Is there some overarching Oblivion file settings?

[Noggog]

So, I have a good list of mods running at once (350+ listed in Wrye), and they've all been running great until just now. I was messing with some bow settings using my newly added Duke Patricks bow mod, and I happened to notice my More Capacity Encumbrance with Fatigue mod wasn't working. I'm meticulous about checking mod conflictions, and normally I can spend some time and go pinpoint which specific mod it is, open it up in TES4Edit or something, and fix the problem.

 

This time it's different. MoreCapacityEncum/wF wasn't working, I turned off ALL my mods except that alone, it still didn't work. I downloaded a new one from Nexus and ran it alone, nope. I went back to an old -working- backup (I copy the entire Bethesda folder to a separate Hard drive), where I'm 100% sure MCE was working, nope. I know there's the oblivion.ini in Documents/MyGames, so I reverted to a backup of that, still didn't work. I deleted my oblivion.ini entirely and had Oblivion make a new one, nope.

 

I can't understand what is causing this mod not to work. It scares me because I thought all bugs/conflicts could be solved by load order, but something freaked MCEF despite load order or esp contents. Something changed that isn't in the Bethesda folder or My Games folder. I have no clue what it is. My next step is to uninstall Oblivion and reinstall and hopefully copy over my backup files one by one and see if it works. Anyone know what could be the problem? It could be some freaky coincidence or something else, but I was just wondering if any other experienced bugsquasher knows of some other reason.

Edited December 24, 2010 by Leviathan1753

[Smooth613]

Try a previous save (or new game) before the problem every occurred and where you know the mod was working. It's possible that something in your save file is causing the issue.

[Noggog]

Try a previous save (or new game) before the problem every occurred and where you know the mod was working. It's possible that something in your save file is causing the issue.

 

Yeah, I loaded old saves, even started a new character. Still had the same problem.

[bben46]

The installed mods limit is 254.

 

There is actually a limit to how many mods are in the data folder whether installed or not. It seems that the game engine tries to read everything in the data folder on start, even those that are not only deactivated, but not even installed. The number is rarely reached as it is over 400.

 

Try moving any unused mods completely out of the data folder, be sure that you have not just deactivated mods, but completely removed them from the game as deactivating does not uninstall a mod - it is still loaded, just not active. Remove not only the esp, but any mesh and texture files installed by the mod as well.

[SandsOfTime404]

As bben said, try actually removing the mods entirely from the game. Deactivating them doesn't mean the game stops trying to read them, and having to many will make your game asplode.

[Noggog]

Hmm, interesting. I knew about the 256 (or 254 with oblivion.esm and whatnot) limit, and I did workarounds with Bashing and merging mods. I've had technically over 300 mods for a while now and it's worked.

 

The 400+ limit on mod files in the data folder is new to me. I'll see if it that's the problem.

 

I'm suspecting that it is NOT the problem, as I restored an old backup (the entire Bethesda Folder), of a working setup, and that -specific- mod didn't work again. I would understand if i just added another mod that pushed me over the 400+ limit... but this was an old backup.

[Qwaxalot]

Hmm, interesting. I knew about the 256 (or 254 with oblivion.esm and whatnot) limit, and I did workarounds with Bashing and merging mods. I've had technically over 300 mods for a while now and it's worked.

 

The 400+ limit on mod files in the data folder is new to me. I'll see if it that's the problem.

 

I'm suspecting that it is NOT the problem, as I restored an old backup (the entire Bethesda Folder), of a working setup, and that -specific- mod didn't work again. I would understand if i just added another mod that pushed me over the 400+ limit... but this was an old backup.

 

Wrye Bash has a function that fixes this (the ghost function).

 

Be aware that that 400 or so limit applies to any esp or esm that is downstream of the Oblivion folder.

[Noggog]

Awesome to know about the ghost function. 8) Learn new things every day.

 

Still didn't solve the issue though.. 8\

 

I'm beginning to think it's something really odd... or obvious... hehe

[Noggog]

Yup.

 

<--- Complete idiot

 

I forgot I deleted TFE (some fatigue mod my brother gave me), which had encumbrance tied in with it. With that gone, my temporary max encumbrance went up to something like 250 (with MREF's first stage of encumbrance).. which I thought was my max-MAX encumbrance (as if MREF wasn't reducing it to create its first stage).

I hastily assumed MREF just wasn't working because it wasn't reducing my encumbrance to the normal 130ish, because I thought the encum decrease was inherent in that mod, not TFE.

 

Needless to say, it was an ESP problem.. nothing freaky. Guess I wasn't meticulous enough! XD

 

I'm glad I learned about the ghost function, though. Thanks! 8)

Edited December 25, 2010 by Leviathan1753