What makes mods great?

They empower the gamer.

'Nuff said.

Yep. The Creation Kit, which is the tool used to mod Skyrim, is the same tool Bethesda used to make the game, just simplified so modders can use it easier and with a few features that Bethesda doesn't want people messing with locked. So basically, modders can add almost anything Bethesda would have been able to add while they were making the game. The only difference is modders don't have a deadline, and everything they release is free. Want to add hundreds of new pieces of armor and weapons to your game to add some more variety? There's a mod for that. How about some new quests, new factions or even whole new towns? You can have that too.



Most people do enjoy the game for what it is first, and then use mods to fix bugs they've encountered, and then to add more content once they've become bored with or feel something is missing from the vanilla game.



Please don't associate people like this with the modding community. Most modders and mod users are very friendly and helpful people. Just go check out Oblivion's or Morrowind's Mods sections on these forums, you'll see what I mean.




Some of the quest mods I used for Oblivion, like Ruined Tail's Tale, Tears of the Fiend or The Fight for Castle Ravenpride were honestly better than any quest in the vanilla game, and they all added countless hours to my game. Aside from quests, there's mods like Mart's Monster Mod that adds hundreds of new enemies to fight, and Francesco's, that did the same thing, except with weapons and armor. Those are just off the top of my head. I usually ran 100+ mods at a time, so I could sit here all day and tell you about all the mods I use and the different ways they changed my game.

Since modding a single player game only affects the one who choose to do so. I would say as long as he is enjoying it, he is doing it good, whatever may that is.

Dumbest thing I have ever read on this site and that is saying a lot.

i was exaggerating it has nothing to do with your post

its just mad ramblings of a mod lover

Well that's true. It would ruin it for me something awful though :happy:

Just ignore him. He's an angry elf.

As a primarily console gamer, allow me to play devil's advocate, like a usually do, and say there is a bit of reverse PC-elitism going on here. Console people, the OP asked for insight into why he SHOULD use mods and not why he SHOULDN'T. If you have nothing constructive to add, it makes you no different than the PC elitists who reply on a thread about PS3/360 with, "Buy a PC! Consoles svck!!!" There is nothing wrong with mods and I myself can't afford a whole new PC that will run Skyrim properly, but I can afford a used $50 1GB AMD graphics card that will allow me to play around with Morrowind and Oblivion mods making those two titles whole new games for me. Should be able to apply some amazing graphical upgrades that obviously Bethesda is not going to spend time on. And rightly so, they should be moving towards getting Skyrim out to us on time and then focusing time on any necessary patches/DLC, etc. and then moving on to the next game. What modders can do is take previous games and extend their shelf-life. If you just don't agree with mods at all then there is nothing that will change your mind, and that's fine because it's your own choice. But it's no reason to troll this thread and ruin things for those who are actually looking to learn something from it.

This is generally one of the best, why are mods so great threads... MOSTLY, trolls have stayed away. So I'm glad it hasn't been closed, yet...

Someone mentioned the BETTER CITIES mods, which really made the lack luster cities of Cyrodiil much nicer and more lore friendly. Seriously, Leyawiin and Bravil had NO docks... Not sure what was up with that, when they were meant to be port towns. They also had some areas in the landscape that were impassable by ships... so no ships could technically reach or leave the Imperial City region.

Ivellon was also mentioned, which was IMO, one of the most hardcoe mods I played. Great puzzles, incentives to return after completing the gauntlet, tough enemies that would spook the hell outta you.

Admittedly, after all the mods I had installed, getting the proper load order became quite a chore. So many mods and compatibility patches, it became hard to keep track of em' all. But once I got everything in order, I backed up my files, so install would be much easier the next time.

Good memories, makes me wanna play again. I'm playing NV though... again... So I'll be busy with that till Skyrim comes around. But the quarky Oblivion physics would probably be bothersome now... Anyhow, I've played it too many times to count

What's so great about mods?

Morrowind before mods (top) and after mods (bottom):

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/41808-1296411867.jpg

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/41808-1296413411.jpg

I don't think people think the games are perfect as is, but I think there's a definite spectrum in how people see games as "art." For example, whether a movie is Citizen Kane or Zombie Strippers, the average person probably wouldn't feel like they could simply re-shoot scenes they didn't like at paste them into the movie. I have used and will use a lot of mods, but for me the fun has always been in making them and seeing the creativity of others. For me, using them to improve the game has always just felt like writing my own ending to a book or filming my own scenes for a movie -- I know lots of others don't have those hang ups. However, if I was playing a board game or D&D, I wouldn't feel the slightest bit out of place in modifying the rules to get the best gaming experience possible.

I think, in any case, that as media continues to advance, the idea that a work of art is the sole possession of the creator will start to fade away. It will become possible to write your own endings to books and movies in a way that it isn't now; everything is in the process of becoming more interactive as people start to desire increasing control of their media experiences.

Anyway, mods are fun, but I think the game-as-created-by-the-developers has value, too.

Oh, another mod that I absolutely LOVE: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29126.

It's a quest, in which you can gain not one, but two player homes. There's the farm, and then there's the dungeon for evil characters. But the farm is the best. You want to talk about crafting in Skyrim, or cooking, or smithing, or farming, it's all right there in Millstone Farm. You can make your own soap. Your own clothes. Your own paintings and hang them on the wall. I spend days just doing stuff around the farm. You literally go from shearing sheep, to spinning yarn, dying the yarn different colors, weaving it and making your own clothes. You grow your own food, harvest it, prepare it, mix it with other ingredients and have to literally walk over to the cooking hearth to put it on to cook or bake, and it's not an automatic thing, you have to wait for stuff to cook or bake. Everything on the farm does something. If you're as excited about the crafting/smithing/cooking/alchemy/etc stuff coming out for Skyrim, give this mod a try. It's super fun.

I don't mind hearing arguments from both sides as long as they're backed up with reason.

I think the biggest testament I'm seeing here isn't any specific mod or type of mod, but rather the fact that there are people who have been playing Oblivion more or less since it launched five years ago. While I got an immense amount of time and enjoyment out of the game, I did eventually grow bored with it and shelved it. If and when I get bored of Skyrim (not for a long time, I'm sure!) it seems like this is the thing to do to extend my experience.

you are asking 'why do you like obvious improvements? I am happy without the obvious improvements'
well theyre obvious improvements.

Does that mod fix all the freaky npc's, too? I might have to get it.

Quests, quests, and more quests.

I actually add very little that changes the basic game mechanics, apart from character levelling mods (and I can't see myself wanting one of those with Skyrim, now that the awful attribute bonus tedium is gone! That was pretty much the only thing I disliked about MW and OB). Oh and survival (eat/drink/sleep) type mods, because I like that kind of thing.

But I do use several mods for both Morrowind and Oblivion that add things such as:

New landmasses (eg. Tamriel Rebuilt for MW - they are gradually adding all of mainland Morrowind to the game bit by bit, complete with dungeons, towns, quests, and NPCs - it's a long way from complete yet, but it is an active project and there are already huge areas of land done with miscellaneous quests, the quality is superb)

New quests and factions (eg. Lost Spires and Kragenir's Death Quest for OB, Illuminated Order for MW - they're basically free DLC of a very high quality)

New dialogue for NPCs who previously didn't have a lot to say (eg. Less Generic NPC Project for MW - doesn't remove anything that was in the vanilla game, but adds TONS of lore-correct dialogue and quests to various towns and factions, I can't play MW without it!)

New weapons and armour, often with quests and/or non-journal clues to find them

Player houses, again often with quests attached

New lore-correct monsters and enemies

And of course texture replacers and MGE for Morrowind so that the graphics look more modern.

None of this in any way damages or detracts from the original experience of the game, it just adds hours and hours more fun!

Yes, you're right. Hearing arguments against both sides is good. I just don't like trolling for the sake of trolling. Anyway, seems like a moderator removed much of it and it's pretty tame on this particular thread.

shouldnt the question be why are mods bad if they give the user more enjoyable experience.
like many have said its not forced upon any1.
but if devs give u something and u wish to improve upon it
how is this in anyway a bad thing??
really seems to me that ppl who havent used mods or dont have access to them, or dont like them for wateva reason, feel like no1 else should either!

I'll see you guys there

Is this guy serious?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX3o4Hdcp78&list=FLDoyGh4FihVi3nQ0SgdDHfA&index=48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjc6soH1P40&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aMPoqdrNwU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2T-eBXxVo0&list=FLDoyGh4FihVi3nQ0SgdDHfA&index=47

Same here.

Oblivion NEEDED mods. Skyrim on the other hand...

Everybody doesnt have to use mods, infact most dont obviously. but "hating mods" doesnt make sense because then you must hate Oblivion and Skyrim since they both contain huge elements of mods for for the previous titles, not all mods are great, most arent, but some are and the absolute elite usually gets included or put in as new features in the sequels made by Bethesda, bethesda are obviously big fans of mods, otherwise why would they fight so hard in order to encourage it, there's a direct feedback between the mod community and the development team at bethesda, I wish all game producers listened as much to their players and looking on what the best ways to address certain aspects of a game is.

If you hate mods, I dont mean not using them, that's totally fine and understandable(just not to me;), but if you are against them, you are also against game development, and the last sequels of the TES games, because they heavily evolved from mods that were made by the mod community, if you dont use mods you prob dont see this, or maybe you never tried these specific mods.

Personally I dont have a single complaint about Skyrim, didnt have one for Oblivion either, because I knew, that if there was something I wanted different, no matter how big or small within the game, the mod community would provide this for me, and I dont think a lot of you realize how talented and professional a lot of these mod makers are, some have incredible skills, fixing stuff to work better than the original developers even could, some could easily work for a major game manufacturer as a programmer or a model/texture artist etc.

if the mods were truly bad then why are so many using them? We who do have all played the original game, and there is a reason we chose to start using or developing mods for every new game, and there is a reason why Bethesda are so great that they encourage it, even a lot of the developers use the mods themselves. I have the outmost respect for Bethesda.

Here here!

I feel like someone just asked what is so great about six