I know most of the Bethesda RPGs have massive mod support, and there’s games like Minecraft that have more mods than anyone can imagine. I would consider those games pretty playable in their vanilla states. Would you say there are any games that were “saved” by modding? Or that are still kept alive by thriving modding communities? What are some of your favorite mods?
Definitely Minecraft, you can turn it into a completely different game
I know I’m a minority in this, but I unironically prefer vanilla Minecraft, it’s simple in a good way 😅.
I love minecraft mods so much. I play BetterMC now which is essentially a Vanilla+ mod pack but even though it doesn’t turn minecraft into a different game I love how it makes the game feel less repetitive
minecraft for sure
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Half of the problem IMO is Java edition runs so poorly mods are necessary to play the game most of the time. And there’s so many quality of life mods that should be base game but Mojang just doesn’t seem to care about.
Rimworld. The Vanilla Expanded mods alone have more content than the base game + all the DLCs
Absolutely. It’s weird to not play Rimworld with mods.
I don’t know how many mods I got at this point, but I know it’s both too many and never enough. I got mods for mods and mods to better handle my long load time due to mods.
Best part of the community is seeing how different everyones game is and yet we all are still making children into hats or ammo.
Late to this post but to me it’s Minecraft. It has such an insane amount of replayability and can be turned into a totally different game depending on the mods and whatnot.
For sure, playing through Create: Astral with my partner atm. So many good modpacks out there that completely change the game
Thanks to you I discovered this modpack. It seems amazing!
Glad to hear it, I love the more mechanical approach to automation that Create has. Just built our first windmill
Skyrim. Still going strong after a decade
Yeah, Bethesda games in general but Skyrim is the absolute best to me. You can really fine-tune it to be your dream fantasy RPG, it’s great! On its own I would say it’s a good/decent game, but with mods it’s easily one of my favorite games ever.
Another vote for RimWorld, though I want to point out that the game is perfectly playable without mods, too. It is not uncommon to see someone with hundreds of mods, but the vanilla game is just as fun. People have logged thousands of hours without mods.
The ~700 mods in my current playthrough (and ~700 more inactive) strongly upvote this post.
One of the best goddamn games of all time, only made continuously better by folks like Owlchemist, Oskar and the Vanilla Expanded team, jptrrs … so much amazing work went into that community.
Yeah I logged hundreds of hours before I downloaded any mods, and even then I usually only do QoL ones to keep it as close to vanilla as possible
I know it’s not as rich or developed as the Fallout or Skyrim franchise, but my fun little time waste Stardew Valley is greatly enhanced by mods.
The base game is incredibly fun and simple, but even the most basic mods enhance the “quality of life”, making some of the more surface time eating elements easier. But then you have entire new world maps, NPC’s, quests and full DLC-esque mods such as STV Expanded almost a must-have for long term players.
As an FYI, I’d highly recommend the game to even the most hardcore gaming aficionados. It’s refreshingly amusing and low-key, so when Elden Ring has you ready to throw your controller at the TV, it’s a nice mental break.
Plus the guy that created it learned how from scratch and coded the whole thing solo- the source, the sprites, even the music. And every upgrade and addition he’s made over the years, easily 2-3 DLC’s themselves, he’s given away for free. Support indie devs!
I completely agreed. Stardew Valley always hit that sweetspot of looking for something hard but not TOO hard.
I am looking forward to update 1.6 since CA has said the update is more about making modding ever easier which will 100% keep this game alive for a long time through community support.
Oh my god I never knew Stardew Valley mods existed 0.o but that makes so much sense! I’ll have to try these next time I inevitably return to that game.
He’s making a game called, iirc, Haunted Chocolatier now. Who knows when that’ll come out, but I want it. :)
Edit: for people who like Stardew, I recommend Sun Haven and both Portia games (My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock). They’re all three a little rough around the edges, but I’ve had a great time with all of them, without their being clones of Stardew at all.
There are plenty of older games where running some kind of widescreen or compatibility mod to get it working on newer hardware is the only way to get it running well, but that’s kind of a boring techie answer.
In the spirit of the question, I’d say Fallout 4. The base game has a story I don’t care about, factions that make no sense, and very little in the feeling of actual threat. I usually run between 200 and 300 mods to turn it into a truly post apocalyptic hellscape with functional radiation storms, low visibility in dust storms, darker night, less HUD clutter, more ghouls, proper flashlights, retuned weapon damage so things aren’t so spongy, lots of new gear and weapons (I add in real guns but try to be tasteful and not add too much super modern tacticool stuff, but more cold war and vintage guns), backpacks, re-dress the Minutemen so they don’t look like 1776 LARPers. Add tons of new sidequests and stories to find. The world becomes, this amazing, terrifying place to just explore and forget about the main plot. Returning home to my concrete walled safe settlement and my personal bunker living space really feels earned after exploring.
Similar to FO4, I feel the same way about Skyrim. Vanilla it’s fine, but the graphics and interface QOL mods make a huge difference.
You actually make me want to revisit Fallout 4, which I didn’t think I would ever bother with again. 200+ mods is kind of crazy to me, but could you list a few of the most useful? Especially most useful that aren’t already at the top of the most endorsed/downloaded lists on the Nexus.
I’ll get back to you in a few days! Away from PC but I won’t forget.
Thank you! I’m not the person who asked but I’m interested too :)
:(
Boomer moment
Aside from the obvious minecraft… Arguably I’d say Factorio. They have a robust, feature-rich modding API built into the game that allows for relatively easy, wide ranging game play mods to be made very stable, and the number of mods has exploded as a result. The base game is amazing, but mods exist that quite literally triple the amount of game play and in some cases completely overhaul it into a totally new game. The support is amazing, and I wish more game companies could operate as efficiently as Wube does.
KSP (Kerbal Space Program) with mods changes sooo much
The mods added so much new content, that in my case, it created a “mod fatigue” situation, where I had installed so much mods that the game would start to break very easily, and I also would no longer enjoy the game for what it is. But recently, I tried playing it again, this time restraining my use of mods, and it was awesome !
Mods can be pretty good, but overmoding is quite tiring :')
The overmodding is always my downfall xD I ignore the “add one mod at a time…” advice, break everything or accidentally add something really annoying, then don’t know which mod is the problem haha
The worst, is when you begin to remove mods, and then, the real breakage of the save files begin !
Just from a percentage standpoint, the Frackin Universe modpack adds so much to the Starbound experience which is otherwise relatively simple and something you only really play through once. There’s like two or three extra Starbounds’ worth of content, although that can make it overwhelming when starting out
Tabletop Simulator and Garry’s mod is all modding, they would be very boring without it. (Tabletop might have the DLC addon content worth playing).
Cities Skylines fixes many of the broken aspects of vanilla and adds things to the point that Paradox added some of them into an enhanced console edition.
Slay the Spire, it’s already an amazing game to begin with, but mods allow it to be absolutely insane with customization and cards. Even multiplayer is supported (Together in Spire) and works quite well!
American/Euro Truck Sim has a multitude of mods that add great stuff and even more realism to the game.
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 is more or less a bog-standard shooting game without mods, but the number of crazy, funny and innovative maps for zombies gives it an insane amount of replayability.
Wait, hold on. Multiplayer Slay the Spire? Is it like playing against one another or is it cooperative? I haven’t played in a while but I have to hear more about this…
You heard right… co-operative multiplayer Slay the Spire with your friends or randos.
Together In Spire Steam Workshop
This is the one I use, supports up to 10 people at once! Enemy health scales so with two people it’s difficult, 4 people it’s pretty easy at base difficulty, any more you may want to split up into groups to not be too overpowered.
It even works kinda OK with some other mods but sometimes crashes.
tabletop sim is basically a magic the gathering emulator for me at this point
It’s ok you get to play with digital versions of the paper NFTs.
i have spent far too much money on those paper rectangles. the game’s really fun, at least
Are the Slay the Spire mods all PC only, or do some work in the mobile version?
Edit: I’m intrigued by the CoD zombies comment, too. I’ve never been into those games, but, maybe for zombies…
might be pc only sorry… It uses a ModTheSpire Java application. The mods are on Steam Workshop as well.
About CoDBO3 yeah Zombies is fun and I’m not huge on PvP FPS. Only downside is it hardly ever goes on sale and is fairly large install size (plus map mods are large too).
Minecraft has a pretty solid vanilla experience but the depth of things you can do with mods is pretty insane. I’m playing a pack right now that basically turns it into a rogue like dungeon crawler.
It’s crazy how long these modpacka have been a part of the scene. Even all the way back in 2014 I remember digging my teeth into them.
Yeah, I love modpacks like Attack of the B-Team that add a ton of crazy technology and magic mods. Building massive pipe systems and assembly lines was always my favorite part of Minecraft
Risk of Rain 2 has a fabulous mod scene, with a lot of ways to make the game more wild - both in terms of power fantasy and in terms of difficulty - as well as modding in playable characters from other games, like League of Legends and Tomb Raider.
Slay the Spire also has excellent mods, so much so that the developers worked together with a mod team to creator a fan-made expansion.
I’m not sure its fair to say “most improved” but I do believe that Deus Ex is a game everyone should play, but I do not believe it is truly playable without some content mods to get the game running properly on modern hardware.
i always recommend Deus Ex Revision. its so good
Every time I’m reminded this exists, I get excited about it, but yet I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I’ve replayed Deus Ex multiple times though, even though I don’t normally replay anything, and even though I didn’t play it for the first time until, like, a few months to a year after Human Revolution came out (no nostalgia goggles here - the game really, actually is just as good as people make it out to be. And all I put on it was a simple high resolution/widescreen mod.)
