This July, the Baldur’s Gate 3 Modding Community will be hosting a month-long Modathon!
Every week, 2-3 mod authors will be randomly selected by the event hosts to win a Steam Key. You can find more information on the modathon, including how to enter, its requirements, rules, prizes, and more, take a look here.
None of this would be possible without such an incredibly skilled and creative BG3 modding community. You’ve made an already incredible game even more enjoyable, and we love seeing you all come together like this to showcase your talents further. A shoutout as well to all the organisers of this event: NellsRelo, Jerinski, Kaz, and Khbsd, a lot of great effort and work was put into this by them.
TheLoveKing will also be covering the modathon over on his YouTube channel. He’ll be reviewing each mod in its own showcase video, before rounding up the top 5 BG3 mods at the end of the event. So make sure to check out his channel for some great insights and reviews on each of the entries.
What is a Modathon?
For those new to modding, a modathon is an open competition where anyone can participate and create mods. There are different achievement categories you can enter, whether you want to create mods on your own or collaborate with other modders. There’s something for everyone to showcase their creativity and skill, and, of course, to just have fun.
Message from the event organisers:
Baldur's Gate 3 is a game that has more than earned its reputation as one of the best modern RPGs, and it's captured the hearts and minds of gamers, writers, and other creatives all across the world. It hit home in ways few games in recent history have been able to, with intricate narrative pathways and a solid cast to follow.
Now just under a year after the game's full release, the modding scene is thriving. While it's still got a ways to go before reaching the amount of mods that you see with Bethesda games, mod authors have carved out spaces to collaborate with each other and share their knowledge. With all that, and official Modding Tools and support on the horizon, it seems like the right time to take the modding scene even further and start what should be the first of many Baldur's Gate 3 Modathons - organized by the Modding Community, for the Modding Community.
Throughout the entire month of July, any mod author can submit new BG3 mods to Nexus Mods, and each achievement badges and be entered into weekly raffles. All you have to do is submit a mod to Nexus, use the July Modathon 2024 tag, and add the Modathon header into your mod description! With 115 achievements to earn and weekly themed challenges to explore, we hope this will be a fun way for Mod Authors to flex their creativity and collaborate with other authors. See our Forum post for more details and a list of all available achievements, and follow along throughout the month to see a list of participating mods!
If this approach seems familiar, you may be recognizing it from the Morrowind Modathons - we're aiming to handle the Modathon in a similar if not nearly identical approach, as it's really set the standard for an exciting, successful, and fun event.
If you'd like to participate, leave a short note in your mod description on Nexus, including "Part of the July Modathon" somewhere near the top of your description, add the Modathon header, and/or use the Modathon 2024 Tag (this one makes it harder to slip through the cracks!). Don't worry about skill level - whether you're a seasoned modder or have only just begun your journey, we'd love to see what you create!
Our Forum post has all the rules, as well as the link to the Modding Wiki for those looking to get started modding. And of course, feel free to check out the BG3 Modding Community Discord to get in touch with a growing community of Mod Authors!
Here's to many more years of Modding :)
24 comments
pages worth of mods and I have been rewriting the same thing over and
over again I just copy and paste it now as a warning with some
background instructions to get started as smoothly as possible and have
it stay that way without breaking your game, or worse, your progress.
There's a lot you gotta do before you install even your first mod.
use BG3 Mod Manager not vortex to install the mods and use that to
help manage your mods, especially if you're going to be using as many as
120+ which I have running.
Pay attention to the instructions per mod. You need to make sure the
"load order" is correct. Some mods require to be loaded before others.
Don't just go installing all of them at once. Test a few at a time
or waste all your time to find out your game won't even start. Worse
yet, having a series of save files corrupted or unable to start because
you either updated a mod with a bug or deleted a mod that your run
requires. Which mod needs to reverting to previous mods? That's why they
have 'old files' in their download list for that exact reason. Save
often, test often, don't go overboard. Happened to me a few times. One
run, act 3, newbie, lost all my progress. This run, lost 100hrs,
couldn't figure it out but a save from 100 hours ago loaded. Didn't play
for about 2 weeks I was so pissed. Just today, I had a corrupt save
file again, but this time I knew it must have been one of the last 3
mods I updated to newer versions. Figured it out, loaded up, filed a bug
report with the modder.
There will be requirements for mods. When you hit download or files,
you'll be prompted with a window that may say "these mods are required
for this mod to work." Some are from Nexus but one or two you have to
hard read the instructions from a GitHub user which the mod page will
refer you to such as Norbyte's Script Extender and one other I can't
remember, just make sure to pay attention to the instructions.
(in BG3 Mod Manager you can just CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + T to have the
mod manager download and install it for you)
Once you get that all out of the way you just hit import from the
mod manager and just have it open the zip file you downloaded and it
will manage the load order and install the mod in the right directory.
Final step before closing the BG3 Mod Manager is to click Save
Load Order to File and then a few icons over, Export Order to Game.
Final Final step would be to test out a couple of mods to see if all
is well.
Some mods like texture quality or dialogue quality or otherwise
media related mods will require you to copy them to specific places.
Take care and have fun!
P.S. to help increase FPS make sure to have as many background
processes or programs closed and add --skip-launcher to your steam's
BG3's Properties > Launch options. People have reported it helps the
game run a bit more smoothly without it running in the background.
I had to completely uninstall and reinstall, so I could do a campaign with my friends who don't use mods. :(
Then, go to your mod manager (don't know how vortex works but we're trying to export the mod selection and load order here) so in mod manager, you have the option to export and backup your mods. you've essentially already backed them up by backing up those two folders, Baldur's Gate 3 and Larian Studios, you can just export the load order so you can re-import them later although I have enough space to just back up the paks, mods, as well anyway just for redundancy's sake.
Now, re-download the game from scratch and do the entire process all over again but instead, call you back up folder BG3 FRESH INSTALL BACKUP or something like that and since it's new without mods you don't have to worry about the mods part, just back up the fresh install.
Then, once it's backed up, delete both the newly download Baldur's Gate 3 directory within Steam's directory as well as AppData\Local\Larian Studios.
Go back to your original backups and copy back your current game as it was and go back to playing.
This way you can switch between a clean unmodded version, and your current version but you'll have to follow these steps every time you switch, especially if you add new mods and all that or in the unmodded fresh install, you start using compatible mods with multiplayer you can then have a 3rd back up that you can include in the alternations.
It's a pain in the ass but it works. You saves are included in the back ups, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DISABLING STEAM CLOUD SAVES, this may interfere with your fresh installs or otherwise.
Also, the more frequently you back up whichever backup you're playing from and something goes awry with your mods, you can have peace of mind knowing that you won't lose hundreds of hours of game time.
Peace.
Honestly, I can't wait to start using mods for this amazing game, but I've managed to exert self-discipline, and I won't be installing any until Larian has essentially completed the patching process.