SplashDamage

Anytime; I'm glad to help. Just to give a quick update before I forget... Somewhere around 2:00am - 7:30am (local time- here) there seemed to be an improvement with available bandwidth, but during normal 'daylight' hours up to around 12:30am (night here), the available bandwidth is around 1/10 or ~ 150 KB/s the 1MB/s limit (though it's a capped limit and not necessarily set as a 'norm') to be split between concurrent downloads, web browsing Nexus pages, etc.,. let's say per ip. Which still fairly limits concurrent downloads during certain hours to 3 or less and should definitely improve with additional server bandwidth, or available nodes. The load balancing is interesting in that, if the server settles on a 'balance' between downloads, and I start opening additional pages preparing for the next group of mod files (doing the mods of the month and trending atm, then after that I'll grab the S.T.E.P recommendations), then all but 1 download drops to 0 KB/s and might take up to 30 seconds to attempt to re-balance and rise above 0, as opposed to, let's say, dropping the bandwidth 10 KB/s on each download (or load metric) netting what might be needed to serve the requested web pages; burst 'mode' request wise seems to brings things to a halt fairly quickly. Let's me see if I can cobble together a bandwidth mapping application (something simple) so I can generate results for any 24 hour period and see if that'll help to better show when the things are more than likely getting 'hit' the most. It should be fairly simple, just need a common way to easily map the data without going all out ASCII.

@MrMason: Just a quick update following up with downloads- the server seems to still be 'in a struggle' keeping the downloads consistent. I'm getting 38 KB/s on one, 24KB/s on another with a third hitting 0 every few seconds, then bouncing to 9KB/s, then being dropped completely (which I have to "resume" every few minutes). The third file won't drop out when just 2 downloads are running concurrently. I've been downloading files for quite a few games in the past month or so, with the regular "Skyrim" giving the most apparent problems (which is the mods I'm currently in the process of downloading). There definitely seems to be a massive drop in available bandwidth which causes some files which are 22mb to take 6 hours to complete. It [available bandwidth per download] does depend on how many files are being downloaded simultaneously (which I would expect with load balancing demands for a given ip, but it seems now the amount allocated is so low downloading anything more than 1 file at a time is all but impractical and even then, with really large files your in for a serious long haul). Weeks back it took a given bandwidth, let's say 1MB/s them split that as a "load" across all open downloads coming from a given ip, then seemed to drop over time depending on the GB downloaded (just an observation there), where as now it's taking maybe 1/8-1/4 of that or less, splitting it, which results in any concurrent downloads over 2 to drop to 0 KB/s. This could be due to a limited amount of 'bandwidth' on a "free" server being spread thin during peak times, so I'll try and monitor it for a bit and see if it improves in the early hours of the morning and let you know the results.

Thanks for all the time you've spent helping resolve the issue- look forward to the server coming back up full. If it helps with isolating the cause, I noticed this starting to happen maybe 2+ weeks prior (kinda ball parking it), before that, everything seems to load balance fairly well. Thanks again for the site and the effort everyone there takes to maintain it!

Sure, here it is: Pinging files.nexus-cdn.com [198.27.85.139] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48 Ping statistics for 198.27.85.139: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 62ms, Maximum = 64ms, Average = 62ms My Location is Kentucky, USA. ---------- I still have 2 downloads that's been running for hours with a KB/s now 38 and 24 respectively. We have high speed DSL here (not satellite) and an internet speed test reveals 10.1 Mbps per second download speed (with Netflix streaming also in progress, though I'm not sure how that balances in load wise on this end).

Just a quick chime in here... With a quick 'preface', I'm using the free servers and manually downloading files with Chrome. I'm noticing a drastic drop in download speeds... which usually start at 100+ KB/s upwards to somewhere around 600+ KB/s, depending on how many downloads I have going at one time. Mostly it'll range about 100+ KB/s. Which I would expect to see while the server attempts to balance present loads along with my file requests, or if it's under a heavy load from all over the place. Now, after downloading over what appears be a 'set' GB limit per time period, let's say (without further testing the metrics of it) 24 hours and x amout of GB, the download rate will drop around 0 KB/s - 8 KB/s per file, even if there's just two being downloaded. This is independent of file size. If I download, at the same time from, let's say moddb, then the download speeds stays between 1024 KB/s - 780 KB/s. So it's not the port, wires, switches or even the routers here. It seems to be isolated with the Nexus. Pinging cdn.nexusmods.com resolves to... 198.27.85.139 and in one case the first ping returned: ---------- Pinging cdn.nexusmods.com [198.27.85.139] with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48Request timed out.Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48 Ping statistics for 198.27.85.139: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 62ms, Maximum = 62ms, Average = 62ms ---------- Pinging cdn.nexusmods.com [198.27.85.139] with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=48Reply from 198.27.85.139: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=48 ---------- ... so the ms 'turn-around' isn't too bad. Though the files are still downloading at 0-8KB/s (2 going atm). If I wait, let's say 30 minutes before downloading another file, the bandwidth will be higher than 0 - 8KB/s (which is bounces back and forth between those numbers. When it hits 0 KB/s for an extended period of time, the download is 'interrupted' completely dropped from the server without being completed)... anyways, as the 24 KB/s continues, it'll certainly drop down to 0 - 8 KB/s. I'm guessing the downloads here (and maybe elsewhere) are being caught in some type of "anti-scraping algorithm 'net'", that tries to limit the amount of data that can be downloaded in a given time, and if exceeding it, the download speeds continue to drop forcing the down loader to wait until the GB/time limit has expired before allowing higher than a 'crawl '. As the download speed appears to continually decrease until a given time has elapsed without downloads occurring; calculating allowed speed versus "cool-down" time remaining. I'm not sure if that's what's happening, but the symptoms seem to match the observation. Not sure if that helps any.

Speaking of copyrights, we were talking about that here yesterday (my son and i), and I was thinking along the following lines (I could be wrong here, but I'm gonna take a shot)... Because all the "mod" data in esp, esm files, in it's current format, is based on Beth's copyrighted work (whether direct or reverse engineered), said data, such as record structures, etc.,. would be theirs, but any story, art, voice recordings would would remain with the creator.

That was my point about same and equal value, not necessarily from a "numbers" standpoint (not putting down your point in the least), but each depends on the other, if that wasn't the case, then they (mod authors) really wouldn't care about the things you, me, or anyone else ever said or happen to mention, let alone a "ratings" systems of such (not defending that system btw). I believe that many depend on positive feedback from users to help them, not just with modding but future jobs as well -builds confidence, stuff like that-. Just because a few say they don't care and would remove their mods period (to protect their ip -well this I understand completely-, for spite, anything), doesn't represent the whole, nor every modder that ever existed. I for one, would never hold that opinion ever (unless it infringed on my ip or it's perceived representation so to speak), which is, why I guess I posted in the first place. This doesn't reflect on anyone in particular, nor to be associated with your post in general, but over the years, new modders starting out can be harmed more by the "few" arrogant, often egocentric role models they choose, based on community popularity, worse than idiotic and often time mindless users (I definitely have hit that area more than once! Lol!) who they'll never model themselves after. Which to me, the person (who happens to be the user) is of more value than the attitude of someone else (simply because I use their mod, or are afraid to lose access to it). Thanks for the update. I'm glad everyone is getting things worked out.

Educating a larger group does take the workload (sometimes overwhelming) off the smaller group, sure. That doesn't justify though, the method that some attempt to use, to get that "educating" done. That just propagates across the generations as what's expected or given whether is constructive or destructive. If destructive, which could be subjective to a certain point, an entity simply won't last, no matter how large it happens to be. I can say that trying to troubleshoot something for someone else, especially over the phone, can be an exhausting experience (oh how many times have I told a Dell tech, sure I have that PC plugged directly into a wall output -uh huh, sure i did- now what where you asking me to do again?). Maybe there is a better way. Maybe there isn't. I'm not really sure, unless we explore those possibilities (within reason of course) first hand, without having someone else or group decide what we can and/or can't do, by taking those options away. Who knows.

I actually think a new resource might not be a bad idea in respect to "upload a mod list I currently have", and let a "user database" sort it for me, in an order that works for them, giving me a metric on how many votes (listed in positive to negative order) a particular "mod order" works. This to me would be a good "starting" point for many who would like a "set" of mods, that would have a higher probably of working, without having to learn from the ground up how to do something. Coming from a history of programming, way back to the time of the Atari 800 (asm was my fav language) and I still love networking/building/programming/art/raising kids/you name it... to this day. As I've learned over the years, There's a certain amount of responsibility when someone take s a position of "authority" in a community. It just comes with the turf, there's no avoiding it. That responsibility goes beyond just to "oneself" mainly because it's the community that empowers them, believes in them, and encourages them to continue sharing "works" of all kinds. The "sharing" goes both ways. It would a bigger tragedy if "mod authors" riled the community up against something time and time again (who, being the community, would really stand behind them, "mod authors", at the drop of a hat without thought or regard), without first trying to work out the "details" then "hanging up the towel" over something they may/may not agree with or can resolve. Also, since the community is being brought in as a decisive weight against something they don't understand, having "things" public shouldv'e been a priority minute one. Otherwise the community could be used as just a power base, helping decide issues, without their full knowledge or consent. Being a retired System's Analyst (an old term *cough* - shows my age - lol), I have learned to appreciate BOTH those that develop AND those that use software (things just come with the turf). Speaking of the MA (mod author) to MU (mod user) One is the reward, the other the rewarder. BOTH are one in the same, of equal weight and value. BOTH do the same for each other. And should be respected as such. Beth made a "kit" (interfaces to organize data if you will) so MA's could mod their own games, MA's make mods so MU's can mod their games, see the relation? Is Beth SMARTER than the MA's who use their "tools"? Are the MA's contractually obligated to Beth if they use said tools to support everything Beth says and does? Of course not. In fact, MA's are the ones speaking loudest against things Beth, for some reason, decides NOT to do. I wonder how MA's would feel if MU's did the same thing? Maybe take the stance, "we don't owe you anything" perhaps. That's not the best way, IMO, to deal with things that just come with the "turf" (but enough of that). If the MA doesn't like something someone is doing, PLEASE, do NOT take that out, or appear to TAKE that out on the community that has come to depend on them, whether directly/or indirectly. Allow them (the community) to understand the different points of view from both sides and decide for themselves. A shared understanding and respect from both It really is the best and healthiest way forward. Now, I'm neither for or against, just thought I'd toss this in for my 2c worth. Well maybe 5c if you count interest over the years (unless I own someone money, then, I'll just stick to an alias!). Lol! Anyways, back to testing build outs and other things... Edit: Half o' cup of coffee down AND I'm still misspelling words! Lol!

Just starting doing a new Fallout load out and came across an interesting problem: When installing texture mods like NMC or Dimonized there seems to be missing textures when using MO; black underwear, those types of things. After trying many different things: directly installing the textures in the "Data" folder and running FO3 through it's launcher and the new textures appeared ok. Use MO to handle everything and it doesn't work. One fix was to uncheck all mods, let FO3 crash, then recheck everything. This worked, but not because they were checked/unchecked directly. It worked because - after FO3 crashes and returns control back to MO, MO moves the "Invalidated.bsa" file above the vanilla ones (almost like it's now putting it in alphabetical order) in the "data" section of the "Archives" tab. Move that file down below the vanilla ".bsas" and it's back to having texture problems. When you check "automatic archive invalidation" for the profile, it puts the invalidated.bsa below the vanilla ones automatically. It needs to be first. As this is the only difference I see in getting the textures to work correctly through MO. Even if the ini has the correct order listed, MO needs to have the invalidate.bsa (the one created by checking the 'automatic archive invalidation' for the profile) manually moved to be first in the list. Hope that helps!

Lol! Thanks guys, I never would've guessed a "flock" spawn point. I've included some new mods in this build out and it's def giving me a few turns for my money - though now, I'm going to take a week or so off and get back to recording some music, been missing out out that. The next thing I need to try and figure out is why when using ASIS, Dual Sheath Redux and AFT which are new to me, I'm leveling up skills my followers are apparently using. When Cerwiden uses destruction magic and i'm just a elven archer, I get the destruction magic leveled up notification as if it were me leveling up. It's the same with two-handed and Vilja. I just migrated from UFO to AFT and I'm thinking that this along with ASIS is somehow linking the player to the follower, not sure yet. One things for sure. I'll never get all this done before Fallout 4 hits. Lol!

I notice this when crossing the bridge out of Riverwood heading to Whiterun. I've noticed this through quite a few load outs and for some reason, I only seem to see it here in this particular tree. I've seen the "purplish" color for missing textures, but this one is reddish in color. Is this a missing mesh? The texture mods I'm using on this load out is; SMIM, 2K HD. I don't use any flora overhauls or Lush trees or grass in this one.

I'm using Eyes of Beauty + Elven which work great. The missing eyes texture seems to come from the follower Kamile Shy and is showing up as a selectable option in Racemenu. Is this something I can edit out in the CK (like the improperly set "playable race" for followers)? To save load order space, I've also merged a few separate standalone followers into a single esp file including Kamile, though I haven't noticed anything like this happening to the follower while in game - just while editing my character.

Your not kidding there, there's really no going back. Lol! Debugging mods and load outs sometimes is a monumental effort. To me, other than texture or mesh replacement, many mods I'd consider more a hack than a mod. Not a hack in the traditional sense, but a... "If you do this, which really makes no sense and shouldn't work at all, works!" kinda thing. Multiply that by a thousand mods and things get messy pretty quick.

I know you loaded the texture previously, but did you run something to optimized them afterwards? That almost to me, looks like a missing or corrupted texture (I ran Optimizer Texture recently and for some strange reason it trashed/deleted a few random textures, including textures used by ENB - well the ENB one was my fault since I ran it against the entire MO mods folder, but the deleted ones not sure and were files from Cloaks of Skyrim. At least the ones I'd noticed), that at that distance with changed lighting went from purple to a light blue. With SMIM, some mods, like 2K HD Skyrim, needs to be installed after SMIM. Not sure if the esp load order for SMIM matters, though I'm guessing yes - I haven't tested that one out.

When you made a clean save, did you try cleaning the broken scripts and now non-referenced data out with something like Save Game Script Cleaner (here on the Nexus)? I'd do everything, including the Advanced ones more than once, until everything comes back clean. I'm not sure if you tried that, just thought I'd toss that one in. Another problem with "Clean save" (which I don't think there truly is one because scripts can alter game data, and I don't think there's a tool to see if axe swing speed modified by mod A can be reset once it's removed without knowing exactly the format the data was stored in, and what Mod A modified, for example - thus the term "baked in") is, there might still be scripts loaded but not yet running that have the deleted references or data in them, that don't get cleaned out by the known processes of SkSE and Save Game Cleaners, and when they get activated, instant crash! I wish I could offer more, since I had this happen to me recently and I abandoned the game save. It wasn't too bad since I'm basically grabbing all the mods I want for this loadout, then testing, fixing and testing more until it's fairly stable. Then as Kartman once said... "Now, I finally get to play the game." Lol

I'm curious also, because merging has the added possibility of changing the formid, which I'm not sure will cause a problem later. I'm guessing yes. Which would explain your new mod looking for Apache as the "master" - it wants specific references from that file. If that's not the case and the references didn't chant, you'd just need to change the master file list in the mod referencing Apache to your merged mod - not sure on that one just yet, still learning myself. But from what I know, if it were me and I was stuck, i'd re-merge my mods, but this time, including the one requiring Apache as the master. That way, any changed formid referenced should be properly handled. I'd also do a TES5 create merge file between the mods and see what conflicts might come up between the different mods. Resolve it there by selecting the right "final" values, or changing the "load order", save it, then reload your mods including the TES5 merged one (for conflict resolution) last, then just do the script merge as always.

There's a racemenu column called "Extra" which has race names listed. If you change those, it can give a "sunken" cheek or other really strange facial appearance effect. If this modifies mesh axis' on the fly, then meshes if these weren't changed, might be a good place to start looking for a possible cause (the mesh from one race mixed in with a mesh from another, or an NPC's face data loaded as the players). Check the "Extra" column and see if all those are "0". Anything else will change the way your character looks.

One oversight which bit me on this loadout was changing uGridstoLoad from 7 to 5 and not changing iGrassCellRadius accordingly. The results were, I could start and load a game just fine, but when my character died and the engine tried to reload from my last save point I'd get an ILS very consistently. The radius should be 1/2 of uGridsToLoad according to what I've read, and without adjusting it, it was too large for my current uGrids value. It would be nice to have a "plugin" for something like Mod Organizer or NMM (on the menu where you save/load ini's to also have a check button, or do a consistency check for the obvious stuff) to check for mistakes like this. This one took me awhile to track down, and I almost wrote it off as unexplainable. Why? Because when I mod I read up on some of the latest information. As much as I can given the time. This leads me to change something, that, when I do something different in a future loadout combined with a prior change.. problems. It gets kinda hard to remember all the little ins and outs after a few years and hundreds of combination/changes. A simple "consistency" check would have caught that and informed me saving me quite a bit of time. I wouldn't over do this kind of mod though, and push personal preference off on someone, or overtax and existing rig causing very low fps or other engine anomolies; papyrus settings are a good example. I have mine modified some, and the game, at least for me, runs better - though I don't set things to "800ms-inity and beyond!" Lol. Just something to check and say this is a definite won't work.

I'm pretty sure I don't have ASIS configured properly,and I've been unsuccessful finding any good documentation on which mods I should definitely add or include. The problem I'm encountering now is... Game plays great, zooming along until my character dies and the game goes to reload. That's when the ILS hits. I can kill TESV.exe and load the game back up fine, it's just when my character dies the game tries to reload there's problems. I'd like to rule out ASIS being the culprit here. I'm using the Improved inis from here, and tried adding all my followers esps to the mod exclusion list, but for some reason, some still show up as masters in ASIS.esp. Could this be a difference in the internal name of the esp file compared to the external one? I'd like to basically exclude all, then go back in and add creatures and npcs selectively. It might seem like a backward approach, but is there a way to do that? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer regarding how ASIS works.

Thanks Moto, I just started using Mod Organizer in lew of NMM. I really liked the "Change installation order by simply changing the priority list in the left pane feature. I borked many a load out from Fallout to Skyrim by either coming across an new/update to a mod that that came before others I already had installed. New one too... I'm pretty guilty of... while proccers are processing buzz the latest downloads and finding more stuff to cram in. Oh the breakage that seems to cause at times. Lol Thanks goodness I was using MO and had the mods and load outs on a different HDD/folder from Skyrim... clear "Tool Data" when trying to track down the entry point into the dll problem? Naw, should say "Clear ALL data". Lol

I had this happen once when I installed a "decapitation" mod which split hooded robes into two separate parts (so heads and robe would both go flying); it changed the form id's for the vanilla hooded robes in the game into a custom #. When I decided to remove the "decapitation" mod without first deactivating it in the MCM, the custom robes were still referenced and used by npc's even though the game shouldv'e been using the vanilla ones instead since the mod was removed. I'm guessing running/loaded scripts still had the old references instead of the vanilla ones.

On uploading your images ... If your using MS Paint, you can resize the image (make it smaller keeping the current aspect ratio - I use about 75% normal size, sometimes smaller if the saved size doesn't dip below 250kb in size) then save it back as a jpg if it's a bmp. That'll help make the file size small enough to upload and link into your post.

Thanks! That's been bugging me for some time; this most definitely fixed it.

Is there a way to "block" followers custom race from appearing in the RaceMenu "race" list? I only see this with a few standalone followers. I'm not using any custom races at this point, so I really don't need these as a option.