Request for Improved User Experience

[Sharps97]

I have some recommendations for enhancements to make this tool more like a Windows app in the event that this application is ever to approach something that might be considered user friendly (especially for Windows refugees).

At a high level, too much complexity is left exposed to end users who are not sophisticated programmers and would like something that is nominally easy to use in some way, shape or form. I was unable to get this to work for Starfield because the single example for Skyrim is insufficient to explain even a fraction of what is happening here. Any deviation that is not Skyrim will ultimately lead to failure. A good UX will hide as much manual intervention as possible.

Some examples from what I saw before I was forced to give up on this application:

Consider having supported applications and default templates for out of the box click and run support. You don't need to hit everything on the first release, but covering things like most Bethesda games might be a good start. Manually adding applications should only be a contingency process for unsupported games.

Consider removing staging directory as a user input (especially for supported games) and create an automated default by supported game. Most users will not understand the concept of a staging directory and even with verbose instructions are very likely to make significant errors here.

Consider removing command as a user input. This doesn't make sense based on the instructions provided and is something that should be automated by the application anyway.

Import from Steam should continue to expand the number of games with template options (per one of my above recommendations).

Sandboxing and flatpak vs. repository installation is nonsensical for most users in general (the exception being long-term Linux professionals / developers). The application installation should by default detect flatpak vs. non-flatpak installation of all dependencies and download, install, and run scripts to extend permissions and access to file locations automatically. Additionally, the use of supported game templates should automatically generate and organize required scripts to enhance ease of use since most end users of mod managers are not going to understand how to manually create scripts or what they are supposed to be used for.

Deployers should be removed for user input for supported games as the concept will be nonsensical to most end users. Manually creating deployers should be limited to unsupported games without templates. Requiring multiple deployers for a single games makes even less sense. This requirement in and of itself is likely to lead to significant amounts of failures for end users.

Hopefully some of these ideas can be used to significantly improve accessibility for not only this application but for mod managers on Linux in general. To date I believe there are precisely 0 working mod managers on the platform (I have not be able to successfully leverage a single one), so this seems like a great opportunity to improve the user experience.

[duran55]

Overall I agree with your post: too much complexity is exposed to end users.

To date I believe there are precisely 0 working mod managers on the platform

Check these two:
ammo - CLI only. I am using it and it's working fine.
skyrimLinuxModManager - GUI. No FOMOD support currently (probably a dealbreaker).

So in the end Limo is still best choice in GUI category of linux mod managers.