LE Adressing the lack of quest Mods: A collaboration between Modders, Wri

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

I love quest mods... not much of a modder though, in Oblivion about all I could do was find information in the Construction Set. I am a fairly decent gold mine of ideas and inspiration though, also a fairly consistent tester; I pretty much did all of the beta testing for Integration, and offered countless ideas, inspiration, and motivation to keep the mod going as long as it did.

 

Phoenix1213( on Bethsoft forums), JCP76m here obviously.

testing, ideas, possibly some writing

Oblivion mods, Fallout New Vegas mods, fallout 3 mods, Deus Ex mods, etc.

 

I'm usually better at testing gameplay/story/character elements. I'm not as good at playing broken alpha builds where I'm supposed to find screwed up landscape, and ignore quests that don't work because they're not done yet.

 

Thank you for the offer, it's nice to have someone on board who can offers line of experience through the modding community. I may make this thread into a simple sign up area, as I have created the barebones of the quest AI had in mind already, I simply need more offers of help from people, such as yourself.

 

Thanks,

[David Brasher]

Why is it that threads like this are always made by writers? I guess I am a bit of a troll and don't like writers much. Writers are sort of like, "I have these great ideas! I need some modders, which are a lesser species, to serve me and do my bidding."

 

As a quest-coder, I have experience enough to state that the bottleneck is not with thinking up new ideas and writing stories on paper. The bottleneck is putting quests into the game. It takes absolutely forever. A creative and talented writer could write and polish a twenty-page short story in the time it takes a fast and skillful quest-coder to insert a rather small quest into Skyrim. (The short story would have a much more complex plot and much more detail than the quest.)

 

So a lot of writers are like, "You lazy modders ought to get up and get to work!"

 

But a lot of quest-coders are like, "You ivory tower writers ought to get up and learn to quest-code!"

 

Tro Lo Lo Lo Lo!

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

Why is it that threads like this are always made by writers? I guess I am a bit of a troll and don't like writers much. Writers are sort of like, "I have these great ideas! I need some modders, which are a lesser species, to serve me and do my bidding."

 

As a quest-coder, I have experience enough to state that the bottleneck is not with thinking up new ideas and writing stories on paper. The bottleneck is putting quests into the game. It takes absolutely forever. A creative and talented writer could write and polish a twenty-page short story in the time it takes a fast and skillful quest-coder to insert a rather small quest into Skyrim. (The short story would have a much more complex plot and much more detail than the quest.)

 

So a lot of writers are like, "You lazy modders ought to get up and get to work!"

 

But a lot of quest-coders are like, "You ivory tower writers ought to get up and learn to quest-code!"

 

Tro Lo Lo Lo Lo!

 

I do not, in any stretch of the imagination think that coders/modders are a 'lesser species', if anything, surely that fact that I am asking for their help on something I cannot achieve alone should be interpreted as me praising them and holding them in high regard. You can't honestly expect writers to have to learn code, just because they have a good idea. The video game industry employs writers to write the game, where would we be if the coders, who are going to turn the idea into a game, said to the writers 'you can't expect us to use our skill to create this, why don't you learn our skill instead, and put us out of a job?!'. It takes years to learn to code, and the majority of programmers go through lengthy degree courses (I have second hand experience, my own Father when through this!) to break into this highly skilled, competitive industry. Likewise, writing is a skill, and the two have to come together to create mods and games.

 

I fully understand it's a lengthy process, that's why I proposed a collaboration.

 

It's a shame, you're exactly the kind of person whose help I would have liked...

[behughes]

I can understand David Brasher's frustration at writers... There are lots of people in the community who post ideas that are completely insane, asking people to devote hundreds of man-hours to tedious CK work, animation, scripting, audio, etc., and demonstrate absolutely no understand of the limitations of the game engine, not to mention the patience of the modders themselves.

 

However, its not exactly fair to assume all writers are like this. There plenty of writers who have great ideas, and simply want to share them in the hope that someone with the right skills will make their dream mod a reality. I think I speak for most writers when I say we respect the people with modding skills. Nobody thinks they're a lesser species. I think what ThoseTolerableNoobs is trying to do here is create a dialogue between writers and mod developers, to see if any fruitful collaborations can be established. Its a noble pursuit, and I see no reason not to be supportive.

 

I will say, any writer worth his/her salt should be willing to get their hands dirty and learn a bit about modding. Screenwriters, at the very least, have be aware of the technical demands of film-making, as well as the format in which their ideas should be presented to the actors, directors, and the technical staff. Being the creative developer for a mod is no different; having a basic understanding of the CK and the limitations of Skyrim's engine is a must. A willingness to learn those technical skills, at least just the basics, will go a long way toward turning requests into real projects.

 

I started my current project as a request. I had no intention of making the mod myself. But after 3 or 4 days passed and nobody even responded to the thread, I decided I'd give it a shot myself. I got a copy of the CK, and started watching tutorials. A few frustrating weeks passed as I struggled with scripting, but a few people started taking an interested. I broke my game at least 3 times in the process. Finally, I had something working. It was a mod... a crappy, incomplete mod, but a mod nonetheless. After sending out a few PMs, I even managed to put together a little team.

 

Collaborations are possible, with the right attitude. ThoseTolerableNoobs, I support this effort 100%

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

I can understand David Brasher's frustration at writers... There are lots of people in the community who post ideas that are completely insane, asking people to devote hundreds of man-hours to tedious CK work, animation, scripting, audio, etc., and demonstrate absolutely no understand of the limitations of the game engine, not to mention the patience of the modders themselves.

 

However, its not exactly fair to assume all writers are like this. There plenty of writers who have great ideas, and simply want to share them in the hope that someone with the right skills will make their dream mod a reality. I think I speak for most writers when I say we respect the people with modding skills. Nobody thinks they're a lesser species. I think what ThoseTolerableNoobs is trying to do here is create a dialogue between writers and mod developers, to see if any fruitful collaborations can be established. Its a noble pursuit, and I see no reason not to be supportive.

 

I will say, any writer worth his/her salt should be willing to get their hands dirty and learn a bit about modding. Screenwriters, at the very least, have be aware of the technical demands of film-making, as well as the format in which their ideas should be presented to the actors, directors, and the technical staff. Being the creative developer for a mod is no different; having a basic understanding of the CK and the limitations of Skyrim's engine is a must. A willingness to learn those technical skills, at least just the basics, will go a long way toward turning requests into real projects.

 

I started my current project as a request. I had no intention of making the mod myself. But after 3 or 4 days passed and nobody even responded to the thread, I decided I'd give it a shot myself. I got a copy of the CK, and started watching tutorials. A few frustrating weeks passed as I struggled with scripting, but a few people started taking an interested. I broke my game at least 3 times in the process. Finally, I had something working. It was a mod... a crappy, incomplete mod, but a mod nonetheless. After sending out a few PMs, I even managed to put together a little team.

 

Collaborations are possible, with the right attitude. ThoseTolerableNoobs, I support this effort 100%

 

Thank you very much for your offer of support, I actually visited your thread a day or two ago, and offered my help, so I'm glad you checked out my thread as well! :)

 

I'd just like to point out that I do own a copy of the Creation Kit, and I am trying to get to grips with it, but since I've only dabbled in a few Programming Languages (Specifically Lower Level (By which I don't mean easier, if you program you'll get this) ones such as C, or C++) it can be a tad frustrating. I will be teaching myself more if this project gathers steam (probably irregardless of it gathering steam!) so that I can, as you say, be aware of how the process works, and avoid being overly demanding.

 

Thanks again,

[jedijas]

I haven't read much of the other posts but I would like to be part of the team that does this mod!

 

Great Idea and I have wanted something to test out my quest skills.

If you want to see the work I've done check my signature.

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

I haven't read much of the other posts but I would like to be part of the team that does this mod!

 

Great Idea and I have wanted something to test out my quest skills.

If you want to see the work I've done check my signature.

 

Jedijas, you've just made my evening!

 

I really need a couple of modders on board, and you signature tells me you know how to use the CK.

 

Nice to have you on board!

[jedijas]

So, where do I sign up?

:D

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

Well, initially here :). The project will likely move on to Dropbox sharing files, once I get an idea going. All I'm doing right now is testing the water, and getting some dialogue going.

[Starsickle]

Quests and scenes are probably the most difficult things to add into the game, because they have to be tested.

 

I think if you want to really get more quest mods to come out - you really need to teach people how to do it correctly and at a high level.