Mods for PC games

[BeardFaceMan]

I do most of my gaming on a console and dabble in pc gaming now and then. Mainly because I don't like the fucking about aspect of pc gaming, so much fine tuning, so much shit to go wrong whereas with a console you just pop a disc in and thats all the fucking about you do. So I've never really been interested or paid attention to the mod scene but its been hard to avoid lately with PUBG and the story of it starting off as a mod. So what are some good mods out there? Do they fundamentally change a game, or are they just reskins?

And as an aside, how is it someone can make money out of modfying a game, or even release a game of their own thats a modded version of someone elses game? Arent mods against their ToS or something? I would have thought there'd be a copyright issue at the very least.

[mobias]

I've got a big fuck off gaming PC on order and I got one pretty much purely because of modding. I'm tired of seeing so many of the great games I love only getting a kind of base version on the consoles because Sony and Microsoft won't allow outside scripting. I love my Farming Simulator and the console version isn't really even a quarter of the version that the PC gets because of all the mods. Its a game that is really made by the modding community.

There's mods for Witcher 3 that pretty much fundamentally change the game in everything bar the story. I also really want to play GTAV with all the totally over the top ridiculous mods out there.

[mobias]

double post

[Famous Mortimer]

I wanted GTA 5 for the same reason, but then they banned people who'd ever even looked at a mod page from playing online, or something. And there's all that microtransaction bollocks in it, which makes me not want to give them my money. But I do want to give it a go, even if just for the racing.

Half Life 2 had some great mods, some of which just made the game daft, some of which did stuff like go through it and make everything HD.

And I've not messed with Diablo 2 in forever, but that had some great mods. Me and my mates played Eastern Sun as much as we did vanilla D2, way back when.

[Bhazor]

I tend not to use many mods honestly. They've fucked up so many of my games. Total Warhammer 2 crashes on loading now because the current version is incompatible with the mod I was happily using before. Likewise last time I started up Cities Skylines I had 12 seperate error messages from various mods that are now all fucked.

That said my all time favourite mod has to be Fall From Heaven 2 for Civ 4. Just a fantastic game in its own right.

And as an aside, how is it someone can make money out of modfying a game, or even release a game of their own thats a modded version of someone elses game? Arent mods against their ToS or something? I would have thought there'd be a copyright issue at the very least.

People don't. It's pure hobbyist stuff. There are some commissioned mods where fans can pay for another fan to make a specific mod. That tends to be in specific sub genres particularly hardcore sims and community driven mmos like Second Life. The big controversy with paid mods like with Bethesda has been that the paid mods are often inferior rip offs of existing mods. Sometimes stealing the actual code from the original modder. Its just a complete mess. I'm guessing the future will be closer to what happened with Day Z.

[mobias]

There are games where the modders make legit money from them. The Farming Simulator franchise is about 90% supported by a huge modding community and the studio behind it, Swiss studio Giants Software, pay modders a nominal fee, I don't think its a huge amount, per download from the game's official mod hub website. Every year there's a competition for the best mod and the winner gets 25 grand. Quite a decent amount. Because of that the race to create the best mod is huge and some of the mods are amazing.

[Kryton]

People don't. It's pure hobbyist stuff.

Tell that to Dean Hall...

[BeardFaceMan]

What about the Steam workshop? Is that mods for games without all the fucking about? Is there any decent stuff on there or is mainly people making hats for TF2 and the like?

[Bhazor]

That's what I use for Warhammer 2 and Cities:Skyline. In terms of compatibility it's better than the old ModDB days with little flags for when a mod hasn't been updated since the last patch. But it will still fuck your games up if you don't do regular house keeping.

[Thursday]

XCOM 2 has some excellent Steam Workshop stuff, very easy to use.

[St_Eddie]

I just downloaded and installed a mod for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which allows you to simultaneously play with the voice-overs and the original, superior VGA graphics (an option which was criminally lacking from the the official release). It also fixes some bugs present ever since the original game was released in 1990 and even adds back in the famously missing close-up of Spiffy the dog (something not previously present in the original VGA version of the game, due to space issues)!  Lovely stuff.

The most essential mod I've ever used is the restoration mod for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.  The game was infamously released in an unfinished state and this mod restores a great deal of the cut content, making it feel much more complete and worthy as a sequel to the classic original.

[Bhazor]

The most essential mod I've ever used is the restoration mod for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.  The game was infamously released in an unfinished state and this mod restores a great deal of the cut content, making it feel much more complete and worthy as a sequel to the classic original.

Disney actually made that mod into an official patch like a month after they bought Lucas Arts. Likewise they rereleased all the old Jedi Knight games. Fucking Disney showing more care for Lucas Arts games than Lucas Arts had done in the previous decade.

[Phil_A]

Morrowind Overhaul is a bit of a pain in the arse to get working but totally worth it. After trying it out for a while and going back to the original I couldn't believe how blurry the old textures looked. My heart will always be with the stark landscapes of vanilla Morrowind but the mod does a great job of making everything look shiny and new.

[Dog Botherer]

I just downloaded and installed a mod for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which allows you to simultaneously play with the voice-overs and the original, superior VGA graphics (an option which was criminally lacking from the the official release). It also fixes some bugs present ever since the original game was released in 1990 and even adds back in the famously missing close-up of Spiffy the dog (something not previously present in the original VGA version of the game, due to space issues)!  Lovely stuff.

The most essential mod I've ever used is the restoration mod for Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.  The game was infamously released in an unfinished state and this mod restores a great deal of the cut content, making it feel much more complete and worthy as a sequel to the classic original.

I've definitely lost at least a week of my life just to modding those two bastard KOTOR games. Every time I reinstall it it takes a good 5 hours of scouring the internet, working out which mods won't break each other, downloading and installing them, having them promptly break my game anyway, then finding out I accidentally overwrote the wrong file and then starting over again.

Absolutely worth it though. Incredible games.

[Famous Mortimer]

Morrowind Overhaul is a bit of a pain in the arse to get working but totally worth it. After trying it out for a while and going back to the original I couldn't believe how blurry the old textures looked. My heart will always be with the stark landscapes of vanilla Morrowind but the mod does a great job of making everything look shiny and new.

Time for a re-play, I think. My first time through, I read about a really good sword you can steal without being noticed really early on in the game, that sort of unbalances the first 4-5 hours of gameplay, but it's so long ago that I can't remember where it is now. One of my favourite games.

[Phil_A]

Time for a re-play, I think. My first time through, I read about a really good sword you can steal without being noticed really early on in the game, that sort of unbalances the first 4-5 hours of gameplay, but it's so long ago that I can't remember where it is now. One of my favourite games.

That's one of the great things about Morrowind, there are so many ways you can break the game in your favour. The Boots Of Blinding Speed being one. They're supposed to blind you when you wear them making them effectively useless. But the blindness only affects certain classes, so if you're lucky you can have a massive speed upgrade with almost no effort. Combine this with levitation magic and you can basically go anywhere you like on the map at around Level 1.

[St_Eddie]

That's one of the great things about Morrowind, there are so many ways you can break the game in your favour. The Boots Of Blinding Speed being one. They're supposed to blind you when you wear them making them effectively useless. But the blindness only affects certain classes, so if you're lucky you can have a massive speed upgrade with almost no effort. Combine this with levitation magic and you can basically go anywhere you like on the map at around Level 1.

Much like real life.

[Malcy]

I modded most games i played on the PC. Having Eminem, Dr Dre, The Terminator, A Dalek, Indiana Jones, and loads of other folk fighting each other with lightsabers in Jedi Outcast was always fun.

GTA VC got a lot of mods and total conversions to it but i added in a Back To The Future conversion on top of a zombie mode and that was a nail in the coffin and had to reset it all. Most of the time Modding doesn't disrupt anything but sometimes it can clash with another mod and stop your while game from working so always good to have backups.

Something i must get around to doing a bit again. Reinstalled Jedi Outcast so have to look out my disc of hundreds of mods. Always great fun to do.

[Bhazor]

Every couple years I try to play Fallout New Vegas. But god it's such an ugly, floaty, charmless engine that I need like a dozen mods to make it remotely playable. Spend a whole afternoon downloading all the overhauls. Five minutes in. Crash to desktop with a hundred error messages. Go back to some other game.

[St_Eddie]

.,..it's such an ugly, floaty, charmless engine that I need like a dozen mods to make it remotely playable. Spend a whole afternoon downloading all the overhauls. Five minutes in....

Are you stealing my description from Tinder?  I'm certain that you are.  You owe me several hundred bucks.  Payable in armpit sweat.  Nonnegotiable.

[Bazooka]

Every couple years I try to play Fallout New Vegas. But god it's such an ugly, floaty, charmless engine that I need like a dozen mods to make it remotely playable. Spend a whole afternoon downloading all the overhauls. Five minutes in. Crash to desktop with a hundred error messages. Go back to some other game.

Sort your life out mate, its the dogs bollocks of a game.

[falafel]

He is also describing my experience. I ask myself: is it time? Will I appreciate it, finally? Two hours of modding later, half an hour in, everything still looks literally like shit, I'm depressed, i have no idea what is going on, I've died several times, alt-F4, uninstall.

[Famous Mortimer]

Morrowind Overhaul is a bit of a pain in the arse to get working but totally worth it. After trying it out for a while and going back to the original I couldn't believe how blurry the old textures looked. My heart will always be with the stark landscapes of vanilla Morrowind but the mod does a great job of making everything look shiny and new.

It is a bit, yes - it takes you through a list of things you need to do to get it working, but it took me about 20 minutes after downloading it all, plus $15 on Steam for the GOTY edition, job done. Actually, saying that, I've not tried to play it yet, I can't find a mouse.

[St_Eddie]

Actually, saying that, I've not tried to play it yet, I can't find a mouse.

Have you tried the 'rodents' sub-section of the mods page?