How many mods is too many?

[Deleted3637370User]

Right now NMM says I have over 170 mods activated which I believe to be a little less. A lot are texture replacements.

 

How many is too many in your opinion?

[chucksteel]

keep going and let everyone know when your game starts freaking out!!!!! :devil: I don't think anyone knows what the Hard cap is for this game yet, FO4 NV was under 140. I have no clue on Skyrim.

 

You should know when you start seeing major glitches such as missing meshes, Textures going wild or just constant CTD's.

 

I myself never like to run more then 30 or so mods because I like to craft my game and not just fill it with every little thing or overhaul that looks cool at the moment.

[ShinraStrife]

 

I don't think anyone knows what the Hard cap is for this game yet, FO4 NV was under 140. I have no clue on Skyrim.

 

EDIT: Rewrote it for easier understanding and cause I used the word mods when I actually meant plugins. (excuse my stupidity)

 

The load order of a plugin or master file for Bethesda games is stored inside a value for every item, armor, quest, character and everything else inside the game in something called a Form ID. The Form ID is unique and looks something like this : 05CA05F3

 

The Form ID is written in hexadecimal, and consists of four bytes. (a byte is two bits, a bit is any character between 0 though 9 or A through F)

 

The load order is stored in the first byte of the Form ID:

 

05CA05F3

 

A byte cannot store any hexadecimal value past the value FF.

 

FF converted to decimal is 255.

 

Math for accuracy sake: (0 through 9 and A through F equals 16 characters so 16 is the number we multiply by)

 

first bit: 15 x 16⁰ = 15

second bit: 15 x 16¹ = 240

 

15 + 240 = 255

 

With this in mind there can be a maximum of up to 255 plugins and masters in the load order, however fallout4.esm takes up a space in the load order so the limit is actually 254 plugins and master files.

 

A mod may contain one plugin, several plugins, or no plugins at all. So you could actually have an unlimited number of mods installed. But you can only have 254 plugin and master files in the load order.

Edited March 5, 2016 by ShinraStrife

[Deleted3637370User]

keep going and let everyone know when your game starts freaking out!!!!! I don't think anyone knows what the Hard cap is for this game yet, FO4 NV was under 140. I have no clue on Skyrim.

 

You should know when you start seeing major glitches such as missing meshes, Textures going wild or just constant CTD's.

 

I myself never like to run more then 30 or so mods because I like to craft my game and not just fill it with every little thing or overhaul that looks cool at the moment.

 

 

 

keep going and let everyone know when your game starts freaking out!!!!! I don't think anyone knows what the Hard cap is for this game yet, FO4 NV was under 140. I have no clue on Skyrim.

 

You should know when you start seeing major glitches such as missing meshes, Textures going wild or just constant CTD's.

 

I myself never like to run more then 30 or so mods because I like to craft my game and not just fill it with every little thing or overhaul that looks cool at the moment.

 

From a technical point of view, the load order for form ID's inside of master and plugin archives for bethesda games is stored in the first byte out of the four bytes that make up the form ID

 

Example form id: 053C05FA

 

Bytes can only store a hexadecimal value of up to FF (or 255 in decimal)

 

The pink characters are the first byte and determine what the load order of the mod is. A form ID can't consist of more than four bytes and the last three bytes are used for the rest of the form ID so it is impossible for the load order to expand past FF.

 

Math for accuracy sake: (0 through 9 and A through F equals 16 characters so 16 is the number we multiply by)

 

first bit: 15 x 16⁰ = 15

second bit: 15 x 16¹ = 240

 

15 + 240 = 255

 

The main fallout4.esm master takes up a slot in the load order so theoretically, if there are no mod conflicts, a user could have up to 254 mods installed before the game can't fit any more into the load order.

However, the user would probably run out of memory before reaching that point provided the mods installed are fairly large. (unless you're running a monster rig with 32 to 64 GB of RAM)

 

 

Lol I think maybe I should uninstall that Arm and Hammer texture mod that replaces Abraxo :)

[ShinraStrife]

 

Lol I think maybe I should uninstall that Arm and Hammer texture mod that replaces Abraxo :smile:

 

I forgot to mention that what I said in the above post applies only to mods that contain ESP or ESM files. Simple texture/mesh replacers don't require new form id's so they do not take up places in the load order.

Edited March 3, 2016 by ShinraStrife

[Kezriak]

Anything over 255 and things start going wild I find, these just start randomly cutting some loose for no reason

 

[Monrovae]

My Fallout 4 install is going on 55GB lol, that's over 500 mods in NMM. I've merged quite a few plugins in x Edit ( last I checked I merged over 150 esp's), so my load order is hovering around 140 right now. Way too much time in x Edit for my liking but it's working well enough so far. Certainly more stable than Fallout 3.

 

Needless to say I'll welcome a merged plugin script once the CK comes out.

[stanleyjohn]

Wow! Thats alot of mods! and here i was worried that the 50 or so i have was over doing it lol.

[Monrovae]

Most of them are small tweaks or texture mods, but yeah... LOL

[NikitaDarkstar]

I currently have 148 active plugins (a lot of them are minor tweaks and and patches) and I honestly have no idea as far as texture mods, mesh replacers etc. NMM says 210 total, but considering I've installed a fair amount manually and kind of picked bits and pieces from various texture packs etc. the number is very likely much, much more. But the game still runs good, so gonna keep using my old Skyrim logic, mod it till it breaks (then cuss while I spend an entire weekend trouble shooting my load order).