Sahji

[Answered my own question, not necessary to be here!]

Aha, I have discovered the issue. It makes almost too much sense. According to AndrealphusVIII here, the issue is caused by "qotsafans ReProccer patches" which override the new frostfall esp. Trying it after uninstalling the ReProccer patches shows that the Frostfall meters work. :) Leaving this here for anyone who runs into this issue in the future.

Interestingly, I managed to get this bug after adding new mods/running skyproc patchers. Here's what I did just before it stopped working: Installed XP32 Maximum Skeleton (XPMS 1-93a NMM-BAIN INSTALLER), installed Dual Sheath Redux v 1.6b , ran SUM for Dual Sheath Redux and for ReProccer (SkyRE), ran FNIS , and installed All-in-One ReProccer Patches NMM and Wrye Bash Version 3.7.4. When I started a new savegame, Frostfall's meters were set to 0 opacity, null color, and 0 second contextual display. Altering those options merely reverts after exiting the menu. What's odd here is that this was caused by one of the mods I installed or the processes involved with installing them, and they don't seem like they would affect Frostfall or MCM menus. Disabling these .esp's doesn't fix the issue, nor does disabling/enabling Frostfall. Placing Frostfall at the bottom of the load order doesn't alter anything either. What a strange mess. Load Order