So I’m new to modding PC games. I wanted to recommend a way using a mod manager called Amethyst-Mod-Manager, which installs and manages game mods from Nexus Mods. It has native support for almost 100 games listed at https://github.com/ChrisDKN/Amethyst-Mod-Manager/wiki#supported-games . But one can add manually more games to the list, but I didn’t test that out. Just tried out modding Stardew Valley for the first time, and plan on trying Cyberpunk 2077 too.

My little documentary of the steps and what is needed:

  1. Download and install the application. Choose from https://github.com/ChrisDKN/Amethyst-Mod-Manager#install options, I chose the AppImage for testing. If it doesn’t have self updating, I might go for Flatpak later.
  2. To download and manage mods from the app, you need an account on Nexus Mods. There is a free tier (which I use) with limitations such as download speed, but it does not cost any money. A new account can be created at: https://users.nexusmods.com/register For me it took a few minutes before the verification email landed, so have this in mind.
  3. If not already connected, in the Amythyst App go to Settings > Connections and click “Login via SSO”. You should be connected to Nexus Mods now and can start adding mods.
  4. Add a game to the list. But first you need to download the game, in order it to be detected. I play on Steam and downloaded Stardew Valley in Steam (because its small, and I wanted to test it quickly). Then come back to the Amythist App and add the game, it should automatically find the location and configure it.
  5. Then I clicked the “Wizard” button on the app and installed “Install SMAPI”.
  6. On the main page of the App, click “Nexus” button, and choose “Open Nexus Mods”. This will open a new tab in the App, listing all mods for the game. Choose what you want to install, in my case I chose “SMAPI” again, the “Content Patcher” and “CJB Cheats Menu”. Click the “Install” button for the mod.
  7. This should open the page in your external web browser (in my case Firefox) and ask you to open the link. Click it and select “Slow download” (if you are on free tier) and the download process should start. It will install the mod for you.

It’s exciting to finally be able to mod PC games as well. And I hope this helps you figure this out, if you are new to this too. Especially so on Linux, where modding was always a bit problematic before. But this makes it so much easier for me to finally try it out. Have a nice day.

  • YarrMatey(she/her) @lemmy.dbzer0.com
    3·
    2 days ago

    I’ve been using it and enjoy it. I tried getting mod organizer 2 to work on linux and it was a pain and not fully functional. Amethyst can download nexus mods and collections easily. I have not tried wabbajack on it but it is an option. I did try creating a collection with it but got some errors on the other pc downloading it, idk wasn’t super important so I recreated it manually.

        • Sasquatch@lemmy.ml
          2·
          23 hours ago

          Ooh that is a nifty diagram.

          This looks a lot like torrents+tracker. Ultimately, thia system is still centralized around the tracker.

          Ultimately, though, a Mod Creator will be pushing their mod to 1+ centralized tracker. New versions will always from from the tracker, along with searching and discoverability.

      • SuperLallarn@aggregatet.orgEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Maybe it can be federated? Each game could have like their own lemmy community as instead of pages on a centralized site.

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlOP
      31·
      2 days ago

      It’s the first time I heard of Limo (name probably stands for “Linux Mod Manager”). And it’s even on Flathub, unlike Amythyst needs to add its own repository for Flatpak version. It also uses the NexusMod API, so interesting.

  • starblursd@lemmy.zipEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    It does self update now btw, was using gear level before but recently they made app image self update… I love this mod manager so far

    • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlOP
      21·
      2 days ago

      I can’t find the update button. Or is it automatic update only? AppImage v2.6.1, BTW.

      • starblursd@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        I’d have to look at it, when I open it if there’s an update available it will pop up to update, otherwise probably in settings, but gearlever is always an option if not. I made an alias to run gearlever updates from terminal when I do my other system updates

        • thingsiplay@lemmy.mlOP
          3·
          2 days ago

          Ah, gearlever is an application. I thought you were referring to the “gear” icon on the app.^^ Now it makes sense for me, as I searched the app for such functionality.

          • starblursd@lemmy.zipEnglish
            3·
            2 days ago

            Yep, it’s an application that lets you easily add app images to your launcher like any other application on your computer as well as update them.

            I use an alias to call the gearlever flatpak with “gearlever” then add the “update --all” argument to update all my appimages

  • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 days ago

    I’ve been using it for derail valley and the sims and it works really well, so much more convenient than manually downloading things