Too Many Mods?

[maddbomber83]

Hello!

 

I'm wondering if there is some kind of limit on how many mods you can have.  I followed the recent release of S.T.E.P using the MO and have ~213 mods.

 

Using only the S.T.E.P. plus an ENB (Real Vision) + KenMOD - Lockpick Pro, everything seems to work just fine.  I created a MO Profile with just S.T.E.P. and then copied it for my edits.

 

I added several more mods and after adding a certain number the game will crash when loading an outdoor space such as in Solitude.

 

I did some troubleshooting, thinking it was 1 mod causing problems, at it seems it is not related to a single mod.  Example:

- Crashed Game

- Disable Mod

- Game is Fine

- Enable that mod and disable (random) number of mods

- Game is Fine

- Enable another (random) mod

- Game Crashes

 

I say Random because sometimes disabling 1 mod allows 2-3 more to be added depending on the type, and other times to clear the crash I have to disable more than 1 mod.

 

I've since gone through the S.T.E.P. and randomly selected ~20 mods and disabled them (the ones that seemed like they were meh or not that important to me like the lockpick/loading screens).

I then enabled all the extra mods I had selected outside of S.T.E.P.

No crashes.

 

For reference, these are the additional mods:

Character Creation / Other:

Apachii including addon packs

Ethereal Elven Overhaul

Racest

Cloaks of Skyrim

Winter is Coming

Show Race Menu Alternative

 

Environment:

Fantasy Music Overhaul

Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel

IMAGINATOR

Realistic Lighting Overhaul

Unique Region Names

 

UNP/Armor:

UNP Replacer Configuration Package

TERA Armors / Leveled List

Ashara Outfit Romantic

Ashara Outfit Princess of the Woods

Shredded Triss Armor

Demon Hunter Armor

Dragon Quest 3 Sage Outfit

Paladin Armor by Hothtrooper44

Brokefoot UNP Mashup Compilation

A Little Sexy Apparel Replacer

Ultra Skimpy Armor by Nightasy

Remodeled Armors UNP Version

West Wind Combat Series

 

Gameplay:

Swift Potion Reborn

Achieve That

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

Apocalypse Spell Package

Consol Commands

Console Commands and Item Codes

Kace Auto Loot

Unread Books Glow

SkyRealisim - Simple Save System

 

Follower:

Cerwiden - SMART Healer and Alternate Appearance

Convenient Horse Herding

Vilja in Skyrim

Extensible Follower Framework

 

 

The mods that were disabled from step to get things working:

mod_id,mod_installed_name,mod_version,file_installed_name

1037,"26 Moon Size Tweeks","3.0.0","26 moon size tweeks-1037-3.rar"

18855,"AIMP - Antz in my Pantz - Interactive Edition -","2.0.3","AIMP - Antz in my Pantz-18855-v2-03.rar"

10125,"Better Skill and Quest Books Names","2.1.0","Better Skill and Quest Books Names v2-1-10125-2-1.7z"

16887,"BLESSINGS - Altar Descriptions","1.0.0","BLESSINGS - Altar Descriptions-16887-V1.7z"

23807,"Breaking and Entering","1.0.2","Breaking and Entering v1-02-23807-1-02.7z"

9037,"ClamsDropPearls","1.0.0","ClamsDropPearls-9037-1-0.7z"

22522,"Female Vampires Have Fangs","0.1.0","Female Vampires Have Fangs-22522-0-1.7z"

13901,"Lockpick Inventory Remodel","1.0.0","Lockpick Inventory Remodel-13901.zip"

2845,"Lockpicking interface retex","1.2.0","without wings around keyhole-2845-1-2.rar"

21265,"Lore-Based Loading Screens","1.0.0","Lore-Based Loading Screens 1_0-21265-1-0.zip"

95,"Main Font Replacement","2.0.0","Fertigo Pro Font-95-2-0.rar"

7801,"Main Menu Spinning Skyrim Emblem","1.0.1","Main Menu Spinning Skyrim Emblem Average Speed-7801.7z"

3562,"More Interactive Items","1.33.0","More Interactive Items-3562-1-33.7z"

3693,"N-R HD Display Case","0.9.0a","Smudged Glass Version-3693.7z"

6172,"new children","2.0.0","children dirt skin-6172-2.rar"

7901,"No Menu and Loading Smoke","1.0.0","No smoke-7901-1-0.rar"

13202,"Non-Essential Killable Children","9.0.0","Non-Essential Killable Children -13202-9.rar"

12426,"Running with a bow 3rd person","1.0.0","Running with a bow 3rd person-12426-1-0.zip"

116,"Skyrim Sunglare V4","4.1.0","Skyrim sunglare V4_1 HD-116-4-1.rar"

6335,"Soul Gems Differ - Full and Empty","1.4.0","Soul Gems Differ - Fomod-6335.7z"

19107,"The 418th Step","1.2.0SN","The 418th Step 1_2 - Snow Version-19107-1-2SN.zip"

30026,"Windmills resized","1.1.0","windmills resized smaller version-30026-1-1.rar"

 

Thank you in advance!

 

EDIT:

From doing a forum search for "Too Many Mods" I did not see a direct answer to this question. There was a post where it seemed important to add my system information.

- 64 bit OS

- Core i5 2500k OC to 4.2 GHZ

- 8 GB Ram

- 660ti 3GB

- SSD

[NiennaNenmacil]

I have noticed similar issues with my setup, and I've found similar vagueness in my searches for an answer. My system is able to run the extreme step setup quite well, but there are a number of gameplay mods I want to play with on top of step. Most of them are armor mods, character textures, sounds, things of that nature. But the more I add, the less stable my game becomes. I've found problems with a couple of mods, but I've been through Wrye Bash and BOSS and looked through Papyrus logs. I can't find anything to indicate a direct conflict, and I should be able to add things like textures and sound without issue, shouldn't I? I built my computer a couple of months ago, and from what I can tell my hardware is not the issue.

 

I'm at a point now where I can be satisfied with the mods I have, but there are still others I would like to use. I will try removing some of the STEP mods I'm not so attached to and put some others in their place. Hopefully I'll get the stability I'm looking for.

 

Edit: I wanted to add some clarification to the stability issues I'm having. Half the time I tend to continually crash in the same location. These crashes happen after I try the same things in-game but with different mod setups. It could be save game corruption, but I still encounter crashes with a clean save.

 

The other half of the time, missing textures and meshes will pop up. Walls will be completely black, or an entire NPC will be that light purple-blue color. I know I'm not missing files from my game because when I exit to my desktop and reload, the problem seems to temporarily fix itself. The textures are there, they just seem to not load properly sometimes, and I haven't been able to find a way to prevent that from happening. Again, I think it's an issue with the number of mods rather than any direct conflict between them.

[NiennaNenmacil]

Just thought I'd update with what I've found for my setup. I uninstalled about 31 mods from STEP and I managed to get almost all of the other mods I wanted, which was I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 packages or so.

 

I've wanted to try some of the larger mods, but these I found out were the ones causing me problems. SkyRe, WARZONES, and SkyTEST were among them. I also tried Open Cities, but for whatever reason that was causing me to crash when I was trying to zone into Helgen Keep. (I needed to go back in to stop a looping script error). Last night, with all 210 of my packages and 165 of my active plugins, I was able to run around for 40 minutes with no issues, and I only stopped because I had Frostfall active and was going to die from exposure. That was a huge improvement over what I was able to achieve before.

 

I don't have time right now, but I can post my mod list and computer specs when I get home in a few hours.

[maddbomber83]

Thank you for the update!

 

So.... SKSE released an update that includes a new command line. It checks for scripts and such in your save file for mods that are no longer there. It will then over time kill them. The author said it is not an instant fix, but you should see your save game size go down over time.

 

This, is not directly related to my problem as I am working from a new save file each time I run the tests. My testing method is with the Alternate Start Mod, you spawn in a small cell and create your character. You can then choose to start a few different types of life (including the default helgen). I chose Imperial as it moves you to the Keep in Solitude. Then I can exit directly to the most problematic area (Solitude Outside).

 

What I've done is a hybrid, disabled some of the new mods I wanted and disabled some of the STEP mods to get to a point where it works.

 

What I am still encountering is at ~ 1 hour I will Freeze and/or Crash. With auto save every 2 minutes its not such a huge problem, and keeps me from playing for 10 hours without knowing it. But... I would still like to figure out a fix. Checking my RAM/VRAM, neither gets full at the time of the crash (8gb/3gb).

[NiennaNenmacil]

This, is not directly related to my problem as I am working from a new save file each time I run the tests.

I did the same. Even in a new game however, I managed to pick up the "fxDustDropRandomSCRIPT" error on a loop and had to do some digging to figure out how to stop it. My save should be fine now, but it was causing me problems before.

 

When I had the big mods enabled, I would crash at random intervals, but I couldn't play longer than ~15 minutes, and that was at best. Most times it's a crash, and my Papyrus log is decidedly unhelpful, but sometimes I would freeze as well. At one point I corrupted my save when I was playing with some of the mods and I couldn't get out of Windhelm because I kept crashing on the road.

 

Anyway. I'll see how things go for right now, but I'll throw in my mod list and computer specs for anyone who is curious.

 

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Processor: Intel i5-3570k

RAM: 8Gb

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7800 (1.7 Gb VRAM)

And Skyrim is installed on my SSD

 

I don't know what my exact framerate is, but the game runs smoothly. I get a hit when I'm running around in grassy/heavily wooded areas, but it's by no means unplayable. Just not as smooth.

 

These are the mods I disabled from STEP:

 

1. Fixes

Fast Travel Timescale Fix

Fuz Ro D'oh

 

2. Interface

Keyboard Tweaks

Lockpicking Interface

No Boring Sleep Wait Menu

No Menu Loading Smoke

 

3. Landscape & Environment

Windmills Resized

 

4. Characters & Creatures

Better Freckles

Birds & Flocks

Female Vampires Have Fangs

Improved Footwraps

New Children

 

5. Animations & Effects

Better Turn Animation + Fix Crossed Swords and Turn with Leg Move

Get Snowy

Skyrim Performance Plus

 

6. Sounds

Activate Fail Noise Removal

 

7. Gameplay

Dark Brotherhood to Misc

Death Cam

Drop Lot Torches

Dynamic Fires

Non Essential Children

More Interactive Items

Move It Dammit

Skyrim Coin Replacer

 

And these are the mods I put in instead:

 

Textures & Environment

Texture Pack Combiner (Used this instead of the individual graphic mods in STEP)

Rain and Snow Clipping

Bigger Trees (Skyrim & Riften)

Morning Fogs

Wet and Cold

Climates of Tamriel

 

Character

Ethereal Elven Overhaul

Inhabitants of Skyrim Character Presets

UNP Body Replacement

Coverwomen

Geonox HighRes Dirtmaps

 

Armor & Weapons

Cloaks of Skyrim

Winter is Coming

Immersive Armors + Immersive Armors for NPCs

Bandolier

Immersive Weapons

 

Interface

Menu Shouts in Dragon and English

Achieve That!

Atlas Map Markers

 

Sound

Silent Killer

Underwater SFX Fix

Improved Reverb

Remove Mirmulnir Audio

 

NPC & Follower

Extensible Follower Framework

Diverse Priests

Immersive Patrols

 

Gameplay/Misc

Brynjolf Dialogue Fix

Unlimited Bookshelves

Beast Skeletons

Harvest Overhaul

Unread Books Glow

Training Dummies and Archery Targets

Craftable Cloud Storage

SkyVoice? (Plugin is called Way of the Voice, mod name is different. It's a voice command shout mod)

Frostfall

Ishs Souls to Perks

Economics of Skyrim

Realistic Room Rental Enhanced

Become a Bard

Realistic Needs and Diseases

 

These are a few lightweight ones that are in my installers list, but I've not tested them enough yet to be sure about them.

 

Linguists of Skyrim

Dovahkiin Relaxes Too

Dodge Mod

Lyn Real Arrows (just removes the sound of an arrow hitting it's target when you aren't close enough to hear it)

TK HitStop

Lovely Hairstyles

 

I overestimated the mods I added. This list is 40. There are other random patches or updates that are installed as well. I also plan on adding in Bellyache's New Dragon Species and Dovahkriid, but due to how the scripts work I'm waiting until I hit certain points in the main questline.

 

As I said, I ran around for 40 minutes last night with no issues. I did not do any zoning in or out of buildings, etc., but the biggest problem I anticipate with respect to zoning is the missing textures I talked about in my previous post. For now things seem more or less okay, but if that changes I'll probably be back here :P I may end up crashing or freezing once I play for an hour or more, but I have no idea right now if that will be the case.

[NiennaNenmacil]

Here's an update. As far as I can tell, my mods are doing fine. I played last night as well as this morning, and was able to go for 40 minutes to an hour before crashing. Checking out my Papyrus log, both crashes had "DLC2RieklingRescuePlayerScript" looping at the time of the crash. That script is from Dragonborn, I'm fairly certain. I've had a few Dragonborn scripts appear to be the cause of my crash. Hopefully that's something that can be fixed through an official or unofficial patch, as I haven't found any helpful information about fixing these myself yet.

 

At least in regards to the number of mods I have installed, I've hit a point where I can be satisfied, and they don't appear to be the cause of my crashes at this point.

[maddbomber83]

As an update for me....

 

I was able to enable ALL mods and all the extra ones that I wanted. A total of 280 mods (156 ESM/ESP). if.....

 

I removed Serious HD Retexture Skyrim.

 

I'm not sure why this one mod seems to cause an issue. I'll attempt a redownload later. Its odd since 2/3rds of the files are overwritten anyway.

 

But, lots of testing back and forth and unchecking this fixes my infinite load screens in Solitude.