Shadriss

Which, as I've pointed out, is offset by how slowly that same leveling happens in later levels. The game is in the quests and the chains of events - not wandering around aimlessly, grinding XP, waiting to do baseline vanilla content until much later in the game. That kind of play does not make sense, and is contrary to how the game was originally designed. I do not see the sense in waiting through three or four hours of grinding so I can do was was intended as the first major quest of the game - it does not stand to reason. I understand where you are coming from - really, I do. The reasoning, however, doesn't match my experience in the game as far as I've taken it. You say that having leveling that fast initially is hurting the early game - I submit that areas like BFB are the early game, and if you are unable to attain sufficient power to play those areas, we are artificially extending a game that has no real defined ending even more than is reasonable... at least, in my estimation. My remaining questions from your last statement are these: on what do you base your statement about what OMEGA does or does not intend with regard to leveling, and on what you you base your statement that I'm "leveling waaay faster than anyone who followed the current version of the guide" when everything and everyone I've talked to (excluding you) appear to agree with my assessments in conversation? If I'm wrong about something, I'm good with admiting that - you've seen that in the past - but at the moment, all I'm seeing is blanket statements that are not, so far as I've seen, warranted. A difference in what we want is one thing - we've already agreed that it's a matter of taste - but those statements would indicate things you believe to be facts that are not in evidence, that I've seen.

Feel free - as I noted above, and as Tyrindor said, leveling is purely subjective. I would submit, however, that having to wait 2+ hours to be in the level range for what is supposed to be the first major dungeon area might be... much. I'm not sure I would call it 'gamebreaking', as that implies the game cannot be progressed in... more the opposite. Like Tyrindor, you're looking for far more difficulty than I am. So I'll leave this as it is, and let you get on with your version. :) So long as the guide, itself, doesn't start making those kinds of changes, I think we're fine here. And again, all the caveats I've made here and on Discord still apply - I can only speak to about 35 or so, which took me around 60 or 70 hours to get to.

First, if you have it on during character generation, you're already wrong. It has no ESP file, so there is no reason you can't turn it on AFTER generating your character and setting up MCM. This avoids all the background 'quest' completions that boosted you to 3+. Once everything is set up, but before you choose your start location, Save, exit, turn on XP, then go back to the game. Level 10 around an hour is sounds right though... that's right about where I hit it when heading to BFB. WRT to OMEGA and working with leveling speeds, it makes no assumptions about this - it simply delevels the world. That being the case, it doesn't need to make assumptions at all - it simply sets up given areas as a given level range. This does not, however, prevent you from trying them earlier than 'recommended'. My BFB example is a case of that, and on Discord there was another player who attempted it with two followers at 6 with... eventually success. Also, keep in mind my recommendations and settings are more tailored to the more 'casual' gamer - the ones who don't immediately dial the difficulty up to "Satan Is In Charge Of Your Life". I, personally, don't care to get frustrated with a game - I can be fine with getting killed on occasion when I've been taken by surprise or because I'm not using a mechanic in the game I should be. Getting railroaded by 10 draugr repeatedly, taking several days to work my way through, is not my idea of entertaining, and it is with that mentality in mind that I provide these kind of settings. Additionally, your concept of what the RPG feeling of a game is and mine are very obviously different. I grew up on Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and the like - while they all started as grind type games, they all quickly evolved into a system where an area was tailored to an expected level for a given point in the story. A game like Skyrim can't do that - it's too open. The Bethesda solution was deleveling, which many don't care for. OMEGA goes back to a leveled system, and that's fine - my expectation, though, would be based on a roughly vanilla experience - which means BFB would be very early in a playthrough, and I'd expect, as a player, to be in the rough level range for a given area when I hit it. As you indicated, leveling is going to be, largely, preference based. In this case, what you are looking for and what I am are very obviously two different things. Not an issue - just an identification of fact, I think. There's nothing wrong with what you are speaking about, but I would make it clear the kind of game environment you are attempting to create with those settings, as I have just attempted to do. Regardless - love this mod. :)

Fixed that for ya. ;)

Yes. That was my recommendation on Discord, based on discussions that had been held there. Kill XP is really a minimal portion of the gains at higher levels, so it makes more sense to bump it up, especially with followers soaking up 20% of the gains (per follower). XP Mult of 1 does work well also - it was how I played my first time through with it. As to the second point, unless you are deliberately going out of your way to hit every possible location (which even I, an OCD gamer, do not do), it's not going to make a large difference in the outcome. That's interesting... as I've noted on several occasions, I've completed several of the major addons (including Forgotten City and Grey Cowl) and a good bit of vanilla content, and only just hit 33 or 34. Not sure where our experiences (so to speak) differ, but that is a bit faster than makes sense. This is, in general, exactly what we want (as determined by discussions on Discord). The idea is, like any major RPG game using similar XP systems, that early levels go quickly, and late ones go slowly. Consider this scenario: Bleak Falls Barrow is, by design, a starter dungeon. You are expected, in the normal course of things, to hit it as, essentially, your first real dungeon. In the original, leveled version of Skyrim, this is fine. In the OMEGA unleveled, however, the dungeon comes up as Lvl 21+. If you hit it at 10, it's gonna be rough. You need the early levels to be quicker so that, when you hit the supposed early content, you aren't getting turned into some Draugr's "close personal friend", shall we say. This early leveling is quick, but as noted, you don't want to be 150 at the higher end content either, so yes, the later levels come very slowly - again, as they should. Keep in mind also that a great deal of the early sources of experience (such as discovery and kills) also taper off significantly - you can only get the XP for a discovery once (no matter how many times you pass Whiterun...), and the kill XP falls off as the creature levels drop below yours. Add in the previously mentioned Follower cut of 20% of any XP gain, and all balances out. If you want to wait, feel free, but you'll be waiting forever. The guide updates. Frequently. Either you pick a version and run with it a while, then update in between runs, or you just never use it - no real in between.

Depends on how you installed MO2 - in portable mode, the profile will be in the same directory you installed MO into. If you did instance mode (which is what is sounds like...) you need to set it to C:/Users/<user name>/AppData/Local/Mod Organizer/Profiles to find it instead. Note that most guides either tell you or assume that will use portable mode. You may want to shift over to it, and this can be done fairly easy if you need to.

Think that was removed several iterations ago, and was never in MO2. You can ignore that. What it USED to do was analyze you load order and try to help you set up the files in a good order, much as LOOT does automagically... I think the intent was for it to replace LOOT eventually, but it was never robust enough, and often created more problems than it was solving... thus the removal from the program.

I'd say offer her your firstborn, but that already belongs to Sheson (for you DynDOLOD usage), and Lexy already has children that make her life hard interesting, so she likely doesn't want another one anyhow. Money is also out, so I guess gratitude will have to do. :)

You can drop in Experience any time you feel like it, and it should be fine. There is no ESP files to worry about, so it can also be removed at will. I'm not sure I would drop it in in a very advanced game like yours though, simply from the standpoint that if you are that far into your game, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to change the base mechanic you've been playing with to that point. Even so, you could, and there would be little to no issues from the technical stand point. The discussion regarding what it's balanced for is kind of null and void, however. This is not a 'balance' mod, so to speak - it doesn't rely on there being only so many things to do, or weapons and armors available, and so forth, for it's settings. It simply removes skill advancement as the mechanic for level advancement, and replaces it with a set XP value for doing certain things. I have personally left it at default values (minus kill XP, which is turned on and set to 2X gain) after playing with it in two previous playthroughs, and it feels right to me. YMMV. The pathing is the biggest issue, yes, and as I mention, there is a small team on the Discord who are working through these issues (and others) to create a version of it that I believe is destined for inclusion in the guide. I agree that the main cities are pretty bland... and that is being worked on. Patience will yield us yet another substantial improvement on vanilla Skyrim - hold on! It is not aimed at 'Leet' modders. It is aimed at 'experienced' modders, which is stated quite clearly at the top of the guide's main page. That said, a large number of people who are unfamiliar with the tools still use the guide, and the team (and a few others like myself) do try to help out where we can when questions are asked. The biggest thing to understand about this particular guide is that Lexy (and team) do most of the Conflict Resolution for us (which is what most of the patches we are NOT using from FOMOD installers are for), and so we have no need of those files. There has been one missed on occasion that should have been used (maybe two since I started using this guide as a baseline back in July), but for the most part, there is, as Lexy would say, "a method to my madness"... it's deliberate. Most of those errors that you see can be safely ignored for now, many will be gone by the time the guide is assembled. Those that remain are ignorable, and are of no consequence. This latest version, using OMEGA, has been the most stable mod build I've ever used... it's complicated to get set up, and I do run into questions every so often, but it is doable, and the instructions (though, I agree, sometimes hard to understand the reasoning) do work, and will get you a very fun place to tromp around in. I get your frustration - really, I do. Most of us who go through the guide the first time experience it. A little patience, though, will get you to the end, and I'm pretty sure you'll be satisfied with the results.

Mostly because JK's is not (currently) compatible (somehow) with ICAIO... though I think there is a small team of devs trying to get this all worked out on the Discord. I don't know if ETaC is sticking around or not, but I can say that there are more city overhauls coming eventually, and I think JK is playing a large role in that.

Honestly, hard to say - I rarely get much past 30 in any playthough I've done, and I havn't played vanilla leveling in so long I couldn't say for certain. All I can say is that last night, I wasn't nearly as prepped as I usually am for what should, technically, be a starter dungeon. It's going to be something you have to play with yourself a few times and adjust... I like the default settings (mines the x2 for kills), and it's working for me so far. Does this mean to ignore them in Merge then?

Keep in mind that if you slow down your leveling rate, you may have problems working on the main portions of the game when using the guide. Example: Using the default settings, I was character level 10 entering Bleak Falls Barrow... which is deleveled using OMEGA, and has a level range of 20+. Skills that aren't a part of your birthsign (Classic Classes, part of OMEGA) are starting at 5, so may be lower than you are used to for a given dungeon. During a normal run, I never had any problems with this dungeon - it's a starter dungeon, right? Not so much anymore... I routinely ran into draugr Scourges and Deathlords at levels 21 and 30, some of them in groups of three or four. On top of that, there are a lot of additional spawns that did not exist in previous versions of the guide/game, and those caused additional complications (by which I mean I became living-impaired a few times more than normal). All of that still doesn't even account for the damage changes introduced with KYE, and if you don't have weapons up to the task it gets even nastier. While I managed to complete the dungeon, it took about five or six times longer than normal, and involved a LOT more kiting and baiting than I would expect. Slowing this down even more... would make this even more difficult. Slowing down the character leveling too much means a lot more time grinding around Whiterun and other safer areas... which I don't think is what you are intending to do. Without the deleveling, that might make sense... with it, maybe not so much. If this is what you are looking for, have fun... but there are easier ways to punish yourself. :) On the other hand, Farengar's comment about, "You didn't die, it seems," is a bit more in place now.

Be careful with that plan - it's recently come to attention that there is a reason that games that get long have severe issues... it's related to the number of loaded cells in a game, and once that number exceeds 4096 (IIRC), the game gets wonky. There were a few on the Discord last night talking about this limitation... you might want to look into that a bit more before you commit to that plan. There's another location with a similar problem because of iNPC... the abandoned shack near Dragons Ascent (?) in southern Falkreath, near a dragon-attacked bandit camp. There may be others as well. Most likely because you haven't created them yet - go back and read ALL the directions for LOOT setup before you start adding in the LOOT rules and the like - they won't work if the baseline isn't set up correctly.

Ensure the patch for ETaC and RS Children was installed from the FOMOD, and that all other files and NPC Retexture merges are where they are supposed to be. My guess would be that first one in combination with the rest... black face is bad facegen data, and those are the providing files by the end of the guide.

I use the Dark one, and have no issues with that... all data in the FOMODs for a choice show up with no problems.

In Order, covering everything because I know you haven't gotten answers to all of them: - There should not be any errors with Andromeda... I've seen many others report this as well, but never saw any specific steps to resolution. I didn't have any myself on my own install (completed three days ago), so there is something off somewhere, but unfortunately, I can't really help you out with where that is. - Yes, that's normal. I'm not sure why that instruction was included (a just in case measure, I'd assume), but if none are marked, then there's nothing to take action on. The 20-30 mods that get deactivated are now all included in the Bash Patch you just created, so yes, they all remain turned off forever at this point. - No, don't match her modwatch list. Keep in mind that she is doing a lot of testing in the background. As long as you've followed the guide, anything that gets output by LOOT is likely going to be fine, and should only be messed with if problems occur and the source is identified as your load order. - The armor in question if one of three variants of the Hide armor. You'll note that the men wear the same version... though why a woman would is beyond me. I reinstalled TMB and chose the 'spicy' version for that armor only... it's still not ideal, but it at least covers what needs to be covered. It's not the mod's fault directly... it the mod in combination with the physics causing boobs to droop ever so slightly. - Safe to ignore... the version of WB that includes that is not 'released to the wild' as yet, and the tag will have minimal effect (if any). Carry on. - There is not... this is controlled by ENB settings (shift-enter in game... have it paused or the console up), and will be a setting something like "Interior Brightness" or something to that effect. It takes some tweaking from setup to setup, as your monitor has a great deal to do with this as well. You are also free to choose ANY ENB setting on the Nexus instead of Phoenix if you choose... comments on the Discord seem to indicate that Phoenix is a dark one. - Depends on what you are adding. If the landscape itself is affected, run xLOD. If it's a new series of buildings, TexGEN and DynDOLOD. Bash, zPatch, and the rest should always be run after adding in a new mod unless the mod instructions say otherwise. Good luck... Skyrim is counting on you. I've used that start several times for testing purposes, and not seen this - I think you have something out of place somehow, or are experiencing a Random Act of Skyrim. Machinery Division or Auxiliary Division? There's a world of difference between a nuke and an A-ganger. I'm guessing Machinery based on the Carolina station... sounds like Nuke School to me. As to saltiness, no worries - you had fish, and that's always a sign of at least SOME measure of respectability. For reference, which markers are these for? I'm curious if one I noticed a day or so ago is covered by this. I've been running this mod for a while, and was involved in the discussion on this mod yesterday. Those of us using it have, universally, turned on kill XP. Based on the low amount of XP it's providing, many have also amped up the kill XP multiplier to 2.0. All other settings can be left as they are... at least for now. As to the other part of the question, as pointed out, no ESP, so no worries. Wait until JUST before you talk to the Mara Statue to turn it on, and all will be well... though the first 10 levels fly by, the rest slow down a good deal, and you'll be fine. It's how I do it, and there's been no issues. It's good to go... more stable than the last build version certainly... at least on my rig. Lexy indicated there may be more MCM tweaks coming, but those can be handled in place as they come out. You should be safe to advance, keeping in mind that some of them had updated for the new SKSE and Skyrim versions, and you'll need to download older versions to support SKSE 2.0.8 and Skyrim 1.5.50 instead of the current most up-to-date versions.

I'm testing a patch that Lexy's group put together on the Discord - we may have a solution sooner than Krypt does. If it works out, I'm sure Lexy will make it available to everyone. @MadBomber - ignoring my question, shipmate? :) You can't just throw around an avatar with Pride Runs Deep and a pair of SSNs on it without garning a BIT of attention.

Known bug with CACO/iNeed interactions - there is a fix involving changing one of the scripts, but I don't have that handy at the moment. I think the fix is shown in the BUGS area of the main CACO page on the Nexus... but not quoting me there. Kryptopter is aware of the bug and the fix both - I imagine she'll get it implemented at some point in the immediate future. Same logic applies - if it aint mentioned, don't worry about it. I don't think it will hurt to run them through the optimizer, but if there's no need to, why bother? :)

Unless the guide says otherwise, leave them. Some of those are required for the mods to even work.

Completely off topic aside: Madbomber, I cannot HELP but notice your avatar, and based on it, have only one question for you... Report your rate and previous submarine commands, shipmate. STS1/SS (Ret), USS MICHIGAN (SSBN 727 Blue), USS MONTPELIER (SSN 765), USS ALASKA (SSBN 732 Gold), USS ALABAMA (SSBN 731 Gold), and USS TENNESSEE (SSBN 734 Gold).

No issues here... looks more like a bit of fog got between you and those trees, which would account for the 'fading' you mention... look at the other trees, and they appear normal to me. Notice that it only seems to happen on trees near clouds and fog pieces? Or so it appears to me anyhow. Group Editor can be found by clicking on the three dots symbol in the upper right corner of the LOOT screen.

SKSE team on point - now we wait for the other mod authors. Here's to hoping. In the meantime, I continue to merge...

Or that mod authors that rely on SKSE getting updated might (Or worse, the SKSE developers) get fed up with trying to keep up with these useless updates and just quit entirely... and really, who could blame them? Tying their CC into the EXE file itself like that is just dumb, especially for a game that is BUILT on modability. Idiots. If this keeps up, they're going to kill their own product.

This may be the best thing I've heard since the Merge Plugin Hide add-in to MO2... Seriously Bethesda? Are you kidding me? LEAVE OUR GAME ALONE! Man, I hope I learned from last time and have it set to only update on start from Steam...

Haven't looked at stuff this morning. Glad I hadn't gotten to that merge yet... got through about half of them last night. Thanks for the heads up, if nothing else. In that case, you are likely right... though there should be a Veydesbloom equivalent, I think... if there is, that would go in the merge instead. If not, no worries. :)