Why is skyrim modding more popular than fallout 4

[NiX10]

Hey lads, so i've been playing skyrim with mods for couple months now, sexlab, DD, DCL, etc. Couple days ago i decided to give FO4 modding a shot, and it looks like mods for it are little bit less polished, and there isn't really anything like sexlab for FO4, you got couple mods like that but they are not as advanced and polished as skyrim ones. Is there a big difference between making mods for SSE / LE and FO4? Not sure if this is right section so feel free to move it if its not

[Gukahn]

Well as someone who only uses the mods here and never quite get into fallout 4 in general. As far as i can tell one of the bigger reasons is: skyrim is way longer there as F4 is and so many modders developed tools, guides ect. for it that its not surprising F4 seems to be a bit behind.

 

Also i think the numbers of People who like making mods and are good at the Adult stuff (which is quite demanding i can imagin as the games never where intend to be that way) Stick to skyrim since they put so much work into it already.

[davisev5225]

Fallout simply isn't as popular as Skyrim.  For whatever reason, future (and retro-future) aesthetic tends to lack in broad appeal, which I find to be quite a shame.  Fantasy is king in popular culture, and Skyrim falls squarely in that category; Fallout does not.

[HexBolt8]

As Gukahn alluded, it seems that in part, Skyrim has more mods because it has more mods.  If Skyrim has a lot of content that a mod developer likes and FO4 doesn't, that person is likely to stay with Skyrim and keep creating mods for it.

 

Another factor is the gameplay.  I have no interest in an argument as to which game is better, but for me, Skyrim has much more replay value, offering me a more enjoyable gameplay experience with more worthwhile places to visit and things to do.  Adult mods make my game more interesting, but I'm mostly playing Skyrim.

[Kendo 2]

Oblivion was more popular than FO3; Skyrim is more popular than FO4.  That just seems to be 'the trend' if comparing 4 games' modding communities can indicate 'a trend'.

 

I played FO4 and everything wrong with Skyrim was given a shot of horse steroids.  The game is shit and it's the first Bethesda release I've played one time, uninstalled immediately afterwards and never bothered to mod.

[uscno84]

I play the hell out of both games, and mod the hell out of both as well, one of the reasons Fallout modding seems dead in comparison to skyrim modding is because, people tend to drive away fallout modders with nasty stupid comments. Also many of the biggest fallout modders took all their mods off of nex and LL to go the patreon route.

[Carabosse]

One of the biggest off putting things for a lot of potential Fallout 4 modders was the whole situation with precombined meshes. I think that alone put many off. I still mod for Fallout and use dynamic placement if I have to but its undoubtedly a pain in the bum.

 

There are still lots of really incredible mods for Fallout 4, Sim Settlements for example. The Fallout 4 modding community is very active, it just seems like its struggles when compared to Skyrim.

[Guest]

I can't speak for the experience of modding Fallout 4 since I never played that game, and wouldn't ever. They killed the Fallout series to me with FO4. And the only reason why I mod Skyrim was because I was dead bored and burnt out of FO3 and FNV, and I was waiting for FO4 to finally come around. I actually never cared for TES. Thanks Beth... Now I'm forever stuck modding Skyrim. Curse you! But to be fair, I have gotten a whole lot of interest in the TES lore. It's rich and depth.

 

1 hour ago, davisev5225 said:

Fallout simply isn't as popular as Skyrim.  For whatever reason, future (and retro-future) aesthetic tends to lack in broad appeal, which I find to be quite a shame.  Fantasy is king in popular culture, and Skyrim falls squarely in that category; Fallout does not.

 

The dialogue system, hand held main story and the annoying settlement defend, I can't imagine why it would be. I always thought that if they made a Fallout 3 remaster for the 10th anniversary, that would've gotten more attention than FO4. Instead, they chose FO76. Though, I have to say FO76 was great for the memes just like CP2077.

 

 

[Captain Cobra]

No amount of modding Fallout 4 will change the fact that you're playing Fallout 4, and some of the biggest problem areas of the game aren't completely fixable by mods.

Additionally, there are extra steps to certain modding tasks compared to previous titles that can add additional frustration.

[27X]

1. The genre they represent have about the same popularity and population respectively.

2. TES is a Bethesda product, FO is not a bethesda product bethesda tried to make a bethesda product. Didn't work out too well.

3. Skyrim's CK is held together with tape and glue but generally understood. FO4's CK is held together with tape and glue and does whatever the fuck it feels like.

4. The dumbest story in Skyrim is the Thieve's Guild. The dumbest story in FO4 is the main story. Considering how long FO4 took to make; not really a endorsement of any kind.

5. FO4 has the worst out of any Bethesda mesh system, and for no benefit.

6. Skyrim's level of draw calls make graphics mod inefficient but doable. FO4's level of draw calls literally cripple the game without mods, much less with.

7. Looking at achievement completion rates, a shit ton more people finished Skyrim than finished FO4, combined with FO4 having better day one sales than Skyrim but selling about half the number of copies lifetime.

 

[spoonsinger]

According to wikipedia, (the fountain of all accurate knowledge, umm), Skyrim has sold 30,000,000 and ranked position 19 out of a top 50. Fallout 4 isn't placed in that top 50 list. So equate number off copies sold, remove console, remove all those people who don't mod then I suspect if you compare the two sets of modders there are just way more Skyrim modders and therefore more things get done. Technical skill is a finite resource, Freely provided technical skill doubly so,.

[Kendo 2]

2 hours ago, Captain Cobra said:

No amount of modding Fallout 4 will change the fact that you're playing Fallout 4, and some of the biggest problem areas of the game aren't completely fixable by mods.

Additionally, there are extra steps to certain modding tasks compared to previous titles that can add additional frustration.

I'm glad "Mods will fix it." can no longer be the blanket Bethesda fanboi excuse.

[bigboy4u]

Skyrim is the eternal rpg

[Swe-DivX]

F4 character speaks like a old hag? So i cant create my personal character?

I think this was the N01 with the crappy F4 RaceMenu, they know we had a real character creation tool for Skyrim and did not create a better. 99% of Skyrim is the character you are playing.

[hodni]

i think its a bit harder to mod fallout 4.
But my real dumb answer would be.. Skyrim has separate feet slots so footwear isnt locked with the body slot :3

[Andy14]

27x actually got to the point.
Fallout - whether NV, FO3 and now FO4 is a disaster in terms of mesh, skeleton, animation - actually everything.

Has anyone ever created a simple glove for FO4 in Blender or 3ds. Yes? And how was it afterwards with the psychiatrist? lol
There are actually only 2 possibilities for such nonsense:
First option - you knock someone unconscious on the street, pull them into their office and force them to create this mesh with a surge of electricity. This is then called inuative.

 

Second possibility: The team consists of drug addicts alcoholics and they have made a bet that whoever consumes the most will do the shape.

The third (unthinkable) possibility is: They don't want the FO4 to be fashionable. (was actually in conversation)

 

Next example - textures:
Wow - Direct x 12 - and even material files. But why don't the shader material files support alpha blending?
Exactly right - because effect material files do not support hairtinting either, which guarantees that every hairstyle in FO4 will look shitty - not just the vanilla.

 

In addition, nothing has changed since FO3 (not even in NV).
The same completely idiotic animation. Pistols, if equipped, the size of a ship's cannon. And so on ...

Conclusion ... a lot of people modding - including me - but very few publish something because it is torture. And updates and bug fixes don't lessen this agony.

 

Why is Fallout generally worse selling than Skyrim?
Relatively simple: Dragons, magic etc. traditionally find more fans in Asia than in Europe or America.
If you - as with Fallout - now additionally portray the Chinese as the villain - well. Marketing is another way ...

[pinky6225]

Personnally i'd say FO4 felt more like a story driven shooter (i.e. like mass effect) rather than an open world RPG which cuts down a lot of the potential options, with skyrim and alternative start and the LL addon's to that you can pretty much ignore the entire skyrim story but the same just isn't possible with FO4

[sanya56714]

Fallout 4 raw,underdone,there are some problems,too long loading during transitions between zones,ctd does not count.

[sanya56714]

5 minutes ago, pinky6225 said:

Лично я бы сказал, что FO4 больше походил на сюжетный шутер (например, на массовый эффект), чем на RPG с открытым миром, которая сокращает множество потенциальных вариантов, с Skyrim и альтернативным запуском, а также надстройками LL к которым вы можете в значительной степени игнорировать всю историю Skyrim, но то же самое невозможно с FO4

roam the world fallaut 4 is also possible but will have to join the Brotherhood of Steel.

[Andy14]

1 hour ago, pinky6225 said:

Personnally i'd say FO4 felt more like a story driven shooter (i.e. like mass effect) rather than an open world RPG which cuts down a lot of the potential options, with skyrim and alternative start and the LL addon's to that you can pretty much ignore the entire skyrim story but the same just isn't possible with FO4

To compare Fallout4 - any Bethesda game at all - with ME3 is almost blasphemous.
ME3 has more emotions (for role play, the food) than ALL Bethesda Games put together even in the first 10 minutes.
NEVER AGAIN compare ME3 to Skyrim or Fallout4 - or you will be punished with Elders Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 - 24/7 - tied up with VR!  

[Swanky]

On 2/8/2021 at 9:08 PM, 27X said:

1. The genre they represent have about the same popularity and population respectively.

2. TES is a Bethesda product, FO is not a bethesda product bethesda tried to make a bethesda product. Didn't work out too well.

3. Skyrim's CK is held together with tape and glue but generally understood. FO4's CK is held together with tape and glue and does whatever the fuck it feels like.

4. The dumbest story in Skyrim is the Thieve's Guild. The dumbest story in FO4 is the main story. Considering how long FO4 took to make; not really a endorsement of any kind.

5. FO4 has the worst out of any Bethesda mesh system, and for no benefit.

6. Skyrim's level of draw calls make graphics mod inefficient but doable. FO4's level of draw calls literally cripple the game without mods, much less with.

7. Looking at achievement completion rates, a shit ton more people finished Skyrim than finished FO4, combined with FO4 having better day one sales than Skyrim but selling about half the number of copies lifetime.

 

to add to that:

8. Skyrim has the better sandbox out of the box. Shallow, but functional. Fallout 4 has many systems not working together well and many restrictions to how things have to be done so it's a hassle making it all work together, ingame or modding

9. Fallout 4 has many shortcomings when you even try to roleplay due to limitations of the dialogue menu and voice actors (whom I like (the fem VA was Jack in ME afterall) - I don't like the idea of having a voiced protagonist) as well as a story with more plotholes than swiss cheese. Skyrim, while having issues, is much more open for roleplaying and offers a much more personalized experience.

10. Running constantly into issues and bugs may have turned off players from buying more bethesda games. I've made it a personal point not to buy any games first day, and no Bethesda games pre-Community patch.

11. endgame consists of basebuilding, which initially was a turnoff for many old school fallout fans

12. Preston Fucking Garvey. When the first reviews came out, so came the memes. Still am not completely over this design choice.

13. SKSE updates have turned off a good portion of modders I assume. While I don't think it's worse an issue than it is with Skyrim, I personally think it hit FO4 harder.

[sigiel]

Voiced Player... 

 

it killed fallout 4 modding ... 

granted theres is a tone of fallout mod. 

but replayability was kill by this. 

 

There is a very noticable lack of custom followers because of this. 

and well modding is kinda waifu driven ? is it not ?

[pinky6225]

On 2/14/2021 at 10:49 AM, Swanky said:

13. SKSE updates have turned off a good portion of modders I assume. While I don't think it's worse an issue than it is with Skyrim, I personally think it hit FO4 harder.

 

To be fair you stll get that with skyrim SE from beth pushing out an update (that nobody probably wants) which breaks SKSE until SKSE is updated to the new version

 

With skyrim LE due to how old it is i think anyone that was late to the skyrim party would never have experienced it as LE hasn't been updated in a long time (2013?)

[Swanky]

Yeah that's the point I'm getting at. But I personally feel that more modders are disencouraged to actively work on their FO4 mods when they have to update every other day than they are with Skyrim updates. Not sure if FO4 was getting updates more frequently but it would support that claim because you'd have to update more often.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, sigiel said:

Voiced Player... 

 

it killed fallout 4 modding ... 

granted theres is a tone of fallout mod. 

but replayability was kill by this. 

 

There is a very noticable lack of custom followers because of this. 

and well modding is kinda waifu driven ? is it not ?

This.

Notice the kinds of mods in short supply in FO4?

Anything with Dialogue. If you want to create a follower, one of the staple mods in Skyrim, you now have to get yourself a VA. Same goes with quest mods. You are also stuck picking for the existing library of canned player responses which limits the player's dialogue too. Followers use Unique Actor voice types in FO4, So no creating an NPC and giving it a FemaleYoungEager voice type and sending her out the door. While follower quests are generally a good idea, the dialogue is not reuse able as it is.

 

 

Also, in its quest for $$$$, Bethesda's practices have created divisions in the modding communities. Skyrim was the pinnacle of modding, and I dont' think that will be sen again. What was it? 2014 ish? When Steam tried to introduce Microtransaction modding? This created all kinds of issues stemming from modders asking for money.

 

Now I fully support anyone's right to ask for compensation for their work. But consider the effect. In Skyrim, it becomes very difficult to claim as your own work.  Right now, so many people are over on Patreon, asking for money to make custom animations. I wonder if FORE is getting a slice of any of that since they need his mod to make their mods work in Skyrim. So much of the baseline work and knowledge came from community pools, so on Steam you ended up with people charging money while incorporating other modder's work and not paying back. That has fractured the modding community and I don't think that's ever coming back.

 

It's not just the difference between Skyrim and FO4. It's also the difference in the community from then until now.