pack Dreadflopps Modular patches

[elwaps]

Hi Elwaps and thanks for your kind words. It doesn't matter it what order you install the packs. They do not contain files that overwrite each other. Just make sure you install the mods within each pack in the order they are listed and you'll be fine.

I am currently updating the packs. I am going to switch over to the lite version of Morrowloot and I am going to replace Combat Evolved with Wildcat. I am possibly removing Animal Tweaks as well but I haven't checked in xEdit yet. I am a little busy with enjoying the outdoors atm so the update is maybe two weeks away.

 

I am not very experienced with Dyndolod and LODs. The transitions are poor indeed and annoys me as well. I do not think there is any way to fix this except raising the uGrids in the ini-files. You need the mod https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/41592/? to do this. This will move the transition further away from you. It will also trigger scripted actions further away from you, which may cause trouble. I believe Neovalen knows more about this. I know he used to play with either 7 or 9 uGrids (5 is the vanilla value). I haven't played with anything but 5.

Thanks for your answer.

 

I have to admit I was a bit impatient and already started installing. The first pack was Survival, I've already tested it and it works fine - tho iNeeds seems to be a bit annoying, at least in the beginning, and its icons (aswell as those from Frostfall) seem to look a bit off compared to the Vanilla/SkyUI/iHUD ones. Gonna try to seamlessly integrate them into my HUD but it seems as there were no bar-ones for iNeed at all. Also, I think Hunterborn - tho being a great addition - kills the gameplay a bit with its oldschool menu, I don't know yet what to do about that.

 

While testing Survival I came to the same conclusion as you and increased uGridsToLoad from 5 to 7. The performance impact was pretty heavy, I'm at about 30fps in the wilds now. However, at that time I was still using fully rendered and animated trees for LOD4, LOD4 models for LOD8 and LOD8 models for LOD16. I am aware of the negative impacts uGridsToLoad can have (probably will have) on my game which can be quests triggered too early, dragons wiping out villages without me being around (which is somehow cool in my eyes as the world shouldn't be centered around me alone) and general instability (haven't had one CTD in about 2 hours of testing tho). I'll just continue playing with 7 and look if it keeps being stable.

Damn Skyrim engine, it seems if you couldn't make it use fully rendered trees outside of its little uGridsToLoad-box, so increasing this box seems to be the only actual way of killing the super-ugly 2D/3D transition which totally breaks immersion for me...

 

In the meanwhile I've also installed Skyrim Gameplay Rebalance, re-ran all patche®s and am currently waiting for DynDOLOD to finish. I haven't merged any patches so far but I guess they should work without merging too - as long as I don't hit the esp-limit yet. Can't wait for it to finish, I can't really believe it will work without issues due to the complexity of the guide. With that many mods I think its pretty likely I (not you) forgot some patch for something from STEP or one of my other mods. We'll see.

 

As for the install order, I tried to sort your pack-mods into the STEP categories and within these categories kept your recommended order. SGR, for example, is entirely in the Gameplay section (except for ASIS, which is in Patches now), Survival is partially in Equipment, partially in Misc I think. This sorting made sense to me. However, if it shouldn't work I now know what to do - so thank you again.

 

:)

[baronaatista]

Yeah even my layman-ass thought I noticed some odd decisions being made in Sir Jesto's patches, and I'm interested to see the results of the update for AAE + Astakos' discussion with SirJesto about the patches.

 

@Elwaps - the combination of Campfire, Frostfall, Hunterborn & INeed is a really excellent set of mods that work seemlessly together and support each other beautifully, but they can tend to push early gameplay towards a survivalist/hunter experience, and can slow down progress a bit with all the maintenance.  That happens to be exactly the type of game I want to play, so that's fantastic.  However if you find the 'maintenance' stuff boring/tedious, you might consider dropping Frostfall, Hunterborn & INeed.  Campfire comes with tons of cool options for crafting and setting up campsites, and I'm pretty sure can be used in just about any setup without worry. With Immersive Horses and Extensible Follower Framework, you can have all the fun of the playstyle of the 'traveling adventurer' without the needs stuff.

Also when I asked Dread about MO left pane management, I believe he suggested that the safest method was to load his packs after STEP rather than integrating.

 

@Dread - I know you only maintain the Survival pack for Hishutup at the moment? but as far as I'm aware you do use at least Campfire, Frostfall & INeed?  Anyway not that they need to be added to a pack (as they can be added freely without conflict), but have you ever looked at;

 

Simple Bedrolls and Supplies

Dig Site

Campfire Extensions - Bedrolls and Traps

[dreadflopp]

Ineed is a great mod. The UI is customizable but no bars unfortunately. That isn't something that I have ever needed though. Hunterborn can be skipped if you aren't going to play as a hunter. The simple UI can be bypassed by setting automatic actions in the MCM. You can also turn of the skinning takes time function if you want.

 

If you sort my mods in the pack categories, make sure to check that files aren't overwritten in the conflicts tab of MO. It is not recommended to do this but it will probably work if that is want you want to do.

 

@baronaatista

Haven't seen any of them. They look good. I'm not personally interested in Dig site because of its Egyptian theme. It looks good but not very lore friendly. The other two looks good but they both add bedrolls so you should probably only use one of them. Have you any experience of them, I could recommend one on the Survival pack page? I can make small changes to it even though I'm technically only maintain it.

Edited July 17, 2016 by dreadflopp

[Darth_mathias]

hey dread I need a bit of help tracking down an error that people keep mentioning me 

 

people keep say CACO_Immersive_Creatures_Patch_ lvl_list.esp that MP keeps spitting out this error:

 

 

 

Checking for errors in CACO_Immersive_Creatures_Patch_ lvl_list.esp
  _00DeathItemDurzog [LVLI:0F2C0A3B]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> [060059E6] < Error: Could not be resolved >
  _00DeathItemSnowbiteSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A601DF2]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemSnowbiteSpider [LVLI:0A601DF1]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemSpider [LVLI:0A601DF0]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemSwampSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A5EB867]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemSwampSpider [LVLI:0A5EB866]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathitemDreugh [LVLI:0A5B28FA]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemChaurusSwampWarrior [LVLI:0A1A0E1C]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A17E327]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemGiantCyclops [LVLI:0A00F61B]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
  _00DeathItemCyclops [LVLI:0A00F619]
    LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP
Checking for errors in CACO_GrayCowl_Patch_lvl list.esp
Checking for errors in CACO_3DNPC_Patch_lvl list.esp
Checking for errors in CACO_SkyTEST_lvl list.esp
Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__aMidianBorn_ContentAddon__MLU.esp
Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__MLU.esp
Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__CCOR pach and Nord dagger fix.esp
Checking for errors in SRLE__MLU - Lore Weapons Expansion - WAA.esp
All done!

 

 

 

now I personally don't have this error so have no idea where to start any advice would be helpful.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Darth_mathias

[dreadflopp]

hey dread I need a bit of help tracking down an error that people keep mentioning me

 

people keep say CACO_Immersive_Creatures_Patch_ lvl_list.esp that MP keeps spitting out this error:

 

 

 

Checking for errors in CACO_Immersive_Creatures_Patch_ lvl_list.esp

_00DeathItemDurzog [LVLI:0F2C0A3B]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> [060059E6] < Error: Could not be resolved >

_00DeathItemSnowbiteSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A601DF2]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemSnowbiteSpider [LVLI:0A601DF1]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemSpider [LVLI:0A601DF0]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemSwampSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A5EB867]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemSwampSpider [LVLI:0A5EB866]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathitemDreugh [LVLI:0A5B28FA]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemChaurusSwampWarrior [LVLI:0A1A0E1C]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemSpiderGiant [LVLI:0A17E327]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a MGEF reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemGiantCyclops [LVLI:0A00F61B]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

_00DeathItemCyclops [LVLI:0A00F619]

LVLI \ Leveled List Entries \ Leveled List Entry \ LVLO - Base Data \ Reference -> Found a COBJ reference, expected: ALCH,AMMO,APPA,ARMO,BOOK,INGR,KEYM,LIGH,LVLI,MISC,SCRL,SLGM,WEAP

Checking for errors in CACO_GrayCowl_Patch_lvl list.esp

Checking for errors in CACO_3DNPC_Patch_lvl list.esp

Checking for errors in CACO_SkyTEST_lvl list.esp

Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__aMidianBorn_ContentAddon__MLU.esp

Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__MLU.esp

Checking for errors in SRLE__Lore Weapon Expansion__CCOR pach and Nord dagger fix.esp

Checking for errors in SRLE__MLU - Lore Weapons Expansion - WAA.esp

All done!

 

 

 

now I personally don't have this error so have no idea where to start any advice would be helpful.

I will check it out. Not at my pc now but as soon as I can make time for it I'll do it. Is it only MP, not xEdit, that reports that error? I would check that the user is using all required mods that should be masters. The master is a plugin that is merged by the user, maybe something went wrong there? Changed FormIDs maybe? Another possibility is that SIC is using injected records. If so, a plugin that contains the correct keywords must be added as a master or the keywords must be added to this plugin but that would probably prevent it from being merged into the bashed patch. I looked at this plugin today actually and I didn't see anything odd.

[Darth_mathias]

I will check it out. Not at my pc now but as soon as I can make time for it I'll do it. Is it only MP, not xEdit, that reports that error? I would check that the user is using all required mods that should be masters. The master is a plugin that is merged by the user, maybe something went wrong there? Changed FormIDs maybe? Another possibility is that SIC is using injected records. If so, a plugin that contains the correct keywords must be added as a master or the keywords must be added to this plugin but that would probably prevent it from being merged into the bashed patch. I looked at this plugin today actually and I didn't see anything odd.

Actaully some have mention that it does show up in xEdit too when checking for errors.

 

If it helps track this down I did change the Masters in the file header from the one you normally use to CACO - Patches.esp which Neo and me uses for our CR's and that did cause the error my end but I then repaired the records. Lexy as a test did redid the her CACO merge and checked it xEdit and everything was fine. only a few people have reported this error but it was enough for me to just decide to pull it until I can get to the bottom of it.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Darth_mathias

[dreadflopp]

Actaully some have mention that it does show up in xEdit too when checking for errors.

 

If it helps track this down I did change the Masters in the file header from the one you normally use to CACO - Patches.esp which Neo and me uses for our CR's and that did cause the error my end but I then repaired the records. Lexy as a test did redid the her CACO merge and checked it xEdit and everything was fine. only a few people have reported this error but it was enough for me to just decide to pull it until I can get to the bottom of it.

By keeping the CACCO - SIC patch last in the CACO patches merge, the CACO-SIC-lvllist plugin should be redundant since the records will be in the main CACO patch merge. Might as well pull the lvllist plugin.

[Darth_mathias]

By keeping the CACCO - SIC patch last in the CACO patches merge, the CACO-SIC-lvllist plugin should be redundant since the records will be in the main CACO patch merge. Might as well pull the lvllist plugin.

fair enough i will relook at my merge load order then.

[dreadflopp]

fair enough i will relook at my merge load order then.

I'll do the same and remove the plugin from my dropbox.

[baronaatista]

Dig Site I use only for a couple stylized peices that I can use for my camps, just to make them look a little less boring.

 

Simple Bedrolls is really the utility & feature rich mod of the 3, but it does have some issues. It adds a safe storage container (chest/barrel) that can be crafted, placed, used (put items in it), picked up, placed again, and its contents accessed again. Incredibly useful for a person who is going to be doing a lot of camping/survival. The unfortunate part is that

a] the chest, and some of the other items from the mod can be quite annoying to place, tending not to want to sit on any surface but rather seeming to prefer to float in mid air. Still, it's possible to get good placement, and for sheer utility I will use any day.

b] the chest has a weight of 25 regardless of what's placed inside. This does mean you could technically drop your entire inventory inside, pick it up, and now only be carrying 25lbs. However I just don't abuse that, and my campsites tend to be much more static (which is really what this mod is geared towards) so I'm not moving stuff much anyway.

Finally, the wood chopping block added by the mod seems to not actually work, and also seems to break the vanilla chopping blocks. I believe I've gotten the vanilla blocks working again by adding the keyword 'furniturewoodchoppingblock' to the mods blocks, but I just noticed on my comment on the nexus page another user suggest everything works fine if you equip the woodcutters axe before activating; at work right now, I'll check when I'm home.

Anyway despite its issues, it's a highly useful mod for anyone doing a play through that involves a lot of camping.

The Bedrolls and Traps mod I use only for the craftable placeable bear traps it adds. Not really a big deal at all, but a neat little add for a hunter/stealth character. Gonna try to cut the bedrolls out and merge with Simple Bedrolls for myself.

[elwaps]

@Elwaps - the combination of Campfire, Frostfall, Hunterborn & INeed is a really excellent set of mods that work seemlessly together and support each other beautifully, but they can tend to push early gameplay towards a survivalist/hunter experience, and can slow down progress a bit with all the maintenance.  That happens to be exactly the type of game I want to play, so that's fantastic.  However if you find the 'maintenance' stuff boring/tedious, you might consider dropping Frostfall, Hunterborn & INeed.  Campfire comes with tons of cool options for crafting and setting up campsites, and I'm pretty sure can be used in just about any setup without worry. With Immersive Horses and Extensible Follower Framework, you can have all the fun of the playstyle of the 'traveling adventurer' without the needs stuff.

Also when I asked Dread about MO left pane management, I believe he suggested that the safest method was to load his packs after STEP rather than integrating.

Thanks for that post. After some more playing I think I will definitely keep Frostfall and Campfire. The latter as it is a requirement for the former, as it doesn't have any negative impact at all and as camping is cool. And the former because it just adds to realism. I mean... diving in ice cold water for an hour and slaying monsters directly after without any impact from freezing? Nah. :)

As for the load order I'm gonna go the safe way then and rearrage them. By "after STEP", do you mean after all STEP mods and before the STEP Patches (2N) section? Or at the end of everything? Latter seems strange to me as I believe patchers like FNIS, ASIS, DSR and DynDOLOD should have everything above them for working correctly. Could be wrong tho.

 

Ineed is a great mod. The UI is customizable but no bars unfortunately. That isn't something that I have ever needed though. Hunterborn can be skipped if you aren't going to play as a hunter. The simple UI can be bypassed by setting automatic actions in the MCM. You can also turn of the skinning takes time function if you want.

 

If you sort my mods in the pack categories, make sure to check that files aren't overwritten in the conflicts tab of MO. It is not recommended to do this but it will probably work if that is want you want to do.

Thanks for the answer! I will continue testing with iNeed but I guess I'm gonna reduce the invervals as I'm still just testing for stability, features, modified places and weird bugs (like last time when I installed too much without testing in between and everyone was fighting in extreme slow motion for some reason). And I guess I'm gonna use automatic actions for Hunterborn before removing it. Don't get me wrong, both mods are totally cool. iNeed just has to be a bit annoying when its the first time when you use a needs mod. And the only thing that annoyed me about Hunterborn was its menu which would have been kinda okay in Oblivion but Skyrim usually doesn't use these menues anymore. If I can switch that off everything's fine.

 

As already written above I'm gonna rearrange your pack-mods then. I just tried to sort them as I couldn't find a clear instruction on where to place them in the beginning. I probably just haven't looked far enough. Same question as above - before or after the patches-section of STEP? And while I'm at it, after some more testing I'm gonna add your other packs. Is there a specific order for your packs themselves? Like loading Survival first, followed by Gameplay Overhaul and so on? Or doesn't it matter at all?

 

/edit

Too short additions: first, is it normal that you die because of Frostfall when playing the vanilla start? My char was freezing during the entire cartride and eventually froze to death when he was called to the block. Looked pretty funny but after awaking in some stranger's house I couldn't move as apparently some stuff from the intro scripts was still running.

Second, do you, by any chance, plan to do something like a successor for REGS? "Basic" mods like JK's Skyrim and ETaC aswell as some others seem to work fine with your packs and the current version of STEP but messing everything up should be pretty easy when using REGS in its current state. I mean... some kind of JK-ish mod, some kind of ETaC-ish mod, the whole collection of Falskaar, (Wyrmstooth) and some other stuff seems to be pretty essential for every playthrough to me. And I've just discovered The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal... holy ****, this looks great. That's where the digsite-mod from above belongs into, by the way.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm everything but lazy, I can install mods, I can check for patches and everything. But I'm just too inexperienced to actually check mods for compatibility or even do patches on my own. :/

Edited July 17, 2016 by elwaps

[baronaatista]

In order to disable the menu for Hunterborn, you need to set the first setting in MCM to 'Field Dress' and the rest to 'Process'.  Process will go through each step the menu presents in order, one at a time, with you activating the corpse again each time.  'Immersive' and all yes, but you will find as you play that you will only want to do certain steps for certain animals.  Most of the time this just means leaving off the last step, which is 'Butcher Meat' - you will wind up with way too much wolf meat (if you're using any setting other than 'single cut') and meat is much heavier with CACO.  This is mostly fine as long as you can remember to only activate the corpse three times.  However those corpses don't disappear unless you do the last step, 'Dispose'.  So that's an issue.  Plus, there will be other animals you will not want to 'Harvest Ingredients' from, and others still you won't want to 'Skin' (especially once you've gotten a good stockpile of leather/high enough smithing).  Without the menu you have no choices here, you can only go through each step at a time, which will then result in much more time managing inventory, a much more annoying and immersion-breaking process if you ask me.  Plus, you will find similar menus used for NPC KO Overhaul, Ordinator, and EFF.  My two cents.

 

And yeah, I have mine after the STEP gameplay section and before patches.

 

I don't understand the fixation with city mods.  I find they add very little of value to the game (mostly ten minutes of 'yay new'... and not much else) and ask a pretty high price in terms of patches and performance.  

 

I much prefer a solid landscape overhaul, and with that I must say this - I've played with a pretty decent amount of landscape/flora overhauls, weather mods and ENB's, and I believe I've arrived at a conclusion (which is basically the SRLE Extended setup, with a couple addons);

Vivid Weathers (I use bleak saturation setting and it looks amazing)

Vividian ENB

Enhanced Landscapes

Enhanced Vanilla Trees (With big trees.  Big trees completely change the feeling of the Skyrim landscape overall, I can't say enough about how good these trees look, and how good the landscape looks with them.  Forests really feel like forests now).  I do miss the tree diversity from SFO 2.5, so I compensate with the Bent Pines standalone.

+

Verdant

Unique Flowers and Plants

 

I also use Lanterns of Skyrim, Spice of Life - Fences, Unique Border Gates and Hold Border Banners and it's all tied together with  ELE / ELFX + Relighting Skyrim the SRLE way.  The whole landmass now feels a little more beautiful, diverse, less empty... and honestly, my performance is rock-solid.  That might be due to Crash Fixes though.  I have noticed significantly increased performance since starting to use it.  Anyway I got carried away there.  I'm really in love with my visual setup (my overall setup really, I've been working at it for quite a while now - thanks again Dread! you're so ridiculously patient and helpful).  Of course Neovalen and Darth Mathias/Lexy are owed big thanks there too, and the STEP community overall.  

Edited July 18, 2016 by baronaatista

[dreadflopp]

First of all, sorry for the late answers...

 

 

As for the load order I'm gonna go the safe way then and rearrage them. By "after STEP", do you mean after all STEP mods and before the STEP Patches (2N) section? Or at the end of everything? Latter seems strange to me as I believe patchers like FNIS, ASIS, DSR and DynDOLOD should have everything above them for working correctly. Could be wrong tho.

 

It probably doesn't matter, but is is actually safer to load all patches and patchers after my packs. I'll add this to the pack pages.

 

 And while I'm at it, after some more testing I'm gonna add your other packs. Is there a specific order for your packs themselves? Like loading Survival first, followed by Gameplay Overhaul and so on? Or doesn't it matter at all?

 

It doesn't matter at all as long as you install the mods in the order they are listed in the individual packs. To be honest, even that doesn't matter most of the times, I believe there are only two mods in all my packs that conflict and where install order matters and they are in the same pack.

 

...is it normal that you die because of Frostfall when playing the vanilla start? My char was freezing during the entire cartride and eventually froze to death when he was called to the block. Looked pretty funny but after awaking in some stranger's house I couldn't move as apparently some stuff from the intro scripts was still running.

 

I haven't played the intro in a long time, I use Alternative Start. Alternate Start is recommended for all heavily modded games since there are several mods that makes the cart ride buggy. Some mods that increases damage makes it impossible to survive the jump during the vanilla start. I have been thinking about adding Alternate Start to all my packs which I guess I will.

 

...do you, by any chance, plan to do something like a successor for REGS? "Basic" mods like JK's Skyrim and ETaC aswell as some others seem to work fine with your packs and the current version of STEP but messing everything up should be pretty easy when using REGS in its current state. I mean... some kind of JK-ish mod, some kind of ETaC-ish mod, the whole collection of Falskaar, (Wyrmstooth) and some other stuff seems to be pretty essential for every playthrough to me. And I've just discovered The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal... holy ****, this looks great. That's where the digsite-mod from above belongs into, by the way.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm everything but lazy, I can install mods, I can check for patches and everything. But I'm just too inexperienced to actually check mods for compatibility or even do patches on my own. :/

Actually no. I have too little time to evaluate city mods and I do not use them myself since I started using ICAIO. I do not miss them either. I do use quest mods though and I provide patches for them, like Falskaar and Wyrmstooth. I did enjoy Wyrmstooth but I haven't played Falskaar yet. I have played The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal and if any patches were needed, you can find them among my other patches (but I don't believe so). It was great but I actually reverted to a save I did before playing it. I found the rewards and loot overpowered.

 

I won't do a pack with quests mods, I have too little time for that :)

 

 

I don't understand the fixation with city mods.  I find they add very little of value to the game (mostly ten minutes of 'yay new'... and not much else) and ask a pretty high price in terms of patches and performance.  

 

I tend to agree.

 

I much prefer a solid landscape overhaul, and with that I must say this - I've played with a pretty decent amount of landscape/flora overhauls, weather mods and ENB's, and I believe I've arrived at a conclusion (which is basically the SRLE Extended setup, with a couple addons);

Vivid Weathers (I use bleak saturation setting and it looks amazing)

Vividian ENB

Enhanced Landscapes

Enhanced Vanilla Trees (With big trees.  Big trees completely change the feeling of the Skyrim landscape overall, I can't say enough about how good these trees look, and how good the landscape looks with them.  Forests really feel like forests now).  I do miss the tree diversity from SFO 2.5, so I compensate with the Bent Pines standalone.

+

Verdant

Unique Flowers and Plants

 

I also use Lanterns of Skyrim, Spice of Life - Fences, Unique Border Gates and Hold Border Banners and it's all tied together with  ELE / ELFX + Relighting Skyrim the SRLE way.  The whole landmass now feels a little more beautiful, diverse, less empty... and honestly, my performance is rock-solid. 

 

 

I am still figuring out what landscape mods I want to use but I'm leaning towards something similar to your setup. I use Vivid Weathers with it's ENB but may switch to Vividian (again). I too like bigger trees and Enhanced Vanilla trees that you and Darth_Mathias has in his guide looks good. I saw Darth_Mathias write something about the leaf textures though, that he wasn't pleased with them. SFO have two optional files for bigger trees, large juniper trees and taller pines, have you tried those?

 

 

 

 I'm really in love with my visual setup (my overall setup really, I've been working at it for quite a while now - thanks again Dread! you're so ridiculously patient and helpful).  Of course Neovalen and Darth Mathias/Lexy are owed big thanks there too, and the STEP community overall.  

Thank you. Glad our work is appreciated :)

[baronaatista]

Wasn't sure if the large junipers were usable standalone, and didn't like the tall pines personally.... I did read about the leaf textures but haven't noticed in-game, and couldn't recall the solution.

[dreadflopp]

Wasn't sure if the large junipers were usable standalone, and didn't like the tall pines personally.... I did read about the leaf textures but haven't noticed in-game, and couldn't recall the solution.

OK, I think I'll try Enhanced vanilla trees and maybe Enhanced Landscapes when I'll start my next playthrough. I probably won't notice the leaf textures either.