[WIP] Mod Picker

[Terrorfox1234]

link removed due to potential spam/phishing

Description
Mod Picker is an ongoing project to design a web application for modding similar to PCPartPicker. The goal is to help users in the building of a mod list using crowd sourced compatibility information and mods scraped from the major sites that distribute mods (Nexus Mods, Steam Workshop, Lover’s Lab).


Benefits of Using Mod Picker

• It will be easier to find mods on mod picker than it currently is on other sites due to our extensive and easy-to-use filtering system.
• Mod Picker will have mod reviews, so you’ll be able to determine the quality of mods upon the basis of community feedback.
• Compatibility, install order, and load order notes will help you build a compatible and stable mod list.
• You can participate in the community by submitting reviews, compatibility notes, install order notes, and load order notes.
• All crowd-sourced information will be weighted based on our unique and flexible reputation system. The word of people who know what they’re talking about will be worth more than the word of random users who have no standing in the community. You gain reputation from mods you’ve authored, by contributing to the site, and from other users recognizing your contributions to the community.
• You can make your mod list public on the site, share it with your friends, or link to it for troubleshooting advice.
• Automated download and setup of utilities and configuration files as well as assisted mod installation (you will still need to start the mod downloads yourself).

Meet the Team

Mator - Team Leader
Hi guys. You may know me from my projects Merge Plugins and Mator Smash. I enjoy developing tools for mod authors and mod users. I’m really excited to be leading the Mod Picker team in building a powerful new platform to redefine the modding experience.
Terrorfox1234 - Public Relations
Hello everyone! I am a moderator on the Skyrim modding and Fallout modding subreddits and author of the Beginner’s Guide featured on GEMS. I am always looking for new ways to contribute towards helping the community and make modding accessible to everyone. I believe Mod Picker will accomplish this in a way that nothing has before and I am thrilled to be a part of it.
ThreeTen - Developer, Designer
Hey all, my name is Grant and I am one of the UX/UI Designers on the team! I have been modding skyrim for a few years now, with mods such as Real Shelter and NPC Visual Transfer Tool. I am incredibly excited about what Mod Picker will be able to provide for modders and mod users alike; and strive to make the mod picking process as easy as possible.
Sirius - Developer, Designer
Heyyo! My name is Adam, and I’m excited to be helping out with this awesome project that the community has wanted and needed for a long long time. I’m known online as TheSiriusAdam, but other than a slightly impressive League of Legends profile there’s not much fame to my name.
Nariya - Developer
Hi I’m Nariya, I’m currently working on the backend for the Mod Picker project. I’ve been playing Skyrim on and off since release and I’m excited to contribute to a tool that will finally streamline the modding process since I usually completely uninstall my game and mods when I’m done.
Thallassa - Designer
Hi you guys, I’m a novice designer and mod user who does my best to share everything I’ve learned over the last year and a half of modding. In my limited free time I like to drink tea, knit, and listen to metal. Once in a while I even have time to launch Skyrim!
Breems - Developer
Hi, everyone! My name is Tyler, and I'm primarily working on the desktop application(s) that accompany the Mod Picker Site. After creating ENB Organizer, I was excited to find a community-driven project I could contribute to. When I'm not doing dev work I enjoy mild gaming, playing music, and trying very hard to be lazy.


FAQ

• I’m a mod author, will this drive users away from my Nexus Mods pages?
  No, we will be driving users to your mod pages. Our goal is not to supplant you or your mod pages, our goal is help users to discover your mod and learn about how to use it in a mod list (e.g. help them with finding compatibility patches). We will not be hosting your mod files, have a comments section, or a description on our site. We will be linking directly to your Nexus Mods page from our page, driving traffic to your pages and Nexus Mods.
• Will you be hosting my mod files without permission?
  No! We will not be hosting any mod files at all! All downloads will continue to be served from the locations where you have uploaded your mod.
• Will this replace Nexus Mods/Steam Workshop/Lover’s Lab?
  No, absolutely not. We’re being very careful to not replace functionalities from these sites. We will not be hosting or redistributing any mod files.
• Will this offer similar functionality to LOOT?
  Most likely yes. One of the core services that Mod Picker provides is helping users build a stable mod list. Load order is a big part of that, and as such Mod Picker will have sorting functionality. Mator has talked with WrinklyNinja about LOOT, and the limitations are clear and well understood. It’s mostly a difference in philosophy in regards to the user experience for sorting a load order. We are aware of and deeply thankful for what LOOT has done for the modding community, and are hoping to build a new solution that can continue to serve users in their load order sorting needs.
• Will this offer similar functionality to modwat.ch?
  Yes.
• Will this offer similar functionality to STEP?
  No, this will enable the members of STEP to do what they do more efficiently, and will enable other people to do what STEP has done with minimal effort required. STEP is a guide that focuses around a specific set of recommended mods. Mod Picker is, at it’s core, a utility to make building your own mod list easier.
• Will this replace <insert other tool or website here>?
  Probably not. Our goal is not to replace existing solutions, but to augment them. Mod Picker will work with mod managers and distribution platforms to offer users the best mod list building experience possible.
• Will Mod Picker be open source?
  The core site won’t be, but many modules will be. E.g. Mod dump, and the automated installation script/application.
• What games will you support?
  From day one we will support Skyrim, because it has the largest and most established modding community. Soon after we will add support for Fallout 4, and from there we will add support for Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3, Oblivion, and (maybe) Morrowind.
• Can anyone change the info on the site, like wikipedia?
  Users with sufficient reputation can edit contributions made by other users on the site under certain circumstances.
• Won’t people abuse that?
  Abuse will not be tolerated. If the abuse is intentional the user may have privileges taken away or receive a temporary ban. Continued abuse will earn them a permanent ban. A public history on every post will also allow members of the community to revert undesirable changes, and members of the community can withdraw reputation from users they no longer trust.
• What if someone submits information that is incorrect?
  We will have a system by which you will be able to submit suggestions/corrections on user contributions. These suggestions are then vetted by reputable members of the community and if a majority agreement is reached the contribution becomes open to editing by users with sufficient reputation.
• Do mod authors have control over their mods?
  Verified mod authors are given reputation for their mods and access to control aspects of the pages associated with their mods on the site.
• How will you verify mod authors?
  We have a plan for a system that works similar to how scraping mods works where we’ll provide you with a verification key on our site, have you post it on your profile page, and then scrape your public profile page. If we find the key in a post on your profile page your account will be verified.
• What are you developing the site with?
  We’re using Ruby on Rails, AngularJS, and MySQL.
• Will you offer an API?
  Yes! We will offer a full RESTful API serving up JSON that you will be able to leverage in your applications.

Development Status
Complete

• Account pages
• Mod upload
• Index Pages
  Articles, Mods, Plugins, Mod Lists, Users, Comments, Reviews, Compatibility Notes, Load Order Notes, Install Order Notes, and Corrections
• User Settings page
• Mod page
• Edit mod page
• User page
• Mod List page
• Home page
• Help Center
• Notifications
• Reputation System

Active

• QA
• Help pages
• Moderation tools
• DevOps & Automation

Planned

• Video tutorials
• Public API Access
• Mod list setup utility
• Notification settings
• Email notifications

Various Links

• link removed due to potential spam/phishing
• Twitter
• Facebook
• YouTube Channel
• Steam Group
• Progress Report 9
• Progress Report 8
• Progress Report 7
• Progress Report 6
• Progress Report 5
• Progress Report 4
• Progress Report 3
• Progress Report 2
• Progress Report 1

[Mator]

Registered. Is there a way for users to share conflict resolution esp with other users following their mod list?

You can upload it to some file hosting site and post a link in your mod list's description.  Even better, add a custom plugin to your mod list, give it the filename of your ESP, write a description for it and put a link in the description.

 

[Mator]

We've started the process of adding all STEP mods to Mod Picker (that aren't already up).  I'll keep you guys updated, but as of right now I've added 23/128 missing mods.  (18% done)
 
EDIT 4: Another 20 mods. (77/128, 60% done)

 

EDIT 5: Another 23 mods.  (100/128, 78% done)

Edited November 25, 2016 by Mator

[dreadflopp]

I've been trying Mod picker and I really like it so far, maintaining a STEP-pack with it should be much easier then managing the mod list yourself. Great work! Questions:

 

1. What do you do if a mod is missing plugins? Weapons and armor fixes are missing several plugins. I tried mod analyzer which fails for it, I guess you have added it manually?

 

2. Is there a way to make comments per mod in the mod list? Useful if you are to share the mod list.

Edited November 23, 2016 by dreadflopp

[Mator]

I've been trying Mod picker and I really like it so far, maintaining a STEP-pack with it should be much easier then managing the mod list yourself. Great work! Questions:

 

1. What do you do if a mod is missing plugins? Weapons and armor fixes are missing several plugins. I tried mod analyzer which fails for it, I guess you have added it manually?

 

2. Is there a way to make comments per mod in the mod list? Useful if you are to share the mod list.

@1: that happens if a mod has an incomplete analysis (not all archives analyzed). Please verify though that it's not a mod option you're missing (from the mod analysis tab). If the analysis is missing archives you should add the "incomplete analysis" tag to it.

 

The only mods that were added "manually" were Skyrim, the official DLCs, and Enderal. Every other mod was analyzed with mod analyzer. If you could post the bug you experienced with analyzing the mod I can look into it.

 

@2: We were going to do that, but it kind of dropped out of the picture with the ui design we ended up going with for mod lists. Do you really see that being used often? Like if it's only a few mods per mod list you can use the description, I feel. That said, I'm totally willing to bring the feature back. :)

 

I'm glad you like mod picker! Please do contine to offer feedback, it's very valuable to us. :)

[Mator]

@Dreadflopp:

Looking into WAFR, I see what you mean. Also when trying to analyze it I see the bug as well. Will fix and push a hotfix to Mod Analyzer ASAP.


- Mator

 

 

EDIT: Fixed the analysis.  Kinda had to hack it to get it to be reasonable.  Mod Analyzer updates incoming, though they don't fully handle complex FOMODs yet.  I didn't build advanced dependency flag parsing into it, will need to do that.  Not sure how I'm going to do it quite yet, seems like it can get VERY complicated in some FOMODs.  All I want to be able to do is mod options to assets 1:1, but I'm not certain if that actually makes sense given the extensive nature of FOMODs.  In the case that it can't be done I'll probably just have to fall back on analyzing the archive as a BAIN installer.

Edited November 24, 2016 by Mator

[dreadflopp]

Thanks for checking that.

 

When it comes to making comments or notes for mods, I could absolutely see a use for that when sharing mod lists. I have made some STEP packs, which are essentially mod lists with install instruction and a conflict resolution patch. Many of the mods on the list have notes, like fomod instructions/walkthrough, records to be edited in xEdit, comments on which plugins to choose and why, merging instructions with instructions on what to name the merged plugin too since it might be a master to the conflict resolution patch.

 

A comment section could be implemented like the mod options cog wheel where you can choose what plugins to use. A UI suggestion:

when looking at the mod list in grid view, the cog wheel is, in my opinion, easy to miss. Maybe make it stand out a little more? Maybe move it to the bottom right, maybe replace with a text block or corner with a different background color?

[Mator]

When it comes to making comments or notes for mods, I could absolutely see a use for that when sharing mod lists. I have made some STEP packs, which are essentially mod lists with install instruction and a conflict resolution patch. Many of the mods on the list have notes, like fomod instructions/walkthrough, records to be edited in xEdit, comments on which plugins to choose and why, merging instructions with instructions on what to name the merged plugin too since it might be a master to the conflict resolution patch.

I'll reply to some of the ways you suggested to use notes. Ideally we want to minimize the necessity of notes, though I am still fairly confident we're going to support them. It can't hurt to have them.

 

Fomod instructions/walkthrough:

We'd like to be able to generate FOMOD instructions/walkthrough based on mod option selection on the site. We also would like to be able to fully automate the installation of FOMOD mods based on the mod options on the site once we have the mod list setup utility working.

 

Records to be edited in xEdit:

Doesn't this usually involve making a custom patch plugin, or do you mean in the source plugins? I generally think that it's best practice to always use a separate patch plugin and leave the mods untouched so if a mod updates you don't have to redo the changes (just verify the formIDs haven't changed - they won't 99% of the time). You can specify descriptions on custom plugins on mod lists.

 

Comments on which plugins to choose and why:

You do provide a load order on Mod Picker, which has the 'which plugins to choose'. I don't see how "reasons why I chose these plugins" would be particularly valuable to most users of the mod list (it should be self-explanatory most of the time, shouldn't it?).

 

Merge instructions and what to name the merged plugin:

You should use a custom plugin in the mod list named what you want the merge to be called, and position it in the load order after the plugins to merge, with each plugin that is part of the merge marked as merged (you can do this from the gear dropdown menu). Later on I'll be making Merge Plugins into a DLL which can be called from any application so we can actually merge plugins when setting up a mod list with our mod list setup utility.

 

 

A comment section could be implemented like the mod options cog wheel where you can choose what plugins to use. A UI suggestion:

Yeah, that's how I would implement it. :)

 

 

when looking at the mod list in grid view, the cog wheel is, in my opinion, easy to miss. Maybe make it stand out a little more? Maybe move it to the bottom right, maybe replace with a text block or corner with a different background color?

I don't want to move it or add a background color, but I'll look into giving it a stronger color/shadow so it stands out more. Thanks!

 

 

- Mator

Edited November 25, 2016 by Mator

[dreadflopp]

Sorry for being slow to answer. RL/work/studies/family takes up most of my time atm :)

 

I added some comments to your comments. I'm not criticizing or anything, just clarifying what I meant. Every concern I had is solved by the planned features you want to implement, including the comments section. Thank you for working so hard making all the utilities you've made. I'm sure Mod Picker will become as essential as your other utilities. To me it will most definitely.

 

Fomod instructions/walkthrough:
We'd like to be able to generate FOMOD instructions/walkthrough based on mod option selection on the site. We also would like to be able to fully automate the installation of FOMOD mods based on the mod options on the site once we have the mod list setup utility working.
 

It would be really great if you could get it work! Awesome.

 

Records to be edited in xEdit:
Doesn't this usually involve making a custom patch plugin, or do you mean in the source plugins? I generally think that it's best practice to always use a separate patch plugin and leave the mods untouched so if a mod updates you don't have to redo the changes (just verify the formIDs haven't changed - they won't 99% of the time). You can specify descriptions on custom plugins on mod lists.

I absolutely agree with you, editing source plugins is not a good practice. There are imo a few exceptions. Conflicts between lighting mods and mods that edit interiors can be troublesome. Example: Relighting Skyrim edits all interiors. Realistic Room Rental edit all inns but it doesn't overwrite all records from Relighting Skyrim. This messes up lighting and causes light sources to flicker. Making a patch would therefore involve forward lots of vanilla records to a patch that can cause conflicts with other plugins. This works of course but a patch with only vanilla records feels messy. Since Relighting Skyrim in its current form doesn't get any updates, removing all inns from it is a very simple process. In cases like this editing the source mod can be excusable, imo.

 

I

Comments on which plugins to choose and why:
You do provide a load order on Mod Picker, which has the 'which plugins to choose'. I don't see how "reasons why I chose these plugins" would be particularly valuable to most users of the mod list (it should be self-explanatory most of the time, shouldn't it?).

Mostly. I was thinking of mods like Weapons and Armor Fixes where many plugins have the same name. It can be important which plugin is used since it may be a master to the conflict resolution patch and wrong plugin may cause errors in the patch.

 

Merge instructions and what to name the merged plugin:
You should use a custom plugin in the mod list named what you want the merge to be called, and position it in the load order after the plugins to merge, with each plugin that is part of the merge marked as merged (you can do this from the gear dropdown menu). Later on I'll be making Merge Plugins into a DLL which can be called from any application so we can actually merge plugins when setting up a mod list with our mod list setup utility.
 

Ah, I see that now, excellent. Your really have big plans for Mod Picker and seeing what you have done before for the community I'm certain you will succeed. Modding will be so much more convenient in the future. Thanks!

 

 

[Mator]

Sorry for being slow to answer. RL/work/studies/family takes up most of my time atm :)

Sure, all guud. :)

 

I absolutely agree with you, editing source plugins is not a good practice. There are imo a few exceptions. Conflicts between lighting mods and mods that edit interiors can be troublesome. Example: Relighting Skyrim edits all interiors. Realistic Room Rental edit all inns but it doesn't overwrite all records from Relighting Skyrim. This messes up lighting and causes light sources to flicker. Making a patch would therefore involve forward lots of vanilla records to a patch that can cause conflicts with other plugins. This works of course but a patch with only vanilla records feels messy. Since Relighting Skyrim in its current form doesn't get any updates, removing all inns from it is a very simple process. In cases like this editing the source mod can be excusable, imo.

Good to know! :)

 

Mostly. I was thinking of mods like Weapons and Armor Fixes where many plugins have the same name. It can be important which plugin is used since it may be a master to the conflict resolution patch and wrong plugin may cause errors in the patch.

Those should be covered by mod options, ideally.

 

 

Ah, I see that now, excellent. Your really have big plans for Mod Picker and seeing what you have done before for the community I'm certain you will succeed. Modding will be so much more convenient in the future. Thanks!

Yes, very big plans! :)

 

I'm glad to hear you're excited for what Mod Picker will bring to the community.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Mator

[ATMPlays]

Update on missing step mods?

[Mator]

Update on missing step mods?

What mods are you referring to?  TechAngel85 has completed a STEP mod list on Mod Picker, though it is not yet public.  Please refer to the other thread here:

 

https://forum.step-project.com/topic/11659-mod-picker-by-the-mod-picker-team

[Greg]

I noticed that you are providing a list of assets in the mod analysis section of each mod. I realize this may be asking for a bit much, but do you have any plans in the future to allow searching for mods that contain a named asset (e.g. mesh or texture)? Right now I'm searching Nexus for mods that contain retextured clutter and it's somewhat of a bear because Nexus search isn't all that great and mod authors don't always list everything that's included in the description. While I was going through some mods in Mod Picker, I couldn't help but think how easy it might be if I could get a list of all mods that contain say basket01.nif or barrel01.dds. I know it's definitely feasible using a search engine like Lucene or Elastic (based on Lucene), but I imagine the effort will push this on down the road quite a bit.

 

I know... I know... but I can dream, can't I?

[Mator]

I noticed that you are providing a list of assets in the mod analysis section of each mod. I realize this may be asking for a bit much, but do you have any plans in the future to allow searching for mods that contain a named asset (e.g. mesh or texture)? Right now I'm searching Nexus for mods that contain retextured clutter and it's somewhat of a bear because Nexus search isn't all that great and mod authors don't always list everything that's included in the description. While I was going through some mods in Mod Picker, I couldn't help but think how easy it might be if I could get a list of all mods that contain say basket01.nif or barrel01.dds. I know it's definitely feasible using a search engine like Lucene or Elastic (based on Lucene), but I imagine the effort will push this on down the road quite a bit.

 

I know... I know... but I can dream, can't I?

Yes, actually.  :)

 

That is a planned feature that will be coming soon.  The exact implementation details aren't determined quite yet, but it will at the very least allow you find every mod that provides a specific asset file.

[ATMPlays]

Any update on the mod list setup utility?

[Mator]

Any update on the mod list setup utility?

I've been working on it.  I have everything working except to the actual setup of tools/mods (getting mod list information, displaying items to download, and tracking downloads).  I should have a beta within the next week or two.  :)