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What do you do to keep a nice workflow and stay organized and focused?


genolune

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I also find that large projects are best for me. They offer so much variety in the kinds of tasks that need to be done that I can bounce around to work on whichever sounds interesting to me in that moment. If one day I don't feel like scripting, I can go work on textures, or if that sounds terrible I can go build some dialogue, or if that sounds too boring for words I can go set up some other thing. A large mod that offers lots of options with a unified goal keeps me on target and allows me to harness the hyperfocus for good.Â

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I keep a lot of notes and lists because I rarely start working on a particular feature and complete it all in one go. So I end up needing notes and reference documents to guide me during my intermittent work sessions on that particular thing.

Yes, this exactly! And it helps to break down things into little chunks so you can go, "LOOKIT ME I DID AN OBJECTIVE" to force yourself to actually FINISH things rather than leaving loose ends all over the place.

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Speaking of, Athanasa, I could use a little focused drive right now. Cleaning out the Commonwealth Alternative worldspace in FO4Edit is boring as all heck and proving hard to stick with...*still* without knowing if it's the best idea. =P

...but will push through get to where I think it needs to be for a basic test eventually, probably tomorrow. =)

 

On topic: To reiterate someone else's note, FO4Edit...absolute necessary tool to learn and use.

 

Lastly before I give up for a bit: Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it). Have a good one. =)

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Speaking of, Atanasa, I could use a little focused drive right now. Cleaning out the Commonwealth Alternative worldspace in FO4Edit is boring as all heck and proving hard to stick with...*still* without knowing if it's the best idea. =P

 

On topic: To reiterate someone else's note, FO4Edit...absolute necessary tool.

Oh Christ, I bet it is. How many times has it crashed? Or are you avoiding Crash City?

 

In retrospect, might have been with zipping around the Commonwealth to pick locations while in-game before jumping into the editor. D: I'll go sightseeing on the weekend.

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Speaking of, Atanasa, I could use a little focused drive right now. Cleaning out the Commonwealth Alternative worldspace in FO4Edit is boring as all heck and proving hard to stick with...*still* without knowing if it's the best idea. =P

 

On topic: To reiterate someone else's note, FO4Edit...absolute necessary tool.

Oh Christ, I bet it is. How many times has it crashed? Or are you avoiding Crash City?

 

In retrospect, might have been with zipping around the Commonwealth to pick locations while in-game before jumping into the editor. D: I'll go sightseeing on the weekend.

Creation kit? Once...but only when I tried to ctrl+F to change out 10,000 objects at once, heh.

But now it's back to FO4Edit for small count refs like unique npc's (that make all sorts of stuff go silly if in 2 places at once). =)

 

(But enough hijacking poor Genolune, heh) ;-)

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It's fine. I updated the main post if it helps anyone. The reason I ask about overcoming those problems, is I have some problems too (I won't go into specifics publicly) and I'm trying to become more productive in life. It would most certainly make me happier to see an easier & quicker time going from concept to quality finished product.

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It's fine. ÃÂ I updated the main post if it helps anyone. ÃÂ The reason I ask about overcoming those problems, is I have some problems too (I won't go into specifics publicly) and I'm trying to become more productive in life. ÃÂ It would most certainly make me happier to see an easier & quicker time going from concept to quality finished product.

When tackling most things I tend to do the following...

 

1) Plan briefly

2) Jump right in, poke about a bit to get a feel for what I'm working with. Scout it out.

3) Step back, zoom out so you can look at the whole.

4) Work out what I want to do, what steps are necessary. Also work out what I really DON'T want to do.

5) Update/change your plan. Restart if necessary. Break it down into sections.

6) Jump back in.

 

The biggest thing for me is to make sure I keep 'zooming out' to see the bigger picture and adjust my aim accordingly.

 

Taking Wasteland Salvation for example, I basically mentally mind-map (get some free mind-map software, it's a great tool for dumping ideas semi currently).

 

The first thing I do is look for potential problems and issues and aim to avoid or solve them before I even start. Plan ahead - if I do this, will it cause problems later? What if I want to change or add something, how easy will it be to do this later in the process? What problems might my solution cause?

What do I know I'm terrible at / is hard to obtain? How can I avoid this thing in a way that seems natural and doesn't draw attention to it not being there?

 

Problem: Death Alternative used to sometimes bug AI horribly

Solution: Don't touch the NPCs or factions. At all.

Problem: They won't stop shooting the character, then. And they'll just lurk around in any scenes.

Solution: Teleport the character away when they hit the KO trigger.

Problem: Loading screens break immersion.

Solution: Hide loading screens with generic black screens (like elevator scenes)

Problem: Black screens with nothing going on looks like a crash.

Solution: Play some sounds during the hidden loading screen.

Problem: The loading screen for moddded games in the Commonwealth can take forever

Solution: Teleport the player outside of the Commonwealth to play the "you are KO'd, stuff happens"

Problem: Well designed areas with plenty of set dressing may still take a while to load

Solution: Strip down on the set dressing, make the character face one direction during the scene (like entering the cryo-chamber), change their DoF to really close, shove some screen blur in there, darken the edges of their view

Problem: Still got to get back to the Commonwealth by loading screens at some point

Solution: None

Edited by Athanasa
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I also find that large projects are best for me. They offer so much variety in the kinds of tasks that need to be done that I can bounce around to work on whichever sounds interesting to me in that moment. If one day I don't feel like scripting, I can go work on textures, or if that sounds terrible I can go build some dialogue, or if that sounds too boring for words I can go set up some other thing. A large mod that offers lots of options with a unified goal keeps me on target and allows me to harness the hyperfocus for good.Â

Â

I keep a lot of notes and lists because I rarely start working on a particular feature and complete it all in one go. So I end up needing notes and reference documents to guide me during my intermittent work sessions on that particular thing.

Yes, this exactly! And it helps to break down things into little chunks so you can go, "LOOKIT ME I DID AN OBJECTIVE" to force yourself to actually FINISH things rather than leaving loose ends all over the place.

 

 

I love lists of tasks that I can check off as I do them. It is so satisfying. And, yeah, I need the lists or I'll forget the little odds and ends that need to be cleaned up.

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Oh yeah I forgot to mention my physical pen/paper notebook where I jot down quick notes like mesh names, things I need to remember to do etc. I find the best thing to do when I think of something I want to add, fix, etc. that I HAVE to write it down immediately or I'll forget all about it 2 seconds later. So I've trained myself to immediately write notes as I think of things. It doesn't normally throw me off track or disrupt my flow in anyway. Then later on I sort through my quick notes and organize them a bit. I LOVE to do checklists. They give me that sense of accomplishment when I check stuff off and they help me remember things I've already forgotten since writing them down.

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I'm using the Bullet Journal formatting on my notebook to index and separate my Elder Scrolls and Fallout ideas.

 

 

That way I have my ideas in an index and can check them off like a list and on separate pages I have all the notes that go into it.

 

 

Also, oh shoot, it's nice to have the creator of Willow in my thread. I knew I recognized that name. Thanks for dropping by llamaRCA.

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