Fallout 4 crashing on startup after going over 290 active plugins

[Degrie]

Hi I'm fairly new to extensive modding but I'm trying to learn more and have recently begun using xedit and zedit and just installed the creation kit so my knowledge is fairly limited. I use MO2 in the past I have had a more heavily modded game although not nearly as stable but for some reason it now crashes when going above 290 plugins.

[HeyYou]

That's because the hard limit is 255...... ESLs don't count toward that limit. The game *may* load with more than 255 active esp/esm files, but, you can end up with some REALLY strange behavior. (like, all your mods resetting each time you load a game... no matter how long you have been playing.)

 

Trim your load list. Get below the hard limit. Merge some, change some to esl, etc.

[Degrie]

That's because the hard limit is 255...... ESLs don't count toward that limit. The game *may* load with more than 255 active esp/esm files, but, you can end up with some REALLY strange behavior. (like, all your mods resetting each time you load a game... no matter how long you have been playing.)

 

Trim your load list. Get below the hard limit. Merge some, change some to esl, etc.

but I havent hit my cap the number of active esp/esm i have is only 145 the active plugins though in mod organizer 2 displays that combined with your esl which together are 290 and it doesn't matter if I try to activate another esl or esp it just crashes the game on start up.

[HeyYou]

If it crashes before you get to the main menu, that is a missing master crash. If it gets to the main menu, but, crashes when you try and start a new game, or load a saved game, that is likely a mod conflict that the game simply doesn't know how to handle.

 

Edit: Also, I think there IS a limit on how many ESL files you can use. The way they work is, they use id's that are left over from fallout4.esm, and there is a finite number.... go over that, and carnage ensues..... :D There is no fixed number of ESL files that you can use, it just depends on how many item IDs each one wants, that determines when you 'run out'.

Edited July 3, 2021 by HeyYou

[Degrie]

If it crashes before you get to the main menu, that is a missing master crash. If it gets to the main menu, but, crashes when you try and start a new game, or load a saved game, that is likely a mod conflict that the game simply doesn't know how to handle.

 

Edit: Also, I think there IS a limit on how many ESL files you can use. The way they work is, they use id's that are left over from fallout4.esm, and there is a finite number.... go over that, and carnage ensues..... :D There is no fixed number of ESL files that you can use, it just depends on how many item IDs each one wants, that determines when you 'run out'.

okay that's interesting I have read that the esl cap is 4096 but if that cap is actually the item references used by them that makes sense on why its crashing ill have to figure out how to do a proper merge patch I tried before but it resulted in missing models on items.