New S.T.E.P. citizen

[Belandriel]

Hello guys...

 

I hope, that I put this thread into the right place. I'm new to S.T.E.P. and have read a lot about how to set up my system properly.

The reason, that I would like to join the S.T.E.P. community is quite simple... Constant and absolutely random CTDs. I'm starting the game over for the third time now, and could never finish even the main-story.

I know, of course, that using an unmodded vanilla-version of Skyrim would be the safest method to achieve a stable experience. But I always read about how people use 100+ mods without any problems and can't understand, why I don't get my version of the game running. (This was just for your interest)

 

My question now is: Do I have to download and install ALL mods in order to be supported in these forums? I mean... I have read the biggest part of the S.T.E.P. guide and don't know, if I can choose optional mods from the list, or have to follow the guide step-by-step (hence the name, i assume :) )

 

Thanks in advance for your answers!

[torminater]

Welcome, belandriel!

You'll get supported no matter what you do, but the best would be you follow the guide to the letter . New version will be up after this weekend! If you encounter any issues, be sure to search the boards before posting, and if it's a new problem, give all the info required in the support forum!

[SSL]

belandriel: While I'm here... Do you have skyrim memory patch 3.0 in any of its incarnations? It immensely helps with CTDs.

[Aiyen]

As long as you document what you are using and provide all the info required for people to try to help you out you will be fine.

 

Using the STEP guide is "easy" to provide support for, since most issues that arise will be due to a bad install, and have been experienced by other users before. However once setup correctly it has been verified by many people to be completely stable and working nicely.

[Belandriel]

Ok, up to now, I have not yet really made ALL steps, that were recommended by S.T.E.P.

 

What I did so far:

 

- Used "cccleaner" before new installation

- Installed Vanilla Skyrim with all DLCs (including the HD DLC) -> Steam NOT installed on the HDD with my OS

- Set up graphic card according to the AMD-Guide

- Cleaned the original plugins with TES5Edit (i.e. NOT Skyrim itself... but Update, Dawnguard, Hearthfires and Dragonborn, as recommended)

- Installed SKSE with plugins "Cell Stabilizer" and "OneTweak" (for using SBW... I heard, that it runs better with Radeon cards)

- Configed SKSE.ini with "ClearInvalidRegistrations=1" and "iTintTextureResolution=2048"

- Installed "ENBoost"

- PLUS installed the memory patch via "ssme" (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/50305/?) Or does this not work together with ENBoost? Apparently, it does...

- Using Mod Organizer with BOSS and Wrye Bash

- Downloaded and installed mods from the nexus (and cleaned some 2 or 3 of them with TES5Edit... mostly identical to master-records)

- Checked for incompatibility and installed patches, if there were any

- EDIT: using loose files, i.e. extracting all BSAs, except original ones

 

So far, I am experimenting with a merged patch from TES5Edit without leveledlists and a bashed patch for leveledlists. I made some minor ini-tweaks, but running with default "ugridstoload" (don't want to take ANY risk, if not neccessary)

According to Skyrim Performance Monitor, I'm not even using 2 GB of RAM or VRAM. I chose all the mods I want.... and I will NEVER again uninstall a mod, that was in a savegame before. Learned that already ;) As a matter of fact, I don't even want to install new mods into a running game. Heard, that this can also lead to problems.

 

To be honest... I haven't tried this setup properly, because I'm too afraid, that I will get CTD again :) I want to make sure, that I did all I could, before making another attempt.

 

Ok, infos about my "usual" problems: No freezes, no ils, "only" random ctd. There are no problems with interiors (except for strange stuttering without fps-loss when near candles). My problems are only referring to exteriors so far.

 

My system specs:

 

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 @ 3.0 Ghz

GPU: AMD HD7950 PCS+ (3 GB VRAM)

RAM: 8 GB DDR-2

Sound: Creative X-Fi Platinum

SATA-HDD (no SSD) with enough space left ( > 20 GB)

 

If someone will tell me, how to hide text here like a spoiler or something, I would also like to post my modlist.

 

Edit: Sorry, I completely forgot to say "Thank you" for welcoming me :) So.... thank you. Any help is really appreciated. Folks at Nexus couldn't really help me :(

 

Edit 2: Just to make that clear... I'm not having ANY problems with other games whatsoever. And I have also modded Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, which can also be pretty unstable. But I was always able to fix problems. But Skyrim seems to be a little bitchy :)

[Rechet]

I know' date=' of course, that using an unmodded vanilla-version of Skyrim would be the safest method to achieve a stable experience. [/quote']

No, it wouldn't.

 

As a matter of fact, vanilla without at least the unofficial patches is LESS stable and leads to massive amounts of savegame bloat. And compared to a memboost 3.0/ENB "fixed" Skyrim, you might as well not bother. Ever. For any reason. :)

[Belandriel]

I know' date=' of course' date=' that using an unmodded vanilla-version of Skyrim would be the safest method to achieve a stable experience. [/quote'']

No, it wouldn't.

 

As a matter of fact, vanilla without at least the unofficial patches is LESS stable and leads to massive amounts of savegame bloat. And compared to a memboost 3.0/ENB "fixed" Skyrim, you might as well not bother. Ever. For any reason. :)

Ok, that's gross... I thought, they at least made sure, that you could play through the vanilla version without any problems, no matter how "dirty" the gamecode is. Thanks for the info. So I don't have to try that as a last resort and be disappointed when it crashes :D

[DoubleYou]

I don't know about vanilla being that bad. I have a savegame where I've played up to level 43 completing the main quest that was straight vanilla. It didn't even have the DLC. Of course, there were a few broken quests, but not even the USKP fixes all the broken quests.

[Belandriel]

I don't know about vanilla being that bad. I have a savegame where I've played up to level 43 completing the main quest that was straight vanilla. It didn't even have the DLC. Of course' date=' there were a few broken quests, but not even the USKP fixes all the broken quests.[/quote']

Which, again, is pretty sad in my opinion... because it still fixes a LOT as far as I have read the log

 

Edit: Oh, by the way... I've got a guide on how to fix conflicts with TES5Edit now. Somebody gave me a brief explanation https://www.mediafire.com/view/5n1b525u2p9ud2w/TES5Edit.pdf?ssl=on (it's a PDF-File) and another guy sent me a link for a guide on the nexus, that I haven't found before https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29018/ I will have a look at those tomorrow (it's nearly midnight now... I'm from Europe)

 

Edit2: Well... the link from the nexus is actually not really helpful. I didn't need an explanation on how to LOOK at records :D But I think, the brief explanation is pretty nice. I am in contact with the author and currently asking some detailed questions, cause I think, some points are not very clear.