Modding, where to start?

[tiggerdyret]

I've made this post on the Fallout 3 forums, but as they aren't that active anymore and there are so many good modders for NV and Skyrim, I thought I might as well post on this forum too.

 

After playing with mods for about a year I think it time to try to make one myself. I would like to get some tips on which types of mods that are best for beginners and what guides best compliment the type of modding that you suggest I start out with.

I have no experience with any programming or anything so I have no idea what is required, but I'm willing to learn. My first thought was to start with something easy and follow the geck tutorial and make the simple tutorial level from fallout 3 even though I'm not very interested in making quest/dungeons. On the long run I would like to make some gameplay/gameballancing changes and maybe even try some moddeling.

I think I will start out with the fallout 3 GECK, because there is already are so many good mods that work well together for both New Vegas and Skyrim.

One idea i had was to make a compatibility patch between FWE and the scavanger armors (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/10228/?). I think that it would be a pretty easy place to start. My guess is that it would just require some editing of the stat values and maybe some integration between the leveled lists. Am I correct?

If i manage to make that I could go on to make a compatibility patch for iron sight and WMK and use that to learn some basic animation and modeling.

Another idea is to try and make a very comprehensive merged patch for my load order and really try to tweak it to my liking and get a feel of what the different mods consist of and at the same time maybe get a more stable game. Is it possible to make a merged patch/compatiblity patch for a whole order with the geck or is it just done with fo3edit?

If you have some suggestions for another good way to start out modding and maybe a guide concerning the specific type of mod you think I should do I would be grateful.

Cheers

Ps. I am aware of the modding tutorials on the nexus forums :)