Do the site managers plan on making a mod manager like nexus?

[PervyGamer42]

Something i've grown to appreciate from other platforms like Steam, Nexus and Bethesda.net(despite their many faults) is that we don't have to worry about updating our mods manually and we can spend more time playing the game. 

[DoctaSax]

Sounds like a lot of work.

[gregathit]

No.

[KoolHndLuke]

An LL MM would handle your mods a lot like movers. It would pack your shit, take it for a wild ride, and then drop it's load all over your game files. 

[Varithina]

A plugin for existing mod managers would probably be the better option, but that would required considerable support from the site owners so not too likely to happen unless one of them has a go at it.

[ghostwalkr]

I might be crazy, but I rather go through the "hassle" of manually updating my mods rather than relying on a mod manager thinking it's okay just because there is an update.

Heck, I don't even manually update a mod if I have a active play-thru happening unless the update fixes an issue, even then I want to read what changed and if there are certain steps (aka clean saves) that are needed prior to updating.

[t.ara]

ghostwalkr is 100% right-there are lot of things more secure to have them fully "manual".

Is "not neccessary":-))

[RitualClarity]

1 hour ago, ghostwalkr said:

I might be crazy, but I rather go through the "hassle" of manually updating my mods rather than relying on a mod manager thinking it's okay just because there is an update.

Heck, I don't even manually update a mod if I have a active play-thru happening unless the update fixes an issue, even then I want to read what changed and if there are certain steps (aka clean saves) that are needed prior to updating.

Yes, that is the good way of doing it. It forces you to return to the page to get the mod. The author can then inform the user of the current changes or user should check fully the mod changes before updating (really should)

 

Blind updates, I don't get it.  It has caused me some issues in the past. It is nice to have but requires responsibility..

 

"With great power, comes great responsibility"

 

As for the site creating a mod manager.. that is a shit ton of work and one of our moderators has openly stated he keeps his head up his ass. Kind of hard to develop something with your head up your ass! lol

 

Jokes aside (sorry @gregathit )  It takes a great amount of resources. This site is quite small and truth be told it takes most of what it has to keep the lights on. (site running)  If the site was as big or bigger than Nexus.. with the resources they have at their command.. This might be a different matter.

[myuhinny]

No because it would take too much time effort resources and money as you'll have to hire someone/some people to help put a mod manager together and keep it running correctly without it blowing up.

[Swe-DivX]

Can we add forum support to the update and version check in MO2 meta.ini repository and url?

[GuruSR]

I think manually installing the mods is the better route, if you need to revert, I would recommend using backup software to backup your game folder, do the modifications, if it fails, restore the game folder back to what it was, by removing the install and using the backup software's restore function.  Then if your game ever goes Kaboom because your hard drive died, you don't lose everything.  (I've seen too many great coders/crafters of mods leave the communities over the years due to hard drive death and lack of backups, it is a shame that is preventable.  If you love your work, protect it from digital death.)

 

I would like to see "uploaded on" on the downloads, so that we can easily see what files are new in the list of a mod's downloads, as sometimes there are so many, directions don't list every file, but seeing dates would be beneficial and an easy thing to add.

 

GuruSR.

[RitualClarity]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:14 PM, GuruSR said:

I think manually installing the mods is the better route, if you need to revert, I would recommend using backup software to backup your game folder, do the modifications, if it fails, restore the game folder back to what it was, by removing the install and using the backup software's restore function.  Then if your game ever goes Kaboom because your hard drive died, you don't lose everything.  (I've seen too many great coders/crafters of mods leave the communities over the years due to hard drive death and lack of backups, it is a shame that is preventable.  If you love your work, protect it from digital death.)

 

I would like to see "uploaded on" on the downloads, so that we can easily see what files are new in the list of a mod's downloads, as sometimes there are so many, directions don't list every file, but seeing dates would be beneficial and an easy thing to add.

 

GuruSR.

That requires the person doing this to understand what they are doing. where the files are going and such.  There will be times they don't want file x to overwrite file y and with that they have to edit the files they are installing so this doesn't happen or carefully install it and make sure that that file doesn't overwrite the file in question. Lots of tedious work and knowledge. This is what a manager does. It records all the things that happen and then runs a script that can remove the changes. 

 

Your second part of having a decent back up of your mods and such is essential I agree. It is such a shame that good authors get tired and quit when their "data" goes poof.. (Funny it most ofetn happens when they are having a problem or some other issue and contemplating quitting anyway )

[sweforce]

Vortex, the current Nexus mod manager can easily install mods from other sources, just drag and drop essentially. If said mods are compatible are another matter thou but that are up to the mod developer. And there are other mod managers out there.

[GuruSR]

On 8/28/2019 at 6:01 PM, RitualClarity said:

That requires the person doing this to understand what they are doing. where the files are going and such.  There will be times they don't want file x to overwrite file y and with that they have to edit the files they are installing so this doesn't happen or carefully install it and make sure that that file doesn't overwrite the file in question. Lots of tedious work and knowledge. This is what a manager does. It records all the things that happen and then runs a script that can remove the changes. 

 

Your second part of having a decent back up of your mods and such is essential I agree. It is such a shame that good authors get tired and quit when their "data" goes poof.. (Funny it most ofetn happens when they are having a problem or some other issue and contemplating quitting anyway )

Actually, most mod managers are merely rename & copy, rename an existing file about to be overwritten to a folder with the same filename, like moving it to "backup" and then copying the new file in.  Sure, mod managers give you the ability to customize installation options, but sadly, when it comes to removing mods, that affect files in the "backup", at best, it turns into a heaping mess, or it asks the user which one to use, at which point, they're either dumbfounded and pick something that looks okay and finds out later it wasn't, or it just blindly restores the last one which is just as bad.  A lot of mod authors out there often include things not of their mod within the actual package, that is the usual cause of grief with mod managers.  Like the Race Compat stuff, a good deal of times they'd include the entire mod with their version, which causes all sorts of grief because the mod manager would put in an older version or a newer one with bugs.  Sure, manually doing it requires some thinking, but I open the xml file being used to do this in notepad and I read what it is doing, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.  If you want a mod manager, go for it, convenience with headaches, myself I prefer knowing what is going where and why, then I manually make backups of files it overwrites so I can undo it if necessary or if a massive mess (which one mod manager caused), restoring the game folder from a recent backup.  For this site, I'd say stick to not using any mod managers with the packages, folders with "use this for" is easier and offer up more installation documentation in the package if necessary.  More documentations on the files is really key here.

 

GuruSR.

[RitualClarity]

2 hours ago, GuruSR said:

Actually, most mod managers are merely rename & copy, rename an existing file about to be overwritten to a folder with the same filename, like moving it to "backup" and then copying the new file in.  Sure, mod managers give you the ability to customize installation options, but sadly, when it comes to removing mods, that affect files in the "backup", at best, it turns into a heaping mess, or it asks the user which one to use, at which point, they're either dumbfounded and pick something that looks okay and finds out later it wasn't, or it just blindly restores the last one which is just as bad.  A lot of mod authors out there often include things not of their mod within the actual package, that is the usual cause of grief with mod managers.  Like the Race Compat stuff, a good deal of times they'd include the entire mod with their version, which causes all sorts of grief because the mod manager would put in an older version or a newer one with bugs.  Sure, manually doing it requires some thinking, but I open the xml file being used to do this in notepad and I read what it is doing, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.  If you want a mod manager, go for it, convenience with headaches, myself I prefer knowing what is going where and why, then I manually make backups of files it overwrites so I can undo it if necessary or if a massive mess (which one mod manager caused), restoring the game folder from a recent backup.  For this site, I'd say stick to not using any mod managers with the packages, folders with "use this for" is easier and offer up more installation documentation in the package if necessary.  More documentations on the files is really key here.

 

GuruSR.

Yes,... (Mod Organizer is a bit better with the installation and such as it keeps things separate... kind of like manually installing but keeping things separate... this is the way I do things most of the time )

 

For people with excellent experience and patience. By all means manually install your mods. I did so foro Fallout 4 when it was first released as ... you pointed out.. mod managers caused some issues for me. It was fine. I did so a long time ago with Sexout. (kept a customized mega folder that I tweaked and tweaked to get what I wanted. ) and it worked quite well. Had a few different configurations to load up over the base install

 

Most users don't even know what an xml file is or how to read it (I actually have some issues understanding it myself lol at least parts of it) Also they don't know the folders structure, conflict resolution and other needed aspects to really get into this.  That is the person that should use a solid reasonably reliable mod manager.  I will never tell someone that has a firm grasp on modding and the files system that prefers to manually install to use a manager.. unless he or she starts to bitch about some issues or file going wrong.

 

the OP is wanting a manager that can do all that work for him. Not even wanting to go and keep track of his mods and their web pages to go and read the changes and download the new mod and install it. there are lots of people that want this level of ease of use. More are coming every day.

[Wolfstorm321]

I've had to go back to NMM because of the fomods. Too much of a hassle to install Demoniac without it. I had to move other games to make up for the space.

 

[Storms of Superior]

Just about made my head explosde, and I understand very little about building software.

[Braux22]

If Nexusmods website has its own mod manager there is no reason Loverslab Website cannot make their own mod manager but than Loverslab would have to co-inspire work as a team to avoid the many mods needed by Nexusmods. Even better make Loverslab and Nexusmods one Website and make a even better mod manager that updates itself etc. either way this would take about 1 to 2 years even with all of modders and supporters helping with both websites. That being if they even want to co-inspire together and work as one instead of people going to different websites getting more downloads than eachother cant have a race without another one trying to best your score.

[kmaaier]

The answer in this topic could be a big help.

 

If this site could be load in the vortex program, then there are the links to the mods here.

[King-Crimson]

I just wanna weight in and say that I don't think anyone should auto-update their mods like the thread-starter suggested.

Auto-updating means you'll miss out on actually reading changelogs and don't really get to understand what has changed, what is going on, which game files have been added / changed and which features have been added / changed.

 

A good example is when a mod changes it's dependencies from other mods. I have seen numerous mods that started out being dependent from a certain framework / api, but dropped that dependency later. (Or the other way around, added new dependencies). With auto-updating you would never know about changes like that and end up with obsolete stuff in your load order. Don't ever auto-update.

 

That's also why I prefer to use no MM at all (only when I'm testing things for which MO2 is a perfect tool as it does not change your game files). 

Keep it simple, keep it under your full control.

[RitualClarity]

1 hour ago, XenonS3 said:

I just wanna weight in and say that I don't think anyone should auto-update their mods like the thread-starter suggested.

Auto-updating means you'll miss out on actually reading changelogs and don't really get to understand what has changed, what is going on, which game files have been added / changed and which features have been added / changed.

 

A good example is when a mod changes it's dependencies from other mods. I have seen numerous mods that started out being dependent from a certain framework / api, but dropped that dependency later. (Or the other way around, added new dependencies). With auto-updating you would never know about changes like that and end up with obsolete stuff in your load order. Don't ever auto-update.

 

That's also why I prefer to use no MM at all (only when I'm testing things for which MO2 is a perfect tool as it does not change your game files). 

Keep it simple, keep it under your full control.

You can miss something as simple as instructions for a clean install or to remove the mod then install (due to the author changing some paths or removing some components splitting them out to other mods ) etc.  A mod user NEEDS TO READ THE OPS OF THE MODS HE INSTALLS regardless if it is the first time using the mod or the one millionth time he updated it.

[King-Crimson]

32 minutes ago, RitualClarity said:

You can miss something as simple as instructions for a clean install or to remove the mod then install (due to the author changing some paths or removing some components splitting them out to other mods ) etc.  A mod user NEEDS TO READ THE OPS OF THE MODS HE INSTALLS regardless if it is the first time using the mod or the one millionth time he updated it.

That's exactly what I said soooo I fully agree. 

 

 

Final thought: When modding a game, you should never think like this:

On 8/12/2019 at 10:47 PM, PervyGamer42 said:

[...] we don't have to worry about updating our mods manually and we can spend more time playing the game. 

Stuff will break with that attitude sooner or later and fixing stuff AFTER it has broken down is a real pain in the ass...

 

Modding a game takes time, effort, precision and a lot of reading. If you don't have that time / don't want to spend that amount of time, then (I'm sorry to tell you) modding your game is not something you should do in the first place.

 

The only thing that will happen is you ending up opening support threads here on LL with bugging others for help because you did basic mistakes during modding (for example missed a crucial instruction) and (worst case) broke your game without knowing how to revert to a working state...