One of the best aspects of gaming on the PC is availability of mods, esp. if the developers of the game made the game mod-friendly, which allowed gamers who can program to create mods that adds, enhances, or changes certain aspects of the game.
One of the more mod-friendly AAA tier games that came out recently was Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries, where the developers, PGI, used their experience with Mechwarrior Online (MWO) to help create MW5, which was released back in December, 2019! PGI then followed the game up with no less than SIX official DLCs, adding more mechs, patches, improved AI, but also lore friendly additions, such as melee weapons. Yet from the very beginning it was clear that the fans aren't going to wait for PGI to create stuff, and extremely ambitious mods, such as Yet Another Mech Labs (YAML) turn the simple mechlab in the game, which lets you modify the giant "robots" called mechs with different weapons, ammo, while balance their heat, weight, and so on, into table-top-game accurate affairs. Yet others added non-lore weapons, variants only mentioned in the novels, and bajillion other little mods.
Yet for every official DLC released, there's always some teeth-gnashing as all the mod makers scramble to update their mod to be compatible with the latest DLC. Yet some mod makers have left the mod-making scene, leaving others to pick up the pieces, while different mod makers have different visions on how to change things (there are dozens of "rebalance" mods as each tries to realize a vision on what constitutes a proper play balance).
This means as just players, you often have to study the mods you download, to make sure they don't conflict with each other, or accidentally break a third mod, or worse, crash the game. Which means you have to make sure you load them in the right order, known as "load order".
I haven't played MW5 in over a year, but with release of DLC6 earlier in 2024 and hopefully, the upcoming release of MW5 Clan Invasion (whcih will finally update the game engine to Unreal Engine 5), I should get back into the game. So I updated my mods, downloaded the latest versions, and get the game started... Only to have it crash. It's clear something is breaking some of the mods. Unfortunately, there's no debugger available, and the only way to find the culprit is to disable stuff until the game runs, then enable stuff until it doesn't. Then whatever you enabled last is the culprit. Yes, it's grinding without playing. Yikes.
With 71 mods, I think I ended up disabling half, as those are either too old or no longer needed. But I basically spend the past 8-12 hours debuging my MW5, setup... I've yet to play the game. Hahaha.
FWIW, here's a load order for MW5 that seems to work... for now. 39 mods.
« Generated by MW5 Load Order Configurator 3.2 for MW5Mercs. »
LO oLO Mod
71 33 "RevisedNightvision" 1.0(11) by Gundug
70 31 "Yet Another Mechlab" 0.93(2874) by cszolee79 and trueg
69 99 "vonBiomes" 1.0(2595) by vonSeiten
67 0 "MedsMod2024v7778L" 1.0(27) by GenericMeds
66 84 "Expanded_Logos" 1.0(8) by G3n.Zer0
64 38 "MoreMercLevels" 1.0(4) by Gloobnib
63 36 "PilotOverhaul" 7.0.3(776) by Wpnx330
61 45 "UnderTonnageBonus2 & Purchase Salvage2" 5.01(158) by WolfEagle1
60 34 "Coyotesmission" 1.0(6061) by coyotekins
58 30 "TTRulez_LanceMateOrderz" 1.0(24) by Oraeon1224
55 28 "Yeti's Jumpship Animation Remover" 1.0(12) by Yeti
54 27 "Yet Another Weapon" 2.2(434) by cszolee79
52 25 "XenoPax Art Optimizer 3.0" 1.0(216) by xenoargh
49 22 "UpdatedHighEmployment" 1.0(14) by
48 21 "StarMapMouseOver_V3_07 - Logos" 3.5(4) by JGood121
47 20 "Restore Traits" 1.3.5(20) by Bobbert
44 17 "QOL Upgrades 2 - Thermals and Headlights" 2.2(35) by cszolee79
43 16 "PrecisionSights" 1.1.1(0) by MindlessVictim
42 15 "No Friendly Fire" 1.2(1) by yrrot
41 14 "MW5 Compatibility Pack" 5.2(81) by MagnumGB
40 13 "Mod Options" 1.1.3(16) by Bobbert
39 12 "MechAttributeViewer" 1.8(42) by yrrot
38 11 "LancemateStatusBar" 1.0(43) by yrrot
34 7 "Enhanced Cooldown Pips" 1.0(16) by diji
33 6 "Cockpit Glass" 0.96b(153) by Nek
30 4 "BetterCrates" 1.5(5) by Grahamldlw
29 4 "TTRulez_AIMod2" 1.0(186) by Oraeon1224
28 3 "Assorted DLC Fixes" 1.1a(4) by DeadRaiser
27 2 "Advanced Zoom" 1.2.6(61) by Bobbert
16 0 "LeopardRedone" 1.0(11) by RainingFire
12 0 "Expanded Logos Menu" 1.0(16) by G3n.Zer0
10 0 "CompassHeadings" 2.0(12) by Azuvector
7 0 "Accuracy Recurve" 1.0(2) by Puff
6 0 "XenoPax Optimize 4.0" 1.0(73) by xenoargh
5 0 "Throttle Gauge w Line Markers" 1.0(6) by DAP
4 0 "Higher Visibility Torso Twist" 1.0(7) by DAP
3 0 "HeatGauge" 1.0(2) by DAP
2 1 "Simple Enhanced Environment" 1.0(6) by Zanieon
1 0 "minimap topography" 1.0(90) by K'Braid
« End of load order. »