Mods for consoles : V - Skyrim

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:45 pm

I dont mind if consoles get mods. I thinkit will be difficult to implement and clunky to use. There is the potential that it will be less powerful. What would be more realistic is that consoles cannot make their own mods but could use mods made on pc. That said I dont think any of this wil happen and mods will be for pc only.

» Sat May 28, 2011 1:56 pm

psh why are people alwys hating on consoles. not everyone wants to put in extra HUNDREDS of dollars just to play a 60 dollar video game with the mods. Maybe live needs an open user market where u culd download the mods. how to get them to be compatitble with the games idk. Point is people should stop hatin on xbox and ps3 users just because they play xbox and ps3. Its pretty pointless. If im playing a game and i want my freind to play it i dont feel like hear him saying " nah man. i cant. i have windows xp and i need to ge tthis graphics card and download this new windows. and blah blah blah and spend all this money" .... consoles are 1000 times more convenient then comptuers. yet pc's can get more content. Now i agree with this person i find it to be fair to be able to get mods on consoles because i will be honest. i'm not interested in getting a whole new laptop or super upgrading the one i have and spending all that extra money for mods. People act like getting a pc is a simple solution. its not.

» Sat May 28, 2011 1:43 pm

psh why are people alwys hating on consoles. not everyone wants to put in extra HUNDREDS of dollars just to play a 60 dollar video game with the mods. Maybe live needs an open user market where u culd download the mods. how to get them to be compatitble with the games idk. Point is people should stop hatin on xbox and ps3 users just because they play xbox and ps3. Its pretty pointless. If im playing a game and i want my freind to play it i dont feel like hear him saying " nah man. i cant. i have windows xp and i need to ge tthis graphics card and download this new windows. and blah blah blah and spend all this money" .... consoles are 1000 times more convenient then comptuers. yet pc's can get more content. Now i agree with this person i find it to be fair to be able to get mods on consoles because i will be honest. i'm not interested in getting a whole new laptop or super upgrading the one i have and spending all that extra money for mods. People act like getting a pc is a simple solution. its not.

Relaxamundo - read my post and I play primarily on PC but had a PS3 as well. Every machine has its strengths.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:22 pm

Microsoft, for one would never allow free content to be release on XBL. Also, there would probably be a bunch of legal nightmares for bethesda trying to release the mods and deal with the amount of people complaining that "x mod broke my game".

» Sat May 28, 2011 6:31 am

psh why are people alwys hating on consoles. not everyone wants to put in extra HUNDREDS of dollars just to play a 60 dollar video game with the mods. Maybe live needs an open user market where u culd download the mods. how to get them to be compatitble with the games idk. Point is people should stop hatin on xbox and ps3 users just because they play xbox and ps3. Its pretty pointless. If im playing a game and i want my freind to play it i dont feel like hear him saying " nah man. i cant. i have windows xp and i need to ge tthis graphics card and download this new windows. and blah blah blah and spend all this money" .... consoles are 1000 times more convenient then comptuers. yet pc's can get more content. Now i agree with this person i find it to be fair to be able to get mods on consoles because i will be honest. i'm not interested in getting a whole new laptop or super upgrading the one i have and spending all that extra money for mods. People act like getting a pc is a simple solution. its not.

I spent ￡100 over a console on my PC. I would need a PC anyway, you can't get a decent non-gaming PC for ￡100. PC gaming is not expensive any more. While setting a console up is easier than building a PC, building a PC isn't at all hard, and actually playing games on a PC is much more convenient than on console - for example, if I want to play oblivion now, I can hit one button, then I'm playing it. Or Just Cause 2, or Mass Effect, or X3, or any game in my library. No disc swapping. Simples! You seem to be mistaking "I prefer PC gaming and have legitimate concerns about the freedom of console gaming" as a personal attack. It isn't - it's fine you can live with console gaming, but I can't. Don't make me feel like a jerk for that.

Speaking of, I'll go play oblivion now.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:50 pm

an easy solution would be for bethesda to look at popular simple mods that could work on consoles and then make their own versions and sell them for $1. you could call it iMods.

they basically copied several popular mods into new vegas such as weapon mod kits, the hardcoe mode, ironsights and several others so why not do it as addons for their other games as well. if some person really hated how level scaling was handled they could download an alternative version from iMods for a buck. everyone wins. while i wouldnt pay for most mods out there since many of them are things i could do on my own...... however, i would gladly pay some money for mods like TIE or WAC or qarls texture packs and other mods that i would never even attempt to try out of lack of skill or laziness. i went through and changed all the weapons settings in oblivion to match my criteria one time and it was a huge pain in the ass. and thats only the weapons. kudos to modders who change all the levelled lists for spawning and item drops and item spawns etc. its tedious and boring work.

» Sat May 28, 2011 4:49 am

This is from a thread I made about this without knowing about this thread. I'll just leave it here, I guess...

There's probably been a ton of threads about this already, but meh. And before you say "lolconsolenoob", let's just calm down and hear me out.

I am by no means an expert when it comes to the technical stuff, so you might have to help me out here. If Skyrim is created with the CS, which to my knowledge it is, then the console versions of the game should be more or less the same as the PC version - you know, technically. Or at least, it wouldn't be difficult to make it so.

Could it be possible for a sort of "mod manager" that comes with the game and is accessible in the main menu to be able to install mods that have been downloaded and transferred to the system by something like a USB, or possibly straight from the internet browser? This is only my logic, and as I said I'm no expert. This mod manager could automatically put the files where they need to be, and then you select the mods you want in the main menu - like the PC.

You're probably thinking "stupid console users, now they want mods too? That's a bit farfetched." The way I see it is that many TES fans are resorting to playing on the console as a result of games becoming too advanced for their PCs to handle, and they simply can't afford to upgrade their comp especially for Skyrim. I played Daggerfall and Morrowind on my PC, but Oblivion was too good for it, so I played it on PS3. Additionally, mods have been a big part of TES since Morrowind. It has been something that really makes people stick to the games, the fact that the community can be so involved in modding. Now that many people have converted to console, it only seems fair that such a big part of TES gaming be shared across all platforms. Not only would this benefit all fans, but it could potentially be seen as revolutionary within console. Having fan-made mods installed in console games is something that hasn't been done before (or not that I'm aware).

I'd like to see 360, PS3, and PC players alike contributing their ideas about this. I'm not just another console noob who wants everything the PC has.

This was an attempt at serious discussion about this. There is a way we can discuss this properly. It would help if people started using some grammar, it would probably work in their favor.

I doubt it'll add anything new to this thread, but it's here anyway. I do understand the legal issues that would be a huge obstacle, and pretty much crushes this whole idea, but I didn't really think about that when I wrote this. Not sure why.

» Sat May 28, 2011 3:53 pm

This is from a thread I made about this without knowing about this thread. I'll just leave it here, I guess...

This was an attempt at serious discussion about this. There is a way we can discuss this properly. It would help if people started using some grammar, it would probably work in their favor.

I doubt it'll add anything new to this thread, but it's here anyway. I do understand the legal issues that would be a huge obstacle, and pretty much crushes this whole idea, but I didn't really think about that when I wrote this. Not sure why.

From a purely technical standpoint, absolutely it can be done. Assuming the game architecture for oblivion was the same for 360 and PC (And I see no reason why it would not be) then the game data itself will have been identical (perhaps different resources, but the same .es(p|m) files) and, as it loaded DLC, it makes sense to assume that it was done in the same way as it was on the PC - where lower loading data overwrites higher loading data, and the DLCs were literally official mods. So technically, yes, it could be done in a limited fashion. Unfortunately, it's every other factor that's against it.

» Sat May 28, 2011 2:40 pm

One big problem is that a means to put user content on the consoles using something like a USB stick is against the TOS of the consoles themselves. And as a licensor of the consoles, Bethesda cannot be seen to support breaking the TOS. This includes allowing discussion of means to break the TOS on their official boards.

This is why discussion of the concept of providing mods as downloadable content through official distribution systems is allowed to continue, but any thread that starts discussing means for the end user to put mods on the consoles ends up locked. Bethesda has a legal responsibility to end those discussions.

Taking this thread in that direction risks getting this thread locked as well.

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:26 pm

That is the most ridiculous thing. It's ironic that those kinda things are what's preventing the consumer from enjoying the product. Shouldn't Sony/Microsoft's goals lie with making the consumer happy? I don't see how they can do that and believe it's a wise decision. Of course, there's nothing I can do about it, nothing this thread can do about it and nothing Bethesda can do about it. I guess console users will have to continue being modless, and Bethesda will have to lose out on a huge opportunity. As the TES series continues, more and more fans are having to resort to console. Maybe then Bethesda will turn their attention to pleasing the large group of their fans that don't use PC anymore. Until then, we will remain handicapped.

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:20 am

That is the most ridiculous thing. It's ironic that those kinda things are what's preventing the consumer from enjoying the product. Shouldn't Sony/Microsoft's goals lie with making the consumer happy? I don't see how they can do that and believe it's a wise decision. Of course, there's nothing I can do about it, nothing this thread can do about it and nothing Bethesda can do about it. I guess console users will have to continue being modless, and Bethesda will have to lose out on a huge opportunity. As the TES series continues, more and more fans are having to resort to console. Maybe then Bethesda will turn their attention to pleasing the large group of their fans that don't use PC anymore. Until then, we will remain handicapped.

No, their goals lie with making money. I thought MS's HDD prices (which are the same as they were in 2000) made that one pretty clear.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:51 pm

The TOS seem to include things like this because it makes it illegal for someone to even attempt to mod their console. Sony and MS both sell the consoles at a loss, I believe (though that may have changed once their production was fully ramped up and the initial high cost of producing materials was lowered), and their main income comes from a cut of the games being sold. They have to step on anything that could result in consoles selling but games not selling.

The last thing they want is people buying consoles and playing something on it they can get for free. The idea of people using PS3s for Linux boxes probably scared the heck outta Sony because it would have cost them millions of dollars. Which is why they stepped on that hard.

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:12 am

That is the most ridiculous thing. It's ironic that those kinda things are what's preventing the consumer from enjoying the product. Shouldn't Sony/Microsoft's goals lie with making the consumer happy? I don't see how they can do that and believe it's a wise decision. Of course, there's nothing I can do about it, nothing this thread can do about it and nothing Bethesda can do about it. I guess console users will have to continue being modless, and Bethesda will have to lose out on a huge opportunity. As the TES series continues, more and more fans are having to resort to console. Maybe then Bethesda will turn their attention to pleasing the large group of their fans that don't use PC anymore. Until then, we will remain handicapped.

Mods are made using extensions of the Windows architecture, they are simply not made for the consoles. Microsoft and Sony are large corporations, and when you are in a large corporation like that, your primary concern is making money first then the customers needs. Not just legal issues though, system restrictions as well. A well modded game of Oblivion could take well over 1.5GB of RAM to play with. The 360 only has 512MB of RAM which it shares between the GPU and system RAM. The PS3 has a dedicated 256MB for system and 256MB for GPU if I remember correctly.

Then you have the problem of the mods causing the game to be unstable, whether it be through a conflict in mod order, or overtaxing the systems hardware. This would in turn cause more repair/returns for the companies which then means they are taking a monetary loss. Its just not feasible to have mods on this generation of consoles. Possibly on the next when they have more powerful hardware in them.

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:50 pm

Not going to happen.

If Bethesda were to make PC mods available for consoles, they would need to spend a lot of time and money screening and preparing them if you want even semi-decent mods. OOO, for example, would be an absolute ***** to port over. What about mods that require the script extender or BOSS or OBMM or Wrye Bash? Console makers wouldn't let them anywhere near their consoles.

As for a modding kit especially for consoles, it's not impossible, but a) Beth would have to spend time and money making it, and B) I hope you like castles, because that's pretty much all you'll be able to make with a console mod kit. Also c) all console mods would have to be screened for appropriateness, again costing more time and money.

Basically, if you want mods, get a PC. Can't afford one? Then wait until you can. It's probably better that way; you'll be able to get all the expansions and DLC at the same time, bugs will have been ironed out, and great mods will start to come into their own. OOO wasn't made in a day.