Simple and Fast Load Order Guide

• [Free]
  
• [World]
  
• [Asset]
  
• [FCS]
  
• [Global]

we might need better tags, but you get the idea

Lets say you wanna build tower of rocks:

• 1st you place Big Rock
  
• 2nd you place Medium Rock
  
• 3rd you place Small Rock

WOW, nobody ever thinked of that
Now you just invert the Rocks because kenshi load 1st on the list as 1st to load

• Splash Screens
  
• Title Screen
  
• UI
  
• Loading Screen
  
• Map shape
  
• Visual config
  
• World Generation
  
• Assets (as they are called)
  
• AI, Squads, Dialogues
  
• Global Constants

• Splash Screens
  
• Title Screen
  
• UI
  
• Loading Screen
  
• Map shape
  
• Visual config

by all means most of this assets are single Png/jpg files
so whenever you load them will not drastically affect anything

• Map shape - Simple Map Fixes - need REKenshi to load
  
• Visual config - native stylise / Shader SSAO / Shader Fix

Simply replace the original texture/ui files and roll with it :)
most of the times this operation is seamless
unless you have conflicting ui mods
in this case load preferred UI in Asset Category and hope for the best

• Red: item has been deleted in a previous mod
  
• Blue: the active mod in FCS has changed the item
  
• Green: a new item the active mod in FCS has added
  
• Orange: an item added by a later mod in the load order
  
• Grey: a previously added item that has been deleted by the FCS active mod

https://kenshi.fandom.com/wiki/FCS:_Load_Order_%26_Color_Definitions

Often sort mods alphabetically if ever
or have to contain sorting rules towards each individual mod
making them always outdated by day literally
Whenever you consider mod or guide you should check what else person have done
most unfinished and crash heavy asset flip?
Assigning similar mods to same categories is not revolutionary,
this is the basics of organization
Chose what makes your game more stable, not whats most popular

Whenever you browse mod collections you see name, image, number of mods
Sadly said number does not really mean anything
its fair to assume
10x 1KB mods load faster than 2x 3GB mods
yet its fair to believe 2 mods will have more changes and edits that can potentially collide with things

They are most common on Nexus or Github
some of them can do it on steam in form of diet version

• Load significantly faster than .mod counterparts
  
• Does not require load order
  
• does not conflict with other mods in regular way (rather than crashes you can stack too many ui changes or textures with UV/MIPMAPS which cause lags (you can do the same by staying steam only, just keep installing 30 texture mods and see how it goes...))
  
• Provide unique benefits and possibilities to the game - Some mods can only be possible to implement like this
  
• Replacing or editing files directly avoid double-loads or loading bar going backwards

• You might install UI mod on top of ui mod causing your text to be invisible or hard to read
  
• Whenever you wanna remove such mod you need to either have backup or verify integrity of the files
  
• Any .mod mod that edit similar thing might remove benefits of the weightless mod

here we have:

• zone files
  
• Foliage editors
  
• non-PSO weather editors
  
• City Tweaks
  
• World overhauls
  
• New Factions with base

Mod size in this category can be from 5mb to 10gb :)
its easy to mistake them with assets due to how some modders deal with map fixes
for example:
Better Crop Fences is World Gen mod (zone files)
Little Better Farm Fences is Asset mod (no zone files)

Lets just say Mod A add Race to the game
and mod B make Race spawn in brand new faction
in this case:
Mod B - World Gen lifts
Mod A - Asset right above itself :)
Thus Correct Load Order Being:
Mod A
Mod B

• New mesh and new texture for new object
  
• New mesh and new texture for existing object
  
• New Meshes
  
• New Textures
  
• New Animations
  
• New Icons

If asset is called previously its dependency or small size mod (less than 10mb)
if asset is big, its good idea to get it out of the way now
out of sight = out of mind :)
there is nothing to worry about or reason to spend hours categorizing assets to lighter and heavier if you don't know it immediately

You have image file - what you see in workshop front of the mod
you have description - mouse over the mod in load order :)
you have mod file itself - the actual mod
Optionally you can see Readme or License file or even example image

By all logic they should be right next to lightest mod they change
however due to people making mistakes and by going with the rule:
Better safe than Sorry, i listed it here

• Once again goal of the guide is to get your list sorted, not ponder with it for hours

its category in FCS changes
night darkness scale
Squad and Faction size for player
Attack slots

mods that delve into this changes are tiny 0-1Kb + image

there are configurations of mods where things breaks no matter what
pondering load order might not be able to fix it for you

People trying to make work mods that even authors said will conflict
People double/triple dipping same changes with different mods
People don't even read what the mods do, just follow modlist/recommendations
Players take whatever is popular without checking when it was last updated
People misinterprets what QoL and bugfixing mods actually are or if said bug wasn't patched in 2019