Nexus Mods is very organized with its robust use of categories not unlike Steam Workshop, but the search function seems more accurate. Thunderstore does have good version tracking. Who wants to download that? Mod pages are missing common features like image sections too, and you cannot even post comments on mod pages. While it has a good search function and mod categories, mod uploaders are required to submit very little information, so you’ll frequently see blank mod pages with no images. Less organized than ModDB is Thunderstore.io however. It also isn’t very effective at partial matches. ModDB is the least organized with regard to mod categories however, so if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for when browsing ModDB, expect to spend more time searching and browsing. Steam Workshop generally requires more tinkering with the filters to find what you’re looking for, even with more popular mods. You would think a search function is an easy thing to get right in 2021, but there are considerable qualitative differences between the search function and how results are displayed between these three platforms. Winner: Steam Workshop and Thunderstore+r2modman

ModDB on the other hand is a completely manual process, which some people will actually prefer especially for any game where you want a version freeze on some mods (although Nexus is good for this too). However, Mod Organizer 2 is quite out of date from an automation perspective, as you still have to browse through a website like Nexus and download mods individually. Mod Organizer 2 also automatically detects conflicting files while Steam Workshop and ModDB don’t do this, but more on this later. It also does not need to be used with Nexus Mods, but doing so is convenient since there’s an integration for it. The tool needs to support the game in question, and for supported games you can have the tool install/uninstall mods for you, and update mods as well. Another tool is needed to automatically install and remove mods there are several options out there, but Mod Organizer 2 is generally agreed upon as being the best. It should not be necessary to manually download and install mods in 2022, for any game with serious mod support that is.Īutomation is a bit more limited with Nexus Mods, but still present. r2modman is the same way, which connects to Thunderstore.io.

Workshop mods are updated automatically on their own through Steam. Select unsubscribe and it automatically uninstalls. Select subscribe and the mod automatically installs.

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