2.3 Installing a collection - ChrisDKN/Amethyst-Mod-Manager GitHub Wiki

Installing a collection

The manager has the ability to install Nexus collections via the API. This is how it works.

The manager downloads mods from a collection by Modid and fileid set by the collection author
Mods are extracted and installed as soon as they finish downloading up to 8 at a time.
Downloads are cached in the .config folder and cleared once the install has finished. This can be disabled in the settings if you wish to keep the archives.
Collections (by default) are added as a new profile that is separate from other profiles, allowing you to add multiple collections and switch between them
You can pick a collection revision in case you need to install an earlier version of a collection
Bundled assets are also included, these are mods provided by a collection that don't have a dedicated mod page
Off site mods are listed and must be installed manually
If a collection author has provided Fomod selections for a mod, these are automatically applied
If they have not provided Fomod selections for a mod, they will appear at the end of the install where you need to manually choose the options.
Diff patches that a collection author provides are applied after installation and flagged in the modlist panel.
If the manager is closed before a collection is complete, the manager skips over any already downloaded or installed mods when you try to install it again. It also re-downloads any mods that were partially downloaded.

How do download a collection (Premium)

Log into nexus via the nexus > settings window
Press the collections button on the top bar
It will show the top collections for the game, select one
You can also search for a collection with the search bar
If you find a collection on the nexus site you can paste it's url with the url button to go to that collection
You can also click "Add collection" on the nexus site, it will say you need vortex but it will open the collection in Amethyst instead
You will see a list of mods in the collection, here you can change revision and see any off site mods if any exist.
Press install collection
If the collection has optional mods, a panel will open where you can untick any you don't want.
It will ask if you want to install as a new profile or append to an existing profile. Some collections are small bundles that you may want to quickly insert into another profile.
The manager will first download all the mods and then install them. Don't close the manager until it is complete.
Some collections may contain very large files, These can take a while to extract so if it looks like nothing is happening, it's probably just extracting
Once complete the manager will sort the mods into the authors intended load order.

How do download a collection (Free users)

The process is the same as above but each mod has to be downloaded manually, one at a time. The manager tries to make this as easy as possible
It will provide a button that will open the mod in the browser to download
The mod will download and go to the downloads folder
The manager will then automatically detect when the mod has finished downloading and begin to install it
There is an option to auto open the next mod once the current one has finished installing, So all you need to do is sit in the browser and press download, The manager handles the rest.
Archives will not be removed from the downloads folder, so remember to clean this up

Updating a collection

If a collection author has released a new revision you can update to the new revision without fully re downloading it.
Press collections > open current
Switch to the new revision if it doesn't automatically (You can also downgrade revision)
The install button should become an update button, press it
It will show the mods that are to be removed, added or updated
The manager will then download new and updated mods in the collection and remove stale ones, Then it will reapply the load order
If you have manually installed mods into a collection previously, these will not be touched or removed

What to do if the application crashes during install

Latest versions of the manager shouldn't have this issue as it will check ram availability before each install, but just in case

This happens because the system ran out of memory while extracting a file. There are multiple checks in place to make sure this does not happen but if it does here's what to do

Make sure any memory intensive applications are closed first to free up memory.
Switch to the profile in the manager that the collection is installing into
Press the collections button and press Open current.
This will take you back to the install window for that collection
Press install collection again, It will skip any already installed and already downloaded mods.
Worst case scenario, you may need to manually install the mod instead but this should be rare.

Resetting load order

If you want to reset the load order back to the collections load order do the following

Press the collections button
Click open current
Press reset load order, This will redownload the manifest for the collection and apply the load order.

Removing/adding optional mods

If you download a collection and find you can't use or don't want the optional mods, You can remove them by reinstalling the collection and unchecking the ones you don't want. They will then be removed from the mod list. Adding optional mods after a collection has already installed is the same, reinstall the collection and tick any you want. It will then download and add the missing optional mods

Issues and limitations

There are some quirks that may appear with collections. Some collection authors may include mods that need to be disabled such script extenders or other frameworks like bepinex. These are usally installed manually into the game folder and cant be installed by adding it as a mod. You may need to check for these types of mods after a collection has complete. A previous update to amethyst will automatically flag mods as root folder mods if the collection author has specified those mods as root folder mods, this means these mods will automatically be sent to the root folder upon deploy.

Some collections may have mods that require things like vcredist or .net framework to be installed. You'll need to install these via the Proton button if required

It's always worth viewing the collection page to see if the collection author has any post install steps. Some collections can also contain outdated mods that do not work the current version of whatever game it is. Make sure the collection you are trying to install works with your game version first.

There may be some mods provided by collections that do not get installed correctly by Amethysts game handlers. I installed a lot of collections to make sure the handlers were working correctly but if anything doesn't work as expected, report it as an issue and I'll see if it can be fixed.