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burnout


phordicus

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i can't get motivated. essentially all the stuff a group of friends and i have done to bg2 over the last five years awaits coding. outlines for the tp2 structure, folder heirarchies, list of mods and authors to cite: all done.

 

what sucks (or what may be a major cause) is having just graduated Intermediate Modding and finally having the ability to write clean, efficient weidu (and ssl) code. i'm pretty sure if i put this down for a few months i probably won't care to pick it back up.

 

is this common?

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is this common?
Unfortunately, yes. From my own experience, I would say do as thebigg suggested. If you are that far with your modding work as you describe, I would imagine you come back to it when you have recovered your motivation. For me, it works this way, at least.

Better to take a complete break than to carry the modding work around in your head as a constant burden. The latter makes it just worse.

 

Unless you are quitter, of course. :)

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You'll come back eventually. The game is still good. And if this "eventually" isn't going to be today - well, the world still has Doctor Who and Daleks and Dragon Age universe and (checks) theatre and avocado and lots of other great things. I doubt you'll get bored. :)

 

Your code skills will be rusty, yeah, but it'll take no more than ten hours to adapt, so what's ten hours?

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This is for fun. The whole deal - the coding, the forums, the help stuff, even the trashtalk - if it is about a game, then it should be about having fun, whether it be playing or modding. There is no paycheck, no reward other than getting to see your ideas put into the game. So if it is driving you nuts, go do something else fun, and don't worry! It is darned common for folks to take breaks and come back, just the way that old copy of JA2 never actually gets retired, just cycled to he back of the pile. Really good games, like the BG series, tend to stick around.

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I dunno, sometimes you've got to kick your own arse to get something finished, even if it is an unpaid hobby. In some ways, it's a test of how much of a self-starter you are, and in some ways can even improve your self-motivation.

 

P.S.: This will never happen though:

finally having the ability to write clean, efficient weidu (and ssl) code.
The more code you know, the less clean it is, at least in my view (sort of like the more jokes you know, the less clean they are).

 

P.P.S.: Capitalisation should be a fairly easy skill to master though :).

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I dunno, sometimes you've got to kick your own arse to get something finished, even if it is an unpaid hobby. In some ways, it's a test of how much of a self-starter you are, and in some ways can even improve your self-motivation.

that's definitely a problem. the original reason for modding is selfishness: i want the game to play a certain way. this is reinforced by having a cabal of gaming friends who are more than happy to just drop files straight into the override when i come up with something (or a weidu install if the TLK is involved). let that percolate for 5+ years and you've got all sorts of undocumented changes to go through. the game won't be any better on this end, just able to be (easily/comfortably) used by others. since i'd almost rather do this anonymously, praise or appreciation isn't the motivator it might otherwise be.

 

P.S.: This will never happen though:
finally having the ability to write clean, efficient weidu (and ssl) code.
The more code you know, the less clean it is, at least in my view (sort of like the more jokes you know, the less clean they are).

i'm not exactly compulsive about clean code (i tend to cobble a mod together and then optimize once a feature is fully tweaked). ToBEx's exponential growth is double-edged as well. a couple of kits i've got have to get re-designed now that what i originally wanted to do with them is possible rather than the less-than-satisfactory and clunky workaround i was using.

 

P.P.S.: Capitalisation should be a fairly easy skill to master though :).

never. in formal setting, sure. you'd laugh if you knew what my degrees were in. :)

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