Greg

I initially used Mod Organizer to download and install mods from Nexus, but I decided I didn't like the way Mod Organizer dumps everything into one folder without any real choice. When I setup a new computer last year, I used Firefox to download the mods into a nice hierarchy based on the Nexus category. A disadvantage of doing it this way is that Mod Organizer doesn't link to the mod on Nexus and doesn't flag mods that have been updated, but the versioning in Mod Organizer doesn't really work that well anyway because of the way mods are structured on Nexus. I mean it complains that Static Mesh Improvement Mod 1.77 is newer than Static Mesh Improvement Mod 1.76 or an optional I've installed is older than the main mod because I'm not using the main mod. This is because it gets the version from the main mod and doesn't really know the version numbers of the optionals and patches. In other words, I never really paid any attention to the version indicators in Mod Organizer after figuring out that most of them are just wrong anyway. This really isn't Mod Organizer's fault... it 's more a lack of version control in the mods overall combined with the way Nexus dumps everything into one id. I use the Nexus Tracker for the most part to find updates, but even this isn't inflatable since I've found mods that were allegedly updated yesterday even though all the files in the Files tab were dated two years ago. The biggest advantage to me is that when I setup for a new play-through, I already have most of the mods I need nicely organized so I don't need to hit Nexus that much.

Install the wrapper version and use it. Use the injector version only if you can't get the wrapper version to work with your setup.

I think this is because the Intel DH77KC isn't designed for and doesn't really support overclocking. At least this is what I'm finding when searching for this motherboard.

I've never been into overclocking, either. I do a lot of software development and play Skyrim on the side when I can find time, so stability and cooling are my primary priorities. I know the last few ASUS motherboards I've purchased are fairly easy to overclock, but I've had the desire to try because I don't want the components running any warmer than absolutely necessary. I use the Hyper 212 EVO in my system as well and love it. The only minor complaint I have with it is that it might have been easier to install with three or four hands, but I think this is true of all the coolers that are designed for multiple processors.

I have to agree with TechAngel on this one. Do not skimp on the motherboard, power supply, or CPU cooling. If you want a quick comparison, open the motherboard link TechAngel included for the Pro version and this one for the MSI Z97 PC Mate so you can compare the two. See the blue thing between the two PCIe slots on the MSI motherboard? That's the itty bitty heatsink on the Z97 chipset. Look at the same place on the ASUS motherboard. That's a much larger heatsink on the Z87 chipset and it has better thermal properties to dissipate more heat. You can see a close-up picture of the Z87 heatsink. Also note that the ASUS motherboard has two additional large heatsinks on the support components around the CPU. See all the little round things around the processor socket and other places on the motherboard? These are high-quality solid capacitors on the ASUS motherboard that last years without breaking down. The MSI motherboard also has solid capacitors, which is a good thing. Compare this with best shot of a Supermicro motherboard I can find. You might have to squint, but the black cans with the silver tops are cheap off-the-shelf electrolytic capacitors that leak yucky goo and have been known to spark and explode. There are a hundred other factors that differentiate a quality motherboard from a not-so-much, but hopefully this is enough to point you in the right direction. For the record, I am in no way saying the MSI motherboard is bad... but it's not quite the same quality as the ASUS motherboard.

I don't recommend using any of the ENB presets on a laptop because they all take some additional CPU/GPU power. RealVision ENB Performance version might be significantly less performance hungry than some of the others, but it still needs some. If you have more than 4GB RAM on a 64-bit operating system, use ENBoost by itself without any of the ENB presets.

I think there are a couple of things at play here that casts serious doubt on this assertion. The rating given to a game is based on the content in the game itself. How can a rating even remotely be based on mods that don't yet exist? Even if the ratings board is using crystal balls and Tarot cards to attempt to predict future mods available for a game, shouldn't Skyrim have a XXX rating given all the mods available on LoversLab? This is nothing more than corporate snake oil in a lame attempt to blame someone else for alleged market losses. I also seriously doubt changing the rating from Teen to Mature cost Bethesda millions of dollars because of two very important factors at play here: 1) corporations inflate the numbers by claiming that (all teens in in the group) would have been eligible to purchase the game if it had a Teen rating directly representing one lost sale for every member of the group; and 2) corporations always use an inflated price (close to the retail price) of a product to further inflate reported market losses. In other words, these figures aren't even close to reality.

When you run TES5EDIT, did you right click the list of the plugins, select None, and then tick Update.esm before clicking OK?

I think your second scenario is closer to reality. Someone here already mentioned that donations increased on the first day and dwindled to near nothing by the second or third day. I think by now a large portion of the people on Steam and Nexus have already forgotten about the need to monetarily support mod authors. By the end of the week, it'll be near zero (if it isn't already near zero today).

I apologize for the confusion. I realize this is because the mod author hasn't setup the donate button or doesn't want to accept donations. It's just that I think I owe them at least something more than clicking the Endorse button for all their fine work. Mangaclub is another without a Donate button that I think should have one. Speaking of which, where's the tip jar on STEP? STEP Extended and all the packs are awesome thanks to guys (although I still haven't worked up the courage to try my hand at mixing SR:LE and REGS) and the support here is excellent.

It is easy to miss, but I do wish Nexus would at least acknowledge the donation in some manner so it shows which mods I've clicked the Donate button on (say the same it shows Endorse and Track)... this just so I can better track which mods still need my donation. I also see some mods that don't have a Donate button available and I keep feel guilty because I use these mods consistently in every play-through.

Except a few mod authors took a paid mod to the knee* and may not return? I think the Boston Tea Party was more civilized that some of these shenanigans. * Nozzer, I know you a beer for coming up with that phrase.

The short and easy answer is to start at the top of the STEP guide and install the mods you want in the order listed. The long answer is that you need to check the conflicts tab of each mod to determine which (if any) conflicting files you want to use in the game. If there are no conflicting files for a specific mod, it really doesn't matter (other than aesthetics) where you place this mod in the left pane. If there are conflicting files, you need to determine which you want to be used in the game. Say for example that you install Clothing and Clutter Fixes and Gemling Queen Jewelry. Both of these mods install NIFs for the circlets, so you probably want Gemling Queen Jewelry below Clothing and Clutter Fixes so the game uses Gemling Queen Jewelry's circlets. Patches should generally always be below the source mod in the left pane -- Unofficial Dragonborn Patch below Dragonborn, Skyrim Flora Overhaul - Dragonborn below Skyrim Flora Overhaul, etc.

Read this thread for the details on Memory Blocks Log.

Have you tried running the Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool yet? This performs some fairly extensive checks to resolve issues with the .NET Framework that might be overlooked by uninstalling and reinstalling. The link is to the documentation for the tool and download link is a little ways down the page just above the table containing the command-line options.

I had that Dremora in the lake at Morthal as well. It just stands there looking at me without really doing anything. It seems to be mostly benign and it went away at some point after I cleared the Oblivion gate. I seem to recall there was some strange issue with the water at that spot as well... as if the water switched meshes or textures as I walked.

I use a multi-monitor setup extensively for a lot of reasons, but (more appropriate to the topic at hand) I have never seriously considered attempting to use Skyrim on multiple monitors. It's definitely doable, but I don't see any advantage to doing so. Skyrim on three monitors

I've used ASUS motherboards exclusively for the past decade or so because they are rock solid, so I tossed out the Gigabyte for this reason alone. Of the two remaining choices, I would pick the ASUS Maximux VII Formula motherboard because it's cheaper than the ASUS Maximum VI Extreme, the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme has features I'll never use (OC panel, four-way CrossFireX, SSD secure erase). Even so, I think the ASUS Maximus VII Formula is a bit overkill unless you're into overclocking with liquid cooling. For comparison, I built my new rig last November using the same process and the ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard, which comes out about $100 cheaper.

If I had to limit Skyrim to just 10 mods, the initial set of mods are somewhat easy because they essentially fix Bethesda's UI to make the game easier and more enjoyable to play, or correct what I think is unrealistic NPC behavior. The next set of mods make the game a wee bit easier to get around. Finally, I just can't see playing Skyrim without Complete Crafting Overhaul since I use it so much to break down items into ingots that can be sold or remade into something more useful. This leaves one slot open and I'm having a difficult time choosing between Static Mesh Improvement Mod and aMidianBorn Book of Silence. SkyUI Better Dialog Controls Better MessageBox Controls Run for Your Lives The Paarthurnax Dilemma Guard Dialog Overhaul A Quality World Map with Roads HiRes Legible Road Signs Complete Crafting Overhaul

As I see it, you have three choices and none of them are real winners. You can get an R9 290X 8GB today, wait for a 980 with 8GB to be released, or wait for the AMD 300 series to be released in a month or six. The R9 290X and the 980 won't really perform nearly as well as the 970 SLI, and the R9 290X and 980 SLI probably won't be a significant performance increase to justify as an upgrade (although the picture might change if you do get a full refund of both GPUs). I don't know when the AMD R9 300 series will be release (rumors say possibly March or April but I'm not holding my breath), and I'm sure they'll have an early adopter tax applied for a while.

You might try this one as well? https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40540/?

I don't know of any mod that identifies NPCs as enemies when they are in your crosshairs from a distance. There are a few possibilities that might accomplish somewhat the same thing. Cast Detect Life when you're in range. Hostile NPCs should glow red while non-hostile NPCs should glow blue. This is unreliable and may depend on whether the NPC is currently hostile; in other words, a bandit going about that isn't aware of your presence may show as non-hostile. The range of Detect Life may also be limited.Use a ranged attack near the NPCs while sneaking to see if the NPCs become hostile. Enemy NPCs will show as red dots in your compass and will begin immediately searching for you. Of course, you'll need a good sneak level for this to work without revealing your location. This may backfire as well because some NPCs (I think the Afflicted) aren't normally hostile even in close proximity but may become hostile if they detect an attempt to attack them.If you have a really good sneak level (and perks), sneak up behind the NPC to read the description.Most of the time I think it's obvious when NPCs are hostile, but there are a few instances in which it's not so clear. Some seem to be intentional, but others seem to be AI glitches. Yesterday I was at the Falskaar docks giving the bandits an arrow to the knee and discovered a Falskaar Guard standing there surrounded by bandits. Of course, the only reason I know this is because I gave him an arrow to the knee and saw "Falskaar Guard" pop up in the damage display. Oops... I normally just save the game before entering combat so I can reload if something goes wonky. Some may call this cheating. Me, I call them saving my trousers.

Doesn't Mod Organizer rename hidden files to something like *.mohide? Assuming this is the case, you could just open the Information dialog for each mod with overwritten conflicts and hide all the overwritten conflict files. I imagine this will be time consuming, but this way you can then recursively delete *.mohide from the mod folder (something like del /f /s /q *.mohide). I'm just thinking it might be safer and easier to use the conflicts tab to hide the overwritten meshes and textures since you know these aren't used in the game.

I tried Mod Organizer 1.2.18 and this didn't make any difference. I then decided to manually enable the mods and moved them back into the correct order in the left pane. When I compare the original modlist.txt in the backup, three somewhat subtle differences appear in the diff: EFFECTS vs Effects really stood out, but I had to peek really close to see the difference between the and The, and location and Location. The first one is the name of the mod in modlist.txt and the second one is the name of the folder in the mods folder. I don't know if these were installed this way (not likely) or if I renamed them in the left pane either during or after installation (more likely), but it is somewhat puzzling why it was working before I reinstalled Windows and is bombing now. In any case, Mod Organizer picks up all three mods correctly after I renamed them in modlist.txt to exactly match the folder name.

I restored Mod Organizer from the backup last night, and they do match. I haven't made any changes since I installed Vividian ENB a few weeks ago and I also compared the profiles and mods with a backup from last week to verify they are identical to the ones I pulled from last night's backup. I'll try Mod Organizer 1.2.18 to see if it resolves the issue.