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About this blog

Greetings everyone! This page contains my various Bethesda blogs. At the time of this update, it contains my troubleshooting playthrough series, my Skyrim modding diary, my mod cleanup case study series, and my Shout Like a Virgin beta test blog. You can access all the entries from the sidebar on the right side of your screen.

 

Playthroughs

I've recently exceeded the 1000 mod threshold, and it's time to start periodically doing brief playthroughs to ferret out hidden conflicts and other bugs. In this series, we'll do shorter, more focused adventures where we try to tell an interesting story and also talk about what problems we ran into them and how we addressed them.

 

  • Charley's Story: Charlotte Ellison survived a nuclear war by spending more than two hundred years in stasis. Now she has to survive in a very new world, facing very new threats. A Fallout 4 playthrough.
  • The Spider's Web: Kirstia's search for answers has taken her to the island of Solstheim. Now she must uncover the secret of The Teacher - also known as Mephala - and continue the journey to master her powerful magical heritage. But can she survive as her enemies, new and old, close in? 
  • The Curious Case of Forrien Hlaalu: A year after she returned to Northpoint, Kirstia is back in Skyrim and looking for answers. The strange events that occured during her search for Sybil Fjotra continue to trouble her, as does the ongoing influence of the strange gods of the Forsworn. After a chance encounter over drinks, a wizard from the College of Winterhold sets her on the trail of a scholar who may have the answers she needs...
  • The Search for the Sybil: Exiled from Skyrim to the remote land of Northpoint, Kirstia Bjissen has fallen on hard times. Just as she hits rock bottom, a voice speaks to her and charges her with a sacred quest that will take her back to her native land - and likely into danger. Can Kirstia find the new Sybil of Dibella before her past catches up with her?
  • Shout Like a Virgin: Miraculously saved from death, Monilee of High Rock finds herself in Skyrim, a land riven by civil war and harboring dark secrets. While she tries to build a new life in this foreign land, she's haunted by half-remembered dreams, and in chasing them she discovers her role in the turning of the ages. However, Monilee has not gone unnoticed by powers outside the mortal realm. Used as a pawn in the struggle between Nocturnal and Dibella, it will take all her wits, endurance, bravery, and stubbornness to reclaim sovereignty over her body and her soul.

 

Modding Diary

This series tracks my modding projects in-between playthroughs and case studies. The main focus will be on the technical processes of cleaning, editing, and integrating mods into a large load order configuration, including managing emergent multi-mod interactions. 

 

Modding Case Studies

This blog reviews the tools and techniques that authors and end users can apply to make their mods as stable and compatible as possible, as well as how end users can integrate complicated mods into a large load order setup. In addition to coverage of well known techniques such as automatic mod cleaning, this blog delves into more complicated issues such as navmesh repair. 

 

Entries in this blog

A Place To Lay My Head (Charley's Story, Chapter 2)

I stood there on the bluff above Sanctuary Hills, looking down on the remains of my home. Even though I'd watched the mushroom cloud blossom, it shocked me to see the aftermath. And worse, I was alone. So I stood, I looked, and when my legs started to get tired I sat. It took me a good long time to move past the sight of everything destroyed and to start thinking about what I was going to do next. I'd read enough post-apocalyptic novels that I had a general idea of what I needed to do to survive

gregaaz

gregaaz in Charley's Story

Programming Note - Site Performance Issues

Hi folks, it's been a little while. I wanted to take a moment to update you all on one of the reasons you haven't seen new entries recently. Basically, and I'm sure you've noticed this also, Loverslab is have pretty serious performance issues. Currently, I experience long latency on almost every website functions and it's very difficult for me to successfully upload images. I soldiered through this for a while, but as performance has continued to degrade it's reached the point where it's not ten

gregaaz

gregaaz in Miscellaneous

Mini Case Study: Guards Armor Replacer as a Standalone

Hi folks, we'll be back with Kirsti's adventure soon (I'm a little distracted with Star Citizen 3.17's public test right now). But in the meanwhile, a commenter on Reddit asked about turning Guards Armor Replacer into a standalone mod. I actually did just that much earlier in my modding effort, and under normal circumstances I'd just share my converted plugin. However, this mod has somewhat closed permissions that restrict sharing edited versions, so instead I offered to document the steps to do

gregaaz

gregaaz in Miscellaneous

The Secret of the Bloodskaals (Kirstia's Third Adventure, Chapter 4)

And just like that, I was descending into another cave full of divines know what dangers. I had little reason to doubt Hircine's advice, and it seemed like I could do some good investigating Crescius' mystery, but I proceeded with caution. I was reasonably confident that pitfalls and loose rocks weren't going to be the extent of the challenges in my path. Keeping my father's sword and the Dwemer arquebus close at hand - I had some doubts about my ability to swing an axe or draw a bow in these ti

An Uninvited Guest (Kirstia's Third Adventure, Chapter 3)

I retired to my room with a hearty-looking loaf of braided bread and a cup of thick, piping hot juice. Carrot juice, according to Geldis the barkeeper. The taste was... unusual, but not bad. I ended up tearing off bits of bread and dipping them in the stew-thick juice. By the time my hunger was sated, I was about ready to head on my way, but a sense of fullness prompted me to make use of the nightsoil bucket before I dressed. While busy doing my business, the door to my room quietly opened. I gl

The Call of the Obelisk (Kirstia's Third Adventure, Chapter 2)

I don't think the gate guard was sure what to do with me. I repeated myself, with a bit more wind in my lungs this time - "I need to talk to Captain Veleth. It's about the ash spawn."   "The ash spawn," he asked, as if slightly dazed. "What do you know about the ash spawn, outlander?"   I was starting to get a little impatient at that point, but before I could unleash on the dumbstruck guard I saw Veleth in the distance. Pushing past, I closed the distance with Veleth and cal

The Trouble With Fort Frostmoth (Kirstia's Third Adventure, Chapter 1)

Solstheim is a curious place. Ancient Nordic soil, and yet foreign. For almost two centuries, the displaced peoples of Vvardenfell have called this island home, their Morrowind culture slowly burying what was before, much as the ash of the Red Mountain covers the land deeper and deeper with each passing year. I can feel that ash between my toes as I walk. Like fine sand, it clings to most every surface, and I fear it would choke me if I didn't take care to cover my mouth - blind me if I didn't p

Skyrim Modding Diary - 26 March 2022

Well, it's time to set up our MCMs and get ready to launch Kirsti's next adventure. If you're curious and want a mini-spoiler, I've updated the mod description with a brief capsule of what to expect. This is probably going to be a somewhat shorter than usual diary unless I run into any complications or surprises that I think there's value in documenting.   Interested in seeing the details of the configuration I'm running? I've updated my Modwatch Page with the setup for this adventure.

Skyrim Modding Diary - 25 March 2022

Hi folks, this is going to be a quick one. I'm still working on getting my new adventure set up, but I wanted to share a little insight into what I'm doing other than setting MCMs.   Elderly Faces   A Couple Late Additions   And that's the state of the modding project when I started doing the MCMs. That looks like its going to roll over into tomorrow, but I'm very excited about starting up a new adventure! If you don't see an entry tomorrow, don't worry - it pro

Skyrim Modding Diary - 24 March 2022

Good morning, folks! After thinking on it for a while, I've decided to more or less lock my configuration at this point for the next adventure. I've started regenerating the grass cache and as long as nothing goes wrong, I won't be installing any more mods that touch the exterior worldspace. I say "as long as nothing goes wrong" because I did a bit of an experiment last night - I merged three major grass mods plus several smaller ones - and I won't know if it worked right until I finish generati

Skyrim Modding Diary - 23 March 2022

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Today we're going to update the Toys family of mods, and then continue integrating some of the backlog as we move towards starting our new adventure.   We're beginning the day with 1,550 mods installed, 1,501 plugins active, and a final load order index of ED.   Opening The Toybox   Random Goodies   Candy Recon   Nature Time   A Few Miscellaneous Finds Since I'm using Arri's Snow Elf Ruins Rete

Skyrim Modding Diary - 22 March 2022 Part 2

OK, I've got time for a few more items. It'll be lightweight stuff but we can still check some boxes off the list.   Another FYX Mod   Wholesome Content   Bath Time!   Alright, now I feel like I accomplished a bit more today. Much better - and another important milestone... 1,550 mods installed! Will we make it to 1,600 before I start the next adventure?   Edit - and a little late breaking addition, I knuckled under and did the damn navmesh

Skyrim Modding Diary - 22 March 2022

Welcome back! We've got a bunch of things on our plate, don't we? We need to deconflict some fairly major Loverslab mods (though with Troubles of Heroine, this is my own fault - I should have unraveled those script conflicts much earlier!!), we need to do some navmesh for Bells of Skyrim, and of course we do still need to keep on top of them seemingly neverending flow of new textures and other useful small mods popping up on the Nexus.   We're starting the day with 1,537 mods installed

Skyrim Modding Diary - 21 March 2022

Welcome back, everyone. We're getting closer to starting our next adventure story, so over the course of this week we're going to start to pivot away from general improvements to more targeted content that's relevant to our next playthrough. Today we're going to start working on getting our mods up to date as well as wrapping up Bells of Skyrim.    We're starting the day with 1,534 mods installed, 1,488 plugins active, and a final load order of EC.   First Things First

Skyrim Modding Diary - 19 March 2022

Hi everyone! I have to say I'm loving how spring seems to have finally come to New England. Got the window open in my office enjoying a cool breeze and letting the house air out a bit after being closed up all winter. Good times.   Today we're going to start with something a little different. Someone asked me to look at a mod conflict they're having, and while I was reviewing the mods this person is having trouble with, I realized that one of these mods might offer some benefits for me

Skyrim Modding Diary - 18 March 2022

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm going to take a little change of pace today. I'd originally planned to continue with the Bells of Skyrim project, but after restarting my PC to install some Windows updates, SSE started crashing at the main menu  I'm not getting Net Script Framework crash logs, which is frequently associated with corrupted nif files or with video related issues. I'm leaning towards the latter since SSE was running smoothly last night, and now it's crashing after a Windows Update run. 

Skyrim Modding Diary - 17 March 2022 - Part 2

I have a little mini update before I call it a night. After I finished the main diary entry earlier, I poked around the Nexus a bit and found an interesting SSE mod in the LE Nexus of all places. I subsequently came across two more mods while I was browsing Reddit, and as such got a couple more additions today.   Botox Cocktail If you've been following my diary for a while, you know that I installed Botox for Skyrim very early in my load order - before even the High Poly NPC Proje

Skyrim Modding Diary - 17 March 2022

Welcome back, everyone. Based on my short 'part 2' post yesterday, I'm sure you can guess where we'll be starting today - Bells of Skyrim. Dark's Market, and the stack of mods that follows from that (Fortified Whiterun, City Trees) are on hold for now until I have a little more time for a more in depth integration effort. After Bells, we need to fix that navmesh issue with the old south gate, and then we'll see what other items on our modding plan we have time for. And of course there are, as al

Skyrim Modding Diary - 16 March 2022 - Part 2

Welcome back folks! With spring sunshine suddenly part of the picture (and my computer station right next to a west-facing window), my 'hobby time' has slid a little later in the evening. As you might have noticed on the way here, I just wrapped up the Groot's Solitude case study, and I found myself with a little bit of spare time. Let's hop back into general modding and see if we can get one or two more mods added.   Preparing for City Trees I mentioned earlier that I'm intereste

Modding Case Study: Grroott's Solitude (Part 10 - Finishing Touches)

Well, it's been a fun adventure but now we're almost done. Over the course of this series we've taken Groot's Solitude from a promising mod with some compatibility issues that was a little rough around the edges to a fully functional and integrated part of my modded game world. Today we'll cover the final steps to put the proverbial bow on top of this project.   Facegen   Dismemberment   A Final Texture Tweak   And with that, we've crossed all the 't

Skyrim Modding Diary - 16 March 2022

Happy Wednesday everyone! After I wrapped up my diary for yesterday I took a quick tour through the Devious Lore locations and I was very pleased to find that none of them had any terrain intrusion. I'll need to rebuild the grass cache of course, but we'll be doing that anyway before I start my next adventure in about a week or so. Today we'll do some polishing on Devious Lore and then tackle some other mods that I have in my queue. Today will probably be a fairly short session as I have to do s

Skyrim Modding Diary - 15 March 2022

Hi folks, hope you've been enjoying the case study series as it nears its conclusion. I was kind of dreading the navmesh work, but it turned out to be pretty minimal. Now we're just a few relatively simple steps away from the point when we can declare that mod fully integrated into my game world!   Today we're going to continue working through my backlog of mods to install. We're starting the day with 1,491 mods installed, 1,499 plugins active, and a final load order index of EA. 

Modding Case Study: Grroott's Solitude (Part 9 - Navmesh)

Welcome back everyone, and thanks for your patience while I focused on a small side project for a little bit. The truth is, I had to take a break from this for a little bit because I was very frustrated about some lost work that happened (because of an error on my part) when I upgraded to the new version. Fortunately, second-to-last versions of both deleted mods were in my xEdit backup folder, which will help us get back on our feed pretty quickly. Let this be a lesson to all of you - save those

Skyrim Modding Diary - 14 March 2022

Hi folks, welcome back. After I posted my diary for yesterday I took a quick look through the remaining packages in Hydragorgon and it looks like the amount of work required to finish it up will be pretty limited. I'm going to try and knock that project out in its entirety today, then move on to start tackling Groot's navmeshes. If time (and motivation) permit, then I'll be back after that to start working through my installation backlog.     We'll be starting the day with 1

Skyrim Modding Diary - 13 March 2022

Welcome back, everyone! Since I never really got back to it yesterday, today I'll mostly be focusing on the Hydragorgon project.    We're starting out with 1,482 mods installed, 1,497 plugins active, and a final load order index of EB. Barring any unexpected surprises I'm expecting it to stay that we throughout this session.   So What's Left? Not counting a smattering of interior furniture scenes that didn't get caught when I grabbed the AI packages for the vignettes, we

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