keithinhanoi

Since I'm in TES5Edit all the time lately, I have no qualms about playing god with other people's mods (purely for personal use of course). This includes moving and removing things if I feel like it, including Flying Fonzie's on water-skis! I mainly got EWDR because I really like the large city wall it adds, and the undergound quest bit sounds interesting too (please, no spoilers!) Nonethless, the vanilla game already set the shark-jumping stage for the idea of ghosts running around...

Noooooooooooooooooo! I went to merge together all of the new ETaC v10.0 patches I've installed, and when I ran my (now standard) Check for Errors run in TES5Edit before running the Merge Script, I get these messages in TES5Edit: So, it seems the 3DNPC and EWDR patches need some fixing. Whose are those? EDIT: I posted about this on the main ETaC comments thread.

Yup, I figured out all of that - needs to be after the ReProcc patch, and that's the only way to do it. The one on michaelrw's page still seems to be fine, but I have stuck it into the new updated AOS 2.1 installer I'm working on that's almost ready. I did add author info and description in the plugin header so it can be matched to metadata tags if using LOOT. In fact I've added a version number line in the description of ALL plugins in the new installer, following egocarib's advice. They're all at Version: 2.1, and any variants of a plugin with the same name have alpha characters to indicate which variant you've got installed. For example "Version: 2.1DG" or "Version: 2.1noDLC". I sincerely hope that helps! Also all the read me files have be extensively re-done and improved, including notes about BOSS versus LOOT load order, and they do have a special note for any patches which aren't necessary if the load order is "reversed" from the one that was used when the patch was created. Some other patches have been added, including those for Deadly Spell Impacts, Improved Weapon Impact EFFECTS Correct Metal, the above mentioned SkyRe "AFTER" patch, and a new merged patch for people using both Fire & Ice Overhaul and the Traps are Dangerous plugin from kryptopyr's Traps Make Noise - More Dangerous Traps mod. Most importantly, the updated installer will be fully BAIN Wizard compatible for all the Wyre Bash lovers out there. A big big thank you to alt3rn1ty for help in creating the wizard.txt code that I could then edit. So, yay! I know know how to make FOMOD and BAIN installers, what fun! Expect it to be available in the next day or two.

I had been using Smooth Blade Draw & Sheathe, and when AOS 2 came out, I looked into it and found out that there's just no way that they can both be used.AOS 2 now tries to do most of the same things as Smooth Blade Draw & Sheathe, except for the sneak sound reduction feature provided by ADS.esp - but even that plugin has enough conflicts with changes in AOS that you would have to completely change the ADS plugin until it's no longer using the sounds of Smooth Blade Draw & Sheathe - and I'm quite sure the author wouldn't like that to be uploaded and shared anywhere.I'm sorry to say that if AOS will continue to be featured in STEP, then dropping Smooth Blade Draw & Sheathe should be considered - because of the numerous conflicts.Please check your PM from me on Nexus for some more details, by the way. A patch for a patch??? Sorry, but that sounds really odd. Anyhow, I'll check it out by downloading the one from michaelrw's patch page, but the most that will happen is it will just get stuck, as is, into the AOS all-in-one installer when it's updated to be BAIN / Wyre Bash compatible. I don't use SkyRe, and don't want to spend the extra time right now to see if the two patches could be more smartly combined - my weekend is almost a total loss because of all the work!

Thanks so much for the tip on the multi-line editor in TES5Edit. I'm sorry to say I find CK pretty cumbersome for doing this kind of edit. One of these days I'll find the time to get more used to it.Anyhow, with the version number in the description, I think it's important to mention that the version string must be contiguous - in other words, there cannot be any spaces. So, for example "Version: 1.2 DGDB" in the plugin's description field shows up as Version 1.2 in BOSS or LOOT, but "Version: 1.2DGDB" comes through as Version 1.2DGDB. Now I do have a question for you, since you're quite a bit deeper in your knowledge of LOOT: From what I understand, LOOT's algorithm will look at the listed masters for any plugin, to make sure that it gets placed after all listed masters, but it doesn't take the order of masters into consideration - is that right? This creates a bit a problem when creating compatibility patch plugins, because what records need to get forwarded to the patch can often depend completely on the load order of the two (or more) mods that the patch is built for. For example, one of the patches for AOS 2 provides compatibility with Realistic Water Two, but it's only needed if AOS loads before RWT, which is what BOSS will do (they're both in the masterlist,) but it's possible that LOOT may reverse that load order. In that case, the user doesn't need the patch at all. But then, when you're making a patch that has a mix of records that don't need to be forwarded in one load order, but do in the other, and vice-versa - I really have no idea how to properly handle that, if I'm trying to make a patch that will "work" for everyone out there. Are these the kinds of things that need to addressed in the global metadata masterlist (sorry if I'm using the wrong term there) that LOOT downloads and updates for everyone? Personally, I should add, I think in an ideal world, everyone would learn how to use TES5Edit to its full potential and make their own patches. I do that myself, which is why I've gotten into helping out with compatibility patches. Of course it's much more complicated than that, because things can refer to scripts, and scripts from one mod may overwrite another, etc., plus understanding the function of all those records / sub-record types helps, of course, too. There's already a SkyRe patch included in the new AOS 2.1 installer. However, on that patch, I didn't download it and install it to check it, so I'm not sure if it's the same one you're referring to.

Um, so does that mean there's an issue with some FOMOD installers in MO v1.2? I'm mainly interested since I created the new AOS installer for LoRd KoRn, and right now I'm looking it over again after alt3rn1ty re-worked it so there's a wizard.txt to make it Wyre Bash / BAIN compatible. I'm still using MO v1.1.2, and have not had a single problem with the new AOS installer as I've got it set up - I can load AOS.esp in TES5Edit just fine. I suppose I'll have to do a test install of MO v1.2 to see what's up.

Hmm, well I know how to trace my way into Marcus Corvinus' package(s) - maybe there's one for behavior in Four Shields, so I'll check if he does indeed have the greet player flag set. As for the Bjorsi NPC voice type - I remember seeing that, but how do I discover what lines any particular voice type has recorded for it? Maybe this is a good time for me to check out FOllower Commentary Overhaul, as I remember reading that can also expand the lines of some non-follower NPCs... (?) Well, if you hadn't told me that the Dragonmourn Inn belongs to ME, I never would have guessed it.It's an inn, and iNeed said I was hungry and sleepy, so in I went to serve my needs. When I saw that I could take anything I wanted, I felt like a kid in a candy story with an "all-day-free-pass". It just didn't seem fair to me. So, I'll remove my faction "fix" after I've started the mod I guess to keep my vices in check.I get what you're saying about the faction change, but couldn't that be accomplished with some kind of conditional that is linked to progression in the mod's questline? Yeah, I agree totally. But this is one of those cases where some number of people are reporting pretty much the same really strange things happening with the mod, all relating to visiting a cave that's part of the mod's quest. Anyhow, there's only one way to find out I suppose - and who knows, maybe I can find the fix if there really is some problem there...Thanks for the reply, CJ! This is really strange, because CJ took DoW out of the REGS guide due to a notable impact on performance for himself and others (including me.) But we've not seen the same issue with DoR.

Thanks for that information egocarib - I don't think I would have found this on my own, as it seems you've quoted an old forum post as the source? I imagine documentation for mod authors including this will be collected together in one place soon enough. However, David (LoRd KoRn) is the author, so I can pass this on to him. I'm curious, though - since this talks about making sure one line in the description has this version number, can this only be accomplished in the CK, and not using TES5Edit? (I've never tried typing in a multiple line description in TES5Edit.) Also, since AOS now has 4 variants of the main plugin, all with the same name (AOS.esp), it seems a good idea to indicate that in the description with this version text, so something like "Version: 2.1", "Version: 2.1 DG", "Version: 2.1 DB", and "Version: 2.1 DG+DB". It seems that would be helpful as confirmation to a user about which variant they have installed, in addition to the version number. What do you think?

I don't want to add to a small pile of questions, but in my test (hopefully to become "real") play through that I finally started, I'm experiencing some really strange things and wanted to check with other who've installed most or all of the REGS guide mods. A bit of background. I'm not using a "pure" STEP:Core or Extended set of mods, but a good majority of what I am using are in the STEP guide. I really hate doing this, but just in case, here's my current active modlist in Mod Organizer, here's my list of SKSE .dll plugins, and here's my current load order. I started the play through using Live Another Life and chose the "Shipwrecked!" start, leading me to hit Dawnstar first. Nothing out of the normal happened there, and the LAL quest to learn more about the rumors of war around Helgen led me to Solitude, and then over to find a guy named Sam in Dragon Bridge - and that's where I encountered some very strange things that I want to ask about. When I first got to Dragon Bridge, things seems normal, but as the day progressed, I found that some NPCs decided it was best just to stand in the middle of the road, outside Four Shields Tavern. This included some NPCs placed in the village, and also some supplied by Relio Savinni's Populated Lands Roads Paths mod. Then, inside Four Shields Tavern, I found three NPCs who just don't talk at all - Bartuk and Herlus from The Shadow of Merisis, and Marcus Corvinus from ETaC. Now as I sit here far from home, I realize that perhaps Bartuk & Herlus aren't meant to say anything until the SoM quest is started, and I haven't done that yet, so I guess I'll have to try starting the quest to see if that gets them talking. But then with Marcus Corvinus, who is placed by ETaC, wouldn't talk while in Four Shields, but later when he's out doing his blacksmithing thing, he has the normal merchant lines. Also, another NPC placed by ETaC, Bjorsi, will speak to me, but for his "I've been hunting and fishing..." lines, there's no voice, only subtitles. Only when I get to his impatient NPC lines "I'm waiting..." does he actually have a voice. Checking all of these NPCs in TES5Edit, I don't see anything jumping out at me as to why they would exhibit these behaviors, but I must admit I'm nowhere near fully understanding how NPC records should be set up correctly. The last thing I noticed IS something that I found in TES5Edit to be an "issue," which is that the Dragonmourn Inn in Dragon Bridge South, which is supplied by Fight Against the Thalmor IV, does not have any ownership flag set, and so everything inside the Inn can be freely taken. I feel that is just far too generous, so I went in and gave the main Dragonmourn Inn cell record (Form ID xx000D62) an ownership flag of the "Dragonmourn Inn" faction (Form ID xx011F8A), which is what I suspect Mad Frenchie probably intended to do. Sure enough, when I went back in, everything now has the steal option rather than pick up option, and stealing causes the inn inhabitants to go aggro on me. I must say, looking through the comments thread on Nexus for FAtT-IV, it only served to make me feel nervous about having this mod installed. There are a number of comments from people saying their screen went black at one point in the quest and stayed stuck that way or their in-game music got stuck on one track or the music stopped playing completely. Any information on these things would be greatly appreciated. I'd rather throw out my Level 8 character now, fix things and start over, than to much later find out the save game has been nuked.

Ahhh, yes - I didn't think of the possibility it was baked into his save game! That would also explain why it never saw it in my tests, because I faithfully started a brand new game, waited through the Helgen Sequence until after character creation so I could access the settings menus. I'll let him know to try starting a new game to check if he's getting it from a plugin or it's "baked" into his save game.

Yeah, so do I, but unfortunately, with the way I set up the installer, I left all Wyre Bash users out in the cold. alt3rn1ty has come to the rescue, and is modifying it so it will work on WB as well (as a "complex" installer), and then I'll go through it again to make sure it's still good for MO users. All in all a good learning experience, and I'm putting together a tutorial on how to create mod installers with different options like this one for AOS, and I will be incorporating a section on making it WB compatible. Reason for this is because when I searched, there really isn't any very non-technical explanations on making an options-based installer, and certainly not updated with Skyrim in mind or with screenshots to make it more visual. If I've missed a guide like that, please drop me a line. Anyhow, for those wondering, I went through nearly all of the patches included in the installer and fixed / updated most of them. One important thing I did is to add explicit masters to the headers of patches that didn't have them. This should help in avoiding people installing patches they don't need, but does of course have the side effect of CTD at startup if they don't realize it before then. It should also help LOOT to sort the patches in the right load order position, that being after both AOS and the other mod the patch is for. All things that strict STEP users won't have to worry much about, I expect, but for the rest of the world I hope it helps! If you are really interested in what exactly was changed / fixed in the patches, I made a detailed AOS2 patch plugin changelist for LoRd KoRn, so you can take a look at that in here on pastebin. Finally, I want to mention that I have not been able to reproduce the bug that David mentions with the duplicated Waterfalls and Rapids volume slider in the sound settings menu. If you are seeing this as well, please please let me know, because I am trying to help him track down the reason. My suspicion is that he actually has a duplicate copy of the main AOS.esp plugin with a different name, and that is adding the second volume slider under a different FormID, but so far he hasn't discovered why he's getting that on his machine.

To "unlock" the map limits so I can zoom further in/out, I've use a mod called EzEs - Remove 3D Map Camera Limits, because those limits can't be controlled by .ini settings any more. Even if you don't decide to use it, the mod's main page lists all the .ini tweaks.

The way almost all of SMIM's custom textures are used is that they are referenced directoly in the corresponding mesh file. This allows Brumbek (and other mod authors) to make vanilla mesh replacements, but avoid replacing the textures used by the meshes, in case they're used by other meshes. So, for example, the SMIM- supplied meshesarmorgoldring_1.nif refers to a couple of textures in textuessmimarmoramuletsandrings (smim_my_precious.dds & smim_my_precious_n.dds), as seen here: I'm not sure which of SMIM's meshes refer to the genericamulets.dds, genericamulets_n.dds, and genericrings.dds textures, though. That would take opening up each one and checking one by one.

As far as I know, corpse cleanup is handled separately. In the Skyrim Immersive Creatures MCM menu there's a separate option to set the time until corpses are cleaned up (default = 24 hours.) However, on the Skyrim Immersive Creatures information website page explaining what cell respawning does, he does say that dead bodies are removed, in addition to havoked items and items left behind being cleaned up as well. Looking at the UESP (Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages) entry about Respawning in Skyrim, it doesn't mention corpse cleanup as something which happens when the cells are reset. So, I'm not sure if seeing recently the corpses of recently killed NPCs / creatures is something to worry about. Interestingly, I do notice mention on UESP's page on Skyrim's console commands about needing to use the purge cell buffer command (pcb in console) after using the resetinterior <cellid> command, to ensure Skyrim's buffer of the last cell you were in is also cleared out. I don't know if this also applies to the case of resetting non-Dungeon cells (and acutally I was a bit off there - it's cells marked as "cleared" which take 30 days to reset.) So, I suppose to be extra extra super safe, you could also type pcb in the console just after step #4 and before saving the game in step #5. Keep in mind this is all just being overly cautious - if you did happen to move any havok-able items placed by ELFX Exteriors, I'm not entirely sure that disabling the plugin would lead to problems, because the cells do get reset after 10 in-game days of not visiting them anyhow.

Wow, a $35 video card with 1GB of VRAM. I have to assume it's probably even more underpowered than my card, and a quick scan through some review tells me it's not really a viable choice for Skyrim in general, let alone a modded Skyrim. So when you get some $$ then that's the place to start with an upgrade - though I'm no PC builder, so by all means start a thread to collect advice - just be clear about the budget. As for using RCRN - yes, it can be installed and used in Mod Organizer (I typed up a full guide on how to do it on the RCRN Forums, based on a very helpful post by another STEP member here, DoubleYou.) However, if you are using anything beyond the core EnhancedLightsandFX.esp plugin, then there are a lot of "conflicts" which will need to be patched - especially if you want to try to use ELFXEnhancer. This is because RCRN is really a weather & lighting mod, which affects the look and lighting of so many locations in the game. So, be warned. About the cell reset - just remember that it will also reset all NPC spawn points, so it may feel a little more "populated" with encounters for a while after running through those steps I suggested.

1. CJ is right. I've spent a lot of time looking at what ELFX Exteriors does, and it is not going to play well with ETaC and/or any of the Dawn of... mods. The reason is because ELFX adds / edits lights just like those other mods do. This leads to duplicated or "floating" lights. Beyond looking just wrong, you get some areas that are "over-lit" by having too many light sources. Add to this, if there are too many shadow-casting light sources, then Skyrim's rendering engine starts to glitch out because it can't hande more than four local to your character. Then, if you're using Lanterns of Skyrim, and have the towns & village lights option turned on, you will see the same things there. Sometimes ELFX and the other mod both place a lantern on the same barrel or surface! Finally, I noticed that ELFX Exteriors does some interesting changes to campfire lights that does not at all work with RCRN, my weather mod of choice, and I expect it would be the same with other weather mods like CoT. ELFX Exteriors actually sets up two light sources at campfires, and in my game, they become blindingly bright ball of light areas with everything nearby blown-out to full brightness, and all detail is lost. Because of all of this, since I want to use most of the mods in the REGS Guide, I've removed ELFX Exteriors from my load order. 2. Even with my pitifully underpowered ATI 5800 HD Mobile, I don't see a major performance impact from DoR. Maybe there's some connection to what CPU you have? I've got a quad-core i7, so maybe that's why it works. @phryxolydian: what are the specs of your rig? (You should probably add that to a STEP user signature line) I'd suggest getting rid of ELFX Exteriors if you're trying to use ETaC and/or DoR. If you're worried about disabling it in the middle of your game, what you need to do is make sure any havoc-affected objects placed by ELFX Exteriors have been reset to their original location. This happens automatically when the game's cells are reset for respawning. Normally people talk about waiting or sleeping for 10 days, but this isn't actually necessary. I have Skyrim Immersive Creatures which has a built in method for resetting cells, but you can accomplish it quite easily with a couple console commands, following these steps: Go to a "quiet" interior cell, such as a small shop or, preferably, a player-bought home. Open the console and type:setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 1 Exit the console, and then press 'T' to use Skyrim's wait feature, and wait for just one hour. Open the console again, and type:setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 240 Close console, and save your game right there. Quit Skyrim, disable/remove ELFX Exteriors.esp Open Skyrim, load last save, and click 'yes' when it complains about the missing plugin When the game loads up, save again Continue playing and enjoying your gameNote that the two console commands 1) reduces the cell reset time to 1 hour, and then 2) sets it back to the default 10 days for all cells that allow a reset and are not designated as a "Dungeon" space. A different command is needed for "Dungeon" cells, but I don't believe any of those are affected by ELFX Exteriors. If you want to be on the safe side, for step #2 you can also type setgs iHoursToRespawnCellCleared 1 and for step #4 also type setgs iHoursToRespawnCellCleared 720 (to return Dungeon cell reset cycle time to 30 days). This cell reset information comes directly from Lifestorock's Skyrim Immersive Creatures information website.

This is a long shot, but... If you're comfortable with TES5Edit, you might be able to temporarily move or disable that bit of rock - but you need to get its FormID, if there's one associated with it. I've just gotta ask: How did you discover she was inside a mountain in the first place?

FOMOD installers in larger sized download .zip / .7z archives may seem to take a while to get to the installer window. This happens when the main .xml code file with install instructions is at the end of the compressed file. In other words, you may need to wait, so be patient. Also, don't forget that MO can handle FOMOD installers internally or with the external helper. Internal works best in most cases, but not all.

CJ - thanks for posting the change notes! You could add that Inns & Taverns was updated to v2.0 in that list, I think.I've started a "trial" play-through, and am going to investigate further into the FAtT II CTDs problem (haven't experienced it yet.) When I was growing up my parents had a player piano, one that plays songs from a roll of paper with holes while you peddle you feet to run the motor that makes it go. I learned how to play a bunch of songs by watching what notes were played for a part of the song, and then playing the notes myself until I got it right. Later, after becoming familiar enough with the songs, I was able to start changing parts - improvising. In other words, I pwn'ed my piano. I've done the same where TES5Edit is concerned. It started with looking at all of the patches that Neo walks you through doing in SR, seeing what they're doing and trying to understand why they're necessary. Then, opening up all of my mods, and looking for other instances of the same kinds of conflicts, and patching those too. If I see something overriding in a record type I'm not familiar with, I Google it. There's loads of good information on the Creation Kit wiki pages, and also the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages. It takes time to pick things up, but it very much worth it as you don't then have to rely on others for conflict management, and can find and "fix" things specific only to your particular lineup of mods.

Kelmych, is what you're saying only applicable to copies of the game-supplied .BSAs which have been re-packed in BSAopt/DDSopt (ie., Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, etc.)? If not, does than mean all the mod authors providing a .BSA with their main plugin are using Bethedsda's Archive.exe to pack it? I only ask because despite not having tried to re-pack all of the Bethesda-supplied .BSAs, I don't unpack the .BSAs applied by any 3rd party mods, instead letting MO "manage" them and haven't had any problems that I'm aware of to this day.

fireundubh, thanks for taking the time to explain LOOT and helping to calm some concerns voiced here. It's clear that LOOT is lightyears ahead of BOSS in its approach, implementation and reduction of time-sucking rules masterlist maintenance. However, I'd to complement your issues over "paranoia" as you call it with my issues over claims I've been seeing that LOOT will basically solve all of your game's compatibility issues. The bottom line is that there is still only one way to guarantee all "true" conflicts are resolved with one's particular line-up of mods: end user intervention, and that is only accomplished with TES5Edit (and/or in some cases CK.) Steps 3-7 in your great list of load order procedures highlights this: Plugins with missing masters is a problem, yes, since LOOT will take listed masters into consideration when calculating the order. And a lot of existing compatibility patches will be missing "explicit" masters because they don't include any unique FormIDs from one or both of the mods they are patching. I can also see how a algorithmically calculated order based on the lowest number of conflicting records may not match the mods' intents. As you mentioned, editing the metadata in LOOT can help with resolving some of these things, but it still required end-user knowledge of what's going on, and that is best ascertained by viewing the "big picture" in TES5Edit. And it goes beyond just knowing what the colored text means in TES5Edit. It means being more familiar with what different types of records do, how they interact together, and very importantly, how that relates to the function / intent of the mod. Of course, there's things you won't see in TES5Edit, particularly with Papyrus scripts, one overwriting another, and the "winning" mod in the load order expecting a different version of the script. With the kinds of astoundingly long lists of mods that many people are trying to get working together these days, I find it amazing that there's still a seemingly prevailing sense that it requires very little understanding or intervention or work. LOOT is an amazing tool, but by no means will it work compatibility miracles with your mods. It still requires help from something between the chair and the computer screen.

Hmm. After looking at the guide, some posts from the past few days make more sense. I can see that since CJ announced the removal of Dawn of Whiterun to bring REGS to v3.3.2, there has been a "silent" update which brings ETaC up to 9.2, and got rid of the link to the ETaC replacer. There are some other changes, but I can't account for everything without being able to compare the text of an earlier edit of the guide to what is there presently. Since Nearox has "retired" from Skyrim & REGS, I'm sure CJ is just too busy ATM to post an "official" update, list any changes, and mention what REGS 3.3.2 users will have to do to update everything. Anyhow, that's what appears to have happened, but CJ is obviously the best source to confirm all of it.

When you say "sort of", I assume you're referring to Boris' typically terse answer. Yes, his answers are often not 100% crystal clear in the way he uses English (as a second language), but this one is really quite straightfoward, especially taken together with all of his previous statements on the feature. Anyhow, with improved memory usage being a hallmark feature of ENBoost, the default setting in the enblocal.ini included with the binary download from enbdev.com is EnableCompression=true.

Okay, well since David has "let the cat out of the bag" on the AOS 2 comments thread on Nexus, I am very happy to announce that I have put together a FOMOD-based all-in-one installer for AOS. With this installer, the user will be presented with the option to install one of four variants of the main AOS.esp plugin, based on what DLCs they have - Dawnguard, Dragonborn, neither, or both. This means the AOS Dawnguard & Dragonborn patch will no longer be necessary, as those edits have been rolled into the four variants of the AOS.esp plugin. In addition, all four variants include all USKP fixes rolled in, so the AOS + USKP patch will also no longer be necessary. The second page of the installer will include options to install AOS compatibility patches. The list will include everything currently on AOS 2's download page on Nexus, plus the Dragon Combat Overhaul and Pure Weather patches. For the weather mod patches, and some of the other patches, two variants will be available (for example, 1) Skyrim only, or 2) Skyrim + Dawnguard), but the variant of the compatibility patch will be automatically chosen based on the users choice of the main AOS.esp plugin. Where possible, the compatibility patch plugin names will be changed to AOS2_ModName_patch.esp for the sake of consistency. Finally, David has requested that two versions of the all-in-one installer be offered, one with loose sound files as originally offered, and other with sound files packed into a .BSA file. Of course as I am an avid diehard user of Mod Organizer, I can guarantee the AOS all-in-one FOMOD installer will work just great using MO's internal FOMOD installer routine, as well as in Nexus Mod Manager. I apologize for not sharing this information sooner, as I know it will affect the STEP patch(es), but I hope that you all agree it will greatly simplify the install process and user-friendliness of AOS for all users, STEP and otherwise.

Okay, like with many other debatable points about the settings in enblocal.ini, I've visited the great Boracle, and gotten a definitive answer on whether EnableCompression=true results in compressed data in VRAM and lowered VRAM usage. Long story short, his answer was "no." For the longer story, please see my complete post over on the main STEP thread on ENBoost.