Nexus Mod Manager focus group needs more help

[ff7legend]

In response to post #39896255. #39896665, #39896755, #39897085, #39897480, #39901260 are all replies on the same post.

DOOMBASED wrote: I think one thing that needs attention is the Virtual Install feature. That really turned me away from NMM, because it seems that it doubles the amount of space that mods use by creating the Virtual Install folders, unless I am doing something wrong... SSD space aint cheap.

Dreamable wrote: What does the virtual install thing do again?

insaneplumber wrote: @DOOMBASED
The same here.

@NMM Developers
Just add an option to disable "Virtual Feature"

Dark0ne wrote: Probably need to educate our users more within the program and write things better.

That "doubled" space is actually non-existent. It's an anomaly with how Windows handles shortcuts. All I can tell you is; the space isn't actually doubled. For example. If you had 10GB of mods, due to the way Windows handles things, it'll say your mod folder is using 20GB, when in reality it's only using 10GB. And that 10GB isn't lost in your hard-drive/unusable by Windows.

DOOMBASED wrote: Okay, thanks for the reply and for the clarification. I'll have to take a look again once the new update is up.

kon12 wrote: Any estimation on when a option to disable the Virtual Install feature?

I, personally, have no need for the feature as I prefer the standard install method. Stopped playing Skyrim for the time being because of issues cropping up when using said feature.

The Virtual Install feature is bugged beyond belief. I keep getting failed mod uninstalls after updating mods to the latest updated versions ever since NMM 0.60.3 was released. I've posted this issue in the NMM Bugs Forum but it has yet to be fixed. It's even got a Hot tag next to it seeing as how there are many other users besides myself with the very same issue. Edited June 28, 2016 by ff7legend

[HadToRegister]

In response to post #39896255. #39896665, #39896755, #39897085, #39897480, #39901260, #39909380 are all replies on the same post.

DOOMBASED wrote: I think one thing that needs attention is the Virtual Install feature. That really turned me away from NMM, because it seems that it doubles the amount of space that mods use by creating the Virtual Install folders, unless I am doing something wrong... SSD space aint cheap.

Dreamable wrote: What does the virtual install thing do again?

insaneplumber wrote: @DOOMBASED
The same here.

@NMM Developers
Just add an option to disable "Virtual Feature"

Dark0ne wrote: Probably need to educate our users more within the program and write things better.

That "doubled" space is actually non-existent. It's an anomaly with how Windows handles shortcuts. All I can tell you is; the space isn't actually doubled. For example. If you had 10GB of mods, due to the way Windows handles things, it'll say your mod folder is using 20GB, when in reality it's only using 10GB. And that 10GB isn't lost in your hard-drive/unusable by Windows.

DOOMBASED wrote: Okay, thanks for the reply and for the clarification. I'll have to take a look again once the new update is up.

kon12 wrote: Any estimation on when a option to disable the Virtual Install feature?

I, personally, have no need for the feature as I prefer the standard install method. Stopped playing Skyrim for the time being because of issues cropping up when using said feature.

ff7legend wrote: The Virtual Install feature is bugged beyond belief. I keep getting failed mod uninstalls after updating mods to the latest updated versions ever since NMM 0.60.3 was released. I've posted this issue in the NMM Bugs Forum but it has yet to be fixed. It's even got a Hot tag next to it seeing as how there are many other users besides myself with the very same issue.

Yup, I usually end up with an unresponsive NMM that has to be shut down with CTRL+ALT+DEL when attempting uninstall some mods, (usually the larger ones), and sometimes the 'virtual' part with miss a file or never install some files.
It happens randomly.

I thought the "Virtual Install" feature was an "optional" thing, as I would've just used regular install, rather than Virtual.

I'd also love it if the CATEGORIES were actually FOLDERS.
As when I update mods, I move the older uninstalled mod to a "OLD" category, but when trying to free upo disc space by backing up the OLD mods to an external drive, I have to look through the list one at a time, because they're all tossed into the same FOLDER

ALSO, I've noticed that if you use the "Get Mod Info" feature, it makes the mod disappear entirely from your mod list and refuses to return it.

I've had to delete the mod from my harddrive and delete the entries in the XML file in order to get NMM to acknowledge the mod once again exists.

I also find the "Profiles" in NMM counter intuitive.
In Mod Organizer, if you want to try out a mod that could ruin your set up you could just COPY your current profile, switch to it, and install the new mod.

I have absolutely NO idea how to copy my profile in NMM or if it's even possible. Edited June 28, 2016 by HadToRegister

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #39909305.

ff7legend wrote: I seriously hope this upcoming update won't be a radical one like the disastrous 0.60 update was. A lot of modders, including the SOT (Sands of Time) Team, lost their entire modded Skyrim setup due to the aforementioned radical update. I really don't want to have to play Russian Roulette with future NMM updates.

That's kind of the entire point of asking for people to help us bug test before major releases, guys.

[TIH2WA]

In response to post #39904240.

ddd8000 wrote: I want to be in this focus group just to see if the fix has come for the manager not checking for updates to mods.

I 2nd this!

[Offtherails]

How great a time commitment is involved Paul?

[drscott11]

In response to post #39909305. #39910355 is also a reply to the same post.

ff7legend wrote: I seriously hope this upcoming update won't be a radical one like the disastrous 0.60 update was. A lot of modders, including the SOT (Sands of Time) Team, lost their entire modded Skyrim setup due to the aforementioned radical update. I really don't want to have to play Russian Roulette with future NMM updates.

Dark0ne wrote: That's kind of the entire point of asking for people to help us bug test before major releases, guys.

I think what he is saying is that do we really need these new features? Honestly I have zero use for them. Are they nice tech achievements, yes, but not really necessary imo.

I'd really like to see more QoL features like a better UI, the ability to "send esp to top/bottom" of the mod list or to a specific number/place in the load order. How about fixing the horrid column resizing in the mod activation list or improving the abysmal performance of the "remove mod from all profiles" as it takes forever even on an i7 w/SSD. I could go on but I'm sure others will agree.

I'd like to see more focus on improving the core product as opposed to adding unneeded features.

[darkmoo1]

Being a blind gamer there is one large problem i have with the mod manager, The text size for the list of mods is way to small and there is no resize option.

 

[TrippyTheO]

In response to post #39904240. #39911050 is also a reply to the same post.

ddd8000 wrote: I want to be in this focus group just to see if the fix has come for the manager not checking for updates to mods.

TIH2WA wrote: I 2nd this!

I'd cry if we got a bunch of fancy new features without this issue being fixed.

[Loveblanket]

In response to post #39909305. #39910355, #39912505 are all replies on the same post.

ff7legend wrote: I seriously hope this upcoming update won't be a radical one like the disastrous 0.60 update was. A lot of modders, including the SOT (Sands of Time) Team, lost their entire modded Skyrim setup due to the aforementioned radical update. I really don't want to have to play Russian Roulette with future NMM updates.

Dark0ne wrote: That's kind of the entire point of asking for people to help us bug test before major releases, guys.

drscott11 wrote: I think what he is saying is that do we really need these new features? Honestly I have zero use for them. Are they nice tech achievements, yes, but not really necessary imo.

I'd really like to see more QoL features like a better UI, the ability to "send esp to top/bottom" of the mod list or to a specific number/place in the load order. How about fixing the horrid column resizing in the mod activation list or improving the abysmal performance of the "remove mod from all profiles" as it takes forever even on an i7 w/SSD. I could go on but I'm sure others will agree.

I'd like to see more focus on improving the core product as opposed to adding unneeded features.

I couldn't disagree more. These features are, I think, fundamental to make modding easier which should be the main goal of NMM in the first place. Exchanging mod setups with people that have already worked out the kinks and have a stable game going is a fantastic feature that will bring more people into modding. I see, almost daily, stories around the internet about how people want to mod their games, but don't know where to start, and let's be honest, this is a good community, but as I know from when I started years ago, it is not the most friendly towards people new to it and new to modding. Just because a feature may not be important to you, does not mean it won't be important to modding. There is no reason for a mod manager of any kind to exist if the point isn't to make modding games easier. If you want to wait and see how the next release pans out before upgrading, I see no problem. The current version of NMM isn't working properly in many ways anyway.

[crashpilot]

In response to post #39901825.

prinyo wrote:

I assume trying someone's profile would queue up a list of downloads based on the active mods (excluding any the new user already has downloaded), and then queue an installation of all the mods in question?

If so, is there a way to handle merged patches/altered esps? The first thing I do when installing a new mod is check for incompatibilities, and hand-merge any changes (and I have merged a good number of smaller mods as well, to reduce load order bloat from mods making a handful of simple changes). So if someone tried to use my profile, half the mods wouldn't work due to conflicts, and they might even hit the 255 plugin cap.

 

It can't handle modified mods when sharing or backung-up a profile.

When you download a profile it will check the mods you have and will download from Nexus the ones that are missing.

If a mod is not on Nexus you can download it and add it to NMM yourself. NMM will recognize the archive file name and will use the mod as part of the profile.

But the profile sharing and backup is all about the meta data about the mods - what is installed, activated, in what order. It is not about the files themselves. You are not going to be sharing fles with the people you share profiles with.

If you want to use the backup feature you will need to pack the changed files in a custom "mod" and install it via NMM so it will able to work with it in the future.

Not sure if I managed to explain exactly.

P.S. I'm part of the test group and I've been using the future version for some time now.

This is exactly what I expected. I have a couple of MODs from the site that should not be named and from Steam as well, I also have some MODs that I modified myself a bit. A snap shoot of my configuration would be useless since some critical MODs are not available on the Nexus.
Nevertheless, a reliable MOD Manager that can handle MODs downloaded from other Game sites would be most appreciated and I do not think that a MOD manager needs automatic MOD ordering functionality. I guess that would be extremely hard to maintain for all the games the MOD Manager supports.
I hate the idea of switching to another MOD manager because NMM becomes a Nexus MODs only tool.