Mass Freezes And Crashes

[ripple]

Sure. I recommend significant trimming though.

[ArchAngelAlien]

I am going to familiarize myself with MO. I can spare things like Skyrim Monster mod, and other items. It's going to take a while to get used to MO. My re-download is already finished, but I am going to pop off for some lunch before I begin.

I will do all my texture mods first and see if I am experiecing the same issues as before.

 

1. Familiarize myself with MO.

2. Install my external outputs like SKSE and BOSS.

3. Download all my texture mods.

4. Test for stability.

5. Talk to you about what scripted mods I want.

[ArchAngelAlien]

What do you think about this? http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/633229-less-ctds-maybe-none/

 

I had changed my INI a while ago and was using these settings.

[ArchAngelAlien]

I watched the video for MO. Already have alot of questions that were not answered. Basically he told me to create a new profile, and enable local savegames below it, and also Automatic Archive Invalidation. The problem is, Automatic Archive Invalidation is grayed out, and I cannot select it, and he didn't explain what it does.

 

Also I don't know if I should unpack BSAs or not. I have never dealt with them before, and I don't even know what they are.

[sixpak]

ok I've read this entire topic, and I gotta say i'm glad you're starting from scratch ( again )

 

I very strongly recommend playing a game much closer to vanilla for your first playthrough, not only will it be a more stable playthrough, it will allow you to appreciate the differences later when you play it again. ( if you like the game you definately will play again )

 

Next, like stated before, you're using mods that are notoriously problematic, which are usually fine themselves..or put into a stable game one at a time. ASIS is fantastic, when used right. From what i've read i have no doubt you did your reading on the mods you installed, but i doubt you've read through all the comments of each mod to know what problems they cause. Which is something you should only have to familiarize yourself with if you experience said problems. So for something like ASIS the ctd's on loading when the bashed patch for asis isn't re-done after changing something. This would be easy if you knew it was ASIS, but when the list extends to so much..and all at once..tracking down culprits will be very difficult/near impossible even with papyrus logs.

 

Skymomod has a host of issues, Skyre is such a comprehensive mod as well that it's guaranteed to conflict with just about everything. Lots of the mods you picked are great..but so many overhauls, maybe more vanilla first.. it'll also be less frustrating getting a second game going after you've experiences the game first. Less anxiety.

 

Keep it simple. Add things you're sure you want as you go. Next game can be your perfect start game. Trying to do it with no knowledge and solid in game experience leads to what you're experiencing now. Also alot of people run all those mods..without using wrye, tesv5 edit etc, and it's cause they just play, add as they go and play. It's so much easier to problem solve one mod at a time. Those tools are fantastic, and if you end up with all the mods you had listed before that effect leveled list, then wrye bash at the least will become essential, but it should be a problem for later. It's really easy to learn these things one step at a time, really difficult to learn it all at once.

 

You keep thinking you're new to modding and it's all so complicated and not user friendly..but it's because you've gone straight to the extreme. You actually already know more than 80% of the users who use this site.

 

Lastly, if you're determined to use gameplay overhaul I suggest the more stable option of DUEL, w/ ACE for perks if you want. SKYRE is great, but maybe not so great first playthrough with so many other mods.

 

Good luck regardless of what you do. I had all the frustration myself initially, but in the end it's worth it.

[ArchAngelAlien]

Good luck regardless of what you do. I had all the frustration myself initially, but in the end it's worth it.

I appreciate your suggestions, and you are correct about alot of things. I do have an anxiety. There is too many awesome mods that just would work SO WELL with each-other. It's like building the ultimate mod package ever, and enjoying something immersive to the extreme. I now realize I need to build my mod list for what play through I am expecting. I don't need both a vampire and werewolf overhaul, when I plan on playing A instead of B.

 

I need to learn to trim my load order and perfect it to the play-through I had in mind. I can't have it all at once. When you are a new modder, and you step into this site and see 200 great mods, you just want to download them all. I am honestly convinced 85% of new modders who get involved here have to restart all over again from stacking mods to the ceiling and not paying attention to the conflicts it causes. I one day look forward to when I can visit this subsection of the forums and offer advice, and feel confident that I can help others and know what I am talking about.

 

I have spent weeks studying this. Endless hours, sometimes 6-8 hours straight just reading comments and readme's about everything I can. I was severely disappointed when my last build didn't work. IT just didn't make sense to me. I did my homework, read the files.. it should of not caused the problems it did in my head, the math didn't add up. The problem is, it was more of just a self assurance from reading the success of other users. MO offers a better ability to troubleshoot mods but the learning curve is enough to offset me for a while trying to learn it.

 

I am very reliant on people for help, because there is alot of circumstances where the WIKI or README will not have answers to my questions. I have to experiment and try things myself when nobody is around. I am just lucky Ripple has hanged around as long as he/she has. I really hope I can play soon. My will to succeed is fueled by the inevitable feeling I will be presented when I can finally sit down and click play, and enjoy the game I customized myself with all these great mods and not have to stress about CTDs.

Edited February 14, 2013 by ArchAngelAlien

[ripple]

1) BSA's: it does not really matter whether you unpack them or not, because you are using MO, conflicting loose files do not overwrite each other. Short answer is that I recommend leaving the BSA as they are, without unpacking, except in very rare circumstances which we will deal with as they arise. Also, the archive invalidation bsa file that installed with MO has no real use right now, so leave it unticked (but tick all other BSAs). MO provides another method for dealing with BSA loading orders, we'll deal with it after you have finished installing everything (more expedient that way).

 

2) The ini settings for Papyrus: some people say it improves the stability of their game when running many script mods (e.g. the people in that thread), while others say it's a placebo effect and have noticed no improvements to the stability of their game. Most ini settings are intended to trade stability for performance (for example, 'ugridstoload'), and I recommend you avoid editing the ini files from now on (except the non-performance or stability related tweaks, like 'bEnableFileSelection=1', if necessary). We are at official patch 1.8, enabled for 4GB ram utilization, and at this point the default game engine is as optimized as it ever will be (which isn't really saying much....). If the ini settings changes you made have not made your game more stable, then you should try switching back to the stock settings (delete the ini files and let the game generate new ones). At worse, your game will performed less smoothly, but at least it will not crash more.

 

One thing you need to take note of when using MO is that MO automatically makes copies of your default game ini files when you create a profile. This is so users can always retain a clean, default game ini, and also allow multiple players to have their own individual ini settings. Basically, it means you should edit the ini files via the ini editor in MO, and never manually at the default game ini files location ('/My documents/.....), because those are not the ini files that is used when you launch the game through MO. What I recommend you do is this:

 

- delete the default game ini files that have been edited.

- launch the game without MO, so new ini files will be generated containing entirely stock settings.

- if you have not yet installed MO and created a profile. No further action need to be taken. If you have already installed MO and created a profile, then you need to copy the ini files from the default game location (/My Documents/....) to the following location: '../ModOrganizer/profiles/[your profile name]/..'

 

3) Trimmiing: I recommend sticking to a much smaller list this time, and avoid the 'big mods' (including SkyRe). I was under the impression you may have played vanilla Skyrim before, either on PC or console, and did not realize this may be your first playthrough of the game. If that is the case, you should definitely start with a tiny mod list, and grow that list gradually by adding mods that remedy issues in the game which annoy you. Remember that it's far more detrimental to the save game to yank mods out later than it is to add mods. There are a lot of cool mods, and it's not that you can't try them--you just can't try them 'all at once', so to speak, and still expect a stable gaming experience. You can still use 'Wet n' Cold' + 'Frostfall', but try and keep the mods with continually updating scripts to a minimum. Mods like 'Footprints', 'Realistic Needs and Diseases', 'Player headtracking' have scripts that need to be running constantly.

Edited February 14, 2013 by ripple

[ArchAngelAlien]

Hrm, odd. Well my BSA list came defaulted like this:

http://i.imgur.com/rUOV0Ir.png

 

 

I know you both suggested to not use SkyRE, but SkyRE is the reason why I started doing this in the first place. I tried ACE + Duel and other methods and came up short in the gameplay satisfaction department. SkyRE makes the game difficult and realistic. It's my must-have-mod for this play-through. I am going for a survival type playthrough with Frostfall + Realistic Needs and Diseases, ect. Wet and cold would also be incorporated, as I have seen it done in Gopher's let's play videos and he had this combination stable. However, I can loose footprints and player-headtracking.

 

Once I finish my texture build, and I am satisfied with my graphics I will move onto the meat. It won't be as extensive as last time, but I want to make sure all these texture mods I am downloading are not causing me the crashes I was experiencing. Also when I reach the step to enabling mods for my playthrough, I think I am only going to enable one at a time, and enable them as I go as previously suggested.

 

Enabling everything right off the bat can be painful, and come to think about. The let's play videos I watched, he enabled mods as he went. Eventually found out scenic carriages were causing him CTD's, and was able to pinpoint that by loading mods over-time, instead of instantly.

Edited February 14, 2013 by ArchAngelAlien

[ripple]

1) Wet n' Cold + Frostfall + RnD should be ok, if you stick to just those three. Remember that Skyrim is optimized for single core, and won't use more than 2 cores (and poorly at that...). So no matter how powerful you CPU may be, it's not going to push Skyrim past the limits of its engine.

 

2) You can also keep SkyRe, but then you should trim the mod list significantly so you have as few mods that conflict with SkyRe as possible.

Edited February 14, 2013 by ripple

[ArchAngelAlien]

This is my first stage of progession and I wanted to share this with you to see if it raised any red flags. I was told that using texture mods is different from using scripted mods, and can only cause performance issues by missing textures, corrupted textures or filling your VRAM up too quickly and causing your game to crash due to running out of Video memory.

 

This is my current textures list without any models redone. No CBBE - Better Males - Face/Hair mods as seen.

I sorted this with BOSS, and cleaned what plug-ins had issues. Also note I am using Birds of Skyrim, something that does use scripts I believe, but not sure how heavily. I've seen it used in large load orders successfully.

 

http://i.imgur.com/iA2pscq.png

 

I still may need to tweak it according to what it's overwritten, but I have installed these files so many times I am familiar with what overwrites what, besides a few conflicting files I am still researching.

 

Alternate start was used to start in different locations and experiment if I am still having issues in errors previously experienced.

 

Also the main menu texture and music replacer is just epic and cannot be passed up.