n0mad23

I haven't seen any performance hits with this in my latest LO. I've not running an ENB but am using SweetFX for post-processing and am most impressed with what Vivid Clouds and Fogs does visually to my environment. Granted, my gaming laptop (MSI) doesn't fit the "nogo for low end computers" clause of the description - however, I really would expect to see a bigger performance hit with this than I've experienced.

@EssArrBee - I am aware of the ruling. Because I live on the Left Coast, I'm also aware of the background blow-back resulting from the Left Coast states rejecting federal law with regards to recreational marijuana use has also had. The same "state's rights" arguments are being kicked around as a way to also reject the Supreme Court's ruling on same sex marriage, Roe v. Wade, and anti-segregation laws. I think the only reason that they're all still in the background is they don't have the same level of popular support that ending marijuana prohibition has. Strange times we live in. One progressive step forward and then two repressive ones back. I'd like to think (but am far too cynical) that progressive laws tend to be more popular than repressive ones. One must never underestimate the motivating power of fear.

Actually, here in the US there are several state with "anti-sodomy" laws still in place. They're almost never actually enforced, but they are law. This indicates that at least in some US states, what you do in the bedroom is subject to the local law. Know your rights! I do feel it's important to point out how often popular laws are neither just, nor are they "legal" outside of the arbitrary passing of laws to make them so.

How well Academia is appreciated in the US currently - fully 80% +/- are adjuncts making between .40 and .60 of a dollar that a tenured professor makes. Calling us "adjuncts" instead of "part-time hourly employees" is a disservice that helps veil this, too. One year, I (illegally according to my contracts) taught 10 credit hours more per quarter than I was allowed, teaching at 4 simultaneous community colleges and a university, and in 4 quarters I grossed $18k. My students working as baristas made more than I did. There's a reason fundamentalists (and here I'm using the term outside of its normalized religious usage) go after intellectuals early in the culling campaigns. Critical inquiry and thinking are dangerous to the status quo.

If we had to choose, I'd still take state sponsored "in-your-face propaganda of 'alternative lifestyles'" over state sponsored Abstinence Only education. The latter potentially far more dangerous to my daughters' lives than the former.

I have no tolerance for intolerance. I have no tolerance of people who think their beliefs trump empirical evidence. I have been working on my own diplomacy instead of whacking people alongside their heads which is my impulse. @Spock - you're right, and there's tons of evidence to support it. @elenhil - agreed, which is what God and Devil terms are about. In other discursive circles the same thing is called Discursive Formations (nothing outside the dominant paradigm exists and can't be talked about) or The Ideological State Apparatus. All basically the same things, with different lenses of interpretation. The dominant paradigm does indeed become "fact," when it isn't. It's an opinion or belief. The language of "War" is a good example of this - it has to be in binary terms and refuses to see nuance or multiple choice outcomes. Remember friends - ignorance is curable but stupidity is a terminal condition.

It's unfortunate the West "discovered" the Common Chimp before the Bonobo. I think looking at the latter biologically would help. Sex, for humans, is as much about the biology of our inherent social natures as it is hard-wired urges for procreation. Perhaps even more so socially. We're hard wired to be language users now. I personally suspect we're hard wired for sex for fun specifically because of our social natures. What other species has children so dependent for so long? Bonobos seem to be hard-wired bisexuals. We've got to try to keep those kids from having sex too early, and we've got to train really, really hard to be able to kill. Which is the natural and which is artificial? In my English 101 classes, very early into the sessions I do a class on "taboos." Partially this is just to get everyone engaged and compelled with what's before them - who doesn't want to talk about the things you can't talk about? I generally break the class into multiple small discussion groups and have them take notes, then bring the class together to consolidate all the ideas they came up with. One session in particular really stood out to me, as it was the only time I had to intervene in one of the small groups as they got to arguing at levels that were disruptive. The source of conflict? One woman refused to accept her group's wanting to put incest on their list of Western taboos. Why? Because it was "a biological mandate," that supersedes any kind of arbitrary cultural taboo, she argued. (Incest has always been the prerogative of gods and royalty but let's not go there.) It's "God terms" and "Devil terms" that really get in the way. If it's outside the ready-made terms (largely unexamined) within our culture, they're Devil terms and we can't talk about those. Same with God terms - gods help you if you try to point out logical problems with the position, as you don't criticize God. We impose meaning to justify our cultural norms. I've yet to meet a racist or homophobe who was born that way. I suspect there are a few out there, but aberrations do happen. My take, anyway. Edited for clarity.

I apologize if I inadvertently stirred the wasps' nest here. It wasn't my intent, but rather attempting to understand what the issue is behind these mods not cooperating (yet). Mostly I'm still kicking myself for getting so involved in a play-through when there was a ETaC patch waiting for me to test drive! When I work, I'm a college English professor so I'll officially volunteer here and now to make myself available for any assistance Mod authors posting here with technical writing, specifically if it involves language barrier/translation issues. I'm still fairly good at reading and writing in French (though it's fossilized enough I struggle to speak it) and a smattering of intact Bahasa Indonesian (which means Malay, too). I'd sure like to help in anyway I can. Cheers.

Lol - It's all pretty subjective, isn't it? My first reaction to the shiny cubemaps was feeling that they are ridiculous, too. But after playing this this installed for a bit I found I actually rather like them. It's like the women take better care of their armor than the male adventurers do. The shiny cubemap armors from Inconsequential NPCs are worse imo, and the Realistic Female Armors are about 1/2 as shiny as the former. You might appreciate the irony, spaceoden - I'm a big fan of HDT, but only in conjunction with Gamwich's Rustic Clothing and with those hunter gals soaking in the hot-springs. Yet I'm the guy who posted the link to "de-genderized" female armor. I personally really like hearing what other people think, so thanks for your view here! Cheers.

I must admit I haven't gotten much further with CK than my "wtf is this?" moments. I'm too olde skool to interface with youtube tutorials and prefer my technical documents to be actual print. The CK written documentation leaves much to be desired, at least that which I've assembled over the last couple months. I actually attempted CK learning initially as I hoped I could "fix" a couple of the Solitude expansion mods that are too problem filled for me to use. Came to my senses pretty quickly and decided it'd probably be easier and more productive to design a Soltidude expansion of my own. Maybe one of these days.... Am I understanding that the fixes to ETaC then requires that mod to be loaded in conjunction with Immersive Citizens in Creation Kit and then closely examine each nav mesh area where the two mods intersect? Sounds rough. I'm going to remain optimistic that MJB has success as I find I'm going through serious ETaC withdraws here.

I've been attempting to follow the dialog between the two mods as well, but not as regularly as I feel now I should have been. Most reports from ETaC indicates that things are working fairly well together now, but I haven't gotten the same impression from info on the Immersive Citizens end. A seamless cooperation between the two would/will be a dream come true for me. Immersive Citizens Incompatibility page states this: Will you do a compatibility patch for ETaC? I'll try, but there is no guarantee of success. For now, I didn't find any viable solution. What's going to happen if I use your mod along with ETaC or something similar? Most of the time, the AI used by the NPCs living in Riverwood will be disabled, as a result, the NPCs won't move for severals hours. When the AI is not disabled, the NPCs will often perform irrational moves. If you use the Inn version, NPCs won't be able to enter or to leave some Inns.

I just learned that there is recent patch to get Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul to work with ETaC. Has anyone here given the patch a try yet? I'm now up to Level 19 with my latest LO - play through, and find I'm missing the extra merchants and added habitation ambiance enough to be contemplating pulling the plug and reinstalling ETaC now that there's a patch up. But I'm nervous, too. Any thoughts and/or advice will be greatly appreciated.

@Kesta - lol. I forgot, but yes, in my attempt to further the population of Skyrim I do indeed have Prostitutes of Skyrim in my LO. Though he never has taken advantage of this, to the best of my knowledge, I suspect Gor from Interesting NPCs is very appreciative of this. Prostitutes of Skyrim is really unobtrusive, and if your imaginings of Skyrim allows Tamriel's Oldest Profession its a mod to use. Where they inhabit Inns, they wear the garb of Tavern Wenches which works for me in creating a populated ambiance that remains lore friendly. I'd recommend mannyGT's mod without hesitation to the appropriate audience. BTW - to those who haven't tested Lively Inns and Taverns, I suggest trying it at some point just to see animations that Betheseda incorporated but never implemented. The heavily intoxicated are certainly worth the price of admission, and the coughing/hacking sequences really emphasize the Nordic medieval smoke ventilation problem. I have to post a caveat though - be sure to use KnightRangersGuild's "Drunk Sinking Head Idles Fix" as it's beyond unsettling to see the glitch. My first test of LIAT ended with me removing the mod specifically because of this bug (I mistakenly though at the time it was LIAT's fault), but after KnightRangersGuild posted the fix, I had to give it another try. No regrets.

The only conflict I've had with Skooma Dealers of Skyrim is with Radiant and Unique Potions Poisons and Booze, but letting Skooma Dealers load was all that was required. RUPPB conflicts with the alcohol and skooma prices and effects. The alcohol effect is my only complaint re: Skooma Dealers as a single ale or mead leads to double vision. However, this is fixed with a provided patch if you're using Realistic Needs (I believe). When I first tried Skooma Dealers I was using ETaC modular (pretty much everything installed) plus Solitude Reborn along with Better Docks and didn't see any problem with the single dealer the mod brings to Solitude. There's one in Windhelm, one in Markarth, and the last in Riften - all wander between 2 spots just outside the city and in. Only 4 skooma merchants added, plus the rare finds of little stashes (2 or 3 bottles usually) at bandit camps, and other places that "make sense." For example, there are 2 bottles of felldew and 1 greenmote (the most powerful visual effects) in the dormitory of the Greybeards. I can see it. Inconsequential NPCs adds a skooma dealer in Riften as well (and two "flower girls" and two male skooma addicts) and this dealers prices adjust to Skooma Dealers if the latter has priority in LO. I am using Immersive Citizens overhaul this time around, and am now kicking myself as I've just learned there's a tentative patch made for use with ETaC. I'd given up ETaC this time around specifically to give IC Overhaul a try. Unfortunately I've been so into this play through (my first experience with Dawnstar DLC) that I'm all ready at Level 19 and feel pretty invested. I'm really missing the additions ETaC brings, and my villages really seem "too" small after having grown used to ETaC. Immersive Citizens seems to be working well with all my population additions. I'm really glad I went with the Less Lively version of LIAT as you are correct about more named citizens appearing in the pubs at night! I'm also using Become a Bard this time around (again) and I'm really digging turning the "allow npcs to dance" option in its MCM menu, and watching spontaneous awkward attempts at Nordic dancing in those densely packed pubs now. I've yet to see any "idiot npc" behavior even in these uber-dense scenes so I'm guessing Immersive Citizens is hugely responsible.

I had to populate the land with people (note - I think in Tamriel this isn't limited to humans). To this end I'm using - Inconsequential NPCs Interesting NPCs (Less) Lively Inns and Taverns and pretty much the entire Erkeil Team Populated series: -Populated Lands Roads Paths -Populated Prison Cells -Populated Forts Towers Places -Populated Cities Towns Villages -Populated Civil War (with only the patrols turned on) With these I've opted out of the option to use scripts to hire the mercenaries and guards. Pretty much the entire Erkeil Team series is script free. The Prince and the Pauper with Gamwich's Rustic Textures patch - makes socio-economic lines visible with those kids running around everywhere. Skooma Dealers of Skyrim - which I personally have recommended calling "Immersive Skooma Overhaul and other Lore Friendly Entheogens," as there really aren't too many dealers added (3 or 4). Prices are jacked way, way up which helps explain vanilla dialog about skooma murders and other crimes. I really dig the visual effects some of these drugs offer, and a ride through the falling leaves outside of Riften while tripping on felldew has to be seen to be appreciated. Skooma, in particular, is very well done - when ingested there's a horrendous visual "rush" with total disorientation that fades really quickly. Stamina regeneration is just slightly below an ultimate stamina regeneration potion for the duration of the skooma intoxication. Lights get bright, and if there's a bit of sunlight showing, the roads of Skyrim can look like the Yellow Brick Road for a while. As a visual metaphor, it really works for me - really ampy with some happy golden glow replicating the narcotic descriptions and the addition might be so attractive, though the mod itself doesn't add addiction.

Have you looked at TES5Edit to see if there are conflicts causing these? I must admit I'm scratching my head here, too.

As Immersion seems to be a significant aspect of STEP's focus, I was a bit surprised not to see this posted here yet. Realistic Female Armor Overhaul by LLX https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/70880/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D70880%26preview%3D&pUp=1 "Been working on this mod for a while. It's a compilation of several mods here on the nexus to replace the the female armor meshes (it doesn't touch the males) as well as some alternate variants. It's not finished, still have some reflection maps to add to several but i figured now would be a good time to release it. ChangesThis mod includes remesh/retextures for: Blades Daedric Dragonbone Dragonscale Ancient Nord/Draugr Ebony Ebony Mail Elven (Heavy/Light) Glass Imperial Iron Nightingale Nord (Steel) Plate Orcish Stormcloak Officer Steel Wolf Farm clothes Dawnguard armor Falmer Heavy Armor Royal Vampire armor Chitin Heavy Nordic Carved Stalrim Heavy Cultist robes And includes alternate variants of: Dragon Scale Ancient Nord Ebony Elven (Heavy/Light) Glass Nord (Steel) Plate Orcish Stormcloak Officer Wolf armor Royal Vampire Nordic Carved Also most (but not all) of the armors are environment mapped to be reflective using the skyrealism - shiny cubemaps" No more magical armor breast cups that appear or disappear depending upon your gender. I'm all ready a fan of this one.

FYI - the SSBT LODs work awesomely, for those fellow heretics who can overlook the over-sized coniferous needles. I tell myself, "this is Tamriel, not Earth, and these are not pines in any case," and all is well. Having to do a few "tfc" and "setscale 0.8" as I wander the main roads to move a few branches aside, but far fewer than I'd anticipated. I'm having way better results with SSBT and DynDoLOD than I'd secretly hoped. Such a lovely sight those great old growth trees off on those distant mountainsides.

Is it actually possible to play any of the GTA 4 franchise without a crack at this point if you own the discs? If anyone has ever gone through the abandoned Windows Live required login site can glimpse how Kafka-esque b'iness really can be. The entire link process is (or was when I tried it last) was so cynical that it ended up ultimately (after many, many pages) taking you right back to where you had started. Back when the internet required working knowledge of Unix (and probably a hacked university account), I had a BBS that focused on questions of property ownership of digital content. It seemed intriguing that something with arguably no mass (digital data) can really use the same laws and rules as other property. I was also pretty insulted that Microsoft wanted to charge me the same price for 5.25 floppy discs of Microsoft Word for writing fiction on as they were charging the law firm where I worked that actually were using the software commercially. It was insanely expensive back in the mid-late 80's. It's gotten a whole lot stranger in the decades following. Return to topic now.... (edited for questionable language)

I found with my last LO my CTDs seemed to be totally random and insignificant until I put DynDoLOD in. For the first time ever, I'd get ILS happening in Solitude when trying to exit from a shop or residence. My choice for "improving" the capital probably didn't help (Solitude Reborn). Spending some time running around with Memory Blocks Log activated and then both waiting for a crash or ILS, or exiting after a successful run between towns to look at the log was really illuminating. Both crashes and ILS's consistently occurred with sudden exponential memory use. Luckily, increasing the first value by 256 eliminated the problem. I've got a fresh install just up, and a "pretty close" to Extended install happening now. Try as I might, there are a few Core choices I just can't bring myself to do, and some non-mandate choices I have to make. I can't imagine the game without ELFX as the interior and exterior lighting choice. Skyrim HD is nice, but I really do prefer SRO. What's a modder to do? Anyway, I've got about 4.5 hours into a new game now and have had to dial SKSE.ini back to the original settings. Not once have I exceeded 450megs 360 megs, with my lowest at 349 (I went back and checked the numbers) according to Memory Blocks Log. I'm chalking this up to STEP as my LO base. Nice one gang! Edited: after pulling up the logs again. In three runs, the first was mostly around the Whiterun area and was 352 megs at the exit of the game. The second was between Whiterun and Ivarstead and up to see the Greybeards and closed at 239 megs. The last run was from there down to Riften cross country via Shors Stone and was the biggest at 360. It certainly looks better this time around, and is running smoother, too.

I'm hoping it's not some kind of "strange coincidence" but rather a foreshadow of things to come - my escape from Helgen was unlike any of the other 5 or 6 starts I've had before. Alduin shouted me across the first courtyard where the Imperial tells you to follow him, which has never happened before. As I rag-dolled through the air, I briefly wondered if I'd died all ready. Slid down the stone wall, and got back to my feet. Regaining control of foot functions and still in that locked-in 1st person view, I took off back across the courtyard. Alduin circled in on the right into my view. I had to stop as I could see him "watching me," as his head turned obviously focusing on me and he banked hard and shouted me across the court-yard again. When I finally made it to the archway leading to the second court-yard where you choose whether to follow the Imperial or the Stormcloak, Alduin was astride the arch shaking an imperial soldier in his mouth and then tossed him away. Can't wait to see if it continues to throw surprises my way. Though I've never been attracted enough to Dawnguard to buy it, Immersive Citizen's requirement was the single motivating factor for my recent purchase. Salut Shurah. Addendum: I managed to get a couple more hours of play time in before bed last night and am really impressed with IC. In Whiterun during a heavy thunderstorm (I'm running CoT v.5 now) I slipped into the apothecary to sell off alchemical related loot and the store was filled with named local women and their daughters. I have Wet & Cold's "go indoors" feature disabled, so that was something completely IC created. That's something I've never seen before. Nice.

I was using in briefly in my last play-through and really like it. It's back in my current brand new build awaiting launch. Glad to see it's being looked at here!

Funny you should post this Tech. I was contemplating this very thing on the long drive back from our Thanksgiving dinner tonight and had come to the same conclusion about copying that info over to the root skse installation. I'm taking it as a sign that I'm actually beginning to understand things with modding and MO. I hadn't considered contacting the author, but will do so as it's a great suggestion. Mostly I just posted this on this thread as I'm guessing I won't be the only person that installs a mod with a skse.ini attached. If you're making changes to the defaultHeapInitialAllocMB and not seeing the changes in your memory blocks log, it's certainly worth looking to see if your game's using an skse.ini that isn't where it should be. Cheers for the advice Tech. Much appreciated.

I'm still in the "lucky" noobie space - I've only had Skyrim for less than a year, and modding since April or May. Each mod I install goes through a period of testing from between one to three hours of game play - BEFORE I make a save to come back to which indicates I've committed to keeping said mod in my LO. The S.T.E.P. crew ROCKS. I love how you resist a fundamentalist approach to the Mandate as well. It's all about creating the most enjoyable experience with the equipment you've got, and this is THE PLACE where a dedicated Skyrim modder can find answers to those inevitable questions that are going to arise along the way. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised in testing XPMSE. BTW - I was gifted Dawnguard today via the Steam sale. Hooray! Now I have all the DLCs. I'm going to be completely redoing my MO install this week (I'm several updates behind with MO now) and will be going for V.2.2.9.2 extended officially!! My internet connection remains stable here so expect to see some questions appearing from me on this site as I reassemble a LO for my next playthrough.

You're approaching this correctly as far as I can tell. Definitely research incompatibilities before installing anything, with the knowledge that not all incompatibilities are necessarily documented. Out of your list, I'm only using Lanterns of Skyrim, wearable lanterns, Inconsequential NPCs, and both cloak mods. No issues with these with my own version of STEP Extended (I've opted out of a few choices and replaced with others). Be sure to install one at a time and take some time to "test drive" in your game before adding the next. Common sense stuff, really. And be sure to use Memory Blocks Log to make sure you're not pushing your memory blocks limits.