July 2021 Update

Hi all!

The holidays are here and I have more free time on my hands than could possibly be sensible. With about four of six weeks free to spend on modding stuff, I will hopefully Get Stuff Done before my finals swallow me up in Autumn.

Next up

As mentioned (several times now), I have finally started work on that beginner's guide and making good progress. However, the downside is that I can't switch back and forth. I can't go back to work on TPF for a bit, or even WTP, because my brain is busy with the beginner's guide stuff. It's hard to explain but that's how it is.

Thus I decided to simply focus on the beginner's guide for the time being. A small update for TPF is coming "soon", but it is delayed by the fact that my root folder is pretty much vanilla right now and I can't even launch the game for TPF.

There is currently a poll ongoing on the TPF Discord server about the performance impact that 4.6 has over previous versions. The fact that there were only few responses so far mean that I'm not going to address the problem anytime soon. Please do leave your votes and use the new #tpf-performance-testemonials channel for feedback as well.

Beginner's Guide

Yes, I'm working on it now. No, I don't have an ETA. It's massive and a collaborative effort, and either I'll finish a first draft over the holidays, or I won't. Basically, I have no news right now.

Welcome to Paradise

Because the Fallout modding community has more of what I would carefully describe as "conservative" or "old-school" mod authors, WTP was actually broken when mods were taken down as a response to the recent Nexus changes. It's inconvenient, but there is nothing to be done. TPF was not affected at least.

I will probably update WTP sometime during the holidays. No ETA. I had not planned to work on FO4 anytime soon.

TPF and TPF-X

The next major update for TPF will probably largely affect TPF-X, my addon. I have in the past publicly talked about being tempted to make TPF Wabbajack-exclusive as that would give me a lot more freedom with custom edits. Ultimately, I don't think I could ever throw away years of work on the manual guide though.

The decision I have now come to is that the next version of TPF-X will be Wabbajack-exclusive. I'll make it my playground with all the bells and whistles, and stuff I've been meaning to try.

For TPF that means that some content-related mods will be removed (and added to TPF-X instead). I am even considering to yeet ENB and related mods entirely (maybe use a ReShade instead). TPF would simply be pure V+ with the unmatched visual consistency that a lack of ENB brings to the table, while TPF-X would be TPF plus a fully-featured visual overhaul with extra content.

Any feedback on this is welcome. I really like the idea, but I'm also interested in everyone else's opinions.

Nexus Collections

I've been considering to write a proper statement on Nexus Collections but decided to wait until we know more about them. I would like to get a few things off my chest though:

The current temper tantrums being thrown by some mod authors are hilarious overreactions. From the discussions I've seen in restricted areas (mod authors only), those opposing Wabbajack and Collections are largely interested in repeating the same unsubstantiated claims ad nauseam and insulting anyone who dares disagree. They don't need to be taken seriously.

But I am actually worried about Nexus Collections for entirely different reasons.

As far as we know right now, Collections are just a bunch of download links. Any custom edits or even just porting/resaving/ESL-ifying/merging steps seem to be completely omitted. On top of all that, Collections only support Vortex so you must use LOOT and you are unable to adjust the mod order by hand. Nexus staff actually believes that being able to change your load and mod order is not really necessary, so this isn't likely to change either.

And I doubt that Collections would be vetted and tested like official Wabbajack lists are before release. 

My fear? Collections will largely be broken mod lists by clueless people. Since most actually important steps in building a setup aren't possible in Collections to begin with, it's going to be quite a challenge to have a Collection that is anything but an unmitigated disaster. This will continue to build the "all mod lists are bad" prejudice, which will fall back on us Wabbajack or manual guide folks. Fantastic.

This does not mean that I think the Nexus is Bad(tm) or that everyone should be up in arms. I do think that Collections for Skyrim, just like Vortex, are doomed to mediocrity. The Nexus has to make jack-of-all-trades tools because they support more than just Bethesda games, but those tools are always going to be inferior to tools made specifically for Bethesda games. We already have Mod Organizer 2 and Wabbajack, why would I downgrade to Vortex and Collections?

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Well, anyway. Holidays. Working on Beginner's Guide. Big update for TPF-X sometime. Fixing WTP sometime. No ETAs. That is all.

Happy modding!

-Phoenix