Steam SSE - Game Menu Installation of CC Content

[BlackPete]

A couple of questions/issues related to installing SSE and the Anniversary Edition from Steam. Maybe others have experienced the same issues and know how to solve them.

1) After installing SSE from Steam and starting the game, the CC/Anniversary Edition content will automatically start downloading at the main menu (this seemingly can't be stopped, by the way). Anyway, it downloads a bad or maybe old version of the Fishing DLC that isn't compatible with the current SSE version and overwrites the compatible one. The only way I've been able to solve this is by verifying the game files through Steam, which seemingly reinstalls the correct version of the DLC. Unfortunately, when starting the game back up and reaching the menu the game starts downloading and installing all of the CC/AE DLCs all over again.

2) Does someone know if there's a way to download the Anniversary Edition from Steam instead of having to go to the game's main menu to do it? It's been so long since I played (2-3 years) that I can't remember how all of that was handled previously. The problems made me so frustrated that I decided to play my GoG version of SSE instead. It conveniently allows you to download the offline files for both Skyrim Special Edition itself and the Anniversary Edition package. Anyhow, is there a way to download the game in a similar way with Steam? Yes, I know it doesn't have any offline installers like GoG, but is there a way to download the AE files separately to prevent the game from insisting on doing it from the main menu?

As a note: The only reason I really wanted to have the Steam version installed correctly is so that I have access to the Creation Kit, which I use occasionally to check for potential bugs with mods and the official game files themselves.

[Arthmoor]

I've just concluded a verification check on these files. Steps used:

1. Delete the 8 files associated with the 4 free DLCs.
2. Have Steam validate the game files. 8 files for these DLCs were reacquired.
3. Copy those 8 files to a temporary folder.
4. Launch the game through the official launcher.
5. Click the "Download" prompt that comes up.
6. Wait......
7. Copy the 8 files associated with the 4 free DLCs to a second temporary folder. Yes, all 4 DLCs were included in the in-game download - wish they weren't, no need for that these days, but hey.
8. Run KDiff3 to check for differences on the contents of the two temp folders.

The results: Only the Rare Curios DLC comes up as being different. Which has been a known thing for some time. The other 6 files (2 for each DLC) are all binary equals of each other, which means there will be no differences in the content at all.

Rare Curios has been checked previously with xEdit and the creation of a delta patch. There are no changes present in the plugin files that xEdit can show differences for. It's unlikely any assets in the BSA file are different either but there's no real way to know that 100%.

I would assume the same is true of the contents of the GOG download but that would require a full recheck of all of that too and I'm not sure it's worth the time.

[BlackPete]

Thanks. Those steps solved the installation problems I have was having. I still don't know what caused the mess that I described above, but it doesn't matter now.

Edited April 17 by BlackPete