plea

[SmegmusMagnus]

Howdy community…

 

     …so; when I installed STEP 1.9.1 or 3 a (?) I followed the guide meticulously and absolutely loved the result.  While it’s true that there were some problems, I chalked that up to 3 factors:  1) I used saves from heavily-modded pre-STEP installs; 2) I added many non-STEP mods to the basic STEP alignment; 3) I freely, w/out care, added mods to my basic, STEP-based, install-w/out care or caution.  The end result was (wait for it…)-fantastic, and largely, bug/glitch free!

 

     …so, when I decided to install STEP 2.1.1b, I made a resolute commitment to be very meticulous in following both the STEP guide and the Skyrim installation guide, tempered by the Skyrim STEP Wrye Smash guide.  Maybe it is a result of the non-integration of these 3 guides, or maybe because I was just impatient, but I did something different, instead-something I didn’t want to do, yet now want to ask the community what it thinks is the likely result…

 

     …I followed the STEP 2.1.1b guide meticulously through the section covering the must-be-in-order graphics/texture mods, and then simply used Smash to install every other mod in the guide w/out any care or consideration other than ensuring that all mods w/ options were rendered into simple form.  Other than that-nothing.  This resulted in BOSS recognizing, and ordering, everything w/out warnings, and all Smash tik-boxes are uniformly colored.  The game loads beautifully.

 

I only surrendered scrupulous attention to modding detail because I began to wonder if I had been too anal when using the previous STEP process (1.9. 3 or whatever), and wondered what would happen if I threw caution to the wind…

 

     …so my question is:  Although my game seems to be running nicely w/ my half-haphazard install method, is there likely any serious problems endemic which cannot be identified by the fairly short running-around testing which I have done so far (I have made it to Whiterun stables and surrounding areas without taking a single quest since leaving Helgen) or is it actually the case that one can install STEP rather cavalierly so long as anal-ness is observed throughout initial set-up and the order-specific texture mods?

 

     …in other words; given my partial adherence to procedure-have I opened myself up to bugs/glitches that are easily avoidable by patiently, and tediously, installing STEP in a more measured manner?

 

     Plus:  Could somebody please provide a basic guide to using ACH?  Either I’m just too stupid (very possible), or it is just not very easy to ascertain. – (or it is still in testing, and not ready for general use, I suppose).

 

Thank you.

 

 

   Iullus Cornelius Smegmus Magnus Pantocrator

[frihyland]

Sounds like you followed the guide and wiki as intended, as long as everything was ordered correctly in Wrye Smash you can install the whole damn thing in one click.

 

As for ahc give it another week or 2 and we'll have something worthwhile to use. Don't bet on any in depth documentation until pretty far down the road if you want to make your own custom xml lists, but we'll include a premade STEP xml for general use.

[z929669]

You did it right it sounds like. The only thing is that you may be running some assets that are not recommended or missing some that are. Very few though, and you will likely not even notice. This is why we wrote the guides, particularly the WB guide. As long as you used Wrye Bash to install the mods, and took care to adhere to the tips and tweaks sections, you should be good to go. ;)

[Farlo]

Actually, I went through the same process recently and I was rather delighted to run the game for the first time post-STEP-installation and not have anything blow up all the way to Riverwood. If you followed the guide where it says order matters then you'll be fine in that regard. If you didn't notice, all the other sections are in alphabetical order, so the installation order there (obviously) shouldn't matter.

 

With the awesome power of BOSS and WB it's unlikely you'll run into any major problems unless you install mods on top of STEP that aren't compatible, but that can mostly be avoided by (1) checking a mod's compatibility section before installing, (2) running WB and BOSS every time you install/update a mod, and (3) pay attention to any overwrite prompts when editing files.

 

The only other advice I'd offer is installing mods with Mod Organizer or another program that virtually builds your Data folder, that way you're not actually overwriting anything.

[stoppingby4now]

I do one click installs all the time with WB, so you aren't alone in choosing to do so.

[SmegmusMagnus]

thank you for your reassurance.