LE Requesting a favour

[Offtherails]

So I've created a mod - Spectacular Night Eye - that's getting painfully little interest. Pageviews are at 4k, but UDLs are refusing to do anything more than crawl asthmatically towards 300.

 

This. Is. DISAPPOINTING!!!

 

I'm concerned that the description doesn't give enough information, looks cheap, and causes people to move on right away. But with my blinkered, been-staring-at-ismod-dialogues-for-too-long eyes, I can't quite see what else it might need.

 

I'm turning to you, my fellow modistas, for advice. What's missing from the description? What questions do you still have after reading it? My only other CK mod was a bugfix for Yngol Barrow that got me into the Authors forum in about five minutes flat, despite being buggy, dirty and mostly unnecessary. Am I being naive to expect a more ambitious mod, released a year and a half later, to do as well?

 

I know I shouldn't really care about popularity - and deep down, I know that the very first endorsement was Mission Accomplished, Objective Completed, Splashdown. But still, I'm craving the warm glow that comes with my work being seen and appreciated by a large number of people.

[Lanceor]

I think that there's nothing wrong with Spectacular Night Eye or its description - it just isn't a mod that has universal appeal. Only Khajiit and Vampires would have use for it and the aesthetic effect is a matter of personal taste. Many people, myself included, just don't use Night Eye enough to consider a mod for it.

 

On the other hand, Yngol Barrow Button Fix came out a fair while ago and I think the bug wasn't fixed by Bethesda or USKP until recently. It was also a core mod on STEP which contributed to its popularity.

[Offtherails]

Thanks Lanceor, everything you say makes perfect sense. I didn't know about STEP or USKP - well happy about the former, and I've updated the description to point people towards the latter. Thankyou.

[Natterforme]

Mod author popularity is a by-product of an author who makes quality mods. No mod author got recognized because they made terrible mods. Dont worry about trying to become popular or well known here. If your mods are good and are useful and are high quality, you will get noticed. Instead of looking for popularity, focus on these tips:

 

-Make mods that YOU want to use. If you dont like them, then no one else will.

 

-Make new content. The easiest way to do this is to check the search lists and see if your mod has been done before. No one needs another "Make Daedra race playable" or "Make Lydia Marriable" mod. It has already been done, so focus on making new things that interest you.

 

-Simple is best. Tweaks and fixes often do better than complex mods to a degree. The reason your Barrow mod did well was because it fixed an issue that was not fixed and that bugged a lot of people. Mods that make peoples lives easier get noticed, especially if they are simple and unintrusive.

 

-Focus/Intent of the mod. Is the mod intended to reach a broad audience or a narrow one? Nighteye changes fit into the narrow category because the only people who consider these changes are people who play as Khajits or Vampires frequently. A CBBE/UNP body conversion would be considered an example of a broad choice.

 

Also, is that download history on the Skyrim Nexus are somewhat skewed. Back at the beginning of the launch, lots of mods got lots of downloads. People were trying out everything. Now, even though the audience has only grown, users have become more focused in what they download and comb through searches until they find what they want. Now that we have had the CK for a while, players have a higher expectation of what they want and are quicker to pass over some mods if it doesnt meet their criteria, even if it can improve their game.

 

This effect is more obvious with the images section. The farther back you go, image views and endorsements go up drastically because everything was new. Now views hover in the low hundreds and endorsements dont get that high. Cases where views and endorsements are still high are ones where the user is particularly well known or liked or features a character with its own fan fiction or mod WIP that is highly anticipated. Again, people scan through looking for what they want and ignore the rest.

 

Also, just because a mod did well in Oblivion does not mean that it would do well in Skyrim. The nighteye shader replacement did well because it improved the game play In Skyrim it became an optional thing. Many of the best mods from Oblivion got incorporated into Skyrim in some way( i.e. animated containers that display if they are empty or not).

 

My advice would be to do some simple mods that either add small things or variety to existing things. For example, Automatic Variants adds variety to existing creatures. This improves game play simply by making things less repetitive (scripting and technical aspects aside). Find something in the game that you like and make four or five varients of it and add it to the game. Ever notice how there are only about two types of burned books or funeral urns in the game? Make it ten or fifteen. These are small things that could improve the game play and are very immersive. It would also give you practice for when you make a really big mod. These are just examples but you get the idea.

 

-Natterforme

[rhowington]

I agree with Natterforme. Find a niche that hasn't been addressed or properly addressed in the game and your mod will find UDL and endorsements. If it has been done a thousand times (Lydia) you probably won't find much of a desire for downloads. Another idea is to look for abandoned mods that worked well before the DLCs and try to get permission to update them.

 

Good luck

[Offtherails]

Thankyou guys. All great advice. I appreciate you folks taking the time to check over my description page, and your kind words are very encouraging.

 

Time I got busy with Low Hrothgar, I think.