EssArrBee

I've never used the mesh optimizer from SMCO and would say to only do so at your own risk. SMCO is not as good as DDSopt, but it also does not take all day to optimize everything.

I think it has to do with difficulty settings, I believe on the Legendary setting they just beat each other up forever because of how many health points everyone has on that setting. It took a very long time for them to fight so I just ran downstairs to talk to the old guy.

I wish Skyrim had some more grit to it. I like the idea that the fantasy is dirt instead of silk. I'll definitely be trying this out.

No the next release is 2.3.0, biweekly is just to fast to really keep up with.

I put mods in their section using Wrye Bash, so for example a body mod might be placed at the end of the Characters & Creatures section, which would be after natural eyes. The one thing to watch out for is that the mod you are installing is compatible with the mods in STEP. If it is then either don't use the mod or uninstall the STEP mod and you use whatever you like. You do not need to uninstall and reinstall everything, just install the new mod/s and rerun all your Skyproc patchers and Bashed Patch if you add a mod that adds an esp/esm, also if you install an animation rerun FNIS. Don't forget BOSS with the mods that add esp/esm. Some body/face mods aren't always compatible with each other, so I really like All-in-One Face that is used by Skyrim Revisited and UNP body, so I don't bother with XCE.

The first line of the guide still says the whole biweekly release schedule thingy.

I'd say to use one or the other, the guide is just listing utilities you can use to do stuff. SPM will give you a nice info graphic after you turn off Skyrim. The setup you are using right now seems good enough for what you are attempting.

Man that gold looks good, but I actually can't see a difference between the other two, am I the only one?

A few things may be left out, but just remember to list them all in order and to read about using the complex BAIN (BAsh INstaller) packages, usually show up as white boxes in the installers. You don't need to change their names or anything like the picture, that's overkill unless you are really OCD. You can setup a mod without installing it with WB, those are usually mods that are in the complex BAIN packages. If the mod is a white box with a wand then right click on the mod->choose Wizard, this will start an installer with options for installing the mod. At the end of the installer untick the install mod box and tick the apply changes box.

STEP is not in conflict with itself. Some of the mods might overwrite over mods, but this is on purpose and will not mess up anything if you install those mods in the order listed. I'd say the biggest thing that people new to Wrye Bash do incorrectly is to install one mod at a time. Try to list your entire STEP install in the correct order then highlight all the mods and and install them.

I saw this article on Joystiq about GoG's summer sale and Torchlight is free. If you like those Action RPGs in the vein of Diablo then this is a must have. And who doesn't like free DRM-free stuff? Just click the word free for the game.

There are so many good rock textures out there it becomes harder to choose. I like the stuff Pannonian has done, pretty much released a bunch of textures that are just rocks. This mod has a nice look, adds a bit of color to the grey abyss that is vanilla Skyrim.

Have you tried the STEP wiki Wrye Bash guide? Also the little blue question mark at the bottom of wrye bash opens the readme which is very informative.

Wrye bash will auto tag the mods.

After installing all the mods run BOSS and it will tell you what mods need cleaning.

Origins kinda reminded me why I loved Bioware for the Baldur's Gate games, they were just fun and Bioware has the best companion AI. I don't think anyone quite does the squad based games like they do. I don't want to wait till 2014, but at least that picture of Cartman reminded me of The Stick of Truth coming this year, and I love everything Obsidian does.

That's actually pretty good! Except that I dont wear any faction, except one or two characters :p but still! Aggression just by joining the other side, nothing? I'll look into it thanks :) There is also a nice Armor Disguises mod, I've used it before, but I use a bunch of mods that add scripts and had to get rid of a couple to reduce some crashes. Basically you put on an armor and you can be disguised, really helps when you have a high bounty in a place you need to go to. I did realize that this was not going into Core STEP when I recommended it, but ApolloDown did the Dragon Combat Overhaul which is really good. With STEP having packs for 2.3, I imagine that there will have to be a couple of gameplay packs and this would be good for that. Also, I remember Arthmoor talking about doing something with all the leftover assets for the civil war that were unused and this mod finally did just that, plus a bit more.

Civil War Overhaul by ApolloDown I just saw this mod on the Nexus hot files, I knew it was being made but did not see it released until now. Basically the author restored much of the Civil War story line that Bethesda did not finish, but they left all the stuff for it in the esm and bsa's. ApolloDown made the Dragon Combat Overhaul mod which is excellent so I imagine that he will put the same kind of time into making this a proper mod, I'd say a definite candidate for a STEP pack that adresses gameplay. Features: 1) Now there are major battles for Morthal, Markarth, Falkreath, Fort Greymoor, Dawnstar, Riften, and Winterhold. 2) You can lose a battle, when you lose the other side will get a shot at one of your holds until you win and now you can lose the war. This might be in the beta phase since it sounds to good to be true. 3) Now joining a side makes the other side actually attack you as if there was true factions in the war, even gaurds from holds on the opposite side of the war will attack you. 4) Wearing faction armor will actually make NPCs think you are part of that side in the war. 5) New skins for and races for the factions so that all of them aren't pasty white dudes. 6) AI revamped for the soldiers to be little less we todd ed (read it faster). Looks like this best with a new game or at least one where you haven't joined a side in the civil war. Requires SKSE as well.

Hmm... do you eat a lot of mexican food cuz people where I live do and they seem to have that restroom problem. I think it has to do with clogging our systems with cheese and then flushing it with salsa made out of the sun. Oh and what is plant killing espresso, did you actually kill plants with it, and where does one acquire such a drink?

How many people would actually buy Morrowind anyways if it wasn't a few bucks. Keeping your game prices high 10 years after its been released, who would actually pay $20 for a game that came out in 2002? I think that Beth's thing is that it is probably easy to subvert the process of owning both games to play Skywind or MorrOblivion or Skyblivion or ... I don't think they have a bunch of cease and desist stuff on the way either since they haven't shut down the MorrOblivion website.

I think my laptop is designed really weird because the GPU never gets to 80 C, but the CPU will get up near 100 C if I really push it. Maybe the fan is just misplaced or something, but it sucks because Skyrim is so CPU intensive.

Don't worry the Steam Summer Sale is probably coming up in couple weeks. It will probably be at least 50% off.

Minimal HUD has updated to have a LIGHT version that does not mess with hudmenu.gfx, so maybe it could be considered for testing as mod that allows HUD configuration and is compatible with NACMIM.

STEP has been around since just after Skyrim released and has been a guide that recommends mods that make the game look and play better. The overhaul itself will come from installing all or most of the mods in the guide. There is no way to package every mod in the guide in one package because it would be impossible to maintain with each individual mod updating every so often. Also, getting permission to the files in a package from the authors would be difficult as well. STEP started as a pdf guide that you would download and follow, but has become a seires of guides to mod and maintain Skyrim. The current pdf download is more to allow people the chance to download something so they can endorse the mod on the nexus to keep it relevant. If you are looking for one mod that is an overhaul of everything for Skyrim, I do not think anyone has created one yet.

I think I missed something as well because all I saw was a creepy story with some Ring-esque illustrations; nothing heart stopping.Maybe we are just so depraved from years of internet perversion that nothing phases us. Oh god, what have I done with my life? :facepalm: