To use or not to use

[Krap-E-Player]

The to use or not to use mods conundrum. After some cursory searching I couldn't find much of any discussion on it so here we are.

I want to use mods but then I believe in playing games as the developer intended. Its like an itch in me that could be scratched but I refuse to.

What are you guys' thoughts?

[peppermint hollows]

Well, seeing as the game has a built in mod management feature as well as the Steam workshop, I think it's safe to say that the developers support and embrace the modding community. Of course they can't actually provide technical support for people running the game with mods due to the unofficial nature, but it's not like they intentionally make it difficult to create and use mods.

To me, that's as close to "developer intended" as it can get for modding games. Besides, if you've already put time into playing the game without mods sometimes the best way to get more enjoyment out of it is to start modding. And with the way the game works, you can have a separate profile specifically for using mods since you can activate and deactivate installed mods within the mod manager menu. You have the option of having the best of both worlds.

[Krap-E-Player]

Thank you for your thoughtful input. Yeah, its easier to justify mod usage in my somewhat ocd mind since it was designed from the ground up to embrace mod creation.

One mod I would have absolutely zero issue in using would be an invisible wall remover. I just tried to drive into a river and hit an invisible wall. Come on! Games are more fun when the developer gives the player the choice to do the wrong thing.

[🐺Blue Wolf]

I have 2 profiles. Modded and vanilla.
The only real downside of mods (or having ONLY a modded profile) is updates can break mods so you'll either need to wait for mod updates or disable them. That's when I tend to switch over to the vanilla profile. 1.44 only the traffic mod I use broke, so disabling just that until an update worked fine.

[Emaulligu]

My main truck in ATS used to be a mod until 1.39, because the modder decided to stop working on public mods and leave all his mods die with 1.39 instead of porting them to 1.40.
So I had a truck I loved very much, for which I had done custom skins, that was permanently left out of the game. After that I decided to stick to vanilla.

Mods can make your game lag if they're not well optimized, they can make your game crash every now and then, conflict with each other and eventually corrupt your save.
They'll also get abandonned if a modder retires, meaning your whole truck build becomes void and unless some kind soul tries to take back the mod by himself, you have to find another mod to your liking.
Mods also take weeks if not more to catch up on game updates, because modders are real humans with a personal life, which is perfectly understandable, so in the meantime either you're stuck an the older game version, or you play your secondary profile which is vanilla and "lacks" all the features you expect to find in your ultra-modded profile.

I've been playing vanilla for over a year, over the assumption that you can't miss what you didn't have in the first place. I don't want to deal with all of this, the crashes, waiting for modders to update, and the permanent fear that if a mod isn't super-mainstream it will eventually get dropped and lost forever so you'll need to go on without it, and too bad if it was an important part of your profile.

There's so many mods made available for everything and anything, and people tend to be very irresponsible with them sometimes, modding their game over the brim until it crashes and then come on the forums asking why they've got 400 errors in their crash log.
Lots of people will tell you vanilla game sucks because X mod does it better or Y mod is definitely higher quality, but you have to put up with everything I mentioned above.

I'm playing vanilla and you know what ? I love it. It's being completely overlooked because there's a mod for this and a mod for that and big shiny stuff popping from everywhere, but the base game is extremely solid. No bugs, no crashes, and the serenity of knowing that you only run on official content, which will always be kept up to date, day one, and all the bugs fixed, not because people do it on their free time if they feel like it, but because you're actually paying the developpers for it, and it's their job.
We have the Tuning Pack DLCs, we have some paintjob packs as well, and I feel perfectly happy with what I have right there, I don't feel the need to add anything via mods whatsoever.

[Krap-E-Player]

Cheers guys, you make great points.

[Emaulligu]

SCS has a dedicated forum place for sharing mods as well as Steam workshop integration, so they're definitely not against mods or trying to discourage them.
SCS is bound by legal agreements and buying licenses from the official manufacturers as well as production time, so they cannot do everything they'd like.
They're buying the truck licenses from the brands, and each accessory they produce has to be validated first as well.
They can't decide tomorrow to build the Scania 143 and put it into the game without asking anyone. They would have to ask Scania, which would probably tell them no because right now all brands are more proccupied by their future and modern trucks, while players are usually old truckers who dream about old-school trucks, but even admitting Scania said yes, SCS would need to drop a big bag of money to purchase the right for it, then Scania would have to supervise the project and tell them exactly what they can or can't add before releasing it, the whole thing of course conforming to SCS production standards.
Modders can just grab the truck specs online, build it in Blender and post it for free, if they wanna make mudflaps with strippers on it they can, they can add as many accessories as they want, and if the truck looks ugly and has 50% chance to crash your game on startup, so be it.

Okay I'm being harsh here, there's a ton of great mods with excellent production quality as well, not just broken amateur projects.
But it's true modders have a freedom SCS doesn't, either because they can't get the rights for it, or either don't have the time/money to invest into said project right now.
The one thing SCS does, however, is decline all responsibility for bugs, crashes and save corruptions happening on modded profiles.
Maybe I'm just bitter. There's a ton of great mods done by dedicated people who know what they're doing and that can enrich your game experience with new truck/trailer models, customisation and more.
I just like not having to bother about all this, especially now that I've finally got my Renault done right with the DLC, but I feel like a minority, sticking to vanilla when there's so many good things out there, for free.

Whatever you do, please learn to mod responsibly, and keep yourself a vanilla profile, as Veles said. There's already too many people cluttering the Steam forums asking why their game is suddenly crashing after they did this or that.

[luZk]

If you want ZERO problems ignore mods. 95% of the people comming to these forums complaining about something not working is due to mod problems.

[hackintoshchap]

Mods can be real problematic for occasional players who do not follow closely when game updates are expected or which mods may become a problem for a game save.

If you fall into a more casual mod user, don't use map mods and do not give any modded parts, vehicles or trailers (accessories included) to any AI driver.

Use mods sparingly if new to mods and learn how to manage them - it your own responsibility to keep your own profile(s) working as soon as you add any mod.

Mods can be fun, just play as you like and enjoy the game.

[Krap-E-Player]

In case of doubt, I mean using mods from a puritanical adherence to the original game. Obviously the use of mods is condoned by the developers given that mod support is ironed into the base fibres of the game.

[daniel.nole]

Not to use, The game is already very good as original, and with each update better with reworked maps like Austria(or California by ATS), or available repaint sets, tunning packs, etc.
Also is very nice to have all original and working perfect. From the first day with the ETS 2 I have never give me a game crash.

[Krap-E-Player]

Originally posted by daniel.nole:

Not to use, The game is already very good as original, and with each update better with reworked maps like Austria(or California by ATS), or available repaint sets, tunning packs, etc.
Also is very nice to have all original and working perfect. From the first day with the ETS 2 I have never give me a game crash.

True, its a very solid piece of programming. I've never had a crash either out of the original game, touch wood!

[DANEDANGER]

What i do is, main wot connected profile = no mods
Non connected wot profiles i use mods on. That way you have both the fun of mods and are still able to participate in events without risking the profile needed to do those event runs

[MagnusA]

I have also two single-player profiless, one with mods and one without. So far only map mods like ProMods and similar.

[MirkoC407]

I have one "story profile" because I write game fiction around ETS2 and ATS. It is modded and uses Promods, real company mods, weather/season mods, icon replacement, real economy, AI traffic vehicle mods, and in the past did use some quality mod trucks like Ohaha Volvo or MADster TGX either but with more and more newer trucks available this is now less.

And then there is the WoT & Steam challenge profile. It is not exactly mod free. I will use some eye candy like AI cars, seasons and real companies there as well. And I have also used mod trucks there. Especially some older stuff and really enjoyed driving Volvo F12 or Renault Major. But I will never use any map mod on this profile and in general no mods that cannot be easy eliminiated. Except trucks they can all be removed without damage and the trucks I drove for some evenings and then sold them again. Thanks to employed drivers needed for some steam challenges I'm drowning in money anyways.