thommaal

Thanks for all the added info. SkyTweaks is a great addition to any mod list. And it looks like its mod tracking does indeed work as intended. So far, every change to other mods was correctly identified and added to the settings. Very nice.The morrowloot/scarcity/trade & barter economy is a tough one; good for game-play but it puts some additional strain on my suspension of disbelief when I take away too many goods from vendors and up the prices so high that no one but a select few should be able to afford anything at all beyond the basics. The law of supply and demand has never been relevant in Skyrim, of course, but I don't want to break it too much, which means: scarcity of loot is key while the vendors still need enough quality items to make it plausible that they offer relatively little in return.But too little loot leads to a game-play that focuses more on production of goods -- which isn't exciting at all, most of the times. I'd rather go out in the woods than kneel before a tanning rack all day.Ah, the devil in the details. Interesting. That mod gives AI adversaries another advantage when Frostfall is installed, since they don't have to deal with the repercussions of getting wet in icy conditions. I am definitely going to try it out to see what the law of unintended consequences will do to my game.Skytest ... yes, hmmm. I like the idea (after all, my game-play is a combination of combat and wilderness survival) but it adds lots of spawn points and plenty of ever active scripts. I have already cut out the STEP/SRLE effect mods and the result during the few skirmishes I faced since then is positive: the game has been rock solid.But I agree that the vanilla animals are disappointing and a script-light mod that improves behaviour without adding spawn points would be welcome. I hear you.

Weird, I have no problem with SUM running ASIS, Dual Sheath Redux and the NPC Enchant Fix. Do you have a 64bit OS too? Re OBIS: The Populated series mods should be fine though - and you wanted to add Forts and Dungeons anyway. With OBIS gone, they should fill some gaps without overcrowding the area.

The cherry on top is the irony of the situation: During the week, I had been scolded by my Krav Maga trainer for relying too much on my build to soak up hits instead of evading them .. I am going to read the Skyre guide now, and I hope you won't mind if I have further questions afterward.

Yes, you can up the speed -- but the game kills you regardless. There are a couple of dodge mods, for example. But they all lag on occasion or fail to initiate -- and when you play hardcore, a second of delay on dodging against archers equals death, especially when you favour speed over armour. Of course, the mechanics of other games kill you equally often or more so.Funny enough, my inability to dodge a car in a timely fashion is precisely the reason why I have so much time right now to not dodge arrows. :) Adding magic effects is a good idea, though. I need to sow more confusion. And thanks for mentioning the SkyRe guide. It's already downloaded. Your suggestion has definitely improved gameplay in my current play through. iNeed has worked so well in almost all of my profiles that I rather edit out any entries for other mods in patches than replace it with the suggested ones.

Actually, I'd like to ask you guys for advice. I usually prefer light-weight characters that win fights relying on quickness and precise attacking. They rather dodge attacks than block them and they survive mobs by causing chaos; staggering one opponent to take him out of combat for a second or two to deal with another one is crucial for such a play style.I totally fail to fight that way in Skyrim. Is it possible at all to play like that successfully against hardcore adversaries?

[slap head] I had totally forgotten about Professions - good idea, I'll see how it works out; the default time scales in Hunterborn are indeed too demanding. Wet & Cold is the only script mod that I'd still drop -- Frostfall and Hunterborn complement the survival aspect of a harder world too well to let them go. BTW, iNeed is my third musketeer in this setup. The mod has reached a stage in its development that makes it superior, imo, to the usual suspects. SkyRe is another mod I have never used before. Dreadflopp's combo of TTR and kryptopyr's mods sounds good for a sneaky character and I have used it in another profile with success. Though I don't use Duel v5 -- v7 is more to my liking (not the alpha). But i am still not pleased with combat. Usually, I like combat that rewards quick and forceful action -- but Skyrim doesn't allow me to move my character around as I need to for my usual playstyle [The most fun I ever had was Mass Effect's 2 vanguard on Insanity level and the ME3 shotgun-version AFTER I had tweaked the settings enough to get back most of the difficulty of the predecessor]. So, more slowly but methodical looks like the better alternative -- but I have not yet found the right combo of perks and combat mod to make the outcome highly dependent on my actions. Anyway, I really should try SkyRe in this new profile with your other mods to see how it works out. Edited to correct some spelling.

My mistake, I hadn't made clear that the problems with ASIS happened some time ago before I used the memory patch via SKSE etc. But now it's back again -- your mod list was too intriguing to ignore. So, you are to blame for yet another restart of my game. :) ... And I was killed by Sabres attacking me at my Another Life starting point (Camping in the Woods) even before Frostfall was activated. Ha. That has never happened before. A couple of questions: 1. I have never used SkyTweaks before - does it reset overwrites by mods back to vanilla states in its "factory settings"? I have seen a mod importing feature that should identify the settings of other mods and store them as the new base -- but I wanted to know how your experience is with SkyTweaks in this regard. 2. As I said, it's been awhile that I used ASIS. Spawns are all set to 0 in the MCM -- so, they are deactivated in the default settings? [i have a vague memory about a mod that had zero settings in MCM but that actually meant it followed its defaults, which were anything but neutral.] And thanks for the info about the improved ASIS inis - they look much better than the default ones. 3. Have you already adapted the uncapper.ini to your hardcore mod setup? I have used a slightly modified Better Leveling ini -- but I am likely going to redo it with your build. I have a soft spot for the old school deleveled setups -- but you might be right that Skyrim isn't built for them. Your mod list looks like a promising alternative. I'll give it a try. Though I need to figure out the fine tuning which, in this setup, likely determines the difference between challenge and frustration. BTW, the Morrowloot, CCOR, Scarcity etc. mod list made a manual setup of LOOT neccessary. First time that it doesn't work "out of the box" for me. Speaking of Scarcity -- if you use such a high Merchant Scarcity setting - do you get spell books at all? I prefer the x2 esp. ADDED: No Combat Boundaries adds interesting tactical situations to a more populated world. I was chased by some bandits when they ran straight into a hostile faction. Bedlam. - I'd go with a very light ENB with this setup (Minimal ENB looks nice) and get rid of as many script mods as possible without breaking immersion. EBT is gone, DSI and Burn Freeze Shock Effects too. And I have reluctantly deactivated Footprints as well. I don't want to split with Frostfall, Hunterborn and Wet & Cold. But with some of the mods gone that will do most of their "damage" in situations with plenty of NPCs in battle, it might work out all right. I don't mean to imply any of the mentioned mods is bad per se - they just add to a cumulative effect that leads to instability.

That question was asked in a post and the author of the mod, fireundubh, added this script as an answer: { New script template, only shows processed records Assigning any nonzero value to Result will terminate script}unit userscript;function Initialize: integer;begin Result := 0;end;// called for every record selected in xEditfunction Process(e: IInterface): integer;begin Result := 0; // comment this out if you don't want those messages AddMessage('Processing: ' + FullPath(e)); // processing code goes here SetElementNativeValues(e, 'DATAFlags', GetElementNativeValues(e, 'DATAFlags') or 4);end;// Called after processing// You can remove it if script doesn't require finalization codefunction Finalize: integer;begin Result := 0;end;end.

Ah, an example of upgrade blindness; I didn't think I'd still need this with the new version. Thanks.

Garfink, No Combat Boundaries and Unofficial Encounter Zone Patch might add even more spice to your settings. Do you, by any chance, know if the radiance.esp included in ERSO differs from the original one in any serious way? Concerning spawn points by ASIS and Random Encounters: I sometimes had freezes with the ASIS spawns and they vanished when I used RE instead.

While Arthmoor's response is correct in describing the test scenario, it's besides the point -- though he could not have known that. Oqhansoloqo created such an artificial environment for his test AFTER we have told him to get rid of other mods and other saves, test this and that and so on. This test isn't the starting point of Oqhansoloqo's critique but an outgrowth of the demands he fulfilled to verify that the cause for the problem is not something else. I am quite angry with myself that I hadn't warned the poor guy to expect such an outcome with an artificial test environment. It's a communication pattern that is well known and well established whenever an item is criticised that has meaning beyond the object level. Anyway, sorry, Oqhansoloqo, should have warned you this could happen.

The title already describes the problem: I tried to install Deadly Dragons anew (mod had been completely removed), but I get an error message that the DeadlyDragons.bsa is "not a bsa file". An empty DeadlyDragons.esp and bsa are present afterwards in the mod-folder. Contents of the meta.ini: [General]modid=3829version=6.3.5newestVersion=category="-1,"installationFile=ignoredVersion=notes=nexusDescription=lastNexusQuery=[INI%20Tweaks]size=0The same error message was displayed whether the "true" or "false" setting was used with the Fomod Installer in "PlugIns". I downloaded the file again to make sure that the existing one wasn't corrupt -- but the hashes of the old and new one were identical. Not surprisingly, the error message showed up again. Can anyone test this on his installation to see if it's a problem with MO v1.2 or a local one? ADDED: Same result with ERSO, but Immersive College of Winterhold and other mods work fine. ADDED 2: This is not the old problem that some mods, like DSAMG - Dragon Soul Absorb More Glorious, needed a different setting of the Fomod Installer. The mentioned mod, for example, installed without a hiccup.

Recording software:NVIDIA's Shadowplay is free: Shadow Play Tutorial and Overview.D3DGear has a 15-days-trial version.LoiLo Game Recorder is free. it works nicely, but the company doesn't seem to believe in support.SMRecorder is another basic but functional alternative. The mic audio is a nice feature. BUT if the company hasn't changed its politics, definitely do a custom installation -- otherwise you end up with unwanted toolbars etc. [Actually, I'd advise to always do a custom installation with every software, even if it's just a new version of a program you already know. Unless you like to be surprised by adware and other privacy deteriorating tools. ;)]Back on topic, I wouldn't use the resource-hungry Camtasia for your purpose; FRAPS free recording function is too limited. Dxtory's trial version is an alternative -- but when I last saw it in action, the watermark was too prominent for my taste. OTOH, the paid version is one of the best programs if you want to record videos on a regular basis.Editor:The free Windows Movie Maker will work fine: "Edit your movies" and "How to Use Windows Movie Maker".

I want to try out some ENBs I had dismissed earlier in favour of the CoT-adapted ones. "Natural Lighting and Atmospherics for ENB" looks great, for example. But I have a surprisingly hard time to let go of "Gameplay Performance ENB"; it improves the visuals vanilla-style while keeping the game smooth even in demanding situations. Its name is NOT false advertising. And it looks like Scrabbulor is willing to work on it some more. True. And since I am doing this for some tests there is no reason to hesitate beyond the ingrained "never change a running system" - which I don't adhere to strictly anyway. Edited to add the correct links.

Damn, third time I need to write this post after a BSOD festival with the new Catalyst driver; back to 13.12 now. oqhansoloqo, I tested the mod on a STEP 2.2.9 Extended profile with no other mods added; if I read everyone's experiences correctly, no one considers the mod to work perfectly. But it's an improvement over the vanilla situation. If you can make a video of a dragon encounter, we could see for ourselves how far your experience deviates from ours. BTW, it's a shame that I haven't done a video of my last "When Vampires attack" experience. It was rather comical.

I just tested the mod at Pelagia Farm and it cannot work there the way it does at more appropriate places. It rarely works perfectly, in fact, but it makes a ridiculous situation bearable, at the very least. When Vampires Attack is indeed far more .. problematic.

When I built my compatibility patch, I saw that some effects were changed by more than one of the mods you suggested. But I need to take another look into TES5Edit to see if "conflict" is an appropriate description. Btw, I shamelessly stole a couple of your patches to cut some work. And, stupidly, I didn't document a couple of additional changes that might interest you. Oh well, I'm only experimenting anyway at the moment.Give LOOT a try. I was sceptical at first but the results are promising and already better than BOSS almost every time. ADDED: Since I am using your recommendations with this profile, a sneaky character seemed appropriate. But now, I am displeased with the ENBs that are usually in my focus: Seasons of Skyrim and Skylight are much too .. friendly and nice; Vividian's vanilla colour scheme is better but still .. ADDED 2: Sigh, a question: Is it possible to drop ERSO's deleveler onto an ongoing game? I want to take a look at some of the areas that are starting points for Another Life with a character that isn't killed by a bored skeever.

Interesting discussion.Like Dreadflopp, I play a customized "STEP Extended/SRLE/REGS"-build, and while it makes Skyrim a diversified environment, it doesn't do much to improve gameplay beyond fixing vanilla problems.A deleveled world is far less immersion breaking, especially when it's as small as Skyrim. But Garfink is right, what's left to do on higher levels?But maybe someone has already created a mod that plausibly adds new challenges to higher levels?Tougher enemies need an ingame reason to appear. And since this is all about the player, (s)he should trigger such a change. Portals have been overdone but they'd work.Though I'd prefer something else: a buff spell/potion whatever that you need to make to deal with an otherwise unbeatable enemy. Unfortunately, you can buff up only once for a limited time (otherwise it will kill you or it has serious side-effects), so you can't use it yourself repeatedly. Even more unfortunate: your invention becomes known and spreads among bandits and other factions.If you already use a mod that gives potions/scrolls etc. to adversaries, it shouldn't be too hard to trigger its use during a fight.A temporary effect would explain why the world of Skyrim would otherwise stay the same: no one can use the buff-up at will.Though it might be interesting to add a side-effect after more than one use that turns the user into a very high-level monster. Of course, then we need a reason why those monsters don't exterminate all life.Anyway, something like that would give us a reason why a high-level character still finds challenging opponents in an otherwise deleveled world. It also works in a leveled world as an ingame explanation for all those tough enemies you find, of course.I can hardly believe that no one has yet made a mod that deals with the problem of retaining immersion for high-level characters.

Intriguing project.A couple of questions came to mind when I was trying to figure out how to adapt my mod-list to your pack.1. I use Alternative Start. Do any of the starting positions put me into a spot that is highly dangerous for a beginning character in a world divided into Encounter Zones?2. Dreadflopp, when I follow your recommendation (TTR + kryptopyr's mods, etc.), there are, naturally, a couple of conflicts among the mods. Improved Dragon Shouts, for example, overwrites entries of TTR's Speech perk. Do I understand the wiki correctly that the table reflects a suggested load order, i.e., TTR prior to kryptopyr's mods then Duel, Improved Dragon Shouts and finally Dragon Soul relinquishment?(=> BOSS produced a mess, btw., but LOOT's load order made so much sense that I'm willing to keep it, with an exception or two.)3. Concerning your wiki: If the packs you guys recommend at "Mod List: Gameplay and skills" have unique characteristics that distinguish them from one another in terms of gameplay, could you point that out and suggest packs that are exceptionally suited for specific gameplay/character types? A sneak character will likely favour Dreadflopp's recommendation but what about a mage, and long-range versus close-range combat types?4. It would also be great to know if a perk pack has a superior synergistic effect with one of your suggested combat mods in this respect.Yeah, I know, we can always read the modder's official descriptions. But they will only tell us what the mod is suppossed to achieve; I'd rather hear an assessment from the pov of experience -- and you guys seem to have it.Of course, you cannot possibly list all the benefits and the synergistic effects among mods; any attempt to encompass all of that will likely end with two new axe murderers on the news.So, I'd ask you to consider two or maybe three perk/combat/+ combinations that you'd call exceptionally cohesive for a certain game style or for character types that you know well. Just my pov, of course. Great work, guys.

Could you be talking about ewi65 [E ENB Final Edition; Therion ENB Via Nocturna; etc.]? I'd call the false-setting an improvement with my system; micro-stutters have decreased without any noticeable negative effect otherwise: Intel Xeon E3-12308GB Crucial 1600MHz CL9Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GBRadeon HD 7950 3GB Windows 7 64bit

STEP v2.2.8 installation-guide.

There are more possible sources for your persistent and various script problems that are not related to interactions among mods.1. Your Skyrim installation is corruptIf you made a backup of a pristine Skyrim shortly after setup, replace your running one with it. If you don't have a backup, check your data-files on Steam (do it anyway):Verify Game Cache Files (GCF)Picture Guide If corrupted data files are found, they will be replaced by the latest ones on the Steam servers [addendum: If you stored TES5Edit-cleaned esms in your data folder, they will likely be replaced with the original ones; either back up the cleaned files or re-clean them afterward]. Not every file installed by the Skyrim-setup is checked, so this isn't a sure-fire way to verify the integrity of your files.Still, run the process and if files are replaced, there might be a problem with data storage on your hard drive.Which leads me to point 1b:1b. Your HDD/SSD is failing and corrupting files.Check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive. If you don't have a program to do that, I recommend CrystalDiskInfo (Adware included in the setup - use the PORTABLE version), HDDScan and HD Tune Pro.If you find problems, check the health of your hard drive with the appropriate tool of the manufacturer (Seagate seatools; Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic etc.).You might want to do that anyway once a year. S.M.A.R.T. isn't perfectly reliable. 2. Check your RAM A faulty RAM might go unnoticed for quite a while. Check it with MemTest86+ or its successor, which is - unfortunately - not open source anymore but supports the latest hardware.3. You run a process on your machine that interferes with a running Skyrima) Look for malware. Install additionally to your antivirus program the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.b) If nothing was found, deactivate prior to playing Skyrim: - Windows Aero- your internet connection- antivirus - personal firewall (if it repeatedly checks running processes)- databanks or other software that add memory-intense processes.Now, play the game and see if it makes any difference.Generally speaking, I can't recommend enough a backup of files with secure copying tools. Secure means: the tool verifies that the copy is identical to its source. I also use hash values to verify in general the integrity of files on my hard drive.The generated hash values are stored in a checksum file that can be quickly accessed if - at some later point - the integrity of the hashed files needs to be checked against their earlier status. The files I have hashed are mostly ones that are prominent targets of malware. But you can also use the process to make sure that backups are identical to their sources if you copied them with Windows. Added: Do you get "out of memory" warnings during gameplay or when you run other programs? In that case, you could increase the Virtual Memory Swap File Size. There are other methods to deal with the .. not optimal allocation of memory in Windows but most of them change the registry, so any mistake likely has serious consequences. It's better to decrease memory usage, which means: shut down all unnecessary processes.

You can spawn a dragon by using the console: player.placeatme [id] [quantity]Regular dragon: EAFB4; Blood Dragon: F77F8player.placeatme EAFB4 1However, I don't know if this qualifies as a regular dragon attack that triggers the mod.

That's something I definitely want to know. Thanks.

Just in case you don't know "Enhanced Mighty Dragons", it's a viable alternative (though both mods can also be used side by side). Unfortunately, it adds a lot of esps to your load order if you also improve Odahviing, Durnehviir and the Dragon Priests -- but, imo, it's worth it. There is also an optional file that protects