[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

[Kelmych]

How the mods are installed in MO isn't really something Mod Picker (the websites) has any relevance to. The desktop application would be where something like this would come into practice. Currently the desktop application only installs a single version of mods, which is what most users would want, I think. Your use case is very specific, and I don't think it's something that needs to be built. Most users want to use a single mod list for a single playthrough, and the desktop application enables that.

I use multiple versions of a mod frequently for various reasons. When using Mod Organizer all mods are in the left pane and different profiles used for different packs, playthroughs, etc. select from these mods. I don't have multiple copies of MO, one for each pack. My concern would be if MP didn't support installing a mod as part of a pack/modlist and allowing the pack/modlist instructions for that mod to rename it. By the way, what does MP do when a mod in a pack/playlist is already installed in MO? Does it know whether the installation instructions for the mod are the same as those in the pack/modlist being installed?

 

On the site itself you can just add those mods to each pack and then specify all of the mod options for the pack + base.

I haven't yet found how the mod instructions work and how to add them. I'll continue to look for the description of these.

 

Created? I don't really understand this question. FOMODs have no significance on the Mod Picker website - everything is converted into generic "mod options" within the database, with associations set up so we can emulate how files are installed for the purpose of conflict detection. The Mod Picker Utility installs mods per the mod option selection on the mod list being set up (you can select mod options for each mod in the mod list by clicking the gear by it in edit mode). It wasn't clear to me how the mod instructions work as I mentioned above. Are the instructions entered manually or is there some automation that simplifies the creation of instructions?

 

I don't see a question here. If patches are being merged there should be no need to "copy general assets" during the merge, so the option can be disabled for that merge. The example merge I referenced uses plugins from several mods. For some of these mods only the plugins is used, but for others the assets are also needed. I tried to phrase it as an MP question since the mod installation instructions affect how easy it would be to create the merge after the initial installation is complete, and I don't know the capabilities of the mod installation instructions yet.

 

Again, I don't see a question here. Are you asking for a way for Mod Picker to automate the removal of certain records from certain ESP files? It's possible, but I don't see it happening any time soon. There are other priorities. Honestly, it sounds to me like what you really need to do is just distribute a modified version of the ESP file for the mod list in question. Get the required permissions from the mod author(s) and either have them add the modified ESP to the mod as a mod option OR create a separate mod with the ESP file. I just wanted to provide another example of why this would be done.

[Mator]

I use multiple versions of a mod frequently for various reasons. When using Mod Organizer all mods are in the left pane and different profiles used for different packs, playthroughs, etc. select from these mods. I don't have multiple copies of MO, one for each pack. My concern would be if MP didn't support installing a mod as part of a pack/modlist and allowing the pack/modlist instructions for that mod to rename it. By the way, what does MP do when a mod in a pack/playlist is already installed in MO? Does it know whether the installation instructions for the mod are the same as those in the pack/modlist being installed?

 

I haven't yet found how the mod instructions work and how to add them. I'll continue to look for the description of these.

 

Are the instructions entered manually or is there some automation that simplifies the creation of instructions?

You don't use "instructions" on Mod Picker mod lists, you simply enable the mod options as I instructed in my previous post.

 

What you have with your setup is unique as a pack author. Most users don't need to or want to install a mod multiple times. Currently, the Mod Picker Utility does detect whether or not the correct mod options are installed. If they aren't it will re-install the mod with the correct options.  However, it will not detect the installation of a mod if the folder name has been changed.  So you could install a mod with the utility, rename the mod in MO, then the next time you run the utility it will not detect it as being installed.  (you could have multiple installs of the same mod in this way)

 

 

The example merge I referenced uses plugins from several mods. For some of these mods only the plugins is used, but for others the assets are also needed. I tried to phrase it as an MP question since the mod installation instructions affect how easy it would be to create the merge after the initial installation is complete, and I don't know the capabilities of the mod installation instructions yet.

We don't currently have any way to install a particular mod's options in separate folders, but it could be built.

 

I'd advise you to not worry about merges at this point in time.  I'd also advise you to just not use copy general assets for merges, especially in Mod Picker mod lists, because it's never actually necessary.  It's most useful for authoring.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Mator

[Kelmych]

I realize the questions I asked were about unusual cases vs. what happens most of the time. I just wanted to use these examples to get a better understanding of how Mod Picker works. I wasn't expecting the current MP to be able to handle all of these situations. Thanks for the answers, they were very helpful.

[Mator]

I realize the questions I asked were about unusual cases vs. what happens most of the time. I just wanted to use these examples to get a better understanding of how Mod Picker works. I wasn't expecting the current MP to be able to handle all of these situations. Thanks for the answers, they were very helpful.

Sure, that makes sense.  If you want you can ask more direct questions and I can give more thorough/in-depth answers.  Feel free to message me on Discord whenever.  :)