Tips: Customizing Mod Lists

So you've played a MOMW mod list, and now you want to customize it by adding more mods, or perhaps removing the few that are not to your tastes. This guide will teach you how to use some tools you've already used to download new mods and reconfigure the mod list, and will introduce you to Wraithguard Toolkit to sort these mods into your load order.

During the process, you'll be asked to make a note of certain things in order to make later steps easier. Open up a blank file in a text editor to take down these notes. The more detailed you make your notes, the easier it will be to follow along with the setup of Wraithguard.

Below is a table of contents for ease of navigation, but each section is intended to be a portion of a step-by-step process. It's important to adhere to this process in order for things to function correctly.

Wraithguard Toolkit Guide:

1. Before you begin
2. Installing Mods with umo
3. Assess Mod Removals
4. Wraithguard Preparations
5. Wraithguard Setup
6. Using Wraithguard to Sort Mods and Write Customizations
7. Further Customizing Mod Lists

Manual Instructions:

• Writing Customizations Manually
• Customizing Mod Lists Manually Without Customizations

Before you begin

The Wraithguard Toolkit guide is a work in progress! If there is anything unclear or you have any suggestions for improvement, please let us know in the OpenMW Discord's #momw-general channel.

The first step, of course, is to complete an automatic installation of a MOMW mod list, and confirm it works. If your mod list isn't functioning, that should be solved before trying to customize it with Wraithguard, because the tool relies on the current state of your mod list being functional.

This step also ensures you have a copy of Wraithguard Toolkit, as it is now included in MOMW Tools Pack downloaded in either version of the guide. If you do not have Wraithguard in your MOMW Tools Pack, Update your MOMW Tools Pack.

Installing Mods with umo

Umo supports two ways of installing mods that aren't already on a mod list:

1. Mods not found on Nexus Mods but listed on this website can be added to umo's "custom" list by clicking the "Install with umo" button which can be found on mod detail pages for qualifying mods. For example: Abandoned Flat V2
   • Mods installed this way will be placed into the custom/CategoryName directory under your mod base directory. For example, Abandoned Flat V2 would be under /custom/PlayerHomes/AbandonedFlatV2
2. Mods found on Nexus Mods can be added to umo's custom list by clicking on the "Mod Manager Download" button for the mod file you wish to add. For example, (OpenMW) Hit and Miss Percentage Indicators for Combat - click the "Files" tab, then click on the "Mod Manager Download" button. That will open a new page. From there, click "Download" to add the mod to umo's custom list. It will appear as if nothing has happened, but in the background the mod has been added to umo's custom list.
   • Once you've used the "Mod Manager Download" button, open the terminal of your choice in your tools folder, for example Windows Terminal.
   • Run ./umo install --sync custom. This will download and extract the mods.
   • Mods installed this way will be placed into the custom/umo directory under your base mods directory. They will not be under a category subdirectory as non-Nexus mods are.

If you are downloading the mods yourself manually, find or create a folder to store all of your mods, then inside that folder extract each mod's archive into its own folder named after that mod. You can store this extra mods folder wherever you want or integrate it into your existing mod list folder, but be sure to make a note of where this folder containing your mods is located.

Assess Mod Removals

Make a note of any mods in your existing mod list you want to remove. Note down the name of the mod, any data paths, and plugins included in that mod used in your mod list. You may also need to search for related mod patches that will also need to be removed. These are usually specified in the names of mods listed on the MOMW mod list page for your mod list, but can also often be found in patch compilation mods, so look carefully. Searching inside your openmw.cfg file can be useful here. You will reference these removals later when using Wraithguard, so make detailed notes.

You can use the search bar at the bottom of any page of this website to search for each mod you want to remove. Inside each mod's detail page is a list of any plugins and data paths for that mod. You will need to navigate to the detail page catered to the mod list you're customizing by using the links below the table of information labeled with your mod list name.

To navigate to the correct page, use the link with the step number in parentheses next to the mod list label. Alternatively, you can navigate to these catered mod list detail pages by following mod links from your mod list's detail page. Again, make sure to make detailed notes as we'll be referencing them later.

Wraithguard Preparations

Make a note of the folder path where the custom mods that you want to install are stored on your computer. The mod folder with your custom mod folders may be in different locations on your computer, depending on how you installed your mods. If you can't remember, search your system for the name of your existing mod list, with hyphens instead of spaces, e.g. expanded-vanilla, as that's the naming format of the folder that holds your current mod list files. Your 'custom' folder set up by umo should be right alongside your mod list folder.

Make a note of where your openmw.cfg file is located. Make sure it is not the openmw.cfg found in your OpenMW install folder. You can find the directories OpenMW uses for each OS here. If you are uncertain that you have the right openmw.cfg file, you can open it like a text document, and if it's the wrong .cfg file, it will warn you that it is the wrong one at the very top in plain text, and tell you where to find the right one.

This openmw.cfg contains, among other things, all the locations of all the folders of mods you're intending to use with OpenMW listed as data= lines, as well as all the plugins you'll be using as well listed as content= lines. Critically, it also has them in a specific order - the 'load order' - which is read by OpenMW from top to bottom.

The load order is very important in Morrowind modding. If mods lower on the list conflict with mods higher than them, the lower mod will overwrite those conflicting changes, which can cause all kinds of issues if not done correctly or intentionally. Our mod lists are already carefully ordered for the mods they use, so Wraithguard is designed intentionally to not alter the load order we provide. Our process also makes use of automated plugin merging to resolve some conflicts without breaking mods, but that will be handled later.

In the same folder as your openmw.cfg you found in the previous step, create a blank text document and name it momw-customizations.toml. If you are prompted to change the file type, click 'Yes'/'Okay'. If a file with that name already exists in this folder, that means you may have done some customizing already. We want to start fresh, so rename the existing file to momw-customizations.backup, and create a new, blank momw-customizations.toml file.

We are ready to open Wraithguard for the first time.

Wraithguard Setup

1. In the folder where you placed your MOMW Tools Pack, open Wraithguard.
2. Fullscreen the application or expand Wraithguard's window vertically, and make the Log pane smaller until you can see the two rows of hidden buttons.



Now that we can see all of Wraithguard, let's quickly review the 6 different areas inside the main window. This guide will refer to these areas as 'panes', like window panes:

• The left-hand panes, 'Plugin load order' at the top-left, and 'Data path order' at the bottom-left. These panes are where you'll set your load order, but they are empty right now.
• The 'path input bars' on the top-right pane; the long, horizontal bars and associated 'Browse'/'Scan' buttons. This is where you provide Wraithguard with some information for setup.
• The large rectangular 'Rules files' pane on the middle-right, with buttons such as 'Add File(s)...' on the right, and 'Update Rules...' below it. This will also be used during setup.
• The 'Options' pane, on the lower-right, with many toggles and two path input bars.
• The Command buttons, below the 'Options' pane, with important buttons like '1. Sort' and '2. Export'.
• The 'Log' pane, which we made smaller earlier. We will be referring to the Log's output later.
3. Add your openmw.cfg:
• Click the 'Browse' button to the right of the openmw.cfg bar. You will be prompted to select a file.
• Navigate to the directory location you noted down earlier where your openmw.cfg file is located, select that file, and click 'Open'.
• This will fill the path input bar with the directory path to your openmw.cfg.
4. Add your momw-customizations.toml:
• Click 'Browse' to the right of the momw-customizations.toml bar. You will be prompted to select a file.
• Navigate to the same directory as the previous step, where you also created your momw-customizations.toml file, select that file, and click 'Open'.
• This will fill the path input bar with the directory path to your momw-customizations.toml.
5. Fill in the 'list name (optional)' input bar with the name of the mod list you're customizing:
• E.G.: just-beautiful-morrowind, or expanded-vanilla, etc.
6. Create and add a plugin-order.yml file:
• Click the 'Update' button to the right of the plugin-order.yml (optional) path input bar. You will be prompted to save a file called plugin-order.yml somewhere.
• Navigate to your mod list folder, and click Save. It's simplest to store this file with the files of the mod list you're customizing.
• This will fill the path input bar with the directory path of your plugin-order.yml.
7. Check the box next to 'Write directly back to customizations.toml'.
8. Add/Update your Rule files:
• Click 'Update Rules...' below the 'Rule files' pane. You will be prompted to select a folder.
• Navigate to your MOMW Tools Pack folder, and click 'Select Folder'. Click 'Yes' on the prompt to create the files.
• Two files should now appear in the 'Rule files' pane. Ensure that mlox_base.txt is above mlox_user.txt by clicking and dragging or using the corresponding 'Move Up/Down' buttons to rearrange the list as necessary.
9. In the 'Options' pane, toggle 'Sort data= paths too' to ON, and toggle 'Create subset text document (on Scan)' to OFF.

Using Wraithguard to Sort Mods and Write Customizations

1. Once Wraithguard is setup, we are ready to tell Wraithguard about your custom mods:
• In the top-right pane of path input bars, click 'Scan...'. You will be prompted to select a folder.
• Navigate to the custom mods folder location noted earlier where your custom mods are located, and click 'Select Folder'.
• The Log at the bottom should tell you that it scanned a number of mod folders and plugins. Make sure this corresponds to the mods you want to add.
2. In the Command buttons pane, click '1. Sort'.
• The log should produce a lot of text, and the left-hand panes should populate with plugins in the top list and data paths in the bottom list. Expand the Log window and scroll back through it to see if there are any glaring errors.
3. Check the load order for any issues, and peform any necessary extra list sorting:
• Scroll down each list in the left-hand pane in turn. Red entries correspond to the plugins and data paths of the mods you've added. Brown entries (ones that read 'STALE') can be ignored. If there are any purple entries, that means that mod entry needs another entry to be above it in the list. These purple entries need to be moved down the list until they are no longer purple, either by clicking and dragging entries, or by selecting an entry and using the 'Move Up/Down' buttons.
• If entries remain purple at the bottom of the list, then you haven't downloaded and included in your custom mods one of its requirements, and must correct this before proceeding, since repeating the previous step to correct these errors will undo any custom sorting you've already done.
• Many, if not all, plugins of the 'omwaddon' and 'omwscripts' types will be at the bottom of the plugin list. This is generally fine, but at least move these above the tooling plugins - delta-merged.omwaddon, deleted_groundcover.omwaddon, and S3LightFixes.omwaddon - if they are present in your load order.
• It is critical that you read the Nexus page/readme installation instructions for any custom mods you add, in case they specify any load order instructions. Ensure you check any red entries that Wraithguard has sorted for you, and ensure they follow any specific load order instructions for that mod. Keep in mind that entries later in your load order will override records in entries earlier in your load order, wherever applicable.
4. Disable any plugins and data paths of mods you want to remove from your mod list:
• In each list find the plugins and data paths for the mods you noted earlier that you wanted to remove, as well as any corresponding patches, and disable them either by double-clicking on the plugin/data path, or by selecting the plugin/data path and clicking 'Disable/Enable'. An entry will show as disabled when it is greyed-out and has a little X before its name.
• In the future if you want to customize your mod list further using a momw-customizations.toml file you already made with Wraithguard, then any disabled entries will not appear in the list. If you wish to re-add them, you can do so by either scanning in individual mod folders you want to add, or by dragging and dropping the plugins into the left-side list pane (or folders in case of mods without plugins). You must click '1. Sort' in order for these changes to show in the left-side list panes. Helpfully, won't undo any sorting that already exists in your existing momw-customizations.toml file.
• Once you've done all the necessary sorting of additions and disabling of removals, move onto the next step.
5. Go to the 'Options' pane, and toggle the top-left option 'Dry run (preview only, don't write files)' to OFF:
• This is effectively disabling the safety on Wraithguard, and allows it to make changes to your momw-customizations.toml file.
6. In the Command buttons pane, click '2. Export':
• This saves your momw-customizations.toml file with your desired mod list changes.
7. Run MOMW Configurator to apply your changes:
• Run MOMW Configurator exactly as you did when you initially installed your mod list, however there's no need to include --run-navmeshtool in the command once it is run the first time, unless you're adding or removing mods which make changes to the landscape.
• The terminal window will say if it is applying your customizations, and will let you know of any issues, either by stopping the process early or in the validation report. Make note of the mods which are causing issues and investigate why they might be causing issues. There may have been a purple entry earlier you didn't address. If you're unable to troubleshoot any issues, copy the output of the terminal window, and post it in the OpenMW Discord's #momw-general channel to ask for help.
• The one error that can safely be ignored are fully replaced paths. This just means one mod's files have fully replaced another's, and can be safely removed if you desire.
8. Open the OpenMW Launcher, and launch the game

WARNING ABOUT OPENMW LAUNCHER UNCHECKED PLUGINS:

You will see many plugins which are not enabled or which have error symbols next to them. Do not change the plugins in the launcher in any way after running MOMW Configurator. Also don't interact with the drop-down menu in the top-left corner of the window that says Morrowind.esm. This will mangle your load order and require you to run MOMW Configurator again.

9. Start a new game, and adjust your new mods settings in the Options menu, under the Scripts tab.
10. Play the game, and troubleshoot as necessary.
• There may be errors or issues in your game, and they may not always be related to your customizations.
• Gather as much information as possible about the problem. Wraithguard's 'Check Conflicts' feature is great at showing exactly which records of which plugins conflict with each other. It's an invaluable tool for debugging, and you can always regenerate your momw-customizations.toml and use MOMW Configurator again and check to see if your issues are still present in a freshly created save.
• Another thing you can try is to open the console in-game with ~/tilde, click on an erroneous NPC/object so their ID is present at the top of the console window, type ori, and hit Enter. This will show you some information about the selected thing, including what plugin it originates from.
• As always, if you encounter issues you aren't able to troubleshoot, you can always bring information to the #momw-general channel in the OpenMW Discord to ask for help. Help is not guaranteed, but very often given.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You've customized your MOMW mod list using Wraithguard, and have hopefully learned how to handle the profane tools of the Dwemer at the same time!

Further Customizing Mod Lists

You want to customize your mod list even more? Well, that's easier, but the process is slightly different. Most of the steps in this guide will already be completed when you open Wraithguard again.

If you simply want to remove mods, or change their load order: open Wraithguard, and go straight to Step 18, which will use your existing momw-customizations.toml file, and your existing, customized openmw.cfg file, to populate the left-most list panes.

If you want to add new mods to an already customized list, then you'll want to repeat the guide from the beginning, but you'll be pleased to find many setup steps already completed. Step 17 will differ if you're adding to an already customized mod list: Rather than using the 'Scan...' function to add your new custom mods, you can simply drag and drop new plugins (or mod folders if there are no plugins in the mod) into the left-side list panes.

However, you MUST re-Sort your list in order for click-and-drag mods to show up, so make sure it is the first thing you do before any custom sorting. You can use 'Scan' to pull in smaller sets of mods by putting those mod folders into a single folder, and scanning just that folder, as well.

Writing Customizations Manually

In case you don't want to take advantage of the wonders of Wraithguard, MOMW Configurator tool allows you to define mod list customization rules in a text file manually, allowing for changes to our mod lists in the form of:

• Insertions
• Replacements
• Removals

These rules should be defined in a file called momw-customizations.toml in the same folder as your openmw.cfg and momw-configurator.toml files. If that file does not already exist, simply create it. Open the momw-customizations.toml file in any text editor. On Windows it's a good idea to use an editor like VSCode which has plugins for TOML files which alert you if you make some mistakes.

MOMW Configurator README fully describes all customization options, but we'll show a few examples below.

Insertions

At the top of your customization rules you will need a section that tells MOMW Configurator which mod list you want to customize, ie:

[[Customizations]]
listName = 'just-good-morrowind'

This only needs to be in the file once for each list you want to customize, at the top of the section where you're adding customization rules for that mod list.

You can insert a single line like this:

[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\Gameplay\GoHome'''
after = '''NaturalCharacterGrowth\00 Core'''

Or a block of lines like this:

[[Customizations.insert]]
insertBlock = '''
go-home.omwscripts
go-home.omwaddon
'''
before = 'ncg.omwaddon'

Note the usage of TOML literals ('''). TOML literals are mandatory when doing block insertions, and on Windows can be very useful for all data path insertions due to the way TOML parses syntax between quotes.

The input you provide for insert fields needs to be the folder path the mods are located in. These are the folders which contain any content files you want to load (.esp, .omwaddon, etc.) as well as any asset folders (scripts, textures, meshes, etc.).

The input you provide for after or before fields can be any unique string found in your openmw.cfg file. For example, for data paths 00 Core would not be specific enough since there are many individual folders with that name, but WaresUltimate\00 Core would be specific enough. The momw-configurator will determine whether the insertion is a data path data= insertion or a plugin content= insertion automatically based on the context provided by your after or before input.

If you want to add a mod that has one or more content files, you will have to insert both its data paths and its content files via separate inserts.

Example - One data path and one plugin: To add the Expansion Delay mod to I Heart Vanilla, add the following to your momw-customizations.toml file, replacing the input for the data path insert field with the folder path where the mod actually is on your computer:

[[Customizations]]
listName = 'i-heart-vanilla'
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\Gameplay\ExpansionDelay'''
after = '''CantonsontheGlobalMap'''
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = 'Expansion Delay.ESP'
after = 'Cantons_on_the_Global_Map_v1.1.esp'

Example - Multiple data paths and one plugin: To add the Greymarch Dawn - Whispers of Jyggalag mod to Just Beautiful Morrowind, add the following to your momw-customizations.toml file, replacing the input for the data path insert fields with the folder path where the mod actually is on your computer:

[[Customizations]]
listName = 'just-beautiful-morrowind'
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\Quests\GreymarchDawnWhispersofJyggalag\00 Core'''
after = '''RedWisdomAnAshlanderProphecy\02 OpenMW Add-Ons'''
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\Quests\GreymarchDawnWhispersofJyggalag\01 HD Textures'''
after = '''GreymarchDawnWhispersofJyggalag\00 Core'''
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\Quests\GreymarchDawnWhispersofJyggalag\06 OpenMW Normal Maps'''
after = '''GreymarchDawnWhispersofJyggalag\01 HD Textures'''
[[Customizations.insert]]
insert = 'GreymarchDawn.esp'
after = 'Red Wisdom.esp'

Replacements

You can replace lines like this:

[[Customizations.replace]]
source = '''InterfaceReimaginedforOpenMW'''
dest = '''C:\games\OpenMWMods\UserInterface\ChocolateUI'''

This will replace the data path for Interface Reimagined with the data path for ChocolateUI. For data paths, the input you provide for source fields is much like before and after fields for insertions where you only need to provide a unique string found on the line you want to replace, but the input you provide for dest fields must be the folder path for the mod you want to replace with.

Removals

First example: to remove the Bethesda and intro videos (the ones that play before the main menu) from Total Overhaul, add the following to your momw-customizations.toml file under the section where you're declaring the list you want to customize:

[[Customizations]]
listName = 'total-overhaul'
removeFallback = [
  'Movies_Company_Logo,bethesda logo.bik',
  'Movies_Morrowind_Logo,mw_logo.bik',
]

Second example: to remove the Alchemical Hustle mod from Total Overhaul, add the following to your momw-customizations.toml file:

[[Customizations]]
listName = 'total-overhaul'
removeData = [
  '''Alchemical Hustle\Modular''',
  '''Alchemical Hustle\TR add-on''',
]
removeContent = [
  'AH_GMSTs.ESP',
  'AH_Ingredients.ESP',
  'AH_Magic.ESP',
  'AH_Potions.ESP',
  'AH_Ingredients_TR.ESP',
  'AH_Potions_TR.ESP',
]

Apply Your Customizations

Once you've written customization rules into your momw-customizations.toml file, you can now apply them by running the momw-configurator as you did when you installed the mod list:

.\momw-configurator config -v --run-validator i-heart-vanilla
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Welcome to MOMW Configurator v1.8
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Configurating mod list: i-heart-vanilla
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Fetching mod list configs
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Running: openmw-iniimporter
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Writing mod list load order to openmw.cfg
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Applying customizations
2024/11/16 18:55:51 Ensuring recommended values are set in your settings.cfg file
2024/11/16 18:55:51 MOMW Configurator completed: i-heart-vanilla

The Applying customizations part of the log output indicates that your customizations are being used. You can always skip that by using the --no-customizations argument.

Things To Remember

• Customizations for each mod list should go under a top-level [[Customizations]] section, a listName definition is required under each such top-level section
• You should not include prefixes such as fallback=, data=, or content= when specifying lines to customize
• When specifying a line to insert before or after, or a source line to replace, you need not list the entire line but you will need to add enough of it such that it can be found (in the case of lines that contain similar text strings e.g., 00 Core)
• If in doubt about a feature or how to do something, please consult The MOMW Configurator README. If that still doesn't explain things or you still have questions, please ask for help in our Discord channel on the OpenMW server. We can only help with the overall customization workflow, we cannot help with ensuring your customizations are valid and don't cause conflicts or other problems.

Customizing Mod Lists Manually Without Customizations

If you don't want to bother setting up customization rules, but still want to make changes to your mod list it's still important to run the momw-configurator once you've made your changes so that the required tools can be run for your mod list. In order to use the momw-configurator while still retaining your manual changes use the additional --only-tools parameter when running .\momw-configurator config. This parameter will tell the momw-configurator to not overwrite your manual changes, and will instead only run the required tooling.