Any 100% problem free mod playthroughs?

[Dieselb3ta]

Ive been using my first lot of mods and after getting the whitewash screen at Skyhold it was all down hill from there.

To be honest all Im looking for is a hair mod. Maybe an elf robe to start with.

Im fairly tuned in with regards to the Mod Manager but I gotta ask...

 

Has anyone had one or two or even THREE mods go through an entire playthrough problem free??

 

I just want some security I wont have to restart after another 30 hours. :sad:

[panurgy]

It's possible, but it depends on:

• How much time you're willing to put in getting together a set of mods and testing them before "really" playing.
• How careful you are with mod selection (both individually and as part of the collection).
• How many mods you're using.

 

In my previous playthroughs of Skyrim (2011 - 2013), about 120 plugins (esp/esm) and another 100+ plugin-free texture/mesh replacers was the sweet spot for stability. Now I'm trying about 160 plugins (and probably more than 100 non-plugin mods), but I've been having some issues. Part of this is because I've been trying to use all of the highest quality texture/mesh/visual replacers. If I wasn't being stubborn it would be a lot smoother.

 

Now for the part where I provide TOO MUCH INFORMATION...

 

Basic suggestions:

• If you're just starting, keep the mod count low.
• If you want to raise your mod count beyond about a dozen or so, you're going to need to learn how to use some of the standard tools (LOOT, TES5Edit, Wrye Bash, etc.).
• Avoid mods on the dangerous mods masterlist.
• Removing mods from a current character is a very bad idea. You should either start a new character (after removing the mods), or keep a save from before you added the mod that you want to remove. I actually keep a separate directory of archived saves.
• If you get crashes early in a character's playthrough, it will be worse 50 hours later. A good setup will have no more (maybe less) crashes than vanilla.

 

• Good base mods that can actually improve vanilla Skyrim stability:
• Unofficial Skyrim Patch (Legendary version aka USLEEP is the only one that continues to get updates, USKP=old version), this fixes a lot of bugs in terms of quests and little details, may not improve base stability, but it definitely won't hurt
• SKSE (includes some fixes that help with memory problems), this is mainly a mod that provides other mods with more hooks into Skyrim's engine (for scripting)
• ENBoost or an ENB preset: Includes memory bug fixes and improvements, fixes horrifically bad vanilla shadows (ini files can't do this)

 

There are two flavors of ENB (both contain the fixes)

1. ENBoost - just the fixes
2. ENB presets - a variety of mod authors have created hundreds of different variations, many completely change how Skyrim looks, others aim to be more conservative. Some of these require good hardware (GPU), others are playable on medium level systems.

Also, the STEP project is a great community resource. This guide (a little outdated, but still fine, like always, compare recommendations against the dangerous mod masterlist). The guide walks you step by step through installing a ton of mods so that they'll be compatible, and you'll have a "known good" setup that should just work. If you look around their site, you can find alternate guides for specific themes, like a survival playthrough, or an explorer playthrough.

 

Also, IMO SkyUI is an essential bugfix mod. Others might just consider it a huge improvement over vanilla. ;)

[sapphim]

...looks like someone mistook which subforum they're in

 

Anyway, yes, I usually have over 100 daimods merged at any given time, and I played all weekend playtesting new mods of my own merged in with my full mod setup. No major issues to report. Some lengthy load times I haven't felt like isolating yet.

 

It's entirely possible to play with mods and have everything be relatively stable but it does take effort. You have to be willing to, if there's an issue, spend however long it takes testing mods in batches to isolate which mod is causing the problem so you can remove it. This will be much harder if you want to use mods in DLC areas. This will be much easier if you resist the urge to add a lot of mods at one time (I cannot). Save frequently. Read mod descriptions carefully. And the comments. Be aware of how many mods you can add before it's your system causing issues, not any one individual mod.

 

If you just want to install some cosmetic mods though you're not going to do anything to your game that will cause you to have to restart. No way. Especially if you (points at above paragraph) save frequently. If you want to play without mods (because it's too much hassle or you can't load DLC otherwise), merge an empty patch (won't work for certain DLC crashes) or open the package.mft file in your Patch folder and increase the version number by one and you'll still always have access to your saves.

Edited October 24, 2016 by starrarte

[Thandal]

I don't have quite as many .daimod files installed (at one time) as starrarte, usually about 30, but I've only ever had one real problem and that was being unable to access the Black Emporium when a certain mod was active. Otherwise... trouble-free for over 2600 hours across a dozen playthroughs!