Creating Mod Help: Creating a Completely New Mod - Page 2

Creating Mod Help: Creating a Completely New Mod

Discuss game development here, from a distinct game project to an accessible third-party mutator, down to the interaction and design of individual units if you like.

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Boirunner
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
Posts: 811
Joined: 05 Feb 2007, 14:24

Post by Boirunner »

Just chiming in to give my two cents, as I also recently started to mod knowing nothing at all. Things I have learned:

() Some wiki articles or tutorials on the forum are very out of date, and some are new and accurate. Find out what people dabble in stuff like that (some of them have posted in this thread) and ask them in a thread, via PM or in TASclient which ones you should go by. I have only met very helpful and generous people here who will gladly take a minute or two to figure something out for you.

() Look at the source of other mods, and copy it. Start from a file that does something similar that you want to do, and edit it, instead of starting from scratch. It makes things a lot easier. Of course, if you only change little, you should give credit to the person who made it. Yes, even if they say it's not necessary.

() Gameplay > all. Your mod should work as a game. If you present a working game to people, they are much more willing to help you out with sound or modelling or debugging or whatever. The flesh of any game is how it plays, everything else is secondary. I'm not saying graphics aren't important (they are, very), but they are not as important as gameplay.

() Don't expect too much. In all probability, nobody will play your mod, and if they do, they will play it very seldom. Virtually all Spring players are here because of XTA or AA/BA. Mods like Expand and Exterminate, Star Wars TA, Nanoblobs, Gundam, and Final Frontier have had so much work put into them and are solid, large games, but still hardly anybody plays them. Put what you are doing in perspective.

() Try stuff out yourself. If everyone says one unit/strat is massively OP, then you should be able to win most of the time with it. So play ten games, and use it every time. If you win 8 because of it, you should probably nerf something. If you get countered half the time, the balance is probably fine.

() Make a small mod first. Don't envision a 5 tiered, genre-busting super-game first. Learn to use your tools first by making a small mod. As soon as that works, you have demonstrated to people that you are capable of pulling through with something, and they will be more willing to help you. And believe me, you will need lots of help.

I don't know if this helps, but these are the things I learned while learning. I still don't know how to model or script, though, so maybe you should take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.
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FLOZi
MC: Legacy & Spring 1944 Developer
Posts: 6241
Joined: 29 Apr 2005, 01:14

Post by FLOZi »

Good advice thre.

Also, pop into #moddev on tasclient, several of us hang around in there, and you can probably get simple questions answered fairly quickly.
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Post by smoth »

Seriously, arghs mod is well commented and it is a good starting point to see how things are done. I really wish more new moders would spend the time to look and read the open mods before thinking that it is hard. Spring is one of the easiest things that I haver ever worked with.
Engine Of Darkness
Posts: 87
Joined: 23 Dec 2006, 21:36

Post by Engine Of Darkness »

Argh wrote:And the Wiki doesn't suck, it's just a bit disorganized, there's a huge amount of information to deal with, and there are lots of parts where the people who could build better tutorials are the people who are building mods, and we're too busy to help you.
I never said the wiki does suck, I just stated that I thought it was unorganized ;) I also never really said people should spend hours helping me, I just asked if someone could give me some kind of tutorial.

I've also taken your advice seriously and started to read the nanoblobs "source".

@Biorunner:

Thanks for the advices, I'll keep them in mind.

@smoth:
I was reading the wiki, but because I didn't really found what I needed, and failed several times I got kinda, well, unmotivated (and I wasn't like "Lol I read the wiki for 1 hour, now let's go". I actually tried to get it to work several times (in several days)).

------


I was partially aware how the answers to my topic would look, cause I read alot in forums/ messageboards. I'm also aware that people have better things to do than helping some random guy asking for a help how to start a mod from scratch. However it doesn't hurt to ask. ;)

I hope I didn't made myself some "enemys" here now.
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Post by smoth »

we get random guys all the time.

What I cannot give you is a comprehensive guide to all possible errors. If you are lost the best way to learn is to break apart something like nanoblobs or another mod.. then start yours.

the models and scripts are there.. just start with 1 side, you will need one commander unit that is all you need to start. so take BA or another mod and strip everything out but the commander. then work from there.

It isn't too rough. However, from there you have a long way to go.

NOTE: DO NOT by any means take content without permission from that mod's author
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