MO and Steam mod tracking?

[mikegray]

Like it or not, Steam exclusive mods is something we're going to be have to deal with in the future. Fine by me, I'm honestly delighted to pay talented, highly professional modders for their work. Honest pay for honest work. Unless Nexus finds some way of hosting the new for-pay mods (I'd be fine with that too), Steam is going to be the only game in town.

 

So ... is there any way to integrate MO with Steam well enough to duplicate the way it integrates with Nexus?

 

In particular, I'd really miss version tracking. Even during times when I'm not playing Skyrim, I'll fire up MO a couple times a week just to hit the update button and see if any of my favorite mods have made important progress.

Edited April 25, 2015 by mikegray

[CJ2311]

It would be impossible to have version tracking for Steam Workshop considering the workshop itself doesn't have a versioning system. It's up to the mod author to put the version number on the description, otherwise there's no way of knowing the version number for a given mod.

 

There's just this tutorial to installing steam workshop mods on MO/NMM that I can direct you to.

[Octopuss]

considering the workshop itself doesn't have a versioning system

Jesus.

[Tannin]

It's in the works. Steam has the upload date which can be used as the version

[mikegray]

It's in the works. Steam has the upload date which can be used as the version

Well, that's something, I guess. Valve seems to be building their ship as they sail it through a hurricane, but maybe we will all eventually end up in a good place.

 

And thanks for the tutorial, CJ2311 - even if it sounds like an obscenely annoying process.

 

So ... COULD MO at least *potentially* get something better happening in terms of downloading and installation?

Edited April 25, 2015 by mikegray

[phazer11]

You have to download the mod through steam copy it and unsubscribe in order for you to put it in MO.

[mikegray]

You have to download the mod through steam copy it and unsubscribe in order for you to put it in MO.

Yeah, that's kind of clear for now. 

 

BTW, I went ahead and bought two mod updates - the new W&C and Purity - and the process worked just fine. OTOH, the process is also about as user-friendly as a municipal election in North Korea. 

Edited April 26, 2015 by mikegray

[A_Dim_Mismatch]

This is one of the primary reasons why exclusive paid mods are such a bad idea. For us it won't matter much, but for mod users in general? Sure, a lot of people on the Workshop won't care, but I'm pretty certain that most people who use the Workshop as their primary source for mods know next to nothing about load order. An even fewer number know what a bashed patch is, what BOSS and LOOT are, and what MO is.

 

There's only two mods I've downloaded from the Workshop, and with both of them, it's because they're not on the Nexus.

[Tannin]

Well, that's something, I guess. Valve seems to be building their ship as they sail it through a hurricane, but maybe we will all eventually end up in a good place.

 

And thanks for the tutorial, CJ2311 - even if it sounds like an obscenely annoying process.

 

So ... COULD MO at least *potentially* get something better happening in terms of downloading and installation?

rant

 

The sh*tstorm Valve is receiving is unfounded imho. Some mods are a lot of work and should be worth something. (MOs worth - applying business metrics - is well in the 6 digits (dollars)).

 

Paid mods may be bad for modding, they could also lead to better maintained and higher quality mods. Look at nwn premium modules for a success story.

 

People are ranting against the 25% share for mod authors but ignore the fact that nexus has been making money publishing mods without sharing 0% with the content producers?

I'm not saying nexus bad steam good - I like both - I'm just saying we should apply the same standards here.

 

/rant

 

Regarding a future MO integration with Steam: Steam changed the way mods are installed recently.

In the current Steam version, mods are downloaded vanilla (not packed) to a steam workshop directory (one directory per mod) by steam. The Skyrim launcher then copies the files to the game data folder.

 

With MO, the mods will still be downloaded by steam. MO will then map the files from the workshop folder to the game folder using its virtual file mechanism just like mods installed through MO itself.

This means you can continue using the steam subscription to install and update mods and you can use MO to activate/deactivate those mods in profiles.

MO will also use steams api to retrieve meta information about mods like descriptions, screenshots, ...

This means a very neat integration is possible, the only "trouble" is the skyrim launcher because I can't keep it from copying the files to the data directory, but then you don't run the launcher anyway when using MO. right?

[Octopuss]

So even if I run Skyrim's launcher through MO, files will still end up in data folder? Bleh, even bigger reason not to touch Steam.

[DoubleYou]

Ah, that sounds great, Tannin! We then will not need to do the whole stupid subscribe/unsubsubscribe workaround.

[kryptopyr]

That sounds amazing!  It shouldn't have to fall to outside utilities to rescue Steam from itself, but all the more power to you for attempting to do it.  Having MO manage Steam mods in that way could actually make its system semi-functional.

[mikegray]

Tannin -

 

Personally, I'm sad about the way the modding fiasco played out. I can't see the current outcome as a victory for modding when some of the best mod authors in the "business" have ended up getting shafted from every imaginable direction. Really not cool. 

 

That said: Any chance you could keep this new functionality? Even before the paid mod thing there were a few mods on Steam that weren't available on Nexus, and it would be cool if MO could pick them up. 

 

And: At some point (release fo4?), Valve & Bethesda may take another shot at a mod store - at which point MO would up and ready to go. 

[Tannin]

The functionality doesn't depend on the payment stuff, it will work with free mods as well. I'll still add it.

 

And I agree, the way this played out was not great. People have no problem paying 5 bucks for colored water with flavor at starbucks but when someone asks for a few dollars for a project that is the result of hundreds of hours of work they go ballistic because for some reason the work you put into a digital project isn't worth anything?

And I'm saying this as someone who refused to have MO as a "service provider" or payed mod for the workshop. Yes, Valve did offer.

[kryptopyr]

I wondered about that.  I was really surprised that MO wasn't on the list of service providers; it seemed like a rather blatant oversight (TES5Edit is another).  I would have loved to list MO as a service provider for any mods I released.  Your work certainly deserves some compensation.