When A MOD update breaks Your Game

[JamesRook]

I never know when an update to a MOD will cause problems. On rare occasions an author does indicate that the MOD is safe to update, but mostly not, just notes that the update or reposted updated MOD fixes certain things. Then there are the MODS that get an update and the author has changed the name or version or some aspect of the MOD and all the patches and dependant MODS (and their dependencies) no long work, the game can no longer find the masters and broken saves and CTDs result. Are the patches no longer needed? And what do you do about patches that are for a particular MOD but there are several versions of the MOD, say the full MOD and a lite MOD and the patches only recognise the full version? I don't know what to do about these issues except to never update a MOD until a new playthrough and then go through a rebuild of all the old MODs and a new load order, which seems pretty stupid when a MOD needs updates and fixes. Comments? Suggestions? Fixes?

[radiusrsatti]

one of the biggest reasons I fear playing Skyrim... I'm addicted to monitoring Nexus and updating my mods, to the point I haven't actually played in a little over a year... many small updates and fixes shouldn't really affect your game, unless you've made changes to the mods themselves prior to update, or the mod author did as you mentioned, changed the plugin name, overhauled the FormIDs, re-scripted and such, it should work out ok... mod updates can, however, invalidate the patches, or make them redundant, but still necessary for the load order. Record conflicts won't usually destroy a game, and the proper values can be forwarded as required

Patches "generally" only make record changes to existing form IDs from master plugins... there are some patches that add records, but those are usually for extra functionality as part of the patch... that being said, you shouldn't change between FULL or LITE versions without a new game... if the patches are built for one version, use that version... if the update makes the changes you've mentioned, the patches will need re-authored, remastered, as FormIDs will likely be different between plugins... you can attempt to do so yourself, or wait/request the mod author to update as needed... otherwise, should be removed and new game started

I've created 21 FINAL patches for my load order, to incorporate all record conflicts... unless the above occurred, updates to the records that aren't in conflict won't need corrected in the FINAL patches, but if the update changes FINAL patch records, unless irrelevant to my load order, I may need to update my patches manually

separately, unless patches include NEW records, those patches WILL NOT be needed in the load order with an AIO patch in place like mine, potentially saving slots and minimizing headache after generated... this only applies to initial game start, you should never change your load order mid-playthrough

I don't know which mod manager you use, but in any case, you can install an update to a new directory in MO2, maybe same with Vortex, and check the mod out prior to incorporating it and invalidating your setup

TLDR; major updates and changes are a no-no mid-playthrough, non-structural bugfixes and corrections should be fine if load order is unaffected

[JamesRook]

Thanks for the reply. So basically, because of the way mods and patches are written and the abilities/knowledge/skill of the author,  it's a complete crap shoot whether any particular update will bork your game. You've pointed out an issue I've had crop up several times where an update to a MOD invalidates all the patches written for it so the MOD would play nice with other MODs. I use Vortex (I'm old and MO2 is beyond me) and you can't leave MODs/patches with no master in the load order - so another new game. I actually want to play the game and see what the MODS actually do but it seems like after getting hours into a playthrough, some new MOD or patch will come along and totally corrupt your game. Just me ranting I guess. I'm on new game, I don't know, 10? for December and now trying to find out what is causing a CTD when I get close to Dawnstar. Will I be able to find out which MOD/patch is causing it? Probably not. It could be something installed or something missing. No way to find out for me.

[IsharaMeradin]

The rule of thumb is as follows: 

Once you've stabilized your mods and established their load order, do not update a single thing.  Finish out your playthrough.  And only when you are wanting to start a brand-new game, look into updating and changing what mods you use. 

There are always caveats where certain file types shouldn't affect things. But generally following that "rule", will keep you playing the game more often than playing with mod stability.

[weiht68]

Maybe you can find some hint here 

Otherwise - for me - to find the reason for problems i start with LOOT https://github.com/loot/loot/releases/tag/0.24.1 because it has a very nice feature where you can see which failures exist and -most important- how to fix if possible. Someone would say this is also possible in Vortex when you switch on LOOT messages but i find this implementation for a old man like me rather confusing.

[scorrp10]

I do not generally update my mods.   Heck, I am still on 16.1130 game version.    That said, occasionally I do look at what features mod updates added, and if it is something I want, I consider an update.    But I always make a save before updating, so I can revert if needed, and I also usually wait at least a week after update to see if other users have issues.

[melvinius]

Don't use a mod manager that automatically updates your mods, PERIOD, or you will suffer.

Mod Organizer 2 allows you to do something really simple to test mod upgrades without repercussions.  I do some combination of these steps all the time.

• If the mod just has an update file that isn't a full new version, install it via MO2 and give it a higher priority than the mod it's updating.  Test to make sure everything is working before committing to making saves with the update active.
• If you're actually installing a complete updated version of the mod, just install it and then uncheck the old mod in the left MO2 panel to deactivate it.  Test to make sure everything is working before committing to making saves with the new mod version active.

Easy peasy.  4,000 mods, everything working great with my build (just finished a 2+ year playthrough)