Recruitment

[DarkAnsem]

I want to realize a game-completed quest, where you face a new evil and follow a complex, multi-layered quest, possibly shaped upon YOUR choices. I actually have a few ideas, with a small help from other games (not final fantasy this time, altough I love that saga) so I can let you choose what suits you most. I am a storyboarder/writer/plot planner/dialogue-writer, so I need all the rest, but mostly modelers/texturers. Graphic isn't definitely my thing.

 

my msn is [email protected]

 

contact me please!

[Vagrant0]

You're gonna need to do better than that to get anyone interested.

 

First, people aren't going to send you e-mail to ask about your project, if you think it's worth doing, you need to explain what you plan to do in detail so that people can decide if they like the idea at all, or have the skills to do anything with it. People aren't going to just steal your idea, and if they do, you'll be able to learn from how they did it and save some time. More importantly, by describing what you want to do, you can find out early what will, and won't work, and can plan ahead.

 

Second, what are YOU doing? What have YOU done already? What skills do you bring to the table so that people know that you're actually planning to do some (read most) of the work, and are capable of doing it. Even with some semi-capable people around, without someone who knows exactly every phase of the project, and how to do it, the project will fail.

 

Third, unless you're playing someone for it, you shouldn't plan on seeing any new meshes or art until you have atleast a good portion of the mod completed. This is because there aren't many around who can do these things, and most of their time is spent working on projects which already have enough down to where they'll be completed, or are meshes which can be used in a wider range of projects. Even then, you shouldn't count on any new creatures, clothing, armor, animations, or very many other things unless you yourself are planning on making them. These things take alot of time, and very few, among the already small group of meshers, can actually do even some of them.

 

Fourth, most of those who I would call "capable" tend to stick to projects they find worthwhile. If you don't already have a sizable portion of your mod already done before asking for help, even those who are interested may not offer help since they would likely be sitting on their hands for a few months while you get enough for them to work on, or as the case often is, they'll find themselves doing all the work while you're busy "planning". Desipte what skills you personally have, setting up worldspaces, cells, arranging statics can be done without much background and often is one of the more timeconsuming parts of the mod. Having this much done means that people who are interested in your mod can go right to work on their respective areas without having to wait for them to be made, or spend time doing something you could have already done.

 

 

There was a neat little sticky around here somewhere with the do's and don't's of large projects, you should try searching for it, it'll probably give you an idea of what you need to do before trying to get others involved.

[DarkAnsem]

ok, let's counter-debate

 

1: I tought that, by giving away a completed plot, it would ruin the surprise, won't it? the mail is in there because I have a semi-completed draft with all keypoints cleared. that's what I can send.

 

2: I am a member of The Ocean Mod, with the same function I'll have in here; I'm shifting FF7 text with a more alive version on Qhimm forums; I have a CAE certificate to demonstrate I can wield the language as I wish, and will probably get the CPE. I bring mostly storyboarder skills, the core of every quest mod, because, as I said before, I'm going to plan every dialogue, every fork, every variabile, every possibility. Think about the magnitude of that. Even creating a new area sounds simple if compared, I think. I also will furnish detailed maps, not fuzzy descriptions.

 

3: I'm not planning THAT number of new meshes/models, yet at least the Main Villain must be done. And, however, there's pleny of mods to use as a base, I mean, this is not the first one with "special requirements" needed, for istance, another mod already installed. just like the CEP-(community expansion pack)-based mods for Neverwinter Nights work. For example, the Modular Oblivion Enhanced Mod r17 will be a requirement, as one of the main villains is a Lich. And of course compatiblity with the most famous mods (OOO, MMM, Midas Magic, Silgrad Tower, The Ocean, Servant of the Dawn, Tears of the Fiend, deadly reflex and others) will be a requirement.

 

4: here you're right, but I am not saying I want everything done NOW. I am recruiting. there is much to discuss, in order to suit everyone's taste and, first of all, to see if the idea is good. A draft is only a draft, after all, and some elements may be clichè, while others are canon. Also, my real PC is currently broken and are waiting for another one, plus I will be off all August. But having interested team members is a reasonable start. And to will do is can do, IMHO.

 

I'll search for that topic, however.

[Vagrant0]

ok, let's counter-debate

 

1: I tought that, by giving away a completed plot, it would ruin the surprise, won't it? the mail is in there because I have a semi-completed draft with all keypoints cleared. that's what I can send.

Certainly you can describe more without spoiling things. Right now, all you've said is "I have a big mod I wanna do, let me know if you're interested in helping." If people don't know the scope of the project, or the theme, they can't get interested. Additionally, as mentioned, by describing what you plan to do, people who aren't particularly interested in your mod can mention possible issues you may run into when making that mod. No matter how good the storyboard is, if what you want done cannot be done within Oblivion, it cannot be done and you'll have to adjust the storyboard accordingly. As you may not be familiar with the various shortcomings of scripting or AI, you may have a good many such issues.

 

I'm going to plan every dialogue, every fork, every variabile, every possibility. Think about the magnitude of that. Even creating a new area sounds simple if compared, I think. I also will furnish detailed maps, not fuzzy descriptions.

And this is why you'll run into problems. You cannot plan everything just on paper and expect others to make it happen. The more complicated it is, the more difficult it is for other people to understand what you're talking about, and do it. Dispite how it sounds, even trying to plan for every possibility isn't as complicated as making a new area which has to conform to those posibilities. And without that area done, most of that planning is wasted. Again, preparing cells is one of the most time consuming, and important parts of any mod, not dialogues, not scripting, not even AI, despite whoever joins your mod, you should plan on doing most of this yourself. Providing maps is nice, but you could have spent most of that time spent drawing in the CS making the worldspace, laying out statics. Also actually seeing the relations of stuff is infinately more useful to planning than any map.

 

3: I'm not planning THAT number of new meshes/models, yet at least the Main Villain must be done. And, however, there's pleny of mods to use as a base, I mean, this is not the first one with "special requirements" needed, for istance, another mod already installed. just like the CEP-(community expansion pack)-based mods for Neverwinter Nights work. For example, the Modular Oblivion Enhanced Mod r17 will be a requirement, as one of the main villains is a Lich. And of course compatiblity with the most famous mods (OOO, MMM, Midas Magic, Silgrad Tower, The Ocean, Servant of the Dawn, Tears of the Fiend, deadly reflex and others) will be a requirement.

Except that in Oblivion, mods don't link together very well. There is also no combined .esm of user made meshes already defines which could be used in such a way. Again, creatures aren't something very many people can do. At best, you'll have to deal with what is already available, and beg any larger mod projects for permission to use their resource in a standalone project.

 

4: here you're right, but I am not saying I want everything done NOW. I am recruiting. there is much to discuss, in order to suit everyone's taste and, first of all, to see if the idea is good. A draft is only a draft, after all, and some elements may be clichè, while others are canon. Also, my real PC is currently broken and are waiting for another one, plus I will be off all August. But having interested team members is a reasonable start. And to will do is can do, IMHO.

Except, until you have some of the mod completed to the point where others can start working, anyone who may be interested is sitting around waiting and losing interest. People don't sign up for a mod to work on 2-3 months from now, they want the parts which are applicable to them already available so that they can do it now. Even if you found someone so willing to prepare the worldspaces, without having all relevent materials available at the moment of their enlisting, there would be time wasted while you prepare those materials. Modders aren't paid, they work only as long as their interest holds out, many large mods fail simply because people lose interest while waiting for the mod to get out of the planning/brainstorming stage.

 

I'll search for that topic, however.

http://forum.gamingsource.net/index.php?showtopic=26095

not sure why I didn't see it before.

[DarkAnsem]

ok I saved that topic and now will continue planning and plotting, tough I think that everything I have in mind can be done... It's not like I'm asking for the moon :) But for the last point you are right, I guess I will wait, for recruitment, to have my new, flaming PC. anyway, any suggestions of what can I do in the meantime? (oblivion-related, of course)

[Vagrant0]

ok I saved that topic and now will continue planning and plotting, tough I think that everything I have in mind can be done... It's not like I'm asking for the moon :) But for the last point you are right, I guess I will wait, for recruitment, to have my new, flaming PC. anyway, any suggestions of what can I do in the meantime? (oblivion-related, of course)

If you can't run Oblivion, there really isn't a whole lot you can do. Can't really learn scripting since you'd have no way to test it or build mockup mods to see how things work together. Can't really plan out maps since it would require being able to see the relationships between the places within the actual CS to know what works, and what doesn't.

[DarkAnsem]

hah. I guess I do some research for tutorials and other nice things