Make the branch or version of the game a necessary field for mod authors

[JoTheVeteran]

I just f***ed up my Bannerlord campaign with some outdated mod. Gotta rewind back to 2 weeks or something.

Is it so amazingly hard to make it a necessity for a mod author, to state the exact branch of the game his current version of his mod is compatible with? Most mod authors display the branch version that their mod was made for, but some just don't seem to give a f***.

 

- "Here is my mod, version. 3.1.355b"

- "um cool, thanks and all, but for what branch of the game?"

*crickets*

- "Guess I'm gonna risk it.. it works! I'll just save and pick with everything back tomorrow"

*12 hours later*

- "Why is my game freezing when I click anywhere? I'll just load the save without the latest mods.. nope. Load with no mods at all.. nope!... f***!"

 

I mean, this just makes sense, doesn't it?

 

How to impose this for the mods already uploaded to this day?

You can present a warning message that the mod author hasn't stated the version of the game, so using it, it might break your game. Simple.

 

Your thoughts.

[HadToRegister]

I'm not buying or modding the game until it comes out of Early Access and is officially released, because I don't want to deal with a game that changes on a daily basis while modders struggle to keep up with the changes while entitled players get angry at them for not keeping up.

[JoTheVeteran]

I'm not buying or modding the game until it comes out of Early Access and is officially released, because I don't want to deal with a game that changes on a daily basis while modders struggle to keep up with the changes while entitled players get angry at them for not keeping up.

So in your opinion, early access versions of games shouldn't exist, nexus should only host mods for official releases, and "certain" gamers feel entitled, and are angry towards the modding community. Well that's an entitled opinion you got there, Siiiir...

Aaaaaanyway, since everything above is just your personal preference, and not what actually happens in the gaming scene, I would still push for a checkbox that indicates for what game version is the thing you are downloading. This goes for releases as well. It is amazing you know, but games do go from 1.0, to 1.1, 1.2 etc etc. Mods compatibility most often breaks in those as well, crazy! Yes, early access builds are full of bugs, so more often undated, but still.. just a single checkbox... version 1.4.1 or something. So simple. No pain, only gain...

- The Entitled gamer (work for me you modding peons!)

[HadToRegister]

 

I'm not buying or modding the game until it comes out of Early Access and is officially released, because I don't want to deal with a game that changes on a daily basis while modders struggle to keep up with the changes while entitled players get angry at them for not keeping up.

So in your opinion, early access versions of games shouldn't exist, nexus should only host mods for official releases, and "certain" gamers feel entitled, and are angry towards the modding community. Well that's an entitled opinion you got there, Siiiir...

Aaaaaanyway, since everything above is just your personal preference, and not what actually happens in the gaming scene, I would still push for a checkbox that indicates for what game version is the thing you are downloading. This goes for releases as well. It is amazing you know, but games do go from 1.0, to 1.1, 1.2 etc etc. Mods compatibility most often breaks in those as well, crazy! Yes, early access builds are full of bugs, so more often undated, but still.. just a single checkbox... version 1.4.1 or something. So simple. No pain, only gain...

- The Entitled gamer (work for me you modding peons!)

 

 

Nexus should host the mods, but IMO, the mods couldn't actually be made until the Game Devs actually FINISHED the damn game, like it used to be before Steam ushered in this idiotic "Early Access" nonsense.

 

Considering the amount of abandoned Early Access Games that Steam has allowed to infect the Gaming Community, NO, they shouldn't exist, and should be released when finished, because far too many developers lose the impetus to finish the game when they've already been paid for it, which is why a good percentage get abandoned.

 

They used to work towards an incentive that was driving them (I.E. releasing the FINISHED game in order to get PAID for their work), but now, they can cut all of that out, and just get paid to START a Game, or Paid to work on a game and never finish it, so the impetus is lost to complete it.

 

Far too many shady "Early Access" nonsense has happened over the years, and it's not going to get any better, same with Kickstarter

People either pay, and the product turns out entirely different from what they were expecting, or the project gets 'shut down' because the devs just lived large and blew the money.

We've all seen the negative reviews on Steam where someone says "I was an original kickstarter, and I got screwed over, the company folded and abandoned the project" far too many times than we care to admit.

 

Some people are capable of learning from that experience, others will move on to the next Kickstarter/Early Access and lose more money

 

How many half finished and abandoned Zombie Survival games are on Steam?

[Ethreon]

Leaving aside the fact you shouldn't mod games in EA as 1. your feedback is useless to the devs and 2. the likeness of losing saves is already high as is, I'd suggest you always check the last update date before using a mod. If it's more than a week or two don't use it.

[Arthmoor]

I agree in principle with the idea of having version fields on mods, and it would help for plenty of other games too. Here's the problem though. What's to stop a mod author from lying about which version of a game their mod supports? The only way to even try to address something like that is if we make it a punishable offense to falsify what version of a game a mod is made for. I doubt the moderators will have enough time and manpower to enforce that.

[Pasquale1223]

One concern I would have with this suggestion involves those cases where a mod supports more than one version of a game.

 

Here are a few different instances to consider:

1) A mod is not affected by game version changes. Should the author continually retest/update the version listing as new versions of the game are released? If so, how would players who choose to stay on a previous version of the game know that the mod would work with their (older) version?

 

2) A mod requires updates for some new game versions, which would require them to create a whole new mod listing for each game version they intend to support. As it is, I think most authors simply offer different sets of files and advise users to download the one that matches the game version they have installed.

 

While I can understand that such a feature may be useful in some cases, it could present more problems in other situations.

[HadToRegister]

One concern I would have with this suggestion involves those cases where a mod supports more than one version of a game.

 

Here are a few different instances to consider:

1) A mod is not affected by game version changes. Should the author continually retest/update the version listing as new versions of the game are released? If so, how would players who choose to stay on a previous version of the game know that the mod would work with their (older) version?

 

2) A mod requires updates for some new game versions, which would require them to create a whole new mod listing for each game version they intend to support. As it is, I think most authors simply offer different sets of files and advise users to download the one that matches the game version they have installed.

 

While I can understand that such a feature may be useful in some cases, it could present more problems in other situations.

 

 

Or modders could just support the current version of the game, like Arthmoor & Co do for the Unofficial patches, to avoid having to keep dozens of version up because of those people who refuse to update "Because Reasons".

 

[JoTheVeteran]

Leaving aside the fact you shouldn't mod games in EA as 1. your feedback is useless to the devs and 2. the likeness of losing saves is already high as is, I'd suggest you always check the last update date before using a mod. If it's more than a week or two don't use it.

I never said anything about feedback. I think we covered the rest.

[JoTheVeteran]

I agree in principle with the idea of having version fields on mods, and it would help for plenty of other games too. Here's the problem though. What's to stop a mod author from lying about which version of a game their mod supports? The only way to even try to address something like that is if we make it a punishable offense to falsify what version of a game a mod is made for. I doubt the moderators will have enough time and manpower to enforce that.

No one can force anyone of harming your game as is. They can make a mod that's dedicated in messing your save.. I don't see the reason for it, but they certainly can.

What I am suggesting is protecting the gamer from messing their game, through nobody's fault really.

It also protects the modder from unwarranted criticism.

No one blames a mod author for breaking their game. They know the risks when installing mods.

But omitting critical information about the mod itself, is a responsibility from the mod author's side, we need to find consensus in at least that.

The release version IS critical information.

 

I never asked a penalizing system for the mod authors.

I specifically said, the developers of nexus should make a checkbox to the uploader of the file, with the game version the file is intended for.

If the mod author doesn't want to provide that, or forgets, or even does it maliciously, when you try to download the mod you would get a prompt of shorts.

 

[The game version for this file has not been specified, do you still wish to proceed with the download?] [Yes, No]

 

That way you cover all the million mods that came before, they become unauthorized of shorts, but people can still get them, and the mod authors may have included the game version in the description, as all should do anyway.

 

That is all.

Edited May 17, 2020 by JoTheVeteran