TechAngel85

We rarely announce new mod releases anymore. :P EDIT: To clarify what I meant.... We usually don't post updates about mods anymore unless they're big updates or a normal user does it. That being said, I think what William and I were getting at is that there hasn't been any updates to the main mod since June and the most recent for Rough (2K) was August. This for the majority of people would not be considered "recent" as you posted. Recent would read within the past week perhaps. It's, in fact, several months old and pretty much everyone knows about it by now. Hence Williams reply of, "a weird definition of recent". Not to mention those options you mentioned aren't available for the rough hair.

Nexus is back up for me. I haven't seen isoku on these forums in forever...if ever. So nexus will be your best route.

STEP doesn't need a FOMOD for this mod for the recommended options. The rough hair option that we use is just straight loose files that installs fine. I think mothergoose is a lil behind on what is "current". lol! I'm not sure what he's referencing but his post in the ASI thread about Core mods was at least a month or more out of date as most of those things he mentioned were taken care of a long time ago via the Bug Thread. Mothergoose, you're not caching your internet pages are you?

Torminater and myself started work on such a guide a while back; however, time would not permit us to continue work on it. In fact, the start of that guide is still in my sandbox: https://wiki.step-project.com/User:Techangel85/Sandbox I'll commit to work on it once we have released 2.3.

I think the argument there is "its a very small problem that can be ignored". That is perfectly reasonable stance to take. For what its worth I agree with you. This part of your post really bothered me though. I realize this isn't the place to address this kind of thing and it probably won't be well received. I have felt this kind of attitude on the forums before though, and aside from being a very unfortunate stance to take, its also simply not true. What I heard communicated there is that the status of the mod is not up for debate, because people whose opinions matter more already settled it. That may not be what you were trying to say, and I don't think it's actually your opinion on the matter. Nevertheless, that is what was communicated in that post in this context. I can't help but feel like the goal there was to shut down any debate on the topic. Even if the opinion reached previously is better reasoned, I have to question why anybody would want to do that. It certainly benefits STEP and the forums to encourage open ended debate indefinitely about all aspects of STEP and everything that is done here. After all, that is the only way the project can improve.  It is also not true that the status of the mod is considered to be set in stone, and the fact that other people have weighed in on it before doesn't change that. A hypothetical example; if it turned out that there was a fatal flaw in the mod that caused incredibly terrible things to happen, and it just hadn't been discovered before, would the status of the mod still remained unchanged? If a brand new member or a senior staff person brought it to all of our attention, would that make a difference as to how that information was received? I would hope not. I think sometimes an alternative, unpopular view point can be perceived as threatening. Its not threatening though, its a very good thing. We should all play devils advocate every chance we get and try and throw a wrench in everything. If you use the scientific method as a model then nothing is set in stone. The most well established theories can be debunked tomorrow by an upstart teenager in a college dorm. Indeed, that is often exactly how it is done :).  I knew as soon as I posted that someone would say something. Fact of the matter is, what I said is entirely true regardless if it was taken different that I meant it. I don't have an elegant way with words and am usually just bluntly honest. It's both a blessing and a curse...usually the latter because people are not used to others being bluntly honest these days. Most expect other to "beat around the bush" and sugar coat things. Torminater said it well though, "We'll not consider voting this mod out, unless a new flaw is discovered." This voting was done a couple releases ago. If you wasn't around then to put in your vote/opinion, I'm truly sorry, but we can't continue to return to that voting at every turn and every time someone new comes along to disagree with what we did several months ago. If we did so, we'd never get anything done. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but in order to keep moving forward we have to draw the line somewhere to say "it's final". We did that with Core months ago. So unless there are flaws found or you have a very good argument that can convince the majority of the staff that the mod doesn't belong in Core, let us move forward towards our 2.3.0 goal. As for debate, it is always welcome. Heck, it's in our Citizenship Guide! You must realize though, if it's debate about Core mods, you'll be hit with greater resistance because all these debates took place months ago when the voting was taking place. I understand for you, it might be a new consideration/debate/idea; however, for myself and the majority of the staff your debate is probably going to be "old news" and redundant. Debate is encouraged; however, I will ask that anyone bringing up debate please do your research to find out if your debate has already taken place and resolved before continuing. If it has taken place and resolved please don't necro it! If it has taken place and wasn't resolved, please provide a link to the original debate when you decide to resurrect it so we can have it as reference material. If the debate has never taken place, then please proceed but please provide thorough reasoning behind your opinions/views. "I don't think it fits Core." or " I don't agree." Is not thorough reasoning! I hope I have resolved any negativity that resulted from my post. Let's please continue with the original topic and get this thread back on track.

The blacksmith trough water isn't that big a deal to me. I rarely see it. If it's an issue for anyone, they they could always request isoku to include that fix.

+1 I've yet to take this mod very seriously. Everyone is toting and lifting it up high but I have yet to see any comparison shots between current STEP (2.2.7) and this mod added in. Possibly in Neo's recommended load order.

I've played countless hours of Skyrim with this mod and have never had a single issue with dead bodies blocking anything. Dragon bones get in the way sometimes; however, it's never been anything that I could get around. I've never been "stuck" by using this mod. As for this mod remaining in Core, it will. All the Admins, Senior Staff, and other key members voted on the Core mods. Consider them set in stone.

HDR actually changes some of the coloring/saturation of the background. It's not just a HD rendering/retexture of vanilla.

STEP will only now officially support systems with 1GB of VRAM and over. I'm just seek confirmation from the admin/senior staff.

Question... I just want confirmation on this before going forward. Are we now officially supporting 2K textures as the baseline for interior textures and 1K textures for exteriors?

Any others care to comment their opinions of these options? If not, I'm inclined to agree with William.

Any comments on this at all? If none are received, I'll just go with what my instincts tell me.

Okay, it's been updated to use the "Consistent Older People 18 All NPCs Loose Assets" optional file instead of the main file to keep with the STEP recommendation to use loose files. Also, No Elves will not be included.

Okay, we're going to be locking the choices for this mod in for Core. Both the Perk Lines and Perk Line Colors will be default to stay with the Core Mandate. Constellations and Perk Stars we'll be going with Enhanced Default. The only option in question is the Star Background. Which option do you think is best and still meets the Core Mandate? Default Default Stars - HDR Nebula Immersive Real Stars (default background with more stars added) Immersive Real Stars - HDR Nebula Basically the real question here is, if the HDR Nebula is preferred, is it too far from Vanilla to be considered against the Core Mandate.

2.2.8 and 2.3.0 are consider "dev" (development) changelogs. We have many users that like to keep up with these Dev changelogs so they can make the changes before the actual release. I think it would suffice to put up a notice at the top (like the Dev Guide has) stating the Dev changelogs are just that; developmental. As for your added feature, I'll defer to Z on that as well as my idea of marking the dev changelogs as such similar to the dev Guide.

Thanks. I'll correct that!

I'm not sure but it looks like the majority vote is leaning towards excluding No Elves.

I love Hoditon's videos. After seeing his video, I'll admit that it's worth checking out, but as Roogal stated, I may not be any better than what STEP has now. I'm still in the position that I'm unwilling to do that sort of massive compare at this point. If now one else is either (and doing it properly) this might have to wait for a release or two.

We'll be release a STEP:Core Patch with the 2.2.8 release. This patch will resolve all the conflicts found in the Core mods. In order to use this patch all Core mods will have to be installed. If you don't want to use the patch then by all means, leave any mod out that you wish! STEP is a guide of suggestions. Nothing is set in stone.

The video looks like it is dust with light being reflected off of it. I'm a complete believer in the supernatural, but it looked like dust to me. Orbs usually fly around, change directions and even pass through objects. Real orbs are considered to be the energy of spirits (nothing harmful) that are still hanging about. They're also referred to as "Sprites" sometimes.

So that's two for "No Elves optional" and one against. Awaiting for more input.

You need to check the wiki before posting. All this is covered on the wiki page for the mod: https://wiki.step-project.com/Book_of_Silence#Recommendations and the recommendations are what is set to meet the Core Mandate (basically staying with vanilla styles). If you check it out and find an item that isn't the vanilla option let me know.