The load order in OpenMW is still confusing.

[Skonlogick]

I recently installed some mods via the manual way, adding each folder path to the openmw.cfg file found in My Documents. However, it seems that textures and gameplay mods follow a different priority inside the file, or maybe I'm not understanding load order at all.

Say I have 3 mods installed, and their load order looks like this:

[TOP]
fallback=etc
...
data="path/mod1"
data="path/mod2"
data="path/mod3"
...
content=etc
[BOTTOM]

Which one would take priority over the other? Should I add texture mods to the top or the bottom? Also, why does the Data Files tab in Launcher keeps reseting the order of the mods?

[AnyOldName3]

The later in the data list a directory appears, the higher-priority its files, so in the example you gave, if both mod1 and mod3 had a file called textures/tree.dds, the version from mod3 would be used.

The Data Files tab in the launcher is misleadingly named, as it actually just deals with the content list. It doesn't remember the order of content files that aren't enabled, so it'll just put them wherever it feels like. Also, if you edit the file while the launcher's running, it might get confused and make a mess of the order.

[Skonlogick]

Ah, that clears up things enough for me to play around with my load order. I know that this might be related to the modding section of the forum rather than general, but would you say that, if I follow the order of the mods presented in the Total Overhaul from https://modding-openmw.com/, my load order should be just fine?

Apologies if this is too off topic.

[AnyOldName3]

Yep, all the lists on that site have been verified by a human who knows more than the average modder about what's likely to work.