Impulseman45

I just noticed you removed list mod for viewing mods. Don't do that, please. I prefer using list mod as I can scroll through mods faster than the normal layout. So yeah, my testing of the beta is officially over right now and I am going back to classic. If you really intend to completely remove list mode, Its going to impact not only me, but I am sure many others that prefer to use that mode to view mods.

In response to post #91953468. #91955698, #91957093, #91957748, #91962688, #91963348, #91963533, #91965618, #91967383 are all replies on the same post. For all of you Steam users that are occasionally plagued by those nasty and unpredictable update, I do have a work around for you. First, you will of course need to have your games installed. Then, go to your games main folder, So this should X:/Steam/Steamapps/Common, "X" being your drive. You do have your games installed outside of the ProgramFilesX86 or ProgramFiles folders, right??? So, now you should be in your Steam\SteamApps\Common folder. I will use Fallout 4 as our game of choice, because it has CC content, and although its been a year since the games files have had an update, you just never know what is lurking in BGS's mind. Now change the name of the Fallout 4 folder to something like Fallout 4 old. Then right click and create a new folder, and name it Fallout 4. Open the new empty game folder and right click again and make another new folder. Name it Data. Now, go to Steam, and make sure its in Online mode, and chose Fallout 4 and uninstall the game. It will delete the new empty folder named Fallout 4, leaving the real game folder, called Fallout 4 Old in place and untouched. Now go back to the Steam\SteamApps\Common folder and rename Fallout 4 Old back to Fallout 4. Now you can go ahead and use the games native executable files to launch the game. Never use the Steam launcher to do it, as it will try and reinstall the game. The one thing that you should do if you do this to all your Bethesda games, and you really should, is leave Steam in Offline mode as much as possible, and also make sure its not set to auto launch when you start windows. I mean, you do realize its slows the booting process and all, and you simply do not need it running all the time. Now you can play your games and not worry that they are going to get hit with some big update that will break them. They will run just fine, as Steam does not remove the Windows Registry entries for the game. But if you leave the game folder renamed, well it will break your mod managers ability to control your mods, and of course the game may not launch as it expects to be in the original folder name. If you forget to have Steam running in Offline, mode, and launch the game, You can Kill Steam pretty fast, and then relaunch it back into safe mode and your game should be fine. I have been playing all my BGS games this way for nearly 4 years now without Steam updating the games until I am ready to do it myself or it simply time for a fresh install. Of course the better choice for the older BGS titles, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas is to buy the GOG versions. They are pre-patched for 64 bit memory extensions by the GOG team, Fallout 3 has had the horrible WindowsLive Games code ripped out, and it runs a bit more stable than the Steam version does. Yes, it means you have to pay for it again, but they have it on sale all the time for like $7 US, and it a big upgrade over the Steam versions of the games. Anyway I hope this helps, but I have a very bad feeling that STARFIELD, and TES 6 are going to be a MS Game Pass exclusive titles for PC, I really can't see Microsoft letting Steam sell the game as well. This of course will mean no more modding like we have been for years. This is something that Microsoft has been pushing for a long time, the death of standard desktop apps in favor of their new Windows Store Apps API and their own Apple inspired "Walled Garden" to everything. What it means is that they get to control all of it, and modding these games is going to become very difficult. So unless the Script extender teams can learn and delve into how these new API's work and to insert the script extenders into the game at launch, well its pretty much game over. We have heard about the death of modding on games for a long time now, but as long as the games worked as they always did, that is using the good old x86 code base for normal Windows desktop applications, its been a forgone conclusion that modding would eventually come along for a new game. But now with the all new Windows App API, all of this is out the window. Windows monitors these files for changes and it will invoke self repair if need be, and or update the apps without you consent. You can see how this is not going to be conducive to the way all of us have played games over the last few decades. Yeah, I am an old fart senior citizen. So don't be surprised when you hear all about STARFIELD and that its going to be and Game Pass exclusive, and only available through the Xbox on PC. What that means for me going forward is, I will not be playing STARFIELD, or TES 6, or Fallout 5, as long as they are locked behind the game pass and the Windows Store APP API on Windows.

"

In response to post #39477705. #39477825, #39478135, #39479435, #39481700, #39482540 are all replies on the same post. As a mod author I can give you a good answer. Its the percentages. At this point of time I can handle the influx of comments on my mods. Downloads for them have slowed, I can live with that because I kind of dislike dealing with some of the posts I get. Now if I were to entertain the idea of converting my mods to X-B1 or PS4 the amount of posting on my mods is going to up 6 times what it is now. You may think I am daft, but the the PC only holds about 25 % of the Skyrim and Fallout 4 sales in total. I am sure the numbers are wrong but its close enough to press the point home. I like modding and I like to share my mods when they are good. Now if I port to the consoles I have to deal with a huge influx of bug reports or people asking me to do this or that, or telling me my mod is stupid, as was the latest comment on my biggest mod. So I will never be able to continue to mod because I will have to deal with all the posts and PM coming in and dealing with all wile having a real world job and life of my own, as such they are. I would end up doing what another really big mod author has done and simply shut off the comments and PM system for some peace of mind. I considered pulling my mods down because I new last year at E3 when they announced mods for consoles on Fallout 4 I saw the writing on the wall and knew that Skyrim was going to get pulled into this. But than I took the another look at things and its so simple in my case. Only the core of my mod would work by itself on the consoles, it depends on to many other mods to ever work right in its full glory. So I have really nothing to worry about. If someone wants to port the core of my mod to the consoles, I will let them. But the rest of it is tangled into to many other mods and resources that it simply would never work right and getting all those mod and resource authors to agree for their part to get used, is just not likely to happen. My other mod is another story and I am not sure what I am going to do about it. I am presently working on another mod for Fallout 4, and it again is based on custom created content form other mod authors converted and ported with permission. It will probably never get a console port. I am not going to go through all the work, and I don't want to deal with a huge increase in reports. I also don't have any consoles. Call me a PC elitist if you want but I never looked at them as a real way for me personally to play games. And since I don't have consoles I can't test for them. So there you go. So in general you are not thinking of the mod author's frame of mind and what it really takes to make, and continue to support a mod. If supporting a mod takes away from everything else than it is simply not worth it anymore. I am not even sure that some of the mod authors are even taking this in consideration, the huge increase they will get when porting a mod over to the consoles. Its a whole new ballpark and its going to cause some pain along the way. We will just have to see how things move forward from here. The article is a dam good one and it should be posted elsewhere so everyone can read and see it and really open their eyes to all of this. One can only hope it will.

Yes, but I was one of those hungry caterpillars, and I have now transformed into mod author butterfly. One that was a bit taken aback by all the things that were leveled at the more senior mod authors for making a choice to try something out. It was stated that it was an experiment, when that obliviously went very wrong. It gave me great pause to stop and think if I personally wanted to continue doing anything with the way people were carrying on. I personally am going to move forward and think everyone should as well. So in the end we can't simply draw lines in the sand say that there are users and there are mod makers. The lines are so much more blurred than that. Just my 2 cents.

I have another idea, but it is going to tick a few people off. How about the ability of certain larger mods where the author would like some compensation via the donation system, have a download pause. Let say for example Chesko's FrostFall 3. It would not be available to be downloaded at all until a certain donation limit was met. Not meeting the donation level would mean the mod would simply be held back until that donation level was met, period. End of story. Its not paying for the mod, its paying the mod maker for his time through donations. And if you truly want the newest version than you just have to play along with everyone else, or just use the old version until it gets fully unlocked when the donation level is met. Again it not perfect but I feel that its a great option. People are clamoring for the new version and if they really want it bad enough they will help out in getting it unlocked. As a community it should workout, but there will be people that will complain they are paying for someone else to get the mod. But that is how everything works everywhere. There allot of things in life we get access to that is built by donations. Think of PBS, I know thous of you in other countries outside the USA will not understand what PBS is. Here in the US we have a Public Broadcasting System. Its based on more educational TV broadcasting and is totally driven by the donation system. They have systems in place that if they have a show that is demand they will option to get it, but they will have to meet a set donation goal to get the show. When its met everyone, even non donators can then see it. It does work, there is a proven working model right there for everyone to see. Again its not perfect but nothing is. Yes some will be unlocking the mod for other users, but isn't that better than not getting the mod at all?

Hey Manny, As a beginning mod author myself I can attest to the system. My first mod did the whole front page thing for six days. My endorsement level is about 9%. My mod did not have the smoothest of introductions and I am sure that my lower than average rating may be a small part in that. I am also guilty of not hitting the Endorse button. But in my case it because I am spending time making meshes for mods and have not even had the time to play Skyrim and test the mods I have downloaded, yours included. It does not mean I won't do it, it just the time issue. And I strongly believe I cant hit that endorse button until the mod is loaded and I have tried it. I will explain below my thinking. OK, so is there a way to make things better. Yes. I think the site needs tweaking. Simple color changes can be applied that may go a long way to improving things. I think some new visitors to the site may be confusing Endorse with Donate. I think it might be a good idea to simply change the wording. Instead of Endorse change it Thank You. When you endorse something you are essentially standing up and making a speech about a product, that's how an endorsement has always worked and I never liked the term endorse on this site. Hitting a button that says Endorse is just not the same thing. Endorsing a mod is really done in the post section where people can come in and tell you that they tried your mod and found it great and they recommend it to everyone that is into the idea of the mod. That is an endorsement. It is totally different than hitting a button. So again change the Endorse button to a Thank You instead. Color, the site need more color. As anyone knows we are a visual people and color variation grabs are attention better than anything. I never liked all the buttons on the site being all green. Each button should have it own color, Green for Download buttons, Blue for track, Red for Endorse or Thank You, Orange for Vote, and gold for Donate. These simple changes may go a long way to help making things better. The main thing is if you want to grab attention to the donation system you have to make the button stand out and presently it simply does not do that. Its just another green button in the list. By making it Gold its says this button has value. Of course; the colors I chose are not the ones that have to be us used but the Endorse - Thank You button needs to stand out from the other buttons as does the donate button. It has been a long time proven feature on websites that simple button colors can make or break a site. So if Robin did this for the Nexus just as a trail to see if it increased the uptake of certain button clicks then I prove my point. Color is a magic thing, and the right colors on the right buttons will mean the world to site and the mod authors. Just a few ideas that I am sure will get lost in all of this.

The thing that sucks the most as a mod maker now is that as I release my mods I have to deal with all the things that go along with doing that. That is not the issue at all, I love the site and I love the community here. But what really sucks is that from now on I have to go over to Steam Workshop every day and check to see that any of the mods that are in review have got any of my assets that come from my mods. That I will have to go there daily and police that cesspool and try and block any mod that that has my IP in them. Lets be fair here. If I make a totally new mesh from scratch in 3DSMAX, its mine even if I do export it into a native Skyrim nif file. If i choose to share that file here in the Nexus community that is my choice and no one should take it from me. So the burden is now on me to not only to help out everyone here when it comes to my mods, but i have to also go there and possibly fight to have something taken down. This going to be so time consuming and take away time that I should be able to use here and on mod making. Sure it will only take maybe a half hour, but that is time that could go to something else, and lets face it, I shouldn't to even have to do it. Then think of what it might be like to try and get something taken down. So far it seems to have been easy, but I am sure as thing ramp up its going to get harder. I think all of us here that make custom meshes and textures and do not want them used in a monetized mod are going to have to start embedding some identifying marks into our meshes and textures that can prove they belong to us. It is just and idea, and I hate that we might, I say might have to go that way. I have no intention of joining there plan as it stands. Its to complicated and the compensation is just not enough to out-way the effort that is is going to take to post a pay-wall mod there. I truly hope most of the other modders here feel the same as I do. I am pushing forward with the things I have planned, its just I have to go and play copyright cop every time I release something, and how I will have to do that regularly to protect it and keep it free. Putting a notice that something can't be used for a Workshop mod is only going to stop the ethical modders. It is the ones that are out to make a name for themselves using things they have no right to use, that is going to be the issue. Thanks for your time.

In response to post #24689134. #24689324, #24689344, #24694979 are all replies on the same post. Skyrim has more than paid for itself, for Bethesda, meaning the money put into making the game has been returned and then sum many times over. That goes for the DLCs as well. They are still rolling in said money from the continuing sales of Skyrim. Do I begrudge them that income, no. But the idea that they now want to further their reach into our pockets and start charging us for the mods we make is the real issue here. They are waving the idea of handfuls of money at modders to entice them to join them in taking the modding community down a path that they have not gone down before with this company. Everyone keeps mentioning ESO as the failure that caused this. The fact is, Bethesda has nothing to with it. Its Zenimax's Online's game and the only reason you see the Bethesda logo when you start the game is they are the Intellectual Property holders of the Elder Scrolls Lore and they have to recognize that even if they are sister corporations. So please, leave the ESO failure out of the equation, they from a different branch of the Zenimax family tree. I am sure Bethesda starting taking notice of the modding community in earnest during the Oblivion days. Point one, the fact they felt they had to step in and block Morroblivion because of licensing issues over the 3D meshes in the game actually belonging to another company. Did it stop the mod, no. They simply rebuild those meshes from scratch and moved right along. So Bethesda has been watching the the modding community for some time now. They have also been watching what has been going on over on Steam with other game companies and games monetizing various little mods for cash at silly prices and parts of those proceeds going to the game companies. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure out simple economics. Bethesda sees "X" competing game maker racking in money on dam silly mods and they look at the huge modding community that has been built up around their 5 main games and say, we need to take a cut as well so we can still compete with "X" company in these areas. And that includes making money on mods that are free. So Bethesda and Valve cook up this little idea and contact a few mod makers that have mods on Steam Workshop and Nexus and spin them their whole line on how they can now make money for modding, but it has to be our way and through our outlet. That is the main issue here. Bethesda has lifted the long standing rule of making money on mods, but you have to it their way and on the site of their choice, Steam Workshop. Unfortunately that leaves all the other modders out of the picture because they do not want to deal with the Steam Workshop and they also read the copyright portion of the agreement have come to the conclusion that it is a bad move. Giving your rights up for a mod for a 25% cut of the income after spending untold hours working on it is crazy. On top of that if you change your mind and don't want the mod there anymore you can't take it down, they now own the mod. And they expect you to continue to bug fix and troubleshoot the mod as long as it exists. And all the paying customers will expect it as well. If these mod makers thought that they had issues with users using their mods on on the Nexus and dealing with the users issues here, just wait till they have to deal with a paying customer, not someone who uses the mod for free. It changes everything. The other issue that many modders are not considering is something that was brought up in Wheeze's stream the other day. Any mod maker that goes this route is now considered a professional mod developer and it changes all the rules when it come to the use of various applications you use to make mods. Case in point, you make money on a mod using 3DSMAX student addition, technically you have to now move to the Pro edition or you are in violation of their license agreement and they can and do go after people for it. Same thing with Adobe Photoshop. If you are using a consumer version for making textures, you are going to have to upgrade to a Pro license to keep using it as a developer or change to an open-source application like Gimp. But that has its own issues as well. Then there is the whole tax issue. This is taxable income now. Its a job and you are going to have to pay taxes on the money you earn. Do you think Valve is not going to report all the modders and the money they make in there yearly tax records. Of course they are. So you have deal with a change of your tax situation. And it not going to be easy as the amount is going to fluid at times. That is why the donation system works better. It does not require all of this and in the end mod authors will get a better cut and they can keep using the tools they use under the present license agreements. There are a ton of other issues that come along with doing this. They have all been mentioned before. The whole issue of mods on the Workshop auto-updating and breaking your game. Or how about a mod that gets taken down because the mod author jumps off Steam and takes their mods somewhere else. You know what happens. That mod goes missing the next time you launch your game and it crashes. Then you are trying to figure why, and then find out that the missing mod planted scripts into your save game and now its broken. Unless you backed that mod up on your system, your game save is now broken. Way to go Steam Workshop. So in the end I think we need to all just sit back and let this all fall apart. The modders really have no idea all the problems that are going to come along with getting paid for mods this way. They will see it for what it is, to big of a job with little to no support from Valve and Bethesda and they will all walk away. Well at least the real modders will. The ones making little sword mods will stay. Lets hope all the mod makers really take notice and wake up to see what it really all about. Not putting money into their pocket, but putting more money into Bethesda and Valve's pockets.

In response to post #24657784. One way to always keep track of the mods that you have an interest in is to click that mods track button. I have hundreds of mods in my track list. I can go in the list and check to see if a mod is down, removed, or updated. This is great feature and you should be using it.

In response to post #24630814. yes, and thats the point, here on the Nexus there is an open dialog with the mod creator so that if there is something wrong with the mod it can be worked out. Steam Workshop is just not setup for this kind of interaction. The whole way mod are installed bypasses all the standard ways of installing and managing mods. I am wondering if the mod creators are even giving this any thought at all. If they think they are going to be able to load the mod on Steam and then use the Nexus as a means of working out all the problems, well that will need to dealt with right away. As far as I am concerned if the mod is not fully hosted on Nexus than Nexus and its users and forums are off limits to those mod makers as they made a concerted choice to bypass the most reliable method of testing and vetting their mods. Just something to consider

Well, everyone that read these and responded thanks for the input. It really, at this point won't make any difference anyway as I am done with any further modding of Skyrim. As most of you know Valve has declared open hunting season on all Nexus mods and that they are free for the taking. I can not continue work under those threats. I don't want the work I do going on Steam, and there is just no way to really stop it at this point so I am done. My only hope is that Bethesda and Valve do not go after New Vegas next as I am working on some custom meshes for that. But I a NV Workshop goes up, well I guess the witting is on the walls for everyone to see. Thanks for the time, I am moving on.

In response to post #24630679. Sims 3, yeah, i remember how that all fell apart. just one big screw after another and every time they updated the game all the custom content was totally broken and to be remade. Very bad choices there. I gave my copies to my brother kids, now they wont even play them.

In response to post #24626904. #24629779, #24630139, #24630399, #24630554 are all replies on the same post. But are you really realizing the whole thing that your mods are not your mods anymore. They will belong to them, you will be made to service them. I know it sounds very Borg like, but that is what it is. You will make the mods, you will support the mods, and you will service Valve and Bethesda. You will will be responsible for all of the that is connected to that mod including conflicts with other mods. You are getting into a very steep contract. So you are willing to sell your soul to the devil. Again, I have absolutely no problem with you getting paid, but its just not a good idea at this time. Look, take from someone that no doubt is several decades older than you. Step back, and just wait and see. Do not jump the gun. Let the dust settle and then make the jump. and really the whole thing about it being a few buck here and there, is it really worth it then. I am sure you can make those few bucks doing other things, especially if you had already walked away from modding.

In response to post #24626904. #24629779, #24630139, #24630399 are all replies on the same post. Exactly, and lets all hope that this is not spread into other Bethesda games. I swear if a New Vegas Workshop goes up i am totally deleting every single Bethesda game I own. I don't care about the loss of the money, I have gotten a ton out them, but this would prove only one thing. Valve and Bethesda are out to take total control of the whole modding scene. As it stands my finger is hovering over my delete button on my one and only mod here. I just don't like all the darkness that it has caused. Its sucking the life and fun out of Skyrim. I just can't even begin to want to launch the game anymore. My big fear as already mentioned is they go after New Vegas next.

In response to post #24626904. Dude, I do not know what to say, but boy do you feel entitled or what. You would not even be the modder you are if were not for all the people that downloaded your mods. You can make all the mods you want, but if they do not get downloaded they are nothing. The people that downloaded your mods are the ones that supported you in your ventures and encouraged you forward. So you couldn't make money on the mods in the past. Well those were the rules that were set down by Bethesda not us. Giving us all attitude over the fact is not going to win you points. Don't get me wrong, I feel that modders that put tons of time and effort into mod making do deserve to get something. It wasn't an option in the past and it is now. But it is just not the time to be jumping the gun. If i were you I would and see how this all shakes out. It could very well blow up in Bethesda's face big time. The whole pay scale is a total ripoff and you are not gong to earn anything really. Wait and see if they restructure the scale of things. The other things to remember that once you go behind that pay-wall all your mods are theirs and you have to all the support work for it for a mere 25% cut.They are not going to let you pull your mods out. Talk to Chesko about it. Is it really worth risking everything just so you feel that you are finally getting what you feel you are due.

Hey guys and gals, I am taking a bit of a different approach than what most commenters have taken in these discussions. I think the main reason that people are crying foul about the whole idea of paying for mods, is because most mod down-loaders really do not have any idea how much time and effort goes into making a good mod that really does something unique or special. My first real mod went front page in 2 days. I was totally shocked and not ready for it. Lesson learned. But it took many, many hours, months actually of work in both 3DSMAX and Nifscope to get it all together. This was not something built right from ready built Skyrim assets. Yes the main meshes come from the game, but once they go into MAX and start to go through changes it is a totally new mesh from that point. I never thought once about asking for money, mainly because my mod was dependent on a few other mod makers that took the time to make it work, but mainly because the meshes were based on original Skyrim assets so I couldn’t do it. But I have been weighing back and forth about the possibility of those assets being stolen and put into a mod that goes behind that pay-wall forever blocking me from getting it taken down. But alas, it is too late and I decided to just let it be and let it all shake out. Not that my files have been used yet, as far as I can tell that has not happened, but the cat is out of the bag and there is no stopping anyone from doing it. I have been making other meshes for well over a year now, and my fear again is that if I package them into a mod that those assets will be taken and ensconced behind a pay-wall and I will have little to no recourse to fight back. I even considered for a few hours, making the mod and posting it on Steam for money now that it can be done. But I realized that the wording of their agreement means that I lose my copyright to those meshes and they become the property of Valve and Bethesda. That is totally stealing content from the mod authors themselves and any mod author that openly took this deal is being very foolish. They got caught up in all the double speak that I am sure was thrown at them from both Bethesda and Valve. I am sure they were telling all of them this is the way of the future; it’s the only way to monetize your mods and your abilities as a mod maker at getting paid. Well we can point the finger to Bethesda for that. They are the ones that made the rules that any mod made with their tool kits cannot be sold to make money. But here they are changing everything for their benefit own benefit. So if I make the mod I was going to make with enough totally custom buildings to fill a city bigger than 2 Solitudes, they can get my assets, that I made by hand, and I get a mere 25% cut and they then have the right to take my meshes and possibly use them any way they want to and I would never get the proper compensation for all the time and work that went into them. That is no deal at all. I would rather give them away for free than let then take them from me. But again I will be faced with the very real possibility of them being stolen and going where I don't want them to. The main issues here are that we Modder’s are all walking a fine line. If we make totally custom content for our mods we take a very big risk of those assets being stolen and placed somewhere we can’t stop them from being used. Meaning some unethical modder taking those assets and repackaging a mod with those assets and taking credit for them. On the free mod sights it fairly easy to get stolen content taken down, that will not be the case with the pay-for Workshop. Of course there are ways to bury your own identifying marks into the meshes. Placing your initials into the nif files or putting small hidden water marks on the textures and so on. But I am not so sure that Valve even when presented with this proof of ownership would comply. They are going to look at what kind of money that mod might be making and just blow us off. I can’t afford a copyright attorney and no other mod author can either. I think many of the mod makers that decided to jump on the Steam bandwagon got a false sense that their mods would be protected on the Workshop from other predatory mod makers. But the simple truth is they put their mods in the hands of the biggest predator of mods there is. There are so many mods on that site that belong to someone else and have been uploaded without permission. These are the issues that I and every other mod maker must now weigh every time we load the Creation Kit and start to place our assets into it. This of course is starting to open a whole new can of worms that is just starting to get hinted at here and there. What if the next game from Bethesda can be modded, but its locked to the Steam Workshop like so many new games are. All mods would then have to go through Steam to get installed on your system. This of course would not last long as hackers would break that code lock and open the doors to third party modding. But then the mods that would be posted on the Nexus would be in violation of the new rules set down by Bethesda. How long would it take for them to send out those cease and desist letters to remove those mods, and then giving Nexus a reputation as supporting pirates. Then mod authors would be getting letters telling them if they wish to make mods for the game they must upload those mods to the Workshop as it is the only excepted way to mod “their game”. I will not be surprised at all if this is the route that is taken. They are looking at it as its best for the consumers and them, but in the end it will be the start of the real downfall of modding. When we are all forced to upload our mods to Steam in order to share them in the next new game that when modding starts to die. Because at that point they are no longer mods but third party DLC. As for all the people in the press saying this is a good thing, they are not modders and they have no idea what is really at stake in all of this. I have listen to both Gopher and TotalBiscut and both have pros and cons. To them it’s simply a mod maker making some well earned income for all their work, but what it really is, is a grab to get ahold of as many mods as possible and pull them under the pay-wall and out of the free market. This is not going to make mods better, it’s going to make them worse because Valve has given a green light to all the unethical modders out there that its OK to steal assets from all the free mods and put them into pay for mods and they will protect them from the s#*! storm that will follow. That is really what this is about. It’s about the gutting out of the free modding scene and turning into a free for all for the unethical modders to take advantage of all the real modders out there. So where do I stand at this point. I am not sure. Its very early days and we need to take a wait and see approach to things. I will continue the work I doing and I will continue to make the mods that I have started. It will all boil down to what is revealed in June from Bethesda and what they announce and how they will view modding on what ever new game is revealed. But the minute they say that all mod content must come from Steam, that's it. I only hope that they take a long hard look at what this is doing to their games and their modding communities and see the trouble that this is going to make. Enough said.

In response to post #24616159. #24616314, #24616399, #24616454, #24616704, #24616799, #24616909, #24617019, #24617144, #24617304, #24617354, #24617394, #24617519, #24618004, #24618149, #24618159, #24618169, #24618264, #24618289, #24618509, #24618574, #24618634, #24619184, #24619264, #24619524, #24619749, #24619879, #24620069, #24620089, #24620334, #24620539, #24620654, #24620834, #24620854, #24620909, #24621039, #24621124, #24621969, #24622244 are all replies on the same post. Bravo, I hope my comment had a little input on things, but everyone should be thrilled that you made this change of heart. I only hope other modders do the same. Here is crossing finger and toes.

In response to post #24616159. #24616314, #24616399, #24616454, #24616704, #24616799, #24616909, #24617019, #24617144, #24617304, #24617354, #24617394, #24617519, #24618004, #24618149, #24618159, #24618169, #24618264, #24618289, #24618509, #24618574, #24618634, #24619184, #24619264, #24619524, #24619749, #24619879, #24620069, #24620089, #24620334, #24620539, #24620654, #24620834, #24620854, #24620909, #24621039 are all replies on the same post. I can understand putting allot of time into modding. I have put hundreds of hours into making meshes that are now on permanent hold because of possible theft by the creeps at the Steam Workshop. Anyone who has a mod and it gets put behind that pay-wall without their consent will never get it taken down. Vavle has all but said all mods are far game to steal the content from. So you are joining the side that is going to steal its way to power. Someone has already stolen and posted Soolies Real Clouds mod there today. And, do you realize that they own your mods from now on. Just look at what Chesko said about trying to take his mod down. They got what they wanted from him and that is what they will with you. Good luck. Your going to need it.

In response to post #24594129. #24594804 is also a reply to the same post. See that is were you are wrong. Bethesda graciously gave us the tools to mod with. They didn't have to it at all. But they have a long tradition of sharing the tool kits with us so we can mod "their games". The number one rule is that you can not make any mod for profit with said tool kits. That has always been the rule, until now. But in order to bend that rule and get paid you have to agree to put your mod behind a pay-wall. Also they and Valve/Bethesda get to totally own your mod and its content. Now if you spent hundreds of hours making say, custom building meshes for your mod, guess what, Valve and Bethesda now own those assets and technically they can do what they want with them. They could even take them and use then in one of there own games and you wouldn't see a dime of that profit, only what you get from behind the pay-wall. That is the ultimate price for putting a mod behind that wall. You get screwed over, they have your content and will do as they see fit with it. any and every mod maker needs to seriously think about all of this. IT just not putting up a mod for a price as everyone thinks, its a total grab fest for Valve and Bethesda to gather up as much as they can, monetarily and asset wise.

In response to post #24579774. #24580049, #24580149, #24580444 are all replies on the same post. Well this sounds to me like Valve is going to cover any and all legal issues as they arise and they are basically giving a blank check for mod authors to steal anything and everything they can to make mods because they are going to protect them under the Steam Workshop umbrella. Hey folks the writing is on the wall. All our mods are open to being stolen and unless we are willing to go the Workshop, we are going to see all of our work stolen right out from under us. The next shot is going be across the Nexus bow. They are going to make the move to take total control of the modding scene and Nexus is in the way. Both Chesko and Isoku said wait 30 to 60 days for more info. I am thinking that is how long we have before the real attack begins. I hope I am wrong but the more I read and the more info comes to lite things are not looking good for the rest of us. I had a few mods I was working on and I am going to halt all of it. Because if Valve is giving permission to essentially raid and pillage other mods for content than anything I do and release is at risk and I am not willing to loose 2 1/2 years of work to some ass who comes along and steals it and posts it there and then I get shafted and not even a mention as the creator. I think that all of us that make mods or just getting started like me are going to want to wait and see how things are going to shake out. This is very scary and basically anything we do can be taken and Valve is going to protect the one they get money from not the person who did it for free or it got taken from.

In response to post #24578069. #24578114, #24578164, #24578219 are all replies on the same post. NDA my ass. There was a very simple answer to Valve and Bethesda on this and that was "NO". Absolutely not. But they chose to drink the cool aid as I like to say. They got suckered in. What did Valve do and or say to them about the other modding avenues and do they know something that they still can tell us. Like a possible total lock out of all non sanctioned Workshop mods is coming and this was the time to jump on or get out of the way. Something more is going here and these guys are not telling the whole truth about it. They know more and they cant say anything for fear of what? Getting locked out of the modding scene completely? Makes you wonder what the heck is really going on here.

OK, here is my 2 cents. So if this works out and its going well, how long is it until Bethesda decides to patch the Steam Version of Skyrim so that it will not run sanctioned mods. Meaning Skyrim would not load any mod that was not installed via Steam Workshop and locking out all other free mods. Of course many of us with DVD's can simply not allow the update, or, I am going to get it this, use pirated executable files to launch their game and keep Steam out of the picture. But if they can see they are getting a good cut of the of the incoming money, what is going to stop them from doing this to Skyrim and any and all of their future games. Sure, technically they will still be open to modding, but they get to pick and choose the mods you get and how much you are going to pay for them. They will see locking out the free third party mod scene as a plus as it means the mods will work and they will be safe from any instability. They will play on the fears of the new users to grab a foothold this way. You wait and see, that's going to be their next line of thought. They will start to advertise that modding your game only using Steam Workshop is the only safe way to do it and hence we have decided to lock out all content that is not from the Workshop for your safety. I may be looking through some very dark glasses here, but this is how these things happen and with Valve whispering in Bethesda ears about how much money they can grab, steal. from the modding scene it the way they are going to go. All we can do is sit back and wait and see what the next move is. But if Skyrim gets an update all of a sudden all your mods from Nexus stop working, well I get to tell you, I TOLD YOU SO!.

Hey guys, the issue I got with the ears messing up the Irish Elk mesh is, I believe the very reason that Bethesda twisted and bent the antlers they way they did. They simply are to close to the tops of the Elks ears, so when the Elk moves the ears it is also pulling and distorting the antlers. I have made a mesh were I slightly elongated the portion of the antler that comes from the head to give them the clearance I believe will fix the issue. The other option I think it to break them from the body itself and reattach them to the skull as it was done in the elk mesh for the True Elk mod. The antlers in that mesh get real close to the ears, almost touching, but are not moved by them. So breaking them free would be the way to go. But it still leaves me with the issue of getting the weighting info exported intact in the nif. According to Nifscope, the file looks good, Its nearly identical to the original nif file, but somewhere there is broken code or weight settings leaving the mesh to do nothing but slide around Skyrim on rails. Its very funny to witness but is not what I am going for here, LOL I did find a tutorial on Dark Creation forums about making a custom horse mesh, but it gets very involved in using Nifsope and importing and exporting sections back and forth between nif files until it works. I may try it as a last resort, but I know it can be exported directly from MAX as I have done it once, and others have been doing it for years now. I just cant repeat what ever it is I did. It has literately driven me crazy trying to figure it out. I am at the point of just throwing in the towel and moving on and turning the meshes over to someone else until they can be made to work. The other option is to beg the person who made my first mesh work to do it again. But that doesn't teach me what I am doing wrong and there are a ton of animals I want to make for Skyrim and possibly for other big mod projects. Thanks for the input, I am also going to post this request up on L*****L*b, as they seem to have allot of custom meshes being made over there, I just hope they don't ask me to add genitals to the mesh.

The maximum poly count in a nif file is 65000k, but that would be very heavy for your graphics card to render. As a rule most Skyrim nifs have a poly count below 10000k, most in the 3000 to 5000 for larger and more complex meshes. Having a single mesh with a poly count that would equal several standard meshes in size again will kill performance. Most good 3D tools have ways of culling the poly count to a more usable level. Yes you will loose detail, but its a balancing act.