Shadriss

You just destroyed several Skyrim-based religions with that comment. One does not simply play a lite-ly modded Skyrim. :)

That means Yes, in case it wasn't clear.

Not an idiotic question - no such thing. However, some questions do come with push-ups attached. Drop and gimmie 10. :)

Just a thought or two: You mention the error seems to be with the ESM for Skyrim - have you validated all files via Steam (to ensure a clean copy of the file), and then cleaned it again (per STEP Guide instructions) to ensure that the file itself isn't the problem?

The only potential danger I see is this : If this is successful enough, how long before some wizard in marketing comes up with the idea of NOT releasing the CK (or equivalent programs) so that modding for these kind of games becomes difficult at best. Recall when Skyrim first came out - there were mods, but without the CK they were rather primitive and constrained. Talking about non-texture replacers, of course, just for clarification. Otherwise, I agree with this, so far as it goes. Beth has always relied heavily on the mod community to extend the life of their games. Short of removing that support and causing the Great Bethesda Meltdown (Part TWO!), I see nothing changing on the local level. Tech - While I agree that any content created for this will be behind the 'Wall, I think we can also safely assume that, if they are good enough to actually generate sustained interest, someone will likely create a version of it on their own, from scratch, that will be freely available. Much as there are several variants of mods that already exist (The Parthunaxx Dilemma, as an example), I can see variants or 'inspired-by' type mods spawning as a result as well. It won't be the SAME mod, but it may be very similar and in some cases better.

Oh I know it works a lot... which makes it no less funny how often nobody tries this until they are told to. @ Hawk: In addition to the main changelog for a given version, there were (previously) changes that were made AFTER their release, which is what those tags refer to. IE, if a mod was changed or altered from the writeup it had when the main guide was released, it ended up being noted there so you knew it had been changed AFTER the original version of the guide. It is a bit confusing, but as I understand it with the new versioning system that's being implemented, that kind of confusion will be going away anyhow.

"Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?" -Every 'Tech' Ever

What's the difference? On topic, though - I have to echo Mator a bit about being very... skeptical. On the other hand, this at least appears to be much more thought out, and has at least a chance of working as intended. The requirements are going to prevent a good deal of the mod-theft that occurred the first time around (though, of course, it may still happen somehow), and at least by making it go through some kind of QA process (though TBH, Beth's QA process may not be the best judging by the release versions of thier games...) with Bethesda, it somewhat justifies their cut on any 3rd party content... certainly more than last time around. Cautiously optimistic is probably the watch word on this one - at least until we see it in action this time.

Not sure what the picture is supposed to show, as everything I get from it is what he'd already talked about in his mod description. Am I missing something?

My thoughts have already been stated, I think, but I'll reiterate them here: 1) Surprised that this wasn't part of CRF, though given how finicky Helgen is, that may have been a deliberate choice. 2) Fills in a few gaps in what was going on, which is always welcome, using all the original voices and dialog (with the exception of a re-voiced Hadvar, which, though quiet, is a good set of recordings), which is always a good thing. Those who run Live Another Life do have one minor incompatibility issue that is easily worked around, but does bear mentioning. As LAL is not part of STEP, however, this is of secondary concern. Based on this being restored content, and the general quality of it's restoration, I would vote for it's inclusion into STEP Core.

Is the LOD still stopping processing with this mod installed? It's a whole new version and way of generating it, so I figured the question should be asked.

I know a bit about retirement, both RL and modding community. I was a semi-major modder for the Quake 3 engine back in the heyday of Jedi Knight II/Jedi Academy until I retired after seven years of working with it, and now I'm retiring from the USN. Both were/are a relief and a bit of sadness. Though he'll likely never see this, best of luck and all success in the future, Brumbek... or as we put it in the Navy, "Fair Winds and Following Seas."

*shrug* As I said - I use the Step recommended lineup and am not seeing any pop-in like that. But then, I also had my INI settings adjusted before I even started dropping mods in, so that may very well be the issue, like Tech has suggested.

Thanks for the interpretation - unfortunately, I've run out of time, and my main system is being taken down tomorrow for the move and my retirement from the USN. I'll still be in and out here, but it will be late in the month before I can look back into this again.

I use the Step Recommended order, with SFO 2.5b before Trees, and have no issues. What is the supposed issue with this?

I feel a disturbance in the force... as if a major modder had suddenly relaxed, and let go of his powers...

Yeah - I was looking at those. Thing is that nothing is overwriting that quest at all. Just what you've already mentioned. Looking at the section for the Stages, 90 has nothing there for me to look at, not even telling me what AI Packages it's firing off. Filtering for conflict losers isn't helping here either... the quest simply isn't being overwritten by anything unexpected, which means trying to find out what that stage of the quest is actually doing. Also: THBBBBBBBT! :p Also Also: What are the chances that script lag or something of that order might cause something like this? I do run a script-heavy lineup, and am inclined to think this isn't the case here since it seems to be two specific instances, but figured I'd ask, just in case.

No need - move the SFO billboards to load as far down on the mod list as possible (at the least, it needs to be after the Step Compilation), then re-run DynDOLOD. What's happening is that the Compilation is overwriting the billboard files with vanilla variants, so you get vanilla LOD right up until you are close, which is why the SFO appears to 'pop' in. Make sure you run the full process - texgen and LOD portions both - IAW the guide instructions.

It showed again, so I did some poking around. For this, the only active quest I have is MQ103 (Bleak Falls Barrow) to make T/Sing much easier. 1) Verified only quest running was MQ103 (via ShowQuestTargets console command). 2) Found active stage of quest MQ103 (via player.sqs mq103 console command). This shows state 90 as active. At this point, the conversation between Irileth and the guards has concluded, and they are standing around. 3) Advanced the quest stage via console to the next stage shown in in the above list, in this case Stage 100. All guards despawned in front of me. 4) Ran to Riverwood, and found all guards perfoming guard-like tasks. Conclusion: Something is interfering with MQ103 stage 90 in some fashion as to prevent it from completing. Next Stage: Figure out how to look for this conflict in TES5Edit. I attempted to do so, but... Greek. Pointers? I'll do this again for Delphine when I get to that point, since it now seems likely that this is a mod conflict of some type.

This conversation is happening in two places at once - I recommend moving any discussion over the 2.2.9.2 Bug List, as that's where the majority of the discussion has been occurring relating to this matter. Page 18 (should come up through that link) has my recommendations Re: The XCE mods, as well as Tech's thoughts.

Where are you placing your SFO billboards? If they are getting overwritten by another set, it's possible the pop-in is via DynDOLOD because it used a different set of billboards to create the LODs. Not positive, but I think the Step Compilation may have a set of vanilla 'boards in there somewhere?

In Yet More News: While there is work to be done on the patcher, I can now confirm that the mod does work as advertised. There is a workaround that has to be done, but it's not too hard to do, and the results are as advertised. Not only did Lucia sit for the first time in recent memory, so did both of Balfruuf's kids up in Dragonsreach. The patcher issues I listed above still apply, but he has also now posted a workaround for the second issue, one of which is specific to MO. That workaround can be found here, and the issue with the patcher looking for BOSS can be dealt with by simply not giving it a location for that file and telling it to patch anyhow. Needless to say, I have this in and working (so far) and will continue to report anything I see that relates.

No specials, other to insure that you run the SkyProc patcher after you are done fiddling with your load order. As to the exact placement of the produced patch file, in my load order it was: Bashed Patch DualSheathRedux ASIS DYNDOLOD You can run LOOT again after patch generation to ensure it goes to the right place.

Not Tech, but I honestly think we should drop all of Xenius stuff anyhow. BBR is no longer needed if using Cover Khajits (part of Step) and Forgotten Argonian Roots, Better Males covers all the male characters, and a lightweight solution like WSCO takes care of the females. There was a long discussion a year ago or so about dropping these because the textures caused pretty much everyone to look 'grey-ed' out. This would seem the perfect time to do this.

In further further news: Skyproc Patcher is complete (and mostly working, though the author isn't quite satisfied with it completely). Patch for ICAIO is now up. Recommend commencing testing. EDIT: Disregard - the Skyproc Patcher is trying to load up BOSS, and doesn't recognize USLEEP as a master even when present. Still a little ways to go yet, it seems.