pack A Real Explorer's Guide to Skyrim

[Nearox]

To be fair, ever since its launch in december 2012, Inns and Taverns has seen an update on average every few months. It's great though because she has been very consistent for nearly 2 years, though with some breaks inbetween. Every time so came back (least what I witnessed during the last 8 months) she released some new stuff and fixed any of the old :) 

 

I couldn't ask her to remove some of her own inns in favor of someone else's inns though... That'd be inappropriate. If anything, imho we have to provide a replacer esp ourselves. Shouldn't be too hard just cutting out the cells that conflict with ETaC. 

[darkside]

Dawn of Skyrim Collection by BluePianoTwo

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/58275/?

[Pretendeavor]

Hi guys, forgive me for being slightly (completely) off-topic, but I imagine a lot of you have a similar amount of mods/load order as I do. I was wondering how you guys test new mods in a build that is nearing 254 active plugins? I find it a real chore, because it takes several minutes to start SKSE through MO. Is it supposed to take that long? Also, using SUM for the 2 patches I have takes ages.

 

I have MO itself installed on my HDD, but both skyrim and my MO mods folder on my SSD. Would moving everything except the downloads folder to my SSD improve loading times? Again, I know it's off topic but I imagine many of you use SRLE+REGS+some additional mods.

[Nearox]

Hi guys, forgive me for being slightly (completely) off-topic, but I imagine a lot of you have a similar amount of mods/load order as I do. I was wondering how you guys test new mods in a build that is nearing 254 active plugins? I find it a real chore, because it takes several minutes to start SKSE through MO. Is it supposed to take that long? Also, using SUM for the 2 patches I have takes ages.

 

I have MO itself installed on my HDD, but both skyrim and my MO mods folder on my SSD. Would moving everything except the downloads folder to my SSD improve loading times? Again, I know it's off topic but I imagine many of you use SRLE+REGS+some additional mods.

It takes about 20 seconds for my game to start. Using SRLE + REGS. MO+ all the mod files are installed on SSD, as well as SKyrim. It certainly shouldn't take several minutes...

 

You could indeed try moving MO itself to SSD see if that makes a difference. If it doesn't, it could help if you list your system specs here as well as your enblocal.ini. Also SRLE+REGS should be way less than 254 plugins. Note that some big mods add significant amount of load times, like 3DNPC etc.

[redirishlord]

I have launch lag similar to Nearox's and a ridiculous amount of mods installed, launching from a HDD. If "several  minutes" isn't hyperbole, you definitely got a unique (non-REGS) issue. I use the SUM patcher with ASIS, DSR & EBD and it does take quite a while to complete - good time to go get a snack or catch up on STEP forum news.

[Nearox]

By the way @ everyone: we are just waiting for Jenna to come with the new patches for ETaC 13. When she launches them, we'll have a look and then we can update REGS with DoW/JK/Better Roads etc. Ever since the v13 launch she hasn't been around much though so we prob gonna have to wait it out a bit longer.

[redirishlord]

FWIW Regarding ETaC v12; I had previously merged all the ETaC v12 patches (I'm still using v12 until the ETaC v13 &/or REGS ETaC v13 patches become available) but experienced terrain issues related to merging navmeshes (explained at length in this forum by CJ & others). It turns out that the EWDR, ORS, Plaguesword & Taverns patches contain navmesh edits. The WC Holidays, LoS, NSutR, BFT, Falskaar & RS kids (available separately) patches are safe in this regard.

[Vedra]

FWIW Regarding ETaC v12; I had previously merged all the ETaC v12 patches (I'm still using v12 until the ETaC v13 &/or REGS ETaC v13 patches become available) but experienced terrain issues related to merging navmeshes (explained at length in this forum by CJ & others). It turns out that the EWDR, ORS, Plaguesword & Taverns patches contain navmesh edits. The WC Holidays, LoS, NSutR, BFT, Falskaar & RS kids (available separately) patches are safe in this regard.

Thank you for that! I'm about to merge some things and it seems super daunting cause of conflicting info everywhere. F.i. I'm very sure I have read before that merging the ETaC patches is safe, and Neovalen's SR:LE guide says to merge the main RealisticWaterTwo.esp, while the merging report thread says we shouldn't (https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?showtopic=1033740), so atm there's not really one guide that's safe to follow.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Vedra

[redirishlord]

Follow any applicable SR:LE &/or REGS guide instructions on that front, you'll get plenty of support if there's an issue. I've got notes on my STEP profile page that track what I'm using and what I've had success with, but in the end it's mostly trial and error (which is why I share my results). It hadn't occurred to me that the ETaC patches would have NavMesh edits, until I saw holes in the Rorikstead terrain. I'm off to test my new ETaC v12 patches merge this afternoon, hopefully the issue is resolved by leaving ETaC Complete Plaguesword patch standalone.

[redirishlord]

FWIW Regarding ETaC v12; I had previously merged all the ETaC v12 patches (I'm still using v12 until the ETaC v13 &/or REGS ETaC v13 patches become available) but experienced terrain issues related to merging navmeshes (explained at length in this forum by CJ & others). It turns out that the EWDR, ORS, Plaguesword & Taverns patches contain navmesh edits. The WC Holidays, LoS, NSutR, BFT, Falskaar & RS kids (available separately) patches are safe in this regard.

UPDATE: This works, but I needed to set LOOT metadata to ensure ETaC Complete loads after the relevant .esp plugins & ETaC Resources loads after the appropriate .esm plugins

[Pretendeavor]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my startup... issue. I have to admit 'several minutes' is indeed a hyperbole, it's actually around ~1.5 minute. It just felt longer. I indeed added quite a lot of mods to the standard SRLE-REGS installation. I might try moving the MO installation to my HDD but after redirishlord mentioned he loads his huge amount of mods from his HDD but still has a relatively short loading time I'm not sure I want to go through that trouble.

 

My specs: i5 3570K @ 3.4Ghz, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 1TB 7200RPM HDD, GTX 660ti 2GB, Windows 7 64-bit.

 

I'm pretty sure I have nothing strange going on in my enblocal.ini, I'll try disabling my ENB and see if it makes any difference. Would deleting/hiding any textures or meshes that are being overwritten (multiple times) make a difference? The problem there is that it will most likely affect my other profiles too, hmm..

 

Anyway, I guess trial and error is the real solution here! I'm glad it isn't supposed to take 3 seconds to launch or patch, because then I was doing something completely wrong. At least it forces me to take breaks, never knew you could spend this much time preparing to play a game x]

 

Looking forward to the 'big' update to the guide, I appreciate the work you put into it!

[redirishlord]

I notice that my ENB related splashes usually complete before my main menu appears, so I'm not sure that disabling that will do anything positive.

I have wondered about the effect of removing unnecessary content in MO, especially after seeing SR:LE's instructions in regard to not instling readme and other unnecessary files. I have been unchecking or removing redundant files (with the gray lightning bolt) as well.

I believe the largest positive impact on loading times for me has been to DDS optimize my textures and use performance versions (2k texture, 1k normals when available, 1k exterior otherwise). Basically just getting back to STEP basics after straying away on memory patch 3.0 fueled confidence.

I'll update my profile soon now that I've trimmed some unnecessary fat to reduce my load.

[DefyVelocity]

What is the current recommendation on a Solitude and Markarth overhaul? While I expect the Dawn of and JK series to eventually be completely compatible, Solitude and Markarth are currently not.

[CJ2311]

What is the current recommendation on a Solitude and Markarth overhaul? While I expect the Dawn of and JK series to eventually be completely compatible, Solitude and Markarth are currently not.

For Solitude: I think JK is going to win this one. However I've not had the time to test the Markarth overhauls so I can't comment on those still.

[Nearox]

What is the current recommendation on a Solitude and Markarth overhaul? While I expect the Dawn of and JK series to eventually be completely compatible, Solitude and Markarth are currently not.

 

 

For Solitude: I think JK is going to win this one. However I've not had the time to test the Markarth overhauls so I can't comment on those still.

Solitude combined version has just been released by JK and B2P. In all likelihood we will see a combined version of Markarth too.

 

Damn these are like the best times for REGS! Never had so many high quality city mods to choose from.