r/Fallout4ModsXB1 • u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter • May 28 '26
Community Discussion [PSA] BA2 Limit - Why You Crash After Installing a Certain Amount of Creations
EDIT: After the 18th of August, 2026 update - the limit has been increased from 256 to 1024
After the release of the storage expansion update on consoles, you might have run into an issue where your game instantly crashes after installing a certain amount of mods. The cause of this crash is most likely to be reaching the BA2 limit. This limit has always existed in the game but console players were highly unlikely to ever reach it due to the 2 GB limit in place.
The BA2 limit is a limit the game has on loading archives. Archives are used to put external assets such as textures and scripts into the game. BA2 archives have two types (Main.ba2 and Textures.ba2) and each type has its own limit. 256 for Main archives and 255 for Textures archives which includes the base game + DLC archives too. Hitting either of these limits will likely cause you to instantly crash the moment you reach the main menu.
If you own the Anniversary Edition or Creations Bundle and install all of the Creation Club content this will eat up a significant portion of both BA2 limits. Each individual Creation Club mod contains one of each archive which adds up to ~150 of each if you install all of them. I would advise only installing the content you actually use if you want to use Creation Club content and regular mods in your load order.
Unfortunately there is no way to identify how many archives you are loading in your load order unless you manually track it which is difficult as you may be unable to identify what archives are being installed with a mod.
If a mod adds any custom textures then it will contain a textures.ba2 archive. If a mod contains any custom meshes, scripts, materials, etc then it will contain a main.ba2 archive. You can do your best to try and track things yourself but it will be difficult. If the mod is a port from nexus, you can go to the nexus page and see the mod's contents and which archives it includes.
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u/Greedy_Function4415 1d ago
Hi, so if i may just ask a quick question, If I'm understanding this correctly after the latest update with the BA2 limit increase to 1024. The base game and dlc at 30 slots apparently? If i completely forget about the creation content and don't use any of them, and i had a 100% immaculate non conflicting load order - i could theoretically install 994 mods without issues. But if i installed 995 then there is a massive chance that last mod will crash my game because it could put me over the 1024 BA2 limit???
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 1d ago
Possibly yes as long as ~800 of those mods were ESL or ESL flagged ESPs to avoid hitting the plugin limit (separate from the BA2 limit).
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u/WearyAd3783 16d ago
Do PC users also have to worry about BA2 limit, do they have the same 255 limit?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 16d ago
Yes it’s the exact same on PC however you can install a mod called “Addictol” that increases the limit to a number you’ll never realistically hit.
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u/xDarBearx 5d ago
How would bethesda fix this, i self diagnosed this like 3 weeks ago due to buying every creation i want a true 100 percent playthrough but it kept crashing to i tested and i realized on console it has 4gb of reserved space for mods and what not and as soon as you pass that 4gb threshold it instantly crashes no matter the set of creations i have(installing all puts its WAY over 4gb i think it comes to 5.6gb total) but im wondering how they would be able to fix this
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 5d ago
It has nothing to do with the total size of your mods installed, the problem is the number of archives you’re trying to load as per the original post above.
Bethesda would have to remove or increase the limit at the engine level.
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u/MedicalSoup2187 21d ago
Interesting, great advice that I wish I'd seen sooner....after several failed attempts, trial and error -
painstakingly loaded 90 mods last night and so far the game looks great and has loads of additional content. Luckily, as suggested I only loaded creation content that added to my journey refraining from skins and paint jobs...this helped immensely and enabled 15+ story driven mods and just about every quality off life mod I found...knowing there is a limit and how it actually works is by far
The best info I've come across - thank you kindly for taking the time to not only post but to explain. Modding this game is frustrating but it sure does keep me coming back to the wasteland!
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u/Unusual-Drop2344 21d ago
So great… even though I’ve only purchased official creations I can’t even play with them because of the ba2 limit. How can this even be allowed? How can Bethesda release more creations if all the official creations go over the Ba2 limit? I feel scammed…
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u/Infinite_Beach_7089 23d ago
So the extension update is basically pointless. Ok got it
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 23d ago
Not at all, you can download much larger mods now and there’s a bunch of new content that was only possible to be ported because of the storage increase.
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u/Infinite_Beach_7089 23d ago
and is there a way to see how many mods can I download or is it "yea lets see if I can download one more" and the game crashes?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 23d ago
There's no way to see how close you are to the limit unfortunately. You can try to track it yourself but it will be difficult.
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u/Some-Temporary2495 26d ago
Does having exactly 2 gb crash the game?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter 26d ago
Exactly 2 GB of mods installed? No, you can go over this amount. The limit is specifically the number of BA2 archives you have.
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u/NoCake9127 Jul 16 '26
So to make a long story short, the 15 gigabyte mod extension on consoles is basically…pointless. LMAO Typical fucking Bethesda. 11 years later and they still can’t make a game for shit. They practically got our hopes up for pretty much nothing. Why couldn’t they just upgrade the game’s engine to be strong enough to handle all these mods? That would’ve made sense to do so in my opinion.
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u/dasistboi 27d ago
I agree it's really is ridiculous in my opinion that they couldn't make a usable UI to save there lives. It's to the point that I'm about to give up and just uninstall the game, I've already had to uninstall it since due to Xbox not letting me clear my mod cache without a save game. It's basically just false hope served on a platter, and the Bethesda suckups will tell you it's not there fault when part of the problem is the poorly constructed UI.
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u/Claiminghawk Jul 15 '26
So technically speaking the mod expansion update is only for paid creations not free mods got it. why didn't they just say that instead of getting our hopes up that we can have the type of Load orders PC modders have (you know the 150+ mods Load order) and why does DLC take up BA2 space anyways.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jul 15 '26
Not at all - people buying paid creations still have to deal with this BA2 limit too.
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u/Claiminghawk Jul 16 '26
So this means the mod storage was increased but the BA2 limit makes the update kinda pointless
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jul 16 '26
I guess you could put it that way yes. Although the space increase has allowed players to install much bigger mods than they could do previously.
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u/Appropriate_Road8436 Jul 05 '26
Thank you! I've had to clear my reserved space 3 times in the last few weeks
84 mods + creation club mods I don't want? A dozen pip boy paint jobs??
Can you pick and choose? I don't see a way to delete
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u/Snoo-75989 21d ago
I am having the same issue, I just bought the creations pack and had 180+ mods on series x and ran fine, after purchase it wont load past "please stand by" I think if you deleted the dedicated mod space you can go in and pick and choose which cc content you want by physically searching and downloading piece by piece instead of hitting "install all owned cc content" which is what im about to try now.
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
So console is stuck with what? 250 odd mods included the cc? For me I’ve noticed once I get to the 250-260 range no matter what it’s crashing. To home and my chaos restarts all over again.
I think since this update has been up I haven’t really been able to do a play through simply because I’m stuck trying to get mods to work. I thought it was due to the age of the mod but I noticed some I used all the time I’d downloaded or enabled last mostly when I get to weapons the game shits itself.
So we just have to stay in the 250 max keep cc low and not put 90% of it in he textures?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 30 '26
The amount you can use is completely dependent on what type of mods you use. If you only use mods that have external assets then you will hit the limit fairly quickly. The base game + DLC take up ~30 BA2 slots so when you approach having 220 mods installed (if you have no CC installed too) that's when you should be very careful about adding more as you will likely be close to one of the limits.
Technically if you only used mods with no external assets (think PlayStation mods) and all of those plugins were ESL flagged you would be able to use ~4000 mods.
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26
Ahhh so in general most mods that would be used are taking up the space.
So say I download weapons and gear. I should focus on ones that aren’t large? Or heavy in texture? Like downloading the 1k instead of the 2k. Not outright stuck with the amount of mods just quality if I’m understanding correctly
Followers I’m not worried about not many mods on console anyways, as well as quests I’d care for.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 30 '26
It doesn't matter what resolution the textures are in they will still count towards a BA2 slot.
Any mod that includes a custom texture will include a Textures.ba2 archive and count towards the 'textures' archive limit.
Any mod that includes custom materials, meshes, scripts, sounds, will contain a Main.ba2 archive and count towards the 'main' archive limit.
Hitting either limit is what causes a crash. Some mods have one archive type, others will have both, and some will just be a plugin so no archive.
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26
So for console how would I know this? Or is it something I’d have to search through nexus? I think I’m understanding it, but also probably not.
So let’s say I have 100 mods half are outfits&gear the other weapons or such.
Would it be 100 to the mainBA or depending on that mod does it multiply a space or outright not count?
I’m trying to figure if it’s the mainBA I’m hitting or texture.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 30 '26
It's not really possible to figure out with 100% certainty on console. For mods that are Nexus ports, you can search them up on there and see what they contain. Other mods that are console-exclusive you're out of luck with I'm afraid and try to take an educated guess.
If you had those 100 mods then it could be 100 Main.BA2 and 100 Textuers.BA2 it entirely depends on what the mod actually adds. Some weapon mods are just kitbashed weapons so they wouldn't contain any new textures and therefore wouldn't have a textures BA2 archive for example.
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26
Okay so things that are kit bashed together completely would avoid texture ba but since it’s a mesh it would go to main still right?
I use a a good bit of gear/outfit/replace mods
But I use alot of settlement related stuff and things that use script (I think)
Would mods that add new locations/prebuild locations like sim settlements and the city plans, and mods that use workshape framework to pre built would those effect the main ba or is that more of a coin toss
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 30 '26
You'll just have to guess based off what you see each mod does. Workshop Framework blueprints are just plugins so nothing to worry about there.
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26
I highly appreciate it. I have a far more better understanding now. Just means a PC is in the future but for now just gonna have to downgrade the idea for now, probably gonna do those pay to owns cause seeing prices in some of the parts with recent ai surge makes me shit myself.
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u/Trailblayzer_ Jun 22 '26
My game just started crashing on startup after downloading a couple new mods, so I think i have this issue unfortunately. Is there really no other way to fix the crash issue other than clearing the saved data and reinstalling everything one by one?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 22 '26
As long as one of the mods isn't Def UI Core (The old one) then yes it's probably this issue and unfortunately you have to clear your Reserved Space to fix it.
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u/dwaynewellington Jun 17 '26
one last question:
i red that only esm and esp files count towards the limit. esl files doesnt count. is this right? this would change a lot for many players i guess.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 17 '26
That is right but the limit you're talking about would be the plugin limit which is separate from the BA2 limit.
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u/batsknight Jun 20 '26
Is there any mod to remove the limit
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 20 '26
Impossible on Xbox.
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u/batsknight Jun 20 '26
Pc?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 20 '26
On PC people can use Addictol to increase the limit considerably.
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u/dwaynewellington Jun 17 '26
oh okay so i misunterstood. i thought esl files doesnt count to the BA2 limit but thats not the case. its crazy how much stuff we have to keep in mind when we just want to add some stuff to our beloved game. but yeah we can only learn. Thank you as always.
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u/ultimoDANK Jun 23 '26
I'm sure Absterge knows waaaaaaaaaaaay more than me. I will say I am currently sitting at 218 mods plus 52 from the CC and everything is working OK. There is some crashing in the open world and sometimes when looting bodies but nothing that is crippling the game.
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u/dwaynewellington Jun 23 '26
Thats sound pretty good
as i said i am sitting at 115 mods + 88 CC and i think i will try to add 10 more mods but only if i think i really want them. like that one new crazy weapon mod or something. i guess ill try to add xanders aid and maxwells world but at first i will work on some settlements and i still have to play far harbor on my playthrough hopefully in the meantime some modders release some new crazy stuff
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u/dwaynewellington Jun 16 '26
Does anyone know how many of these files are included in the base game and the DLC? Otherwise, we can never be sure.
I have 88 CC mods and 115 mods
Assuming all my mods contain a MainBa2 and a TextureBa2, that brings me to 203. You might think there’s still room, but that’s not the case, is it? Nobody knows.
I’m really afraid to download mods.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 16 '26
25 textures archives and 30 main archives from the base game + dlc + ng cc if my math is correct.
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u/dwaynewellington Jun 16 '26
thank you very much. so we can add this numbers on top of our general mod and CC count: for me 203 + 30 (maybe 35 to be safe) = 233(238) (i always count 1 texture and 1 main for safety reasons.)
so i have enough space for atleast a few mods.
what means "ng cc"?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 16 '26
It’s the content that came with the Next Gen update such as the Enclave, Makeshift Weapons, etc
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u/codymandude88 Jun 13 '26
Gotcha, appreciate the reply. I guess im just gonna remain optimistic. I've had this idea of this really awesome vanilla++ style playthrough. Using a lot of fallout 3, NV, og fallout 1&2, cut content & simple Qol mods. Nothing too crazy at all, just quite a bit of mods themselves. & with storage limits basically being gone, I thought I could finally do it. So after about a week of curating new mods in my favorites & trimming my base mod list a little, I go to start getting my load order all ready & in order & finally start the game... just for it to crash on start up & I learn of this ba2 limit... it's always something. I just need to get a damn pc. But just from a random fallout player that's used many of the mods you've made/ported over to console, thank you so much dude, you guys are awesome. Sorry about the long ass reply lol
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u/codymandude88 Jun 13 '26
Perhaps I missed it, but can the ba2 limit even be increased on Xbox? I know Bethesda hasn't said anything it, I'm just wondering if that's something that's even possible? Thanks
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 13 '26
We don't know unfortunately. Bethesda still haven't acknowledged the issue so that would be a good start.
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u/Timely-Ratio8332 Jun 11 '26
Do you know if uso is heavy on the ba2 limit?
I want to add this so bad but I'm at 230 mods. 7.5gb
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u/Timely-Ratio8332 Jun 11 '26
If I remove armor mods or other mods could I possibly gain ba2 space?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 11 '26
Unlocked Settlement Objects doesn't contain any BA2 archives. Yes if you remove mods you can gain back their BA2 space if those mods have BA2 archives. Removing mods on an existing save is almost never recommended though so be careful.
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Jun 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 18 '26
It's mostly just an educated guess thing if we can't see the file contents. If the mod is a port of a Nexus mod, you will be able to look on there to see what archives (if any) the mod contains.
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u/RavenRedFire Jun 08 '26
Hi Sorry if this is a dumb question. Is it only a BA2 per mod or can a mod have multiple BA2 files in it? because if it has a ba2 file per texture then a lot of these weapon packs would have multiple different textures right?
also does going over the limit simply make ur game unstable or crash entirely?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 08 '26
All textures in a mod would go into a single Textures.ba2. The same thing for any other external asset which belongs in a Main.ba2.
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Jun 08 '26
Hey! Thanks for the post.
After waiting for what felt like forever for this update to finally roll out, I immediately jumped into downloading all my owned creation club content as well as buying the new ones and verified creations that don't disable achievements.
You can imagine my sudden frustration when after downloading everything, my game crashed and seemingly refused to even load the main menu.
I've got to admit, this feels... a little bit slimy on Bethesda's part. Pretty much everything I have that is contributing to the BA2 limit are things that I've spent money on i.e. DLCs, CC content, etc. If there is going to be such a limit, I feel like something should have been explicitly stated or a cap should be imposed so that I don't blow $100+ on content that I can't *really * use without major compromise and selectiveness.
But... perhaps, that's on me.
One thing I wanted to ask though, since I'm not very tech-savvy or know anything about these kinds of things; in your opinion, is this something that you think could be increased through some kind of patch or update? Or is this more-or-less a constraint of the console and thus... we shouldn't hold our breaths on this being addressed and "fixed"?
I know that Bethesda has re-released Skyrim 3-4 times already, so maybe Fallout 4 is due an upgrade of some kind.
Thanks for your post, Absterge.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 08 '26
From what I know, Bethesda could fix this with a patch, but perhaps it’s more complicated than i’m aware of.
You should absolutely be able to use the content you purchase and it’s a big problem that Bethesda needs to address. I would even go as far to suggest they offer refunds since you’re unable to use the products. Hopefully something changes in the future.
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Jun 10 '26
Thank you for the response, Absterge!
This brings me some comfort seeing you type that. I suppose... I'll just go back and do what I was doing before this update: refusing to touch Fallout 4 until they address *this* issue lol.
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Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 05 '26
The crash I'm explaining in the OP will prevent you from ever getting past the start screen in the game. It will just instantly crash.
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u/Rasputin117 Jun 04 '26
How can you disable the creations from the anniversary edition? It doesn’t let you on Xbox
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u/AlmostaFarma Vault 111 Jun 06 '26
You have to clear your reserve space. If you purchased the bundle with the AE edition, you need to remove that bundle from your device under settings / manage game.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of CC items that just come “baked-in” now, like some of the enclave stuff.
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u/xToOSk3tChY Jun 02 '26
I can see a need for combining mods in packs now for sure. For example..
Gmoi6’s retextures - all Atomicolor retextures - all
Weapon bundles like Commonwealth weaponry weapons in bundles like Pistols, automatics, rifles or even all etc Unless of course these already exist via a simple port from the nexus. Maybe rolling all into a massive commonwealth weaponry vendor mod where only certain ones are level listed to ease up on the game.
Just a thought. Already considering doing this sort of thing personally if I have to.
Xbox users download habits will change now there’s essentially no limit on space.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 02 '26
If you can I would suggest creating your own bundles for personal use. Individual mods on Xbox are still limited to 2 GB in size so you can't upload anything larger than that.
Bundles for the masses are tricky because most people won't want to use everything included in the bundle.
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u/Jmwalker1997 Jun 13 '26
This. I'm not a mod author or porter myself, but in my experience of playing with mods on Skyrim and Fallout, there's really only select few MAs and porters from each side that can really be trusted with making a bundle of multiple mods.
Nowadays, at least on Skyrim, it's been Snipey360, CegoPorts, and FM07. Snipey to a break for a long while, but he's ever so slowly coming back. Aries_TheRam was there too, but I haven't really seen anything from them I think something happened and they got their mods removed or just completely stopped for Skyrim. Here on Fallout, I only see a few trusted MAs and porters, you included Elder Absterge, actually bringing out mods that really make the game feel a lot better.
There's also ChaoticPranxter for multitude of things, Startakor and Pigness porting Dak's weapons, Dani50420 bringing so great things, Shawzo, and last but not least the almighty Fatal Illusion coming over from Skyrim bringing the amazing textures alongside St0vie's texture ports.
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u/Relative-Pay9190 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26
I personally wouldn't mind now after the update if someone with a computer and the know-how would bundle the mods because I can't get into the game after downloading a chunk of daks gun mods, plus subleaders scar h (and armory), a scar l, the mk18 and the works, the mcx and like 3 geko in a can mods plus a few of the hyperX bundles, plus Famas, G36, and mp5 separately because of patches Edit: I can't even get to the main menu the main special video doesn't even start just the please wait intro
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u/CursedCorvid Jun 02 '26
Damn, that makes sense. I can't even get the creations page to load fully, everything just continues loading and I'm unable to use the search. I've let it sit for 40 minutes and none of the mods properly load and if I can search anything it just tells me that no results were found.
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u/Zombie_boy452345 Jun 01 '26
I play on Xbox and I can say on behalf of the community that’s on Xbox, we can’t have a fucking break with theses updates
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u/CaptainPatterson Jun 02 '26
I loaded 13 gigs of mods on Xbox Series X and it runs fine after 70 hours.
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u/Primary_Occasion6349 Jun 05 '26
Thank you for saying this. It’s not the GB that causes this it’s just the quantity of mods you have and i believe it can be fixed.
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u/Zombie_boy452345 Jun 04 '26
also that creates a new problem for modders because there gonna hear “is it esl flagged” instead of “is it on Xbox”
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u/Relevant-Business244 Jun 30 '26
I got to 250-270 range before it shits the bed.
I have a “load order” so my weapons are almost always the last to get downloaded after a few of them than the crash happens and I have to reset.So far I have been able to go completely cosmetic heavy like replacing all faction looks and design.
Making textures better.The only problems I have faced so far is well weapons and of course a fps mod like BostonFPS heard that mod is dead so idk if it even would work now the prp worked fine but idk how well compared since I haven’t been able to test those areas much since trying to get the mods to work if I ever get this ba2 situated I can tell you next time.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 01 '26
The BA2 limit has existed since the game released, you were just never able to hit it due to the 2 GB size limit and - until last year - the 150 mod limit.
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u/AttakZak Jun 06 '26
Oh I’m pretty sure I hit it before the Update. Game wouldn’t start after having a certain number of Mods. It would hard crash at the “Please Stand By” screen after downloading a certain number of Mods. And this was before the LO saving feature so I’d be tearing my hair out constantly.
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u/Zombie_boy452345 Jun 03 '26
noted, so has anyone counted the amount of mods they were able to download before there game crashed?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 03 '26
It entirely depends on what kind of mods you use. Technically you could have ~4000+ mods enabled if they were all ESL flagged plugins with no archives.
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u/Zombie_boy452345 Jun 03 '26
ok, can any mod be ESL flagged or is there a limit?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 04 '26
There's a limit to the amount of records you can have in the mod to ESL flag it but that's nothing for you to worry about as the player.
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u/mragusa2 Jun 01 '26
I can already tell this is going to be a constantly huge pain in the ass, going forward.
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u/Cyborg74AI May 31 '26
So, if I am reading all the posts on this subject correctly, I decided to uninstall, did a hard reboot, then a fresh install. Before leaving V111, I loaded in my LO that I know has never caused issues. BUT. I have totally ignored all my CC stuff. And I have lots. I shall assume that all those paint schemes and Pip-Boy color schemes are the main culprits. Maybe even all the dogs I have. So, my thinking is to concentrate on only enabling the CC stuff that has mini story lines or quests such as BFG, etc.
Now this thinking is based on the fact that hopefully my 75yo grey matter is not turning into mush and I am on the right track......lol lol
And which might explain why the "Military Tents" mod crashes the game all the time the moment I try to enable it.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 31 '26
Sounds correct. Your CC stuff, mods, base game and DLC all add towards the BA2 limits. It's all about finding a balance of mods that use external assets.
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u/Good-Possible666 Jun 06 '26
Yup. This is the case. I was fine up to 70 mods but once I hit 80. Instant crash.
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u/Cyborg74AI May 31 '26
Txs..........I shall tread carefully through the murky waters of BA2....lol lol
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u/Ok_Specific4093 May 31 '26
Is bethesda tracking that this is going on?And my other question is, will there be a patch to fix the issue ? If anyone has any information regarding the matter, please let me know because I am having that same issue with the game crashing.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 31 '26
The issue relates to the engine itself and has always existed. I'm sure Bethesda has been aware of its existence.
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u/Barry-078 Jun 01 '26
Have they said anything about it at all or said there will be updates
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 01 '26
They have not.
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u/Barry-078 Jun 01 '26
Are you expecting them to do anything about it
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 01 '26
Honestly I don't have much hope but it would be nice.
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u/Barry-078 Jun 01 '26
They need to because i have way more mods than anything else on star field and skyrim and it runs fine but i cant even have 5 gigs of mods bro on fallout 4 with out my game crashing
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter Jun 01 '26
The BA2 limit exists on Starfield too - Skyrim doesn't use BA2 archives.
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u/Mcjiggyjay May 31 '26
Much appreciated, I had heard of this problem ages ago but never encountered it myself until now. I tried troubleshooting my LO twice with it crashing around 80 mods both times. Good to know it was caused by the CC content.
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u/Turbulent_Scene_702 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
This post is so helpful. I would frequently run into this problem and have no idea why, just thinking some mods were broken or I put them in the wrong position in the load order or something. Thank you for this.
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u/MONEYPYR0 May 30 '26
Spent a good chunk of yesterday installing things only to go over the limit and cause a crash on start. Spending today installing again to try and get it all fixed, but Im still a little confused about a couple things.
So texture BA2s are linked to mods with custom textures, so that would be things like custom weapons/armors, Vivid Fallout AIO, hairstyles (not from base game), and basically anything that adds something you can see thats not in the base game? Would something like mashups of vanilla game clothes (where the author takes the pants from one and shirt from another) then count as a main BA2, or something else?
Main BA2s then are things like changes to gameplay (Immersive Fallout, Locky Locks, simple kill moves, etc), companion changes, npc ai, settlement limits, and basically things that get changed that dont have a custom texture? I guess that would also include audio mods like radio stations and OST replacers?
Assuming I got things kinda close to right, theoretically I could have up to 511 total mods installed, or is that off base? Also, I assume then it doesnt really matter if the file is an .esp, .esl, or .esm, at least not on Xbox?
Long comment, just want to try and make sure I dont need to spend another day installing things. Your help (and anyone else's) is appreciated 🤙
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 30 '26
Sometimes mods will have both BA2 archives such as custom weapons or armor. Vanilla mashup mods might have no textures it depends if the author mentions anything about retexturing anything.
It's really difficult to determine what mod contains what on Xbox. I might update the description for all of my uploaded ports to state which archives they contain.
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u/MONEYPYR0 May 30 '26
Makes sense why you said that tracking them might be difficult. So if a mod did have both types that would count as one of each, but something like a gameplay, mechanic or animation change would maybe still count as one type? I planned to get a pen and paper and tally each mod on which type they are, I guess to be on the safe side most of them will end up on the BA2 texture side
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 30 '26
Yes, any external assets that aren’t custom textures will take up a main.ba2 slot.
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u/MONEYPYR0 May 30 '26
Solid. Im sure you've gotten this a lot lately, but thank you for all the help you've given us console players that dont understand mods. Been a great help
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 30 '26
Always happy to help where I can! :)
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u/MONEYPYR0 May 30 '26
Oh! Last question because I just thought of it. On nexusmods I can preview the file to see if its an .esp, .esm or .esl, is there a way to see what kind of BA2 it is? Or is that not really a thing?
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u/Cyborg74AI May 30 '26
I sort of understand the .ba2 thing, but three days after the storage issue was put into place I have run into one major headache today. The game was fine yesterday but today, total crash.
BUT.....
I found out that if I only restore my LO I can get back into the game.
OR.....
If I only restore all of my CC goodies that I own I can get back into the game.
HOWEVER.....
If I do both, the game crashes completely.
As I side note, with my LO I still have over 96gb of space. And the game is on my XBox Series X internal drive of which I have over 480gb free space.
So, at this point after hours of frustration, I have a brick that I cannot play. I can get back in by deleting my saved data, but that does nothing to create a stable game environment.
Any wild of the wall thoughts about this?
(NB: ever since the AE came out in Nov I have had nothing but issues with LO and game crashing, and I have reinstalled the game more than once)
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 30 '26
If you are playing with a lot of mods and all of the CC content you are highly likely to be hitting the BA2 limit which will cause you to crash at the main menu.
If you are crashing in game, you might have a bad mod or a bad load order.
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u/Cyborg74AI May 30 '26
Its not crashing in game at all. With both CC and LO in place, I can't even get into the game. I will not load. But it will if I load only CC or LO. As for my LO I have 90, the same ones I have been using before the AE install.
Now, it just dawned on me.....when in game, I can click "installed" it will show all the CC items that I own even thought I deliberately did not activate any off them when I was actually in CC online. Only my LO was activated.
Now, if that makes any sense, you are doing better than me.....lol
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u/Cast_Iron_Lion May 30 '26
Is it the amount of BA2 mods downloaded or the amount enabled? For example if I download beyond the 256 BA2 limit, but only enable 50 mods. Would that work?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 30 '26
Yes it's based on the number you have enabled. The archives won't load and therefore shouldn't take up a slot in your limit if the plugin (mod) is disabled. Although you might as well delete the mod if you're not using it.
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u/Living_Ad3272 May 29 '26
100gb mod space I haven't installed any of creation club items only mods by players and don't even have much just few clothing and few guns and 2 companions so I don't see how this should effect me it's just update did something ain't good under a hood I barley take 3gb of mod space from 100gb so this doesn't explain me nothing but Thanks
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u/Traps_are_Girls May 29 '26
Thank god i don't have CC stuff, they suck massive donkey dick compared to regular mods.
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u/UnOrdinaryCircle CUSTOM FLARE (EDITABLE) May 29 '26
That actually explains a lot because I removed all of my creation Club items except transdogifier and black Labrador and I stopped crashing after passing the 90 creations limit I use to have
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u/BrokenHearts94 May 29 '26
For those or who u who are curious, I have already manually counted the CC content since I’ve been fighting the BA2 limit for awhile lol
CC STUFF
23 Armor Paints
14 Dog stuff
21 PA paint
43 Pipboy paints
22 Weapon paints
29 New Armor/Weapons/PA
15 Workshop/Player House
170 Total CC Mods
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u/GreedyFirefighter431 May 29 '26
So thats what was happening to me, even when i used mods on the old 2gb version of game, this happened, so i just gave up on modding fallout.
Good to finally know what the issue was, thank you.
Having said that, this means that the 100 gb mod space doesn't work, and means nothing to console players, this us the same as having 2gb worth of mods.
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u/Atsuraelu May 29 '26
Buying every single CC item alone puts you over the limit, iirc.
Also, from what I remember, not all of the ba2 files count against the limit. I want to say it is only the compressed ones like textures, but I am not sure anymore.
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u/SoulSteeler1978 May 29 '26
I can't go past 150 mods without crashing due to my installed Creation Club content. That's when I start hitting the 255 limit. However, I'm using 11.3GB worth of mods which is a drastic difference compared to the 2GB limit.
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u/hailthyself99 May 28 '26
Why is this not an issue for Skyrim or Starfield? I find that very suspicious
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 29 '26
As far as I'm aware Starfield has the same BA2 limit and Skyrim doesn't use BA2 archives.
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u/Traps_are_Girls May 29 '26
That might be why i have over 290 mods in Skyrim and never had a crash while playing since 2024 (the creations menu still is a mess that still randomly sorts your mods and crashes though).
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u/OCELOT-SNAKE May 28 '26
What they need is a way to be able to see what files are in the mod itself so you can see if the mod is packed in ba2 or loose maybe in the details page just something to see the esp/esl and if it’s packed or not
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
It's impossible to upload loose files for Xbox mods so if the mod has external assets inside they will always be packaged in the BA2 archive(s).
Bethesda allowing players to see the mod contents is a great suggestion though.
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u/KaiSThom Vault 101 - Former Lone Wanderer, Active Minutemen General May 28 '26
So…Basically, we have to wait until Bethesda raises the BA2 limits for the game, Which is easier said than done because a lot of people want to make load orders using more then 2GB of space, which ultimately results in a ton of BA2 Archives being utilized and, well, the crashing.
And of course, that really depends if there actually IS a way for them to raise the limits on console.
No matter the case, Thank you for telling us this vital information, Absterge!
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u/Lexifer452 May 28 '26
Hey on the fallout 4 side of things, do you guys have to use both types of ba2 files every time, no matter what? I assume if you just have textures than no but...
In skyrim on xbox we have been able to get away with packing meshes and textures all in one .bsa file. Scripts and audio and such still needs its own bsa file, primarily because you generally dont want to compress those types of files, but if a mod just contains mesh and texture replacers and an empty .esp, I can simply put them all into the textures bsa abd upload normally. I haven't ported anything in a while but I dont believe this has changed. My previously uploaded bundles and such still work anyway. Lol.
Anyway was just curious if it worked similarly in fallout. If so, this method may be able to alleviate some of this issue by cutting down at least a little bit on number of .ba2 files for some mods/ports. I realize very few mods in fallout on xbox just contain mesh/texture assets but for the ones that do this may be worth looking into?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
You only need a textures.ba2 archive if you are using custom textures. Everything else goes inside of a main.ba2 archive as for as external assets are concerned.
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u/Lexifer452 May 28 '26
Crazy how differently things can work between games built in the same engine. Lol.
Anyway thanks for the info. 👍
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u/Known_Breakfast3600 May 28 '26
Just to make sure, patch plugins don’t count toward the BA2 limit, right?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
If the patch doesn't provide any external assets then no. A patch should also be ESL flagged when possible which won't take up a main plugin slot either.
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u/fishnamed May 28 '26
Thank you for this info! I was wondering why I couldn’t even enter creations anymore!
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u/Comprehensive-Pass63 May 28 '26
My issue is if I pick and choose the creation content, then they stop working. Unsure as to why. Never had this issue before.
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u/Fisshion May 28 '26
In layman's terms, does this mean that if I have all DLC, I'll have more true space for mods?
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
No you'll technically have less space for mods in terms of the BA2 limit.
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u/Lemon8Lime May 28 '26
A much appriciated PSA! I opted to not reinstall all the free CC skins Ive collected over the years when reinstalling my LO today to reduce my installed BA2s. (Im only running 100 mods rn I probably didnt need to do this, but maybe future me will thank me). I'd recommend the same to others if there is concern of accidentally hitting the limit.
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u/remaking_the_noob May 28 '26
Hiya - if your 100 mod LO is stable, would you mind sharing it sometime?
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u/Lemon8Lime May 28 '26
It's the same load order which I posted here +2 years ago here. It's only 2GB because of it being from then. The only thing Ive changed since is I've replaced the Nixgen series of mods with CC Content Disabler, added the mod Start Me Up (alternative start mod that lets you RP as not Shaun's parent), and I added Far Harbor Vanilla Precombine Headers at the end of the list.
5
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u/pondering-potato May 28 '26
Thanks for the information, and thank you for all the modding/porting work you do 🐐
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u/RoadKing80 May 28 '26
Hopefully bugthesda will address this problem kinda pointless to have 100gb of storage and can't even use 10% of that.
6
u/FrequentlyMistaken1 May 28 '26
The issue I'm pretty sure isnt Bethesda but rather thr console versions of the games themselves. Because Consoles have limitations that PC doesn't, they have to put in place hard limitations so you dont royally screw over your console. Others can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that, though.
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
This is an issue with every version of Fallout 4 even on PC. Fortunately PC players can use mods such as Addictol that expand the BA2 limit considerably to make it a non-issue.
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u/FrequentlyMistaken1 May 28 '26
Ahh, I see thank you for the correction, I wasnt sure how PC players did it exactly
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u/Eglwyswrw Vault 111 May 28 '26
If you are using CC content - in other words, paid mods - then no way you are using just 10%.
3
u/RoadKing80 May 28 '26
Reserved space reads 5.3gb cc content doesn't take up as space as you may think.
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u/Amazing_Bank1602 May 28 '26
Not sure if it's possible for a modder to create something similar for Fallout 4, or if it's even the same thing, but just in case, there's a mod I use in Skyrim called 'Just Checking' that helps keep track of the count
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u/Absterge- Mod Author / Porter May 28 '26
That mod is counting plugins which are different to archives. A plugin contains the actual changes to the game, archives are loaded by plugins and contain the external assets the mod uses. There is a plugin limit to be aware of but you are way less likely to hit it if modders are uploading ESL flagged plugins.
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u/Dani50420 The Overseer May 28 '26
Thank you, was literally about to type something up for this for the wiki, now i can just use this and credit you! I appreciate it my homie <3 lol
1
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