To those who do not crash

[Lord Garon]

  On 4/27/2012 at 7:56 PM, BlackCompany said:

 

...

 

For a crash free game, I adhere to the following:

 

... [Good tips deleted, see OP]

 

-No bashed patching. Had enough of this in Oblivion and Fallout 3. It works, sometimes for some things. For others...not so much.

 

-Don't clean mods. Mod "cleaning" has been around for more than 5 years now. And not once has someone been able to tell me in plain english how it works. All I know it is removes edits from a mod. Edits the author might or might not have intended to make. Its ruined as many mods as it has helped. If not more. Ditto for saved games.

 

-Understand merged/bashed patches, what they combine/merge, and that they DO NOT FIX anything. If two mods change a leveled list, these patches merge both changes into a single file so you get both. If one mod changes stats on NPC's and another adds something to the same actor's inventory, a merged patch will provide for both changes.

 

Best advice, don't merge or bash. Pick one mod or the other for each change and dump the other. Its painful, but its stable. You can always switch it up next play through.

 

 

I hope this helps you. It has helped me to 145hrs crash free, much of that time with mods installed.

 

Good advice, especially about actually reading the README files. MANY problems are avoided by adhering to the install instructions.

 

But, I have to disagree somewhat with your opinion of BASH. BASH, literally, allowed me to have 100+ mods in Oblivion. Remember, BASH was not developed to allow compatible mods to co-exist; it allowed some incompatible (and some poorly written) mods to co-exist. BASH has solved many more problems for me that it ever caused. My current script extended, BASHED, FCOM Oblivion setup has 106 mods and is much more reliable than my officially patched, non-modded Skyrim.

 

"Cleaning" and "dirty" - Unfortunate names. Some mods REQUIRE the "dirty" edits. Some dirty edits are innocent. Some indicate poor modding practice. Experienced modders will tell you if "dirty" edits are required (the README, again). Random cleaning will break more than it fixes. This is more of a comment towards modders than players. Popular modding tools indicate "dirty" edits and offer "cleaning". If modders used them before release, indicated their necessity in the README, and players READ the README, this issue would go away. Or, the tool makers could give these things new and complicated names to discourage indiscriminate use by players.

 

I have an older, but highly "tweaked", dual-core WinXP game machine with a reference PCI graphics card and 2Gb memory. Both Skyrim and Oblivion chug along at about 30 FPS using only embedded graphics driver enhancements. Skyrim will "freeze" about every 20hrs of play and CTD a little less often. There "appears" to be a threading issue with Skyrim on my machine. It crashes constantly (~8 minutes) no matter how I tweak the available options or usual suspect INI settings. But, it plays for hours if I set Win95/98 Compatibility mode on the Skyrim executable. The loss of the second CPU core does not severely impact game play, except for some lag along the river east of Whiterun.

[worldofscotty]

  On 4/27/2012 at 9:32 PM, thomriis said:

In my opinion the game is best left unpatched, It seems bethesda sorts things and break things with every new update.

 

I given up hope that bethesda can fix their own game.

 

And mods that require certain patches to run?

[Valandil988]

  On 4/27/2012 at 5:03 PM, Spewed said:

What are your stable load orders? Stable mods that you use? Apparently I must be do something wrong with my game. So for now I wont be installing any texture mods, outside of detailed faces and the WATER mod. No altering Ugrids or anything like that.

 

What are some mods that you use that enhance the gameplay experience and have no crashes for you? A snippet of your load orders would be nice. :smile:

 

  On 4/27/2012 at 7:56 PM, BlackCompany said:

For reference:

 

145hrs; Zero Crashes. Ever. Period.

 

AMD Phenom Quad Core Black Ed. @ 3.2GHz

8GB RAM

GPU: Nvidia GTX460 with 2GB RAM

 

 

For a crash free game, I adhere to the following:

 

-No bashed patching. Had enough of this in Oblivion and Fallout 3. It works, sometimes for some things. For others...not so much.

 

-No script extenders. No Script Dragon; No SKSE. Not saying they cause crashes (not going to engage in that debate) I just prefer not to use such things any longer.

 

-Know your mods and your load order. Read the Read Me. Every. Single. Read-me. Every time.

 

-Use only one mod per change. If two mods change an NPC, leveled list, weapon, armor, then drop one and use the other. Exception: Two mods can add to a dungeon or city or house. So long as they do not both add to the exact same spot, and they do not change land or water height, you are fine with this "conflict."

 

-Understand Conflicts. Just because your software says two mods conflict, doesn't mean its a dangerous conflict. One of my mods overhauls magic, including mana regen rates. I love slower mana regen. My girl hates it. I made her a patch to increase mana regen and she loads it after my magic overhaul. Works a charm. This is an example of letting conflicts work for, and not against, you. Some conflicts are ok.

 

Likewise, two mods can conflict and your mod manager may not tell you. If one mod adds something to a cell, it might not be detected as changing it. Meanwhile, another mod might change land or water height in that cell. This conflict means you likely will miss out on what the other mod added to the affected cell.

 

So, know your load order. Adjust it accordingly.

 

-NEVER use the console to complete a quest. Save often. Re-load when you encounter a bug. Completing quests often involves moving NPC's around, changing dialogue, enabling/disabling objects and actors, etc. "Setting Stage" via the console does not always do these same things, and thus, can permanently break your save game. DON'T do it.

 

-Back up saves. Then test mods using new ones. NEVER overwrite saves until you are certain a mod is a keeper.

 

-Follow uninstall instructions for mods TO THE LETTER. Otherwise, don't blame the mod author.

 

-Know your hardware limits. I can run the High Res pack. But I choose not to do so. I would rather enhance game play by using Warzones and Patrols, as well as more detailed dragons. This lets me keep normal resolution on most "background" stuff, while having Dragons that really "pop" in the world at the same time. It also keeps performance hits down when I have 30+ NPC's fighting on screen at once, which happens fairly often.

 

-Don't clean mods. Mod "cleaning" has been around for more than 5 years now. And not once has someone been able to tell me in plain english how it works. All I know it is removes edits from a mod. Edits the author might or might not have intended to make. Its ruined as many mods as it has helped. If not more. Ditto for saved games.

 

-DO NOT use Placeatme (if its still around) in scripts. Bloats saves.

 

-Understand merged/bashed patches, what they combine/merge, and that they DO NOT FIX anything. If two mods change a leveled list, these patches merge both changes into a single file so you get both. If one mod changes stats on NPC's and another adds something to the same actor's inventory, a merged patch will provide for both changes.

 

If two mods change land height, or both add something to the same place in a cell...you are out of luck. Pick one. If two mods alter actor AI or scripts, merging and bashing will NOT help you.

 

Best advice, don't merge or bash. Pick one mod or the other for each change and dump the other. Its painful, but its stable. You can always switch it up next play through.

 

 

I hope this helps you. It has helped me to 145hrs crash free, much of that time with mods installed.

 

This guy, followed his advice to the letter and boom no more CTDs just follow it. No SKSE, check every mod for stability don't fk around with your load order. Etc. To this guy thanks a lot. Best piece of advice I have had. Everyone else tried to say its something I was doing but it wasn't, certain mods have serious stability issues. Usually the ones that do really cool stuff. Sorry guys you just got to swear off on it :tongue:

 

PS: Sorry for the super necro, just had to thank the guy. Been looking for a way to fix my CTDs for years. First piece of advice that worked.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Valandil988