Fallout 4 - no awkcr modlist worth it?

[Ghost]

Where did everything go wrong?

I have played A LOT of fallout 4, for a long time, I love the gameplay loop, and I love modding bethesda games, the thing I hated most about fallout 4 were the guns, the assault rifle is a weapon only a mother maybe could love, and in the beginning, in my quest to improve fallout 4 I installed weaponsmith extended, and it was a pain, using archive invalidator and such, but I had a very good set of instructions and it wasn't that much more complicated than playing with Legos, then I moved to the vanilla guns replacers, I used modern firearms for a while, and I even installed separate mods and used fallout 4 edit to change the stats and make them use the correct ammo and such.

So now I start hearing everywhere about how awkcr is the devils work and it's so bloated it makes yo momma look like a bulimic and it slows the game down and it makes it crash and it's literally the scourge of modding and if you use it your literally a dinosaur and how many times do I have to teach you this lesson old man get with the times

so I'm like ok, I'll check some of this new age stuff, like replacing vis-g with complex item sorter or "simple" item sorter,



wtf... there was a guide on how to install complex item sorter on 4estgimps complex item sorter enhancements mod and it was pages upon pages over PAGES of instructions and like run scripts and like "

Create a new tool(Vortex)/executable(Mod Organizer 2) pointing to the "Complex Sorter.bat" in the mod.

Set the "Start in" directory in the target/executable to your FO4Edit folder (where fo4edit.exe is)

Note: If you installed CS in FO4Edit before and have own user rules, you need to copy those once into your mod manager."

WTF is this, no instructions no where no video no where nothing,

I opened a video on "simple" item sorter and it was like a command prompt and it was like just learn to code bro what's the big deal



now I can probably figure this out, I found a discord on modding that seams pretty nice, I can do trial and error I can rub 2 braincells together and use google but my question is... is it actually worth all the hassle just to not use AWKCR and AE? is AWKCR really that bad, is AE really that outdated?

reposted from reddit since I'm trying to get some more feedback

[Ghost]

Originally posted by SkunkPlaysGames:

The short answer is that #1, yes its bloated to all hell and #2, I can't for the life of me think of a single mod I use that uses AWKCR instead of just modifying the game files directly like a typical mod. The whole design philosophy of AWKCR seems to be based on the needs of the modding community in prior Bethesda games and is significantly less of an issue with Fallout 4 (but were essentially required for games like Oblivion.)

Typically, I use AWKCR and Armorsmith Extended despite them being bloated monstrosities but I make all sorts of changes to the mods in FO4Edit for compatibility and to suit my individual needs. For example, I created a mod which removes water breathing from the perk tree and instead makes a rebreather a craftable add-on to things like the marine helmet and the hazmat suit. This needs to be fixed in FO4Edit or else the changes from AWKCR get overwritten.

In general, as a game design philosophy, I greatly dislike bloated mods. It is far preferable from a design perspective that you make small and specific mods that users can install on a modular basis. Bloated mods are hard for the user to customize, prone to bugs that become harder to isolate and repair, fail to harmonize with other mods, and typically include many elements that the user is not particularly interested in. Why does AWKCR contain salt, sugar, yeast and spices? I thought it was an armor keyword community resource not a Fallout baking recipe resource.

The simple solution for the modders out there is to learn the ins and outs of FO4Edit and learn to fix ♥♥♥♥♥♥ or trim bloated mods. With AWKCR I deleted all the placed decals and made all the decal perks hidden and add them through a bat at the beginning of the game. I also deleted some superfluous NPC edits and things of that nature. I still think its a useful mod. It just tries to do way too many things that are beyond its purview. It is an abomination don't get me wrong. But its an abomination with its heart in more or less the right place.

while this is a good explanation the answer you are giving feels a lot like you are directing me to become a modder, and yes, playing around in fallout 4 edit isn't exactly the same as creating mods but it does ask a lot of effort, you not only need a lot of knowledge on fallout 4 edit but you also need to know the mods you are changing basically inside out, while I'm not adverse to say bashing my head for a day straight until I get complex item sorter to work I don't wan't to have to open each individual mod in fallout 4 edit and play with it's guts until i'm satisfied

I basically decided I'm going to do the thing again where I add guns to the game and them modify them because mod authors are for some reason allergic to putting reasonable prices on the guns they add and completely destroying any in-game economy <see modern firearms for a particularly egregious example > and that's gonna take me a few good hour to tune the guns < damage, price, weight,ammo type >, I don't want to have to dissect any more mods than needed

[arti_llery]

There is another mod that works like you want, let's you adjust guns individually. Trying to remember the name atm. Will pop back with it when I get home. Unfortunately it does nothing for prices, just let's you customize the weapons a bit more with settings to allow legendary mods, also.

Equipment and Crafting Overhaul - ECO
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/55503

[Ghost]

Originally posted by arti_llery:

There is another mod that works like you want, let's you adjust guns individually. Trying to remember the name atm. Will pop back with it when I get home. Unfortunately it does nothing for prices, just let's you customize the weapons a bit more with settings to allow legendary mods, also.

Equipment and Crafting Overhaul - ECO
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/55503

I see ECO being recommended everywhere as a modern alternative to AE and fair enough if its good, but the cornerstone, IMO, of modding for fallout 4 is a sorting mod, because now more than ever, the inventory is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mess, especially the Aid and Misc sections

I practically cannot live without VIS-G because if I don't have it then I have to spend 5 minutes scrolling through the Aid section where I can only see 5 items at a time on my screen just to find that raw dethclaw piece of meat to toss it in the stash because it's heavier than a nuclear bomb and I have to crawl on all 4 in survival mode if I keep it in my inventory

VIS-G sorts everything neatly and as a bonus there are TONS of patches for most if not all mods for it, see losts vis g awkcr patches, but as the name implies it needs AWCKR and most replacements for it are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nightmare to install and not as well supported

[tulle040657]

I've never had any problems with AWKCR or AE. Other people seem to though

[arti_llery]

Haven't had issues with ECO yet, but I also use backpacks of the commonwealth and a mod that allows you to actually put something inside said bag. I wish it reduced weight instead of eliminating it, but I mainly toss things into it when I need to get somewhere faster. Otherwise I suck it up or start piling things into my companion.
Part of what keeps me from installing some mods is the need for 20 other mods(some presets for looksmenu are like this). If I find a mod I like, I'll find compatible things for it.
Have yet to personally use the sorting mods, even as a massive packrat. Sometimes it's just leaving behind all the armor(i know, lol) or weapons, or just grabbing stuff worth enough caps to counter the weight.

[arti_llery]

Originally posted by tulle040657:

I've never had any problems with AWKCR or AE. Other people seem to though

Neither have I, but recently I was looking for some newer mods and found ECO. A lot of it depends on the types of mods you use and how far you mod the game.

My current setup still hasn't added back in the sim settlements stuff while I work on making sure everything is playing nice.