Do I need to reinstall fresh?

[Reefor]

Hi. As I'm sure everyone knows, back in mid 2022 Bethesda did an update that broke every mod. I got frustrated and walked away from the game and I'm now trying to get up and running again.

I updated every mod that had an update. I couldn't load a save because it told me several mods were missing including some I just updated, and it would crash when I tried to load the save. I went to start a new game but the Alternative Life mod wasn't working and it was getting late so I didn't want to go through the movie & escaping helgen quest.

Today I went through all my mods again and made sure all the ones that could be updated were. I also went through this list and added anything that I wasn't sure I didn't need as long as it had a compatible version to 1.6.1130.0, and a few that only showed compatibility with 1.6.640
https://modding.wiki/en/skyrim/users/skse-plugins
 

The save still wouldn't load so I started a new game. Alternative life still isn't working so I went through the little move then tried to get through the escaping helgen quest. The first time it crashed after I jumped to the 1st building and met up with the guy I was supposed to follow. The second time it crashed when I was in the tower before the dragon broke through the wall. (CTDs)

I have a pretty long list of mods. I think there was a program that would log crashes so I can maybe identify a conflict so I know which mod to turn off and/or uninstall, but can't remember what that is or where to find it.

Is the crash logger the best way to go, or do I turn everything off except SKSE & USSEP and if it works start adding things 1 by 1 to see which mod(s) is the problem, or just start with a clean install and start adding things back in 1 by 1.

Can someone with more experience please let me know what you think would be the quickest and easiest way to go?

Also, if someone can tell me how to turn off the auto updater, that would be a huge help I think. lol

Thanks in advance

[7531Leonidas]

How to turn off the auto updater in Steam can be found in the second sticky at the top of this Skyrim SE forum.

 

[Reefor]

24 minutes ago, 7531Leonidas said:

How to turn off the auto updater in Steam can be found in the second sticky at the top of this Skyrim SE forum.

 

Thanks, but I don't want to permanently turn it off. I just want to be able to pick and choose when it's updated. You know, when I have a week to work on it. lol

 

[7531Leonidas]

You just reverse the changes to allow auto update...

I kept my SE at 1.5.97 for a very long time, then updated to 1.6.353 for quite awhile, until SKSE based mods caught up again, then went ahead with 1.6.640.  Now playing the same game plan with the newest 1.6.1130, especially since Beth neglected its Steam wrapper.

 

[Reefor]

5 hours ago, 7531Leonidas said:

You just reverse the changes to allow auto update...

I kept my SE at 1.5.97 for a very long time, then updated to 1.6.353 for quite awhile, until SKSE based mods caught up again, then went ahead with 1.6.640.  Now playing the same game plan with the newest 1.6.1130, especially since Beth neglected its Steam wrapper.

 

That's what I plan to do. After an update I'll wait a while before I allow it so I can update the mods. But how do I turn off the auto updates?

 

[Reefor]

I went into steam and there are 3 settings for updating skyrim. Auto update, auto update with priority, and only update when I launch.

If I put it on only update when I launch, will it only update when I launch from steam? So when Launch from Mod Organizer it won't update?

[NexBeth]

20 hours ago, Reefor said:

 do I turn everything off except SKSE & USSEP and if it works start adding things 1 by 1 to see which mod(s) is the problem

This is your best bet for resolving the issue.  Really the only mods that should be affected by the update are SKSE dependent mods.  SKSE obviously has been updated.  You can check to see which of your mods have this dependency and confirm that they have been updated if necessary.

Are you using a mod manager?  Have you run load order to confirm that your mods are in the correct order?

I can confirm that Alternative Start does work fine with the update as I'm using it myself.  

[byowag]

2 hours ago, Reefor said:

I went into steam and there are 3 settings for updating skyrim. Auto update, auto update with priority, and only update when I launch.

If I put it on only update when I launch, will it only update when I launch from steam? So when Launch from Mod Organizer it won't update?

That's the approach I've seen many others say is the way to avoid it.

[Reefor]

3 hours ago, NexBeth said:

This is your best bet for resolving the issue.  Really the only mods that should be affected by the update are SKSE dependent mods.  SKSE obviously has been updated.  You can check to see which of your mods have this dependency and confirm that they have been updated if necessary.

Are you using a mod manager?  Have you run load order to confirm that your mods are in the correct order?

I can confirm that Alternative Start does work fine with the update as I'm using it myself.  

Thanks for the help. I'm not really good enough to know what requires SKSE. I posted a report in the Trainwreck page, hopefully someone can read it. lol, but I'm also seeing  a lot of chatter about crashes in the SKSE page. So those are people that are just trying to run other mods that still haven't been updated? (& SKSE is fine)

I'm using mod manager, I don't know "load order", is that a mod? I'm using the same load order as I had before the mod breaking update of mid 2022. I load the important stuff first and less & less important as I go down the list. Except for the physics mods which are near the bottom.

I'll keep going through my mod list looking for stuff with chatter about crashes & turn that stuff off. If that doesn't work I'll remove everything that hasn't been updated in the last few days. If that doesn't work I'll try turning everything off except SKSE & USSEP and see if it runs. If it does I guess I'll start adding mods back 1 by 1.

I guess they just had another mod breaking update which is upsetting since I'm starting back after leaving because of a different mod breaking update. lol

New question. In steam there's no setting for no updates. But there is a setting to only update when I launch. I've selected it, but does that mean it won't update unless I load from steam, so I'll be safe loading from SKSE in my Mod Manager?

Edited December 24, 2023 by Reefor

[Reefor]

1 hour ago, byowag said:

That's the approach I've seen many others say is the way to avoid it.

Thanks