Is there a hard cap for installed mods in Skyrim LE?

[luska233]

Yes, I know the 255 ESP limit. This post is not about that.

 

So, about two weeks ago I decided to configure the s*** out of Skyrim for once. I had a game running fine but decided to get every tweak/bug fix mod I could find to get the most stability possible. The result is that I ended up with 600+ mods installed.

 

After that last addition in mass of mods, I started running into a strange issue: the game simply started ignoring the alternate start mod I had installed, going through the default Helgen sequence, except it was completely glitched. Trying to load saves would result in a CTD as well.

 

By the way, I use Vortex. The most bizarre part is that the problem wasn't being caused by any ESP, but from some mod very instalation. Or so I thought at the beggining. Then, I started disabling mods to see what was causing the issue. I'd disable the whole instal list in halves until I could isolate a specific group. However, it got really strange, because everytime I "succeeded" in finding a culprit, the next time I loaded the whole install, the problem would come back.

 

After roughly 2 weeks of trial and error, removing mods here and there to find out who was the "culprit", I finally figured out what was happening. It seens I bumped into some kind of mod's cap, except it is for installed mods, and not plugins. Whenever I'd reach a certain amount of mods installed, the next mod I'd activate would make the issue return. I confirmed that several times. Merging mod's install folders seens to have solved the issue, which is more evidence to a possible cap.

 

I've been modding for years and never seen or heard anything about that (But again, I never tried to run so many mods at once). Have someone else ever ran into this kind of issue? Could that be an issue with Vortex? Is there an actual cap for installed mods with Skyrim Legendary Edition which I'm not aware of?

 

Thank you.

Edited November 21, 2019 by luska233

[HadToRegister]

254 ESP limit

Are you using Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim LE (Oldrim)?

 

I noticed that you're posting in the Skyrim LE (Oldrim) section

And if you're trying to use ESLs or ESPfes with Skyrim LE (Oldrim), then it's clear why you're game is messing up.

If you're using Skyrim Special Edition, well 500 mods is a LOT.

Are the 600 or so all ESL?
ESPfe?
ESP

ESM?

[luska233]

Yes, I know the 255 ESP limit. This post is not about that.

 

So, about two weeks ago I decided to configure the s*** out of Skyrim for once. I had a game running fine but decided to get every tweak/bug fix mod I could find to get the most stability possible. The result is that I ended up with 600+ mods installed.

 

After that last addition in mass of mods, I started running into a strange issue: the game simply started ignoring the alternate start mod I had installed, going through the default Helgen sequence, except it was completely glitched. Trying to load saves would result in a CTD as well.

 

By the way, I use Vortex. The most bizarre part is that the problem wasn't being caused by any ESP, but from some mod very instalation. Or so I thought at the beggining. Then, I started disabling mods to see what was causing the issue. I'd disable the whole instal list in halves until I could isolate a specific group. However, it got really strange, because everytime I "succeeded" in finding a culprit, the next time I loaded the whole install, the problem would come back.

 

After roughly 2 weeks of trial and error, removing mods here and there to find out who was the "culprit", I finally figured out what was happening. It seens I bumped into some kind of mod's cap, except it is for installed mods, and not plugins. Whenever I'd reach a certain amount of mods installed, the next mod I'd activate would make the issue return. I confirmed that several times. Merging mod's install folders seens to have solved the issue, which is more evidence to a possible cap.

 

I've been modding for years and never seen or heard anything about that (But again, I never tried to run so many mods at once). Have someone else ever ran into this kind of issue? Could that be an issue with Vortex? Is there an actual cap for installed mods with Skyrim Legendary Edition which I'm not aware of?

 

Thank you

 

254 ESP limit

Are you using Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim LE (Oldrim)?

 

I noticed that you're posting in the Skyrim LE (Oldrim) section

 

And if you're trying to use ESLs or ESPfes with Skyrim LE (Oldrim), then it's clear why you're game is messing up.

 

If you're using Skyrim Special Edition, well 500 mods is a LOT.

 

Are the 600 or so all ESL?

ESPfe?

ESP

ESM?

 

 

I'm using the Legendary Edition.

 

I think you didn't understand my problem. This issue I described isn't being caused by the load order. In fact, I can deactivate the whole load order (except for DLCs and the alternate start mod) and the issue still occurs. The problem is with the amount of mods installed itself, and not with the plugins that are loaded.

 

I know that it sounds like a lot of mods, but in fact most of these are really small tweaks or single armor/weapon mod. Not what I'd consider to break anything.

[HadToRegister]

 

Yes, I know the 255 ESP limit. This post is not about that.

 

So, about two weeks ago I decided to configure the s*** out of Skyrim for once. I had a game running fine but decided to get every tweak/bug fix mod I could find to get the most stability possible. The result is that I ended up with 600+ mods installed.

 

After that last addition in mass of mods, I started running into a strange issue: the game simply started ignoring the alternate start mod I had installed, going through the default Helgen sequence, except it was completely glitched. Trying to load saves would result in a CTD as well.

 

By the way, I use Vortex. The most bizarre part is that the problem wasn't being caused by any ESP, but from some mod very instalation. Or so I thought at the beggining. Then, I started disabling mods to see what was causing the issue. I'd disable the whole instal list in halves until I could isolate a specific group. However, it got really strange, because everytime I "succeeded" in finding a culprit, the next time I loaded the whole install, the problem would come back.

 

After roughly 2 weeks of trial and error, removing mods here and there to find out who was the "culprit", I finally figured out what was happening. It seens I bumped into some kind of mod's cap, except it is for installed mods, and not plugins. Whenever I'd reach a certain amount of mods installed, the next mod I'd activate would make the issue return. I confirmed that several times. Merging mod's install folders seens to have solved the issue, which is more evidence to a possible cap.

 

I've been modding for years and never seen or heard anything about that (But again, I never tried to run so many mods at once). Have someone else ever ran into this kind of issue? Could that be an issue with Vortex? Is there an actual cap for installed mods with Skyrim Legendary Edition which I'm not aware of?

 

Thank you

 

254 ESP limit

Are you using Skyrim Special Edition or Skyrim LE (Oldrim)?

 

I noticed that you're posting in the Skyrim LE (Oldrim) section

 

And if you're trying to use ESLs or ESPfes with Skyrim LE (Oldrim), then it's clear why you're game is messing up.

 

If you're using Skyrim Special Edition, well 500 mods is a LOT.

 

Are the 600 or so all ESL?

ESPfe?

ESP

ESM?

 

 

I'm using the Legendary Edition.

 

I think you didn't understand my problem. This issue I described isn't being caused by the load order. In fact, I can deactivate the whole load order (except for DLCs and the alternate start mod) and the issue still occurs. The problem is with the amount of mods installed itself, and not with the plugins that are loaded.

 

I know that it sounds like a lot of mods, but in fact most of these are really small tweaks or single armor/weapon mod. Not what I'd consider to break anything.

 

I completely understood.

I KNOW it's not about the load order, I never said it was.

It's that you are using too many mods, which is Why I asked if you're installing mods with ESP or trying to use Mods with ESL or ESPfe.

Because those types do not work with Skyrim LE.

 

I know some mods only use Meshes/Textures without any plugin/esp etc.

But are you saying that you're using 255 ESPs, and 345 other mods that don't use ESP or ESM?

 

Also, you can only go to 254 ESP, NOT 255 like people say

 

But Are They ESPs?

You cannot go over 254 ESP/ESM

 

That's why I asked if you are using ESLs, because how are you using 600+ mods without some of them having ESPs?

[luska233]

Some have ESPs, some do not.

 

The issue I'm having doesn't manifest because of the ESPs being turned on or not, in the load order, that's what I'm trying to say. Simple texture mods without ESP being installed are causing the error to come up, for example.

[HadToRegister]

Well, then you hit a limitation of the 32 bit version of Skyrim.
Although, I don't see how mods with just textures and/or meshes could cause anything like that

Of those 600 mods, how many of them have ESPs?

Please answer the question, this is the third time asking it now.

[TheGreatFalro]

The game does have a problem where over I think 564 esps, active or not, the game refuses to load any. Wrye Bash can tell you if you're over this limit and has a feature to mitigate it.

[luska233]

The game does have a problem where over I think 564 esps, active or not, the game refuses to load any. Wrye Bash can tell you if you're over this limit and has a feature to mitigate it.

Well, that does makes sense, I think the issue happened when more or less that many ESPs were present. So that's what the ghost function is for? I thought it was just to reduce cluttering. I don't think the Ghost function is compatible with Vortex though, it wrecked up the deployment process completly, the last time I tried it.

 

EDIT: OKAY, I just toggled auto-ghost on wrye bash and it seens to have fixed the problem, so that's probably the issue. Thank you so much, I'd never expect inactive ESPs to affect the game anyhow.

Edited November 22, 2019 by luska233

[healinbear2]

You can actually fix this issue and get up to I want to say 2048 mods if you configure engine fixes toml file and edit a setting that changes the amount I cant recall what its called but if you read the settings you should be able to find in the set it to true and that should fix the problem.