Are we even achieving anything?

[doctorhr2]

As a wannabe modder, I would love to see huge immersive quests and I have one in mind that I dearly want to do, but as one person I am really finding my way slowly. I haven't even looked at the scripting side of things. I want to get custom models in the game that look and operate as I want them to, then I can move forward another step.

 

I think if you're new to modding, the idea of making a quest is daunting. I wouldn't want to release anything under my name that wasn't 100% complete, so I won't be rushing it! So rather than people opting for the easy option, maybe it's just taking a long time to get quest mods completed? Afterall, we were blessed with 6 years of Oblivion mods before Skyrim came out and that was only 14 months ago. Unless you have a dedicated group of people who are all wanting to do the same thing, then it will take a long time for lone modders to produce epic quests in their spare time.

[EnaiSiaion]

So it does seem like big mods are somewhat discouraged due to the risk of them not catching on (or rather not getting noticed).

 

Perhaps it is up to the Nexus to encourage users to try mods with high production values that aren't in the top 100? The Mods Weekly videos sometimes help, but do the guys really go through every mod?

[jack013]

i usually have a peak at all the new mods, most days. only takes a few minutes most of the time.

[Astrokid248]

One of the things that I see that makes me think that the community really has accomplished something is the "Suggested Mods" you occasionally see posted in various places. I think it's a great way to discover mods you may not have used otherwise or get ideas for new mods.

 

One thing that might help the gap between armor mods and quest mods is requesting that armor modders make a quest to get the armor. Or maybe an outside modder creates a quest for it and requires you to go download the armor first. For a lot of them, it can be as simple as the Advanced Dwemer Technology quests from Dawnguard. A smith hears tell of some plans for new weapons, asks you if you can retrieve them, you do and she teaches you the smithing technique in return. Or you can get more complicated with it. Whatever. But I think that's a start. (Jeez, I should take my own advice.)

 

But this ties in with something I noticed the other day. There was a massive argument on an armor mod (not naming names) that was basically a single color filter over normal armor rather than a true retexture or even a new mesh. The guy got really uppity and closed the thread, because basically everyone told him to go learn the tools of the trade and he claimed that couldn't follow tutorials properly. I'm starting to wonder if there's a bit of a problem with people refusing to learn how to use the CK and Nifskope and similar tools just because they can't understand the tutorials or ask for help. Maybe that's why there's so few quest mods: no one really knows how or wants to ask. But is that our fault as noobs, or the community's fault? I don't know. I'd personally prefer to blame myself, but I haven't been here that long and haven't ever tried to ask myself.

[Korodic]

There is a voice actor bottleneck and I do not like relying on other people because it largely proved to be time consuming.

My project took a total of 6 months on and off. It's hard for me to keep deadlines when I keep needing to wait on others, or trying to find others.

I wish we hard our own VA's on call when needed who were up for serious projects from established authors.

Also, I can't tell you all of the weirdest bugs and things I found while trying to mod. Like, things just kept popping up for no reason... It also was very hard to adapt to these new concepts... a new scripting system (which i now appreciate)... aliases (still grasping it) among other things. Such as the light limits and etc. It required a lot of ingame testing to get the desired effects and sometimes you get really strange problems cropping up.

For instance, my mod currently messes up the beginning intro to the game. Why? Hell if I know, nothing I EVER did touched the main quest line of altered any of their vanilla scripts. An alternative start mod luckily corrects this stupid issue. >.>

[turbosnowy]

I think we have achieved a great deal in a year - there are some amazing quest mods out there, some of which you all likely know about and some that had little fanfare and limited audiences and yet are excellent ('Descent in Madness' springs to mind) - there have been some mindblowing armours and homes created, and for me I was extremely pleased to find that finally someone finally put out a working high heels system finally, and even better one that is easy to use in your own mods - but of course that's just me :P

 

A whole new world using the engine filled with new people, graphics and immersive branching storylines is probably still some way off (you know, due to only being out a year and a bit, the fact that people work for free on these things in their sparetime, plus of course the CK being pretty wonky at anything complex at the best of times haha)