Fallout 4 Ouachita Wasteland DLC Sized mod Recruiting more modders

[RoNin1971]

I did some checking and comparing, but using the FO3 DC version would still require to much work anyway, as the building is still quite different.

You might as well start from scratch.

 

As much as I would like to create it, I won't have a lot of time to actually do it for quite a while. (unless I where to put my own project on hold for months,)

 

...and that's just the walls. I bet there's a ton of unique ornaments, statues & furniture to go with it...

[TheElfBard]

What about the sign?

[RoNin1971]

Yes, stone wall, big rock, some moss on top & "painted on" text. THE Forest (?)

 

Not sure what it says below "THE".

 

edit:

Same goes for the sign below the rock (U.S...) and the sign on the stones.

Edited August 12, 2022 by RoNin1971

[TheElfBard]

Lol, just Google Ouachita National Forest, I did that and saved one of the pictures as reference for my concept artist. That way you'll probably get bigger photo as well. I wouldn't quite say painted lol, that's some poor dude's blood. The Ouachita Wasteland isn't full of sunshine and rainbows.

[RoNin1971]

So, its painted - in blood. :pirate:

[TheElfBard]

Touché

[RoNin1971]

I've been able to put something together for the forest sign, still needs a lot of work though, but to give you a first impression:

 

[TheElfBard]

Awesome! it's looking good so far.

[84Cronos]

Developing a DLC sized mod with a new worldspace and assets and everything that goes with it is quite a large undertaking. It usually requires either a very experienced modder who is running the project or at least a whole team of decent modders in their respective fields who know what they're doing. Hell, it took some of the best modders in our community a long time to come up with things like Sim Settlements/SS2, The Bleachers - A Diamond City Story, The Machine And Her or Fourville. I'm not trying to prevent you from doing anything of that size, but you should definitely know what you get yourself into as it's the hardest, most complex and time consuming thing that modding has to offer, since it basically combines all modding categories into one mod type.

I don't really know how experienced you're since it seems that you've never really released a mod before and you don't really have any screenshots either. This, imho, is never a good sign and it doesn't help to attract more experienced people since they need to have trust in the leadership and the project. Most projects merely start as "ideas" but die off quickly since most people lack the required skills to actually make these ideas a reality. Again, I don't want to talk down on you, I'm just trying to highlight what a herculian endeavour this is.


So if I was you I would make sure to learn a couple of things before you start working on the project in any capacity:

1. Learn how to create a worldspace. The whole process from generating the terrain based on a heightmap to doing the layout/planning and generating LOD.(Modders like Zorkaz or Seddon have decent tutorials on those topics, either in the form of documents in the modders resource section or on their youtube channels).
2. Learn how to do level design to a certain extent. Get yourself familiar with the exterior as well as interior kits. Try to take a look at how Bethesda used assets and what you can learn from it. Try to watch the Bethesda GDC videos and other things. Again, there are plenty of decent level design tutorials out there from experienced modders, which I personally used to learn a lot of things.
3. Learn about dirty edits/breaking precombines/previs. You need to be able to identify and clean certain entries e.g. by using xEdit. It's always a good/the best practice to unload your .esp while looking at any Bethesda levels, since you're gonna risk dirty edits otherwise which you then need to clean manually - which can be painful and time consuming.
4. Learn how to merge .esp's into an .esm. This step is required if you want to have multiple people actually "working" on your project.
5. Learn how to implement quests/NPC's and how to do the required scripting for the quest implementation

If you don't know any of the above/don't know anybody who does, it's gonna be extremely difficult or nigh impossible to make any real progress on the project or to reach anything that resembles a somewhat playable mod. If you just start "working" on your project without knowing these things, it can cause extreme problems/waste a lot of time long-term. In the worst case: It's gonna break your project and you've to restart all over.

So what I would do if I was you is: Do a super small worldspace with LOD and ~1-3 basic quests with NPCs and some scripting. This way you can learn most of the basics and see how they actually come together and people can actually get some proof that you know what you're talking about and that you can put in work.

Edited August 14, 2022 by 84Cronos

[TheElfBard]

@84Cronos My level designer and I started working on our heightmap a few days ago. We used an actual Topographic map of central Arkansas. We're working on scaling down to be playable. As for my modding experience, I'm most familiar with NPC design and schedules. I'll include links to our old mod page (we used to be a New Vegas project, long story) as well as my first mod which is mostly a bunch of new NPCs with schedules. We're also currently working on what we're calling Tales From The Ouachita Wasteland, where our story and some factions go to the Commonwealth. We'll be making short quest lines and minor dungeons to "show off" what we can do in CK. Our hope is to excite the modding community with these releases and potentially get more modders on the team. I will be watching those videos you recommended as I know I need and want to expand my CK knowledge. Thankfully, I've striked up a friendship with Ropiequet who worked on London. Thanks for reaching out I appreciate it.

 

Old Mod Page:

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68631

 

First NV mod:

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/68582