Thoughts on modding

[Sorrow]

The most important thing when one wants to make quality mods is that one should treat working on the mod as a dedicated job.

While some modders work on their mods in their leisure time and treat modding as fun, the greatest results are achieved only when one strives to make a professional mod, dedicating countless hours to implementation, testing, discussion and improving of every tiny aspect of that mod.

Edited February 17, 2010 by Sorrow

[cmorgan]

[side joke to Sorrow regarding the offtopic joke Sorrow was making] Absolutely. Because, after all, the definition of "professional" is thousands of non-paid volunteer hours testing and retesting, writing and rewriting, getting assistance from a wide community of folks of various experience levels, learning from each other, communicating and cooperating with each other, making sure mods that were never meant to be played together are given a fair chance to do so, just because a player wants to have the flexibility... wait a second... hmmm. We already do that. And have testers and proofreading volunteers, and... hmmm. OK, so we are the professionals? Professional Modders? Wow. Cool. Where do I get the Union card, and what is the health plan like?

 

I started this as a joking commentary, but then I just remembered that I have three professional paid programs (X3:TC, Mass Effect 2, and DA:O), on Windows 7 x64 pro, using an ATI 5800 series, with an X-Fi soundcard and 2.1 Kiplish speakers setup, running very cool and stable with 6GB RAM and a serious processor, and the result is...

I have random game crashes on audio or video, a host of minor gameplay glitches that are fixed through either professional patches or community workarounds or not at all, and I am still waiting for an answer as to how and why my Creative soundcard does not like or use my subwoofer.

 

Hmmmm again. I think I will give up that Union Card, be a silly non-professional amateur modder, and be darned glad when Ace and Mike1072 have the time to drop some nice stuff our way. I think I like the community stuff better than either claimed or actual professional status. [/side joke to Sorrow regarding the offtopic joke Sorrow was making]

[theacefes]

Eh? I'm totally confused by both posts.

[Sorrow]

You just can't understand the people who treat making quality mods as a real job, instead of making mods for fun.

[Jarno Mikkola]

You just can't understand the people who treat making quality mods as a real job, instead of making mods for fun.

Nor can I... after all, I will try to help people as a tributes to the modders that I have seen to make good mods, and that's all I am going to 'pay' them. Of course the help might come a bit off as if I would be grateful, but that might be just the lack of real English language skills.

 

But some of those 'professionals' really should consider their attitude if it's anything like(let's not start another war, shall we)... after all they aren't actually going to get payed for the stuff.

Edited February 18, 2010 by Jarno Mikkola

[Sorrow]

You all secretly love the Super Script. Don't try to deny.

[yarpen]

I don't think that this stuff should be mentioned here. Especially here. Sorrow is just according to Sikret's and mPrilla's posts. Sorrow, stop, please.

[Sorrow]

Why so serious?

[theacefes]

Testing in progress, yay! We've actually been able to find some wonderful bugs already - which is good because if we start fixing them early, it'll be better for us in the long run.

 

Still working on the chapter screens - I haven't decided what I'm going to use for all of them yet.

[Sorrow]

Anyway, wow, alpha?

Does it mean that it has all the necessary dialogues and scripties and other stuffies and thingies?

[theacefes]

Anyway, wow, alpha?

Does it mean that it has all the necessary dialogues and scripties and other stuffies and thingies?

 

Well, the total conversion is 4 chapters...so it's shorter than the actual game was, but still pretty long for a mod.

 

The main quest for the 4 chapters is pretty much done along with most of the characters involved in it along w/ their scripts, dialogues, and some of the stuffies.

 

The part I'm working on now other than the testing are the cutscenes to transition through parts of the quest better, the 6 joinable NPCs (which are created and can join and leave and have something resembling a personality), and of course, the smaller subquests and encounters, though there are a couple already.

 

We still have a way to go though, it's nice to have help weeding out the bugs in the foundation so that we can focus on the secondary materials.

[Iciclia]

I've been greatly anticipating this mod for some time now. Any updates to share?

[theacefes]

It's still in testing and I haven't had much time to dedicate to it to be honest as I've been busy with finishing up uni and doing an internship.

[Guest The Death Knight]

It's still in testing and I haven't had much time to dedicate to it to be honest as I've been busy with finishing up uni and doing an internship.

 

I hear ya. I'm trying to finish up the rest of the semester in Kean, while trying to market my book, and beat Icewind Dale 2.

[Guest Lady of payne]

So what about progress?