The trouble I see here is that, if this indeed was accidental carry over from beta, they don't really have ways to fix it. If they release a quick hot patch that does nothing else but returns the mod functionality as it was, they effectively agree with the current mod usage which, I'm afraid they can't publicly say before the release of the official tools. So at best we can hope the fix is sneaked into some other patch.

This is definitely NOT the case. The game is displaying that message because the loadlist is empty (due to the beta launcher clearing it) and the save requires mods that were previously in the list. Updating mods will do nothing since the launcher will currently keep wiping the loadlist. Until they get the live launcher sorted, simply using one of the workarounds fixes the problem.

Reactivate the mods.

Heh, yeah. I just got it yesterday, and now I'm popping heads off at 200 yards with my 10mm pistol. You get 95% headshot hit chance regardless of range or cover obstructions.

What mods aren't working, per se? I checked yesterday after the patch and everything is still working for me. I just use retextures so that might be the case? But I am curious to see what isn't working...

All mods that use esm/esp files must be reactivated because the queue was cleared by the patch.

How can they ever know the effect of a patch if you are using mods? Especially considering the current mods are not made using their tools but rather 3rd party tools to make.

Seems anyone interested in having a stable game would be willing to try the game without mods prior to reinstalling or re-enabling their mods so they would know if it's a game issue or if the patch made the mods where they too need a bit of work.

Getting the game to work should come first is quite important.

Beta is for people to test the vanilla game and highlight problems. The main branch should not have a function that resets player preferences without an explicit decision from the user.

If somebody wants to report a problem, the devs can always request that they try it without mods, probably on a fresh playthrough, and then post the findings.

The thing is, those who will mod the game will do so regardless unless the games ability to run such files is totally removed. Adding any hoops and loops only annoys the ones who know what they are doing, (and who well know not to post bug notes unless making sure it's not mod first), and adds more oppoopportunities for those who don't know what they're doing to screw up their game.

I'm prety sure they deliberatly broke the system that was being used to laod .esm files.

There's now a comment in the plugins file asking us not to edit it, and the remove d the hidden UI for enabling/disabling pluggins form the launcher. Also the launcher is wiping the plugins file on launch.

Based on the comment and the behavior, the issue was that the mechanism was intended to be used to manage DLC, and they don't want it getting cluttered with mods. The new version also include an new file that seems to have been automatically populated with all the .esms in your data directory. However they don't seem to do anything at this time.

At a guess they deliberately broke the mechanism we were using and intend to replace it with an alternate one when they release the creation kit.

The fix appears to be any of several methods of bypassing the launcher's shenanigans and saying "screw you' to that comment about not editing the plugins file. Either by editing it and changing it to read only, or by bypassing the launcher.