Mods, traffic have petered out quite a bit...

[harlemaximus]

Seems traffic and mods for FO4 have slowed to a trickle. oldrim a 5 yr old game is still getting more mods, traffic then FO4 currently. I am not sure what the reason is for this, the modding resources and area to mod seems to give modders a lot of slate to work on. Is it just the setting people have grown tired with already or something else? I used to come here daily for mods now I only need to check it once a week and still easily be caught up.

[AGreatWeight]

Many variables to consider -

Modders moving over to SkyrimSE to port their mods keeps them from actively working on FO4 mods.

Some modders losing interest in modding FO4, whether it's boredom with the game or other reasons.

The whole Bethesda.net meant a certain number of FO4 modders walked away.

New modders learning their craft, so in no hurry to release mods.

Modders working on more ambitious mods which take longer.

Modders being busy with real-world things.

Bear in mind that a lot of early mods were simple tweaks to the game, and the authors have since moved on. Currently, FO4 has around 2000 less mods in one year, than FNV has in six years. The Fallout series has a smaller user base/modding community than Skyrim, and the S.E. has had the inevitable effect of focusing modders attention on that game, whether it's brand new mods or recreations of their older mods to work within the new game engine etc. When you add mods for consoles, that also diverts time from developing new content.

Sometimes mods take longer than you'd like them too. I've been working on/off on something (between working on my other mods) for the last five months; I was hoping to have it finished around now, but it's grown even bigger than I originally intended. Certainly not a complicated mod, just one with an utterly ridiculous amount of content that is very tedious to create/edit/organize etc.

Edited December 2, 2016 by AGreatWeight

[CiderMuffin]

The Elder Scrolls series has always been more popular then Fallout, it was the case with both Fallout 3 and New Vegas where even Oblivion's mod scene was bigger and it was more played on steam.

 

Honestly it's no surprise that Skyrim is still being played more. Then you have that Fallout 4 is still pretty new considering how long lived Bethesda games are in popularity and play time.

[crawe1x]

In fact, there's some evidence that it's only now that we're beginning to see (for instance) the best weapons mods. The weapon mods created at the beginning of the year are virtually unusable now. Skibadaa, Millenia, asXas and many others are all doing great work. Among other types of mods, Astralify's Wonder Body has only come out in the past month. Then there's quest and companion mods being worked on, with some close to release. So maybe there are fewer mods than six months ago, but the quality is actually very high.

Edited December 2, 2016 by crawe1x

[genolune]

We could still use more modders. Particularly ones who can create nice Blender and/or Gimp tutorials to help others out. I'd definitely look at them!

[Dark0ne]

Download traffic has remained relatively steady, actually. New files, however, are on a decline (as has been the case with every Fallout game released since Fallout 3 on the Nexus).

 

Source: Our stats page

[Rabbit1251]

This isn't a factory put here to keep everybody supplied with free content nor is the Creation Kit exclusive to certain people. If you start making mods instead of demanding that everyone else picks up the pace there would not be a shortage of mods. Yes, no?

 

 

The Rabbit

[Lisselli]

This isn't a factory put here to keep everybody supplied with free content nor is the Creation Kit exclusive to certain people. If you start making mods instead of demanding that everyone else picks up the pace there would not be a shortage of mods. Yes, no?

 

 

The Rabbit

The "sit back and wait for someone else to do it" started with Skyrim unfortunately.

[crawe1x]

 

The "sit back and wait for someone else to do it" started with Skyrim unfortunately.

 

 

Yes, but that's understandable - and to some extent, a sign of the Nexus' success over the past few years. After all, Skyrim was Beth's crossover game. Sure, Oblivion, FO3, etc. were popular games. However, they didn't appear on the radar of the average non-gamer. In addition, there were a lot of gamers (such as myself) who were aware of them but didn't play them. Skyrim changed all that. Pretty much every serious gamer has a copy of it and even non-gamers are vaguely aware of it. Put it this way, I'll bet there are a lot of casual gamers out there who see FO4 as "Future Skyrim", and when the next TES game comes out, these people won't see it as TES VI, but as Skyrim 2.

 

Thanks to Skyrim (and its continued use by YouTubers), the mod scene has exploded. So much so that even console players are becoming aware of it. Since 2011, modding has basically gone from being a niche to something far more mainstream. That increase in interest, however, will invariably lead to some dilution. Prior to Skyrim, there was a relatively small group of hardcore players - a large number of whom, by definition, were also modders. The current player base is far larger, but also more casual and therefore less likely to try its hand at modding. That's just the nature of the beast. You can't, unfortunately, have it both ways.

 

On top of that, regarding the decline in new FO4 mods, I think there are many other factors at play. The six-month delay in the CK resulted in some loss of momentum - many modders got tired of waiting for it and moved on. The controversies that accompanied the launch of Beth.net left a nasty taste in the mouth, and again many talented modders moved on. The timing of Skyrim SE hasn't helped - it's sucked yet more modders away from FO4; it's also delayed modders from moving over to FO4. Finally, there are certain aspects of FO4 that just make it harder to mod - voiced protagonist, etc.

 

Yet despite all this, there are still great mods coming out - perhaps not nearly as many as people had hoped, but plenty nonetheless.

Edited December 5, 2016 by crawe1x

[Fatalmasterpiece]

A big problem is that there are no animation tools available to the FO4 engine, meaning a lot of the more advanced mods that Skyrim has simply cannot be done in FO4. IIRC the Havok 2013 animation studio tools were never made public so you don't see the advanced mods that Skyrim is getting like OSA. Finally, Skyrim had a lot more love put into it from Bethesda, mostly because TES is their baby, while FO was IP they bought and developed. TES is a much bigger piece of IP as well. There's tons more in TES to cover while in FO, the world is literally dead and there's only so much you can do with that.