Automatic Timed Mod Installaltion Feature Request

[LeonidasNerevar]

For a long time, I've seen a certain lacking feature in modding. From mods that add the four seasons, to follower mods, to quest mods, to texture mods, to just about everything else, they're all affected. Say you want a weather mod; you want the four seasons in Skyrim in their due time. To accomplish this, you have a weather mod with a version specifically for winter. Then you have a texture mod that covers the ground in snow. Then you have Wet & Cold for the NPC's breath effects and the snow on their clothes. Next, you have Frostfall or some other survival mod and Realistic Needs and Diseases and maybe Footprints. The list may go on. But the problem arises when the 3 in-game months of winter end and it's Spring and then Summer and then Fall. You want a completely different set of mods to enhance those seasons and you may even want to get rid of the old mods (provided they can be safely uninstalled). You would have to do a lot of downloading, uninstalling, installing, re-creating patches, merging, and overall making sure the game works, again.

 

Or say you start a new Playthrough and have a whole bunch of Follower mods or Quests mods you want to try (A few come to mind), but unless the author of each has put in their own delayer, they all start at once at the beginning of the game. Or maybe you want a new town or set of towns or player homes, but don't want them all given to you right away. Everything in its proper time, right? The problem is we don't have a universal "Delayer" to delay all these mods and to install them at the proper time. It's up to us, mid-playthrough, to install a bunch of mods. Now I know that's not the end of the world, right? I know. We're modders! We can do anything. We've been doing that since modding began and it ain't gonna stop us now. OoRah! Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to anymore? Just, to end those days of manually installing a whole bunch of mods mid playthrough with all their patches and programs that have to be run, and then doing it all over again after the next 3 in-game months? I propose a solution.

 

An Automatic Timed Mod Installation Feature. At first, I thought it would use the Script Extender for whichever game it was being used for, to detect in-game events and times and then install the proper user designated mod. and then I realized that it would most likely be the main job of a mod manager, in conjunction with the Script Extender, and then I thought of Vortex with its ability to reorder mods using rules without having to re-install something (such as texture mods) if you wanted to change its load order. I am hereby formally requesting that SOMEONE look into this to see if it is even feasible, let alone possible. But if I know this community, and the extraordinary People who are it's very blood, I think we can find a way. It may take years, with many failed attempts and abandoned Betas, but in the end, if we can do it, it would be one of the greatest assets to modders in history. Well, maybe I'm overhyping it. But it would be incredibly useful and save most of us, if not all of us, a whole lot of time. Maybe using a combination of timed installs and timed activation of already installed plugins. Something simple enough to be universally applicable. Of course, it would require user input and control, just like regular modding. They would designate which mods were to be installed mid playthrough and which were to be installed now and activated mid-playthrough and which patches would go along with what and so on. But it would be so cool, to exit a 4 hour game of Skyrim, and see my Mod Manager saying "In-game conditions met, Installing designated mods. Please wait to close Vortex until Installation is complete" and you go to bed, and come to Skyrim the next day to see it covered in Winter's Snow, or a new quest mod you forgot you downloaded (when you started your playthrough 200 hours ago) startup, or find a new Companion in an inn (or a jail cell) or new weapons in the leveled lists, or a new house for sale, or new Cities, or new NPCs! The list is nearly endless. I would love that feature so much, and we would be forever grateful to whoever brought it to us.

 

If anyone's curious as to where I got this idea, it was from getting requests to mod my real-life friend's games. I thought "Now wouldn't it be nice if I just did one setup and then left them to enjoy their game, without having to come back a month later and install the Winter mods, or the new quest mods after they're done all the vanilla content, or whatever." And then it expanded to a general usefulness to the community, if it could be accomplished. I leave it here. Let it be done if possible. Please leave your comments as to why this would or would not work. Progress is started with discussion. I thank you all for your time.

[LeonidasNerevar]

To moderators, please tell me if I should move this post to a different topic and I shall promptly do so. I am somewhat new to these forums.