How to Pinpoint The Script/Mod/Something Causing CTD in Specific Location?

[sailabc1]

Reason is, a few months ago, I had a save in Dragonsreach. After that, I started the Wyrmstooth Quest. Left for Wyrmstooth. Stayed in Wyrmstooth for hours in game, nearly 5 months RL. Now, after completing Wyrmstooth, when I've returned to Skyrim, whenever I enter Whiterun and try to head towards Dragonsreach, the game at one point crashes as I get close to Dragonsreach entrance. If I use coc whiterundragonsreach, the game crashes instantly. If I load aforementioned older save at Dragonsreach, game still crashes now even though it didn't months ago! Starting a new game doesn't cause any crashes.

 

Only mods I installed in the middle of playthrough were Wet and Cold + Ashes and a reinstall of iNeed.

 

I've tried using both script cleaner of Hadoram as well as uninstall all mods in between. I have however tried a few appearance replacers that I don't remember and don't remember if they had their own (incompatible?) skeletons. I run Wrye Bash everytime I add or remove mods.

 

Now, can someone help me exactly how to track and pinpoint what's causing it, a quest, a script, a skeleton? Papyrus doesn't really explain which one might be the reason, crash fix log doesn't show any particular reason for crash.

 

I have tried uninstalling majority of the mods except EFF, Wenches series, Unofficial patches and Worldspace mods (Falskaar, Wyrmstooth, Moonpath to Elseweyr etc.) because I have followers among them and loading save w/o them autocrashes on load.

 

Papyrus log: https://pastebin.com/sisb96Ze

 

(This one however has all mods present as per my load order attached)

 

... And yes, I am of course posting this because I want to know if a solution other than "start a new game" exists, I know I can start a new game but after putting several hundred hours into this... ^^;

Edited April 4, 2017 by sailabc1

[LeddBate]

I think my computer blushed when I opened your load order...

 

Okay, seriously. First, un-installing mods will actually aggravate any existing condition in your save. Especially any mods that use scripts. Disabling the plug-in in NMM temporarily is a better route. Unfortunately, once you've un-installed... Yes, I know you've used Wrye Bash. But it isn't a guarantee of success.

 

I'm going to presume that you know the basics (LOOT, SKSE & TES5Edit) -so let's move on to more advanced troubleshooting. The following is courtesy of Darstyler. If it helps you in any way, please give him a kudo.

 

Here is a list of things you may do to stabilize your game :

/// Useful informations :

• Dangerous mods list.

• CTDs troubleshooting page on Reddit very usefull informations concerning CTDs...

• Verify gamecache.

/// Load order / mods conflicts :

• Use L.O.O.T once and click on the "sort plugins buttons".

• Create a wryebash patch including leveled lists.

• Create a merged patch with Tesedit excluding leveled lists

/// Settings / memory :

• Have you installed the skse patch ? >> memory blocks log.

• Backup your ini files and delete the files. Skyrim.ini / SkyrimCustom.ini / SkyrimPrefs.ini found in C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\My Games\Skyrim then use your vanilla launcher to autodetect and use best settings for your computer.

/// Cleaning and correcting potential bugs :

• Clean your master files to eliminate potential problems.: Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page.
  Start Tes5edit, simply untick everything, (right-click/select none) and add only a tick to the esm/esp you want to check + update.esm, Tesedit knows what to do and will load all the dependencies automatically.
  - Begin with loading only Skyrim + update, ITM / UDR + save ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dawnguard, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Hearthfire, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.
  - Then load Skyrim + update + Dragonborn, ITM / UDR + ctrl +s and close.

• The method above can be used to clean mods. If I'm correct LOOT should tell you which plugin you should clean. You may load all your mods with Tes5edit and use the (right-click in the left pane) apply filter to show conflict losers. Wait till Tes5edit has finished. Caution : don't try to modify anything while using this filter, it's not intended for.

• In the left pane, Expand the subsections and examine conflicts. Once an entry is expanded to the bottom and selected, the right pane shows which mods modify the entry. The last one on the right is the last loaded in your load order and the conflict winner.

• Expand the following subsections, depending on where the problems occur. Cells for CTDs inside buildings, grottos, etc... and worldspace for exterior. The goal is to target mods that edit the same places and conflict. Open the bloc note and write those mods.

• Once done, close Tes5edit and open each mod with Tesedit, one by one and use the UDR cleaning procedure (Gopher's videos cleaning your masterfiles on the Nexus Tesedit page) to ensure all the deleted references will be transformed in disabled references = no CTDs from this point.

• If you suspect a mod in particular, using the conflict looser / winner method above, you can decide to change its load order or uninstall it.

/// Save game :

• Don't uninstall mods at mid-game, there are no clean save in Skyrim but using save script cleaner can help removing orphan scripts.

/// Meshes healer :

• Read here, this is potentially a cause of CTD that you can resolve by following the mod procedure on this page.

[sailabc1]

lol. Some of those blushers are part the reason I can't move on to... well, most other games so far even in 2017. :P

 

Before I begin, 2 questions:

 

1. Verifying game cache will likely restore vanilla skeleton. Wouldn't this f*#@ up all bodies/armor using XPMS/E?

 

2. Is Whiterun exterior counted as a cell or an exterior worldspace? I remember being able to jump out of it from over one of the walls near Jorrvaskr and travel across the worldspace as usual.

[LeddBate]

1. I don't believe so, but then I don't use custom skeletons. Could someone else chime in here if they know that?

 

2. Whiterun's exterior area (anything outside of the main-gate loading door) is part of the normal exterior worldspace in that cell.

Unless you meant "Is Whiterun's interior counted as a cell or an exterior worldspace?" In which case the answer is: It's a cell, separate from the exterior worldspace. Just like walking into a building like the Honeymead Meadery.

 

Now, if you DID previously jumped over one of the walls and traveled across the worldspace (and the worldspace was fully rendered, not just a LOD landscape) then you must have had something like Arthmoor's Open Cities installed at the time. I don't see that on your current list though.

[sailabc1]

I never had open cities, I had very few mods installed at that time in fact.

 

Anyway... Pinpointed the problem, stabilized for now.

 

#1: Does the official HD texture pack mess with interior cells? For some reason, when I COC to Dragonsreach the first time, there's no issues. Then I get out through the door to Whiterun. Then I try to get back into Dragonsreach through the door and bam. Wasn't it supposed to be just a texture replacer? It's not memory, Skyrim Performance Monitor showed peak memory & VRAM usage to be approx 2900 and 2000 respectively before crashes (I have 8GB & 4GB). x64 memory expansion is enabled.

 

#2: Is MergePlugins unsafe? I merged 10 follower mods into two esps (with extracted BSA data) with no visible error. These were the biggest culprits, and disabling them immediately made "Dragonsreach vicinity" CTD disappear. Also even without HD, these were also causing Dragonsreach CTD in #1.

Edited April 9, 2017 by sailabc1