News from The Elder Scrolls Nexus

Happy new year everyone.

It has been [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13961]a couple of years[/url] since I last updated you all on the more internal goings on at Nexus Mods so I've decided to drum up enough enthusiasm to write another of my long-winded, banal "blog posts" on the matter. I wasn't able to get around to doing one last year and I am aware that some of you actually like to punish yourselves, but if you're like me and just like to skim read, here's the TL;DR:

Statistically we're doing better than ever. Everything you would like to see increase for your modding enjoyment, has. We're serving more users more mods for more games each and every year, not by a little, but by a lot. However, progress in some areas has been slow for us as we work to fight decade-old legacy code, highlighting key areas for us to improve upon, but we're better placed to face that head-on now than ever before. Read on if you're interested in the details, leave it there if that's all you needed to know.


[size=4][b]2020 in numbers[/b][/size]

A year of Coronavirus and staying safe at home has inflated our statistics considerably. We averaged 8.4 million unique visitors each month, a 43% increase from 2019's 5.9 million visitors with pageviews averaging 184 million each month, a 36% increase on 2019's 136 million. While these numbers have always steadily increased year-on-year, this is the single biggest yearly increase we've recorded since Skyrim was released almost a decade ago.

Our membership has swelled, increasing by 5.3 million in 2020, a 75% increase on 2019's 3 million new users. We are now less than 50,000 new users off hitting the 25 million member milestone which will almost certainly be reached by the end of January.

We welcomed 300 new moddable games to the Nexus Mods in 2020, up from the 221 new games added in 2019. This means the number of games we support has almost doubled in two years. We averaged 4,599 new mod uploads each month, a 47% increase on 2019's 3,116 new mods per month. 2020 is the first year in Nexus Mod's 20 year history that the new mod split between Bethesda games and non-Bethesda games was actually in favour of non-Bethesda games with 54% of all files uploaded in 2020 being for non-Bethesda games. Non-Bethesda file uploads increased 82% in 2020 while Bethesda uploads increased 22%, up from -7% in 2019, showing that Covid has increased modding in both Bethesda and non-Bethesda games alike.

Some big game releases in 2020 including [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mountandblade2bannerlord/mods/]Mount & Blade: Bannerlord[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/]Mechwarrior 5[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/residentevil32020/mods/]Resident Evil 3[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/]Baldur's Gate 3[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/]Cyberpunk 2077[/url] and the continuing [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/halothemasterchiefcollection/mods/]Master Chief Collection[/url], among many others, have continued to increase our extensive mod offerings outside of Bethesda games while [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/]Stardew Valley[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/]The Witcher 3[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/monsterhunterworld/mods/]Monster Hunter World[/url] have continued to thrive with modding communities more popular than some of Bethesda's offerings on Nexus Mods.

Naturally, with the increased number of users, views and mods on the site our download servers have also been busier than ever, averaging 56.7 million downloads each month in 2020, an increase of 32% on 2019's 42.8 million downloads. This means, on average, our users are starting 22 new downloads every second of every day of the year. 72% of downloads are for Bethesda games, showing that Bethesda games still account for the lion-share of downloads on Nexus Mods, however, that share is decreasing each year. In 2017 the share was 90%. While the number of downloads for Bethesda games increased by 1% in 2019 and 26% in 2020, the number of downloads for non-Bethesda games has increased by 69% and 89% respectively showing that, while Bethesda modding is still just as popular as ever, we continue to make inroads in hosting mods for as many games as possible, be they Bethesda games or not.

Our users downloaded over 59PB (59,000TB) of files in 2020, averaging 27Gbps of throughput on our service providers at any given time.

Finally, user uptake of Vortex is increasing. In 2019 Vortex accounted for 67% of all Nexus Mods users who used mod managers [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/myaccount?tab=api]connected to our API[/url]. By the end of 2020 this number had increased to 72%. What we're seeing is less people using Nexus Mod Manager (15% in 2020, down from 22% in 2019), and they are moving to either Vortex or Mod Organizer 2 (12.5%, up from 10.5%). Considering the fact Nexus Mod Manager is, unfortunately, unstable and prone to unrecoverable corruption of the mod installation folder this is only a good thing as far as we are concerned. Unique users of the API (i.e. people who use mod managers to download and install mods from Nexus Mods) increased to just under 1,000,000 each month.


[size=4][b]Donation points a resounding success[/b][/size]

Perhaps the thing I am most proud of over the past few years, our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13611]Donation Points system[/url] continues to become more rewarding for mod authors on Nexus Mods. Since we launched the system in May of 2018 we have [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/donation-points/]paid out almost $600,000[/url] to our mod authors. In the 8 months to December 2018 our payouts averaged a little over $9,000, in 2019 this increased by 22% to just over $11,000 each month and in 2020 we increased the fund by a whopping 197% to average payouts of just under $32,750 each month to our mod authors. This large increase was made possible by the changes we made to the way we served downloads, putting a 5 second delay on non-Premium users and putting up more advertising regarding Premium Memberships.

In the same amount of time, Nexus Mods users have donated $221,579 to mod authors directly through the PayPal buttons found on file pages and user profiles, meaning that over the past 30 months mod authors on Nexus Mods have received total payouts of over $820,000 either directly from Nexus Mods, or from users on Nexus Mods. While this is an awesome number, lets not forget that there are now over 115,000 users who have uploaded mods to Nexus Mods.

While the majority of the Donation Points we hand out are cashed out via PayPal, mod authors have also bought $16,000 worth of game CD Keys from [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/modrewards#/store/all/1]our store[/url], spent $15,300 on discounted Nexus Mods Premium Memberships and, most importantly, they have donated over $17,500 to charities, including $6,818.52 to the Wildlife Conservation Society, $3,614.29 to Doctors Without Borders and $1,626.12 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, among others. I feel a great sense of pride when sending these charity payments on behalf of Nexus Mods, its mod authors and its users.

We will continue to invest in the Donation Points system as much as possible, balancing the funds necessary to run these sites as efficiently as possible with the want to give back to mod authors as much as possible. Ultimately, it is revenue generated from the advertising shown on our site and the Premium Memberships bought by our user base that funds this initiative and this is something we could do better at conveying to our users - that everytime they see an ad or buy a Premium Membership, some of the revenue generated is going directly to mod authors who are making use of our Donation Points system. I imagine a large part of our user base has no idea how much money is being given back to mod authors and how some of the inconveniences they are experiencing (either through delays in downloads, ads and/or download speed caps) help to support the mod authors whose work they enjoy.

It is an aspiration of mine that, one day, the Donation Points fund will reach 7 figures a year.


[size=4][b]Vortex continues to see extensive improvements[/b][/size]

The Vortex developers were as busy as ever in 2020, releasing 51 minor versions/hotfixes and 2 new major version updates with the third major update just around the corner.

To save you trawling through our extensive [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/6360526-current-version-1322/]Vortex change logs[/url] I'll summarise some of the more interesting improvements we've made to Vortex in 2020 for you below.

[b]Game extensions[/b]
[list]
[*]13 new game extensions have been added by us, including Mount & Blade: Bannerlord, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Wolcen: Lord of Mayhem, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator
[*]42 new game extensions have been added by the community, including Cyberpunk 2077 by ThunderGod97
[*]Vortex now supports over 135 games
[*]The Witcher 3 now has full integration with the “Witcher 3 Script Merger”, load order management, symlink support and menu mod support
[*]Monster Hunter World support now has automatic detection and installation of Stracker’s Loader, a prerequisite to modding MHW
[*]We've added load order management to Blade & Sorcery
[*]Bethesda games now have guided installation of script extenders (obse, skse, fose, nvse, f4se) and will warn users if they have set up a script extender for the primary tool but it's not installed (correctly)
[*]There is now support for installing and updating SMAPI for Stardew Valley. Vortex now associates mod created files with the mod itself and removes those files when the mod is removed (preventing SMAPI warnings about loose files)
[/list]

[b]New functionality for users[/b]
[list]
[*]Extensions are now updated independently from the main app when Vortex is restarted, meaning we do not need to do a new Vortex release everytime we update support for a single game
[*]Added the ability to create mod reports which contain information that can be useful for mod authors troubleshooting user issues, including details of what mods the user has installed, the deployment method used, deployed files, overwritten files, and more.
[*][url=https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596549295-1778331160.jpeg]Conflicting file previews[/url] allow users to open one or both of the conflicting files in the program of their choice directly from the file conflict editor to e.g. compare 3D models in nifskope.
[*]We've added auto-start and auto-shutdown functionality
[/list]

[b]New functionality for developers[/b]
[list]
[*]Support for game detection via GOG, Origin/EA Play, UPlay and the Windows Store
[*]We created a generic extension to deal with load ordering in games (generic load order extension) which can be used by any/all game extensions as needed
[*]Patches to Unity games are now deployed as mods so they can make use of different deployment methods
[*]Extensions can now add buttons to the main toolbar
[/list]

That's what we managed to release in 2020, but in the last quarter of 2020 extensive work was done on version 1.4 of Vortex which is due for release very soon. I'd be remiss if I did not share what Vortex 1.4 has in store:

[list]
[*]The option to automatically install mods once the download finishes
[*]The ability to automatically shutdown Vortex and the PC once all downloads are finished (perfect for when you leave your computer running to download mods over night)
[*]A history/activity log that will allow users to trace back their steps and undo certain actions as required
[*]Vortex will warn the user if they install a mod with an incompatible BSA or BA2 archive which would cause a crash on starting the game
[*]Vortex will provide tips for organizing the mod load order in the conflict editor
[*]Resident Evil 3 support
[/list]

Vortex continues to come on in leaps and bounds, year on year, with a growing user base and developer base to back it up. To those people who have released game extensions this year, thank you for your work. 42 new game extensions created by the community in one year is amazing work!


[size=4][b]Web development is slow going[/b][/size]

While development of Vortex is coming on leaps and bounds, the development of the site is progressing at a slower pace than we would hope, especially on front-facing features that you, the user, get to see and experience.

While we want and aim to be in a position where new features and improving the site is what we primarily work on, our number one priority is always keeping the site up, running and able to handle the ever increasing number of users and mods on the site.

While modern frameworks put scalability at the forefront of their ethos, Nexus Mods was created long before these frameworks existed, and long before modern cloud computing was even a thing. Nexus Mods was built around a basic [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)]LAMP stack[/url], with hundreds of thousands of lines of code in a LAMP environment. We've spent the past few years gradually rewriting different parts of the site to adhere to [url=https://12factor.net/]12factor app principles[/url] and separating old systems from new ones; the user service released late 2019 is all new, our API, quick search service, file stats and uploads are all handled separately from the LAMP stack. These updates and the new systems we are building are all based around modern frameworks and ideals with scalability at the forefront, but we still have a lot of legacy code and systems that need to be updated which do not have any scalability and still use bare-metal servers.

Each time we release these new services that replace the old ones it takes a burden off our old infrastructure, reducing another bottleneck in the long list of bottlenecks. However, when these old systems hit capacity, it's not as simple as buying more servers and tacking them on, or even replacing the servers they are on with more powerful hardware - the data migration alone would take weeks - during which time the site would be down for everyone which, I'm sure you can agree, is not plausible. Instead, our focus is on optimisations where we can, with a clear focus on replacing old legacy systems as soon as we possibly can.

This is slow work, and it's made slower by the fact Nexus Mods is an extremely popular site with a very large amount of traffic, with database tables that can contain millions, sometimes billions of rows. We're attempting to do Enterprise level work at comparatively small budget pricing.

With this in mind, we've recognised the large job ahead of us and we have invested accordingly. Our team has grown from just 1 person, myself, in 2010 to 16 people today, of which 6 are backend focused developers and 4 are frontend focused. 2 of our backend developers joined us last year, along with an additional 2 frontend developers. With these new additions we are hoping we are now done with recruiting for the foreseeable future and our team can continue to gel well and refine our processes to tackle the monolithic task before us head on at an ever increasing pace.

Each year presents new challenges, and we came into 2020 having had a torrid December 2019 that was plagued with downtime and site slowness caused by a huge influx of traffic over the holidays. We spent the first quarter of 2020 looking at quick fixes and optimisations we could make to server configs and our code to ensure we could go back to providing a smooth operation. Each year we think we've done enough but each year we manage to hit a bottleneck, oftentimes in different places. In 2018 we would struggle to serve anything over 200 requests a second, in 2019 we managed to improve efficiency so that number was 270 requests a second and in 2020 we'd increased that number further still to 400, doubling our capacity in just 2 years but this still was not enough come December 2020. The solution isn't just tweaking a couple of things with our server configs, this is work that takes months of developer time spanning software, hardware, dev ops as well as integrating with external services that scale wherever possible.

To highlight the challenges we face, recently we had the honour of hosting the long awaited [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14433]Fallout: The Frontier[/url] before anyone else. A large mod with high expectations, the mod has been popular, so popular that it managed to bring the site down for a little while. However, while it was reported that this was due to the amount of traffic, this isn't entirely true. It wasn't the amount of traffic the site received that brought it down, indeed, it did not create any more traffic than we would see on a busy Sunday evening normally, but instead it was the [i]type[/i] of traffic which we received which caused the issue. Because the mod brought back a lot of old users who had not signed into Nexus Mods in many years, it triggered a poorly optimised query in our notification system which was being hit a lot more than usual and all at the same time. This code was many years old and coded at a time when the site was nowhere near as busy and did not have anywhere near as many mods or games. A hotfix to the code fixed the issue over the weekend, but not before the damage was done. This issue is indicative of the challenges we face each week, battling the effects of old code and systems that were not built for scalability with our wish and will to create new things for our users.

We are frustrated that we cannot make more visible changes to the site more regularly, like new, updated or additional functionality, however, the work we do now is integral to the stability of the sites and puts us on a stronger footing moving forward. We do not want to release major new additions to the site before our foundations are more solid - building on top of legacy systems is both perilous and makes our jobs harder further down the line, much like building your house on sandy land. However, we are aware that our users would like to see changes all across the site, both small and large, and these are being kept track of, to be tackled as and when we can.

The take away from this is that, while on the surface it seems like we are not doing much on or with the site, below the surface there is an awful lot of very necessary work being done by a growing number of developers to ensure the future viability of Nexus Mods.


[size=4][b]Our staff have moved to a new home[/b][/size]

While this one perhaps isn't so exciting for all of you, it's pretty exciting for us, just as soon as we're all allowed back into our workplaces after the worst of Covid has passed.

We moved into our first physical offices in 2016. Up until then our team was full remote, spread out across multiple locations in multiple time zones. For a while, and with a small team, this was OK. However, as our team began to grow and as the complexity of the work required began to dawn, we realised that our team efficiency would be so much better if we could collaborate together in the same space rather than relying on internet technologies to get us by.

4 of us moved into a shared office space in 2016 to trial it out and, having worked from home since 2007, I instantly saw how much better this was going to be for Nexus Mods.

After our year contract was up we moved into rented office space in 2017. Over the course of 2016 and 2017 we had slowly begun to relocate our workforce down to our home in Exeter, removing remote positions and bringing almost our entire workforce into the office space. This office was very utilitarian, perfectly fine for our needs, but it was really just 4 walls plus a conference room for meetings and a small kitchenette attached to the main office room. We could comfortably fit 12 in, but after that things would start to get a little cramped. We had unfortunate instances of colleagues microwaving fish lunches or curries and stinking the entire office out for the rest of the day. We still haven't received an apology for the fish incident, the culprit adamant they had done nothing wrong. The less said about that the better...

With plans to recruit further at the start of 2020 and with an aim to try and hire more experienced developers with a keen interest in scalable solutions, I spent time in 2019 trying to find us some good office space in Exeter that we could make our own and customised to our needs. It isn't just about providing a great experience for the staff at Nexus Mods which should hopefully also translate into better work, it's also about being able to recruit the cream of the crop to come and work for us. Would you rather work in a drab and dreary office or one that has been tailored around a bright and positive experience? If you were going for two jobs at the same pay level, would this be something that you took into consideration when making your final decision?

In November 2019 I put my name down on a building that formed a part of an old hospital right in the city centre, with the current tenants due to end their contract in July 2020, it was perfect for our needs.

In September 2020 we finished extensive modifications to the building which includes plenty of break out rooms, multiple conference rooms (with one doubling up as a ping pong room), a kitchen big enough to service a staff of 20 (with plenty of ventilation and a corridor between the kitchen and the office space beyond to prevent a repeat of fish-gate 2018), an outside deck area for summer lunches and a comfy top floor dedicated to games consoles and PC gaming, complete with 5 ready to go PCs for gaming on as and when wanted.

As we all know, Covid hit around March 2020 and, as such, we have not been able to make extensive use of the space yet or have the full team in to experience what it is like on a "normal" working day. We did however get plenty of time to customise the office to our specification without needing to worry about deadlines, so there is a silver lining to the Covid delay. Having had to work under Covid work-from-home restrictions for 10 months now, I am more resolute than ever that working in an office with flexible working conditions is far more efficient for our teams trying to work together than anything internet technology can offer. I'm sure you will all have your own opinions on this, however, for Nexus Mods, and with (now) 10 years of first hand experience working from home in this business and with 4 years experience working from an office, I am sure it is the right thing for us.

We very much look forward to being able to use our new space to its fullest in the years to come.


[size=4][b]In conclusion…[/b][/size]

If we just go by the statistics then 2020 was a magnificent year for Nexus Mods. Both the content on the site and the user base has grown considerably, Donation Points has been a resounding success and Vortex continues to expand and improve. However, my excitement is marred by the slow progress on the website side and issues with reliability. I am hopeful that the additions we've made to the team over the past 18 months and improvements in our work place will begin to show dividends through 2021 and beyond in the hope that, within the next couple of years, I can be far more excited about writing these blog posts as I come to you to share the great things we've done in the community over the past year.


[i]Edit: an earlier version of this post contained incorrect stats regarding the API usage figures (I was using weekly figures, not monthly). These figures have now been updated and are now correct.[/i]

Today we are talking to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/9159133?tab=user+files&BH=2]CloudedTruth[/url] - author of the very popular [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1187]Relationship Dialogue Overhaul[/url] for both Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition as well as various amazing follower mods.

[center][img width=1000,height=271]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/74256-1-1458105571.jpg[/img][/center]
[b]Thank you for joining us today, it’s truly appreciated. We like to start these interviews off with a bit of a personal introduction, so could you please tell us a bit about yourself?[/b]
 
I'm 28 years old from the United States and currently work in manufacturing dealing with parts and materials for creating circuit panels/electrical boxes & breakers.
 

[b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1187]Relationship Dialogue Overhaul[/url] is an immensely popular mod of yours for both Skyrim LE and Skyrim SE. How would you describe that mod for those who have yet to try it out and what inspired you to set out and create it?[/b]
 
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul (RDO) is an attempt to make the NPCs in the game feel slightly more alive and human-like. Make friends, spouses, and rivals talk to you in a way that makes them seem more appropriate. It also restores some dialogue that was originally cut from the game. The original inspiration behind the mod came from the mod [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/70495]Amorous Adventures[/url]. I remember the first time I heard NPCs use custom dialogue that had been edited together I was just awestruck. For some reason such a concept had never come to me until hearing it from another mod, but as soon as I did it sparked me to learn how to create my own dialogue.

[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1610634327-1978398670.jpeg[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1610634320-1183726343.jpeg[/img][/center]
 [b]What was your journey from mod user to mod creator like?[/b]
 
When I started playing and modding Skyrim on PC I was like most others and began with the Steam workshop, then transitioned to the Nexus. After getting adapted to a different way to install and use mods I began in dabbling with NPC edits and customization, which ended up being the first mod I made and uploaded (which has long since been deleted because it was not very good...)

From there I really started to learn how to use TES5Edit tool and the Creation Kit much more effectively and began to make changes to mods I had downloaded to suit my own tastes. Following some time doing this, I first got introduced to Amorous Adventures from a video by Shinji72, and inspiration from that really kicked off my mod creating journey.

I created several small dialogue mods before finally ending up with Relationship Dialogue Overhaul. During the process of creating RDO I was messaged by a very talented character creator, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/2650523?tab=user+files&BH=0]rxkx22[/url], and together we created an attractive follower that has unique dialogue. Since then I've been able to work with him add some extra features and functions to his follower mods. I've created several other small mods - not dialogue related - that are more of my own personal taste and which are also available.


[b]Several of your mods are what would be considered follower mods, in one form or another. In your opinion, what are the core ingredients for a good Skyrim follower?[/b]
 
That all depends on what you want. There are some extremely expansive follower mods available that really end up being more like quest mods instead of follower mods (which is fine, if that's what you want). And there are others that are a little more subtle and just have a small (back)story and that's it. As long as the follower fits into your Skyrim world and doesn't drag you out of it, then I think it's good follower mod. 

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/74256][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1610635262-996503810.jpeg[/img][/url]
[b]
The term “immersive” has become a bit of a meme in modding - Skyrim modding in particular. Nonetheless, I think we can all agree that there is definitely such a thing as an “immersive” mod. What does that mean for you and do you have examples of mods that truly add to an immersive experience?[/b]

To me, what makes a mod immersive is if it makes your playthrough more enjoyable. People will argue day and night on if a mod's "immersive" but really it's down to each user and their choice. One way that's been approached is by saying if the mod had been in the original game and you would have enjoyed it, then it's an "immersive" mod. I do have several pet peeves when it comes to custom voiced audio, and one is if it's really poor quality. For me, that completely ruins the experience. Also, if the dialogue is spoken with zero emotion when it needs to have some, that also ruins it for me. Those two things would make a mod very "un-immersive" for me.
 
 
[b]What are some games other than Skyrim you enjoy playing? Have you ever tried modding other games?[/b]

Other games I enjoy playing are Battlefield 3, the occasional Chivalry, and Rocket League. There are others but those are the main ones. I have not modded any other game besides Skyrim.
 
 
[b]What are your favourite hobbies outside of gaming/modding?[/b]

I'm quite a fan of motor racing, particularly open wheel, and participate in go-karting when I can. I also enjoy traveling around and listening to a variety of voices on a wide range of subjects and topics.
 
 
[b]Do you have any tips for budding mod authors who want to follow in your footsteps?[/b]

My best advice I would give to people is to learn how to use TES5Edit and the Creation Kit, those are the tools you will use the most. The internet is your friend, use it for any questions you have. Ask other authors for help. Have patience, learning this can take time. For those wanting to do audio, you will need even more patience if you're going to be creating new dialogue out the games audio files, it's not something you'll be able to get on your first try. Don't get easily discouraged.
 
[center][img width=900,height=542]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/12713-1-1508718533.jpg[/img][/center]
[b]Is there anything else you’d like to say to our community?[/b]

I know I've been out of modding for quite a time, and that's simply due to both getting burned out and other obligations. If the time is available and I have the creative energy I will get back to it. Thank you for your understanding.

[line]
A big thank you to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/9159133?tab=user+files&BH=2]CloudedTruth[/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]. 

Big news Fallout fans, it's finally happening! Fallout: The Frontier will be available to download on [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68009]Nexus Mods[/url] from 8pm (GMT) and on [url=https://store.steampowered.com//app/1356060]Steam[/url] next week.   

Development of Fallout: The Frontier started almost 7 years ago and there were certainly times along the way where it looked like it would never make it to release, but the dedicated modders behind the project stayed strong and are now releasing this DLC-sized mod for New Vegas into the wild for the entire world to enjoy. 

Nothing builds anticipation like a ticking clock, so we've added this video from the mod team which will unlock as soon the mod is available.

[center][youtube]xtMgxLiW52Y[/youtube][/center]

If you're not already familiar with the project, here's a quick summary:

[quote]The Frontier is a gigantic “new game” sized, free mod for Fallout: New Vegas. It takes place in snowy Portland, Oregon, with a desperate battle between the NCR and the Legion. Including 3 major questlines each with their own unique playstyles, over 27,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue from hundreds of actors, hundreds of new characters, over 150 new unique and interesting weapons, hundreds of new armours, and the best drivable vehicles New Vegas has ever seen. With work done by a host of the best FNV modders still around, including [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/users/2846058]Devilswish182[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/users/1026866]Weijiesen[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/users/4983589]Mindboggles[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/4776864]macintrol[/url], it’s safe to say The Frontier could be considered its own unique unofficial Fallout game.[/quote]

The versions of the mod on both [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68009]Nexus Mods[/url] and [url=steam://openurl/https://store.steampowered.com//app/1356060]Steam[/url] are exactly the same, however, they are installed and managed in different ways. The Steam option uses an installer to move the mod files to and from the Fallout New Vegas folder, whereas the Nexus Mods download is a conventional mod you can install with your favourite mod manager.

[i]We anticipate that there will be a high demand for this file immediately after release, so your download speeds may be slower than usual. Thanks for understanding. [/i]

During the final months of development, I had the opportunity to catch up with the Project Lead of The Frontier, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/5605673]tgspy[/url]. He very graciously took some time out to answer a few of my burning questions ahead of the release.

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[b]Without spoiling too much, can you give us an idea of the story and characters?
[/b]
The Frontier doesn’t have quite as simplistic a progression or “end story” as NV and some of its DLC’s have. Each questline has different goals, as do their leaders. In a general sense, each questline has its own core “theme”. This core theme is hyper present throughout the entire questline and dictates the motives and story elements. The 3 major faction leaders, General Blackthorne, Legate Valerius, and Paladin Tasha Weaver, all have their own unique stories to tell and the player is along for the ride. We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that the story is as fresh to players when they join as possible, so we’ve been extremely light in our story spoilers. We do hope this waiting and secrecy will give players a nice surprise when they play the mod.


[b]Who are "The Crusaders" and what is their quest?[/b]

The Crusaders are the brainchild of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/4184393]Odinsword[/url]. They’re a unique twist of the Brotherhood of Steel and act as our “independent” playstyle. Here’s the basic lore :

[quote]The Crusaders were formed by a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin, Tasha Weaver, who was left for dead at Helios One.  She and several other Brotherhood refugees met up at New Canaan to live out a peaceful existence.   The destruction of New Canaan was the crucible in which the Crusaders were born.  Returning from a missionary trip, Weaver beheld the destruction of all she came to love.  Possessed with fury, Weaver repaired and repainted her power armour.  Gritted her teeth she added a new symbol to her armour: a blood-red symbol that merged the Crusader Cross with the BoS insignia.  Standing back she believed God had a new mission for her:  To reclaim the Holy Lands, to rebuild the old cities like had been done with New Canaan and New Jerusalem.  The BoS was correct in their collection of old-world technology, but wrong in their worship.  The tech should be used to reclaim the cities from the wasteland trash and establish new Mormon cities like New Canaan.   Brotherhood and Mormonism philosophies battled in her mind congealing into a strange new religion.

Driven by her charisma and indignation, Weaver and her fellow missionaries formed the Crusaders and declared a Holy War against what she perceived the enemies of rebuilding humanity, the Enemies of God or the Unworthy as she called them. Setting out to reclaim the Holy Lands, she makes a detour with some of her knights to give Blackthorne some much-owed payback. A man she viewed as evil incarnate.[/quote]
The Crusaders have a unique blend of scripted sequences and dialogue rich encounters, playing out like a New Vegas questline. It also has some incredible moments with unbelievable FX. We really hope players will enjoy the Crusaders as the unique faction they’ve become.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1610539886-918730887.jpeg[/img][/center]


[b]The Frontier is going to take place in Portland, Oregon almost 1,000 miles away from the Mohave. Will your choices in the mod have any impact on New Vegas itself? [/b]

Nope! As a general rule, mods that modify the vanilla game, and the Mojave world space itself, tend to make themselves incompatible with other mods over time. We didn’t feel it appropriate to modify the vanilla game in ways players may not necessarily enjoy; it also has the benefit of allowing players to enjoy the mod nearly as its own unique game, albeit still using the story of the courier.


[b]What is performance like in The Frontier? Can you run it on low-end hardware? [/b]

Performance has long been the downfall of many new vegas mods. This engine, with its 32 bits and graphical pipeline oddities, is unfortunately not suited to a large scale mod. All this being said however, we’ve put in an inordinate amount of time to make sure that performance is as optimal as possible for everyone. A powerful CPU makes a world of difference in this engine, so if you’re running a powerful CPU alongside a decent graphics card, you’ll be able to run Frontier at whatever FPS you like. That being said, those on laptops and very weak PC’s, won’t be able to run this mod at stable 60. We understand that some people are hell-bent on their games running at 60, but there’s not much more we can do, unfortunately. The Frontier is, however, contrary to the statements above, extremely stable. We’ve put just as much time into the performance as we have into stability and crash fixing. We’ve identified dozens of different CTD’s and crashes, including some engine-related crashes, and patched them. As such, the Frontier can be a stable experience for hours, so long as you’re running [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/66537]NVTF[/url] and the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68714]Mod Limit Fix[/url].


[b]As this project has been in development for a long time, do you have any lessons learned you'd like to share about coordinating on such a huge mod? [/b]

Well, as project lead, this is a pretty big thing for me. I’d like to say I learnt a lot about modding, but really, what I garnered most from my nearly 5 years on the project, was how to deal with teams and deal with people, as well as manage expectations. I give this advice freely to those either trying to start their own projects or work in teams in real life.


Number 1 thing I’ve learnt is, when it comes to big projects, is to understand the required work that comes with being a project lead or team manager. This advice doesn’t practically apply to real life, but some elements of it can. It tends to be that newer modders want to make “the next big thing”, but are only willing to commit themselves to be the ideas person and the manager. This simply doesn’t cut it. To build a team, you should be able to show what you’re capable of. Whilst there is an element of “cult of personality”, where if you’re charismatic enough and are able to gain at least a few well-known team members, the team can grow over time from word of mouth, you need to be able to put your money where your mouth is. A project lead in modding should be able to multitask. You should be able to be the one who does all the nitty-gritty things, to fix performance, to make interiors to fill out spaces, to do the things your dedicated role team members don’t want to do. Now, it is the case where the project founders and the project leads can be very different people; I think of Cascadia, the Fallout 4 mod, where this is the case, as well as our own mod. As long as your team has a dedicated leader, who can delegate tasks and do general work, you should be fine.  
 
[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1610540346-58269579.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1610540351-998686320.jpeg[/img][/center]

Number 2, is being able to work within the constraints of your team and to know the skills of your team. Having a team with 30 members is wonderful, but if you can’t delegate tasks to them all, you’ll end up falling head over heels. This is where co-leads and department leads can come into play. This isn’t a requirement mind you. This is more pertaining to much larger teams. On smaller teams, like the Frontier, I find it much easier to individually keep track of every team member. Know what they can do, keep their workloads manageable, learn when to back off but also know when to discipline. Your team members are not employees! You don’t work for a AAA game studio with human resources, it’s a project made in your free time as a hobby. Treat your team members as friends rather than cogs in a wheel, you’ll be better liked as a project lead that way. Keep things casual, but semi-professional, when actively working on your project.
 

The final thing, and probably the simplest. Enjoy it. You may make this project your resume piece, you may not. But if you can’t enjoy what you’re making, it’s for nought. Don’t burn yourself out over a mod for a video game. If you’re not enjoying it, take a week off, a month off. If you can’t find some enjoyment or satisfaction out of the content you create. Why bother? This isn’t a paid gig, so if you don’t enjoy, understand when it’s time to move on.  


[b]Which parts of the mod are you most proud of? 
[/b]
That’s really difficult. I’d like to think the thing I’m most proud of is the friends I’ve made along the way, but I’d have to say the thing I’m most proud of is just the breadth and variety of content available, whether that be AAA level visual effects, great new interiors, unique gameplay interactions, incredible scripting; there’s a heck of a lot to be proud of. I’m proud of my whole team for putting in such an incredible effort over these years.

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If you want to know more about The Frontier you can read [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13851]BigBizkit's 2018 Interview[/url] or [url=https://www.falloutthefrontier.com/]visit the official website[/url]. 


While we know 2020 has been a bit of a rubbish year (understatement of the century) for a lot of people, it has been an exhilarating year for Fallout New Vegas modding. In April we saw the release of coveted Mod Limit Fix, closely followed by a big update to New Vegas Script Extender in June. Fallout: The Frontier is an excellent way to start off 2021. It's incredible how much love there is for this 11-year-old game. 


Are you excited about exploring The Frontier? 

It's been a busy couple of months! Our eagle-eyed users may have noticed the lack of a November announcement in the We The Players event, so we're declaring the winners from both November and December today, which brings the year-long event to a close. 

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Happy New Year to everyone here at Nexus Mods, I hope that this year is far better for us all than the last!

As this is the final month of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]prize-giving[/url], I first wanted to say a huge thank you to all you avid gamers that have joined the site, submitted reviews, screenshots and collections, given us your feedback, and just helped make the platform even better. Without you, we wouldn't have added the ability to add games to lists (Wishlist, Playing, Completed etc.), nor would we have changed collections to have the ability to rank the games within it. We owe you a debt of gratitude. I also wanted to say thank you to Robin, Tom, Stefan and of course, Mike for everything you have done and continue to do for [url=https://wetheplayers.com/]We The Players[/url].

This year is a big deal to us, we have a new logo coming soon, we're finally moving out of early access, and we have some fantastic new features in development. With our users' help, we have begun to build a great community, we have a small but friendly [url=https://wtp.gg/discord]Discord group[/url] who talk video games and general chat, and we're currently on the lookout for a few moderators to help out over there. Our [url=https://www.facebook.com/wetheplayer]Facebook Page[/url] is growing, and we're now beginning to create articles for our blog page. If you want to submit anything, please hop over to [url=https://wtp.gg/discord]Discord[/url] and put forward your ideas, we're always looking for new talent.

Last year was a tough one for me; we had planned to go live and then exhibit at lots of live gaming events. We bought marketing material, and then everything shut down due to the pandemic. At the office we made the tough decision to use the time during lockdown to test the site and resume marketing when the virus subsided; we had no idea that we'd still be in this situation nearly a year later. Thankfully Robin came on board and allowed us to reach out to you all. I wish that I could give a Switch Lite, or at least a £50 Steam voucher to every one of you, but alas, the budget doesn't stretch that far. 

So for the last time, here are the winners for the Nintendo Switch Lites we have to give away:

The first one goes to [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/lazyluna678]Lazyluna678[/url] for their review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/scrap-mechanic]Scrap Mechanic[/url] - "[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/don-t-mind-me-i-m-just-building-something-new]Don't Mind Me... I'm Just Building Something New[/url]", we enjoyed this review immensely as Lazyluna678 goes on to break down a game that we would never have looked at otherwise. With a well broken down review, headings to let us know what we were reading, and an image to demonstrate the game, it was a very effective way to review the game. With no prior knowledge of Scrap Mechanic, I knew exactly what to expect when I bought the game (which I did in the Steam Winter Sale). With a similar premise to Minecraft, but with "better graphics, more parts, way more complex creations, and mainly focused on building technology", it won me over (for the record, I enjoy Minecraft too). The final score was 9.6.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/don-t-mind-me-i-m-just-building-something-new][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1610625130-1362965859.jpeg[/img][/url]

The second one goes to [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/gawain-games]Gawain-Games[/url] for their review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/wolfenstein-the-new-order]Wolfenstein: The New Order[/url] - "[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/gawain-s-wolfenstein-the-new-order-review]Gawain's Wolfenstein: The New Order Review[/url]". Gawain-Games has become a prolific reviewer on the site and has been close a few times to win the Nintendo Switch Lite, but this review caught our eye. The reason being is that they admit to not being a fan of shooters, but felt they should give the game a go as a friend who was streaming gifted it to them. Immediately upon starting the game, they knew they were in for a treat, with strong characters in B.J. Blazkowicz, Irene Engel, and Wilhelm Strasse, combined with a great story (that continues from [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/wolfenstein-the-old-blood]Wolfenstein: The Old Blood[/url], released after 'The New Order), and impressive visuals, Gawain enjoyed every aspect of the game from start to finish. The final score was 9.3.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/gawain-s-wolfenstein-the-new-order-review][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1610625126-424606302.jpeg[/img][/url]

So that's the two winning reviews. Now we have the ten random winners for the £50 Steam Gift Cards. These are:
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/elmordorable]Elmodorable[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/34621485]Pokigum[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/sturpz]Sturpz[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/71865568]Ausrion[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/azgoodaz]Azgoodaz[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/97168548]Azgoodaz[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/jz-bai]JzBai[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/2000006]JzBai[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/ebra]Ebra[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/52632506]Ebe222[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/epicmarkvan]Epicmarkvan[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/3065838]Epicmarkvan[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/giffsen]Giffsen[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/39138600]Kazukiwoof[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/endify]Endify[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/82168478]Endify123[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/nahti]Nahti_[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/83464303]Nahti[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/savvycrazy]Savvycrazy[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/100006553]1SavvyCrazy100[/url]

Although the Nexus Mods competition has now ended, we often do giveaways on our [url=https://wtp.gg/discord]Discord[/url] and Social Media channels ([url=https://www.facebook.com/wetheplayer]Facebook[/url], [url=http://www.twitter.com/wetheplayers]Twitter[/url], [url=http://instagram.com/wetheplayers]Instagram[/url]). Shortly we will be giving away a Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and a Nintendo Switch Fortnite addition - keep an eye on the channels for more information.

Thanks again to every single one of you who has registered and tried the site. Thank you to those who have shared the site with friends, or on social media, bringing new users to the site is vital for its success going forwards. Finally, your input has helped us immensely; we are building a platform that we want you to enjoy using and visiting, so constructive criticism is welcome. We hope to see you over on the [url=http://wetheplayers.com/]site[/url].

Kindest regards, 

Paul

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Congratulations to all the winners! Please join me in thanking Paul and the We The Players team for giving our community the chance to win some excellent prizes! 

It's a new year and once again we're back with another mod author interview. Today we are talking to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/11550578?tab=user+files&BH=0]DeadPool2099[/url] 3D artist and author of many amazing weapon mods for Fallout 4, such as the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/32361]Service Rifle[/url] or the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26386]Wattz Laser Gun[/url]!

[center][img width=875,height=492]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933629-349221972.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]BigBizkit: Thank you for joining us today. First of all, could you please tell us a bit about yourself?[/b]

Deadpool2099: You’re welcome :) Well, I don’t know what would be interesting that I can tell about myself. I was born in a family full of artists, so it pretty much defined my future. I was only doing traditional arts up until I changed my university to one which required knowledge of 3D programs. So I started studying for it, I really loved it, and so I decided to mix one favorite hobby (3D arts) with another (gaming). So I started making mods for my favorite game at the time :)

  
[b]You’re best known in the Fallout 4 modding scene for your incredible weapon mods. Which ones would you say are your main mods or the ones you are most proud of?
[/b]
I believe I’m most proud of two of them – the first and last, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20143]9mm[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/32361]Service Rifle[/url]. The first one is my first finished model, that I made after like 2 months of learning 3D arts, and it was quite good for a beginner, and the Service Rifle, well, there’s so much work been put into it, there were different texturing approaches and I generally paid more attention to details. So even after 2 years of improving my skills, I don’t dislike it unlike some of my other early works, haha!


[b]What specifically drew you to Fallout 4 modding and what made you decide to create all kinds of cool new guns?
[/b]
It might sound strange, but that was the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16694/]Fallout 4 Animation Kit[/url] by ShadeAnimator. And my love for FNV, too. As soon as I saw that ShadeAnimator made custom animations for guns possible, I thought that it would be incredibly cool to bring all those FNV guns that are missing to FO4. Though, I couldn’t animate or model back then, but hoped that someone someday will make it. But then, as I said, I went to a university that required 3D skills, started learning it, and then thought “heck, why can’t I do it myself? How hard can it be” :) So I tried and made them - some at least :)
 
[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933530-1413113319.png[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933544-2126591536.png[/img][/center]
[b]The guns you’ve created are all incredibly detailed. How much time did it take you to create the Service Rifle, the Wattz Laser Gun, or the Bullpup Bozar? What was the development process like?
[/b]
It is easier now that making gun 3D models became my job rather than a hobby, but it all depends on how complex it is. Stuff like [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/28478]Bullpup Bozar[/url] I could do in roughly 2 weeks, while the Service Rifle with all the attachments could take 2 months. Now I usually make a pistol in 1,5 – 2 weeks and something complex, like a sci-fi rifle in 3-6 weeks, but it still depends. What may seem simple can take twice the time than something complex to make.

 
[b]There is no shortage of amazing weapon mods for Fallout 4 and new ones are coming out almost daily. Do you still keep up with Fallout 4 modding and do you have any favourite gun/weapon mods from other creators?
[/b]
Sadly, I don’t pay as much attention to the Fallout mod scene as I used to, because of so many new and exciting games that are coming out at the end of the generation, and so little free time I have now, but my top favorite are [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13283]WastelandMelody’s Chinese AR[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15909]DKS-501 Sniper Rifle by LtCommander[/url], and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20687]M1 Garand by asXas[/url]. I can’t imagine playing F4 without those. Also, I really love the work by TheRizzler, ShoeBurglar and ToastyFresh, I always use their mods in my game, and I’m a big fan of what they do.
 
[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933575-1857587488.jpeg[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933582-1197837292.png[/img][/center]
[b]What tools do you use for your creations and how did you learn how to use them?
[/b]
It’s 3Ds Max for modeling, Substance Painter for textures and ZBrush for highpoly models and minor sculpting, when it’s required. I used to learn primarily from tutorials on the web for the most part, plus I asked for help from my teachers in the uni for some specific questions.

 
[b]Have you ever tried your hand making mods for other games?
[/b]
I had some ideas, but never got to this, as no other game did hold me for as long as Fallout 4 did.
 

[b]What advice would you give people interested in becoming a mod author or a 3D artist in particular?
[/b]
For 3D artists, the program you’re using doesn’t matter, but what you do does. If you’re using the same software pack as I am, tutorials by Tim Bergholz, especially his AKM tutorial, and by Michael Pavlovich helped me a LOT to get into 3D, and I can’t recommend them enough for beginners :)

But most importantly – practice. Spend as much time as you can doing what you like: modelling, texturing, scripting or animating, and you’ll become a pro in no time :)

[center][img width=875,height=492]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1609933598-1074866894.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]Is there anything else you would like to say to our community?
[/b]
Enjoy the things you’re doing. If you’re playing a game, modding it or even making your own, it’s gotta put a smile on your face in the end, no matter what your path is or was :)

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A big thank you to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/11550578?tab=user+files&BH=0]Deadpool2099[/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]. 

It's almost Christmas! We hope you've all managed to keep off the naughty list during 2020. 


There's a good chance if you're reading this you might be wondering why you were logged out of the website recently. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with your account. This happened because we had to clear everyone's active login session as part of a routine - but essential - database maintenance task. 


If you haven't been logged out yet [url=https://users.nexusmods.com/user/security/edit]please make sure your account email address is up to date[/url] as you may still be logged out in the next hour. 


We understand that this will be a minor inconvenience to some of our users, however, this change is necessary to prepare the website for what is shaping up to be another busy festive period and to enable us to continue to improve our services moving forwards.


If you're having trouble logging back into your account, please see the self-help articles below for assistance:

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[*][url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/102-i-am-not-receiving-emails-from-nexus-mods-what-can-i-do]I'm not receiving emails from Nexus Mods, what can I do?[/url]
[*][url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/108-account-recovery]I have lost access to my email address/Two Factor Authentication device. [/url]
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Of course, if you're still not able to get into your account again, you can contact our Community Team by emailing [url=mailto:support@nexusmods.com]support@nexusmods.com[/url]. (Please make sure you send your email from the address used with your account, where possible.) 


So you know, over the holiday period it may take longer than normal to respond to support requests, we apologise in advance for any delays. 


Thank you for your patience and for being a part of the Nexus Mods community in 2020! We look forward to catching up with you all in 2021. 

Another month, another prize draw in the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]We The Players[/url] competition exclusive to Nexus Mods users! Once again time for TokenGeek to announce the lucky winners of the Nintendo Switch Lite and 5x $50 Steam Gift Cards in October's draw.

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Slightly late with the announcement of winners this month, my apologies. We've been busy ensuring that all the titles for the 'next-gen' consoles are all present and correct on the site.  

October was a big month for us here at We The Players, not only in terms of ratings and reviews, but we have also released our first significant update to the platform - Game States. We wanted our users to be able to keep a record of games they have played, completed, mastered or abandoned - this first iteration of that feature has gone down well with our community. We hope that future updates will allow you to import your games automagically from your game clients, Steam, Origin, Epic and even Xbox and PSN - this should make it easier if you own hundreds, if not thousands of titles.  

Currently, we are working on completing an upgrade to our Collections feature. Users will not only be able to group titles together but will be able to create 'Numbered Lists'. This may not sound like a lot straight off the bat, but is a feature that has been requested numerous times. Now you will be able to create lists such as 'Top 10 Games of 2020', or 'Every Superhero game in order of greatness', you get the idea. We hope that we'll be able to share this update with you next month.


[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1605622584-958692770.png[/img]


In terms of the competition, we have had another great month of well-written reviews, hundreds of ratings and even some screenshots submitted. Thank you to the entire community at Nexus Mods for supporting us each month.

First up are the winners of the £50 Steam Vouchers...

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/elkian]Elkian[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/48377158]ElkianLionblood[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/majorshepard]Majorshepard[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/2073131]MajorSherpard[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/vega]Vega[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/33399325]aihre[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/rosena]Rosena[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/52307361]Noela[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/dm-fproject-gaming]DMF ProjectGaming[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/66193551]rbombo4[/url]

Congratulations to each of you, you will find the redemption codes in your DM's in the next few days.

Next up we have the winner of the Nintendo Switch Lite, [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/sierra-komodo]SierraKomodo[/url] for their review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/enderal-forgotten-stories]Enderal: Forgotten Stories[/url] by SureAI - [url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/enderal-a-great-mod-with-an-amazing-story]Enderal: A Great Mod With An Amazing Story[/url] (Be warned, SierraKomodo has marked the review to contain some spoilers).  

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77868/]Enderal[/url] is a total conversion mod for Skyrim that SierraKomodo has enjoyed immensely, stating that this free mod adds a better levelling system into the game than the vanilla Skyrim and also a great perk system. Even though it doesn't offer much of a graphical update to the original Skyrim, the game does seem to require slightly higher PC specifications to run as well. The mod can be obtained for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77868/]FREE[/url] right here at [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77868/]Nexus Mods[/url], the only caveat being you need to own the original Skyrim (and who doesn't!).

The next few months are pretty big for us; we have several new features making their way onto the site, and in January we are finally going to take the website out of early access - a huge step. We're glad to have Nexus Mods helping us out and hope that you enjoy the site going forwards.

Today we are talking to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1632043?tab=user+files]Mangaclub[/url], a long-time member of our modding community and author of some of your favourite weather mods such as Vivid Weathers for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/73937]Skyrim[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2187]Skyrim Special Edition[/url], and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15466]Fallout 4[/url].

 
[b]BigBizkit: Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Before we start the interview: what’s the weather like where you’re at right now?[/b]

Mangaclub: Thank you! It's good to have the opportunity to answer your questions. The weather is actually the very same as my actual mod that is in development: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/46871]Whispering Hills - a Silent Hill Overhaul for Fallout 4[/url].  So in short, it is really cold and foggy :)


[b]Can you tell us a bit about yourself?[/b]

YES I can! First of all, I am from Germany and was born into the gaming world with the very first Gameboy I owned.

From there the fascination of computers grew massively. I spent months in front of my Amiga playing every minute of my spare time. I started modding when Fallout New Vegas was released. With that, I had my first experiences of how to mod games and how to avoid tearing out your hair from not working mods. My history in game development goes back much further though. I once lead a team of around 5 people to create a Silent Hill Clone Game. This project sadly never finished ([url=http://soms3d.de/]soms3d.de[/url]) but I was able to acquire all needed knowledge of 3D engines and how they worked back then.

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[b]You are most well known for your Vivid Weathers mods for Skyrim and Fallout 4. How would you describe these mods to people who have yet to try them out?[/b]
 
Vivid Weathers can be described as a total weather and visual overhaul for these games. It aims to replace and add many more weather simulations as well as overhauling the general image quality of the game with new colours and effects. This includes even using some unused effects that are in the engine but never made it in to the final release in an enabled state.
 

[b]What initially inspired you to create a complete weather and visual overhaul for Skyrim?[/b]
 
When I first played Skyrim, I was more or less disappointed with the visuals of this game. The strong green tint and bleached out colours made everything look dull. So I started to create an ENB for Skyrim called "Vividian ENB" which has grown very huge over time. In fact, it has grown so large that I was hitting the boundaries of what I could do with an ENB alone and I was forced to do these changes with plugins. That's when I started to tinker with weathers and to say it short... it was necessary to embark on the journey towards making a weather mod in order to make my ENB work out the best.  
 

[b]Do you still remember how it all started for you? What got you interested in modding?[/b]
 
Well as a German I feel the constant need to enhance the things that are in front of me. It literally started with Fallout New Vegas where I enhanced a few aspects of it like the colour palette and visuals. Seeing how one can change the feeling of a whole game and enhance it was giving me a "kick" that is still holding up to this very day. For me it is an expression of creativity that I got addicted to.  

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[b]Having been part of the community for so long now, you must have some favourite mods that go well alongside your own. Can you name a few?[/b]

Of course! I always recommend [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2424]Enhanced Lights & FX (ELFX)[/url] as well as [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2182]Realistic Water Two[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2154]Skyrim Flora Overhaul[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/671]Frostfall[/url]. Those mods are in my opinion a must have for Skyrim at the very least.
 

[b]Are there any mods from other authors that you look at and just go “wow”?[/b]
 
I am a big fan of the mod [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5271]Rigmor of Bruma[/url] which adds a very unique quest and follower to Skyrim. It literally captured me with the voice acting and the well written story. This was the one mod where I went "wow" after I finished it. But the things is, I cannot really experience many of those "wow" mods because I went from playing Skyrim and Fallout, to modding it. Modding became a replacement for playing the games. That sadly also means I miss out on many good mods that are out there.
 

[b]If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self regarding your first mod(s)?[/b]
 
"HOLY MOLY! STOP MESSING AROUND WITH THE TINT VALUES THOSE ARE EVIL" or something like that :) - Really there are many things in the creation engine that can make you go crazy because they change the visuals in a way that makes it impossible for you to figure out where a specific ugly look comes from. The "Tint" value in the imagespaces is one of those.  
 

[b]Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of modding and/or gaming?[/b]
 
Oh, of course. I am restaurating old classic computers form the 80s and early 90s including Amiga, C64, NES and ATARI. I also built up a Tabletop arcade machine from scratch and tour with a team of enthusiastic friends ([url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXdKlrtyQAEDs1XqixXlBrg]look up Retr-o-mat[/url]) to exhibit those machines on games conventions. Other than that I love taking photos (that's where most of my cloud textures come from) and as a Zen Buddhist meditation also is part of my life now.
 

[b]Are you excited for any upcoming games?
[/b]
Oh, yes I sure am excited for Cyberpunk but also for new Resident Evil Remakes. I am also especially excited about the new upcoming release of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey!

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[b]Is there anything else you would like to say?
[/b]
Sure! These times we live in are particularly rough for every one of us. If we focus on what's important (in my opinion that's family, friends and everyone in your circle), then we can overcome these times together. The more we hold together as humans who stop being divided by concepts of skin colour, religion and political views, the more we will stay strong for what's ahead of us.

[line]
A big thank you to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/1632043?tab=user+files]Mangaclub[/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]. 

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated [b]UI/UX Designer[/b] who is passionate about creating practical, simple and human solutions to complex problems which will help design the future of Nexus Mods – a service used by millions of players worldwide.


Together with the front-end team, you will be expected to work alongside our back-end development teams to release new features and to also take full responsibility for the look, feel and user experience of the Nexus Mods product suite.


We work as closely as possible to an agile project management scheme and every team member's input is highly valued - we're looking for someone who can constructively discuss and present new ideas in our meetings.


[i]Due to COVID-19, we are currently working remotely, however as soon as government advice allows we will be moving back to office-based work.[/i]


You can view the [url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/80DC4F55EC/]full job description on Workable[/url] and if you think you would be a good fit, get your application in today!


If you're interested in joining our team, but don't think this is the right role for you then keep an eye on our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/careers#current-positions]careers page[/url] and site news where we'll be posting available positions in the future. 

Skyblivion is a name that most modders of Skyrim or Oblivion may have heard at one time or another over the last 9 years. It's an incredibly ambitious project which aims to recreate the entirety of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in the newer game engine used by Skyrim. The team have recently released their first "Development Diary" which gives us a taste of what's to come. In this feature, we're chatting with Rebelzize and the team about this exciting venture. 

[center][youtube]MRLqjCLSehQ[/youtube][/center]
[b]Rebelzize, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. In your video, you say that Skyblivion has been in development since 2012. There must have been many different contributors over the years, can you give us an idea of the size of the team and how it has shifted over the life of the project?
[/b]
Thanks for having me! Like any game, the project has gone through several stages of development from preparing the first tools to working out a roadmap and finally to the stage we are currently in which focuses on recreating, implementing and redesigning the major areas of the game. Since its inception, we have had contributions from around 200 people. Unfortunately, a lot of these contributions tend to only last for short periods with few contributors staying with us for longer periods of time. This of course is not a problem and we are happy with any help that we can get to make Skyblivion happen. At the moment our active team consists out of around 30 people, they are divided between 3D artists, interior designers, landscapers, concept artists, coders, quest implementers, asset implementers, navmeshers and a few generalists.


[b]We've previously featured the team from [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/13781]Beyond Skyrim: Cyrodiil[/url] who are working on another Skyrim modding project to recreate Cyrodiil (the region featured in Oblivion). Can you describe how the two versions of [b]Cyrodiil [/b]are different and if there is any crossover in what you're doing? 
[/b]
Our friends over at Beyond Skyrim are working in the same province but we have completely different goals. Our goal is to recreate Oblivion’s locations, quests and some of its mechanics, in short, remaking Oblivion as a current-generation title. Since we are remaking Oblivion a large focus of ours is to capture that charm Oblivion had which includes its sometimes wacky and funny quests. Beyond Skyrim is working on the same province but doesn't have you play as the [url=https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Hero_of_Kvatch]Hero of Kvatch[/url] or play through any of the original quests. Most of the crossover will be in assets that the projects share and similar-looking locations and biomes.

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[b]Oblivion is an iconic game and is very different from Skyrim, so recapturing the feel of the world is no small feat. What do you consider to be the most important elements to make the game world really feel like the Cyrodiil we remember so dearly? 
[/b]
For starters, the look and feel of the game need to be overhauled. Skyrim's weathers and assets were made with a colder climate in mind. Oblivion on the other hand has a much warmer and more vibrant climate and as such our colour palette needed a complete rework. I think if you will look at screenshots of our weathers we can all agree that we did a pretty good job there if I do say so myself ;).

Secondly, the stories and quests you come across during your playthrough. Oblivion’s writing in my opinion was a lot more interesting than Skyrim’s and had players going on a lot of fun and unexpected adventures. It is our mission to let players re-experience those stories, albeit in a slightly different way. 


[b]Will Skyblivion feature any significant departures from the world seen in the 2006 release? 
[/b]
Most of our changes are graphical. Our exterior worldspace has been remade from the ground up to feature more diverse biomes and overall be packed with more secrets, treasure, hidden secrets and lots of STUFF. NPC’s, creatures, monsters and all our assets have gotten a facelift to be up to modern game standards which will allow players to immerse themselves into the world and get lost in this fantastic game all over again.


[b]Looking at the clips from the Developer Diary, we can already see the incredible detail in the landscapes, dungeons and interiors. Are you planning to apply the same creative license to the story and quests of Oblivion or perhaps expand on elements you felt were lacking in the original game? 
[/b]
For Skyblivion its important that we do not change a winning formula. I still play Oblivion to this day and like many others, I don't come back for the graphics but for the story. As such our aim is not to fix that which isn't broken but to focus on what we do want to improve. The world. On that note quest locations, unique Daedric realms and other areas that play a significant role within the story will be overhauled to better fit their purpose and lore.

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[b]With Cyrodiil being the province at the heart of Tamriel, it shares borders with 6 other regions, including Skyrim. The original game showed these areas as inaccessible, coloured terrain. Do you plan to do anything special with these diverse border regions? 
[/b]
Certainly. Like all aspects of our project, we try to work in visual storytelling into the game world. All borders to the other provinces for instance now feature border gates. Depending on relations with the other province these border gates will visually look quite different from one another. Some are even abandoned or ransacked which allows you to march into a different province for a little while. Other than you can expect to taste a hint of whatever province is behind the border.


[b]Are there any significant technical challenges you'd had to overcome while building your project or advancements in modding you've made that you are particularly proud of?
[/b]
As a base for our project’s quests, we converted all of Oblivions quest data which was a massive undertaking. The tools developed for this specific purpose are immensely complex but as of writing this we finally have been able to implement all this data into our game. The next step for us is to manually fix and reimplement sections that don't function as intended but overall this is a massive time saver for us. 


[b]It's exciting to hear that there will be hidden treasures dotted around the world for players to discover. Are these caches planned to include regular loot or will there be some easter egg items which players can track down? 
[/b]
A mix of both. We obviously don’t want to overdo adding our own easter eggs to the game or you would soon find [url=https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Easter_Eggs#Pac-Man]Pacman references[/url] in nearly every kitchen for instance. My tip for when the game launches would be to keep an eye out for any oddities or trails that you might be able to spot. Following these might lead to some nice surprises :)


[b]Are there any elements from TES:5 which you have decided to keep as part of the project? 
[/b]
Since we use Skyrim as a base for our project many elements will be very familiar to the player. That isn't to say that we don’t work on recreating mechanics such as underwater combat for instance but a lot of features can be classified as negligible and if we want to release this project in a timely fashion we simply can’t spend all our time recreating every little element from Oblivion. 

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[b]In December 2019, you uploaded [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31206]3E Cyrodiilic Steel Armor[/url] as a standalone mod to show off some of the work from the team. Are you planning to release any other standalone mods in the lead up to the full project launch? 
[/b]
We would certainly consider it. The main issue with these Nexus releases is that our team is so small that it is difficult to spend resources on public releases like this since that time would be better spend on the core project. Perhaps this article will yield some talented folks who want to take on some Nexus releases in their free time ;).


[b]We all know that it's impossible to give a release date on a passion project like this, but can you give us a rough idea of how far along the project is? 
[/b]
I get this question every day on my streams and the best possible answer is this: with a project of this scope we try to focus on an MVP, minimal viable product, which contains all quests, 3D assets, locations and creatures from the base game. In other words, we indeed implement all the quests, recreate all 3D assets needed to provide a stable game, finish the exterior map and remake and implement all Oblivions creatures.

All quests are currently in the build but need manual work by our quest implementers which currently progresses steadily, I'm confident in saying that the gross amount of work is behind us thanks to the conversion and now we can focus on tweaking, adjusting and re-implementing where needed. 3D artists are hard to come by unfortunately and so this area of the game currently can use a boost. Most of the clutter claims have been finished but some clothes, creatures but mostly a lot of architecture claims remain. Without architecture, we can't finish our cities. The exterior map is nearing completion of its first phase, after this, we can focus on adding more minute details and finalizing the map.lastly for creatures we don’t have a lot of work left to do, mostly a few monsters and animals and some creatures that need rigging and implementation.

I hope that gives people an idea.


[b]If there are modders out there who would like to help you realise the dream of Skyblivion, how can they help?
[/b]
Our core team consists mostly out of modders from around the Skyrim community. Anyone who is experienced in creating 3D assets, implementing 3D assets, rigging creatures, implementing quests, creating interiors, creating exteriors or just has good CK knowledge and wants to work on a big project with a team of hobbyists and game developers are more than welcome to apply [url=https://skyblivion.com/volunteer/]on our website[/url].

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[b]An important question, have you cast a voice actor to play the Adoring Fan yet? 
[/b]
Don't worry. He sounds just as annoying and unloveable as ever.


[b]Thank you again for chatting with us today. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the Nexus Mods community before we wrap up?
[/b]
I sincerely want to thank the amazing Skyrim community for all the help and support they have given us since our first announcement. We simply wouldn't be here without them. Additionally a big thanks to Pickysaurus for having us for this interview. I selfishly hope we can grow our team a little thanks to this.


[line]
A big thank you to Rebelzize and the Skyblivion team 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 [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b]. 

We're now into the fourth month of the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]We The Players[/url] prize draw exclusively for Nexus Mods users, so it's time for TokenGeek to announce the lucky winner of the Nintendo Switch Lite and 5x $50 Steam Gift Cards from September. 

[line]

Hey everyone, thanks again for another successful month of top-notch reviews, collections and screenshots. Our community over at "[url=http://wetheplayers.com/]We The Players[/url]" is slowly growing and that is in no small part down to those of you here at Nexus Mods. We're eternally grateful. 


We're also expanding our games database, with over 135,000 entries so far, many of which include images and videos. If you remember a game, take a look and see if it's there.


We've been discussing some of the ratings that games are currently receiving and find it interesting that both [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim]Skyrim[/url] and [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-special-edition]Skyrim Special Edition[/url] are sitting on 9.1 each. The more ratings that the games receive the more useful the information becomes to other gamers. So if you can spare some time, get on the site and get rating those titles you've played.


Also, over on our [url=http://wtp.gg/discord]Discord[/url], we are still giving away games and gift cards. So drop by if you fancy chatting about video games and having a chance to win additional prizes.


The latest feature that should go live on the site around October 20th is the "Game States" update. This addition will give you the ability to track your games and set flags to say which games you are playing, completed, 100% mastered, own or abandoned. We're excited to push this live at the end of the month

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Okay, so onto this month's winners.


First up is the £50 worth of Steam Gift Cards, so congratulations to the following people: 
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/natef04]Natef04[/url] --> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/54854617]Natef04[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/lazyluna678]LazyLuna678[/url] --> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/80964138]LazyLuna678[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/regal-blade]RegalBlade[/url] --> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/21463154]RegalBlade[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/everest]Everest[/url] --> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/40696345]Everest129[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/sturpz]Sturpz[/url] --> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/71865568]Ausrion[/url]


The winner of this months Nintendo Switch Lite is [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/diegozt]Diegozt[/url] with their review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/the-crew-2]The Crew 2[/url] - [url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/the-land-of-the-not-so-free]The Land of the Not-So Free[/url]. On the whole, it was a somewhat negative review of the game, but it gave us plenty of reasons why. The microtransactions, the somewhat lifeless open world, and a dull collection of cars lead to something that is quite uninspiring. Diegozt has written some other great reviews, and we recommend checking them out if you want to read about [url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/legendary-breathtaking-and-wild]The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild[/url], or [url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/from-russia-with-love]Metro Exodus[/url]

[center][url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/the-land-of-the-not-so-free][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1602081678-1736373412.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]

We've seen a lot of great reviews and collections, so we thought we would highlight another few for you to take a look at.


[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/lazyluna678]LazyLuna678 [/url]has produced many a top review, and we look forward to seeing everything they write. A review that caught our eye was for a game from yesteryear, [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic]Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic[/url]. The title of '[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/literally-why-are-you-reading-this-go-and-play-the-game-now]Literally why are you reading this? Go and play the game now.[/url]' certainly grabbed our attention and we enjoyed reading the review, especially as LazyLuna678 did a great job of avoiding [i]that[/i] iconic twist in the game.


On the collection front, we've witnessed users start to list out games they played growing up. [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/the-angry-turkey]TheAngryTurkey's[/url] '[url=https://wetheplayers.com/collections/my-childhood-gaming-collection]My Childhood Gaming Collection[/url]' is a great example, with classics like The Legend of Zelda and GoldenEye 007. If I were to do mine, it would include games like [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/the-hobbit--1]The Hobbit[/url] from 1982 - I guess that shows how old I'm getting though!


So there you have it for this month. Congratulations to the six winners. For a chance to win, take a look at the competition over on [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]this news post[/url].

Today we are talking to two authors from the Witcher 3 community: [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/37146370?tab=user+files]wiggolp[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/49777341?tab=user+files]Damastor[/url] - both of whom have managed to create new quest mods for the game, adding new areas, dialogue, and more!


[b]BigBizkit: To start this off, let me ask you, wiggolp, about your mod adding a completely new quest to the game - [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4585]Ciri’s Sole Memento[/url]. How would you describe the mod and quest for those curious to play it?[/b]
 
wiggolp: The majority of players who finished the game probably guessed it right what this quest is about by reading the title. I don't want to spoil the main game plot for those who haven't finished the game yet so I won't say too much. This mod is tied to the main game story's questline. It allows the player to continue the main game story - if the player gets one of the "good endings". Basically, it can be described as a Ciri and Geralt "witchering together" kind of story.

[center][img width=850,height=478]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4585/4585-1601429646-684248463.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]What gave you the idea for the mod?[/b]
 
I believe this particular thing the mod tries to address is something that has bothered many players - a loose end which you cannot tie up unless you get a "bad ending". There are a few other loose ends in the game but this particular one bothered me the most. The release of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3620]radish modding tools[/url] finally allowed me to make a full legitimate quest.


[b]We haven’t seen many quest mods being made for Witcher 3 yet. What inspired you personally to pick up the powerful, community-made [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3620]radish modding tools[/url] and create a quest mod for The Witcher 3?[/b]

I learned about radish tools by reading an article in some video game blog. I watched the videos about them and I was really impressed with what can be done with them. However, I didn't pick them up right then. I was discouraged by the warning that you have to be an experienced Witcher 3 modder to be able to use them and I hadn't made a single mod for Witcher 3. I finished the first and the second game in the series, and I read all the books. I wanted more. I wanted to make something myself. I had this Ciri's Memento idea for quite some time so I thought to myself - how hard could this be? The worst that could happen is that it would be too hard for me and then I would just drop it. But at least I'll know because I would have tried. So I downloaded the tools and started learning. 

[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4585/4585-1600335742-1270041424.jpeg[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4585/4585-1596723740-969789603.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]What was the development process like? Was it difficult to learn how to use radish modding tools?
[/b] 
At first, I downloaded and rebuilt the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3611]Escaping the Cage[/url] project to make sure that the tools worked fine. Once that was done, I started making my own quest. Technically, new modders are asked to complete the "[url=https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Radish_Trial_1_Installation_Step_By_Step_Guide]trials of radishes[/url]" - a set of tasks to show that they understand the quest mechanics and know how to use the radish tools. I started from the other end - I started making my own quest. It took me a month to make this very first version that you can see [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljYEo6C8Es]here[/url]. I made it alone without any help. I read radish trial articles and googled for information in the Witcher 3 modding sites and forums. I posted this video on the radish tools page here on Nexus and the tool's developer [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/29653850]rmemr[/url] offered me to join the [url=https://discord.com/invite/Enhvct9]radish modding tools Discord server[/url].

[i][center]Note: The video may contain main quest spoilers for the Witcher 3.[/center][/i][center][youtube]2ljYEo6C8Es[/youtube][/center]
I was hesitant at first, thinking I could make this mod alone by myself but further into development I encountered problems which I couldn't find answers for - so I joined it. I've got a private channel for my mod set up,  [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/29653850]rmemr[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/79171083]nikich340[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/users/3812549/]erxv[/url] (he made the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2767]Witcher 1 Prologue mod[/url]) helped and advised me a lot. Basically, I would post videos and share my ideas with them and I got their feedback on what I could do to improve it. The channel is now open to public so anyone interested can join the radish tools server and read about it.
 
The learning process on how to use the tools depends on every person individually - how quick they understand things and how easy or hard working with the tools might seem to them. But the most important thing in my opinion is determination and the will to learn. There are many "trials of the radishes" participants but only a handful of them made it far and are still active. Many just leave without explanation. And that's a shame because the community there is very helpful and friendly.
 
[b]Thank you, wiggolp, for taking the time to answer our questions! [/b]
[line]

[b]Now, over to Damastor - author of several quest mods for The Witcher 3 as well as the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4956]Toussaint Extended Project[/url] which adds new areas to the region from the Witcher 3 DLC: Blood & Wine.[/b]

[b]Damastor, can you tell us a bit about the kind of mods you make?[/b]
 
Damastor: Although I had many ideas and wishes, I never managed to make graphics/gameplay mods for The Witcher 3 like I did for Civilization 4 quite some time ago. So the only kind of mods I'm capable of making right now are quest mods and environment editing - including the creation of a completely new hub (map area) comparable to Novigrad and other areas from the main game.
 
[center][img width=850,height=478]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4959/4959-1598701331-2062404453.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]What made you choose Toussaint as the stage for your additions to the game?[/b]
 
Lots of explorable, yet completely wasted space in the Toussaint hub (map area) outside playable borders. The actual hub is [i]at least 4 times larger[/i] than the area you are allowed to explore in vanilla - and by this I mean areas of the map that contain trees, fine-looking mountainous, horizons (without seeing edges of the map) and even roads and flower meadows in some parts - I'm pretty sure that the developers initially planned for a much larger Duchy (hence the generated map is a lot larger than the final border area), but something happened and these plans were abandoned. Perhaps some deadline issues which forced them to release a much smaller (though still amazing) DLC than we could have had. 
 

[b]From adding new areas like vineyards and villages to implementing entirely new quest lines and dialogue: how did you develop the skills necessary for using the available modding tools? Did you get a lot of help from the community?[/b]
 
The main help from the Nexus Mods community has come in the form of hosting amazing modding tools made by rmemr and erxv (authors of [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2767]W1 prologue remastered[/url]), including [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2114]Storyboard UI[/url] required for creating ingame scenes or just cool screenshots. Initially, this was the only tool available and all I did was having fun with it, i.e. being unable to make proper mods, I used it to create the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/images/14772]Beast of Angren web-comic[/url] - a sort of fan-fic story about Ciri's adventures based on her dialogue with Geralt in the end of "Blood and Wine". Its unfinished yet, contains only 8 parts but this made rmemr notice me and invite me to the (at the time) closed Discord server "radish trials" for practicing skills needed for quest making with the use of the "radish modding tools", also developed by rmemr and erxv.

As a matter of fact, the 8th part of "Beast of Angren" comic took me to building an entirely new city as a background for screenshots. This city was based on CDPR's Thronebreaker concept art and later would be featured in an upcoming mod as a part of a new hub.
 

[b]What are some of the tools you use to create your mods?[/b]
 
Storyboard UI for scenes, radish modding tools for quests, levels and terrain, as well as World Creator (check it out, it's great) as an augmentation for faster generation and editing of new hubs. 
 
[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4958/4958-1598700508-1118438952.jpeg[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/952/images/4958/4958-1598700396-1229225431.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]What is it about The Witcher 3 in particular that made you want to create mods for it?[/b]
 
The only game I modded before W3 was Civ4, for the reason that it had  great gameplay but lots of graphics stuff that I was unhappy about. In the case of W3 - it's quite the opposite. Although W3's gameplay has only one flaw, its a major one: this game ends. I don't accept that and am sure that many would agree with that. And that's the reason why I make quest mods for it.

[b]Thank you, too, Damastor for taking the time!

[/b]
[b]Last but not least, this question goes to both of you: Do you have any tips for budding mod authors who’d like to follow in your footsteps?[/b]
 
wiggolp: Do it. Don't hesitate. If you have an idea for a quest or just want to try your hands on quest making come join us. You'll get all the help you need to push further.

Damastor: Join the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3620]radish tools[/url] Discord server which can be found [url=https://discord.gg/R7Jpzfv]here[/url].

The community is very supportive and helpful there, and there are enough experienced modders online to help you with any questions you'll have upon learning these tools. 

Although the tools are currently not extremely easy to install, their authors as well as recent newcomers made great progress in terms of improving them and making them user-friendly in the past few months. Just remember, - a little patience at the start - and within a week or two (with dedicating at least one hour to it per day) you'll be fully capable of creating your own quests, locations and even worlds for the Witcher 3.

[line]
Thanks for reading our interview with wiggolp and Damastor - two talented Witcher 3 modders! As always 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]. 

Recently we have seen a spate of provocative and troll mods being uploaded based around current sociopolitical issues in the United States. As we get closer to the US election in November we expect this trend to increase as it did this time 4 years ago.

Considering the low quality of the mods being uploaded, the polarising views they express and the fact that a small but vocal contingent of our users are seemingly not intelligent or grown up enough to be able to debate the issues without resorting to name calling and baseless accusations without proof (indicative of the wider issues plaguing our world at this time) we've decided to wipe our hands clean of this mess and invoke an outright ban on mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States. We have neither the time, the care or the wish to moderate such things. This ban will apply to all mods uploaded from the 28th of September onwards. We will review this restriction sometime after the next President of the United States has been inaugurated.

Most of these mods are being uploaded by cowards with sock puppet accounts deliberately to try and cause a stir. If you see one of these mods I suggest you do as our [url=https://help.nexusmods.com/article/28-file-submission-guidelines#File_Reporting_and_Moderation]Terms of Service[/url] say and report the mod and move on without engaging with the content. Your engagement will only fuel the idiots further. Smile and be happy in the knowledge the time it took them to make an account on the site and upload their mod is a lot longer than it takes for us to ban the account and delete the mod.

To be blunt, we do not care how this looks nor do we care if you think the mods we do or don't moderate reflect on us, our political beliefs or what we do and don't want on our site. Say and do what you want on other sites or services, we care nothing for it here.

Have a great day.

We are currently performing essential maintenance on the notifications system of the website, as a result, you may notice that all of your notifications prior to 12:00 pm GMT(+1) today are no longer showing in the notifications drop-down menu or the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/notifications]notifications page[/url]. Our web developers are working on restoring old notifications, however, we are not yet sure if this is going to be possible. We understand this isn't ideal for many users who rely on the site notifications and would like to humbly apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused. 


[b]What has happened?[/b]

Following several reports from the community relating to notifications not working, our team discovered that due to the sheer amount of information stored in the site notifications database we've hit some limits which require manual intervention to overcome.

So that users can continue to use the site properly during the maintenance we've shifted all the data to a different part of the database, resulting in a "clean slate" for notifications. Our web team are now focusing on trying to re-import this old data but there may be technical challenges that make this impossible. 


[b]How long will it take?[/b]

Regular notifications are already working again, however, it is difficult to give any kind of timescale on the older notifications until we know more. We will post updates on our progress in the comments section of this article as more information becomes available. 


[b]What are you doing to prevent this problem from reoccurring?[/b]

The good news is, we have already been working on a massive overhaul of the notifications system for a while now. When complete, we will have a much better platform to build on, which will enable us to provide new types of notification and give you all better control over which ones you want to see.  

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

Vortex 1.3.0 has arrived! Over the last few weeks, we've introduced new features, improved existing functionality and squashed a whole load of pesky bugs. The Vortex team have been eagerly working through over 2,500 of your feedback reports to bring you the most polished modding experience yet. Here are the highlights of what's new in the latest release of Vortex. 

[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]Vortex UI/UX update[/size]

It won't be obvious to the naked eye, but Vortex is undergoing a significant transformation under the hood. The team are hard at work decoupling the "front-end" elements of Vortex - that is, the parts the users interact with - from the more technical "back-end" components. This project will allow our front-end team to take over the implementation of the user interface and build on community feedback submitted specifically related to the flow and usability of the app. 

When Vortex was initially created we didn't have a dedicated front-end team and the design itself was passed between several different graphic artists before the final look was completed. Now that Vortex has been going strong for 2 years we feel it's time to give it a fresh coat of paint and use this opportunity to rethink parts of the app which may not be the prettiest or most intuitive to use. This change isn't just cosmetic though, as it will also enable our team to play to their strengths. Tannin and Nagev can focus on adding awesome new features and the front-end team will be tasked with presenting those features in an appealing and intuitive way. In the long run, this will enable us to be more efficient with our development time and even more responsive to your feedback. 

While it's still very early days, we'll be asking you guys - our community - for feedback to help drive the direction of the new design. To this end, we will be running a series of surveys focused on different parts of the UI to gather opinions of how you rate the current design and what you'd like to see it look like in future. These surveys will be available through Vortex itself via a notification when the app starts or from a banner on the website (which you may have already seen). Participation is optional, but we'd really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to share your feedback.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596635064-1011745430.jpeg[/img][/center]


[size=4]Updates for modders[/size]

[b]Microsoft Flight Simulator support[/b]

Vortex can now take the hassle out of adding new liveries, scenery and other mods into [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/microsoftflightsimulator]Microsoft Flight Simulator[/url] by automating a lot of the more fiddly aspects of getting things working properly including:

[list]
[*]Automated merging of configuration files for aircraft to ensure all your liveries are available to select. 
[*]Automated merging of localisations to avoid any potential collisions with newly added in-game text. 
[*]Control the order of tweaks and edits which may overwrite each other by using the Load Order tab.
[/list]
[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1599230840-485925863.jpeg[/img][/center]

We'll be continuing to work on this extension based on user feedback and the developments related to the FS2020 SDK, so please let us know what you think.


[b]More New Games and Extensions![/b]

Vortex supports so many games now I'm starting to lose count. Along with FS2020, we've added official support for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/totalwarsagatroy]A Total War Saga: TROY[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/nehrim]Nehrim: At Fate's Edge[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/conanexiles]Conan Exiles[/url]. On top of that, the awesome developers in the community have added support for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/trialsofmana]Trials of Mana[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/commandandconquerremastered]Command & Conquer Remastered[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/borderlands2]Borderlands 2[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/soulcaliburvi]Soul Calibur VI[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/farmingsimulator19]Farming Simulator 19[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/battlebrothers]Battle Brothers[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/control]Control[/url] and an improved version of the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/greedfall]Greedfall[/url] support. 

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1600259034-1372570291.jpeg[/img][/center]

There have also been significant improvements to the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3]Witcher 3[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/subnautica]Subnautica[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/thesims4]The Sims 4[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/https://www.nexusmods.com/beatsaber]BeatSaber[/url], [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/starwarsjedifallenorder]Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12]Final Fantasy XII[/url] extensions. 

Last but not least, agc93 has released a useful new extension called "[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/145]Vortex Showcase[/url]" which will allow you to export your mod list in Markdown, JSON or BBCode. It's even set up to automatically put the mods into a spoiler so you don't end up with an enormous post when sharing your list in the comments section of a mod or on the forums. Super handy!


[b]Blade & Sorcery Load Order[/b]

As we teased [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/news/14263]in our last update[/url], Vortex can now set the load order of mods for Blade & Sorcery. We'd like to say a big thank you to the Blade & Sorcery team for providing the information we needed to make this possible. Oh, and we've updated the game image used both on the site and in Vortex to use the swanky new artwork released with U8. 

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1599231567-2024276403.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]Conflicting File Previews
[/b]
When trying to decide which of two files you want to use while resolving conflicts, it's sometimes hard to know what the differences are by file name alone. Vortex will now offer the ability to preview the files by opening one or both of the files in your preferred program. Like everything else in Vortex, this feature is fully extensible and community developers will be able to add their own special handling of certain files.

[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596549295-1778331160.jpeg[/img]


[b]Jump back into modding faster by opening Vortex on startup
[/b]
You can now set Vortex to run automatically when you boot up your PC, saving valuable time that could be spent modding your game. There is also an optional toggle to choose if you'd prefer Vortex to start normally or minimised to your notification area. As part of this change, we've improved the behaviour when you try and open Vortex from the icon but it's already minimised to the tray, so it should pop back into focus much easier than before.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596547980-1155648199.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]Select folders in the full game scan
[/b]
While you've always been able to tell Vortex which folders to check for new games during a full scan, it was tucked away in the settings menu. With this update, you can now view and change the search paths before the scan is run. No more wondering why the games on your other hard drive aren't showing up!

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596638307-1454198063.jpeg[/img][/center]


[b]That's not all…
[/b]
If I were to go through every little change we've made this news post would be really, really long. So here's a quick summary of other noteworthy bug fixes in the latest versions of Vortex:

[list]
[*]Tools stay in order - In older versions of Vortex, the tools on your dashboard could appear in a different order each time you started the app. We're now saving the time you added each tool and displaying them oldest to newest. 
[*]Safer Staging Folders - A couple of the safety checks designed to stop you from putting your staging folders in potentially dangerous locations weren't working quite right so we went ahead and fixed those. 
[*]Default avatars - If you haven't set an avatar for your account yet, Vortex shows a placeholder. However, the link to that image was moved by an update to the website (whoops!) and has now been corrected so you won't see the ugly "broken image" icon anymore.
[*]Sort by enable time - We've added an extra column to the mods table so you can now sort your mods by the time you last enabled them.  
[/list]
If you're interested in the full run-down of what's new in Vortex. You can read the unabridged version on [url=https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/releases/]GitHub[/url] or in the changelog dashlet on the Vortex dashboard. 


[size=4]Updates for developers
[/size][b]
[/b][b]Declare feature support for your game extension
[/b]
For certain games, it's important to be able to declare if it won't work with a particular feature of Vortex. In 1.3.0 we've added a new option property when you register your game 'compatible' which you can use to include keys marking different features as supported or unsupported through a boolean. Right now we have these checks in place for Symlink Deployment and Null Deployment, but this list will expand over time. If you have questions about specific features, please post in the [url=https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/forum/4311-vortex-code-development/]Vortex Development Forum[/url] or join our [url=http://discord.gg/nexusmods]Discord server[/url]. 
[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596794239-1239410033.jpeg[/img]
[url=https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/vortex-games/blob/437268d073863f469a097b9c937bff3b9de923ff/game-conanexiles/index.js#L72]Example (Conan Exiles) [/url]


[b]Add new Vortex API functions
[/b]
In older versions of Vortex, you would need to rely on emitting and catching events to share functionality between extensions. Now, you can register functions directly to the context object with context.registerAPI(). Then call them from anywhere with context.ext.yourFunction(). 
[url=https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/blob/fc439bda319430b0891151db2d6505ab79128872/src/extensions/nexus_integration/index.tsx#L996]Example (Nexus Mods Integration)[/url]


[b]Intelligent file previews
[/b]
As mentioned earlier in the article, you can now teach Vortex to handle specific files when users are previewing conflicts. This would allow you to open specific applications or potentially load the previews natively inside Vortex. This can be achieved with the new context.registerPreview() function. 
[url=https://github.com/Nexus-Mods/Vortex/blob/c04208d95d295d63d4636fdeb3151156a1df2e07/src/types/IExtensionContext.ts#L1150]Documentation [/url]| [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/151]Example[/url]

[line]

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the 700,000+ of you who are using Vortex, sending us constructive feedback and creating extensions. Without you, we couldn't continue to improve and evolve Vortex.

In June we [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]announced our partnership with We The Players[/url] run by our good friend and former Nexus Mods staff member - TokenGeek (Paul). He's back once again to reveal the lucky winners of [b]a Nintendo Switch Lite and 5x $50 Steam Gift Cards[/b] in the monthly prize draw - exclusive to Nexus Mods users. Take it away, Paul...
[line]
TokenGeek: Yet another excellent month for reviews with a further 213 written game reviews submitted by the Nexus Mods community, over a thousand ratings and users have even begun to upload their gaming screenshots (including [url=https://wetheplayers.com/screenshots/my-latest-character]BigBizkit[/url] and [url=https://wetheplayers.com/screenshots/the-final-sunrise-on-4546-b]Pickysaurus[/url]). 


[center][size=1]Shrine to Molag Bal by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/sweetmustache]Sweetmustache[/url][/size]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/screenshots/shrine-to-molag-bal][img width=850,height=478]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1599750000-56806005.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]
We're in the process of adding game states into the site; this little update will give you a place where you can track all your games, no matter which platform (or era) they are for. We're excited to share this first with the Nexus Mods community.

[center][url=https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/793/7018713-1599579258.png][img width=850,height=1136]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/793/7018713-1599579258.png[/img][/url][/center]
As always, we are open to suggestions with how the platform should evolve and which direction would be the most useful to our members. I'm available on Nexus Mods if anyone wants to drop a message to me, or of course, you can chat with me via the We The Players [url=http://wtp.gg/discord]Discord[/url].


[img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/93729/93729-1599820893-1858897734.png[/img]

Okay, onto the results for August.

We have randomly picked five users who have submitted reviews for this month's £50 Steam Vouchers, and the winners are:

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/saeed]Saeed[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/23134949]SaeedS2000[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/gawain-games]Gawain-Games[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/97045468]Gawain112[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/moxi-max]MoxiMax[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/78846948]RaveMasterX[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/elkian]Elkian[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/48377158]ElkianLionblood[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/go-to-sleep]GoToSleep[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/15132884]GoToSLEEP98[/url]

The winner of this month's [b]Nintendo Switch Lite[/b] is:

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/gandheezy]Gandheezy[/url] >> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/33023520]japasthebass[/url] with the review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/ghost-of-tsushima]Ghost of Tsushima[/url], "[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/the-best-assassin-s-creed-game]The Best Assassin's Creed Game[/url]".

The review is engaging from start to finish. Gandheezy breaks down the story of the game in a spoiler-free way, detailing the nuances of the title's character, Jin, and the turmoil he faces freeing his island from the Mongol invasion. It makes me want the game to find its way to the PC somehow, let's hope it follows in Horizon Zero Dawn's footsteps that way.

[center][img width=850,height=633]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/1900/7018713-1599748273.png[/img][/center]
Again, we have seen some stiff competition in terms of review quality with some of our favourites being: 

"[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/another-installment-a-different-experience]Another Installment, A Different Experience[/url]" for [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/assassins-creed-origins]Assassin's Creed Origins[/url] by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/the-angry-turkey]TheAngryTurkey[/url] (Fantastic Username BTW), which breaks down the plot of the game before listing some of the pros and cons that the author feels. 

"[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/the-greatest-game-you-should-never-player]The Greatest Game You Should Never Play[/url]" for [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/prey--1]Prey[/url] by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/toastnlock]Toastnlock[/url] is an interesting and slightly different review. Toastnlock breaks down why they love the game, while simultaneously pointing out the flaws that made them not want to play the game.

So there you have it, we're looking forward to reading through this month's reviews and giving yet another person a Nintendo Switch Lite, as well as five random users a £50 Steam Gift card.

[line]
No luck this time? Don't worry! [b]Every month[/b] until 2021, you could win a Nintendo Switch Lite or a $50 Steam Gift Card just by reviewing a game at [url=http://wetheplayers.com/]WeThePlayers.com[/url]. For a refresher on the event rules, check out the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]original announcement post[/url].

Today we are talking to [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/5294053?tab=user+files]iRetrospect[/url] - seasoned modder and author of the special effects overhauls [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29817]Arctic[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29316]Inferno[/url], as well as the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38950]Movement Behavior Overhaul[/url] for Skyrim Special Edition.
[line][b]
BigBizkit: Thank you for joining us today. First of all, could you please tell us a bit about yourself?[/b]

iRetrospect: Gladly, I am an educator in real life and most people who know me would never think I would be someone who is interested in gaming, let alone game modding. In my spare time, other than modding, I enjoy learning about anything technology or history related. Just recently, I have started a new chapter in my life entering into a doctoral program and have gone back to being a student once again!
 
[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29817/29817-1571524150-818431411.png[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29316/29316-1569995000-1899452387.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]
You’re most well known for your FX overhauls as well as your recent Movement Behaviour overhaul for Skyrim SE. How would you describe the kind of mods you make and what drives you to create this type of mod in particular?[/b]

I guess the kinds of mods I make and what drove me to create them are both the same as they have always been projects stemming from a place of passion after finding out what other related mods that were available seemed lacking and I felt capable of creating potential improvements to the game with my own mediocre abilities.
 

[b]Movement in Skyrim is one of those things that just always feels “off” compared to much newer games. Did you take inspiration from other games for your movement overhaul and what obstacles did you encounter when trying to improve movement in Skyrim?[/b]

My recent movement and jump behavior mods took inspiration from a combination of real world reference videos I found as well as a variety of modern third-person games such as Monster Hunter World, the Assassin’s Creed series, Black Desert Online, and even Bethesda’s own Fallout 4 (which ironically already natively features many of the behaviors I’ve added). I’d say my biggest obstacle in making these behavior mods was when I was first starting off and trying to learn and understand how to use the various tools needed to make the changes I wanted. Fortunately, I received a lot of help and support from within the behavior modding community.

[center][youtube]sWixh9DrPhQ[/youtube][/center]

[b]One of your mods that stands out to me is the quest/spell mod [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29017]Secret of the Blood Armory[/url] - can you tell us a bit more about it?[/b]

Secret of the Blood Armory is still to this day the mod I put the most painstaking effort in creating as I had just begun to learn to use the Creation Kit and scripting with Papyrus at that time. Despite it being a rather short quest mod, I was deeply motivated to add in little titbits and tried my best to make it lore-friendly and interesting for users to adventure through. Hopefully, one day I’ll get back to this mod and implement the host of other features I had wanted to add and expand upon.

[center][img width=850,height=478]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29017/29017-1568522688-1298622941.png[/img][/center]
 
[b]Do you have any favourite mods from other authors?[/b]

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/26627]Spellspihon by Arctal[/url] is one of the mods I tout as being the only innovative take on spell mechanics ever made and I recommend everyone to try it out.

[url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/281]Open Cities by Arthmoor[/url] is a mod I always install in the rare instances I spend time on an actual play-through, I just can’t go back to having loading screen when entering to cities.

All the mods by [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/2463371?tab=user+files&BH=0]Isoku[/url], one of my all-time favorite authors since I first modded Skyrim because of the various ways his work has simply increased “immersiveness” in the game.
 

[b]What are some of the games you grew up with? Do you still sometimes go back to old classics from your childhood?[/b]

I was not really much of a gamer per se growing up but I did take interest in MMORPGs such as Maplestory and Tera Online for a few years. I then only became more interested in gaming (or actually modding specifically) when I first played Oblivion a year after the release of Skyrim because that was all my laptop could handle at that time and well since then, I have been a member of the Nexus Mods community.
 

[b]Have you ever tried your hand modding other games?[/b]

I have dabbled with some slight modifications for games such as Oblivion, Fallout 4, Dragon’s Dogma, and Monster Hunter World for my own personal use but I am now more interested in perhaps taking up learning about game development as a hobby instead of just merely modding.

[center][img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29316/29316-1569642525-1071095870.png[/img] [img width=500,height=281]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29817/29817-1571525799-818379970.jpeg[/img][/center]
[b]
What advice would you give people interested in becoming a mod author?[/b]

I would say to follow what I did and simply just go ahead and get started at any moment! All the tools that are needed are freely available and if you ever run into any difficulties, ask for help either on the Nexus’s forums, any of the Skyrim Modding Discords, or just directly PM any experienced mod authors and I’m sure that most of us would be glad to provide advice on what we know about.
 

[b]Is there anything else you would like to say?[/b]

I would like to give my thanks to all the people who have guided me through my journey as a mod author for the past year. Specifically, shout-out to 4109 along with mindflux for advising me on my vfx mods and as for my animation/behavior mentors, I wouldn’t have come this far without the help of Distar66, NickaNak, and Shikyokira!

[center][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29017][img width=650,height=406]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1704/images/29017/29017-1568525841-1745973411.png[/img][/url][/center][line]

A big thank you to iRetrospect 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 [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b]. 

With our site and community growing, we are once again looking for new talent to recruit to the Nexus Mods team. This time we are looking for a [b]Mid-level Front End Developer[/b] to join us in our offices in Exeter, UK.

You can view the [url=https://apply.workable.com/blacktreegaming/j/2F0D572E4E/]full job description on Workable[/url] and if you think you would be a good fit, do not hesitate to send us your application.

If you're interested in joining our team, but don't think this is the right role for you then please feel free to keep checking our [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/about/careers/]careers page[/url] for available positions in the future. 

In the feature, we're chatting with Kingo64, the creator of the most popular mod for Blade & Sorcery - The Outer Rim. Being a bit of a Star Wars geek myself, this is a mod I've been following for a long time. 


[b]Thank you for joining me Alex ([url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/users/470810]Kingo64[/url]), we'll start as we always do, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself? 
[/b]
Hey! My name is Alex, I’m a full-time software developer and a fairly recognisable member of the Blade & Sorcery Discord server. I’ve been modding the game Blade & Sorcery for a bit over a year now and have obliterated any notion of ‘free time’ I once had since starting [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/528]The Outer Rim[/url]. It’s been said that I have ‘a bit of a personality’, and I’ve been blessed with many friends from modding communities over the years, notably from a now-defunct forum called Facepunch.

I’ve been pretty fortunate and grew up with computers and video games from a young age. Without the internet you kinda needed to figure things out on your own, stumbling around through game files, seeing what you could change, trying to make the villains of the game bark like a dog for your own amusement. Modding was always one of the big appeal factors when it came to games for me since it essentially meant that the games were never ‘done’ as long as people remained interested it’s like an endless sunset.

I’m still not sure if I’d ever want to work full-time in the video game industry but I suppose there’s always a possibility if I change my mind? There are always opportunities out there.


[b]What are your favourite games of all time and what do you love about them? 
[/b]
Ha, I’m not too good at picking favourites. I suppose I’ve always enjoyed first-person shooters the most; along with role-playing games. I think I’ll just throw out a fly fishing line and reel off a big list of names and see if we get any bites.

[u]Multiplayer games[/u]
[list]
[*]Unreal Tournament ‘99
[*]Quake 3 Arena
[*]Battlefield 1942 & 2
[*]Halo: Combat Evolved
[*]Garry’s Mod
[*]Worms Armageddon
[/list][u]
Single-player games[/u]
[list]
[*]Half-Life 1 & 2, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Black Mesa
[*]S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series
[*]The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind
[*]Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series
[*]The Witcher 2 & 3
[*]Id Tech 3 classics such as: Jedi Knight series, Call of Duty + United Offensive, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix
[*]Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
[/list]
Without turning this into a TEDx Talk (call me TEDx if you want rambling subjective opinions on games), it mainly boils down to either enjoying the gameplay, the story, or the atmosphere/world building. All of these games have left me with long term memories, unique experiences, and wield some kind of spark that just makes me want to hope for a rainy day or a good excuse to dive back into them. I’d encourage those who haven’t played some of these games to check them out, they’re pretty fun.


[b]Before we start talking about your mods, I'm guessing you're a huge Star Wars fan. There are tonnes of games, movies and other media in the franchise. What are your favourites? 
[/b]
Fun fact, I wasn’t much of a Star Wars turbo nerd when I first started the project but I have had to do a fair amount of research into the lore, wikis, and books in order to create [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/528]The Outer Rim[/url] in a way that respects both the Star Wars Expanded Universe / Legends and the canon. Fact-checkers are welcome.

For those of you who have not watched the TV series ‘The Clone Wars’, do yourself a favour and watch that. Specifically with the ‘Ultimate Episode Order’ (you can find that online) which restructures it chronologically. It masterfully fleshes out the Star Wars universe and gives a plasteel backbone to the characters in the prequels and what they should be remembered for. This TV series in its totality is arguably better than the movies.

As I’ve mentioned earlier with the games, I highly recommend Jedi Outcast / Jedi Academy from the Jedi Knight series along with the Knights of the Old Republic series. They are the primary inspirations for [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/528]The Outer Rim[/url] when it comes to gameplay design.


[b]The sequel trilogy had a fairly mixed reception from Star Wars fans, what are your feelings about it? 
[/b]
The sequel trilogy really garners a lot of mixed feelings from everyone. For younger audiences, this will likely be their introduction to the Star Wars universe on the big screen - bright-eyed without prior conceptions of what to expect, who they’ll see or what may happen. It’s all new to them and it’s all fantastic. They’ll grow up and look back fondly at the time they saw Star Wars Episode 7 in the cinema when the older generations were audibly grumbling at the thought of it. The same thing happened when The Phantom Menace came out and the same thing will happen again when the re-animated corpse of Darth Plagueis rears his head 15 years from now when another trilogy is announced for the next generation of kids.

Personally, I thought the sequels were incredibly lack-lustre, disappointing, and almost a deliberate betrayal to the Star Wars ecosystem they’ve built up over the years. It’s no surprise some people prefer to stick their head in the sand and just pretend they never happened. All of the characters were either unlikeable or forgettable; excusing Kylo Ren - a pale imitation of Revan. The story was poorly developed, ham-fisted, and mostly surmounted to nothing (Last Jedi particularly). There was a very clear agenda on ‘throwing away the past / wiping the slate clean’ to absolve themselves of the original trilogy and prequels. I understand that their intention was to create a fresh footing to tell new stories on but it ultimately backfired on them pretty hard, unfortunately. Red Letter Media, in particular, gave a pretty good summation on the recent movies that mostly match my opinions for those looking for a meaty analysis.

Rogue One was fantastic though, congrats.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1597753699-614768287.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1597753704-1234122797.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]Talking about mods now, you started out modding back in the height of the Oblivion days with a few small compatibility patches, have you done much modding between then and when you discovered Blade & Sorcery?
[/b]
Well, to be frank, I’ve been modding games since the dark ages before stable internet connections and when we used to get games on discs in magazines. It made sense to me to try and create new content for yourself where possible, whether it is custom maps/campaigns, gameplay tweaks, asset modification, rather than waiting for the next game. Games were often released as a final distributable copy rather than the evergreen update cycle we expect today and often did not receive patches outside of expansion packs. 

Generally, when I make a mod it’s for personal use and may be shared with my friends at most. More often than not because the mod is an opinion piece on gameplay tweaking, or a compilation of other mods, or simply not worth uploading. Another big factor would be the fact that it was only within the last couple of years have I ever had an upload speed that could transfer information faster than a person flapping a blanket over a smokey fire.

Between the Oblivion days and now, the most prominent mods I’ve released would be the shader packages for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, known as [url=https://sites.google.com/site/kingo64ssite/Home/optimised-game-shaders/stalker-shaders-max]STALKER Shaders MAX[/url], which primarily focused on improving performance and improving graphics - a necessity for my low-end 7300GT and mid-range 9600GT that I had back in the day which struggled to play the game.

But yeah, mostly was just kicking back, enjoying everyone else’s mods until the creative itch started to kick in. It’s difficult to manage time with social life, work, family, friends, hobbies.


[b]How did you discover Blade & Sorcery and what is it about the game that keeps you coming back?
[/b]
I bought it on a whim whilst growing out my VR library and was surprised by how polished and enjoyable the melee combat was, easily the defining feature of the game. The fluidity and believability of the melee combat have really set it apart from other games that have attempted it such as Boneworks and those not courageous enough to try such as Half-Life: Alyx.

Even though it’s still currently a sandbox game, I’ve found it to be much more replayable than any other VR title I’ve played. I think it’s really setting the precedent on how good melee combat and item interaction should be achieved. In the VR FPS space, Pavlov VR has potential but it’s still stuck in its Counter-Strike mindset and Hot dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (H3VR) still has controls that make QWOP look like a walk in the park. Personally, I’m not really looking for online matchmaking when I want to play VR games, I kinda just want to pick it up and do my own thing - play however I want. That’s something that I’ve been able to do with Blade & Sorcery and the replayability I’d like to see in non-story driven VR titles.

Each major update for the game has given us a glimpse of what to expect in the released version. The roadmap is really promising and I can’t wait to see what it develops into after it leaves early access. After many conversations with the lead developer over the past year, it’s pretty comforting to know that he shares the same opinions on gameplay design, decisions and direction as I do and I feel confident in saying that the game’s in good hands.

The mod support for the game is incredible. I’m surprised by how large the modding community has become given the niche nature of the game. It’s a testament to how building a game with a positive attitude and public SDK only strengthens the community and widens the appeal, ultimately serving a more diverse and enjoyable experience for everyone.


[center][youtube]fcyU6sE7rBo[/youtube][/center]

[b]For anyone who hasn't played it yet, can you tell us about your biggest mod - [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/528]The Outer Rim[/url]?
[/b]
The Outer Rim (TOR) is a Star Wars total conversion mod for Blade & Sorcery which adds a humongous amount of content. There are 100+ lightsabers along with many blasters and other items to boot. The mod also includes custom maps, an optional player home, custom NPCs, and arena waves. It’s actively being developed and still has plenty of content planned and yet to be released.

It is without a doubt, the largest mod available for the game with a focus on attention to detail. 

If you like Star Wars, get it.
If you don’t like Star Wars, try it out anyway.
If you don’t have the game but have a VR setup, get the game then try this mod. It’s worth it.
If you don’t have a VR setup, sorry - play it at a friend’s place?


[b]The Outer Rim has been a huge success. When you initially started working on it did you imagine it would be as popular as it is? 
[/b]
It was pretty evident on the Blade & Sorcery Discord server that [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/528]The Outer Rim[/url] was going to be a big hit when it eventually came out. The prototype weapons I released when I was still learning the SDK and Unity, [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/280]Lightsabers U6[/url] and [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/246]E-11 Blaster Rifle[/url], were a hint of what was to come. Those mods were largely successful on their own, given that the innovation and quality of scripted weapons were not like what we have today bar a few exceptions, notably MulleDK19’s Mjolnir among others.

What I didn’t expect was for my peers in real life to recognise the mod and realise I was the creator, or how wide of a reach it would have - driven by gameplay footage uploaded to sites such as Reddit. It’s pretty surreal to see yourself directly influencing your own Youtube feed when Youtubers decide to play ‘that Star Wars VR mod’.


[b]Do you work alone on the project or do you collaborate with other authors?
[/b]
I primarily work alone on the project. There’s something cathartic in knowing that if something in the mod doesn’t meet my expectations I only have myself to blame, improve, and resolve. It’s not difficult to manage large projects such as this with many moving parts, it’s just a very time-consuming process with a large learning curve. I’ve branched out to others who I feel could do a much better job than I, namely 3D modelling and texturing.

One long term collaborator of the mod is Plasma, a prominent modder from the Jedi Knight community, who has created models for the majority of the lightsaber hilts among other unreleased items from the next major version. Other authors who have contributed assets to the mod include Sakhado, uiojkl09 (Butters), Vale-X and Spongy.


[b]There are a lot of mods made by others that extend The Outer Rim or add new Star Wars related stuff. Do you have any favourites?
[/b]
I hope I don’t get crucified for this but I haven’t actually played any of the other Star Wars mods so I can’t really answer that question well. In fact, I haven’t really had much time to play the base game as is or even my own mod outside of dev/testing.


[b]Now that U8 has been released, are you planning to add any cool new force powers using the magic system? 
[/b]
Yep, that’s all been planned since the beginning over a year ago - with the intentions of being deeply tied into the skills tree proposed for the future version of the game, U9. There won’t be any force powers in the next major version of the mod, TOR 3, which is focused on blasters, but when I get around to it it’ll be worth it. The big backlog of stuff I have planned is daunting for me to say the least and exciting for anyone else.

If you want an idea of what is to come in regards to force powers just play the Jedi Knight and KOTOR series and you’ll know what to expect.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1597753345-139005324.jpeg[/img] [img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1597753352-264767641.jpeg[/img][/center]

[b]What is the status of a U8 update for The Outer Rim, I know a whole load of people are waiting on it? [/b]

The next major expansion pack for the mod, Clone Reinforcements, is mostly complete in respects to content and features however the magnitude of changes presented by U8 essentially forced me to remake the mod, virtually every file needed to be modified on some level to be made compatible, no stone left unturned. The mod got nuked essentially.

There have been many challenges and issues to face with the mod that still exist today directly due to what U8 has given and what it has taken away that prevent the mod from being fully playable or meeting my expectations. I’ve been in contact with the lead developer of the game throughout U8’s release and have been trying to report and resolve issues where possible to expedite the process. I’m hoping U8.4 should be the one to fix it.

Ultimately, I don’t know how big of a change U8.4 will be, what it will add, what it will do, how much it’ll break, how much it will solve. But if it turns out to be big, it might set me back a few months, who knows? It’s a big game of “are we there yet?” but the car is misfiring and billowing smoke but the kids in the back just want to get to Disneyland.

[i]Editor's Note: The image below is a sneak peek of a new map coming with the Clone Reinforcements update to The Outer Rim.[/i]

[center][url=https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/images/2673/31179975-1598021749.png][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1598021829-1845611286.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]


[b]Do you have any advice for authors who want to create mods for Blade & Sorcery? 
[/b]
If you have an idea for a mod, just go out and try to make it yourself. Take it as a challenge. Yes it’ll take time, yes you’ll have difficulties, but if you put in the effort you’ll be surprised by what you can achieve and how easy it is to learn and improve. There is a vast amount of tutorials and learning material out there on Unity and modding.

Specifically to B&S modding, you can find information and example mods in the [url=https://github.com/KospY/BasSDK]Official SDK[/url] and on the [url=https://discord.gg/Yq4k2S]Blade & Sorcery Discord server[/url] in the #modding-howto and #mod-help sections.


[b]Is there anything else you'd like to say to the community?
[/b]
It’s pretty thrilling to see how the VR community has continued to expand over the last few years as the games have become more compelling and the hardware more affordable. I encourage those with a VR setup to give the game a go, it’s a lot of fun, highly replayable, and a great place to flex those modding muscles. We’re welcoming new modders all the time and you know what they say; the more the merrier.

A big thank you to those who have supported my work, whether it be leaving a nice comment, contributing their time to help others, leaving a donation, or who have shared it with their friends and loved ones. It’s a passion project with the intention of sharing good times, good memories, and hopefully inspiring people in one way or another.

And also if you are wondering, yes I do read all the messages - I just don’t have the time to reply to everyone. Your comments have not fallen on deaf ears when you share your ideas, criticisms, and compliments.


[line]
A big thank you to Kingo64 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 [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/64597]BigBizkit[/url][/b] or [b][url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/31179975]Pickysaurus[/url][/b]. 

Last month we [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]announced our partnership with We The Players[/url] and their exciting prize draw exclusively for Nexus Mods users. The community response to this was fantastic and TokenGeek is back with us to reveal the lucky winners of the Nintendo Switch Lite and 5x $50 Steam Gift Cards for July. 
[line]
Before talking about the competition and announcing this month's winners, I just wanted to take a few moments and say a big thank you to the NexusMods community.


Without question, you have made me believe that what I am creating in [url=http://wetheplayers.com/]WeThePlayers.com[/url] is worth it. I was expecting to have quite a few critiques come my way; instead, I was greeted by compliments, messages of encouragement and gratitude - to say it was humbling is an understatement, and I'm eternally grateful. This community was welcoming and engaging while I was here at Nexus Mods and continues to be a source of inspiration for me.


This month we have seen a vast number of reviews come our way, and reading through them all has been a joy. Thank you to every single person that has submitted content. We discovered games that we had never heard of before, rediscovered games we played growing up, and seen vastly different viewpoints from games we are currently playing. It's interesting to see that a video game can polarise opinion so extensively, for example - [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/assassins-creed-odyssey]Assassin's Creed: Odyssey[/url] has seen scores between 5 and 9, [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/no-man-s-sky]No Man's Sky[/url] even more so with scores between 2 and 10! We hope that eventually, these reviews will help fellow gamers decide if a game is for them or not.

[center][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596209485-193014621.png[/img][/center]

Now, onto the competition winners.

We have randomly picked five users who have submitted reviews for this month's [b]$50 steam vouchers[/b]. So the winners of these are:

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/deltahalo241]deltahalo241 [/url]>> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/21441024]deltahalo241[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/apoca]Apoca [/url]>> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/22317704]Apocahorse[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/eustace-cs]EustaceCS [/url]>> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/10044385]Mrrrori[/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/nahti]Nahti_ [/url]>> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/83464303]Nahti [/url]
[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/ebra]Ebra [/url]>> [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/52632506]Ebe222[/url]

This month's [b]Nintendo Switch Lite[/b] winner:

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/thanoseid]Thanoseid[/url] ([url=https://www.nexusmods.com/users/21307594]Thanoseid[/url]) with the review of [url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/celeste]Celeste[/url], ‘[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/a-speedrunner-experience-for-everyone]A Speedrunner Experience for Everyone[/url]’.
[center][url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/a-speedrunner-experience-for-everyone][img]https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/2295/images/26/26-1596205534-709560296.jpeg[/img][/url][/center]
The reason we selected this review was that we loved the structure of the piece, from breaking the article down into easy bite-sized chunks to the comparisons made to other games. The author dances around the game, giving out snippets of relevant information as they explain why they love the game.

Congratulations, we will PM you in the next few days with details on how to claim your prizes.


It was so hard to choose just one review! We have had some great entries, and I thought it would be nice to showcase just a few more.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/a-labor-of-love-worth-playing]A Labor of Love Worth Playing[/url] ([url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/stardew-valley]Stardew Valley[/url]) by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/itsafter7]itsafter7[/url] was great because it broke the game and the review down to manageable bite-sized chunks. We loved the format of the review as it reminds us of the way magazine reviewers used to do it.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/a-goosetastic-experience-66]A Goosetastic Experience[/url] ([url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/untitled-goose-game]Untitled Goose Game[/url]) by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/necro-ninja-nate]Necro_Ninja_Nate[/url] had us all smiling. We love the game and thought the review was very fitting. It tells you the reasons that Necro_Ninja_Nate loves the game and gives enough information to inform you of the pros and cons, including a price suggestion.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/just-buy-scholar-of-the-first-sin-basically-a-better-version-of-this]Just Buy Scholar of the First Sin, Basically a Better Version of This[/url] ([url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/dark-souls-ii]Dark Souls II[/url]) by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/samurai-slashes]SamuraiSlashes[/url], we've seen lots of variance in terms of how people are formatting their reviews, but SamuraiSlashes utilises a series of checkboxes showing where the game sits in several different categories. We've seen this approach on Steam before, but think it's a great way of getting a quick overview.

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/fallout-new-vegas-is-the-quint-essential-fallout-game-but-not-because-it-s-a-good-game]Fallout: New Vegas is the quintessential Fallout game, but not because it's a good game[/url] ([url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/fallout-new-vegas-ultimate-edition]Fallout: New Vegas[/url]) by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/prof-verstrooid]ProfVerstrooid[/url] is an objective look at the game through the eyes of someone who nearly passed the game by as it wasn't the same as the games they were playing at the time (Call of Duty). 

[url=https://wetheplayers.com/reviews/sweet-merciful-god-please-play-this-game]Sweet Merciful God, Please Play This Game[/url] ([url=https://wetheplayers.com/games/undertale]Undertale[/url]) by [url=https://wetheplayers.com/user/elkian]Elkian[/url] is a review that without giving a single aspect of the game away makes us want to play it. Their love for the game is evident from the very beginning of the review, and by the end, we wanted to play the game!


So there we have it, the end of the first month (+ a few days) and over 600 reviews were submitted. We hope that you continue to enjoy [url=http://wetheplayers.com/]WeThePlayers.com[/url], thank you once again to Nexus Mods and we look forward to announcing the winners for August next month.
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There are still more prizes to be won! Every month until 2021, you could win a Nintendo Switch Lite or a $50 Steam Gift Card just by reviewing a game at [url=http://wetheplayers.com/]WeThePlayers.com[/url]. For a refresher on the event rules, check out the [url=https://www.nexusmods.com/news/14288]original announcement post[/url].