Oblivion

NMM2 - Update and recruitment

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Back in October Dark0ne announced the recruitment of Tannin and the subsequent development of a new Nexus Mod Manager. Since then, we've been working extremely hard and while things might seem a bit quiet on our end, I assure you, we're moving at a great pace! I apologise for the lack of updates but, in between the site redesign and the new mod manager things have just been rather busy here at Nexus Mods HQ.

Today I would like to give an update on the status of the project and also to reach out to our community for possible assistance, but more on that a bit further on.

The new mod manager (name still yet to be decided!) has been in development since the beginning of August 2016. The initial process saw us spend extensive time researching which platform we should use to develop the application on. After a lot of deliberation, we have decided upon Electron. Electron made sense due to its cross-compatibility with Windows, Linux and MacOS; the 'themeability' of the platform and because it is open-source and widely known. Its usage of Chromium and Node.js allow the utilisation of HTML, CSS and Javascript to write the application, and this will then give us the ability to use additional frameworks such as React and Bootstrap. That may all sound a bit gobbledygook if you don't speak 'developer', but to provide a TL:DR - it's easy for us to develop on and ticked all of our requirements far more than other potential platforms.

Around mid-September, we began coding, and by mid-October, we had a very early, pre-alpha "internal release." This was a quick proof of concept to answer some questions that we had - will this platform provide us with the power to create an amazing mod manager? Will it be able to be expanded upon by the community? Will we be able to add new games into the mod manager quickly? Well, the answer to all of these is a resounding "yes".

At the end of November, we began to add in game specific features such as plugin management for Gamebryo games and LOOT integration. DuskDweller shifted his work full-time to the new manager after working mainly on the legacy NMM up to that point.

Over the past couple of months, Tannin and his team have released some early versions for the rest of us here at Nexus Mods to try out and while it is beginning to function nicely, it is still unstyled and sparse of content - looking more “Hello World!” than powerful mod manager.

Up until now, the look, style and general user experience hasn't been our primary concern. Not because it isn't important, but because extensive time and effort has gone into the underlying logic of the mod manager rather than the user interface or user experience. It's now time to bring that underlying logic all together into what we hope will be an extremely newcomer friendly UI and intuitive user experience for initial and beginner users, while also providing extensible advanced functionality for the more hardcore modders out there. A piece of software that caters to newcomers and experts alike.

This is where you all come in.

Like we did for the website, we would like to recruit from within our community a UX/UI designer. This person will assist the team in making the software not only function incredibly, but be a pleasure to use, intuitive, and great to look at. Below you will find the position we would like to fill and the requirements needed to fill it.

Details on how to apply are below.

UX/UI Designer required
We are now after an experienced, passionate and driven User Experience / User Interface Designer (UX/UI) to work with our Nexus Mod Manager team on a paid freelance basis (to be negotiated), helping them to create an intuitive and robust system that will provide our users with not only incredible functionality but also be simple to navigate and instinctive to use. This particular role will require the applicant to have an understanding of design principles, user personas and of course, the various current mod tools that are available to users.

Responsibilities:
  • Work with our team to create the UI for our new 'Mod Manager' from wireframe to implementation.
  • Provide visuals such as concepts and journey flows.
  • Provide advice and ideas to enhance the User Experience.
  • Provide own ideas while also adhering to team requirements.
  • Produce HTML and CSS for primary interface and additional themes.
  • The creation of a Nexus Mods UI style guide.

Requirements:
  • A team player with a sense of humour
  • Previous professional experience within a UI/UX position.
  • A thorough understanding of how a user interface is essential to a smooth user experience.
  • Excellent knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript - including experience with either SASS or LESS.
  • Be an expert of known design packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or Sketch and prototyping tools such as Balsamiq, Marvel or Invisionapp.
  • Excellent organisational skills.
  • Strong communication skills both verbally and written (English).

Preferred:
  • Experience with React
  • Experience with Bootstrap
  • Lives in Europe, east coast US or similar time zone.

To Apply:
In order to apply, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject of "UX/UI Designer Application" detailing why you would be suitable for the role, attached to this email we would also like:
  • Your up to date CV / Resume 
  • A quick wireframe, sketch or mockup example of your vision for the 'Mod Page' in the mod manager. The "Mod page" is the page that displays all the mods the user currently has installed or downloaded (the mods tab in NMM). 

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  1. DoctorKaizeld
    DoctorKaizeld
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    two things here...
    first, i know there is/was an opening for an interface guy. but what about a graphic designer/artist? i can send a BOW to demonstrate my abilities if need be (even though i know theres much better artists than me on here )
    second, the name? why not "Chugen" (scifi reference, many applause if you actually know it...)? it means "in-between" in japanese and to me it seems fitting for what the new nmm is meant to be. or alternatively, "Locus" (a central or main place where something happens or is found).

    Locus was suggested already.

    Use the Contact Us form at the bottom of the page to talk to Dark0ne about job stuff. You'll get a response but i doubt they are lookin for an artist... But hey break a hand anyways.
  2. argentrolf
    argentrolf
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    two things here...
    first, i know there is/was an opening for an interface guy. but what about a graphic designer/artist? i can send a BOW to demonstrate my abilities if need be (even though i know theres much better artists than me on here )
    second, the name? why not "Chugen" (scifi reference, many applause if you actually know it...)? it means "in-between" in japanese and to me it seems fitting for what the new nmm is meant to be. or alternatively, "Locus" (a central or main place where something happens or is found).
  3. FilthyCasual523
    FilthyCasual523
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    As long as it has the virtual folders and profile system from Mod Organizer, I'm all for this!
  4. DFiNo
    DFiNo
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    Yes, definitely some old folks in the house...73 here and I bet there are some older than me.
  5. monsto
    monsto
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    At 67 yrs old, I'm finding this mod stuff very interesting. To put it into perspective, when I was maybe 8 yrs old my parents bought me what at the time was a very advanced, new piece of technology. It was called a transistor radio and was about the size of a pack of cigarettes. The darn thing never did work very good, but it was new technology man, times were changing. I ended up being a carpenter for work, but kept looking for new things to be developed. My son and daughter were born at the right time, by the late 80's and early 90's they kind of got to grow up with early computers. It wasn't until 2005 or so that my second wife and I bought a computer. The dates may be screwed up, but Win 98SE was my first OS. I learned how to make most every mistake in the book, and through lots of errors, finally correct most of them. In early 2010 my second wife died, I was lost but a friend introduced me to TigerDirect and I  discovered computer kits. In need of something to occupy my mind I bought a cheap kit and spent a month figuring out what the parts do. More mistakes made, more mistakes solved. Then I discovered Darksiders 2 and was hooked on open world. I don't like C.O.D. just killing things and people was and is much too boring. A friend told me about Fallout, I started doing research and found my first rig very inadequate for a new release coming out in late 2015 called Fallout 4. By this time I was on Amazon and others like Newegg. I did research and bought new parts, and by release day I had something that could maintain 60 FPS pretty consistently. With close to 1100 hrs. into the game and 4 complete playthroughs, I was getting bored again. Another friend said have you ever thought of game modifications? Hot damn off to the races. I looked at Bethesda and what they had, then stumbled onto The Nexus. With virtually no experience and zero talent for coding, I started studying your Nexus Mod Manager, at first it was as intimidating as hell, but by reading posts night after night I got confident enough to download the thing. I liked the parts used to build more than the limited stuff FO4 could do. I have lots of trouble sometimes understanding how load orders work, but between NMM, LOOT, and Wrye Bash, I'm finally finding out how to make Mods play nice together. It's a work in progress, but none of this newest stuff would be possible, without the to me, incomprehensible hard work you guys do. I became a paid member because it's one of the few things I can do monetarily to help support the fantastic work you guys are doing. Once I get a stable setup I'll be using more of the endorse button. This is way longer than intended, but I want to close letting you know I eagerly look forward to this new Manager you guys are developing. I also just remembered why I started this post in the first place, this is a bit dorky but my suggestion for a name for this new manager is, Evolve Mod Organizer or EMO for short. All of you guys work, from the interface, to the mods themselves, means that these games are Evolving, becoming more than they were. please keep up the great work. Out.


     
    Excellent post. 
     
    Old folks in the house! You've got me by 15 years, but still.
  6. instyne49
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    At 67 yrs old, I'm finding this mod stuff very interesting. To put it into perspective, when I was maybe 8 yrs old my parents bought me what at the time was a very advanced, new piece of technology. It was called a transistor radio and was about the size of a pack of cigarettes. The darn thing never did work very good, but it was new technology man, times were changing. I ended up being a carpenter for work, but kept looking for new things to be developed. My son and daughter were born at the right time, by the late 80's and early 90's they kind of got to grow up with early computers. It wasn't until 2005 or so that my second wife and I bought a computer. The dates may be screwed up, but Win 98SE was my first OS. I learned how to make most every mistake in the book, and through lots of errors, finally correct most of them. In early 2010 my second wife died, I was lost but a friend introduced me to TigerDirect and I  discovered computer kits. In need of something to occupy my mind I bought a cheap kit and spent a month figuring out what the parts do. More mistakes made, more mistakes solved. Then I discovered Darksiders 2 and was hooked on open world. I don't like C.O.D. just killing things and people was and is much too boring. A friend told me about Fallout, I started doing research and found my first rig very inadequate for a new release coming out in late 2015 called Fallout 4. By this time I was on Amazon and others like Newegg. I did research and bought new parts, and by release day I had something that could maintain 60 FPS pretty consistently. With close to 1100 hrs. into the game and 4 complete playthroughs, I was getting bored again. Another friend said have you ever thought of game modifications? Hot damn off to the races. I looked at Bethesda and what they had, then stumbled onto The Nexus. With virtually no experience and zero talent for coding, I started studying your Nexus Mod Manager, at first it was as intimidating as hell, but by reading posts night after night I got confident enough to download the thing. I liked the parts used to build more than the limited stuff FO4 could do. I have lots of trouble sometimes understanding how load orders work, but between NMM, LOOT, and Wrye Bash, I'm finally finding out how to make Mods play nice together. It's a work in progress, but none of this newest stuff would be possible, without the to me, incomprehensible hard work you guys do. I became a paid member because it's one of the few things I can do monetarily to help support the fantastic work you guys are doing. Once I get a stable setup I'll be using more of the endorse button. This is way longer than intended, but I want to close letting you know I eagerly look forward to this new Manager you guys are developing. I also just remembered why I started this post in the first place, this is a bit dorky but my suggestion for a name for this new manager is, Evolve Mod Organizer or EMO for short. All of you guys work, from the interface, to the mods themselves, means that these games are Evolving, becoming more than they were. please keep up the great work. Out.
  7. Target1213
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    To Whom it may concern: I am officially applying to the position of BETA TESTER. I will be more than happy to suffer lost files, compromised save files and the obvious other possibilities when putting together new software like a Mod manager/organizer. PUT ME IN COACH! Gimee, gimee, gimee...(cough) please pass the manager this way. I am very professional and deserving, Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
  8. Frejoh46
    Frejoh46
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    So when should I expect NMM2 to more or less reach the level of the current MO? Like, in super vague terms. I know asking for an ETA this early is kinda ridiculous, all I want to know is if it's gonna take years. I want to revisit skyrim and check out all the new mods and such, but it doesn't really matter WHEN I do it, so I'd rather wait if possible. 


     
    I think I heard they said some were in 2017. And I assume it's a early beta, not sure if open or closed tho.
  9. easykiln
    easykiln
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    So when should I expect NMM2 to more or less reach the level of the current MO? Like, in super vague terms. I know asking for an ETA this early is kinda ridiculous, all I want to know is if it's gonna take years. I want to revisit skyrim and check out all the new mods and such, but it doesn't really matter WHEN I do it, so I'd rather wait if possible. 
  10. KeltecRFB
    KeltecRFB
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    Any chance the mod community will soon see what Tannin and Team have been working on? At least beta test the product?

    Thank you!