[Mod creation and community knowledge] I'm getting pissed off

[Demorphic]

It's very early days. Bethesda clearly had to cut a lot from the scope of the game to get it out in any reasonably playable form.

Now I'm sure they are tightening things up. Once the dust settles a bit, the tools and workflows will be better defined.

 

I definitely recommend jumping into the Starfield Modding Discord, as mentioned by Bub200. There's some good discussion around current tools in there.

[LuneMods]

 

lol

Whats the point of hec editing an esp if you have no control of what is in it without the CK?

 

Havent touched an ESP

[zanity]

A thread like these proves many (would be) modders are enthusiastic but not tech skilled. A tech skilled person is also very able in the arena of tracking down necessary information (which in the Internet Age is infinitely easy than at any earlier age). Instead we see an 'entitled' attitude where certain peeps expect things to be handed to them on a plate- very indicative of the type of schooling they received.

 

And then we have the desperate desire to rush into modding for 'clout', the curse of the modern social media age.

 

All good modders are taking their time- releasing stuff now that represents low hanging fruit (Starfield overlap with earlier games) while prepping for more ambitious stuff later, as tools progress and the release of the official tools nears. And as many mention here, real-time tools like Discord is where the current action is. Of course it is the nature of the beast that some modders do not like social intercourse, and hence will instinctively avoid resources like Discord.

 

It is true that many recall the early days of Skyrim and Fallout, where broken rubbish mods could garner massive attention and downloads simply by being 'first'. Texture packs that promised 'improved performance' yet were broken and in incorrect data format, getting the normals wrong for instance. But so many people used them hoping for the best, until proper useful texture improvements arrived months later. So some people hope for fame BEFORE skilled correct mods start to show up.

 

Having used a recent Fallout 3 player-home mod from a good modder that broke my game because his mod received so little use, the bug was not spotted, I know the downside of untested mods. These early mods for Starfield will mostly have a ton of hopeful downloads, but their rushed nature, together with many early modders being technically unskilled and really posting so soon for 'clout', makes them mostly not worth the risk. Besides many people think a Beth game is best first experienced 'vanilla' so one can really appreciate the changes mods bring during subsequent playthrus.

 

There are day one mods I really love to see, though- especially the localisation for Russian, and hopefully for Persian too. Race hate bullying disgusts me, and Beth/MS engaged in the worst form with these omissions. That I should witness organisations that (falsely) claim to be on the 'left' make such choices is so sickening. These mods are the consequence of modern tools like Python, and the amazing advances in AI language processing, written and spoken.

 

Modding moves ever forward. It won't be long before Russian text is joined with Russian speech, even in the vocal patterns of the original voice artists (which while totally LEGAL in both the USA and more importantly the UK- since neither deem vocal 'impressions' to be any form of IP infringement- will mean the mod will be 'banned' on this site). Anyway my point is that Starfield modders have even more tech tools and methods to explore.

Edited September 13, 2023 by zanity

[RaidersClamoring]

The tool chain used by each modder at this point is basically a bunch of hacks and hail marys that just happened to pay off. There is no CK and there are only previews of the common tools at best. There is no straight answer because the modder cannot convey a coherent description of what exactly he or she used.

But if you're interested, you should check the Starfield modding discord wherein there is a 'common-research' section. Progress will be seen there first.

[worm82075]

I find it rather disturbing that so many responses here are completely glossing over the OP complaint. The fact of the matter is, we are all human and as such most of us have an inherently self serving agenda. There is a potential to make loads of money from this cycle and many are going to try and limit their competition in the modding arena. I don't condone this behavior but i don't condemn it either, fish gotta swim, birds gotta eat. I like editing meshes too and would love to know the work flow to do so however I refuse to get angry at others for not sharing their hustle with me. Just like with politics i will vote with my wallet and not support those that don't share my values. That is how the freemarket works and make no mistake our modding community IS a freemarket and I suggest you all treat it as such.

[americanakita]

I just download other modders mods to try to figure out how they did it. Some mods are beyond me because they used their own tools, but most people are editing nif files by just renaming them so that a different texture (already in the game) replaces it. They're not actually modifying the texture most of the time themselves - most are slapping preexisting textures natively in the game over another texture and mashing them up from what I'm seeing.

[PrometheusTS]

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/13239216-how-to-save-textures-for-starfield/

[aidenps3]

same here bet they ll be asking for donation soon

[Kaerar]

I just download other modders mods to try to figure out how they did it. Some mods are beyond me because they used their own tools, but most people are editing nif files by just renaming them so that a different texture (already in the game) replaces it. They're not actually modifying the texture most of the time themselves - most are slapping preexisting textures natively in the game over another texture and mashing them up from what I'm seeing.

What complaint? Just because they aren't capable of making something without handouts doesn't mean others can't capitalise on the situation.

 

End of the day, these days it seems to be 'if one can't do, just whine and invoke some 'ism to get clout points'.

[vik24328]

It feels like the game was created not for players, everything is already clear there, but for modders)) Don't give the author of the post anything, a couple hundred more colors of jackets and other junk will be added. How to find something valuable in this s#*! later? This project is a good attempt to play the "violin" again, but in order for it to sound again, you must first write new, brilliant music. But it remained somewhere far behind (This project will never even come close to the original source!