how long does a mod take to make?

[Otherside]

Finally found a totally appropriate and logical time to say this..

OVER 9000!!!!!!! Hours

[zwzsg]

over 9000 hours no joke

Could you say it once more? Just in case anyone missed it the first two times.

[Otherside]

OVER 9000 HOURS!!!

[Pxtl]

Not that I am trying to be discouraging but a proper project can be as demanding as having a second GF.

You speak as if there are modders with a first

Actually, afaik both Smoth and Argh have significant others. I have no idea how the hell those women put up with this crap.

[PicassoCT]

Your Grandchildren will still work on it...

[IllvilJa]

Your Grandchildren will still work on it...

Actually, that's one good reason for having a significant other while developing games. To ensure that the supply of required manpower.

But you better get a bunch of kids (and make sure they get a bunch kids in turn), otherwise your mod will barely be started on.

[Pressure Line]

Making a mod is like Oregon Trail. And when you get to Oregon you're done.

assuming you dont die of Cholera, get attacked by Indians or eat other members of your party to hold off starvation.

[Argh]

Meh. If you just want to make a game, and don't care about recycling OTA models, you can probably make one in about a week, including learning the things you need to know. I built the very first NanoBlobs alpha over a 24-hour period. Ok, I had some prior experience with OTA, but not much.

There's a huge gulf between doing that sort of thing and big projects with huge content requirements or really radical game designs.

My advice is: get your feet wet, don't just jump in the pool and drown. Try making a mod with just Tier 1 units from BA, where it plays really different but is basically just the same old stuff, for example. There is no reason to sign your life away for giant things until you actually have the skills, and you can't develop those skills until you start getting your hands dirty with small stuff.

[imbaczek]

yeah, trimming BA of useless units may be a good start for a mod, since you're not actually making anything new.

[Forboding Angel]

I spent quite some time making FunTA before I started on Evo, it was a good learning experience, AND I managed to make a *A based mod that I found really enjoyable

[CarRepairer]

yeah, trimming BA of useless units may be a good start for a mod, since you're not actually making anything new.

Oooh, cheap shot at BA

[zwzsg]

My advice is: get your feet wet, don't just jump in the pool and drown. Try making a mod with just Tier 1 units from BA, where it plays really different but is basically just the same old stuff, for example. There is no reason to sign your life away for giant things until you actually have the skills, and you can't develop those skills until you start getting your hands dirty with small stuff.

yeah, trimming BA of useless units may be a good start for a mod, since you're not actually making anything new.

I spent quite some time making FunTA before I started on Evo, it was a good learning experience, AND I managed to make a *A based mod that I found really enjoyable

If we exclude mapmaking for games such as Descent or WC2 eons ago, I started modding by making the simplest kind of model for TA: A weapon shot model. No animation or anything to worry about, just a one-piece 3do. Dropped it into an /objects3D/ subfolder and bam, I had modded TA for the first time.


Then I made a tank. My first unit was a simple attack tank, square body, round turret. Tank are much easier than kbots, cons or factories to model and script, they're more straightforward.

Yes, this was my first mod(el), and that was my first unit. That was back in 2004 and I still haven't done any mod by now.

[Argh]

Er, I wouldn't put it that way, man. You and KDR pretty much made KP what it is now. At any rate, I think that the best way to do stuff is to learn it from simple projects. But if you "just" learn how to model, you're not going to ever learn the rest of the things you actually need to know.

But doing full game designs is really not something I expect a lot of people to do anyhow.

[Neddie]

I should ressurect TACW, it predates even AATA by a few weeks.

Guess I can't compete with SWTA/IW though.

I'll help with 2D art and voices. Least I can do for a friend.

[imbaczek]

Oooh, cheap shot at BA

^^ been playing too much dow2 recently, you don't build any buildings, have like 8-10 buildable units, and it's still heaps of fun. (it does have useless units too, though ^^)