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CurseForge, the popular game modding client, has now officially released an early Alpha version for Linux. Since it's early, and they're starting slow, for now it only supports mods / addons for World of Warcraft (Wine) although they do have plans to continue expanding it. A bit of an odd one to start with though don't you think?

It's been through a few different hands like Amazon / Twitch, with the current owners being Overwolf. One of the reasons its so popular is not just because of the amount of games and mods it has, but mod authors can also earn monies from it too.

Pictured - CurseForge on Linux

Some of the current known issues include:

  1. Switching between flavors and installing addons will cause an error

    Navigate to a different page (e.g "My Addons") and then install the desired addon.

  2. Navigating to "My Addons" while installing an addon will create 3 instances of the same file

    Shouldn't impact anything besides the UI. Change to another page and back to fix it.

  3. Relaunch will close the App
    Close the app and then open it manually.

  4. Deleting addons and reopening CF will cause the addons to be "modified"
    This is a known issue, shouldn't affect anything besides the UI itself. We are working on a fix for the next upcoming versions.

We'll be following it along now, so we can report on any major updates when they happen. As always, do email in if you see something we don't.

Download it here. The Linux version is an AppImage, so it should hopefully work well across different Linux distros.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Alpha, Apps, Misc, Mod
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9 comments

Deleted_User May 11, 2022
Mmmh, what is it good for?
To be honest it's the first time i stumble across this app, so my first interest is, what can it do for me?
Is there a compatibility checkup between the mod and the current game version or between different mods? Does it work with games within the steam library? What are the benefits (compared to the steam workshop)?
ssj17vegeta May 11, 2022
That's good news actually. I haven't played WoW in a while, but this site was a good source of addons.

Since WoW runs perfectly with Lutris+Wine-GE, the circle is complete I guess :D

A command line tool would be neat too, to update the addons just before launching the game, like eso-addons does for The Elder Scrolls Online.
Raaben May 11, 2022
Quoting: ssj17vegetaA command line tool would be neat too, to update the addons just before launching the game

There was Cursebreaker, but thanks to Overwolf's changes that and other addon managers are left to die out in favor of their adware/spyware delivery monitization client.
SomeName May 11, 2022
Quoting: Deleted_UserMmmh, what is it good for?
To be honest it's the first time i stumble across this app, so my first interest is, what can it do for me?
Is there a compatibility checkup between the mod and the current game version or between different mods? Does it work with games within the steam library? What are the benefits (compared to the steam workshop)?

The benefit is, that you can use this for WoW (and Minecraft and a bunch of other games, but only on Windows so far), which is not available on Steam. It makes browsing, installing and updating mods easier, so that you don't have to download, extract and put folders into the right place. For the short period me and my friends played WoW Classic tho, we used WoWUp which does the same thing without forcing you to install other stuff you might not want. (Overwolf)
tpau May 11, 2022
Quoting: RaabenThere was Cursebreaker, but thanks to Overwolf's changes that and other addon managers are left to die out in favor of their adware/spyware delivery monitization client.
The infrastructure and employees need to be paid for somehow.
torkus May 13, 2022
Quoting: Raaben
Quoting: ssj17vegetaA command line tool would be neat too, to update the addons just before launching the game
There was Cursebreaker, but thanks to Overwolf's changes that and other addon managers are left to die out in favor of their adware/spyware delivery monitization client.

Long time lurker here, thought I'd take a moment and describe the state of things.

I have a WoW addon manager project called Strongbox targeted at Linux users.

I also maintain a list of WoW addon managers past and present. You can filter by CLI/TUI/GUI.

The two largest addon hosts are wowinterface.com and Curseforge. wowinterface has the better community but is less popular than curseforge and a lot of addon authors will only publish on one host. Both have been around for a long time.

Curseforge merged with Ace, was bought by Twitch and then sold to Overwolf. Overwolf are being particularly aggressive with monetisation and locking down APIs that have been free to use (but undocumented) for many years.

Overwolf also made it very clear that access to their addons will only happen under their terms, requiring a rather draconian and unfair legal agreement to be signed. I decided to remove Curseforge support from Strongbox entirely. Other popular addon managers like Cursebreaker and Ajour folded. Some are holding their breath to see what happens when the old API is finally turned off.

Other dedicated WoW addon hosts include Tukui and wago.io. Github is also becoming a popular place to host addons and Strongbox leans on wowinterface and Github a lot now.

The Wowup addon manager became very popular very quickly but they've decided to cozy up to Overwolf/Curseforge and have made some dubious decisions around advertising and user privacy that I won't tolerate in Strongbox.

It's a fun environment with some interesting problems, I learn a lot and that feeds back into my non-Ogri'la work.

If you use strongbox don't be shy about opening a bug or feature request.
torkus May 14, 2022
Quoting: torkusThe Wowup addon manager became very popular very quickly but they've decided to cozy up to Overwolf/Curseforge and have made some dubious decisions around advertising and user privacy that I won't tolerate in Strongbox.

After looking into this more closely, Wowup were rejected by Overwolf but accepted by Wago.io. Wago.io are following an Overwolf approach to monetisation. Advertising and user privacy concerns in Wowup still stand.
Grimfist May 16, 2022
Thanks torkus for the information. I am using Ajour but it never was clear to me that this program is now abandoned. I guess I will now use Strongbox! :D
torkus May 17, 2022
hey man, nice avatar.

Quoting: GrimfistThanks torkus for the information. I am using Ajour but it never was clear to me that this program is now abandoned.
Yes, Ajour is no longer maintained. Casperstorm (author of Ajour) left a farewell here: "This is the end of Ajour"

Quoting: GrimfistI guess I will now use Strongbox! :D
Please use whatever suits you the best, there is a lot of variety out there.

I highly recommend layday's instawow and antiwinter's wowa.
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