Can't follow updated instructions for cleaning vanilla masters

[DiscomBob]

Coming back to STEP after a few years of not playing Skyrim, and getting stuck right near the start!

 

I've followed the guide to clean each of Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm (with manual cleaning), Hearthfires.esm and Dragonborn.esm - all fine, and I can see that these .esm files have been updated in Skyrim's data folder. But the guide says the mod list order after this stage should be:

 

1. DLC: Dawnguard.esm

2. DLC: HearthFires.esm

3. DLC: Dragonborn.esm

4. Cleaned Vanilla Masters

 

Is the last line a typo? Or else is the new guide missing the step of creating empty mods and moving the cleaned .esm files into these and activation in Mod Organizer 2 (as was in the pre-February 2020 version of the guide)? I've noticed that all older Mod Organizer 2 screenshots I can find by googling start similarly to that shown at https://forum.step-project.com/topic/9568-step-extended-mo-screenshot-examples/.

 

Can anyone please confirm if the updated guide should work, minus the unexplained fourth entry (so long as the cleaned .esm files are left in Skyrim's data folder), or should I revert to the previous guidance and create new mods manually and move the cleaned .esm files into them?

 

Thanks!

[TechAngel85]

 

Coming back to STEP after a few years of not playing Skyrim, and getting stuck right near the start!

 

I've followed the guide to clean each of Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm (with manual cleaning), Hearthfires.esm and Dragonborn.esm - all fine, and I can see that these .esm files have been updated in Skyrim's data folder. But the guide says the mod list order after this stage should be:

 

1. DLC: Dawnguard.esm

2. DLC: HearthFires.esm

3. DLC: Dragonborn.esm

4. Cleaned Vanilla Masters

 

Is the last line a typo? Or else is the new guide missing the step of creating empty mods and moving the cleaned .esm files into these and activation in Mod Organizer 2 (as was in the pre-February 2020 version of the guide)? I've noticed that all older Mod Organizer 2 screenshots I can find by googling start similarly to that shown at https://forum.step-project.com/topic/9568-step-extended-mo-screenshot-examples/.

 

Can anyone please confirm if the updated guide should work, minus the unexplained fourth entry (so long as the cleaned .esm files are left in Skyrim's data folder), or should I revert to the previous guidance and create new mods manually and move the cleaned .esm files into them?

 

Thanks!

 

Somehow the instructions I wrote never made it in. No idea how that happened because I, distinctly, remember writing them. Oh well, I updated the section with the missing instructions. Thanks for the catch!

[DiscomBob]

Somehow the instructions I wrote never made it in. No idea how that happened because I, distinctly, remember writing them. Oh well, I updated the section with the missing instructions. Thanks for the catch!

Great - thanks for the rapid fix!

 

The only remaining uncertainty I have regarding the instructions for cleaning the masters is that the "SSEEdit Backups" folder in the overwrite mod (no folder called "TES5Edit Backups" in my installation) has multiple versions of the Dawnguard.esm (presumably due to the manual fixes?) and all files have a date and timestring appended to their filename (e.g. Update.esm.backup.2020_02_15_12_55_22), which I'm not sure would work if simply moved from "SSEEdit Backups" folder to the Skyrim data folder. To be sure, I've used a copy of each of these .esm files I'd previously backed up from a fresh Steam validation of the data files instead.

[Greg]

I just copied these back into the data folder and removed the timestamp from the file names. For the Dawnguard backup, use the one with the oldest timestamp since this should be the original, unmodified version and delete the other one.

[TechAngel85]

Great - thanks for the rapid fix!

 

The only remaining uncertainty I have regarding the instructions for cleaning the masters is that the "SSEEdit Backups" folder in the overwrite mod (no folder called "TES5Edit Backups" in my installation) has multiple versions of the Dawnguard.esm (presumably due to the manual fixes?) and all files have a date and timestring appended to their filename (e.g. Update.esm.backup.2020_02_15_12_55_22), which I'm not sure would work if simply moved from "SSEEdit Backups" folder to the Skyrim data folder. To be sure, I've used a copy of each of these .esm files I'd previously backed up from a fresh Steam validation of the data files instead.

I changed it to "xEdit Backups". Users are still confused by the multiple versions of xEdit (TES5Edit, SSEEdit, FO4Edit...). Keep in mind that they are all the exact same program. "xEdit" is used as a general term in the community to refer to whatever version of it is being used. So anywhere you see "xEdit", you can replace it with "SSEEdit", if that is what you have installed.

 

I also added Greg's suggestion of using the latest timestamp when multiple files are present. 

[SaintBourbon]

From the guide:

If there are multiple copies of any of the files, use the one with the latest timestamp.

This implies we are to use the latest (i.e. most recent) timestamp, when I believe you mean the earliest (i.e. oldest) timestamp. It might also help to clarify in the guide that we want the oldest timestamps because we want the original, unmodified masters restored (as this was somewhat unclear).

[TechAngel85]

From the guide:

If there are multiple copies of any of the files, use the one with the latest timestamp.

This implies we are to use the latest (i.e. most recent) timestamp, when I believe you mean the earliest (i.e. oldest) timestamp. It might also help to clarify in the guide that we want the oldest timestamps because we want the original, unmodified masters restored (as this was somewhat unclear).

Yes, you are correct. Thank you! I've fixed that.