When should I activate patches for mods?

[YamiJustin]

Following the S.T.E.P. guide, might be done tonight. I've noticed during the installation of certain mods that they have optional patches for mods I want to use, but ones that I will not be installing yet (since I'm following the guide). How exactly do I go about implementing a ton of new compatibility patches after the S.T.E.P. guide is finished?

[Mousetick]

1. Follow the guide to completion, strictly as described, without any additional mods.
2. Give the game a thorough spin (i.e. a couple of hours of gameplay, not five minutes) to ensure it's looking and working as intended.
3. Add other mods to taste, with their compatibility patches if applicable.
4. Sort with LOOT.
5. Run Nemesis to update animations and re-generate LODs with xLODGen/TexGen/DynDOLOD, if needed.

[Greg]

I also suggest keeping an editor (Notepad++ works fine) so you can add notes about any potential patches you may need after you have a fully working and tested version of the Step guide.

Once I have the guide fully working and tested thoroughly, I usually copy the Step profile to a new profile and add any mods and patches to a new profile. This way I can easily revert back to a working profile if something goes wrong.

[TechAngel85]

Moved to correct forum