Does any one use Nexus Mod Manager anymore?

[Mattiewagg]

Manual installs 4me 4ever.

Each their own.

Blind faith one click solutions are great and save time, but those solutions also make users depend on help from others more often.

eg: I used XXXX app to dl the mod and the mod didn't load in my game, what did I wrong? how do I get it going?

So instead of debugging the mod problem, your now debugging XXXX app problem before even getting to the mod.

My logic, the more 3rd party solutions used to install a mod, just adds more to what can go wrong.

I'm also a strong believer of Murphy's Law and Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

I highly recommend users manually install at least 30 mods themselves, break their game once or twice, and fix it, before anything else. Gives you a feel for it, makes you try to fix stuff yourself before crying for help. But I think in the long run go with a mod manager.

[lofgren]

Well I definitely feel like I have Seen the Light and Come to Jesus and all of those other revelatory hallelujah phrases now that I switched to MO.

 

I don't think it is mod managers that make people less able or willing to figure out what went wrong when a mod doesn't work right. I think that is a basic difference between personal outlooks. People who have the aptitude and the drive to tinker will solve their own problems. People who don't, won't. If there were no mod managers you wouldn't have fewer people breaking their game and not understanding why, you would have the more people doing so and you would have more people asking for help and you would have more people giving up on mods entirely because it is too much of a hassle.

 

Mostly I am just bewildered by the comments from manual installation fans because it seems that they think a mod manager does some kind of black magic. It's just an interface tool. At its most basic all it does is unzip the file and move it into a folder, typically using integrated Windows functions – the exact same ones that your computer would execute if you drag the files into the folder yourself. After it's done you can go and look at the files and verify that they are there and edit them exactly the same way that you would if you had performed the same process using Windows Explorer. It's not voodoo.

 

Granted, you are offloading the task of remembering which files came from which mod to the program instead of doing it yourself. Frankly I never bothered. SMIM has hundreds of meshes and textures. Frostfall adds about two dozen scripts and edits several native scripts. Do you remember which ones they were? I sure as hell don't, and even in the dark old days of manual installation I never did. NMM may forget which file goes to which mod every once in a while, but it sure does a hell of a lot better than my memory. Besides, I need those brain cells for other, far more important things like remembering my name. (And of course, MO NEVER forgets.)

[nivea]

I dont think its "voodoo" or anything, I just think you should understand at least where everything is first. I also HATE that people require me to give them installers, its not longer a option its become a REQUIREMENT and I personally have better things to do then make you all installers... Like make more stuff.

 

There seems to be a couple types of modders:

1. Those who love installers because it makes things easier for the user.

2. Those who dont care for them because it makes users more "stupid" (no I am not calling people stupid, just mod stupid).

 

I also dont like jumping on the band wagon of new programs before they have been out for a while and got past their whole beta/tester stages, maybe in my next install of Skyrim (if that ever happens) I will try it. But I dont play Skyrim enough to really devote myself into its new organizers as I am into FNV/FO3 more.

[blitzen]

I see a bit of misinformation in here. I use NMM, and have been using it since it came out. There isn't any disadvantage to using it (that I'm aware of) vs manual installing and there are certainly advantages. How can people possibly be keeping track of everything with manual installs? What if you want to uninstall your complicated manual install, which overwrote some previously installed files from several different mods? The main benefit of using NMM is that it alerts you when you are about to overwrite a file installed by another mod (and gives the name of the mod), and allows you to selectively not overwrite individual files, not overwrite particular other mods' files, or not overwrite files in a specific folder. That's reasonably flexible. If you do chose to overwrite, it backs up the files that were replaced, and will restore them if you uninstall the mod that replaced them. And it will do that for multiple overwrites, keeping track of everything for you. It's very simple to use. I haven't had any issues with NMM, so I'm not sure what people are referring to when they say it has too many problems.

 

I make a lot of edits to existing mods, and frequently create loose file versions from bsa archives, and install those with NMM. You can easily build your own custom version of a mod, zip it up as an archive, and install it using NMM, even overwriting the original mod's files with your custom version, which may be a simple subset of the original mod. You name the archive with a useful name of your choosing, and that will be what is displayed in NMM. If all you are doing is the automatic download and install, you aren't using NMM to it's full potential. Maybe someone can explain what it is they are doing manually that they think they can't do using NMM. I don't see any advantage at all to tedious manual file management.

 

Having said all of that, I would be using MO if I hadn't already been using NMM for years, but I'm not about to wipe out well over 300 mod installs and start from scratch. I'm running with the original Skyrim installation that I made a few months after the game was released. In spite of all sorts of absolutely insane problems I've had with this crazy modded game over time, I've never considered re-installation a realistic option for fixing things. Somehow it always sorted out over time.

Edited September 2, 2014 by blitzen

[DemongelRex]

I use a combination of NMM, Manual Install, and Wyre Bash. I primarily install big mods with NMM and mods I am testing or trying out I do a manual install. I've probably manually installed about 1000 plugins within the past two years and it was more of a learning experience.

 

I agree with the sentiment that manual installations give better customization as I constantly overwrite loose files and merge plugins for testing. I have always heard good things about Mod Organizer, however it can seem overwhelming to new users. For all the features Mod Organizer can do, I have an application specifically made for it.

 

Steam Mover

BSA compression and extraction.

XMW encoding and decompiling.

Bash Patching, save master viewing, auto updating, script decompiling and recompiling, record editor.

 

I'd rather have a bunch of apps specifically designed for a certain task than a all-in-one tool.

[TheVampireDante]

Mix of manual and NMM installs. Always a manual DL though.

 

If a file has a specially scripted installer available, I'll run it through the manager to get the various options selected and put together for the install. Just a simple matter of convenience here.

 

If no installer, or only a few simple options (something like additional DLC related esps) - then I'll install manually.

 

MO has a lot of content and options I'll never use, so I don't see the point in using it when I already know my way around the files and setup of the game.

[Mofakin]

Manual download and install, ever did so since Morrowind, will ever do. Only reason for me using NMM is testing if it installs my Mods correctly, so people won't frequently step at my door and moan about Mod not properly installing. (However, they still frequently do, because since NMM isn't part of my routine, I often forget to properly update the .xml's).

 

I like to have certain control over what I'm doing. Installers and their programmers can fail (I'm talking about Modders setting up their .xml files, not the programmer of NMM), I can't, and if I do at least I know what I was doing wrong.

 

I'm setting up .xml's for my Mods manually as well. To archive .bsa I'm using Bethesda's archive tool, to unpack I'm using BSA Edit. The login popup of NMM bothers me, and the frequent update notifications as well. There's probably an option to turn them off, but well, I just don't use it frequent enough to seriously start messing with it.

 

Nowadays I'm using L.O.O.T for sorting and Wrye Bash for bashed patching. TesV Edit is used for figuring conflicts so I can make compatibility patches. I'm also using it to clean my Mod files, or to add/remove master dependencies.

 

How can people possibly be keeping track of everything with manual installs?

 

By using the much bigger extensions of Nexus website and the tracking button? I also don't like automatic Mod updates. I want to have the option to do whatever I want to do, and automatisms rarely grant this freedom. (See Steam for their update policie)

[lofgren]

The Nexus website doesn't keep track of which files come from which mod, which you have chosen to overwrite and which you have not, which bsas conflict and how. That question was in response to the claim that it's easier to keep track of which specific files do what witha manual install because "you do it all yourself."

 

I'd like to know one example of something that you can do by manually installing rather than using NMM or MO. If it really offers all of this vaunted freedom it should be easy to list dozens of examples but so far nobody has mentioned even one.

[Valkasha]

Nothing wrong with good old NMM. Mod organizer makes installing certain mods a hassle, although I admit those profiles can come in handy when using big overhaul mods.

[Nudedragon]

NMM is still a fine tool, and popular. I guarantee that whatever issues your having are either rare, or user error: NMM works better now than it did a year ago.

 

Manual installations are valid for a few mods, but if you intend to use more than a dozen, I wouldn't recommend it. Mod managers are invaluable for load order alone. Manual installation helps you understand what goes on when you install mods, where they go, etc... but it's not efficient or effective once you understand modding.

 

MO is somewhat more advanced than NMM. It has the potential to be safer, and far stronger, as a mod manager. Unfortunately MO is also more complicated than NMM, and most mods are packaged with NMM in mind. This can have unforeseen consequences, such as the issues some people had with SMIM's fomod installer and MO. Personally, I think MO is good for anyone who understands and utilizes the dual priority system, and a mistake for anyone who does not. If you're building one 'perfect' load order, there's no need for MO.

 

Pros and cons to all approaches, but I think most mod users would agree that manual installation isn't going to be the norm again.