Need help with install order for EET

Ryofu

Hi,

unfortunately for me, my latest installation of EET crashed horribly whenever i entered combat with the assassins in candlekeep and i am in the process of re-installing EET from scratch with a clean BG EE+ install (currently still downloading the games again from beamdog)

I would like to try and ensure i do this right from the get go this time and would like some advice regarding my install order of mods for the game

I am planning to install the following after the EET install

BG1NPC project

BG1 unfinished business

I understand these 2 mods listed above should be installed in my SoD folder before i initialize my EET install?

A7-Banter Accelerator

Afaaq The djinn companion

Almateria's restoration project

Ascension

Banter Packs

Branwen for BG2

De'Arnise Romance

EET Tweaks

Item Upgrade

NPC Flirtpacks

Pai'Na NPC

Portraits Portraits Everywhere

Romantic Encounters

Romantic Encounters for BG2

Sir Ajantis BG2

Skie the cost of one girls soul

Sword coast strategems

Thalantyr upgrades

Unusual oddities shop

Unfinished Business

Weimer's Item upgrade

Yeslick for BG2/ToB

There is also one mod that is not on the EET mod compatible list that i really want to install because it changes the greenstone amulet to become passive the itempack mod



How should i go about with my installation? Does it matter which order i install the mods in?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated

Thank you

tl1942

Install order absolutely does matter, yes. Did you read this? https://rawgit.com/K4thos/EET/master/EET/readme-EET.html#installation
and this?
https://k4thos.github.io/EET-Compatibility-List/EET-Compatibility-List.html

While this recommends using a 3rd party install app, I personally DO NOT RECOMMEND this. My very strong recommendation is to manually install your mods.

A good general list for load order is here: https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-stratagems.html#compat

..and you can also follow this general grouping here (via Project Infinity): https://i.imgur.com/MQtCszY.png

Again, I strongly, strongly recommend installing everything manually (contrary to the EET advice) unless all of your mods are explicitly recognized and re-ordered by these apps (the general grouping from Project Infinity gives a good idea, but I found it to be buggy and not work with some of my mods; I posted about these issues in the relevant Project Infinity thread). I'm speaking from experience; using either of these 3rd party apps absolutely ruined my installation process. I spent three straight days working on my original EET install, and I can testify to how absolutely frustrating it was when not done manually.

At the end of the day, *you* have to decide the load order based on the two links above. The Mod compatibility list will tell you which mods are installed before the EET main component and which are installed after. IMHO, you *can* use mods that are not listed as explicitly EET compatible as long as you're willing to test and put up with potential bugs. Of course, mods that are later in your install order will also be ones that you think should take precedence; so if two mods happen to change the same single thing, just install the one you prefer later in the the order.

What I did was rename every single mod zip folder by appending a number in front based on my own decisions about load order. For example,
01(BGEE)-bg1npc-v24-9.zip
02(BGEE)-bg1ub_v16-3.zip
03-EET-1.0RC12.2.zip
04-pathfinding fix.zip
05-EET_Fixpack-master.zip
06-bg2fixpack-v13.exe
etc etc

...then I would just manually install each, one-by-one (of course, following the EET install procedure as well). For me, it was ultimately 29 large mods and many small fixes, and took several hours for the weidu install procedures to finish. I'm about ~150 hours into my playthrough, now in the SOD portion, and have no major issues whatsoever (besides a little dialog.tk wonkiness in a few main menu descriptions, which is a trivial issue).

It's 100% do-able once you figure out the load order. Good luck!

EDIT: It's also worth mentioning that mods that change individual spell files, visual effects, or NPC/creature files (eg .CRE) can be installed any time (even in the middle of a playthrough and even after all of your other mods); just a matter of dragging and dropping the relevant files into your override folder and overwriting the previous files. The only thing here is that obviously you'll be overwriting files that were put there by other mods, so you just have to know which effects you want to take precedence (while accepting that you'll lose anything added from previous mods). I did this in cases where I *only* wanted a spell to behave a certain way (and not in the way set by any of the previous mods I installed).