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[novax druid]

I apologize if this has been asked several times. I understand there are plenty of tutorials here too, but needed the questions sorted out. My questions are that in general on how to begin a base of starting such a mod based in Source.

1. What does one need to do to be able to start beginning their mod?
2. How does one obtain a server for their mod? (if it's needed)
3. Where is a good site to start up a forum? (any free sites?)
4. How does one gather team members on sites other than Mod DB? (any tactics or the such?)
5. What tools should one work with to jump start their mod?
6. Any tutorials that will also jump start one's mod? (beside this site, no offense)
7. How do I go by distrubting the mod to those who don't have a Source/Valve game?

Again, I apologize if this is very noobish, offends anyone, and  if this has been asked several times in the past.

[kraid]

Actually this has not been asked very often, at least not here in our forum.

There's no magic "jump start mod" button, this is a lot of hard work and requires time, patience and the willingness to learn and improve your skills.
Assumimg that you're new to modding, i'd suggest you to join an existing mod team to get an idea of the development process.

Since you didn't say what's your field of interrest (e.g. modelling, mapping, coding, composing) i cannot say any more specific things for now.
But you surely should focus on one or two aspects of modding and improve your skills there.

[novax druid]

I understand that, that's why I wish to have my questions answered so I can take the steps neccesary to do so. Also, I do not wish to join another mod team as I'm focused on my own idea. I understand what you mean, but ultimately it's not getting me to where I need to be.

[Wake[of]theBunT]

This question gets emailed to our official email and our moddb PM system quite a lot. It's true not often as that on the boards.

Agree with kraid. Joining an existing mod is a great idea to improve your particular skill. I've twice made the mistake of making 2 of my own mods as opposed to joining an existing system, or better yet forming a "group" of modders and becoming friends and making an idea from there based on a mutual arrangement of creation.

Instead I tried to form 2 projects basically on my own and recruit from there. It was a learning curve, one those totally new to modding should never take. I was quite seasoned when I did so in comparison to some naiive begginnings in most history (for instance I'm experience in PR, knowing how internal teams work, making websites and forums with my webmaster accounts - so forth), and still things did not go well enough. So whether you get in a favorable situation (idea wise) to start a new project, just remember to keep your expectations close and grounded in reality.

The better choice is becoming super skilled to industry standard in one field of modding, by joining an existing team. Then you can tackle your own ideas if you have some gems. As a proven modder with a general respect in the wider community.

[novax druid]

That's seriously not helping me. I want to start my own idea. I have the models being taking care of. I just need questions answer and I'll go from there.

[Wake[of]theBunT]

Read my post again, I edited.

I'm sorry if you want your list of criteria answered. I just won't do that. I won't tell you that there is a path to making your idea a reality. Because that's not fair on you and the journey you may face in tackling a huge task without learning the knowledge through experience.

[novax druid]

Then I'll wait till someone does. Look, my idea is my own. I don't honestly have any skills. That's why I'm needing to know what I need to do to set up and be on my way. Personally, you're being rude and offending me because you won't answer questions. I don't see what's wrong in answering them.

[coolDisguise]

Wake is right about that - there are some things you're better off figuring them out by yourself, as you will have your own experiences and preferences. Just using things others recommend to you is very rarely the right decision, because they might work for them, but maybe not for you.

Nevertheless I'd like to try and give you some general answers.


1. What does one need to do to be able to start beginning their mod?

First of all a mod is work. Work is the sum of each person's (knowledge * time). That means it basically CAN be done alone, but you'll need more time - and a lot of patience of course.

You need:
- an idea
- very much time
- knowledge
- dedication to the project
if you have several people working on it, of course you need to communicate a lot and distribute tasks, therefore you need
- milestones (plan what should be done by when)
- a very good structered idea of what you want to do and what you need for it

2. How does one obtain a server for their mod? (if it's needed)
Running a good server will cost you - you've got to check offers around the internet for that, there are several providers you can rent servers from. Pick the offer that most suits you and your needs.

3. Where is a good site to start up a forum? (any free sites?)
Again, this depends on your needs and you should check this yourself.

4. How does one gather team members on sites other than Mod DB? (any tactics or the such?)
To gather a team you should mention your vision (once it's clear and structured enough) to others, RL contacts help a lot here. (since you know these people in real life, it's easier to communicate)

5. What tools should one work with to jump start their mod?
Standard tools that are used very often include Hammer (map editor), Visual Studio C++ (for coding work) and Blender (for models, because it's free) but you might find that other software suits you better.

6. Any tutorials that will also jump start one's mod? (beside this site, no offense)
What 'jumpstarts' your mod the most would be people doing your vision FOR you. But as you admit you have no experience, there's no other way to jumpstart it, since you'll always have a learning curve and trust me: it's not like we think you're an idiot or something but developing your knowledge, own style and structure will certainly take you a fair amount of time. (On a sidenote: I think Wake is trying to protect you from giving yourself too much trouble trying to to figure it out all at once, that's why he's giving you the helpful advice to gather experience in different subsections of a mod's work by contributing to another mod first)

7. How do I go by distrubting the mod to those who don't have a Source/Valve game?
That's a point every modder comes to sooner or later - you're building for some piece of software not everyone has access to. People will have to accept it. Yet I recently saw there were mods being build on the free Alien Swarm SDk ~

[novax druid]

The thing is, I've been plagued by this idea for a long time. I'm learning to finish the model. All I want is to be able to finish the simple mod and then possibly take it a step further. I just feel like there are answers people withhold from me. All in all, it's rather a simple goal, but no one is just going to jump off and join my project. People are too busy with their own work to help others. That's why I find it pointless to go into someone else's when it won't really benefit mine. I understand it'll teach me teamwork and how a mod team works, but ultimately, it won't teach me things I really want to know. In the long run, I know my goal will be solo work or with just a couple of people. I just want to get it done with.

[major]

Here is the thing. If you have very limited skills, then you need to find someone that has enough skills to get a rough template of your idea out there. Then you can propose this idea to people so they can see what your working for. This show you have the drive to finish the job. People are hesitant in joining a team where there is nothing to show for it.

This is where being in a already existing mod is helpful. You'll pick up friends that can help you on the side with your project. That is how this mod started. Enzo and Nickster were in a already existing mod, then they branched off and created this game. By then they had friends to help them. Also helped they were creating a recreation of one the greatest games ever.

But personally your first thing you need is someone that is good with code. Cause typically those people are creative, and can do a lot of things extra. Take Killermonkey as a example. He's a coding god. But he is also a 2d artist. Can create 3D models. And rough out maps.

So how do you find these people? Well this is the hardest part IMHO. Its a sort of who you know, and luck. If you have someone you know IRL, or online that can help you thats your best bet. Could also scout and advertise on Moddb or similar. If your really passionate, try nosing around a university. Young coders and artist will be eager to use there new skills, and build there resume. I might look on moddb for dead mods and such, then contact the devs and see if there in new projects. Some might be looking for some work. So if you can pitch your idea well, you might be able to pick up some devs with minor experience.


2. How does one obtain a server for their mod? (if it's needed)

I would not worry about this till you have a pretty polished mod. Till you get ready to push out a release, a local user created server will be enough for testing. Then once you feel you have a finished product. You can pick up a small server for cheap(typically around $1-2 a slot). But if you are very tight in cash. Look for smaller server hosts and offer for them to supply a handful of server for your mod. While you supply them with advertising for there company(ex. have the server names be -=YOUR MOD NAME= Awesomeservers.com-). We did this for Beta4, and worked pretty damn well.

3. Where is a good site to start up a forum? (any free sites?)

There are plenty of free forum system. http://www.niceboard.net/ is one if you need a free forum. But should really look into a dedicated site for your self. There reasonably priced (maybe $40 year). And this will allow you to Host a site, host a forum, host a dedicated official download for your mod, a official email for your mod(just to make seem most professional), and much more.

[novax druid]

Thanks for the answers. The only other problem is, I have no skills to help an existing team. I can critique and give my opinion on things, but other than that, I don't have any skills. This is kind of why I'll end up doing the one project solo and then getting a team for the other one. I guess maybe I should have asked this, and that should I state what my goals/mod ideas are in this thread?

[coolDisguise]

The thing is, I've been plagued by this idea for a long time. I'm learning to finish the model. All I want is to be able to finish the simple mod and then possibly take it a step further. I just feel like there are answers people withhold from me. All in all, it's rather a simple goal, but no one is just going to jump off and join my project. People are too busy with their own work to help others. That's why I find it pointless to go into someone else's when it won't really benefit mine. I understand it'll teach me teamwork and how a mod team works, but ultimately, it won't teach me things I really want to know. In the long run, I know my goal will be solo work or with just a couple of people. I just want to get it done with.

The benefit is not only the teamwork but
- experience how a certain aspect is done correctly (invaluable)
- connections to these people who might or might not help you with your own project afterwards

Other than that if you really want to go ahead and try alone I recommend you to try very small things seperately from each other first until you can do each of them without much thinking about it:
- loading a model someone else created (ingame)
- creating a model yourself and texturing it/applying shaders, getting it to work as you want ingame
- creating a map and loading it (ingame)
- writing some basic code and getting it to work properly

Also it's not that bad having no skills yet - if you're willing to learn something. Furthermore a project can always use someone to look for deadlines, to check how everyone is doing with their particular work and maybe giving a hand. Someone who has it all planned out from the beginning. (but again in order to plan it out, you're better off having been part of a project at least once)

[killermonkey]

...but no one is just going to jump off and join my project. People are too busy with their own work to help others. That's why I find it pointless...

The best piece of advice I got in life was: "You have to learn to FOLLOW before you can LEAD"

If you don't know what its like to work on a mod, take tasking from the leader, or contribute as a part of a team then NOTHING you want to accomplish will actually happen. Joining a mod team not only builds skills, but it also lets you flesh out your own ideas because you learn what is and is not possible with the limitations of the engine, the skill of your people, and other factors. WORK IS NEVER A WASTE. You can always learn, your attitude towards this whole thing leads me to wonder why you even want to try in the first place, this is no trivial feat.

Another piece of advice: Never talk back to people when you are the most naive person in the room. It makes you look like the ass in a hurry.


ANSWERS TO YOUR Q's

1. What does one need to do to be able to start beginning their mod?

Depends on the engine you want to use. If you want to use Source then start here: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Create_a_Mod

2. How does one obtain a server for their mod? (if it's needed)

You don't need a hardcore server until right before you release your mod (if it's multiplayer). You can always test and host stuff internally from a dedicated server hosted on your own computer until things start to get really serious.

3. Where is a good site to start up a forum? (any free sites?)

www.dreamhost.com (Not free, but the best IMO)

Any free site is going to be filled with ads or not provide you any customization abilities. You are better off investing some money for this.

4. How does one gather team members on sites other than Mod DB? (any tactics or the such?)

Facebook? Your local school, college, etc. Friends are a great place to start! Advertising on ModDb is only useful if you have a solid idea AND foundation.

5. What tools should one work with to jump start their mod?

Depends on the engine. Source uses Source SDK (see link above)

6. Any tutorials that will also jump start one's mod? (beside this site, no offense)

Depends on the engine, if you use Source look in these places:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Level_Design
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Material_System
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:VGUI
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Programming

If you don't have a dedicated and knowledgeable programmer you might as well not even bother. You CANNOT make a decent mod without a programmer that KNOWS what they are doing. There are a lot of people out there that can program, but are not programmers. Copy/Paste from a random tutorial is not programming.

7. How do I go by distrubting the mod to those who don't have a Source/Valve game?

Work on an engine that doesn't require Source (like Unreal) or else you have to convince people to buy a source based game.


Don't expect people to answer your questions like this in the future. You are lucky we are such a diverse and knowledgeable community with a higher than normal tolerance for "n00bs". The time I spent answer you was time NOT spent on this mod, by the way.

[Kinky]

I wrote something inspired. Then KM came. Read his post and take it seriously, 'nuff said.

[Sp1nn3y]

I want is to be able to finish the simple mod and then possibly take it a step further.

Good luck with the "simple" aspect of it all.

would've said more but KM pretty much summed it up.