Adding mods during a playthrough (question).

[Saarlan]

Can you add mods during your playthrough. e.g. i have a main current playthrough with a couple of gun, building and environment mods. Can i add more mods too that? or must i start a new playthrough. Also is there a limit to how many mods i can download?

ty in advance, hope your having a nice day :)

[mikk011]

1. You can mostly add mods mid-game. The author will usually write down any precautions (such as unequipping all items from a companion, emptying containers, scrapping or storing settlement items etc). Some mods work better in a new game; a few require a new game. All I can tell your is read the mod description carefully, and at least scan the comments to check for pitfalls.

2. Mod limits. 256 plugins (files with an .esm or .esp suffix, inclusive of the main game and DLC files) is the limit. NOTE: This is a GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATION of a topic too lengthy for this post. For your purposes, pretend that there is a limit in the mid 240's, not that you should do that until you know how to use the diagnostic tools LOOT and xEdit. Also, only add your mods one or two at a time to test whether things work. Read the pinned topics, the community guides, and consult the tons of information on the internet written by experts for more details on this matter.

3. Last, Do Not uninstall mods mid-game. Unless you know exactly what you are doing you will just corrupt your saves. There are many posts written about why this is so. 'nuff said.

[Havok]

Generally it is a good practice to start a new save game, but i know it isnt ideal. When i installed Sim Settlements - Conquest mid play, it returned that Sim Settlements was out of date and did not start the building sequence, as it required a fresh game (from character creation) to initialize everything.

Honestly it depends on the mods.. Weapons, outfits, graphics, etc youre probably safe, but major overhauls like Plenty 0' Exploration, FROST, Fallout 2287, Sim Settlements Addons, etc you would want to restart

[ZarahNeander]

Originally posted by Samurai:

..... Sim Settlements Addons, etc you would want to restart

Pretty much what he said, but you can add SS addons anytime (except conqueror). You cant remove addons, best practise is either create a hard save or if you're using MO2, clone the profile and test in the new profile

[Death Approaches]

Speaking of: If you have plenty of HDD/SSD space to spare? You can dupe your Fallout4 install beforehand, a nice starting point if you like the game you've got going with the mods you've got working, so if things go very wrong, you don't have to re-download it... even with gigabit internet it'll take a couple hours. (I rarely see over 10 megabytes a second from Steam servers, it's usually in the ~7.5 MB/sec range. Course if you only have a 20mbit connection this is like 3MB/sec or something and would take even longer, so back to the original point, if you have the space, back up your Fallout4 install directory.) I have half a dozen FO4 installs for just this exact reason. Don't mess with a good install to try out something that could lead to breaking stuff and hours of troubleshooting.

I love FROST but make very sure the mods you want say they're compatible with it, FROST is more of a total conversion than a "hey let me try this one!" kind of mod. Same for Nuclear Winter Fallout 2287. Whereas Sim Settlements on the other hand is massive, and beautiful, and there's tons of things that go with it... make settlers have personal items, require ammo, and most important of all, become mortal and can perma-die. A lot more interesting this way, and that they have names not just "Settler" so you can mourn their passing! Aww Bob, we barely knew ye. :-)

If you post what mods you plan on adding mid-playthough, I'm sure people will tell you if it's a bad idea or not...

[Flippy]

You can add and remove mods at any time during play through, and same with the big DLC. Can add the DLC play it, then remove it and save, then add it again and play it again if wanted, at any time during gameplay.

When a mod is removed all the items are removed as well and doesnt ruin the save. When removing a mod or DLC just dont have the character in Far Harbour for example, as simple as that.

I have never had a corrupt save from modding of any sort, and those that have may be because of a 3rd party program like F4SE. I did use that for New Vegas for settlements and sim fast travel so nothing against it but thats just the way it is.

While the replies above are not very accurate because it makes modding sound like it can ruin a save there are some good points made like backing up the entire Fallout 4 folder when modding is in a good spot and crash free. Many replies also say to use a mod manager which is also a mistake and doing it manually is better, simpler and faster.



Modding is easy but if using alot of mods it can get tougher but if you keep the mod that is used its easy to uninstall and the entire thing is worry free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgUbpIzdpGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZpIQ6P38xE

[The Inept European]

Use mods at your own risk. Use mods added mid-playthrough at your own very elevated risk. Add mods at more than one point in the playthrough and you are asking for trouble.

But sure yes you can do it.

[Death Approaches]

I definitely have, just flat-out CTD when it's looking for something you had enabled but now don't? It's not a happy camper, and you get very little in the way of debug messages to help you figure out what it was. Most of us don't care, making a new character, leveling up, giving ourselves caps and resources and perks to assign is trivial and takes 10 minutes or so, and we've done it so much we don't really care, I was just pointing out worst-case for someone who seemed like they're worried. Eyes wide open, you're happy when it doesn't, and you're not shocked when it does.

Granted that's more about [i[removing[/i] than adding them...

Props for linking MANUAL, I'm sure you know my pet peeve you've read it enough :-)