miketheratguy

Well I don't mind someone suggesting their own work. As long as a mod functions without inherent crashes, I'll happily take it from whomever wants to supply it. Thanks, I'll try it out (assuming that it can be used independently from your overhaul mod. I wouldn't be against trying that as well but not just yet, I'm trying to start my mods small for now). Anyone else have any recommendations?

I'm getting back into Oblivion for the first time in years because I've become bored with Skyrim and one of the first things I wanted to do was locate an old mod that adds random travelers to the roads and / or wilderness. Upon investigating I found half a dozen different such mods but every single one that I've found so far has comments about the mod crashing (several of which were due to scripts used by the new NPCs). This reminded me of the fact that one of the reasons why I stopped playing in the first place is because my game used to crash a lot. So, what I'm wondering is this: What mod, if any, adds extra characters to the outside world (roads AND wilderness, I'll take either) but is actually stable and hasn't caused you to crash? Please, personal experience only. I can find lists of various NPC mods, what I'm looking for are individual testimonials about which mods have been verified to work smoothly. Thanks for your help!

Ah, I see. To be honest it's something that I'm considering. I never had consistent problems with it before (that I'm aware of) and the lack of complaints by other users leads me to worry that I'd be abandoning a perfectly good mod just because of what may be problems that I happen to be having on my end. At the same time the mod appears to have been abandoned by the author himself, and I HAVE always had at least intermittent crashes with this mod (though I was never able to isolate them to this mod exclusively). I don't know. It's very frustrating. There are users that can talk of playing a smooth game with more than 200 mods installed, yet I can't decipher these errors enough to know exactly what to ditch and what to keep. I don't go crazy (I've got around 50 mods installed at the moment), I don't overlap, I use NMM and LOOT, I've got the cell stabilizer and memory patch, I use USLEEP, etc etc etc. It's like "how much more careful can I be?" Anyway I'm practicing adding custom armor sets to the leveled lists themselves after which I'll just have to make a bashed patch. I've been trying to avoid this much more time-consuming route but I'm running out of ideas.

What do you mean?

The strange thing is that the mod DOES work, it just seems to crash at apparently random intervals (or, in the case of my test location at Fort Greenwall, consistently). By that I mean that I CAN summon up some bandits and see them wearing the custom armor that I added. It makes me wonder how this isn't a binary matter - why the mods can work perfectly fine one minute and then crash the game the next. I would assume that if there's a problem with the script trying to load the armor, or the armor itself, the game would crash as soon as I activated the mod. The fact that it works for a while but then gives out seems strange. Anyway I do think that I'll try using just these two mods (Mooded Loot and the armor that it activates) on my completely umodded early game save and see what happens. It's going to be a real pain to unplug all of my mods and then reinstall everything but if there's no other way to narrow things down any further I don't know what other choice I have.

Hmm. No changes with anything. After installing Modded Loot and one of the armor mods, I saved the game then exited and reloaded the save. I still crashed in the same spot. Then I edited my mod order by placing the loot mod dead last, then went to try both the save that was made before and the save that was made after I installed it. Still, crashes in the same spot.

First of all, I appreciate your help regardless of the confusion. You obviously know more about this stuff than I do (I've been playing and modding Skyrim for years but I've never delved into any particularly "advanced" stuff such as scripting, Wrye Bash etc.) so you're going to be saying things that I don't really understand, sure, but I'm more or less following you, I think. No, I actually did not save the game at any point past using the loot mod to activate the armor in-game. I'd install the loot and armor mods, load a save from a few nights before, let MCM detect the loot mod, and use it to find and distribute the armor. Then, after crashing, I would use NMM to deactivate the armor, activate a different armor set, reload that same save from a few days prior, and try anew. I can make a new, separate save after loading up the loot and armor mods and reload that save before I try to approach the fort. I'll let you know what happens. As for the load order I ran Loot (which hasn't detected any problems, for whatever that's worth) but now that you mention it, no, I haven't messed with the load order beyond that. I just fired up NMM and see that the loot mod has, in fact, been placed well BEFORE the armor mods. I wonder if something so stupidly simple could be the whole problem? I guess I never really thought about it, I just trusted Loot to do its thing. This probably still wouldn't explain why my game would randomly crash during the other times that I tested it, but it could very well explain why I'm now getting consistent crashes at the spot I've been testing in. I'll go try out the save / reload scenario with the fort, then after I've done that I'll change the load order to place the loot mod last and do what I've been doing to see if I get any different results.

I understand, you didn't say that it was a guaranteed certainty or anything but simply that the error was the additem script. I guess I just figured that this must be related to the loot mod and not the armor itself. I know that some armors come with scripts but I don't believe that any of the ones that I tried did. Also, I got this error with about six different sets. I'd turn on the loot mod and the armor mod then load up a clean save that was made before either one were installed. I'd go into the loot mod's MCM menu to have it load up the armor set. Once successful, I'd approach a fort where I knew many enemy bandits would be, and the game would abruptly crash to the desktop once I got close. I'd then remove that armor mod, install a different one, and repeat the process: Load up the clean save, set the loot mod to activate the new armor, and approach the fort. Another crash. If, however, I loaded up the save with the loot mod and any of the armor mods installed but did NOT "activate" the loot mod in-game by telling it to search for the armor, then the game would proceed like normal and not crash. The loot mod would be on, the armor would be on, and I'd be able to go craft it for myself if I wanted to. The crash would come if I activated the armor through the loot mod and approached the fort again. That's why it made perfect sense to hear that the error had something to do with an add item script. To your questions, no, the armor that I've been adding is custom armor made by individual users (Dreamburrows, etc). As to whether it's wearable by a bandit, I'm not sure what you mean. It's just a set of meshes and textures meant to be worn by the player, but which the loot mod has dynamically added to the bandits due to the settings that I selected (it could also be added to dragons and giants but I chose bandits specifically because the bandits would actually wear them). In other words the armor doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, just custom armor for use on the player or his followers. If it helps the bandits in the game do, in fact, wear the armor once it's been added - in areas of the game where I don't crash reliably, I can encounter bandits wearing the various pieces. The problem is that the game will seemingly crash at random when spawning bandits with the armor on - sometimes I can approach an area where I encounter bandits wearing custom armor, sometimes I can approach that same area and crash. In the case of this specific error log I was testing out an area that, for some reason, would crash consistently. I'm not sure why that spot is reliably unstable, but I guess I'm not as concerned about that. My problem was with trying to understand why the loot mod / armor sets were making the game crash at all.

Okay, so the error is NOT in the armor itself, but rather the script that's trying to apply the armor to the bandits. Thank you, that really helps a lot. At least now I know which component is causing the problem, and that's a huge step forward. Very disappointing, since this is by far the easiest way I'm aware of to add modded armor to leveled lists, but still good to narrow things down. I haven't seen others post the same type of crashing issue so I was worried that it could be something else, and wouldn't know how to find out what. I've written to the mod author to no avail. This is one of those all too common situations where someone came out of nowhere with an awesome mod that seemed to work great, promised an update, then disappeared before the update or any answers to bug fixes. It's so frustrating because this is one of the few mods that I truly consider "must-have", since fighting the same enemies with the same loot and the same outfits over and over and over again is one of the things that really drags down the sense of immersion or excitement when playing this game. I've tried looking into other ways to add a bunch of custom armors myself but it's all so over my head and consists of so many steps that I think doing so would take days, if not weeks. The mod is called "Modded Loot". http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/64778/?

Thanks for the reply. Is there any way to know what's actually causing this to happen so I can go about trying to fix it or attempt some kind of alternative? Basically what's happening in that error is that I've installed a mod of armor that would normally only be available through crafting, and have installed and activated a mod that's trying to apply that armor to some bandits at a fort that I'm approaching. Is there a way to determine what's causing the -1 error in that scenario?

I've spent days trying to add some armor sets to the leveled lists of my game so that enemy NPCs (bandits, primarily) will occasionally wear them. I'm not at all familiar with Wrye Bash and the process of manually editing leveled lists seems incredibly time-consuming and needlessly complicated, so for a while now I've been using this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/64778/? which allows the user to specifically choose item esps from the load order and add them to enemy inventory. The problem is that my game seems to be crashing pretty regularly whenever I try to add a handful of armor and for the longest time I haven't been able to figure out whether it's a ram issue, specific armor issue, an issue with that loot mod, or what. Just this morning I was able to find a spot where the game crashes reliably whenever I've used the mod to apply some armor. It doesn't seem to matter which armor I try to apply and it doesn't happen if the mod is dormant (ie, active but not trying to apply any armor). The Skyrim error logs report the following: [05/03/2016 - 07:21:48PM] Error: Array index -1 is out of range (0-99) stack: [Active effect 2 on (1700FF8A)].DSerItemAdderScript.OnEffectStart() - "DSerItemAdderScript.psc" Line 116 Can anyone tell me what this means, or more specifically, what I can to do try to fix the problem? (Bonus points for anyone who has an easier or more reliable way to make enemy NPCs wear modded armor that I add to the game, such as some kind of leveled list script or something).

"SirSalami". I dig the name.

I've never installed any of the unofficial patches but have been putting a lot of thought into doing so now (I've simply always been worried that some of my mods will wind up being incompatible, leading to an even less stable game than I already have. Skyrim is a finicky little b****). Would you recommend that I go ahead and install all the patches (minus HD, as I don't use it) now and then update with the oncoming release, or would it be better just to wait?

Lol that's actually a rather good point. The only reason I'm looking to be able to do this is because some poor sod has not yet offered a patch that will allow all of these files to work with one another, and for that reason I feel like the sod will have to be me. It's not that these mods don't play well together in one fashion or another (pretty much any two of them will work without conflict), it's that using all four will overwrite like crazy and prevent me from enjoying their individual features. I respect the advice to just choose what I want the most and live with it, but I'm willing to try to make a patch for myself to get the effects from all of them. I know that it will be a learning process but it seems as if it's my only option. I just don't know if it's TES5Edit or Wrye Bash (or perhaps even something else) that is the correct tool to accomplish this.

I'm at my wit's end trying to create a stable game of Skyrim that allows me to use the mods that I actually want to use. Basically, I'm looking to have all of these mods working with (that is, not overwriting) each other: Skyrim Climate Overhaul: Summer edition Audio of Skyrim Sounds of Skyrim (all 3 modules) Enhanced Lighting and FX (plus its Enhancer and Exterior plugins) The first mod, SCO, turns the Skyrim landscape pleasant and summery while also adding some weather effects. Audio of Skyrim replaces and enhances existing sounds. Sounds of Skyrim adds new sounds to the game. ELFX changes the lighting / shadows of interior and exterior areas of the game. The problem is that each of these mods seems to alter some of the same cells, and obviously only the last one on the list will take effect. I'd like to get them all playing alongside each other but I don't know how to go about doing that. I've been looking for the last hour and some people recommend a bashed patch, others say that a bashed patch is only for leveled lists and to use TES5Edit to make a merged patch, then someone said TES5Edit requires a special script, someone else said that TES5Edit will not "accept" merged patches anymore, still others say that merging is automatic but I still have to delete actual records myself, and...well you get the point. Basically I'm just trying to learn the easiest and most automated way to combine these mods in such a way that they'll all have their effects in my game without overruling one another. Please help!

In response to post #27623835. #27624585, #27624860, #27625270, #27628155, #27628620, #27628655, #27629705, #27634100, #27635775, #27638110 are all replies on the same post. I, too, hate the overwhelming abundance of skimpy mods. I've got no problem with nudity, nor an author's right to post such content on the Nexus. It doesn't bother me that this stuff exists, so I feel no need to filter it out of my browsing. I just wish that certain trends weren't so predominant. I've seen countless quality mods that didn't get nearly the attention that they deserved ("Modded Loot" is a good recent example), meanwhile every mod created by a popular author gets tidal waves of adulation and each of the latest panty and nipple pasty outfits receive one endorsement after another. Everyone's entitled to create what they create, and to like what they like. To each their own. I just wish that quality, legitimately game-enriching content took priority over uploader favoritism and stripper armor.

In response to post #27527609. #27527849, #27527994, #27528224, #27528879, #27528919, #27529224, #27529299, #27529544, #27529909, #27530019, #27530539, #27530744, #27531059, #27532069, #27532379, #27532479, #27532774, #27534654, #27536949, #27537029, #27537364, #27537434, #27537699, #27537784, #27538114, #27539284, #27542064, #27542384, #27543549, #27544024, #27544079, #27544349, #27545064, #27547409, #27549534, #27554170, #27554760, #27554915, #27555635, #27559975, #27561095, #27561920, #27562995, #27565100, #27565465, #27566025, #27566285, #27567170, #27570770, #27572065, #27576690, #27576960, #27579905, #27595795, #27598485, #27607280, #27608280, #27610230, #27613615, #27642130, #27695640, #27697270, #27702335, #27704350, #27705270, #27709465, #27714420, #27717690 are all replies on the same post. I was surprised by the gender percentages as well. I think more women would feel comfortable browsing this site if they didn't run across absurdly giant breasts and transparent dental floss "armor" roughly every eleven seconds.

We welcome you, Paul Muad' Dib.

Thanks saurus, you're highlighting exactly what confused me in the past. First I head that you needed the latest Skyrim update. Then I heard that you needed the latest skse. Then I heard that you needed an ini tweak. Then I heard that you didn't need any of it. If there's still this much debate about whether any of it makes any difference then that kind of suggests to me exactly what you said, which is that noticeable performance is apparently going to depend more on the rig than anything else. The .dll situation is kind of odd. First, my laptop uses both integrated graphics and a Nvidia card ("Optimus" technology) so there's a .dll file that I have to use to make my laptop understand that when Skyrim is running it needs to switch to the Nvidia card (forcing it in the Nvidia menu doesn't stick). Then there's an old mod I use called "Antialias and sharpen" which essentially does the same as ENB but much more subtly - it balances out the cool blue hue that a lot of ENB settings default to while also sharpening the graphics noticeably. I already have to rename the .dll that comes with that (using a hex editor) so that it won't interfere with the Optimus issue, but I've never tried running yet another third .dll in addition to those. If you've had good results with ENB I may give it another shot, if only for the performance (as opposed to the visuals).

Hey Oubliette, thanks for stopping to explain. Okay I do remember hearing that Skyrim's last update removed the 4GB limit, but then I also recall a lot of people saying that one needed the latest version of skse (which I always used anyway) and that THAT contained the 4GB remover. But then I heard still MORE people say that no, that's not enough, one has to add a specific ini tweak (change the values of some numbers, I think) in order for the 4GB limit removal to actually take effect. Just to be perfectly clear you're saying that no, no one needs ANY of that crap for the game to utilize all 4GB of VRAM, one only needs to have the latest version of Skyrim? As for ENB I don't necessarily mind using it but generally prefer not to, I don't have any real love of most of the visual effects and I believe installing it would mean overwriing a .dll file that I already need for something else. I only tried using it when I found a mod a while back (don't remember the name, just that it had a few thousand endorsements) that specifically recommended ENBoost, with the visual effects turned off, to boost the game's framerate. I gave it a shot, had no real way of telling whether it made a difference. It sounds like you yourself don't use any mods or tweaks of any kind for performance. Is that because your game already runs quite smoothly or is it because you've had poor experiences trying performance-boosting mods?

Hey guys, I'm about to reinstall Skyrim for the first time in... man, it would have to be at least 6-10 months I think. Even then, my last install was kind of a work in progress regarding the testing of stability mods and so forth. So basically what I'm wondering is whether any of you could give bring me up to speed on whether there's a more or less universally agreed-upon way to get the game running as smoothly as possible. I never could tell whether the 4GB limit was in fact included with skse, and whether I still had to do an ini tweak to trigger it. I've also had people tell me that I need ENB (which I don't prefer for graphic settings but which I've heard is good for overall stability). Then there are patchers and so forth, and I don't know which ones are still good, which ones are outdated, etc. Essentially I'm not asking anyone to list all the different tweaks that could be used to get my game running better, I was just wondering if anyone could update me on the status of the 4GB patch and whether there's any one (or two, or what have you) mods or procedures that, over the last year, have been generally accepted as a major benefit to Skyrim stability. Thanks for any help!

Ctrl+F would just jump me to each instance of the object though, right? What I'm looking to do (or at least determine to be possible) is to basically "select" every instance of an object and then just switch them all with another object. Essentially tell the game to take every tree of type A and replace it with type B. From your response it sounds like the CK doesn't allow for such a thing.

I'm experimenting with the CK and getting my feet wet with modding- just some little things, my curiosity piqued from trying to fix the "Natural Skyrim Rain" mod that apparently remains broken. Anyway I'm using Seasons of Skyrim- Summer, which adds brilliant color to the aspen trees of the world. After trying and failing to find a mod that would add some color to the rest of the trees in the landscape, I got to wondering if I could just do it myself- namely, by swapping them with more aspen trees. Is there a fast or easy way to tell the CK to seek every instance of, say, pine trees and batch replace them with aspens?

I started up my last save (which had been made without the mod active) which was near what I recall to have been Bronze Water Cave. I set the weather, the rain began, and almost immediately it tapered off into a light drizzle as if it was going to stop completely. Instead, to my surprise, it remained a light drizzle which accompanied a gentle snowfall. From the looks of things the rainfall was trying to taper off and then cease completely but got stuck, which is what I'd seen before (such as when the clouds would clear and the sun would come out). As expected, when I went into an interior cell (in this case Bronze Water Cave) the drizzle kept going inside. I'm starting to think that the rain stopped completely in my earlier test because of the fast travel, as if skipping to a further place and time "kicked in" the mod's need to recheck whether it should be raining. If so, this continues to make me think that the issue is with the rain not completely stopping when it's supposed to.

I had to start a fresh install because of a combination of other mods but if you guys are still interested I'll be back a little later with the results of some exploring with the rain mod activated. EDIT: Alright, I've been playing with the mod active for about a half hour and strangely enough, there haven't been any issues with the rain appearing indoors so far (it shows up for just a second but immediately fades out as if being "caught" in the process of turning off. That's not how it went down before, when I'd be able to stand in an interior cell and watch the ceiling pour down rain). I wonder if this is because the effect isn't turning off very well though. In a few different places (the general Windhelm area, the city of Riften) I began the effect with SW 10a23c and was able to wait for more than an entire in-game day without the rain letting up. Yet in both cases, a fast-travel suddenly turned the rain off. That was either really coincidental timing or the rain not ceasing when it should have. Twice I traveled from the Riften stables to the Fort north of town, before Shor's Stone. Both times the rain let up on its own and seemed to end naturally. I tested going into the fort both when the rain was still coming and after it ended, and neither time did the rain show up inside. I guess I'll have to keep testing, I'm kind of confused as to why the mod's performance is inconsistent. Before, I was getting rain both indoors and continuing on even after the clouds lifted and the sky became sunny and clear. Now neither are happening, but the rain seems to want to keep going until I fast travel (or unless I happen to go near that fort, I guess).