Make this a sticky

[Harbringe]

People who are modding need to understand that the naming of their mods goes a long way in how people will use or even use them at all ,here's why

 

When you are working on what it is you want for mods in your game you always end up with these lists of mods in the dir and even when I have separated the various mods into appropriate dir you can still end up with these long lists to go through and its absolutely maddening to be trying to figure out what goes with what when they don't name them properly whats proper and improper ,first proper

 

Harbringe's Pow Arm v 1

Harbringe's Pow Arm Patch v 1.1

Harbringe's Pow Arm addons v.1

Harbringe's Pow Arm addons v 1.1

etc etc etc

even the readme's need to named in such a way (avoids readme's getting overwritten all the time)

 

Improper

 

Harbringes Armor

Patch

Fit it

Addons

Textures

etc etc

and all the readme's if they bothered to include are just named readme

 

Having a sticky and showing them the proper way to post their work would go along way in making the using of mods a much better experience

[Eiries]

Mm.. I'm confused... probably because I should be in bed right now. You're... complaining that mods aren't named well enough? Or the zip files? In either case, you can easily rename them yourself...

[Pushkatu]

I know what you mean and it's a very good idea, but even if we'd stick this, most won't take it into consideration, simply becouse they don't bother to read all the articles or they don't know where to look, some have no idea what they are doing, some prefer to do as they please, without beeing told how or what to do. This is how modding goes, there's no team with a boss that tells people what to do and what not, most people mod for themselfs then some decide to share the mods with the community. So, even if it's a good idea, I hardly doubt that the majority will take it into consideration.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Pushkatu!

[Harbringe]

I know what you mean and it's a very good idea, but even if we'd stick this, most won't take it into consideration, simply becouse they don't bother to read all the articles or they don't know where to look, some have no idea what they are doing, some prefer to do as they please, without beeing told how or what to do. This is how modding goes, there's no team with a boss that tells people what to do and what not, most people mod for themselfs then some decide to share the mods with the community. So, even if it's a good idea, I hardly doubt that the majority will take it into consideration.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Pushkatu!

 

Your probably correct but at least by having it there it might alleviate the problem somewhat and once one person realizes this is the way it ought to be done ,Im pretty sure others will pick up on it ,cause we all know how it is when people review the mods of others ,don't think they could stop themselves from pointing out that this is the way it should be done ,may not solve it but it would help

[Pushkatu]

I support your idea 100% becouse it's actualy good and you might be right to, it will most likely help some people, but don't expect it to change things completly, like I said most will stick with what they're used to. Best thing for you to do is to contact a moderator/admin and explain to him/her why do you think this will be helpfull, that unless one posts here. But with all the flux of posts and topics these days, your topic might be missed. If in a week's time no one posts, feel free to contact the staff.

 

 

Cheers,

Pushkatu!

[Eiries]

Well... maybe instead of stickying something like this, make a mention in the feedback thread about changing the way the Nexus names its files.

 

Usually it automatically renamed the downloaded compressed file based on the title given to it upon upload, followed by the file number based on the site. Perhaps it can be tweaked so it automatically takes the name of both the title of the file page itself and the description of the particular file.

 

So, instead of My Random Mod's Main file being downloaded as Main, it would be automatically downloaded as My Random Mod - Main. Or My Random Mod - 1.0-1.2 Patch, or whatever.

 

Food for thought.

[LHammonds]

Well, I think even the OP is a bit confused and missing some critical information.

 

#1 - You do need to come up with a good name for the mod and then use it in the plugin and mod folder names, readme, archive name and updates. However, the .esp plugin name usually needs to remain the same and NOT include version numbers because of how the game engine treats mods and savegame content. If you have a plugin called "MyMod.esp" which adds some nice armor and weapons and you release an updated version and call that plugin "MyMod v2.esp" the game will "reset" the contents meaning that when you uninstall the original and install the new, it will act as though you never had the plugin before and remove the 1st plugins contents (your armor and weapons go bye-bye). Not usually something you want to happen.

 

#2 - Because of the Nexus upload procedure, you cannot have special characters in the filename such as periods so file names such as "MyMod 1.0" cannot happen and needs to be something like "MyMod 1_0" but I do agree that mods that end up having a lot of files attached need to be easily recognized as to what belongs to what. The addition of categories helps in this matter but it is a moot point once the files are downloaded since they are not translated into the filename.

 

A topic that tries to present itself as a "standard" would need to be quite lengthily to handle the various cases and be organized well enough to be easy to navigate. Naming standards for plugins, readme files, folder names, archives, patches, etc. It also needs to cover or at least mention how certain mods should be handled: savegames, .esp plugins only, texture replacers, model replacers, sound fx replacers, music, do-it-all mods, etc.

 

This basically covers the mod concept phase (naming) to the development phase (naming files and folders), the distribution phase (archive naming) and all the way to the support phase (upgrades, add-ons, enhancements, bug fixes)

 

LHammonds