AddictedxGamer

That does sound like an effective way of doing it. Thanks! What I'm still wondering is whether or not what I mentioned is correct or not... Are the mods that aren't marked by the green bar (indicating a Core mod) the mods that complete the Extended Step, or is there a separate page for that? I know the STEP Packs that you can install for bonus content have their own pages and instructions, so I don't know if STEP Extended operates the same way.

Okay, thank you! Another thing I'm wondering (Oh, god; another question :O_o:) is how things work with STEP:Core and STEP:Extended. I know that you first go through and install all of the STEP:Core mods, marked by a green bar next to the name of the mod. That completes STEP:Core. To complete STEP:Extended, do I then go back to the top and install all of the mods not marked with a green bar? Then if I want to install any STEP Packs, I follow the instructions on each individual pack's Wiki page. Right? Sorry. I'm new to STEP and don't want to make any mistakes.

Thanks for the information! I'm currently looking into installing and getting to know the Mod Organizer. I have two more questions though, and surely it's better to post them here than make a new thread (or threads) for them. 1) Is there an ETA on when the 2.2.9 (apparently being named 2.3.0) STEP Guide will be officially completed and released? 2) Am I supposed to be installing the STEP:Core mods at the qualities suggested? I have been so far, but my initial question in this thread was whether or not I could and should run Extreme STEP instead of Baseline STEP, but then I saw this in the STEP Guide. Notice: Baseline (referenced throughout this guide) is the STEP:Core 'Baseline' mods install (see mod tables) and adherence to all of the instructions in this guide, nothing more, nothing less. Does that mean that the STEP:Core mods should be installed at the suggested quality? Thank you!

I've never used the Mod Organizer because I've never felt the need to. The Nexus Mod Manager has never given me any reason not to use it. Why does STEP not support its use? EDIT: I've done some reading within the STEP Guide and it seems they no longer support the Nexus Mod Manager because it lacks features that the Mod Organizer has. Specifically, features that help to make the process of following the STEP Guide easier and more complete. I'll look into installing and learning to use it. Is there an ETA on when the new version of the STEP Guide will be officially released? I'm hesitant to follow it because it isn't ready yet, but at the same time, I'd hate to complete the guide and any STEP Extensions only to have to do it all over again in a week, haha.

Hey, everyone! So, I'm following through the latest version of the STEP Guide in order to try and finally have a stable and (mostly) problem-free experience playing modded Skyrim. I've been following through the guide, installing the listed mods (I've only installed Core Mods so far) and letting them overwrite when asked to, and it's been relatively simple. Well, aside from the problems I've been having getting mods to download from the Nexus that is, but that's not any fault of the STEP Guide. Anyways; I've only been installing the suggested versions of mods to complete the "Baseline STEP" version, but suddenly I realized that my machine is relatively powerful. I could probably (possibly, maybe) be running the highest quality mods where available in order to complete the "Extreme STEP" version. Before I uninstall all the active mods in the Nexus Mod Manager, I thought I'd post here to see what the experts think. Here are my system specs. Motherboard: MSI Gaming Z87-G45 CPU: Intel Quad-Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz GPU: Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB RAM: 8GB DDR3 SSD: Samsung 840-Series 250GB (also have a 2TB Seagate internal HDD and a 3TB Seagate external HDD) Do you guys think I should be going for the "Extreme STEP" version? Note that I plan to run an ENB as well; Seasons of Skyrim "No DOF" version, most likely. Before starting the STEP guide I was toying around with lowering my Shadow Detail in the Skyrim Launcher to achieve acceptable shadows and stay above 50 FPS with the ENB enabled. I found that dropping the Shadow Detail to Medium and adjusting iBlurDeferredShadowMask to 3 (from 1) and fShadowDistance to 8000 (from 2500) gave me great FPS (55-60 in most outdoor areas) and kept the shadows looking decent enough. I don't pay much attention to what the shadows look like, as long as they're there. Oh; I wasn't running any mods other than the Bethesda Hi-Res DLC Optimized (Hybrid + Vanilla Normal Maps) at the time of those tweaks, so that 55-50 FPS could come down with all the STEP mods installed. I want my game to look nice, but I want my FPS to be up there too. When it starts to drop I can really notice it, and it ruins the experience for me. Perhaps I should stick with the "Baseline STEP" version after all? Or do you think with the aforementioned Shadow Detail settings I could still run Extreme Step with the also aforementioned ENB without losing too much FPS? I could always install everything and find out, but I'd rather not use that much time doing so if you guys know my FPS will tank. Thanks! Sorry if this post was a bit long; I can't ever seem to create short posts.