Hi all,

I have been on the forum since the early MW days, it just occurred to me, that despite many, many great mods, something is missing. A documentation that is worth the quality of the mods some of you produce. So i call for help with what i call the

The Oblivion MOD Documentation Project!

I remember a lot of great mods for MW, but (at least for me) many of them vanished, since the modder has moved on, or download sites changed. (Anybody remember the "Daily Vivec" ? A shame it has gone)
Most of the info i am going to request will be on Nexus but any help will be greatly appreciated.

What i would need from you (for your favorite, or YOUR mod):
1) A description of the mod. A touch more prose than the usual readme would do.
2) Some screen shots
3) If you have, some concept art screenshots would be great
4) A walkthrough (if the mod includes a quest). Again, a bit more prose than "take item x and put it in y"

I will take care of the layout and promise to put a version 0.1 together by christmas.

Anybody in ?

mason

PS: While waiting for your feedback, i will start working on Vilja, which i think is one of the best mods i've seen for OB

EDIT: Example of what i have in mind
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47977500@N07/5055267963/

Huh? While my brains are currently addled, isn't this sort of covered by the readme files of mods? Sure, not all mods have them, and some have very uninformative ones, but you haven't given a whole load of info on the aim of the project, so I'm a bit confused... Are you writing readmes for mods, or walkthroughs for quest mods, or what?

Also, isn't Vilja's author still around?

Thanks for the feedback, i'll explain a bit more:
The main aim for it is that it should look good. Think of the official game guides. Decent layout, screenshots embedded, something you could print out and put next to the game guides and read in before bedtime. The final result will hopefully be a pdf file that summarises the best MODs in terms of their content...

Hope that makes it a bit clearer...

That sounds more like a review than documentation. But I like the idea.

I actually like the general idea of having somekind of printable database with mods, screenies and a good description. Especially with a cool layout.

I do have some reservations though, as I think there are obviously some dangerous culprits here. Using a term like "the best mods" is one of them for starters.
Reviewing mods is also something that's frowned upon by most modders, as different mods cater to different people. Of course one could tell if a mod just does what it says, but even that leaves lots of room for interpretation. However, when handled carefully and with respect towards the modders and the general modding ethics, it could work.
And how will things be handled when several people submit documentation for the same mod?

Really? AFAIK, mods wouldn't have reached anywhere near the levels of usage that they have without mod lists, which are essentially reviews, let alone actual reviews. So long as a review is conducted without bias, it can be a very useful bit of information, and act as good feedback for the author too.

It's not the plan to judge any of the mods, no intention of a top10. I dont want describe the mods, more like write about them from a RP point of view. (hard to express if you're not a native speaker: Or maybe put the story that is within the mods to paper, in a descriptive way) So in that sense i don't think, including a house mod would make sense in such a context, even if it's a very good one. E.g. the sailable ship mod wouldn't be suitable. It again is one of the best mods, and adds a lot of RP option *within* the game, but there is not much you could write about in such a MOD guide.

On the other hand things like Vilja or Ruined Tail come with a story, they have a certain kind of depth (storywise) but that's not about quality. Some mods add quality to the game, some other's add to the overall story, or put things into context.

Or maybe if you have a very simple mod that just puts a bunch of special weapons around Cyrodiil, if it comes with a well worked out story, it could work very well in that guide...

You can't review a mod without being at least partially biased, that's impossible.

Modlists? Well, the first modlist I used as a beginning mod user was from Aellius, which was seen as the best at that time. Later it turned out that he never even left the Imperial City Isle with his character....
Of course there are some good lists around nowadays, but they serve me more as a guide to what's available than a review platform.

The best review one can probably get is by reading up on the various comments on a mod in a dedicated thread or in the comment section of the download. This does take some effort and filtering though.

A few attempts have been made in the past to set up various mod review systems, which all lead to modders getting overheated about it. So I think I can speak from experience, but maybe times have changed, who knows. To quote myself in the same post you quoted: "However, when handled carefully and with respect towards the modders and the general modding ethics, it could work."

Well, like I said I like the basic idea. Maybe you could make an example so you can make it more clear of what it is you're after.

Ok, i was thinking along these lines
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47977500@N07/5055267963/
Although the exact layout might need to be worked out...

That looks very nice! :foodndrink:

Thanks
But, layout is quite a bit of work, so if people feed me their content/description (in the sense i mentioned above), i am happy to try to work things in...

That's impressive! If you covered all the big and essential mods like that it would be very friendly to new players.

Thanks,

just thinking about it, having

5) screenshots of the ingame local maps would be great as well.

Does anyone know if these can be exported from the CS ?

Wow, this looks impressive. Very nice work. I think this will appeal to a some people, maybe not to so much to others.

Some things to consider:

(1) How far are you going with spoilers? Are you putting everything out there, line by line? I would imagine yes and if so, I probably wouldn't use them as I like to discover things myself - but there are a lot of people who would!

(2) Permissions. Are you going to get permissions from mod authors? I'm referring to the use of the word "official" in your topic subtitle. As a modder, I would imagine an "official" guide for any mod I made would only be created with my permission. I'm sure most modders will grant you permission but most, I think, would want to be asked first.

Good luck with this.

~ Dani ~

Hi Dani,
good points.

2) Of course something like that would need the permission of the modders. But again, as i don't intend to judge anything (more appreciation of their mods) i can't see why anyone would object. But of course i will ask.

1) I am tempted to include full walkthroughs, but not necessarily on a step-by-step basis, in more general terms, and, especially, with focus on impact on the game-world and the role playing. I personally would not read it up front. Maybe it could be a bit like a personal journal, something you read after you did the quest, and think of the good old days. Few screenshots, things that happend, opponents, and so on...