Reference handles

[Ryokhan]

Lately I've run straight into the wall of the reference handles limit, so I'm looking into setting as many reference-heavy mods as masters.

I had the impression the various townmods (Arthmoor and Schlitzohr's mainly) should be pretty safe to be set as masters, but they are very low on reference numbers, so the total amount saved in an average build is lower than just the single ESO-import mod (for example, also no, I don't use city overhauls save for "capitals and towns of skyrim", which is almost as light as townmods).

Also I read around that dungeons packs should be, in general, be safe as well.

Do someone has a general vademecum on the matter, or at least some parameters on which I can set a course of action instead than going in blindly?

[Scythe Bearer]

The Reddit write-up you refer to contains a link to a XEDIT Script (https://gist.github.com/aers/953a50c61b3028bce7e5376e8590abed) which will scan your existing load order and give you the number or references.  I would start there. 

 

[Ryokhan]

21 minutes ago, Scythe Bearer said:

The Reddit write-up you refer to contains a link to a XEDIT Script (https://gist.github.com/aers/953a50c61b3028bce7e5376e8590abed) which will scan your existing load order and give you the number or references.  I would start there. 

 

Yup, followed that, that's why I'm searching around for directions.

But my knowledge of modding skyrim just goes as far as patching my own game, so for example I don't know if just setting as esm the heavier mods is a safe practice or can lead to problems or there are even some mods that can be generally broken from it.

Just to make a few examples, the heavy-lifters in my list are Nyhus, Haafstad and Folkstead of Joopvandie (these "should" be safe to esm), or Artifact Revised from HeirOfTheSeptims, the two final parts of Here Be Monsters trilogy of Araanim or The Shadow of Meresis, each of them getting around 20-25k references. And no few questmods/new-lands-mods that catch around 10-15k references each.

[smr1957]

You can, of course try to go the route of setting some mods as masters, but my advice would be that you would do best to just drop some mods, and save them for another playthrough.  I know that I currently have over 2300 mods and well over 1600 plugins merged down to 250 (with 54 .esl files) and I am nowhere near the reference handle cap - and have more than enough to do, so that I could probably play my SSE build for the rest of my life and not encounter everything there is to encounter.

[Arthmoor]

It's definitely not a good idea to set master flags on things you didn't write. A lot of details need to be exactly right in order for that to work without breaking things. Especially in quests.

[Ryokhan]

I see, thanks. 

13 hours ago, smr1957 said:

well over 1600 plugins merged down to 250 (with 54 .esl files)

one day I'll have to learn how to do that.... -__-''