Fallout 4 update 1.2 hinders unofficial mods support

Update 1.2 for Fallout 4 will hinder unofficial support for mods in the game. Also, the hidden Data files button has been removed from the launcher. The game’s community managed to come up with detours to solve the problem again.

The problem with the latest update seems to be that the launcher wipes the plugins.txt file that records the mods to load every time it boots. Plugins.txt can be found under %appdata%LocalFallout 4. This file lists the .esp files of the mods that Fallout 4 should load. So maybe simpler mods that don’t have .esp files don’t suffer from the problem. Officially Fallout 4 doesn’t support mods yet, but the possibility is just in the game’s engine. The creation kit that facilitates the mods will be released by Bethesda in 2016, the company has previously announced.

One way to do this seems to be to make the plugins.txt file read-only after installation or, if necessary, reinstallation of mods. With this method, however, every time something changes in a user’s mod selection, ‘read only’ has to be turned off and on. Since Fallout4Launcher.exe is responsible for the reset of plugins.txt, the problem can also be circumvented by directly starting Fallout4.exe using, for example, the Fallout 4 Script Extender, which many mod users already have at home. Also using Fallout4Launcher.exe from previous versions may work. The fixes will be reported on the Bethesda and Nexus Mods forums.

The issue does not occur for users of the Fallout 4 beta channel who are on version 1.2.37. The Data files button has also been removed from the launcher. For example, anyone who uses the Nexus Mod Manager can easily install and use their mods without this button. To enable the mod functionality with Fallout 4, some manual file adjustments are required. Several players have made instructional videos for this. The Xbox One and PS4 versions will also receive mod support in 2016.

Update 1.2 should bring stability improvements, performance improvements in certain environments, and bug fixes. Numpad keys can now also be assigned functions.

Update, 13:35: Added short patch notes and clarified that mod support is unofficial at this time.

Update, 14:30: The latest version of the Nexus Mod Manager, 0.61.3, now fixes the issue as well. This is the easiest solution. If you want to adjust the graphical settings of the game in the launcher, you will still have to open the launcher separately as this does not happen when starting via the Mod Manager.