Non STEP mods with STEP

[SiliconChip]

I have spent almost a week reading through S.T.E.P installation, mods and other guides along with descriptions of mods and downloading them(and it has been a pain 1mbit/s :(), and I would like to say, the work people have put into the Guide is totally awesome and I really appreciate it as Gamer and modder.

I have downloaded all the Core mods along with some optionals and some non-S.T.E.P mods, this is where I need help, I understand that while installing so mods together there is a need to check for compatibility, but how can know for sure, especially with 150-200 odd S.T.E.P recommended mods?

The non-S.T.E.P mods I have are:

Immersive Armors

Immersive Armors for NCPs

Convenient Horses

Apachii SkyHair

Climates of Tamriel

CBBE/UNP (havent decided one yet :P)

 

So, I am looking for advice as to whether the above mentioned mods will cause conflict, and what should be the Install order for the same.

Another mod I was looking was Project Parallax, but that requires only one of the HD re-texture mods and STEP seems to recommend installing multiple of them, one after the other, so I would also like if someone could tell me if and how I could make that mod work?

 

All input is appreciated. Please spare me if I have made any mistakes in the format of the post or in choosing the sub-forum, its my first post here.

 

[Aiyen]

Check out the Skyrim Revisited guide, it includes most of those mods.

Only one that is not in there is the immersive armors, but that is fairly simple to just add in. Just remember to run the bashed patch in order to get the leveled lists done properly so the items get into the game the right way.

 

Project parallax is an extension for ENB. So you need to run with ENB in order for it to function. It is just a set of alternative meshes and they should work with the STEP texture mods just fine.

[youtoo]

is there any general information for adding new mods? It seems like with STEP and Skyrim revisited its important to install mods in a certain order. So if I want to add mods that I think go in a certain category, is it a good start to add non-STEP mods when I add mods in that category?

 

so a bashed patch rolls up all the mods into 1 big patch right. Is that the same thing as a 'merge' in Wrye Bash. I saw that mentioned in the forum post discussing adding SkyRe and ASIS to Skyrim Revisited.

[phazer11]

No bashed patches are useful but do not "bundle" per se. They combine the leveled lists (items found throughout the game world and on NPC's, loot chests, etc) and place them in a prioritized list so they properly overwrite each other to make sure your leveled lists don't become a mess.

 

They also allow you to eliminate some mods like Realistic Crime Radius, the Arrows and Bolt Tweaks recover more arrows plugin and a few others things. There are also some mods and some Skyrim Revisited patches which it can detect and incorporate into itself thereby allowing you to free up some .esp slots.

 

However in order to make and consolidate into bigger patches say one for all the Realistic Lighting Overhaul pathes in Skyrim Revisited you would need to do so manually using tools like TES5Edit and probably follow Kelmych's guide. This is something I intend to do when I work out the bugs with my current install.

 

As for adding new mods a good example would be Iroha's addition to Skyrim Revisited which shows you how to add SkyRe and it follows the information and experiences from the Skyrim Revisited guide about TES5Edit to accomplish this. Skyrim Revisited is for more advanced modders so I wouldn't try it if it intimidates you, it does however provide a nice learning platform for using it's practices of making compatibility patches to when you DO deviate from Neovalen's mod list as most of us have.

[youtoo]

Why do you need to make and consolidate into bigger patches for Realistic Lighting Overhaul?

 

WHy do these patches allow you to eliminate mods like Realistic Crime radius? I am guessing they become redundant somehow.

 

 

by free up .esp slots? Is that where we get to 255 mods max? so a total of 255 .esp files?

[Kelmych]

Why do you need to make and consolidate into bigger patches for Realistic Lighting Overhaul?

RLO was just an example since it has multiple patch plugins. Patch consolidation (merging) is useful when you you have more plugins (esp and esm files) than Skyrim can handle; the only other alternative is to eliminate mods. The Bethesda games like Skyrim can only handle a maximum of 255 plugins (8 bit plugin addresses total minus one reserved plugin address).

 

WHy do these patches allow you to eliminate mods like Realistic Crime radius? I am guessing they become redundant somehow.

The bashed patch has:

the ability to incorporate a few parameter changes like crime radius directly into the crime radius, eliminating the need to have this as a separate plugin;

the ability to merge the contents directly into the bashed patch of a few mods (like some of the Arrow and Bolt Tweak plugins) that make small changes to Skyrim objects. It then deactivates the original plugin since its comnents are in the bashed patch.