Anyway, if people want an actual linux native mod manager, that works with literally anything after a bit of set up…
LIMO.
https://github.com/limo-app/limo
Its on flathub too:
https://flathub.org/apps/io.github.limo_app.limo
It’s basically MO2, but linux native, you don’t need to run it through STL or Proton or some other way of making it work.
Just actually RTFM, and its a very powerful tool.
I don’t think it supports downloading an auto installing a whole mod collection from Nexus, but it can be set up to check Nexus for updates to individual mods, and download them.
The nexus mods app is native. You’re thinking of Vortex, their old one.
Ironically, Vortex run through proton or wine environment that includes Vortex’s windows requirements works better than NM, so… yeah, they’re not that good yet at this whole linux thing.
What’s not “actually native” about the nexus app?
Limo is designed soley to work on linux.
NM is multi-platform, ie, linux is an afterthought, after Windows.
Also Limo currently ‘actually’ has more functionality with a much more broad variety of games on linux than NM does… in that it works for literally any game.
Both ‘apps’ have been in development for about the same amount of time, and Limo has delivered far more linux functionality, with far less jank and bugs, in the same timeframe, thus indicating Limo is much more serious about linux support than NM.
Just go look at the issues section of the github for each and you can see that for NM, there are tons of major problems with both the released AppImage and people trying to build from source on linux.
The Nexus folks either are not prioritizing linux, or are not very good at developing for linux, or both.
What makes a multi-platform app default to treating Linux as an afterthought? If that’s the case, it’s true for most KDE apps as well; most notably in my mind would be Krita.
The part where it has way, way more bugs and problems on linux than it does on windows.
NM is multi-platform, ie, linux is an afterthought, after Windows.
That’s what you said, right? That multi-platform apps put Linux last. Seems pretty clear you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Multi platform apps often do a shoddy job of fully and/or properly supporting linux, this is very common.
So common that WINE and Proton exist, to just reroute around that problem without forcing every software dev to also become a linux software dev.
The NM is yet another example of that, its honestly not even really remarkable, its to be expected from devs that are entirely used to developing on windows.
Do some linux devs also do a bad job of properly supporting a full array of DEs? X11 vs Wayland?
Yep, that’s pretty common as well, this is why many serious distros at least attempt to pick sets of prebundled software, that work best with the DEs and WMs they support fully support, or even develop their own apps, or contribute to apps they like, such that the overall user experience on their distro is less janky and more congruent.
So, therefore, you believe apps like Krita are doing a shoddy job of supporting Linux, right?
Afterthought? This iterates on the vortex app which has no Linux support. I think you’re setting the bar unrealistically high for Linux support. Sure it’s going to have more issues, because the scope is bigger, not because they’re ignoring Linux voices.
No, the bar is ‘basic functions work reliably’, that’s not too high.
I’m not saying they’re ‘ignoring linux voices’, I’m saying that they are unskilled at being linux devs, and thus what they deliver is less, actual linux functionality comes off as an afterthought.
In fairness, they do seem to be learning as they go, but they do have a ways to go.
Its really, really obvious that the people involved in the dev team have basically all their modding / mod tool development history in Windows, never bothered with linux support before, let someone else figure that out for them.
It would be cool if it was open source so more experienced Devs could participate…
Oh wait, it is GPL-3.0
I’m all for supporting native Linux development, but do we really have to have perfect be the enemy of good and call apps that release on multiple platforms not proper native and lesser? Is Firefox not proper native? Is steam not proper native?
Fact is nexus is doing one good thing and making their next app FOSS and cross platform, and for some reason that’s still not good enough because we’re so used to supporting underdogs - the tiny GitHub teams releasing groundbreaking stuff made from scraps. Can’t we just support a company when it does do the right thing?
This entire conversation stems from me pointing out there already is a linux native alternative that functions much better.
I am not making the perfect the enemy of the good.
That really only makes sense as a framing of an issue where there is … one big, semi-permanent choice or policy or something that will affect a whole lot of people.
This isn’t that, this is picking between two free alternatives.
It isn’t that its not good enough because Nexus is not an underdog.
Its that its not good enough because its not good enough.
I look forward to the Nexus Manager getting better over time, I hope that it does!
But at the current moment, it isn’t so great as a native linux app.
That’s really interesting! Keeping this in mind for future games I want to mod.
I was (and have been) succesfully modding CyberPunk 2077 for about a year ago now, with Limo, despite it not having ‘official support’ in the form of a preconfigured preset.
You just have to set up the deployers right, and point them at the right directory in your version of the game.
All on Bazzite, on a Deck.
I think my custom FONV mod count is approaching 200 now, lol.
It has occured to me that I should probably at some point just make a Viva New Vegas style guide for how to do this with Limo, instead of MO2, as the Mirelurked version of VNV does.
I need it to support games I mod. It’s insane they didn’t start with Bethesda games!
They started with the most popular modded games.
Half of all downloads on Nexusmods are Skyrim mods, it’s by far the most popular game.
Wait, I just switched to Linux yesterday, and the nexus download site said windows was required. I figured it just doesn’t work on linux
They have an appimage version, but it currently only supports Stardew Valley and Cyberpunk 2077. Other games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Skyrim are planned.
Here is the official roadmap
Thanks, everyone! I’ll check it out!
Because it basically doesn’t.
Their linux support for this is experimental at best, its in early alpha.
Is it still cp2077 only?
Haaaank
Stardew Valley as well
Baldur’s Gate 3 as well I think
Wait, Nexus isn’t getting enshittified by the new owner (yet) ?
Long time modder here, so I’ve been keeping up with this very closely. The owner (Dark0ne) really just handed control over to the people that were already running everything with him. The company (Black Tree Gaming Ltd.) is still exactly the same, they just have a new owner/parent company now (Chosen Something). And I’m sure he negotiated ahead of time that they’re limited in how much they can interfere, because I’ve seen nothing on my side indicating they plan to. (There’s no option for me to monetize my mods outside of donations or Patreon, for example.)
I’m trying to talk myself out of this perspective I have here. If you can help me with that, please do.
How about how it asks me to pay every time I download a mod, and makes me download each one in a collection even though they have a one-button feature? Same results, same total download size, but they turn it into a demeaning menial task. The only reason I can imagine for it is that they want non-paying customers to get bored and quit, cutting down on total downloads.
I can’t really tell what value they’re adding, since it’s the modders and the collection indexers who do all the actual work to make the mods and make sure they work with each other. So they’re a hosting service. And they provide… discoverability? But I’ve never discovered anything through NexusMods, I only used it after finding out that NexusMods was the only place I could easily get the mod collection I already knew I wanted. But it turned out it wasn’t easy, and that that was a deliberate design decision to try to squeeze me for cash to make their manufactured inconveniences disappear. And that is something that I oppose on a moral level.
“But they provide the app that places the resources and they swap the executable out so it still launches through Steam!” No, SMAPI does that. It’s the thing that places and runs SMAPI, I guess.They do platforming (with community support for forums and comments), storage, and CDN all in one - for free (to mod developers). They have to monetize somehow, and it’s best they charge now than offer a free service only to pull the rug under people once they’re on the platform. Nothing is stopping you from putting your mods on, say, GitHub. Hell, if you’re putting together a modlist you can use wabbajack and it automatically downloads stuff from GitHub.
anybody remember gamespy?
Yeah, that’s for their ad-free Premium thing, which gets rid of ads and lets you skip the nag screen you’re talking about. Which, fun fact, you can use uBlock Origin and a Greasemonkey script to skip (I’d recommend ViolentMonkey to run the script) ;)
Which reminds me, the top mods every game/month are eligible for a small cut of that money if you opt-in and give them your real personal info. I’ve only ever made the cut once so I completely forgot about it.
You don’t have to give them any personal info though? You just earn the dp on your profile and you can exchange it for games or cash on PayPal.
Oh really? That’s good to know.
I wonder how they justify that on taxes lol…
“Yeah, we paid out $500 to 1337snipergodx6969@gmail.com. You’ll need to verify the other details with PayPal.”
Sorry I wouldn’t know, I’ve never cashed in through PayPal, just bought steam games with it.
Yeah, I gave mine (a whole $7) to Make-A-Wish. Don’t even use PayPal so…
Well, enshittification usually only starts after a good while. If the parent company wants changes they can slowly press forward to achieve what they want, even if they are somewhat limited - those limitations are usually limited itself. E.g. WhatsApp data was seperate to Facebook at first, but slowly but surely they became more interlinked (at least internally).
Anyway, I don’t know enough about Nexus Mods and their owners to have any idea where they’re headed. As you’ve said, there’s been no indication of them doing something shitty.
Development on the app was started before the new owner took over.
