How Many Mods are too much?

[Moraelin]

when I saw the number 255 in this thread the first thing that popped into my head was Hexadecimal? I have installed and tested fire alarm systems where the device addresses are in Hexadecimal. The limit for 8 bit device addresses on a loop is 255. I thought this was a 64 bit system?

Well, it boils down to the ID numbers, if you want to get technical. They're 32 bit, BUT they're composed of two parts: the first 8 bits are the mod number, the last 24 bits are the actual ID in the .esp file.

 

Or as you see them in the console, which indeed is hexadecimal, the first 2 digits are the mod number, the last 6 digits are the ID inside the mod.

[Klipperken]

Which is why I was asking for advice on Merging Mods (WITHOUT adding the "Parent Mod, this would make merging a silly thing).
I am experimenting with a whole new idea, I will keep you posted about this, IF it succeeds.
Did 15 so far, cumbersome, time taking, but PROMISING...
Only 200+ more to go.

IF I succeed on the whole process without further error, i will post a detailed "How To ACTUALLY Merge Mods".

 

ADDENDUM:

Thusfar I did fairly VERY simple ones, I am on the point however of making an "Universal Scrap Item+WerkBench Addons" (tools AND Items) combined mod.
This might proof FAR more difficult and time consuming, but as stated afore, it does look promising.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Klipperken

[mac2636]

Which is why I was asking for advice on Merging Mods (WITHOUT adding the "Parent Mod, this would make merging a silly thing).

I am experimenting with a whole new idea, I will keep you posted about this, IF it succeeds.

Did 15 so far, cumbersome, time taking, but PROMISING...

Only 200+ more to go.

 

IF I succeed on the whole process without further error, i will post a detailed "How To ACTUALLY Merge Mods".

 

ADDENDUM:

Thusfar I did fairly VERY simple ones, I am on the point however of making an "Universal Scrap Item+WerkBench Addons" (tools AND Items) combined mod.

This might proof FAR more difficult and time consuming, but as stated afore, it does look promising.

Conflicts and keyword caps are much more likely reasons for issues than actual mod counts.

 

Also, not all mods need esp or esm to work, so you could definitely have many more than 255 if you resolved all conflicts properly.

[Klipperken]

I've got quite a few ESPs and 9 ESM in my game/data.

Now, I have an odd situation, some parts can't be copied seems, as if protected.
No matter what I try, they simply will not be copied.
So, I forced this, but the result is corrupted copies.
Darned annoying, but I keep trying.

[oldspice2625]

Jesus Christ... some people are addicted it seems.

 

I think I have like... 30 max on FNV, Oblivion (with the venerable OBMM) is sitting at 50, and Skyrim is the biggest offender with 70 maximum.

 

Why on earth would you need to smoosh all of them together just to get above 255?

 

If you need more than 255 mods or hell, even 255 to enjoy a game... you don't enjoy that game, just the freakish frankenstein that you created.

 

It's not a bad thing, but damn, that's needing a hell of a lot of extras to "make the game playable" as some say.

 

I don't even know how people HAVE more than like... 15 at this point. The CK isn't even out, so you just have those two bit, garage style thrown together ones that will be outdated the instant the CK is released, and put into the bowels of the Nexus, never to be heard from again.

 

Does your hunting rifle really need to have 4K HD textures that badly? Was FO4 so incomplete?

 

I'm from the retro days of gaming, so I don't really understand the need to pump a game full of steroids to get it "playable" or "enjoyable". Maybe it's just that I grew up with stuff on the 2600 that looked like a pile of dung, but we managed to survive without all of the gloss and extras.

 

I just don't understand it, is all. Just because you can, should you? :P

 

To answer the OP's question: When you "need" mods to make a game fun and even worth playing, beyond mandatory bug fixes, then you have too many mods, because the base game isn't fun enough, isn't "good enough" for you, to warrant standing on its own merits.

 

I could play vanilla Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3, NV, and yes, even FO4 (though I haven't touched it in like... three weeks) without mods.

 

I use them very sparingly, and only when I feel like it's something that would be fun to toy around with a bit, not that I need it to enjoy the game. When I feel like I could never go back to playing the game without something, then I start to question whether the game is good to play at all, and not if I should add more and more and more to put the damn thing on life support ;).

 

To each their own, I suppose. I guess some are just really..... really into computer games that much, and at the end of the day, I guess it doesn't matter since it's your time and your effort anyways :P. If it's not fun anymore, I'd suggest thinking about if you want to even go on playing it, rather than just slapping down another mod.

[Moraelin]

It's a fair cop, guv'nor. You got me. I'm fessin' up.

 

I like stitching up Frankenstein abominations in the basement, assisted by me trusty ol' Igor. And I may or may not be going, "IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!! MUAHAHAHA!" I'm not fessin' up to that. Unless th' neighbours heard me :tongue:

 

Also...

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

If you need more than 255 mods or hell, even 255 to enjoy a game... you don't enjoy that game, just the freakish frankenstein that you created.

 

I have enjoyed vanilla Skyrim on console for quite a while (~1.000h) and I loved my modded pc version with 255 active plugins and 800+ mods installed. There are tons of utility tweaks, game mechanics overhauls, and voiced quests to experience. With mods you get what no other game offers for silly 10 euro on steam sale.

People usually start merging .esps when their plugin list gets flooded by patches for patches or modular mods with multiple .esps for each option. I bet if I had pointed to you some of the quality mods, you would had more than 70 plugins.

 

For now in Fallout 4 I have a bunch of crafting and settlement mods, not to mention 2-4k texture packs since my pc can handle something better than 1k resolution on medium/large objects. There are few experienced mod authors out there just waiting for G.E. Creation Kit to be released, so they can start with their planned quest mods. I will be downloading those too, since I know the content quality will be on par with Bethesdas vanilla game or better.

[Spacemunkey79]

 

Does your hunting rifle really need to have 4K HD textures that badly? Was FO4 so incomplete?

 

 

Yes. I didn't spend money on my PC to get a consolized experience at 60fps, so when it comes to Bethesda games I always use re-texture mods, mods that add npc's, new worlds, quest mods, and mods that open/expand towns/cities. Thanks to a lot of awesome mod authors my Skrim feels like there is a civil war going on, that people live there, and trade is a thing.

[likeitsillegal]

I'm at 162 active mods. If I had friends, somebody would have hosted an intervention by now.

[NikitaDarkstar]

I've actually cleaned up my load order a bit, and I'm still sitting at 134 active plugins and only god knows how many mods (I try to install most of the smaller retexture mods and such manually because I don't like them cluttering up the NMM, and I like to mix and match certain things). Admittedly A LOT of those are just patches to get mod A,B, and C to play nice with mod D, and some mods do come with 4-5 .esps on it's own.

 

So do I need that many mods? No, probably not. I'm perfectly capable of enjoying the game in it's vanilla setting. But I also enjoy changing things until they feel "just right" for me, so installing things like flora overhauls, crafting mods, texture packs, etc. is part of what makes the game fun for me. That doesn't make the vanilla game any less fun, it just means I can have even more fun with it by adding mods. So I guess my answer to the question "how many mods are too many?" is that too many is when the mods become a chore instead of part of the fun.

 

As for merging plugins, that's something I'll reserve for mods that won't be getting more updates, or are extremely unlikely to get more updates any time soon. Cause right now it seems pretty pointless to try to merge something like Spring Cleaning and homemaker (as an example) cause they're big, complicated mods that are getting several updates per month. But all those little mods that just adds one or two pieces of armor each? Yhea, it'd probably be a good idea to merge those.