Does An SSD Help When Modding Games?

[Made In Canada]

The title says it all. In a way i think ive answered my own question already (which is no) but i still want to ask and see if any modding experts can give me their advise on if SSD's help when modding games.

 

Possible Question Answers.

SSD storage left is about 100GB's and HDD storage left is around 880GB's. 150ish+ mods. Skyrim.

[Guest]

if you're having loading problems, yeah it'll help, if you're not, then there's no point in putting it on an SSD

[Made In Canada]

Just now, Ronnie76 said:

if you're having loading problems, yeah it'll help, if you're not, then there's no point in putting it on an SSD

So basically if the loading screens when i go into cities are taking too long, i should consider putting it on a SSD?

[Flowey]

Thing you need to keep in mind is to put all the mods, as well as skyrim, NOT in the 64x/86x program folder with the Steam data folder and keep it in a new folder. Also, keep all your skyrim stuff on the same drive, be it a HDD or a SSD. Performance Wise, your loading are going to fell glorious on that HDD, talking from experience here, maximum loading with about 120 mods is like 7 seconds vs about a minute and a half.

[Made In Canada]

6 minutes ago, Flowey said:

Thing you need to keep in mind is to put all the mods, as well as skyrim, NOT in the 64x/86x program folder with the Steam data folder and keep it in a new folder. Also, keep all your skyrim stuff on the same drive, be it a HDD or a SSD. Performance Wise, your loading are going to fell glorious on that HDD, talking from experience here, maximum loading with about 120 mods is like 7 seconds vs about a minute and a half.

im still generally new to this, but i think i did that. the 86c program folder with steam is on my SSD, while i made a folder on my HDD to put my skyrim and other games in, and a NMM folder in my HDD as well with my mods. Even the virtual setup thing is on my HDD. Is this good?

 

PS. did you mean loading times would feel glorious on a SSD? or actually a HDD?

Edited March 27, 2016 by Made In Canada

[Flowey]

4 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

im still generally new to this, but i think i did that. the 86c program folder with steam is on my SSD, while i made a folder on my HDD to put my skyrim and other games in, and a NMM folder in my HDD as well.

 

PS. did you mean loading times would feel glorious on a SSD? or actually a HDD?

Wow WTF you're right, sorry, my mistake, definitly no glorious loadings on a HDD hahaha.

Otherwise as I said, well from my experience, my game's stability went from like a total freeze an hour to a CTD for 4 hours. So yeah, keep all your skyrim files in a new folder on your SSD and then in steam set up that new folder as a trajectory, I believe you need to go into Steam settings to do that do.

 

If your new to modding Skyrim, I strongly recommend Gopher's youtube serie on the subject, I myself am about a month into modding and can say fo'sure that I would not have a stable game without that guy.

[Flowey]

14 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

The title says it all. In a way i think ive answered my own question already (which is no) but i still want to ask and see if any modding experts can give me their advise on if SSD's help when modding games.

 

Possible Question Answers.

SSD storage left is about 100GB's and HDD storage left is around 880GB's. 150ish+ mods. Skyrim.

If you going to be installing an END, which is like the single thing that's going to hit like a train performance Wise, Watch some videos on how to install them. Lots of my friends keeps asking how my game looks so stunning only to realise when I'm there that they did not launch the ENB manually. Otherwise unless specified not to stick to LOOT and NMM and when you've got enough experience modding switch to mod manager, shittons better but also quite a bit more complex in features and functionality.

[Made In Canada]

1 minute ago, Flowey said:

Wow WTF you're right, sorry, my mistake, definitly no glorious loadings on a HDD hahaha.

Otherwise as I said, well from my experience, my game's stability went from like a total freeze an hour to a CTD for 4 hours. So yeah, keep all your skyrim files in a new foler on your SSD and then in steam set up that new folder as a trajectory, I believe you need to go into Steam settings to do that do.

 

If your new to modding Skyrim, I strongly recommend Gopher's youtube serie on the subject, I myself am about a month into modding and can say fo'sure that I would not have a stable game without that guy.

i am currently watching the NMM beginners guide on Gophers channel, speaking of which, would you recommend any other specific video(s) or series i should watch to help keep the game stable?

 

I hope you dont mind explaining more about that part with stability and how to fix it by putting my skyrim files in my SSD and how to do so, if you got the time to. But just assuming, i think you mean to put the Skyrim game itself on the SSD and virtual setup on the SSD, while i put NMM and the mods on my HDD? keep in mind, that is me just guessing what you meant.

[Made In Canada]

3 minutes ago, Flowey said:

If you going to be installing an END, which is like the single thing that's going to hit like a train performance Wise, Watch some videos on how to install them. Lots of my friends keeps asking how my game looks so stunning only to realise when I'm there that they did not launch the ENB manually. Otherwise unless specified not to stick to LOOT and NMM and when you've got enough experience modding switch to mod manager, shittons better but also quite a bit more complex in features and functionality.

yeah, mod organizer is much more complex from the looks of it and i dont think it has the nice feature like NMM has where you can just download mods right into the application, which would suck. if it meant the difference between being to have a steady game and one that crashes, i guess i could try it. (whats your opinion on that?)

[Flowey]

3 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

i am currently watching the NMM beginners guide on Gophers channel, speaking of which, would you recommend any other specific video(s) or series i should watch to help keep the game stable?

 

I hope you dont mind explaining more about that part with stability and how to fix it by putting my skyrim files in my SSD and how to do so, if you got the time to. But just assuming, i think you mean to put the Skyrim game itself on the SSD and virtual setup on the SSD, while i put NMM and the mods on my HDD? keep in mind, that is me just guessing what you meant.

Yeah I'd like to be more precise but honnestly I'm at work now (pls kil me) so I don't have access to my setup. I think I made a couple of topuics around these forums not two weeks ago tho, might find some insight on the question there. Search for "Skyrim modding" I think.

 

Can still provide moral support tho.

[Made In Canada]

1 minute ago, Flowey said:

Yeah I'd like to be more precise but honnestly I'm at work now (pls kil me) so I don't have access to my setup. I think I made a couple of topuics around these forums not two weeks ago tho, might find some insight on the question there. Search for "Skyrim modding" I think.

 

Can still provide moral support tho.

Alright, Thanks for the help and have a good evening.

[Flowey]

17 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

I like a lot of featuresyeah, mod organizer is much more complex from the looks of it and i dont think it has the nice feature like NMM has where you can just download mods right into the application, which would suck. if it meant the difference between being to have a steady game and one that crashes, i guess i could try it. (whats your opinion on that?)

For noobs like us NMM is bettr, but a few weeks down the line, of games for that matter, switching is going to be useful for a couple of things, such as going over the 255 plugins limit with what's called "bashed patches" and stuff like END tweaking. Also I've heard it's easier to keep track of your mods and stuff with MO.

 

I'm selling MO here but to be honnest even if I've been told I went with the wrong manager, I fell like MO was too much. Like, let me take in a few wxpweriences with fully modding, and then MAYBE I'le swith

 

In any way, if I only had one rule, it would be to NOT install more then like 30 mods at once. Then go in game, open command window "key Under escape" and type tfc. Then fly around the world for like 2 minutes and if you crash you've got some issues. Otherwise continue adding mods until you get to where you wanted to be, and then don't add any more. Myself made that mistake, was saved by LOOT.

 

DUDE that grammar tho

Edited March 27, 2016 by Flowey

[Made In Canada]

11 minutes ago, Flowey said:

For noobs like us NMM is bettr, but a few weeks down the line, of games for that matter, switching is going to be useful for a couple of things, such as going over the 255 plugins limit with what's called "bashed patches" and stuff like END tweaking. Also I've heard it's easier to keep track of your mods and stuff with MO.

 

I'm selling MO here but to be honnest even if I've been told I went with the wrong manager, I fell like MO was too much. Like, let me take in a few wxpweriences with fully modding, and then MAYBE I'le swith

 

In any way, if I only had one rule, it would be to NOT install more then like 30 mods at once. Then go in game, open command window "key Under escape" and type tfc. Then fly around the world for like 2 minutes and if you crash you've got some issues. Otherwise continue adding mods until you get to where you wanted to be, and then don't add any more. Myself made that mistake, was saved by LOOT.

i dont know much about the 255 plugin thing (only on episode 2 of Gophers NMM series) but ive heard similar to that and might switch at a later time, but Thanks for the heads up.

 

And Thank you for the advise about doing around 30 mods and using the tfc command thing, it will probably help alot, i might use mods that i mean to go together and test them out to see if they work.

 

I know your at work but if you got a second (dont feel obligated to answer if you cant), what did you mean earlier when you said to put my Skyrim files on my SSD? i ask because when Gopher was going through the video, he said to put the Skyrim game and Mods in the same drive (or the NMM did, one of them), so what did you mean?

Edited March 27, 2016 by Made In Canada

[Flowey]

16 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

i dont know much about the 255 plugin thing (only on episode 2 of Gophers NMM series) but ive heard similar to that and might switch at a later time, but Thanks for the heads up.

 

And Thank you for the advise about doing around 30 mods and using the tfc command thing, it will probably help alot, i might use mods that i mean to go together and test them out to see if they work.

 

I know your at work but if you got a second (dont feel obligated to answer if you cant), what did you mean earlier when you said to put my Skyrim files on my SSD? i ask because when Gopher was going through the video, he said to put the Skyrim game and Mods in the same drive (or the NMM did, one of them), so what did you mean?

Basiccly your Steam games are all in your C drive Under SteamApps, common, blablabla, right. Let's say your boot drive is an SSD. Then that's your C drive. So basiccly what you'll want to do is get to the list of folders, in your C drive, which contains the "x64""x86" folders and other. Then you create a new one, which you then name skyrim. Unfortunatly I do not know how to transfer installed data there, so  just erased skyrim, redownloaded but instead of choosing the C/x64/steam/steamapps/common trajectory I instead went for the new folder named Skyrim. After that the download take it's course, blablabla. Then install NMM and set search for your games and BOOM BITCH you've just freed yourself from administartor issues.

 

basiccly the problem with installing mods into the x64/x86 folders is that those folders contain system files, which are extremely important. SO you might have run into trouble with some mods, which would crash you game unless you ran each and everyone of them mods in administrator mode. Quite a hassle really. Saves a shit ton of time. So basiccly whenever your run a game that you which to mod, Create a new folder for that specific game and download all the data for your games, so mods, dlc's, stuff, into that same folder.

 

Also, you might have to mess into an ini file. If you need to, don't hesitate to check the comments on Gopher, vids, learned a lot of shite there myself hehehe.

 

TLDR:penis

[Made In Canada]

3 minutes ago, Flowey said:

Basiccly your Steam games are all in your C drive Under SteamApps, common, blablabla, right. Let's say your boot drive is an SSD. Then that's your C drive. So basiccly what you'll wnat to do is get to the list of folder, in your C drive, which contains the "x64""x86" folders and other. Then you create a new one, which you then name skyrim. Unfortunatly I do not know how to transfer installed data there, so  just erased skyrim, redownloaded but instead of choosing the C/x64/steam/steamapps/common trajectory I instead went for the new folder named Skyrim. After that the download take it's course, blablabla. Then install NMM and set search for your games and BOOM BITCH you've just freed yourself from administartor issues.

 

basiccly the problem with installing mods into the x64/x86 folders is that those folders contain system files, which are extremely important. SO you might have run into trouble with some mods, which would crash you game unless you ran each and everyone of them mods in administrator mode. Quite a hassle really. Saves a shit ton of time. So basiccly whenever your run a game that you which to mod, Create a new folder for that specific game and download all the data for your games, so mods, dlc's, stuff, into that same folder.

 

Also, you might have to mess into an ini file. If you need to, don't hesitate to check the comments on Gopher, vids, learned a lot of shite there myself hehehe.

 

TLDR:penis

Thank You for the Help, that probably just saved me a bunch of time. i might go reinstall skyrim now and create a folder on my SSD for it. i do have a minor question, would i have to put NMM and the mods all on my SSD?

[Flowey]

Just now, Made In Canada said:

Thank You for the Help, that probably just saved me a bunch of time. i might go reinstall skyrim now and create a folder on my SSD for it. i do have a minor question, would i have to put NMM and the mods all on my SSD?

Oh yeah, keep all that's linked to modding in the same drive as your Skyrim folder. Even if I'm wrong, reinstalling NMM isn't as much of a pain in the ass as reinstalling Skyrim all over again right?

Also, if you haven't started modding yet, best tip I've gotten from someone regarding modding here :

 

"NMM is fine,  but I'd recommend Mod Organiser once you catch your bearings and learn how to mod better. 

 

I can't recommend the S.T.E.P. Guide enough for people new to modding.  It'll tech you the basics and get you a good and efficient base to work off of. 

 

Oh, and LOOT (updated version of BOSS, so you know what they're talking about if an old mod you download mentions it)  is an absolute must no matter how experienced a modder you are,  but make sure you read the compatibility guides for every mod you install to make sure all the mods you have are compatible, and to audit any small mistakes LOOT might make"

 

 

[Flowey]

6 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

Thank You for the Help, that probably just saved me a bunch of time. i might go reinstall skyrim now and create a folder on my SSD for it. i do have a minor question, would i have to put NMM and the mods all on my SSD?

also, NP, I've learned so much from this community, I try do to give as much as I take.

So no problem bud, and don't forget: tits mods need XMP extended skeleton (hehehe)

[Made In Canada]

9 minutes ago, Flowey said:

Oh yeah, keep all that's linked to modding in the same drive as your Skyrim folder. Even if I'm wrong, reinstalling NMM isn't as much of a pain in the ass as reinstalling Skyrim all over again right?

Also, if you haven't started modding yet, best tip I've gotten from someone regarding modding here :

 

"NMM is fine,  but I'd recommend Mod Organiser once you catch your bearings and learn how to mod better. 

 

I can't recommend the S.T.E.P. Guide enough for people new to modding.  It'll tech you the basics and get you a good and efficient base to work off of. 

 

Oh, and LOOT (updated version of BOSS, so you know what they're talking about if an old mod you download mentions it)  is an absolute must no matter how experienced a modder you are,  but make sure you read the compatibility guides for every mod you install to make sure all the mods you have are compatible, and to audit any small mistakes LOOT might make"

 

 

no clue what loot is and it does not seem Gopher has a video on it, but he does have a video on boss. so would you recommend doing the S.T.E.P Guide now or later when im more experienced?

[Flowey]

18 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

Thank You for the Help, that probably just saved me a bunch of time. i might go reinstall skyrim now and create a folder on my SSD for it. i do have a minor question, would i have to put NMM and the mods all on my SSD?

Also, when you test for stability, check your savefile sizes (manual saves, not autosaves), if they are over 10mb when you first save DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT start playing. Figure out the issue unless you want to start shitting bricks at like level 30 when the game becomes basiccly unplayable.

[Made In Canada]

Just now, Flowey said:

Also, when you test for stability, check your savefile sizes (manual saves, not autosaves), if they are over 10mb when you first save DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT start playing. Figure out the issue unless you want to start shitting bricks at like level 30 when the game becomes basiccly unplayable.

no clue how i would figure it out, any advise?

 

and what if i just save not often, or save often and overwrite a previous save, would that help?

[Made In Canada]

22 minutes ago, Flowey said:

also, NP, I've learned so much from this community, I try do to give as much as I take.

So no problem bud, and don't forget: tits mods need XMP extended skeleton (hehehe)

I am going to worry about getting the core mods for now, graphical mods are at the end, speaking of which, what would happen if i play on a mod for awhile, start to think it is un-needed, and uninstall it?

 

Sorry for all the questions by the way, it really helps having someone explain it and not a pre-done video explaining the outline/ some in depth of it.

Edited March 27, 2016 by Made In Canada
So Many Questions

[Flowey]

6 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

I am going to worry about getting the core mods for now, graphical mods are at the end, speaking of which, what would happen if i play on a mod for awhile, start to think it is un-needed, and uninstall it?

 

Sorry for all the questions by the way, it really helps having someone explain it and not a pre-done video explaining the outline/ some in depth of it.

NP

Basiccly from my understanding when you click unactivate,/deinstall symbol, NMM just removes all the mods files from skyrim's data folder.

 

Anyhow, if you there is a default tool included with NMM for plugin sorting, it's shite really, use it as a last resource.

[Flowey]

Just now, Flowey said:

NP

Basiccly from my understanding when you click unactivate,/deinstall symbol, NMM just removes all the mods files from skyrim's data folder.

 

Anyhow, there is a default tool included with NMM for plugin sorting, it's shite really, use it as a last resource.

 

[Flowey]

11 minutes ago, Made In Canada said:

no clue how i would figure it out, any advise?

 

and what if i just save not often, or save often and overwrite a previous save, would that help?

OH well you can check you saves files by going into the Skyrim foldeer Under "saves" or I believe would be all your saves.

[Made In Canada]

1 minute ago, Flowey said:

NP

Basiccly from my understanding when you click unactivate,/deinstall symbol, NMM just removes all the mods files from skyrim's data folder.

 

Anyhow, if you there is a default tool included with NMM for plugin sorting, it's shite really, use it as a last resource.

alright, try to keep that in mind.

 

about the MO and S.T.E.P Guide you mentioned earlier, would you advise me to do that now or later?