Can someone do a cut and paste of what the plugins.txt content for the base anniversary edition of the game will look like? I am trying to do manual installation of mods. Vortex doesn't work for me as it requires .net framework to be installed. Alternatively, is there any mod manager available that does not rely on .net framework? Thanks in advance.

the problem might be with the registry. one or more version of the game has a registry file that puts the correct entry in the registry.

plugins.txt should be blank/empty by default.
CC stuff is loaded by Skyrim.ccc, officials DLCs files is loaded by skyrim.ini+SkyrimSE.exe (you can't disable them).

Only mods are added to plugins.txt, so it's blank (0kb) by default.

Thanks for the hint! I'm making progress.

plugins.txt will look something like this:

*Beasts of Tamriel.esp
*OBIS SE.esp
*Immersive Patrols II.esp
testmod.esp

Note that if there no * in front of the mod name, then the mod is not active. I've been using Wrye Bash successfully - BUT - you'll need to make a junction (symlink) that points Skyrim Special Edition to Skyrim Special Edition GOG, otherwise Wrye Base won't work as currently it only is written to use the original, non GOG path.

There are two config directories that need links, one in your My Games folder, and one in your AppData folder.

The downside to symlinking the folders is that if you're using MO2 with a Steam installation of the game at the same time, stuff will break.

MO2 (Mod Organizer 2) not need .net framework and it's making files plugins.txt and loadorder.txt (MO2/profiles/Default). Run it, on the right side check mods, that you installed manually and copy-paste files to Skyrim AppData folder (for linux Local Settings/Application Data/Skyrim Special Edition GOG).

What I did here and fixed all problems for me was literally copy the plugin.txt from:

Mod Organizer 2/profiles/Default/plugins.txt

to

%username%\AppData\Local\Skyrim Special Edition GOG\

And mods started working fine.

Remember though that if you use SKSE64 - GOG, you need to open the game through skse64_loader.exe for your mods to be loaded.

What I meant is that any of these work-arounds won't let you manage both a GoG and a steam install at the same time, which to a lot of people makes sense right now as the GoG version's mod support doesn't really allow for a complete switch.

Thanks. Now racemenu and most of my cosmetic mods work.

Anyone else having this problem where you click refresh and it sometimes functions and sometimes does not? For the Plugin.txt to repopulate the new content added.

The only certain I have been seeing it repopulate the new mods, is starting the game through the MO2. Quit. Then it repopulates. Then I have to copy it over to the APP/Local.

My real problem are mods that require handshaking connections to other resource mods. A good example is "iNeed - Continued" survival mod. Pretty much nothing about it seems to function at all except for adding vendors, selling waterskins. Being new to Skyrim, I thought the mod just sucked, but it turns out, that 90% of it just doesn't function.


Anyone mind looking at it to see what is happening?

This is MO2? I haven't had that problem, but I use symlinks to skip the copy-paste part. MO2 doesn't really support GOG Skyrim atm partially due to directory changes.
I see iNeed has a cascading list of SKSE mods. You'll have to copy the SKSE directory over to the game's data directory atm, since MO2/SKSE seems to skip over them (at least the dlls and bins) for some reason. You can use MO2's virtual explorer to make a full copy, then use window's own explorer to move that copy to the data directory proper. SKSE will let you know which ones don't work yet, then you'll have to manage what you can.

I'd have to have see the specifics, but SKSE mods without their SKSE libraries can do that, similar to how iNeed wasn't working without its libraries.

RaceMenu is a good example. RaceMenu "works" for all things Skyrim already had, but things like body sliders, overlays, and face modeling are completely absent. (Still better than Skyrim's own character creator.)

Some mods also use SKSE for their mod configuration settings management, thus those areas are also nonfunctional.

MO2 uses a virtual file system. It's why you can "see" all the mods in its virtual file explorer, but in windows explorer, they aren't actually there. It'll use what's on your physical file system if something's there. That's why copy-pasting works. Because MO2 isn't putting the files in its virtual filesystem where Skyrim is expecting, we have to do it for it until they fix it.

If you have admin access, I do recommend looking up how to symlink them (using the mklink command from the command console) until they get it fixed. The SKSE directory is a different beast; you could symlink the details, but that copy-paste dance should happen much less often enough that I don't think it's really worth it.

Vortex, however, apparently uses links (hard or symbolic, depending on what's available). Not sure what it does on a file system that doesn't support links. Copy-paste, I guess.

MCM Helper somehow wiped the icons for SkyUI's items menu, so that's out. Not sure how that happened. Maybe I'll try again in a new game.

Then again, a candlelight mod often added corrupted pixels. All it was trying to do was make candlelight brighter and last longer. No SKSE. So, I don't think it was the mod's fault. *shrugs*