Staff Picks - 16 Nov 2016

[TheTokenGeek]

 

Welcome to the new "Staff Picks", a new regular feature where we will spotlight some of the amazing work found on Nexus Mods. These mods may be old or new, popular or unknown, serious or silly... anything goes! Hopefully you'll find something you may not have seen before, and who knows, maybe we'll even learn a little about ourselves along the way. ;)

 

BlindJudge’s pick:

Game: Dying Light

Mod: Timepiece

Author: Impus

 

I’ve always been into the whole ‘Zombie’ genre, right from the original Dawn of the Dead movie, so was beside myself when I saw the first

for the game Dying Light - I mean, it was Dead Island, but GOOD. So when it was released I jumped on it like the undead craving brain and absolutely loved what I found.

 

Luckily for me, the development team of Techland also opened the game up for modding and a slew of decent mods have been released.

 

Timepiece is a small, but for me, quite essential mod that allows the player to look at their wristwatch when they are outside of a safe zone. This is essential as the zombie horde become faster, stronger and generally a lot harder to kill come darkness. Now I can keep track of time on the go and make sure I make it back to safety in time.

 

 

SirSalami’s Pick:

Game: Fallout 4

Mod: Remove Ugly Flat Trash

Author: inawe

 

Ever wonder why floors stay filthy even though NPCs are sweeping all of the time? Well someone did, and author inawe has started cleaning the streets quite literally with a clever little mod that removes most of the trash and clutter from a few commonly used floor textures in Fallout 4. This can result in a slightly more ‘lived-in’ feel for many of the places you visit in the wasteland, indoor and out. While some may say this creates a slightly less immersive experience, after what feels like a lifetime in the filthy wasteland, I think a little tidyness can definitely be appreciated.

 

I’m a sucker for simple mods that make a noticeable impact on an entire game and this one is a great example.

 

 

TerrorFox's Pick

Game: The Witcher 3

Mod: HUD Positioning and Scaling

Author: FPSRazR

 

One of the first things I look at, with every single game I play, is the user interface (UI) and heads up display (HUD). It’s one of those things I think most people don’t think about too much, but can make such a huge difference in the way a game feels. As such, I always tend to look for HUD/UI mods first, as there is almost always something I think could be done better. Specifically, I tend to look for mods that let me customize my HUD by moving things around, resizing, hiding, and so on.

 

Enter “HUD Positioning and Scaling”. This mod allows you to resize and reposition pretty much every HUD element. Simple as that. No more oversized and poorly positioned HUD encroaching on your screen space!

 

I highly recommend combining this with Friendly HUD by wghost81 for the ultimate HUD tweaking experience. (Yeah I just snuck a second mod into my staff pick. What of it?)

 

 

(Guest submission) DuskDwellers Pick

Game: Skyrim

Mod: Alternate Start - Live Another Life

Author: Arthmoor

 

This mod is great for a number of reasons - it's perfect for people who enjoy creating several characters and not having to sit and wait through all of the lengthy introduction sequence each time. It allows you to start in different and interesting locations, with a character who has a totally different background to the main game which in itself increases the game longevity hugely.

 

But one of the best reasons for me, a Nexus Mod Manager developer, is that it has saved me countless hours in testing time as it throws me directly into the game - for that, I thank you Arthmoor!

 

Every week, we feature a few mods that have caught our staff’s attention, as well as some that were submitted by you, the Nexus Mods community. If there is a mod you’d like to see on this list, send the name of the mod along with a brief (less than 200 words) description of why you like it to [email protected] and we’ll consider posting it up. Thanks, and have fun modding!

[marthgun]

The staff are just the most magnanimous, foxy creatures on the entire planet, I see no reason not to let them out of their cages once in awhile. However, removing their muzzle and allowing them to squawk in public? I have mixed feelings about this. I will allow it. For now.

[JN273]

Even if it's obvious, it's nice to see that the authors of Nexus and workers are indeed modders as well that play games and enjoy them the same way we do. I'll look forward to the next post, though a shame that I couldn't see Robin's pick :)

[Leubast]

IMO, Skyrim Unbound is the much better alternate start.

[Deleted21090499User]

In response to post #44643800.

Everlive wrote: IMO, Skyrim Unbound is the much better alternate start.

I don't know. I also prefer unbound, because of its greater functionality, but I can see why Alternative start is preferred from a role playing point of view.

[Tigon3rd]

I misread the NMM software developer as just a mod dev using NMM in general at first, but anyway.

Isn't it faster to just use the command COC at the main menu instead of "Alternate Start", or is it because you're testing the NMM software and thereby have to have mods loaded?

[zcul]

Great idea, imo. I'm sure I'll see mods here that I've simply overlooked and I'm keen to see, whether also mods, that aren't that well-known - although they're fine - will make it to the "picks" as well :wink:

[Arthmoor]

In response to post #44647870.

Tigon_3rd wrote: I misread the NMM software developer as just a mod dev using NMM in general at first, but anyway.
Isn't it faster to just use the command COC at the main menu instead of "Alternate Start", or is it because you're testing the NMM software and thereby have to have mods loaded?

It's at least party because coc from the main menu is unreliable since it doesn't process the required initializations the game needs to be in a proper state.

LAL has long been used as a diagnostic tool for a lot of people because it's quick to load, has options in most parts of the game, and allows time for scripts at startup to settle before running off to start playing.

[elderscrolliangamer]

Think of me what you will, but I'm sure EVERYONE knows what Alternate start is now. It's featured everywhere. Makes me wonder why I bother with my mod at all. And yes I KNOW it's boring going through the base game opening again, and NOBODY has gone through it more than me. I ONLY released my mod, because I though people deserved to see and play through what Bethesda cut out. All I get is grief from most people, so literally, what is the point? I've nothing against Arthmoor, his mods are good. It just makes me want to undo the 200+ hours across many months I spent finding the cut stuff, re-implementing it, making new scripts (with no prior experience or guidance), spending hours and hours playing it and bug testing, then attempting to fix those bugs, then chopping up individual lines for the new Hadvar, then manually implementing each individual line, and trying to get his voice to be on par with other npcs. Seriously, it was painful to make.

[uncleboz]

In response to post #44658195.

elderscrolliangamer wrote: Think of me what you will, but I'm sure EVERYONE knows what Alternate start is now. It's featured everywhere. Makes me wonder why I bother with my mod at all. And yes I KNOW it's boring going through the base game opening again, and NOBODY has gone through it more than me. I ONLY released my mod, because I though people deserved to see and play through what Bethesda cut out. All I get is grief from most people, so literally, what is the point? I've nothing against Arthmoor, his mods are good. It just makes me want to undo the 200+ hours across many months I spent finding the cut stuff, re-implementing it, making new scripts (with no prior experience or guidance), spending hours and hours playing it and bug testing, then attempting to fix those bugs, then chopping up individual lines for the new Hadvar, then manually implementing each individual line, and trying to get his voice to be on par with other npcs. Seriously, it was painful to make.

hey i consider your opening overhaul to be essential man, makes the opening scenes that much better and immersive.