Can I Use Mods For Games On Steam?

[craigplaysall]

Games like Skyrim and Witcher 3 have tons and tons of Mods created by other people. Not official DLC's made by the developer. Can I download and install any of those Mods if I purchase a game like Skyrim on Steam, since all of the game files will still be online inside of Steam? Or do I need to purchase a hard copy (physical copy) of the game so the game files will be on my PC?

[Wolf Knight]

you can download and use mods in those games, they even have their own workshop on steam full of user created mods.

[✨Saint✨]

Yes, you can use all those mods for free when you buy your gams(s) on Steam.

DLC and mods are two different things. DLC are usually paid, while mods are free, with some rare exceptions where they made a whole new game based on that specific mod.

[Zekiran]

A game bought in a store still requires the use of Steam (or some other company, but in this case steam) to download it in its fully playable and current format. So it won't matter if you even HAD a disk at some point...

But yes, the Nexusmods site has hundreds of thousands of mods for those specific games, and they work just fine.

DLC are different, but SOME DLC IS REQUIRED for some mods to work correctly, the mods on nexus will tell you which might be required.

[ReBoot]

Steam ain't a game streaming service, you're confusing it with xCloud or GeForce Now.
Steam DOWNLOADS the games for you to play them locally, on your own machine. Meaning all the game files are stored locally, on your machine.

[Solaire]

Modding is allowed on any game and on any platform so there is really no reason to ask this question.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Objective7:

Modding is allowed on any game and on any platform so there is really no reason to ask this question.

No, no it is really not 'allowed on any game anywhere'.

In fact many games *absolutely will not* allow it.

The games that the OP lists - witcher, skyrim - definitely DO allow for modding. But two games hardly qualify as 'any game, any platform'. Most games that have modding don't even get that feature on any consoles, so... not sure what planet you're playing games on but it definitely isn't this one.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Objective7:

Modding is allowed on any game and on any platform so there is really no reason to ask this question.

CoD series yield a cheater's ban for modding. Just sayin'...

[miku]

no men, don‘t do. ez vacban

[[☭]-Soviet-Triumph-]

Originally posted by 39sdev:

no men, don‘t do. ez vacban

mods =/= cheats
+ not all games utilize VAC.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by 39sdev:

no men, don‘t do. ez vacban

Not how that works at all. Grow up.

Also ironic coming from someone with a VAC ban.

[captainwiseass]

Valve does not care whether you use mods or not. If mods are available for the game, go for it. Just follow the instructions and maybe read around the modding community on Nexus for whatever game you're modding so you don't accidentally break something.

[WhiteKnight]

Yes. Some games on steam have Steam Workshop. Some have inbuilt mod manager, some you have to find in other places such has moddb, nexusmods, mod.io & other places.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by alexanderbouraad:

Games like Skyrim and Witcher 3 have tons and tons of Mods created by other people. Not official DLC's made by the developer. Can I download and install any of those Mods if I purchase a game like Skyrim on Steam, since all of the game files will still be online inside of Steam? Or do I need to purchase a hard copy (physical copy) of the game so the game files will be on my PC?

Like someone else pointed out, Steam is not a game streaming service. The game files will be downloaded onto your computer, and you will always be able to edit your local copy of the game to your liking, even if you need to do it manually.

Do note that Steam also likes to force updates, so if you've modded your game, you may want to set the game to not update until you launch it, then use any of various methods to prevent Steam from downloading the update and/or back up your modded game. (I can elaborate on this if you want.)

Also, be careful when modding multiplayer games, particularly those secured with anti-cheat protections.