MontyMM

Possibly, but it's a question of degrees, not absolutes. I've never looked closely at Ars, but if its effects are as unbalancing as Rootsrat suggests of this mod, then I'd agree with you.

Based on what Rootsrat and Z have said, definitely seems more like a pack candidate. I'll think I'll be using it myself, because I don't like grinding for ingredients, but it clearly has balance implications for vanilla.

I really like the fact that it's region specific. Mods that make areas feel more distinctive are a big plus for me, as Bethsoft's gravest sin is reuse of the generic.

You've brought it to the right place - niggling flaws drive these cats wild!

Sounds good. I'll have a look. If it works well, seems like a no-brainer.

Looks good to me. Assuming the balance is fine, it looks like a very strong candidate.

I think, in due course, lighting will become quite a major focus. It would be good to have a few people on the team build up some expertise with ENBs. I can foresee a not-too-distant time when we spend a lot of time creating integrated solutions with RLO patches and our own ENB presets, etc . Z and TC have already tinkered, and I think it would be good if a couple more keen members invested some time in learning about ENB presets. It seems natural to me that STEP would have it's own solution, not least because we may well not find a combination of existing mods that meets our goals in this area. If anyone has the time and inclination, maybe hang out on the ENB forums, and learn to put something together with advice from the hardcore over there?

Yes, I had a look around. His suggestion is that because it was originally an outpost city of Cyrodil, it would and should look somewhat different, and I quite enjoyed that. I'm not a lore nut by any means, but if we're talking realism, both the Roman and Greek empires would absolutely have gone to the trouble of building in their own imposing style, to make a statement to the conquered. They were also making concrete bricks to build stronger structures, and the Romans would hack through solid rock just to keep their roads nice and straight, rather than going around an obstacle!

The guy gives his reasons for why he considers it lore friendly. Sounds fair enough to me. If the Cyrodillic empire was anything like the Roman one, shifting stones around would not have given them pause for a moment! I still quite like it, but hardly essential, and possibly a little too much of a change for STEP.

I think we should leave the brakes on this for a while. The most promising projects we looked at here are WIPs, and even the ENBs are evolving at a particularly rapid pace at the moment. Add to that, the big beasts like RCRN and CoT are brewing major new developments. I say we should focus on some of our many other tasks for the time being, and give the lighting mods a bit more time to settle. Having said that, I'd be very happy to simply recommend Skyrealism Cinematic (minus the letterbox) as our standard recommended post-processing solution for the time being. Just leave the lighting and weather mods out of the equation until the new generation has matured, and perhaps the ENBs are adapted to them.

I had a quick look, and I like it. Makes it seem like a more distinct and significant place. I wouldn't personally be concerned about it deviating too far from vanilla - it seems quite appropriate. Some of the smaller towns do feel like they were slapped togther without too much care.

You could really get me started with this stuff. I'm a member of Liberty, and this sort of thing is on my mind all the time. I think that people have a rather complacent perception of the nature of the internet. Because governments only learn and adapt very slowly, it has seemed for a generation that the net was a force for increasing freedom. But the giant has woken up, and we shall discover that it can, of course, operate in the opposite direction. To a large extent, I do believe that we get the government we deserve. People can be extremely bovine and apathetic. They show little concern now for the importance of privacy for its own sake. It wasn't very long ago that the idea of anyone, especially the government, interfering with our mail or looking at our library records (which were used for persecutions during the McCarthy witch-hunts) would have been seen as a major violation. Now they go much further every day, and only a small minority even squeak about it. Just so long they're keeping us safe from The Enemy...

We're not really focussing on major gameplay overhauls at the present, but we do intend to add gameplay 'packs' at a later stage. I'm personally very interested in this mod and some similar ones, and will be looking into it in the future. But right now, if we start analysing levelled lists and rich overhauls like this, on top of everything else, I think our heads would pop!

Quote from Arthmoor: "I cringed upon seeing the step where you have to zero out the entire Papyrus block. You're removing a pest problem by burning down the house."

I'd like to see this one done. The nonsense with rain really bugs me. If Bethsoft palms us off with another crappy iteration of this engine for TES VI, I shall send Todd Howard a dead mud crab in the mail.

My bank card just started thrashing about in my wallet, but luckily it has nowhere to perform its mischief yet. If it's as good as it's made out to be, I think people will be queuing up to buy it.

Reports of the Thunderbolt's death are greatly exaggerated. ;) When the next release is finalised, I'll put out a tool that will automate the editing of the mod archives, and also resolve conflicting files. It'll be script based in its first appearance, but a proper gui-based app is also under construction. It won't be Thunderbolt as originally conceived, but will provide the core functionality, which we can build upon later. In fairness to Dark0ne, he didn't complain about the auto downloading - I went to him to ask for consent. He was perfectly friendly and helpful about it, and there may be agreeable solutions in the future.

I'm just glad to see that TC is also occasionally prone to posting funny pictures and snapping at people that piss him off! :P

I think this will be happier in the Skyrim related section. I particularly like the one with the statuesque spellcaster, with a sort of van Gogh brush effect in the night sky. I think that is more interesting, because we've all seen so many nice screenshots, but that is unique.

Sydney has returned, and all is well. :)

The thing is toshaka, I don't see this as a fire at all. There was an initial debate, and now rspgc and I are having a different but related, friendly debate on the modes of expression that are acceptable. To me, this is all to the good - no fire involved! Really, I hope Sydney will take encouragement from the general response, and this will all be a storm in a teacup. EDIT: You're right about the off-topic, but it did seem like quite an urgent point to address within the thread. I would hate for Sydney to feel badly unnecessarily.

It is not necessary to preface every statement with "in my opinion" - in fact, that is redundant, because it must be the case. There is no substantive difference between, "that is the wrong colour", and, "in my opinion, that is the wrong colour." EDIT: I want to clarify what I mean here. When I say it is redundant, what I mean is that it is logically unnecessary, because it is impossible for a person to make a statement that is not their opinion. Even if I say, "That is definitely, absolutely, one hundred percent true," that is still clearly just my opinion of what the truth is. This business of saying IMO, and IMHO, is a nicety of speech (which can be seen as a polite gesture), but it does not in any way modify the meaning of what you are saying.

Well, by definition a process of constructive criticism and response is a form of debate, and can certainly include disagreements about factual interpretations. S4N is hardly saying "it sucks just because", or anything of the sort - he said the spectrum is off base, and could perhaps be corrected with Vision Lighting. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable and constructive statement to me, to which Sydney is very welcome to say, "You're wrong about that, and I don't intend to change it."

I still believe that it is acceptable to hold a different opinion on what the facts are - correctly or incorrectly. You won't have a very healthy debate in any arena if you simply accuse the opposing postion of spreading falsehoods. EDIT: Just to be clear on what I'm suggesting. Ignore the dbags for what they are, and if you take issue with someone else's interpretation of the facts, come here, debate it rigorously (as we do all the time), and don't take it personally.

I've witnessed the pressure created by ignorant, entitled douchebags on the Nexus, and it's caused me to blow off some steam from time to time (!). But, it's important not to conflate that noise with the reasonably-stated perceptions and opinions of someone like S4N. He and Sydney may respectfully disagree on certain points, and that's fine. If a mob then seize upon those views to berate Sydney and offend him, that IS a problem, but one entirely distinct from the original comments. My view is that the standard of behaviour on the Nexus is frequently very poor indeed, and that anyone releasing their work there must choose to tune out the bad noise. There are always ants at the picnic. I don't honestly think it would be rational to allow that nonsense to affect one emotionally - the evidence for massive appreciation and praise is overwhelming.