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What constitutes a mod?


Avenger

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Some more flames :)

Since I consider npc mods and tweaks are not too noteworthy, and mods like bgtutu don't really give NEW content to the game, i could say FW can boast with a single unreleased mod (TOIW).

I don't know who hosts Epic Endeavours, it was TeamBG in the old days, so whoever hosts it, may tick in one.

And there is of course DLTC, on a separate forum, vaguely belonged to TeamBG, but since JC had an essential part in it (good voice acting), one may say PPG has a little hair in it too (though they don't host it).

Maybe the accumulated weight of Big Picture makes it noteworthy too, though i'm unsure how well it works (never played it).

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No, I think it's not just TCs, but TCs with a different protagonist and the world, otherwise he would have counted Vlad's creations and the two Returns. Though I guess it depends on how you define the Total Conversion.

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So, you're only counting TC's as noteworthy mods?  I guess everyone has their own definition.  It'd be boring if everyone thought the same.

Big Picture isn't a TC, just got significant amount of content, comparable to the original game. It just doesn't really count because its pieces are not consistent (with each other).

Actually, anything under 50M cannot be said noteworthy.

New content means new area graphics (tilesets).

Really, how many mods use tispack :)

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Then you are leaving out Returns to WS/Tradesmeet, that Terror mod, World Transition and Reign of the Mask from what I can think off hand... Probably Shadows over S and Tortured as well, though I donot know if they had 50 megs in graphics.

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So, you're only counting TC's as noteworthy mods?  I guess everyone has their own definition.  It'd be boring if everyone thought the same.

Big Picture isn't a TC, just got significant amount of content, comparable to the original game. It just doesn't really count because its pieces are not consistent (with each other).

Actually, anything under 50M cannot be said noteworthy.

New content means new area graphics (tilesets).

Really, how many mods use tispack :)

 

/shrug, I can see how someone could have a perspective like this, especially someone interested in the mechanics portion of the game. I guess where my definition varies, is that I view content as something that adds or changes my experience in the game. New content is something that changes my gaming experience, such that I exeperience something new.

 

Interestingly enough, using your definition of something that impacts the game, would you consider a mod like Virtue to be adding new content, as it introduces a very significant change as to how reputation is handled in the game? This is something that modifys one of the core mechanics of how a player interacts in the game.

 

 

(for anyone wondering, debates can be fun and don't have to devolve into bickering matches)

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I am with Caedwyr here, and I would expand the definition of a mod to a 'any custom modification to a published computer game made either placed into a public domain or intended for personal use."

 

I would define a total conversion (TC) as a 'mod that completely replaces the original game's content' as opposite to the Add-On mods (AOM) that 'adds new content' and Add-in mods (AIM) which 'modify' the existing content. I realize that the distinction between AOM and AIN is not exactly clear, but it's always plausible to use the age-old trick and add the 'mixed' type of mods that have the features common to one or more categories above.

 

In such classification Dragon Lance will become TC, a new NPC mod or a new quest mod - AOM, and tweak-pack or TUTU will become AIN.

 

I think that any of these types can significantly alter a player's experience.

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Long ago, back in the mists of internet time, there existed another term, one which was quite commonly used: "PC", or "Partial Conversion". However, for some reason (perhaps because "PC" has so many other meanings) nowadays it has generally been abandoned, and what would once have been known as a PC is now usually classed as either a mod or a TC.

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Ok, Virtue IS a noteworthy thing even though it doesn't hit the bandwidth.

It adds a new concept to the game, and does it all across the game consistently.

It is not new content, (this is why i don't play it), and actually, Virtue came from the group reputation concept of DLTC.

So, in some sense, DLTC also has Virtue :)

 

TDD, and Tortured Souls are the same category. A 'big' addition to the original story, but to reach them you have to play the original game. And there are little or nothing oriiginal areas. So they seem a bit opportunistic (you have to bend the story to the areas given), instead of drawing areas to fit the story.

This all would be OK, Epic Endeavours uses the same technique, but i don't have to play through the original game.

RTT (i think that was the name) seemed to be good enough at first, but i think it is full of bugs, and typos, so much I couldn't even grasp the story. But technically, RTT is a PC/TC, i just forgot it just like i forgot TDD.

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