Any Mod Groups out there?

[Exodus111]

Seem to me most mods are made by individuals, with groups as the exception. Maybe thats just me, I dont know.

Point is id like to know if there are any Fallout 3 Mod groups out there who could use more help or whatever.

Ive done the Vault 87, and I have some pretty big Ideas about what I want to do, but I need more experience and getting into some form of group or other would be nice.

 

So hit me up.

 

-Exodus

[Tony the Wookie]

Teams over the internet are usually more trouble than they are worth.

 

I tried to put together a team for my mod and it was nothing short of a disaster. I spend hour and hours of my time getting people organized and explaining the grand scheme of my project and brainstorming ideas with people, and in the end I have only have ONE person so far actually do ANYTHING at all.

 

The people who were so quick to offer help wern't even nice enough to shoot me an email to say they no longer wanted to help me. Most of them just disapeared midway through a PM conversation...

 

I had over 20 people offer to help me, and now my team consists of 3 people...

 

 

 

Most people come on here looking for teams and never get a single response, which in some ways I guess they were luckyer than me, since at least they didn't waste their time working with these people and not getting anything for it.

 

It just isn't worth it...

[Exodus111]

Teams over the internet are usually more trouble than they are worth.

 

I tried to put together a team for my mod and it was nothing short of a disaster. I spend hour and hours of my time getting people organized and explaining the grand scheme of my project and brainstorming ideas with people, and in the end I have only have ONE person so far actually do ANYTHING at all.

 

The people who were so quick to offer help wern't even nice enough to shoot me an email to say they no longer wanted to help me. Most of them just disapeared midway through a PM conversation...

 

I had over 20 people offer to help me, and now my team consists of 3 people...

 

 

 

Most people come on here looking for teams and never get a single response, which in some ways I guess they were luckyer than me, since at least they didn't waste their time working with these people and not getting anything for it.

 

It just isn't worth it...

 

 

I hear you, and just to be clear I have NO interest in starting any groups.

For exactly the reasons u mentioned, EVERYONE wants to be apart of of something cool in theory.

But Modding is hours and hours of work is not easy, in fact its hard, and as soon as that wall hits u just never know who will remain standing, and I dont have the patience or inclination to go through any long weeding out procces.

 

Which is why Im looking for already established groups.

 

So u got three ppl ?

Want a fourth?

 

-Exodus

[pkleiss]

I had four 'partners' over the life of Underground City. Three of them just up and disappeared as well, though they were all nice enough to say good-bye. I still have one very good modding friend, but we just test out each other's mods and offer suggestions to each other. There is no real team work involved. Part of the problem, at least with my mod is the time required. I've been working on the same mod for nine months, and I have no real job to get in the way. For all my partners, real life just got in the way of modding. That seems to happen a lot when you are not getting paid to do something that takes so much time.

 

I concur with the idea that having a modding team turns out to be more trouble than its worth sometimes.

[Guest Messenjah]

I had four 'partners' over the life of Underground City. Three of them just up and disappeared as well, though they were all nice enough to say good-bye. I still have one very good modding friend, but we just test out each other's mods and offer suggestions to each other. There is no real team work involved. Part of the problem, at least with my mod is the time required. I've been working on the same mod for nine months, and I have no real job to get in the way. For all my partners, real life just got in the way of modding. That seems to happen a lot when you are not getting paid to do something that takes so much time.

 

I concur with the idea that having a modding team turns out to be more trouble than its worth sometimes.

[Guest Messenjah]

I think the more interesting question here... is... what can you do? Can you script? Can you model, can you texture... can you provide voice acting, sound engineering, animation? Or are you just a simple world builder?

 

I find it easier just to ask people to make something specifically rather than join a "team". If your mod is cool and people like it, they will help you sometimes or at least point you in the right direction.

 

If you are interested in a mid-scale project.... I might could use some help but that depends on what YOU can do.

[Exodus111]

I had four 'partners' over the life of Underground City. Three of them just up and disappeared as well, though they were all nice enough to say good-bye. I still have one very good modding friend, but we just test out each other's mods and offer suggestions to each other. There is no real team work involved. Part of the problem, at least with my mod is the time required. I've been working on the same mod for nine months, and I have no real job to get in the way. For all my partners, real life just got in the way of modding. That seems to happen a lot when you are not getting paid to do something that takes so much time.

 

I concur with the idea that having a modding team turns out to be more trouble than its worth sometimes.

 

From what ive seen the amount of work on ur underground City looks awesome, I have not tried it because I want to wait for the finished product, but the comments seem stellar.

Over nine months of work, how much would u say uve been able to do every day on average over those nine months?

 

-Ex

[Yossarian22]

We are working as a two-men team on a quite hugh project. This works pretty well, because we share the same ideas of the kind of playing experiance we aiming to and we also have a similar level of skill. Also, we don't have a schedule or spend too much time in discussion. We both know our goals. Also, sometime one of us is busy for a while, can't mod for maybe a month or more, that's nothing to bother. We keep constant work on it, but we just take our time and are not in the rush for a release. I think this are some important keys for a sucessful modding team.

 

But I agree, that it's not easy to pull together a productive and consistent modding team. Most of the time it fails because of different interests, skills or time-investment. If you have to explain your team-member every step for example, you could do it easily yourself in the same time you loose explaining him how to do it. If he then have again no feeling for the mood of your mod and you really dislike his work, it's hard to tell him afterwards without hurt his feelings.

 

So, a modding team really has to connect in many aspects or it is cursed to fail. So, if I would allow anyone to join my project, he would have to pass a interview, where I would check if he would be an good addition for the team or if he would be counterproductive.

[Exodus111]

We are working as a two-men team on a quite hugh project. This works pretty well, because we share the same ideas of the kind of playing experiance we aiming to and we also have a similar level of skill. Also, we don't have a schedule or spend too much time in discussion. We both know our goals. Also, sometime one of us is busy for a while, can't mod for maybe a month or more, that's nothing to bother. We keep constant work on it, but we just take our time and are not in the rush for a release. I think this are some important keys for a sucessful modding team.

 

But I agree, that it's not easy to pull together a productive and consistent modding team. Most of the time it fails because of different interests, skills or time-investment. If you have to explain your team-member every step for example, you could do it easily yourself in the same time you loose explaining him how to do it. If he then have again no feeling for the mood of your mod and you really dislike his work, it's hard to tell him afterwards without hurt his feelings.

 

So, a modding team really has to connect in many aspects or it is cursed to fail. So, if I would allow anyone to join my project, he would have to pass a interview, where I would check if he would be an good addition for the team or if he would be counterproductive.

 

Well my views on this matter are twofold.

First Ive been a guild leader in various MMOs (im sure im not the only one), and in serious raiding/pvp guilds ive had to maintain a group of officers to manage the guild, which is can be a terrible task, for all the reason mentioned here.

Its work, for no pay, and ppl have lives, and ppl have different Ideas and if if they dont "feel it" they are not going to get with it.

Pluss all the challenges of working cross the internet, across the world even, with different schedules, sleeping cycles, work schedules etc..

 

But also my viewpoint comes from the fact that I intend to do this for a living, Im going to become a game designer, no ifs and or buts about it.

So from that point of view, whatever I can work on here translates into experience in the field, and these days certainly not uncommon to be apart of many initial Resumes for ppl breaking into the industry.

 

Now im willing to bet some serious money that each and every one of u would also like that, maybe its a dream u dont really dare to believe in, but it motivates all the same.

So my point is, if u REALLY want to put somrthing on ur resume, it needs to be big, it needs to be popular, and u NEED to show u worked in a team, since thats what u are going to have to do in the industry anyway.

 

-Ex

[pkleiss]

Over nine months of work, how much would u say uve been able to do every day on average over those nine months?

 

I have worked on it almost daily. Some days I spend 12 hours, some none at all. Some days are just spent researching or testing new ideas. Some days are spent developing new 'toys' as can be seen in this thread. My main focus is to script puzzles. The farther I have gotten into the mod, the more complex and elaborate my puzzles have gotten. Playing the mod is like a anthology of a modders development in that respect. The beginning is rather simple, but as you progress, you encounter more and more complex scenarios. I don't have an extimate of the time I have spent on it, but it may be something like 30 hours a week over the 9 months.

 

As for becoming a game developer, I have some of advice: Its not what you know so much as its who you know. Having a contact already in the business would most likely help more than a superlative resume - for those trying to break into the business anyway.