Random CTDs, full details inside. Any help will would be great

[uncleseano]

Ok so to start I'm not exactly new at modding and I've researched all common reasons for CTDs but this one is elluding me.
So I need some help in hunting down the reason. Below is everything I think is pertinent and everything I have tried.


Comp Specs:

GTX 970
8Gig Ram
AMD Fx 6100 Six Core 3.3Ghz
VISTA
Antec True Power Quattro 850 Wattage
Asus M5 A78 L-M/USB3
Wizard Wi20A Case
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB   (Hard Drive is defragged)

I always seem to get CTD outside more often than not but sometimes in interiors. Never around towns/cities though just in caves during a fancy light show of effects.
Mainly though it's just walking around outside were nothing at all is happening.

Like I said I've ALWAYS had these issues on any number of playthroughs but this time it's really annoying as I've tried everything I can think of

Important info I guess:

*Updated my GPU
*Reinstalled Skyrim and Every mod
*Checked every mod for compatiblity against each other and gotten the required patches
*Cleaned all mods that require it
*Have the latest mod version
*Have not removed any plugins mid save
*Performance monitor Shows VRAM never exceeding 3Gigs
*I have chosen scriptless versions of mods were applicable and my avg latency is around 35-40ms
*TES5 Edit Auto Merged Patch (removed levelled lists) and STEP Extended patch (minus Footprints/Wet and Cold) before the bashed patch
*Followed STEP guide to the letter for setting up the current build including all the default .inis
*Memory Blocks log shows that Sheesons memory patch in SKSE never exceed 320 and 180 respectively
*Only edits in ENBlocal.ini are for borderless and windowed set to true and ReservedMemorySizeMb=512
VideoMemorySizeMb=7186  (not sure about that one)
*No ENB is used
*Skyrim is in my Steam folder in Programs files  and mod organiser is in a seperate directory in the root
*Nvidia Inspector used to limit the FPS to 45 (I love my performance when my game aint CTDing!)
*Save Game Cleaner show nothing needs to be cleaned (even though I have yet to clean anything)


Ok Brass Tacks (or Tax I never know)

Mod List

https://modwat.ch/uncleseano123#/plugins

Not really any point in popping up the papyrus as it's fairly clean, beside the compatbility message it's ok.
There's some errors and warnings at the start when a game is loaded but that's it. I can link them but it seems sorta pointless

I can't really think of anything else at the moment. If anyone as any ideas let me know. I'm totally stumped at this.
My latency is fine, VRAM is fine, everything is in the green BUT something is buggering me bad. Must be a break in two mods butting heads or someting.

If ya wanna give me some schoolin on how to check for critical errors/conflicts in TES5 even that would be great


 

[uncleseano]

What do you mean by kind of a stretch? Too many mods? I trimmed a great deal out of that list I tells ya. Here is the current mod list. Is it still too many

 

https://modwat.ch/uncleseano123#/plugins

 

To be honest I've already started playing...no crashed or anything 'weird' but it's only been a few hours. I'll do your rotating save game backup trick too, sounds dandy to be.

 

By any chance do you restart Skyrim after you die? I quit to desktop and reload my last save, could be pointless though.

 

I had already read about Tonys increased actor AI but I was worried that it may stress the papryus even more and get negate all my wonderful mod trimming.

 

I am an advice sponge by the way so fire it all my way. Great reading through your posts though (not just in this topic), always very informative

[Xaviien]

I just tweaked the AI limits and ran the script test. Had 100 archers vs Alduin in the Whiterun tundra, with ugrids 11, had major drop in FPS, but cocing to Whiterun and running back seemed to help a lot with the FPS drop. Spawned 500 archers and ctd, which I guess would be expected haha.

 

I think what he meant by a strech is, drastic changes to a modlist is a great time to start a new game.

[Aiyen]

You do not really want that many actors active at once... since the game does have an upper limit of how many actors will get assigned AI in any given cell. Yes you can alter that.. but I never recommend doing it. During any normal gameplay you most likely are never going to fight 10+ enemies at once anyways. 

 

4 dragons and continuous spawning of guards is much better... If you do it inside a city worldspace you will also get more performance generally and as such can rule out "out of memory" and other similar issues you might get by doing it in the exterior worldspace. 

 

 

Also the dragon flying backwards thing normally happens if you have tcl enabled at the time of spawning them. 

[uncleseano]

I think what he meant by a strech is, drastic changes to a modlist is a great time to start a new game.

 Perfect because that's exaclty what I did. I was worried there for a sec that he was saying it was too many mods or something.

 

Also the dragon flying backwards thing normally happens if you have tcl enabled at the time of spawning them. 

Yeah that was exactly what happened, I supermaning around for a birds eye view of my slide show. I was happy with the stress test, under normal conditions would that NEVER happen mid game and it didnt break which was a first for me so I am (touch wood) happy that my game is stable.

 

I prolly wont mess around with increasing the AI scripts, I havent noticed it ever coming up were there was too many baddies on screen (even when ASIS get's lucky) so I'll leave it as is.

 

Last question question guys then I'm good for this play through. I was looking at 'AutoSave Manager' to handle all my saving needs. Does this makes it so that the autosaves are like a 'manual' hard save in a new slot? I know that you arent really supposed (for some reason beyond me) to use the vanilla quick/auto saves.

 

Also could I install it mid save? I already played for a good few hours and if it can be helped I'd prefer not to start over

Edited March 7, 2015 by uncleseano

[Xaviien]

That autosave mod looks great! I'm definitely going to try that out.

Seems there are some small issues with timers etc not working as expected, and it doesn't look like there's much hope of it ever updating, but in all it definitely seems like it's worth a shot.

EDIT: Make sure to read the comments so you know which options are most likely to cause you issues. Also it sounds like uninstalling will require you to revert to your backup save, or risk having scripts left behind.

 

As for adding it mid save, I wouldn't do that with any mod, unless you're happy to possibly lost that character if there's an issue.

Maybe make a brand new save first, and move it somewhere as a backup just in case.

I add mods mid game all the time, but mid game for me seems to be between Riverwood and Whiterun haha.

 

Modding and playing Skyrim are mutually exclusive, you can only do one, not both!

[uncleseano]

Yeah I think I'll just leave it. Test it out at some other point maybe. For though now my headache seems (touch wood again) to be over so I'm sure as **** ain't gonna rock the boat. I couldn't possibly select one single post as the 'Mark Solved' post. As they were all golden!

[uncleseano]

Wonderful read through. I'll do exactly that so. Slap on autosave manager after my step extended/merged patch and before the bashed patch with the tweaked AI setting from the TonyCubes page. Last question (I lied about it being the last before!).

 

Would I leave Wyre Bash in the same order in L.O. Tonycubes page was quite clear about having it dead last but I use Wintermyst and ASIS. I thought the rule of thumb was to have the bashed patch before the SkyProc patchers

[keithinhanoi]

Ah, right, SkyProc patches. Yes, any SkyProc patches need to be built after your Bashed Patch has been built - because the SkyProc patcher needs to see your Bashed Patch, and the SkyProc patches then go after the Bashed Patch in your load order.

 

This means that if you add AutoSave Manager, place it just before the Bashed Patch, then rebuild the Bashed Patch, and then rebuild your Wintermyst / ASIS SkyProc patches, and those go after the Bashed Patch. Those patch rebuilds need to be done solely because of the change in the load order index for the Bashed Patch.

 

Also note that the max actor AI  / max combat actor settings are just a couple of records that you can edit in the Bashed Patch using TES5Edit:

 

 

Just turn on the tweaks, even with the default value of 20 for each, and then to find your desired "sweet spot", edit the value(s) in TES5Edit, save, do some test playing, repeat, etc., but without having to bother rebuilding the Bashed Patch.

[uncleseano]

Ok thanks again that's perfect. Gonna test the hell outta this now, and by test I mean continue with my playthrough and cross my fingers :P 

 

I'm guessing that ComplexScene is for the total AI and combatplayer is 'just' for actors in combat stance. I'll follow what TonyCubed mentioned in his Docs and make sure that ComplexScene is higher than Combatplayer. Will try it as for starter 40/30. Just 10 higher and if any lads are standing around looking confused I'll punch it up more with the auld TES5 Edit.

 

Pointless EDIT: It was always difficult deciding if I wanted the Soul Capture Message as 'Your memories are mine!', or just simply 'Yoink!'

 

Well that's the end of my topic journey I guess. I'd like to thank everyone for all the help and especially for Keithinhanois for his rediciously detailed (and fantastic) explainations. As I can't repay anyone, here are some gifs of cute animals being scratched and one of a dog eating corn as consolation  :P

 

https://i.imgur.com/gOyCBNa.gif

 

https://i.imgur.com/SkBaRNR.gif

 

https://media0.giphy.com/media/8UfMtYEOFPu3m/giphy.gif

 

https://9gag.tv/p/a9Ldl1/watching-this-beautiful-golden-retriever-eat-corn-is-strangely-comforting?ref=fbl9

 

 

LOVE YOU ALL! Now on to the 'hopefully' fixed and proper non-CTD playthrough

Edited March 8, 2015 by uncleseano

[Xaviien]

EDIT: Removed first part of the post as I was confused.

Well that's the end of my topic journey I guess. I'd like to thank everyone for all the help and especially for Keithinhanois for his rediciously detailed (and fantastic) explainations. As I can't repay anyone, here are some gifs of cute animals being scratched and one of a dog eating corn as consolation  :P
 
https://i.imgur.com/gOyCBNa.gif
 
https://i.imgur.com/SkBaRNR.gif
 
https://media0.giphy.com/media/8UfMtYEOFPu3m/giphy.gif
 
https://9gag.tv/p/a9Ldl1/watching-this-beautiful-golden-retriever-eat-corn-is-strangely-comforting?ref=fbl9
 
 
LOVE YOU ALL! Now on to the 'hopefully' fixed and proper non-CTD playthrough

Dammit! That's the 4th time today I've tried opening an image and been blocked by our filter.
Hopefully nobody notices, or I'll probably get shot for hanging out here when I should be working hahaha.

[uncleseano]

Ah pooh, those were some lovely animals getting scratched!

 

Just as an aside regarding the AI patch (through the bash patch) I noticed that combat evolved actually increases the max actors to 100/80 so my me setting it to 60/40 the bash patch actually lowers down the limit