Possible "mod pack" option?

[DawnflareCB]

I'm not sure if this idea has been brought up before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it has, but has anyone every thought of using the NMM backup and restore file feature as a form of "mod pack"? I have yet to try this, and it sounds plausible, but since I'm still new to the whole modding thing, then it would probably be best for someone else to figure this out.

[Deleted3897072User]

You can make backup files for private use but you aren't allowed to share them with other people or publish them on servers because you don't own the copyright of the mods that your backups contain.

[DawnflareCB]

Ah. I can understand that. I just thought it could be a simple way of sharing a mod pack with people that may be interested.

[Notanon81]

I reckon something like a curated mod pack using the Nexus Mod Manager could be done. What would happen is that you download individual mod files, then have an option to group several together into a merged mod, but still retaining the original mods in a separate folder. The Nexus Mod Manager would search the Nexus first to check for existing compatibility patches for the mods that are being combined together, grab them and include them in the merged mod, and potentially search for additional clashes and ask the user how they would like to address them (i.e. discard mod A's changes in favour of mod B's).

 

The merged mods would essentially function like a playlist file that refers to different music files, but notes the order of installation to eliminate dependency clashes and maybe also checks for and downloads files that might be needed for one of the mods to function. You could then share the curated list to Nexus Mods via the Mod Manager for other people to utilise. What would happen for them is that downloading the list will trigger the Mod Manager to download all of the required files if they don't have them, along with compatibility patches and use your settings to create the merged mod plugin. The bonus would be that so long as the individual mod authors make their mods available on the Nexus, this could neatly side-step the copyright and permission issues involved with combining different mods into mega-mod packs for re-downloading off the Nexus.

 

That all said, perhaps a future version of Nexus Mod Manager could check what is installed and active on someone's version of the Mod Manager and check for compatibility patches and download and implement them automatically. Would be nice instead of trying to hunt through some mods and trying to work out which ones cause conflicts with others.

[audiodef]

If you have permission from mod authors to do this, and as long as all mods in your mod pack have such permission, you're good to go.

[Deleted3897072User]

The other problem is that mods are constantly being updated. If even one of your mods is updated, the whole pack has to be retested in case something has changed. If you don't do that, your modpack quickly becomes useless and if you do, you are committing yourself to an unlimited maintenance burden.

 

That was one of the reasons why Nexus abandoned any attempt to implement modpacks.

Edited April 26, 2018 by OldMansBeard

[steve40]

Some mods will break if they are merged. An example is a mod that uses scripted commands to check for the presence of other mods using their filenames, to apply compatibility fixes or inter-mod functionality.

[Notanon81]

The other problem is that mods are constantly being updated. If even one of your mods is updated, the whole pack has to be retested in case something has changed. If you don't do that, your modpack quickly becomes useless and if you do, you are committing yourself to an unlimited maintenance burden.

 

That was one of the reasons why Nexus abandoned any attempt to implement modpacks.

 

I suppose there could be an option to have the updated mod be compared to the pack containing the not-yet-updated mod and search for conflicts, though it'd probably require something like an inbuilt version of Mator Smash or something similar that purposely looks for conflicts. If there are no conflicts, the mod in question updates. If not, it prompts the user about the potential conflicts and asks them how they want to deal with it (i.e. remove the conflicting mods and apply the update, search for and apply an accompanying compatibility patch, and so on).

 

This could also apply with the search for conflicts with scripts, such as what steve40 mentioned. If a mod detects that a script is built in that searches for specific files, it would just unpack any affected mods and run them as separate plug-ins to eliminate the chance of conflicts occuring. That said, it could be something that is specified by the mod author by tagging the specific plug-ins as being ones that a script searches for.

 

The more I think about it, the more it would appear that I'm thinking of something that would be a very advanced version of NMM/MO/Vortex, in a nutshell. It'd be something that first-time users wouldn't really use, but more experienced users would love to get their hands on.