Pumpkin Lord
"Everything you need to know about modding are Experience and an organic Brain full of norons."
Greetings,
As a brief explanation about why is this topic here for giving newly-starters an idea and sharing your own thoughts and stories how you reached the status you are at the moment. For sure everyone is bored of spammers and trollers so via this thread when you see someone direct it here and he will begin to think "That guy did the same thing and seems got bad influence at all i guess i should act differently" or who knows maybe i am mistaking, lets just give it a try...
Let me start with how i came up to my own project;
1)Registered at forums.
2)Was a bit of jumpy and spamming all around with a dusty language.
3)Started to be more acceptible.
4)Discovered here the "Forge".
5)Learned how things bind to each other like a Puzzle.
6)Started my very first project. Was almost getting it done but due to lack of spirit and experience i found it pretty neat idea so destroyed all the thing up and...
7)Started with a narrower idea and released my first release and yes i was going better with MS.
Then i realised it was also pretty neat idea and ruined all thing up.
9)I came across to a newbie team in forum and started to create a new lore with a pretty neat showoffs and due to lack of inspiration and interest all was for nothing again.
10)And then i became a regular experienced member who failed 2 projects succesfully and gained much more than the project he fullfilled.
11)So i started to lurk around the forums and gained some such of respect.
12)Found quite rare jewels that we call as "Recruit" and set my team up.
13)At first it was quite low qualified mod and the team was undisciplined so i split the team and created a whole new team with very professional dedicated modders and gamers. Ugh.
14)And the mod had done great succes for me as it became 20th top mod in moddb sometimes.
15)Now I am where I am helping out here and there with my experience.
So thats it. You just can write something like that or write as a story. I hope it doesnt become a spam hole.
Experienced Advisors
=======================================================================================
MadVader's Advises
=======================================================================================
1. Don't set up yourself for failure
- there is a massive graveyard of mod threads and beta mods buried under more and more new mod threads - think about it for a moment - you don't want your work to end up there, right?
- if you are not experienced, join a team - don't start your own mod that will inevitably fail
- be very careful what team you join (remember that most of them will fail) - they should be regularly active for at least a few months, have plenty of stuff done and have a playable beta release that you like
- prefer teams with nice, friendly people you'll get along with and share similar ideas
- avoid teams with teenage/immature mod leaders - they are quick to start a mod, and quick to disappear
- research the posting histories of team members - it may be the difference between joining the right and the wrong team
2. Prepare to spend enormous amounts of time modding
- dump your girlfriend and quit your studies or job.. just kidding
- to be any good, you'll need to invest plenty of time learning new stuff - once you are past the (steep) initial learning curve, you'll know how deep you want to go
- don't spend too much time whoring for attention on the mod thread - getting "awesome" posts from noobs is meaningless and hollow
- get your fun from actually doing new, interesting stuff and working with your teammates - that's the best and most lasting satisfaction you can get out of modding
- don't get too dreamy and ambitious about all you might do - get practical about what can be done in a short time to make the mod releasable and complete
- finish the damn thing and you'll be one of the few who made it this far (really - there should be a hall of fame for people who actually go beyond incomplete betas and finish mods)
- support the mod by fixing bugs and solving player problems
3. When and how to get out
- eventually, real life will take over and/or you won't have that much fun modding anymore
- tell your people you are getting out, there's nothing more demoralizing than team members disappearing
- don't make promises you can't keep, but finish your stuff as best as you can, and tell your teammates what remains to be done
- tell your grandchildren about it
============================================================================================
Warmest Regards!
Greetings,
As a brief explanation about why is this topic here for giving newly-starters an idea and sharing your own thoughts and stories how you reached the status you are at the moment. For sure everyone is bored of spammers and trollers so via this thread when you see someone direct it here and he will begin to think "That guy did the same thing and seems got bad influence at all i guess i should act differently" or who knows maybe i am mistaking, lets just give it a try...
Let me start with how i came up to my own project;
1)Registered at forums.
2)Was a bit of jumpy and spamming all around with a dusty language.
3)Started to be more acceptible.
4)Discovered here the "Forge".
5)Learned how things bind to each other like a Puzzle.
6)Started my very first project. Was almost getting it done but due to lack of spirit and experience i found it pretty neat idea so destroyed all the thing up and...
7)Started with a narrower idea and released my first release and yes i was going better with MS.
Then i realised it was also pretty neat idea and ruined all thing up.9)I came across to a newbie team in forum and started to create a new lore with a pretty neat showoffs and due to lack of inspiration and interest all was for nothing again.
10)And then i became a regular experienced member who failed 2 projects succesfully and gained much more than the project he fullfilled.
11)So i started to lurk around the forums and gained some such of respect.
12)Found quite rare jewels that we call as "Recruit" and set my team up.
13)At first it was quite low qualified mod and the team was undisciplined so i split the team and created a whole new team with very professional dedicated modders and gamers. Ugh.
14)And the mod had done great succes for me as it became 20th top mod in moddb sometimes.
15)Now I am where I am helping out here and there with my experience.
So thats it. You just can write something like that or write as a story. I hope it doesnt become a spam hole.
Experienced Advisors
=======================================================================================
MadVader's Advises
=======================================================================================
1. Don't set up yourself for failure
- there is a massive graveyard of mod threads and beta mods buried under more and more new mod threads - think about it for a moment - you don't want your work to end up there, right?
- if you are not experienced, join a team - don't start your own mod that will inevitably fail
- be very careful what team you join (remember that most of them will fail) - they should be regularly active for at least a few months, have plenty of stuff done and have a playable beta release that you like
- prefer teams with nice, friendly people you'll get along with and share similar ideas
- avoid teams with teenage/immature mod leaders - they are quick to start a mod, and quick to disappear
- research the posting histories of team members - it may be the difference between joining the right and the wrong team
2. Prepare to spend enormous amounts of time modding
- dump your girlfriend and quit your studies or job.. just kidding
- to be any good, you'll need to invest plenty of time learning new stuff - once you are past the (steep) initial learning curve, you'll know how deep you want to go
- don't spend too much time whoring for attention on the mod thread - getting "awesome" posts from noobs is meaningless and hollow
- get your fun from actually doing new, interesting stuff and working with your teammates - that's the best and most lasting satisfaction you can get out of modding
- don't get too dreamy and ambitious about all you might do - get practical about what can be done in a short time to make the mod releasable and complete
- finish the damn thing and you'll be one of the few who made it this far (really - there should be a hall of fame for people who actually go beyond incomplete betas and finish mods)
- support the mod by fixing bugs and solving player problems
3. When and how to get out
- eventually, real life will take over and/or you won't have that much fun modding anymore
- tell your people you are getting out, there's nothing more demoralizing than team members disappearing
- don't make promises you can't keep, but finish your stuff as best as you can, and tell your teammates what remains to be done
- tell your grandchildren about it
============================================================================================
Flanged said:WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD.
I reckon my story could be useful here. I'm lucky enough to be one of the few who started out with zero experience of modding (hadn't even drawn a picture on the computer since Deluxe Paint 4 on the Amiga) and yet somehow or other managed to thrash out a full mod and release it.
The advice here'll mainly be applicable to folk who want to make a mod solo, because I can't claim to have ever "led" a team - just about everyone who helped me out with the mod (and there were loads of 'em) is a lot more experienced and skilled than me. I reckon they only helped me out of pity, or for their own sadistic amusement.
No, not really, but I can hardly say I was anyone's "leader", and I'm not sure that's really a good thing to be. Leaders are usually the people who are most invested in a project, and in the success of a mod. They often feel they have to get quick results, and so they can sometimes make what could be seen as unreasonable demands of their "subordinates". This leads to friction, and to resentment, and to disappearing team members - and soon enough, to a dead mod. Unless you have some ideas about monetizing your mod or using it in your career, try not to be too much of a "leader". It is a hobby.
When I started, I knew nothing - not even the basics - about modelling, texturing, scripting, Python, "leading" a mod team, or anything else at all. Some would say I still don't, and they'd be mostly right.
Actually, back then, I didn't even know how to post images on a forum or upload a Youtube video. If you'd mentioned UVmapping to me I would've assumed it was an Ordinance Survey technique. I knew nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Anyway, first time I played M&B I was hooked, and it soon became apparent that this was the perfect game engine to recreate Glasgow in. The little mobs of hyper-aggressive men with their butcher knives - it was ideal for my purposes. I'd always wanted to play a game set in Glasgow. Now, if I took it slow, I thought, I could try to make one.
This is an important point: Whatever your mod idea might be, it should be something that YOU really want to play. It should be an obsession of YOURS. You'll get tired, sooner or later, of making something for others that you can only hope they will like and enjoy. Their imagined approval won't keep you going when you're tired and bored. It has to be made for you, first and foremost. Only a clinical obsession and extreme selfishness will see you through to the end, at least if you're starting from scratch.
So anyway...
My first re-texture - and re-texturing is really the place to start, rather than making and importing wholly new objects and armours, unless you have previous experience with those things - was done in MS Paint. It was terrible, awful, pathetic. And it's still in the mod.You can't afford to be a perfectionist if you're incapable of perfection, as most of us are. That was a re-tex of nomad_armor_a, which I'm happy to see is still with us in Warband.
The whole first release of the mod (with only four towns, three "cities", and no other locations at all) was built using only the demo. It was at least a year and a half into making the mod before I actually bought M&B. That first release contained zero new objects, only very minor changes to dialogue, and a few "new" music tracks ripped off from LimeWire and thrown into a folder. Everything that seemed new in it was done simply by re-texing Native objects and a bit of crazy scene-editing, because I had no other skills at all. But because it was so different from Native it was worth releasing just as a proof-of-concept.
That's another important point: It took a year and a half of working on the mod before the first version could be released - and the first version, make no mistake, was utter ****. It sucked ass, as the youngsters say. And it took me A YEAR AND A HALF. I wasn't working on it every day, and I was drunk half the time, but it was still many long months of work before I could bring myself to put it in front of another player.
And, rightly, many of them said it was utter **** and sucked ass, which it was and did. You can't afford to get hurt or bothered by that stuff, if you're ever going to finish a full mod. Some folk liked it, or at least thought it was funny, and that was enough for me.
Here is what I think you really, really need if you want to make a full mod:
1/ A genuine obsession - something you are prepared to endure many, many annoyances and setbacks to achieve, even though you are aware, rationally, that all your efforts towards that end are essentially pointless in real terms.
2/ TONS of free time - If possible, vote in a government which offers some kind of reliable welfare safety net, and be prepared to give up on having a real life, future, children, or normal social abilities of any kind.
3/ The ability to learn (especially from others) - This might be the most difficult part. Making a mod isn't really about doing stuff but learning how to do stuff. I read The Forge for at least six months before I ever signed up here. I only signed up for an easier-to-use search function, and it was probably another six months before I posted. In that time I must've read (if not understood) every tutorial that existed back then. It's worth doing, if you're serious.
I had even more to say than this, but I reckon I've been boring enough already.
Warmest Regards!
