New and unexpected errors, cant find cause, request help

[p1t1o]

So i have barely started playing, I have been modding the hell out of it so that I can get it all done before I start playing properly.

 

i have about 140 mods installed - I did have some problems with stability, but I identified the offending mods and eventually ended up with a list that let the game start up succesfully and was able to do a dungeon or two with NO PROBLEMS.

 

So i was all good to go.

 

So before I start playing (for reals this time) I start to tinker with the customisation options in "Realistic lighting" and by the time I have done this to my satisfaction, a few of my mods were updated.

 

And whilst I updated them I addded one or two more mods for good measure - nothing too complicated, a new texture, some more sounds.

 

Then I sit down all ready to waste a good percentage of my life fighting dragons and such.

 

I'm in helgen, following...halvor? alvin? ...whoever the imperial legionaire is... I enter the keep where he will cut me free...

 

And the room is missing most of the lights, most of the object (chests, bottles etc) and the door at the other side leads to...nowhere (just empty sky in all directions - weird).

 

I re-load the autosave and the room is complete again, everything is there.

 

As I follow the legionaire he gets stuck in a corridor and won't go any further.

 

I go down the hall on my own and find some enemies to fight who just sit there and watch as legionaire charges in and hacks them to death.

 

Legionaire then returns to where he was stuck and stays there.

 

I have tried removing mods - sometimes just the suspicious ones and sometimes a whole load of them.

i did manage to get a stable, working game going, after removing a particular bunch of mods but after adding mods back piecemeal, the effect came back and I am unable to repeat the earlier success.

 

 

 

I think my only option here is to start a clean, unmodded game, find somewhere quiet to save and start adding mods one by one and see if I can find a stable setup.

 

 

What i actually need to do is STOP MODDING but obviously that isn't an option ;)

 

 

 

What I think may be possible causes:

 

I installed wrye bash, had a fiddle with it (I didnt actually do anything in it, only pressed "check mergable" or whatever to see what a bashed patch would do) then uninstalled it - does wrye mess with the game at all?

 

I messed up the plugin load order (I am suspicious as to whether or not BOSS does anything, how can I confirm this? And does the NMM have BOSS functionality now or what?)

 

Too many mods? I'm under the hard limit, is this memory dependant? (I have 2gb)

 

I have had trouble with mods that add structures or areas, is it possible i have a conflict with this type of mod?

 

Wars in Skyrim was recently updated and has a new faction or two in it - fiddling with factions is the only thing i can imagine causing enemies to be non-aggressive as detailed above.

 

 

Thanks for reading, I know its a long post, I greatly appreciate ANY feedback!

 

Pete

 

PS: I can quickly provide further details if necessary.

Edited March 20, 2012 by p1t1o

[p1t1o]

PPS: I have also added some things to skyrim.ini but in the course of trying to fix the problems, I have removed what i added.

 

Could this have caused corruption somewhere?

Can you corrupt savegames so that they cannot be fixed even if all mods are removed?

 

 

 

PPPS: After the corrupted helgen keep and a re-load (resulting in everything looking fine but a broken legionaire and enemies that dont fight) the iron swords that are lying around are named in another language - "Spada di ferro" I think.

 

No idea how that happened.

 

Thanks

Edited March 20, 2012 by p1t1o

[bithombre]

Can you corrupt savegames so that they cannot be fixed even if all mods are removed?

 

As far as I know, YES this is quite possible.

 

Concerning your problem, really difficult to say - could be any number of things. Since you've only got 2 GB you should definitely stay away from HD retexture mods.

When I add mods I only add 1 or 2 at a time, then I play the game for an hour or two to make sure they work with the game, with other mods, etc.

Seems to me that you've added more than 100 mods at once and then started to play the game (correct me if I'm wrong). This makes it next to impossible to find out what's wrong...

I would suggest starting the game not using any mods, complete Helgen and go to Riverwood, then slowly start adding mods while also testing that they are working. Save your game frequently

so if you screw something up you can revert back.

[fraquar]

I have about 80-90 installed (about 1/2 of those textures), and TBH I'm looking to reduce that number by finding some mods that have the features of some of those bundled together. I spent about 4 hours tracking down one mod that caused a CTD repeatedly and it was the last thing I'd ever expect - a Honeyside house mod that I hadn't even purchased and occupied yet. Crazy thing is that mod worked perfectly until the 1.5 update was released.

 

I basically reinstalled Skyrim, made a 7Z archive of the Steam directory so that I always had a stable base on hand and basically did what bithombre said above. I kept adding mods back until I was able to reproduce the problem on a clean save game - and unfortunately house mods (I only have 2) are the last things I added back.......

[IBN5100]

Yeah, I also have a problem with Hadvar being stuck at the corridor, so I decided to use an alternative starting mod such as Live Another Life.

[p1t1o]

**UPDATE - RESOLVED**

 

Firts off, thanks to all for reading my fascinatingly long essay :) and extra to those who replied.

 

I'll start by filling in a few details, as I have met with some success and who knows what tiny piece of evidence might help some poor soul in a similar situation.

 

I have a stable set up now, complete with 139 mods including Jaysus Swords, Tytanis, Wars in Skyrim, Deadly Dragons, The lorecraft packages, a whole bunch of HD textures (water, rocks, armours and weapons), Imps more complex needs, some sound replacers (including the Sounds of Skyrim sets) and a whole bunch more stuff besides.

 

So it does seem that 2GB is sufficient to do a fair bit, and wasn't causing my problems nor was the sheer number of mods.

 

I didnt whack all 139 in at once, I have also attempted to install about 20-30 others which I cant have due to incompatibility. I did sort of drip-feed them whilst playing between helgen and riverwood, this was, as most of you know, you can track problems down quickly. This is largely why I was confused by my problems as it seemed to happen out of the blue...except it didn't, as far as I can remember, it WAS after dumping in a whole bunch of mods together (hence the poll - I get too excited about new mods!)

 

After several grueling sessions of mod removal and replacement to track down the source of the errors I found this:

CTD before the main menu is caused by conflicting mods in your list.

CTD in the loading screen is also caused by this.

Mods that added areas or structures (like quests or homes etc) often caused me errors and crashes - possibly due to mods adding structures/areas in the same position? I do still have quite a few quests and things installed, but I had to reject a fair few.

CTD when opening the map also caused by these conflicting quest mods (I searched through the forums and the only explanation i found were rougue skyrim.ini lines - so if you are doing the same thing CTD ON OPENING MAP CRASH BUG.

And again, these mods seemed to also be responsible for the weird things happening in helgen like the strange empty barracks and Hadvars pathfinding woes.

My errors were not caused by corrupted savegames.

 

So I guess at the end of it all, my advice would be - in the case of weird or unpredictable errors, look to your quest mods!

 

PS: I do not yet intend to install the 1.5 patch, I have a stable setup now and I'm not sure what the cost/benefit ratio will be like, what with it borking mods left right and centre (replacing EpicDualWielding with AzarelHrafin's "The Dance of Death might just convince me ;)

 

Anybody think I should get the 1.5 patch?

 

Lastly, I have attached my mod list (I got it from BOSS, I dont think its in the order in which they load).