Using Steam Mods w/STEP

[sgensemer42]

In the STEP guide, only Nexus mods are mentioned. Can subscribing to the steam versions work with the STEP process?

 

In other words - How does/can Steam Mods work in a STEP configuration?

[Ganda]

From what I understand (and my personal opinion also) is that no one really likes steam workshop xD it doesn't allow you to control your mods (version for example) and forces you to have whatever the author has uploaded.

 

Pretty much makes Beta testing and bug fixing much harder to control.

[Kelmych]

It depends on how the subscription is managed and the types of mods in the Steam subscription, but you mean mixing STEP with mods from an ongoing Steam subscription the answer is generally no. You can include Steam mods which meet one of the following conditions:

• the Steam mod(s) has only an esp plugin and does not use any resources (no BSA files),
• the Steam mod(s) does not overwrite any vanilla resources,
• you subscribe to a mod, and then when the mod is loaded end the subscription (keeping the mod and, if the mod overwrites any vanilla resources, extracting the resources from the BSA into loose files); if updates are needed you can subscribe to get the update then unsubscribe again.

This is briefly discussed in the Using Mods from Steam Workshop and Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebars on this page .  STEP replaces vanilla resources with better quality ones, and as discussed in the Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebar, installation order can't be properly controlled when a mix of BSAs and loose files are used. Steam mods have all resources in a BSA (there are no loose files).

 

There are very few mods which are available only on Steam Workshop; many Steam Workshop mods are also available on Nexus.

[sgensemer42]

Unfortunately, that doesn't help me. For one thing - I am not a "pro" modder - so a lot of your explanation goes right over my head. I've never built a mod. Never even looked at the Creation Kit. Also the link you provided does not seem to bear any relationship to "Using Mods from Steam Workshop" and "Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebars". Or at least I cannot find that information there. Only info on DDSopt.

 

Bottom line:

Can you mix Steam Mods with Nexus mods and still build a STEP-compliant game? If so - how?

[Kelmych]

Unfortunately, that doesn't help me. For one thing - I am not a "pro" modder - so a lot of your explanation goes right over my head. I've never built a mod. Never even looked at the Creation Kit. Also the link you provided does not seem to bear any relationship to "Using Mods from Steam Workshop" and "Loose Files vs. BSAs sidebars". Or at least I cannot find that information there. Only info on DDSopt.

 

Look down about a half page and to the right for the sidebars

 

Bottom line:

Can you mix Steam Mods with Nexus mods and still build a STEP-compliant game? If so - how?

It depends a lot on the specific Steam mods you want to use; it would be useful if you gave some examples. None of the STEP mods are Steam-exclusive mods so I assume you have a few specific Steam mods you want to use. If you want to mix a lot of Steam mods with Nexus mods the answer is generally no. If you plan to maintain the Steam subscriptions for the mods you use the answer is also no. For any Steam mods you want to use, you will need to unsubscribe from the mod once it is loaded on your system so Steam doesn't update the mod. You then treat the Steam mod just as you would one that you download from Nexus; you move it out of the Skyrim/Data directory into a directory managed by Wrye Bash or Mod Organizer (whichever one you prefer to use). You may also need to later extract resources from BSAs into loose files and deleting the BSA files (Mod Organizer can do this automatically); STEP isn't designed for using mods where the resources are left in BSAs.

 

STEP itself does not, and won't be, include any mods that are only available on Steam.