The two games I've been waiting all year for are Fallout: New Vegas and Civilization V. I could buy both, but I don't have the time to play both and since Civ V doesn't really end, I decided to get New Vegas first and pick up Civ V after I've played New Vegas (a few times). I read a review of Civ V that said that user created mods can be download from within the game through the Steam service. Since New Vegas also use Steamworks, I was wondering if New Vegas will take advantage of this feature of Steamworks as well? I don't plan on using mods on the first play, but if it does and since patches sometimes break mods, I wonder if this feature will allow you to postpone patching your game until you either disable the mod or the mod is updated? If it doesn't, will there be a way to not patch the game until a mod is updated?

I know Steam has an option to not auto update a game, but from what I understand, it just prevents the game from auto patching on start of the Steam client. When you launch the game, it still checks for a patch and updates it before you play. Putting Steam into offline mod isn't an option for me since I have lots of games on Steam that I would not be able to play MP on if the Steam client is in offline mode.

so far as we know mods for Fallout: New Vegas is going to be handled the same way as Fallout 3, hopefully tho tweaks to the F:NV version of GECK hopefully will prevent issues with patching "breaking" mods.

Nothing regarding that has been confirmed, and I personally don't think that will be implemented. Downloading mods from Planet Fallout and Fallout Nexus is fine imo.

Fallout Nexus + Fallout Mod Manager = All you need

The main reason that this is a Bad idea has to do with mod-conflicts more than anything else (assuming it's not legally or strategically what Bethesda wants to do).

One of the biggest challenges to using mods is the fact that these are built by different people with differing levels of quality and are not QA tested together. This means that conflicts arise in which one mod will break another or something in the main game. Most conflicts are small, but I have seen it so bad that the game crashes immediately on boot-up and everything in-between. Resolving these conflicts requires special programs like Fo3Edit/TESEdit, BOSS, FOMM and alot of patience and willingness to get into the mod files and find/resolve the problems. Some folks are successful at getting Hundreds of mods working together, some folks struggle with a dozen. No one will tell you that its Simple, and can be downright complicated until you learn the programs and gain experience at de-conflicting mods. My tutorial on Fo3Edit alone is over 100 pages with dozens of sections. Most users only need to learn the mod de-confliction steps (about 20-25 pages of the tutorial), but you get the idea - No Easy Button for modders.

Thus mods would Never work from a push-button service like Steam _unless_ Bethesda/Obsidian takes a mod and incorporates it into their product line. So far they have not shown interest in doing this - it seems they prefer to get ideas from us and then have their own wizards build production versions of things we make (weapon mod kits are an example, Antistar's is not complex and contains few upgrades and few things we can adjust in the GECK - Obsidian took the idea and super-expanded on it (including GECK stuff for us). This of course makes sense, and I think it's great that we have creative input into the gaming world in this way. However if we GECKulate for a moment then that Bethesda/Obsidian can't/won't use mod content directly, then it means that there is absolutely no way for mods to be deliverable by Steam.

The idea is both great and before it's time (but not out of the question, look at Second Life). Maybe in 10 years?

I don't think it is that great, and definitely not before its time. We already have mod digital distribution from multiple sources. In the case of Fallout3Nexus (have not checked Fallout Planet), you can download mods even without bothering setting up an account.

I actually worked on Civ V before joining Bethesda, so I know how Firaxis/2K set that up. It's not done via Steamworks. Steamworks connects to it, but it's a pretty complex setup.

In any event, we're not doing it for FNV. It would be nice, but we would have had to have planned it from the outset (which is what was done with Civ V...from day 1 that was the goal).

Makes sense.

I mean, just having Steam download and install mods would cause some conflicts. And besides, IIRC, there is going to be a whole other Nexus site just for New Vegas, so I'd say most mods will be hosted there.

I can screw my game up all on my own by picking the wrong mix of mods myself. I don't need any help with that.

Steam should be left to activation/patching and or installation of the core game. Mods should be selected by the end user of the game, for the mix of mods I play with are not the same as what someone else would play with. Too many things need to be done with some mods to get them to play well with others before they are installed to automate this process for this game.

agreed ive never used steam and i hope i can use it on my linux karmic koala

I admit I love the idea of creating an executable client for mods for all the games the Nexus sites help with. A client that can tell you what mods you're running, whether they're up-to-date and if not update them as well as install new mods.

Sadly my creative talents are very limited and even my web programming skills are quite inept. I have no real knowledge of working with programming languages or creating executables past dabbling in Visual Basic back when I was 17/18.

One day when I win the lottery or my oil shares go up by 1000% I'll hire a programmer to work with me on such a project