[Skyrim Special Edition and the 255 mod / esp limit - definitive answer]

And the whole argument gets muddied by the introduction of the ESL format. (A good thing from the Creation Club.)

 

Both LE and SE use an 8 digit hexidecimal number for the FormID (i.e. x'2E0058CF'), with the first 2 digits representing the 'slot' number, allowing for 256 slots. The first slot, x'00', and the last, x'FF', are reserved (first for Skyrim.esm and last for system use only.)

 

The 6 remaining digits are used to identify the form/object/resource/whatever within the plugin. This means that LE only has the 2 hexidecimal digits to distinguish between plugin files, so taking reserved slots and DLCs into account, you can add 250 esm/esp files to your Skyrim Legendary Edition.

 

In SE, with the introduction of the Creation Club, Bethesda added the ESL file format. This changed the use of slot x'FE', reserving it for ESL plugins, and changed the use of the digits within the FormID to define a 3 digit 'ESL Load Order' within that slot. I.E. the FormID for ESLs is defined like x'FExxxyyy', where x'FE' is the slot, xxx is the ESL load order and yyy is the resource id set by the plugin. Halving the number of digits used to reference the resources does limit what type of mods can use the ESL format but the trade off is that you can have, theorectically, 4096 ESL plugins. (There are apparently other factors which could limit the number of ESL plugins to about 3000 or so.)

 

 

So the definitive answer is 249, cause SE comes with the DLC. So total of 256 slots, -1 for Skyrim.esm, -4 for the 'DLC', -1 for ESLs and -1 for system use only, leaves you with 249 slots to load esp files. (Which could be merged files if you want.) Or it could be 4345 if you want include the maximum number of ESL files (which could be esl flagged ESPs). Or you could add an unlimited number of mods if you want to include texture only mods that don't have an ESM, ESL or ESP...

 

 

 

 

Computers are dumb, at the lowest level they can only remember if something is off or on, i.e. 0 or 1, but they can do that alot, really alot, and they do dumb things really fast.

 

So a 'bit' is a switch having two states, 0 or 1, (off or on, dark or light if you want). Put 8 'bits' together and you get a 'byte'. Now if a bit can have 2 states then a byte can have 256 combinations of those states (2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 = 256) which in decimal is represented as 0 to 255 and in hexidecimal as x'00' to x'FF'.

 

decimal - base 10 number system.

hexidecimal - base 16 number system. Why? 2x2x2x2 = 16, i.e. put 4 bits together and you have 16 possible combinations, represented by "0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F", and is more efficient for a computer to use because it's all '2 times 2' repeated as many times as needed.

 

If 1 hexidecimal digit can represent 16 combinations of bit states, then 2 hexidecimal digits can represent 16x16 or 256 combinations, and 3 hexidecimal digits can represent 16x16x16 or 4096 combinations.

(2x2x2x2 = 16)

(2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 = 256)

(2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 = 4096)

 

Darn, hours spent writing this when I could have been playing instead. :sad:

 

 

[2018 in review and 2019 in the view]

In response to post #67939196.

Shadohz wrote: Well it's finally confirmed. Dark0ne is rogue cleric that likes using Wall Of Text spell. :)

These stats will be very useful in the future. Some seem to be under the delusion that modders are making a killing in the Paetron game. Despite my breaking down "actual cost to gamers", some use it as a weak defense against paying for mods (or donating for that matter).

What are the chances on U2F support as well? Also I'd like to see more realworld usage data. Knowing the number of downloads is nice, but knowing what the players are doing with the mods would be even better. How long/how often are they actually using the mod in their game? Are they downloading then deleting soon after? Do they prefer sword 1 over sword 2? Which FOMOD options are they choosing during installation? Have they been on a long hiatus and reusing your mod again? I know this sounds very "big brother" to some so players should be allowed to opt-out of usage collection/reporting.

If these mod packs are meant to be "compilation mods" then... "That's going to be a no for me, dawg." If the process is automated in such a manner it respects the individual modder usage rights and gives them credit for unique/non-unique downloads I'd be okay with that. A portable user profile would be more useful, IMHO, as a good archival and diagnostic tool. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I've had to request a user's modlist or go hunting through their endorsement list trying to figure out what mod(s) they have installed that's causing an issue not related to their own.

Three things other things I'd like to see added "Mute", "Feature Requests", and "My Updates".
1) Mute. Sometimes you don't want to block a user from download but you also don't want to disable comments just because of a couple of bad apples. A "mute" feature would allow MA to temporarily disable individual users from posting comments on one (or all) mod(s) created by a specific author/team.
2) A feature/enhancement request tab is needed alongside the Bug Report tab. Users use the comment section for making enhancement requests when it'd be easier to track from a single page.
3) "My updates". Simply put this view will tell users which mods they have installed have updates available for them. Nexus allows you to sort by trending, download, file size, etc but there's no option to only show you which mods you've installed recently or in the past that have new update (if it does I must be blind as h*ll).

Be kind to your guide dog.. please.

Hover over 'MODS' (top of screen), go down the list to 'My download history', display all the mods you've downloaded, then click on 'updated' twice to sort by date descending. Blindness cured.. Though I admit it could do with a short cut, plus some highlighting when Updated > Last DL.

[NMM error - mod can't be added - Status Incomplete (aka: NMM vs RAR5)]

I and several other users had a problem with installing the Nuka Cola Refrigerated Display Case mod, when trying to instal via the "Mod Manager Download" button on the Nexus or via the "Add Mod from a File" button on NMM the error message "Nuka Cola Refrigerated Display Case can't be added." was displayed along with a status of "Incomplete".

 

User NumeroDuo suggested and was able to confirm that the problem was due to the latest version of WinRAR which uses RAR5 as the default format when compressing files. It appears that NMM doesn't handle archives compressed in the RAR5 format. NumeroDuo has the latest version of WinRAR and was able to repack the mod with the format set to RAR4 which NMM was able to process. After updating to the latest version of 7zip I was able to repack the mod to 7z and successfully add it.

 

As a user my question is is there any advice given to modders as to which compression formats are the best to use when publishing mods? Or which ones may cause problems?

 

I suppose it's outside of the scope of this forum but is it possible to get a field added to the new nexus web page format which displays the compession format used and indicates if some user action may be required? Perhaps even disable the "Mod Manager Download" button for RAR5?