Staff Picks - 18 Jan 2017

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We're back again with some more staff picks, this week SirSalami dives headfirst into the world of Stardew Valley with a mod to make this awesome little adventure game 'hard'; TerrorFox1234 tries his hand at the mod S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Chernobyl after my recommendation last week; and I get one of my favourite gameplay mechanics into one of my favourite games!

Our guest contributor this week is ZZZ02, their selection is a total overhaul mod for Oblivion, so be sure to check that out.

We love to hear your selections, so if you have a mod you would like to submit to the community (not your own), please check out this new and handy form. Please fill out the form completely and ensure that you add some details about the mod and why you have chosen it (similar to how we have below).  

Just remember that other mods on the site may do roughly the same thing, so keep your eyes peeled and understand that these are just our personal picks. That said, hopefully, you'll find something you may not have seen before. Who knows, maybe we'll even learn a little about each other along the way.


SirSalami

Mod: Hard Mode
Game: Stardew Valley
Author: RamenYum

Call me a masochist if you will, but sometimes I feel that a little extra difficulty can really add to an experience. I think most of the Dark Souls fanbase can relate, but what about Stardew valley players? If you're like me and would enjoy a little extra spice in your farming life then maybe this one's for you.

This mod rebalances combat as well as the time and effort it takes to accomplish various tasks around the valley. While some of the changes may seem tedious at first glance, you'll be rewarded with a greater sense of accomplishment which may create a more meaningful gameplay experience.

Especially to those of you already familiar with the ins-and-outs of farm life, this mod may make your next visit to the valley that much more rewarding. Thanks RamenYum!


TerrorFox1234

Mod: Outfit Addon
Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Chernobyl
Author: VodkaChicken

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, Call of Chernobyl (CoC) is a massive overhaul for the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. It is essentially an entirely new game. On that note, if you are a fan of brutal post-apocalyptic survival games, you really should give CoC a try.

With the recent addition of CoC to Nexus Mods, I decided to give it a go. I'm still learning the ropes of the game but, as is the case with all of us, I simply couldn't play it without some mods installed! I focused mainly on aesthetic mods and mods that simply added new items to the game, as I didn't want to alter any mechanics and gameplay elements before really spending some time with the game.

The first mod I grabbed was Outfit Addon by VodkaChicken. Outfit Addon is pretty straightforward. It adds 26 new outfits with custom upgrade trees. It's one of those mods that fits in with the base game so seamlessly, you just sort of forget that it's a mod. Everything is balanced well with the rest of the outfits in the game and aesthetically it fits right in. Variety is the spice of life, and this mod does well to add some variety to the dreary post-apocalyptic world of CoC.


BlindJudge

Mod: Take Cover
Game: Fallout 4
Author: registrator2000

I've always been a big fan of cover systems. One of my fondest arcade memories is playing Time Crisis with a friend, taking it in turns to pop out from behind the wall or crate and fire off several rounds while the other one took a breather and reloaded. The ability to choosing as to when you got shot at, rather than running headlong into battle like someone out of 'Commando', was invigorating and made you feel a little like you were in control. 

More and more modern games begun to utilise the mechanic, and from the early 2000's there were some notable releases such as Kill.Switch and Gears of War that implemented it incredibly well, with additions such as blind firing and cover vault systems. It's now a regular feature of many games and one that adds realism and excitement to tense shootouts.

But it seems Bethesda didn't get the memo and Fallout 4 saw you having to break cover and stand full frontal to an enemy to get your shots off. Well, registrator2000 has come to our rescue with the release of 'Take Cover'. This mod gives your character the ability to take refuge behind an object or wall, popping out to take shots at those pesky Raiders only when you're ready to engage.

I tried the mod using both options and have to say that I prefer the hotkey method that registrator2000 details on his mod page, binding shift+aim to be cover using one of his other mods FO4Hotkeys. 

Now you have a little advantage over those in the wasteland, enjoy.


(Guest submission)ZZZ02

Mod: Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul
Game: Oblivion
Author: Maskar

There are many well-known overhauls for Oblivion but they often have compatibility issues or may just be the same Oblivion with a bit more stuff bolted on. Now imagine a mod with many of these overhaul mods features but done in a clean and compatible way.

MOO is that and so much more in addition to things you find in most overhauls it adds so much more 'stuff'. It dynamically alters AI; adds stuff to leveled lists; throws in unpredictable encounters and so on. The feature list is so long that there is a whole PDF to download just to explain them all.

The best part about it is EVERYTHING IS CONFIGURABLE THROUGH INI FILES. The mod can even detect mods with conflicting features and disable them automatically. You can even use another overhaul mod together with MOO. This mod is one mod that you can trust to enhance your Oblivion experience.

It is an essential mod in my load order, it is very compatible with almost everything and it is the way Oblivion should have been from the beginning.


Every week, we feature a few mods that have caught our staff's attention, as well as some that were submitted by you, the Nexus Mods community. If there is a mod you'd like to see on this list, then please check out this quick and handy form.

If you haven't already, feel free to follow us on our social media channels where we'll keep you up to date with the latest site news, articles and much more.

  


Thanks, and have fun modding!

23 comments

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  1. Mrpepette
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    I didn't know S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Chernobyl existed. Thank you so much, I spent a few hours this week end playing it now <3
    And of course I grabbed the outfit mod too. ha.
  2. Gribbleshnibit8
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    I would like to see the staff picks for games like Fo4 and Skyrim (and others, but these are the 'big' ones) look at mods that are not in the top 100 files lists. Showcase some of the more hidden gems out there, anyone can find a top 100 mod.
    1. SirSalami
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      Thanks for the feedback! Remember though, the loose theme of this feature is 'personal picks'. It's not really intended to spotlight mods based on any criteria in particular other than our own interests at the moment. That said, we really appreciate guest submissions, so please feel free to submit a pick of your own via the form found at the bottom of the article and we may include it in the future.

    2. Gribbleshnibit8
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      OK, and that's not a bad idea. But it also reinforces a "popular mods are popular because they are popular" theme that is unfortunate on all of the Nexus sites. Many of the first mods that come out for a game get lots of endorsements for being first when there are a lot of users. As users taper off, endorsements are fewer, but often (always?) mods continue to improve in quality as the game ages. This leaves the often early popular mods highly rated while mods with more actual time investment forever remain low and unseen because there just aren't enough people around to push them up into visibility.

      Staff Picks, to me, has the feel of a "These are the mods our staff enjoy/use the most, they are the best", even if that's not the intended purpose, and I know it's not. But as new users come in they see this. Having already highly rated mods they can easily find listed as "the best" by the staff, when said mods are already rated as "the best" by the community just furthers "popular because popular".

      The alternative would be the current list of "Here are the mods our community thinks are the best." with an additional "Here are the mods our staff have seen that might not be rated best by the community, but we feel really show off what the community can offer."
    3. pintocat
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      I agree whole-heartedly with Gribbleshnibit8 on this -- this is just reinforcing the same old problem on nexus of popularity begets popularity, even if there may be a better mod later, simply because of inertia of all the endorsements from being and early mod.
    4. Maskar
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      To be fair, if they wanted to pick popular mods they probably would have picked OOO, rather than MOO. Either way, thanks a lot (and thanks to ZZZ02 for suggesting it).
    5. vixsyn
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      This is interesting but I think it could be expanded on as an entirely new feature - a "Hidden Gems" article of its own. People could recommend lesser-known but high quality mods they've used/enjoyed and then the staff could follow up? It would be a great way to promote some of the awesome but "lost in the endorsement filter" mods. Of course if the staff feel there's too much to get into already, I'm sure there's plenty of users/modders who'd be willing to submit some articles on mods?
    6. TinyManticore
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      Completely agree. These lists would be a lot more interesting read if the mods weren't mostly top 100 files that everyone already knows about...

      It would be great to see either more diverse 'Staff Picks' or a new feature like 'Hidden Gems' or something...
    7. ZZZ02
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      @Maskar the reason I didn't pick OOO is for the reason you stated because pretty much everyone already knows about it. When I recommend mods I try to avoid the obvious #1 mods unless there are no or subpar alternatives. Besides your mod has a lot to offer and most importantly the both of the two "C"s Configurability and Compatibility. Finally unlike OOO yours is still being updated and maintained which is a huge plus so it deserves to be showcased.

      I actually have a list of mods to review that I plan on submitting one at a time I already submitted one and the next one is another obscure skyrim mod like the first one I submitted.
    8. Dark0ne
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      I'm confused. I've gone back through all the staff picks we've done this year so far (I couldn't really be bothered to go back further) and checked every pick we've done for a Bethesda game. None of them have been in the top 100 lists of their respective games. Most are absolutely NOWHERE near being in the top 100, either, and some even have as few as 1,000 downloads.

      As such, it seems like the staff picks are currently adhering to exactly what you're asking for.

      The inherent issue with "hidden gems" is that they're hidden. As in, they're really hard to find! If you have some way of finding hidden gems that no one else knows about that aren't already popular but that are actually good enough to be considered "gems" then please let us know! Cause we'd love to be able to find them easily.

      Find me some mods that would be considered "gems" that have 10-100 endorsements for any recent Bethesda game and I'll be impressed!

      If you go back and check all our previous staff picks you'll find we've picked a very diverse range of popular (but not mega-popular/top 100) and not so popular (as in, files with < 3,000 downloads) in our time. So I'm really unsure what more you expect from this feature because, as far as I'm concerned, we're doing exactly what you're asking of us.
    9. ZZZ02
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      I think they mostly talking about the very first one which had alternate start (guest submission not staff) and a front pager (I checked the gamepage there's not much for that game.)

      PS: I know one that I consider a "hidden gem" for Skyrim regular but it has 130 endorsements...
    10. jet4571
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      I think allot of people may want to see some hidden gems that are not huge game changers. Really hidden gems are not at all difficult to find.

      http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/36463
      http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9004
      http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20027
      http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3276
      http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62476
      http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/5877
    11. Eman17j
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      *
  3. Jokerine
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    Heck yes, Stardew Valley gets some love! <3
    1. TerrorFox1234
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      It's so addicting!
    2. TheTokenGeek
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      I have it, just really need to jump into it and give it a proper go!
    3. ZZZ02
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      Same here it's so similar to my favorite game series Rune Factory (which my avatar is from LOL) only it is harder to make money but a lot less of a crafting grind. next I will have to look into dragons dogma but I haven't got far enough yet to mod it to full I only have one and it is the topone (my first rule is play it to full THEN mod it).
    4. ZZZ02
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      Jokerine when did you become a mod? Congratulations!
  4. MadEyeX
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    Thanks for the review of Call of Chernobyl! I just took a look at the mod and it looks right up my alley. I'll be playing that this break!
  5. zcul
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    "Take Cover" - good tip, thank you
  6. vixsyn
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    Take Cover, and indeed everything by registrator, is a fantastic mod! I was so used to playing in first person that it took me a long time to get used to, but after heading off to the Mass Effect trilogy for a while and then moving back to FO4 I finally adjusted to TC in all its glory.

    It was originally released before the CK and was made (if I remember right) entirely in xEdit. I'd highly recommend anything by registrator, I can barely get my head around how he manages to get so much done to such a high standard. Great pick Blindjudge