About

mlox is currently the most powerful tool available for correctly sorting Morrowind plugin load orders, and notifying users of conflicts or available patches — however, it is only as effective as the rules that it is given. Without current, regularly updated rules to keep up with new mod releases and updates, it is simply a neat piece of code and nothing else.

Contributing to mlox is as simple as reading mod page descriptions, making edits to a text file, and having a rudimentary knowledge of using Github.

You’ll find everything you need to get started here.

How to contribute:

This guide will cover the following points:

Where do contributions get made?

The rules-base of mlox is stored in the Github repository DanaePlays/mlox-rules. This is where updates to the rules are made — each time mlox is run, it automatically downloads the latest rules from here.

The rules themselves are stored in two files:

  • mlox_base.txt
  • mlox_user.txt

These two simple files are easy to edit and are organized around a simple set of rules. You do not need to be a programmer or coder, or even a modmaker, in order to understand and contribute to the rules-base.

In order to contribute rules on Github, you will need to create a fork of the repository — We’ll cover that in Contributing on Github

How to Find Rules to Add

Mod authors often advise1 on their mod’s NexusMods page or readme the following information:

  • Requirements — what other mods are required in order for the mod to work
  • Load order — whether the mod’s plugin (ESP or ESM) need to load before or after any other plugins
  • Conflicts — what other mod plugins conflict with this mod and cannot be used alongside it
  • Patches — whether there any patches available for the mod, either packaged with the mod or downloaded separately

This information forms the basis of most mlox rules.

What other sources of information are used to inform mlox rules?

Nexus mod page descriptions and mod readmes are the main source of information. However, other sources of information are also useful and accepted:

Learning the Rules — the mlox Cheat-Sheet

The article Mlox Rule Guidelines is an essential reference for understanding and creating your own mlox rules. However, a great way to learn is by copying existing mlox rules and adapting them:

  • For example, if you want to learn how to format an [Order] rule, use the ‘find’ function (ctrl + f in most text editors) to search for “[order]” and see how other instances of this rule have been formatted.

[Order]

Specifies the order of plugins, from top to bottom, with the bottom being loaded last.


[Requires]


[Patch]


[Conflict]

[Note]

Checking your Work

Contributing on Github

Footnotes

  1. Including this information is good practice as a mod author. Mod authors can also contribute this information directly to mlox-rules by contributing to the Github repository.