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Unless I'm missing something, this isn't relevant, because our guides will always update (eventually) with the game updates. I personally update my game files with the official releases (albeit the updates always break things until all the applicable mods are updated likewise).

Yes, my mistake. I failed to remember that ACE is a requirement for the STEP patches. This has been fixed in the guide. The Step Conflict Resolution (CR) patch --including all plugins and files in the Nexus archive-- is a hard requirement of the guide. We've made it easy to exclude WACCF for those familiar with patching via xEdit, but we don't officially support it, because WACCF meets the Step Mandate requirements, in our (my?) opinion. It's really important that you follow the guide explicitly and completely such that you have the fully functional Step build. Only then should you experiment with your own customizations. Most of us just don't have the time or inclination to explain the limitless ways it can be customized further. This is precisely why we maintain the guide: to teach you the fundamentals needed to DIY and reduce the burden of explaining things redundantly. Deviate as you like, but please thoroughly read and understand the guide first before asking for help customizing your build. I've edited the Step Patches information in the guide to hopefully explain this all better, so please read that and let me know exactly what's not clear if you still don't follow. The special instructions for krypto's patches and AMB are examples of how we are supporting these optional components. Do let us know if something in the guide --and only within the context of the guide itself-- isn't clear. I think this topic has made it clear that we could've done a better job explaining the Step patches, so hopefully this change make it clear to you and others.

That's good advice. Thanks for the input! We'll see what and when it happens, I guess. As usual, we'll be using and testing the updated game as we are able. My free time is limited through the new year, so hopefully I will have more input of my own in a few weeks.

It looks like the best update yet, IMO

Strange that Nexus isn't tracking this with their SKSE stack tracker.

Compatibility patches allow two or more incompatible mods to be used together by making edits to the game data using xEdit. You can ignore those LOOT notes. We account for all that and much more with the Step patches. LOOT isn't aware of most custom patches like ours. Further reliable reading for the layman.

I see now and should have just checked the textures. The answer: extract and use the vanilla glow map or whatever it is you don't like. Alternatively, use a combination of textures from any number of other mods. Loose files will always win over the AMB archive assets. Top is vanilla, bottom is AMB

The simplest answer is to simply follow the guide instructions. It sounds like you are trying to guess at some things to avoid going through the process. We created the guide to obviate questions like these. The instructions for krypto's patches are pretty clear. Do not use the FOMOD. Not installing CACO? Then don't install those patches. Obviously, you would not install the Step CACO patch either. Same logic applies for TCIY and CCOR. ACE is not a master for any of our patches, so it doesn't matter. WACCF is a hard requirement for our CR patch though. The patches are configured to allow people to skip certain mods that would otherwise require patching. If you were not running TCIY, CACO, and CCOR, then you would only install #17 of krypto's patches and only the Step CR patch. Reading the guide and following the process should answer your questions.

Looking at @Mousetick's screenshot, this doesn't seem to be the case. EDIT: I'll need to check in-game against vanilla when I am able.

Exactly correct. I preferred profiles in the old days over multiple copies of portable MO 'instances'. Now that the implementation for instances is proper, I'm an instance guy.

Between these two mods, the textures for the argonian are exactly the same, and the meshes have only a single difference in the base node (the original uses BSDynamicTriShape, and the latest uses BSTriShape). I'll venture to guess that the in-game appearance is identical. @TechAngel85 probably included this mod to resolve the clipping problem in the 3rd person argonian edge case. Needless to say, even with the not-so-good neck cloth textures, it's probably better than massive clipping for argonian 3rd person. The new one also includes the khajiit, so it;s my preference. Incidentally, the khajiit textures are much better and actually come from Rustic Clothing (presumably improved over vanilla). The argonian textures are custom (and could use a complete retex more like vanilla/Rustic, IMO). I vote to drop the former and replace it with this, even though I will never ever see this stuff in game.

I'm With @Mousetick on this one. I never use third person, and I have never evaluated our current version for Argonians, but that neck texture seems wrong. I'll take a look at specific assets as my time allows (very slim on time these days). Thanks for the screens.

Moved to the correct forum. Please read the entire DynDOLOD Alpha OP for basics, and provide your log files for the most recent generation as described. There's also links to more information. Also, there is mention of COTN on the DynDOLOD Alpha topic: https://stepmodifications.org/forum/search/?q=COTN&quick=1&type=forums_topic&item=17510

Basically, I was trying to say in my previous post that it is best to create a new instance for a customization of the Step build. You will undoubtedly have different mod-level requirements for your custom build, which profiles cannot accommodate. I personally have no need for profiles and prefer instances in almost every use case.

You don't need to install any of your custom mods at the install priority of their respective Step ModGroups. I would add a new section for "MyMods" at higest priority, and move things around accordingly to achieve the asset conflict resolution y9ou prefer if your mod's assets should not win every conflict. This keeps your mods easily distinguishable from the Step mods. You can also prefix your mods with a string like "My Mod - "

If you guys are playing with this more inclusive version and can vouch for it, I'd say we should replace this mod with the new combined mod. I think the ESL (ESPFE) optional may be best for this. Also, I've determined that the record in question is in the Step CR WACCP patch, and it can be removed entirely. Masque of Clavicus Vile for Beast Race SE incorporates all of the WACCP changes for this record (I wonder if this was intentional or not) and is the last to modify this record, so no need to patch it at all. You still must remove the former "Masque of Argonian Vile SSE" master from the the "Step - CR - WACCP Patch" after removing the record ... and don't forget to re-add the "Step - Conflict Resolution Patch" as a master for the "Step - CR - WACCP Patch".

Just to be clear, I don't think its an issue with this texture or NIF. Check that nothing else is providing these.

I haven't checked in game, but in Step, the assets are provided by aMidianborn Content Addon.

I personally never archive any of my mods (I use MO). I just install the files into an empty mod "as is". You can certainly zip them though as long as you don't include the root folder in the archive (just the files folders in the root of the source location). Either way, simply place the output files into a new 'mod' and treat it like a mod, archived or not. DynDOLOD tools provide the zip feature as a convenience, but xLODGen doesn't. Generate your terrain LOD with xLODGen, add the output as a mod of highest priority, enable that mod, run TexGen/DynDOLOD, install that output as a mod at highest priority, sort plugins with LOOT, enjoy LOD specific to your mod list and plugins..

@sheson, you may be the best person to corroborate/refute/explain this phenomenon.

Yes, if you are only swapping out the ENB, the assets and plugins have no relevance. The post processing mods and patches apply to any ENB, except for some of the more complex ones that bundle or recommend other assets and plugins to work with ENB. Our 21-Post-Processing ModGroup takes care of all that.

Just to clarify, the simplest way to view asset conflicts in MO is to double click the mod name in the left pane to open the Information dialog, Go to the Conflicts tab and use those filters. You can also go to the Data tab in the MO right pane and use the filter at the bottom of that to type/paste the file name to see what mod provides it.

For one, you should install Steam and the game per the System Setup Guide, and launch the game via the Steam launcher to get everything established correctly. I let Steam live in Program Files where it wants to be, but we provide the guidance Greg linked to avoid Windows UAC issues, which can be avoided in other ways by messing with Windows OS behavior ... but we don't provide instructions to subvert the OS to your liking for obvious reasons. You can then either reset the executable configuration in MO or simply start over. I recommend the latter, because it requires no tedious explanation/instructions ... since we explain it all in the guides.

First, see the Current guide changelog Highlights section That section links to create a new MO instance Only a new instance provides clean separation when changing up the mod list. Profiles are good for quickly spinning off a variant, but all mods are shared between profiles of the same MO instance (among other things). This is why you should carefully read this subpage article.

Since this mod's Nexus page is configured to maintain MO versioning fidelity at the level of each of the Misc patch files, I have been able to verify that the only updated patch with respect to the Step guide is "Survival Mode (CC) __ CACO". So you must be correct that the changelog notes refer to the FOMOD file. In other words, this is a relatively trivial update that should not impact the current Step Patch much if at all (TBD).