Modding Elite

[davidlallen]

From what Ive asked over and over during my creation process on, feedback is absolutley shyte here. From a designer point of veiw, you need to check, recheck your mod, because I've asked for playtesters, and that seems that didn't work.

 

I think there are two *non overlapping* groups of people. One group reads and replies to mod questions on the talk and troubleshooting forums. One group downloads mods off newvegasnexus and plays them. I have also posted looking for playtesters on the talk and troubleshooting forums (once) and got no replies. So I completed my personal testing and then released the mod in the download area of newvegasnexus. A couple of bugs were pointed out and there was some good discussion. I fixed the bugs and released an updated version. I am no rock star (yet) but this seemed like a good process.

 

When you, for example, asked me to download and playtest your mod, I didn't do it. Nothing personal; but I choose to spend my time either developing my own mod, testing my own mod, or occasionally answering questions posted here. I suspect most other modders are in the same situation. To get feedback, release the mod. Don't expect to be overwhelmed by tons of feedback, you get a lot of silence; but a separate test cycle is not a requirement.

 

For my second mod, I did a separate beta test. But I recruited for that, by sending private messages to each of the people who had endorsed my first mod. This is a pre-built audience of people who liked my stuff. Out of about 20 private messages sent, I got about five active beta testers. That is good; but it didn't come from advertising on the talk and troubleshooting forums.

[chucksteel]

Thanks Chucksteel for the input I will attempt to be more careful with my spelling sometimes I get going and my fingers get a bit confused. thanks for the info trying to build a mod for myself slow going but I finally got the skills to build a half decent worldspace I'll keep trucking keep the comments coming I'm always up for a good thrashing.

 

Once again, I was not trying to be off, rude or, even give you "a good thrashing". Also, no matter how shiny the badge is or, how big the guns are, it's not my intent to come off as the, "Spelling, Grammar Police". (God knows, I'm not qualified for the job! http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/wallbash.gif) We all have are personal limitations, some of us are good writers, scripters, and, others of us are, visual geeks! (I do see that you get my point but, sometimes I feel the need to clarify (when I'm being blunt!) for others who may not get it.) I'm just saying, first impressions are important, even on the interweb! If you put some effort into your posts, help requests and, whatnot, it shows and, people will respond to that.

 

One of my biggest pet-peevs is when someone asks for help but, they neglect to use any punctuation, paragraphs. Second on my list is "My mod doesn't work! what did I do wrong! Help me now!!!!!!!", giving no explanation of what they have tried to do to resolve the issue, where they looked for the answers, if any.

 

I finally got the skills to build a half decent worldspace

 

Do you have the "LOD Generation" thing down? If not, feel free to PM me and ask for help, I've gotten quite good at it, I've even released some modders resource packs to help others.

 

P.S. Got a spell checker :wink:

 

I'm quite proud of you your taking a step in the right direction. http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/thumbsup.gif

 

Happy modding,

 

chuck

 

 

 

[DredDarkwater77]

My Sargent used to take a lot of pleasure in getting under the skin of as many people as he could, drove him nuts that he never got to me. I know how to take constructive criticism and took no offense, you were right, I corrected the problem thats how it should work.

[vgo]

Many years ago I used to be "modding elite" or "rockstar" in a game, there was only a handful of people who could even think of doing the things I did with the game. I'm a professional software developer and programming has been easy for me all my life, that helped enormously when I started modding.

 

I tried to help other people with their problems, but when it came to scripting I found it very difficult to explain things to someone who lacks even the basic understanding and terminology of computer programming. So, what I did was to recommend some basic programming tutorials and then move on to write scripts for the game, the people that I tried to help didn't understand this though. People tend to like to take shortcuts and they might even get something working by trial and error, but if they don't know why something works and why something else doesn't leads to problems they can't figure out. You have to start with basic stuff, experiment and work your way up. If you get stuck with something, don't rush to beg for help in the forums, you should at least try to solve the problem yourself - you'll learn a lot more that way and people don't get tired of your constant cries for help and when you really need the help you're more likely to get it (posting a message with only "plz help!!111" in the subject line isn't a particularly good idea either).

 

Fast forward to FO3, when I started the GECK for the first time it took me a few hours to figure out how things worked and I could start experimenting with some gameplay changes, I quickly came up with a simple mod that altered the weapon degradation, experience points and even added a "weapon cleaning kit" item to "repair" the weapons with their condition in >= 90% etc. (the backward repairing logic is something that's still driving me crazy, but I haven't found a way to fix it i.e. it should be easier to repair a weapon that's in good condition than it is to repair one in bad condition and not the other way around...)

 

What I'm trying to say is that when you get the skills and experience it's quite easy to start modding almost ANY game if you have the motivation to do it. I've developed a habit to tinker with almost every game I play. :)

 

About spelling, because I'm a programmer my spelling tends to be pretty good; it has to be, none of the software I've made would work (or compile) if my spelling was really bad. :D

In my opinion there's no excuse for bad spelling especially if you're writing in your native language, we all have been taught to read and write in school. I absolutely hate the "Internet slang" with no capital letters, punctuation, paragraphs and with stupid abbreviations (my favorite: lol - in response to hundred lines of quoted text, sometimes including pictures too), I tend to skip such messages on forums and put the writer on my ignore list if there's such an option. I've been called Grammar Nazi and I'm proud of it. :P

 

PS. English is my 3rd language. :)

[chucksteel]

"Grammar Nazi", Oh! I mean Vgo, http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/tongue.gif

I tried to help other people with their problems, but when it came to scripting I found it very difficult to explain things to someone who lacks even the basic understanding and terminology of computer programming. So, what I did was to recommend some basic programming tutorials and then move on to write scripts for the game, the people that I tried to help didn't understand this though. People tend to like to take shortcuts and they might even get something working by trial and error, but if they don't know why something works and why something else doesn't leads to problems they can't figure out. You have to start with basic stuff, experiment and work your way up. If you get stuck with something, don't rush to beg for help in the forums, you should at least try to solve the problem yourself - you'll learn a lot more that way and people don't get tired of your constant cries for help and when you really need the help you're more likely to get it (posting a message with only "plz help!!111" in the subject line isn't a particularly good idea either).

 

Is it possible you could take the time to PM me the links to the "Basic Programing" Tutorials, you've mentioned, in your previous post? I've been trying to learn scripting, I've looked at the GECK Wikki, read and, re-read everything I can find but, I've yet to get my head around it.

 

Starting with the basics would be a good thing for me!

 

I really want to learn how to do simple scripts for myself, nothing complicated but, I'm getting tired of having to try to beg borrow or steel, from others, to accomplish my tasks! (steeling was a joke!)

 

Most of the scrips I have used have been built by others or, created by the trial and, error method but, I still don't get it.

 

I absolutely hate the "Internet slang" with no capital letters, punctuation, paragraphs and with stupid abbreviations (my favorite: lol - in response to hundred lines of quoted text, sometimes including pictures too), I tend to skip such messages on forums and put the writer on my ignore list if there's such an option. I've been called Grammar Nazi and I'm proud of it. :P

 

PS. English is my 3rd language. :)

 

Praise the lord Geebus, Thanks for the support on this one!

 

Try to imagine being someone with a learning disability and, attempting to read the type of posts you've mentioned! http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/wallbash.gif (I don't mean to use this as a cop out, I know I just have to work a bit harder and, once I understood the issue, it's never held me back! I'm not ashamed of it ether! ) No capitalization, No punctuation, No paragraphs and, internet slang can make a simple post completely incoherent to someone like me!!! http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/wacko.gif

 

I don't like or want a shortcut! I want to know how things really work so if you could point me into the direction of some good tutorials I would truly appreciate it.

 

Thanks

 

chuck

[mrbic]

I havent read through what everyone else has said, but I can tell you that it has a lot to do with modding being a hobby. Im not a very good modder but I get a lot of the knowledge that I have from not only dissecting other peoples mods, but happily searching through and experimenting with GECK. In the end, once you have the knowledge, you have to work for a long time and with precision to create a high-quality mod; its also important to note that beforehand you need to make sure that the mod you are creating will be fun and enjoyable, so make sure you examine what people will like or even need(fixes and such).

 

Once again, you have to enjoy searching for meaning within the world of modding. If you dont understand something, look it up- look at tutorials and post your problems on forums, google certain issues if you think that many other people have the problem.

[Moraelin]

I am new to the modding game, I stumble confusidly through the GECK, I can fix a few values with FNVedit , Blender and bsa unpacker are a complete mystery. So how does one become one of the greats. Those people who release a mod and it is instant gold? Well the truth is I don't know. I have thown a few lines into the water tryin to get someone with the knowhow to share there secrets. Alas I have come up almost completely empty. I have had a few people go out of their way to lead me in the right direction, but mostly my inquiries are met with silence. There can be many explenations for this, they are busy redily jumps to mind, or is it what I like to call "rockstar syndrome" where they have become so impressed with their own skill that they look down at all of our pothetic attempts holding tight their ego with one hand and jelously protecting their secrets with the other. Truth is I don't know this either.

 

Well, I can't speak for the others, much less for any of the greats, but personally I also look at it through the factors of:

 

1. Do I even see it? I'm not here all the time, you know? I have finite time. My life doesn't revolve around the Nexus forums, hard to believe as that may be ;)

 

2. Does it sound like something I'm interested in? See above.

 

3. CAN I help at all? Most of the requests, either for mods or help, are stuff I wouldn't really add anything beyond "look for someone else for that", if I were to answer. Would it even helpt to add such noise to the signal? I mean, the one who started the thread still isn't going to be any wiser after that.

 

4. Is it even clear what the guy wants there? A lot of the time, the problem or request isn't even clear.

 

5. Is it too much bother? Honestly, when it's mod requests a lot involve more work than I'm willing to put in (a lot of people seem to grossly underestimate how much work would go into making what they ask for), and, sad to say, a lot of the requests for help are already answered by several tutorials. And it's just too much bother to type two pages with the exact details of how to retexture a gun when yet another guy hasn't read the tutorials. Sometimes I will, most often not.

 

The truth is, I'm actually here in the first place because I'd like to help more people start with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some saviour type though. (Saviours tend to get kicked out of the Vault;)) I just like getting other people's mods. Some are actually good. But, you know, it's not always possible to help.

 

Now I am sure I will draw fire for my audacity my nerve "to complain that someone is better than me" calm yourselves children I am not attacking anyone here and yes I already know how pathetic I am and my rep will be forever shamed, I am simply wondering why their are 5000 requests for help and 50 replies?

 

How about: because there are always 5000 people who'd like something done, and maybe 5 on the board who are even qualified to actually do it?

 

My limited knowledge is primarily hardware and as such I can intuitivly predict how some programs will interact with each other. Any help I can give I do and many of you out there do the same. Do I think that any time that a person has a question we should all drop what we are doing and fall in? no. But a person should never be ridiculed or attacked for a lack of knowledge, once upon a time you were a dumb a$$ too.

 

Hmm? Ok, time out... did someone get ridiculed for not knowing how to do something in Blender? I thought we were talking about lack of replies. Ridiculing someone is a whole different issue. Where did that happen?