http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/5943/taking_back_fallout.php


I knew when I read some of what NV offers it sounded a lot like FWE...

Well, frankly whether it was FWE or another mod, and whether it is FO:NV or the next elder scrolls game, there are all kinds of great ideas modders have that truly should be part of the games in the first place. There is clearly a demand for it. Heck, every beth game i've played has had more than one mod add the need to eat + drink to live. Some people may not like it (fine, leave it a 'hardcoe' option) . . . but you know what, if you call it 'hardcoe' and make it an option, a lot more people are going to try it and use it so they can be 'hardcoe' themselves. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, mini rant over

As much as I'd love Bethesda or Obsidian to hire me right out of small town Iowa to make individual icons for every, single, god damned icon in any of their Fallout games, I can't help to be... I don't know what to call it, overtly realistic? I'd like to be like Obscuro and make it big, but really? Icon guy? That's really my most valued skill. I churn out Icons. I love to do it, I've made it a specialty, I've lent my help to everything from Antistar's Dragonskin to Imp's Powered Power Armor, and to my own mod, Misc Item Icons, and all the way back again.

Again, I'd love it if Bethesda would say "Kyle, we need you to come to Maryland, and make icons for freaking 200 individual icons, possibly 100s more in DLC." Hell yeah I'd say "OF COURSE YES." I might even work as an unpaid intern, I honestly wouldn't care, anything to work with them. But I'd think it'd more like "Kyle, we know you can make icons in the Fallout 3 Pip-Boy style, do you have any other skills?"

That's the awkward silence moment. I wouldn't know what to say. I could say with all truthfulness "I make a damn fine Pip-Boy Icon, Bethesda."

Is that enough? I honestly want to believe "Maybe." But the overtly realistic belief is that of a clicking telephone, and I'd sit at my computer, wondering what if.

Meh. The basic concepts for realism mods aren't exactly unique. There are plenty of examples of either modders implementing such features (Look at Oblivion and Morrowind) or games making them standard. (The Sims, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, San Andreas) They probably looked at the modding section only to see what people wanted. Modders only deserve credit if their actual scripts were the adapted for New Vegas or if their scripts were the inspiration. As for modders actually working on the games, why would they want to pay modders when they already have a full staff?

Technically they dont even have to give credit. The GECK EULA states that all content made within the GECK is property of Bethesda. And Bethesda having given Obsidian the green light to make a game using their engine and assets may have said they can use mod content such as scripts as well. Again, they only have rights to GECK content, so custom meshes are not theirs, but scripts are, as they would only work inside the GECK.

While they do have full legal rights to use mod scripts, it'd still be nice of them to give credit if they did in fact use a modder's work. However, they probably didn't use any modders work in the first place.

more then likely not, yes. And it would indeed be nice if they did use anything to at least put the peoples names under the "Special Thanks in the credits or something, but technically, they wouldn't have to.

True.

They only took inspiration from mods for features. I doubt they would directly copy a modder's scripts.


:rofl:

Heh. Yeah, I love that quote.


I'm quite flattered that they took inspiration from Weapon Mod Kits - and I'm glad they're including a similar feature in New Vegas. It means I won't have to do it/get nagged to do it.


... I used to be in the industry, actually; level designer. Even worked with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Steed for a while (man he had some stories). I lost my job when the studio I worked for decided (due to funding problems) to try making games that didn't require level designers for a while.

I've always been a modder, though; before, during and after that job.

And why would you pay someone who already works for free?

As for modders getting credits in new games for inspiring ideas by their mods for old games; how may modders add a credit to their mods saying something like "I based many of my scripts on scripts originally written by Brian Robb of the Bethesda staff who worked on Fallout 3"?

I am a little confused by the obsession with credit among modders. I can understand why a person doesn't want another modder to copy their mod and put their name on it for download, since bragging rights are really your only payment for offering free mods, but expecting developers of games to give modders credit for games that the modders derived their mods from is a bit convoluted.

While it would be nice if a gaming company would hire someone to make only icons, it isn't likely if they already have someone on the payroll who is multi-talented and creates them as well as other things. And considering the state of the worldwide economy, if I were already working for Bethesda I would most likely be willing to put in long hours to keep my job and prevent any work from being farmed out. Still, freelance opportunities might exist if you pursue them. It isn't really necessary to live in the same city or even the same country as a business if your product is all digital. If you are really interested in making software games for a living, then expand your capabilities with more training. The greatest difference between professionals and amateurs is usually initiative.

http://www.gamesas.com/eng/links/gamesas_jobs.html

The best jobs don't usually drop into your lap. You have to hunt them down like prey.

You know ... some would say that Immitation is the highest form of flattery

It's probably more that we serve as a nice focus group for testing ideas. I'd be surprised if Beth never considered a WMK-like system, or a Hunger/Thirst/Sleep thing- after all, great minds think alike . They probably did, then decided they weren't essential enough features to include or people wouldn't like them and didn't have half a mil to drop on marketing consultants to test it.

Honestly, I just wish they had merged OBSE directly into the engine. Imagine what modders (and the game designers) could pull off with all of OBSE's features merged directly into the NV version of the engine?

The thing is they can easily add any of the xSE functions they want during design, they only bother adding the ones they actually need, and for the most part the ones they want don't need to be done on the script end of things- if they want to add a new game mechanic they can just implement it in the engine and via gamesettings, without needing to catch input or check health with scripts and so on.

I don't like the idea of handing over the Script Extender to the game developers. Primarily, because the folks that work on OBSE, FOSE, "NVSE"(?) listen to the individual modder, and will 99.9% of the time implement a function that is requested by just a single modder. Bethesda doesn't work like that. Second, once the game has been on the shelves for about a year or so, Bethesda stops development of it, and moves on to their next project. That means any requests for future functions would fall on deaf ears.

I'd prefer to leave the Script Extender in the capable hands it is in now. The XXSE team does a good job.

More or less what I meant. Pretty much every OBSE function was requested by modders in order to pull off their magic.....and sometimes it was very weird voodoo indeed.

If gamesas took that as a basis for exposing all those same functions to the user, and took some inspiration from the mods for some of the better tricks, it would make the game a much better modding platform.

edit: I didn't mean for Beth to "take over" XXSE. Just for them to accept that modders want those features available and make them so. I'm sure the XXSE team would still get requests for even more features regardless of what Beth exposed themselves.

See, that is overtly realistic. You get my point. I can't expect to happen, I have to do something about it.