STEP: Core / Expanded - where do they start/end?

[phalen]

Good morning guys & gals.

 

First off - hello to everyone and my respects for this massive project.   I found it on friday afternoon - and started following the guide as posted here: https://wiki.step-project.com/STEP:2.2.9.  I finished late Sunday evening. Unsuccessful attempt.   I have previously installed Skyrim Beautification Project successfully but hated the hairstyles and a few other things, tried to redo it with less of those options - resulting in missing textures in game - ie standing on a floor that is not there.

 

I'm using the suggested MO. (previously i used NMM).  Not at home right now, cant give exact pc specs, but i know this bit:  intel core i7 4th gen, nvidia gefore 750gtx, 16gb RAM.

 

I installed (almost) everything that is listed on that page, but when the patches down at the bottom came I didnt know what to do, because:

 

I dont know where STEP:core starts & ends, and STEP:extended starts and ends.   I could not see any clear heading or link that indicated the start of step:extended.

 

As I didnt see anything that indicated (probably just missed it) the start of STEP:extended, I assumed that the entire page is only for step:core.  and as such, I ended up using the core patch.  

 

now, if the page contains both parts of STEP: core & extended - then it would explain why my game wont go past the loading screen. it just stays there and pops a new message/quote from the game, zooming in and out of the nice graphic on the left.   i could not exit the game, nor get into task manager to end it.  i had to force restart my pc.   i tried this 3 times without success.

 

it could also be that the end part, where you have to bash & the dual sheath redux thing and then a new mod gets added to the end (patches etc), which needs to get sorted by loot, resulting in a new bash etc (at least from my understanding) and then FNIS at the end - it could very well be that i got that part messed up completely as i did not get the same results as indicated in the video tutorials.  i also had the problem that my Bash Patch 0.esp did not show up on the left side of MO. (the bash patch took me hours to figure out as i did not know how to disable the fomod installer - i only saw the video link after fruitless attempts to find help on google).

 

i did a lot of reading during that guide thing, from what the ini changes are to the descriptions of mods (some of which i skipped because i didnt like what it suggested (more towards the end of the guide)). The patching, bash, sheath redux & FNIS parts confused the crap out of me 

 

 

as mentioned above - my question is this: I dont know where STEP:core starts & ends, and STEP:extended starts and ends.   I could not see any clear heading or link that indicated the start of step:extended.

 

1. what is the answer to this? Where do they start or end?

2. Is there an easier way to install this stuff?

3. I'll have to re-try this - can I keep the current .ini files and just install the mods anew?  not sure on how 'uninstall' the mods or just remove them in one fell swoop and start from scratch.

 

 

Appreciate the help & feedback.

[Harpalus]

 

 

Core mods are indicated by the presence of a green-ish vertical bar in the row at the immediate left-hand column of the table.

[phalen]

ok - thanks for that.

 

what about the other two questions?

[phazer11]

Ok if you installed everything in the guide then you installed both STEP Core and STEP Extended as they stand. Mark your current profile as STEP Extended and then copy the profile. Then go back to the guide and untick all of the mods without green bars next to them and you'll have Core. You'll need the Core patch for Core and the Extended Patch for extended, they are not interchangeable and would likely be the reason for your issues.

 

Yes you can keep your .ini files just copy and paste them from your MO ini editor into a plain notepad file.

 

As for an easier way to set things up, no not currently. Why do you think you need to start from scratch?

[phalen]

hello phazer11 - thanks for the feedback.

 

ok, so if i do both core & extended (i want both), i should then install the extended patch?

 

Why do you think you need to start from scratch? - is that not how you are supposed to do it? i mean, how do you keep only what you want?

 

i dont quite understand how the left pane relates to the right pane and then all the other bits like archive, information with all of its tabs etc, and then the external stuff like LOOT etc.  i'll have to look at this page https://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Mod_Organizer and study it in the hopes of enlightening me.  

[Nozzer66]

In a nutshell. Left pane is Mod Order. Right pane is Load Order. Mod Order is exactly what it says it is. That is the order you set your mods to be in. Now there's reasons why you might want one mod to be below another mod in that list, or above. The main take home point to remember is though... The higher on the Mod list in the left pane, the more likely other files might overwrite some of the original mods files.

 

This is important in case where you may have two mods that both provide a texture for an object. Let's say a Heal Potion texture. Mod A provides textures for every potion and booze bottle in the game, where as Mod B is a specialized, ULTRA High Definition texture for the Heal Pots alone. If you put Mod B above Mod A in the left pane, then when the mods are loaded, the game will load Mod B's ULTRA High Def texture for the heal pots. It will ten load Mod A's less good textures and thus over write Mod B's ULTRA High Def texture. There's a little more to it than that, cause of the ability to hide files in MO and so, but that's the basics.

 

The right pane is all the mods's ESM and ESP files. These files control various things in the game. Some you need to have installed and loaded before or after others because of dependencies. XYZ.esp may need data that's contained in ABC.esp. So for that to work, ABC.esp needs to load before XYZ.esp. Bad things will happen if they don't. You could crash, or you might find something doesn't work, etc etc.

 

And that's where LOOT comes in. LOOT is a way of determining how to load those esm and esp files for the optimal effect. Once again, there's more to it than that, but that's a nutshell.

 

As phazer said, if you've installed everything that was on the guide, then you have extended.

 

What he also said and I don't think you're quite catching, Is that Extended contains Core. So you actually DO HAVE both. So in you case, only install the Extended Patch cause Extended trumps Core in this case.

 

The good thing about MO is it allows you to have separate profiles. Thus, you can have 3 different profile one set up as a Mage type play through with lots of magic altering mods, etc, one as more of a hack and slash sword and board type warrior with combat, armour weapons mods etc, and maybe one as a stealthy Assassin/Thief Archer type. You can select which profile you wish to play via MO, then go off and have your fun. These 3 profiles can have different load lists.

 

Give a few of the wiki pages a bit of a read and I'm sure you'll get the hang. :)

[phalen]

thanks for the feedback Nozzer66!

 

its making a little more sense than when i posted this morning.

 

apologies, but i'm not sure i quite understand the left pane. so the last mod installed (from the guide) should be the very last on that left pane's priority list?   that would be FNIS? (according to the guide)

 

 

how do i re-do the installation without re-downloading all the mods? i dont want to copy the current profile, i want to re-install them as i think i got a few wrong in the beginning.  i was halfway through i think when i started wondering if i was supposed to merge files for the same mod or not - some instructions kept referencing the extra files but as i merged them onto the main i couldnt isolate/select them.

[Xaviien]

thanks for the feedback Nozzer66!

 

its making a little more sense than when i posted this morning.

 

apologies, but i'm not sure i quite understand the left pane. so the last mod installed (from the guide) should be the very last on that left pane's priority list?   that would be FNIS? (according to the guide)

Yes. FNIS Output would be last if you followed all the instructions, SKSE should be first.

 

how do i re-do the installation without re-downloading all the mods? i dont want to copy the current profile, i want to re-install them as i think i got a few wrong in the beginning.  i was halfway through i think when i started wondering if i was supposed to merge files for the same mod or not - some instructions kept referencing the extra files but as i merged them onto the main i couldnt isolate/select them.

2 options, right click the mod in the left pane and click "Reinstall Mod". If you merged any mods, this will only allow you to reinstall the first part of the mod.

Best option, go through your "Downloads" tab in the right pane, and double click the mods to reinstall from there. That way you will get the option to replace/merge when necessary.

 

Be sure to follow the guide carefully, as some mods will most likely not be in the downloads tab, such as those that needed to be added from Archives. If you find anything in the wrong place, you can just drag it around in the left pane.

[Nozzer66]

Pretty much right. About the only things that go after the bashed Patch are anything made by dynamic patchers. FNIS, Dual Sheath Redux, ASIS etc. :)

[phalen]

thanks for the help guys - i'll have a go at this again over the weekend.

[phalen]

i have gone through the MO guide - things make a lot more sense now than they did before.  tonight i will start a fresh installation.

 

a question - what are the benefits of installing STEP:Extended? i tried to look for a screenshots section that shows the difference of just core and core+extended, but couldn't see anything. is it perhaps hidden deep within the site?

[Nozzer66]

Core is basically more of a 'Fix the gaping holes' sort of thing. Extended not only fixes the gaping holes, but does a bit of redecorating as well and provides a bit of a base to build on to add mods of your own choice.

[phalen]

hi again. so i finally finished installing the mods according to the guide - step by step!  and it works :D

 

thanks for the earlier explanations.

 

i do want to ask some more questions though if i may.

 

A. i want to install one or two additional mods, like unread books glow, etc.

 

do i have to do the following after each new mod installed, or after the whole lot (so if i know i'm doing 10 then i do it after the 10).

 

1. bash patch

2. dual sheath redux patch

3. FNIS patch

 

 

B. i just opened MO and see i have a file in my overwrite folder: skse > plugins > SKSE_Elys_AltF4.log

 

what do i do with it?

 

 

 

all in all i am really happy with this entire process.  fantastic work guys & gals!

[Nozzer66]

To answer the last question first...

 

Either move that log to the AltF4 mod or just delete it. I'd move it cause it regens ever time. If you move it it will regen in the mods folder.

 

 

 

With the patchers... If the mods aren't messing with animations or weapons and armour then you might get away with just redoing the bashed patch. Otherwise do the other patches as well.

[phalen]

thanks for the info Nozzer66.

 

AltF4 mod?  seems i might have missed something  :O_o:

 

will the order of the last three patches remain as i listed them?  essentially i would only move the new mod above the 3 patches and then bash?

 

or would the listing be as follows:

 

1. dual sheath redux patch

2. fnis

3. new mod/s

4. bash patch

 

i am uncertain what the order should be for the 3 patches.

 

appreciate the help!

[Xaviien]

thanks for the info Nozzer66.

 

AltF4 mod?  seems i might have missed something  :O_o:

If you have the files in overwrite, you must have the mod installed.

It's SKSE-Elys-AltF4 in 2.D. Fixes .

will the order of the last three patches remain as i listed them?  essentially i would only move the new mod above the 3 patches and then bash?

 

or would the listing be as follows:

 

1. dual sheath redux patch

2. fnis

3. new mod/s

4. bash patch

 

i am uncertain what the order should be for the 3 patches.

 

appreciate the help!

Generally, you can put the new mods anywhere in the load order, before the patches, depending on the desired result. Check the mod page for any instructions such as "Load before x mod" or "Load after y mod", otherwise it shouldn't matter too much.

Check the conflicts tab of MO to see which files are being overwritten to decide exact position.

 

If it goes too far up the load order, it might change the order of some patch masters, but that's easy to fix in TES5Edit.