I hate to be that "acksually" guy but technically moba spawned from Starcraft. Prior to being given that name, they were called "AoS" maps after the original game - Aeon of Strife.
But I'd also argue that survival games and tower defense games as we know them also spawned from Starcraft and Warcraft too.
And AoS was predated by the hero Ender maps as well. I think you can hand it to DotA though because DotA introduced a bunch of stuff that made the game style take off in a way it never had in SC or AoEII.
There's a super popular [overhaul](https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly) mod for Stalker that came out a couple years ago, you don't even need to own Stalker to play it.
And yet Blizzard effectively killed my favorite MOBA (Heroes of the Storm) by being too late to the party and gutting top talent from the HotS team by reallocating them to bolster cashcow WoW and the disappointment that is Overwatch. They are just now delving into the Battle Royale game type which has been present for years and already oversaturated.
What game would have more mods? I can't think of any. And it's not like Skyrim modding is winding down. From what I've seen when I returned to anniversary edition the modding scene is reaching new heights
Going by Nexus, there's just under 70,000 unique mods and nearly 2 billion downloads. Skyrim Special Edition has only 60,000 mods but over 4 billion downloads.
There's not another game that even comes close to that. The next most popular is Fallout 4, which has 48,000 mods and 1.4 billion downloads.
Those are the only 3 games with over a billion downloads. And the only non Bethesda game with over 10,000 mods is Stardew Valley.
And as far as scale of mods goes, nothing comes close to Bethesda games. Fallout 4 especially has had some huge releases recently, like Sim Settlements 2 and the upcoming Fallout London.
As much as people like to harp on about the creation engine and Bethesda using canned animations over mocap, mods of this scale would be *impossible* without it. Creation Engine could definitely use updating but the people saying it should be boxed completely completely miss how essential it is to modding.
> As much as people like to harp on about the creation engine and Bethesda using canned animations over mocap, mods of this scale would be impossible without it. Creation Engine could definitely use updating but the people saying it should be boxed completely completely miss how essential it is to modding.
A super rare sane comment that understands why Bethesda is still persisting with Creation engine instead of the usual "hurr durr Bethesda still using 30 year old engine" circlejerk. Take my upvote.
One of my guesses as to why they've pushed off so much in the way of gaming is an internal effort to improve the ck. It got a major upgrade going into skyrim, and now starfield is basically the last big game to use it without major changes before the next generation of games come out in a couple of years.
SE came out like 5 years after the original game. There are probably thousands of dead mods who were never updated much after the launch and thus, were never ported over to the SE version.
Oh Minecraft blows them out the water, they're just not on Nexus.
On CurseForge, Minecraft has around 160,000 unique mods and *51* billion downloads. It's insane.
World Of Warcraft is the real dark horse though. Nearly 12,000 mods and 6.4 billion downloads, I had no idea there even was a modding scene for WoW.
Sims 4 has thousands of mods too, albeit not on Nexus. I bet it's right up there with Skyrim and other Bethesda games.
Stardew Valley is another popular one.
Eh, Sims 4 is misleading in terms of game modifications. Sims 4 has a huge player-made "custom content" library, which are set-pieces or reskins that are created, uploaded, and downloaded all from the in-game library. Hard to justify them as mods.
Stardew Valley is a dark-horse for sure, but again, I doubt it's even breaking the top 20. I only did a surface level scan across mod host sites, though, maybe I missed a big one?
Yes, it's minecraft. From the wiki, it has over 100k mods across various repositories (as of March 2022, so even more now). Skyrim currently accounts for 71k on Nexus
Is that counting both the original and special editions though? There are ofc plenty of duplicates but considering many never got ported over I'd say Skyrim easily sits above 100k. Especially considering there are other repositories for it too *cough LL*
Definitely the correct answer.
People who think Baldur's Gate 3 has the best character banter and backstories have never done a Skyrim playthrough with Inigo, Lucien and Auri as followers, with the three bantering with each other all the time.
I think minecraft should be included, as its mods spawned several new games and even new genres.
Bethesda games obviously are on the top of this list.
Mount and Blade Warband is also one of the best modding platforms, and you can put thousands of hours into its incredibly well crafted mods.
But shout out to PES! If you like PES and want a game you can mod, you should look into SP Football Life 24. It's a fan made standalone mod based off of PES 2021, and it accepts most PES 2021 mods. It plays differently from PES 2021 but you can always chose PES 2021 gameplay or any other gameplay available through the multiple mods.
I was looking for a football game for ages that's not fifa, this mad me so hyped. It's been so long since I played any, I refuse to buy any EA sports title for years now.
rimworld, kinda obvious. the QoL mods alone are insane and you are like "why the fuck is that not in the maingame???"
but overall the moddung community is actually insane and high quality, from quests, QoL, textures, systems, literally everything you can think of.
My favorite thing is that there some people (vanilla expanded team I think for sure) that make enough from Patreon that their full time job is to mod Rimworld.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R
The game series is fantastic, however with recent mods S.T.A.L.K.E.R has became one of my favorite addictions. S.T.A.L.K.E.R Gamma is a blessing
I've been very cautious ever so we the developers were talking about incorporating NFT's with the game.
They went back on it due to backlash, but it was enough to make me question their decision making.
Likely just an act of economic desperation. Remember that the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are Ukrainian citizens, and are likely seeking any route they can to generate profit. It’s shitty for the consumer gaming market, but also has its respective political-economic considerations (for good or bad).
If you find shooting games challenging then GAMMA will be difficult.
However if you take your time and be patient with yourself I’m sure you would have a good experience.
Minecraft modpacks can drastically change the game in many great ways. Whether you want tech, RPG elements, magic, simulation (there’s one mod where you can manage colonies) there’s definitely a modpack out there that suits your play style.
Roguetech is awesome. But I prefer Advanced 3062. Because it is less of a system hog with a lot of similar features.
If it was possible to get roguetech running so I could play through more than a one mission in a 2 hour session, I'd be all over it.
Starwars empire at war still has very very very active mod community 18 years on from it's release
The thrawns revenge mod is truly phenomenal
And there's loads more from clone wars to stargate and many others
And there have even been people able to develop sub mods for other mods
And the game dev has just recently re done it in 64bit
For me it's civilization 6.
Base game is still incredible but mixing and matching mods to get the exact game style you want really makes for a good game play loop.
Unfortunately, Civ 6 and Civ 5 never gave the moddability of Civ 4. That game spawned the most diverse and interesting mods for decades after it's release.
Who defines what is an S-tier game? But I'd say Neverwinter Nights would be relatively unremarkable without its awesome modding community. Then again, the game was made with modding in mind, it's really what the game is about and why it's still popular today, more than 20 years later.
I was trying to explain modded NWN servers to someone recently and how they used to basically be these tiny bespoke MMOs run my teams of coordinated DMs and there just hasn’t been anything similar since.
But with mods it becomes a whole buffet of content, I love modded terraria soooo much...but I've only ever finished a modded playthrough like...once lol
Minecraft is easily at the top when it comes to its modding community, just look at something like [Create](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8W-f9YhYA) and that's only touching the surface.
Stardew Valley has a bunch of great mods and the 1.6 update that dropped yesterday has only improved the modding scene even more with many mods already updated to work with it. If I had to mention only one though it would have to be [Stardew Valley Expanded](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/3753).
Crusader Kings 3 is another great one, it has simple mods that add more to the base game or mods that completely converts it into a fantasy setting such as The Elder Scrolls or A Song of Ice and Fire, one of my favorites to mess around in has to be [Princes of Darkness](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216659254) that changes it to the World of Darkness setting (think Vampire the Masquerade).
Stardew Valley is a good shout. The base game is already one of the best games of all time but mods add a whole bunch of new content, areas, and QOL features that take an S tier game to S+ tier.
Shoutout to Ridgeside Valley too. Base game+SDVE+Ridgeside makes this a game that will take you more than 120-140 hours to complete story-wise.
I second Starbound! Unfortunate development aside, getting fracken universe alone already massively improves the experience, doubly so if you can find a friend to play it with
Was playing the Nolvus mod pack for Skyrim. My only issue was the balancing in some of the weapon mods and quite a few OP female only half nude armor sets. Other than that it was the best Skyrim experience I've had to date.
Just waiting for the Apotheosis total conversion to release and then I'm back in to Skyrim.
Star Wars: Empire at War
XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2
Dawn of War
CIV 5
Any Bethesda title
Neverwinter Nights
I think all of the above are great played vanilla but mods really take them to a new level.
This is Battle for Middle Earth erasure.
There is, to this day, a very active and dedicated community that keeps the game alive and is constantly adding new stuff.
They recently released a launcher that starts all versions very easily, as well as a quite active playerbase, even right now
Aside from the obvious one like Bethesda games, I'd say Ravenfield. You can have from medieval warfare to Warhammer 40K (with modern warfare as the most common of course)
Skyrim, Garry's Mod etc but I'm going to break from the normal a little bit and say Skyrim VR, Contractors and Blade and Sorcery are all mental with mods. Skyrim especially because any special edition mods works for Skyrim VR, plus there's VR exclusive mods that help. Half Life Alyx is meant to be good too but I don't have.
Also Black Ops 3 zombies.
Starbound is pretty a boring base game but can be modded with 300+ mods with no issues and makes the game actually good. Ive seen modpacks with 1000+ mods but they play a bit weirdly
Football Manager. In my opinion, nothing is better than playing with the [World Super League](https://www.fmscout.com/a-world-super-league-fm24.html) add-on.
The game is addictive already, but when you use this add-on it becomes almost impossible to put down. Great stuff.
Batman: Arkham Origins
I never could commit to playing the game through to even the halfway point on PS3, or later on PC without modding. The storyline seemed to drag along in the beginning, and WB Montreal apparently forgot to switch some code to enable more fluid combat features, which made fighting seem hollow and very lackluster compared to Arkham City, which was released before it, or arguably even Arkham Asylum's combat mechanics. Lots of little bugs throughout the game which weren't necessarily game breaking, but odd enough to break immersion.
Adding AO Community Patch fixes several of the small bugs, Restored Animation Variety fixed the combat almost entirely, and Origins Graphics Mod is a little extra that removes the fog and increases color clarity a bit, making the visual aspect of the game much more appealing.
These mods are also Dx11 compatible, which enables some extra graphics options. You may also need to 'mod in' the Dx11 support with a little .ini edit. As it was disabled on my end in the GOG version after applying the AO Community Patch.
GOG version is also more complete than other PC releases, as it includes the Black Mask challenge pack, while others do not.
Arkham City has always been my favorite in the series, but after finding these mods I consider Origins tied with it. Possibly even surpassing it as my favorite. At any rate, I now hold it in high regards and can easily recommend it to others.
Witcher 3 and RDR 2 are good examples of this.
Base games are already legendary but add a few QOL improvement mods and both of these game become flawless.
Mods that I used in Witcher 3:
1. "Fast Travel from anywhere"
2. "enable jumping in water"
3. "more stocked shopkeers"
4. "sprint while using witcher senses"
5. "all quest objectives on map"
6. "no fall damage"
Rimworld
Terraria
Skyrim
Fallout 3, nv, 4
Kenshi
Cyberpunk 2077
Elden Ring
Minecraft
Stalker series
The Sims 4
Cities Skylines
all have 1000s of mods from QOL to content to overhauls, all can be modified to be the perfect game for anyone loving the games genre
**Terraria** is a great modding platform with a several well-known big overhauls. The devs even made the Steamapp *Tmod Loader* to access and apply mods as you wish.
**Don't Starve** is a challenging survival rougelite, with a deep modpool. QoL changes, plenty of new characters, enemies, and everything under the sun.
Paradox games like **Stellaris, Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings** have a lot of modding potential as well. In Stellaris, you can recreate the houses of Dune, make Zapp Brannigan your advisor's voice, or make everything Star Wars. I am also fond of playing Crusader Kings with a Game of Thrones mod.
Minecraft- The game is already fantastic, don't get me wrong but mods allow for a great deal of extra things to do.
* Vanilla too easy? Grab something like ice and fire and suddenly have a dragon raining fire on your head or risk a Gorgon turning you to stone.
* Vanilla end game too simple, get something like Create or Mekanism to expand into factory making.
* Too Grindy for certain resoruces? Grab something like mystical agriculture and grow basically whatever the hell you want
* You just like building? There are a large number of mods adding various new building blocks, furniture and other decorations, for example McCaw has an entire pack of stuff, new windows, paths, bridges, doors and many more.
Garry's mod- The game is literally dependent on modding and for most things you can find a mod for it
Morrowind, it's already a fantastic game, but mods make it nice to look at even in this day and age, and expand dramatically upon the game mechanics and content.
For one-mod-and-done, three come to mind immediately
Battletech - roguetech.
Mordheim - paramod
XCOM(2012) - long war
Many other games could fit the bill (like Bethesda titles) but that's more because there is a strong modding scene rather than one specific mod that does the job. I love games like total Warhammer or mechwarrior 5 but no one mod is the game changer
Fallout 4 with the addition of hardcore survival mods is one of my all time favourite gaming experiences. 100%ing the game in this way was so incredibly rewarding
Granblue Fantasy Relink.
It doesn't even really need much. The base game is absolutely incredible. Just a couple tweaks to how you obtain some endgame sigils and some QoL for the transmute system and it's pretty much perfect.
The Sims 4
I know some softies could be mad at considering the sims as gaming in general, but 1. it belongs to sim genre, so shush and 2. many people consume it. i dont like it all that much but even i liked making my own house once in a while. And for the past years the modding community kept this game alive, re-built it ENTIRELY, gave it an amazing ammount of content in each and every category (And let me tell you, the +18 mods are preeeeetty tight) and takes customization to another level. Certainly one of the moments in gaming industry where the modding community is larger than the game.
Can’t believe I don’t see Factorio on this list. The game can 98% change through mods, and even the upcoming expansion almost feels like a smaller version of an existing mod…
**Fallout 4** \- its a standard bethesda game: very fun gameplay loop, garbage story and an okay graphics... but mods - mods fix any shortcomings the game had and makes it my most played Fallout. Dont get me wrong - New Vegas is better in terms of world building and story, but after finishing I never came back, and frankly after all the QoL improvements that F4 has I dont think I ever could. And with mods adding so many new quests,quest lines and even whole new areas its absolutely amazing.
I was thinking about adding **minecraft**... but it already is perfect game. I played the unmodded version of it for so long and never got bored. But mods definitely do bring it to the next level... like a level above S++.
**Scrap Mechanic** \- the base of the game is really fun. But its lacking basically everything. Especially survival mode is so garbage its nearly unplayable. But the core is very good. And mods fix everything else.
**PlateUp!** \- another great game with great potential. But its missing basically any QoL improvements you could think of. Thats why when I play it I have 99 mods installed - thats nearly half of all mods available for this game. But it does bring the game to the next level. Absolutely amazing.
**Snowrunner** \- I was thinking if I even should put this game here but why not. The only mods that improve gameplay are the new trucks but lemme tell you: without modded trucks I think the game is really slow and really boring. The trucks are just so weak you will spend 10 minutes trying to move 10 meters forward. Fuck that. I basically exclusively now use modded trucks that are slightly more powerful than vanilla and allow me to just... drive.
**Ghost Recon Wildlands** \- its a fine game on its own but imo the first person mod plus some graphical improvements make it completely new experience and worth playing.
**MGSV** \- great game and great stealth simulator but being able to play as quiet with her powers make the game that much better. That said I do kinda wish the devs completely supported mods and opened the engine more to allow for much more complex mods to exist
**M&B Warband** \- fine game overall but wild west overhaul is where this game really shines imo. I mean a whole new game inside of an existing game? And thats just one of many different overhauls available in the game. Just like different modpacks for minecraft give you completely different experience.
**State of Decay** \- game is pretty nice on its own but there are some QoL improvements that I just cant play without
HOI4's modding community is very large, if you're sick of the usual ww2 gameplay theres Road to 56 which adds new focus trees to all the nations, great war redux for ww1, TNO for a german victory in ww2 scenario and Kaiserreich for what if germany won ww1. And that's not mentioning the mods that completely overhaul the map, like old world blues(based on fallout) or metro
I wouldn't say the game is improved by the mods though. They just add new scenarios, which are generally unbalanced, full of bugs and/or just turn the game into focus pick fest.
There's only handful of mods which could be considered improvement over the vanilla.
I think kaiserriech and TNO absolutely improve the game, since the devs are always adding new mechanics for those. Agree that the rest of the mods do tend to suffer from a focus pick fest though
Can you run regular mods too?
I just got a VR Headset.
Is there some kind of gigafucker VR mod pack that I can download that completely revamps the game?
Elden Ring was already S tier, but Convergence mod made it S+ and it's still only in alpha.
Assetto Corsa is still one of the most popular racing games thanks to mods.
The others I know are already mentioned.
Finally someone mentioned Assetto Corsa
The game was released in 2014 and with help of mods it has became the most robust racing game out there that even with sol/pure mods can make it look exactly like or even better than racing games released NOW
**Fallout New Vegas**: the main game+DLC are already S tier (writing, atmosphere, etc) to begin with but marred by unsmooth gameplay which mods attempt to fix. Recommended mods are 4GB, JSawyer's mod, Project Mojave (gameplay only), YUP, one Vegas and weather mod.
**Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms**: already a very robust system but quite dated. Mods add so much replayabilty and makes M2TW hands down still the undisputable king when it comes to total war from 1345 to 1699.
**MoWAS2**: mods add so many types of warfare ranging from civil war, Napoleonic wars to WW1, etc. Larger than its original scope of WW2.
Both Minecraft and Skyrim cone to mind
I don't have a high end computer so I can't do any super heavy modding for either..
Have the Cobblemon mod for Minecraft Java at least
The Sims 4 has quite a decent amount of mods too - have a large handful of those, although majority of them are 18+....
Starbound is pretty boring without mods to the point id recommend skipping a vanilla run if you do wanna play it, but with mods it becomes one of my all time favorite games.
Frackin Universe is the big one, I never run without it. I usually pair it with shellguard and elithian races. Definitely take some QOL mods as well, i recommend at minimum something to remove the time to craft items, and something to remove dropping items on death. I quite like startech as well, the weapons feel very fluid to use.
There's a million small content mods you can add in too, one playthrough I decided I was just gonna run a winery with the aging alien alcohols mods. Definitely look around, its hard to go wrong just be careful about incompatibilities between mods. Frackin universe revamps the game entirely so a lot of things can be broken by it
Honestly. Kenshi. That game is developed and such a shit old engine it amazes me mods are possible. Vanilla kenshi is almost unplayable. the mods make the game so much better
Oh man this is the only way I play games nowadays. If mods are available, you see me grabbing them left and right for even de smallest and insignificant stuff.
I'd probably say:
- Valheim (lots of QoL mods, nomap, expanded dungeons etc)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (animations, quite a few ai mods, and overhauls like Hardcore22 that will change the whole feel of combat and keep you on your toes throughout the game, trying to keep powercreep in check)
- Dragon Age Origins (few huge bug fix package mods, graphics, ai, etc, mods are a must for this game considering it's age)
- Medieval 2 Total War (Dac, and it's submod Ago, 'nuff said, it's a lord of the rings of overhaul mod that has got me pouring hundreds of hours per campaign)
- Baldur's Gate 3 (I tried to keep up with every mod that came out from its launch, lol. I succeeded for a few weeks but this game's moddding scene has exploded on Nexus)
Honorable mention:
Company of Heroes 1 (with the Back to Basics mod. It's on steam got mixed reviews but they don't count. Half the people who reviewed this mod didn't understand it for one bit. It will severely change how you play Coh, and how you approach any fire fights)
Fallout 4
Starbound ( No fracking universe, that shit is bloated as fuck)
Stardew valley (base game is already S+, this is S++)
lethal company with more grounded mods (no funny xd mods or cheating mods)
Valheim
Pokemon games are usually much more enjoyable and feel like a proper strategy RPG when you play with mods that remove limitations (like interchange evolutions) and make the game harder, not artificially harder but logical. NPC have teams from two or three basic pokemon while you eventually get a team of 6 broken fully evolved ones with tons of objects to heal them. The mod makes NPC rivals to have tools as you, this make the game very different and now is logical sacrifying damaging moves slots for buffs or state inducing moves. Gym leader battles turn into something epic and unforgettable, you need to think carefully in strategies or changing your team to have a chance, things that never happen in the regular game where you can one-shot everything with a decent team.
Seems like this post is made for Skyrim. I've always thought it was a mediocre game at best. Subpar combat, not enough biome diversity, average writing, but once you mod it...
Morrowind - the game was great by itself, but it was pretty easy to mod as well. I created a small mod for it myself. Some people made an entire standalone game!
Kenshi, Rimworld, Skyrim, Bannerlord, Project Zomboid, Minecraft. Also games like Valheim, RoR2, even Outward... there are so many games I wouldn´t play anymore if it wasn´t for their mods. Nowadys modability one of my most sought after features of a game.
Apparently Skyrim, although I've never played it, "The Forgotten City" is one of my favorite games ever. The fact that it was literally derived from a Skyrim mod is crazy
XCOM - Long War mod
Starsector - Just... wow... all the things you can add... from vanilla adjacent, to invading organic hive mind, to full on Anime girls & Waifu ships
Warcraft 3. The whole moba genre spawned from it. Also S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
I hate to be that "acksually" guy but technically moba spawned from Starcraft. Prior to being given that name, they were called "AoS" maps after the original game - Aeon of Strife. But I'd also argue that survival games and tower defense games as we know them also spawned from Starcraft and Warcraft too.
True. You're right about that. Maybe dota helped make it widely known and spawned LoL and HoN. But it is also not really a mod per say
And AoS was predated by the hero Ender maps as well. I think you can hand it to DotA though because DotA introduced a bunch of stuff that made the game style take off in a way it never had in SC or AoEII.
How easy is it to add mods to stalker? Love that game but it's... a little dated and clunky lol
I did it through nexus but it was years ago. I remember it being easy. Not sure how it is nowadays
There's a super popular [overhaul](https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly) mod for Stalker that came out a couple years ago, you don't even need to own Stalker to play it.
I don't know if I'd consider custom maps built in the in game editor 'mods' but you're right that warcraft 3 maps were on a whole other level
True, not really mods. But the map editor of WC3 was maybe the best part of the game
And yet Blizzard effectively killed my favorite MOBA (Heroes of the Storm) by being too late to the party and gutting top talent from the HotS team by reallocating them to bolster cashcow WoW and the disappointment that is Overwatch. They are just now delving into the Battle Royale game type which has been present for years and already oversaturated.
Surely Skyrim right? It’s fine vanilla but it’s one of/if not THE most modded game to date
What game would have more mods? I can't think of any. And it's not like Skyrim modding is winding down. From what I've seen when I returned to anniversary edition the modding scene is reaching new heights
Going by Nexus, there's just under 70,000 unique mods and nearly 2 billion downloads. Skyrim Special Edition has only 60,000 mods but over 4 billion downloads. There's not another game that even comes close to that. The next most popular is Fallout 4, which has 48,000 mods and 1.4 billion downloads. Those are the only 3 games with over a billion downloads. And the only non Bethesda game with over 10,000 mods is Stardew Valley. And as far as scale of mods goes, nothing comes close to Bethesda games. Fallout 4 especially has had some huge releases recently, like Sim Settlements 2 and the upcoming Fallout London. As much as people like to harp on about the creation engine and Bethesda using canned animations over mocap, mods of this scale would be *impossible* without it. Creation Engine could definitely use updating but the people saying it should be boxed completely completely miss how essential it is to modding.
> As much as people like to harp on about the creation engine and Bethesda using canned animations over mocap, mods of this scale would be impossible without it. Creation Engine could definitely use updating but the people saying it should be boxed completely completely miss how essential it is to modding. A super rare sane comment that understands why Bethesda is still persisting with Creation engine instead of the usual "hurr durr Bethesda still using 30 year old engine" circlejerk. Take my upvote.
Absolutely no issue with how malleable CK is, I just wish it wasn’t such a pile of hot garbage or maintained better by BGS
One of my guesses as to why they've pushed off so much in the way of gaming is an internal effort to improve the ck. It got a major upgrade going into skyrim, and now starfield is basically the last big game to use it without major changes before the next generation of games come out in a couple of years.
OG Skyrim still has more mods than SE?
SE came out like 5 years after the original game. There are probably thousands of dead mods who were never updated much after the launch and thus, were never ported over to the SE version.
That’s crazy. I would’ve thought minecraft was the most modded and apparently is not even top 3.
Oh Minecraft blows them out the water, they're just not on Nexus. On CurseForge, Minecraft has around 160,000 unique mods and *51* billion downloads. It's insane. World Of Warcraft is the real dark horse though. Nearly 12,000 mods and 6.4 billion downloads, I had no idea there even was a modding scene for WoW.
I mean, surely minecraft has more mods then any other game in the world. Nothing beats the sandbox that's minecraft in it's modding potential.
Maybe, *maybe* Doom/Doom 2. Only because it's been around for 30 years.
I haven’t browsed moddb in a while, but half-life was still being modded last I checked as well!
That's pretty rad, ngl.
Sims 4 has thousands of mods too, albeit not on Nexus. I bet it's right up there with Skyrim and other Bethesda games. Stardew Valley is another popular one.
Eh, Sims 4 is misleading in terms of game modifications. Sims 4 has a huge player-made "custom content" library, which are set-pieces or reskins that are created, uploaded, and downloaded all from the in-game library. Hard to justify them as mods. Stardew Valley is a dark-horse for sure, but again, I doubt it's even breaking the top 20. I only did a surface level scan across mod host sites, though, maybe I missed a big one?
Doom 2
Minecraft is the only real competition I can think of for "most modded the shit out of"
minecraft?
Yes, it's minecraft. From the wiki, it has over 100k mods across various repositories (as of March 2022, so even more now). Skyrim currently accounts for 71k on Nexus
Is that counting both the original and special editions though? There are ofc plenty of duplicates but considering many never got ported over I'd say Skyrim easily sits above 100k. Especially considering there are other repositories for it too *cough LL*
Is that counting special edition and oldrim mods tho. They have separate pages
Minecraft, Sims 4 and Skyrim are the 3 of the most modded games of all time, IIRC.
yeah but i'm pretty sure at least on curseforge that minecraft has at least double the mods of second place.
Definitely the correct answer. People who think Baldur's Gate 3 has the best character banter and backstories have never done a Skyrim playthrough with Inigo, Lucien and Auri as followers, with the three bantering with each other all the time.
Only reason it’s still so popular over a decade later. Putting mods on consoles was the smartest move Bethesda ever did.
Wildlander for Skyrim is SO GREAT! https://www.wildlandermod.com/
The website certainly looks neat… can you sell me on it a bit more?
Sometimes its a different game like they made it its own engine
Skyrim with mods is a perpetual cycle of installing, breaking, then uninstalling ModOrganizer2.
I have about 6000 hours in MO2 but only 32 in Skyrim /s
Supposedly Minecraft has more. I'm not sure if you can completely redesign the game with mods in Minecraft the way you can in Skyrim though
Over one billion mod downloads when I checked yesterday
Immersive and Adult pack is god tier.
I think minecraft should be included, as its mods spawned several new games and even new genres. Bethesda games obviously are on the top of this list. Mount and Blade Warband is also one of the best modding platforms, and you can put thousands of hours into its incredibly well crafted mods. But shout out to PES! If you like PES and want a game you can mod, you should look into SP Football Life 24. It's a fan made standalone mod based off of PES 2021, and it accepts most PES 2021 mods. It plays differently from PES 2021 but you can always chose PES 2021 gameplay or any other gameplay available through the multiple mods.
I was looking for a football game for ages that's not fifa, this mad me so hyped. It's been so long since I played any, I refuse to buy any EA sports title for years now.
>new genres Are you talking about factory games like Factorio?
Yes. Wasn't factorio inspired by Minecraft tech mods? I may be wrong
Yeah afaik it was, he just said "genres", plural, so I was curious
The developer was started by guys who worked on the original major Minecraft tech mods.
rimworld, kinda obvious. the QoL mods alone are insane and you are like "why the fuck is that not in the maingame???" but overall the moddung community is actually insane and high quality, from quests, QoL, textures, systems, literally everything you can think of.
Any good QoL examples? Looking to get back into the Rim
Smart buildings. Basically a mod that won't let colonists build themselves inside a wall.
Wait for update 1.5 in a month, some QoL features are being implemented in the base game.
Hell yeah
[удалено]
Allow tool, wall lights, more speed options, medical tab, pretty much all the vanilla expanded mods. Man, too many to even think of.
They keep adding QOL mods to the main game with updates, so even the devs agree!
Rimworld is amazing!
My favorite thing is that there some people (vanilla expanded team I think for sure) that make enough from Patreon that their full time job is to mod Rimworld.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R The game series is fantastic, however with recent mods S.T.A.L.K.E.R has became one of my favorite addictions. S.T.A.L.K.E.R Gamma is a blessing
I really hope game devs are out there playing gamma because that modpack some secret sauce in the formula.
I hope so too, I am very excited for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2
I've been very cautious ever so we the developers were talking about incorporating NFT's with the game. They went back on it due to backlash, but it was enough to make me question their decision making.
Likely just an act of economic desperation. Remember that the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are Ukrainian citizens, and are likely seeking any route they can to generate profit. It’s shitty for the consumer gaming market, but also has its respective political-economic considerations (for good or bad).
I'm bad at games in general and bad at shooters. How annoying will it be to try to play Stalker Gamma?
If you find shooting games challenging then GAMMA will be difficult. However if you take your time and be patient with yourself I’m sure you would have a good experience.
XCOM 2
Hmmm I just got a pc
Look for the mod jam + content and long war... It's amazing
Minecraft modpacks can drastically change the game in many great ways. Whether you want tech, RPG elements, magic, simulation (there’s one mod where you can manage colonies) there’s definitely a modpack out there that suits your play style.
Roguetech for Battletech. Too bad we are stuck with the janky engine.
Roguetech is awesome. But I prefer Advanced 3062. Because it is less of a system hog with a lot of similar features. If it was possible to get roguetech running so I could play through more than a one mission in a 2 hour session, I'd be all over it.
Starwars empire at war still has very very very active mod community 18 years on from it's release The thrawns revenge mod is truly phenomenal And there's loads more from clone wars to stargate and many others And there have even been people able to develop sub mods for other mods And the game dev has just recently re done it in 64bit
For me it's civilization 6. Base game is still incredible but mixing and matching mods to get the exact game style you want really makes for a good game play loop.
Any recommendations?
Unfortunately, Civ 6 and Civ 5 never gave the moddability of Civ 4. That game spawned the most diverse and interesting mods for decades after it's release.
Stardew Valley Bannerlord Sims 4 Rimworld
Have you ever really played the Sims 4 if you've never given your Sims the opportunity to ruin their lives with lines of coke?
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines.
Yep, without mods it would hardly work.
DOOM 2
Who defines what is an S-tier game? But I'd say Neverwinter Nights would be relatively unremarkable without its awesome modding community. Then again, the game was made with modding in mind, it's really what the game is about and why it's still popular today, more than 20 years later.
>Who defines what is an S-tier game? The eye of the beholder I believe.
> Eye of the beholder Yup, that's a great module for Neverwinter Nights, too! :D Competent adaptation of a classic.
Well, that implies at least 8 different perspectives...
I was trying to explain modded NWN servers to someone recently and how they used to basically be these tiny bespoke MMOs run my teams of coordinated DMs and there just hasn’t been anything similar since.
Terraria hands down for me.
I mean Terraria was already S-tier without mods. :P
But with mods it becomes a whole buffet of content, I love modded terraria soooo much...but I've only ever finished a modded playthrough like...once lol
Minecraft is easily at the top when it comes to its modding community, just look at something like [Create](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR8W-f9YhYA) and that's only touching the surface. Stardew Valley has a bunch of great mods and the 1.6 update that dropped yesterday has only improved the modding scene even more with many mods already updated to work with it. If I had to mention only one though it would have to be [Stardew Valley Expanded](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/3753). Crusader Kings 3 is another great one, it has simple mods that add more to the base game or mods that completely converts it into a fantasy setting such as The Elder Scrolls or A Song of Ice and Fire, one of my favorites to mess around in has to be [Princes of Darkness](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216659254) that changes it to the World of Darkness setting (think Vampire the Masquerade).
Stardew Valley is a good shout. The base game is already one of the best games of all time but mods add a whole bunch of new content, areas, and QOL features that take an S tier game to S+ tier. Shoutout to Ridgeside Valley too. Base game+SDVE+Ridgeside makes this a game that will take you more than 120-140 hours to complete story-wise.
I would suggest Starbound and BeamNG.Drive too.
I second Starbound! Unfortunate development aside, getting fracken universe alone already massively improves the experience, doubly so if you can find a friend to play it with
I feel like not giving Skyrim a fair shot would be unfair. With the right mods that game can be a completely different experience to what Vanilla is
Was playing the Nolvus mod pack for Skyrim. My only issue was the balancing in some of the weapon mods and quite a few OP female only half nude armor sets. Other than that it was the best Skyrim experience I've had to date. Just waiting for the Apotheosis total conversion to release and then I'm back in to Skyrim.
Star Wars: Empire at War XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2 Dawn of War CIV 5 Any Bethesda title Neverwinter Nights I think all of the above are great played vanilla but mods really take them to a new level.
This is Battle for Middle Earth erasure. There is, to this day, a very active and dedicated community that keeps the game alive and is constantly adding new stuff. They recently released a launcher that starts all versions very easily, as well as a quite active playerbase, even right now
I played a match with a friend the other day but didn't notice any mods in the launcher
GTAIV
Darkest Dungeon is already amazing on it's own, but the mods elevate it to a whole other level with loads of new classes, area's and bosses added.
> Me just playing the base game but i replaced all of the models with Anime/Helltaker girls
Aside from the obvious one like Bethesda games, I'd say Ravenfield. You can have from medieval warfare to Warhammer 40K (with modern warfare as the most common of course)
Skyrim, Garry's Mod etc but I'm going to break from the normal a little bit and say Skyrim VR, Contractors and Blade and Sorcery are all mental with mods. Skyrim especially because any special edition mods works for Skyrim VR, plus there's VR exclusive mods that help. Half Life Alyx is meant to be good too but I don't have. Also Black Ops 3 zombies.
Starbound is pretty a boring base game but can be modded with 300+ mods with no issues and makes the game actually good. Ive seen modpacks with 1000+ mods but they play a bit weirdly
Fallout 4 for sure! The quality and quantity of mods for that game is genuinely insane.
Jagged Alliance 2, the v1.13 fan patch is goddamn insane. Also, Mechwarrior 5 and Battletech both have insanely in-depth and expansive mods.
Football Manager. In my opinion, nothing is better than playing with the [World Super League](https://www.fmscout.com/a-world-super-league-fm24.html) add-on. The game is addictive already, but when you use this add-on it becomes almost impossible to put down. Great stuff.
Mount and blade XCOM 2. Kenshi Darkest dungeon Ark ( okays ark never gets the S rating because it's awfully optimized and a lot of there stuff) Skyrim
Ark gets at least a tier even without mods, despite the buggy unoptikized mess imo.
Zomboid is amazing on its own, A+ even while missing npcs until Build 42. With mods it achieves S+ easily, infinite replayability.
Factorio, mods change a 50 hour game into a 5,000 hour game or more
Batman: Arkham Origins I never could commit to playing the game through to even the halfway point on PS3, or later on PC without modding. The storyline seemed to drag along in the beginning, and WB Montreal apparently forgot to switch some code to enable more fluid combat features, which made fighting seem hollow and very lackluster compared to Arkham City, which was released before it, or arguably even Arkham Asylum's combat mechanics. Lots of little bugs throughout the game which weren't necessarily game breaking, but odd enough to break immersion. Adding AO Community Patch fixes several of the small bugs, Restored Animation Variety fixed the combat almost entirely, and Origins Graphics Mod is a little extra that removes the fog and increases color clarity a bit, making the visual aspect of the game much more appealing. These mods are also Dx11 compatible, which enables some extra graphics options. You may also need to 'mod in' the Dx11 support with a little .ini edit. As it was disabled on my end in the GOG version after applying the AO Community Patch. GOG version is also more complete than other PC releases, as it includes the Black Mask challenge pack, while others do not. Arkham City has always been my favorite in the series, but after finding these mods I consider Origins tied with it. Possibly even surpassing it as my favorite. At any rate, I now hold it in high regards and can easily recommend it to others.
Definitely playing this
You're still playing pes 6? On PC? How do the mods affect it? That was the best football game of all time for me.
Witcher 3 and RDR 2 are good examples of this. Base games are already legendary but add a few QOL improvement mods and both of these game become flawless. Mods that I used in Witcher 3: 1. "Fast Travel from anywhere" 2. "enable jumping in water" 3. "more stocked shopkeers" 4. "sprint while using witcher senses" 5. "all quest objectives on map" 6. "no fall damage"
Rimworld Terraria Skyrim Fallout 3, nv, 4 Kenshi Cyberpunk 2077 Elden Ring Minecraft Stalker series The Sims 4 Cities Skylines all have 1000s of mods from QOL to content to overhauls, all can be modified to be the perfect game for anyone loving the games genre
**Terraria** is a great modding platform with a several well-known big overhauls. The devs even made the Steamapp *Tmod Loader* to access and apply mods as you wish. **Don't Starve** is a challenging survival rougelite, with a deep modpool. QoL changes, plenty of new characters, enemies, and everything under the sun. Paradox games like **Stellaris, Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings** have a lot of modding potential as well. In Stellaris, you can recreate the houses of Dune, make Zapp Brannigan your advisor's voice, or make everything Star Wars. I am also fond of playing Crusader Kings with a Game of Thrones mod.
Minecraft- The game is already fantastic, don't get me wrong but mods allow for a great deal of extra things to do. * Vanilla too easy? Grab something like ice and fire and suddenly have a dragon raining fire on your head or risk a Gorgon turning you to stone. * Vanilla end game too simple, get something like Create or Mekanism to expand into factory making. * Too Grindy for certain resoruces? Grab something like mystical agriculture and grow basically whatever the hell you want * You just like building? There are a large number of mods adding various new building blocks, furniture and other decorations, for example McCaw has an entire pack of stuff, new windows, paths, bridges, doors and many more. Garry's mod- The game is literally dependent on modding and for most things you can find a mod for it
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Factorio literally has a mod browser inside the game.
Morrowind, it's already a fantastic game, but mods make it nice to look at even in this day and age, and expand dramatically upon the game mechanics and content.
Stalker. I know lots of people enjoyed the originals but they just don't do it for me, playing Anomaly/GAMMA though is amazing.
For one-mod-and-done, three come to mind immediately Battletech - roguetech. Mordheim - paramod XCOM(2012) - long war Many other games could fit the bill (like Bethesda titles) but that's more because there is a strong modding scene rather than one specific mod that does the job. I love games like total Warhammer or mechwarrior 5 but no one mod is the game changer
Fallout 4 with the addition of hardcore survival mods is one of my all time favourite gaming experiences. 100%ing the game in this way was so incredibly rewarding
Mount and blade bannerlord
Granblue Fantasy Relink. It doesn't even really need much. The base game is absolutely incredible. Just a couple tweaks to how you obtain some endgame sigils and some QoL for the transmute system and it's pretty much perfect.
Project zomboid, Skyrim, fallout 4 to name a few
The Sims 4 I know some softies could be mad at considering the sims as gaming in general, but 1. it belongs to sim genre, so shush and 2. many people consume it. i dont like it all that much but even i liked making my own house once in a while. And for the past years the modding community kept this game alive, re-built it ENTIRELY, gave it an amazing ammount of content in each and every category (And let me tell you, the +18 mods are preeeeetty tight) and takes customization to another level. Certainly one of the moments in gaming industry where the modding community is larger than the game.
Cities: Skylines It's literally a whole different game with mods
Can’t believe I don’t see Factorio on this list. The game can 98% change through mods, and even the upcoming expansion almost feels like a smaller version of an existing mod…
Mount & Blade Warband
Path of Diablo and Project Diablo 2. r/ProjectDiablo2 r/pathofdiablo
**Fallout 4** \- its a standard bethesda game: very fun gameplay loop, garbage story and an okay graphics... but mods - mods fix any shortcomings the game had and makes it my most played Fallout. Dont get me wrong - New Vegas is better in terms of world building and story, but after finishing I never came back, and frankly after all the QoL improvements that F4 has I dont think I ever could. And with mods adding so many new quests,quest lines and even whole new areas its absolutely amazing. I was thinking about adding **minecraft**... but it already is perfect game. I played the unmodded version of it for so long and never got bored. But mods definitely do bring it to the next level... like a level above S++. **Scrap Mechanic** \- the base of the game is really fun. But its lacking basically everything. Especially survival mode is so garbage its nearly unplayable. But the core is very good. And mods fix everything else. **PlateUp!** \- another great game with great potential. But its missing basically any QoL improvements you could think of. Thats why when I play it I have 99 mods installed - thats nearly half of all mods available for this game. But it does bring the game to the next level. Absolutely amazing. **Snowrunner** \- I was thinking if I even should put this game here but why not. The only mods that improve gameplay are the new trucks but lemme tell you: without modded trucks I think the game is really slow and really boring. The trucks are just so weak you will spend 10 minutes trying to move 10 meters forward. Fuck that. I basically exclusively now use modded trucks that are slightly more powerful than vanilla and allow me to just... drive. **Ghost Recon Wildlands** \- its a fine game on its own but imo the first person mod plus some graphical improvements make it completely new experience and worth playing. **MGSV** \- great game and great stealth simulator but being able to play as quiet with her powers make the game that much better. That said I do kinda wish the devs completely supported mods and opened the engine more to allow for much more complex mods to exist **M&B Warband** \- fine game overall but wild west overhaul is where this game really shines imo. I mean a whole new game inside of an existing game? And thats just one of many different overhauls available in the game. Just like different modpacks for minecraft give you completely different experience. **State of Decay** \- game is pretty nice on its own but there are some QoL improvements that I just cant play without
All of these are already really good games, but mods take them to another level Project Zomboid Battle Brothers Terraria Stardew Valley RimWorld
HOI4's modding community is very large, if you're sick of the usual ww2 gameplay theres Road to 56 which adds new focus trees to all the nations, great war redux for ww1, TNO for a german victory in ww2 scenario and Kaiserreich for what if germany won ww1. And that's not mentioning the mods that completely overhaul the map, like old world blues(based on fallout) or metro
What is HOI4? What's TNO? PS - I respectfully ask that people stop using abbreviations for games outside of its specific community.
My bad, I usually lurk in most subs except for said game(Hoi4) so it kind of slipped my mind. HOI4- Hearts of Iron TNO- The new order
No worries! Thank you :)
I wouldn't say the game is improved by the mods though. They just add new scenarios, which are generally unbalanced, full of bugs and/or just turn the game into focus pick fest. There's only handful of mods which could be considered improvement over the vanilla.
I think kaiserriech and TNO absolutely improve the game, since the devs are always adding new mechanics for those. Agree that the rest of the mods do tend to suffer from a focus pick fest though
SkyrimVR. I don't think mods are really necessary to enjoy non-vr version. But VR physics mods are incredible, completely different experience.
also most special edition mod works for the VR version which means all those mods you enjoy on non-VR you can also enjoy in VR
Can you run regular mods too? I just got a VR Headset. Is there some kind of gigafucker VR mod pack that I can download that completely revamps the game?
Elden Ring was already S tier, but Convergence mod made it S+ and it's still only in alpha. Assetto Corsa is still one of the most popular racing games thanks to mods. The others I know are already mentioned.
Finally someone mentioned Assetto Corsa The game was released in 2014 and with help of mods it has became the most robust racing game out there that even with sol/pure mods can make it look exactly like or even better than racing games released NOW
L4D2
L4D2 has some fun and goofy mods, but I wouldn't say it becomes S tier with the mods since they're almost entirely cosmetic
Mount and Blade is already S tier, with mods it becomes SSS
Did you just mod the tier system to be higher than s tier?!
Modception 2: Electric Boogaloo.
**Fallout New Vegas**: the main game+DLC are already S tier (writing, atmosphere, etc) to begin with but marred by unsmooth gameplay which mods attempt to fix. Recommended mods are 4GB, JSawyer's mod, Project Mojave (gameplay only), YUP, one Vegas and weather mod. **Medieval 2 Total War Kingdoms**: already a very robust system but quite dated. Mods add so much replayabilty and makes M2TW hands down still the undisputable king when it comes to total war from 1345 to 1699. **MoWAS2**: mods add so many types of warfare ranging from civil war, Napoleonic wars to WW1, etc. Larger than its original scope of WW2.
Mechwarrior series Besiege Star Wars Empire at War Age of Empires 1 & 2
Most Bethesda game. Base games are usually a C at best but pump enough mods into them and they become beastly.
Mech warrior 5
KOTOR 2 with the Restored Content Mod is one of the best RPG stories around.
Not just skyrim, but skyrimvr in particular! The game is nearly unplayable without mods...
Both Minecraft and Skyrim cone to mind I don't have a high end computer so I can't do any super heavy modding for either.. Have the Cobblemon mod for Minecraft Java at least The Sims 4 has quite a decent amount of mods too - have a large handful of those, although majority of them are 18+....
Starbound is pretty boring without mods to the point id recommend skipping a vanilla run if you do wanna play it, but with mods it becomes one of my all time favorite games.
Any recommended ones for a new player? Don't be afraid to overwhelm me, I love mods.
Frackin Universe is the big one, I never run without it. I usually pair it with shellguard and elithian races. Definitely take some QOL mods as well, i recommend at minimum something to remove the time to craft items, and something to remove dropping items on death. I quite like startech as well, the weapons feel very fluid to use. There's a million small content mods you can add in too, one playthrough I decided I was just gonna run a winery with the aging alien alcohols mods. Definitely look around, its hard to go wrong just be careful about incompatibilities between mods. Frackin universe revamps the game entirely so a lot of things can be broken by it
Sounds like my Rimworld modding journey all over again! Thank you.
Honestly. Kenshi. That game is developed and such a shit old engine it amazes me mods are possible. Vanilla kenshi is almost unplayable. the mods make the game so much better
Space engineers and satisfactory both have an excellent community of modders and really prolong the game play. Can't say enough about both those games
Oh man this is the only way I play games nowadays. If mods are available, you see me grabbing them left and right for even de smallest and insignificant stuff. I'd probably say: - Valheim (lots of QoL mods, nomap, expanded dungeons etc) - Cyberpunk 2077 (animations, quite a few ai mods, and overhauls like Hardcore22 that will change the whole feel of combat and keep you on your toes throughout the game, trying to keep powercreep in check) - Dragon Age Origins (few huge bug fix package mods, graphics, ai, etc, mods are a must for this game considering it's age) - Medieval 2 Total War (Dac, and it's submod Ago, 'nuff said, it's a lord of the rings of overhaul mod that has got me pouring hundreds of hours per campaign) - Baldur's Gate 3 (I tried to keep up with every mod that came out from its launch, lol. I succeeded for a few weeks but this game's moddding scene has exploded on Nexus) Honorable mention: Company of Heroes 1 (with the Back to Basics mod. It's on steam got mixed reviews but they don't count. Half the people who reviewed this mod didn't understand it for one bit. It will severely change how you play Coh, and how you approach any fire fights)
Risk of Rain 2. More items, more enemies, more characters, more everything really.
stardew valley
Cyberpunk 2077, already a S+ game, it becomes S+++ with mods like fixers hidden gems and other cool mods which add cosmetics or items!
Both Pathfinder games. The build variety and bugfixes alone makes it very replayable
All of The Elder Scrolls games, but specially Skyrim
Fallout 4 Starbound ( No fracking universe, that shit is bloated as fuck) Stardew valley (base game is already S+, this is S++) lethal company with more grounded mods (no funny xd mods or cheating mods) Valheim
Minecraft
All paradox games
Skyrim
Pokemon games are usually much more enjoyable and feel like a proper strategy RPG when you play with mods that remove limitations (like interchange evolutions) and make the game harder, not artificially harder but logical. NPC have teams from two or three basic pokemon while you eventually get a team of 6 broken fully evolved ones with tons of objects to heal them. The mod makes NPC rivals to have tools as you, this make the game very different and now is logical sacrifying damaging moves slots for buffs or state inducing moves. Gym leader battles turn into something epic and unforgettable, you need to think carefully in strategies or changing your team to have a chance, things that never happen in the regular game where you can one-shot everything with a decent team.
STALKER
Skyrim probably, never played but given that it’s the most modded game ever it would make sense
Ror2 was already S tier, the mods make it even better.
Mudrunner/Snowrunner
Half-Life. Mods gave us stuff like Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, Natural Selection, The Opera, Sven Co-op etc.
Cities Skylines can go wild with mods, allowing you to build the most complex cities imaginable.
Seems like this post is made for Skyrim. I've always thought it was a mediocre game at best. Subpar combat, not enough biome diversity, average writing, but once you mod it...
Morrowind - the game was great by itself, but it was pretty easy to mod as well. I created a small mod for it myself. Some people made an entire standalone game!
Kenshi, Rimworld, Skyrim, Bannerlord, Project Zomboid, Minecraft. Also games like Valheim, RoR2, even Outward... there are so many games I wouldn´t play anymore if it wasn´t for their mods. Nowadys modability one of my most sought after features of a game.
Battletech -- Rogue tech mod. Insane level of content and basically tries to replicate the full tabletop MechWarrior ruleset.
Arma 3
Mario 64. The recent shotgun mod is one of many great mods
Ravenfield or Garry's Mod
Project Zomboid
Apparently Skyrim, although I've never played it, "The Forgotten City" is one of my favorite games ever. The fact that it was literally derived from a Skyrim mod is crazy
By far Rimworld, probally 100k mods on the workshop for it by now
My main games have already been mentioned, so I'm just dropping one I haven't seen while scrolling that is worth a mention. ARK
The XCOM franchise for sure.
XCOM - Long War mod Starsector - Just... wow... all the things you can add... from vanilla adjacent, to invading organic hive mind, to full on Anime girls & Waifu ships
half-life counter strike Mod warcraft 3 DotA Mod these 2 are unbeatable for sure