Tannin42 - the new head developer of NMM

[prinyo]

http://www.nexusmods.com/games/news/12905/?

 

 

Dark0ne:

"So it’s with great pleasure that I can finally announce that Tannin is our new Head NMM Developer. He began his new life at the Nexus at the beginning of August this year.

Together with fellow NMM programmers Fabio and Luca, Tannin is spearheading the creation of a completely new Nexus Mod Manager."

 

 

 

 

Tannin:

""First I want to assure you that the primary reason of Robin hiring me was to take advantage of my experience with MO and to integrate it into the Nexus offering, not to kill off MO. And the primary reason for me to take the job was that it will allow me to invest serious time into creating a better modding experience when previously it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to find time and motivation to work on MO in my spare time alongside a demanding job. Obviously I won't be working on MO any more which unfortunately means that, unless someone else picks up where I left, MO v2 won't appear in a stable version. I know that will appear as a loss now and I apologize to everyone who was looking forward to a new release.""

 

 

Love or hate the news, this is something to think about:

(from the announcement)

"If Mod Organizer is what Tannin can do in his spare time while also doing a full time programming job, what could he do if he worked full-time on a mod manager with two skilled and experienced NMM programmers working with him as a team?"

 

 

 

From a comment by Tannin in the forums: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4940905-big-changes-for-the-nexus-mod-manager-and-the-introduction-of-tannin42-our-new-head-of-nmm-development/?p=43210750

 

"Basically we plan to build the new mod manager very modular and extensible.

The base application will then be a very simple tool with only the necessary functions. When you need an advanced feature you add the appropriate extensions.
A moddable mod manager basically.
This way you get a smoother learning curve and the UI isn't as cluttered with features you never use.

But that's only the vision, how much of that we can realize remains to be seen."

[Guest enip]

Fucking sell out is all I have to say. But I don't care because SKyrim is the last Beth game I play so I have no worries about it. I'll never use NMM ever

[ousnius]

Only positive for me. Both NMM and MO needed a reboot.

[Guest]

Only positive for me. Both NMM and MO needed a reboot.

 

Agreed.

 

There is a possibility now that NMM will become a real mod manager.

[Guest enip]

I look at it like Dark0ne not only bribed Tannin, but bought out competition. At least the way Dark0ne see's it. You no longer have a choice between either one. You are either on that train or waiting for someone else to make another mod manager like MO.

 

Why is this a big deal? NMM was already following the path of Mod Organizer with their virtual file structure. Obviously it was not enough. For Dark0ne NMM was never enough which is why it always remained in beta. He wanted to push NMM as far as possible and his team of programmers couldn't do what one man (tannin) did let alone get it out of beta. he doesn't care that there are people who preferred the traditional NMM and not care about the virtual file structure. It never sat right in his mind that MO did far too well on it's own and that it gained such a popularity. But just like he's pushing NMM to be the #1 mod manager, he's pushing his Nexus site to be the AIO. The one stop shop for mod downloading, which is why he's hired an "ambassador."

 

Dark0ne wants Nexus to be the enterprise of all mod communities. Wants to always be the bigger and badder kid on the block.

 

Tannin was bribed and chose to take the money and ditch MO2. Nothing else.

[ousnius]

Tannin was bribed and chose to take the money and ditch MO2. Nothing else.

 

Tannin was bribed to do what he probably loves more than the job he had before that.

Robin's reasons don't matter. Everyone wants to be "the best" or create the best, it's his right to try to be that.

They're both free programs.

[Benmc20]

Only positive for me. Both NMM and MO needed a reboot.

This is exactly my thought. And I'm pretty sure that this new mod manager can beneficiate from both sides. let's wait then.

[D_ManXX2]

For Darkone i think the only reason was to get more users to download from nexus. since most users was on MO now everything will go through nexus now.

[ousnius]

For Darkone i think the only reason was to get more users to download from nexus. since most users was on MO now everything will go through nexus now.

 

Actually, data shows 98% of users were on NMM.

You just don't notice them because they're not vocal.

[D_ManXX2]

And how accurate is that ?? does it also take into account how many users made the switch MO ?? And how exactly do they know how many users even used NMM ?? i only installed it once then switched to MO does it take that into account ??

[Guest enip]

It was great to have MO and NMM. Variety is always the better choice. We don't need one manager to rule them all. The world just doesn't work that way. And that's why we had NMM users and MO users. That's why we had people who did not prefer the virtual file structure, and those that did. Some people prefer simplicity over complexity and vice versa.

[prinyo]

Been payed to work on your hobby is extremely satisfying. Especially in a case like this where (it seems) he will have the power to work freely on his ideas without having to think about managers and other corporate shit the developers are faced with nowadays. So for him this is definitely a win. 

 

From users point of view - having somebody who has the vision, the ideas, the enthusiasm and the technical understanding working on a modding tool as a full day job is a win.

 

So, it seems it is a win-win situation.

 

Combining the ambition of Dark0ne with the expertise of Tannin seem to me as an user a positive step.

 

We all have our skepticism about how the 2 paradigms - of NMM and MO, can be combined together in a single tool. But it is too early to speculate. We simply need to give them some time and wait for some concrete announcements.

 

For me as a person who gets his mods from Nexus and LL this will change nothing in regards to mod sources.

 

 

[domp]

Good news imo im happy for tannin at least now he ll do what he loves full time 

[HyperMix]

I wish him the best of luck. It is open source and anyone can pickup MO2 where he left off. Any developer or modder working in his spare time deserves credit and recognition.

 

[Ashal]

If it means people still stupidly using NMM instead of MO eventually become irrelevant; then I'm all for it and congratulate him on the job.

 

 

 

Alternative post: Oh no! this is proof positive nexus/tannin/bethesda are all conspiring against against us! end of days incoming!

Or maybe a company with enough capital to hire somebody simply decided to use it so they could hire good people...

[Rayblue]

I'd say MO ate up NMM. That it actually works, is stable, doesn't shit on your files, and dO got sold on those practicalities.

 

It's a fucking coup.

 

The talk of making it more modular just like, say, Notepad++, should be good for anyone, whether a FNG modder, hardcore with 400+ mods installed, or a mod developer who works with a lot of programs.

 

This... and a lot more coming up, including Spec Edition Skyrim and mods for consoles, are wholesale changes that we'll have to embrace or hate it. But it's so damn exciting to be living in these times.

 

-----------

To add: if some people don't like this sea change, they can still keep old MO if they want to, just like Wrye Bash.

[Vykroft]

He has the posibility of working on something he love and get paid for it.

Congratz... If he made something like MO without being paid and using only spare time, I'm eager to see what he can do in an optimal working condition.

[Jordan]

Can't blame the guy for taking the job after building MO from the ground up for free, and you can't really blame Dark0ne for wanting to hire the guy who made software that ran rings around his own in his spare time.

 

Sucks for most of us right now because NMM is awful (or was, haven't used it in like 3 years) and MO's not gonna get updates, but the current version of MO2 seems to work still for the moment and hopefully by the time Bethesda does something to break it NMM will be in a better state

[Kimy]

If he can improve NMM and make it better/faster while keeping it a simple, straightforward tool that doesn't use gimmick hacks or has a learning curve steeper than Mt Everest to get it's job done...be my guest. But the last thing I am after is someone reshaping NMM to be just like MO. I just hope that's not going to happen. If I wanted to use MO, I probably would.

[MataHari]

I think this event may split the community into two camps, the Nexus camp favors NMM+MO the other camp favors WB as the ultimate mod manager.

 

This reminds me about the heated mods paywall discussion last year that split the community into two groups.

[Twycross448]

I wish Tannin all the best and good luck. In all likelyhood, he will sorely need it.

Though I admit I'll be amongst the mob with the pitchforks screaming bloody murder if the (now enhanced) Nexus team thinks they could get away with a NMM v2 instead of properly incorporating MOs advanced features (like TRUE virtualization, for example).

[Kimy]

I wish Tannin all the best and good luck. In all likelyhood, he will sorely need it.

Though I admit I'll be amongst the mob with the pitchforks screaming bloody murder if the (now enhanced) Nexus team thinks they could get away with a NMM v2 instead of properly incorporating MOs advanced features (like TRUE virtualization, for example).

 

That's the exact feature that makes MO such a PITA to use and it's almost totally useless to people who don't want to make excessive use of multiple profiles (which I dare saying is probably the vast majority of all Skyrim users). As I said above, people who want to use MO, can. There is no point in making NMM to be just like MO, though. Choice is a good thing. NMM and MO cater to completely different needs and different preferences. It's a good thing that they are BOTH there and that's how it should remain.

[Twycross448]

 

I wish Tannin all the best and good luck. In all likelyhood, he will sorely need it.

Though I admit I'll be amongst the mob with the pitchforks screaming bloody murder if the (now enhanced) Nexus team thinks they could get away with a NMM v2 instead of properly incorporating MOs advanced features (like TRUE virtualization, for example).

 

That's the exact feature that makes MO such a PITA to use and it's almost totally useless to people who don't want to make excessive use of multiple profiles (which I dare saying is probably the vast majority of all Skyrim users). As I said above, people who want to use MO, can. There is no point in making NMM to be just like MO, though. Choice is a good thing. NMM and MO cater to completely different needs and different preferences. It's a good thing that they are BOTH there and that's how it should remain.

 

I'll be honest, Kimy, I don't really see the problem people seem to have with MO's virtualization, even if you only use a single profile. It keeps your game installation clean, it allows easy juggling of mods, patches for mods etc. without having to re-install them in order, easy deinstallation without having to worry about leftovers... what is so bad about it?

 

They may be here NOW, but since MO/MO2 won't be updated any longer, it is only a matter of time before they break, be it because of some windows update or because new games come out they cannot recognize because they aren't maintained anymore. And then, there will be NO choice anymore.

[Kimy]

They may be here NOW, but since MO/MO2 won't be updated any longer, it is only a matter of time before they break, be it because of some windows update or because new games come out they cannot recognize because they aren't maintained anymore. And then, there will be NO choice anymore.

 

 

I have no idea, but MO is open source, no? If people want to have a tool like MO, one should think it gets picked up by someone to maintain it. It's what usually happens with open source projects worth keeping.

[shinji72]

I've mixed feelings.

Good for Tannin, and Darkone was smart to swallow his pride and hire the better player.

 

I see a problem though. Less competition, less choice. What if we found next upcoming Tannin42's NMM has some shortcomings. 

I don't think it will happens. I think he will deliver.. but if he wont.. there will be no alternative options.
(Of course someone else might show up... but I don't see a long queue of Mod managers out there. In all these years only MO has came out to offer an alternative to NMM monopoly)