Steppin Out

[Leto]

Sorry to hear about your hard drive.  Rebuilding Skyrim from scratch is a lot of work.

 

I'm glad your reporting the things you find while going through the installation.

 

I removed The Beauty of Skyrim Dungeons and moved Vivid Landscapes Tundra Moss - SMIM Compatibility patch after Vivid Landscapes - All in One.

[Leto]

I noticed some problems on the way to Falkreath.  First the game was feeling sluggish, second I noticed big FPS drops in fights with lots of bandits, third I started getting CTD's. 

I turned on the script latency tester of Convenient horses and noticed it going way over 100.

 

To improve the situation, I uninstalled the Burn Freeze Shock mod because it is confirmed to cause problems and I have three followers using destruction magic.

Then I added the following to Skyrim.ini

 

[Papyrus]

fUpdateBudgetMS=1.6

 

The default is 1.2, the Skyrim Stability Guide recommends trying 1.6 up to a maximum of 2.0.

I tested 1.2, 1.6, and 2.0 during a fort assault and found 1.6 provides the best balance between script latency and FPS.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Leto

[Darth_mathias]

i used this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59810/? to get the ini files sorted then tweaked to my system

[Darth_mathias]

after a few hours testing my setup so after (still got a few more mods you suggested to install) i came the in conslusion i didn't like Project Enb so i'm now giving Real Like ENB a try.

Edited November 28, 2014 by Darth_mathias

[Darth_mathias]

Completed install of steppin Out benchmark was run during the open cartridge scene i've got a i5 4670k @ 4.2GHz 2x Asus Gtx 670 with deicated physx i am running Real Like Enb.

Edited November 28, 2014 by Darth_mathias

[Darth_mathias]

had a try and installing Automatic Variants which was a big fail i had load a missing purple textures so i gave up on it.

[Leto]

I thought about that too.  It's a nice idea, but it might be pushing the game a bit too far.

[Darth_mathias]

This is a great mod a worth consideration https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8298/?

[Leto]

I'm already using Expanded Towns and Cities, JK's Riften, and JK's Solitude to add smelters.  Have you tested Long Lost Smelters of Skyrim with those mods?

[Darth_mathias]

no i chose to uninstall then due to a big FPS hit from those mods so i guess this is my subsitute

[Leto]

I tried to recover Grimsever today but ASIS generated some deadly bandit archers at the entrance to Mzinchaleft.  They never missed and were one shot one kill.  After the tenth reload I wound up running in circles desparately trying to get a hit in while avoiding the incoming arrows.  Sooner or later I'd get hit anyway and die.  If I tried to charge the archers I'd get hit and killed.  If I charged using a zig-zag pattern they'd miss a few times but it also increased the time required to close the distance so I'd get hit and killed anyway.  If I reached one archer, another one would kill me before I could kill the first.  There were also several bandits with two handed weapons I had to deal with.

 

I'd also like to point out that my exquisite glass bow fired paralyzing orc arrows with the triple damage from stealth perk only do 20% damage to them while they constantly one-shot me.  I've been looking for a poison resistance disenchantable item since the beginning of the game with no luck.

 

The only thing that worked was to hang back and let the followers constantly get downed and recover until they eventually ground their way through the battle - which sucks.  Bringing more followers wouldn't help because as soon as I try and join the fight, I die.  Other tactics that might work such as luring a few of them way out of the ruins spoil the fight. 

 

Shawn Driscoll recommended Difficult Archery and I decided to give it a try.

 

It makes NPC archers (both enemy and followers) less accurate.  It also makes some spells less accurate.  Finally, it disables the cheap ninja sidestep that NPC's do.  It comes in 4 levels from slightly innacurate to most innacurate.  I tested #4 and archers had a hard time hitting me even when I was standing still.  Shawn recommends #2 Difficult Archery so that's what I'll try.  I'm using the Auto Aim Enabled version because I have no interest in making archery harder for the player.

 

[Edit]

After many tries I was able to win this fight.

I also tweaked the .ini settings to reduce stutter in this battle.

I'm currently using Slightly Difficult Archery with an .ini tweak that lets enemy archers run out of arrows.

 

===============================================================================

 

 

I got to the first fight inside Mzinchaleft and there were 7 to 9 bandits.  I didn't live long enough to get an accurate count.  I know from past experience that there should only be 2 or 3.  There is something wrong with the ASIS weights to spawn more enemies because the chance of that should be less than 5%.  I re-ran the ASIS patch disabling increased spawns and there were only a couple of bandits in each group.

 

After a lot of play testing, I recommend the following settings for ASIS Spawns:

 

Weighting to have No Spawns:  30

Spawn Weight for 1 Spawn: 40

Spawn Weight for 2 Spawns: 20

Spawn Weight for 3 Spawns: 10

Spawn Weight for 4 Spawns: 0

Spawn Weight for 5 Spawns: 0

 

The weights add up to 100 so they can be considered percentages.  I learned in one of the Dwemer ruins that adding 5 spawns to any reasonably challenging encounter makes it unreasonable and spoils the fun.  I briefly considered taking 6 followers but instead decided to just eliminate the excessive spawns. 

 

If you want to make the game harder, I suggest Immersive Difficulty.  This will make the enemies tougher instead of just having more of them.  Too many enemies at once will bog down and crash the game.

 

With the spawns under control, I want to improve the enemy AI.  I chose the mod Enhanced Enemy AI because it is lightweight, limited in scope, and has no scripts.

It didn't really affect the difficulty of the game because it applied equally to my followers and the enemies.  It did seem to wake the followers up.  I noticed more one-handed power attacks and taking cover when casting spells.  I had to remove Conjure Familiar from the followers standard spells because they were spamming it too much.  It's still a tweak spell at 75% health which occurs much less frequently and not all at the same time.

 

I tried a dodge mod but it didn't dodge fast enough or far enough to be useful.  I didn't choose Dual Combat Realism because it ruins stealth play.  I didn't choose Deadly Combat or Ultimate Combat because I don't want to make the game too hard.

Edited December 11, 2014 by Leto

[Leto]

This video shows one of the best fights I've had so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puybXwz3IOE

Edited December 15, 2014 by Leto

[Leto]

I figured out how to use SkyUI favorite groups.  This let me map the weapon switching to F1 - F8 freeing up the hotkeys 1-8.

Now, I can do a lot more during combat without pausing the game.

 

F1 Sword & Shield

F2 Axe & Shield

F3 Mace & Shield

F4 Two Handed Sword

F5 Bow

F6 Heal Self & Heal Other

F7 Axe & Ward

F8 Axe & Torch

 

1.  Health Potion
2.  Stamina Potion
3.  Magicka Potion
4.  Destruction Spell
5.  Alteration Spell
6.  Conjuration Spell
7.  Shout 1
8.  Shout 2
 

I had to remap quicksave to the question mark key.

 

I also disabled the Wet and Cold rain gear and cold gear for followers because it was interfering with the AFT only wear helmets during combat.

[ssconvert]

Any mod updates Leto on your playthrough? I too am looking to follow a STEP LE or extended list plus REGS plus a few other hardcore/immersion mods. Like you I will be leaving out a few STEP LE mods because I want steady FPS. Eg Footprints, Wet/Cold, body mods and probably even swap Vividian Enb for maybe Sweet FX. Something I have to ask in the forums.

[Leto]

Hi ssconvert,

 

I've moved on to a more stripped down "bang for your buck" mod list described the Steam forum for Skyrim because I want smoother combat and fewer problems:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/620700960485230296/?tscn=1420675061

 

Hope you find something in there to improve your game.

 

Cheers,

Silvermane