Ondrea

There's still some work on the feet that needs to be done so I use the version without foot meshes. The fur shoes on the bandits and a couple other shoes have some issues: https://i.imgur.com/8wsexdE.jpg

Someone correct me, but I think STEP's intent is not so much how lore-friendly, but is it still close to vanilla but just enhanced. While many of them sure are pretty, most are not recognizable from their original characters. Skyrim is harsh. Aside from some nobles, most of these women are fighters and workers and I would expect them to not be so flawless with styled hair. But I do agree there are some that are supposed to be considered pretty like Camilla that I've personally tweaked to be more fair in face. I've used the vanilla hair version of Inhabitants of Skyrim in the past and thought it was well done and mostly in keeping with vanilla. But I think most STEP users found even that far too pretty.

Another couple you can look into and personal favorites of mine are: True Daughters of Skyrim Women of Skyrim True Daughters has a little grittier look to it than the others so not as glamorous and one I use the most. Women of Skyrim offers a no-makeup option which looks great for Skyrim as well. I like the texture of Mature Skin but not the changes to the eyes and lips it makes.

I used to think occasional CTD's were just part of modded Skyrim. Then I started with just basic mods recommended here and a few past favorites and was completely CTD-free for the month or so I played that character (new mods I want to try always have me starting over ugh). The next character I added a few more mods in and started CTD'ing again. A few more times of this back and forth I realized which mods were causing me issues. Many are popular mods with no reported issues (Farm Animals, True Storms) but for whatever reason don't agree with my setup. So now I'm like you. I let one CTD slide, but if there's another not that long after, I'm done with that character and get rid of anything new I added, and start over. What I thought was just normal issues I had to deal with to play Skyrim really were avoidable after all.