Paradox Launcher ignoring mod load order

[Angelic Burrito]

Using version 2021.1, I'm having an issue where the launcher is disregarding my custom load order and instead loading the mods in reverse-alphanumeric order (mods named "z's mod" are loaded first, while mods named "a's mod" are loaded last—giving "a's mod" higher priority). If you change the name of the mod inside of the descriptor, you can bandage the issue by renaming your mods according to the order you want them to load in.

This can be a really subtle bug, so I'm curious how many other people are suffering from this.

I'll show my issue with EU4 and 2 mods that affect the map, visually:

First, here's the load order that will stay constant:​

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Here's what it look's like in-game:​

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Now we'll change the descriptor file from this...​

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...to this:​

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Check that the load order is the same:​

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That's weird. Why did the order change?​

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Besides some obvious conflicts with the other mods enabled, this issue alone is extremely annoying. I was trying to apply a patch I made for 2 mods that altered the UI and spent way too much time reloading the game, confused why it wasn't applying.


Edit: forgot to complete my second sentence; typo.

 

[grotaclas]

I'm pretty sure that this is an eu4 issue and not a launcher issue. The launcher correctly supplies the load order to eu4 in the dlc_load.json. And eu4 receives it somewhat, because the mod list in the save file is in that order. But eu4 doesn't seem to use that order when actually loading the mods.
If you want eu4 to load mods in a specific order, you have to add the name of the mod which should be loaded first as a dependency in the descriptor.mod of the mod which should be loaded later. For example:

dependencies={
        "Better UI 2"
}

This code is from the descriptor.mod file of the "Better UI 2 - Verdana Font" mod which is a submod of "Better UI 2"

 

[Angelic Burrito]

Well that sucks. I've seen that snippet in in descriptors before; is there a way to list multiple dependencies? Because when I tried uploading a mod with multiple dependencies, the launcher threw an error saying the descriptor was invalid.

 

[grotaclas]

Well that sucks. I've seen that snippet in in descriptors before; is there a way to list multiple dependencies? Because when I tried uploading a mod with multiple dependencies, the launcher threw an error saying the descriptor was invalid.

I think that it should work if you add one mod per line. For example the mod The Idea Variation Beyond Typus Addon contains:

dependencies={
        "Beyond Typus"
        "Beyond Typus 11.5"
        "Beyond Typus (hopefully temp post 1.29 launcher)"
        "Addon Beyond Typus Miscellanea"
        "The Idea Variation"
}

But I never tried to upload such a mod to the workshop

 

[Angelic Burrito]

So, is this an issue I should report to the EU4 bug reports, or where else does this belong? The input by grotaclas is helpul, but NOT a solution if: a mod changes name; a mod gets otherwise updated; I want to easily, materially change the load order of assets; I want to easily arrange a lot of mods.

 

[TinyWiking]

Can you test this? It has worked for HoI 4 when we've had the same problem.

- unsubscribe from all mods
- delete the folder Documents/paradox/EU4/mod/
- delete the file Documents/paradox/EU4/mods_registry.json
- delete the file Documents/paradox/EU4/launcher-v2.sqlite
- subscribe to a few mods
- run the game up and see if those mods are now available to you

You may also need to make sure that your anti virus program lets the game and launcher through:

 

[Angelic Burrito]

Yea, I'll try. It's a good thing I try to keep an updated collection listing all my subscribed mods .

Doing as you said and subscribing to only three mods (Duck's Map Overhaul Modpack, Europa Aesthetic Arrows Only, and Europa Aesthetic Unit Markers), it's unfortunately not working as intended.

'D' before 'E', then reverse-alphabetically the game overwrite the bright unit markers and bright movement arrows with the map overhaul's dull ones...


...even though the custom order should say differently.

 

[grotaclas]

So, is this an issue I should report to the EU4 bug reports, or where else does this belong? The input by grotaclas is helpul, but NOT a solution if: a mod changes name; a mod gets otherwise updated; I want to easily, materially change the load order of assets; I want to easily arrange a lot of mods.

Did the multiple dependencies work for you? I think this is the best solution if you are a modder. You would not want to depend on the user to select the correct load order. And you have to follow the development of the main mod(s) anyway and kept up-to-date with their changes. So you would see a rename and can update your mod. In my experience renames of mods don't happen often and most of them that I have seen updated the version number of the mod or the game and come with a big change which needs attention anyway.

And if you are a mod user, I would suggest to not use mods which conflict with each other unless you have a compatibility mod which fixes all conflicts(and sets the load order via a dependency). Even if you can get mods to work by just changing the load order, you will run into problems later. I have helped multiple people who had bugs, crashes and broken saves because of incompatible mods. Just because you can get the mod to load doesn't mean that it doesn't cause problems. One player for example had two mods which changed idea groups(among other things). Of course only the idea groups from one of the mods were loaded (and the user was ok with that), but later the game crashed, because some other part of the mod tried to access a non-existing idea group.

Why do you want to easily change the load order? Are you experimenting with it to see what works? I don't think that this is a good idea. That would cause many unseen problems. The better approach would be to look at the mods and determine which mods modify the same files and folders. And then look at the files and determine what needs to be done to make them compatible. And search through the rest of the mod to see if things which you want to remove are in use somewhere else.

If you really want to set the load order for eu4 in the launcher, I think you should post about that in the eu4 suggestions forum. AFAIK eu4 has never supported a custom load order(besides the dependencies) and a bugreport would just lead to that option being removed from the launcher.

 

[Angelic Burrito]

Did the multiple dependencies work for you? I think this is the best solution if you are a modder. You would not want to depend on the user to select the correct load order. And you have to follow the development of the main mod(s) anyway and kept up-to-date with their changes. So you would see a rename and can update your mod. In my experience renames of mods don't happen often and most of them that I have seen updated the version number of the mod or the game and come with a big change which needs attention anyway.

The format you suggested for multiple dependencies did indeed work for me when I tested it; thank you. The trouble I had before with it not recognizing the descriptor was because I was trying to enter the names of each mod (surrounded in quotes) as comma-separated values.
I certainly agree with you, but regarding renames: there is at least one high-profile case of the mod being renamed with versions of the game itself. It's rare but still breaks an end-users reliance on dependencies.

And if you are a mod user, I would suggest to not use mods which conflict with each other unless you have a compatibility mod which fixes all conflicts(and sets the load order via a dependency). Even if you can get mods to work by just changing the load order, you will run into problems later. I have helped multiple people who had bugs, crashes and broken saves because of incompatible mods. Just because you can get the mod to load doesn't mean that it doesn't cause problems. One player for example had two mods which changed idea groups(among other things). Of course only the idea groups from one of the mods were loaded (and the user was ok with that), but later the game crashed, because some other part of the mod tried to access a non-existing idea group.

This is more my case (mod user) as I've only publicly made two mods. I totally get this angle, especially for non-ironman mods—even more especially for new/naïve mod users—but one of my main annoyances comes from a relatively small list of about 10, ironman mods. Besides that, I use third-party tools (Paradoxos Mod Manager, WinMerge, etc.) to see exactly what's conflicting. I'm very careful about how I combine drastic mods.

Why do you want to easily change the load order? Are you experimenting with it to see what works? I don't think that this is a good idea. That would cause many unseen problems. The better approach would be to look at the mods and determine which mods modify the same files and folders. And then look at the files and determine what needs to be done to make them compatible. And search through the rest of the mod to see if things which you want to remove are in use somewhere else.

Well, in the case of Duck's Map Overhaul Modpack, Europa Aesthetic Arrows Only, and Europa Aesthetic Unit Markers (all of which are ironman-compatible, cosmetic mods) I'd really like to use the bright effects from the Europa Aesthetic submods instead of the dull, default-looking ones from Duck's mod. The easiest remedy for this was to physically remove the unwanted files from Duck's mod (one action in one place vs editing two files in two places), but this is—to borrow a term from image-manipulation—a destructive edit (and so is editing their descriptors). Compared to Skyrim or even Stellaris, the ability to non-destructively modify how assets get loaded (say, decide which nebula texture to load) is a very basic provision for a healthy modding community that is apparently missing from EU4.

If you really want to set the load order for eu4 in the launcher, I think you should post about that in the eu4 suggestions forum. AFAIK eu4 has never supported a custom load order(besides the dependencies) and a bugreport would just lead to that option being removed from the launcher.

That's a good idea; thanks! I plan on putting this in the EU4 suggestions rather than the bug reports.