on the list, and retrieving them.

ModKey modKey = ...;
ILoadOrder<IModListing<ISkyrimModGetter>> loadOrder = ...;

if (loadOrder.TryGetValue(modKey, out var listing))
{
   // Load order had that mod
}

// Also has typical contains and index access
if (loadOrder.ContainsKey(modKey))
{
    listing = loadOrder[modKey];
}

// There is also int index API
int index = loadOrder.IndexOf(modKey);
var obj = loadOrder.TryGetAtIndex(index);
if (obj != null)
{
   // Got the listing by index
}

// And Clear/Add
loadOrder.Clear();
loadOrder.Add(listing);

Construction

Via Environment

Typically you will not construct a Load Order object yourself. Using a Game Environment will have a Load Order for you to use based on the game installation you point to.

Environments

Create and Fill

LoadOrder is just a normal object that you could declare and fill yourself.

TMyObject someObj = ...;

var loadOrder = new LoadOrder<TMyObject>();
loadOrder.Add(someObj);

Import

If you don't want a whole environment, and just want some convenience for importing a Load Order, this exists as well.

SimpleData Folder OverriddenExplicit Listings

var loadOrder = LoadOrder.Import<ISkyrimModGetter>(GameRelease.SkyrimSE);

var loadOrder = LoadOrder.Import<ISkyrimModGetter>(dataFolderPath, GameRelease.SkyrimSE);

var listings = new List<LoadOrderListing>()
{
   new LoadOrderListing(ModKey.FromFileName("Skyrim.esm"), enabled: true)
};

var loadOrder = LoadOrder.Import<ISkyrimModGetter>(listings, GameRelease.SkyrimSE);

Prefer Getter Generic

The choice of specifying Getter or Setter interfaces (ISkyrimMod vs ISkyrimModGetter) is important, as that will drive the style that the mods are imported with. If the Getter is specified, then the more optimized Binary Overlay systems will be used. If Setter is specified, then all the import work will need to be done up front into a mutable object.

Writing a Load Order

A LoadOrder can also export its contents to a file.

ILoadOrderGetter<IModListingGetter> loadOrder = ...;

LoadOrder.Write(
   somePath, 
   GameRelease.SkyrimSE,
   loadOrder,
   removeImplicitMods: true);

PluginListings and CreationClubListings

The Load Order API often abstracts away the complications that a Load Order is driven from a few sources:

• Implicit Listings (Mods that don't need to be listed, but are assumed)
• Normal Plugins File (Plugins.txt)
• Installed Creation Club Mods ([GameName].ccc)

Logic related to each concept lives in its own class:

• Implicits.Listings
• PluginListings
• CreationClubListings

In each you will be able to do tasks related to that specific load order source concept.