MO2 load order got corrupted and I'm too scared to rebuild it

[WhiterunModder]

yeah so I've been running the same 280-mod setup for like 18 months and it's been stable enough that I just... never touched it. well, I updated SKSE last week and apparently that was enough to brick something because now I'm getting random CTDs in Solitude and my grass is rendering backwards in some cells. I know I should just rebuild from scratch with Community Shaders and call it a day but the thought of actually going through all those dependency chains again is making me want to just... not play Skyrim for a while.

has anyone else gotten stuck in this loop where your modlist is technically broken but stable enough that fixing it feels like more work than it's worth? I'm genuinely asking if I should bite the bullet or if there's some kind of damage control I can do without nuking everything.

 

[DragonbornVet]

yeah I've been there. 18 months is actually the sweet spot for "stable enough to ignore problems" - you hit that wall where touching anything feels like defusing a bomb. the SKSE update hitting you is rough because it cascades through like half your list.

here's the thing though: those CTDs in Solitude are gonna get worse, not better. and backwards grass is a sign something in your rendering pipeline is actually broken, not just cosmetic jank. you're looking at either a slow death by a thousand crashes or one weekend of pain now.

the good news is you don't have to nuke everything at once. back up your current MO2 folder first (seriously, just copy the whole thing), then start a fresh instance. you can literally just copy your mods folder over and rebuild the load order from scratch without re-downloading anything. take your time with it - get SKSE, USSEP, and your core utilities working first, then layer in the rest. you'll spot the broken stuff way faster than you think because it'll either conflict immediately or won't load.

I rebuilt a 200+ mod list last year after a similar disaster and honestly it took like 6-8 hours spread across two evenings. way less painful than I expected, and my game runs better now because I actually know what's in it instead of just... trusting 18 months of decisions.

what's your core setup - you running ENB, Community Shaders, anything like that?