Thinking about Applying mods again

[sgman1]

As an intro, I used to love modding the heck out of my copies of oblivion and skyrim when it came out. But after a while I lacked the time and it got boring since it felt like more than playing, I was acting as a one man QA/bug testing team. I mean sure the readmes tell you all about which bugs you can encounter but when you add like a trillion mods to your copy, there's bound to be something that crops, possibly in the later game which ruins everything.

 

But now since it's been forever since Skyrim's release, I was assuming that there must be a "to die for" mod out there so I am gonna try applying mods again.

 

What I wanted to know was what all I could do to make the process of applying however many (probably large) number of mods more efficient/streamlined.

 

Obviously the mods I want, I am going to have to look for them myself but the part afterwards. Is there anyway to complete the mod installation process faster, figure out bugs/stability more easily or check if it's functioning without having to go like halfway through the game for an endgame mod? Considering there are going to be quite a few, of course.

[PyroToaster]

The best thing is to stress test it after all your mods are installed I followed this one https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1277531-28-step-stress-test/ this'll show you if you properly optimized your game

[Govilku]

  On 5/16/2016 at 10:08 AM, sgman1 said:

As an intro, I used to love modding the heck out of my copies of oblivion and skyrim when it came out. But after a while I lacked the time and it got boring since it felt like more than playing, I was acting as a one man QA/bug testing team. I mean sure the readmes tell you all about which bugs you can encounter but when you add like a trillion mods to your copy, there's bound to be something that crops, possibly in the later game which ruins everything.

 

But now since it's been forever since Skyrim's release, I was assuming that there must be a "to die for" mod out there so I am gonna try applying mods again.

 

What I wanted to know was what all I could do to make the process of applying however many (probably large) number of mods more efficient/streamlined.

 

Obviously the mods I want, I am going to have to look for them myself but the part afterwards. Is there anyway to complete the mod installation process faster, figure out bugs/stability more easily or check if it's functioning without having to go like halfway through the game for an endgame mod? Considering there are going to be quite a few, of course.

I've installed skyrim 4 times over and on each ran 240+ plugins 200+ mods. I have finally found the stable build (30fps Capped, HW Ambient Occlusion, HD textures, etc..) I run all the so called "script heavy" mods and such so let me give you the run down on what you need to know:

 

Incompatibilities: There is no cure to fix any specific load order. Use the mod organizer, TES5Edit, WryeBash. Running a big load order means you are basically a modder yourself and nows the time to learn how this engine works. Most people running large load orders need to make their own compatibility patches at some point. Learn how to clean mods, set aside a day to get a basic run-down of these tools and you won't need to look back. Keep track of EVERYTHING they may modify and ALWAYS read the hell out of the Compatibility section of their page on the nexus (If they have one). Don't install old mods without checking the posts and see if users are complaining. For a big list you have to sacrifice the "unclean" mods that will break compatibility with like 100+ things. Install the most lightweight overhauls you can do with like EFF follower mod, iNeed, and basically all of Chesko's mods. Don't install the footprint mod if you have over 200. A 155+ modlist will work with footprints just fine but I've realized that engine just gets taxed with so many simultaneous Update() being called.

 

NPCs: When running alot of mods, you need to make sure that NPC textures are BSAopt'd (Google is your friend)- To 1k texture size. it will not affect visual quality if u don't have a space aged-monitor. On the script end I've found certain mods will cripple any load when paired with Interesting NPCs (Im sure your familiar) and other population-increasing mods.

 

Textures: People forget how important VRAM can be. Look, keep your textures BSAopt'd because that fixed all my crashing issues.

 

Models: The easiest part. Nothing for this.

 

Audio Overhauls: DONT USE SOUNDS OF SKYRIM KAY? Its a great mod but it had the habbit of crashing a couple of my installs, I switched to the more compatible AOS 2. ALWAYS look for the most compatible version of a mod you would like when doing this. Keep a lists of all the mods you installed somewhere you need their nexus pages handy.

 

Crashes/Bugs: Easy. Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Patch. You know this. But what you may not realize is that SafetyLoad is still a viable tool with SKSE for some systems (Mine Included and alot of other people too) If using mod organizer, for your SKSE file, add the argument "-Forcesteamloader" and your memory patches are up. SafetyLoad does not do the same thing as the memory patch.

 

Install ENB from enbdev. If you use Nvidia look up NVIDIA set up for skyrim and see if everything is right. I'm sure there is an AMD version too.

 

Video Card tips: Set a custom fan profile to keep it cool. High GPU temps can contribute to throttling (When it changes its voltage or power usage % automatically). Throttling can crash you. When testing your game, Press Shift+Enter and go to the profiler, keep on eye on that video memory usage, it's telling you how much memory all these mods are running.

 

LAST THING: Use DynDoLod if you are serious about getting a good load order. It helps performance while giving you great visuals but it takes ALOT of time and effort to set up. Read up on it.

[sgman1]

  On 5/16/2016 at 11:00 AM, PyroToaster said:

The best thing is to stress test it after all your mods are installed I followed this one https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/1277531-28-step-stress-test/ this'll show you if you properly optimized your game

 

Thank you. That definitely seems like it would cover a lot of the late game points. Though I have to wonder why the guy says "try not to die". Do the people testing just not turn on god mode or might it break something for some of them?

 

  On 5/16/2016 at 11:56 AM, Govilku said:

 

  On 5/16/2016 at 10:08 AM, sgman1 said:

As an intro, I used to love modding the heck out of my copies of oblivion and skyrim when it came out. But after a while I lacked the time and it got boring since it felt like more than playing, I was acting as a one man QA/bug testing team. I mean sure the readmes tell you all about which bugs you can encounter but when you add like a trillion mods to your copy, there's bound to be something that crops, possibly in the later game which ruins everything.

 

But now since it's been forever since Skyrim's release, I was assuming that there must be a "to die for" mod out there so I am gonna try applying mods again.

 

What I wanted to know was what all I could do to make the process of applying however many (probably large) number of mods more efficient/streamlined.

 

Obviously the mods I want, I am going to have to look for them myself but the part afterwards. Is there anyway to complete the mod installation process faster, figure out bugs/stability more easily or check if it's functioning without having to go like halfway through the game for an endgame mod? Considering there are going to be quite a few, of course.

I've installed skyrim 4 times over and on each ran 240+ plugins 200+ mods. I have finally found the stable build (30fps Capped, HW Ambient Occlusion, HD textures, etc..) I run all the so called "script heavy" mods and such so let me give you the run down on what you need to know:

 

Incompatibilities: There is no cure to fix any specific load order. Use the mod organizer, TES5Edit, WryeBash. Running a big load order means you are basically a modder yourself and nows the time to learn how this engine works. Most people running large load orders need to make their own compatibility patches at some point. Learn how to clean mods, set aside a day to get a basic run-down of these tools and you won't need to look back. Keep track of EVERYTHING they may modify and ALWAYS read the hell out of the Compatibility section of their page on the nexus (If they have one). Don't install old mods without checking the posts and see if users are complaining. For a big list you have to sacrifice the "unclean" mods that will break compatibility with like 100+ things. Install the most lightweight overhauls you can do with like EFF follower mod, iNeed, and basically all of Chesko's mods. Don't install the footprint mod if you have over 200. A 155+ modlist will work with footprints just fine but I've realized that engine just gets taxed with so many simultaneous Update() being called.

 

sgman1: "Tes5edit seems a bit much, don't you think? I am familiar with wryebash and there was another mod file/load order organizer I used for Oblivion. But Tes5edit seems a bit like something the modder (if they are still active) would do as a part of bug fixing."

 

Install ENB from enbdev. If you use Nvidia look up NVIDIA set up for skyrim and see if everything is right. I'm sure there is an AMD version too.

 

sgman1: "Are you sure about this? My computer is a multimedia tier laptop of 2010. Skyrim was released in 2011 and worked great for when it was released but ENB slowed things to a crawl for me, even with Oblivion."

 

[Govilku]

You don't need a preset, just install ENB alone and check the Nexus for something called ENBoost. It boosts performance.

[PyroToaster]

I mean if you can last that long sure but I put god mode on to make it easier