Am I the only one who gets absolutely amazed by this habit of mod users? I am finding that if they get stuck in a mod for about 7 seconds, they assume the mod maker messed up, use a console command to solve their problem, and then report the mod as broken later because of a bug that they caused by using console commands.

For Oblivion, I created a rather large quest mod called "Path of the Skull Bearer." There is a certain part where you have to collect a gem. You are lead to a "mausoleum" thing, and click on it, and some burning creatures appear.

The creatures are made to be impossible to kill (not even taking damage, not merely essential) with scripts (things like resethealth on hit if I remember correctly.) You are meant to "forgive" them, and it is very obvious in the quest that this is what you are supposed to do (http://youtu.be/e__tV_nRapQ?t=6m44s note the voiceover). I got emails weekly for a time, that they killed the monsters but nothing happen. "Oh, how did you kill them? They are not supposed to take any damage." "I used the console kill command, your mod is broken, please fix."

I have not had anything quite so bad occur with Skyrim yet because I haven't released any large mods, but I know it is going to happen.

I'm sorry for ranting, but this has to be my number one complaint about mod users. It is not reasonable to think that using console commands to cheat (especially to "cheat wrongly" as above) will just be 100% compatible with the scripted progression of the mod.

This happens with all sorts, not just Mods, unfortunately. I think, in a way, it's the one big problem with having such easy access to cheats; I know even in other games, I've messed them up by cheating-- some things are just not designed to work unless certain conditions are met (case in point, I had one game where if you had a certain sword before you were meant to, you couldn't get it and so the quest stalled leaving you trapped in a room).

I think we hear about it more with Mods because it's "easier" to believe they made a mistake, rather than taking responsibility for what we, as a user, have done. I don't know whether it happened here, but I've seen a lot of times people going to forums to complain things like "too easy/doesn't work" and have it turn out they're using cheats... People want the easy road sometimes, and forget some things aren't meant to work like that.

I'd suggest putting a disclaimer, if you're really bothered: "Using Console commands may cause this Mod to function incorrectly", and then maybe a short list of occasions where it could. Not ideal, but it might at least reduce the problem (assuming people read the read me).

I'll admit, a similar thing is why I always stressed "Balance is at the User's discretion" in my Vampirism Mod for Oblivion-- I gave the user FULL access to the settings, so they could refine it to their own liking; but I KNEW someone, somewhere, would make themselves a God, and then complain that it was too over-powered.

It's sadly one of those things; you just have to try and keep faith in your users, and not scream too loudly

Your mod was made for people who have brains and know how to use them... You'll have to tell your users exactly what to do and when if you want to avoid this kind of behaviour (spoiling any idea of "memorable moment") and you'll be lucky that they actually read your description. It's happened to me too.

Or maybe there is a way to disconnect the console while your mod is on?

And people resent Bethesda for "dumbing down" their games...

I hope you put something like

On DeathPlayer.kill

in there just to mess with them

Cant be too careful when making sure your mod is idiotproof