The Secrets to Being a Successful Modder......

[JaYmZeE311074]

I'm feeling uncharacteristically chatty today so I thought I'd make a rare post regarding one of the peculiarities of our literally mind blowing, stunning and awesome modding community. I could've dragged out the thesaurus to try and come up with some less cliche adjectives to describe my honest opinion of what goes on here, but I'm trying very hard not to come off as smug or pretentious.

 

I'm not correcting typo's and spelling mistakes and I'm not worrying too much about where I put my apostrophes. My sentence structure will likely suck too.

 

The issue is regarding the dynamic between the geniuses and experts - people with an enviable skill set who create all this content and those at the other end of the scale - who's minds are fried and frustrated because they cannot get it to work.

 

This needs to be mentioned first - I'm not covering it again - TOO BE CLEAR - I love this place - Modders are demi-gods in JaYmZeE's world, making sucky games good and making games I love - particularly open world games - into places I never completely leave for years - even the odd decade. Some modders - they're not demi-gods, they're full on GOD and I worship you at the shrine that is my PC. Really tempting to mention a few - but you know who you are..... you make content that's multiple times better than what came with the professional paid for content. This piece is not a critique - I get where your coming from totally - but empathy is so underrated - you should be able to get a degree from top universities in Empathy - the world would be a much better place.

 

At the other end of the scale you have those less gifted, with less natural intelligence (I can't take credit for my I.Q - 132 if you believe the ridiculous tests - Yeah I couldn't resist boasting about my above average intelligence) and those who I have less sympathy for - those with no patience.

 

When the two collide, you get forum and mod threads that very often descend into the most unproductive, unwelcoming, confidence destroying and sorry to say predictably TYPE A bullying playgrounds that are enough to put anyone new or short on confidence off ever asking anything for fear of abuse and ridicule.

 

If I was the modder - being asked the same question for the xxxx thousandth time - depite the fact I'd posted it as a sticky, placed a document under article, put a read me in the mod, the instructions on the files tab and a detailed how to on the mod page itself - I'd likely spontaneously combust. I get it - I do, how can you not.

 

If meanwhile your new or not very good at modding in general - and you've read every file - you've followed every instruction to the letter - for the first 100 mods you installed and it still doesn't work - your minds fried - you just wanna play with these awesome new mods - there's so much information out there, meshes, textures, esm's, esl's & esp's - patches and .dds files - .dll's and ini's, bodyslide files and overwrites, virtual installs XeDIT, Wrye and LOOT.

 

Some people swear by LOOT - some people say don't use it under any circumstances. You've been told to clean the masters as well as leave them alone. Overwrite when you install this mod, but not this file - maybe MOD x and MOD y are incompatible - yet lots of people seem to be running them together. You've learned how to resolve conflicts, but why does my game work with the conflict and when it fix it I can't even get it to the main menu.

 

DARE YOU ASK? The answer is maybe covered in the read me - but your pretty sure this is what's causing your problem - or maybe you just missed it after reading page after page of instructions of which you understand about 30% and are left feeling asking the community or the author for help.

 

Personally, not for all MODS, but for some, I'd boil my nuts in oil before I'd ask a question on these threads. I'll literally spend the 8 hours I'd set aside for playing the game using every tool in my box to resolve my issue that ask for help on some of MOD threads. I'm a confident and arrogant man and if I received the type of ridicule and abuse some do when they make the mistake of asking a question considered the wrong question to ask - I'd go to War and would be banned from the site within an hour or so tops - maybe a bit longer depending how long it took the abuser to reply.

 

Some of these people aren't even the MOD authors - I mean I don't have any official research - but a significant percentage of these individuals have NOTHING official to do with the MOD - their sole purpose seems to be swarming threads ready to pick on any individual who's asked for the wrong type of help. I'm not mentioning any names, but I HADTOREGISTER this genuine frustration of mine because I've nothing better to do on a Saturday night.

 

Seriously - I used to be quite active on another MODDING site who produced amazing work - again from the minds of some brilliant and committed individuals who provided me with hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours of FUN FUN FUN - for nothing - it cost me nothing other than the time that I spent setting things up and it was worth it a million times over. I've lost count of how many times they banned me - but there was someone I greatly admired - and still do - who's tag at the end of his posts was a warning about reading the FAQ before asking for help or you would be banned from the site. (You know who you are if you see this - this is not personal mate - I still use your save-game manager in FO4 and have done since you posted it and you and the people on your site will always be hero's of mine)

 

I don't have an answer to this collision of worlds - I just hate seeing it - I don't consider it necessary 99% of the time - it's not good.

 

I promised you secrets to becoming a successful modder.

 

The gifted - they've got it all already - I'm not gifted - modding isn't natural to me and some of the screens and numbers and stupid things you have to remember do my head in.

 

I'm persistent - stubborn and unrelenting. It probably takes me so much longer that it should but I ALWAYS get there in the end. How? Well, there is a lot to be said from taking inspiration from the game your playing. At the moment for me that's Fallout 4. I don't suffer from OCD - and I'm not mocking anyone who does - but my character you understand - my character uses JET - allows your character to get a whole lot done with a laser like focus - with such focus your character can ascend beyond what he/she is normally capable off - I wish I could get my hands on MENJETS or JETTATS or MENTAT-JET - that'd be ideal - that or possibly X-CELL, but I'm not sure it exists - I know it says it does, but for everyday playing-use it's a pipe-dream.

 

Also, I've got a great MOD installed - Cannabis Commonwealth - I'm not playing any game without it - It's a work of are - keeps your settlers busy - makes them happy and provides your character with a bunch of buffs when you use this produce that your settlements are providing you with - FINALLY - they give you something to show you some appreciation for keeping them alive, safe and fed in an apocalyptic wasteland with DEATHCLAWS and crows and stuff. If you are like many people, unable to generate this for yourself you'll find vendors across the land - someone always knows someone - who can provide you with what you need. My IN GAME favourite is "Blunt of Durban Poison - Sensi, with hash"

 

Now I've taken everything I need to allow me to get back to gaming rather than ranting and moaning.

 

One last time regarding sides - I'm not on anyone's side - I'm on the edge and edges don't have sides!

 

Have Fun

JaYmZeE

 

P.S. I reserve the right to edit this when my addled brain remembers what point it was I was trying to make!