- Dec 1, 2019
- 8,330
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You are correct on that aspect. If mods do indeed change saves, as some do, that is a big minus. However, mods can on the other hand easily correct logical errors like impossible values which may crash your game, reset flags if you go above or below certain thresholds which would otherwise prohibit the game from continuing, and so forth. That behind the scenes they will use "the same commands" as you would in the console is IMO immaterial.Mods add things to the save that make them not work without the mod, if you are trying to make an end save that will transfer to the part 2 game a mod is going to be a no good. You can grind our use a few console commands to help with the grind. What do you think the mods do? For the vanilla cheats in mods use the same console commands and variables. It can get a little tricky, but if you want a clean save compatible with the base game for possible future upload a mod may not be your answer.
Also, I have been in possibly one thread too many where somebody was told about the console, ruined their save because they didn't really know what they were doing, and then went on a full rampage. Those people are better off with mods IMO.
I will agree though, if you have some programming experience (preferrably Python, but of course it isn't necessary) and are willing to check the code for cross references and similar, console commands are easier (no need to wait for somebody to write a mod) and more flexible.