Mod Picker (by the Mod Picker Team)

[TechAngel85]

On 12/20/2016 at 1:25 PM, Mator said:

With the platform update I changed your role from Moderator to Helper, TechAngel85.  You should have received a notification "You are now a helper on Mod Picker." ~8 minutes ago as of this post.  It's a new role so we'll need to make sure your permissions all work.  Let me know if there's anything that isn't working on the platform (specifically something that gives you a 403 forbidden error).

 

 

See the latest news article on the site for information on the helper role.

Awesome! Thanks for the shoutouts :: and congrats on the public release! I'll be working on it some this evening and tomorrow so I'll let you know if I hit a block anywhere. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the STEP mod list. I've been updating the mod analysis for them and setting the options up in the list. I'll make it public once it's all set up.

 

I have also opened up a private topic for the staff so we can discuss some things going forward with our plans for STEP;  using Mod Picker and then other areas of our project that need attention. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I'm fairly confident that this will all work out as long as the APIs are cooperative. I'm not that concerned with the Mod Picker API. The only thing I'm curious about is if the mod options for the mods will be available via the API. If so, that will cut even more off of what we need to maintain on our current wiki mod pages. It's the wiki API, that I'm not to sure about. I've not really looked into it much to know if it'll work for what we're wanting to do (pull information from Mod Picker and wiki mod pages into an organized format on a web page...aka the STEP Guide). In any case, once we decide on a project plan, it'll likely take a few months to get into the position that we're ready for new development. We really need to figure out if our current server can run everything once it's all set up, or if we'd need to upgrade anything. The wiki is our major resource hog right now, plus we just have a ton of traffic which might warrant an upgrade on it's own.

 

I'll let you know more once we've gone through some discussion. In the meantime, I'll continue working on that STEP mod list.

[TechAngel85]

Okay, that didn't take long. Any time I try to submit an edit to a mod page I'm presented with this error:

wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 0)

This is trying to update the alias name. I haven't tried anything else yet.

[Mator]

Okay, that didn't take long. Any time I try to submit an edit to a mod page I'm presented with this error:

wrong number of arguments (given 2, expected 0)

This is trying to update the alias name. I haven't tried anything else yet.

Alright, I'll figure out the source of the problem and have a fix pushed sometime in the next hour.  :)

[TechAngel85]

I'm also getting this when I submit new analysis:

undefined method `respirce' for #<ModBuilder:0x00000001a44880> Did you mean? resource

I does appear that the analysis is still successfully submitted though.

[Mator]

I'm also getting this when I submit new analysis:

undefined method `respirce' for #<ModBuilder:0x00000001a44880> Did you mean? resource

I does appear that the analysis is still successfully submitted though.

Fixed this issue, the other issue, and an issue with submitting new mods.  None of these errors were related to the helper role (they were affecting everyone).  Thanks for telling me about them, let me know if you run into any other issues!

[TechAngel85]

Sweet! You're determined to keep me working and away from binge watching Vikings, aren't you?

[Mator]

Sweet! You're determined to keep me working and away from binge watching Vikings, aren't you?

Nah, I'm just determined to keep Mod Picker working. 

[TechAngel85]

Seems I'm getting the error that I have unsaved changes even when I haven't changed anything on the mod list.

[TechAngel85]

And this when trying to submit a mod:

Couldn't find Mod with 'id'=new
Error Details
Error 404: Not Found.base.submit-mod: #/mods/submitError submitting new mod.

I have also noticed that the names the analysis uses will sometimes be cut off. It would seem to happen when a name has a dash (-) in it. For example, "RUSTIC NORDIC MURALS 2K-1K" would be cut off to be named "RUSTIC NORDIC MURALS 2K". The name is cut off at the dash.

[Mator]

Seems I'm getting the error that I have unsaved changes even when I haven't changed anything on the mod list.

It's possible.  This can happen if the functions which manage the view model have a bug.  I hadn't seen this for awhile so I thought it was fixed.  This is on the STEP mod list?

 

EDIT: I think it must be related to the descriptions I added.

 

And this when trying to submit a mod:

Couldn't find Mod with 'id'=new
Error Details
Error 404: Not Found.base.submit-mod: #/mods/submitError submitting new mod.

I have also noticed that the names the analysis uses will sometimes be cut off. It would seem to happen when a name has a dash (-) in it. For example, "RUSTIC NORDIC MURALS 2K-1K" would be cut off to be named "RUSTIC NORDIC MURALS 2K". The name is cut off at the dash.

The submission error: I'll look into that.  Should be able to get it fixed soon.  EDIT: Fixed.

 

The names getting cut off is because I use a regex to try to determine where the Nexus-added part of the URL (e.g. the file id and version) starts.  The regex look for a dash and then a sequence of numbers/letters (no spaces) leading up to a file extension, then removes the entire sequence.  Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to not incorrectly remove the -1K part of the name.  You just have to edit the name (as I mentioned earlier) and add the missing "-1K" to mod options that should have it.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Mator

[TechAngel85]

Yes, STEP mod list.

 

Thanks, I'll refresh and try to submit.

 

Yeah, I've been renaming them as I go. Didn't know if you were aware, so thought I'd report it.

[TechAngel85]

Okay, I've done it. I've officially made it through the entire STEP mod list, at least for the first round. I would say about 95% of the mod analysis were updated to include the entirety of the mod's files. Now that the mod options include a text field for input, I'll be going through and making sure all the instructions are in place for STEP and finishing up the other 5% of the mods that need updating. Some require an update to Mod Analyzer like Rustic Clothing.

 

I will say doing that for the first time was a bit of a chore! Now that it's mostly set up, maintaining it will be much easier.

[Mator]

Okay, I've done it. I've officially made it through the entire STEP mod list, at least for the first round. I would say about 95% of the mod analysis were updated to include the entirety of the mod's files. Now that the mod options include a text field for input, I'll be going through and making sure all the instructions are in place for STEP and finishing up the other 5% of the mods that need updating. Some require an update to Mod Analyzer like Rustic Clothing.

 

I will say doing that for the first time was a bit of a chore! Now that it's mostly set up, maintaining it will be much easier.

Congrats!

 

I'm surprised that so many analyses had to be updated.  I personally submitted many of the mods from STEP, so I'd be curious about what exactly was missing from them, though I don't think I'll ever know without digging through our log files.

 

What do you think of the platform so far?  Obviously there are still things in need of improvement, but do you feel that the overall direction/vision Mod Picker hopes to achieve is a good one and can be successful?

[Mator]

Ran into another issue with Mod Analyzer. This time it's due to a mod with a ton of files to choose from. This happens:

 

 

I am unable to select the lower files, nor the buttons to continue as the overflow is just lost in the window.

Here's a development build which adds a vertical scrollbar to that view: https://puu.sh/sYdwg.zip

 

Screenshot:

Edited December 23, 2016 by Mator

[TechAngel85]

I'm surprised that so many analyses had to be updated.  I personally submitted many of the mods from STEP, so I'd be curious about what exactly was missing from them, though I don't think I'll ever know without digging through our log files.

Well, for STEP the mods were probably about 80% complete for our uses; however, if I'm going to put my name on something I want to make sure it's 100% complete for everyone and that's what I did.  ::  Many of the mods on the list didn't have a complete analysis because they were missing additional main files, optional files, or miscellaneous files that were available on the Nexus page, but wasn't available on Mod Picker as mod options. This led to a lot of resubmission of the mod analyses and let me say...some of those mods got a bit crazy! Like EBQO, for example. That mod supports a lot of other mods via patches. So I had to download a lot of additional mods to complete the analyses. I eventually just started submitting the easier additional mods I was having to download as new mods to Mod Picker since I was required to download them anyway for the analyses.

 

What do you think of the platform so far?  Obviously there are still things in need of improvement, but do you feel that the overall direction/vision Mod Picker hopes to achieve is a good one and can be successful?

Well...I'll be honest and this may get winded so bare with me.

 

I'm not sure how popular something like this will be for using it as a complete feature set. For me, I see the mod list feature targeting a smaller niche in the community, like those who really need the features (STEP) or those who enjoy putting together modding guides. I think the mod lists work very well for that niche group. I'm fairly confident STEP can use this for our needs, and anyone else who builds modding guides for the community. Including those guides we have on the STEP wiki: Skyrim Revisited, SRLE:LotD, Mystic Dawn, Fear & Loathing, Skyrim All YASH'd Up, etc, etc. I believe the primary users of the mod lists feature will be people creating guides.

 

I see this coming up so I'll mention it, "people can just use it to share their setups". Yes, but the everyday users are already using the more simplistic Modwatch to just share their setups in this manner. It's as simple as uploading some text. Mod Picker may have the import features to make it more simple, but if some mods aren't on Mod Picker yet users will have to submit them. Then if the author as opted out, users will have to do the manual work of setting up custom mods. Mod Picker is simply more work for these users, so I see many of them sticking with Modwatch for that sort of thing. Users do get the added benefit of having issue with their setups checked for them with Mod Picker; however, getting to that point is a lot of additional work. I think most everyday users will simply opt to use the mod pages to check individual mods for this information, rather than taking the time to build out their mod lists.

 

This brings me to the time and effort it takes...

I'm sure it will become less of an issue over time as more mods are added and maintained; however, currently it takes quite a bit of time and effort to set everything up properly. STEP's mod list is long, but ours is short compared to some other mod lists. Currently, it takes considerable time to just set up your mod list from start to finish (keep in mind a lot of this time was doing mod analyses). It has taken me two weeks to get to where I am now while working on the list during a the majority of my spare time...and I'm still not finished yet. If everyday users are going jump on board with the mod lists, that time needs to be cut down to just a few hours.

 

We can't forget that Nexus has planned the profile share feature for a while now, and I would bet that the new NMM will have the feature fully implemented eventually. This will be a much faster and more simple way for users to share their mod lists than using Mod Picker. It's also suppose to be automated...as simple as installing a mod and hitting a few buttons. Compare this feature's 'hype' to Mod Picker's mod lists, I would say users would be more willing to use NMM (which will also be free).

 

What I see Mod Picker being popular for (at least at first) will be the mod pages, which is a resource of information that is not easily collected into one place as Mod Picker has it. This is largely due to Mod Analyzer. As long as users are willing to fill in the other stuff like load order and compatibility data, then Mod Picker will be very successful for this feature. The mod list feature I just have doubts of it being widely adopted until the time and effort it takes to set up is reduced, by more mods being added to the platform. If I was you, I'd have a couple team members that do nothing but submit new mods with 'proper' and complete mod analyses. That task is probably the single most time consuming aspect of Mod Picker due to what it takes to get to a complete analysis with some mods. I think EBQO required me to download an additional 11-14 mods for a proper analysis. I'd wager most everyday users will not be willing to go to those lengths to simply submit a mod. Getting the most common and popular mods on Mod Picker should probably be a high priority for the platform to gain momentum more quickly and grow.

 

As for Mod Picker itself, I think it's great! It's easy enough to use that just about anyone should be able to pick it up fairly quickly. The site design is modern and well done; everything you need is just a couple clicks away. The format in which information is presented is easy to read and understand. Overall Mod Picker is put together very well, but it's success will be up to how well the community receives it as a platform and information hub.

 

What I think could use some improvements:

• Mod priority in the mod lists. I've already mentioned this, but making the mods easier to move than dragging and dropping would be great. Being able to edit the priority is the simplest way to do this from a user's prospective.
• A place for "install notes" on the mod pages would be nice. For instance, many mods are not packaged correctly (IHSS, Immersive Thunder, Realistic HD Baskets, Skyrim Redesigned, etc). These mods are often either installed incorrectly by new users or they are tossed into a panic when a mod manager tells them that it's not packaged right and requires input to know how to proceed. Seen that plenty on these forum.
• That's all I can think of atm.

There is my long winded opinion. :: Thanks for the dev version!