Skyrim Modding Guide

[Skippe]

i use apocalypse spell package myself and i have it now regular loadorder its almost must if you wish to play mage or something like spellblade

[Sacremas]

You guys may think that if you're using a big texture overhauler like Tamriel Reloaded HD most of your textures are replaced by better more optimized ones. Well I run a fairly heavily modded game as you know, and four of those mods are mods called Optimized Textures, which are mods containing optimized versions according to the STEP project. Here's the number of files that have not been overwritten out of these optimized textures;

 

Skyrim Optimized Textures - 12889 files have not been overwritten.

 

Dawnguard Optimized Textures - 14120 files have not been overwritten.

 

Hearthfire Optimized Textures - 2153 files have not been overwritten (175 have).

 

Dragonborn Optimized Textures - 23146 files have not been overwritten.

 

So yeah, that's what optimizing the textures get you, and that's the number of files in your game even with a ton of replacers that are still using textures and files optimized for consoles. Needless to say going through the steps of optimizing properly will lead to a very significant framerate bump with these numbers in mind.

 

If you were wondering, out of this total the High Resolution Textures (and any Optimized version you may have) will only repalce 1335 of these files combined from all four parts of the main game.

[LidiaSun]

I can celebrate 188 mods .... Sacremas you are an Angel I love you !!!!!

 

The best thing happened to move from NMM to MO. I have tested 5 profiles every time fixing some things and I didn't believe it today seen 188 mods active WoW perhaps for you it's normal but for me to see and feel the difference from NMM without having to uninstall mods just check - uncheck and with profiles working great (didn't believe it till now) in just a month maybe less the game have started running so stable wow .... wondering why was using NMM the years before (facepalm). Perhaps will encounter other problems in future but never dreamed passing the 170 mods which I had with NMM.

 

Feeling ready to start changes for ENB ... thanks so much for your help and knowing someone who could help always encourage you even if you don't need help in every step.

[yatol]

Skyrim Optimized Textures - 12889 files have not been overwritten.

 

Dawnguard Optimized Textures - 14120 files have not been overwritten.

 

Hearthfire Optimized Textures - 2153 files have not been overwritten (175 have).

 

Dragonborn Optimized Textures - 23146 files have not been overwritten.

 

you won't find much mods that replace that

 

 

 

 

 

that's the worldmap, a ton of 43 ko textures, few bigger ones

facegendata have a lot too, there's 7600 textures in my folder

[Sacremas]

Point is not to replace them, point is to optimize them.

[Sacremas]

I can celebrate 188 mods .... Sacremas you are an Angel I love you !!!!!

 

The best thing happened to move from NMM to MO. I have tested 5 profiles every time fixing some things and I didn't believe it today seen 188 mods active WoW perhaps for you it's normal but for me to see and feel the difference from NMM without having to uninstall mods just check - uncheck and with profiles working great (didn't believe it till now) in just a month maybe less the game have started running so stable wow .... wondering why was using NMM the years before (facepalm). Perhaps will encounter other problems in future but never dreamed passing the 170 mods which I had with NMM.

 

Feeling ready to start changes for ENB ... thanks so much for your help and knowing someone who could help always encourage you even if you don't need help in every step.

 

Hey, that's great, really appreciate that! You mind if I put that quote on the first page?

 

Although to be fair I can't always help, I can show you how to help yourself a lot more than I can solve your every problem without actually sitting with your computer. If you follow all of my advice and presumably don't skimp out a step and still run into crashes and instabilities (and I've been there plenty of times) there's not that much I can do. My guide isn't as much "install these mods because they will work best" for the most part (at least first page posts) as much as it's just general guidelines in self-help corner and things you should checkmark, there may be still thigns that can be added. If I've mentoned thigns on later pages that you guys have seen that would be more useful on the first page (like list of merged/changed mods) let me know.

[yatol]

Point is not to replace them, point is to optimize them.

 

why don't you unzip all your bsa and load texture optimiser and smco?

 

the folder you see on the screen, it's a backup of that

made a screen of the result, don't know where i put it, but i am sure more than 50 % of the textures weren't edited

[Sacremas]

Because that's what I did? Mentioned earlier in this thread, which is getting long now, my textures and DLCs are unpackaged, and optimized according to the STEP project, this was merely a suggestion for others to do the same.

 

Logically I would never be able to know how many textures weren't overwritten by something else if I hadn't unpacked them after all.

[LidiaSun]

Just a modified SKSE_Elys_Uncapper after several tests, from the first days I instaled Mod Organizer till June 2nd.

 

I was using Uncapper the last 1 year maybe more and after installing MO and SKSE and finding the correct place where to put Uncapper working place with MO, I continued some tests how to slow a bit the pc progression character level and faster a bit the skill level so as we all know in Skyrim you start level 1 and after some quests, after leveling in smithing or enchanting, alchemy etc soon you have progressed your character in very high level. So what I wanted to have was slower character level and acquiring knowledge in any fields each of us wants.

 

So as you all know there are 2 parameters in Uncapper for leveling your character.

 

SkillExpGainMults x PCLevelSkillExpMults = exp gained on character for leveling

 

that means if you change the Default value: 1=1.0 in PCLevelSkillExpMults greater than 1.0 you level faster than the default Skyrim game. Usually many are changing this parameter and nothing else from the ExpMults. So If anyone wants to level the character slower but to gain the knowledge faster you have to boost the SkillExpGainMults and reduce the PCLevelSkillExpMults. In results that means if you concentrate for example in Alchemy,Smith,Enchanting which are your tools for creating better armors, weapons, the magic on items and potions you may level your character to 35-40 level and have maximized these 3 skills up to 140 but you haven't reach with your character at 80 level for ex.  So for anyone who would like to use it:

 

Modified SKSE_Elys_Uncapper.7z

 

p.s anyone who would like to boost Enchanting keep in mind to be always lower than180. Elys is recommending : "A value higher than 199 will cause inconsistencies in vanilla Skyrim." but even with 180 the game feels disturbed

[Sacremas]

I use the following uncapper, it's very well made; http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/43971(I use the SPERG one)

 

It's been requested that I post my mod list and load orders again, so here is for my current playthrough, which is a male werewolf Nord paladin type, I'm both running tons of survival mods and I'm running all of ApolloDown's mods.

 

Posting both the mod list from Mod Organizer (the left panel), where +'s means active mod, this is in reverse order, and my load order. Be aware that the left panel mods include 1080+ mods, so only look through that if you don't recognize something on the load order.

Let me know if you need instructions on how to run any of these mods properly, the Epic Gameplay mods in particular takes some effort to get to work properly.

modlist.txt

loadorder.txt

[LidiaSun]

These are very good Uncapper lists, so I feel like rediscovering the wheel lol ... have seen also yesterday SkyTweak has parameters for Uncapper (never used it) perhaps I am missing something but I don't like one mod to arrange everything I am the weird one

 

Have downloaded both your lists Sacremas. It is amazing with Mod Organizer to be able having 1k mods ready for use with a single check box and making a brand new list in a profile. I remember once wanted to change body type from cbbe to unp and had to uninstall all the relative mods (armors etc) in NMM and install the new ones plus the whole game was just a mess, as Gopher said with Mod Organizer the game folder really is shining.

[Sacremas]

If you're going to let any mod handle that Skytweak is the one. However with using a separate uncapper like above and then going into SkyTWeak and changing things like experience rate, you can customize your game fully without going into the uncapper and altering things for all your profiles. Say maybe you really need Pickpocketing to get boosted to 80 to get the berserking skills in SPERG, but you're running a barbarian that is never going to pickpocket anyone. Just add x10 to the speed of pickpocket gains and use unarmed attakcs against foes that can't really do much to you anyway or in brawls (in SPEG unarmed levels pickpocket as well, as your unarmed damage is determined by that skill).

[LidiaSun]

If you're going to let any mod handle that Skytweak is the one. However with using a separate uncapper like above and then going into SkyTWeak and changing things like experience rate, you can customize your game fully without going into the uncapper and altering things for all your profiles. Say maybe you really need Pickpocketing to get boosted to 80 to get the berserking skills in SPERG, but you're running a barbarian that is never going to pickpocket anyone. Just add x10 to the speed of pickpocket gains and use unarmed attakcs against foes that can't really do much to you anyway or in brawls (in SPEG unarmed levels pickpocket as well, as your unarmed damage is determined by that skill).

 

You got a point I will have to check it all over (especially useful with the profiles in MO, still thinking with NMM way)

[Sacremas]

Heads up, Mod Organizer 1.3.6 is bugged as all the .3 ones have been, but you can fix it; upgrade to 1.3.6, then download the Upgrade file that should upgrade you from 1.3.5 and take the hook.dll file, copy that and place it in your Mod Organizer directory. This fixes desktop shortcuts and SkyProc Patchers.

[BobLoblaw]

Hey Sacremas!
 
This was my post from yesterday:
 
Freaking amazing mod. But i think it's giving me trouble with the actual vanilla companions questline.
 
At the end of "Proving Honor" at Dustman's Cairn, i returned to Jorvaskr to have the ceremony, except Vilkas wasn't outside waiting for me and the ceremony never initiated. I tried talking to him, but the dialogue options weren't there. I tried everything to try and fix the bug, ticking mods on and off, not fast travelling into Whiterun, etc. I eventually just adding myself to their faction and setstaged to the next quest.

I have just completed "The Silver Hand" with Aela and i'm supposed to do two radiant quests to advance the questline, but the dialogue options dont appear for any of the companion leaders. When i tick the misc quest "talk to companion leaders for work" it only points to Aela, but like i said, when i talk to her the dialogue option doesn't appear.

This is first time this has happened to me and I recently did these quests on another file before i downloaded AA. Do you think there is any possibilty that this mod has something to do with these bugs? or perhaps there's another solution all together? Any help would be super fantastic!

You suggested i read the first page of your guide and post my load order:

 

Skyrim.esm=1

Update.esm=1

Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp=1

Dawnguard.esm=1

Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp=1

HearthFires.esm=1

Dragonborn.esm=1

HBE.esm=1

ApachiiHair.esm=1

JSwords.esm=1

ApachiiHairFemales.esm=1

AzarHair.esm=1

SexLab.esm=1

SGHairPackBase.esm=1

SexLabAroused.esm=1

ZaZAnimationPack.esm=1

daymoyl.esm=1

craftableclothes.esp=1

2HandSpeed40.esp=1

AsharaPrinceOfTheWoods.esp=1

custom nightingale.esp=1

dd - realistic ragdoll force - realistic.esp=1

aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp=1

SaturationBoost.esp=1

BarenziahQuestMarkers.esp=1

Darwins_Hard_Times.esp=1

DamageMultiplier.esp=1

NightingaleArrows.esp=1

dD - Easy Lift Bodies and Objects.esp=1

dd - enhanced blood main.esp=1

SleepTight.esp=1

DEAsprint&jump.esp=1

Duelist-Longcoat.esp=1

HBE_FastTravel_Enabled.esp=1

SexLab Warmbodies.esp=1

Bandanas of Skyrim.esp=1

TribalAssassinMashup.esp=1

duhranger.esp=1

glimmer.esp=1

Brawl Bugs CE.esp=1

insanity's red eagle's bane.esp=1

LovelyHairstylesCE.esp=1

Silver Crossbow.esp=1

JiubQuestMarkers.esp=1

CraftableSilverWeapons.esp=1

PCEA  No DLC - 0 - All Races.esp=1

HBE_CarryWeight100.esp=1

Vampire Eyes Fix.esp=1

Horsemen Combat Enhancement.esp=1

LFArmors.esp=1

MashupUNP.esp=1

Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp=1

moresmeltables.esp=1

Locational Damage.esp=1

SexLab Aroused Creatures.esp=1

RaceMenu.esp=1

RaceMenuPlugin.esp=1

realistic piercing arrows.esp=1

Rigmor.esp=1

3DNPC.esp=1

FCO - Follower Commentary Overhaul.esp=1

karifollower.esp=1

RealisticNeedsandDiseases.esp=1

purewaters.esp=1

RND_PureWaters-Patch.esp=1

WATER.esp=1

Bathing in Skyrim - Water for Pure Waters (Vanilla).esp=1

WATER DG.esp=1

RND_USKP-Patch.esp=1

northern bathhouses.esp=1

RRBetterWhiterunInt.esp=1

Bijin Warmaidens.esp=1

MoreBanditCamps(Explorer'sEdition).esp=1

RiftenThiefEdition.esp=1

sos - the wilds.esp=1

saltpilecrafting.esp=1

SexLab Attraction.esm=1

SexLab Approach.esp=1

The Coenaculi.esp=1

Schlongs of Skyrim - Light.esp=1

throwing_weapons_redux.esp=1

TavernClothes-MTM.esp=1

SexLabNudeCreatures.esp=1

SexLabNudeCreaturesDG.esp=1

voidLetsGetNaked.esp=1

SGEyebrows.esp=1

SGHairPackAIO.esp=1

shutupitsjustmagic.esp=1

SkyUI.esp=1

SnowLeopardForsworn.esp=1

SoS - Civilization.esp=1

JobsofSkyrim.esp=1

sos - the dungeons.esp=1

SexLab_DibellaCult.esp=1

Mrissi.esp=1

SexLab_DibellaCult_Sisters.esp=1

Solitude A City Of Trade.esp=1

InteractiveWashBasinsCOMPLETE.esp=1

Black Mage Armor.esp=1

breezehomelightfix.esp=1

CinematicFireFX.esp=1

Vath.esp=1

Rowana Follower.esp=1

Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix.esp=1

More Dynamic Injuries.esp=1

VeronicaFollower.esp=1

comprehensivecraftingspaces.esp=1

Tembtra Thief Armor.esp=1

The Dance of Death - Dawnguard Edition.esp=1

WhiterunREVISION.esp=0

Hidden Hideouts of Skyrim City Edition - Merged.esp=1

tavewindhelm.esp=1

xazPrisonOverhaul.esp=1

tavesolitude.esp=1

enhanced_bridges.esp=1

Duel - Combat Realism.esp=1

inigo.esp=1

AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp=1

realisticarchery.esp=1

FollowerWander2.esp=1

whiteruninenhanced.esp=1

ssapbwk.esp=1

Andre male_xuniana.esp=1

SexLab_Dialogues.esp=1

AnorithsShack.esp=1

extra encounters.esp=1

WhiterunFortified.esp=1

Horsemen.esp=1

WATER Plants.esp=1

SexLabDefeat.esp=1

SummonValeDeer.esp=1

Chesko_Frostfall.esp=1

LoversComfort.esp=1

Immersive Speechcraft.esp=1

Bathing in Skyrim - Main.esp=1

Better Follower Improvements.esp=1

Bathing in Skyrim - Interactive Wash Basins.esp=1

FNISspells.esp=1

MF_RadiantProstitution.esp=1

UniqueBows.esp=1

Horses for followers.esp=1

AlvhildeFollower.esp=1

Brevi_MoonlightTales.esp=1

WerewolfMastery.esp=1

Boethiah's Cloak.esp=1

RosaFollower.esp=1

Karyssa Althera.esp=1

Myrgiol-Follower.esp=1

Ish's Weighted Gold.esp=1

SeranaEyeFixGreenEyes.esp=1

battleflute.esp=1

nocturnal.esp=1

ErynielElfV2.esp=1

Nila.esp=1

WestWindMisfit.esp=1

TheEyesOfBeauty.esp=1

zzArmormashups.esp=1

SexLab-AmorousAdventures.esp=1

 

Any diagnosis you can give me?

[Sacremas]

Sorry for not getting back to you before, but at least 1/3 of the mods you are running are mods I have no knowledge of at all (even with 1080+ mods in my own list), I can't tell you if any of them could be causing your vanilla quests to fail. It's not Amorous I can promise you, it's going to be one of the mods I don't recognize. Going through them all and checking each for compatibility would be a monumental issue that I'm just not feeling up to taking up on. If you want I can list the mods I *DO* know and can tell you work fine and isn't your issue, then you can try to troubleshoot on your own using the first page of this thread the other mods and try to find whatever is breaking things. The comment sections of the mods are always a good place to start even before looking into TES5, if it's breaking Companions quests or other quests other people would have noticed it, just like no one's run into it in Amorous.

 

If you still think Amorous is at fault, disable that then start a new game on godmode with a daedric greataxe on novice so you can kill stuff fast, then start as a member of the companions and rush through the questline, shouldn't take you more than maybe 10 mins, use killall in the Dustman's cairn final fight, Farkas will be safe.

[Sacremas]

Might as well get started, here's the mods in your list I do know;

 

Unofficial Patches; These are good but you're missing Unfoffical Hearthfires and Unofficial Dragonborn Patch, the lack of the last one alone could easily caused you a LOT of probems (USKP fixes things one way, Dragonborn breaks them back, Unofficial Dragonborn Patch realigns those changes with USKP).

 

For some very odd reason you're running both Pure Waters and WATER; only run one of these as they do the exact same thing.

 

The Dance of Death - this is a good mod still, but now it's outdated, all of DoD's killmoves and more with a more robust system exists in VioLens, get that instead, in fact the author of Dance of Death told his followers to switch to VioLens.

 

Beyond that I have no experience with or don't recognize at all any of these. A lot of them can be done better via SkyTweak or mods like Convenient Horses or simply a Serana Overhaul rather than merely a fix for her eyes. Whatever mod is causing your issues is going to be in this list, all of the others are safe.

 

HBE.esm

craftableclothes.esp

2HandSpeed40.esp

custom nightingale.esp

SaturationBoost.esp

Darwins_Hard_Times.esp

DamageMultiplier.esp

NightingaleArrows.esp

dD - Easy Lift Bodies and Objects.esp

DEAsprint&jump.esp

Duelist-Longcoat.esp

HBE_FastTravel_Enabled.esp

Bandanas of Skyrim.esp

TribalAssassinMashup.esp

duhranger.esp

glimmer.esp

Silver Crossbow.esp

CraftableSilverWeapons.esp

HBE_CarryWeight100.esp

Vampire Eyes Fix.esp

Horsemen Combat Enhancement.esp

LFArmors.esp

Improved Combat Sounds v2.2.esp

moresmeltables.esp

Locational Damage.esp

realistic piercing arrows.esp

Rigmor.esp

karifollower.esp

northern bathhouses.esp

RRBetterWhiterunInt.esp

MoreBanditCamps(Explorer'sEdition).esp

RiftenThiefEdition.esp

saltpilecrafting.esp

The Coenaculi.esp

throwing_weapons_redux.esp

voidLetsGetNaked.esp

shutupitsjustmagic.esp

SnowLeopardForsworn.esp

JobsofSkyrim.esp

Mrissi.esp

Solitude A City Of Trade.esp

InteractiveWashBasinsCOMPLETE.esp

Black Mage Armor.esp

breezehomelightfix.esp

Vath.esp

Rowana Follower.esp

Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix.esp

More Dynamic Injuries.esp

VeronicaFollower.esp

comprehensivecraftingspaces.esp

WhiterunREVISION.esp

Hidden Hideouts of Skyrim City Edition - Merged.esp

tavewindhelm.esp

xazPrisonOverhaul.esp

tavesolitude.esp

enhanced_bridges.esp

realisticarchery.esp

FollowerWander2.esp

whiteruninenhanced.esp

Andre male_xuniana.esp

AnorithsShack.esp

extra encounters.esp

WhiterunFortified.esp

Horsemen.esp

SummonValeDeer.esp

Immersive Speechcraft.esp

Better Follower Improvements.esp

UniqueBows.esp

Horses for followers.esp

AlvhildeFollower.esp

Boethiah's Cloak.esp

RosaFollower.esp

Karyssa Althera.esp

Myrgiol-Follower.esp

Ish's Weighted Gold.esp

SeranaEyeFixGreenEyes.esp

battleflute.esp

nocturnal.esp

ErynielElfV2.esp

Nila.esp

WestWindMisfit.esp

zzArmormashups.esp

 

Can anyone else reading this that have experience with any of the above mods vouch for them or point them out as a problem issue?

[LidiaSun]

I haven't gone through any problem with AA but also haven't joint companions yet. If you want I can run a test although the mod list are different, maybe will show same problem or not.

[Sacremas]

No need, I just did those quest days ago with a 200+ mod list and Amorous Adventures at the bottom, I had no issues whatsoever whith the entirety of the Companions questline, and my dude is now Harbinger.

[Sacremas]

Here's the thing that will crash you more than anything else;

 

Companions. Not an specific companions, or mod-added companions, I'm talking all companions.

 

Let's say you're riding from Whiterun to Riften, and along the way a Skeever gets annoyed at you and stays that way. You get off your horse to enter a cave, and your companions get off their horses (Convenient Horses), aggro and run off to kill the skeever that's somewhere near Windhelm and barely even visisble on your compass. You don't really have much of an ability to stop them from doing this (other than the Disengage power in Death Alternative), various console commands are going to fail more often than not. You enter the cave and go on your questing way, and then suddenly you start crashing every time you try to save the game. Why? Because the game is now counting three (or more) instances at once, the Skeever, your companions walking aggro style with weapons raised/bows drawn back towards the skeever, and you inside the dungeon. Overall that's just too much information for your save to take, and so every time you try to save it, or load it, you crash.

 

And this is just one case of companions crashing you, if you look into things you'll find that more often than not it was your companions that caused the crash, if you'd been on your own, just you and the badguys, you wouldn't have crashed. You'll run a far more stable game if you stay the lone wolf and take companions with you as rarely as possible.

 

(Note in the above case, the way to fix it - the way I just fixed it - is to head online, look up the ref ID of the companions who were Lydia and Jordis, and do prid <refID> then moveto player after using the Disengage power from Death Alternative. You can now save and load your game fine, and your bloat is gone. Now imagine instead that it was Inigo and Sofia, or Sasha and Jenny, and trying to move them back to you then. In that case you have to go into TES5Edit on their mods and look up their ref ID there, which is another pain entirely.)

[Old Book]

I've almost given up on loading saves directly on game start up at this stage. Instead I load from a save made at level 1 in an empty interior with no spell effects or companions, then load again whatever my last save was. I hadn't thought about how much bloat might be added by the companions following my character. 

[Sacremas]

I don't have an issue in these cases with loading the save, it's more a case of saving it that causes crashes, autosaves work fine but quicksaves or manual saves result in CTD.

 

That save you have with an empty interior is basically the Janitor save I talked about ont he first page. Works the same if you install Live Another Life and start a new game in the cell there. Works better even, because then if you have say Janitor 1 and you uninstall some mod, it may make Jantitor 1 crash when you try to load him (the game start up and character creation and MCM initialization is very delicate), so then you just make a Janitor 2. It works with the cleaner save you have now, just be careful with uninstalling mods lest you break that clean save.

[BobLoblaw]

Wow, thank you so much for going through all my mods, man. Just the fact you take the time to do that is incredible. So i started a new game with AA ticked on and off, as well as a couple of other mods that you recommended- and it worked fine. But then i went to the saved file that wasn't working and i still had the same problem. I don't know what happened with my other save, but i wasn't too far anyway, so i might just start another file with the same character. It seems like it's definitely something to do with the save itself perhaps... thoughts?

[Sacremas]

It's not going to be the save, it's going to be one of the mods active in the save. You can't take a mod out of a save however, once it's in there it's very often in there to stay, if a mod breaks your save and you uinstall the mod and then go back the save, your save is still (or even more) broken. Honestly I highly recommend whenever you make large adjustments to your load orders (any scripted or worldspace mods, or a racial that's changing a race you are actually using or the like) to start a new game. Your save is just going to be broken.

[fishburger67]

Here's the thing that will crash you more than anything else;

 

Companions. Not an specific companions, or mod-added companions, I'm talking all companions.

 

Let's say you're riding from Whiterun to Riften, and along the way a Skeever gets annoyed at you and stays that way. You get off your horse to enter a cave, and your companions get off their horses (Convenient Horses), aggro and run off to kill the skeever that's somewhere near Windhelm and barely even visisble on your compass. You don't really have much of an ability to stop them from doing this (other than the Disengage power in Death Alternative), various console commands are going to fail more often than not. You enter the cave and go on your questing way, and then suddenly you start crashing every time you try to save the game. Why? Because the game is now counting three (or more) instances at once, the Skeever, your companions walking aggro style with weapons raised/bows drawn back towards the skeever, and you inside the dungeon. Overall that's just too much information for your save to take, and so every time you try to save it, or load it, you crash.

 

And this is just one case of companions crashing you, if you look into things you'll find that more often than not it was your companions that caused the crash, if you'd been on your own, just you and the badguys, you wouldn't have crashed. You'll run a far more stable game if you stay the lone wolf and take companions with you as rarely as possible.

 

(Note in the above case, the way to fix it - the way I just fixed it - is to head online, look up the ref ID of the companions who were Lydia and Jordis, and do prid <refID> then moveto player after using the Disengage power from Death Alternative. You can now save and load your game fine, and your bloat is gone. Now imagine instead that it was Inigo and Sofia, or Sasha and Jenny, and trying to move them back to you then. In that case you have to go into TES5Edit on their mods and look up their ref ID there, which is another pain entirely.)

 

I have never experienced a CTD because of this in hundreds of hours of game time and I always have lots of followers.  These followers are constantly getting into fights while I am running down the road.  Sometimes, I even miss it happening and don't realize it till I am missing companions.  What I have done most often is use AFT summons and move on.  Once in a while, I'll run back and help them kill the beast, but usually, I just ignore them and go on. 

 

I suspect that this might be a combination of issues because as you know, I have a light mod load (40 odd mods).