Steam's "Work Shop"?

[ArchAngel777]

I don't get it. I must be an idiot. I looked for like 15 minutes. I found all sorts of cool mods for Skyrim within the steam "Work Shop" search thingy, but no idea how to install them...

I gave up after 15 minutes and just went to nexus, downloaded their mod manager and had that all configured and working in under 5 minutes. I still have no idea what this "Work Shop" is. I was under the impression that Steam had their own mod manager for the game. But I couldn't find a download for it...

 

[Baptismbyfire]

It's probably different for each game. For Dungeon of Dredmor, you only have to "subscribe" to the mod you want, and then select it in your mod menu within the game. But I don't see how that would work out for more complicated games like Skyrim.

 

[Dkcode]

I am not on my computer now but I think you click on Skyrim in your Steam library in large mode, to the right hand side there should be a link for the workshop where you can browse mods for the game. You then click subscribe and it will download it.

To use them launch Skyrim and I think its Preferences > Data from the launcher main menu. There you will see a list of mods and a checkbox to enable or disable them.

 

[gorcorps]

Yeah, you have to "subscribe" to it and that's the same as downloading it. I'm not sure why they used a term like "subscribe" because it confused me at first too. But you're in the right place... The Workshop is Steam's mod manager.

 

[CPA]

Yeah, you have to "subscribe" to it and that's the same as downloading it. I'm not sure why they used a term like "subscribe" because it confused me at first too. But you're in the right place... The Workshop is Steam's mod manager.

I think you subscribe because each time you load the game it pulls in the mod. An install would only do it once. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Kalmah]

lol I did the same thing as the OP for Skyrim. I scanned the screen forever trying to find a download button. Looked at different mods and checked those. I had a feeling that the subscribe button had something to do with it but the word 'subscribe' can take on many different meanings and couldn't find any info about it. Eventually I pushed it and nothing appeared to happen. No download status bar or anything. I went back to the games library and said screw it, I'll play something else.

 

[davidthemaster3]

You subscribe to mods and it downloads/update them when you open the Skyrim game launcher.

 

[Dankk]

The "subscribe" button is the download button.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

The main reason why they list it as "subscribe" is that the Workshop will try and keep the mod up to date whenever you run the launcher.

Note that this can be problematic as it takes away control of maintaining mod versions, which comes into play in terms of compatibility, bugs, and feature creep (hint: newer versions are not always better).

I believe there may be an option to not update automatically like there is for the game, but I never use the workshop, but rather use and highly recommend http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/

 

[Baptismbyfire]

I don't see how the work shop could possibly work out for Skyrim, if it's anything like Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Subscribing to more than one mod at a time would result in total disaster, with missing meshes and constant crashes. Mods are required to get the full experience out of those games, but it takes hours of just reading up on the instructions and then installing them with the right combination of merged patches and all that to get it working right.

 

[Dankk]

I don't see how the work shop could possibly work out for Skyrim, if it's anything like Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Subscribing to more than one mod at a time would result in total disaster, with missing meshes and constant crashes. Mods are required to get the full experience out of those games, but it takes hours of just reading up on the instructions and then installing them with the right combination of merged patches and all that to get it working right.

Steam Workshop still lets you manually configure the load order for mods.

That said, I much prefer Steam Workshop over other mod managers. It's convenient, I like the automatic updating, and it doesn't get screwed up when I verify the game's file integrity. It's kinda why I use Steam for all my games in the first place.

That said, if you're much more meticulous about your mods, I can understand why you wouldn't use it.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Thanks for the information. I knew I was missing something.