theblackman

Claims that are made without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. I didn't actually write that - you are misrepresenting what I actually wrote. Again misrepresenting my arguments. Please do me the honour, as I did for you, of addressing what I actually wrote and don't strawman my comments. What's your point? I've been in the modding community since ~2006 and this has always been the case.

You have no evidence to substantiate this claim so it's merely your opinion. The reverse could actually be true. Further, this claim includes an implicit assumption that everyone should learn how to identify and solve problems themselves. That's a value judgement that you're trying to impose on people. The beauty of a tool like BethINI is that, because it essentially represents the collective wisdom of the community (and DoubleYou's efforts, thank you again), it saves people the time and frustration of having to work out what the optimal ini settings are themselves and from making errors in setting values. You're saying that it's somehow better for people to waste time working out or reading about what each setting does themselves. It isn't. Most people want to play the game, not spend time diagnosing and fixing errors. Again, you've got no evidence that this is the case, you just 'feel' like it's true. I could make the claim that if Wabbajack takes off, more people will learn how to use tools like xEdit and have just as much chance of being right as you with your claim, probably more. They will? How do you know? I looked into my crystal ball and saw less people overflowing those sites. Maybe your crystal ball is faulty - take it back for a refund. And if most people don't know how mod managers work, then using a tool like Wabbajack means that there will be less questions on support forums as the conflicts will already have been resolved by the installer. Unless you use an installer for a curated, conflict-resolved modlist, then you don't. Fixed. It depends. Some modlists only require use of xEdit to clean the Bethesda DLC ESMs which you don't actually need to do and in fact many recommend to not do it as it can cause problems. You could make exactly the same argument about curated modlists like STEP. In fact, the irony here is that you could make virtually all your arguments about curated modlists. And I already stated above that automation reduces the potential for human error to occur thereby reducing support calls. So it saves users and guide authors time. Win-win. Fortunately you don't have any right to impose onto other people how they build their modded game or how much knowledge people should have about modding their game. <facepalm> Sorry, but I can't believe you actually wrote this. I literally cringed. Suffice it to say that I don't agree with anything that you've written, particularly your view that everyone should learn how to mod their game the 'manual' way. Avoiding or eliminating the potential for problems to occur in the first instance is a better strategy. Indeed. Hence why I was particularly bemused by this comment:

I'm well aware of the recent announcement. You've misunderstood my comment, the gist of which is that any new integration requires work. Wabbajck wouldn't be redundant as it automates the repetitive tasks and saves time. This is a ridiculous over-reaction, frankly. I have previously supported STEP monetarily and I continue to support STEP by recommending your guide on the Nexus and elsewhere to people having problems modding Skyrim. Accusing me of borderline entitlement, given these facts, is insulting especially given that the efforts that I have made are in recognition of the work the STEP team has done in the community. If asking what the community wants constitutes 'entitlement' to you, then perhaps you should reacquaint yourself with what a 'community' actually is. Further, I've previously offered you my help, especially on the technical side but I have been ignored. Twice. I have developed the distinct impression that you are disinclined to bring on new team members with fresh ideas and my view has only been further confirmed by your hostility here. And I am being considerate of your time. Automating part of the modding process reduces the potential for human error to occur and therefore reduces support calls. This should be of interest to you personally given your recent announcement of pulling back, citing Nexus users as one reason, a reason I am sympathetic towards as a mod author and frequenter of the Nexus. And nobody is suggesting that all the work needs to be done by just two of you. That is a restriction you have imposed upon yourselves. Easier and faster does not equal lazier. That logic does not follow and is inconsistent with your previous comments about being considerate of people's time. The main reason is that it saves everyone time. So you're saying that STEP can't evolve because of a word? Again, that's an artificial restriction you've imposed upon yourself. And the 'handout' comment was unnecessary and inaccurate. This is an erroneous assumption that could have been avoided merely by asking. As a supporter of STEP for many years, I've found your response disappointing, presumptive, close-minded and lacking in goodwill. Much of what you've written is you reacting to what you think I mean or just making assumptions without evidence. You would benefit from a fresh perspective given the artificial and unnecessary constraints you adhere to. I'm sure if we had this conversation in person, it would have been much more positive and productive. As it is, I reject the unnecessary tone and much of the content of your response for the reasons given.

How? And so does an integration with ModPicker. I don't follow this point, sorry. What's missing here is consideration of what the community/STEP users want. If 90% of STEP users would like a Wabbajack installer, would you still take the same stance as you have above? And it's irrelevant that STEP is a hobby site. People still value their time when they are engaged with their hobbies - if there's a quicker, more effective way to avoid the mundane stuff, most would implement it. Take a look at the STEP guide. It's a what to do. Clicking on links and hitting 'download' isn't a hobby. Sure, some of us get into the detail of why certain things are being done but it's a means to an end, not an end in itself. I think you're confusing the process with the goal.

The logical question here is: why not? Wabbajack would seem to be a natural fit for STEP, especially given that STEP for SE is more tightly focused than previous incarnations.

Out of interest, did you consider going with Open Morrowind rather than vanilla? There are a lot of mods that work off-the-shelf with OpenMW and some that require a only little tweaking to run.

Tech, you and I both know that this is completely unnecessary as, according to Our Lord & Saviour T.H.: "It just works!". But seriously, it was one of the reasons why I asked about the Skyrim install path. It used to be that Skyrim had to be installed on the same drive as Steam, although it might be different now, and likely wouldn't explain the CTDs. @soulmata - you don't need to reinstall Skyrim each time, you can just revert to Vanilla which is detailed in the STEP wiki. @GrantSP - I think soulmata is referring to, respectively, after installing STEP and before installing STEP.

Do you have Skyrim installed to the same SSD as Steam?

Haha - that's pretty much what I do. But you didn't answer the questions.

Did you establish you had a stable game immediately after you completed the STEP installation, whether Extended or Core? Did you configure BethINI?

Do you still need the swap masters script mod to make CWO depend on USLEEP? I might have those archives - I’ll look when I get home.

Looking good. Colour palette is spot on. Have you done any creatures or other models?

It looks like at least one texture and quite possibly more are not being applied in game due to the changes SMIM makes to the default file pathing. Reference post and relevant quote: The specific issue above is for STEP: Extended as aMidianBorn Whiterun isn't part of STEP: Core, but as I said, there may be Core textures that are not being applied because of this issue.

aMidianBorn Whiterun: wrcastlecarvings.dds The only reason I noticed is due to MagnusMcMullet's comments in this thread - obviously MO is applying the correct texture for him and it appears he's using STEP: Extended as well. So I suspect it isn't MO, hence why I raised the SMIM pathing issue but that wouldn't really make sense either.

I'm having a similar problem to the OP - I can't get AMidianBorn's Whiterun Pillar Carvings texture to show in my game even though it's showing in the data tab of MO as the active texture. Is it because of the pathing changes made by Brumbek to SMIM a little while ago? That's the only texture I've noticed not appearing but there may be others. I'm using STEP: Extended.

I think STEP still uses SFO v1.87 due to the custom billboards in the STEP Compilation. If you use a later version of SFO, just run the updated billboards after the STEP Compilation. Source. I looked at the SRO version both ingame and with XnViewMP and I'm not seeing that much of a difference. The texture still looks stretched around the pillar and the motif itself is bland. Am I missing something here? Here's a screenie. There you go. Holy Mother of Dread Sithis. I've been blind all this time. How could I have missed that?! I thought you were referring to the top binding. But yeah the ropes are a bit average.

1. I have the same issue. A simpler fix is to hide the following files in SMIM: textures\dungeons\candles01.dds textures\dungeons\candles01_g.ddstextures\dungeons\candles01_n.dds Before After 2. I'm not seeing how they don't line up - could you post a screenshot? 3. Couldn't agree more re AMidianBorn's wrcastlecarvings texture but I think the problem is that the Vanilla one is just drab and uninspiring and given how much the texture dominates the interior of Dragonsreach it's a prime candidate for replacement. SMIM Celtic is a far more attractive option but obviously exceeds the STEP mandate. Of course, users can see thumbnail images at time of install and choose accordingly, but a more attractive form of the vanilla version would be welcome. A minor note, AMidianBorn Whiterun isn't part of STEP: Core. Not wanting to hijack your thread, but if I might add a few of my observations/annoyances: 4. Trees HD seems to tile the texture that belongs to one of the fallen trees and it bugs me no end. Can anyone suggest a fix? 5. More texture tiling on the house eaves in Whiterun. 6. Whiterun fugliness - the corner stones look like they're glued over the top. Once again, can anyone suggest a fix? 7. The Whiterun house motifs have a blank space. Yes I know that's nitpicky but I don't like it....

While I love the barrel animation and being able to (partially) see the barrel interior, I have to agree regarding the sack animation. It just doesn't look convincing and I'm sure it takes longer to run than the barrel animation. However, if you run Quick Loot in addition to Animated Clutter, you don't have the animation delay before you can loot, although the animation still plays. (EDIT: And time doesn't stop either.) Ideally I'd leave out the sack animation entirely.

Perhaps, but generally when it comes to Bethesda, it's usually just incompetence. And recidivism....

Under the CK EULA, Bethesda have been granted a right to use said mod anyway: "You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit." While I don't agree that it's taking from the modding community, it doesn't make it any less palatable.

The reason people are throwing around two figures is that if you want to buy it after the free period, you have to spend the equivalent of $15 in Bethesda currency to buy it. If they'd priced it at $7.50 it would match the minimum spend. That's what I understand anyway. If Chesko is behind it, he's already been paid as a developer, contract now complete.

Kinda explained here.

AFAIK, Survival mode is free for the earlybirds. But you can't merge to zero and for us hardcore extreme modders, every esp slot saved means more modded goodness in the game!

I opted in to the beta but haven't played it yet. Might try it this evening. Here's a first impression from someone: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6027068-survival-mode-thoughts/ Another Bethesda facepalm moment however: it costs $8, but you can only buy credits packs for $7.50 and $15... Would free up a couple of esp slots, no...?

Length and complexity aside (which I don't mind, btw), I find the layout to be more user friendly than STEP, although I understand why STEP is configured the way it is - easier to maintain. Not having to Ctrl-click open a new browser tab to see what the additional instructions are, and then close the tab once I've finished installation, does save time, especially when the additional instructions are just one line. With SRLE: LotD, it's all on the one page. I also like the brief descriptions about the mods and notes which often help to answer: why am I installing this, what does this do, or, why am I configuring it like this? But the OP has come up with a great idea - I'm looking forward to testing out the utility. :)