Hardcoded amount of ESMs?

[Mookeylama]

i know of the 255 plugin limit (it's actually 253 for me for some reason), and i know that a total of 508 plugins can be in the Data folder according to NMM (abd that's true for me as i tested it). but i'm having an issue that seems like strictly a "too many esms" problem. if i add one more esm of any mod, i can load my save but any subsequent save will not load and the Save Cleaner will crash when opening said save. Papyrus Data Transfer calls them corrupt as well. i can add more esps and i'm not close to those limits stated above, but 1 more esm borks things.

 

i've got a ton of merged mods and around 35-36 esms, which include the last separate USKPs (i don't think i can update to USLEEP because i hear the scripts to update mods to work w/ usleep won't work w/ large merges. and i can't rebuild some of my merges since some mods are no longer available. plus i'm midgame)

 

so...any know if there's a certain amount of ESMs that can be used?

[Kesta]

There shouldn't be a limit. Now, if there really is one (never went as far as 30+ esm), you probably have several that you can turn back into .esp : Skyrim Project Optimisation, Apachii Sky hair, Climates Of Tamriel, ... anything that doesn't have to be specifically loaded at the very beginning of your load order. Those usually are distributed as .esm only so other modders can build mods that expand on them without having to esmify them first (best example of that is apachii, this is a .esm so anyone can easily create "NPC Overhauls" with the new haircuts).

 

You don't have to change the extension (or your dependencies would break, and stuff might get screwed in your game like if you had uninstalled/reinstalled), only uncheck the ESM flag in xEdit.

As always, make backups before tinkering engine-limitations.

[GrantSP]

Question: You say you may have issues with trying to update to the single USLEEP plugin because of your currently being "midgame", yet you started this topic by asking about how to add another ESM to your load. Why are you doing that if being midgame is a hinderance to updating other files?

 

My advice to you would be to decide if the current game is worth keeping, in which case don't tamper with it and play it through. Or, 'bite the bullet' and redo your install updating to the new patches as you go.

Fiddling with an established game is never a worthwhile venture in my experience.