Almost 10 months ago I made contact with Janus, a prominent member within the Mount & Blade community and owner of the modding site MBRepository, where almost all the Mount & Blade modifications are uploaded, to see if I could offer my assistance and enquire whether a merger might be possible. Following discussions with Janus, and consultation on the TaleWorld forums, today marks the first ever attempt at merging a pre-existing site in to the Nexus format. Welcome to Mount & Blade Nexus.

If you're new to the Nexus modding community then let me welcome you. We're a modding community of over 3.4 million members and over 22,000 mod authors focusing on some popular RPG series including the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age and The Witcher. The focus of the sites is to provide a streamlined yet advanced platform for mod authors to share their work with others, and to form strong bonds within the community to make sure that modding takes a leading role. All our sites are linked through our forums so when you're registered on one Nexus site, you're registered on them all, so you only need one account for all the sites.

Naturally there's lots to cover in this announcement due to the obvious visual and system changes involved in the move from the Repository to the Nexus. There may also be a few teething issues as I work to fix any bugs or issues that have arisen from merging the Repository content with the Nexus format. If you're new to the Nexus it may take you a little time to adjust to where everything is, but hopefully you'll pick it all up soon. If you've used one of our other sites you'll find everything in the same place.

Most importantly you'll notice that all the files available on the Repository are also available on the Nexus. If you had work uploaded to the Repository then your work is also now available on the Nexus. You can claim your files here on the Nexus, which will allow you to be recognised as the uploader of your files, as well as modify or remove your files as you see fit. You can do this using the links provided in your control panel on the Repository.

There are quite a few fundamental differences between the Repository and the Nexus in terms of functionality. You'll find you have a lot more options when it comes to managing your files. Perhaps most importantly, you have the ability to upload images and screenshots for your files. The site looks pretty bland with thousands of mods with no images right now, so it would be great if you could upload a few images for your mods when you find the time. You'll also notice that the categories have changed and that your files might not fit in to the most obvious category. You can easily change this yourself, and I'll be going through a lot of the files over the coming weeks trying to fit files in to the most appropriate category.

My hope is that, if you're new to the Nexus format, you'll do a little exploring and try to discover things for yourself. A lot of the stuff is quite intuitive, and some of it is a little more complex. But I like to think that you'll find using the Nexus to not only be manageable, but simple or complex enough depending on your needs. If you get stuck or confused, you can use the forums for help, or you can contact me and I'll try to offer my assistance.

If you're a Nexus regular you might be aware that we have a mod manager program, called the Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) that is in open beta at the moment. This program allows mods to be downloaded straight from the site through NMM, and then managed within the program, making modding a two-click install affair. A few people have already asked about getting M&B modding in to NMM, and it's something that I would love to happen, however right now we're pretty swamped managing NMM as it is. We have a full-time, paid job opening right now for a .NET developer to help us in this task, if you're interested. Similarly, NMM is completely open source and available from the SVN on our SourceForge page. If anyone is interested in working with us to get M&B support in to NMM I would love to hear from you.

If you come across any problems or issues with the site please let me know and I'll get them fixed as fast as possible. I hope that we can continue to provide the high level of service and commitment shown by Janus.