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

[Chishiokage]

Writer, tester, and Voice Actor here. Been part of the Nexus scene for the better part of a decade now and I can definitely say that what David said, while with some foundation, is untrue.

 

I have more respect for modders than I do for anyone else that contributes to these mods. It's a very time-consuming skill set to learn and the modders I've worked with have all showed equal respect for their testers, writers, and voice actors. I'm currently doing some voicework on Moonpath and can say that 12 lines of dialogue took 4 hours to record and edit while modding a 10 minute quest could take 4 days.

 

So I support this thread, and I support our wonderful modders who have helped me with mods in the past, and who I will help with theirs in the future.

 

With regard to the thread, I was writing a mod for Oblivion that I never got around to implementing because I had heard about the Skyrim launch and decided to hold it back.

 

It is an alternate start/origin story mod for the player character. It's about a 5-10 hour questline (very basic compared to stuff like the Lost Spires and Verona House) and similar perhaps to some of Simyaz's work in that it's a heavily character-driven mod. I will be doing a great amount of voicework for the mod and am looking for a modder to help make it something that can be enjoyed by others. If anyone would like in on it, feel free to quote respond or message me. It's already written out, with changes being made weekly. I had made a thread about it earlier because now that finals week will be over shortly, I am ready to get serious about it. http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/657334-a-shadow-forgotten/

 

Account Name: Chishiokage

Skills: Writing, Alpha and Beta testing, Voice acting (6 years experience, minor animated shorts, and a few mods)

Work History: Alpha and Beta tested for Skingrad24's mods, currently doing voicework for Moonpath.

 

Example of my recent work for Moonpath (ongoing)

Edited April 26, 2012 by Chishiokage

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

You're voice acting is very good. If you're interested, I may have some work for you down the line.

 

Thanks for signing up!

[Chishiokage]

I haven't "signed up" per-say. But if you need work done at some point just drop me a message and I'll be sure to get back to you.

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

Acknowledged. If you want, take a look at the front page to see the quests currently sponsored by us. You may feel like lending a hand!

[Ozi27]

Me,as an amateur writer, i have entered a pair of contest and can help with 2-D conception designs.

I can offer my skill to the group,but i am very interested in having help for the quest mod i have in mind. Could you drop by and tell me what you think about it? It would be very good if the people that already joined the group would visit too and point me to the things that can or cannot be done about my request.

As "proof" of my work,you can see the introduction on that quest request,or i can send you a "fresh from the hoven" new story about almost anuthing you ask me. As for 2-D drawing,youn can look for "Black Shark Katana" in the Nexus mod section dedicated to oblivion... Although the modder never gave me credit for it ¬_¬

Here's the thread corresponding to my quest begging for Kana,my lovely ghost

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

Me,as an amateur writer, i have entered a pair of contest and can help with 2-D conception designs.

I can offer my skill to the group,but i am very interested in having help for the quest mod i have in mind. Could you drop by and tell me what you think about it? It would be very good if the people that already joined the group would visit too and point me to the things that can or cannot be done about my request.

As "proof" of my work,you can see the introduction on that quest request,or i can send you a "fresh from the hoven" new story about almost anuthing you ask me. As for 2-D drawing,youn can look for "Black Shark Katana" in the Nexus mod section dedicated to oblivion... Although the modder never gave me credit for it ¬_¬

Here's the thread corresponding to my quest begging for Kana,my lovely ghost

 

I have looked at your quest-mod idea. I think it's got a lot of potential, and I could definatley help you fine tune it. That is, after all, what I set up the group for. Thanks for contributing.

[Ozi27]

You can count on me for whatever you need,just send a pm. The only thing that could be a problem is that i'm spanish and i can only connect a few hours at night,but as i just said i'll do everything in my hands to help... maybe i can even give a shot at voice acting if i can get a mic :P

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

@Above

 

Well I'm British so you're only one hour ahead of me, so if time zones is you issue, I can easily work around that...

[bben46]

I wish you all the luck with this as you will need it.

 

I will play devils advocate here. :devil:

 

You are fairly new to this. I, and most of our good modders have been around a while. We have seen literally hundreds, if not thousands, of this type of, "I have a great idea :dance: I want to recruit a team to make a mod - If I can just get a group together to do all the drudge work for me." :pinch:

 

All of the good modders have seen these, and most have even tried to help on some. (Including me). Most have given up and dropped out when they learn the idea, while good, is 1. Just not doable in the form that the OP demands it.

2. The OP demands that they do all the drudge work while he is to get the major portion of credit.

3. Their contributions to the story, plot and writing are not really acceptable to the OP

4. "Do it MY WAY or get out!"

5. The OP really doesn't have any modding talent and his only contribution is the original idea. But he wants to tell those with talent how to do it.

6. Will take all of their free time for the next six months.

7. Even though there are a dozen people on the team, he is doing nearly all of the actual work.

8. He has to spend all of his time fixing the screw ups of the ones learning to mod.

9. Personality clash with other team members.

10 - The big one - He doesn't have the time.

 

The Litch mod is likely doable, but maybe not in exactly the way you envision it. The romance - well, not so much. Take a look at the other attempts to put romance into the game. Yes, it has been tried but without much success so far. And I'm not talking about the porn mods. :rolleyes:

 

The reality is that an idea here is not worth much as we have an entire forum topic just for that, and filled with wonderful ideas (seriously, wonderful ideas. :thumbsup:) But When it comes down to putting code into the game, most (Not all) have no clue of what is really involved when you have to deal with the Gambryo engine - Renamed and labeled all new for Skyrim, but still just another iteration of the same quirky engine Bethesda has been using for the last 10 years.

 

The typical 'idea man' wants to direct the entire operation - telling very independent minded modders what he wants and how he wants it done and when he must have it with no consideration of what they want. Then demanding that they subordinate their schedule to his demands. "Why isn't that part you said you could do in 3 days done yet? It's been 3 weeks! I don't care if you have to study for finals, you said you could do it!" And, "I know that's what I said I wanted, but I changed my mind, change it to this because it's better." (2 weeks modding work flushed - likely one less team member to boss around.)

 

Nearly every team I have seen - including the ones I have been involved with (again there are exceptions - Nehrim in Oblivion is one - and it took nearly 4 years with a very competent core group of modders to make) has broken up fairly quickly with the various talent going their own way.

 

My guess is that less than 15% of these ever get beyond the planning stage, and less than 5% get actually uploaded. And then with the original lofty goals very much reduced to accommodate reality. However, during the process, the Idea man either learns to mod on his own and does much of the actual drudge work himself (Usually more than his fair share). OR gives up and goes away with a bitter attitude toward the modders who just would not do what he told them to.

 

Now, Don't let this discourage you. You CAN learn to mod. :yes: but please please start small and actually learn what is involved before attempting any grandiose major epic mod. Then rewrite your epic mod to fit - Not what you would like to see (but isn't doable), and not what is technically possible, but what is more likely to be feasible given the limitations imposed by the game engine and the available talent.

 

Do ONE mod at a time. Then break that down into smaller segments to make it manageable. Maybe start with the litch, - first create a litch race, then make it a playable race, then maybe a way to change from human to litch to change your character into a litch It's possible that the vampire or werewolf scripts could be be modified for this.

[ThoseTolerableNoobs]

@Above

 

The Lich quest is already in motion. Character models have been created, the story is falling into place (written by me) and there are several programmers on board. I joined that project late to write it, it is officially DefotheBla and Creative Onlaught's project. Your suggestions on the Lich project have long been achieved, not that I don't appreciate them.

 

You are also the second modder here to say that I am demanding people to do certain things, and have no intention of working for it. I apologise if I conveyed this incorrectly, but I can assure you, I make no demands or pretences, Im purely want to create a method of better communication between writers and modders to create quality quest mods. This is already being achieved in the Lich project.

 

But, again, I thank you very much for taking the time to contribute.