News from The Elder Scrolls Nexus

Earlier this year, we put out a call for a new Community Manager to join our team at Nexus Mods. We completed the hiring process for the new CM in June and our new recruit has since been eagerly working away in the background, helping us manage the day-to-day of running the website, and learning the ropes. There's been quite a lot going on here at Nexus Mods over the last few months, so they're definitely overdue a proper introduction. So, without further ado...

I'd like you all to give a warm welcome to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/69271488]Eric (Happybara)[/url]!

[line]
[b]To start this off, Eric, please tell us the story behind your username "Happybara".[/b]

I was originally DarthDoodar because I’m a big Star Wars fan, but I wanted to change it up coming into this role. So since I like Capybaras and wish to bring Zen to this community I chose my new name.

[center][img width=400,height=271]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2148/images/118/118-1636112598-1450226080.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]What first got you into modding?[/b]

I initially started modding [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mbwarband]Mount & Blade: Warband[/url] through the Steam Workshop. I’d seen some YouTube videos on total conversion mods and since Warband was my main PC game, I decided to give it a go. My measly 500 hours in Warband turned into 2000+ very quickly.

After that, I decided to go back to Skyrim and figured I might as well mod that, too, which then led me to Nexus Mods and I have pretty much been a part of the community since. The main games I have been modding since are [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/starwarsbattlefront22017]Battlefront II[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord]Bannerlord[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterworld]Monster Hunter World[/url] but I’m slowly expanding my range. I have no actual mod author experience as of yet, but I am hoping to change that soon.


[b]Which mod would you like to bring into every game you play?[/b]

It would have to be any of the total conversion mods for Warband. That's what we all aim for, isn’t it? To turn our entire game into Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Medieval or Sci-Fi settings or even some made-up fantasy universe of our own imagination. That's what I want, just take those mod worlds and put them in every game.

[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1637160689-387740268.png[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1637160682-1014470829.png[/img][/center]
[b]What are you modding now or planning to do in the future?[/b]

I have started on a project for Star Wars Battlefront II but there has been a bit of a learning curve for me. It was going to be a collection of character replacements inspired by an artist I like but one of the community’s biggest authors may have [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/starwarsbattlefront22017/mods/7221]beaten me to the punch[/url]. I would personally like to try my hand at Bannerlord modding at some point or even Subnautica if the mood takes me.


[b]Now that we know more about you, tell us about why you wanted to join the Nexus Mods team, and what it's like working here.[/b]

When the pandemic began I was in the midst of a career change so it was, of course, perfect timing. With all that free time I suddenly had I threw myself into modding various games to distract myself from the depressing number of job applications I was writing. Much like Mike and Stefan (Picky and Bizkit) before me, I stumbled upon the job opening that way and leapt on it, albeit with cautious optimism given the job market at the time. For me, it was really the perfect blend of new opportunity and passion that I had been looking for.

I still can’t quite believe I’m here. The team has been extremely welcoming since I arrived. Luckily for me, I joined the company moving to the new office so I have a lovely little work environment. Picky and Bizkit have been showing me the ropes since I arrived and I look forward to being more involved in the community.


[b]Can you tell us about what you are currently doing and will be doing here at Nexus Mods?[/b]

Picky and Bizkit have been bringing me up to speed with our regular workload and I have also begun to get more involved with the community. On top of this, I have been managing our social media accounts and will be continuing to expand upon the content we put out on a daily basis -  so you have me to thank for sharing all the [url=https://www.facebook.com/nexussites/photos/10159628736032834]good memes[/url] recently.

[center][img width=850,height=477]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1637161673-81964338.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]Is there anything specific that you have been working on? Are there any exciting plans for the near future?[/b]

At the moment I am getting involved with the upcoming collections project. I think it's an incredibly exciting change, one I would have welcomed as a new user when faced with the daunting task of building a mod list. Apart from this, I am looking to improve upon our current social media strategies and, hopefully, get that interwoven with some of our other upcoming plans. Right now my main personal project is the [url=https://www.instagram.com/nexussites/]Nexus Mods Instagram page[/url], which I hope to use to bring some more attention to great mods with a focus on the visually stunning while also sharing some of the fantastic community images along the way.


[b]Thank you for your responses, Eric! Is there anything else you would like to say to the community?[/b]

Drop us a follow on [url=https://www.instagram.com/nexussites/]Instagram[/url], [url=https://www.facebook.com/nexussites/]Facebook[/url] or [url=https://twitter.com/NexusSites]Twitter[/url] and don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

As you may have heard, [url=https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim10]Skyrim Anniversary Edition[/url] is coming out in a few weeks to commemorate the initial release of Skyrim in 2011 - a whopping 10 years ago! Along with this release, Skyrim Special Edition will also be receiving an update including new, free content. Great news, but this update also comes with some consequences for the modding scene regarding mods dependent on the popular utility Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE). There is no reason to panic though! In this post, we've put together all the information we have at the moment that might be relevant to you if you're modding Skyrim Special Edition, or if you're planning to get the Anniversary Edition.


[b][size=3]What is Skyrim Anniversary Edition (Skyrim AE)?[/size][/b]

Skyrim Anniversary Edition is a re-release of Skyrim celebrating its 10th birthday. It will be released for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on [b]November 11, 2021[/b]. The Anniversary Edition includes Skyrim Special Edition as well as 74 [url=https://creationclub.bethesda.net/]Creation Club[/url] mods - that is all 48 currently available ones plus 26 new, unreleased mods, adding up to a total of around 500 new gameplay elements.

Skyrim Anniversary Edition (shortened to "Skyrim AE") is not a free upgrade, but every current and future owner of Skyrim SE (Special Edition) - on every platform - will have the option to purchase it. Regardless of whether you've bought Skyrim AE or not, everyone owning Skyrim SE will also receive a free update and access to three free pieces of Creation Club content: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnnQ6A9YNYg]Fishing[/url], [url=https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Survival_Mode]Survival Mode[/url] and even new quests with the [url=https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Saints_%26_Seducers]Saints and Seducers[/url] mini DLC.

“Under the hood” Skyrim Anniversary Edition is the same exact game as Skyrim Special Edition - so, as far as we know - all mods that work for Skyrim SE will also work for Skyrim AE and the other way around. In fact, Skyrim AE will not even be a separate entry in your Steam library but rather act as a patch to Skyrim SE. This is why there will not be a separate game section for Skyrim AE on our site, as Skyrim AE is really just Skyrim SE with Creation Club content added to it. So, if you are a new player looking for Skyrim AE mods, you can simply browse [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition]our Skyrim Special Edition section[/url], and our mod manager Vortex will work with Skyrim AE just fine.


[b][size=3]The downside[/size]
[/b]
In tandem with the release of Skyrim AE, Skyrim SE will also receive an update including the above mentioned free mini-DLC. While that is great, at the same time - as a side effect of that update - the current version of Skyrim Script Extender will no longer work with the game version and will need to be adapted by its developers.

Skyrim Script Extender (shortened to SKSE) is a requirement for many popular mods, especially for some that came out in the last couple of years (SKSE plugins / native code plugins). As a result, many if not all mods that depend on SKSE will no longer function until SKSE has been updated to work with Skyrim AE. Some examples of mods that may break due to this change include: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12604?tab=posts]Sky UI[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19080?tab=files]Race Menu[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1988]XPMSSE[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51614]True Directional Movement[/url] - to name a few. Other mods may even need additional tweaking, so they might not start working again as soon as SKSE is adapted but will require more work from their authors to be compatible with Skyrim AE and the Anniversary Update.

But there is no need to panic: from what we know and expect, this is only going to be temporary disruption to the modding scene, especially until SKSE can be adapted to the update. You also always have the option of backing up your game (as explained below) or even rolling back.

[i]This is no one's fault in particular so please do not message or harass any of the SKSE devs, or anyone at Bethesda. We're certain the SKSE devs are and will be working very hard on adapting the script extender as they have for many, many years now. Thank you for your continued work and best of luck![/i]


[b][size=3]Is it the mod apocalypse? Well, not quite.[/size]
[/b]
It is not all doom and gloom as you may have read online. We know that the SKSE devs are talking to Bethesda to find a solution, and while it may take longer than usual for them to update the script extender, the current estimate we’re aware of is that it will still happen relatively soon.   

In the days or weeks until SKSE is rewritten to work with the 11 November update, however, you may find that some mods no longer work. In addition to that, it is also possible that some SKSE plugins i.e. mods based on the script extender will need to be rewritten by their authors entirely, meaning they may stop working and won’t magically start working again when the SKSE team have updated to a new version either, as extrwi - one of the SKSE developers - [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/q6czcc/pc_sse_an_important_psa_regarding_skyrim/]stated on Reddit[/url]. While that is definitely unfortunate and a blow to Skyrim SE modding, most SKSE dependent mods should be back in action days or weeks after the 11 November update - so, no, it is not going to be the end of all modding as we know it. To put that into perspective, [url=https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1635339661-24055850.png]Cartogriffi, Community Manager at Bethesda, highlighted[/url] that SKSE dependent mods might need "more work than usual" to be updated, and that on consoles there is "potential that the next-gen upgrade will require reworking some graphical and performance mods", but that overall, most mods will work fine.

Nonetheless, just to be on the safe side, you might want to backup your SkyrimSE.exe. To be even safer, you may also want to backup several files - or if you have the disk space available - your entire Skyrim SE folder.

List of files to backup on PC to be safe:
 [list]
[*]SkyrimSE.exe
[*]Data/Skyrim.esm
[*]Data/Update.esm
[*]Data/Skyrim - Interface.bsa
[*]Data/Skyrim - Misc.bsa
[*]Data/Skyrim - Patch.bsa
[/list]
[center][url=https://modding.wiki/en/skyrim/users/skse-plugins]
[img width=750,height=147]https://modding.wiki/wikiassets/modding-wiki-supported.png[/img][/url][/center]
To help you know what mods are and aren't working - we are keeping  [url=https://modding.wiki/en/skyrim/users/skse-plugins]a list of popular SKSE plugins[/url] that are confirmed working/non-working with the latest version of the game on our [url=https://modding.wiki/en/skyrim/users/skse-plugins]modding wiki[/url], which we will be updating as soon as we have access to Skyrim AE and know more.

[b][size=3]
How can I backup up my EXE / How can I downgrade my game to avoid losing SKSE compatibility?[/size][/b]

[i]This only applies to the Steam version of the game. For all other platforms the game version will be updated automatically. [/i]

[b]Please note that by staying on or downgrading to SkyrimSE.exe 1.5.97 you are not going to receive the free updates and mini DLC. This option is purely for people who want to ensure SKSE compatibility for the time being until the SKSE dev team can update the script extender. Once you update the game, you will, however, receive the free mini DLC. As we don't have access to Skyrim AE, we cannot guarantee this will work with or without unforeseen side effects. Only attempt this at your own risk.[/b]

To avoid having your current mod installation broken until SKSE is updated - assuming you are using SKSE dependent mods -  you can simply prevent your game from updating to the latest version for now, and only update when you’re ready or when SKSE and the mods you are using have been updated for compatibility.

Please note that we are not advising you to do this. It is generally considered good practice to keep your games updated. However, if you do not care about the free update and would rather just have all your SKSE dependent mods still working, then this is how to do it:


[b]Back up your SkyrimSE.exe[/b]

Before the update comes around, so before 11 November 2021 you can make a copy of “SkyrimSE.exe” located in your Skyrim SE game folder. The default path is typically something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition”. You can then use this backup to overwrite the SkyrimSE.exe in your game folder. Please make sure to also set your game to only update when you launch it as described below.


[b]Set your game to only update on launch[/b]

1. Go to your Steam Library 
2. Right-Click Skyrim Special Edition and select "Properties..."
3. In the left hand menu, go "Updates"
4. Under "Automatic Updates" select the option "Only update this game when I launch it"

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/46042/46042-1634731900-47569154.jpeg[/img]

Once that is done, make sure to only launch Skyrim SE via your mod manager or via the SKSE loader - "skse64_loader.exe". When you launch the game via the loader, please make sure that Steam is already running (if it isn't, running the loader will start up Steam and then run the game as normal, which is not what you want). That way, your game is not going to be auto-updated. If you do wish to update eventually, simply run the game through Steam to initiate the upgrade process.


[b]Downgrading to an earlier game version, if you've already updated[/b]

[i]While we tested this when the article was released, this, unfortunately,  no longer appears to be an option, at least not directly via Steam.[/i]

[s]If you get caught out by the automatic update on 11 November, or if you simply decide you want to downgrade to Skyrim 1.5.97 (this the latest game version at the current point in time), but you did not make a backup, then you can download the older EXE from a Steam depot using the Steam console.

To do so:

1. Press your Windows key + R
2. Type "steam://open/console" (without the quotation marks) in the input field and press Enter[/s]
[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/46042/46042-1634727325-511138539.jpeg[/img]

[s]3. Steam will now open and you should see a "CONSOLE" Rider at the top next to your Steam username.
4. Navigate to the Steam console and type in "download_depot 489830 489833 2289561010626853674", without the quotation marks and hit Enter
5. This will download SkyrimSE.exe version 1.5.97 to the folder specified in the download completion message.[/s]
[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/46042/46042-1634727312-1532272527.jpeg[/img]

[s]6. Navigate to that folder and copy this SkyrimSE.exe and overwrite the one in your game folder.
7. Make sure to now set your game to only update when you launch it as described above.[/s]

And that's it, this way you will stay on the current version of the game and ensure compatibility with SKSE dependent mods - at least for the time being and according to what we know at this point. 

With that said, we're all looking forward to the release of Skyrim Anniversary Edition with hopefully many new players discovering the magic of a fully modded game, and veterans of old returning once more to Skyrim.

Will you be returning once again? Let us know in the comments below!

We're always working on creating tools and experiences which continue to support a positive modding community, make modding more accessible and give creators the ability to share their own creations. This can be through our website, Vortex or something else entirely. To help us achieve our mission, we're looking to hire four new talented individuals to join us at our office in Exeter, UK.

Working at Nexus Mods means the projects you help bring to life will be used by millions of gamers worldwide each month, with a wealth of feedback coming directly from the one and only stakeholder - the community - to help us shape the future of modding. 

We value our people and foster a work environment as diverse as our community. If you think you'd be a good fit for our team, you can see the current positions below or on our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/careers/#current-positions]careers page[/url]. 

[b][size=4]General Information[/size]
[/b]
[list]
[*]All applicants must have the right to work in the UK. 
[*]For the right candidates, we may be able to assist with relocation expenses and logistics.
[*]We offer flexible working (2 days per week remote + flexible hours).
[*]25 days holiday + bank holidays (plus extra days at 1/3/5 years service).
[*]Unlimited training budget.
[*]All team members are given a monthly video game allowance.
[/list]

[size=4][url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/C7F8E99E10/]Product Designer[/url][/size]
We're looking for a Product Designer with attention to detail and who understands design is in equal parts form and function. You will be the second designer joining the team who will be working closely with engineering, product and other areas of the business to help make our product more intuitive and delightful to use. In this role, you will put our users first and articulate their design decisions.

[size=4][url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/520C56A7F1/]Product Manager[/url][/size]
We’re looking for a product manager to join our team in Exeter, UK. The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in leading multidisciplinary teams applying Agile development and some experience of testing. Experience of computer gaming is not essential.

[size=4][url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/15D3658A67/]Senior Back-End Web Developer[/url][/size]
We’re looking for a senior web developer to join our team in Exeter, UK. The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in web development and some experience working on high traffic software. A love of computer games also helps.

[size=4][url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/89BF23FEC3/]Senior Front-End Developer[/url][/size]
We’re looking for a senior front-end developer to join our team in Exeter, UK. The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in web development and some experience working on high traffic software. A love of computer games also helps.

If you have any questions about these positions please [url=mailto:jobs@nexusmods.com]email us[/url]. 

If our listed openings don't appeal to you but believe your skill set could make a difference as part of our team, we'd love to hear from you! 

Collections - a project we've been working on aiming to make modding easier for everyone is reaching a testing stage in which we want to invite 100+ users to help us test. Anyone who is interested can apply to become a tester via the Google form linked below. We're now, for the first time, sharing more information and (alpha) footage of how the system will work. This should, hopefully, answer and address a lot of questions that have been raised, but if you feel there is more you'd like to know you can send in a question (details below) and we'll be responding to the most requested questions in one of the live events on our Discord server.


[size=5]What are Collections? [/size]
A while ago we started working on a project - now referred to as “collections” - with the aim of making modding easier for everyone. The Collections feature will allow you to download a complete list of curated mods - along with other important metadata - and replicate an entire mod setup, all while ensuring that mod authors still get the downloads for their mods and still [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/donation-points/]earn mod rewards[/url] if they’ve opted into our DP programme.

It's important to understand that a collection does not redistribute the included mods packaged as a single archive. Rather, you can think of it as a mod list, say a list of "Top Mods" for a given game, curated by someone else. The difference being that a collection is designed to then be read and interpreted by a mod manager, rather than a human, and in doing so the download and installation process is streamlined. That way it is ensured that you end up with the same mod setup the creator of that mod list (the curator) has installed on their PC, complete with conflict resolution data.

We are convinced that the Collections system will lower the barrier for entry so that more people can enjoy our joint hobby of modding, but we don't believe it will completely replace "traditional" modding - rather it will complement it. Imagine you're new to a game and want to try modding it: you might start out trying a few collections to get a feel for how the game can be changed. Then you begin to customise the mods you've installed and learn more about how modding works to build your own setup. This progression into the modding scene can lead to you sharing your own curated collections or even creating your own mods. 


[size=5]How will downloading a collection work?[/size][size=4] [/size]
When you're looking for a collection to download, you'll be directed to our new "micro-site" called Nexus Mods Next. This is a sandbox area where you will be able to try out upcoming features ahead of the full release on the main website - think of it as a place to see what's [i]next[/i] on [i]Nexus Mods[/i] - clever, right? You may notice Nexus Mods Next uses some different fonts, colours and design themes compared to the current site - as a showcase of how we plan to evolve the UI in future iterations of the main Nexus Mods website. 

A picture can say a thousand words, so that’s why we have [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPBXxdXYNQA&list=PL3DTBbz0DCs-oF7LyZkBJAVMJWZ3ekjNs&index=1]recorded three videos[/url] and uploaded them to YouTube, demonstrating various aspects of the new collections feature.

[b]DISCLAIMER: ALL CONTENT DISCUSSED AND SHOWCASED HERE IS STILL UNDER ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT. THE DESIGN AND FUNCTIONALITY ARE BOTH SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM TESTERS.[/b]

[center][youtube]RqGYlWjJxi4[/youtube] [youtube]YPBXxdXYNQA[/youtube][/center]

Downloading a collection will be similar to adding a mod to Vortex. A prominent button on the collection page will instruct Vortex to pull the collection metadata and start downloading the mods. The Collections feature will not require a Premium membership, but - just like a Premium membership uncaps your download speed - it will be faster and more convenient if you do choose to support our community.

For Premium users, a carousel at the top of the page will start showcasing the mods included in the collection while the downloading and installation process happens automatically in the background. Each slide will include links to the mod page and the author's profile so you can learn more about the content that is being installed (this is not fully implemented yet, so it does not feature in the videos). 

For free users (and Supporters), a pop-up window will appear with information about the mod you're about to install and it will direct you to the mod page for each file download. This step is required so that free users don't bypass our entire revenue stream by not seeing any adverts. Once you have started downloading the file, the pop-up will automatically refresh to the next mod in the queue. This process will repeat for each mod, but the installation happens automatically. The free user experience is therefore going to be a bit like downloading mods in a traditional mod list, with the added convenience of being directed to the exact file, as well as still getting all the automatic conflict resolution benefits through Vortex.

While this is not shown in the videos, depending on the collection, there may be prompts throughout the installation to download external requirements (such as SKSE for Skyrim) or to select options in mod installers. 

Overall the Collections feature will provide a much more convenient way of downloading and installing a curated list of mods than doing so manually by referring to a text-based list.


[size=5]How will creating a collection work?[/size]
In essence, a collection is a bundle of metadata including a list of mods to download, file conflict rules, game settings and load order information. The exact structure of the data will vary from one game to another. 

[center][youtube]Uh0fsTQHRfg[/youtube] [url=https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1630598437-1227959140.png][img width=500,height=304]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1630597130-1218202401.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]

To create a collection you will need to build a working mod setup in Vortex, then use the new Collections section to compile all the relevant information for sharing. Everyone - Premium and free users alike - will be able to create collections and there are no differences in the flow regardless of your membership status.

Once you have everything ready to go, you will be able to create a collection page on the website. This will be where other users can view and interact with your collection. After adding a category, description and images you will be able to publish your collection page to share it with the world. The page will showcase both the mods it contains and the mod authors who created them.

During the testing releases, we won't be allowing any collections to be published (i.e. downloadable by other users) without first being vetted by our team. This will allow us to closely monitor how the feature is being used and pick up on any potential mistakes made by curators before their lists are made public.

[b]Mod Versioning
[/b]When adding mods to a collection, you will be able to specify which file version Vortex should be using. You can choose to always use the latest version of a given file, use the latest non-archived version or require exactly the one you currently have installed. If you require a version of the mod which has since been archived by the mod author, users who download that version will be presented with a warning that the content is no longer supported. The default will be to always use the latest non-archived version.

[b]External Resources
[/b]You will be able to provide instructions for users as part of a collection to help users install mods that aren't currently available on Nexus Mods. We also plan to allow community developers to integrate APIs from non-Nexus Mods sources using extensions should they wish to provide added convenience to Vortex users. 

[b]Bundled Content
[/b]Some types of content (such as dynamically generated or configuration files) may also be bundled as part of the collection for added convenience. Bundled content will be thoroughly virus scanned before it is available to download and moderation action will be taken against Collections that directly include content without permission to do so. 

[b]Mod Installers (FOMODs) 
[/b]Some mods come with mod installers providing the user with options (for example, choosing a red/blue texture for an armour). A collection curator can specify whether their choice will be incorporated into the collection, or whether they want the user to run through the mod installer themselves, choosing whichever option they prefer.


[size=5]What can collections be used for? [/size]
Collections can allow you to share anything from a complete overhaul of your game to just a handful of themed mods that you like to use together. It is possible to install multiple collections at the same time too, meaning you can mix and match from different themed lists to create your preferred experience. 

Perhaps you just want to keep a private record of all the mods you currently have installed for the next time you play the game? Or you're playing on a Valheim server and want a convenient way of sharing a list of requirements for new players? There are plenty of ways to take advantage of the collections feature, but we'll only truly know how they'll get used once we open the floodgates and everyone gets a chance to play with the new toys! 


[size=5]Testing Roadmap - How can I join?[/size]
From today, you can apply to become a tester of our Collections feature by filling out this [url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScb2xyVieGZAaivUrikqG29OWEzXUsNpt1KhvWdkH3Tzv8Dxw/viewform]application form[/url]. Each application will be reviewed by our staff and if we feel you are a good fit we'll send you instructions on how to get started via private message or Discord DM. 

Don't worry if you don't hear back though, you'll still be able to join the testing at a later phase. 

In the coming weeks, we're also going to start showing a special banner to a random sample of long-time users of the website who will be invited to take part in this Closed Alpha stage. 

We are looking for 100+ users to participate in this phase and we’ll be gradually opening more and more slots for additional testers as the project progresses. 

During the Closed Alpha, we'll be making any vital changes based on the feedback from these users before we move to an Open Alpha which will allow anyone to try out collections themselves.

We will be setting specific milestones which we will need to hit before the collections project graduates from alpha status and will become a fully-fledged feature on the site. This won't be the end of the road though. We'll continue to monitor feedback after the full release to further evolve the feature based on the needs of the community. 

Please note that what you have seen here today may still be subject to change based on the feedback during testing, but we're excited to finally be able to put this shiny new feature into the hands of our users. 


[size=5]Quick FAQ[/size]
[b]Do collections bundle all listed mods into a single "modpack" download?
[/b]No. All mod files are downloaded from the original mod pages and the mod author will still be receiving downloads and mod rewards, if they've opted into our DP programme.

[b]Can I opt-out of collections? 
[/b]As mentioned earlier in the article, a collection is just a list of mods that is interpreted by a mod manager. Just like you would not expect to be able to opt out of someone mentioning your mod in their “Top 10 Mods” list, we do not feel it’s reasonable to expect the same of collections.

[b]When are collections releasing?
[/b]The testing phases will allow us to capture vital community feedback to allow us to properly understand both bugs and desired features we can map into our future development. At this point, we’re entering a “closed alpha” so still a relatively early testing stage. Depending on the feedback and bug reports, we will then be looking at opening collections up for what could be considered an open alpha stage relatively soon. 

[b]As a mod author, will I still get downloads/endorsements/Donation Points when my mod is downloaded as part of a collection?
[/b]Yes. As a collection is just a list of instructions to be interpreted by Vortex, the download still comes from your mod page so your stats will be incremented appropriately. Users are also still able to endorse your file from inside Vortex or on the website. 

[b]Will collection curators earn Donation Points for their collections?
[/b]No. Earning [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/donation-points/]Donation Points[/url] is currently a feature exclusive to mod authors. 

[b]What about direct donations?
[/b]You can currently donate to any user by visiting their profile page and we have no plans to change this. We will not be displaying donation prompts for the curator on the collection page for the time being, but we may explore donation options as part of a larger discussion with the community in the future. That being said, we think that mod list/collection curators are and will be adding value to the community, so we do not believe we should be stopping people from donating to them, if they happen to like what they do. 

[b]Can I "own" a collection?
[/b]In the interest of keeping things simple and fair, no single user can have exclusive ownership of a particular combination or list of mods. This means if I share a collection, you're welcome to copy it, tweak it and reshare it without issue. The mods themselves remain protected by the permissions posted on the mod page by the author.

[b]Can I allow others to update my collection page? 
[/b]Not currently. Unlike mod pages, a collection will only have a single owner. While you may still collaborate with others, a singular user account must be used in order to publish updated revisions. This is something we will be exploring in the future if there is demand for it. 

[b]Do I need Vortex to use collections?
[/b]We are launching the Collections system with Vortex - our official mod manager - so it will be required. However, as with everything else we build, we'll be providing the source code for Vortex and an open GraphQL API which can be used by third-party tools to take advantage of this feature. Documentation will be made available sometime after the full 1.0.0 release of Collections. 


[size=4]Still have questions?[/size]
If you have a question you'd like us to answer, please send it in using [url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOhCBquX_mWTnMQLVE8XWS0PR2eIMTDctxya991Y6b729feQ/viewform]this form[/url]. We'll comb through the responses and collate the most requested questions to answer during the Q&A sessions. A transcript of each session will be posted on the forums and a link will be added to this article.  

You can join us on [url=https://discord.gg/nexusmods]Discord[/url] at the following times:

[list]
[*]Wednesday 22 September 2021 15:00 - 15:30 (GMT+1) ([url=https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/event-time/share/?name=Collections%2520Q%2526A%2520Session%25201&stamp=1632321000&theme=conference]View in my time zone[/url])
[*][s]Wednesday 29 September 2021 17:00 - 17:30 (GMT+1) ([url=https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/event-time/share/?name=Collections%2520Q%2526A%2520Session%25202&stamp=1632931200&theme=conference]View in my time zone[/url]) [/s]- Cancelled.
[/list]
We do hope this article - along with our Q&A sessions - will go a long way to reassure the minority of users who might've had some concerns or reservations about the collection feature. 

Thank you for being a part of our community and for joining us on this exciting journey!

Do scalpers keep beating you to that new graphics card? Perhaps you're looking to upgrade that tired old keyboard and mouse? We might have just the thing for you! We've teamed up with Republic of Gamers UK to give you the chance to win an RTX 3070 Ti, one of two ROG accessory bundles or a £50 Steam gift card. 


Nexus Mods was officially founded on 1 August 2001, so this month is extra special for us. We're celebrating our 20th anniversary! This event is a great way to celebrate our journey from a humble Morrowind modding website to now being the biggest modding community on the internet - bringing together over 28 million members from all over the world to share in our joint hobby and love for all things modding. 


If you've ever looked at pre-built gaming PCs or modded your own PC with some new hardware, you might already be familiar with ROG. For those who haven't heard of them though, [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/]Republic of Gamers[/url] was founded by an elite team of ASUS engineers with the aim to create the world's best gaming experiences. They specialise in high-quality hardware and peripherals built specifically for gamers. We got chatting with folks at the UK office of ROG and while talking about our mutual love of modding, they offered to provide us with some of their awesome products to give away to our community. These might be the biggest prizes we've ever been able to offer to you all, so a massive thank you to ROG UK for partnering with us! 


We've split the prizes across 3 separate categories you can enter between [b]10 August 2021[/b] and [b]10 October 2021[/b]. You can enter just one or all three. If you submit a mod you can enter it into both modding categories too (if applicable). Full details are below!

[line]


[size=5]Main Category[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1627648011-1767217853.png[/img]

This is the big one! Upload a new mod to Nexus Mods between [b]10 August 2021[/b] - [b]10 October 2021[/b] and add the tag "[b]20 Years of Modding 2021[/b]" to your page for your chance to win the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, a bundle of ROG peripherals or a £50 Steam gift card. All prizes also include a coveted Nexus Mods drink receptacle. 

[size=4]Prize Details[/size]

[list]
[*][b]Prize 1 - RTX 3070 Ti:[/b] [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-strix/rog-strix-rtx3070ti-o8g-gaming-model/]ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3070 Ti[/url] + Nexus Mods mug
[*][b]Prize 2 - Big Bundle 1:[/b] [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/headsets-audio/headsets/usb-headsets/rog-delta-s-model/]ROG Delta S Headset[/url] + [url=https://rog.asus.com/keyboards/keyboards/aura-rgb/rog-claymore-ii-model/]ROG Claymore II Keyboard[/url] + [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/mice-mouse-pads/mice/wireless/rog-gladius-iii-wireless-model/]ROG Gladius III Wireless Mouse[/url] + Nexus Mods mug
[*][b]Prize 3 - Small Bundle 1:[/b] £50 Steam Gift Card + Nexus Mods mug 
[/list]

[size=4]How To Enter[/size]

[list=1]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mods/add]Upload a mod[/url] for any game (mods containing adult content are excluded from the draw).
[*]On the "Mod Details" step, tick the option to enter into the draw OR add the tag "[b]20 Years of Modding 2021[/b]" from the mod page.
[*]Publish your mod and cross your fingers! 
[/list]

[size=4]Winner Selection[/size]

All mods uploaded during the event which include the "[b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mods/?tags_yes%5B%5D=4353]20 Years of Modding 2021[/url][/b]" tag at the end of the entry period will be reviewed by our team. A curated selection will be entered into a randomised draw to determine the 3 winners. When curating the mod entries, we will be looking at a number of factors to judge the eligibility for the final draw, including:

[list]
[*]Site metrics - Download counts and endorsements.
[*]Game popularity - To ensure game communities of all sizes have a fair chance of entry. 
[*]Originality - Does this mod bring something new to the modding scene?
[*]Effort - How difficult was the mod to make? How much time went into the mod page?
[/list]
The lucky winners will be contacted by private message on the Nexus Mods website shortly after the event concludes to arrange delivery of the prizes. 
[line]

[size=5]Themed Mod Category[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1627563881-1802900031.png[/img]

As a bonus, our friends at ROG have included an additional prize bundle for modders who create mods that capture the essence of the ROG brand. They have provided an [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/271]asset bundle[/url] containing an assortment of logos and wallpapers to help you build the theme into your mods and to give you an idea of the colours and styles you should be looking to include. The criteria for entry is intentionally ambiguous to allow you to be as creative as possible, so take a look at the assets provided and see what you can come up with. Once you've made your mod, all you need to do to enter is upload it and add the "[b]ROG Theme Event 2021[/b]" tag to your mod page before [b]10 October 2021[/b]. 

Here are some very basic ideas for mods that would be a good fit for this category:

[list]
[*]A spell or other magical effect using the ROG colours (and possibly the logo).
[*]Outfits or technology featuring ROG brand elements or a general "cyberpunk" vibe.
[*]Everything is cooler with RGB lights. 
[*]Maybe you can even find a creative use for the ROG theme song? 
[/list]

[size=4]Prize Details[/size]

[list]
[*][b]Big Bundle 2:[/b] [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/headsets-audio/headsets/3-5mm-headsets/rog-delta-core-model/]ROG Delta Core Headset[/url] + [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/keyboards/keyboards/aura-rgb/rog-strix-scope-rx-model/]ROG Strix Scope RX[/url] + [url=https://rog.asus.com/uk/mice-mouse-pads/mice/wireless/rog-keris-wireless-model/]ROG Keris Wireless Mouse[/url] + Nexus Mods mug
[/list]

[size=4]How To Enter[/size]

[list=1]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mods/add]Upload a mod[/url] that includes ROG elements for any game (mods containing adult content are excluded from the draw).
[*]On the "Mod Details" step, tick the option to enter into the draw OR add the tag "[b]ROG Theme Event 2021[/b]" from the mod page.
[*]Publish your mod and cross your fingers! 
[/list]

[size=4]Winner Selection[/size]

Mods uploaded during the event which include the "[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mods/?tags_yes%5B%5D=4358]ROG Theme Event 2021[/url]" tag will be reviewed by the Nexus Mods and ROG teams to select a winner. The winner will then be contacted by private message on the Nexus Mods website shortly after the event concludes to arrange delivery of the prizes. 

[b]A single mod can be entered into both modding categories, but can only win one prize.
[/b][line]


[size=5]Themed Image Category[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1627563891-269503867.png[/img]

If you're not able to make a mod but you still want to take part in the event, we're also running a screenshot competition. Just like the modding category above, this will be ROG themed. Your challenge is to create a screenshot for a game of your choice which fits in nicely with the ROG vibe. You can use the asset pack for inspiration or even showcase mods shared in the Themed Mods Category in new or exciting ways. 

[size=4]Prize Details[/size]

[list]
[*][b]Prize 1 - Small Bundle 2:[/b] £50 Steam Gift Card + Nexus Mods mug 
[/list]

[size=4]How To Enter[/size]

[list=1]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/images/add]Upload an image[/url] for any game (adult content is excluded from the draw).
[*]Make sure the title starts with "[b]ROG Screenshot Event[/b]".
[*]Submit your image! 
[/list]

[size=4]Winner Selection[/size]

All images uploaded during the event which have titles starting with "[b]ROG Screenshot Event[/b]" will be reviewed by our team and a curated selection will be entered into a randomised draw to determine the winner. Images will be judged on their appropriate use of the ROG theme/colour schemes and general composition. 
[line]

[size=5]Terms and Conditions
[/size]
Participants - Entries - Mods
[spoiler]
[list]
[*]Participants are required to submit at least one (1) mod in order to enter the event and become eligible for winning a prize.
[*]Submitting several mods is possible, however, prizes are limited to one per selected winner.
[*]A maximum of 5 mods may be entered into each draw by a single user. If more than 5 mods are entered, the newest 5 will be considered valid entries.
[*]All entries must be submitted between the dates posted on this article.
[*]Unless otherwise specified, the weekly entry period runs from 12:00:00am on the starting day until 11:59:59pm on the last day (GMT+1).
[*]Mods must be uploaded to the Nexus Mods website and assigned the appropriate tag(s). Mods that do not include the tag at the end of the competition period are not eligible to win prizes.
[*]Mods in a "Work in Progress" state will be allowed provided they are playable.
[*]You may collaborate with others on entries, but only one prize will be issued if your mod wins.
[*]You must be the copyright holder i.e. creator of the mod content.
[*]Mods must not include assets from other creators without explicit permission and should display appropriate credit.
[*]Mods entered must conform to our site rules (inappropriate content) and must not contain any adult content (as defined by our [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/19-adult-content-guidelines]Adult Content Guidelines[/url]).
[*]Entries found to be in violation of any of those rules and/or our general terms and policies will be disqualified.
[/list][/spoiler]


Participants - Entries - Images
[spoiler]
[list]
[*]Participants are required to submit at least one (1) image in order to enter the event and become eligible for winning a prize.
[*]Submitting several images is possible, however, prizes are limited to one per selected winner.
[*]A maximum of 5 images may be entered into the draw by a single user. If more than 5 images are entered, the newest 5 will be considered valid entries.
[*]All entries must be submitted between the dates posted on this article.
[*]Images must be uploaded to the Nexus Mods website and given a title starting with "ROG Screenshot Event". Images with different titles at the end of the competition period are not eligible to win prizes.
[*]Valid images must be a screenshot taken in-game but may feature minor post-processing tweaks. 
[*]Images entered must conform to our site rules (inappropriate content) and must not contain any adult content (as defined by our [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/19-adult-content-guidelines]Adult Content Guidelines[/url]).
[*]Entries found to be in violation of any of those rules and/or our general terms and policies will be disqualified.
[/list][/spoiler]


General
[spoiler]
[list]
[*]By submitting a competition entry, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
[*]Promoter name. Black Tree Gaming Limited incorporated in England and Wales with company number 06360077 of Southernhay Studios, Dean Clarke House, Southernhay, Exeter EX1 1AP  (referred to throughout these terms as the “Promoter”, “we”, “us” and “our”).
[*]Deadline. All competition entries must be received by the Promoter by no later than the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
[*]How to Enter. You may enter by sharing a mod/image on the Nexus Mods website and adding the appropriate tag or title. You must complete this initial entry to be eligible to win. You do not have to pay to enter the competition, however, you are responsible for any phone or internet charges you may incur when entering. If you are unsure about these charges, you should contact your phone or internet operator before entering. Entries will not be acknowledged and we do not accept responsibility for entries that are lost, delayed or which we do not receive.
[*]Eligibility. You must be aged 18 or over at the time of entry in order to enter this competition. We may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the competition. No purchase necessary. You must enter the competition yourself. Entries which are incomplete, removed, corrupt or ineligible will not be accepted. We reserve the right to verify any entries and winners and may refuse to award prizes and/or disqualify you if you make or attempt to make any entry to this competition which is in our reasonable opinion contrary to these terms and conditions or by its nature unfair to other entrants. This might include entries which are made by automated means, fraudulent, made in bulk, made on behalf of another person, or made by hacking, cheating or deception. You must comply with the laws that apply to you in the location that you access the competition from. If any laws applicable to you restrict or prohibit you from entering the competition, you must comply with those legal restrictions or, if applicable, refrain from entering the competition.
[*]Prize conditions. Prizes are subject to availability with no cash alternative. Prizes are not negotiable, exchangeable or transferable. The winner(s) will be contacted via Private Message on the Nexus Mods website. You must claim your prize personally within 1 month of the Closing Date otherwise your claim will become invalid (you are solely responsible for this). The decision of the Promoter is final. We have the right to substitute any prize for an alternative prize of equal or greater value.
[*]The Nexus Mods team reserves the right to disqualify any entry at their sole discretion, with or without providing a reason.
[*]Excluded participants and entries. Employees of the Promoters, its holding or subsidiary companies, its agents or suppliers or anyone else professionally connected with the competition, or members of their families or households. The Promoter will not admit entries which: are automatically created by a computer or bot or script or other automated technology, created in bulk, have been altered or forged or tampered with, are illegible or incomplete or which generally in Promoter’s reasonable opinion are inappropriate to admit.
[*]Selection of winners. The winner will be chosen by the Nexus Mods team. If you cannot be reached by private message or email address when entering we may choose a new winner.
[*]Ownership of competition entries and intellectual property rights. The Promoter does not claim any rights of ownership in your competition entry. The promoter is granted a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable license to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format and sublicense the competition entry and any accompanying materials for its marketing or other commercial purposes.
[*]Data protection and publicity. If you are a winner of the competition, you agree that the Promoter may use your provided information to announce the winner of this competition and for any other reasonable and related promotional purposes without any payment to you. You represent that all of the information which you provide to us in connection with this competition shall be and shall remain complete and accurate. You represent that your entry will not contain anything (i) that is or could reasonably be viewed as harmful, harassing, defamatory, libellous, obscene or invasive of another’s privacy; or (ii) which you do not have a right to make available lawfully (including any material which infringes the rights of any other). By entering this competition, you agree that any personal information provided by you with the competition entry may be held and used only by the Promoter, its affiliates, its agents and suppliers to administer the competition.
[*]Limitation of liability. Insofar as is permitted by law, the Promoter, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the winner(s) or runner(s)-up or accept any liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the prize except where it is caused by the negligence of the Promoter, its agents or distributors or that of their employees. Your statutory rights are not affected. The Promoter will NOT accept responsibility for competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit for any reason or in any way.
[*]Social media. You acknowledge that the competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with any of our partners, Facebook, or Twitter. You agree to release our partners, Facebook, and Twitter from any responsibility to you in relation to the competition.
[*]General. (a) We may use the information which you provide in entering this competition to contact you for the purposes described in these terms and conditions. We will process and store your information in accordance with our privacy policy which can be found at: http://help.nexusmods.com/article/20-privacy-policy
[*](b) We may wish to transfer all or a part of our rights under these terms to someone else without obtaining your consent. You agree that we may do so provided that the transfer does not significantly disadvantage you. (c) If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these terms and conditions, the Promoter may, at its sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude you from participating in the competition; (d) The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel, or amend the competition where it becomes necessary to do so; and (e) These terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of England and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
[*]For questions, please contact support@nexusmods.com 
[/list][/spoiler]

Mass Effect Legendary Edition dropped in May and since then almost 400 mods, saves and presets have already been shared with the community. While Bioware has not provided any official modding tools, the community found a way! Legendary Explorer (LEX) is a developer tool kit for ME:LE created and maintained entirely by fans of the series. It features around 30 powerful tools to make creating mods for Legendary Edition significantly easier. We've been talking with Mgamerz and Audemus about the exciting developments around the release of LEX and best practices when it comes to playing with mods or making your own.


[size=4][b]Legendary Edition vs Original Trilogy
[/b][/size]
Anyone who has experience with Mass Effect modding will tell you that both making and installing mods can be quite challenging. Fortunately, the community tools created for the Original Trilogy (OT) have provided a solid basis for a simpler and more consistent experience for all users in the remaster. Before we talk about Legendary Explorer, it is very important for everyone to understand that [b]mods created for the Original Trilogy are NOT compatible with Legendary Edition[/b]. Due to some fairly significant back-end changes to the game, it is also impossible to "port" mods quickly from OT to LE. If a mod author has chosen to undertake the challenge of recreating their mod in the new version, they will almost need to rebuild it from the ground up so please be patient and supportive of the content creators who choose to do this.

Equally, if a mod you loved in the original games is not being remade, please do not harass the mod author about it. Many mod authors have updated their OT mod pages with their thoughts on Legendary Edition, so be sure to read the description page and any pinned comments before asking about it. 

I'd also like to address some of the questions raised in the community around "porting" mods to Legendary Edition. It is incredibly important to respect the wishes of the original mod author, so if you're hoping to port over a mod that was published for the original games in the remaster you should always ask the creator of the mod for permission before starting out. It's possible they're already working on moving it over themselves. If the original author says no, or simply doesn't respond then you do not have permission to port it. However, we don't allow authors to gatekeep specific ideas or concepts, so if one person has made a happy ending mod for Mass Effect 3, that doesn't mean that someone else can't make one.

The key difference is that it would be a new author approaching a similar concept entirely independent of the original mod, rather than simply "porting" it like-for-like. Think of it this way, when Dreamworks released an [url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120587/]animated adventure movie featuring ants[/url] in 1998, that wouldn't have stopped Disney from releasing [url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120623/]A Bug's Life[/url] in 1999.

On this subject, we've invited [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/66302641]Audemus[/url] to join the Nexus Mods Moderation team to act as a voice of the Mass Effect communities and help us investigate any valid reports raised around mods for both LE and OT in a timely fashion.


[b][size=4]Legendary Explorer (LEX)[/size]
[/b]
Legendary Explorer is the evolved form of the tool know as ME3Explorer for the OT games. It is the culmination of many years of work by several talented developers in the Mass Effect modding community who have translated and reverse-engineered almost all the different assets and formats from the game and built tools to allow modders to more easily create their own content. LEX is currently maintained by the ME3Tweaks group. 

[center][youtube]l6VaHXi_G9c[/youtube][/center]

With LEX, you'll be able to view and extract game assets as well as being able to edit plots, conditionals, in-game text, conversations, cutscenes, audio, 3D assets and more. It is also designed to export your mod creations in a format that can be safely applied to the games. 

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1626445878-1802151874.jpeg[/img][/center]

The toolset has been available in an "open beta" state for the last few weeks, but it has now reached a point where it is relatively stable and ready for wider use. 

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1]You can download Legendary Explorer right now from the mod page. [/url]

The tools themselves currently aren't fully documented yet, but we've set up a [url=https://modding.wiki/masseffectlegendaryedition]wiki site for Mass Effect LE[/url] and will be working with the community to fill it out in the future. If you have experience with ME3Explorer or LEX, please consider [url=https://modding.wiki/en/contributing]contributing[/url]! 


[size=4][b]Best Practices for Mod Authors
[/b][/size]
In order to maintain a healthy modding ecosystem and to make mods as compatible as possible Mgamerz and Audemus have provided some "Top tips" for new and existing mod authors. These are simply guidelines but if everyone can follow them, it will make modding Mass Effect LE better for everyone! 

[list]
[*]Avoid sharing mods that replace the entire Coalessced.bin file. It is possible to add Coalessced edits via a DLC mod which will be merged with other mods/DLCs for compatibility.
[*]Avoid sharing mods that replace files from the base games. This will cause instabilities with the LEX tools (and mod managers). All edits can generally be achieved using DLC mods or mergeable files. 
[*]If your mod is not mod manager compatible, please make sure to select the "Remove the 'Download with Manager' button" option when uploading it to avoid confusing users. 
[/list]
[i]Note: At the time of writing, a mod will only be considered "mod manager" friendly if it is a 7z file created by ME3Tweaks Mod Manager.  [/i]

Several veteran mod authors of the Mass Effect scene are also working on a "community patch" project intended to fix bugs found in the base game and provide a new framework for easier compatibility between mods. If you need help creating your mod check out the [url=https://modding.wiki/masseffectlegendaryedition]wiki[/url], [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/6202-general-mass-effect-legendary-edition-discussion]forums[/url] or chat with the lovely people at the [url=https://discord.gg/su8XjdUQPw]Mass Effect Modding Discord server[/url]. 


[b][size=4]Mod Managers[/size]
[/b]
The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that the "Mod Manager Download" buttons have started popping up across the Mass Effect game sites recently. This is part of a collaborative effort to make installing mods easier for users by allowing them to install mods directly into their mod manager. 

[b]ME3Tweaks Mod Manager (M3)[/b]

As well as creating the modding toolset from scratch, the community have also created their own mod manager which integrates into the Nexus Mods website for downloading, updating and endorsing your favourite mods. [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/2]ME3Tweaks Mod Manager[/url] has been created by Mgamerz and the ME3Tweaks team in parallel with Legendary Explorer and offers mod management for both the old and new Mass Effect games (excluding Andromeda). The application also contains a number of tools useful to mod authors and is regularly updated with new features for the Legendary Edition games. 


[b]What about Vortex?
[/b]
At the time of writing Vortex is not compatible with Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 or Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Much of the modding ecosystem for the Mass Effect series is intrinsically tied to the unique formats used by ME3Tweaks (complex manifests, merge files, etc). However, Vortex is an [url=https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex]open-source[/url] tool and we're happy to work with anyone who has the knowledge required to [url=https://modding.wiki/en/vortex/developer/create-a-game-extension]bring some of this functionality over [/url]in order to take advantage of the existing and upcoming features of our official mod manager. 

It's official - [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/6977096]TheModernStoryteller[/url], a veteran of the modding scene is releasing [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/874260/The_Forgotten_City/]The Forgotten City -  his very own, fully-fledged game on Steam[/url], today 28 July 2021. It marks his full transition from [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13647]modder to developer[/url] and the evolution of an idea that started out as [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/70219]a massively popular Skyrim mod[/url], into a standalone game.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1627307466-1177684902.png[/img][/center]

[quote]The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure game of exploration and deduction, and a re-imagining of the critically acclaimed mod that won a national Writers’ Guild award and racked up over 3 million downloads.

Travel 2,000 years into the past and relive the final days of a cursed Roman city, where if one person sins, everyone dies. Combat is an option, but violence will only get you so far. Only by questioning an intertwined community of colourful characters, cleverly exploiting the time loop, and making difficult moral choices can you hope to solve this epic mystery. Here, your decisions matter. The fate of the city is in your hands.

- The Forgotten City, Steam page[/quote]
To celebrate this epic achievement TheModernStoryteller has given us [b]5 Steam keys[/b] for the game to give away to our community. If that sounds like your jam, feel free to enter the draw and if you get lucky you will get to explore The Forgotten City and investigate an ancient mystery in no time!

For your chance to win, all you need to do is click the banner below and submit your entries via the Gleam widget before [b]5 August 2021, 4[b]:00PM (BST)[/b][/b]. 

[url=https://gleam.io/FROyy/the-forgotten-city-giveaway][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1627306812-1760832484.jpeg[/img][/url]
[b]Don't forget to leave a comment on this article too or your entries won't be counted![/b]

Best of luck to all participants!

Nexus Mods first started offering Premium Membership as an option to users all the way back in 2007. Since then, it has been an invaluable source of income for the site that has allowed us to continue to host our services, hire staff, create NMM and Vortex, expand to over 1,300 more games and give back to mod authors via our Donation Points system, among many other things. Without it, the site simply would not exist.


Since we first started offering Premium Membership, our billing system (the process by which you purchase Premium Membership, view your invoices, etc.) has been handled by our Invision Board forums software and PayPal. To be frank, it's old, archaic, held together by duct tape and glue and was never really intended to be used by a site as big as ours. It's so delicate, we have not been able to update our Premium Membership pricing since 2013 because doing so breaks many different elements of the billing and Premium membership system which we have no control over as the code is not ours.


As part of our efforts to decouple as much of the site as we possibly can from our forums, we began work back in June 2020 to completely strip out our Premium Membership billing system and replace it with our own solution. Our aim is to make the process far simpler for users, provide all the information and functionality they need to manage their membership in the Nexus Mods user area, away from the forums, and to give us more control over the pricing and packages offered.


14 months later, we are finally going to be ready to launch this new system on the [b]3rd of August 2021[/b]. All elements of the new billing system will now be handled via the Nexus Mods [url=https://users.nexusmods.com/]user area[/url], rather than via the forums, and the forum payment systems will be turned off.


Coinciding with this completely new system, we are making long overdue changes to our packages and pricing. From August 3rd, Nexus Mods will only have two Premium Membership options available to purchase:

[list]
[*]Monthly, billed at £4.99/month ($6.90/month*)
[*]Yearly, billed at £49.99/year ($69.20/year*)
[/list]
*USD based on current exchange rates and subject to change.


Our new billing system will take all major cards and PayPal, whichever you wish, and they will be handled directly by our payment processor, [url=https://www.braintreepayments.com/gb/features/data-security]Braintree[/url], who are a Level 1 PCI compliant service provider. Nexus Mods will not directly process or store any sensitive cardholder data.


All new memberships will automatically recur at the end of your billing period and our user area will show clear information detailing when your membership is due to expire and when you will be charged again. Cancelling your subscription at any time, for any reason, will be a very simple two-click process and handled automatically without the need to jump through hoops.


This change marks the first time we're increasing our prices in over 8 years. Inflation alone has reduced the purchasing power of our currency by 17% since 2013. But these new prices also take into account a number of factors that have changed over the past 8 years since we last updated our prices, including the fact we're now providing additional Premium Member download CDNs and download locations, the ever increasing costs of our platform and the implementation of our Donation Points system which gives back to mod authors who use our site. We have not hidden the fact we want to put more money into [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/donation-points/]our DP system[/url] and we intend for any increase in revenue from these Premium Membership changes to also be reflected in the amount we put into the DP fund.


To make the system a lot simpler, we have streamlined our membership offerings by removing the Supporter, 3 month and 6 month memberships. After much consideration, we have also made the difficult decision to remove the Lifetime Premium Membership (membership that never expires) as a purchasing option. While this option has provided a great deal to our users over the past 14 years, it is becoming less and less sustainable as the cost of keeping the site online increases and the years continue to roll by. We're thankful to anyone who has taken us up on our Lifetime Membership option up to now but, due to the nature of running the site as a longtime service, we incur ongoing and recurring costs that we need to continue to plan for in the long term and this is why we have decided to remove Lifetime Premium Membership as something you can buy from August 3rd.


Anyone who has bought or received Lifetime Premium Membership before we change over to the new system on August 3rd will continue to have that membership after we change over - that is, all Lifetime Premium Memberships bought before we release the new system on August 3rd 2021 will of course be honoured after this change. Thus, please take this as due notice that you only have a couple more weeks in which to purchase and take advantage of Lifetime Premium Membership from Nexus Mods before it is removed as an option for good.


Similarly, anyone with an active membership which is due to expire after August 3rd will see no changes to their expiration date (i.e. if you bought 6 months of Premium Membership in June 2021 on the old system it will still expire in December 2021). Your account will have the Premium Membership you paid for. If it doesn't, something has gone wrong so please contact us at [url=mailto:support@nexusmods.com]support@nexusmods.com[/url] and we'll be happy to sort it for you as soon as possible (and we normally throw in some free extra Premium time for your hassle as well!).


Our "Supporter" system will not change and any Premium Members whose time expires will still be put into the "Supporter" group where they will continue to receive the benefits of ad-free browsing on the site, a speed cap increase and a couple of other smaller perks in perpetuity. You simply will not be able to buy this package any more.


Our old billing system will remain visible for any users who previously bought Premium Membership so they can still access the invoices for purchases made via the forums between 2007 and 2021.


For a short while after this system releases it will not be possible to gift Premium Memberships to other users like you were able to in the past. We hope to plumb this into the new system in the not too distant future, but it simply did not make our initial launch.


Unfortunately, our new billing system is not compatible with the old one and anyone who currently has a recurring subscription setup in PayPal will have their subscriptions automatically cancelled. We will attempt to email affected subscribers about this change, however, PayPal's systems are antiquated to say the least and do not provide an easy way of doing this. We will do the best we can to send out an email regarding the cancellation with the tools available to us, but it is not something we can guarantee. Any Premium Membership time paid for before August 3rd will be honoured so you will not miss out on any time. Your Premium Membership will simply expire on the due date without being automatically renewed.


I want to say a big thank you to all our Premium Members who help us to keep the lights on and the servers running, we couldn't do it without you. We're very much looking forward to getting this update out the door as it ticks off another important part of the site that we are successfully decoupling from our forum software, meaning we have to rely on it less and less, while greatly improving the user experience of the Premium purchasing process for all and finally allowing us to put Premium Membership at a price point which we think reflects the value of the service offered.

TL;DR: It is our core belief that making modding easier is a noble goal, so more people can enjoy our joint hobby. We are convinced that our collections system, a project we have spent almost 2 years and many work-hours on, is the way to achieve this goal. For the benefit of this system we have to implement a change to how mod file deletions work. The change was announced to mod authors recently, and basically means that mod files are no longer deleted, but rather archived - which will make them inaccessible unless directly requested e.g. via the API. We understand that not everyone in the mod author community shares our convictions and our vision, and that is why we are granting a 1 month grace period in which mod authors can request to have all their files deleted for good by contacting support@nexusmods.com. 

[i]20 July Update: Based on feedback we've received from mod authors who would like to have some but not all of their mod files deleted, we're now offering [url=https://www.cognitoforms.com/NexusMods/FileDeletionRequestForm]partial deletion requests based on this form[/url], subject to the 5 August deadline.[/i]

If you would like to hear the whole story behind why this change is necessary and what our plans for the future are, keep on reading.


[b]The long, but thorough tell-all[/b]

This is a long one, so brew up some coffee, put on some chill-out music, and strap yourselves in your seats before reading - you have been warned!

A while ago, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13961]as announced in 2019[/url], our team started work on a project with the goal of making it easier and far less time-consuming for the average person to set up a thoroughly and well-modded game. Internally, we’ve been referring to this project as “collections” and as you are reading this we are edging closer towards external testing with a small number of people. 

As you all may know, depending on the games you are modding, it can at times be quite difficult to set up a large mod load order, find the right mods that work well together, look for patches, resolve conflicts, establish the right load order, test for any issues, and so on. Many of us have gone through this “baptism of fire” as we have grown up with modding being a hobby for the more tech-savvy. However, we understand and know from decades of experience as well as user feedback, that it is this - at times grueling - process that deters many people from even trying to mod their games. This means that many people miss out on enriching their experience with fantastic mods, they don’t get to enjoy being part of our community, and they don’t get to become part of what we all love. 

It is our conviction and vision that modding should be as easy as possible, so more people can enjoy this hobby that has brought us all together and that laid the foundation for the very existence of our site and community 20 years ago.


[b]What are collections and how does it all work?[/b]

The project our team is working on has the goal of making modding easier so the average user can spend less time worrying about mod conflicts, and more time playing a modded game.
 
How it would work is, using Vortex, someone could build a mod list/mod setup locally on their machine, then export a meta file with all the information about the mods/files/conflict resolution etc. and upload that file to the site. We refer to this list on the site and in Vortex as a "collection". Another user can now add this meta file/this collection from the site to Vortex and Vortex will then fetch all the download links for the mods, download them, and install them in the same way the original user (the “curator” of that mod list) has them installed on their PC - complete with conflict resolution data and all.
 
The outcome is the replication of a whole mod setup without much hassle and without entire packs of mods zipped up into an archive being redistributed. This way, we can guarantee that the mod authors of these mods still get the downloads and they also still get the donation points from those downloads. 
 
Great care is also being taken that the mods in a collection are previewed while they're downloaded. Users are still shown the images and summaries of the mods they're downloading and they can also view the original mod page if they so choose.

While we allow for some files to be bundled with a collection (this is intended for tool-generated output files like e.g. LOD generated by DynDOLOD for Skyrim), a collection does not “contain” any mods, instead it acts more like a reference list for Vortex to know which file from a mod page it needs to download, what installer options to choose, how to resolve mod conflicts, and how to arrange your load order.


[b]Are collections a “Premium feature”?[/b]

Much like speeding up the download process on our site in general, Premium membership is going to speed up the process of downloading a mod collection. This is because Premium members, through their purchase of membership, are actively contributing to the upkeep of our site be it server costs, 18 employees, a content delivery network (CDN) spanning across the globe, giving back to mod authors via the Donation Points system, insurance, an office in the heart of Exeter, and so on. Therefore, we can and want to offer them the best possible service including added convenience when using the new collections feature, which we believe will help make modding much easier.

That being said, we do not want to and we will not lock this feature off and make it “Premium only”. On the contrary: collections will be available to everyone, including free users. However, truth be told, it will be more convenient for Premium users, and less convenient for free users. Premium users will be able to essentially queue the download and installation of an entire collection of mods - an experience we could describe as “as close to a one-click installation as possible”. Free users on the other hand will also have full access to collections, but they will need to click and open the download page for every mod in a collection they want to download manually. That way, free users are not simply bypassing the mod author’s page along with our entire revenue stream, as we’re still able to serve them ads via the file download page. The free user experience is therefore going to be a bit like downloading mods in a traditional mod list, with the added convenience of being directed to the exact file, as well as still getting all the automatic conflict resolution benefits through Vortex. The download and installation process can be paused/resumed at pretty much any time, so while less convenient than the “Premium journey”, free users will end up with the same exact result as Premium users - the same collection of mods with the same conflict resolution data as the collection curator intended.

To back this up with a concrete example from testing: using our collections system, just the other day I downloaded and installed an entire collection for Valheim consisting of 50 mods in just under 11 minutes when testing as a free user; as a Premium user the same collection took me 3 minutes to set up.

When the system is ready to go public, both types of membership, Premium and free, will have access to creating/managing/downloading collections, so every user on our site will be able to benefit from this new feature, be it to overhaul their whole game in one swoop, to conveniently share a modest list of their favourite mods with their friends, or to back up their own, personal mod list (without actually reuploading any mods).


[b]Addressing speculation about collections[/b]

This system at this moment is still very much in development and we’re looking at giving it to a first set of trusted users for further testing soon. This means two things: on one hand, we’re not yet ready to show and tell everything about it to everyone as it may very well change in some aspects, and on the other hand, not everything about it is set in stone yet - that is why we are actively looking for feedback from testers in the first place.

Let me say it loud and clear: at this point, and before this news post, no one outside of Nexus Mods had even seen or heard anything about how our collections system actually works or what it looks like, let alone does anyone (and this includes us as well of course) know how exactly everything is going to pan out once collections are released to all of you. Naturally, however, with collections being anticipated as a “big thing” in the modding world, a lot of people have been speculating - but please don’t lose track of the fact that at this point much of what you have been reading, assuming, hypothesising is just that - speculation. 

So far, our stance has been not to talk about our plans for collections publicly at all until the system was ready - the idea behind this approach being that the system should speak for itself. We understand that this stance has been dissatisfying to some, especially to those who speculate that collections will have a negative impact on the community and who thought that our silence meant that we are not seeing or hearing their concerns.

The truth is we are very well aware of the concerns some mod authors have voiced on our forums or when answering our mod author focused survey we ran a while ago (you can find some of the [url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14b5tzMVLZGSxZCgA1HoRPfS4czwNCJ9ZnhS5jEjLm9Q/edit#gid=719026697]data collected from that survey in anonymised form here[/url]). 

One concern we’ve heard from mod authors is the worry over collection curators receiving donations or donation points, and thus taking away from donations for mod authors. To address this I can say that we understand where you’re coming from and, realising the delicate nature of this issue, our plans for the initial public release of collections are not to integrate collections with the Donation Points/mod rewards system. That means that while the mod authors of the mods in a collection are going to receive donation points for every unique download generated through the collection, the collection curators are not going to receive any donation points per download. For the sake of transparency, however, and to be perfectly honest with you: we believe that, much like we do not interfere with mod authors receiving donations for their contributions and work (unless [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/77-donation-options-guidelines]our guidelines[/url] are violated), we should not interfere with users donating their money to collection curators. If you have seen some of the more involved mod lists out there - mod lists that sometimes include over 500 mods - you might be able to see that curating those can be a lot of work. Knowing how to put the mods together, what patches to install, which installer options to choose, how to resolve file conflicts, how to arrange custom rules for the plugin order, writing up instructions for the users etc. is not exactly an easy task when a big mod list is concerned. We think that mod list/collection curators are and will be adding to the community, so we do not believe we should be stopping people from donating to them, if they happen to like what they do. 

To give you another example of a concern we’re aware of: some authors are worried that collections will lead to more users complaining to them when they’re running into issues caused by the interaction with other mods in a collection that user downloaded. This is just another example of a valid concern and one that plays a role when we are designing the system, drafting our terms of service for collections, or when we are planning our future moderation approach. Identifying these possible issues and then taking active measures to prevent/alleviate them is always part of our development process. This is why we’ve invited mod authors to partake in our first external testing cycle, why we did a survey asking mod authors for their input, and why Mike (that’s Pickysaurus) and I spend our days testing, questioning and viewing the system from the mod author perspective to make sure your concerns are heard and addressed as much as possible.

That being said, this is a project that is still in development and we’re likely not going to get everything right immediately. However, let me assure you that we are aware of the concerns that have been raised so far, we’re actively working on catering for them and we will be working with testers to help us iron out as many niggles as possible before it is released to the public. 


[b]Where we want to go from here[/b]

At this moment we have already committed close to two years of development time, blood, sweat and tears to creating this collections system. As a team we went through many, many meetings and had long, heartfelt discussions about the ins and outs to make sure we get this right for mod authors, users, and collection curators alike. We would not have done that if we were not strongly convinced that collections will be the key to achieving our goal of making modding easier for everyone. Over almost two decades now, we have come to learn that this is a strongly desired feature by many, many people in the gaming world. We know from first-hand experience that this is a feature people have been asking for, not just to completely overhaul their games in a more convenient fashion, but to be able to share cool mod setups with their friends, or the mod list that they’re using on their particular gaming server. 

Much like the way that we are listening to the concerns of those worried voices in the mod author community, we are paying equal attention to ensuring that our collection system will be simple to use and convenient - as close as possible to the vision of “modding made easy” many people have been sharing with us for so long.

If we can pull this off - and this is our core conviction - everyone will win:

[list]
[*]Existing mod users stand to gain added convenience. They will be able to explore entirely different mod setups much, much more easily. 
[*]New mod users will appear and start modding their games, now that modding is more accessible.
[*]Mod authors will benefit from a larger audience and accumulate more downloads and donation points (mod rewards). 
[*]Growth of the entire “modding ecosystem” meaning more mod users, more mod authors, and more mods.
[/list]
The last two points bring us to something Robin (aka Dark0ne, the site owner) has been aiming for ever since our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13611]Donation Points system went live[/url]: mod authors being able to make a living from sharing their creations on Nexus Mods.

Just in case you were not aware: in 2018 we established a system that allows mod authors to earn “donation points” based on the number of downloads they accumulate with their mods. These points can then be redeemed in our DP store either against a PayPal payout, to buy game keys, or to donate to charity.

The money to fund this pool comes from two sources: users who contribute to the [url=https://www.patreon.com/nexusmods]Mod Author Donation Fund[/url] on Patreon which accounts for a small percentage of the total funds (4.1%), and us - Nexus Mods (95.9%). To this day, we have contributed over $750,000 to this fund. You can view all relevant stats and breakdowns on the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/donation-points/]dedicated Donation Points page[/url].

This Donation Points system and our ongoing contribution to it is evidence of our commitment to giving back to the mod authors who make all of this possible in the first place. None of us would be here if it wasn’t for mod authors creating amazing mods and choosing to share them on our site. Not only are we fully aware of that, with the implementation of a tool suite for mod uploads/management, the DP system, and the way we moderate the site enforcing our rules, we have always taken a very author-centric approach to honour this fact.

We have heard the speculations and worries of those who believe the collections system will only serve to disadvantage mod authors, but we believe that, if done right, not only will we be able to alleviate many concerns, but moreover mod authors will massively gain from it with some even being able to finally earn a living through mod rewards.

Of course it is too early to tell or make promises, but as Robin (Dark0ne) has previously pointed out and stated publicly in [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14453]his last year in review post[/url]: the dream behind the DP system has always been that at one point we could feed a seven figure sum into it per year. That’s at least a “1” with six zeros, in other words [b]at least 1 million US dollars - for mod authors, every year[/b].

It is without a doubt an extremely ambitious goal, but we believe that together we can achieve it, and this is the way to do just that: make modding easier for everyone and grow the modding community as a whole, with the engine of change being a powerful, feature rich, easy-to-use collections system.
  

[b]A change to file deletions and an important notice in light of collections[/b]

If you have come this far in reading this massive wall of text then you will hopefully recall two key points I am trying to convey: our goal is to make modding easier for everyone, and we believe a powerful collection system is the way to achieve this goal. It is important to understand those two points because it now leads us to a technical change we have to roll out in anticipation of collections.

To ensure that the collections system can function properly and be as solid a feature as it can be, we have to address the problem that mod/file deletions pose - in general for the site, and for collections in particular.

This year, we’re celebrating our 20 year anniversary and suffice to say that two decades ago no one could have imagined that at one point we’d be the world's largest modding community with over 27 million members and our database growing, on average, by 2TB of new mods/files every month with roughly one thousand new files being uploaded every day. While this is a fantastic development, it is also posing a massive challenge on the technical side of things. Back in the days we did not have a full team of developers as we do now and as a result, the site’s legacy code and framework are unfortunately not set up in a way that makes it easy to absorb this sort of tremendous growth we have seen. Some technical decisions that were made years or even a decade ago, are now causing us problems down the line and are affecting our service and your user experience. Back then we only had the best of intentions, but we did not have the foresight to anticipate what the implementation of a given feature for mod authors or mod users would mean for a future when Nexus Mods had suddenly grown to be twice, three times, or ten times its size.

The result of this is a lot of technical debt that is at times slowing down progress and the implementation of new features for all of you, because - if we want to keep growing but also just to ensure the site is working as intended - we have to address this debt first. In the recent past and at this moment we have been and we are working on just that. We have hired an entire team of developers (in fact [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/careers/#current-positions]we’re looking for another to join our team[/url]) and implemented a myriad of backend changes to bring the site’s foundation up to speed. While the backend optimisations we have implemented are significant, unfortunately for most of you, me, and the not so technical minded, they are mostly of the “boring” variety - things that make a huge difference behind the scenes, but that are practically invisible to the average user - due to their backend nature. Nonetheless for this tell-all post, I wanted to give an overview of just some of the backend work that we have done in the last years, with the goal of laying a solid foundation for future development:

[list]
[*]We have totally redeveloped login and registration for the website, removing the integration with the forum and creating a modern authentication system that can support the addition of new features.
[*]The notification system has been rebuilt from the ground up to support many different types of notifications. The old notification system was a huge strain on our primary database and this new one is built with scalability in mind.
[*]We have totally rebuilt the upload system and the way we store and serve files. The upload system now deals with around 1,000 files per day that are uploaded in chunks and have to be rebuilt, virus scanned, content previewed, and uploaded to multiple different content delivery networks.
[*]We have implemented a new ‘layer’ of search that the website uses to attempt to return results more quickly without hitting our primary database. Before, whenever site traffic peaked, the website used to be much slower, but with this new system the average page load times are now 3x quicker.
[/list]
As we are now the biggest modding site on the planet, it’s no surprise that all the data surrounding mods and files acts as the absolute centrepoint for everything on the site. How good our service is and how solid our future foundation for building upon can possibly be all depends on having all of our ducks in a row - and in our case that means millions of “ducks” (= files). Unfortunately, due to decisions made in the past, this is not always the case and we’re now all paying the price for that. When files are deleted for good, the result is at best a loss of information, at worst it can be the cause for confusion on a database level. Deleted files can reappear when uploaded with a different name, or disappear entirely without a trace of metainformation. If you look at this issue knowing that we are receiving 1,000 new files every day, 2 TB worth of files every month, then you might be able to see that what sounds like a niche problem for deleted files, can easily scale to become a significant problem that is eroding the integrity of our database. What this means for you reading this is that because this database is very tricky to work with, developers working on improvements for the site as well as community tool-creators will have a much more difficult time trying to make sense of it and as a result take much longer, or be completely unable to improve the site/their tools for the benefit of users.

For our collections system this means that no matter how much care and effort has been put into curating a collection of dozens or hundreds of mods, as soon as one or several files in that collection are deleted by a mod author - for whatever reason - the collection is essentially and immediately “dead in the water” until the curator can replace or remove the particular file. Of course, if that mod file was an integral building block for the collection, then fixing it will become a much more difficult task, potentially impossible. As a result every user who has since downloaded this collection may run into issues when trying to update it, or - if they hadn’t downloaded the collection fully yet - when setting it up in the first place. As some, but not all, collections may consist of hundreds of well-curated mods, the likelihood of a random mod file deletion affecting it increases, and the potential for collection users being left with the broken pieces is significant. It is therefore crucial to understand that the current “Wild West” situation of file deletions and missing data has serious implications for the immediate future of collections, a feature that we are convinced will be pivotal for achieving our goal of making modding more accessible.

That being said, please note that the general technical reasons for why file deletions are a concern is not merely a figleaf to hide the fact that this is mostly a problem for collections. Let me stress that even without collections in the picture, file deletions and disappearing data constitute a problem and create a development environment that cannot serve as a strong foundation for the future of our platform. 


[b]File archiving[/b]

Recognising these problems, we made the difficult decision to change how file deletions work. Instead of permanently removing a file, mod authors can now choose to archive it which will move it into a file archive and make it impossible to download directly unless specifically requested e.g. via the API. What this means is that when an author archives a file, for most intents and purposes, it is now gone and removed from the files tab, but it can still be downloaded via a collection and the metadata (information) about the file is still in the database. This change therefore addresses both technical problems laid out above, while leaving mod authors with the ability to remove files from view into a “file archive” that serves as a point of reference.

We recently announced this change as it went live on our development Discord server - a place for community tool-creators serving as direct line of communication to our webteam - to give a heads up just in case the change was breaking API related functionality for their tools. We then announced and explained the reasoning behind this change in our mod author forums - a semi-private subforum only accessible to mod authors (you can now [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/10206038-change-to-file-deletions-for-reference/]read that announcement here[/url]). In the wake of these announcements, we have received feedback and suggestions from mod authors and tool-creators alike. In the announcement thread, several mod authors have voiced concerns that I’d like to address:

First of all, several mod authors explained they’re worried about regular users being able to see the “file archive” with all the archived files, as it is viewable via a button at the bottom of the files tab. Their worry was that users might view those files and then ask for them to be made available, or otherwise request support for files the author has essentially discarded. 

We listened to this feedback and as a result of that implemented the option for authors to hide the file archive from regular users. While there is a bit of a tradeoff here as some information will be lost for the user if a mod author decides to hide the file archive, we understand why this was something mod authors requested and we were happy to reach this compromise.

Some mod authors brought up the necessity of deleting files that are plain broken and thus useless to the end-user. We do think there is merit to the argument that completely broken files should be deleted, and, at the present moment, we’re open to considering deletion requests based on this on a case by case basis. Down the line, however, we are planning to completely revamp mod and file data management into a much more powerful system that will offer authors better integration with other mods/files. In such a system as we envision it, there will be tools to deal with files that are utterly broken. Our goal ultimately is not to prevent deletions of files that are broken, it is to prevent arbitrary deletions eroding the integrity of the database on one hand, and undermining the collections system on the other. When we’re ready to move closer towards this system, we’ll be more than happy to reach out for feedback from mod authors to make sure they get the toolsuite that would be most useful to them. That being said, let us be clear about the fact that we’re not going to bring back support for random file deletions, due to the problems they cause.

Another concern that was voiced is that this change marks a loss of control for mod authors, as they are no longer able to fully delete their files. Let me start by saying that for most users and in most cases, a file that is archived is no longer easily accessible as the request needs to be specific and the requesting user will need both the mod id as well as the file id - meta information that is not easily obtained by the averagely tech-minded user. Secondly, let me be very clear that we (that is admins and moderators) are still permanently deleting any and all files that are violating our rules, for example in cases where someone has been using assets from another author without their express permission. Once deleted by an admin or moderator, a file will no longer be served, and thus no longer be available in any form. That being said, for those mod authors who want to maintain a level of control where they can hard delete any file, at any point in time, for any reason - yes, this is a change you are not going to like, and we’ve heard you loud and clear.

The mod author in me can empathise with this position, and, truth be told, back in the days when I was actively making mods I was firmly in the camp of “maintaining control” as well. We do believe that we have very good reasons for why this change is necessary though: We as a team have had many discussions about this particular change, and it was not lost on us that a contingent of mod authors is not going to like it. Bringing our approach to file deletions/archiving more in line with what is standard for comparable services, however, as we are strongly convinced, is absolutely crucial in achieving our goals of both removing more and more of the technical debt by sorting out database level issues, as well as making modding easier through a robust, feature-rich, collections system.

Unfortunately, unlike with the compromise we were able to reach with several mod authors in regards to the option to hide the file archive, there is just no way to square these two positions. We believe that this is a necessary change in order to make modding more accessible, grow our community, and get into a position where we can fuel the Donation Points system/mod rewards with enough funds to enable mod authors to earn a living salary through modding. If you do not share our conviction, don’t want to participate, don’t care about collections or any of this then that is fine - no hard feelings - you are entitled to your own opinion and we will not censor discourse on that, if it’s respectful and taking place in the proper channels. However, then we really need to be honest with ourselves and accept the fact that you and us are simply not on the same page.

This brings us to another hot topic surrounding collections: the question of opting out of the collections system. Ever since the news broke that we are working on a collections system, a small contingent of mod authors (and we know this from the data we collected) have expressed concerns and asked for the option to opt their mods out of the system. In other words, they’d like to have the ability to prevent collection curators from putting their mods into their lists. There are two layers to this request: 

First of all, we believe that much like you couldn’t reasonably ask for someone not to put your mod in a traditional mod list they curated for, let’s say, the best possible modded wizard playthrough for Skyrim, the same request does not make sense for collections either: Collections are, as explained above, essentially mere reference lists for Vortex to know what files to download for you. When you host your mods on Nexus Mods you are making them accessible to users regardless of what way they choose to download them. As much as we do not think anyone but the user should control whether they download a file with Google Chrome or Firefox, we do not believe mod authors should control whether their files are being downloaded manually, with a download or mod manager, or through our collections system. Secondly, for similar reasons as file deletions, if we did provide an opt out option then any mod author opting any mod/file out for any reason could essentially torpedo the whole system, undermining collections from the very beginning. Because of these two reasons, this is simply not an option that we can reasonably provide.

Lastly, let me address the voices in the modding/mod author community who are opposed to the whole concept of collections, who believe it is a terrible idea that will only have negative effects. Above all, I sincerely hope that I could reach at least some of you by explaining all of the above and maybe, even if we still don’t see eye to eye on everything, you can now better understand where we’re coming from. For those of you, however, who are still staunchly and vehemently against all of this and/or believe that they “learned modding the hard way, and so can they!”: we’ve heard you, believe me, we did. We tried our best (and this essay is evidence of that) to provide our reasoning, to collect feedback, and to work with your concerns in mind when going through the internal development process. However, we’ve now reached an impasse and we have to accept that there might be a gap between us that cannot be bridged. We simply do not believe that modding should remain inaccessible to the less tech-savvy, just because that is how it has always been. We are actively trying to work towards making it easier for people to mod their games and to become part of our community. Let me say that it is ok to have completely different opinions, but when your views are simply antithetical to our goals and convictions then we’re at a point where we simply cannot continue our journey together, as there is no compromise to be reached.

What we can do, however - and we’re doing this in the spirit of honouring your conviction that you should maintain control over your content being hosted or deleted - is to give you the choice.

This is why with this news post and with an accompanying email being sent out to all mod authors on our site (which should go out in the next few days), we’re letting you know that over the next 30 days you can now request all of your files currently hosted on Nexus Mods to be deleted by sending an email to support@nexusmods.com. Once you have formalised the request, we will delete all of your files the same way we would have before implementing the file archiving change - no questions asked. The deleted files will no longer be served by us in any way, shape, or form, including via the API/collections.

Here’s an overview of the deletion requesting process:

[list]
[*]Until [b]5 August 2021[/b] (10:00 AM BST), you may request all of your files to be deleted permanently from our services. Requests received until that date will be processed even after the deadline has expired.
[*][s]In order to streamline the process you may only request to have all of your files deleted (all or nothing)[/s]. If you'd like some, but not all of your files deleted please [url=https://www.cognitoforms.com/NexusMods/FileDeletionRequestForm]fill out and send in this form[/url], which will act as your one-off deletion request.
[*]We will only be processing deletion requests based on [url=https://www.cognitoforms.com/NexusMods/FileDeletionRequestForm]the form for partial deletion requests linked above[/url] as well as [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/116-how-do-i-request-all-my-files-to-be-deleted-july-august-2021]this template[/url] sent to [url=mailto:support@nexusmods.com]support@nexusmods.com[/url].
[*]We can only honour deletion requests sent from the email attached to your account.
[*]To fully process the deletion: after receiving your email, we will send you a personal message on our site/forums to confirm the deletion and you will need to respond to it before the deadline expires.
[*]The announced changes to file deletions i.e. the introduction of file archiving remain active.
[*]Should you not request a full deletion of your files until the designated deadline, you accept that going forward your files will only be deleted at the discretion of staff.
[*]You accept that new files uploaded to our services after the designated deadline will only be deleted at the discretion of staff.
[*]The option to archive your files at any time is not affected by this.
[*]The status of your Nexus Mods account will not be affected either way i.e. your account is not going to be deleted or suspended whether you request a deletion of your files or not, unless you specifically request it.
[/list]

We understand that some of you will not like this, but I sincerely hope we’ve managed to explain why we’re convinced that this is the way to move forward from here on. It might not be what we all wanted, but we think this way is fair, as you get to make your choice.

In any event, should you choose to have your files deleted or not, there aren’t any hard feelings from our side. If anything, this was a tough choice for us to make, but one that we believe is ultimately in our joint best interest as a community. 


[b]If you are still reading this...[/b]

I think after 20 years of the site’s existence this post is a strong contender for the longest news post in Nexus Mods history! If you have actually read all of this, you honestly deserve a medal!

In all seriousness though: when I joined Nexus Mods as a user in 2005, I never could have anticipated the levels of growth this community would experience - but here we are at well over 27 million members, hosting more than 300,000 mods for almost 1,337 games. It is absolutely mindblowing and I can only assure you that we, the Nexus Mods team in our offices in Exeter (or working from home thanks to the pandemic), are spending our days working hard on ensuring that this journey is far from over. We believe making modding easier is the way to go, and we are buzzing with excitement knowing that it will hopefully not be too much longer before we can share what we’ve been working on for so long with all of you.

So, from everyone at Nexus Mods, thank you for reading, thank you for (hopefully) understanding, and thank you for your continued support over the years, nay, the last two decades.

- The Nexus Mods Team

Siege Survival: Gloria Victis released on Steam last month and the good people at Koch Media have partnered with us to give away 35 copies of the game to the Nexus Mods community! 

[url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167140/Siege_Survival_Gloria_Victis/]Siege Survival[/url] is a new resource management survival game set in the medieval world of Gloria Victis. You play as a small group of civilians trapped in the only remaining stronghold of your city which is under a brutal siege by an invading army. 

The gameplay loop is split between a day and night cycle. During the day you are tasked with building up your camp, managing your limited resources and crafting supplies to support the last soldiers standing against the overwhelming enemy forces. At night, you must bravely scour the fallen city for supplies and recruit new civilians to join your camp - while evading enemy patrols. 

The whole game is developed on a powerful game editor platform created with the goal of sharing both the game and the tools with the modding community. This will allow players to create new scenarios and expand the universe of Gloria Victis with their own stories and ideas. Scenario Editor makes it possible to create limitless replayability and extend the fun further beyond.

We've been chatting with the Community Manager for Siege Survival who is a big fan of modding games and has very generously secured 35 copies of the game for our community to enjoy. 

For your chance to win, all you need to do is click the banner below and submit your entries via the Gleam widget before [b]23rd June 2021[/b]. 

[url=https://gleam.io/dGMLc/siege-survival-giveaway][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1623931150-1717236236.jpeg[/img][/url]

[b]Don't forget to leave a comment on this article too or your entries won't be counted![/b]

There will also be an additional 10 copies of the game available specifically to mod authors who are interested in trying out the modding tools in the next few days, along with documentation around how to use them. You can check out an example mod [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/siegesurvivalgloriavictis/mods/1]here[/url]. 

If you're interested in giving Siege Survival a try you can download a free demo version from the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1167140/Siege_Survival_Gloria_Victis/]Steam page[/url] and if you're not lucky enough to win this time you can pick up a copy in the Steam Summer sale!

A huge thank you to the great people at Koch Media for providing the keys for this giveaway!

It's that time of year again! The Morrowind May Modathon 2021 starts today celebrating 19 years of modding for The Elder Scrolls III. Upload a mod for Morrowind during the month for your chance to win prizes and unlock some special achievements. 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/6ZudLFt.png[/img]As usual, here are the full details from [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13682]darkelfguy[/url]:

[quote]Celebrating Morrowind's 19th anniversary, today I'm announcing the seventh annual Morrowind May Modathon Month Modding Competition, one of the biggest annual modding competitions in The Elder Scrolls modding community, will be returning on May 1st! Once again this year, the Modathon will run throughout the entire month of May, and participating Morrowind mods will have a chance to unlock a number of new achievements, win prizes, and compete to become the ultimate modding champions of 2021!
 
Last year was one of the biggest years in Morrowind modding in well over a decade, with over 1300 new mods getting released in 2020, and nearly 230 of those were released for last year's Modathon! And this year, we're looking to beat that record! Once again, we have over 70 achievements for modders to unlock, for everything from building an epic dungeon, to writing an invigorating series of quests, to replacing the game's graphics, adding new gameplay effects, and so much more! Unlock as many as you can!
 
Participation is simple, any Morrowind mod released in May can be entered into the competition, just remember to include a tagline "Part of the May Modathon Month" near the top of your mod's description, or use the Modathon 2021 tag to enter your mod as part of the competition. You'll be automatically entered to potentially win one of our weekly random-drawing prizes, and of course unlock achievements!

Mod your way to fame and glory in the biggest modding event of the year, and help celebrate one of the greatest games ever made! The best games never die, so get out there, have fun, and build a ton of mods to make this great game even better than ever before!

The competition runs from May 1st through to June 1st, and you can find out more about how to participate, along with a complete list of achievements, [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/9954963-morrowind-may-modathon-month-2021-celebrating-19-years-of-morrowind/]over on the official announcement thread![/url]

[b]- darkelfguy / Morrowind Modding Showcases[/b][/quote]

[size=4]How do I enter?[/size]

All you need to do is make sure your mod page is appropriately tagged with "May Modathon 2021" which can be added either from the "Classification" section on your mod details page or by selecting it from the tagging window. Easy peasy!
[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1588320985-124140221.jpeg[/img][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1588320990-53999511.jpeg[/img]

Entries can be filtered using the site search or by clicking [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/?tags_yes%5B%5D=4263]here[/url], if you want to keep track of all the cool new mods that get uploaded during the event.

A big Nexus Mods thank you to darkelfguy for keeping the tradition alive and running these events every year. You truly are a pillar of the community.

Good luck everyone!

Today we are talking to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/users/9322077?tab=user+files&BH=0]randyknapp[/url], the author of many UI and quality of life mods for both Valheim and Subnautica, as well as the popular, ARPG inspired Valheim mod: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/387]Epic Loot[/url].

[center][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/387][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/3667/images/387/387-1617426024-323730435.png[/img][/url][/center]
[b]BigBizkit: Thank you for joining us today. First of all could you tell us a little bit about yourself?[/b]

randyknapp: Thanks for having me! I'm Randy, I'm 33, I live in Seattle with my wife and kids. I'm a professional video game developer with 10 years of industry experience.


[b]Just about two months ago Valheim was first released in Early Access. Yet already, we have not only seen an [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/]incredible amount of amazing mods[/url] being released, but you yourself have been quite busy with several releases. How would you generally describe the kind of mod you like to create?[/b]

I'm most experienced with Unity UI, so I tend to focus on improving usability in the UI or adding new UI that improves some aspect of the game. Oftentimes there's just a niche or a space in the game that wasn't filled by the devs and I can find a way to fill that space. Other times I care about removing tedium or repetitive tasks, especially in survival games. Other than that, the main thing is that I create mods that I want to use. I make them exactly the way I want them, and I generally play the game with all of my own mods installed. Honestly I'm a huge proponent of making games into the game you want to play. Developer intent is important, but like, making it into the thing you want is just as valuable.


[b]In terms of Valheim modding you are most well known for two mods in particular: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/92]Equipment and Quick Slots[/url] as well as [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/387]Epic Loot[/url] - both of which are a staple in my game. Can you tell us a bit about those two mods?[/b]

EAQS was a quick and dirty mod that I tried to get out as soon as possible. I personally wanted a lore-friendly way to increase my inventory space as well as add a few more quickslots, especially since in vanilla the keys for the built-in hotkey bar are not configurable! I honestly wasn't very happy with the implementation of first iteration of it, the inventory system is really hard to mod and it came with a bunch of issues, including a lot of conflicts with other mods. The second version of that mod tries to address some of those issues...but has a few more of its own too. It's a bit of a headache, haha! Ah well.

I'm having so much fun with Epic Loot. I think Valheim is an awesome game, and the vanilla experience is great. But I had a wild hare about Diablo-style loot drops and whipped up the mod, and people have absolutely loved it. I've gotten so much positive feedback about it, it makes me feel really good. Anyway, I love Diablo, Borderlands, The Division, and other looter-shooter/ARPGs and I thought it would be an awesome addition to the game. I am glad I released as early access too. When you release a finished mod and there's bugs, people yell at you. When you release an early access mod, they just report the bugs trying to be helpful! I love it! Plus I've gotten to chat with so many fans of the mod that have great ideas, or helpful suggestions, it's been really nice.

[center][img width=800,height=556]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1617199195-1030619593.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]I have to say that Epic Loot truly is an epic mod which adds so much to the gameplay experience! What gave you the idea and confidence that you could pull off such a detailed and polished mod?[/b]

Uh, interesting question. I love games, I've loved games since I was a kid, and I've always been a designer at heart. I got my start making levels for Warcraft 2, and it led to a lot of hobby level editing and game design for Warcraft 3, Starcraft, and a slew of Half-Life games and mods. So even though I'm a programmer in my day job, I love designing games and telling stories. (I released a pen-and-paper tactics RPG last year, Zafir: Tactical Roleplaying Game, go check it out ([url=https://www.zafirgame.com/]www.zafirgame.com[/url])! Anyway, I love making games, so doing Epic Loot as an additional layer on top of Valheim is sort of like designing a brand new game system, but super interesting because I've got to work within all the constraints of the existing game... and know where to break it to make the experience better. I dunno if I would call it "detailed and polished" yet, I released it as Early Access for a reason, but thank you, I do try to pay a lot of attention to the little things. 


[b]Not going to lie: at first I thought Valheim wasn't for me, but once I got into it I got hooked. Now I have a bit over 140 hours in it already! What do you think is it about Valheim that made it into such a hit - both as a game and in terms of modding?[/b]

Ah man, this is exactly my kind of game. I think it became a hit because they did a phenomenal job with the content ramp through the game. There are clear gates and progression blockers that drive the player in the right direction without being too forceful about it. Like other survival games, it helps players form goal loops that never really end, so its easy to get caught up playing and play for hours. You know, the "I need some fine wood for a thing, oh I need a better axe, oh I still need to find some tin, and oh I'm fighting a troll and I should make better troll armor, but I need bone shards, so I should go hit that dungeon I saw, and, and and..." type of game.

[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/3667/images/92/92-1616034239-2054446281.png[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1155/images/14/14-1519235698-98238640.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]
You’re no stranger to Unity modding and have already made a name for yourself as the author of some of the most popular Subnautica mods. How did you first get into modding and being a creator?[/b]

Well, like I mentioned, I did a lot of it when I was a kid, but nothing ever really got popular and I focused on getting into the games industry as a programmer, not a designer. A few years ago I got obsessed with Subnautica when it came out, and once I realized it was a Unity game, I dug into figuring out how to mod for it. The scene was really bare back then. There was no mod loader. There wasn't a nexus page for Subnautica yet. A bunch of people were releasing modified Subnautica DLLs which is a huge no-no, both legally and logistically. Everyone was releasing their mods on their own personal sites with custom installers and stuff. It was a mess, and no one was willing to agree on what a "good mod loader" should be. So this other modder, qwiso, and I developed QModManager, got it on the Nexus and made it a LOT easier for people to create and use mods, and have them work alongside each other. That was the big push that I think kicked off that community. Then it was a matter of doing what I like to do: making UI improvements and quality of life mods. [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/14]MoreQuickSlots[/url] was a hit, and then the big one was [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica/mods/31]AutosortLockers[/url], which reduced the tedium of that part of Subnautica a lot.


[b]Do you have any favourite mods from other authors?[/b]

Yeah for sure, I love everything by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/users/18901754?tab=user+files&BH=0]aedenthorn[/url], I use several of theirs: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/85]Clock[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/40]CraftFromContainers[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/218]HereFishy[/url], just to name a few. [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/236]HoldAttack[/url] is really great on my clicking finger. And I feel like [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/170]AnyPortal[/url] is a must, I mean I liked making a portal hub in my first playthrough, but after that it can get a little overwhelming.


[b]If you had to live in either the world of Subnautica or Valheim - which one would you pick and why?[/b]

Oh easy, Subnautica. I'm a huge sci-fi buff, and even though that society might be a capitalist dystopian nightmare, at least they have warp drives and interstellar travel. Subnautica, ironically I guess, is my relaxation game. When I'm stressed out I can boot up Subnautica, start a new game and just enjoy swimming and collecting. Valheim is a fun game and all but, you know, you're dead.


[b]What are some of your favourite things to do outside of modding and gaming?[/b]

I love cooking. My wife and I are working through an awesome cook book right now, trying a lot of new things. Did I mention I have little kids? I don't have a lot of free time besides that!

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1617203888-1625595675.jpeg[/img]

[b]What advice would you give anyone looking to get into modding in general and Unity modding in particular?[/b]

Leave your ego at the door. You can always learn more, always improve. That being said, Unity is a great way to get into game dev. There are TONS of tutorials and other resources for making stuff, plus tons of free assets on the asset store. It's the best way to play around and get your feet wet with game dev. And C# is pretty easy to pick up and get going with, and and has the same benefit of a massive amount of online documentation, answers, and resources. My biggest piece of advice is this: start small and finish. Don't start by thinking you're going to make your own MMO or Soulslike or something. Just start by making Tic Tac Toe. Or Yahtzee. Or something equally small and concrete. And then finish it. Aiming for something small and simple and working on it all the way until it's done is going to teach you so so much more than just noodling on something and never getting around to solving the hard problems required to get it done. And have fun! Modding lets you do what you love with games that you love, embrace that.


[b]Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community? [/b]

Let's keep building each other up, supporting each other, and helping the community grow and learn together!

[line]
A big thank you to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/users/9322077?tab=user+files&BH=0]randyknapp[/url] for taking the time to talk to us! If there's an author or mod project you'd like to know more about, send your suggestions to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url] or [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url]. 

If Morrowind modding sounds like your jam, we have something special for you brought to you by organizer [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1233897]Danae123[/url] - please take it away!
[line]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]The third edition of the Morrowind modding competition "MODJAM" is upon us and it's back with a revenge![/font]

[b]So basically...
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Come April 3rd (yes, this weekend!!), modders have 48 hours to make a mod based on a theme announced minutes before the jam begins. Simple enough, right?[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]
[list]
[*][font=Roboto, sans-serif]Modders can work alone or in teams.[/font]
[*][font=Roboto, sans-serif]Modders' resources are allowed (with permissions and credits of course)[/font]
[/list][/font]

[b]About the theme...
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Weeks leading up to the Modjam, themes have been suggested by the community.[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]The week before the jam, [/font][url=https://forms.gle/k1SqoWWbkZZo76dH6]you can vote[/url][font=Roboto, sans-serif] to shortlist 10 themes.[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]An hour before the jam begins (yes, this Friday!!), the top 10 themes will be revealed and the community will vote one last time during a [/font][url=https://www.twitch.tv/danaeplays]livesteam on Twitch[/url][font=Roboto, sans-serif], hosted by DarkElfGuy and me, Danae.
[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]You don't need to join the livesteam to vote, it's just a lot more fun that way ;)[/font]


[b]That's nice, but I don't make mods...
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Aha, we've got you covered! We want the Modjam to be a fun, quick event for everyone who loves Morrowind: modders and players alike.[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]To this end, we have a couple of side-competitions:
[/font]
[list]
[*][i]Best Screenshot:[/i][font=Roboto, sans-serif] while others make a mod, players can play Morrowind and take a screenshot that best illustrates the theme. Just post it on the Nexus under the category "Spring Modjam 2021" before Monday![/font]
[*][i]Modjam Trophy Hunt[/i][font=Roboto, sans-serif]: a very special mod by Merlord will be available during the Modjam [/font][b]only[/b][font=Roboto, sans-serif]! Install the mod, read the clue, find the trophy, take a screenshot as proof. First to find the trophy wins![/font]
[/list]

[b]That's nice, but I don't compete...
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Aha, we've got you covered! In addition to voting on the theme and joining the livestream, you can simply play the Modjam mods and endorse your favourite: a special Player's Choice Award will be given out based on Nexus metrics.[/font]


[b]Ok! Where do I sign up?
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]You don't :) - The Modjam is all about being in the moment! Just tune in for the livestream, make a mod, play mods, take a screenshot. [/font][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/add]Publish your mod[/url] or [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/images/add]upload a [font=Roboto, sans-serif]screenshot[/font][/url][font=Roboto, sans-serif] and tag it "Spring Modjam 2021". That's it!
[/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]We even have a nice banner to put on your Nexus page:
[/font]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/741007470008336465/825987223974576128/ModBanner.png[/img]
[b]
Gotcha, first weekend of April and we're done!
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Not quite... A week after the jam, we'll meet one last time on Twitch to chat with the mod authors, look at their mods and of course to reveal all the winners![/font]


[b]Right, but after that, we're done?
[/b]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]Yup. Spring Modjam over. Get ready for the May Modathon![/font]
[font=Roboto, sans-serif]But that's another story for another time ;)[/font]
 
[url=https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/m6zwkk/the_2021_morrowind_spring_modjam_competition/]Official Reddit Announcement[/url][font=Roboto, sans-serif] from DarkElfGuy.[/font]

[font=Roboto, sans-serif]More about [/font][url=http://danaeplays.thenet.sk/morrowind-modding-competition/]Morrowind Modding competitions[/url]

[url=https://discord.gg/k4xttsnkwu]Morrowind Modding Community[/url][font=Roboto, sans-serif] Discord where mods, projects and competitons are discussed.
[line][/font]
If that has peaked your interest you can keep an eye on [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/]our Morrowind section[/url] to view any new and exciting mod releases. Have fun and best of luck to all participants!

[b]Update on 2021-04-12[/b] - Applications are now closed. Thank you to everyone who has applied. We are currently going through all applications and hope to have our new community manager soon!

----

With Nexus Mods getting bigger and better every year, we're looking to bolster our ranks once again by recruiting a Junior Community Manager to work with our existing team to help us better serve our community.

This position is based in our offices in Exeter in the UK and you will need a right to work in the UK before you apply.

[size=4][b]The Role[/b][/size]
As a Community Manager, it is your responsibility to interact with and look after the Nexus Mods community and understand the needs and wants of the various smaller communities within. You will be the public face of Nexus Mods and the go-to person for any questions users have specifically about the community including our rules and regulations and how we enforce them.

Your position will have both an internal and external focus. On the one hand, helping to manage and look after the community we already have while on the other helping to expand the Nexus Mods community further, inviting new mod authors to join us and expanding our reach into new games.

As part of this role you will help to manage and coordinate our moderation team, ensuring they continue to do a good job, providing them support when needed and helping to find and recruit new members to the team as and when necessary.

You will need to have your finger on the pulse of the Nexus modding community, the general gaming modding community and the wider gaming industry so you can fully represent us in all those spheres. It'll be your job to ensure the Nexus Mods community remains strong and vibrant while continuing to grow.

Nexus Mods now has a strong social media presence on both Twitter and Facebook. As community manager, you will source and post highly relevant content on our social media channels and work to increase our reach in social media through promotions and other mediums.

You'll be learning the ropes of your position from our existing Community Managers - BigBizkit (Stefan) and Pickysaurus (Mike) and reporting directly to Nexus Mods owner, Robin.

[size=4][b]Responsibilities[/b][/size]
[list]
[*]Embodying the spirit and ethos of Nexus Mods as a point of contact for users across our forums, Discord, social media and support platform
[*]Expanding the reach of Nexus Mods by communicating with mod authors from games we do not currently support and helping them bring their mods to Nexus Mods
[*]Liaising with partners and external developers fostering mutually beneficial relationships
[*]Providing the "community perspective" when working together with the Design, Web, or Vortex teams to help steer the development of our platform
[*]Managing and supporting our team of volunteer moderators
[*]Responding to and dealing with high profile issues with moderation on the site
[*]Sourcing engaging social media content and managing our existing channels
[/list]
[size=4][b]Requirements and Skills[/b][/size]
[list]
[*]This is an office-based position. You need a right to work in the UK and a willingness to relocate to Exeter as soon as possible
[*]Strong communication skills both verbally and written (English)
[*]The ability to remain calm and impartial even when people in the community are being unfair or unreasonable, maintaining a professional demeanour throughout
[*]A good understanding of social media and communication platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and Discord
[*]A good understanding of how Nexus Mods works and the rules of Nexus Mods
[*]A deep understanding of how modding works such that you can properly investigate and resolve mod author conflicts regarding asset permissions
[/list]
[b][size=4]Bonus Skills[/size][/b]
[list]
[*]Previous experience making and releasing mods
[*]The ability to pick up and understand how modding works in new games, including Unity and Unreal games that do not have modding tools
[*]Previous experience managing social media platforms via Hootsuite or other comparable SM Management tools
[*]A sense of humour
[*]A love of computer games
[/list]
[b][size=4]Other Information[/size][/b]
[list]
[*]We will offer a competitive market rate salary dependent on your level
[*]32 days holiday a year, plus an additional holiday day after you have worked in the company for 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years
[*]An allowance of 25 Euros each month to spend on video games, to play in your own personal time, that can be unrelated to work (any games you need to do your job are bought by the business!)
[*]Employee Assistance Programme
[*]We will provide high spec hardware for you to work from in the office
[*]For the right candidates, we may be able to assist with relocation expenses and logistics
[*]This is a full-time office-based position from our offices in Exeter, UK
[/list]

Your notifications are getting a facelift! Starting on 22nd March 2021 all users will be upgraded to the shiny new system featuring easy access to their preferences, an improved design and more control directly in the notifications panel. We need to permanently remove all existing notifications with this change, so please use this time to check the ones you currently have if you care about them. There are a few things you need to know before the switch-over happens, so read on for more information.


[size=4]What's happening?
[/size]
Our current notifications system has served the site well for many years but was starting to get a bit old and tired, plus it's not particularly easy to modify or scale up to fit the needs of the growing community. It really began showing its age in September 2020 when the system [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14363]hit some database limits[/url] which required considerable maintenance work to get it going again.

To remedy this, we've built a brand new replacement system from the ground up with a focus on easier access to notification preferences, a cleaner design and full control of your notifications direct from the panel. While it may not look much different from what you're used to, it lays the foundation for a much more powerful and versatile system.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1615220341-1216140555.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1615220337-2064315837.jpeg[/img][/center]

We've migrated all the notification types you're used to into this system, so you shouldn't be missing out on anything. In addition, it's now considerably easier to add new types of notifications to the site. So, if there are any events on the site you wish you were notified about let us know in the comments and we'll see what we can do!

You'll be able to get your hands on the new panel from [b]22nd March 2021[/b], with the old system being switched off the same day.

As a quick summary, here are the things that are new (or different) with the upgraded system:

[list]
[*][b]Read notifications now remain in your notifications panel[/b] - As we've moved all controls for notifications into the panel, you'll be able to see any manage notifications you've already read. Here you'll also find controls to mark them unread or delete them.
[*][b]Quickly toggle notification settings[/b] - Just click the cog icon and you can change your preferences without needing to leave the page you're viewing.
[*][b]90-day cleanup[/b] - One of the problems the old system had is that it kept notifications forever. Meaning inactive users were collecting more and more notifications they may never read or at least would be overwhelmed with when they return. We'll now be keeping notifications for 3 months and then automatically clear them from your panel.
[*][b]No more game-specific notifications[/b] - While this may come off as bad news for some of you, we've removed the ability to filter notifications based on the game site you're viewing. In a [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/9312023-game-specific-notifications-survey/]survey we ran in November 2020[/url] ~75% of users did not use this option and the overall consensus was that it would be largely unnecessary if we allowed more granular control over notifications.
[/list]
As time goes on we'll be iterating on the system to add new notification types and better controls for managing which notifications you receive. For now, we've replicated the "old" system functionality so it should feel both new and familiar to you.


[size=4]What's the catch? [/size]

Unfortunately, the data used by the new system is incompatible with the old system. This means that all of your existing notifications will be [b]permanently removed on 22nd March 2021[/b]. We're giving you a heads up now so you have time to manage any important alerts from the existing system before the switch-over takes place. 


We're keen to see what you guys make of the new system and, as before, please let us know in the comments if you have any good ideas for new types of notifications to show. We might even be able to get some of the best ideas in place in time for launch!

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14458]Two weeks ago[/url] we launched our [b]Nexus Mods Trivia Quiz[/b] as a first of many community events for this year marking the [b]20 year anniversary[/b] of Nexus Mods. We all hope you enjoyed the quiz and if you weren't one of the lucky winners - don't worry. We're planning to do plenty of events like these spread throughout the year, building up to our site's birthday in August.

And with that said, keep on reading to see all the correct answers and to learn who the lucky winners are...


[b][size=3]The Quiz Answers[/size][/b]

Here are the correct answers to the seven questions we asked. Please note that regarding the grading we tried to be both lenient and fair, so we were counting answers as correct even when they were slightly misspelled or more wordy than necessary. 
[line]
[i]1. In December 2020 the long-awaited RPG Cyberpunk 2077 made by CDProjekt Red was finally released. Who is the equally famous and breathtaking voice actor of one of the game’s main characters: Johnny Silverhand? [/i] (2 points)

[b]Correct Answer: Keanu Reeves[/b]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613482081-944305293.jpeg[/img]

In the first question, we were looking for the voice actor of corporate-hating Rockerboy - Johnny Silverhand. The answer, of course, is none other than the internet's most beloved actor: Keanu Reeves. Many of us will remember [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DWap7pS7XM]Keanu Reeves' "breathtaking" performance[/url] at E3 2019 that sparked many feel-good memes. As Johnny, he might be a bit less likeable than real-life Keanu, but he's certainly badass!


[i]2. Looking at our 9 most popular games in terms of total downloads (top row on the homepage) - which of these games is the oldest going by its official release date? (Please only provide the game name as it appears on our homepage) [/i](3 points)

[b]Correct Answer: Oblivion
[/b]
[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613482670-2002943416.jpeg[/img]

The oldest of our 9 most popular games is, indeed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion which was released 20th March 2006 - almost 15 years ago. To put this into perspective, Oblivion came out several months before Facebook switched to open registration (in other words, until then it was exclusive to US universities).

By the way, the second and third oldest games from the top row are: Fallout 3 (28th October 2008) and Dragon Age: Origins (3rd November 2009).


[i]3. Oh no, one of our most popular games of 2020 got pixelized! Can you find out which game we’re looking at here?[/i]  (2 points)

[b]Correct Answer: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord[/b]

[img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613482893-1774020373.jpeg[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613482885-1887770589.jpeg[/img]

Fans of the Mount & Blade series probably didn't need to look at the pixalized game art twice to know that the game we were looking for here had to be Bannerlord.

Since it's Early Access release in March 2020, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has quickly risen to become one of our most popular games. We're very happy to have become the home for Bannerlord modding, now hosting over 2,000 mods that have been downloaded well over 20 million times!
[center] [/center]
[i]4. Which Skyrim (NOT Skyrim Special Edition) mod won the “Mod of the Month” vote in March 2020? (Hint: Check the Mods of the Month in the header)[/i] (3 points)

[b]Correct Answer: Combat Gameplay Overhaul

[img width=700,height=289]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613484867-876848968.jpeg[/img]
[/b]
In March 2020 we saw many awesome Skyrim mods being uploaded, but the one that stood out the most to users was [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/100904]Combat Gameplay Overhaul[/url]. The mod is also [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/33767]available for Skyrim Special Edition[/url] and definitely one I would recommend as it makes combat so much smoother, responsive, and fun!


[i]5. And now the protagonist of one of our most popular games got scrambled! Can you help us unscramble this? (Hint: He likes to scream at people.)[/i] (4 points)

[b]Correct Answer: DOVAHKIIN[/b]

[img width=280,height=280]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613485631-732891572.jpeg[/img]

He might come in all forms, shapes, and sizes (even as a tiny little duck, apparently), but the protagonist of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is typically referred to as "Dragonborn" - or "Dovahkiin" in dragon tongue. And of course, one of the Dovahkiin's favourite things to do is to shout at people - especially when they're named Nazeem and standing on a cliffside.


[i]6. How many members do we have on Nexus Mods (rounded to the nearest million)? (Hint: Check the homepage.)[/i] (2 points)

[b]Correct Answer: 25 Million[/b]

[img width=800,height=178]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613487089-650892345.jpeg[/img]

Yep, it took 20 years to get here, but we recently passed the 25 million members mark - which is an absolutely epic milestone in the history of Nexus Mods. Thank you all so much for joining our site - to those of you who stuck with us through all the years, and to all the newcomers - welcome!


[i]7. You can tell we’ve saved the best for last! We’ve designed an amazing new cover art for one of our most popular games. Can you guess which one it is? [/i](4 points)

[b]Correct Answer: Blade & Sorcery[/b]

[img width=502,height=300]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1613487642-914035332.jpeg[/img] [img width=240,height=300]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/Images/games/4_3/tile_2673.jpg[/img]

Taking inspiration from the works of Picasso, Rembrandt, van Gogh, and Shia LaBeouf, yours truly painted a brand new cover art for one of our most popular games on the site: the VR hit [b]Blade & Sorcery[/b]. I haven't spoken to KospY, the creator of the game, about replacing the existing cover art yet, but I think I managed to capture the essence of the game quite well. What do you think? 

[line]

And that's it! If you got all of these right then congratulations and kudos to you for scoring 20/20!

How many points did you score? Let us know in the comments below! (If you're in doubt, I'll be able to check your entry to tell you your score).


[size=3][b]The Winners[/b][/size]

We had many many entries, but there can only be six total winners, and only one lucky winner who will soon be able to call themselves the proud owner of their very own Nexus Mods branded mug! (It's even shinier than last time...)

[img width=900,height=479]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1614011140-1918865994.jpeg[/img]

So, without further ado, the winners are: 

The winners of [b]3 x £10 Steam Gift Cards[/b] (one each)
[spoiler]
[list]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/41664045]Domizerro[/url]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1064519]pascaliedema[/url]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/44870342]WolfTheKiller66[/url]
[/list][/spoiler]

The winners of [b]2 x £25 Steam Gift Cards[/b] (one each)
[spoiler]
[list]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/40324940]Shemiroth[/url]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/36808780]krystian28021996[/url]
[/list][/spoiler]

...and last but not least, the winner of the main prize [b]a MUG-nificent, Nexus Mods branded coffee/tea/milk mug - as well as a game of your choice[/b]...
[spoiler]
[list]
[*][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/5922654]TheGreatFalro[/url]
[/list][/spoiler]

Congratulations to the winners! Make sure to check your private messages on Nexus Mod for a message from staff regarding your prizes.

And to everyone else who didn't win this time: thanks for playing and maybe you get lucky next time. There will be plenty of opportunities this year to get your hands on some prizes - so stay tuned!

Vortex 1.4 is here - fresh out the oven! A lot has happened since our last [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14333]Vortex related news update in September[/url]. Our devs have been working through many of your feature suggestions and implemented some very handy new improvements that will make your modding lives a bit easier. Keep on reading if you'd like to know more about what's new in 1.4.

[i]Vortex 1.4. has been released on the beta branch on 10th February 2021. Go to your "Settings > Vortex > Update" and select "Beta" to opt into the beta branch and start testing the newest releases as soon as they're available. After this initial testing phase, we're expecting to release 1.4 in the "Stable" branch very soon.[/i]

[center][url=http://nexusmods.com/site/mods/1][/url][/center][center][url=http://nexusmods.com/site/mods/1][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596718710-1830764704.png[/img][/url][/center]

[size=4]Big quality of life improvements![/size]

[b]Automatically install mods after they've finished downloading[/b]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1611674665-958220389.jpeg[/img]

Our devs have added an awesome convenience feature that allows you to have your mods automatically installed as soon as they finish downloading. Now you can queue a download for a larger mod, go off to play games, cook dinner, train your pet [url=https://www.google.com/search?q=tarsier&rlz=1C1GCEA_enGB824GB824&sxsrf=ALeKk02TdEE1lEL0eJNEuR0jlQpvkxZ60w:1613055235193&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWta-Ci-LuAhUIYsAKHb3MDs8Q_AUoAXoECCEQAw&biw=2048&bih=954]tarsier[/url] to hum the Skyrim theme tune, (or other, normal human things) and when you come back your mod is installed and ready to go!

Paired with our other automation features, you can now download, install, enable, and deploy a mod with just one click and (as long as there are no conflicts with other mods) you're ready to go. Simply toggle all the automation features ("Settings > Interface"), initiate a Vortex download by clicking the "Download: Vortex" button on a mod page and Vortex will run through all the steps from installation to deployment once the download is done!


[b]Auto-shutdown Vortex and your PC when downloads are finished[/b]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1611674516-321200939.jpeg[/img]

This is another quality of life improvement especially for those of you with slower internet speeds. Now you can queue large downloads, leave them on overnight and rest easy knowing that Vortex will close itself and schedule your computer to turn off once the downloads are finished. I wish Steam had this feature!


[size=4]Event History[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1611674521-827147118.jpeg[/img]

Have you ever clicked a few too many buttons a bit too quickly and now you don't remember what exactly it was that you did? Well, with this most recent improvement, thanks to our developers, this is now... history (pun intended)! Simply click this new button in the toolbar to view a history/log of your last [b]100[/b] actions in Vortex:

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1612969177-856266750.jpeg[/img]

(For the Bethesda games, you can also bring up a separate Event History specific to plugins by clicking the history icon in the toolbar on the plugins screen).

Note that while enabling/disabling mods can be undone through this dialogue (if the mod is currently disabled/enabled), not all actions are reversible - but at the very least, you can now get an overview of where you left off last time you used Vortex.


[size=4]Filters and Search for the Conflict Editor (Rule Dialogue)[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1612963633-1506723142.jpeg[/img]

We've also made some improvements to the conflict editor that allows you to specify rules to determine which mods should override others. You can now use the search or apply a filter and hide resolved conflicts to only view unresolved conflicts that require your attention. We've also made it easier to apply a "before/after all" rule for a mod and added the option to use the suggested load order for all mods that are conflicting with each other as a quick way of resolving all conflicts.

[i]Please make sure to read the dialogue carefully and understand that the suggested load order usually produces decent results, but cannot be a guarantee for a working mod load order in all cases.[/i]


[size=4]Gamebryo Archive Check (BSA/BA2 Check)[/size]

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1611675678-129985877.jpeg[/img]

As seasoned modders may know, many "Oldrim" (Skyrim Legendary Edition) mods can be used with Skyrim SE just fine, as long as the assets are converted for Skyrim SE and the plugin is resaved in the Skyrim SE Creation Kit. However, one thing to watch out for is that mods coming with a BSA archive made for Oldrim will prevent Skyrim SE from launching. Annoyingly, the game does not give you any feedback and does not alert you to the root of the problem, it simply does not start when a Skyrim SE mod is attempting to load an Oldrim BSA.

With the Gambryo Archive Check that is now part of Vortex, however, you will be informed when one or several of your Skyrim SE mods are trying to load a Skyrim Legendary Edition BSA, so you know exactly why the game isn't launching, allowing you to find and address the issue by either disabling the mod, or downloading a compatible Skyrim SE version of it.


[size=4]New Game Extensions galore![/size]

Once again we've added new game extensions (most notably for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3]Baldur's Gate 3[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/residentevil32020]Resident Evil 3[/url]) and so has our community of talented extension developers! A big thank you goes out to everyone who has [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/categories/4/?BH=0]contributed a game extension[/url]. Thanks to everyone pitching in, [b]Vortex now supports 137 games[/b].

A special thank you goes out to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/users/917017]ThunderGod97[/url] who developed [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/196]Vortex support for Cyberpunk 2077[/url] which has since become one of the most popular game extensions to date.

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/196][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1611677205-831180098.jpeg[/img][/url]

The authors of the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/179]Starsector game extension[/url], ALazyWizard and Wispborn, have done such an outstanding job, that their extension is now replacing our version of the game extension - thank you very much!

Last but not least, as of Vortex version 1.4 the community-made extensions for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/202]Subnautica[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/203]Subnautica: Below Zero[/url] are also replacing our own, so users currently managing either of those games will be prompted to download the respective extensions - but don't worry, all you have to do is click to install the extension(s) when prompted and Vortex will handle it from there.

This just goes to show that our open-source approach for Vortex is working out. No one knows the modding needs of a given game better than the people in that particular modding community, and that's why it's great to see talented community developers taking it upon themselves to improve the extensions for the games they actively play and mod.


[b]Other relevant updates in 1.4 ([url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6360526-current-version-1322/]view the full changelog[/url]):

[/b][list]
[*]Ability to bring Vortex to the foreground when downloading
[*]Tracking mods from within Vortex is now possible
[/list][list]
[*](Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord) now auto-detects the SDK and configures it as a tool
[*](Blade & Sorcery) We fixed an issue that lead to mods with spaces in the mod title to not be loaded properly as of U8.4 
[*](Bethesda games) Vortex will now warn you when you're reaching/exceeding the plugin limit
[*](Bethesda games) Vortex will now warn you if a script extender is set up as primary tool. but not installed correctly
[*](Bethesda games) Vortex now displays bash tags for plugins in the details panel
[*](Bethesda games) you can now ghost plugins

[/list]
[line]

A big thank you goes to all the community developers and the hundreds of thousands of you who are using Vortex every day! It's truly humbling to know that so many of you are using our official mod manager Vortex to mod the games you love. Rest assured, with your help, we're going to continue improving your modding experience in the future even further!

We all love games, that's one of the things everyone in this community has in common, so when our friends over at [url=https://www.gog.com/?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]GOG.com[/url] asked us if we'd like to give away some game keys to you guys as part of their "We Love Games" celebration, we could hardly say no! 

We have 5 copies of [url=https://www.gog.com/game/lichtspeer_complete_bundle?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]Lichtspeer[/url], [url=https://www.gog.com/game/sword_of_the_necromancer?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]Sword of the Necromancer[/url], [url=https://www.gog.com/game/bonkies?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]Bonkies[/url], [url=https://www.gog.com/game/gods_will_fall?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]Gods Will Fall[/url] and [url=https://www.gog.com/game/project_wingman?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]Project Wingman[/url] to give out to the 25 randomly chosen winners.

[center]
[url=https://www.gog.com/game/lichtspeer_complete_bundle?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612962276-1626664511.jpeg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.gog.com/game/sword_of_the_necromancer?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612962266-317226567.jpeg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.gog.com/game/bonkies?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612962288-1593993169.jpeg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.gog.com/game/gods_will_fall?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612962254-1062192626.jpeg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.gog.com/game/project_wingman?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612962297-1967027102.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]

There are a few rules you should be aware of before entering. It's pretty basic, but if you get it wrong your entry will be disqualified and we'd hate for that to happen. To put your name in the hat to win you need to:


[list]
[*]Leave a comment on this article. You can say anything you want, but why not tell us what your favourite game is and what makes it so great? (Site rules still apply.)
[*]Log into the Gleam widget with your Facebook, Twitter, Discord or Email account. 
[*]Complete both the "Leave a comment on Nexus Mods" and "Check out the GOG We Love Games Sale" options.
[*]Submit the form to complete your entry or use the Facebook and Twitter options to increase your chance of winning.
[/list]

If you forget to comment or include an invalid username, your entry will not be counted.


[center][url=https://gleam.io/8iTVx/we-love-games-giveaway-gogcom][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1612889017-1964682239.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]

Good luck! We'll be closing the competition on at [b]09:00 GMT on Monday 15th February 2021[/b] and contacting the winners shortly after. If you don't win a game, you can still pick up something new for up to 92% off [url=https://www.gog.com/?pp=a120fe5cad51f0d0942d7c283478628047d6cfceA]in the sale[/url]! 

[size=1][i](Disclosure: We are a member of GOG.com's affiliate program. This means if you use any of the links in the article above to make a purchase from GOG.com, we get a very small cut. It's another way to help us keep the lights on and we're always happy to promote such a great company!)[/i][/size]

I think I speak for pretty much everyone when I say we've got high hopes this year will be much better for everyone around the globe than 2020 was. With that said, it might come as a bit of a surprise to some of you, but did you know that we're actually going to celebrate the [b]20 year anniversary of Nexus Mods[/b] come August 2021? That's right, Nexus Mods (and its predecessors going by other names) has now been around for almost two decades! Just to give you an idea of what that means: back then when the site was founded, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was the movie of the year, Apple had just come out with the iPod, and Microsoft released its first ever Xbox. It's mad to see how times have changed since then!

To celebrate our 20 year anniversary we're planning to do several community events throughout the year, with some bigger ones to get hyped for closer to the actual birthday in August. And with all of that being said - let's get started!
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[b]It's quiz time![/b] After the great success of our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14298]1,000 Games Milestone Quiz[/url] that we did last year, we decided to run another quiz event in which you can win one of six prizes.

[center][url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVGn7w2rFWj6llJENfHaoaY0BsbC6ZDCq46uVRKsYs73ZJwg/viewform][img width=900,height=332]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1612275818-655809081.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]
Test your knowledge of Nexus Mods and gaming in general, have fun, and win prizes along the way! Simply submit your answers to [url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVGn7w2rFWj6llJENfHaoaY0BsbC6ZDCq46uVRKsYs73ZJwg/viewform]the quiz questions[/url] until [b]22nd February 2021 03:00 PM (GMT)[/b] for your stab at winning a prize. There's a total of seven quiz questions. Some are a bit harder, while others are a bit easier and the points awarded for each question reflect that.

You can score up to [b]20 points in the quiz[/b] and the better you do, the better the prize you can win as we will be picking the winners from the pool of the highest scoring participants!

[b]
The Prizes
[/b]
[list]
[*]1x Game of your choice - AND a mug-nificent, premium-quality, [b]Nexus Mods branded coffee mug[/b]! 
[*]2x Steam Gift Cards valued at £25
[*]3x Steam Gift Cards valued at £10
[/list]
Here's a "mug shot" of the dainty drinking device one of our lucky winners will soon be able to call their own. Look how shiny it is!

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1612360536-205963767.jpeg[/img]
[center][quote][b]"[/b][b]I might've spent way too much time shining the mug."[/b]
- Pickysaurus[/quote][/center][b]
How to enter
[/b]
[list]
[*]Fill out [url=https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScVGn7w2rFWj6llJENfHaoaY0BsbC6ZDCq46uVRKsYs73ZJwg/viewform]this submission form[/url] (no Google account necessary) providing your Nexus Mods username, email, and your seven answers.
[*]You can edit your responses at a later point in time via a link that will be sent to you to the email you specify in the form.
[*]Do so before 22nd February 2021 03:00 PM (GMT+1) as that is when the competition ends.
[/list]
I hope you all enjoy playing the quiz and we'll be looking forward to seeing your entries. We'll keep you updated once we've picked the winners shortly after the competition ends. Make sure to check your PMs and keep your eyes on the news section.

Good luck to you all! One of you might soon be the proud owner of their very own, shiny, Nexus Mods mug!


[b]Terms and Conditions
[/b]
Participants - Entries - Responses
[spoiler]
[list]
[*]Participants are required to submit one (1) entry with responses to the quiz via the Google Form linked in the article.
[*]All entries must be submitted before the date specified in this article.
[*]You may use search engines or other assistance to find the solution to the quiz questions, where possible.
[*]Entries found to be in violation of any of the competition rules and/or our general terms and policies will be disqualified.
[/list][/spoiler]
Prizes - Winner Selection
[spoiler]
[list]
[*]1x Game of your choice up to a value of £50 as well as a Nexus Mods branded mug will be awarded to one randomly chosen participant with the highest overall score.
[*]The "Game of your choice" prize consists of either:[list]
[*]Any game that can be purchased as a redeemable code, up to the maximum value of £50.
[*]OR If we cannot source your chosen game, a £50 gift card to be redeemed in the Steam game store.
[/list]
[*]2x £25 Steam Gift cards will be awarded to two other randomly chosen participants with the highest, or next-highest score.
[*]3x £10 Steam Gift card will be awarded to three other randomly chosen participants with the highest, or next-highest score after that.
[*]Prizes and entries are limited to one (1) per participant. In the case of duplicate entries or edited responses, only the most recent set of responses from a given participant will be considered for the prize draw.
[*]Participants opting out of the prize draw by selecting that option on the Google Form, are not eligible to win a prize and will not be considered during the random prize draw.
[*]Prizes will be issued to winners via private message on the Nexus Mods forums by the Nexus Mods Community Managers. The mug will be shipped to the address provided by the competition winner.
[*]Given potential complications with shipping to various countries and/or regions in the world, we cannot guarantee that the mug will arrive in due time, in one piece, or arrive at all. We will try our best to package and ship the mug so it hopefully safely arrives within a reasonable timeframe.
[*]The Nexus Mods team reserves the right to disqualify any entry at their sole discretion, with or without providing a reason. 
[/list][/spoiler]
General Terms and Conditions
[spoiler]
By submitting a competition entry, you are agreeing to be bound by these terms and conditions.
[list]
[*]Promoter name. Black Tree Gaming Limited incorporated in England and Wales with company number 06360077 of Dean Clarke House, Southernhay Studios, Exeter, EX1 1AP  (referred to throughout these terms as the “Promoter”, “we”, “us” and “our”).
[*]Deadline. All competition entries must be received by the Promoter by no later than the Closing Date. All competition entries received after the Closing Date are automatically disqualified.
[*]How to Enter. You may enter by filling out the Google Form linked in the article.. You must complete this initial entry to be eligible to win. You do not have to pay to enter the competition, however, you are responsible for any phone or internet charges you may incur when entering. If you are unsure about these charges, you should contact your phone or internet operator before entering. Entries will not be acknowledged and we do not accept responsibility for entries that are lost, delayed or which we do not receive.
[*]Eligibility. You must be aged 18 or over at the time of entry in order to enter this competition. We may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the competition. No purchase necessary. You must enter the competition yourself. Entries which are incomplete, removed, corrupt or ineligible will not be accepted. We reserve the right to verify any entries and winners and may refuse to award prizes and/or disqualify you if you make or attempt to make any entry to this competition which is in our reasonable opinion contrary to these terms and conditions or by its nature unfair to other entrants. This might include entries which are made by automated means, fraudulent, made in bulk, made on behalf of another person, or made by hacking, cheating or deception. You must comply with the laws that apply to you in the location that you access the competition from. If any laws applicable to you restrict or prohibit you from entering the competition, you must comply with those legal restrictions or, if applicable, refrain from entering the competition.
[*]Prize conditions. Prizes are subject to availability with no cash alternative. Prizes are not negotiable, exchangeable or transferable. The winner(s) will be contacted via Private Message on the Nexus Mods website. You must claim your prize personally within 1 month of the Closing Date otherwise your claim will become invalid (you are solely responsible for this). The decision of the Promoter is final. We have the right to substitute any prize for an alternative prize of equal or greater value.
[*]Excluded participants and entries. Employees of the Promoters, its holding or subsidiary companies, its agents or suppliers or anyone else professionally connected with the competition, or members of their families or households. The Promoter will not admit entries which: are automatically created by a computer or bot or script or other automated technology, created in bulk, have been altered or forged or tampered with, are illegible or incomplete or which generally in Promoter’s reasonable opinion are inappropriate to admit.
[*]Selection of winners. The winner will be chosen by the Nexus Mods team. If you cannot be reached by private message or email address when entering we may choose a new winner.
[*]Ownership of competition entries and intellectual property rights. The Promoter does not claim any rights of ownership in your competition entry. The promoter is granted a non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable license to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format and sublicense the competition entry and any accompanying materials for its marketing or other commercial purposes.
[*]Data protection and publicity. If you are a winner of the competition, you agree that the Promoter may use your provided information to announce the winner of this competition and for any other reasonable and related promotional purposes without any payment to you. You represent that all of the information which you provide to us in connection with this competition shall be and shall remain complete and accurate. You represent that your entry will not contain anything (i) that is or could reasonably be viewed as harmful, harassing, defamatory, libellous, obscene or invasive of another’s privacy; or (ii) which you do not have a right to make available lawfully (including any material which infringes the rights of any other). By entering this competition, you agree that any personal information provided by you with the competition entry may be held and used only by the Promoter, its affiliates, its agents and suppliers to administer the competition.
[*]Limitation of liability. Insofar as is permitted by law, the Promoter, its agents or distributors will not in any circumstances be responsible or liable to compensate the winner(s) or runner(s)-up or accept any liability for any loss, damage, personal injury or death occurring as a result of taking up the prize except where it is caused by the negligence of the Promoter, its agents or distributors or that of their employees. Your statutory rights are not affected. The Promoter will NOT accept responsibility for competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit for any reason or in any way.
[*]Social media. You acknowledge that the competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with any of our partners, Facebook, or Twitter. You agree to release our partners, Facebook, and Twitter from any responsibility to you in relation to the competition.
[*]General. (a) We may use the information which you provide in entering this competition to contact you for the purposes described in these terms and conditions. We will process and store your information in accordance with our privacy policy which can be found at: http://help.nexusmods.com/article/20-privacy-policy
[*](b) We may wish to transfer all or a part of our rights under these terms to someone else without obtaining your consent. You agree that we may do so provided that the transfer does not significantly disadvantage you. (c) If there is any reason to believe that there has been a breach of these terms and conditions, the Promoter may, at its sole discretion, reserve the right to exclude you from participating in the competition; (d) The Promoter reserves the right to hold void, suspend, cancel, or amend the competition where it becomes necessary to do so; and (e) These terms and conditions shall be governed by the laws of England and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
[*]For questions, Please contact support@nexusmods.com
[/list][/spoiler]

[size=4]TL;DR[/size]

We have recently enabled a new download location for Premium Members that can potentially increase download speeds for any users who might have slower speeds than expected with their Premium Membership. If you're a Premium Member and you think you should be getting faster speeds then please try the "CDN" download location, which now defaults to this new provider.


[size=4]The long version[/size]

If you’ve had the (mis)fortune of taking the time to read my [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14453]year in review post[/url] recently then you’ll be aware that we move a fair amount of data to our users - we estimate around 60PB per year - through our download servers.

We are also storing a large amount of data - we’ve just ticked over 40TB of mod files and this is increasing at around 1.5TB per month currently as the number of mods we host increases and the size of the mods authors are making are growing.

How we store and serve this amount of data on a budget is a challenge we're always tackling as we continue to provide a "free" service to our users. Free is in quotes because, as you know, there are ads on the site and these generate revenue used for paying for the services we provide. We don't sell user data or anything of that ilk, so our two revenue streams are straight-up advertising and Premium Memberships.

To help us manage our file serving needs we created our own mini-CDN, of sorts, a few years ago which uses bare-metal servers in 7 different locations around the world; Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Singapore. These servers are kitted out with NVMe drives and each server has 20gbps of connectivity. While we average around 25gbps of total traffic (across all our servers) on any given week, the recent Fallout Frontier release proved the servers could handle these theoretical maximums without a sweat as our Chicago server alone managed to briefly hit that 20gbps mark during the initial hours of the mod's release. This custom-built CDN system is [i]significantly[/i] cheaper to own and run for us than any CDN services that are available online. The caveat to this is that while our users in North America, Europe and parts of Asia and Oceania will have good download speeds from our servers, users from other areas of the world can potentially have poorer download speeds especially if their local ISP's infrastructure has bad connectivity to our CDN.

In layman's terms, the difference between good connectivity and bad connectivity is like the difference between a good sat nav for your car and a bad sat nav. A good sat nav knows when you are travelling, when and where traffic can bottleneck at different times of the day, where any roadworks are, where any newly constructed roads are and will direct you from A to B in the most efficient way possible which will significantly decrease your travel time and increase the speed at which you get to your destination. A bad sat nav does not know any of these things and can potentially take you through horrific traffic conditions, road works, bottlenecks and not make use of the newly built roads meaning it can take you significantly longer to get to your destination. Thus, good connectivity ensures our data packets reach your PC in the most efficient, fastest way possible ensuring good download speeds. Bad connectivity can send our data packets via bad cabling, overloaded networks and a myriad of other negative networking issues meaning you get considerably slower download speeds.

To clarify, we do not cap our Premium service in any way, shape or form. Whatever speed a user gets from our download servers is the maximum uninhibited speed possible between our server and your computer - if it's slow, it's almost certainly because the traffic is not being routed well by either our ISP or your ISP but, unfortunately, that is not something we have control over to fix.

An example of this is here in the UK where on a basic 75Mbit home connection if I try to download from our CDN node in Los Angeles, some 5,400 miles away, I can reach download speeds of 6MB/second without any issues. However, some of our users in Brasilia, a similar distance to LA, will get far lower speeds than this to the same LA location. This is due to the connectivity between the ISPs in the UK compared to the connectivity of some ISPs in Brazil. Essentially, there is more cabling and better management of the network between North America and Europe than there is between North America and South America. Unfortunately, this is something which is completely out of our control. The solution to this problem is to hope and pray the connectivity between North America and Brazil improves (which involves major ISPs laying more cables to provide more bandwidth and/or for them to improve how they route their traffic) OR for us to requisition more servers that are more local to South America. However, hardware costs, data centre costs and bandwidth in many areas of the world can oftentimes be many magnitudes more expensive than it is in North America and Europe meaning it's not financially viable to do this. For example, the bandwidth costs with our provider to South America or Asia costs 223% more than it does from Europe. From Australia it's 312% more. Unfortunately it is simply not sustainable for us to set up additional nodes in these locations.

As our user base increases, so do the number of users who are becoming Premium Members, and it is becoming an increasingly sore spot for me that some users have not been getting good download speeds when paying for our Premium service, irrespective of whose fault it is.

To remedy this we recently decided to spend a not-insignificant sum of money on an additional CDN service specifically for Premium Members. The CDN we have settled on contains 51 download location nodes, considerably more than the 7 nodes within our home-made CDN. Node locations include 2 in South America, 3 in the Middle East and 15 in Asia and Oceania. You cannot pick the specific download location within this CDN, the CDN will pick the node nearest to you, however, our existing CDN locations are still available for you to choose if you so wish. While we would love to roll this out to normal users too it simply isn't financially viable, so our "old" CDN will remain the service used for non-Premium users (and any Premium Members who wish to use it).

To put it into perspective, we are predicting this new service will increase our file serving costs by 62% per year, and that's just serving Premium Members, so it is not a decision I have taken lightly, and it is not something that would have been possible until more recently as our user base has increased.

If your download location is currently set as the default "CDN" option then you are using our new download service. If you have previously manually set your download location (either in your [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/myaccount]site preferences[/url] or by manually selecting a download location from the download window on a file page) then you will need to choose the "CDN" option when you next attempt to download in order to access this new download service. This new service is for [url=https://users.nexusmods.com/register/memberships]Premium Members only[/url] so if you are not a Premium Member you will not have access to these options.

As a part of this update, we are decommissioning the bare metal Signapore CDN node that we currently have (which was Premium-member only) and this should go down in a few week's time. The new CDN service we offer should provide as good as if not better speeds than this node for all our Premium Members in the Asia and Oceania areas and thus it's an added expense for no gain.

We put this new CDN service live last week and since doing so we have not received a single complaint about download speeds, which I'm naturally extremely happy about. I'd be interested to hear from any Premium Members who have seen an improvement in their download speeds on the site since our new service went live. If you're a Premium Member and you're still getting slower than acceptable speeds on our servers please read our [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/92-im-having-download-issues-what-can-i-do]help article[/url] and, if possible, provide us with the feedback requested via [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/117-feedback-suggestions-and-questions/]our forums[/url] so we can try and help you troubleshoot the issue.

Thank you for your support.