Advice for new modder.

[SomethingCrazy]

So I'm thinking of taking up modding after years and years of using them in all sorts of games like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout series, and multiply MMOs (Only cosmetics ones for MMOs though.) I just wanted to get an idea of what it's like before diving straight in and watching hours of videos or read dozens of articles. The picture I have painted in my head is that it's quite time consuming and difficult, requiring lots of patience, which is why I have a lot of respect to those that create numerous and wonderful mods I enjoy and use on a daily basis. Anyway, I got no experience in modding whatsoever but I am quite artistic. You gotta start somewhere right.

 

So my questions are:

 

-How time consuming is modding? (this probably depends on what kind of mod it is and definitely the scale of it but just in general.)

 

-How difficult is it to learn from scratch?

 

-What programs should I have or need?

 

 

I guess I should say what mods I would tend to create. Might help with the questions. So I was thinking to start with animation mods. (Idles and combat) then go into stuff that changes how I react to the world and how the world reacts with me. (AI mods mainly.) And then some overhauls like changing the civil war story to make it more interesting, long, and believable. How hard would these be exactly?

 

Anywho, thanks in advance.

 

 

Also forgot to mention I've done a lot of video animations before if that would help any.

Edited June 6, 2013 by SomethingCrazy

[GrimyBunyip]

- most modders I know are pretty busy.

Most don't have enough time to finish all of their projects.

but thats partially a matter of ambition.

 

- Everyone learns from scratch, its not that bad

 

- Start with creation kit obviously.

TESedit is very useful to modding.

Setting up Notepad++ to be able to use the papyrus compiler is great time saver if you want to script.

And SkyProc is necessary for projects that edit huge numbers of items in a reasonable timeframe.

[jiffyadvent]

What GrimyBunyip said. Also at least finish the vanilla game once, once you start it's hard to go back playing vanilla.

My recommendation is to immerse yourself in the every aspect of the vanilla gameplay and take down notes and let your creativity flow on what you think you can mod/manipulate in the game, get intimate with the creation kit.

 

One example is when I first played Morrowind in 2006 not knowing about the thousands of user created mods at that time, also Morrowind based on my experience assement was had the # of mods game back in 2004-2008 game for pc.

 

Then eventually I got Oblivion when it came out and decided I was really going to delve into modding, I played the vanilla extensively (with a few mods - purist approach) and had an analytical view on aspects of the game that would be great to mod and expand upon. I have a really long list for the hundreds of mod ideas I have for Oblivion, sadly I have never gotten to put a single one into action as I was busy procastinating on learning the CS for Oblivion so I guess the best thing to transition or progression to beocome by my personal standard an "elite knowledgeable modder" is to 1.) play the vanilla game extensively 2.) replay the game vanilla style, make a journal take down every nitty gritty and aspect than can be improved/modded upon. 3.) Learn modding tools extensively and intimately, includes the devkits and other 3rd party tools 4.) Play heavily modded play troughs, this gives you more depth and experience on seeing what's already been done, how it's done, learning from errors of other mods, troubleshooting, getting to know your favorite mods intimately. and lastly 5.) Mod, mod, mod mod mod till you drop. :)