Is it easy for everyone to make mods?

[Lancars]

A lot of times i will come across a mod. I think "Oh this is so cool i really like it" So i get it and use it. As i play i come up with ideas that i want to send the mod makers way and hope to help them improve it. So i make a request as nice as possible to not step on any toes and hope that they reply. But most of the time instead of a yes or no i get "Make it yourself"

 

My problem is I've tried looking at the CK and other programs a like for this very purpose and as i stare at the program i have no idea what i'm doing. People tell me to look at tutorials and i have no idea what to look for or i get videos that tell me nothing. I don't know what i'm doing and i end up getting overwhelmed and i end up closing it all down.

 

I don't find it easy at all. Is it really easy for everyone else to make mods? Am i the only one not capable of doing it? I'm not demanding mod makers add things to there mods but i just wish i wasn't swept under the rug when i make a request and then ignored. I mean i could ask the question "Why bother making the mod for the public if you don't take kindly to requests" But then i look like a jerk and i get ignored.

 

I know not all mod makers are like this some do take good ideas but it just makes me wonder if its so easy for them why tell me to go make it? Honestly dumb when it comes to making them. I have many ideas for quality improvements and i try to work within the confines of the mechanics they have access to so i don't ask for the impossible.

 

I'm sorry for ranting but i had to put this somewhere to get an unbiased opinion. What do i do?

[Bess]

Have you found TES Alliance yet? Take a look around ESV: Skyrim School ----- free classes and tutorials in modding, starting from the beginning, with no assumption of knowledge at all. And friendly folks very willing to help those willing to learn. You might see some aspect of modding that really grabs your attention in a way you didn't expect and makes you feel like giving it a go after all.

[DoctorKaizeld]

ignore people say that. not everyone who uses mods or requests them know how to use the tools. as long as you attempted to do it then you are fine. the reason people say "do it yourself" is because the mod maker community isnt very broad, as in most mod 'makers' are people who make easy mods such as followers and presets. these are not heard to do but are a good place to start because of it. a weapon rebalancing mod though is easy to start but hard to finish as you cant just replace the attack damage with a simple 10 point increase across the board and have that be enough.

 

 

for example i have a mod i made that re-balances every weapon in FONV and the Millennia weapons mod pack as well to give more variety with the weapons (i did the same with armor but i didnt put much work into it) but i changed more then just the damage. some weapons deal more crit damage and others shoot faster or even Lucky now is a revolver that shoots like a shotgun and Maria is fully automatic.

 

 

so it really depends on if you want to do it or not. all i can say is if you dont want to make mods dont make mods telling people to do it themselves on their requests is wrong and a bad habit this community has that i think needs to stop. i will always encourage others to take a look at modding but if it isnt your thing it just isnt your thing.

[cdcooley]

No, it's not particularly easy except for certain specific types. That's one reason why you might be getting the "Make it yourself" response.

 

Most people make mods for themselves and then upload them for others because it's nice to share. All but one of my mods are like that. But one of my mods was made by request because it really was easy for me to make. Generally the mod you see works exactly the way the creator wanted it to work and when you suggest how it could be made better you can trigger various reactions.

 

Sometimes the mod author agrees with your suggestion. That might result in an update to the mod but in other cases the author might not have the time or knowledge to make the change and responds with either no or make it yourself. And if the mod author doesn't think it's an improvement and simply an alternative then you'll usually get a no or make it yourself response too.

 

Don't be offended if you get told to make it yourself it's actually a slightly nicer version of no. Recognize that it could either mean the author doesn't agree it would be better or that the author also doesn't know how to do it. Coming up with good ideas is a lot easier than implementing them.

[DoctorKaizeld]

Don't be offended if you get told to make it yourself. Recognize that it could either mean the author doesn't agree it would be better or that the author also doesn't know how to do it. Coming up with good ideas is a lot easier than implementing them.

correction to my statement. this is what i mean. dont be offended for sharing a request and getting that response.

[csbx]

It's definitely not easy for everyone--particularly for those with no basic programming knowledge. I totally remember seeing the creation kit for the first time, and thinking: oh, I'll just fiddle around and figure it out; I'll have a room and a few npcs in minutes. 20 minutes in and I had no idea what I was looking at or where to start. Normally I can get away with blindly waltzing into a new program--not so with the Creation Kit, though.

 

[thumbincubation]

It has definitely not been easy for me. I'll spend hours on something, finally get it working and be proud of myself, and then find out people had been doing it better for 4 years already.

 

If it helps you any, these are the tutorials I used, after a few failed attempts to "wing it" in creation kit. There is a "tutorial hub" button at the top of the page, which takes you to more job-specific tutorials. Lots of good ones

on youtube, too, but I like ones I can refer back to, like a checklist.

 

http://www.creationkit.com/index.php?title=Category:Getting_Started

 

 

"Do it yourself" isn't always a dismissal, though. There are always going to be the "google is your friend" types, on any forum, but sometimes it's said with reason. I have encouraged that sometimes on Steam, because it's literally quicker and easier, for someone to follow a tutorial and make a simple stat change for themselves, than it is to deal with the hassle and risk of steam mods. Other times, the request is one that's easy or basic enough to be a good intro for a new modder, so if they are encouraged to try, they are on their way to becoming free of having to rely on someone else when they want to make a change.

[Elias555]

Very easy for anyone who passed 10th grade. Most of the hard parts are trial and error, time consuming or complex.

[lofgren]

It has definitely not been easy for me. I'll spend hours on something, finally get it working and be proud of myself, and then find out people had been doing it better for 4 years already.

 

That's going to be true of almost everything that you ever try to do in life, unless you are the very first person to ever attempt it. If you think you are going to be better at something in a couple of hours than somebody who has been doing it for 4 years, you are going to be disappointed in most areas of your life.

 

I agree with qwertyzeldar that telling people to do it themselves is a bad habit of this community. Even still, I feel a strong desire to say it sometimes.

 

I most frequently feel it when somebody sends me a PM or posts a request in the comments of one of my mods, especially when the request is subjective or highly particular. For example when I get a PM that says, "Would you release a patch for your mod so it works with mod XYZ, ABC, and LMNOP?" Hell no, I wouldn't. Or another time when I told somebody I wasn't interested in two of their suggestions for my mod (after enthusiastically accepting and implementing their first three suggestions), and they responded by accusing me of not being interested in "working with others." Like, dude, you're spitballing ideas. I'm the one figuring out how to implement them, doing the work, and then testing them.

 

So we may respond with "Do it yourself" when we perceive that a user is implying that their time is more valuable than ours. Basically if you feel like it is worth our time to do all this work for you then you ought to feel like it is worth your time to do it for yourself. That's not really a fair perception, but it's the way it feels sometimes.

 

As to whether or not anybody can mod, I definitely feel that anybody who is willing to put in the time can figure out how to do anything that the Creation Kit allows you to do. Modeling and texturing, writing, SKSE plugins, and reproccers are different animals. But there is a lot you can do without ever leaving the confines of the Creation Kit and the CK makes most things very easy. That's a very relative "very easy," though. Expect to spend several days on just the experimentation phase of the learning process.

[ElioraArin]

I am learning & have found some things to be very easy, while some things definitely are not. I have also been tripped up by vanilla bugs that I didn't know about - correct me if I'm wrong but you are probably best to include the Skyrim update as a master!

Another thing, the Creation Kit Wiki tutorials are a good starting point but aren't always fully helpful. I followed one on navmeshing exactly & couldn't understand why on earth a particular aspect of it wasn't working - a quick question in the forums & a more experienced modder gave me some significant info that effortlessly solved the problem, information that was mentioned absolutely nowhere in the tutorial!

Edited September 10, 2016 by ElioraArin