Gruffydd

Ooo... was not aware of that. I thought loose files was just a speed issue. I definitely need to repackage my mods.

Oh, okay. That shouldn't be an issue, I think. I'm not planning on adding an extreme amount. I can always provide combined ones as well, for anyone who is actually (the mind boggles!) running thousands of .esl files in their game and needs to save on the count. For instance, if someone's using all of the faction-specific stuff, they could just use FactionsComplete instead of FactionsBrotherhood, FactionsMinutement, etc. Thanks for the info!

That's 4096 files within each plugin, yes? Or is that total between all mods?

I tried reading the Plugins and You thread, and my head started to hurt. I'm hoping someone can either confirm that I understood correctly or set me straight if I'm wrong. I've got a Fallout 4 mod that I'm working on that has a settlement menu framework that I want to be a master, for other mods to add objects to. I then want to have a number of "plugin" mods that can be added to that first mod to add content to the menu, allowing the user to choose which packages of objects they want to use, and excluding the others. Am I understanding correctly that if I flag the master with .esm and .esl, it will load as a master without counting against the plugin limit, and then if I flag the plugins as .esl, they will correctly load after the master, and still not count against the plugin limit? None of this overrides anything vanilla or makes any cell changes, so I think having them as .esl files shouldn't be an issue.

I've moved over my Signs of the Times mod, which adds in a large majority of the signs and posters from the vanilla game as placeable objects, as an add-on to the Gruffydd's Signs and Posters mod. You need GS&P to run this mod. You can get it here too.

I really don't understand some of the arguments people make against FO4. I see a lot of "it's not a real RPG", either because it doesn't have some specific feature that they think an RPG should have (that half the ones out there don't), or because it's too scripted as to what kind of character you can play and what the intended quest progression is. Yet, a lot of these are the same people who adored Witcher 3, which to me felt more like watching a series of interconnected short films about someone else's story and characters than playing a game. I also see a lot of people complain about the "dumbing down" of the weapon system. Personally, I loathed weapon maintenance from the earlier games. The idea that you had to keep finding other weapons to break down for parts every 20 shots (okay, an exaggeration, but still) to keep your primary weapon functional was just an unnecessary grind to me. I do like the FO4 weapon system, although I found the majority of "legendary" weapons to be mediocre at best, and the unique weapons (junk jet, broadsider, etc.) were interesting but seemed more of a joke than a real option for play. Once I found my gauss rifle that was buffed for VATS, I pretty much had my go-to for the remainder of the game. I would have loved to see DLCs to flesh out some of the minor factions. The Atom Cats in particular I think could have made for a fun DLC, especially if expanding settlements allowed them to create other chapters of the organization. Of the story DLC they did do, I really enjoyed Far Harbor, thought Nuka-World as a setting was loads of fun (if at times seemed rushed), but that the raider plotlines were too one-sided as a concession to the people ranting about how the game wasn't a "real" RPG because you couldn't decide to be an absolute villain (despite how you could certainly be so quite easily with either the BoS or the institute). I was especially disappointed by how abrupt the DLC ended if you chose to eliminate the raiders. I would have loved to see that story progress, turning NW into a vibrant trade hub, and maybe even repairing a number of the rides, since the power was back on and plentiful. I also would have loved to see a DLC for the Minutemen to go beyond just a settlement network and into actually rebuilding the Commonwealth. Especially if you've taken the perks to have advanced pre-war science and engineering knowledge. If you've got the tech to turn a handful of pencils and a few mailboxes into a working firearm, and make teleporters and advanced power plants, you should be able to figure out how to do some basic building construction that doesn't involve pallets and perforated sheet metal. Especially since you meet and can befriend ghouls who have been around since pre-war who should have loads of knowledge to share after having 1) a pre-war education and 2) centuries of life experience. And once you have access to Institute tech, this should be even easier. Repair the tracks and get some light rail going back and forth between the major settlements. Do something permanent about some of the more problematic supermutant locations. Find some old textbooks, encyclopedias, how-to books, and so on, and start publishing and distributing knowledge. Get in contact with Washington about that whole free-and-plentiful fresh water thing - with institute tech can that be replicated? So many possibilities other than endless quests of rescuing kidnapped people or defending settlements. I adored the settlement building aspects of the game, and it's one of the few things that keeps me playing after poking into every corner of the maps. I don't really find replayability in this kind of game, because for me exploration and discovery is huge, not deciding how my character who I've decided this time is going to side with Faction X would react to the same stuff I've already been through the first time. I didn't think it was anywhere near fleshed out enough, and there were some issues that only mods could fix (what do you mean, I can't poke a hole through that sheet metal or wood plank wall to run a power cord through?), but overall I really liked it. That said, it can be entirely ignored, so I don't understand how much the people who didn't like it focus on it, as if there wasn't a ton of other stuff to do in the game. One thing that really irked me in previous games was that imo awful karma system. The worst example of it for me (SPOILERS) was when I worked so hard to get the ghouls allowed into the tower (gaining karma each time I made progress), only to leave and return to find out that they'd had a "disagreement" with the other tenants and had killed everyone. Also, how is it that going in somewhere and killing all of those "bad guys" trying to kill me was just dandy, but once all of them were dead picking up some object was theft and horrible, horrible karma? And really, shouldn't such a system be faction specific? Using FO4 as an example, what should build karma for a RR character is going to be vastly different from a BoS character. I found DLCs in prior games to be a mixed bag. I loved Old World Blues, got really bored with Dead Money by the time it let me leave, and hated hated hated Lonesome Road. Aside from being an absolute grind and visually and thematically uninspired, I didn't give a damn about Ulysses and hated that it railroaded me into a backstory that did not at all fit my character that I'd played the entire main game and two of the other DLCs with. And people complain about FO4 limiting who you can choose? Bleah. Hated. Lonesome Road pretty much ended my enthusiasm for the game, and I never got around to playing Honest Hearts. In FO3 I loved Broken Steel, but read what the other DLCs involved, and none of them really grabbed my attention. FO4 came out before I got to any of them, and I haven't gone back. Something I really loved about FO4 is that there's SO MUCH story out there that you have to actually find, look at, and think about, rather than having it pushed on you with a map marker. From the humorous to the deeply tragic, the things you can stumble across while exploring the Commonwealth add so much. Even just a pair of skeletons on a bed holding hands, combined with some pictures and personal letters scattered about, can tell a story. And some of the more tragic stories were downright heartbreaking (ex: be cautious using storage containers as safe rooms). I also loved the moral ambiguity of some of the situations. For example the whole Roger Warwick situation (which reminds me in a way of certain aspects of the very end of the movie World's End). I also find it very interesting that the way the factions are presented, there are still to this day robust arguments over which factions are evil with large groups of players vociferously and without irony supporting or opposing every major faction. I enjoyed FO3 and FONV. But I've got a lot more out of FO4.

The school cormorant? (Don't rub linseed oil into it.)

Mod downloads are free there. If you're paid, your screen isn't covered in ads, and you can download faster. In addition, premium members will be able to one-click download a collection, where free will basically be given a step-by-step and told go do it yourself. The Nexus is becoming a mod publisher instead of a mod hosting site, taking much control of their work away from mod authors. They state this is necessary to support the new Collections system which appears to be their primary business model and concern going forward, which in turn to get the most out of you must become a premium member, which in turn has had its prices dramatically increased. Remember, if you go to the site at all you are agreeing to whatever changes they have made to the ToS without telling anyone, according to their ToS. So be aware you may be agreeing to things you aren't aware you're agreeing to if you use the site. Overall, it's probably still safe to download mods from there. At this point at any rate.

Very cool. I'm a fan of folk metal, and hadn't heard that one before. Here are a few I enjoyed: That last one for me has some serious Skyrim vibes....

I uploaded my pool table storage racks mod here. If anyone has a billiard room in their settlement that's looking a little bare, one of these will spruce it right up. Plus, if you use the container version, you can store all of your balls, cues, and triangle in them. Unfortunately, they're not dynamic, where they show what you stored visually. But they're still nice.

Well, to me the difference is that when the site was simply a distribution site, then the mods themselves, as property of the individual mod authors, were not being used commercially by the mod authors. Since the Nexus was just a distribution site, and the mod authors had the final say in when, where, and how a mod was distributed, a solid argument could be made that the mods themselves were noncommercial, and that the site made its money not on the mods, but on its memberships and ad sales. However, now that mod authors no longer control their work there, the Nexus is saying "these mods are ours to distribute", and they're putting them together into collections to both change how they are distributed and to encourage people to buy newly-pricier memberships (because they get the one-click button). So now, the mods are needed for the collections, and the collections are driving the business model, and the business model is designed to increase profits. They have effectively become a publishing house instead of a distribution center, and that's a pretty clear step in the direction of commercial use of the mods.

I'm not so sure on that... it doesn't really affect them directly, as they're not the ones with the non-commercial use only licenses. I'm the one with the licenses, so if I then license my mod to the Nexus by posting there, and they're considered commercial use, I'd be the one in violation. I'm also not sure how much they're sending through legal at all, since the whole "we can change the ToS any time we want and it's your responsibility to spot when it changes, but as soon as we change it if you use the website you're agreeing to it" thing has lost big in a number of court cases, including one where the judge declared the entire ToS invalid because, since the ToS could change at any time without notice, it was in his words "illusory and therefore unenforceable". But that's a different issue....