Ok this was original a responce to CDNFutballer who posted that he had a mod idea that he wanted to be made and become leader of. I thought he was joking at first, but then he was serious afterall, so I decided to offer my opinion. It got bigger than I expected, and deserves its own post since it may help other potential modders who are new to the HL modding community.
His post: http://halflife2.homelan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13092
Ok since your not joking I formly appologise.
CDNFutballer, I love when more people join the mod community and embark on the challenging but enjoyable experience of creating a Total Modification for the Half-Life engines. If you really are serious about wanting to create a new and engaging mod for the HL community, I have some pointers and constructive critism for you and your mod.
My opinons are based around previous experiences I've had with other mod teams I was apart of in the dev team or as a freelance contributer of various content.
Alright before you even start, reading this MOD FAQ by botman is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! Read it more than once, as the info provided is CRITICAL to know and understand.
http://www.planethalflife.com/botman/MOD_FAQ.shtml
Ok, now I know you already have an idea for a mod that you have planned out, as posted above, but I'm going to give you some advice on getting a great mod idea that not only you would like, but one that the mass HL community would embrace with full open arms instead of sticks and stones. This is obviously the most important factor and having a bad mod idea can instantly send your mod into the eternal abyss of never released mods. Some ways to get ideas is to think about the games that were already done, and what you liked and disliked about them. Was it great gameplay that could have made that game top of the line if only the developers had fixed some fatal flaws? Did the game try something completely new, but failed to execute it to its full potential?
These are the questions you think about, and from that you can say, "If I made this game, what would I do to make it better?". Sometimes you want something completely new and never done before, in this case you should put on your innovation hat, and basicaly start brainstorming. Writing down all your ideas, and then later sifting through the list, and then thinking about each one and how it would effect the others in the list. You would also want to take into consideration how hard it would be to implement, and if this idea would although unique, still allow for balanced play, and a exciting 'sensible' gameplay. Make sure your mod makes sense to some degree, it's annoying to players when they download a new game and contuniuly die because they don't understand the point or objective.
Once you've decided on a mod idea you would like to make, you have to give a well thought out objective look at your overall mod and form the base guidelines that absolutly must be in place. You will have to take into consideration development time, balanced multiplayer, addictive gameplay, ease of learning/use, and alot more. These guidelines should keep a consistent theme with the purpose of the mod and it's story. Although a story is not required, it does add alot of depth to your mod. Natural-Selection is a good example of a mod with a good story backing it up, adding to the realism that your actualy there and becoming part of something big and important.
Half the mods ever created whos project leader is not the coder, are known to fail early. Mod teams where the project leader doesn't do anything even remotely related to creating 'content' for their mod is even worse. Running the website is normaly not considered content for the mod since you don't need a site to play, and often running a good site takes more time than leading the mod team. So a common bit of advice often given is that one should learn how to code, map or atleast model, before even attempting to create their own mod.HL community developers would rather help someone who has created work of their own first, than to join someone who just got a PC for christmas and wanted people to make his ideas reality for no charge or work done on his own.
So basicaly, once you get your mod idea, you should choose a dev field to learn and get cracking with the many tutorials available online and start creating some rough concepts. In many cases from learning how to actualy develop for the HL engines you may find you can do some of your ideas easyly and others you might find would be exceptionaly difficult to reproduce. What's more important though, is that you would now have something to show to other HL dev candidates, and they will be more inclinded and willing to join your team. Since you would have shown that you are indeed serious and dedicated enough to actualy teach yourself how to develop your own content.
Now about your initial mod idea... Basicaly its not very innovative at all. The concept of "Make a mod with 1000 guns that all do the same thing but have different sounds and skins!" is pretty much a gimmick. The kind of gimmick no one cares to bother with. Infact this mod idea has been tryed so many times (and failed) that it actualy registers as an old mod idea cliche. Firearms that you mentioned has alot of guns, but not THAT many. Also, they were the first mod I believe to offer an RPG like stats gaining system to improve your abilitys during each round. Thats one of the many reasons why Firearms stood out from the crowd. Your mod should offer something new and different. I mean, even if you ever released a mod like that, it would immedieatly be labeled the infamous 'CS CLONE'. No one wants to play a mod that offers nothing new beyond having the most guns ever.
Ok I think I said enough. I hope this helps you, and anyone else reading who might be a potential modder to better survive and release an actual beta for the rest of us to play and give feedback on.
His post: http://halflife2.homelan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13092
Ok since your not joking I formly appologise.
CDNFutballer, I love when more people join the mod community and embark on the challenging but enjoyable experience of creating a Total Modification for the Half-Life engines. If you really are serious about wanting to create a new and engaging mod for the HL community, I have some pointers and constructive critism for you and your mod.
My opinons are based around previous experiences I've had with other mod teams I was apart of in the dev team or as a freelance contributer of various content.
Alright before you even start, reading this MOD FAQ by botman is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! Read it more than once, as the info provided is CRITICAL to know and understand.
http://www.planethalflife.com/botman/MOD_FAQ.shtml
Ok, now I know you already have an idea for a mod that you have planned out, as posted above, but I'm going to give you some advice on getting a great mod idea that not only you would like, but one that the mass HL community would embrace with full open arms instead of sticks and stones. This is obviously the most important factor and having a bad mod idea can instantly send your mod into the eternal abyss of never released mods. Some ways to get ideas is to think about the games that were already done, and what you liked and disliked about them. Was it great gameplay that could have made that game top of the line if only the developers had fixed some fatal flaws? Did the game try something completely new, but failed to execute it to its full potential?
These are the questions you think about, and from that you can say, "If I made this game, what would I do to make it better?". Sometimes you want something completely new and never done before, in this case you should put on your innovation hat, and basicaly start brainstorming. Writing down all your ideas, and then later sifting through the list, and then thinking about each one and how it would effect the others in the list. You would also want to take into consideration how hard it would be to implement, and if this idea would although unique, still allow for balanced play, and a exciting 'sensible' gameplay. Make sure your mod makes sense to some degree, it's annoying to players when they download a new game and contuniuly die because they don't understand the point or objective.
Once you've decided on a mod idea you would like to make, you have to give a well thought out objective look at your overall mod and form the base guidelines that absolutly must be in place. You will have to take into consideration development time, balanced multiplayer, addictive gameplay, ease of learning/use, and alot more. These guidelines should keep a consistent theme with the purpose of the mod and it's story. Although a story is not required, it does add alot of depth to your mod. Natural-Selection is a good example of a mod with a good story backing it up, adding to the realism that your actualy there and becoming part of something big and important.
Half the mods ever created whos project leader is not the coder, are known to fail early. Mod teams where the project leader doesn't do anything even remotely related to creating 'content' for their mod is even worse. Running the website is normaly not considered content for the mod since you don't need a site to play, and often running a good site takes more time than leading the mod team. So a common bit of advice often given is that one should learn how to code, map or atleast model, before even attempting to create their own mod.HL community developers would rather help someone who has created work of their own first, than to join someone who just got a PC for christmas and wanted people to make his ideas reality for no charge or work done on his own.
So basicaly, once you get your mod idea, you should choose a dev field to learn and get cracking with the many tutorials available online and start creating some rough concepts. In many cases from learning how to actualy develop for the HL engines you may find you can do some of your ideas easyly and others you might find would be exceptionaly difficult to reproduce. What's more important though, is that you would now have something to show to other HL dev candidates, and they will be more inclinded and willing to join your team. Since you would have shown that you are indeed serious and dedicated enough to actualy teach yourself how to develop your own content.
Now about your initial mod idea... Basicaly its not very innovative at all. The concept of "Make a mod with 1000 guns that all do the same thing but have different sounds and skins!" is pretty much a gimmick. The kind of gimmick no one cares to bother with. Infact this mod idea has been tryed so many times (and failed) that it actualy registers as an old mod idea cliche. Firearms that you mentioned has alot of guns, but not THAT many. Also, they were the first mod I believe to offer an RPG like stats gaining system to improve your abilitys during each round. Thats one of the many reasons why Firearms stood out from the crowd. Your mod should offer something new and different. I mean, even if you ever released a mod like that, it would immedieatly be labeled the infamous 'CS CLONE'. No one wants to play a mod that offers nothing new beyond having the most guns ever.
Ok I think I said enough. I hope this helps you, and anyone else reading who might be a potential modder to better survive and release an actual beta for the rest of us to play and give feedback on.
