I'm Looking for Help Adding Additional Mods to My STEP Extended Load Order to Stop CTD

[AddictedxGamer]

Hi, everyone.

 

Last night I finished installing STEP Extended (STEP Core obviously included in that). I followed the instructions of everything exactly as they're listed, with the exception of using high-res textures for most of the texture mods.

 

After installing STEP Extended, I also installed a few additional mods used in Gopher's videos, such as Frostfall, Camping, Winter is Coming, Deadly Combat, Deadly Dragons, Revenge of the Enemies, and a few others.

 

Upon loading into the game using the Alternate Start mod, the game freezes if I choose the "Camping in the Woods" option. Choosing a different option I'm able to fully load in, but CTD after a few seconds of running around outside.

 

If I post a complete list of the mods I added in addition to STEP Extended, would I be able to get help identifying potential mod conflicts that could cause the CTD? I know it could also be the dreaded 3.1GB RAM limit because of the high-res textures though...

 

Gah, this happens EVERY time I try to mod Skyrim! :(

[Greg]

Back out to a pure STEP Extended profile without any additional mods and get this working and stable before doing anything else. If you want to add any mods on top of STEP Extended, I suggest doing it one mod at a time, using TES5Edit with each mod to determine if you need to resolve any conflicts, and testing in game before adding the next mod.

[AddictedxGamer]

Back out to a pure STEP Extended profile without any additional mods and get this working and stable before doing anything else. If you want to add any mods on top of STEP Extended, I suggest doing it one mod at a time, using TES5Edit with each mod to determine if you need to resolve any conflicts, and testing in game before adding the next mod.

I'm not sure if this will change your answer, but here's an update.

 

The CTD may have been benign, because I haven't been able to replicate it.  The freeze that I experienced, which I can replicate, I believe is an issue with the "Alternate Start" mod itself, and not the game.

 

I've just finished using the Stress Test that Vurt recommends on his "Skyrim Flora Overhaul" mod page; TCL and Player.SetAV SpeedMult 1500 via the Console.  I "flew" around for about 10 minutes straight, and although I was stuttering like mad, I didn't experience a CTD.  This is without disabling any of the mods I have installed, including those I added onto STEP Core / Extended.

 

Do you still think I should remove the mods I added after STEP Extended and see how things go for a while first?

 

Oh, and how do I use TES5Edit to determine if there are any conflicts that need to be resolved?  I've never heard of that before, actually (the method; I've heard of TES5Edit before, lol).

 

Thanks, Greg!

[Greg]

Unfortunately you can't simply plop 50 mods into a Bethesda game and expect everything to work perfectly out of the box. In an extremely simple case, you may add a mod that reduces the damage of a sword to 25 and then add another mod later sets the damage of this sword back to the original 35. In this very simple case, you have to figure out which of the two you really want to use in the game. In an very complex case, you may want to add a couple of landscape expansion mods but they conflict with each other -- grass where it shouldn't be, bushes in the middle of walls, etc. Some conflicts may be minor, some may pose ugly landscape or architecture changes, and some may break quests. You can find some videos on conflict resolution on YouTube.

 

For what it's worth, Vurt's stress test isn't a reliable way to test the game. At best it's inconclusive and at worst it's hammering the Papyrus and rendering engine so heavily that it can cause Skyrim to crash.

[AddictedxGamer]

Unfortunately you can't simply plop 50 mods into a Bethesda game and expect everything to work perfectly out of the box. In an extremely simple case, you may add a mod that reduces the damage of a sword to 25 and then add another mod later sets the damage of this sword back to the original 35. In this very simple case, you have to figure out which of the two you really want to use in the game. In an very complex case, you may want to add a couple of landscape expansion mods but they conflict with each other -- grass where it shouldn't be, bushes in the middle of walls, etc. Some conflicts may be minor, some may pose ugly landscape or architecture changes, and some may break quests. You can find some videos on conflict resolution on YouTube.

 

For what it's worth, Vurt's stress test isn't a reliable way to test the game. At best it's inconclusive and at worst it's hammering the Papyrus and rendering engine so heavily that it can cause Skyrim to crash.

 

Yeah, I see your point.

 

I seem to have gotten everything working thus far.  It took me quite a while to chase down the source of a lighting problem I was having, which turned out to be ELFX not wanting to be placed anywhere other than at the very bottom of my Load Order.  After that, I had to figure out why my ENB was freaking out; causing half of my screen to be black all of the time.  It turns out I had to open the Skyrim Launcher through Mod Organizer in order to disable AA & AF.  Once I did that, the ENB started working as intended.

 

For now, I think the only thing I can do is play the game.  It's been stable so far, having just made it to Riverwood and about to be heading out for Whiterun to speak to the Jarl.  I won't know if I've got any serious problems until the pop up, I suppose.  Although, I'm going to look into using TES5Edit to figure out if there's any guaranteed conflicts as you've mentioned.