Filter by "last updated" date

[LtSherpa]

Hello,

 

In a similar vein to this thread, I've had difficulty finding mods that are up-to-date with the latest version of a game, especially those mods that are also the most popular or matured. As an example, I recently started playing Bannerlord, and filtering by endorsements does not really help. Out of the first 20 results, only 3 are actually current, with more than half being wildly outdated. Out of the first 100, only ~20 are current.

 

It makes sense that filtering on a "supported game version" tag would be difficult and problematic (e.g., a game's own versioning might be nonsensical or inconsistent, mod maintainers might not correctly tag file's with the supported versions, etc...), and I think a good alternative would just be a filter on a mod's "last updated" date. Basically, the user can intuit an appropriate time frame to search on, and this should help cut outdated results. In my example above, if I could filter "last updated" to ~February, I could have cut through 4 of the first 5 pages of results.

 

The "Time" filter would seem like the obvious answer here, however the problem is that this only looks at the "Uploaded" date when the mod was originally published. Great for finding new mods, but not for up-to-date mature mods. Sorting by "last updated" is also insufficient, as you then lose the ability to sort by endorsements or downloads.

 

My current solution is to sort by "last updated", and then filter by bands of endorsements. e.g., I might filter by a top band of endorsements of 5k-max, then 2k-5k, then 1k-2k, and so on. This works to an extent, but I still need to manually check the "last updated" date to ensure I haven't paginated past the desired time frame. This method is also not 100% reliable, as the "last updated" date on the search results page might be incorrect (I've only noticed this once by chance; images below for this mod). Either way, you still lose sorting by endorsements - the endorsement banding does help, but it's all a bit tedious.

 

The desired search would be to sort by endorsements/downloads, then have a "last updated" filter identical that's functionally identical to the "time" filter. Possibly, the "time" filter could just add a toggle between the created/updated dates.

 

Thanks,

Sherpa

 

Outdated "last updated" date on search results:

 

 

Current "last updated" date on mod description:

 

[HadToRegister]

If you TRACK the mods you download, you get a personal screen of tracked mods that can be sorted by "Last Upload" which is the same as "Last Update" essentially

Also, each Thumbnail will have a "UPDATED" flag right on the Thumbnail

 

 

It can be found here, but you have to go through the mods you use and click the TRACK button, after that, just pick TRACKED MODS using this menu

[LtSherpa]

Yeah, the workflow for tracked mods is great, and I do track every mod that I use. This is more an issue for when you're new to a game and trying to discover mods. e.g., I'm new to Bannerlord and want to find the most popular/essential mods that are still actively maintained.

 

I do think Bannerlord is a bit of an edge case here, but it effectively highlights how there isn't an effective way to filter outdated mods in the search results. For background, Bannerlord's early access release was widely anticipated and saw a flurry of modding activity in that initial April to July post-release time frame. The hype outpaced development, and the modding scene seems to have slowed down significantly while people wait for both improvements to the core game and its official modding tools. As a result, Bannerlord's search results are still heavily dominated by that initial activity, and it's harder for newer mods to gain visibility because of the decreased amount of traffic. e.g., popular mods released in the last 3-4 months don't break 1k endorsements and are overshadowed by those initial yet outdated mods with 10k+ endorsements.

[HadToRegister]

Yeah, the workflow for tracked mods is great, and I do track every mod that I use. This is more an issue for when you're new to a game and trying to discover mods. e.g., I'm new to Bannerlord and want to find the most popular/essential mods that are still actively maintained.

 

I do think Bannerlord is a bit of an edge case here, but it effectively highlights how there isn't an effective way to filter outdated mods in the search results. For background, Bannerlord's early access release was widely anticipated and saw a flurry of modding activity in that initial April to July post-release time frame. The hype outpaced development, and the modding scene seems to have slowed down significantly while people wait for both improvements to the core game and its official modding tools. As a result, Bannerlord's search results are still heavily dominated by that initial activity, and it's harder for newer mods to gain visibility because of the decreased amount of traffic. e.g., popular mods released in the last 3-4 months don't break 1k endorsements and are overshadowed by those initial yet outdated mods with 10k+ endorsements.

When I look at the Top Files or Most Endorsed list I sort it by Date Published, Descending

However, I just tried that, and looked at a mod that was published in 2016, that was updated in 2020, so yea, that didn't work as well as I had thought.

 

Yea, Last Upload like in the tracking screen would work better

 

 

[DoctorKaizeld]

I'm behind this idea. It can be frustrating to try modding a new game and have to dig through mods that aren't maintained to find the working ones that are.

[Pickysaurus]

I agree this is a good idea and it's something we can look at adding when we overhaul the search.

 

I'm also keen to have a "game version" field on each mod file that gets uploaded. However, as you point out, some game devs use nonsensical version numbers (not naming names but it rhymes with SpannerGourd). If all games used semantic versioning it'd be perfectly easy to filter by game version.

[tinchek]

Bannerlord is a great example. For instance if you go look at the Most Endorsed page for that game 13 of the shown 20 mods haven't been updated in over a year, making the list mostly useless. Fallout 4 is another great example. Similar situation. Fallout 4 was last updated on December 4th of 2019 and if I look on the most endorsed page for the game also 13 mods of the 20 shown there were last updated way before the last update came. In most cases even years before the last update.

 

Right now there is "Time" dropdown function but that is a Date Published filter. While still a great function I won't for instance find the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch mod, an essential mod for the game, if I set the time range from the date of the last official patch the game had or any date after that, and today. I do concede that yes it's on the first page of the Most Endorsed page for the game, but that is just one of many mods that can be overlooked if a user such as me used the Date Published filter and set it for any arbitrary date other than the date a mod was first published.

 

Sorry if that was in places incoherent, English is not my first language.

 

Also sorry for bringing back a dead post.

[LtSherpa]

@Pickysaurus. Just a friendly bump - checking in on the feature. Currently modding Witcher 3 after the next gen update, and a "last updated" filter would be very useful. Would help a lot in finding mods compatible with the next gen update.

Edited July 27, 2023 by LtSherpa