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In general, how long do you "test" a new mod?


shaelyn76

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Like the title says...how long do you run around Skyrim, going through load doors, talking to random NPCs, killing wolves and generally not accomplishing much while you test a newly added mod for your game? I'm curious because I just did a complete uninstall and reinstall of Skyrim and am eagerly anticipating adding back some mods that I feel make the game more playable...BUT....the whole reason I had to do the whole uninstall/reinstall deal is because my last few playthroughs kept CTDing and I couldn't ever find which of the 70+ mods I had active was causing it. I did the whole "only enable a couple at a time and test it" for all of them, but never narrowed it down to exactly which one as breaking my game. (yes, I use LOOT and xEdit and still nada pointing to a distinct CTD culprit). I'm wondering if I wasn't testing them long enough or maybe not doing something else that I'm unaware of that would really give each mod a good stress test??

 

So, before I start enabling mods on my nice fresh Skyrim install, I'd like to know what experienced modders who test newly added mods in their game do to thoroughly test them out? I know some of you guys have a LOT more mods running than 70...so, please share your secrets for how you determined which mods were "healthy" and/or what you do when you add a new mod.

 

I really want my happier playing experience back, so thanks for any pointers, advice or tidbits of info you guys can provide :happy:

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I consider it impossible to even partially test out a new mod.

 

When installing new mods I do what I doing now:

look through it in xEdit, determine the amount of conflicts with my existing load order, see if it's "messy" ITM's, wild edits etc., generally look at how the mod is built.

If there's too many conflicts I throw it out, if it's poorly made I throw it out, if there's alot of bad modding practices I throw it out.

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Wild edits or dirty edits are accidental edits of other records. If I see too many yeah I throw out the mod.

Also bad decisions in mods like not using an existing levelled list and making your own instead.

 

Once I start to see too many things I think should be corrected I lose confidence in the mod author's ability and therefore the person's mods.

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Truth is most mods are full of errors. There is so much more that goes into creating a mod than most seem to understand.
I totally agree with JobVanDam here but also check back for update that may have fixed things if i like the mod (or fix it myself for myself).

One good trick in testing is the Skyrim debug log. I use that a lot to find errors.

Also I look in the creation kit for one key factor ... I'm looking for things like this: _filename or MMMfilename or MYMOD_filename
This shows one key factor in modding. The mod maker understands not to touch any default files and has created his own prefix to easily tell them apart.

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