kryptopyr

Based on these images, I really like the combination of Hectrol & Beauty. I haven't tried these textures in-game, so I'm not sure just how overwhelming the vertical striations in some of Hectrol's textures would feel when playing. While I agree that a texture with less distinct patterning would be preferable, I don't find it particularly immersion-breaking. While not overly common, it is possible to find rock patterns similar to these in karst environments. For example, this image is from the Wulong Karst in China: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1164/5114099736_9e3213a5b2_z.jpg

I assume from the description that this mod uses an .esp? Regardless, I think this might be worth getting some comparison shots. If nothing else, there may be textures that we would want to use, while allowing other to get overwritten (does step include any mods that change the scroll texture?). Would also need comparisons with HQ Skyrim Map.

Sounds like a plan. :) If you want to add the ability for players to customize the level requirement, then you would simply create a new Global Variable, set it to 15 (or whatever you want your default to be), and make sure it is not constant. Then instead of PlayerLevel >= 15, you would use PlayerLevel >= NewGlobalVariable. Users could then customize the level by changing the global variable in the console. Not necessary, but I just thought I'd mention it.

You can use all of those conditions on an event node. For example, you could have the conditions be: GetGlobalValue GameDaysPassed >= 4 AND PlayerLevel >= 15 AND GetStageComplete {quest} >= {stage} You could use a courier as well, but you'd still end up using the same set of conditions. I haven't really studied the way the courier is set up, but if I remember right, I think you may still end up using an event node, but using a courier is certainly a valid approach. I was just recommending the event node because I think it would be the simplest solution.

I haven't actually looked at Helgen Reborn in the CK, so I'm not sure how it is currently set up to run. I assume it probably uses multiple quests, but if it uses a single controlling quest that starts when game is enabled, and through which the other quests are triggered, then the easiest thing would probably be to take this quest and trigger it off of an event node. You could use the Increase Level or the Change Location event. Create a new node to trigger the quest, then add your conditions onto the node. For example, you might want to use a condition for number of game days passed, or after a certain stage of the main quest is completed, or use a minimum player level. The conditions that are placed on the event nodes are the majority of the changes that I made in Timing is Everything, so you could certainly look at that if you want some guidance. Let me know if you have any questions.

I don't know about Paddyy, but Grace Darkling is still very much active on Nexus.

Correct, there's no esp file. It's just a straight replacement of the vanilla sound files.

Discussion thread: Lower Sounding Thieves Guild Door by John Kelly Wiki Link I've been using this mod for ages, and I think it's a huge improvement over vanilla. I was recently running around Skyrim using only a straight STEP installation, and I had forgotten just how horrible this sound was in vanilla. It's a small change, but one that prevents me from cringing every time I use what is supposed to be a secret entrance.

It would be nice if Arthmoor could've been a bit more specific. Such a vague statement makes it hard to double-check or independently verify his claim, and as much as I respect his opinion, he's been wrong before.

Good to hear. :) I've been planning on trying this for my next character regardless, but it's nice to have the additional confirmation that these things shouldn't be an issue.

Well, I'm not an expert on scripts or the ways in which they can create problems. However, this spell uses what looks like a very simple and straightforward script, and there's nothing about it that I would expect to cause any problems with saves or with other mods. I've not had a chance to try this mod out yet, but it's one that I've been interested in for awhile now. I seem to remember reading several comments about problems at the very beginning of the game, where the player's character can't reach the chopping block due to the body of the dead stormcloak. Has anyone here experienced this issue? My other concerns with this mod are having corpses blocking passages and/or being killed when you kick a corpse or it falls into you. The spell is designed to help with the first issue, but it's not a perfect fix particularly if you get stuck or have limited maneuverability during combat. My other concern is whether this mod truly increases immersion. If NPCs end up getting stuck or walking into bodies and not around them, then it seems as if we're really just trading one immersion-breaking issue (walking through bodies) for another (blatantly dumb AI behavior). Since I've not tried this mod yet, I don't have an informed opinion about whether or not it should be removed from Core. However, I feel that if any of the concerns I listed above are actually valid then this mod probably has too much of an effect on the game's playability for it to be included in Core, and it should probably be in a pack instead.

No, everything is exactly the same except the texture of the coins and the lockpicks. I think the lockpick texture is from Lockpick Inventory Remodel, but I would have to go back to my notes to check for certain. The change in brightness is due to the candles; the shot was taken at a different point in their flicker cycle. I don't think the bloom in the vanilla shot is particularly convincing. Also, I think the coins would probably appear more polished than the candlestick just from being handled more frequently. I also doubt that the candlestick would be pure gold and therefore it would be more prone to tarnish or corrosion than the coins. Fair enough, I respect both of your opinions, but I'll continue to vote to maintain this mod. ;) EDIT: I don't think there really are that many coins in the world space, are there? At most you'll find maybe 5-6 at a time, but they aren't all that frequent.

Here are some screenshots. To me the issue is not the detail or color but rather the reflectivity. The vanilla coins are dull yellow circles and really don't have the shine I would associate with gold (or any other metal). The modded coins reflect the light and have a much more metallic appearance.

Actually what makes the coins look too modern is the fact that they are perfectly round with perfectly aligned edges. Both the mod and vanilla are this way and therefore both versions tend to look more like modern coins than ancient coins. Here are some fairly detailed ancient coins. Perhaps not as detailed as the mod, but certainly more detailed than vanilla. In particular, look at the fine lines used within the hair, and the nice smooth curves in the cheek and neck. I think the level of detail that was possible (even if it wasn't common) in the ancient era, let alone the medieval era, and the variable degree of technology that appears to be present in Skyrim would not preclude fairly detailed coins. There is so much inconsistency and anachronistic technology in the game that it's really difficult to make an argument based on technology, particularly when the vanilla mesh suggests a fairly modern representation of a coin. I made some in-game comparison shots ages ago. I'll see if I can dig them up.

I won't argue the fact that the detail, when viewed up close, is too modern. I just don't think that level of detail is really apparent in game, so for me it's not a sufficient argument to drop the mod (or for that matter to support it staying). However, I do think the coins look better in game, and the color can certainly be found represented by plenty of ancient gold coins.

The first few times I went through the STEP installation, I left this mod out because I felt the same way. I thought the design was too sharp and modern looking. However, at some point I finally decided to try it out, and I honestly don't think the design looks nearly as modern when used in the game. It's a very small item, and much of the detail can't really be seen (which in itself isn't an argument in favor of this texture). However, the reason I like this mod and continue to use it is that the color of the coins is so much better...more metallic, with a more convincing gold appearance.

I'm generally of the opinion that making patches available is okay and doesn't violate an author's rights so long as the patch depends upon the original mod being installed. For my own mods, I've generally taken the approach of making patches available without seeking permission from the respective authors. So long as users are still required to download the original mod, I don't see the harm in it. It's really just free advertising and providing a little more exposure and compatibility for those mods. I've never had a complaint, but of course that doesn't mean that every author will be okay with it. Chances are you would never hear a complaint from any of the authors, but I would certainly respect their wishes if any of them contact you and ask that you remove their mod from the patch. The only permission I'd be really concerned about is Neo's, since he's put a tremendous amount of work into making SR and providing the directions to make the patches. He may prefer to see SR remain, in part, a learning tool for creating patches and working with the various modding utilities. As far as the general patch, I don't see the problem with uploading a file that requires users to install all of the mods included in the patch. Yes, it certainly won't appeal to everyone, but so what? Just make it VERY clear in the description which mods (and which specific files within those mods) are required. However, I would not upload a replacement .esp without the author's permission. If a mod contains only an .esp then you're providing a complete replacement for that mod which would definitely require permission.

In my experience USKP can be pretty slow to respond. Many of the bugs I discovered while making Trade & Barter and Weapons & Armor Fixes have not been addressed even though I submitted them to USKP. This is pretty understandable given just how many different issues they attempt to deal with. I originally wasn't even going to include the fixes in Trade & Barter but was persuaded otherwise, and I'm glad that I did. Which of course, isn't to say that bugs shouldn't be reported to USKP, just giving my reason for releasing mods with fixes in them.

I would also support this for STEP:Core. I've always thought the large ice spikes were much too large to look good. This is no different than resizing the moons...correction, I think this is a much more important improvement than resizing the moons. I think either option is acceptable as they are both improvements over vanilla. I think we should just recommend the mod and allow the user to select their preferred size. It's mostly personal preference anyway, and I don't think there's an overriding reason for STEP to support one size over the other.

So help me understand this. If I have the latest versions of WAF, GDO, Close-faced Helms (including Dawnguard), and ASW, I would only need to install the WAF compatibility patches for GDO, Close-faced Helms, and Close-faced Helms (Dawnguard) and not the multi-mod patch? Because when I load WAF, ASW, and the WAF Multi-mod patch in TES5Edit, it shows the MODL - Model Filename in WAF and multi-mod patch as Weapons\Steel\SteelSword.nif but ASW uses Weapons\Skyforge\SkyforgeSteelSword.nif. It definitely seems like the WAF multi-mod patch overwrites the ASW model and without either dropping that ESP or making another patch I would not be using CaBal's models. And replacing the multi-mod patch with the three separate patches (GDO, CFH, CFH-D) would actually be one additional ESP in the end. Or I could just be losing my sanity. :PI've just updated the Multi-mod patches (as well as the individual ambSkyforge patch). The patches should now work properly with the latest version of Cabal's Skyforge weapons.

These are incredibly beautiful... but then it's CaBaL's work, so of course they are. :)

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what the limit for the crafting menu is. I don't think I've ever had a real problem with it; I just hate having cluttered lists. ;) I do have IA, IW, Cloaks, WIC, Bandoliers, Jaysus and a half-dozen or so other equipment mods, but I don't think I've experienced a CTD while in the crafting menu. Do you still experience the problem if you don't have any of the smithing perks? If reducing the items in your crafting menu through a lack of perks manages to bypass the limitations, then the conditions that I'm adding will do the same. Yes, the way I have it set up, you need to open the MCM any time you want to change it. It isn't quite ideal, but it does allow for a lot of flexibility, and I think it actually ends up being fairly quick. It's certainly quicker than having to track down a specific forge located somewhere in the world. One thought is that you could use the menu simply to limit items based on the type of character you're currently playing. For example, a ranger/archer type might have absolutely no need to ever see heavy armor or two-handed weapons in the crafting menu, and a heavy-armored warrior might not care about jewelry, light armor, clothing, etc. Or there may be certain items that you use but rarely craft, and only want to toggle them on occasionally. For example, let's say that I rarely craft armor, but I'm constantly creating new weapons to enchant, and I use mostly 1H blades & bows. In this case, I could have the menu set up to only show dagger, swords, and bows...but as soon as I run into a situation where I want to create a new pair of boots, then I can have that available with only a couple of clicks. I would certainly welcome your feedback, so if you do decide to check out the new CCO file, please let me know what you think.

As long as you aren't using another mod that alters the smithing perks, you should be able to put it anywhere in your load order. Personally, I have it loaded just as you say... Weapons & Armor Fixes, WAF compatibility patch, Smithing Perks Overhaul, (and Complete Crafting Overhaul just after these). I really hope that mods DON'T start doing this. I've downloaded a few that did and manually edited them to remove the need for the special forge. I can't begin to imagine how many conflicts it would create if every medium-to-large armor/weapons/clothing mod started to drop crafting stations into the world. It sounds like a headache to me. Plus, without some good reason or storyline behind it, I feel that only being able to make certain weapons at certain forges would break immersion. The fact that the Skyforge is special is supported by lore; it would be hard to justify multiple other unique forges. I never tried it, but isn't there a mod/project called the Blacksmith's Guild that was attempting to do something like this? A large part of the reason that I released the early version of Complete Crafting Overhaul is that I'm planning to contact some of the major armor & weapons mod authors and see if I can persuade them to incorporate compatibility with my menu into their crafting recipes. I've designed the system so that it wouldn't require any of the mods to be dependent or mastered on CCO, and if a user didn't have CCO, the extra conditions wouldn't have any sort of effect on normal use of the mod. It's actually really easy to do and took me less than two hours to set up all the vanilla weapons & armors to toggle on/off using this method. I obviously can't do every mod on Nexus, but if I can convince the mod authors to let me, I would be willing to put in the necessary work for some of the really popular mods (Bandoliers, Immersive Armors/Weapons, Cloaks, WIC, etc.). Obviously the more mods I can get to include compatibility, the more useful the menu feature in CCO becomes.Â

The link for Non-Essential Children needs to be updated. iyumichan, the mod's original author, contacted me and requested that any updates to the mod be maintained on the original page. I've uploaded the updated version to the original mod page: https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/13202/?

Good to know! Thanks for the advice.