Big changes for the Nexus Mod Manager and the introduction of Tannin42, our new head of NMM development

[Baconinterwebs]

Will there be a way for NMM/MO users to port their existing modlists to the new software? This seems to me to be essential functionality

[rjoscher]

Thanks for the info,

 

I wish you all a smooth transition.

Wish I was Donald T, would hire Tannin just to complete his awesome work on Mod Organizer.

I only use NMM when absolutely necessary, it's still a step ahead of dumping the files into the Data folder. I prefer the manager to keep my game folders un-touched.

 

Good luck and Thanks!

[FunkyLeorox]

Mod Organizer isn't even complex, it's just that there are a lot more things you can do with it. The only thing that's complex is profiles and the ordering of mods, it's just overwriting visualized. Honestly I don't see why we can't just rebrand MO as NMM and fix all the bugs with the NMM interface.

[Xon2]

does MO support the special edition? I am fortunate for that i have Enderal installed which i am about to play through over the next couple of month. Hopefully we get an early build of the new NMM by then. Kinda don't want to get into modding the SE before that thing goes life. Did Tannin mention a tentative ETA somewhere?

[Shaithos]

I hope it will be able to import our current setups from NMM, no way am I starting from scratch

[Middge]

Hi Tannin. I originally wrote this in reply to another users post in another section but i thought that it might be a good idea to paste a copy here to see what you think of the idea for NMM/New UI and just in case you missed it.

 

*****

For a feature suggestion i wouldn't mind seeing if a system could be implemented where not only could you see if a mod has an update available like you can now but you could also select certain mods or all mods that can be updated, hitting a button and NMM downloads, overwrites and updates them for you. This way you don't have to open the mod page and click the download link on the newer version or update every time. Keep in mind though that users should still take the time to read the mod page to see if there might be any newer incompatibilities, changes or instructions.

As an extended feature maybe also have an option where NMM deletes the previous version/s of particular or all mods you have downloaded and updated previously. I wouldn't make this an automatic set feature though, some people might get annoyed with it. It may help with not racking up multiple downloads of the same mod and taking up more space of peoples hard drives.

 

Expanding on this, maybe there could be a way to render the author's nexus mod page inside NMM in a way that is more streamlined. Every mod could have a "tab" or section that specifically lists installation instructions and potential compatibility problems. Another tab for details regarding what the mod actually does.

 

As it is right now, some mods have just these gigantic pages filled with tiny text trying to cover EVERYTHING at once, and it's a lot to take in.

 

I understand this would be a little bit more complicated because you would have to have the author's adhere to a new standard of content submission, but ultimately it would make their content easier to digest and therefor more likely to be used and enjoyed.

[Middge]

Also, I have another thought...

 

As far as I understand, games are shipped with a specific list of files. (in fallout and skyrim, these are data files comprised of graphical assets and scripts etc that all make up the game).

A mod is generally an addition to these files or a modification of existing assets that are shipped with the game, correct?

What is to stop NMM from containing a comprehensive catalogue of every single asset shipped with the game, and then requiring authors to list every asset they add or change?

This would allow every single mod hosted by Nexus to have a dynamic and easy to understand compatibility portfolio. A user would be able to see at a glance when mods affect the same asset (and therefore potentially conflict). It would also help developers when they are troubleshooting problems.

Hopefully I do not sound like a complete moron, and maybe I am vastly understating the amount of work involved with this type of standardization.

[demonicvampiregirl]

 

In response to post #43785770.

 

 

 

demonicvampiregirl wrote:

In response to post #43772610.

 

 

 

demonicvampiregirl wrote:

Can someone explain to me a bit the differences between NMM and SMO? I get one is more advanced but I only use NMM for Skyrim (and Skyrim SE once I get a video card strong enough for it) and pretty much only use USLEEP for it. I may wind up modding more in the future but for right now, want to just keep it simple and really hope that next gen NMM is as simple as the current one. I've never been good at manually modding, I tend to always screw it up somehow. >_< So it is kind of worrying that both are now being combined into one.

NMM was a simple install and go manager but it would install it all to the "data" folder on your HDD so install order was VERY important so you wouldn't overwrite mods incorrectly, this would/could change some of the core files and if you messed this up usually it ended up with a reinstall.

MO used a virtual data folder to keep your vanilla data folder...well vanilla. If something broke skyrim all you had to do was disable the problem mod and skyrim would work fine. MO would treat each mod separately when you installed them, only ever overwriting stuff when you started the game. If something was wrong with the order you installed them you just needed to drag and drop them in the correct order and restart your game. no reinstalling of mods needed. It has indicators in the UI to tell you whats overwriting what.

I know there is a lot more but after having to redownload/reinstall skyrim 3 times with NMM this is the biggest benifit i got from MO.

So this would kind of eliminate the need for LOOT?

No. However, LOOT is integrated in MO. And because your data folder is virtual when using MO you have to integrate every tool into MO, eg if MO is not running, your creation kit will not find any file to load (exept the main esm files skyrim.esm and the DLCs). LOOT just checks the dependencies of your plugins and has a look to a masterlist with some metadata of each plugin.

 

But first: LOOT is not perfect. The more mods you use the more sortings are possible, but LOOT has to choose only one, which is not always the correct one or the one that meets your suggestions. That's mainly because the masterlist cannot be complete, it needs community support to be filled. It is good for all the well known standard mods like smim, but the more plugins you have and the more exclusive they are the more LOOT needs your help.

 

The second thing is: LOOT only handles plugins. There are thousands of mods that don't use plugins, eg texture replacement mods. These mods add hundereds of loose files to your data directory (in fact all these loose files already exist in the main esm files but will be overwritten with these loose files). So if you install Skyrim HD you'll find a thousand or so new files in your data folder. If you install Perfect Whiterun after that, it will overwrite a lot of files you just installed with Skyrim HD. Now assume, you like your new perfect Whiterun overall, but what you don't like is, that a lot of items you find all over Skyrim now are no longer consistent, eg the barrels, fences, roofs, whatever have another look in Whiterun but in all other sites in Skyrim. You need to change the install order to change that. As long as you have only these two mods there are several solutions of your problem, like simply uninstall both and reinstall in the correct order. But if you have 100 mods that replace textures, it's close to impossible to do that.

 

In MO you simply click&drag the Perfect Whiterun mod ahead of Skyrim HD. Problem solved. But that's not all. Let's assume, you want to have consistent barrels all over Skyrim but why shouldn't the roofs be exclusive? In that case you could keep your install order, right click the Perfect Whiterun mod and have a look to Conflicts tab of the information dialoge windows of the mod. As the name implies you find two lists, one list of files provided by the mod and the names of the mods that will be overwritten, a second list of files that will be overwritten by other mods plus the name of these mods. You now can select single files and hide them to Skyrim, in our case the texture for the barrels. The result is a Perfect Whiterun with the barrels of Skyrim HD. Problem solved.

 

I used texture replacement mods as an easy to understand example. I'm even not sure whether the two mods replace any barrels (because most people use SMIM for this kind of stuff anyway). And of course the game is still playable with any barrel texture. But there are much more mods then only texture replacer. Some expand Skyrim, change the gameplay, quests or the UI, often they use, add or replace scripts to do that. You can easily imagine that something fatal can happen if eg two mods confict in such a more essential module than a texture.

 

 

Forgot to check back but yeah, so essentially LOOT would be within this new Nexus and I would technically not need to download/install LOOT by itself as it'd be within the manager itself? As I said before, I tend to just use bug fixes currently until I complete the game and then may mod some more. I know you have to have certain files first so it don't override everything and may cause other issues.

 

From how you are explaining it, I'd no longer need LOOT to do so and it'd be all done within one program. With one part you explained about having to have, and forgive me is this is utterly stupid, but you don't have to have MO actually open in the background? As I said, I have no idea what MO is as I've only used Nexus and I know for a fact on that one just having it installed and crap works.

[KingCerberus]

I have over 200 plugins with my original Skyrimbuild and I still didnt really start modding Fallout 4 or SSE at the same level, cause its no fun with NMM. And I wont start until something comes up that has at least the same features as MO. And I dont think that MO is more complicated than NMM. I even think its easyer to learn than NMM, cause MO has a tutorial that starts when you open the program the first time. The tutorial shows all basics, so you can start modding directly. The more advance things, like integrating patchers and other external programs and solving conflicts in the datafolder arent complicated either. You will learn how to use them when you need them. I really hope the new NMM will at least have the features that were aleady in MO. I dont want to miss any of them. Modding without is totally not worth my time anymore. One can hardly see how much I like MO...

 

Edit: Thank you tannin for MO and for that even noobs like me can mod the s#*&#33; out of skyrim

Edited November 13, 2016 by KingCerberus

[evmiller]

In response to post #44239245.

FunkyLeorox wrote: Mod Organizer isn't even complex, it's just that there are a lot more things you can do with it. The only thing that's complex is profiles and the ordering of mods, it's just overwriting visualized. Honestly I don't see why we can't just rebrand MO as NMM and fix all the bugs with the NMM interface.

I agree, Tannin could have saved some time and just used MO as the basis for the new NMM. It really was pretty easy to use. Don't let anyone say otherwise.