Birds and Flocks (original and Hearthfires versions by dovahsbane) has wild edits that may cause CTDs, even his "cleaned" versions. However, the cleaned/fixed Hearthfires version by Phinix is safe. Birds and Flocks SSE is clean, fixed and safe. skyBirds is safe (all versions), always has been. The Dangerous Mods List gave it a bad rep for a while, but that misinformation has since been retracted. Birds of Skyrim is safe (all versions), always has been.
Here is my updated USLEEP/Hearthfire version which fixes the incompatibility with USKP and the broken Hearthfire quests preventing building in other holds. That includes fixing the invisible Hjaalmarch home, etc.
Thanks! Will try this one out. Took a quick look at the original HF and HFcleaned and saw that yours was in the middle size for some reason. But looking at the 3 of them in TES5Edit I can tell yours look clean while even the "clean" version had quite a lot of dirty edits xD
I guess you cleaned the non-cleaned version. Looks good to me! But it doesn't require USLEEP does it? At least not as a master.
Would like to know as well, getting alot of conflicting information on this. Some people saying to not use this mod at all, even though its on STEP Core. Finding it strange, any reply is greatly appreciated!
I tried my hand at it. Removed a bunch of edits to things like clouds and bushes. There is an object bounds edit to the whiterunWorld cell of -40, most people will have mods to override that edit but still its there. I just left edits to things that said birds or bats.
Used MO to install, then ran Loot. In Loot there was a warning that it was incompatible with Hearthfire.esm. Did anyone else get this? Is this an erroneous message?
BigBadBobFB: It uses the same .esp name as the original, so any flagged reports that existed on the original (dirty) mod would apply. So yes, you can ignore the message, if you ARE indeed using the cleaned/fixed version posted by phinix (or Sacralletius).
Don't use this mod or Airborn Perchin birds. It will ruin your game on the long haul. Some mods are just unsafe. You can't just clean them with tes5edit and expect that that solves the deep scripted issues these mods have on longer play-troughs
birds and flocks, airborn perching birds, deadly combat, ultimate combat, beaitifull cities to just name a few should be avoided!
Thank you for this information, Ruhadre!!! Here is a link to Nazenn's mod list... https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/523890681422555089/
Spreading misinformation about mods and wrongly accusing them of being harmful causes harm to the modding community
Birds and Flocks is not a scripted mod, and yes, it CAN be cleaned using Tes5edit. skyBirds was NEVER dangerous, and Nazenn has since acknowledged this fact on his modlist and apologized for his mistake.
Birds and Flocks - Both versions - Rating: Two (2) Last version checked: 2.4 (Vanilla version) / 1.0 (Hearthfires version) This warning applies to both Birds and Flocks vanilla and Birds and Flocks Hearthfires Version The files for this mod have a number of technical errors and problems. Multiple records in the files have issues with wild edits that aren't required for the mod to function, such as edits to water levels, location data of cells and objects inside the cells it edits. There are also a number of dirty edits in these files that need to be cleaned out with Tes5Edit before they can be used although this doesn't fix the wild edits. For the Hearthfires version specifically the mod is missing a number of worldspace data for the cells it effects which means it's still interfering with Hearthfires functionality despite claiming to be Hearthfires compatible. An unofficial fix has been created for the Hearthfires version of this file by phinix which you can find hosted here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ex9oakmi5cuxosk/Birds-USLEEPHearthfireClean.zip . This file should be used as a replacement for the official files as it has cleaned up the file significantly. There is no patch for the non-Hearthfires version of this mod and it should still be considered unstable.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/523890681422555089/ (Subsection: Unstable - Other risky and unreliable mods)
========================================================= I don't see this information being outdated... But I might be wrong.
NOOOOooOOoO!!! not Ultimate Combat!!! :c I love this mod lol. I'm currently using the new one. I works better than Wildcat and Vigor fighting mods. They kept making my game sutter to all hell and random crashing due to some of Immersive creatures missing animation ID's and what not. I had to uninstall them and then I decided to give UC a try and it seems to be working peachy for me so far. *Fingers crossed*
I'm following the STEP guide and I'm now at the section of the guide which includes this mod. I just started getting ctds after exiting bartering menu in Radiant Raiment in Solitude (twice in a row. very frustrating because I had just finished buying and selling things), and also at the general store in Solitude. My prime suspects are Immersive Citizens and Birds and Flocks (since there are a lot of birds/eagles in solitude).
I didn't get crashes when bartering before I started implementing this section of the STEP guide http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.9.2#2.H._Characters_.26_Creatures
I don't see any other mods in that section of the guide that could be causing this specific issue.
Edit: just had another crash while in mid conversation with Gulem Ei in Winking Skeever. So apparently it's not just happening during bartering. This is maddening!
Edit: another random ctd in the Winking Skeever. So frustrating.
Yeah, me too starting the very first quest near Riverwood; when I had no ctds. This mod demands too much to the engine if you're already running many other scripted mods (I run Frostfall between others). It's an out of memory problem I guess.
So I have read through several pages of comments, and other than people saying 'UNCLEAN!! UNCLEAN!!' there is not a lot of discussion on what the actual problem is with this mod.
Yeah, it does not forward a few fields from Hearthfire, but those are rather easy to fix yourself. And most of the 'dirty' edits are to cells that had not been changed since earlier program versions and it was updating them to the current ESP file format -- usually adding missing fields like XLRL- Location Reference, etc. In all -- there are 47 ITM records that TES5Edit will clean, and another 6 that may need to be deleted manually if TES5Edit doesn't find them, and a couple other records need the BYOH.... Editor ID from Hearthfire forwarded in a conflict resolution file.Or you can just download phinix's version below my post, as all the necessary changes have been made.
I have looked through the mod, and the script that it calls, and it is being blamed for problems that it simply CANNOT cause. It is very simple -- every time the game loads a cell with the birds animation it starts a script running. The script waits 0.5 seconds to check if the player has intersected a trigger location. If they have crossed the trigger point, then the birds animation is played, if not, then the script goes to sleep for another 0.5 seconds and it restarts again. That's it. This can't cause a CTD, it can't cause problems with your sound effects, etc, etc. What it WILL do though is cause a crash if you have uninstalled ANOTHER mod that contained a cell that had this script running in it. Which is why uninstalling ANY plugin based mods in the middle of a game is never recommended. It also can cause a problem if you have increased your uGridsToLoad value beyond the recommended value, and there are too many nearby cells running a script that fires twice a second.
But overall I suspect that the number of people experiencing problems with this mod after cleaning it, and during playthroughs where no ESP files have been removed, or re-ordered, is very very small.
But there is 1 odd change that the mod makes, and I would welcome anyone else`s input on this. The mod is making a change to the bounds of WhiterunWorld from (X,Y) of (-3,-12) -- (17,16) to (-40,-12) -- (17,16), and then makes a bunch of empty cells in this extra space. Are these just empty cells created for the birds to fly in above Whiterun? This nearly triples the total length along the X axis, but this bounding value change will be overwritten by any other mod that makes any other change in Whiterun.
My question, for someone will a little more knowledge than me is -- are these extra cells ever created in Whiterun? Or do the birds that the mod tries to add in the range of X=-3 to X=-40 just never exist? If these extra cells are causing problems, I think it should only be INSIDE the gates of Whiterun that problems occur.
310 comments
However, the cleaned/fixed Hearthfires version by Phinix is safe.
Birds and Flocks SSE is clean, fixed and safe.
skyBirds is safe (all versions), always has been. The Dangerous Mods List gave it a bad rep for a while, but that misinformation has since been retracted.
Birds of Skyrim is safe (all versions), always has been.
Birds & Flocks - Ruhadre Patch
Birds - USLEEP, Hearthfire, Clean
Requires USLEEP and Hearthfire, of course.
I guess you cleaned the non-cleaned version. Looks good to me! But it doesn't require USLEEP does it? At least not as a master.
Some people saying to not use this mod at all, even though its on STEP Core. Finding it strange, any reply is greatly appreciated!
So is this mod official dead?
Some mods are just unsafe. You can't just clean them with tes5edit and expect that that solves the deep scripted issues these mods have on longer play-troughs
birds and flocks, airborn perching birds, deadly combat, ultimate combat, beaitifull cities to just name a few should be avoided!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/523890681422555089/
Birds and Flocks is not a scripted mod, and yes, it CAN be cleaned using Tes5edit. skyBirds was NEVER dangerous, and Nazenn has since acknowledged this fact on his modlist and apologized for his mistake.
Last version checked: 2.4 (Vanilla version) / 1.0 (Hearthfires version)
This warning applies to both Birds and Flocks vanilla and Birds and Flocks Hearthfires Version
The files for this mod have a number of technical errors and problems. Multiple records in the files have issues with wild edits that aren't required for the mod to function, such as edits to water levels, location data of cells and objects inside the cells it edits. There are also a number of dirty edits in these files that need to be cleaned out with Tes5Edit before they can be used although this doesn't fix the wild edits. For the Hearthfires version specifically the mod is missing a number of worldspace data for the cells it effects which means it's still interfering with Hearthfires functionality despite claiming to be Hearthfires compatible.
An unofficial fix has been created for the Hearthfires version of this file by phinix which you can find hosted here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ex9oakmi5cuxosk/Birds-USLEEPHearthfireClean.zip . This file should be used as a replacement for the official files as it has cleaned up the file significantly. There is no patch for the non-Hearthfires version of this mod and it should still be considered unstable.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/523890681422555089/ (Subsection: Unstable - Other risky and unreliable mods)
=========================================================
I don't see this information being outdated... But I might be wrong.
:c
I love this mod lol. I'm currently using the new one. I works better than Wildcat and Vigor fighting mods. They kept making my game sutter to all hell and random crashing due to some of Immersive creatures missing animation ID's and what not.
I had to uninstall them and then I decided to give UC a try and it seems to be working peachy for me so far.
*Fingers crossed*
I didn't get crashes when bartering before I started implementing this section of the STEP guide http://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.9.2#2.H._Characters_.26_Creatures
I don't see any other mods in that section of the guide that could be causing this specific issue.
Edit: just had another crash while in mid conversation with Gulem Ei in Winking Skeever. So apparently it's not just happening during bartering. This is maddening!
Edit: another random ctd in the Winking Skeever. So frustrating.
Idk where to look for them.
EDIT: or not that works too..
So I have read through several pages of comments, and other than people saying 'UNCLEAN!! UNCLEAN!!' there is not a lot of discussion on what the actual problem is with this mod.
Yeah, it does not forward a few fields from Hearthfire, but those are rather easy to fix yourself. And most of the 'dirty' edits are to cells that had not been changed since earlier program versions and it was updating them to the current ESP file format -- usually adding missing fields like XLRL- Location Reference, etc. In all -- there are 47 ITM records that TES5Edit will clean, and another 6 that may need to be deleted manually if TES5Edit doesn't find them, and a couple other records need the BYOH.... Editor ID from Hearthfire forwarded in a conflict resolution file.Or you can just download phinix's version below my post, as all the necessary changes have been made.
I have looked through the mod, and the script that it calls, and it is being blamed for problems that it simply CANNOT cause. It is very simple -- every time the game loads a cell with the birds animation it starts a script running. The script waits 0.5 seconds to check if the player has intersected a trigger location. If they have crossed the trigger point, then the birds animation is played, if not, then the script goes to sleep for another 0.5 seconds and it restarts again. That's it. This can't cause a CTD, it can't cause problems with your sound effects, etc, etc. What it WILL do though is cause a crash if you have uninstalled ANOTHER mod that contained a cell that had this script running in it. Which is why uninstalling ANY plugin based mods in the middle of a game is never recommended. It also can cause a problem if you have increased your uGridsToLoad value beyond the recommended value, and there are too many nearby cells running a script that fires twice a second.
But overall I suspect that the number of people experiencing problems with this mod after cleaning it, and during playthroughs where no ESP files have been removed, or re-ordered, is very very small.
But there is 1 odd change that the mod makes, and I would welcome anyone else`s input on this. The mod is making a change to the bounds of WhiterunWorld from (X,Y) of (-3,-12) -- (17,16) to (-40,-12) -- (17,16), and then makes a bunch of empty cells in this extra space. Are these just empty cells created for the birds to fly in above Whiterun? This nearly triples the total length along the X axis, but this bounding value change will be overwritten by any other mod that makes any other change in Whiterun.
My question, for someone will a little more knowledge than me is -- are these extra cells ever created in Whiterun? Or do the birds that the mod tries to add in the range of X=-3 to X=-40 just never exist? If these extra cells are causing problems, I think it should only be INSIDE the gates of Whiterun that problems occur.
Thanks,
Dan.