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Steam to introduce 1-step mod installation/uninstallation with Skyrim

SlickVic

Member
Its gorgeous, certainly, but Nexus Mod Manager is about as simple as it gets really.
Click on "install with manager" on SkyrimNexus, click activate after its downloaded, done.

More interested in this with games that don't have such a nice interface and repository.

No adult mods?
Thats why modding was invented! Seriously though, just look at the amount of downloads for adult mods on the Nexus site, removing the pants off the female characters is what gets people to the sites in the first place.

Yeah, I was really excited when this was first announced, but that was before I knew Nexus Mod Manager existed. I think NMM is still in beta and there's probably some random issues with it (personally have yet to experience any though), but it's seems to be exactly what I wanted out of Steam workshop. Plus it's already out.
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
Would be crazy if they did this with most games that have a mod community.

Yep. This is fantastic. It allows a good centralized system of review and description, as well as making it very easy to turn on/off. Plus it exposes it many many more players, so it can get developers to incorporate feedback/desires of players by monitoring mod usage among the population at large, not just a niche market of mod seekers.
 

jediyoshi

Member
Beginning of making "mods" an official marketing bullet point for future PC games -- to be sold as an extra feature. Calling it.
This specific integration of Steam workshop or modding itself? I don't forsee any other PC publisher/developer caring enough to go either way enough to ever bother touching it in that way.
 
That's hot. Hopefully this happens for more games.

...Although this continues to lower the bar in terms of technical knowledge one must possess to be a good PC gamer, which is starting to get annoying with a lot of these new people who are completely clueless outside of clicking download or play. I'd hate a future where PC gaming became "Applefied."

careful you're creeping into Roberta Williams quote territory here....
 

tokkun

Member
What do you think about the limitations that this method brings about (possibly less ability to edit core game files, size limitations so mods can sync to Steam Cloud, Valve controlling content - will mods with adult themes be removed from the Workshop?) Is this moving toward a "walled garden" approach to mods, and if so, is it the best way forward for mod users and creators?

If you go to the Nexus sites and look at the most popular mods, the top ones are mostly nude/adult-content. I don't see Valve putting up an adult section.
 
If you go to the Nexus sites and look at the most popular mods, the top ones are mostly nude/adult-content. I don't see Valve putting up an adult section.

yeah I doubt that would be good PR to make cazador rape mods a 1 click ez install for little jimmys.
 

Derrick01

Banned
This was the next big frontier for Valve to simplify, to me at least. I've been waiting for something like this ever since I became a PC gamer because it can be a gigantic pain in the ass getting mods to work on some games, especially for someone like me with limited computer knowledge.

I was able to get Fallout 3 and New Vegas modded well but that was after the games had been out for a year and most mod organizers were perfected already. I haven't been able to muster the will to go through all of the Skyrim BS since most mods are still being constantly updated and the organizers still kind of blow.
 

Baha

Member
Didn't they try something similar to this with half Life 2 mods? And then just kind of stopped

You mean putting them on steam? They did stop doing that but something else came along and did a better job, gotta find the link for it. I think it was/is Desura but I can't remember if that was the particular client I used last year when I was looking for HL2 mods.
 

WillyFive

Member
That's hot. Hopefully this happens for more games.

...Although this continues to lower the bar in terms of technical knowledge one must possess to be a good PC gamer, which is starting to get annoying with a lot of these new people who are completely clueless outside of clicking download or play. I'd hate a future where PC gaming became "Applefied."

We want that.

It creates jobs.
 
WILL THE OBLIVION PORN MODS BE COMPATIBLE

CAN I HIDE THEM FROM THE PEOPLE I KNOW IRL

THIS IS IMPORTANT

EDIT: POST NUMBER IS 69, IT BETTER FUCKING HAPPEN
 

The Crimson Kid

what are you waiting for
I really hope Bethesda and Valve can make this work well enough. This has the potential to vastly increase the proliferation of mods and give a much larger audience for modders to make mods for.

I don't regret modding New Vegas, but it sure took a lot of time to get it working. It didn't help that it is AT LEAST a 6-7 step process per mod to install. And that's not taking into account the time it takes to register for an account, wait through ads before the download starts, reordering mods because something broke, and troubleshooting when things really break.

Bethesda is wise in seeing the value in a vibrant modding community and realizes that the largest hurdle to modding their games was just how difficult it is to do on your own.
 
The amount of bullshit in this thread is astounding. Few things:

- It's impossible to overwrite game files with a mod as they're kept inside ESP packages, and the engine uses overrides rather than replacements (i.e. it performs an in-memory replacement, not an on-disk one)
- Mods never touch the Windows registry (what the fuck)
- 90% of mods from Nexus will install by being unzipped to the "Data" directory in the game folder, then activating them in the Mod Manager before launching the game (not AT LEAST a 6-7 step process)
- 90% of load order problems can be resolved using BOSS auto-sort, which is a one-click option in the Mod Manager
- All mods shown on Nexus sites by default are non-adult, you will only be shown adult content if you specifically request it

I'm glad that people are happy that this is going to make it easier, but you don't need to paint an inaccurate picture of the current state of modding to justify feeling that way. As I said when this was announced, it's a real insult to the community which has actually made the modding scene for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and now Skyrim large and skilled enough for Bethesda and Valve to justify doing this at all.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
That's right, come to the PC side of things when it goes on sale next and bask in the great Skyrim mod community. Things are only going to get better from here.

And the Steam integration is flawless.
 

Symphonic

Member
The amount of bullshit in this thread is astounding. Few things:

- It's impossible to overwrite game files with a mod as they're kept inside ESP packages, and the engine uses overrides rather than replacements (i.e. it performs an in-memory replacement, not an on-disk one)
- Mods never touch the Windows registry (what the fuck)
- 90% of mods from Nexus will install by being unzipped to the "Data" directory in the game folder, then activating them in the Mod Manager before launching the game (not AT LEAST a 6-7 step process)
- 90% of load order problems can be resolved using BOSS auto-sort, which is a one-click option in the Mod Manager
- All mods shown on Nexus sites by default are non-adult, you will only be shown adult content if you specifically request it

I'm glad that people are happy that this is going to make it easier, but you don't need to paint an inaccurate picture of the current state of modding to justify feeling that way. As I said when this was announced, it's a real insult to the community which has actually made the modding scene for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and now Skyrim large and skilled enough for Bethesda and Valve to justify doing this at all.

Huh? I'm pretty sure the people that are saying "no more Nexus" for me and such are doing so because of the ease of this. Why would you get mad over people moving forward and embracing a more straight forward approach to modding?
 
Huh? I'm pretty sure the people that are saying "no more Nexus" for me and such are doing so because of the ease of this. Why would you get mad over people moving forward and embracing a more straight forward approach to modding?

I'm not getting mad over that at all, I'm annoyed that people say things like "installing mods right now is so hard, you have to wade through pages of porn mods and ads, and then you have to worry about overwriting game files and registry settings and stuff." It's simply not true, and the community around mods for Bethesda games has done exceptional work over the years so I feel that it's a disservice to them.
 

Durante

Member
Huh? I'm pretty sure the people that are saying "no more Nexus" for me and such are doing so because of the ease of this. Why would you get mad over people moving forward and embracing a more straight forward approach to modding?
He's not doing that at all. He's "getting mad" about people making up inaccurate bullshit, and correcting it.

Personally I think this will work well for small mods, but most significant Skyrim content will likely use SKSE going forward, and that probably won't be possible by just using the Steam system.
 

1-D_FTW

Member
Awesome. Oblivion modding required some heavy reading before jumping into it.

This. I understand the concerns about this. And they're valid. But I literally spent hours reading through those directions and tips getting it all set up. It was unreal. Felt I should have taken a test when I was done.

I'm not getting mad over that at all, I'm annoyed that people say things like "installing mods right now is so hard, you have to wade through pages of porn mods and ads, and then you have to worry about overwriting game files and registry settings and stuff." It's simply not true, and the community around mods for Bethesda games has done exceptional work over the years so I feel that it's a disservice to them.

There are mods and then there's Oblivion. And I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing the content producers are going to be upset about this. Ease and visibility will make their products played by even more people. Unless I somehow missed something and Nexus pays those guys everytime one of their mods is downloaded.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
I'm not getting mad over that at all, I'm annoyed that people say things like "installing mods right now is so hard, you have to wade through pages of porn mods and ads, and then you have to worry about overwriting game files and registry settings and stuff." It's simply not true, and the community around mods for Bethesda games has done exceptional work over the years so I feel that it's a disservice to them.

If you install mods in the wrong order, does it not break things?
 
If you install mods in the wrong order, does it not break things?

There are some mods which conflict with one another, is that what you mean? The only thing this system will prevent in that respect is that it might give you a warning saying "these mods conflict with one another so you'll have to remove this one to use the new one".

As for breaking things, you can remove all the mods you have installed by opening up your game directory, going into the "Data" folder and deleting all the subfolders and packages which don't belong to the original game. Boom, clean install. If you've used the mod manager's package management features it's even easier, you literally click the package in the manager and select "delete" and it will clean up after itself totally.
 
Honestly this is why I'm not 100% happy with this system, as awesome as it sounds. It gives Bethesda some measure of control over what content modders can release.

There's that definitely, but the biggest problem I have with this is that this effectively lets Bethesda claim a lot more credit for the modding scene around their games than they deserve frankly. On the one hand, it's great that they've made it so that people who were scared of using mods before now have an accessible avenue for doing so, but on the other hand I'd hate to see history rewritten in a few years time to the point where this is seen as when modding for their games really kicked off considering the amazing work out there already.
 
Honestly this is why I'm not 100% happy with this system, as awesome as it sounds. It gives Bethesda some measure of control over what content modders can release.

I mean thats not going to go away. If you still want everyone without shirts it just takes a few more clicks.
 

Haunted

Member
The Nexus Mod Manager already makes installing and uninstalling mods plenty easy.


But I guess it's nice if pretty much everyone buying the game on steam sees this as an option instead of having to actively seek it out on the nexus or something.
 

2San

Member
There's that definitely, but the biggest problem I have with this is that this effectively lets Bethesda claim a lot more credit for the modding scene around their games than they deserve frankly. On the one hand, it's great that they've made it so that people who were scared of using mods before now have an accessible avenue for doing so, but on the other hand I'd hate to see history rewritten in a few years time to the point where this is seen as when modding for their games really kicked off considering the amazing work out there already.
If that's the biggest problem we are facing, then this must be pretty awesome.
 

Rapstah

Member
Putting it simply, modding Oblivion/Fallout 3/New Vegas was never that difficult anyway if you possessed the most rudimentary computing skills. This thing is for people like the guy in a thread a few weeks back who had Comic Sans as his desktop font and didn't know how to unzip an archive.

Was this guy for real? I missed the thread if so. Link?

EDIT: Found it.
 

sp3000

Member
The amount of bullshit in this thread is astounding. Few things:

- It's impossible to overwrite game files with a mod as they're kept inside ESP packages, and the engine uses overrides rather than replacements (i.e. it performs an in-memory replacement, not an on-disk one)
- Mods never touch the Windows registry (what the fuck)
- 90% of mods from Nexus will install by being unzipped to the "Data" directory in the game folder, then activating them in the Mod Manager before launching the game (not AT LEAST a 6-7 step process)
- 90% of load order problems can be resolved using BOSS auto-sort, which is a one-click option in the Mod Manager
- All mods shown on Nexus sites by default are non-adult, you will only be shown adult content if you specifically request it

I'm glad that people are happy that this is going to make it easier, but you don't need to paint an inaccurate picture of the current state of modding to justify feeling that way. As I said when this was announced, it's a real insult to the community which has actually made the modding scene for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and now Skyrim large and skilled enough for Bethesda and Valve to justify doing this at all.

Most people are ignorant, and this applies to GAF as well. The amount of totally unfounded statements in this thread about mods is quite ridiculous. Who the hell made up the part about registry editing.

I think it's funny that mod creators spend entire years making mods and certain people cannot be bothered to download boss and have their load order sorted for them.
 
If that's the biggest problem we are facing, then this must be pretty awesome.

That's my biggest problem, sure. If you can't see any other problems with UGC being entirely in the hands of the game publisher who wants to make money off DLC, then I'm not sure I'd be able to explain it.
 

Tain

Member
That's my biggest problem, sure. If you can't see any other problems with UGC being entirely in the hands of the game publisher who wants to make money off DLC, then I'm not sure I'd be able to explain it.

I guess I can't make the connection between what is happening with Skyrim right now and a publisher actually making things more restrictive. I'd see the worry if this were the only venue for modding in the next TES game, but that obviously isn't the case with Skyrim.
 
Wait, so does this mean we don't have to mess with load orders anymore?

I'm guessing it will do a "best guess" based on the ESMs, which is exactly what the existing mod managers already do.

Tain said:
I guess I can't make the connection between what is happening with Skyrim right now and a publisher actually making things more restrictive. I'd see the worry if this were the only venue for modding in the next TES game, but that obviously isn't the case with Skyrim.

Well this is what I'm worried about. Obviously you'll still be able to use Nexus for now, but it worries me that if this takes off they'll use it as an excuse to block off other avenues for modding which exist today. From an intellectual property perspective it also makes a lot of sense for them to force everyone through the same avenue for modding because they can assert ownership over everything created through that channel, something they actually can't do right now with mods hosted elsewhere.
 

Wallach

Member
Hopefully that's not the way they decide to go. Blizzard tightening up on the rights side for mods to their games really put an end to Starcraft 2 modding as it could have been.

Blizzard's always been pretty stupid about modding, though. I don't really have the same fears when it comes to Bethesda.
 
It's a nice thing for many types of mods, but for anything that uses a script extender or such you will probably still have to head to the Nexus anyway.
 
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