Newbies & Readmes

[KMA]

Greetings and welcome to the wonderful world of modding!

 

As you host I would like to introduce you to a common practice that seems to have fallen out of favor lately. It is the readme file. This contains at the very least, a basic description of your mod and to whom the mod belongs. This is essential for two reasons. One, it tells us what the mod does. Unless it is a micro-mod that only alters 1-3 variables, then it is very unlikely that your name is descriptive enough to cover it all. Secondly, and most important for both you and the rest of the modding community, it tells us how to find and contact you easily.

 

I have a major gameplay mod and since I have just suffered a main system failure (dead Mobo & CPU) I am no longer able to run the GECK (or the game) on my backup system. I am looking at other gameplay mods to get permission to use them with the 500+ KB of gameplay that I have already done. I have DLed 150+ mods to examine, and am discovering that many do not have even a simple readme. My mod actually has two readmes (for different aspects) that cover about 5 pages, as I have learned the hard way (I read a thread like this myself) that users want as much info as possible. Then I got asked a million times what the mod does.

 

Now I know what you are thinking: You should just come back to the Nexus and put the file name into the search engine. How hard is that?

The problem is the filename is not indexed. Therefore it can take quite a bit of time to search through nearly 800 mods looking for yours (if it were a gameplay mod).

 

Basically it boils down to this. Regardless of how easy it was to make your mod, it is easier to make a simple text file with the following:

 

1) The name of your mod as you named it when you created the area on the Nexus (e.g. 4Aces FNV HiRes Textures)..

 

2) At least a single sentence describing what your mod does (e.g. Upgrades all the textures in the game).

 

3) Your nic/handle/moniker if it is not part of the filename - and is considered proper form even if it is (e.g. 4Aces). This give a basic way to search for all your mods on the Nexus. This is typically used to say goodbye (see the end of this post) as this is how I end all my readme files (with the date thrown in for good measure).

 

In all that would take about 30 seconds to make, and would give all the details necessary for your fans and other modders. With the new rules about duplicating other people's work here on the Nexus, this is pretty critical which is why I am bothering with this request.

 

The greatest thing is that you may realize when listing your mod's benefits, that you missed something critical, that you meant to do but simply forgot. It can save you from endless problems later on.

 

If you really do not want to go to that much trouble, the at least put a text based link to your mod. That way you get most of the benefits at the cost of about 10 seconds. Yes it is possible to bookmark every mod you download, but with 1000s currently available for FNV this quickly becomes too inconvenient for the average player, and too daunting for the newbie mod user (which you have to remember since they make up a large number of players).

 

It is up to you, as the modder, to have a readme or not. I hope this will show a few benefits from using them with all of your mods. Now I have to get back to tracking down about 100 ESP only mods. ;)

 

Cheers,

 

4Aces

(PM if you need anything - at the very worst I will say I do not know).

[ghostdancer]

i whole heartedly agree with this sentiment

please or even pretty please put a read me with the files it helps so much