Papyrus and troubleshooting help

[Betris]

I'm relatively new to troubleshooting mod issues outside of looking for basic conflicts, and I've been researching but it feels a bit overwhelming and I don't know a lot of the terms, so I hoped I could ask for some help here.

How do I get Papyrus to compile scripts? It's enabled in the Skyrim.ini, but the scripts folder is empty after loading a save, I don't know if there's something else I need to do.

A lot of mods aren't working properly, or not being loaded, so I was hoping I could get some help troubleshooting that too. I'm on Skyrim 1.6.640, and SKSE is 2.2.3. I have a feeling my game is quite broken and the Papyrus log will reveal I've been running on hopes and dreams lol.

[flutie]

 

[traison]

2 hours ago, Betris said:

How do I get Papyrus to compile scripts? It's enabled in the Skyrim.ini...

 

There is nothing in Skyrim.ini to enable compiling. Compiling is always available, and it is done through the Creation Kit.

 

If you plan to compile something related to SexLab for instance, you need the script sources for all its dependencies as well. Depending on your load order it can be a lot of work to set up the first time, but when you get into the habit of always obtaining sources for all mods you download, it's a non-issue.

 

Check CreationKit.ini for where your script sources should be, as there's 2 standards being used. Pick one of the standards, and normalize all mods you download to use the standard you picked.

 

2 hours ago, Betris said:

...but the scripts folder is empty after loading a save...

 

Just out of curiosity, how did you determine there's no scripts in your scripts folder and why did you do this after loading a save of all things?

 

2 hours ago, Betris said:

A lot of mods aren't working properly, or not being loaded...

 

Start in the Papyrus log. That is enabled/disabled in the Skyrim.ini. See section 2.1 in my previously linked paper on reading papyrus logs.

 

Edited March 29 by traison

[Betris]

1 hour ago, traison said:

 

There is nothing in Skyrim.ini to enable compiling. Compiling is always available, and it is done through the Creation Kit.

 

If you plan to compile something related to SexLab for instance, you need the script sources for all its dependencies as well. Depending on your load order it can be a lot of work to set up the first time, but when you get into the habit of always obtaining sources for all mods you download, it's a non-issue.

 

Check CreationKit.ini for where your script sources should be, as there's 2 standards being used. Pick one of the standards, and normalize all mods you download to use the standard you picked.

 

 

Just out of curiosity, how did you determine there's no scripts in your scripts folder and why did you do this after loading a save of all things?

 

 

Start in the Papyrus log. That is enabled/disabled in the Skyrim.ini. See section 2.1 in my previously linked paper on reading papyrus logs.

 

I am so sorry, I didn't realize scripts and logs were different things, someone on reddit just informed me of that. I'm trying to get a Papyrus log so I can get help troubleshooting the mods that aren't working. I enabled Papyrus logging in the Skyrim.ini, and I assumed it automatically generates a log when loading a save file, which is what I attempted to do, but there's no files in the script folder.

Edited March 29 by Betris

[traison]

6 minutes ago, Betris said:

... I assumed it automatically generates a log when loading a save file, ..., but there's no files in the script folder.

 

You edited the wrong ini file most likely.

[Betris]

1 hour ago, traison said:

 

You edited the wrong ini file most likely.

This was the file I edited, I changed the Papyrus settings at the bottom of it from 0 to 1

Edit: I did some more testing, I re-edited that file, disabled and re-enabled Papyrus, and relaunched the game, and it finally generated a log. I don't entirely understand it, but I hope it can help figure out what to do to fix the errors. The problems I'm having are some graphical glitching in Riften, CTD around a certain area outside Riften, and some mods just not loading into the game at all, like Egg Mania and Quaint Forest Home as two examples, though looking at the log, it seems like there were a lot more problems than I thought.

 

Papyrus.0.log

Edited March 29 by Betris

[traison]

• You have over 800 warning about missing scripts and script properties.
• You're missing a dependency of zadbq00.
• slcumshotconfig looks broken.
• There's a division by zero error in PNSMEF.
• sr_inflatequest does not check array length before trying to access index 1.
• Something is trying to call FormHasKeywordString but it's not bound to a native function. You're missing a dll, or the function declaration is wrong.
• SoD_Actor is calling WornHasKeyword passing a None keyword reference. Usually these kinds of calls crash the game, but it seems Bethesda added a null check to this one.
• zaddevicesunderneathscript looks a bit broken.

[Betris]

8 hours ago, traison said:

• You have over 800 warning about missing scripts and script properties.
• You're missing a dependency of zadbq00.
• slcumshotconfig looks broken.
• There's a division by zero error in PNSMEF.
• sr_inflatequest does not check array length before trying to access index 1.
• Something is trying to call FormHasKeywordString but it's not bound to a native function. You're missing a dll, or the function declaration is wrong.
• SoD_Actor is calling WornHasKeyword passing a None keyword reference. Usually these kinds of calls crash the game, but it seems Bethesda added a null check to this one.
• zaddevicesunderneathscript looks a bit broken.

I wish I knew exactly how to fix all these- can I simply disable the problem mods to remove most of these errors, or not really? I'm just not familiar with how to fix missing scripts or function errors, it's also been so long since I installed a lot of these mods I forgot the abbreviations used for them.
I checked for errors in each mod in SSEEdit, and I'm trying to figure out how clean them (having a hard time finding the clean option), I'm not sure if that will do anything though. If I need to do things like edit mod files, I have zero knowledge on that.

[traison]

13 minutes ago, Betris said:

I forgot the abbreviations used for them.

 

Your mod manager will know which mod script names like zadbq00 are coming from.

 

14 minutes ago, Betris said:

I checked for errors in each mod in SSEEdit, and I'm trying to figure out how clean them...

 

This was separated into a commandline argument years ago. Also xEdit cleaning will do nothing to fix these problems.

 

14 minutes ago, Betris said:

I wish I knew exactly how to fix all these...

 

Most if not all of these are documented in my paper linked above.

[Betris]

25 minutes ago, traison said:

 

Your mod manager will know which mod script names like zadbq00 are coming from.

 

 

This was separated into a commandline argument years ago. Also xEdit cleaning will do nothing to fix these problems.

 

 

Most if not all of these are documented in my paper linked above.

I tried searching in my mod manager (vortex) and couldn't find the mod those scripts are coming from, maybe there's a specific function for that I'm not aware of but I just looked in the plugins tab.

By paper, do you mean your guide for reading Papyrus logs? I tried to give it a read before, but I'm a total beginner so some of the terms go over my head.

[traison]

1 hour ago, Betris said:

I tried searching in my mod manager (vortex) and couldn't find the mod those scripts are coming from, maybe there's a specific function for that...

 

This is documented in section 4.2.

 

1 hour ago, Betris said:

I tried to give it a read before, but I'm a total beginner so some of the terms go over my head.

 

Not going to get much simpler than this though.

[Betris]

2 hours ago, traison said:

 

This is documented in section 4.2.

 

 

Not going to get much simpler than this though.

I'll do my best to go over it again and try to follow it. It's specific parts like under 5.1, when mentioning that I'd have to provide the missing script if a mod is broken but installed correctly, I don't know what exactly a script is or how I provide it.

Edit: I've also attempted to follow the guide under 4.2 for locating the plugins that the scripts are coming from, but neither method worked, searching in the manage rules section didn't show any results, and I couldn't locate the vortex_deployment.json file, it's nowhere on my system

Edited March 30 by Betris

[traison]

8 hours ago, Betris said:

...I don't know ... how I provide [a script].

 

Assuming you've determined that a missing script that is referenced by some game object is actually essential and needs to exist, you have 2 options to fix this properly:

1. Use the script name as a hint for which mod it might belong to. If the name is generic, this obviously gets tricky.
2. Use the existing scripts that reference this non-existant script to map out the API, and write the missing script yourself.

Usually it's easier to not fix this properly but rather pick one of the following:

1. Remove the mod that's missing scripts.
2. Remove the script reference from the game object and make a note for yourself that this object is most likely broken, and that you've changed it.

[Betris]

20 hours ago, traison said:

 

Assuming you've determined that a missing script that is referenced by some game object is actually essential and needs to exist, you have 2 options to fix this properly:

1. Use the script name as a hint for which mod it might belong to. If the name is generic, this obviously gets tricky.
2. Use the existing scripts that reference this non-existant script to map out the API, and write the missing script yourself.

Usually it's easier to not fix this properly but rather pick one of the following:

1. Remove the mod that's missing scripts.
2. Remove the script reference from the game object and make a note for yourself that this object is most likely broken, and that you've changed it.

What would I do this in, SSEEdit? I've also been unable to figure out where the scripts are coming from, so that makes things more complicated.
Writing out the missing script myself seems the most difficult because I have no idea how to do that, like what to even write, or where to put it.
Also, would reinstalling the problem mod fix this, or would it still have the same issue? And what about mods that are installed properly, have no Papyrus errors, but just aren't appearing in game? I have a couple new mods I got that are having this issue. All of the mods that were already on my modlist are being loaded in game, and some new ones are, but a couple new ones aren't, even though they're version compatible and I have the dependencies.

Edit: I managed to figure out that the zaddevicesunderneath and zadbq (base quest) errors are coming from Devious Devices, but I have all it's dependencies, and I'm unsure if those scripts will break the mod if removed, I assume removing the base quest will break some things by the sound of it.
I also don't know what to do about the FormHasKeywordString and WornHasKeyword errors, I'm not missing any dlls as far as I'm aware, but I can reinstall SoD since it seems like that's connected to it, if that might help.

Also I want to say thanks for helping, this stuff can get pretty overwhelming and it's really nice to be able to ask specific questions and get direct advice.

Edited March 31 by Betris

[traison]

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

What would I do this in, SSEEdit?

 

I guess some issues could be solved in the CK but personally I'd say it's far too stiff to use for this. I think I'd pop a nerve before I got through half of those Papyrus errors.

 

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

I've also been unable to figure out where the scripts are coming from...

 

If you mean which game object, then see 4.3.

 

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

Also, would reinstalling the problem mod fix this...

 

The answer to that question is a question: has the current install been corrupted or modified?

 

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

And what about mods that are installed properly, have no Papyrus errors, but just aren't appearing in game?

 

Considering there's about a thousand ways a mod can "appear in game" it's impossible to tell. If by "appear in game" you mean "appear in the MCM menu" then the first thing you should check is whether or not you're over the 128 menu limit. Also check for all errors related to the SKI scripts.

 

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

I'm unsure if those scripts will break the mod if removed, I assume removing the base quest will break some things by the sound of it.

 

What's the error you're trying to solve by removing scripts? Usually that's not the way to go. Removing script refrences to solve missing script errors does not entail removing script files - if the files do not exist, there's no file to be removed.

 

On 3/31/2026 at 12:14 AM, Betris said:

I also don't know what to do about the FormHasKeywordString and WornHasKeyword errors...

 

The WornHasKeyword error you'd have to fix in the script that's calling it. Add a None check before the call and handle this situation in a way that allows the script to continue working - assuming that is possible; otherwise check for None and bail out gracefully.

 

FormHasKeywordString is not a function I know of, so you'll have to start by searching through all pex files in all mods (including in BSA archives) for that function name. When you find it, odds are the same mod also contains a dll which is supposed to provide the definition for it. Either the declaration is different from the definition, or the dll doesn't contain a definition anymore. You'll need the source code, or a disassembler to inspect the definition. If there is no dll in the mod that provides the function declaration, then you'd have to go through every single SKSE dll you have to try to find it - I'm not aware of any quick way to find which plugin is supposed to provide a function definition.

 

Note that when searching for text in BSA archives, non-specialized text search tools (like Notepad++) won't search inside packed BSA archives. I've made a tool that can do it though. It's available upon request.

Edited April 2 by traison