LOTS of mods for SSE are form 43?

[Nap1985]

What's the deal? MO2 is alerting me that maybe 5-10% of the mods I've installed and am starting to activate and build my load order, are form 43. So I go to the mods page and there may be a mention of it, but there will be zero bug reports. I was under the impression this was essentially impossible to use in AE? Is it just more likely to cause bugs, or ctd? Should I just load these mods up and see if they work?

 

Or is this a MO2 bug? I think I understand the basic process for converting, I have the CK, SSEdit, and Cathedral assests optimizer, but I've also read that not all meshes and textures need or should be converted, and converting can actually cause problems. But figuring out which to convert and which not to convert seems....daunting.

 

I've downloaded/installed more mods than I can use so going through the trouble of converting dozens of mods that should have been converted before being even being posted to SSE doesn't seem worth it. I suppose I'm just looking for clarification.

 

 

[Algabar]

What's the deal? MO2 is alerting me that maybe 5-10% of the mods I've installed and am starting to activate and build my load order, are form 43. So I go to the mods page and there may be a mention of it, but there will be zero bug reports. I was under the impression this was essentially impossible to use in AE? Is it just more likely to cause bugs, or ctd? Should I just load these mods up and see if they work?

 

Form 43 doesn't seem to be as "dangerous" as some people think. It's very unlikely to crash your game or do other harmful things. Also, form 43 doesn't always mean improper porting/conversion to SE.

 

Here's a detailed essay about the implications of form 43 vs. 44:

https://davidjcobb.github.io/skyrim-writings/articles/form-versions-43-and-44.html

 

If you want to feel "safe", you can open form 43 plugins in the SE Creation Kit (available from Steam). Simply resaving them will update to form 44.

Note: This is not guaranteed to work for all plugins, but it usually DOES work for .esp files. .esm files require a bit more work.

 

From my experience so far, I'd just use those form 43 files as they are, especially when there are no bug reports or serious complaints on the mod's page. Don't worry too much about it.

[Nap1985]

Thank you for the reply. I think I'll load a few and try AddItemMenu. Some of them I was heartbroken that they came up form 43 and I didn't want to mess with them and cause problems. (Warglaives of Azzinoth I'm looking at you!) It's mostly armor/weapon mods with this issue that I've found. Although there are a few oldrim mods that I HAVE to try to get working in AE. Worlds Dawn, Xtended Loot, GUISE. I'm trying to build Diablo in skyrim ;)

 

On a side note, I was planning on merging a lot of mods, weapons/armor mods that add a small number of items each. Maybe basic followers. I've read to not merge complex mods or mods with scripts? Anyone had success merging mods with scipts? Or mods that I will then run Bodyslide on?

 

But now I'm wondering if just esl-ifying (or espfe) them would be better (although I'm guessing more time consuming)? Less chance of problems? Opinions on merging vs esl to keep under 254 limit? I'm not even sure how many mods I can load and the game still function, even with it under the limit. I've seen mentions of mod packs that use 1500+ mods so I'm assuming what I'm trying to do is...doable. The vast majority of my mods are going to be weapons and armor.

[crimson2018]

The Form 43 plugins are Oldrim plugins that have never been opened in Creation Kit 64 (the version that came with SSE). Many people don't know this, but is very easy to update the plugin header to Form 44, you don't even have to load the plugin in CK64 and re-save it. Just open the Creation Kit, select the Form 43 plugin and write something the plugin description window then close it and the header will automatically update to Form 44, no need to load the plugin or make any changes.

 

Form 43 plugins are also very harmless. I bet that a single SKSE based mod or an Animation mod comes with 100x higher risk factor of causing a crash or a freeze than 1000 Form 43 mods used together. I used a bunch of these Form 43 Mods in the early days of Special Edition, with over 200 non-SKSE mods and i got like 3 crashes and one freeze in a year and a half, on a 180 lvl character, which completed every quest in vanilla and dlc plus top 20 quest and adventure mods on nexus. One of of those fake rumors flying around, just like those about Open Cities.

[Nap1985]

Well thank you very much. Good to know! I ran several of the mods I was worried about through Nifoptimizer and Cathedral Asset Optimizer and the only files they altered were some animations in one mod.