This position will entail approximately 10-15 hours of work a week on a freelance paid contract basis (to be negotiated), you will be working closely with the Nexus Mod Manager v2 development team via our team Slack.
Details on how to apply are below.
UX/UI Designer
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.
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] 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 (no more than a couple of hours) 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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A moderator has closed this comment topic for the time beingPerhaps. If, and only if, you restrict your modded gaming to the (very small number of) specific BethSoft games MO supports.
I would very much like to see that type of interface work for NMM too. I do not see why the better parts of MO idea wise could not be integrated into NMM. After all the modders win no matter the preference and making modding easier seems to be a good goal all around no matter the preference.
You would have the more complete list of games that NMM covers with the excellent hide feature of MO.
I just don't get why you had a great mod installation and maintenance program like NMM (at least for experienced modders who understood how to use it) and then felt you had to throw the whole thing out and leave everyone using it out to dry. Personally if it was too hard for someone to use, then go use something else. A lot of us really liked NMM as it was, and don't think reinventing the wheel is necessary.
However broad or narrow your modding needs, chose the tool(s) best suited to them. (And isn't it nice to have choices?)
You mean logic like...
From the main page of Nexus "Hosting 224,901 files for 428 games from 68,900 authors serving 12,594,473 members with 1,909,722,284 downloads to date"
And also details:
Skyrim (51,638 files, 1,117,080,000 downloads)
Oblivion (28,229 files, 155,990,000 downloads)
Fallout NV (17,857 files, 171,780,000 downloads)
Fallout 3 (14,354 files, 106,280,000 downloads)
[and not including people who potentially have put the effort in to getting MO working with FO4 or Skyrim SE which could add another 23,651 files and 235,570,000, but I'll give the sceptics that]
Total for the "very small number of" documented working Bethesda titles
Files: 112,078
Downloads: 1,551,130,000
That's near 50% of the total files available being just for those 4 titles and over 80% of the site downloads.
And that's not including using MO for FO4 or SSE, which is doable, but would push the files % represented by the Bethesda titles to (135,729 of 224,901) 60% and site downloads to (1,786,700,000 of 1,909,722,284) 94%.
The base 4 Bethesda games have an average downloads-per-file value of 13,840 downloads per file.
The entire remaining games listed (112,823 files and 358,592,284) 3,178 downloads per file.
Now by all means I think if people want to slug it out over which is 'better', qualify it by demonstrating happy users, whatever, etc - go for it.
But quantatively speaking, it is really incredibly difficult to argue that the "very small number of" Bethesda games usable with MO somehow reduces its relevance.
An argument could be made that Tannin42 could have integrated additional game support into MO, but that didn't happen - whilst the small number of games supported might not reflect a large portion of the games represented on Nexus it far and away satisfies most of the _files_ on Nexus and by extension of _downloads_ most users modding activity.
I'd *love* to know if there were usable stats on active MO or NMM users - that would be something interesting.
But perhaps until we actually start seeing beta UI, if/when that happens, we should stop comparing apples (NMM) and oranges (MO) to a the common fruit from venus (NMM 2, ie: an unknown quantity).
especially the tangled crashy un-fixable ruined mess of files you get once mods start overwriting files and you want to uninstall something who's files have already been overwritten. Its pretty simple to see the message that files are being overwritten with the little lightningbolt, and to see priority numbers and realize you can click and drag them up and down as you wish. That feature is amazing and i would never mod without it.
I stick by my opinion that MO is far more user friendly than NMM and ive seen it firsthand how quickly someone can catch on to MO. Installation order is just one more thing that can be severely screwed up, and always WILL be screwed up by new mod users, which doesn't matter with MO.
One problem I have with Mod Organizer is how it manages mods. I tried to use it, but almost always lost track of my mods and which files are which. I also couldn't get the Creation Kit to work properly with Papyrus (which I need). I also don't like my mods in their own little folders. It makes things a pain to manage in my mind.
I tried using Mod Organizer with Oblivion and none of my mods actually worked. They didn't appear in-game and most mods made for Oblivion are built only for Oblivion Mod Manager (yes I'm pretty sure I ran it through Mod Organizer).
The last issue is the people that use it. The Skyrim Mods subreddit really pulled me from the tool after seeing how many people who take the time to make posts because they needed help with Nexus Mod Manager, but anyone who posted said "f*ck nmm use mo it works for everything". The people that use it (the vocal minority at least) seem to worship the damn thing. It's just a modding tool, not your spouse.
You also have a very isolated enviroment. Want to run DynDOLOD? Do this, hit this check, click this button, run TexGen, click this, do this, etcetera.
Yeah, sorry about this post. I felt like some input was needed.
BTW i never actually used wrye bash to install mods because its interface is like windows 95 and i couldn't figure out how to do anything at all in that program, other than do a bashed patch and run some save file fixes. How is it actually as full featured as MO and how does it do it without seperating the mods into seperate folders?? That seems to be the entire thing, because its impossible to keep track of the history of file overwrites without using insanely ridic amounts of HD space and file transfer times. Also MO has a plethora of mod sorting and categorizing features, you just have to make use of them.
First, yes, I agree that having to remember overwrites if you want the same level of control in NMM is more arcane than wrapping your head around adjusting installation order in post. It's just that NMM doesn't tell you that, and lets load order determine how your bsa files interact with each other, and loose files overwrite those, which is *usually* sufficient. That's how Skyrim was designed to work, so NMM working that way doesn't have as many problems as you would think.
Second, I do think Mod Organizer's methods are going to be how managers tend to work going into the future. And while Oblivion does tend to interact with OBMM a bit better, MO is perfectly usable for it. You just aren't likely to get support because OBMM has ingrained itself so thoroughly in that community. To them, it doesn't matter which manager is best. Everyone is using OBMM, so why bother supporting anything else?
It can be a bit weird having all your mods in their own folders if you're used to having everything in one place, but you just have to realize that MO is designed so that you never have to look at the actual file structure. MO knows, in advance, what your data folder is going to look like, which is what the data tab is for.
As for the people who use it, I can definitely see your point there. A lot of people are really obnoxious about it. Just don't let the community decide the feature set of your mod manager.
Isolated environment? DynDOLOD installs? I don't see what you mean by that. DynDOLOD's install procedure is basically the same in MO. You just run the exe files through MO instead of through Windows... like everything else.
Oh, and second that question about Wrye Bash. I also only use it for bashed patches, and would also like to know how it compares.
I didn't like the way MO treated certain files ad made them difficult to work with, mainly Script Extenders.
I also don't care for that OverWrite folder that MO keeps, unintuitive in my book, and this is coming from someone who's had to use the confusing interfaces on Hospital Analyzers.
I like Wrye Bash for its power, and it's Bash Patches
I've currently gotten back into using Wrye Bash because I've been playing Oblivion again, and am probably going to use WryeSmash next time around if I get back into playing Fallout or Skyrim SE
Wrye Bash > OBMM > MO > NMM
a. Drag those files into the mods that they came from. For instance, if an skse plugin created a log file, you'd drag that into the plugin's mod folder.
b. Create a new mod specifically for those files. For instance, your DynDOLOD output could be made into its own mod so you could have different DynDOLOD outputs for each profile or something like that.
It is a thing you need to learn, but if you have an understanding of how MO works, it's not unintuitive at all. In fact, it seems necessary in order to keep the data folder pristine.
It really isn't that difficult to learn how to use MO, all you really need to do is read a tutorial or watch a video - which you would do to know how to create bashed patches anyway. None of the other mod managers come close with the tools it has, and I say that after having seen all four. Period.
You worship the damn thing, don't you?
I hope not.
I used it back in 2015 and had a lot of problems getting to grips with that system a year later.
The isolated environment adds one more step to doing things and can create bugs with the forced x86 nature of it (SkyProc comes to mind). I had DynDOLOD break while running it... and yes, I followed the GamerPoets tutorial exactly.
Wrye Bash has most of what Mod Organizer has minus any kind of full FOMod support, Download with Manager support, BSA management, mod isolation, and profiles (*gasp* Not... not a profile-less mod manager). Mod installation is fairly similar to Mod Organizer but you have to click a button to get the files in the correct place.
That's the whole point of modding. You put new stuff in the data folder. If you install about 8000 mods per playthrough then you need Mod Organizer. If you are a reasonable person, you don't install 8000 mods (or even a couple hundred) and therefore don't need it.
If you're a control freak, use Mod Organizer.
If you like simplicity, use Nexus Mod Manager.
If you like advanced "Windows 9x" style of a mod manager, use Wrye Bash. I don't want to start a war in a thread where this isn't even on-topic.
Actually, that sounds awful. Those are all of my favorite things about MO.
Also, "If you are a reasonable person, you don't install 8000 mods," was too far.
We *are* getting off-topic though. You're definitely right about that, so let's either steer back toward the subject of UI or just end the thread here.
What we need is a combination of both organizers that overcomes these limitations. With each mod there should be a choice to install it to the data folder or a virtual folder. It could then keep track of every mod it installed into the data folder which would be rather simple as there aren't many that would need to be physically in it. You could put an option in the setup to only use virtual files or only use physical installation or both which could also be turned off and on in the settings. It would also use less space as the virtual folder would be minimal. Finally it would be awesome if it also had the ability to create bashed patches so we didn't need to run external programs.
Just uncheck esp. Uninstall and reinstall are quick though (see below why) if you want to get rid of meshes/textures/etc too.
> It also uses twice as much space as mod organizer as it has to keep a copy of you're mods in the virtual folder and in the data folder
Yeah... no. Heard about hard links?)
I thought of another plus for NMM though. It allows you to choose individual files to overwrite in other mods rather that mod organizers way which moves the whole mods folder up or down.
Using NMM I turned all mods off to trouble shoot a fallout 4 crash just two days ago. Even on SSD drives it took a good 10 mins to uninstall the 180 or so mods. I tried turning off the esp first but it didn't pick up the crash mod until I had uninstalled and reinstalled all of the mods. The crash was happening between plenty of exploration and functional displays. If i picked up everything in the exploration rooms it would crash when i left the room until i turned off functional displays.
I'm certain uninstall/reinstall just creates new hard links, reinstall doesn't even bring up FOMOD installer. You have to select "Uninstall > From all profiles" to remove mod's files, next install will be from mod's archive.
Another issue with NMM when re enabling mods is the constant picking of which files need to overwrite which files. In Mod organizer if a virtual folder was set it was set. It could just be turned off and on without a bunch of do you want to overwrite questions. When trouble shooting it is a lot easier and takes a lot less time if you don't get a bunch of questions about reinstalling.
There is also the issue of changing computers. With mod organizer i can just copy the mod organizer folder over.
No FOMod isn't as bad as you think. Same with the download with manager function. It just takes some patience to figure it out and once you get it, it's perfectly fine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link - Wrye Bash doesn't use Symbolic Links to handle everything. It doesn't work like Nexus Mod Manager. Do not assume that. It takes the files from the archive and extracts them to the data folder.
It runs the chance of corrupting the files and crashing.
Have you read the comments? I don't use or like Nexus Mod Manager. Drag, drop, and "anneal". That's Wrye Bash.
I remember when people actually read responses. READ IT! You will get it then.
End. Do not reply to this.
This happens regardless of the mod manager you use - removing mods mid save is not recommended.
What are you even talking about? What files? Unchecking esp crashes game if it is not able to load some objects from savegame, but there are ways to avoid it.
> I remember when people actually read responses. READ IT! You will get it then.
I was not replying to you. Who are you and what do you want?
Chromium is the worst for desktop development, it has a structure for a browser, multiprocess with IPC and all those callbacks... Can you just use a solution that was created with desktop programs in mind? I can suggest Sciter (https://sciter.com/), you can create any interface you like with it (HTML, CSS, TIScript) and it's designed to closely interact with native code. Yes, TIScript is based on JavaScript, but is different and not compatible with any JS frameworks, but you really don't need any of those frameworks to make an UI like in NMM.
If it ends up being a colossal failure there will always be alternatives that will rise from the demand, so I'm hardly putting all my eggs in the NMM2 basket.
Also I think this whole themeing thing is personally dumb. From a design perspective a consistent system UI is ideally what you should be going for and I get the reason it's probably being marketed as a feature is because Electron, as of right now, cannot adapt to the system theme.
Theming is ok, I would like to have minimalistic UI and color that matches my OS. Theming is also easy to do if everything was done in CSS.
Electron is not going to get any lighter, and any extensions or libraries are only going to make it heavier. Not saying they should build NMM2 in assembly in Nano but on the same chord they should ideally be optimizing.
You even posted in that thread))
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/news/13135/?
Just scroll down a bit to Kayomn's post and Tannin's reply.
Just a guess.
For development this means:
a) We (likely) get tons of bug reports and spend a lot of time investigating them instead of developing features or UI or anything. Many of these bugs could be found and fixed quicker if we had discovered under controlled conditions.
b) Existing installations for users means we can't just change internal data structures anymore, we have to provide a migration path every time. This is a lot of extra work (meaning: time we're not spending developting features or fixing bugs) and potential for new errors.
c) People will start writing tutorials or creating videos on how to use it - meaning every change we do to the ui after that invalidates work that others have done and worse: These videos stay in existence and will be found by users who are then confused over why it doesn't work as described.
d) Authors may actually decide to work on extensions/plugins to the new manager which again means: Anything we change to the api then may break the work of others, discourage future contributions and so on.
This is why I wouldn't want an alpha of "NMM2" public. It's not the same situation as with MO.
a) MO was not open source for its first ~2 years of development too.
b) In the beginning MO had only a handful of users: friends of mine, then the occasional Nexus user MO had been in the hands of a few "early adopters" for at least a year before the user count even reached a hundred giving me plenty of time to work out the most obvious issues.
Such a slow start wouldn't happen for NMM2 so we have to plan differently.
I would love to show off where we are and what we're planning and getting more input from the community but I'm convinced it wouldn't turn out well if we did that now.
I would like to help but I have no experience with the nexus staff, I am currently learning HTML and CSS since they are both required for web design, JavaScript is another level of coding for me, and I have little to no elegance when it comes to designing visual stuff.
I hope you can get it done soon though, the script extender for skyrim special edition is nearing completion and a new mod manager would be awesome for the modding explosion that will happen after it is released for modders to play with.
As such I wish the Nexus Staff good luck and may Talos smile upon you.