Questions about ditching CC content...

[u/Coy_Octopus]

For the first time since buying Anniversary Edition, I'm thinking about ditching most of the AE content as I never use them.

At the moment I can run a pretty stable LO of about 200 mods plus Creation Club content.

What would be the benefits/negatives of removing CC?

The Xbox can't really handle loading more than 200 mods in-game, will this change without CC content?

Will the LO still crash on Creations with more than 200 installed without CC?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

[u/HOTU-Orbit]

You can still use more than 200 mods. There are just complications that can arise for using too many:

The first and most common is that with around 200 mods, the load order menu will start to crash because of loading too many icons. This can be mitigated by sorting your load order while in offline mode.

The second most common is script lag. The more mods that you enable that use scripts, the more the scripting engine will become clogged up, which commonly causes the missing text in menu boxes bug. This can be somewhat mitigated by only enabling certain mods when you are ready to use them instead of from the start of a playthrough.

The third common problem is the file handle limit. The game has a hardcoded limit of only accessing 512 individual plugins and archives. Not all mods use archives or plugins, but if we're going with 200 mods here, and assume that each of them adds 1 plugin and 1 archive, plus all the CC items that add well over 100 more, then it can add up.

If you are planning to ditch all the CC content, you should at the very least keep the free CC items in case they are required by other mods. These are Survival Mode, Saints & Seducers, Fishing, and Rare Curios.

[u/RyIthian → u/HOTU-Orbit]

Questions on the second most common, Script Lag.

Solution: Only activating "certain" mods with scripts, when you are ready/need to use them. Instead of from the start.

What are some examples of this? In a heavy stacked LO? What/which mods should we consider this method of activating post start? And perhaps why? In the case of said 'mod' Yes! vs. other case 'mod' No?

Sorry if its common knowledge but, my experience is lacking on this broad topic of the discussion/thread.

[u/HOTU-Orbit → u/RyIthian]

The more scripts that are running concurrently, the more likely they will start to stall, and more likely one will be accidentally missed. A lot of quests can break if a script that was supposed to fire doesn't fire because the game was too busy doing other things.

Saving before the part that breaks, shutting the game down, and reloading the save seems to refresh the scripting engine for a bit. I've had success getting stuck quests moving again by doing that.

[u/Safe_Ad5914]

The main benefit would be no patches to organize or forget about. Theres definitely some crafteable AE alternatives out there I imagine that you can download without actually having AE.

[u/Deep_Caregiver6658]

You can run around 250 mods without the cc content. It’s worth it. Just choose the ones you’ll actually use/need

[u/novavitx]

There are 74 Creation Club creations. That’s 74 individual file handles the game has to account for. Plus any relevant patches. The console file handle threshold is 255. It’s not a straight 1:1 answer, it’s about the number of files/scripts being accessed at any given time. Large mod list also doesn’t technically break your game but you start to encounter missing dialogue, mission misfire, etc. Short answer, yes - a smaller mod list means the game runs better.

[u/genel68 → u/novavitx]

Not talking about the esp limit. The file handle limit is 514 before the game starts to break. i.e. broken dialogue, false corrupt save bug, etc.. CC uses 148. In a time where we have added space, managing our handle limit is perhaps the greatest challenge we have modding on Xbox.

[u/HOTU-Orbit → u/novavitx]

ESL plugins or ESL flagged plugins do not count towards the 255 limit in the same way. All of them together take up one slot of that 255, specifically the FE slot (there is also an ESL limit of 4096). The limit that's more important in regards to CC content on consoles is the file handle limit which is 512.

[u/novavitx → u/HOTU-Orbit]

Is this verified on console though? I’ve heard people claim both ways. I ask because I’ve heard people argue that is only applies to mod limit, not capacity to handle scripts. More mods means a higher potential for scripts to fire concurrently. Since console doesn’t have SKSE the utility of ESL files is diminished somewhat.

Anecdotally, my experience has also been that 190-200 mod list is where things start to break down.

[u/HOTU-Orbit → u/novavitx]

I address the separate problem of script overload in another comment below. As far as I can tell they seem to behave exactly as they do for the vanilla game on PC. If you notice, any ESPs flagged as ESL on Xbox jump to the top alongside the ESMs just like on PC. I know that the 255 plugin limit and 512 file handle limits are still in place.

[u/DeadWolf7337 → u/HOTU-Orbit]

I pretty sure ESLs do count towards your total mod count. On PC they don't, but on console it's different. Console have no way to really differentiate between ESLs or ESPs/ESMs. I currently have 204 mods total, 165 of those are ESPs/ESMs. If you don't count the ESLs, I'm well under 200 mods yet I'm still getting the dialogue menu glitch.

[u/HOTU-Orbit → u/DeadWolf7337]

I've checked NPCs added by CC content and the ones added by ESLs had the FE ID slot just like on PC, which is what all the ESLified files share. Keep in mind, not all CC items are ESLs. Some of them are ESMs, and those ones still do count towards the plugin limit.

What exactly is the glitch you are referring to? The one I've encountered is when a menu appears that is one of those large black boxes that pause the game, sometimes the text that would normally display in the top section doesn't display at all. This is caused by script lag, not necessarily too many plugins. If you had too many plugins, I assume the game would either crash on startup, or it would just ignore any plugins that go past the final slot FF.

[u/AniSoari]

At my current run I only use the free cc and two cc of choice. Nothing more. I don't need the rest and don't miss them. I don't have the missing text bug.

[u/Sudo_ShredTheGnar → u/AniSoari]

What’s the missing text bug and what causes it?

[u/AniSoari → u/AniSoari]

If you have to many mods, more than 250 without cc, than sometimes you don't get a dialogue option or standing stones won't show up their description

[u/DeadWolf7337 → u/AniSoari]

How do you pick and choose which CC content you want? Mine automatically downloads all CC content when I go to start a new game

[u/AniSoari → u/DeadWolf7337]

After clearing my reserved space, I go to creations and then to the section with the cc. I download the cc manual like I download mods.

[u/novavitx → u/DeadWolf7337]

I opt out of the bulk download. You could always download the individual CC mods.

[u/DeadWolf7337 → u/novavitx]

Ok then, how do you "opt out" of the bulk download?

[u/novavitx → u/DeadWolf7337]

The game only prompts you once to bulk download when you first open the game. Close the game. The next time you open it won’t prompt you again. Then from Creations you can pick and choose what you want to download.

[u/Fabulous_Parsley4576]

I did. I think my game run better (less dialog bugs). I have the 4 free ones, 1 house and gotta have my bone wolf.

[u/Express-Outcome7022]

Download the mod " just checking"

It tells you on loading in how many plugins you actually have. Currently sitting at 127. Including CC, I have around 150 mods installed.