Tes5Edit Merged Patch

[Katy420]

So every time I rebuild my merged patch I get the message "Found a MGEF reference, expected: LVLN,NPC_" twice. I know what this means in theory, found magic effect reference, should be an npc. But that's literally all it gives me to go on so I have no clue how to find/delete/repair this problem.

 

To be fair I have a ton of mods. I believe the scientific term is "a$$load of mods." Way more than the plugin limit (like 340 total), I've merged a lot of the stupid things like armor and hair mods. But I'm kind of a perfectionist.... My games is 10000% PLAYABLE (And, edit, it DOES still spit out the patch and I CAN play an actual game using it). But I have the odd CTD issue, I've seen this message like 10 times, and it bugs me to have less than perfect stability, KNOW there's something out of place, and not be able to find it. But what the hell am I gonna do, snoop in Tes5Edit through 340ish mods one by one? That sounds terrible, there's gotta be a better way to fix this.

 

Any help appreciated, <3 you nexus.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Katy420

[Katy420]

NOT a bump >.> But I still haven't found anything on how to figure this out. I resorted to trying to go through my retardedly long mod list one by one, I'm not all the way done yet but it's even harder than I thought. It's normal for some mods to have errors from time to time, so the check for errors filter is going nuts with all the mods I have. They're 99.9999999% harmless.... But it sure makes it hard to find the references I'm looking for. I also tried applying good ol fashioned human logic-- Anything that adds magic effects and/or NPCs, that narrows the list a bit. But the pieces I'm looking for remain illusive. Now it's war, I'm GONNA find this sonbitch. Any advice from someone more savvy than me would be so awesome.

[vram1974]

Not that I've tried this but you could use the CTD-searching technique by unchecking half your mods in TES5Edit. If the merged patch doesn't produce errors you pick the other half. Through process of elimination you'll find it.

[superpowermindo]

So every time I rebuild my merged patch I get the message "Found a MGEF reference, expected: LVLN,NPC_" twice. I know what this means in theory, found magic effect reference, should be an npc. But that's literally all it gives me to go on so I have no clue how to find/delete/repair this problem.

 

To be fair I have a ton of mods. I believe the scientific term is "a$$load of mods." Way more than the plugin limit (like 340 total), I've merged a lot of the stupid things like armor and hair mods. But I'm kind of a perfectionist.... My games is 10000% PLAYABLE (And, edit, it DOES still spit out the patch and I CAN play an actual game using it). But I have the odd CTD issue, I've seen this message like 10 times, and it bugs me to have less than perfect stability, KNOW there's something out of place, and not be able to find it. But what the hell am I gonna do, snoop in Tes5Edit through 340ish mods one by one? That sounds terrible, there's gotta be a better way to fix this.

 

Any help appreciated, <3 you nexus.

No need to go through them one by one. What I'd do is, just disable everything, then enable like, 50 of them. If you get the error, there you go, you narrowed the list to 50. If you don't, then yay, it means it really IS some esp causing this crap and not some deeper unidentified issue. So enable 50 more, just enable until you get the error. Once you do, disable the batch of mods you last enabled, and try to narrow it down like that.

[Katy420]

:/

Thanks guys. But I was really hoping there was some functionality to Wrye Bash or Tes5Edit that I didn't know about that would help me figure this out.

 

Through the process of elimination, I've come to understand only that my mods have errors (read: Are made by humans). There are so many, again 99.9999999% harmless, that it's impossible to filter through them all (at least for me-- I'm FAR from an advanced modder). But I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing. Like, a toggle I could turn on that would tell me where this error is and in what context, but I don't know about it because I'm so N00b.

 

But I appreciate the replies

 

<3 you, nexus

[nonoodles]

Isn't there a load index number in the error message? Should point out which mod in your load order is throwing out the error. It could also be that fleeting bug in TES5Edit that kept churning out similar errors for Interesting NPCs. I do believe it's been corrected in the latest build.

[Katy420]

I already tried updating Tes5Edit, and NO that's literally all it gives me, with all messages enabled. I'll post a SS if I have to, but I really thought it would be more obvious than this, simple fix, oops Katy was dumb. I do use 3dNPCs, but I've tried disabling both it and Inconsequential NPCs since they both hang out at the bottom of my load order, to no avail.

 

If it's just a Tes5Edit issue, then that would be music to my ears. But my game IS less stable than I like, in any case. General advice is welcome :) I'm so n00b.

[superpowermindo]

I already tried updating Tes5Edit, and NO that's literally all it gives me, with all messages enabled. I'll post a SS if I have to, but I really thought it would be more obvious than this, simple fix, oops Katy was dumb. I do use 3dNPCs, but I've tried disabling both it and Inconsequential NPCs since they both hang out at the bottom of my load order, to no avail.

 

If it's just a Tes5Edit issue, then that would be music to my ears. But my game IS less stable than I like, in any case. General advice is welcome :smile: I'm so n00b.

Well it's pretty tough to have that amount of mods and make the game run stable lol. I don't think there's any other way to find out the culprit other than the process of elimination like I also mentioned above. I also don't think TES5Edit's merged patch will solve all your issues. I am a perfectionist when it comes to modding Skyrim too, but at every stage, I am greeted by yet another effing problem that I have to put up with. It has become so intense that I spend most of my time trying to fix the game rather than playing it, and I regret it. So my advice to you is, if your game is in a playable state at least for an extended period of time before it crashes, then I suggest you at least try to live with your problems. I know, you might think it's bad advice, since you so desperately want to fix the game, but the reality is, Skyrim is really poorly optimized in a lot of ways, and even more so when you mod it. So what I learned over time is, you either spend all your time trying to fix things and get frustrated, or you play the game and experience an awesome playthrough with a few bearable flaws.

 

Other than that, I just want to make sure, do you have all the memory enhancing mods like SSME, Safety Load and/or ENBoost? As you probably already know, those mods will fix most of your crashes, and a huge chunk of them really ARE caused by memory issues. Just making sure.

[Katy420]

 

I already tried updating Tes5Edit, and NO that's literally all it gives me, with all messages enabled. I'll post a SS if I have to, but I really thought it would be more obvious than this, simple fix, oops Katy was dumb. I do use 3dNPCs, but I've tried disabling both it and Inconsequential NPCs since they both hang out at the bottom of my load order, to no avail.

 

If it's just a Tes5Edit issue, then that would be music to my ears. But my game IS less stable than I like, in any case. General advice is welcome :smile: I'm so n00b.

Well it's pretty tough to have that amount of mods and make the game run stable lol. I don't think there's any other way to find out the culprit other than the process of elimination like I also mentioned above. I also don't think TES5Edit's merged patch will solve all your issues. I am a perfectionist when it comes to modding Skyrim too, but at every stage, I am greeted by yet another effing problem that I have to put up with. It has become so intense that I spend most of my time trying to fix the game rather than playing it, and I regret it. So my advice to you is, if your game is in a playable state at least for an extended period of time before it crashes, then I suggest you at least try to live with your problems. I know, you might think it's bad advice, since you so desperately want to fix the game, but the reality is, Skyrim is really poorly optimized in a lot of ways, and even more so when you mod it. So what I learned over time is, you either spend all your time trying to fix things and get frustrated, or you play the game and experience an awesome playthrough with a few bearable flaws.

 

Other than that, I just want to make sure, do you have all the memory enhancing mods like SSME, Safety Load and/or ENBoost? As you probably already know, those mods will fix most of your crashes, and a huge chunk of them really ARE caused by memory issues. Just making sure.

 

Yes, I have basic utilities installed and am capable with them. But I love the merge plugins script, it's been saving me for years :( And I doubt that's the problem, since I've played multiple playthroughs using it. Somehow, all of a sudden, things changed. This is code! It shouldn't "change"-- FFS people are still using FORTRAN.

 

But I SO understand what you mean, modding is never "finished," it just gets closer to finished. It's probably a mental illness.

 

SSME, as you know, is obsolete. The save game cleaner is extremely reliable. And yes, the only ENB I use is ENBoost, I'm happy with ELFX and COT on my mid range PC.

[zilav]

Use "Check for errors" on installed plugins in TES5Edit, it will report the same error but tell you where exactly.