Mods = unstable...

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

I've been looking at mods lately, but I'm a little reluctant to add any more
at this point. I've added only a few, and it seems to have seriously
destabilized the game. I ran the TESTools program to merge the Level Lists,
but I'm not really sure it helped. Here's a list of everything I'm running,
in order, in case anybody knows of any plugins that might have a problem
that I should consider getting rid of...

Better Heads
entertainers (What's the point of this? Seems kinda silly to me)
AreaEffectArrows (Haven't used yet)
bcsounds
master_index
LeFemmArmor (Never use, should get rid of it)
adamantiumarmor (Haven't started yet)
EBQ_Artifact
Siege at Firemoth (Tried doing the quest twice, crashed after ~5 minutes.
This may be suspect...)
PotionSorter
AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0 (this one I think I want to remove anyhow, just
'cuz it's really annoying. Plus it makes no sense hearing dogs and cats and
horses in the towns, when nobody's seen a dog, cat, or horse in Morrowind in
years...)
Sris_Alchemy_BM
Hilda
marcMoriEstate
IcesRobeReplacerMW
MagicThread (Haven't used yet, but looks possibly cool)
Better Bodies
Abu Manor v.2 (may remove this one in favor of the marcMoriEstate, or maybe
I'll change my mind and get a different house mod altogether, but there's no
need to have more than one...)
Merged_Leveled_Lists
Merged_Objects
Merged_Dialogs

Those last 3 were created by the TESTools program. Am I supposed to remove
everything else but those or something? The documentation wasn't clear on
this one. I hear about people running 80+ mods, and I just wonder how they
manage to do this without it constantly crashing all the time...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

For a very long time I avoided mods for just this reason. Usually,
however, I don't think mods affect stability much. My game CTDs
all the time, with or without mods.

You could try cutting back to just the official mods for a while to
see if your stabilty improves.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

> For a very long time I avoided mods for just this reason. Usually,
> however, I don't think mods affect stability much. My game CTDs
> all the time, with or without mods.
>
> You could try cutting back to just the official mods for a while to
> see if your stabilty improves.

I'm just not sure how many of those I can safely remove without screwing up
my saves. For example, the house mods I probably have to keep, since I've
already loaded up my stuff in one of them, and am partially working towards
moving it all to the other one. Most of those mods are part of the official
plugins pack, which are supposed to be somewhat safe. This includes:

adamantiumarmor, area_affect_arrows, bittercoastsounds, ebartifact,
entertainers, firemoth_v11, lefemmarmor_v11, masterindex

These mods are all theoretically safe, though one of them (Firemoth) has
been shown to pretty reliably crash the game every time I've attempted to do
the quest. (Probably something to do with 3 followers + lots of skeletons
being too much to handle at once.) That leaves:

-Better Heads, Better Bodies (pretty much on the must-have list for
everybody, from what I've seen)
-Potion Sorter (Simple mod, just changes potion names to make them ordered
by type, rather than quality)
-AtmosphericSoundEffects-3.0 (This is highly suspect. The game seems to
slow to a crawl when walking through town now, and I think it's because of
all those extra sound effects it's trying to play. Unfortunately, I'm not
sure if this can be safely removed. It had an installer, which did
something to the Morrowind.ini file, so I don't know if there will be
conflicts...)
-Sris_Alchemy (Adds new ingredients and balances old ones, should be pretty
safe)
-Hilda (Already addicted. I hope I don't have to get rid of this one. All
companion NPCs should be like this. I just hate most escort missions
because their AI stinks, but Hilda never gets lost and always keeps up with
you, which is great...)
-marcMoriEstate (my new home, and I'm a keepin' it.)
-Abu Manor (my old home, may get rid of it once I've moved all my stuff
out.)
-IcesRobeReplacer (Keeping it, if only because I can actually tell the
difference between male and female NPCs in robes for the first time since I
started playing the game...)
-Magic Thread (Possibly a problem, but I haven't used it yet, so I doubt
there's any conflicts.)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

How stable is Morrowind on your machine when you're not running any
mods? I run about 230 with no problems, myself. But the amount of
mods enabled doesn't matter all that much - you're more likely to have
problems with one poorly-made mod rather than a mass of well-made ones.
Most of the mods that you've listed are relatively well-known and
well-made, though, so I don't think that's the problem. I'm not
familiar with Magic Thread, however.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Jaxalot" <jaxalot@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1105714315.211642.207890@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> How stable is Morrowind on your machine when you're not running any
> mods? I run about 230 with no problems, myself. But the amount of
> mods enabled doesn't matter all that much - you're more likely to have
> problems with one poorly-made mod rather than a mass of well-made ones.
> Most of the mods that you've listed are relatively well-known and
> well-made, though, so I don't think that's the problem. I'm not
> familiar with Magic Thread, however.
>

I run a lot of mods on my system too. Once I made certain I had the latest
version of the game, I've experienced very few stability problems since I
started to do one thing. Everytime I install a new mod I first call it up
into the editor and save it so that it will be compatiable with the current
version of Morrowind I'm running. Firemoth (if memory serves) was one of
the 'official' plug-ins that was incompatiable with the most current version
of the game. I'm not certain that this will help your 'stability' problems,
but making certain your plug-ins match your current game version certainly
will not hurt the problem.

--
MJB

Mr. Tin's Painting Workshop:
http://web.newsguy.com/Mrtinsworkshop/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

> I run a lot of mods on my system too. Once I made certain I had the
latest
> version of the game, I've experienced very few stability problems since I
> started to do one thing. Everytime I install a new mod I first call it up
> into the editor and save it so that it will be compatiable with the
current
> version of Morrowind I'm running. Firemoth (if memory serves) was one of
> the 'official' plug-ins that was incompatiable with the most current
version
> of the game. I'm not certain that this will help your 'stability'
problems,
> but making certain your plug-ins match your current game version certainly
> will not hurt the problem.

Firemoth is definitely problematic. I wouldn't say that it's incompatible,
per se. I mean, it runs, but the minute there's more than 3 or 4 skeletons
on screen at once it chugs and then crashes. I'm thinking maybe if I go and
visit the Firemoth island myself, instead of bringing along the three
useless companions, it might run better. (At my level, most companions are
useless. I make an exception for Hilda, because she can keep up with me, is
not hurt by friendly fire so she doesn't get in the way, and she can carry
stuff, which is very helpful.)

Just out of curiosity, what is the latest version and how do I get it? It
looks like I'm running 1.6.1820, which is what you get from just installing
from the GotY edition, with Tribunal and Bloodmoon. I wouldn't be surprised
if I'm somewhat behind on that one. If installing the latest makes the game
more stable, I can live without Firemoth if it's going to cause problems...

 

[sarah]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Darrel Hoffman" <i.dont@think.so> wrote in message
news:u_udnaWv04g203XcRVn-sw@giganews.com...

> Firemoth is definitely problematic. I wouldn't say that it's
> incompatible,
> per se. I mean, it runs, but the minute there's more than 3 or 4
> skeletons
> on screen at once it chugs and then crashes.

I've run Firemoth a few times and never experienced that problem.

> Just out of curiosity, what is the latest version and how do I get it? It
> looks like I'm running 1.6.1820, which is what you get from just
> installing
> from the GotY edition, with Tribunal and Bloodmoon.

That's the latest.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Sarah wrote:
> "Darrel Hoffman" <i.dont@think.so> wrote in message
> news:u_udnaWv04g203XcRVn-sw@giganews.com...
>
> > Firemoth is definitely problematic. I wouldn't say that it's
> > incompatible,
> > per se. I mean, it runs, but the minute there's more than 3 or 4
> > skeletons
> > on screen at once it chugs and then crashes.
>
> I've run Firemoth a few times and never experienced that problem.
>
> > Just out of curiosity, what is the latest version and how do I get
it? It
> > looks like I'm running 1.6.1820, which is what you get from just
> > installing
> > from the GotY edition, with Tribunal and Bloodmoon.
>
> That's the latest.

Yep, GOTY ships with the last made patch.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Darrel Hoffman wrote:

>>I run a lot of mods on my system too. Once I made certain I had the
>
> latest
>
>>version of the game, I've experienced very few stability problems since I
>>started to do one thing. Everytime I install a new mod I first call it up
>>into the editor and save it so that it will be compatiable with the
>
> current
>
>>version of Morrowind I'm running. Firemoth (if memory serves) was one of
>>the 'official' plug-ins that was incompatiable with the most current
>
> version
>
>>of the game. I'm not certain that this will help your 'stability'
>
> problems,
>
>>but making certain your plug-ins match your current game version certainly
>>will not hurt the problem.
>
>
> Firemoth is definitely problematic. I wouldn't say that it's incompatible,
> per se. I mean, it runs, but the minute there's more than 3 or 4 skeletons
> on screen at once it chugs and then crashes. I'm thinking maybe if I go and
> visit the Firemoth island myself, instead of bringing along the three
> useless companions, it might run better. (At my level, most companions are
> useless. I make an exception for Hilda, because she can keep up with me, is
> not hurt by friendly fire so she doesn't get in the way, and she can carry
> stuff, which is very helpful.)
>
> Just out of curiosity, what is the latest version and how do I get it? It
> looks like I'm running 1.6.1820, which is what you get from just installing
> from the GotY edition, with Tribunal and Bloodmoon. I wouldn't be surprised
> if I'm somewhat behind on that one. If installing the latest makes the game
> more stable, I can live without Firemoth if it's going to cause problems...
>
>
It sounds as if the problem is not the module (which I ran long before
Tribunal so I doubt if the version is the problem), but your hardware.
Crashes when a lot of activity occur are usually because the video card
quits -- either it is too hot (the card's temperature, not the
motherboard's or CPU's) or the power supply is not up to the demands.
To test this feel the video card right after one of these crashes and
see if it is too hot to touch. to test the power supply use a program
to monitor the voltages (such as Motherboard Monitor 5) and see if they
go out of whack during the game.

 

[starwolf]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Darrel Hoffman" <i.dont@think.so> wrote in message
news:sc6dnVULOYaBl3rcRVn-3g@giganews.com...
> I've been looking at mods lately, but I'm a little reluctant to add any
> more
> at this point. I've added only a few, and it seems to have seriously
> destabilized the game. I ran the TESTools program to merge the Level
> Lists,
> but I'm not really sure it helped. <snip> I hear about people running 80+
> mods, and I just wonder how they
> manage to do this without it constantly crashing all the time...
>
I run many many many mods, with the TESTools program, and with minimal
crashing, and currently only one itty bitty issue (wherever did the
fletching_knife texture go?). The level list thing seems to have made a big
difference for me, also I did have to one time do a clean reinstall of
Morrowind and all 5 zillion mods after having one mod (no clue which one)
eat the textures on the Algonians (they all went albino on me).

I found a great resource at http://www.TweakTown.com/ that helped me nearly
eliminate all CTD and hissy fits caused by Morrowind and it's Mods: The
Morrowind Tweak Guide. It gives a detailed set of recommendations on how to
tweak both your Morrowind and your computer settings so that the game will
be more stable. Worked for me. If you can't find it, email me and I'll send
you a copy. For the record, I currently feed my Morrowind Addiction on a
1.5 ghz Athlon with 512k RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce4 video-card that began
it's life as an extremely less powerful Compaq with a very generic
videocard, until death of computer bits happened....

Hope this helps...

Coyote

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

> I run many many many mods, with the TESTools program, and with minimal
> crashing, and currently only one itty bitty issue (wherever did the
> fletching_knife texture go?). The level list thing seems to have made a
big
> difference for me, also I did have to one time do a clean reinstall of
> Morrowind and all 5 zillion mods after having one mod (no clue which one)
> eat the textures on the Algonians (they all went albino on me).
>
> I found a great resource at http://www.TweakTown.com/ that helped me
nearly
> eliminate all CTD and hissy fits caused by Morrowind and it's Mods: The
> Morrowind Tweak Guide. It gives a detailed set of recommendations on how
to
> tweak both your Morrowind and your computer settings so that the game will
> be more stable. Worked for me. If you can't find it, email me and I'll
send
> you a copy. For the record, I currently feed my Morrowind Addiction on a
> 1.5 ghz Athlon with 512k RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce4 video-card that began
> it's life as an extremely less powerful Compaq with a very generic
> videocard, until death of computer bits happened....

Yeah, if you could send that to me, that would help. Send it to
lurlockATbellsouthDOTcom. For the record, my system is an Athalon 2.4ghz,
512MB ram, Radeon 8500 video.

(I used to own a Compaq as well, so I sympathize. Will never buy another
namebrand computer again, especially Compaq.)

 

[starwolf]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Darrel Hoffman" <i.dont@think.so> wrote in message
news:NYidnTNDOLhUcXTcRVn-3A@giganews.com...
>> I found a great resource at http://www.TweakTown.com/ If you can't find
>> it, email me and I'll
> send
>> you a copy. For the record, I currently feed my Morrowind Addiction on a
>> 1.5 ghz Athlon with 512k RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce4 video-card that began
>> it's life as an extremely less powerful Compaq with a very generic
>> videocard, until death of computer bits happened....
>
> Yeah, if you could send that to me, that would help. Send it to
> lurlockATbellsouthDOTcom. For the record, my system is an Athalon 2.4ghz,
> 512MB ram, Radeon 8500 video.
>
> (I used to own a Compaq as well, so I sympathize. Will never buy another
> namebrand computer again, especially Compaq.)
>
>
Check your email.

I'm working on convincing my husband that when Oblivion comes out, I will
ABSOLUTELY NEED a bleeding edge computer with expensive specs, so that I
will have a powerful enough computer to (barely) be able to handle the game
that I absolutely NEED to own.

Er, and a heftier cable connection, so I can download the gazillion mods
that I wll also of course need.

Coyote

 

[starwolf]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Starwolf" <starwolf13@wowway.com> wrote in message
newsuWdnZhIRoqyM3fcRVn-rA@wideopenwest.com...
>
> Check your email.
>
Well, don't check your email. I've tried twice, at the
lurlockATbellsouthDOTcom (with @ and . substitutions), and both times the
email came back with a delivery failure.....

?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

> Well, don't check your email. I've tried twice, at the
> lurlockATbellsouthDOTcom (with @ and . substitutions), and both times the
> email came back with a delivery failure.....

Oops. My bad. Make that '.net', not '.com'.

 

[starwolf]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"Darrel Hoffman" <i.dont@think.so> wrote in message
news:LeWdnTj-lM3RxXbcRVn-pw@giganews.com...
>> Well, don't check your email. I've tried twice, at the
>> lurlockATbellsouthDOTcom (with @ and . substitutions), and both times the
>> email came back with a delivery failure.....
>
> Oops. My bad. Make that '.net', not '.com'.
>
>
Resent.