Habitual Inquiries - FAQ
"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. . ."
Psalm 127:3-5
Dearest Beloved: It has been months now since you had told us you would take a fast travel to visit your sick brother. No one has heard from you or found your body. I know you would not have left us to fend on our own. I only pray it was a quick death. I am unable to provide for the three of us now. The children were starving and I have not the energy to raise them alone. I yearn for us to be together again. Fear not love, I have taken care of the children and will reunite with all three of you shortly.
-Note found tied to the ankle of Elisabeth Shaw's corpse.
Herein lies the answers you seek to the questions that you have. If by chance you seek council in regards to a different inquiry not inscribed here, by all means please ask!
Please use SoT's Nexus forum page to implore about your quandary.
We are very delighted that you are enjoying the mod enough to want to continue your journey with us and upgrade your version of Sands of Time!
There are a couple choices you have when deciding how to upgrade, and we have listed them in our
"Upgrade" page which will help guide you along.
Is this compatible with Immersive Creatures and/or Monster Mod?
- Yes, SoT is compatible with either or both of them (if using both, a bashed patch is needed.). Our SoT Spartan Waspdeath summed up nicely how the mods work cohesively (paraphrased): ". . .What usually happens is that I'll be in the
vicinity of some creature added by MoMod or Immersive Creatures, then SoT clones
off of one of them, without having known I was in the vicinity of
anything. The "clones" from SoT aggro onto me, then the originals
come follow suit and then if you get bad luck (or good luck depending on
how you like challenges), SoT just keeps making waves. The
synergy is extremely interesting, especially when SoT spawns its own
custom encounter and then is throwing waves of random crap at you
depending on what's around you."--Thank you Waspdeath.
How are spawn locations determined?
- Depends on where you are. Spawning uses totally different methods for outdoors and indoors and for sleeping.
1. If walking in a dungeon, the spawning is the most sophisticated due to
invisible ghosts that are programmed to be various lengths from you. One is
about 30 feet away, one is about 100, and the last is as far as he be can from you.
Also used is the local COC marker, and the local door marker. That
gives 5 possible spawn points used at random. Spirits are preferred.
This method is used to avoid spawning npcs inside solid objects--which leads
to CTDs and other bad things. The spirits provide a forward facing cone of spawn points. Newly added (since version v8.70) is a rear facing cone made up of the last 3 places the player has been in within the past 60 seconds. Combined, the number of spawn points is greatly enriched and more random than ever.
2. On the surface, a
totally random location chosen from 360 degrees and a random distance
away is picked. This works pretty well and usually the player does not
see them spawning. Once in a blue moon they spawn off a cliff but oh
well (there's more where they come from). A feature of the mod that no
one thinks about is the sneaking effect. If you are in sneak mod that
is factored into the distance of the spawns. Furthermore, the higher
the sneak mode the FARTHER away they will appear. This rewards you for
being careful.
3. If ambushed while sleeping it is on purpose
that 50% of the time they pop in on top of your bed. For variety they may instead appear 50% of the time outside your
door.
4. If Waiting in a dungeon this is a totally separate
type of encounter. They will appear close by, they sneaked up on you
while you were day dreaming.
What is up with the pebbles and spirits?
- Due to the heavily scripted mod, SoT tries to use cpu cycle-saving gimmicks. The
pebbles serve as flags when cloning to avoid double cloning. They are an ingredient (radioactive) that gives a small health boost when eaten. They are also placed on npcs I do not wish to be cloned. Same thing with the spirits--they save tons of code and avoid lag by providing great spawn points at low CPU cost.
My game crashes, CTDs, lockups, etc. What's going on? Your mod is evil!
- Read this by Joker: "This
mod is pretty darn stable. If anyone is having problems with crashing
and they think it's because of this mod, it's time to take a look at
these things:
1) How you install/uninstall mods
2) New game/save versus using previous game/saves
3) Install/load order
4) Your mods in general
5) General game settings
If
you start a game with 10 mods installed, for the most part your saves
are now dependent on those mods. Each time you uninstall a mod and then
add something different, your save game becomes a little unstable. There
are some mods out there there that once installed can never be
uninstalled because it would completely corrupt your game saves. That is
the nature of playing with mods.
Some tips for troubleshooting crashes:
-Research your mods (settings, patches, compatibility, and see what others are saying in comments)
-Look at your system settings (can your system handle those ultra high textures in combination with script-heavy mods)
-Install
mods on a clean directory *Pet Peeve* ( Uninstall all mods, uninstall
the game, delete the directory, and reinstall the game. Now...back up
that 100% clean directory somewhere to make this faster in the future)
-Use
BOSS (pay attention to what it says - I ignore ITMs personally because I
broke my game myself cleaning them - Just check with the author)
-ALWAYS test on a new game!!!!!! This is the most important thing you do!!!!
You crash! Now what? Well.... try these things.
-Enable
logging: Keep in mind that some mods are expected to have log errors
(SoT is a good example). If something is spanning the logs with errors,
check with the mod author to see if this is expected. If not or you
can't get an answer, this should be the first mod you uninstall.
-Lower game settings: Your computer may not be a powerful as you think...
-Re-evaluate your installed mods and decide a mod or two that you can live without.
-START A NEW GAME AGAIN!! You are troubleshooting right now. Get stable first before diving too far into the game.
-Repeat
This
is how I do it. It works for me. On a side note, Wyre Bash has a tab
that shows your saves that you've made. Clicking on a save will tell you
what mods you were running when you created that save. It's just
something good to know."--Excellent Joker! The SoT team thanks you for offering your friendly guidance.
Further, if you do experience any freezing/crashing when using a mod that adds spawns (whether dynamic or static) we HIGHLY recommend that you look through our "optimization" page which most likely will help you.
I hate the Blighted Citizens, they are too hard for my milk-drinking play-style. What do I do?
- By default only fire can kill them, in any form. This can be toggled on or off in the MCM menu.
Burning Inferno is a She-Devil and she needs to go! Can I disable her?
- Yup, She can be toggled on or off in the MCM menu. Alternatively, there is also an option to make her weaker. After all, we know that not all sword swingers are cut out to be real adventurers.
What does "dice roll 1" and "dice roll 2" mean in the in configuration screen?
- Imagine a pair of dice each with 100 sides, numbered from 1 to 100.
Every so often, they are "rolled" when determining if an
encounter should appear. For example, for the walking encounters, the game starts with
dice roll 1 set at 80 and dice roll 2 at 75. The dice roll is then
compared against those numbers. If both dice are LOWER than the chosen
odds there will be an encounter. Each dice is counted for and BOTH dice must beat the user defined variable for a successful spawn.
For example: If the first dice roll is higher than the the set number (let's say "80") then the second dice will roll, if the second dice beats the set number as well (let's say "75"), then a spawn event will occur. However, if either of the dice fail to be higher than the variable set, a spawn event will not occur.
Setting the variable higher in the MCM means a higher chance of spawning to take place, and of course a lower variable means lower odds of encountering a random spawn.
Can the odds of encounters be changed?
- Yes, everything in SoT is highly customizable to your play-style preference within the MCM menu.
Is this compatible with (insert favorite survival mod here)?
What about Werewolves?
- Compatible, though this mod alters the restrictions of Werewolves being
able to rest. They have a 50% chance of benefiting from the sleep.
This way they have good and bad nights.
Can the mod be reset to defaults?
- You bet, this is done within the MCM menu as well.
What are these chests that spawned npcs keep leaving behind?
- There are 4 kinds of chests, each one harder to crack and deadlier but with correspondingly better loot.
They are:
1) Iron Chests that glow blue when armed
2) Copper Chests that glow green when armed
3) Gold Chests that glow purple when armed
4) Diamond Chests that glow red when armed.
To
try to disarm chest, go into sneak mode and activate chest. Then
choose a menu option. You will know you failed when you see your character sailing above the clouds. However, there is a good chance of survival if you take a couple of healing potions before landing.
The chance of disarming a chest is based MOSTLY on the lock-picking perks as follows:
-Novice
-Apprentice
-Adept
-Expert
-Golden Touch
-Treasure Hunter
-Locksmith
-Master
At Master level the only one that can still zap you are the Diamond Chests, though the odds for success are pretty good. In any case, this will give a thief / assassin a reason to go for the perks. (This entire feature can be disabled in the MCM menu.)
Where should I place SoT in my load order?
- It is advised that you place SoT near the bottom of your list. Our SoT Team member refusedzero has deduced that it is best placed ". . .after everything and anything that adds creatures or NPCs to the level lists, but above lighting/weather mods like ELFX, ELE, and CoT (if you use none of those, then before any magic mods like Apocolypse or Colorful Magic).--Thank you refusedzero for your testing and advisement!
Other users find that placing it under their bashed patch (if used) suffices as well.
It just so happens that we have a page that displays the best order. Click here to view that page, oh ye that hath skipped it....probably due to your slothfulness.
What are the red and green pills for?
- Take the red pill if the mod fails to initiate. As for the green pill, you'll just have to take it and find out. ;)
Is this mod compatible with other mods that add NPCs (such as Immersive Patrols and the populated series)?
- Yes. However, keep in mind the more NPC spawning mods you have, the higher the demand will be on system resources.
Why are compatibility patches needed for companions?
- If custom companions are not tagged with vanilla keywords and vanilla factions, the mod will clone them and the clones will fight you. The compatibility patches correct this problem.
NOTE: As of version 8.92 these patches are no longer necessary. An MCM toggle has implemented that grants the player a spell which can be cast on followers to prevent cloning. The patches are still available however for users of earlier versions. (Or users that use he same followers in every game and don't prefer to manually cast a spell--also known as being lazy.)
I have been infected by the Bubonic Plague. What the heck do I do now?
- You roll over and die. Or, you could cure yourself (not as fun for us to watch though).
The Bubonic Plague is caused by diseased rats. Normally a Cure Disease potion is good enough. For stronger cases however, you should seek Agnes the priestess found in Whiterun. (Pay close attention though and select "Cure diseases" and not "Cure injuries".) There is of course the possibility of other healers being able to help too, including the 5 SoT provided healers that travel between inns. There is also a stationary SoT healer that stays in the Riverwood Inn at all times.
I keep seeing the message "I covertly advance", what is that all about?
- This affects Reinforcements in dungeons. There are two modes for such reinforcements:
a) constant - based on die rolls the enemy will be periodically reinforced all the time
b) tactical, for ninjas, thiefs, stealthy type. The reinforcements will only be sent for if you are hit X number of times. This is the stealth level in the mcm menu. You can set it to one, two, or three. That will be the number of times you can be hit before reinforcements are called for. If you kill the enemy before they arrive then reinforcements are cancelled. The 1 to 3 counter is considered to be "cover". When you lose cover you gain a point. When you recover cover you lose a point. Losing a point is good. You can recover a point by leaving the immediate cell to another cell.
The whole point is to reward players for playing stealthy and to simulate penalties for being discovered. Then to simulate running into the shadows and retreating if discovered and regaining/retrying the stealthy approach. Works really well.
How does this work along side other resource heavy mods such as Wet & Cold or Enhanced Blood Textures?
- Good Question. The mod is compatible with other resource demanding mods, but depending on your specific CPU specs and mod load, you may or may not be able to use SoT along with other demanding mods too. Know this: SoT is an overhaul mod and the best route to take in stability is building your mod order around SoT (just like with Requiem or SkyRE). The mods to take caution with when using SoT are the mods that add cloaking scripts and heartbeat scripts. How much of a problem those mods will cause you when used with SoT depends on how optimized your game is.
In no way what so ever is the SoT team claiming other resource demanding mods are "bad"--absolutely not. Many SoT users do in fact play with other resource demanding mods just fine, but they have optimized, tweaked, and customized their settings and mod load to work without any issue.
This mod destroys the self-esteem of my fragile character. How do I uninstall it?
- Really? Your character's self-esteem huh? Sure, if you say so. We have put together an "Uninstallation" page to help you remove SoT from your game as well as belittle you.
When I load from a save game and check out the SoT menu, it says I need to wait four minutes. Is this normal?
- You broke it.....Just kidding. Yes, this is perfectly normal. The mod menu is gathering data from its modules during those four minutes--nothing to worry about. It is completely safe to continue your adventure while this takes place and won't affect game play.
Also please note that this waiting period is not at all associated with the initial four minutes the mod needs to initialize when first activated. In summary: the mod is not "restarting" with every load, just the menu is figuring out its last state so it can properly inform you.
Is a "clean-save" needed to upgrade?
- First, there is no such thing as a clean-save. Secondly, in a word "yes". Our optimization guru, CrushBoss:, has put together the most complete and easy to understand step-by-step guide on how to properly clean your game of a mod/orphaned scripts.
You may find that guide located on our site here.
Should I include this mod in any dynamic patches (such as Bash, Reproccer, ASIS, Lootification, or any others)?
- As of V11, it is safe to include SoT in your Bash patch. Reproccers are a little more difficult to give any say so on. If using SkyRe, you'll want to include it. The best choice of action is to ask on the forums about your specific reproc patches; someone will answer. Remember to follow this rule: When in doubt, leave it out..
Why does my game CTD when Rumiirua (undead) appear?
- IMPORTANT NOTE (credit to Crushboss): Players not using HDT Physics need to use the XPMS Skeleton 1.95. Players using HDT Physics need to use the XPMSE Skeleton 3.77 (or newer). Anyone using old hardware or a slow computer should not use HDT Physics (based on your load order it doesn't appear that you are) and should stick with XPMS Skeleton 1.95. These skeletons are heavily tested and widely supported. The Skulltyrant and other skeletons are out dated and no longer supported. I'm extremely selective with the animation mods I install due to being bitten in the butt numerous times by them. It is really frustrating to spend two weeks troubleshooting a load order to find it's the animation mod that is causing the crashes (been there done that three different times). Anytime you add any animations you must run GenerateFNISforusers.exe to register and build the new animations. Your skeleton should always be the last mod installed and you shouldn't allow a mod to overwrite any of it's files. Players often get confused and install the wrong skeleton and incompatible mods (mostly animation). You should be using FNIS 6.2 and XPMS 1.95. The only time players should use the XPMSE 3.77 skeleton is if they are running HDT Physics (which I personally frown on). This skeleton also has a ton of other requirements that will cause issues if you don't follow all instructions..
This website scares me. Why is it so scary?
- Because you are a wuss. Go watch cartoons about ponies. You would probably be happier over here.
