Trying to sort out STEP after TPC and NMM..

[Uncumber]

Hi there! Ok! ^^.. I've run in to a bit of a problem and thought I'd try and ask for some advice before doing something wrong and potentially mucking up my game. I'll explain the situation..

 

A few days ago I decided to re-install Skyrim after not playing it for a long while, I dug around for some great mods and installed them all good (via the NMM.) But then a couple of days ago I ran across the Texture Pack Combiner, 'Great!' I thought, a relatively simple way of having Skyrim look awesome. So I've spent the last couple of days downloading the huge list of mods, it's taken a good long time, the internet connection here is teeerrible. However, as I was approaching the bottom of the list and reading different mod's posts and forums, I run across STEP.

 

I don't know how I hadn't seen/heard about you guys before, but this looks absolutely incredible, an awful lot better than TPC.. clearly STEP is the way to go now. SO, I've just finished reading the guide and checking out your forum - buuut that leads me to my problem/questions. 

 

Either from the TPC list, or just from having the mods beforehand, I already have the vast majority of the mods on the STEP list now, all of the ones I found before the TPC list are installed and working (via NMM) and all of the TPC list mods are downloaded via NMM, although not yet installed/activated, as I had not yet got round to actually running the TPC program. Virtually every single one of my mods has been downloaded by clicking 'Download via NMM' on the Skyrim Nexus - will any of this be a problem?

 

The STEP guide clearly says using NMM is not supported, so if i download MO now, will it be easy enough for me to transfer all those NMM mods over? Is using MO (or WB) really that critical for STEP? as I've found NMM so useful! If I have to go over to MO, shall I uninstall all my mods in NMM first, or wait till they're in MO then disable them (or not disable them at all!)?

 

As I said, I had been playing with a quite a few mods installed already before I even looked at the TPC list, the prospect of resetting Skyrim and recalibrating all these mods and inis, again, is a bit grim > . < - so how important is a fresh start? Obviously I'm happy to put in the work if it is required!

 

Basicaaaally, right now;

 

I've been using NMM

Lots of mods already installed

Lots of mods just downloaded (via 'install via NMM'), but not activated.

Fairly hesitant to mess around too much with existing settings.

Steam-powered (SO slow!) internet connection.

Looking for advice on what to do exactly.

 

I'm really apologizing if this is a bit jumbled or if these questions have already been clearly answered, I feel like I've got mods and readmes and guides coming out of my ears =( I'll happily provide any more information if needed! 

[Lauren]

You can import mods from NMM into MO. I've never used NMM much myself, but once I got MO going it's pretty much the easiest thing ever. You can copy paste any ini's you've modified into MO's ini editor as well.

 

[Aiyen]

If you have all the mods already downloaded and in archive form then it is easy to convert to MO.

Just install every single one of them using the right click -> install mod. MO tells you if the mod has a good folder structure!

 

As for ini´s then MO will copy in the ones from the mygames/skyrim folder every time you make a new profile so no need to redo those.

 

As for reinstalling everything before you do it... in the worst case it should only be nessesary to just delete all the folders in the data dir. (After you have NMM uninstall everything) and then have steam revalidate your install to get the correct files back down. As long as you do not delete the .bsa archives etc. then it should be a fast download, since they contain all the data of the vanilla game.

 

Edit: Also make sure all your downloads are not in a folder in the data dir obviously! :)

[Uncumber]

Ahh that's absolutely amazing information, thank you =) Hrm, a feeew more questions however :( I'm reading this 'Reverting Skyrim to a Pristine (Vanilla) Installation' (https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Troubleshooting#Restore_Vanilla_Skyrim) and it mentions deleting everything in the data folder there and validating the install there that you mentioned.. I'm wondering where this will take me back to.. I see Dawnguard and Dragonborn aren't on the list of things to keep, I won't have to download both those again will I? Or am I just backing them up and copying them back?

 

Also, why do we 'Disable Automatic updates in Steam'? surely we'd want it to be at the latest patch?

 

Lastly, is it worth me doing any of this FIRST. Or would it be best simply to deactivate all mods, download MO, activate them all in there, sort out load order - and try it? OR is this 'vanilla start' very very vital?

 

I really am sorry for asking such simple questions, do appreciate your help a lot though! :)

[Aiyen]

The "Disable automatic updates on steam" is only required so that you do not suddenly one day start the game and meet an error that SKSE cannot start due to a wrong version of skyrim being used.... also in general mods are only compatible in the version of the game they are made for.

 

The reverting skyrim to pristine article is about what I mentioned... as long as you do not delete all the .bsa from the data folder then you will have a rather small download when you revalidate on steam. This is because all the vanilla textures, etc are all packed up in the .bsa archives.

 

Also all the mods you have downloaded are in archive form somewhere... just keep those and then get MO and install them manually in the order STEP recommends.

 

So I guess in list form it would be like this

1. Make sure all your downloaded mods are archived, hence in .rar format somewhere that is not the skyrim directory.

2. Uninstall everything from NMM, and then delete everything but the .bsa archives from the data folder.

3. Install MO, and set it up so that you can start a vanilla game with it! Just make a profile called vanilla.

4. Get BOSS WB etc. what you need installed and links made in MO so they work.

5. Create a new profile called STEP, and start to add mods in the order STEP suggests. Remember to test out the game as you go! Sorting with BOSS before you start etc.

 

If you get CTD´s at start then it is most likely because you have a mod that requires a master you either do not have, or it is in the wrong place in the load order.

 

Also if you can stand the wait it would ideally be best to just reinstall skyrim all over to make sure you have an entirely pristine install to begin with!

But if your internet is too slow for that then the above should suffice.

[Uncumber]

I really can't thank you enough, that information couldn't be any clearer - thank you, I'm going to give this all a try tonight, I'll let you know what's happened! Truly though, thanks!

[Uncumber]

Right! I've finally got it all working I think, all the mods are installed via MO, I followed your directions exactly and haven't had aaaany trouble at all! Sorted out the load order with BOSS, got rid of all the dirty edits with TES5Edit.. I've been running around in Skyrim trying to get it to lag/ctd but everything seems to be very, very smooth! I am very grateful indeed :D

 

Oh God, one LAST thing though - as I said my Skyrim seems to be running great with all this installed, hoooowever, in the MO, in the right hand data section, there are a fair few conflicts. Not that many, and in BOSS there's nothing bad showing up... So i'm just wondering how important these conflicts are to sort out? and how I'd go about sorting them out if they are important?

 

but yeah as I said.. game's running PERFECT (it seems!) now, so thank you!

 

edit: lastly lastly, is there somewhere where I can read what these different flags mean in the MO? i've tried googling quickly.. I've got quite a few lightning bolt symbols with either a '-' or '+' next to them, and some of the bolts are gold, some are silver. confusion!

[Aiyen]

Lighting tags mean that a mod is overwriting another mod (+) or being partly overwritten (-). If the bolt is grey then the entire mod is being overwritten.

This is mainly just textures from one mod overwriting a another mod due to the order in which you have placed your mods.

 

The Red entires in the Data tab is just to remind you that an entry is in two places at once.

All the base game .esm´s that you have cleaned should be in the overwrite directory. But the original .esm´s should still be in the skyrim Data dir.

MO sees this and makes a note of it.

 

Glad to hear that you got it all working. If you plan on testing it out "quickly"... just start from helgen, and do the main quest up until the first dragon kill.

If you get 0-1 CTD during all of that then your game is considered "stable"... if you get more, then you most likely have some memory issues since script issues should not be around on the STEP setup.