Nexus or Steam Workshop?

[Nox Tenebris]

Not posting this in "modding" cuz it is a general question and not about specific mods (and that chat is pretty dead). Which do you guys use? From a quick glance, Steam Workshop seems to be more active and I've found some mods really out of date on Nexus but up to date on the Workshop. However, I'm used to modding through the Nexus and it's weird to think that the Steam Workshop is the go to over Nexus. Thoughts?

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

steam is much easier to deal with.
while Nexus can be a pain.
even my mods on nexus are not updated because i don't want to deal with them atm.

[Pyrrhus]

I haven't visited Nexus for a long time since they restricted visitors to log in or sign up before they could be able to access their website or mod download pages. Plus their website refused to cooperate with variety of ad blocking extensions, meaning they're data sniffers. I've read complains and warnings on unsafe scripts coming from their site to visitors, making it much less confident for me to sign up with their site. Most of young gamers are their targets as prey cuz they don't know enough about security and privacy given for Nexus to take advantages. Steam workshop is safer and easier.

[Zee_]

For Kenshi I use both. Nexus has a few mods that aren't on the workshop and vice-versa.

Alot of the Nexus mods for Kenshi are old and outdated because Kenshi has a simple mod loader built in, which makes the workshop more convenient, generally speaking.

Originally posted by Pyrrhus:

I haven't visited Nexus for a long time since they restricted visitors to log in or sign up before they could be able to access their website or mod download pages. Plus their website refused to cooperate with variety of ad blocking extensions, meaning they're data sniffers. I've read complains and warnings on unsafe scripts coming from their site to visitors, making it much less confident for me to sign up with their site. Most of young gamers are their targets as prey cuz they don't know enough about security and privacy given for Nexus to take advantages. Steam workshop is safer and easier.

That's odd. I run an ad blocker and script blocker and have been using the Nexus site just fine for well over a decade, the only script I ever allow through (and that's temporarily) is nexusmods.com, none of the extra scripts are needed. Well... there is one other that's needed when logging in (recapcha.net for the capcha images) and one script that's needed to do a couple minor things on the site like search your download history, but I never bother with that (as if it's hard to remember what mods I've installed) so I don't allow it. Not saying that you or others didn't have any problems, but I myself have never had any issues nor heard of it being a rampant problem. Then again there was a time when I went a couple years without using the Nexus sites, perhaps this was at that time, if so the issues with ad blockers and whatnot must have been fixed since. Perhaps it was when firefox and other browsers were making the transition to 64bit clients, as that screwed a lot of the extensions up for months, I stopped doing much online business during that period.

As for safety and security. In the history of the Nexus website there have been 2 virus issues I can recall (perhaps 3), they were very upfront about the problems (they pushed a MUST VIEW story about it on the site when it happened) and they were dealt with quickly, there were new measures put into place to try and prevent it from happening again in the future, and the problems had to do with modders who had contracted viruses elsewhere and had their accounts hacked because of it.

There have also been a few times where viruses got pushed to people through the Steam Workshop, those issues were dealt with as well but who knows what Valve did to prevent it from happening in the future, Valve is always clear as mud when it comes to user security. Really that's the only major complaint I've always had about Steam, and why I stayed the heck away from it for the first few years of its existence (finally breaking and installing the client after I bought the Orange Box). I'm rather paranoid when it comes to cyber security which is why Valve's silence about, and in general ignoring certain massive holes in the Steam client (until groups start taking advantage of them, then Valve will get around to plug those holes up a few months later) bug the hell out of me.

There is no website or service that is perfectly safe and secure. (this line isn't aimed at anyone, just a general statement of fact)

[morph113]

I use mostly the steam workshop plus nexus mods for a few graphic and shader mods that aren't available on Steam workshop, like adding SSAO to the game. The game looks just so much better with these.

[GIJoe597]

The biggest issue with Steam Workshop mods is the fact they do not work without a net connection. I understand you can jump through hoops to force them to work, but it is not an issue I have to go through with Vortex.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

The biggest issue with Steam Workshop mods is the fact they do not work without a net connection. I understand you can jump through hoops to force them to work, but it is not an issue I have to go through with Vortex.

It's not a big issue to copy mods over to Kenshi's root mod directory. Well, unless you're using a ton of mods. Even if you are, they're not going to update very often.

There are some scripts in the Kenshi forums that will do it for you. I got what I assume are "false hits" via several anti-virus tools when I looked at those, so haven't used them. :) Some other games have mods, where the game allows scripting/actions from mods, that will re-create the Workshop mod installs in the game's native mod directory. Rimworld, for instance, has Fluffy's most definitely awesome "Mod Manager" that does it with one click and tracks required mods for saved game files, allows custom mod lists, etc.. I mention it because it's just about as detailed and useful as anyone could possibly expect for any third-party modder to create.

I play most PC games offline, so I'm used to using native mod support vs Steam's "always on" Workshop mod garbage. They could change that, ya know... But, they won't. Because "community engagement encourages purchases." :/ (My quote, not Gabe's. :))

I use Nexusmods for some other games, Moddb for others, dedicate sites for some, etc.. Nexusmods isn't too bad even if they require a signup. I wouldn't use their installer, though. /shiver That would just be insane.

PS: Here's what sucks... Modder cliches, dedicated mod websites, even mod tools and special features often end up "competing" with each other. As if gamers needed that? Mod creators sometimes push their "streaming channels" and try to figure out ways to force signups, lock mods behind signup/other mechanisms, etc... I don't mind someone putting in a link if people want to donate. But... there's a point past which a modder's actions in that regard turn into something that's just plain "wrong."