Finding a mod team worth your while 101

[Duff-e]

they learn me at schooL!!!!

[Fletch]

In his own bizarre way, Duffy makes a good point. Let me explain.

This is the criteria I use to look at mods:

1) Creative Idea/Design

2) Experienced coder in place

3) Mature/focused leadership

4) That Intangilbe 'Thing'

1) A mod has to involve some level of creativity. If it is SP, it needs to have a good plot idea in place. Nobody wants to play a story they've played before. Similarly, nobody wants to play a mod that doesn't go anywhere or engage them. It seems too many mods polarize towards one direction or another. If a mod is multiplayer, it needs to have a good hook. One thing that always saddened me about HL multiplayer mods was that they all seemed to lump together in the pseudo-realism category. If you look back at Q1 and Q2, all kinds of off the wall mods came out. Ones with crazy fast paced deathmatch, ones with insane weapons, ones with realism, ones with slow, sublt gameplay. Hopefully HL2's new engine will help put togethr a mod community more focused on original ideas instead of CS clones.

2) I'll live by my statement till I die: Coders make the mod. People can crap out gun models like nothing else (there is no need to ever make another uzi model every again). Once the community settles down, there will always be plenty of mappers. Sure, right now, those people will the skills to pick up Hammer quickly will have an advantage, but that will disappear over time. But coders are worth their weight in gold. Coding is long hard work and is really the backbone of any mod putting out a new idea. They're responsible for the stability of the mod overall as well as making versions that won't lag people to death online (again, maybe the new SDK will help that). Having a good coder that won't run away in anger with all the code is the.

3) More mods have died because of internal fighting than all other reasons combined. Even the strongest teams cna be split by petty fighting. Hell, it's the freaking history of Mapcore itself. Having a strong, solid leader who can resolve conflicts and keep the mod on track is key. A little ego is a dangerous thing when you've got 30 people on your team. Two people fighting turns into 10 people fighting, turns into everybody fighting, and pretty soon half your team walks out with half your game assets. A good leader also knows not to put people on the team who are going to disrupt the unity. Plus, I'm not working for a 14 year old who can't continue a conversation because it's bedtime.

4) This is the hardest thing to peg down. It's that intangible specialness that certain mods have and others don't. Holy Wars is a good example of that. They just had such a unique way of doing everything. The maps, the models, the gameplay, the attitude. It all had a special feel to it. Part of it is tied to idea #1 as far as being creatively design, but there is a lot more to it that is hard to describe. It's the way the textures look, its the way the website looks, its that feeling you get when you look at a mod and go "Damn, that looks fun." It doesn't always gaurantee longterm success, but it means that the mod will most likely be released, and hopefully remembered.

[spine]

Hmm, interresting read Fletch..thanx.

[Duff-e]

coder is almost the most important part of the whole job. i know because i went to join like 3 different mods as lead coder and i remember that i got lazy and did no work.....and the mod just halted to a standstill and everyone quit. its the hardest spot to fill and you really have to know what you're doing BEFORE you start

a poorly made map may be ugly, but it will get the job done. with coding it either works or it doesnt.

btw i typed this before i read what fletch wrote about coders....so yea i basically 100% agree

[Tequila]

I'd say talented animators are the hardest to find, above a good coder, and brilliant texture artists are pretty elusive too. You're right though; the coder has to tie all the content in, and keep the 'engine under the bonnet' running smoothly, so to speak.

[Merc248]

3) More mods have died because of internal fighting than all other reasons combined. Even the strongest teams cna be split by petty fighting. Hell, it's the freaking history of Mapcore itself. Having a strong, solid leader who can resolve conflicts and keep the mod on track is key. A little ego is a dangerous thing when you've got 30 people on your team. Two people fighting turns into 10 people fighting, turns into everybody fighting, and pretty soon half your team walks out with half your game assets. A good leader also knows not to put people on the team who are going to disrupt the unity. Plus, I'm not working for a 14 year old who can't continue a conversation because it's bedtime.

So true... I actually had another mod project that I was leading called "Rebellion" (yes, the same name as my current project, but it was radically different). It took a long time to find a good team, but I did find them. I picked up a coder who seemed pretty good. We started developing for an alpha release, but well... the whole problem started with CVS access to the code. I had no intentions in running off with any of the content, yet the coder who set up the CVS had more access than I did. I guess you could say it was a bit of an ego trip, but I wanted at least as much access as he did to the entire CVS (since well, it was hosted off of one of his server boxes which he had root access to). He didn't allow it, we quarrelled over it since I wanted to be able to coordinate the entire direction of the team until everything is stabilized, and I ended up having to kick him out since he wanted to restrict access for me to merely the art sections. The whole team fell apart after that.

You can gather whatever morals you want from that, but if at all possible, I'd like to avoid that same situation again by perhaps creating a team where no one is above anyone else and there is no opportunity to do that (democratic socialism if you want a government system to compare to).

[Crackerjack]

I totally agree with everything. Luckly Nightwatch has 2 amazing coders and one of them being the current leader of the mod, Proffesional Victim. Awesome guy btw, and I also agree with members being together. NW, has had a few fights, but nothing big at all, we all admire each others work and accept critism like sex. Did i mention were out of an animator

[Schmung]

I'll chuck in my opinion here, for what it's worth.

Far too many people start a mod without any idea of how much work is involved. Even if you do mange to merge a great concept with a dedicated, talented and well lead team you're a fair way from success. You've got to generate interest and deal with inevitable loss of staff and resources along the way. More importanly you've got to know when to relase and when to hold back and polish. Too many mods die because people feel like they always want to add more and end up stalling and going kaput. Then there's the opposite problem, releasing some cruddy ass bug-ridden, one map, two weapon alpha that makes your name shit in the community.

Even with focused and mature leadership things can get to the point where you're too close to hte project and it makes it hard to judge when the sweet spot is for release.

Another problem is that of far too many talented people being tied up in dead end mods that their mates are running and then whatever resources they have go to waste.

As for choosing a mod team, well thats tricky and depends on what you're doing and how much you want to be involved. Some of time, freelancing is the option, contribute your stuff to an existing mod and get your name in the credits without any of the internal strife. Getting in at the ground floor as it were can be excellent, your opinion will probably count for more and you get to see the mod develop and (hopefully) flourish. It does however commit you to rather more than churning out content because there will be inevitable debates about features and suchlike, even if you've got a concrete design document.

bleh, too tired to write more.

[Jeremy]

A team that is quite full when it comes to staff, where every staff is very motivated about the project, everyone gets along with eachother, you've got the more rare people to find on your staff (coders, animators), and the idea is not too far-fetched as to the point that you are taking somewhat of a gamble.

[Uncle Ho]

Some times you suspect mod teams start, just as an excuse to model guns and futuristic cars. But an environment can tell a lot more about the flow of the gameplay, and it is a much larger and significant effort.

Well, sometimes mod teams are looking for someone to do that.

[marque_pierre]

Any comments on this outfit?

http://www.kingdomlost.net/

Will they make it? Do they have solid people on board (I wouldn't know...)?

[Tequila]

Any comments on this outfit?

http://www.kingdomlost.net/

Will they make it? Do they have solid people on board (I wouldn't know...)?

Their style is fine, very World of Warcraft. They seem to have the talent onboard, but whether they have the vision, determination and organisation to bring it all together is anyone's guess.

[marque_pierre]

Any famous players or modding veterans on their team?

[Tequila]

Any famous players or modding veterans on their team?

This week Kukyona from the Half-Life 1 mod Wizard Wars joined our team. He's a very experienced coder, and will be the lead coder for Kingdom Lost

Khalid Al-Muharraqi, one of our team artists, has an article about him published on (the prominent computer graphics network) cgnetworks. He's finishing up a healer model for Kingdom Lost in his free time. The story (below) is about himself and his 3D project "Hunting-Toy" where he juxtaposes styles and influences to create a modern day recreation of a hunting bird.

http://www.cgnetworks.com/story_custom. ... 2586&page=

Not bad at all.

[Taylor]

I think Fletches number 4 is the most important. IT'S GOTTA HAVE A SOUL.