How important is it to avoid installing/uninstalling mods during play?

[Panruru]

I recently started a new game and have already got pretty far into it, but I ended up having to reinstall a couple mods during troubleshooting. I also uninstalled a couple patches that weren't needed, one of them was redundant and another was making the interiors too bright.

 

In theory nothing I did should affect the game, but I did end up gaining a new plugin and dropping a couple others. Is this gonna be enough to destabilize my game down the line? Will it cause problems with my bashed patch?

 

My previous save got broken 150+ hours in and I never want that to happen again. :(

[Algabar]

The honest answer is: No one can tell you for sure...

 

The basic rule is not to change anything (except for meshes and textures) during a playthrough. In practice, you can say as a rule of thumb: The larger, more complex and script-heavy a mod is, the higher the risk. If you want to be absolutely safe, finalize your load order and then start to play.

 

BTW, bashed patches should always be up to date. Maybe your load order changed after removing or adding a plugin. The bashed patch should always reflect your actual load order. So, I'd recommend to update it.

 

In the end, it's up to you: How many hours did you spend with your current playthrough? What else do you want to achieve? How sad would it be to play on and loose the save game later on? How annoying would it be to start over?

 

TBH, personally I'd play on. But I don't care that much for my characters or my save games. I'm no completionist. And a new start from time to time feels exciting for me...

[xrayy]

The honest answer is: No one can tell you for sure...

what algabar says this the truth. read modinstructions and be aware and backup your saves and settings as often as you can. i've never used wryebash and all i can say that i've never missed it. my game runs stable with a reliable mod manager. do not overpace with complexity of mods while changing many parameters at the same time. keep it as simple as possible. a ton of simple mods do no harm, install and test one by one. a buggy esp, esl or esm or script can easily ruin your game. do not trust any mod out of the box and study the user comments.

most mod authors leave a warning or instructions if they know about any risk using or uninstalling their mod.

[anjenthedog]

Literally during play? Probably not all that wise. Such changes won't go thru anyway, until you've rebooted the game.

 

As far as during an ongoing game vector? I've been installing and uninstalling mods since I first installed Skyrim in ~Feb 2018. About 800 all told, including a bucket load I found either didn't work well with my install or didn't work as I expected or didn't work or I just found weren't as attractive as their advertisements made them sound. My present "quiescent" load is around 350-400 mods. Just installed a new mod a few days ago.

 

To avoid the big problems many come with from time to time, only install one or two mods at a time, both to reduce the complexity of debugging IFF something goes awry, but also to reduce the complications of disentangling a save vector when you have to uninstall said "broken" or game-breaking mod.

[Panruru]

Thanks for the advice! I didn't want to invest another 100 hours into a game that could become unstable down the line so I ended up restarting anyway. I'm not sure any of the changes I made to the previous build would have mattered, but I don't want to risk it. This time I definitely won't be making any changes to my mods!

[anjenthedog]

There's no reason not to add new mods occasionally along the way. It's just best to use caution and some SOP processes in doing so, so you avoid situations where you're left floundering.

 

install new mod

play for a while, maybe a week or two in game time.

If it still works Yay, move on and keep playing

if not, check for easy solutions and install if found.

If solves, test for a while more and if stable, yay, move on and keep playing

If not, don't blink eyes, uninstall "new" mod and then open the last save made before you installed it for best ensuring no leftovers are present. To clear any interim save crap you created while testing the failed candidate mod, delete all saves made after that last "good" save, and swallow any perceived progress losses as a result of your test run with the candidate mod.