Is perfectionism a good or bad trait for a modder?

[cumbrianlad]

I'm not sure if it's a good trait for an aspiring modder or not. It certainly makes for a heck of an increased workload. I have yet to release my first mod but when I do I want it to be surprisingly original and unique , at the very least. If it hadn't been for my stubborn refusal to accept even minor 'flaws' I'd have finished my first mod ages ago.

 

I've just spent an entire week or more creating and honing a more powerful race of Draugr. It caused loads of grief because I wanted my Draugr to be individually named, have different weapons and spells, do more damage as well as having more health, stamina magicka etc. As a result, I had to alter almost everything about the original race other than the skins. They needed armour add-ons, new levelled item lists, new encounter classes, fresh combat styles. I even had to alter the race attack data because I wasn't happy with certain aspects of the original.

 

I got to the last lap and they are now all behaving perfectly well in-game. Am I happy? In short, no. Unless I can find a way to add new animations to them, I'm not. Even little things like the inability of the vanilla Draugr to use a dagger or an enchanting table are bugging me. As for their warlocks being only able to cast spells with their left hand...are Bethesda having a laugh? I mean, come on! That has totally screwed up my plan to level my warlocks more progressively. I was originally intending to have them use adept spells, then expert spells and finally to be able to dual cast expert spells but now that's gone, my warlocks seem underpowered compared to their weapon-wielding comrades. I wish I'd noticed the draugr's dearth of animations before I set off on this. I wish I'd noticed and understood their animation list before I'd started.

 

I'm at the point of scrapping my draugr from the mod and replacing them with Nords. The exercise won't be entirely wasted of course because I know that many people dislike mods that simply give enemies more health to make them 'tougher', which doesn't work well as far as I'm concerned. I can use the knowledge in other mods. Still, I'm pretty sure that people would like my draugr...they kick the crap out of you on master difficulty unless you're very good and have a tactic planned for them. I've never dared to try them on legendary difficulty yet! Does it matter that they can't dual cast or sit at a table to eat? Maybe not.

 

Nord or more deadly draugr? I suppose that's my decision.

 

Am I a bit mad to think this way, or is it a good thing? What do you think? Have you ever scrapped an enormous amount of work for a few niggly things that you weren't quite content with?

[DoctorKaizeld]

nothing wrong with it. we can have perfectionist or chaotic people. if we only had one we wouldnt have half the mods on this fine site.

[Skagens]

I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself when it comes to modding. I by no means come near your skills but I know how you feel. You have an idea on how you want something to be, and when that something doesn't turn out the way you wanted or imagined, you get bummed out.

 

If you have the skill to work around you problem, I suggest you stick with it. Having modders who dedicate themselves and actually care about their project turning out perfect is rare.

I feel like being a perfectionist can be more of a negative thing when you're working on something huge as small mishaps or problems arise more often. But when making something small, like a house mod, it becomes less of a problem.

[twiztedmongoloid]

Striving to release high quality content is fine. Have to understand tho that not everything will be perfect. And users of your mod will help point out bugs, mistakes, or issues which you can then fix. But putting in a lot of effort to release high quality content is a good thing. Just dont be afraid to release something because you dont think its perfect. Let the community help you by testing.

 

Make the first release a beta. And improve it from there based on user feedback.

[cumbrianlad]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I'm going with the Nord race instead of Draugr, especially once I figured out how to duplicate the race and add in all the face part options that I wanted via a formlist. With their skin colour a rather putrid pale grey with a bluish tint, both sets of Blackblood tattoos in two different bluish-purple colours and demon eyes they look pretty mean. I tested a higher level mage and he spams dual-cast inferno. That's what I was after. The extra bit of work has been worth it, I think.

 

I've heeded the warning about not being afraid to let others help. I'm lacking self-confidence...that's maybe why I'm seeking to keep on refining...or maybe it's just the engineer in me. Still, as an engineer I should know that nothing's perfect...everything's a compromise.

 

A Beta release sounds like a good idea...I hadn't thought about that. When I reach that point, I'll drop in and ask how to go about it. I'm not too far away now, but I've got to add a bit of clutter, add a couple of books and two, maybe three quests.

[IsharaMeradin]

I'm just thinking out loud a bit here.

 

Have you considered seeing if it is possible to use the skeleton NIF files for the player/NPC characters with the draugr? Animations need to have nodes present in order to function, so it sounds like a reasonable idea to look into.

[FrankFamily]

Being perfectionist is positive in 99% of the situations, it pushes you to make stuff better, sure you might end up frustrated if you aim at something that is impossible but still, in the road to the impossible you'll probably step on the pretty good.

[lofgren]

Perfectionism is never a good thing. It will prevent you from accomplishing something more often than it will make it better.

 

Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

 

Finished is far better than perfect.

 

Focus on producing something useful rather than something perfect.

 

source: OCD perfectionism that has prevented me from holding down a job or completing my college degree for most of my adult life.

[Syq111]

For me i prefer downloading mods with Quality content than quantity.From my life and mod using experience i can clearly say that Quality is much more better than quantity

[cumbrianlad]

So many comments...where to start..

 

Isharameradin, I'm pretty cool with my Nord route now. They look like the living dead and perform admirably. I don't fancy messing with skeletons just yet, because I'm not familiar enough with how to do it properly. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

Iofgren, I know where you're coming from. Oh, hell, I may as well admit it. I hinted about my problem when I said I lacked self confidence. I have pretty severe mixed anxiety and depression condition. I also suffer from social phobia. Put that little lot together and it means that I get very worried about whether what I am doing will be acceptable...I tend to fear a backlash if everything isn't 'perfect'. It also hampers my memory something rotten which is why I struggle to learn something like the creation kit and scripting. That's why I loved the suggestion of a beta release...the possibility of which I'd forgotten about!

 

Seeing the range of answers has actually helped me to put things in a bit of perspective (that I didn't know I'd lost).

 

I'm currently enjoying some tweaking of things that I know need to be adjusted. After that it's quest time.

 

Thanks for the replies folks...I bet you didn't know you were professional counsellors!