Whats your modding background?

[sumoftwosins]

Another mod maker from this forum and myself were chatting the other day about how we got into modding, what we've worked on in the past, and just general things. So it got me thinking about everyone else here as well. I know there are both 1st time and experienced modders here. I think this would be a good chance to introduce yourself and possibly share some advice with everyone. It also might be helpful down the line when we need to ask a few questions... we'll know who knows what. I guess I'll begin.

 

In real life I worked for around 6 years in branding, design, and web related development. I decided for a change of atmosphere and went into mechanical engineering. At the same time I also joined the police force. I ended up as product developer for a firearms company and still work in law enforcement. It goes hand in hand with making firearms and was able to test some products while attending sniper school. I'm a father of 4 and I don't get out much so I take on modding and other creative projects as my hobby. Outside of that, I've been drawing since I was a fetus. Its hard to go back to the sketch book after getting spoiled by Control+Z.

 

I made my first texture for Quake back in 96' I believe. I dived into making skins with Quake 2 and it lead out from there. I mod and alter almost every PC game I get. Most of the time it is just changing values and balancing weapons. Aside from that I mainly assist other mod teams with scripting and textures. Working with teams is difficult though... and as well all know in the modding world, you get a lot of mod teams that are all talk. People claim to be working on it and making progress until about a year later you read that they abandoned the project. In most cases, people tent to get in over their heads. I've only worked on a handful of large projects. The only mod other than MERC that I've lead was the Weapons of Destruction mod for Quake 4. It was about a 6 month project that primarily involved a lot of coding. We added alternative fire options for weapons, new projectiles, new weapons, modifiers, and ramped up the physics which was a real challenge. I even had to go see my old professor to get some formula's to calculate various things. The biggest problem was Raven and id software released several patches in short amounts of time which produced a new SDK each time. So we had to migrate all of the code over and over.

 

If I had any advice for mod projects there would be a few suggestions. First I recommend that you start small and never plan to start a big project before you know if it will even work or be possible with the engine and resources you have. Secondly I'd say to absorb information and experiment. Yeah, yeah... basic tutorials are boring and some don't even cover the subject matter you are interested in, but the fundamentals will prove helpful when your project expands. Finally I'd say organization is the key to success of any big project. Both in modding and my work, I spent a lot of time in front of a notepad jotting down information and working out the details - I love spreadsheets! I usually start with the project goals -> determine if it is possible and feasible -> determine what is needed -> outline development stages -> start the project.

 

For the merc mod specifically, I bought a 100 page legal pad that I keep with me. I write down bugs, ideas, and anything else that I need. I've got around 30 pages filled up at the moment. If I run into problems or snags, I take the notepad with me to work or where ever. I find that it is easy to find solutions for things when you are focused on other things. It might be going overboard for a mod, but if it is worth doing at all... it is worth doing well.

 

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Sorry for the rant, but for some reason I am in a typing mood. Anyhow... what is your story?

[shaikujin]

I only released 1 fallout 3 mod so far, and it's a simple retex of the chinese stealth armour.

 

Prior to this, I just modify or hack files the exes to give myself an advantage (was sick of modding the saves time and again).

 

First game I ever modded was Cresent Hawk's Revenge. I changed the Chameleon to carry 2 AC20s (the exe has the codes to support this weapon, but none of the mechs in the game carries it), 2 LRM20s (like the AC20) and 6 PPCs.

 

Then added enough heat sinks to manage the heat plus packing on as much armour as I can get without making the armour indicator overflow.

 

No SDKs then. It was alot of hex editing, some good guesses on where the values were stored and alot of trial and error.

 

Prior to fallout 3, I also modded fallout 2, and put the advanced mkII in the ant tunnels right at the beginning. Was lazy to make a beeline for navarro every game I start.

[TommyCreo]

I really got into modding when playing Red Alert 2. Almost all settings on units and so on was stored in a number of .ini files, and with a bit of trial and error, you could pretty quickly figure out how to do some pretty advanced stuff. Very rewarding. A friend and I worked long and hard on a mod, that could have become one of the best ones out there, had we ever gotten around to release it. But we didn't. :(

 

I messed a bit around with the construction set for Morrowind, but never really did anything with it.

 

But now I've started making Machinima in Fallout 3, which I really think has some potential, and with a bit of modding, I think I'll be able to make some really cool movies. So far I've only made a green room, but I hope to learn how to make animations and import them to Fallout 3. Seems like a bit of a challenge though. Anyone know how difficult animating is in this engine?

 

Oh yeah, and then I need to learn how to script NPC behavior, so I can use them as actors, and not just bystanders. If anyone thinks they're up for the job, please say so. I'm already busy enough learning Adobe Premiere and After Efecfts. :wacko:

[tyokio]

interesting thread, I was thinking about my modding routes a few days ago : D

 

 

I guess the first thing I modded was a 2d fighting game character into a Fighting game which used formats you could create from other programs, which Id drawn in Photoshop. After that it was some 3d modelling for head models in Quake 3 with some texturing too. I modelled quite a few heads into that game but it was pretty easy stuff to do really. Then I moved on to mod things into Morrowind, I created a sword which was made just for my character and I also tried to port an armour from a video game called Battle Arena Toshinden 2. I didn’t really make much stuff for morrowind because I soon moved onto Neverwinter nights which I played for quite some time. The only thing I remember moding into that was some armours/weapons built from some existing pieces in the tool set. I also spent ages trying to get one piece of armour to be compatible with another mod, because one mod wasn’t compatible with another mod and I really wanted that samurai armour they made. After Neverwinter I didn’t really mod anything large, It was mostly installing other peoples mods into gta 3/vice city/san andreas and a little bit of stat editing which made the bike go ridiculously fast lol. I only started really adding my own mods again when I got my mitts on oblivion, where my modding flame was re lit. It started off with some custom built weaponry but I wanted to take it further and mod my own armour, this was just after my 3d lessons in Animation classes where I learnt how to rig things. I found it really quite tough and relentless, working out what was meant to be rigged and what wasn’t, so I put it aside and made a helmet instead. That was the Anubis helmet which was the first mod I ever uploaded myself. Afterwards I moved onto Fallout 3 getting a machinegun to work and now I've been managing custom built armour too c:.

 

In real life I work as a freelance animator, mostly frame by frame animation. I've pretty much just graduated so I haven’t got much to show yet, but so far I've worked on a Music video for an American band. Created graphics for a persons music video and am currently animating scenes for someone’s cartoon pitch to Nickelodeon who’s been successful in getting a short on nicktoons recently. Another one of my achievements is impressing an artist who used to work at Don Bluth Studios with my work. They've asked me to work with them on something which is in the works at the moment. Pretty good for some one who’s 20 haha.

 

I've also been working really hard to understand more about 3d software, recently I tried making normal maps in 3ds max and also attempted some pelt mapping.. OH MAN I LOVE PELT MAPPING.

[Skree000]

Got into modding back in the early 90's when I first played Doom, got some level editors and started making my own WAD files... was REALLY really young back then, so I dont think I saved any of it...

 

A few years later I used the SCURK (Sim city urban renewal kit) to create my own buildings and tilesets for Sim City 2000 heh

 

Years after, I modded levels for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.

 

After that I moved on to create full new and unique levels for Tom Clancy's Ravenshield.Did this for quite a few years and had a bunch of websites dedicated to it... the last one I made was www.arctura.net (where all of the maps I made are still available for download)

 

Around the same time my friends and I Discovered an amazing RTS called Total Annihilation, but it wouldnt be til a few years later that I discovered the toolkits and editors needed to make my own stuff. Created a few massive multiplayer campaign maps for it (was hella fun, i should get back into it)

 

For the next few years I continued to do mapmaking for Ravenshield, and got hooked on time-sucking MMOs (/shame) which pretty much ensured zero productivity.

 

All of this modding was done in spare time before and after work, worked in road and railroad construction for 7 years, saving up cash to go back to school.

Went to school first for art (prerequisite) then 3d Game Design.

 

Was lucky enough to be picked up by a Game Art outsourcing studio (a good way to learn the ropes), and then when they ran into hard times, I was laid off with everyone else, and was eventually picked up by a bigger full Game Studio, where I now work, and love, and thank my lucky stars that I was able to land here.

 

In my spare time I tinker with Fallout stuff :)

[SpeedyB64]

My turn!

 

I started with starcraft maps, once I got a better computer (I had no computer budget si I relied on free stuff) I started making maps for warcraft 3. I got a copy of 3ds Max 4.2 and started making models for my warcraft maps. I got a better computer from my cousin and got Oblivion. I loved that game and did a google search to see if there was an editor, thats when I started moding Oblivion. I got 3ds Max 7 (that I still use for fallout) and started making models for oblivion then I got a better computer for $ 800 (a bargain at the time) I got fallout 3 once it came out and started moding it right away with TesSnip. I made my first model for it (the LARG) I used the plugin editor to get the gun into the game I then made my more popular magsniper. Then the GECK came out and I sarted the Fallout: Sin City Vegas project (It was a rough start)

 

I am currentely 18 years old and finishing up high school.

And I am Canadian! :thumbsup:

 

I will be going to college for Computer systems technition and game developement.

 

I am moding constantly since I have lots of free time.

[iamtimmytheboy]

Basic .gif editing for a 2d sidescroller called "Soldat", did some bot editing for that and editing the schools life managment class program.

[sumoftwosins]

Oh I remember WAD files. I don't think I ever made anything for doom, but I do remember buying a cd packages that had like a million levels on it. I always wanted to get into working on video games, but at the time (at least in my AO) there wasn't any decent training out there. In college I could either go the computer science route which was strictly limited to programing and math. Art was 100% traditional and nothing computer assisted. So I went into Philosophy so I could at least have deep thoughts about unemployment. Now that have better majors that combine art and computer science. Hell I installed a setup at my old High School called the "East Lab" and had about 30k worth of stuff that Disney, Pixar, and other studio's used. A lot of schools now have programs and majors hat are for game development. If I had only been about 8 years younger I could have had many difference chances.

[SpeedyB64]

WAD files :happy: I remember those. I moded Doom 2 for a while.

[TheOutlander]

Because I'm not going to waste time spouting my life story :P

 

My Modding History (in order):

Marathon (Mac)

Command & Conquer

Myth Series (was Project Manager for a major modification)

Escape Velocity Series

Starcraft

Avernum Series

Civilization: Call to Power

Warcraft 3

Dawn of War Series

Crysis (I played the game more than I modded it)

Fallout 3