Are mods usually confusing as hell or am I just an idiot?
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As the name suggests, a mod is "modifying" the game, in ways that the original creators never intended to support. That's why out of very few exceptions (such as Paradox and Steam mods), there is not a centralized hub maintained by the creator to organize and apply mods.
The process tends to be different for every game because every game is made differently. To boil the concept down, basically if there's no official interface for custom functionality (such as a plugin system), then modders will usually "hack" this in themselves. Installing the mod often means replacing a game file with one that hooks into the game, to be able to load custom code and custom game resources.
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Heavy modding of older games PC can be a pain in the ass.
Sometimes the older games are the easy ones to mod, and the new games make it intentionally difficult. Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Deus Ex are all mod-friendly.
It can also depend on how much work the mod developer puts into making it easy.
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I was so confused for so long here. I forgot that Men in Black were in Deus Ex. I was just like "How the hell does Tommy Lee Jones connect with this?!"
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Relatable, Mods do be tricky to implement
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"If it was easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it'd just be the way. "
Modding varies from game to game, but having been doing it for nearly 40 years now, I can say it has generally become easier in the titles that want you to and harder in the ones that don't.
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Like most things, you're just "an idiot" until you figure it out. Like any skill, the more you practice the better you get. Just take the time to understand it better and it will start making more sense eventually.
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Also the timeline usually matters. Mod methods can change as game patches are released. Mods can have mod patches. Mods can be deprecated for new mods or mod methods. Mods can have other dependencies. Install order sometimes matters.
I think OP is right; mods can be messy, complicated, and a lot of work.
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Yeah, I usually just follow the instructions, which seems to work 99% of the time.
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This just reminds me of the mod situation for early versions of Minecraft. These days it's as simple as pressing a button and dropping your mods into a folder, but back then it was a case of directly modifying the main Java file, removing specific bits, adding specific bits in specific places... not smooth at all
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For every mod you add, complexity usually increases exponentially.
Depending on the game, difficulty also varies: modding stardew valley is joy (117 mods in a pack, easy afternoon sipping tea), modding skyrim less so (oh god,these two amazing mods tweak the same tree, time to go patch hunting, 2 weeks later you play it only to spot obscure graphical glitches, all hail wabbajack automation!), trying to make a working multiplayer mod pack for rimworld is pure suffering (why do you hate me, why do two compatible mods generate mass instability?!? 4 months of bug hunting and unsalvageable runs due to strange mod interactions, gave up for now).
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Genuinely not had a problem with mods, and I've been PC gaming for decades. Of course sometimes mods don't work but thats life. Just be patient, you'll get it done.
Decent mods have a readme file - follow the steps strictly - no skipping thinking you know better - and they should work.
Also look on YouTube or search online for guides - people often provide step by step guides to mod games purely out of a love for gaming.
Keep going - mods can be great, and its one of the many benefits of PC gaming. You'll get there!
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I used to manually mod like this, but for a few years now I've pretty much just been using mod lists/packs.
For Bethesda RPGs (TES/Fallout), and a couple other games, you can use Wabbajack to auto-install a bunch of different lists, some of which have thousands of mods.
For other games you can usually use Vortex and Nexus collections, or in the case of Steam workshop, workshop collections.
If you want a good mod list for BG3, there's Listonomicon.
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Depends on the game. When the game was made in a way that is easily moddable then installing mods usually just means putting the mod files into some directory. But when a mod is supposed to do something that is not really supported then it has to do even more crazy stuff. And when several mods want to do similar crazy stuff it gets even more complicated.
So it really depends. Though BG3 has mod support built in by now. So everything in there should be easy.
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Use Nexusmods and their Vortex mod manager. It simplifies it a lot, though you may have to watch a quick tutorial video or two. It's nothing that you won't learn, though.
Certain other games may have other mod loaders just for them, that you can use. KSPs CKAN comes to mind, or Curseforge for Minecraft. A lot of games handle mods through the Steam Workshop.
In the case of using mod loaders most of the stuff you will have to do yourself will be limited to keeping mods updated, resolving conflicts, and managing load orders (where applicable).
