DirtyOldShoe
Some kind of lucky
Something I have been thinking about for a while now and I apologize for the size of this article, I have a tendency to not keep things short.
First I would like to note that I have modded for all the games listed below to varying degrees so I do have at least a minimal understanding to the modding tools available for each and the struggles with modding as well.
The list below catalogs, in chronological order the most recent and highly modifiable titles from BGS and an exception for Obsidian. In my hypothesis I have also considered the aging of the title in comparison to how any mods are available and also factored in that not all mods listed in a category can accurately depict that they do represent that category and that other mods listed under other categories may, but the cross over of said mods seem to balance out with just the prime categories listed here. In addition to these calculations there are subset categories I have imposed but not listed of grandiose and somewhat lackluster. Grandiose adding hours of game play and lackluster not having voice, quest markers, quests or just poorly conceptualized and implemented.
In the list, Morrowind is the least modded, FNV has more mods than F3, even though F3 had a massive head start. I believe some of the contributing factors to how well modded a game is are age, ease of modding and core game.
Examples, Skyrim is much easier to mod then all titles listed imo due to templates, search functions, community tools, game engine stability, creation engine stability and advancements in the creation engine. Incorporation of dev tools such as navmesh and exporting voice and lip files makes Skyrim very user friendly, where other games have more struggles. I found Morrowind's construction tools very clunky and unintuitive.
In regards to popularity, Skyrim is one of the later releases and has more mods than any 2 titles combined.
The reason for this article is due to a common thought process of players of F4 that mods or the GECK will "fix" the game to make it playable. This also has a number of factors that rely on, drive, tenacity and desire. The problem with this scenario is that for one to want to "fix" the vomit that is the story line and lack of quests for F4, they would need to have drive, tenacity and a desire to work on quests.
A small analogy if you will. Lets say BGS sold us a plate of sugary sweets, not everyone likes sugary sweets, with modding tools we can change those sweets to be sour or even poisonous, we can change them to not be tasty snack but goodhearted deathclaws and so forth. With F4, we were sold a crap plate of crap, Everything sold is not worth much of changing and the entirety needs to be changed, nothing of the story is salvageable.
Morrowind Quests: 120 3.27%
Morrowind Lands: 76 2.07%
Total files: 3669
Oblivion Quests: 652 2.33%
Oblivion Lands: 255 0.91%
Total files: 27958
F3 Quests: 383 2.71%
F3 Lands: 167 1.18%
Total files: 14123
FNV Quests: 429 2.54%
FNV Lands: 192 1.14%
Total files: 16829
Skyrim Quests: 669 1.48%
Skyrim Lands: 176 0.38%
Total files: 45151
F4 Quests: 2 0.03%
F4 Lands: 0 0.00%
Total files: 5868
As you can see by the numbers, Skyrim has an underwhelming amount of quest mods or quest and world related content. Many would be mod authors have the desire to build quests and worlds, but do not have the tenacity to see it through, The vast majority of the quest and land mods for Skyrim are WIP's from a few years back that will never see conclusion. Skyrim, the easiest title to mod has the lowest percentage of content mods. Most of the mods for Skyrim are aesthetic. There are some grandiose titles for all the games that add quest content, but you can usually count them on one to two hands. Players that may wish to mod quests that have not done so before will most likely be overwhelmed with having to learn to script. Most people that have this skill already are more than likely interested in other titles, like Skyrim or previous titles of Fallout.
Skyrim was not turned into a hack and slash, F4 is a first person shooter. There will never be a mod that makes F4 not a first person shooter. Best hope is to have a buffet of content mods, but they will be scarce. Out of the almost 6000 mods for F4 currently, There are 2 mods categorized as quest related.
"That's not fair, there's no GECK yet, how will people make quests mods?"
The fact that you are holding your breath for a 'what if' to make the game good speaks loudly. No other game I have played have I ever thought, "Come on mods, make this game playable." If it ain't good now, attaching a great quest mod to a pile of crap should not mean that much to you. I promise, 1 year from now, you will have forgotten about this garbage game.
If you want quests and content and good story, play NV and download some mods, if you want to pewpew on repeat, play CoD, it's a lot cheaper.
First I would like to note that I have modded for all the games listed below to varying degrees so I do have at least a minimal understanding to the modding tools available for each and the struggles with modding as well.
The list below catalogs, in chronological order the most recent and highly modifiable titles from BGS and an exception for Obsidian. In my hypothesis I have also considered the aging of the title in comparison to how any mods are available and also factored in that not all mods listed in a category can accurately depict that they do represent that category and that other mods listed under other categories may, but the cross over of said mods seem to balance out with just the prime categories listed here. In addition to these calculations there are subset categories I have imposed but not listed of grandiose and somewhat lackluster. Grandiose adding hours of game play and lackluster not having voice, quest markers, quests or just poorly conceptualized and implemented.
In the list, Morrowind is the least modded, FNV has more mods than F3, even though F3 had a massive head start. I believe some of the contributing factors to how well modded a game is are age, ease of modding and core game.
Examples, Skyrim is much easier to mod then all titles listed imo due to templates, search functions, community tools, game engine stability, creation engine stability and advancements in the creation engine. Incorporation of dev tools such as navmesh and exporting voice and lip files makes Skyrim very user friendly, where other games have more struggles. I found Morrowind's construction tools very clunky and unintuitive.
In regards to popularity, Skyrim is one of the later releases and has more mods than any 2 titles combined.
The reason for this article is due to a common thought process of players of F4 that mods or the GECK will "fix" the game to make it playable. This also has a number of factors that rely on, drive, tenacity and desire. The problem with this scenario is that for one to want to "fix" the vomit that is the story line and lack of quests for F4, they would need to have drive, tenacity and a desire to work on quests.
A small analogy if you will. Lets say BGS sold us a plate of sugary sweets, not everyone likes sugary sweets, with modding tools we can change those sweets to be sour or even poisonous, we can change them to not be tasty snack but goodhearted deathclaws and so forth. With F4, we were sold a crap plate of crap, Everything sold is not worth much of changing and the entirety needs to be changed, nothing of the story is salvageable.
Morrowind Quests: 120 3.27%
Morrowind Lands: 76 2.07%
Total files: 3669
Oblivion Quests: 652 2.33%
Oblivion Lands: 255 0.91%
Total files: 27958
F3 Quests: 383 2.71%
F3 Lands: 167 1.18%
Total files: 14123
FNV Quests: 429 2.54%
FNV Lands: 192 1.14%
Total files: 16829
Skyrim Quests: 669 1.48%
Skyrim Lands: 176 0.38%
Total files: 45151
F4 Quests: 2 0.03%
F4 Lands: 0 0.00%
Total files: 5868
As you can see by the numbers, Skyrim has an underwhelming amount of quest mods or quest and world related content. Many would be mod authors have the desire to build quests and worlds, but do not have the tenacity to see it through, The vast majority of the quest and land mods for Skyrim are WIP's from a few years back that will never see conclusion. Skyrim, the easiest title to mod has the lowest percentage of content mods. Most of the mods for Skyrim are aesthetic. There are some grandiose titles for all the games that add quest content, but you can usually count them on one to two hands. Players that may wish to mod quests that have not done so before will most likely be overwhelmed with having to learn to script. Most people that have this skill already are more than likely interested in other titles, like Skyrim or previous titles of Fallout.
Skyrim was not turned into a hack and slash, F4 is a first person shooter. There will never be a mod that makes F4 not a first person shooter. Best hope is to have a buffet of content mods, but they will be scarce. Out of the almost 6000 mods for F4 currently, There are 2 mods categorized as quest related.
"That's not fair, there's no GECK yet, how will people make quests mods?"
The fact that you are holding your breath for a 'what if' to make the game good speaks loudly. No other game I have played have I ever thought, "Come on mods, make this game playable." If it ain't good now, attaching a great quest mod to a pile of crap should not mean that much to you. I promise, 1 year from now, you will have forgotten about this garbage game.
If you want quests and content and good story, play NV and download some mods, if you want to pewpew on repeat, play CoD, it's a lot cheaper.
.
