Modding decisions question

[Maxrebo]

I was wondering, when setting up your game whether its Morrowind,Oblivion,Skyrim LE\SE,Fallout 3,Fallout NV or Fallout 4, maybe even some other games but mostly those due to sheer amount of mods on offer. How do you decide which mods you end up installing and using and which you don't while keeping in mind compatibility,stability and the plugin limit?

 

I am asking because recently I've been working on setting up a modded Morrowind install and plan on working on the other Bethesda games (especially Oblivion) and maybe a few other games.But due to some recent difficulties I find myself with much less free time than before.

 

This has become a problem because on top of keeping in mind the considerations of the plugin limit,stability and compatibility,I also find myself dealing with decision paralysis\tyranny of choice.The issue at hand is that while looking through all the different and awesome mods on offer here and elsewhere,I find myself trying to create the ultimate setup despite the fact that I know no such thing exists.So I find myself grabbing pretty much everything I find interesting even though I know there is almost no way I could use them all without running to problems in regards to stability,compatibility and the plugin limit.This has led to the problem that I spend pretty much all of my free time working on my Morrowind install up until its time to get ready for bed trying to make it perfect. When I also have other stuff that I want to get to and wanting to dive in and start playing the game.Its really weird,I still really want to play some modded Morrowind and the other Bethesda games but I feel that this project has taken too long which has zapped some of my enthusiasm but I know there is still some left that I definitely want to add.

 

How do you do it, how do you decide which mods you are going to use when setting up your games,with the sheer amount of awesome mods available, when you know there's no way you could ever possibly play all of the ones you are interested in? How do you come to that final decision and start playing and enjoying and has anyone else ever had this problem?

[Dragon32]

This sounds familiar :)

 

Back in early 2011 I decided I'd actually play through Oblivion before I played Skyrim.I stopped messing around with my Oblivion mod install in 2015 or so. Still not played more than a little bit to test mod stability etc.

 

I got Morrowind when it came out, got about half way through it and discovered mods. Since then I've got to maybe three quarters of the way. And maybe a fifth of Bloodmoon and Tribunal.

 

For the past couple of weeks or so I've been getting my modded XCOM 2 install ready for another run. I reckon I should have things set-up sometime next week to start that. When I've finished that I'm going to go back and sort out my modded install of Total War: Warhammer 2 for a Skaven run.

 

Other games I use mods extensively, but manage to play. TES games, I just seem to mess around with mods.

[Oblivionaddicted]

You can minimize the risks by applying some rules:

-take a look at the bugs section of a mod

-before using a mod open it with a mod cleaner like Morrowind enchanted editor and check if the editor ID's start with letters, otherwise get ready for frequent crashes or to spend a certain time to fix this issue.

-install 1 mod at a time as long as it's possible

-use mlox to sort your load order

-check for conflicts using TES plugin conflict detector, if 2 mods affect the same vanilla element you can fix the problem by cancelling the changes via a mod cleaner

 

I use more than 100 mods, still haven't fixed all the conflicts and except for the crashes due to badly loaded interior cells when I pick up an object things go rather well.

[starlessmao81ac]

"-before using a mod open it with a mod cleaner like Morrowind enchanted editor and check if the editor ID's start with letters, otherwise get ready for frequent crashes or to spend a certain time to fix this issue."

 

This must be an OpenMW issue, cause Vanilla MW can use without problems IDs with special characters...

[Oblivionaddicted]

"-before using a mod open it with a mod cleaner like Morrowind enchanted editor and check if the editor ID's start with letters, otherwise get ready for frequent crashes or to spend a certain time to fix this issue."

 

This must be an OpenMW issue, cause Vanilla MW can use without problems IDs with special characters...

I never used Open MW, when I used mods with editor ID's not starting with a letter Morrowind crashed frequently and when I fixed the editor ID's the game became much more stable. How do you explain it?

[starlessmao81ac]

No idea. As I said, never had problems with weird named IDs. Maybe related to mod manager or operative system?

 

Edit: by the way, I reach really often the 255 plugin limit, and trust me, NEVER a crash to desktop, just OCCASIONALLY a game freeze (but that depends from my limited RAM...)

Edited August 23, 2020 by starlessmao81ac

[Oblivionaddicted]

No idea. As I said, never had problems with weird named IDs. Maybe related to mod manager or operative system?

 

Edit: by the way, I reach really often the 255 plugin limit, and trust me, NEVER a crash to desktop, just OCCASIONALLY a game freeze (but that depends from my limited RAM...)

Starting the editor ID's with something else than a letter can't have any positive effect but maybe are your problems limited because the mods you use with bad edID's only have this problem with non-interactive objects like statics.

 

Play a mod that use bad edID's for interactive objects like Aleanne's creations or The ultimate knight shop and you'll get frequent crashes when you'll (un)equip the added clothes and armors.

 

 

If you only use small mods you can probably reach the 255 plugins limit, Morrowind limitations also depend on the amount of added content.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Oblivionaddicted

[quasar25]

I did searchs and found threads for top 15 Morrowing mods, top 20 mods, must have mods etc. The same few mods kept appearing through out. MGE, MCP, purist patch, for starters. Then I got hi res texture pack, sound mod, and a ground cover mod. The herbal one that has it so you can tell at a glance things are picked or not.'Herbal Realism' or something like that.

 

After the must have ones that stabilize the game, improve visual and sound experiece, I went for a few convenience mods. This part is personal taste. I have a small mod that increase how much my PC can carry, encumberance mod. A mod that slowly regens magika. I run about 100 mods now. Some are very small, about 20-30 are simple retexures or mesh/texture replacers.

 

AS I play, I sometimes think, ugh, this part of the game sucks. DO a search to find a mod to address it ad add it in. I don't go for the big mods that change mutliple towns all at once. Cause that limits what mods I can use later without a conflict. I use single town reworks , like White Sudan. Dramatic Vivic, Glass domes for Vivec, etc...

 

Just started to mod now. First mod I shared was a leveling mod so I don't get OCD from power leveling.

 

EDIT- an important mod IMO is the one that prevents the DLC dark brotherhood quest from triggering as early as level 1.

[leonardo2]

Maybe related to mod manager or operative system?

I think that has to do with what CodePage your computer use.

 

For example, I am from Sweden and here we use the CodePage 850, which are different from CodePage 437 (US-Windows). So, let say someone from Poland create a mod and uses Polish related characters then a mod user wants to use that mod without having the Polish CodePage active could be what is causing an issue (usually a CTD).