LEvenSKY777 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 (edited) So I've been downloading skyrim mods here for probably around an hour straight, and when I was content with having several different mods to explore, I tried to play the game. However, for some uknown reason, the game will load up like normal, but after the drum developer screen that shows "A Bethesda Softworks..." the game will darken and I will just glimpse the main menu where one can continue, start new, etc before the game just shuts down and I'm taken back to my desktop...I don't even get any kind of incompatibility or error message...just boom. Desktop. Can anyone tell me what's going on and how to fix it? I would greatly appreciate it. I've now identified the issue to be some mods (I feel stupid) that apparently have some kind of issue with them. I'm relatively new to computers so all I really know is that there is a little yellow triangle with an exclamation point next to the mod in mod manager...assistance? Edited October 2, 2012 by LEvenSKY777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiegril Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 The CTD you describe is probably caused by suboptimal mod load order, or a missing master file. You need to download BOSS and run it. Read the text file that accompanies it after you let it sort your mods, and follow the instructions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEvenSKY777 Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 The CTD you describe is probably caused by suboptimal mod load order, or a missing master file. You need to download BOSS and run it. Read the text file that accompanies it after you let it sort your mods, and follow the instructions. I have to admit, I'm not very tech savvy. Especially with computers. The BOSS program is way over my head as far as comprehension. Could you possibly explain what it does? I got that it's supposed to sort the mods, but everything else is a little beyond me. I don't really understand what to do from here. I have downloaded it though.Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiegril Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 It is not that hard, just a learning curve. BOSS stands for Better Oblivion Sorting Software. It was created for Oblivion but is also now used for Skyrim.It is a standalone program. You download it like you would any software. The link I provided you takes you to the main page, from there you can go to the downloads page. There is an option for downloading the installer, which makes it even easier. Once you install it, there are a few installation questions to get the program pointed at the correct game. Then when you run it, there are some options about how you want it to run and show you the log. I suggest that you choose the option to view the log as a text file (what you read using notepad) because that is easier to cut and paste onto a forum post if you need help. What it actually does is compare your list of mods against it's database, places them it what has been found to be the most optimal position in the load order, checks for known conflicts and the like. It puts your mods in that order and creates a log so you can see the mosts and any warnings/error messages. It also has a rollback option, so that if you decide to return to your previous load order it is quite easy to do so. If you have mods that BOSS does not recognize, it places them all at the bottom of the load order, and informs you to place them yourself. This usually is just a matter of putting the unrecognized mods with similar mods, houses with houses, companions with other companions, etc. You can change them by using the NMM on the plug-ins tab, with the arrows. Unless you have a in-depth knowledge of optimal mod placement, the time it takes you to download BOSS and run it will be MUCH shorter than the time you spend trying to figure it out on your own, and dealing with various freezes, CTDs, stuttered, and other problems caused by suboptimal load order. The link I provided you has good instructions on how to install. If you use the installer download, it's just a matter of downloading, clicking on the downloaded file and letting it walk you through the install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LEvenSKY777 Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 It is not that hard, just a learning curve. BOSS stands for Better Oblivion Sorting Software. It was created for Oblivion but is also now used for Skyrim.It is a standalone program. You download it like you would any software. The link I provided you takes you to the main page, from there you can go to the downloads page. There is an option for downloading the installer, which makes it even easier. Once you install it, there are a few installation questions to get the program pointed at the correct game. Then when you run it, there are some options about how you want it to run and show you the log. I suggest that you choose the option to view the log as a text file (what you read using notepad) because that is easier to cut and paste onto a forum post if you need help. What it actually does is compare your list of mods against it's database, places them it what has been found to be the most optimal position in the load order, checks for known conflicts and the like. It puts your mods in that order and creates a log so you can see the mosts and any warnings/error messages. It also has a rollback option, so that if you decide to return to your previous load order it is quite easy to do so. If you have mods that BOSS does not recognize, it places them all at the bottom of the load order, and informs you to place them yourself. This usually is just a matter of putting the unrecognized mods with similar mods, houses with houses, companions with other companions, etc. You can change them by using the NMM on the plug-ins tab, with the arrows. Unless you have a in-depth knowledge of optimal mod placement, the time it takes you to download BOSS and run it will be MUCH shorter than the time you spend trying to figure it out on your own, and dealing with various freezes, CTDs, stuttered, and other problems caused by suboptimal load order. The link I provided you has good instructions on how to install. If you use the installer download, it's just a matter of downloading, clicking on the downloaded file and letting it walk you through the install. Downloading BOSS actually did clear up one of the conflicts I was having, so thank you muchly. However, there are still mods that refuse to play. There seems to be a correlation between the size of the mod and its playability. Moonpath to Elsweyr, for examply, won't play. Regardless of the edition I download. The download manager has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it which I can only assume means that there is some kind of problem. Other map mods like houses, new lands, etc seem to be the trouble ones. I am playing from my laptop, which has the very minimal requirements to run Skyrim. Is that the problem or is it something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 The yellow triangle just means there is a newer version of that mod available - you don't have to download it unless you think you want it - often newer versions have bug fixes though. :thumbsup: As for not working - some mods have other requirements - such as SKSE or some other mod - and can not work without them. Check the readme that should come with the mod to see what it needs that you don't have. Also, a minimum system will have problems with mods - the minimum requirements are for the vanilla game only - and even then it will be slow. A few small mods may not have a lot of affect, but when you start adding big or game changing mods it will be overwhelmed fairly quickly. Also stay away from the ENB mods and anything that says HD or High resolution as they can take a lot of memory and graphics capability. SKSE is needed for quite a few mods and does not cause much if any slowdown - its an install once and forget about it program (Not a mod) only available at the author's site. Be sure to read the install instructions that come inside the download. http://skse.silverlock.org/ I'm not sure if Moonpath uses HD textures or not - you can try the game with and without it to see if it causes a big slowdown - Start without moonpath enabled - make a permanent save - enable moonpath, start the moonpath questline - see if it boggs you down. If it does, exit the game disable moonpath go back to the save before you started it to continue without moonpath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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