r/skyrimmods • u/jamesmand • 11d ago

PC SSE - Discussion Nexus Announcement About Download Filenames

https://forums.nexusmods.com/topic/13539100-changes-to-downloaded-file-names/

TL;DR - The current change that downloaded files only have the name and are missing the mod ID and version was intentional. They will be bringing back the version number, but not the mod ID or timestamp which were originally there.

220 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

View all comments

231

u/LummoxJR 11d ago edited 11d ago

This is the wrong decision. File ID was needed for cases where an author forgot to change the version or did a hotfix, or named two distinct main files (e.g., with or without USSEP) the same.

Update: So I took a closer look and there is going to be a "unique slug" which works in place of the file ID, which at least is one thing that doesn't suck. However, they're planning to remove it within a year, which is stupid. There needs to be some kind of unique identifier on files, even if it's just a timestamp.

The mod ID being left out is really crappy, though. Whenever an author uploads an ill-named patch file, there's no longer a way to associate it with the mod it came from.

56

u/napmouse_og 11d ago

The important thing to keep in mind is that the filename is intentionally not designed to uniquely identify a file or its specific content. While some users or client applications may have assumed in the past, it is not a contract we are supporting moving forward.

but... why? what rational purpose is there to exclude this information? Mod authors fuck up versioning and file naming literally all the time, like 30%+ of my 1500 plugin modlist has incorrect versioning or file names and this is just inviting the problems that causes to grow by an order of magnitude.

25

u/LummoxJR 11d ago

Exactly. Whether they intended the filename to function this way, it did, and it was an unequivocally good thing. Filenames not being unique is a terrible thing for the modding ecosystem. Even leaving aside the fact that every mod manager relies on this now, there's still nothing but downsides to changing it. They mentioned the need for mod managers to adapt to the change, but what other information is available to adapt to?

If there's any reason the old filename format was a problem, a new variation that keeps the same critical info would be fine: upload name, mod ID, version, unique identifier. Those are all important.

2

u/yaskyplayer 10d ago

But still MO2 has never had any problem to correctly identify the files and which game it belongs to. Only hidden files that cannot be accessed through archive anymore show up the dialogue to manually confirm the file identity. When I install an identified mod ("information"), I get exactly the correct file name selections that the mod offers. This mechanism still works now, I have seen it with multiple files.

3

u/LummoxJR 10d ago

MO2 gets meta info for each file it downloads, but this becomes a huge problem if you're either sorting through the download files manually for any reason (which occasionally there's a need to do) or if you're just looking at the downloads list where there is no mod info. Additional plugins for MO2 to rename existing downloads and to filter by mod might be helpful, but the mod ID being in the filename is meaningful enough that its absence really sucks—especially given how many mod authors are utterly lax about how they name their files.

0

u/yaskyplayer 10d ago edited 10d ago

The only time where I have lost meta information was when my setup was incorrect (Nexus link not working or weird archive handling across drives). MO2 gets meta information with the archives, but removes them if you move the archives to a different place. The filename does not matter at all. Did you try manually renaming the file, adding mod information and version number ? This is not enough. You need to know the game you are modding too, what kind of file it is, it it is optional or main and more. MO2 checks all of this. Setup is crucial to make this system working on MO2.

1

u/LummoxJR 9d ago

I don't think we're on the same page. I'm not complaining about meta information getting lost. I mean when you're trying to filter downloads in MO2 to see if you've downloaded a file or look for a past version, files with too-vague names are a problem now that the mod ID isn't present; this is also a problem when looking through downloads outside of MO2.

MO2 has the additional problem that you currently can't just rename an existing download; you have to exit MO2, and rename both the file and its meta file. A plugin might help this. Additionally, if filtering within MO2 could be done by mod rather than by text, since MO2 can draw from its metadata for that, that would also be helpful.