How to be a Good modder.

[Syntax1985]

1. Learn from your mistakes, take in the constructive criticism and do something about it. if its a spelling error, change it, if its a Texture bug, fix it. with your work and others comments you can eventually produce exactly what you wanted to. Your on a ladder hanging a painting, your only going to get with straight with people behind you yelling "left, no i said left!!!".

 

2. Plan plan and plan. do as much research into your mod as possible. make it as accurate as possible. other wise it can be quite disappointing, especially when towards fan based things. a good example would be for you to picture your favourite sci-fi gun, then picture it firing pink and yellow sparkling laser beams. an extreme example but hopefully makes a point.

 

3. You cant please everyone. so don't try to. know what your mod is, and what you want it to be. proper constructive criticism will help you archive that, take comments like "10/10 loved it! i wish it had smurfs tho" to heavily. sometimes you will see it as a good idea to improve your mod, then go for it, but don't try to bend over backwards for every comment. ive seen a fair few mods fail eventually because of this.

 

( would be interesting to see what everyone thinks makes a good modder and/or they're tops for good mentality when approaching a mod. )

[Moraelin]

a good example would be for you to picture your favourite sci-fi gun, then picture it firing pink and yellow sparkling laser beams

 

Actually, that sounds like just the kind of mod that I'd do. Believe it or not, I used to groan at lightsaber mods in all games, but I made one anyway :P

 

Silliness aside, my recent modding experience kinda taught me that:

 

1. Research is good, but sometimes it's your concept. If you want to make a revolver rifle and all the research says they failed and why... Wth, make one anyway. _Someone_ out there wanted one. (A.k.a., the "if you're one in a million, there are 6000 just like you" principle.)

 

2. To expand upon point 1, modding is just another way of playing the game. What matters the most is not to make the most grandiose thing since the Great Pyramid of Kheops, but to have fun. The latter will keep you motivated to keep doing it.

 

3. Know your limits. Not everyone can make a full converstion of Fallout 3 to Ultima Underworld, and not everyone can paint the Sistine Chapel like Michelangelo did. While planning is good, realistic plans are better. Grandiose over-ambitious plans almost invariably fail. But that's ok, because...

 

4. Sometimes it's the small things. A silenced SMG can make almost as many people happy as a total conversion.

 

5. Real perfectionists never get anything done. I see it at work too. The guys who are proud of squeezing the last microsecond out of an algorithm, are the ones who still fiddle with that 1 month after the deadline. Here there's no deadline, but having something "good" or even merely "nice" is better than still having nothing at all, but being sure you'll get it "perfect" eventually.

 

Sometimes it's ok to say "screw it" when it's 2mm to the right, no matter how many people scream "left! more to the left!"

 

6. To expand even more on the idea of staying motivated, again, think of it as a game. Know when you need another small achievement to keep you going. There's a reason people played "just one more turn" of Civilization until 5 AM: because every couple of turns there'd be another small reward or achievement. Apply the same to your modding: a grand ambitious plan that takes 1 year before you see any results, well, most likely you'll get bored long before that. More often releases can help a bit more.

[Werewolf334]

I agree, modding should be a fun thing to do, not a stressing thing :D

[Syntax1985]

there great pointers Moraelin!

 

And thank you for expanding what i originally said in some cases, i didnt mean for it to come across as "have no fun, get your head in the game and grind yourself down till its 100% perfect", i merely meant small things like in my examples for typos etc..

 

Thanks for commenting!

[Khet]

Few others things.

 

Don't be afraid to ask questions I know a few people out there who hate asking for help when it comes to modding. Don't be like that. If you can't figure something out and the wiki or other sources aren't helping, ask! People are more than happy to give you tips and advice, especially around these forums.

 

Uniqueness Try to come up with something unique, something that's never been done. Instead of making dungeon #34056 make Dungeon complete with complex scripting, awesome hidey-holes and secret locations with a deep story tied into it #10.

 

Don't go overboard! Say you have this cool mod all planned out and while working on it you get another awesome idea... but it doesn't tie into your mod. Make it a separate mod! I've seen this happen a few times with Oblivion. It's confusing, and annoying to folks.

 

Take everything with a grain of salt (and some pepper too!) If someone says your mod sucks but doesn't say why, ignore them. If they say your mod sucks and they list fifty reasons but NONE of those reasons are even what you want in your mod, ignore it. Mod for YOU, not to make the world happy.

 

Subtle Details Sometimes small details can really stand out in your mod if you place them right. It can be anything from a tower made with stacked books or just a well-placed item. Try to be creative with these but don't go overboard! Overly cluttered mods are bad, but so are completely empty mods with no clutter.

 

Ask others for ideas If you have a good 80% of your mod planned out but need help with a few details here and there go ahead and ask for help. Like I said earlier people are more than happy to give input and ideas!

 

Don't push yourself I've done this before myself. You get a great mod idea, start working on it for a week straight and then BAM! You get burned out and don't want to even touch it. Don't do this! It'll slow down your progress in the long run. Take a break every couple of hours and play the game or read or watch TV. Trust me, it helps. Sometimes my best ideas for mods have come when I'm reading a book or watching TV, or doing anything EXCEPT thinking about my mod.

 

Use what your have So, Bethesda gives us all these cool models in the GECK/CS/SDK and they were originally meant for... something. Try to look at a model and ask "What ELSE could this work for?"

[vashts1985]

3. You cant please everyone. so don't try to. know what your mod is, and what you want it to be. proper constructive criticism will help you archive that, take comments like "10/10 loved it! i wish it had smurfs tho" to heavily. sometimes you will see it as a good idea to improve your mod, then go for it, but don't try to bend over backwards for every comment. ive seen a fair few mods fail eventually because of this.

 

i know that one all too well :confused:

[Syntax1985]

1985 - best year to be born in :P

[Irontaxi]

Subtle Details Sometimes small details can really stand out in your mod if you place them right. It can be anything from a tower made with stacked books or just a well-placed item. Try to be creative with these but don't go overboard! Overly cluttered mods are bad, but so are completely empty mods with no clutter.

 

Use what your have So, Bethesda gives us all these cool models in the GECK/CS/SDK and they were originally meant for... something. Try to look at a model and ask "What ELSE could this work for?"

 

Im particularly fond of these 2 points and think it is really key to modding (i mainly work on environments)

 

Use the statics in new and interesting ways.. flip stuff upside down.. connect them weird...make them new....combine statics that were never meant to be combined.

 

Don't mass clone statics to fill up a space.. even subconsciously players feel when a space has been faked. if there are alot cars in a parking lot.. EACH car should be on a slightly

different angel and alignment than the one next to it.. cause people park like that.. I really think it comforts players somewhere deep in their head and encourages immersion

 

finally, My best piece of advice to all new mapper/environment guys who ive worked with is...GO FOR A WALK...no better way to analyze how to lay out spaces than by

looking at actual spaces in the real world.

 

for example. roads in the countryside. they arent dead flat and 99% have ditches along them and drainage channels so yours should to in game! not to mention its a great chance to create a washed out portion of a road etc...

 

cheers

 

happy modding!

[Rekicker]

Don't push yourself I've done this before myself. You get a great mod idea, start working on it for a week straight and then BAM! You get burned out and don't want to even touch it. Don't do this! It'll slow down your progress in the long run. Take a break every couple of hours and play the game or read or watch TV. Trust me, it helps. Sometimes my best ideas for mods have come when I'm reading a book or watching TV, or doing anything EXCEPT thinking about my mod.

 

This happens to me all the time. I'm an all-or-nothing type of person so I fire on all cylinders until it's done or I'm exhausted. Unfortunately, this is the only way that works for me. If I try to force myself into a slower pace, I can't concentrate, I muck things up, and the end product turns out to be complete garbage.

 

Your suggestions are all ace though. Especially about taking criticism lightly - most of these people don't know how hard modders work to get something decent made and when some minor detail is imperfect they blow it out of proportion. It's frustrating. I'm almost quit modding for Fallout 3 right out of the gate, actually - but I just kept going because, you are right, it's important to take everything with a grain of salt.

[LHammonds]

These are some pretty-good pieces of advice.

 

It is also important to know what you can do and all the things involved in getting it done (especially when you are new and just starting out).

 

Here is an article you can read to figure out what areas you'd like to get into and how to go about doing it. Keep in mind that this was written for Oblivion modding but it is very similar to Fallout modding except some of the tools have not been created yet or not still under development...but the concepts are the same.

 

How To Make Mods

 

I would also like to point out that being a good modder does not mean you have to know how to do everything (new models / textures / animation / voice acting / dialog / storyline / etc.). The one thing everyone should start off with is the GECK and figure out what all you can do (accomplish) with just the GECK. Adding never-before seen models is nice but the crux of modding is the GECK. Learn it first. You can team up with people that can do a better job with GECK but you still need the ability to do it yourself for many reasons.

 

And my last point is this (yes, I will limit myself rather than writing a small book)...ask yourself why you want to be considered a "good modder" in the 1st place? It is nice to be known in a community and such but fame is fleeting and trying to grasp onto it will only cause a spectacle you really would not want associated with yourself. I can think of several modders that got wrapped up in themselves and forgot why they started modding in the first place. The fun factor was lost for them. If you mod for yourself, it will be a hobby you never grow tired of and the excitement you have for modding will show in your mods. I think the ability to create a fun mod and the desire for high quality is the end-result of a good modder.

 

LHammonds