What's a "healthy" number of plugins?

[lm1ao]

Hello, been playing for ~2 years now, but I'm just curious as to what's a good amount for esp files. Is there a certain number I should stay within or under? I know the limit is ~254, but having that many will probably cause some problems, if not a lot of work to get the mods working together. I'm running around ~100 at the moment.  

  

Also, on a side note, how many scripts should a save game have in general? My new character has ~60k script instances, and ~6k scripts. Are these numbers normal?

[Lance711]

I think the max plugin number is 255. I'm not sure about scripts but many of them make Skyrim lag, and less stable. But you can try using the script cleaner mod from nexus if you have any instances that need cleaning. Scripts stay in your saves even when you remove mods that use them, so saves get bloated, it's a wise thing to never remove mods with a save that "knows" them. That's where script cleaners come in handy.

[lm1ao]

I've been using a script cleaner frequently, but I just wanted some clarity on the meaning of the numbers on the side panel (Save Cleaner)

[Guest]

It depends on the mods.

 

For mods that just add new items (armors, weapons, actors) you are safe also beyond the 254 limit.

Overhauls are tricky, use only one if you want.

 

For scripting mods, then try to avoid to add to many of them, especially if they are not well developed.

A mod that alone attaches scripts to everything is not a good mod and probably it is a source of CTDs.

 

6K of scripts is a safe number. Actually 20K is. 60K is still manageable by the engine. At 65K you get a CTD at game load.

The number of scripts instances can be higher, but at this point you have to check how much memory is consumed by each script.

 

A quick formula is: the size of the PEX + 8 bytes for each Object (Forms, etc.) + 4 bytes for each variable + the size of all arrays multiplied the size of the referenced object (native=4, objects=8)

If you go over 120Mb then you will get a CTD.

But already at 40Mb you start having shutter in your game play.

 

 

I think the max plugin number is 255. I'm not sure about scripts but many of them make Skyrim lag, and less stable. But you can try using the script cleaner mod from nexus if you have any instances that need cleaning. Scripts stay in your saves even when you remove mods that use them, so saves get bloated, it's a wise thing to never remove mods with a save that "knows" them. That's where script cleaners come in handy.

 

Close.

 

00 is not used.

01 is Skyrim.

Each DLC consumes another slot.

255 is used for run time objects.

 

So probably you have a max number of 250 extra mods that you can add.

[Lance711]

I'm pretty sure the numbers don't make much a difference. I have way over 6k (in scripts sizes) on my save and my save file is over 10MB in size, and it's still very healthy, I just make sure to not run too many scripted mods all at once.

[lm1ao]

Thanks for the info. My lv91 save is about 16mb, and new saves running more or less the same mod setup is at 8mb. Most of my mods are armors/models/textures, so I guess I'll be fine running my mods as it. I think the SL mods are my most script heavy ones, and a few others which are lighter.  

 

 

 

6K of scripts is a safe number. Actually 20K is. 60K is still manageable by the engine. At 65K you get a CTD at game load.

The number of scripts instances can be higher, but at this point you have to check how much memory is consumed by each script.

 

 

Also, is 6k referring to the number of scripts, active scripts, or script instances?

[RitualClarity]

to keep a healthy number of mods you attempt to keep the mods as relevant to your current play through, select the proper well designed mods that work as good together as possible, clean them if needed, and in many cases create a patch.

 

General advise is to try to keep the mods at or below 100~140 of plugins and be careful of the heavy texture mods/scripts mods as they take more resources. This takes judgment and experience to feel the sweet spot for your particular setup.

 

With experience and skill and a lot of work you can start piling more and more on and still experience a stable good game. These members that do this are the extreme cases and have great skill / experience with modding/ the game/ and conflict resolutions.

 

Newest members I suggest keeping it to general mods like some mentioned by community gaming leaders like Gopher's videos or such. Keep it at that until more understanding of the process happens / or you have loads of time.

 

See the "healthy" number is a personal number, depending on many factors that are directly related to you, your skill, your machine, and your time.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. My lv91 save is about 16mb, and new saves running more or less the same mod setup is at 8mb. Most of my mods are armors/models/textures, so I guess I'll be fine running my mods as it. I think the SL mods are my most script heavy ones, and a few others which are lighter.  

 

 

 

6K of scripts is a safe number. Actually 20K is. 60K is still manageable by the engine. At 65K you get a CTD at game load.

The number of scripts instances can be higher, but at this point you have to check how much memory is consumed by each script.

 

 

Also, is 6k referring to the number of scripts, active scripts, or script instances?

 

On a save game you have the reference to the scripts (the source code) ((I was referring to that)), and the scripts that are running and may share the save code (these are called script instances.)

[darkconsole]

 

it mostly depends how bad the scripting is in them though.

 

eventually you will notice things just "stop working" until you save and reload. that means you went too far.

[Veladarius]

Some mods work well with others and some don't, figuring out that is the key. I typically run 240+ esp/esm's and have a number of mods that are armor and weapon compilations. I have a base setup that I work with that covers about 2/3 of my mods with the rest being mods that I want to try out, if it is worth it I add it to my base set.

[RitualClarity]

Some mods work well with others and some don't, figuring out that is the key. I typically run 240+ esp/esm's and have a number of mods that are armor and weapon compilations. I have a base setup that I work with that covers about 2/3 of my mods with the rest being mods that I want to try out, if it is worth it I add it to my base set.

 

You are only combining weapon, armor mods etc correct? Are you combining various mods from the same author (Like the various COT mods for optons)?

 

[Guest]

Over the years I've found that regardless of how much knowledge I've gained handling my mods, how much good patching and conflict resolution I do, I always start to  experience some inevitable flaky weirdness at 190 + plugins, and much beyond that is when most of my saves inevitably get scrapped prematurely.  Basically my rig just isn't having it at that point and consistently tells me to go fuck myself. 

 

Some modders are preternaturally good at managing their setups and can push things way beyond where I'd dare to go even with some pretty sound practices, but they probably also have more headroom than I do. 

 

Other than 255 there's no real answer - some folks swear anything over 140 is the dead zone (because that's their experience), others will run right up to the max and swear they never crash.  This is something you just have to judge for yourself. 

 

[Veladarius]

 

Some mods work well with others and some don't, figuring out that is the key. I typically run 240+ esp/esm's and have a number of mods that are armor and weapon compilations. I have a base setup that I work with that covers about 2/3 of my mods with the rest being mods that I want to try out, if it is worth it I add it to my base set.

 

You are only combining weapon, armor mods etc correct? Are you combining various mods from the same author (Like the various COT mods for optons)?

 

 

 

Yes, I will combine things like COT or other mods that have multiple parts (lighting mods being another) so long as they are part of the same 'set' so to speak. I have combined hair mods but some don't like being combined with others so those I have to leave separate.

[RitualClarity]

 

 

Some mods work well with others and some don't, figuring out that is the key. I typically run 240+ esp/esm's and have a number of mods that are armor and weapon compilations. I have a base setup that I work with that covers about 2/3 of my mods with the rest being mods that I want to try out, if it is worth it I add it to my base set.

 

You are only combining weapon, armor mods etc correct? Are you combining various mods from the same author (Like the various COT mods for optons)?

 

 

 

Yes, I will combine things like COT or other mods that have multiple parts (lighting mods being another) so long as they are part of the same 'set' so to speak. I have combined hair mods but some don't like being combined with others so those I have to leave separate.

 

Yes.. that was the main thing I was wondering since you have more complex installs than I do. No reason to have 5 or so esps for a mod when you will be using all of them

 

[Veladarius]

 

 

 

Some mods work well with others and some don't, figuring out that is the key. I typically run 240+ esp/esm's and have a number of mods that are armor and weapon compilations. I have a base setup that I work with that covers about 2/3 of my mods with the rest being mods that I want to try out, if it is worth it I add it to my base set.

 

You are only combining weapon, armor mods etc correct? Are you combining various mods from the same author (Like the various COT mods for optons)?

 

 

 

Yes, I will combine things like COT or other mods that have multiple parts (lighting mods being another) so long as they are part of the same 'set' so to speak. I have combined hair mods but some don't like being combined with others so those I have to leave separate.

 

Yes.. that was the main thing I was wondering since you have more complex installs than I do. No reason to have 5 or so esps for a mod when you will be using all of them

 

 

The only thing you have to watch is if another unrelated mod uses one of those pieces as a master then it is best not to merge them.

[GodSmack]

as long as your skyrim doesn't implode from drawing your sword or entering and leaving buildings or any other stupidly random things, enough is never enough

 

Installing mods is like eating cookies(or whatever your favorite food is), you can't have just one.

[Kaz Aanh]

Going from 254 to 140 severely reduced my crash rate and boosted fps. Weird but it works.

 

Even game loads a lot faster.

[allsunday]

I've got about 300 to 350 plugins that I've condensed and combined with ESP merge so now I have about 248.  My game won't load half the time (meaning there's a 50% chance it won't load)... but, and here's the interesting part, if I start a new game and then wait 30 seconds, then I can load my previous saves just fine - no problems whatsoever the game loads within 10 seconds.  My Skyrim mod total -- TOTAL -- is probably upwards to about 500 and I will play for hours and hours before it crashes.  It rarely crashes and even when it does, I just boot the game right back up and play for 7 or 8 more hours.  I even have Locational Damage installed -- the worst bloat mod ever!  I'm not joking.  Just keep a good track record of the mods you install and uninstall... the key here is patience and to keep good backups so you can revert back to a safe mod profile whenever installing too many mods causes conflict.  General tools I use are either Nexus Mod Manager & preferably Mod Organizer, but the important tools are LOOT, of course, I also use SKyrim Save Cleaner from NexusMods, and I always clean dirty plugins with TESVEDIT.  Also, during gameplay, I make a habit of staying under 30 saved games.  I get 60fps indoors and about 40 fps out doors.  I use Tetrachromatic ENB, I have 4k textures on half of everything and 2k textures on everything else, all females in my Skyrim have 8k textures.  My specs include an i7 4790k, GTX 970s in SLI, 16gb HyperX Savage 2133Mhz, and Skyrim is installed on a Kingston 240gb SSD.  I also played a heckuva lot with my Skyrim INI and SkyrimPrefs settings.  So much so that I can't remember what I've done.  I'll be honest, I'm just really lucky to have a working Skyrim that's UBER modded, I have no idea what I'm doing, I just act like I do.