Thanks for the thorough answer. I wondered if questions I was generating were going to get any answers - so thanks.

Yeah I'm fairly familiar with Mash (more so with bash) - Umm actually I was the first to write http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1084204-bain-mod-installation-projects/.

And have been using a lot of tes3cmd to prep a load order. More on that http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1184424-q-cleaning-mods-with-tespcd/.

BTB is doing good stuff - so yeah i was most likely going to go with his ASE and windows.

I plugged in every combo of mods that I called mutually exclusive into the conflict detector and a few had very minimal conflicts - still I'd imagine for a smooth game better that there were next to none - to minimize ctds.
Really those 4 would not be hard to change out and test but with BTB's ASE being the latest and greatest - that will likely be the one.

I found all the other mods you listed in the second list - except the quiet UI one - that is golden. Thanks.

...this is taking time. at this point tonight I've conquered visual replacers, bug fixes, sounds, NPC encounters, Monsters, UI and HUD mods, Bodies and faces, environment mods (grass and trees).

Next cities and infrastructure then I can get into dungeons, quests, and immersion mods.

Maybe in a few weeks actually play.

I did not see this addressed on this thread, but if you use PirateLord's sound mod and Graphic herbalism, there is a patch that exists but is not advertised on PirateLord's webpage. It is hosted on http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23108.
Also, glad to see my mod mentioned in this thread

The OP is one year late - we've had 9 years of modding already.

Povuholo, what water shader are you using? Anybody else have any good recommendations for one?

I'm using the default water shader for MGE XE at the moment. If you're going with one of the latest couple of beta revisions from the regular MGE build, I'd just stick with the default one. I don't think there are any custom water shaders that aren't meant for older versions.

Ah alright, thanks. I've bookmarked this list, awesome work.