While it's phenomenal mods going to X1 and likely PS4 soon after is a major victory for BGS and console gamers, fans should have realistic expectations. Many of the most well-known and popular mods on PC will never work on consoles for varying reasons.

1. Microsoft or BGS will regulate what mods are available on X1.

2. HD texture packs won't happen because consoles aren't an open platform with the capacity to be upgraded.

3. ENB, ReShade, SweetFX, NMM, SKSE, or other 3rd party programs will not work on consoles and would never be allowed.

4. Massive player-created expansions are unlikely to be permitted due to sheer size.

5. RAM unlocks or any other sort of performance boosting tools would not be allowed.

This isn't even mentioning the amout of work that would have to go into bug-testing player-created content and making sure mods work as they are intended. It's also worth mentioning that mods can and will crash your game, especially if you use a lot of mods. Microsoft or BGS will also likely put restrictions on how much you can actually modify the experience.

In reality, the best console gamers will be able to hope for are relatively minor mods that are purely cosmetic or fluff. This could be as basic as adding new armor or weapons to the game. Perhaps custom companions will be allowed. The simple fact is the more complex and ambitious the mod, the more likely it is to be censored or not considered.

Moral of the story? Mods coming to consoles are nice, but I wouldn't expect it to revolutionize the experience on consoles. The best mods will always only be available on PC because it is an open platform with no one regulating it. Be happy, but be cautious about what your expectations are for modding on consoles.

Spot on, and im not sure most people understand what really goes in to modding, even though beth games are easier to mod than most others, its still quite alot of work.

Even some of the most basic mods like player housing might be benched on consoles due extensive script usage or size.

Of course it won't. However, getting any extra stuff is a plus in my book.

Exactly. More than likely consoles will be set up similar to Steam Workshop except with even more restrictions. I wouldn't be surprised if modding on PC and modding on console were two separate cells by design. This also has me concerned about the new Creation Kit or "GECK" as the mod tool may be more curtailed to consoles and thus be ineffective or useless on PC. Whatever the case may be, modding on consoles will not be what many are hoping it will be.

As long as I can mod in a eyepatch if Beth is being silly again and not having it equitable by vanilla standards Im fine.

why would size be restricted? Just curious on what makes you think that. I imagine that quest mods, weapon packs, anime hair, and armors will be uploaded. Mods that require a script extender or third party software most likely won't work (can't see microsoft opening up that can of worms). I'd say most mods could make it over to consoles (the high def graphics would have trouble i bet), although consoles will lack some of the cooler mods like frostfall and the like

To quote me on my profile feed:

You also missed mod management tools like Bash or LOOT, and also the cornerstone Script Extenders from Silverlock.

Mods will never have the fidelity on consoles as they do on home pcs however Bethesda is making steps in the right direction. I am excited to see what the future holds in regards to console modding.

I would like to see a community patch added on consoles so I can get extra bug fixes while I wait for the game to be wrapped up by Bethesda, then I will make the jump to pc after some mods have been established and the game is complete with no more patches or expansions or dlc.

I'm just trying to figure out how textures will work. The textures they use for consoles and PC are different. Textures on XBox/PS shouldn't work on PC.

Did anyone really think console mods would mirror PC mods? Hell I'm happy if the OP's predictions are right since I don't care about the majority of those things sans large extensions and even then we don't know if "size" will be a restriction. Mods that make things pretty don't mean much to me. I don't think very many can even really comment on what can or will happen with PC mods until either it happens, or we get a better understanding of how the game is built anyway. Just funny to me cuz it sounds like PC guys are a little mad that their modding treasures are now going to be shared, regardless of what capacity lol but also, if console modding is that crippled, I'll pick up a PC version of the game just to play super modded playthroughs.

A lot gets exaggerated in this thread. Looking at how Bethesda cleaned up modding for Skyrim (making bsa's mandatory and no loose files anymore, also continued support for the creation kit), yes mods for consoles can work if this gets improved (FO4 needs it's own modmanager otherwise it will never work).

What we get with the vanilla Creation Kit is a lot. Sure some things will be easier with a script extender but it's nothing that holds you really back if you don't have it. You can easily make any kind of mods with the vanilla system. We waited a log time for FOSE for FO3 and still great mods where made without it. What is important that we get mesh exporting tools this time around in addition to GECK. So that we don't have to guess and experiment as we had to for Skyrim and FO3/NV. Otherwise yes I see troubles for console mods that want to use new meshes.

This mostly.

I can see most mods working just fine on the new consoles... Their systems specs should handle them just fine. The REAL problem lies within 3rd party program usage, such as a script extender... Anything requiring stuff like that will not work for the consoles for sure. (High-def will also not work for sure). However, any content that the mod adds shouldn't matter too much... The new consoles should be able to handle them pretty well and having quite a bit of mods would work just fine. Heck, even a DLC-sized mod should work just fine as long as it doesn't have high-def or 3rd party program requirement.

Lastly, I highly doubt MS and Bethesda will be using staff to "Okay" mods, cause from the sounds of it... Bethesda is only just hosting the site where the mods will be uploaded, they aren't gonna take the time to okay them. I also feel that mods uploaded have to be all within the same file as well, so GECK might have an extra option of something like "compress into one file" idea or at least have the website do it automatically... But this isn't too sure as we don't know enough to make much assumptions.

In the end though, I think it's safe to assume the first paragraph I said: High-def mods and mods requiring 3rd party programs won't work. All others should be able to work just fine though.

The one problem i think that there will be is that some kind of mod organizer/conflict detector will be needed to make things more stable. A program like loot is almost necessary when you get a lot of mods used at once

Hopefully I tool for consoles would not be out of the question. It's possible that each console could have their own mod organization system implemented in the future.

I'd think that if they wanted the mod-to-console thing to work they've researched the pc modding scene. It would be great if they incorporated a lot of the tools into the product. LIke a checklist for you mods and before you load the game it sorts and detects conflicts, but only if you've made any changes to your load order.

Hmm. Really, you can get quite a bit of mods running without the script extenders or utilities. (Heck, with Skyrim, I haven't even used NMM.... I've just been activating & ordering them in the Skyrim launcher, and installing them by hand).

True, the very elaborate mods (like the overhauls that have a dozen interlocking ESPs and then need several conflict-resolution ESPs to work with other large mods) sometimes need that stuff. But really, all I've ever used from Oblivion/FO3/FONV/SK is the *MM things. No Boss, no Wrye, none of it.

(My load orders haven't gone over 100 mods, with most of them being graphics, character models, and armors/weapons, though. And the scaling overhaul I used with Oblivion had it's own installer. But 99% of the mods I've installed, I install manually. Rarely use an .OMOD or the equivalent. Of course, modding on consoles will likely need some sort of built-in "loader" function w/mods packaged like OMODs, just to keep the whole thing nicely modular. And because you don't have a "desktop" view with all your file structure visible.)

No offense but loot is only necessary if you aren't good yourself... I've never used loot myself and I usually have over 100-200 mods installed... (Well scratch that. I did used loot once but it screwed something up and I had uninstall it and redo everything to fix my problem).

It's not practical the bigger the file is. Whether because of slow download speeds or the fact that consoles have limited hard drive space, there's also the concern of what kind of impact a large mod could actually have on the game. The last thing Microsoft or BGS would want is an outcry from console gamers about broken content, and mods will certainly break a game, especially if they are ambitious and large. It's important to keep in mind that console gamers are nowhere as lenient as PC gamers when it comes to broken content or bad ports. I will be shocked if BGS or Microsoft does not have some sort of infrastructure in place to check for quality assurance of every mod.

True enough. I somewhat touch on SKSE, but I could also mention Nexus Mod Manager.

That's where I think you are mistaken. Modding may not be shared between PC and consoles at all. They may be two entirely separate systems depending on how BGS approaches this. Consider Steam Workshop as an example of something tailored for a specific purpose. We can assume that PC mods will be freely shared with consoles, yet we have no way of knowing if this is actually true at this time. This is why I'm suggesting console modding may be a lot more restricted than many actually realize, beyond not having access to some of the most game-changing mods.

All I am hoping for is a mod for a NPC or Item outside the Vault so i can bump up all my stats and perks to start as a super solder if i wish. (Never on First Few Plays) Us Console gamers will not get Console Commands

Sure. But until we actually know for sure we can't say. Both consoles ARE PC's now. Obviously using a virtualized layer of OS will create different boundaries but I'm not so sure we can discount directly using PC mods just yet. Maybe the dev would have to run the PC mod through some kind of patching program to make it portable to console? I'm not going to pretend I know how all of that works. I just know that they aren't that far off from each other these days and I think that is why this is coming about now. Hey, here's to hoping everyone is satisfied

I'll just say this. Consoles have always been PCs, albeit stripped down versions. Their architecture this cycle is more similar to a PC than in previous cycles, but they are still drastically different. Look at Batman Arkham Knight as a recent, perfect example of how differe they still are. Porting for three different platforms is hard. Rocksteady was able to get the game running on X1 and PS4, but failed miserably on PC and the game is still broken. While mods aren't entire games themselves (not in most cases), it's not just a simple copy and paste from one platform to the next.

Mods have to be tailored for a particular audience and for who is using them. Mods on PC, for example, are packaged differently on Steam Workshop versus Nexus Mods. The same would be the case for consoles. The question is how would BGS filter and approach this if they wanted PC mods available on consoles? Not to mention, would PC mod authors even care to make their mods compatible with consoles? Unlikely unless there was monetary benefit involved. There are a lot of considerations. I'm under the impression BGS would have an easier time keeping the platforms separate.

In the end like I've said before major mod authors aren't IMO going to care if there mods will work on console or not. They'll take care of PC first and foremost, even if Xbox One/PS4 are just weak pc's. If I was an author I wouldn't be supporting 3 separate platforms. To much of a hassle if I have a full life and do it as a hobby to make everyone else's game play fun. I wouldn't be shelling out $800 to buy a X1/PS4 just to make sure they work...

Points 1 & 3 I agree with

Points 2 & 4 Xbox1 has 500G HD Which is fairly limiting however all my Skyrim mods for instance take up around 50-60G, and I have quite a few.

Point 5 There doesn't need to be any RAM unlocks. Xbox1 & PS4 are 64 bit systems, I imagine a large portion of the PC gaming population use 64x OSs. Now unless BGS still decides to do a 32 bit program & do their own memory management.. you will be able to utilize all 8Gigs of RAM. Even Witcher 3 recommends 6 Gigs of ram.


I don't believe there is going to be much/any bug testing of player made content by either Microsoft or BGS. They'll be doing a check for their content restrictions and that's it. Quote from Todd: "So, just like Skyrim, there are mods that can break your game pretty wildly, and so we have some safety things on the console for that, but at the same time, we are going to let people break their game. Because we try heavily not to." http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/06/16/e3-2015-bethesdas-todd-howard-talks-about-fallout-4-mod-support


I don't think it will be as different as you think, but it will definitely be a subset of what's available for PC.

*shrug* my 2 caps...

Right and I think we're both on the same page with not knowing exactly how it will work. Worst case, we have to have mods specifically built from the ground up for consoles. Best case, PC mods are able to be ported to consoles relatively easily. And your comment about mod authors not caring about making them compatible will depend on how much work needs to go into them. In that worst case scenario, we will be stuck with the few mods that want to do it for the console community and that is it. In that best case scenario, it's something they can do alongside of publishing their mod for PC. And I'd argue a mod authors unwillingness simply because there's no monetary value in it, they did release the mod for PC afterall whereas they could have kept it private.

This could very well be the case. I am interested to see how this unfolds. They have taken cues from the amazing modding community in the past so I do not think it would be far fetched if they implement mod tools. They seem to be investing in it working with the software giant Microsoft on their console first to make sure the mods transition smoothly.