Extending S.T.E.P.: Extended - ENB and More

[Pheyne]

I have finished installing S.T.E.P.: Extended. It is now complete exactly according to the guide provided by S.T.E.P. The game runs perfectly without any issues.
However, I would now like to continue with some more modding and I've run into some things I am not sure about. I want everything to work as intented so I decided to ask for some advice from the experienced modders

I'll start with the S.T.E.P. Compilation. I do not know what are all the things this mod pack does, apart from installing all the listed mods in the description, and thus want make some things clear. S.T.E.P., in the 2-D section, contains these two lightning mods: Enhanced Lightning for ENB - Lite (Interior Lighning) and Relighting Skyrim (No JIT) in this load order - RS is loaded after ELE. Now one thing I definitely want is good ENB preset. I have my favourite ones and as far as compatibility goes, they both say the same:

All ENB presets are compatible with ELFX (interiors only), Relighting Skyrim, and More Dynamic Shadows. ELE - Interion Lightning is optional, and presets are compatible. The ELE - Interior Lighting module(s) should be used in conjunction with ELFX (interiors only, without the enhancer), Relighting Skyrim, More Dynamic Shadows, and RLO (interiors only). Choose one, and load the ELE - Interior Lighting module(s) last in your load order!!!

We already have the second part sorted since we would be using ELE in conjunction with RS, but the load orded is different than in S.T.E.P.
Here, the two mods are swaped. My question is, how should I proceed.. Especially since both ELE and RS in S.T.E.P. contain the custom Meta Rules that specify their priority.

Another thing related to ENB... Before I install it, I would like to tweak my audiovisual side of the game a little bit more. The water mod used in S.T.E.P. is RWT. What would I need to do, if I wanted to replace this with W.A.T.E.R? Is it enought to just uninstall RWT, install W.A.T.E.R as a part of The Ruffled Feather mod and then just put it at the RWT spot in the load order? Also, The Ruffled Feather is already installed as a part of S.T.E.P with the custom install option "Install for S.T.E.P." which doesn't include W.A.T.E.R. Would installing it with W.A.T.E.R. mess with S.T.E.P. Compilation or anything else included?

 

How about waterfalls now? I'd like to go with Pure Waters - Waterfalls but they are not compatible with SkyMills and SkyFalls. But, from what I understand, I should be pretty much safe to disable SkyMills and SkyFalls since I've got DynDOLOD installed which does all its job for it, right? (Apart from the windmill sails, which are no big deal.)

The same thing with weather systems... I want CoT 3.1, Supreme Storms, CoT Weather Patch and True Storms.
Where do I place them in the load order and are there any other specific instructions to get all of this working properly together? (Wonders of Weather shouldn't interfere, should it?)

Next I have a general question.. If I install a mod that has no conflicts, should I worry at all about it's placements or is it then completely arbitrary? Same applies to mods that have intended conflicts. Let's say I now want to install Immersive Animations. This mod needs to be placed before XP32 Maximum Skeleton, other than that it should not conflict with anything in S.T.E.P. Do I just place it before XPMS and done? Providing I sort all the plugins with LOOT and run the Dual Sheat Redux patch afterwards of course...

I will list all the extra mods I would like to use alongside complete S.T.E.P. here. I will be greatfull for all the tips. Whether is is where to put these mods, if some require special attention or if something seems seems like a bad idea to even begin with :)

CoT 3.1

Supreme Storms
CoT Weather Patch
True Storms
Natural Grass Texture Floor
Verdant - A Skyrim Grass Plugin

W.A.T.E.R

Pure Waters - Waterfalls

Lorkhans Vision - Night Sky V2
Moon Glow
Mornig Fogs Refined
Real_Snow_Flakes
Skygazer - Constellation HD 2K
SNOW

DYNAVISION
Better Fast Travel - Carruages and Ships - Overhauled
Fast Travel Timescale Fix
Dungeon Quest Awareness

YOT - Your Own Thoughts
Same Walk and Run Speed
No More Glowing Edges Mod
VioLens
Animations

Immersive Animations
Run Sprint and Jump

Badass Dual Wielding

Better Torches
Fences of Skyrim

Immersive Fallen Trees

Cloaks of Skyrim

Winter is Coming - Cloaks
Immersive Creatures (is it safe to reinstall Enhanced Blood Textures with IC compatibility?)
Immersive Weapons
Immersive Armors
aMidianBorn Textures for Immersive Armors
Left Hand Rings
Skyrim Immersive Creatures
Deadly Dragons
Immersive Roads
RUGNAROK
High Definition Ivy

Can I for example reinstall Dual Sheat Redux with the sword on back option so I can use it with Dual Wielding? In S.T.E.P. guide, it is without it.
Would I need to reinstall DynDOLOD after installing any of these mods? And what about S.T.E.P. Compilation, I should probably reinstall that at the end as well, shouldn't I?

Thank you all.
 

 

I've moved this to the General area as this has moved past a discussion of how MO is used with the STEP guide.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Pheyne

[Electrocutor]

I tried to use MergePlugins.exe to create a full clean STEP:Extended to use as a starting point, but it wouldn't allow me to. It said that USLEEP had a critical continuity error and wouldn't even allow the attempt. Were you actually able to get STEP to merge or did you scrap STEP in favor of SRLE?

[Pheyne]

If you are asking me I did decide to go with SR:LE instead of STEP simply because I always planned to go in that direction. But I did have STEP: Extended fully installed at one point and there is no need to merge anything other than merging plugins during creating the bashed patch with Wrye Bash. The guide doesn't even mention MergePlugin.exe and even if you wanted to merge some mods, I see absolutely no reason to inlude USLEEP.

[Electrocutor]

My intent is to create a single new 'vanilla' mod from a clean STEP install. I would then consider it to be vanilla Skyrim and mod however I wanted after that. The main reason being that a clean STEP install still has so many TES5Edit errors and critical errors that I cannot find and fix post-STEP errors within the sea.

 

Anyway, if you've gone the SRLE route, it's a moot point. I started doing the same, but the task seems so daunting; I wish there was just a simple full package for these kinds of things instead of having to do it all yourself every single time. It's wrong that it should take 10 times longer to setup the game than the amount of time that you actually get to play it; but it sounds like Valve, Nexus, and Bethesda aren't interested in allowing full compilations.

[Pheyne]

I don't feel like that at all. If I spend two days modding and then play the game two weeks straight then it is imo more than worth it. Plus the modding part can be fun, especially if you are trying out new things, figuring out how they work etc.

One thing I now for sure is that if you install STEP properly, you should get pretty much no errors whatsoever (apart from some intended/false positive warnings in LOOT).

I don't know what mod manager you use, but if you mean business and use Mod Organizer you can use profiles and have both fully modded Skyrim and vanilla Skyrim (and anything in between) accessible at the same time with just two clicks of the mouse.

[Pheyne]

 

For 2) I think its a TES5Edit bug. If it works the second time it should be fine. A quick way to tell is if the master has been added to the header of SR Conflict Resolution automatically.

 

What would be the master in this situation? Should it be the EnhancedLightsandFX.esp? If so, then that is not getting added to the masters in the header of SR Conflict Resolution.. If the master is supposed to be just Cutting Room Floor then that is already in there.

And if you mean the FormID 870098A3 then that is something under ELE_Legendary_Lite.esp and is not getting added into the header masters either.

 

Pretty much the only master that gets added by only copying as override to is Skyrim.esm and with merging those changes in the right pane Cutting Room Floor.esp.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Pheyne

[Pheyne]

Anybody has an idea about the matter above?
And one more a little unrelated question. In the SR:LE guide, there is the Optimizing Vanilla section and at the end, there is an example of how the load order should look after going through the process.
 

* Vanilla Optimized* Unmanaged: Dawnguard* Dawnguard Optimized* Unmanaged: Hearthfire* Hearthfire Optimized* Unmanaged: Dragonborn* Dragonborn Optimized* Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack01* HRDLC1 Optimized (Created only if using DDSOpt method.)* Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack02* HRDLC2 Optimized (Created only if using DDSOpt method.)* Unmanaged: HighResTexturePack03* HRDLC3 Optimized (Created only if using DDSOpt method.)* Cleaned Vanilla ESMs* Skyrim Script Extender

Now there are two ways, either the DDSopt method or downloading the MO ready HD package. I wanted to do it all by myself so I went with DDSopt, but when you are done processing the files in DDSopt, you are left with four folders.
Following the DDSopt guide, they are named HRDLC1, HRDLC2, HRDLC3 and STD (this one contains the Skyrim - textures.bsa) and this is not mentioned in the load order anywhere.
Same as the Dawnguard/HearFires/Dragonborn - Optimized mods. Those are not part of DDSopt process and.

Am I correct to assume the STD replaces all of them (and those four mods are only created by using the second method) or is it something different? If that is the case, should the STD mod be placed under all the "Unmanaged:Dawnguard/HeartFires/Dragonborn" mods? And where in all this should the USLEEP be loaded?

Here's my load order, anything that should be changed?

Edited January 22, 2016 by Pheyne

[Electrocutor]

I prefer just to use the pre-made Optimized BSA because they have already tested it to make sure not to include any textures/meshes that should not be included (because they don't need to be or they cause bugs if they are).

[Pheyne]

Sure, do it your way.. But how is your preference any relevant here? I asked about the load order...
Plus, I've read some comments that using the pre-made pack can cause issues for some people and in general doing this through DDSopt should just provide the best possible results. And even though it can be tedious, it is actually very easy process. And all the textures that shouldn't be inluded are mentioned in the guide and you deal with them while installing various mods.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Pheyne