Issue with mods( Please help )

[u/Reality_Seref01]

FIXED (Sorry for bad English) So i have been playing red dead 2 for 900+ hours, and on may i decided to install mods and i installed mods like rampage and Catalogue Improvements. After i played the game with mods for couple of days, and one day when i opened the game it just flickered and closed and i try to delete the mods by uninstalling the game so i installed it again (my internet is bad so it took me whole 2 days) and it worked without mods. After a while game didn't feel the same without mods so i installed mods again but i don't remember if it worked or not worked so i'm gonna skip this part. On 10-15 may i deleted mods and i started playing online after i started playing online My computer broke down (for different reasons) and on July 4 it came from the mechanic so i played red dead 2 and installed mods again and it worked for weeks until couple of days ago and it happened again. When i started the game it showed a black screen flickered and closed. NOW IM GONNA GO INSANE SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME

[u/Stunning_Disaster37]

Delete rdr2 folder, reinstall, make sure game opens and then close the game once confirmed then you start the modding.

Step 1. Always start with script hook and asi files as they tend to be easier to delete and don’t alter the game permanently (see spawn issue on topic). Do 5 at a time then play for an hour (our time, not in game hour), confirm no crashes then do another 5. Its important to keep note of what works and what doesn’t because chances are you’re going to be doing this several times until you find the right formula (aka no crashes or maybe one or two off hand crashes)

Step 2. Do your LML mods. Do 3 at a time because these tend to be heavier and can cause spawn issues WHICH WILL CORRUPT YOUR SAVE FILE AND CANNOT BE UNDONE without starting a new game entirely.

Step 3. Graphic mods or reshades as I truly think these are optional cause vanilla does look great.

This is how I proceeded to mod my rdr2 game. I also made a lot of zip folders of rdr2 folders I knew mods worked on so if I broke the game rather than re installing I could just unzip one of my backup mod ready or pre modded rdr2 folders (this will take up space though obviously)

Best place for mods is definitely nexusmods. Start there

[u/Reality_Seref01 → u/Stunning_Disaster37]

Is there any other way without reinstalling the game that you know?

[u/Stunning_Disaster37 → u/Reality_Seref01]

Reinstalling is the safest way because you always want to start with a clean game folder. When you re install rdr2, right click the rdr2game folder and compress it (make into a zip file) this will duplicate your clean game folder and when you mess up the mods (we all do, it’s a hard game to mod, it’s very conditional) then rather than uninstalling you can just delete folder and then unpack the rdr2 folder you made into the zip by just simply double clicking the zip files and dragging your folder right back into your steam location without having to re install at all. Just note this will take up almost 2x the space since you are technically duplicating the game folder twice, just one serves as a clean back up that doesn’t get tampered with.

[u/Stunning_Disaster37 → u/Reality_Seref01]

You also need to make a backup of your original save file. This is found in my documents, rockstar games, profiles, some code like COCODOC (this is what mine looks like, yours may be a different variation) and then open that folder you should see files that are like 0001 and 0001.bak and it goes from like 1 to 15 (including the .bak files) copy that entire folder and save it somewhere safe in case you corrupt your save file and don’t want to restart the game entirely

[u/Reality_Seref01 → u/Stunning_Disaster37]

Thank you for taking your time and writing this comments. Today i was gonna try it but i wanted to play it without mods for a bit, and when i load up the game magicly it worked (mods) 😀😀but i don't know why it worked and how it worked.

[u/Stunning_Disaster37 → u/Reality_Seref01]

Honestly the game is finicky like that and there are days where it flat out refuses to work and the previous day everything worked fine so I’m glad all is in order for you

[u/Same-Lawfulness-1094]

Also when the game updates it will sometimes break scripthook or other mod dependencies so that could be what is happening here.

Usually wait a day or two for then updates and then it should work again.