kryptopyr

I've looked at SkyTweak before and thought it looked impressive, but if I remember right, at the time it wasn't factoring in changes made by other mods. It looks like you've solved that issue, and I think the current version looks really nice. I would like to clear up a few questions, though, because something that touches on so many different settings does tend to make me rather cautious. I already use a number of mods that change the game settings in one way or another, and obviously I use them because I like most of the changes they make. If I install SkyTweak along with another mod, say Trade & Barter (which uses scripts to alter a few of the game settings) or Stealth Skills Rebalanced (which alters settings both directly and by script), then from the mod description, it sounds as though the default values that appear in SkyTweak's menu will be the values from these mods. Am I correct in assuming that as long as I don't try to adjust those particular settings in SkyTweak, then they will maintain the values set by the other mods (regardless of whether the changes are made directly or via script)? And if I change the settings using SkyTweak then SkyTweak will override the values from the other mods? How does this resolve itself if both mods are making the changes via scripts? What happens, for instance, if someone changed fBarterMin in SkyTweak, then forgot about it and sometime later changed the same value using Trade & Barter? Or if they were using SkyTweak to adjust certain settings and later installed another mod that also changed those settings...does the game retain the SkyTweak changes or adjust the settings to reflect the values from the new mod?

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the responses and the help with figuring out this problem. You guys are great!

I could really use some advice. It appears that when this mod is used in a bashed patch, Wrye Bash is combining Trade & Barter's changes with the original list from Skyrim.esm. The changes I made to the leveled lists in Skyrim.esm need to be preserved. Re-merging these lists is just undoing the intentional changes that I made and is creating problems. I don't understand Wrye Bash well enough to know how to resolve this issue. How do I tell it to either ignore Trade & Barter altogether, or to preserve the changes that were made to these lists? There are several people reporting problems with this, so reading the most recent page of comments on the Trade & Barter page may provide additional information. Some people seem to be solving the issue by loading Trade & Barter after the bashed patch; others are suggesting making a patch for the bashed patch or editing it in Tes5Edit. Are these the best solutions or is there something else that can be done to correct this issue?

It's a good question, and I'm happy to explain my reasoning. While in this case is was an intentional decision, I certainly appreciate having any apparent inconsistencies brought to my attention. If it is something that I managed to overlook, then it can be addressed. Almost all of the greatswords in the vanilla game actually had a speed of 0.7 rather than 0.8. As you said, USKP changed this to 0.75. The statement from the USKP changelog is: Draugr greatswords were 0.75 which, as USKP states, might suggest that this was suppose to be the correct value for greatswords. My choice however was to make the speed consistent with the pattern suggested by the other weapons... The difference in speed between other 1H & 2H weapons are as follows: Swords = 1.0, Greatswords = ? War Axe = 0.9, Battleaxe = 0.7 (difference of -0.2) Mace = 0.8, Warhammer = 0.6 (difference of -0.2) Also, the difference in speed among one-handed weapons is a consistent -0.1 decrease in speed (Swords = 1, War Axe = 0.9, and Mace = 0.8). The difference between Battleaxes (0.7) and Warhammers (0.6) is also a -0.1 decrease. Given both these progressions, I felt that the correct speed for the Greatswords should be 0.8 instead of 0.7 or 0.75. This maintains both the -0.2 difference in speed between Swords and Greatswords, and the -0.1 change in speed between the different 2H weapon types.

I've updated the mod and have included compatibility patches for all of the mods that have been mentioned so far. The patch for Improved Closefaced Helmets also includes (and requires) the optional "No cloth around the neck" that STEP recommends. I've also included two combined "Multi-Mod" patch files so that STEP users will not have to download 3 or 4 different files. These patches will also resolve a few minor conflicts that existed between aMidianborn Skyforge Weapons and Guard Dialogue Overhaul.

Latest update includes the Investor Perk fixes. Both the regular and the new Lite version contain the same bug fixes, and both will apply as soon as the mod is activated. You can activate the .esp for the main version and if you don't choose the "Start Mod" option from MCM, you'll get only the bug fixes and none of the other features. If using the Lite version, you can also get just the bug fixes, but since the other features are automatically enabled, you'll need to use the console after installing the mod, and enter "StopQuest TradeBarter" to disable all of the other features.

They definitely kill wolves... as a Companion, you can get assigned radiant missions to go kill wolves. My guess for the armor, though, would be Snow Bear. Snow Bears are one of the highest leveled animals in the game and their pelts are the most valuable. As an armor that serves to distinguish you as a member of a proud warrior group, I suspect they would choose pelts from fierce "trophy" animals.

Thanks for the input. Actually, it will be even easier than this. If people want only the fixes and none of the other Trade & Barter features, they will be able to simply install the mod, as long as the "Start Mod" is never selected from MCM the fixes will still apply but the other features of the mod will remain dormant. :)

Alright, so are there any objections to including the fixes in with Trade & Barter rather than as a separate file? It would certainly make my life a bit easier, since otherwise I'll need to make the "fix" file mastered off of Trade & Barter (or create an additional compatibility patch) in order to fully integrate the features from Trade & Barter. The cons to adding the fixes directly to T&B are primarily concerns over compatibility. I need to alter the merchant containers for the 3 Khajiit caravan merchants and the four spouse merchant containers. If I just stop with those corrections, I could make the Fixes a separate mod without mastering it to T&B and both mods will still work fine together. However, if I also want to allow the possibility to Invest with additional merchants...such as allowing for actual investment with the caravans or allowing you to invest with your spouse, or adding merchants that seem to be omitted from the Investor perk for no particular reason (Ambarys Rendar, Lod, Zaria, Filnjar, etc), then things begin to get more complicated and either a compatibility patch or setting T&B as a master to the Fixes/Investor file would be necessary. The pros to keeping them separate are that it avoids conflicts between T&B and any other mods that alter the merchant containers. There aren't a ton of mods that do this since it's better practice to avoid editing the containers if at all possible and instead adding items to the leveled lists, but there definitely are some mods that add items directly to the merchant containers. Economics of Skyrim would still be fully compatible since it doesn't alter the merchant containers. I don't think that any of the mods in STEP change merchant containers, but I'm looking for a more general opinion since I know that many here use other mods in addition to the mods in STEP.

I'll admit, I'm a bit torn here. I absolutely feel that Trade & Barter adds to the game, and it definitely improves some of the features of the vanilla barter system. And while I really don't want to talk anyone out of including this mod in STEP, I'm really not certain that it corrects any unintentional mistakes. I don't get the sense that the vanilla barter system was intended to be anything more than a simple, static, reliable way to accumulate hordes of gold. Obviously, I'm in the same position as many here in that I don't agree with this decision. But as much as I hate to say it, I do feel that Trade & Barter may be a better fit for a gameplay pack than core STEP. As far as presets, the defaults I've used for the mod were balanced around the assumption of a fairly vanilla game. I've suggested a few additional settings in the mod description, but realize that I spend a great deal more time modding than actually playing, so while I think the settings I've suggested are a pretty decent starting point for people using the mod, they may not be the best overall settings for STEP to recommend. I do feel that a better gameplay balance can be achieved by changing the barter settings to make trading harder and speech skill less effective (thereby adding some additional incentives to actually take a few of the speech perks)...but again, this is a gameplay change that might not be in line with STEP's goals. Having said that, however, I did discover a number of actual bugs in the Investor Perk and elsewhere. Some of these bugs have already been corrected by USKP, and I've submitted the other ones I found to the USKP team: https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?app=trac&module=issues&section=issues&do=view&id=272 I assume that USKP will address these issues, though if they decide not to for whatever reason, then I'll probably end up releasing a fix for the issues myself. I may end up doing so anyway, since some of the corrections would also allow me to implement a few additional features that I would have liked to add to Trade & Barter, but have held off on due to concerns over compatibility...things like extending the Investor & Master Trader perks to include some of the merchants that were excluded by the vanilla game. These could also be considered bugs, since there are some obvious inconsistencies in which merchants are effected by these perks. However, in this case, I doubt that it's something that USKP will correct.

If STEP decides to include this mod and comes up with some suggested settings, I would be happy to create a preset option using STEP's preferred settings (assuming I can eventually figure out how to add a preset selection menu).

I've been using Multiple Followers Lite https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=87578317 for quite a while now, and I've never experienced a single issue with it. It's worked flawlessly for me alongside Convenient Horses, Better Stealth AI for Followers, Followers Can Relax, and several other follower-altering mods. I don't know whether you would call it an overhaul, though. It doesn't have all the features of UFO, EFF or AFT. However, it fits into STEP's philosophy of minimal vanilla change better than any of the others. It stays very true to vanilla (the only issue I have with the mod is the author changed the "follow me" dialogue...though this is a quick and easy fix in the CK), seems to be very stable, and addresses the issue without becoming overly complicated or adding a bunch of needless features. It's the only multiple follower mod I've found that actually increases immersion rather than breaking it. It feels like a natural part of the game. I rarely have more than one or two followers, but the strict "only 1 follower" rule from the vanilla game really broke immersion for me. If I want to pay someone 500 gold to tag along with me, why would they protest just because there are other hands to help share the labor? Or worse, why would my housecarl refuse to protect me just because I want to have my spouse accompany me? Therefore, I consider having some sort of multi-follower mod essential for immersion. However, having a mod where I can command my follower around like a robot and adjust every single aspect of their fighting style, skills, and personality just doesn't seem very realistic to me. I don't want or need a million dialogue options to micro manage my followers, so Multiple Followers Lite is pretty much exactly what I was looking for in a follower mod. You might also find this thread helpful: https://forum.step-project.com/showthread.php?tid=1520

@W3aponiz3d Thank you for the offer! I just sent you a message.

I believe it should be possible to create compatibility patches for these mods. I don't have a great deal of experience with making mastered patches, but is there any reason that TES5Edit can't handle this? I contacted Eckss about how to build the SPIKE compatibility directly into my mod. His response leads me to believe that this won't be too difficult to do. I have two choices in how to do this. The first option would not require any additional patches or compatibility files, but it would require Weapons & Armor Fixes to be loaded after GDO. This has the advantage of not requiring any additional files, but it may not be the best solution given that Weapons & Armor Fixes should ideally be placed rather high in the load order. The second option is to create a patch file which would need to be loaded after both WaAF and GDO, but it other than that, it wouldn't matter where WaAF and GDO were relative to one another in the load order. Any thoughts?

Thank you for considering this mod. I certainly understand the concerns over compatibility with other mods already in STEP. I'll take a look at GDO and ICH and see what it would take to make compatibility patches for these mods. @WilliamImm Thank you very much for the vote of confidence, though for the record, I should probably mention that I'm female. ;)

I was hoping for one more DLC. However, I'm still excited to see how modders continue to develop the game. I really don't expect to get bored of the game for quite some time yet, particularly since there's still so much in just the vanilla game that I haven't done.

I wonder if it would be possible to create a fix for this issue that would only allow the pull chain to activate the door if the helmet wasn't present, but would disable the pull chain if the helmet was there or if the specific quest involving the helmet was active.

Browsing a bit on the Unofficial Patch forums, and Arthmoor responded to a question about this mod, saying... https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/3636-mods-made-obsolete-by-unofficial-patches/?p=145258 If this is the case, then it would appear that this mod is actually breaking an intended puzzle rather than fixing a problem.

Traps Make Noise has been updated with a compatibility patch for Follower Trap Safety. The guide should probably be updated to recommend the main file plus the compatibility patch.

Alek was kind enough to provide me the source files for Follower Trap Safety, which has allowed me to create a compatibility patch between his mod and Traps Make Noise. The full version of Traps Make Noise can now be used without conflict.

Here are a few mods that I think alter the perk trees in a decent way without getting too far from vanilla: - SkyRealism Perk Trees - ACE (Armor & Enchanting modules) - Treebalance series by sushisquid - Stealth Skills Rebalanced (this is my mod, so I'm biased toward it for the sneak, lockpicking, and pickpocket trees. However, I haven't separated out the perk trees, so if you aren't looking for changes to stealth gameplay this one probably isn't for you). - Smithing Perks Overhaul (the new version, since the original is out dated) - Path of Shadows (alchemy module)

They may not have worn the same sort of underwear/bras that exist today, but they definitely worn undergarments. Most undergarments were simple linen or wool. Actually, I believe the Greeks and/or Romans may have worn undergarments that would have looked closer to the Elder Scrolls version (two-piece for females). Females would have worn fabric wrapped around their breasts rather than what we think of as a bra, though I think male undergarments were more pant-like and less loin cloth. Medieval undergarments were often full-length gowns that were similar in cut to their outerwear. Obviously such things varied by culture and time period, but most medieval/ancient cultures did wear some form of underclothing. I'd really like to see a mod that allows some variation in muscle mass for females via the weight slider. I'm not looking for bodybuilders, but rather some natural variation in the size and definition of muscles. As far as I know the only mods that add more muscle or create an athletic look for females do so by altering the textures or normal maps and therefore the change is applied to all females without any allowing the appearance to vary with weight the way males do.

Sorry, but I don't understand how nude mods are more "realistic." If they allowed you to remove the undergarments from someone, I could understand that argument. But in reality, the people of Skyrim should be wearing more underclothing, not less. People in similar historic periods (particularly in northern climates) almost always wore multiple layers of clothing. They would wear some form of gown underneath their outer clothing. All but the very poorest would have some type of simple clothing to wear underneath their outergarments. Thick clothing would be worn under armor to help pad it. Anyone who could afford the simplest form of armor, would definitely be able to afford some type of undergarment. To me, adding nude models implies that my character must have taken the time to fully strip the corpses. Why would I bother taking their undergarments? They wouldn't have much intrinsic value, so why bother? I've tried a few, and they really break immersion for me. I can understand the appeal of nude mods, but not the argument that they add to realism or immersion. I don't think that nude models belong in STEP.

I've always felt that the golden statues looked too lavish for most of the small shrines and local temples in Skyrim. I would enjoy a version of the golden shrines where they selectively replaced only the shrines in the larger temples (or even just the temple in Solitude).

Yes, Lock Overhaul should work fine alongside Stealth Skills Rebalanced. Quad2Core, the author of Lock Overhaul, did respond to a comment concerning compatibility between the two mods. His response: So this aspect may need to be tested in-game to determine whether or not the skill improvement seems off. I don't have access to the scripts for Lock Overhaul so I can't be certain, but since Stealth Skills Rebalanced doesn't change the skill advancement you get for picking locks, I'm not sure I see what would create this issue.