Modding on the Spectrum

Our first topic with a great potential for heated discussions; I brace myself . I hope the dust has settled enough to safely bring this topic up.

How did you experience the Collections debate? What were your consequences? Do you use the Collections feature?

A short recap

Nexus Mods introduced the Collections feature in July 2021.

From my statement on Selene's Shadow Realm on July 14, 2021:

If the mod authors don’t comply with the recent changes of Nexus rules they have a grace period to remove all their files using a certain form. After 5 August, it’s no longer possible for mod authors to delete the mods by themselves and the files are archived instead. According to the claims of Nexus staff the archiving process is necessary to make the collections feature work: when a listed mod is gone, the collection is broken altogether. Deleting mods could also cause confusion on their database and erode it on the long run.
[...]
Many authors left Nexus Mods due to this ultimatum and the drama that followed. Some of them stopped modding, other’s are unsure what to do next or reuploaded their stuff elsewhere.

The open alpha of the Collections feature followed in January 2022.

Nexus Mods made a lot of improvements since then.

A rectification regarding the deletion of mods:
Mod authors can still delete mods as a whole but they cannot delete individual files from a mod (the files in the "Files" section of each mod). The files in the Files section are archived instead.


I still decide which of my mods I upload on Nexus Mods and I haven't uploaded all of my mods on Nexus Mods (some mods can only be found on my website).


I never tried the Collections feature because I'm satisfied with my current composition of mods. If I can wrap my head around MO2 and its mod profiles and if have enough time playing any game (the curse of a mod author who has problems with multitasking ), I may give it a try someday.

I'll dip a toe in the water...

As a modder, I've never felt the need to embrace "modpacks", and as a Steam forum regular with a support thread, it's been the consensus that we can't provide support for them do to the "under the hood" changes and embedded patches provided by the authors...

That having been said. Collections is a bit different. Used as a personal tool (that can be shared) it allows you to group/automate downloads and can be considered a tool to simplify downloads from the nexus. As/if it evolves closer to Wabbajack and "modpacks" including the under the hood scripting and INI edits it starts to suffer from the same limitations.

The difference between the two is simplicity and functionality. "Collections" authors are publishing collection specific patches on the Nexus and then adding the patch hub to the collections. That's a cleaner way to incorporate patching, and allows for disabling the patches and testing the mod installation separately. It helps, but we still have to send the user back to the author for support. Wabbajack allows the authors to patch the mods internally and "install" the patched version which we have absolutely no way of knowing what was done. That's a deal breaker for this old cat.

Personally I haven't really used it other than for testing, but as a tool for automating group downloads, it's quickly maturing.

Just a personal opinion, and there's no need for the topic to become heated.

Personally I have never used any type of modpack and I will probably never use those. I am very selective in the mods I want to use in my playthroughs and try to stay as close to vanilla as possible. If there is anything in a mod I don't like, I will create my personal patches for that mod, only occasionally publishing those, such as "Purchase Furnishings" or "Arcadia's Diagnosis".

I have always played all TES games as the same type of character, a Nord warrior, always with the same in game name and the same backstory, although the backstory grew with each game. In each game (Morrowind and later) i carefully choose the mods that can add to my character. After all, I am of Frisian-Norse-Saxon descent!

All that Avrie (Jack) posted. If a person is using Wabbajack or a Collection, those things are a "use as is", and should a person have a problem they will need to contact the creator of the pack or the collection directly, as we have no way of knowing what changes the creator may have made in order to get the pack working (or not - LOL!).

The idea behind it is not bad and also understandable. But for me it would only be a reason to look at the two Fallout parts. But since I am very restrictive in the choice of my mods, a total package can not satisfy me. Some of it would not be usable for me, others would be missing.
But for someone who wants to have a working package for his game in a hurry, without having to worry about where he can get the individual mods, it would be ideal.

I'm not up to date on this but I'm still put off by the need to use Vortex for this. Also the choice of the mod manager I do not leave to others but decide for myself

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Spoiler

Die Idee dahinter ist nicht schlecht und auch verständlich. Aber für mich wäre es nur bei den beiden Fallout Teilen ein Grund es mir anzusehen. Aber da ich sehr restriktiv bei der Wahl meiner Mods bin kann ein Gesamtpaket mich nicht zufriedenstellen. Einiges darin wäre für mich nicht brauchbar, anderes würde fehlen.
Für jemanden aber, der auf die Schnelle ein funktionierendes Paket für sein Spiel haben möchte, ohne sich Gedanken machen zu müssen wo er die Einzelmods bekommen kann, wäre es dann ideal

Ich bin da zwar nicht auf dem Laufenden aber mich schreckt immer noch der Zwang Vortex dafür nutzen zu müssen ab. Auch die Wahl des Modmanagers überlasse ich nicht anderen sondern entscheide selbst

I will speak for myself, and not for anyone else.

I, as do most authors, create mods within the bounds of a certain set of ethical, moral and cultural boundaries. No misogyny, no gay bashing, no racist rhetoric, no bigoted cultural references, no pornography, no child exploitation, etc. Those limits become part and parcel of what people come to expect from my mods, indeed they become an encapsulated part of my brand. Limiting the usage of the assets I create in my mods keeps my assets out of the hands of those who might not share my standards and who might dilute my brand by associating my mods with attitudes and beliefs I do not share.

And so it is with "collections" or "mod packs" or "wabberjack", etc. These mod bundles are produced without respecting the desires or wishes of the mod creator. They wind up with perfectly innocent mods being associated with child exploitation, pornography, racism, cultural bigotry, misogyny, sexism, etc. All of this dilutes the brand of the mod maker while creating an unsavory association for some users. So, I, as do some other mod authors, actively resist having someone stick one of my mods in one of these mod bundles.