Little script experiment

[Grey Cloud]

This is the result of a discussion on another thread.

 

I'm running c. 205 plug-ins and 250 mods.

SLF, CF, SLA, SLAC, Untamed, TDFAPP, OBIS, 3DNPC, Pandorable's Skyrim Overhaul, about 12 or so standalone followers and who knows what else.

Character currently level 62 on a game that's done 135 hours.

 

First shot is in Old Hrolden Inn where I made a full save. Maybe 4 or five people including my PC.

Scripts 6566

Script Instances 138366

Active Scripts 12

 

 

 

 

 

I then installed Sassy Teen Dolls Full which adds 225 NPCs to Skyrim and ran to Markarth.

 

The S-B Inn.

24 NPCs, vanilla, Sassy Teen Dolls, 3DNPC and Honeypopcorn's Skyrim Overhaul, plus my PC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quicksave there resulted in:

Scripts 6567

Script Instances 138543

Active Scripts 15

 

 

 

 

 

My PC has spoken with several of these and instigated sex with more than one (no lag and the anims worked fine).

So my empirical experience is that installing several large, scripted mods does not result in Armageddon. Make of it what you will but my advice would be: 'If your game crashes, assume user error and proceed from there'.

[Laura]

Exactly.

It's very hard to track down an issue, especially for newer players. So it's easy to point fingers at a mod that is known for it's many NPCs or scripts, but it's often user error and underpowered computers that cause it.

Scripts and NPCs are also rarely the cause of crashes. Having an extreme script load causes script lag, which that makes timers fail, functions fail and causes quests to stop working. But it won't crash your game like a memory issue would.

 

I know that because all big crashes and issues I had were 99% of the time my own dumb fault.

If the mod you're blaming is really the cause, the mod thread would be filled to the brim with reports and complaints.

[Grey Cloud]

Too late to edit my OP but I also run (the notorious) PSQ.

 

9 minutes ago, Laura 'Lokomootje' said:

If the mod you're blaming is really the cause, the mod thread would be filled to the brim with reports and complaints.

Ah, I see that you are one of those strange creatures who employ common sense.  It's much easier to be a victim, whether of Bethesda, Skyrim or a mod than make an effort to take control of events.

[Guffel]

I can only back that up.

When I was new to modding, my game would become very buggy eventually and mods would fail or break.

 

But over time I got the hang of it and now can load as much mods as possible and still play without issues. 

 

The death of a setup or save game is to change mods while playing, especially removing installed mods. At least in my experience. The best thing to do is to put together a collection of mods that one likes and wants to play with for a longer time, by testing them individually or in small groups beforehand. And then you start new game with all those mods installed and don't change the the setup on that save game.

[Nazzzgul666]

I can second this, although i follow that advice only half: i often do add several mods mid-game, but i never uninstall them. Or at least i load a save before i installed them if i really need to get rid of one. This works fine 99% of the time even with terrible* script lag, you just have to do things slowly. I.e. don't rush through doors, if you just finished a quest don't hit that dialogue button the same second,... if you run >25 script mods all at once on a potato like me, give it time, if possible, and it should be fine as long as you don't get stack dumps.

 

What i do avoid are mods that add cloak spells to every NPC when i enter a cell or something, it was this what i identified as the source of 99.9% of all stack dumps i had in my games, especially with mods adding NPCs or having cells with many (more than vanilla average). 

 

* Easy to spot in my current game with Seperate Orgasms, hitting that mouse button during sex has a lag up to 5 seconds before starting and even something like 15-20 seconds when it ends. But it still doesn't crash or fail. I think i'm even missing a patch, if i don't make my partners orgasm in a radiant prostitution quest sexlab sometimesfails to finish the scene and NPCs start to follow me but i see it as a challange to make all of them cum.

 As far as i can tell script lag won't stop quests, they may fail under circumstances if you rush through, like when i tested Lauras mod.  But it's stack dumps that really will make your Skyrim life miserable.

 

*edit: Just to be clear: it does sometimes crash or freeze, but that's once in maybe 10-20 hours playing and i consider that rather stable. In case of doubt i blame Bethesda.

[Grey Cloud]

2 hours ago, Nazzzgul666 said:

I can second this, although i follow that advice only half: i often do add several mods mid-game, but i never uninstall them. Or at least i load a save before i installed them if i really need to get rid of one.

Cowardy custard.  First thing I do is deactivate the esp. Go in game and save then play for a while to make sure things are okay. If things are okay then I uninstall when I get around to to it.

 

I'll be removing Sassy Teen Dolls, probably later today. It's just a rip-off of Sassy Teens - multiple instances of the three Sassy Teens with various hairs styles (probably also ripped off) skills and traits etc. The NPCs are flagged as child actors and come with a never-nude body yet some are available for marriage. There is a patch to remove the child flag hidden behind a paywall on his website. Apart from all that, the last thing I need in my game is 225 cringe-worthy voices saying 'you're naked'.

 

2 hours ago, Nazzzgul666 said:

you just have to do things slowly. I.e. don't rush through doors, if you just finished a quest don't hit that dialogue button the same second,... if you run >25 script mods all at once on a potato like me, give it time, if possible, and it should be fine as long as you don't get stack dumps.

I couldn't agree more about pausing for a second before going through area transitions etc. Same with dialogues, it's too easy to click on the wrong option because all the available dialogues haven't arrived.

I thought Crash Fixes got rid of Stack Dumps?

[Nazzzgul666]

4 hours ago, Grey Cloud said:

I thought Crash Fixes got rid of Stack Dumps?

Not entirely, i'm not even sure if they're related at all. One example where i could produce them 7/10 times was with Slaverun reloaded and Beeing female when entering the added area in Dragonsreach, there are multiple female NPCs, number growing during the quest line. At some point half through the quests the scan/registering using cloak spells from Beeing female while entering this cell almost always caused stack dumps. My complaints in it's support forum where dismissed, so i just got rid of it and never had any ever since again.

 

Afaik the most important thing crash fixes does is remove the string count limit which could lead to corrupt saves, but afaik that's not related to stack dumps - other than both have bad influence. I could be wrong about the not related part, but at least it doesn't prevent them entirely.

I also believe an experimenal feature of crash fixes to split memory into blocks reduced my CTDs, but i didn't test that much - i had a crash every time in a relatively new game, after turning it on i had to start a new game but then it didn't crash a single time with the exact same load order through a >200 hours game, so at least i never bothered to turn it off.

[Grey Cloud]

2 hours ago, Nazzzgul666 said:

Afaik the most important thing crash fixes does is remove the string count limit which could lead to corrupt saves, but afaik that's not related to stack dumps - other than both have bad influence.

May be me confusing the two.

[Grey Cloud]

Deactivated Sassy Teen Dolls. Left me with 17 Active Scripts* and 31 orphan scripts, none of which appeared to have anything to do with ST Dolls.

*That is in Arnleif's with 3 NPCs and me.