baronaatista

@ Mono - I didn't say that it was childish to argue that there may be levels of nuance the average person is unaware of in regards to gender and identity. What's childish is to whine when people dont refer to you in whatever manner you wish to be referred, doubly so when you wish to be referred to in a way that cuts against the average persons understanding of gender dynamics. Now again I'm not saying that there is no place for growth in society - to have a broader and perhaps more sensitive understanding of gender. I'm not personally convinced that that is true, but I'm certainly not opposed to it. I'm a lean guy, I don't have big muscles, I do yoga and am much more in touch with my emotions than the average man. I also have very little of the typical macho posturing (ie defensive walls) that many guys do. In addition to all of this I am a grown man that loves video games and comic books, and always has, and has nurtured his inner child rather well. I'm extremely choosy with the women I'll get involved with and as a result I go years in between dating typically. Do you know how many times I've been called a *** - by both men and women? Or genuinely mistaken for being gay (that one not so many - I'm not super effeminate or anything, just not super masculine either). You might say 'well there's nothing wrong with being gay, and you're apparently not anyway, so why should that bother you?' So it may not surprise you to hear that I have some personal demons that I battle in regards to my apparent lack of masculinity - and how that affects how much women are attracted to me, or how I have a tendency to just lie down for anyone who wants to walk over me sometimes. So being called a '***' or gay plucks on all those little strings for me. But that is my BS to deal with, and it would be childish of me to play the victim, and denounce and demonize anyone that doesn't immediately recognize and proclaim my 'straight' sexuality, or who, through various comments, makes me feel less of a man. Further, learning to deal with these emotions has helped me to grow and change, and feel much more confident and powerful in the world. There was a time when I could literally not talk to a woman I found attractive, or put my foot down and really mean it. This is my point. The doting parent, the parent that doesn't want their child to suffer at all, that tells them everything they want to hear and buys them whatever they want - that parent produces horrible children who turn into horrible adults 90% of the time. This modern elevation of 'victim' status, such that it is essentially considered virtuous to be 'offended' either on the part of a victim or because you yourself have been victimized - does absolutely no one any good at all. Everyone on earth has insecurities and weaknesses and feelings of anxiety or depression, can be offended and hurt by words and ideas, etc. The role of the victim is a powerless one, in which it is left up to the rest of society to protect you from your aggressors. The problem is taking on that relationship usually leaves the victim weaker - less able to cope with the pressures of the world, and more reliant on others for support.

* when I said this topic was an example of consequences, let me clarify - because ordinarily much of what I just wrote would be equated to some really severe bigotry and almost certainly insults would be hurled, and any sense of a possibility of a conversation would be lost.

I almost hate to even touch on the topic of 'trans-gendered' but I do feel that this topic is an excellent example of the 'consequences' of this modern victims + demons issue; and it is a modern issue. I in no way wish to belittle or harm the feelings of any person with body dysmorphia, and I absolutely agree that they deserve every amount of rights and compassions that we would apply to anyone else. Bottom line, they are people; and we are all trapped on this rock, floating around in space together. To be a conscious creature living through this, aware of your own mortality yet burdened (or gifted) with emotion, morality, intellect (or lack thereof), with a sensation of free will yet almost no control over your environment, genetics/biology, brain chemistry... is absolutely insane if you stop to think about it for just a second. I view almost any response to being a conscious creature on this planet perfectly understandable. That is not to say I agree with or endorse any and all states of being - merely that I accept and understand them to the best of my abilities, and I will fully admit that 'the best of my abilities' varies in strength depending on what exactly we're talking about; racism, sexism and violence being subjects I cant find much to 'accept' in. Now all that being said. I consider it almost on the level of... how can I put this. To argue that we as a society should treat and refer to a trans-gendered male as a woman, or female as a man, and that pointing out that they are not actually the sex they identify with is somehow offensive... Or that there might be confusion on the part of the average person as to the correct protocols in certain scenarios... It's childish. It's equivalent to us being the terrible indulgent parents that never tell their kids no - those kids are almost always snotty little brats, and they grow into terrible, self-obsessed adults. There is a reason we use the terms male and female and it needs no explanation whatsoever. That is not to say that I have a problem with trans-gendered people calling themselves whatever the hell they like. My problem is when they demand that everyone else on earth pretend that the color blue is red. This is attention-seeking, childish behavior and it is almost certainly related to their own internal demons; it would be much better to help these people come to terms with themselves and realize that the terminology is simply unimportant, and that as the whole 'trans-gendered movement' is a relatively recent phenomenon, it may take society a while to figure out all the proper protocols - it is simply not as straightforward as many claim it to be. The trans-gendered female MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter (ie. born a man - with the physique of a very athletic man, fighting in womens MMA) as an example. Call yourself whatever you like, if someone has a problem with that - **** them! But if someone doesn't know what to call you, that is not at least exclusively their fault; usually there is almost no complication in identifying male from female, and you are part of an extreme minority - whether its by choice or by the nature of your brain chemistry - it is in your own best interests to learn how to deal with that. None of this - pretty please! - keep in mind is an excuse to mock, or shame, or berate a trans-gendered person. I really do deliberately attempt to be as compassionate as I can to just about every person on earth... But we cannot be endlessly indulgent, and it doesn't serve anyone to play this bizarre game of pretend.

On BYS/AAE... I haven't added AAE yet as I was waiting for this new edition. Haven't looked through the 'normal' version much yet but I did poke around a bit, and I'm thinking this is the version for me. With that, I don't see any reason to continue using BYS - they seem to be working at the same problem in different ways, so even though they can work fine together, it seems a bit redundant. Also those corrupted silver weapons are pretty ugly. I don't use Heavy Armory or Dawngaurd Arsenal, so the one thing I'd like is a small expanded silver armory mod for myself, but I might add DA + Faction Crossbows and call it a day.

@TwistedMongoloid - Are you certain you've really got all your settings properly optimized? From video card to ini's to ENB? From there, you totally don't need to install absolutely everything in the guide. You can use it as a reference, just make sure you get all the appropriate patches for the mods you are using and then do the CR. It's really not that hard... If you don't like the Landscape & Environment section, don't install it. You can do your own thing. While I truly appreciate all the effort that has gone into it, as it is right now I prefer EL + EVT like SRLEX, so I use that. If that's too much for your system, just use SFO 2.5b and the other stuff from SRLE. Hell, toss a couple of the SRLEX LOTD mods if you like - use Immersive Fallen Trees + More Shipwrecks - as long as you're not doing the tricky merge that LOTD is, I'm fairly certain you can just add these mods, run DynDOLOD and you're good. It is a bit assinine to complain about poor performance when clearly many others are using the guide without said issue. Is it Darth, Paul & Lexy's job to make a guide for your computer? Or is it your job to adapt the guide to your system. Personally, I don't use city mods or anything that adds large complex structures to the game world, as in my experience these are the real heavy hitters to performance. I have a beastly rig (though constrained by Win10/DX9) and I can run just about everything else, but every time I add something like that my performance tanks. Moon and Star was the last one for me... I probably will install it and play sometime, perhaps on a lighter setup, cause it looks real cool, but I'm trying to build a thing that I can play for a long time with a lot of different characters, so long-term stability is more important to me. Notice here though I'm not saying 'these mods suck, no one should use them, please take them out of the guide'. I'm sure other people either see the cost/benefit to using them differently, or simply don't have the same performance issue as me.

I don't know if anyone is familiar with Sam Harris, but on the actual topic of 'are people too soft' or this new theme of being offended by just about anything and then going out and drawing lines, picking sides, and demonizing the offenders... Sam Harris has much to say about this, and an excellent podcast called 'Waking Up' where he discusses this exact topic and others with some very prolific modern thinkers. I wonder what is meant by 'will there be consequences'. I'd say there already are consequences, and they're multiple; 1 - the consequences for real people, who said the 'wrong thing' and then hordes of people feel completely justified in attacking them in any way they can. Careers and lives have been destroyed by this, from politicians and celebrities to ordinary people in ordinary jobs. 2 - it severely compromises the ability to have meaningful public discourse, which is a thing that is sorely needed at this very moment. If certain topics cant be broached, or certain words or ideas are completely taboo, major areas of discussion are off-limits, and we are all intellectually poorer for it. 3 - what I believe to be Sparrow's thought - that it's actually not good for the people who claim to be offended. Again, if you can't engage with challenging or opposing ideas or topics without completely losing your ****, that is a weakness on your part, and it will almost certainly impact your relationships, your private and professional life, as well as impeding your ability to grow intellectually. That being said, it is not in my opinion equivalent to say that the modern social rights movement is meaningless or completely unjustified. The world is still dominated by white males, and there absolutely are inequalities and racism and sexism and everything else. The point though isn't that those things exist, or whether we should continue to attempt to erode them and bring about a more inclusive, equitable society - we should - the point is that we need to be able to discuss these topics in public, from a variety of different viewpoints, without killing each other over it.

Haven't been using it for long, but I just finished installing most of this guide using MO2 without any hitches... Stuck to the STEP procedure for installation of MO + utilities for MO2 and don't think I had a single problem. Of course I have no technical knowledge whatsoever so perhaps I've just created a very nice house of cards that's ready to blow over any minute... Doesn't seem like it though.

@ jdsmith - yeah that's essentially what I'm trying to achieve on my end, I'm just much less ambitious than you guys I guess. My philosophy is usually one of 'less is more' ... Keeping in mind that my MO profile is 450 mods... Still, I don't use NPC retextures, UNPB, city mods, a couple of the quests, or most of the weapons and armor. Even the new landscape, while excellent, is just too much work for me. Plus - and I really hope I'm not offending anyone that worked on it, that is not my intention - I find the actual effect in game to be a bit visually discordant - some of the added trees meshes/textures just are not up to par with EVT, and even the actual placement of the some of the trees I find a bit awkward. Again, don't get me wrong - I enjoy the diversity it adds, and some of the trees are quite beautiful and fit perfectly into their surroundings. I'm also aware its a work in progress with a further landscape overhaul coming (if I understand correctly). I am still in love with the combo of EVT + EL, and really only want for a little tree diversity in there, but again would only really by psyched about said trees if they were made/edited by somerandomguy. I really want, just like you're saying - my game to have a consistent look and feel, as well as a consistent gameplay dynamic (and essentially I like that on the hardcore/rpg/survival side of things) ... I want it to be Skyrim, just fleshed out. The more you add, the larger and more complicated the project of balancing it all is. Still, you folks are clearly resourceful when it comes to this stuff so I'm sure that if others are desiring that level of balance it will get done.

I get that and that's one of the reasons I use the guide only as a reference for installation/mod suggestions and CR. I wasn't really thinking of all the additional stuff you guys use that also sort of breaks MLU... I suppose I'll have to learn more about leveled lists or wait for Dreadflopp to include it, as I'm sure he'll want it better balanced.

Ive been using Verdant with imaxgrasstypes=15 and imingrasssize=90 for a while now and it looks great. At that setting I didn't personally notice any performance impact at all, going to test now at 70 to check looks/performance but won't be able to do that until I can figure out how to make MIL not break MUS... even at bare minimum settings I'm still getting enchanted Elven/Glass/Ebony stuff showing up far too regularly (for my tastes at least). Has anyone else noticed? I thought to try to edit the levelled lists but I am a bit out of my depth there at the moment, and there is a LOT of stuff to go through.

One time after updating to 2.18 while running through Riverwood I did encounter a complete LOD worldspace, where nothing other than LOD's were loading (as far as I could tell) frozen-screen death shortly thereafter. This was on a testing run so I rebooted, deleted saves, started new game and all was good. I too had just installed the new SRLE LOTDB tree craziness. Oh and I did catch part of a building in Solitude floating in air at one point after that, but I intended to investigate a bit more before I mentioned - only saying now as it seems related.

Do you guys have the enbhelper.dll installed in your enbseries folder? Version .308 requires a helper .dll at least for weather mods. Doesn't sound like it should cause crashing without if you're just using enboost... worth a shot though. enbdev helper.dll This version require helper mod to run per weather setups (if not used, then ignore helper mod), download it from link in readme.

Vigor just updated (I know it was dropped) and seems to be pushing it's stamina drain mechanics, likely to differentiate from WC. Most of it sounds pretty cool, but there are some complaints about papyrus log spamming in the posts, and the changes do sound a little script-intensive. I like its injuries system much better, and still like it's effects on stamina and movement, but the amount of overlap and the fact that Vigor has simplified it's injuries, as well as getting maybe a little over-involved in the stamina bit... I'm dropping it too. Which leaves me feeling like I've got a major hole in my gameplay though. Chesko was talking about doing an injuries mod at one point, one that could hook into his proposed 'Vitality' system for Last Seed would be my ideal. I will never understand people that want an injuries mod without any necessity to manage injuries. That is the entire point of an injuries system! It's supposed to be different from regular damage, with longer-lasting effects and the need to manage it differently, not just an extra type of damage + an extra effect. Anyway. I need a good injury mod and a lightweight stamina/movement mod now :( About to install this 'which trees? all the trees' insanity to see how it looks.

Truly, the lords work is being done here on this thread. A million thank you's to everyone who contributes.

On the whole landscape thing, I have to say that I really like Enhanced Landscapes and Enhanced Vanilla Trees... Haven't tried SLO yet as I'm not experiencing fps issues with my setup, but it does look interesting particularly with the fixes by Hishutup. On the other hand Distinct Skyrim Landscapes is an interesting take as well. There is something to making certain areas more sparse, and EL can feel a tad over-cluttered sometimes. On top of all of that, I do miss the tree diversity from SFO in my current setup, and there are some plant textures and meshes in SFO that I don't think anything else covers, or at least as well as Vurt. It seems to me the absolute ideal would be EVT with edits - replacing certain trees with SFO trees (using Bent Pines and Large Junipers as well as trees from 2.5b), appropriate to the area, and possibly removing trees from some areas for performance/aesthetic. Then, an EL or SLO possibly with edits to match. Lol. I use Verdant and Unique Flowers and Plants as well, and they would fit nicely in there... though likely if you're looking for perfection Verdant would have to be heavily edited... I don't like grass clipping, but I can live with it for purty tundras and forests.

Oh and I'm also loving More Interesting Loot. Never used Wintermyst as I didn't like the sound of most of the enchantments, but MIL has some cool features, and again a great MCM with options so that it doesn't imbalance stuff with MLU/Scarcity.

No worries man, real life is more important. As you seem interested, I'm also in love with; Ethereal Cosmos & Auroras for nights... playing around with using stars from Enhanced Night Skyrim and just galaxies from EC. Gamwich's Auroras are awesome though. Also, recently installed Sands of Time - Sleeping Encounters and think it's a pretty cool addition to the Survival pack. Adds an element of danger to camping and has a good number of settings in the MCM; I set just about everything other than dungeons and caves to very low and disable encounters in Inns and Jorrvaskr, as that doesn't make any sense to me - on that note it would be nice to have an option to differentiate home invasions between homes in cities (which I would again consider nonsensical) and Hearthfire homes, but it is possible to just disable home invasions altogether. You can also set a delay between being awoken with the 'you're being attacked' message and when your assailants will actually begin attacking - so that it's not just a gang enemies hacking you to death as you get out of bed. Haven't played with it too much yet - only level 4 so far and have been attacked once; but on that note it appears to be working rather well, with the settings I have. Tentapalooza I would definitely recommend as a Campfire addon. You could consider some of what it adds non 'lore friendly' (the Egyptian or desert themed stuff you were pointing out in DigSite, which is incorporated into this mod) but I would argue they're just good thematic roleplaying alternatives. There's no reason Khajiit from Elseweyr couldn't bring stuff from their homeland, or craft it in Skyrim. It has coffins for vampire characters, cauldrons for witches, a cool tent spell (that can now be assigned to Illusion, Conjuration or Alteration on your preference), craftable storage (with the same issue as the other one unfortunately - infinite storage, only 25 weight) and tanning rack, a couple different chairs/stools and of course a variety of tents and bedrolls that go along with those themes. Well made, everything places easily and looks great - expands the functionality of campsites and adds to roleplay possibilities based around Campfire. Kesta's Bedrolls and Traps is really cool too, but very basic at the moment. Its unique feature is that you can now pick up any bedroll or trap placed in the world and then use them like any other campfire item. It will be updated in the future and the traps split into it's own mod, with different varieties of traps (steel, silver, possibly other materials) and the ability to bait/poison traps. Still a worthwhile addition at the moment (the craftable and placeable traps especially now with SOT Sleeping Encounters!), though I do find that I have too many recipes for bedrolls with it and Tentapalooza - so I cut them out for myself. All of these mods can be added to any setup conflict-free as far as I'm aware, and they make for nice additions to a Survival playstyle.

Never understood why blacksmith forge/horse trough water fix mods weren't incorporated into STEP/SRLE/Extended. I was never able to set it up properly in the past due to my refusal to learn things or pay attention to details, but now that I've got it working it seems a prime candidate for 'fixes' in all of these guides to me. This does make me think that there is a reason I may be unaware of? I recently added SOT Sleeping Encounters - can't shake the feeling that I've heard warnings about SOT mods in the past? The features of this one sounded too cool to at least give it a shot though. Haven't played with it too much, but you can set the likelihood of being attacked in various areas, and disable certain places (No attacks in Jorrvaskr/Inns for me). I keep the settings low cause I don't want it to be a bother, but I really enjoy things like this that can make for some unpredictable moments.

On ENB's - I've been playing with Organic ENB recently and have fallen in love. Colors are nicely balanced, shadows are dark and weighty without being blown out in the day, nights are dark, and there is a nice softness in interiors that plays well with smoke and particle effects - AND it's compatible with ELFX+Vivid Weathers, and is build on the newest ENB binary. *the DoF is pretty strong and I'm gonna adjust mine, as far as I'm aware its pretty easy to switch out DoF settings if theres one from an ENB you really like.

For caution, rebuilt merge without the Alternative Locations.esp, still seems worth it to me. Installed 3DNPC+Dawngaurd Meshes+Hearthfire patch to one folder, Alternative Locations patch to another, and the rest of the patches (EFF, CCOR+LVL Lists+Follower Perk Addon) to another, merged and replaced. Bueno?

Oh and on merging 3DNPC patches... the 'Alternative Locations' patch does have some navmesh records in it but they aren't conflicted with the other patches as far as I can see. In fact the only area of overlap I could find was an NPC 'Jade'... Don't know a ton about merging though, maybe there's something I'm missing? *Just tested, did the merge fine no errors, checking now in xEdit and as far as I can tell it looks good? Again I know next to nothing about navmesh, and only the basics of merging...

Yep I was just tired. I guess I must have had the profile .ini open in an explorer window when I started MO, and so it just wasn't updating in MO or something? Everything seems peachy now. Thanks a million for the amazing tool.

That Cosmos texture is a little overdone if you ask me, but I recently changed from Enhanced Night Skyrim (STEP) to Gamwich's Ethereal Cosmos which is absolutely gorgeous. Plus his Ethereal Aurora's and my nights have never looked better.

I actually recently discovered that forcing vSync through inspector while disabling ENB vSync provides much smoother fps myself. I wasn't turning off vSync in the in Syrim.ini though, gonna give that a shot when I get home.

Just switching over from SPINI to BethINI, for some reason MO will not pick up the new .ini's - I am pointing BethINI to MO/Profiles/(profile I'm attempting to optimize). I'm sure there is something stupid Im not thinking about, more than a little tired but I really have tried a bunch of things (pointed it to MyDocuments/MyGames/Skyrim and ran it there) and done searches, but I'm coming up empty here. I did also accidentally run it in the main Skyrim folder initially... Aaaand I still had files left over in MyDocuments location from SPINI when I ran it.