Seriously, how in DENIAL is everyone on these forums?

[MidevalGuy]

I guess I am just lucky when it comes to most AAA titles like Skyrim?

 

I've only encountered three small bugs across a heavily modded Skyrim + the DLCs that were easily fixed via console commands.

 

I very rarely post on Tech support forums for games, not because I don't want to help others, but because my gaming experience across multiple titles and multiple genres has been nothing but green ("good to go") compared to the vast majority of those who have problems.

 

I think the biggest thing that allows me to play a majority of bug free games is I don't over clock my hardware even though I specifically buy the after-market parts designed for it. I also do heavy research into how a game is built before I start to mod it (use mods, or create mods) and I think this is a big reason why most casual users encounter problems; they don't get under the hood and see the game's limitations and/or what are realistic expectations for their hardware regardless of whether or not is a custom built gaming rig, or off the shelf consumer rig.

 

In my experience, a vast majority of problems with Skyrim and other modded games is people think they can turn the game into something entirely different without any penalties to performance and or stability. Just because somebody may have the latest and greatest hardware overclocked to the point it could operate an unmanned mission to Mars doesn't necessarily mean the game itself (the engine) can handle all of those things. This is what I meant about people having unrealistic expectations even with uber hardware in place. This goes double, triple and quadruple for a game like Skyrim that is built on what amounts to ancient code that barely functions in vanilla form.

[RazorXE]

I guess I am just lucky when it comes to most AAA titles like Skyrim?

 

I've only encountered three small bugs across a heavily modded Skyrim + the DLCs that were easily fixed via console commands.

 

I very rarely post on Tech support forums for games, not because I don't want to help others, but because my gaming experience across multiple titles and multiple genres has been nothing but green ("good to go") compared to the vast majority of those who have problems.

 

I think the biggest thing that allows me to play a majority of bug free games is I don't over clock my hardware even though I specifically buy the after-market parts designed for it. I also do heavy research into how a game is built before I start to mod it (use mods, or create mods) and I think this is a big reason why most casual users encounter problems; they don't get under the hood and see the game's limitations and/or what are realistic expectations for their hardware regardless of whether or not is a custom built gaming rig, or off the shelf consumer rig.

 

In my experience, a vast majority of problems with Skyrim and other modded games is people think they can turn the game into something entirely different without any penalties to performance and or stability. Just because somebody may have the latest and greatest hardware overclocked to the point it could operate an unmanned mission to Mars doesn't necessarily mean the game itself (the engine) can handle all of those things. This is what I meant about people having unrealistic expectations even with uber hardware in place. This goes double, triple and quadruple for a game like Skyrim that is built on what amounts to ancient code that barely functions in vanilla form.

 

This is very true, Skyrim engine is very limited, Bethdsa really should stop using an upgrade of something very old which was also pretty bad.

[SayinNuthin]

Agreeing with DJF23 here, Linkjoy does raise some valid points - that he renders unpalatable with the tone of his post. Someone else here said that 'reinstalling the game is NOT fixing it!' it is throwing the damned thing away and putting a new one in it's place. I think they were banned but their point stands. When you advise people to reinstall you are saying it is unrepairable! Whether it is rendered so by the user messing with it or running afoul of it's abundant flaws doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

But that in turn doesn't change the fact that for all it's flaws, for most of us here, it's the only game in town :yes:

Edited October 18, 2013 by SayinNuthin

[fraquar]

_{I don't respond to most pleas for help simply because in most cases the person doesn't know how to properly troubleshoot - and you can see that in their initial plea and subsequent responses. People using a metric 54it-ton of mods, utilities to try to squeeze x% more performance out of their setup, who knows what crazy modifications to the game files - there are simply far, far too many moving parts.}

 

_{Have I had a perfect, trouble-free Skyrim experience? Nope. You can bet you @55 though I don't go making threads trashing some guys mod - what I do is try to find the cause of the problem and get that mod author all the information I can so he can replicate/fix the problem. If they don't seem to care (and I haven't seen a mod author yet that doesn't) then I simply move on to another mod that provides similar functionality.}

 

_{Added: the biggest problem I thought I had with a recently installed mods turned out to be Windows choking on itself. The only solution was to reinstall the OS back to a pristine state from a backup. Copied the Mod Organizer directory back to the drive from backup, added and configured those same recently installed mods and viola, no more problem.}

Edited October 18, 2013 by fraquar

[MidevalGuy]

Agreeing with DJF23 here, Linkjoy does raise some valid points - that he renders unpalatable with the tone of his post. Someone else here said that 'reinstalling the game is NOT fixing it!' it is throwing the damned thing away and putting a new one in it's place. I think they were banned but their point stands. When you advise people to reinstall you are saying it is unrepairable! Whether it is rendered so by the user messing with it or running afoul of it's abundant flaws doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

But that in turn doesn't change the fact that for all it's flaws, for most of us here, it's the only game in town :yes:

 

Re-installing the game is a perfectly valid course of action because it allows for more accurate troubleshooting with a vanilla install. As another poster wrote, with mods there are too many variables involved, so eliminating those from the equation immediately helps troubleshooting be 10x more effective since it rules out mods by default and then leaves other areas to focus on e.g. OS, hardware, etc.

[Rennn]

 

Agreeing with DJF23 here, Linkjoy does raise some valid points - that he renders unpalatable with the tone of his post. Someone else here said that 'reinstalling the game is NOT fixing it!' it is throwing the damned thing away and putting a new one in it's place. I think they were banned but their point stands. When you advise people to reinstall you are saying it is unrepairable! Whether it is rendered so by the user messing with it or running afoul of it's abundant flaws doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

But that in turn doesn't change the fact that for all it's flaws, for most of us here, it's the only game in town :yes:

 

Re-installing the game is a perfectly valid course of action because it allows for more accurate troubleshooting with a vanilla install. As another poster wrote, with mods there are too many variables involved, so eliminating those from the equation immediately helps troubleshooting be 10x more effective since it rules out mods by default and then leaves other areas to focus on e.g. OS, hardware, etc.

 

 

Yep. And it should be standard procedure for every mod user to back up at least all the official .BSA files to save time.

 

Save the official .BSAs and delete the rest of Skyrim (including .ini documents), and Steam only takes 3-10 minutes to verify and re-download the rest.

[fraquar]

All I know is there is a reason I don't try to troubleshoot peoples computer problems over the phone - I have no earthly idea what state their computer is in.

 

Skyrim is pretty much the same thing, yeah sometimes you can get corroborating evidence of a problem from others and know where to start looking. Sometimes it's a little more complicated than that. If you aren't good with the English language and how to get your point across cleanly (not always my strong suit), you can actually make the whole process even more frustrating.

 

Hard to believe people would think that reinstalling Skyrim is a bad or unnecessary thing, it's no worse than having to reinstall the Operating System Skyrim runs on.

[Honorgirl]

Vanilla Skyrim unstable? That's a bit of a stretch and you know it. Vanilla Skyrim may have the occasional CTD, but they are very rare and most of the time it's dependent on your rig or if you've been working your computer really hard (laptops that are overheating for example).

 

Also the things you are complaining about are things that ARE VERY SOUND ADVICE. They are repeated because those solutions typically solve a wide range of problems. If you completely uninstall Skyrim, resetting the ini files and everything back to default and STILL have CTD's, it's time for you to call customer support for more professional advice.

 

That being said, Skyrim is a really good game. One of my favorite games of all time to be honest. But once you start modding your game, prepare for some heart ache. I've had to reinstall skyrim and delete all my mods twice now. But i'm glad I did it because each time I learned more and more about properly managing my game (knowledge that I can apply on the next TES game :wink: )

[RazorXE]

Bethdsa really didnt optimize there code as much as they could have.

[1erCru]

felt the same until I started using uExterior Cell Buffer=24 ( defaults at 36 ) in the Skyrim INI. For years i thought the mods or the scripts or the engine were faulty. I no longer crash and have developed a different view of the game as a result.

 

The only other adjustment Ive made is not using random alternate start mod and replacing the predator script with one I found posted online as it was stated to maybe be a culprit in some of the exterior cells crashes.

 

So I no longer see Bethesda's engine as bunk BUT only because I do not experience any CTD's.

 

As a note Im using SkyRe, Frostfall, 2K maxed textures, and ASIS with aggressive spawns. Stable as a rock. All of this happened after switching uExterior Cell Buffer to a value of 24.