Removing and adding mods mid-playthrough

[Evangela]

..I'll just take solace in the fact that I'll never encourage someone to do something that could potentially screw their game up.

[1000101]

Removing is specifically stated as not supported by Bethesda. This means it is not supported.

 

Changing your load order so a mod is in a different spot is technically removing and installing a mod at the same time. Since removing mods mid game is specifically stated as not supported by Bethesda it falls into the same as above.

 

Never have Bethesda Fallout or Elder Scrolls titles supported removing mods or changing your load order (with the exception of adding new mods and only with the new mods loading after everything already existing staying in the same load order). No matter what anyone else on the planet tells you or what the underlying reason is. It's not supported. Period. As stated by the only authority that matters - the game developer themselves - Bethesda.

 

That being said, you can try to live life dangerously but sometimes the parachute opens and sometimes it doesn't. In taking risks though, you take on all responsibilities associated with.

 

Edit: Fixed typographical errors.

Edited March 23, 2018 by 1000101

[KarmaPowered]

Several replies to this thread are severely misleading.

 

There is no safe way to remove mods from a load order mid-play, because of how the engine works :

 

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Form_ID

 

This has been discussed to death for years, but if you prefer to think that players only ever install a handful of innocuous GMST or MESG mods, keep on dreaming I guess.

[Reneer]

Adding / removing mods mid-playthrough, in my personal experience, has never caused a save-game corruption issue in all the years I have been creating mods for Bethesda games.

 

Is adding / removing mods mid-playthrough 100% safe? No. But neither is using mods 100% safe either.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Reneer

[Evangela]

Reneer, you of all people should know better though, you been around long enough and have seen what happens to people's games when the saves really do break.

 

Bah, whatever.. I'm done with this thread.

[Reneer]

Reneer, you of all people should know better though, you been around long enough and have seen what happens to people's games when the saves really do break.

 

Bah, whatever.. I'm done with this thread.

And I've been making mods for long enough to have the personal experience that adding / removing a mod mid-playthrough didn't break anything in Oblivion, Fallout 3, Skyrim, or Fallout 4. I've done it multiple times with my mods and suffered no grave consequence.

 

However, it is certainly possible that my experience is unique. I try to code my mods so that they can be added and removed with very little hassle. I generally add in multiple checks so that scripts won't get orphaned / run continuously. So the way I make my mods could be protecting me and thus my experience can't be generalized. I don't run a heavily modded game, so that could also be protecting me.

 

I fully admit I could be wrong here and giving bad information, but my experience is my experience. If someone wants to chime in with a generalized, repeatable example that shows that adding / removing mods mid-playthrough is disastrous to a save-game, I'll happily admit I'm wrong.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Reneer

[JimmyRJump]

While it is true that most of the time (in my experience; 13000 hrs of FO4 and having used close to 4000 mods altogether) deleting a mod mid-game, or, better said, when already a serious stretch along the quest lines -because to me, "mid-game" is around the 350-hour mark- isn't of great consequence to the further developments in the game.

 

However, all of course depends on what mod we're talking about and on how far the mod stretched its rooting claws into the game with regards to environmental, gameplay and character changes. Worst case scenario, when having deleted a bunch of settlement mods where you had done some serious building with loads of settlers having arrived, the last save won't even boot anymore. But I've done it with no detrimental results, other than having a load of settlers bing orphaned (which can still be sent to a still working settlement) and heaps of leftover materials and built accessories sitting there with no owner to them.

 

I've uninstalled larger quest mods right after having played through them; mods like Fusion City Rising or Hookers Of The Commonwealth, with no negative impact on my further gameplay. Other mods have caused me problems after uninstalling hours into a game. The ReGrowth Overhaul mod springs to mind, which caused crashes in some places after having done away with it. Strange enough,avoiding those places for a couple of hours (well, more like ten to twenty) and then going back to those places no longer made the game crash.

 

So, although I'll never advise folks to go bonkers on installing and uninstalling plug-ins along their FO4 adventure, it's an advise I don't follow myself. Well, not often anyway.

[jones177]

Hi

 

You don't really know what will trash your game until you trash it.

 

What I do is make a recognizable save before adding any "game changing" mods. If I remove a "game changing" mod I play the game to test the stability. If it proves unstable I use the recognizable save I made before the mod was installed.

 

In this game the "game changing" mods are perk, weather, spawn, scrap & build mods. I have added mods that trashed my save & even after removing the mod the save was still trashed. I have not trashed a save by removing a mod the was working as advertised.

 

I have had games trashed by removing mods in Oblivion, Fallout 3 & Skyrim. I have had my game trashed by adding mods in Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Skyrim, Skyrim SE & Fallout 4. Since I am not too bright I only started taking precautions after 2 years of Skyrim play(2013).

 

What has never worked for me is to install a game, add a ton of mods & have it be stable. The only way I know how to mod successfully is to add mods one or two at a time & test. With this process I know that 1 in 4 mods that I install will trash my game. In Skyrim SE it is 1 in 3. A lot of these mods are well done & popular. They just don't like one or more of the mods that I have already installed.

 

Later

[thrax7545]

You don't really know what will trash your game until you trash it.

I agree with jones. I have a great passion for breaking this game.

I can still run my original character despite ravenously screwing with my load order for the past 2+ years. Granted, that character has problems, but it still loads...

 

There are definitely some saves that I have completely borked at this point, but isn’t that the spirit of modding anyway, just ripping a game open and meddling with its guts?

[crawe1x]

I agree with most of the comments above. Of course Beth doesn't support uninstalling mods. The last thing it wants is a bunch of gamers accusing it of breaking their playthroughs.

 

Unfortunately, most players don't know how to use mods properly. That's fine. We're all learning. But having broken their playthroughs, rather than take responsibility, these same players look for someone else to blame. You see it all the time in the comments and bugs sections for various mods. 90% of the so-called bugs aren't bugs at all - they're just players not understanding how the mod works and then trying to blame the author rather than accept their own incompetence.

 

It mostly comes down to common sense. Uninstalling a big ambitious script-heavy mod like Sim Settlements mid-game is plain dumb. Don't Call Me Settler was another one when it still existed. When you add mods like these - which basically redefine how you play the entire game - then you need to commit to them. If they fail, then it's game over. You start afresh. No tears. Take it on the chin.

 

Other mods can cause problems, but you can work around them - though it can be a fair bit of work sometimes. For instance, certain weapon mods, particularly those with scripted level lists. If you remove them, you need to remember to re-equip any settlers, etc. who were armed with those weapons. That can be a real chore. Certain enemies may suddenly lack a weapon, because they've already spawned and now their weapon has been taken away.

 

Most mods, however, based on my experience, can be removed without too much hassle.

 

From what I've seen, the far bigger danger isn't removing mods but having TOO MANY mods. The more mods you have, the greater the chance of conflicts. Nor does FO4Edit pick up on all these conflicts, so merged patches, though very useful, aren't necessarily the all-conquering magic bullet. Even when FO4Edit does show a conflict, unless you're an expert, it may be hard to tell whether it's a minor conflict or a gamebreaker.

 

Too many mods will also have an effect on performance. On my last playthrough, I kept crashing every time I fast-traveled to Sanctuary, which contained 200+ settlers, all doing specific functions, and with buildings and specialized plots packed right across the entire island. The reason wasn't because of faulty or conflicting mods. It (probably) wasn't because of script errors. It was because I had too many settlement mods and my machine just couldn't handle what I had done with them in this playthrough. Not enough horsepower.

 

So my advice is to only use those mods that you REALLY want. If you come across a new mod in mid-playthrough, read the installation and uninstallation instructions carefully. If the author hasn't bothered to cover these points, probably better off avoiding the mod. I've done that many times. The lack of downloads forces authors to be more responsible and professional. They become better modders as a result. If you go ahead with the mod, test it out thoroughly in an older save game. Only after that should you bring it into your current game. If it's working fine but you're not using it, then leave it for the remainder of the playthrough. If it's not working properly irrespective of whether you use it or not, then re-read the uninstallation instructions and consider removing it. It's a calculated risk, but as others have said, that's the nature of the beast.