Question 1:

I've played FO3 on xbox until about a month ago when RRD finally struck =[ I got a new computer and have started a large story heavy mod based on a british ship that is basically making its way across america.
All I want to know is, will people play it? By which I guess I mean how many people still download mods for FO? If its not very many then I'm not sure I want to have to bother recording voices/tannoys/making new models/textures etc... for a massive project when I could just make smaller, more compact mods for my own ammusment.

I know that makes me sound vain but it does make it more worthwhile if people will actually download it.


Question 2:

Are you allowed to advertise your own mods on this forum?


Thanks =)

-Morrowind- still has an active modding community. Fallout isn't dying yet
And yes, you can advertise your mod in a thread made for it, sure.

Thanks Phoshi, good to know =) Guess i'd best crack on with this mod then =P

It sounds like you're new to modding. It is possible to start a large project being brand new to modding - - I somewhat did that myself - - but understand that you will be starting small and moving forward as your abilities at the time permit.

If you expect to work for a year and then suddenly make your first release, I doubt it will work out. The dynamics don't come together that way from what I have seen. Instead, you want to make progress as time goes on, and keep releasing stuff as it becomes usable.

Don't start with these things - -



There's already ship tile building pieces in the game (rivet city). There's already working models in the game. You do not absolutely need voice actors to create and work with new characters. The core of your story-heavy mod will be the things you do not need that sort of work for. You will want to work with your characters and your story and your quest implementation primarily (quests are the internal tool which allow you to make your story happen), and later decide what you need in terms of models/textures. You obviously need some form of your ship's interior areas (or you could copy the Rivet City interiors and simply reuse them - - you're allowed to do that, it's a MOD after all, not a brand new game).

Good voice acting does not come at the drop of a hat and even if/when you get good lines to put in, the amount of work to insert them into the game is significant. You must leave this for last, if only because, your voice actors must record stuff all at once or there will be consistency problems between scenes. A line that you forget to give a voice actor and he tries to record 6 months later can come out really messed up, even Bethesda's voice acting has a couple of times where this has clearly happened, and it sounds nasty. Another thing is that unless you're paying someone (which I know you're not), the voice actor has to actually like what you have going, and if you're asking for voice-acting on something that isn't already showing how good it is, you may not find the voice actors you need/want.

Want to show you something ... these are my mods releases, note the file size and filedates.. I started the mod shortly after the GECK came out..

[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.1.zip	20-Dec-2008 22:39 	 36K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.2.zip	22-Dec-2008 17:51 	38K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.3.zip	25-Dec-2008 14:29 	45K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.4.zip	04-Jan-2009 00:55 	85K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.5.zip	10-Jan-2009 10:57 	109K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.6.zip	27-Jan-2009 18:58 	180K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.7.zip	03-Feb-2009 03:13 	198K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.8.zip	07-Feb-2009 10:34 	199K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.9.zip	02-Mar-2009 13:55 	381K[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.91.zip	07-Mar-2009 06:40 	1.5M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.92.zip	09-Mar-2009 12:13 	1.6M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.93.zip	16-Mar-2009 13:06 	1.8M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.94.zip	19-Mar-2009 18:21 	1.9M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.95.zip	03-Apr-2009 02:53 	111M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.96.zip	06-May-2009 10:12 	111M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.97.zip	22-May-2009 14:26 	112M[ ]	All-Phalanx-Modules-0.98.zip	22-Aug-2009 13:19 	114M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.0.zip		19-Sep-2009 09:39 	 22M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.01.zip		22-Sep-2009 11:02 	22M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.02.zip		03-Oct-2009 00:34 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.03.zip		15-Oct-2009 19:39 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.04.zip		21-Oct-2009 18:15 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.05.zip		29-Oct-2009 02:15 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.06.zip		01-Nov-2009 06:51 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.07.zip		12-Nov-2009 13:38 	20M[ ]	FO3-Phalanx-1.08.zip		03-Dec-2009 13:49 	20M(There's a 2010 semi-release which is development only, close to completion now)

Point of this being - - if you're doing something comprehensive - start with what you have, do what you can do, expect to start small, and keep moving forward with it, and it doesn't matter if 1 person downloads it, or zero, or 100, or 1000 (some mods get that many and many more). If you really want this thing, its yours to make, and maybe someone else will enjoy playing it too. There's nothing wrong with planning big but you must start small.

Just an fyi, people who mod based on 'how many downloads I expect to get' usually end up quitting rather early on. You should mod because you want to create something, not because you want people to say 'oh he's the modder who did that mod' and having 10,000+ downloads for your mod in the first week. If you are of the opinion that the community 'owes you something' or 'isn't providing enough support' and using that as an excuse to drop out then...uh I don't actually know how to provide an appropriate ending to this sentence but I'm sure you can see where I am going.

Damn right. Create for the joy of creating. That's what I'm doing, and I am lazy, I gotta tell you.

Now that I've spilled out some nonsense, I think I'd better get back to finishing that Navmesh.

No, really, if I, as a never-published-anything -modder, can tell you: if you have a vision, try to stick to it. It is very rewarding to see the vision incarnate on yer screen as you create the mod. Even though those pesky snapping errors incarnate along it.

And I'm mumbling incomprehensibly again, sorry, Navmesh calls!

Agreed.

Sure, it can be pretty soul-destroying when you spend months on a project and only a thousand people download it, and I know that my mods for Fallout 3 get fewer downloads than they even do for Oblivion or Morrowind - but there's a sheer joy of making it that does make the effort worth it.

I've got dozens of mods in the works, and I know full well that hardly anyone's interested, but I just like tinkering with it. There's a mod for Morrowind that my friend and I have been working on for years, and every year there are fewer and fewer people who are going to download it when I finish. Even knowing that - that it's going to be potentially 3 years' work for 300 downloads - does that make me think "I'll never finish it"?

No.

It just makes me less inclined to worry about what other people will think of it and just make it the way I want to make it.

Make what you want to make, how you want to make it, and that's really the only motivator you need.

That said, everyone's right - there is still an active Morrowind community even 8 years after release, and this one shows no sign of dying quite yet. If you build it, they will come, etc. etc.

Good luck with your mod.

noooooooo!

Think of a huge room full of computers, with people at all of them.

Like this.

http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/games/img/longest_LAN_party_90191.jpg

See in your mind, a room with a THOUSAND people, and a thousand computers.

And, ALL using your mod!

If you've seen 1000 downloads, its time to cheer!

if you see 10, it's a smaller cheer.

One of the mods I made which I feel has utmost importance only has 31 downloads. That's 31 people in this world who felt as I did about something, and felt that my mod was an asset that they wanted.

This is all cool stuff and 1000 should be nondisappointing!!!

Lol fair enough, actually I was kind of working from that basis. See if I was modding for myself then all I'd need to do is create new areas and allow myself to play them.
Its not that the extra work is putting me off, its just that if people are going to download it I'd want it to be the best that it can be, and not just a casual personal mod if you see what I mean?
For example, if I was drawing a picture for myself it might just be a doodle and my mind can fill in the blanks. But if it was an exhibitive piece of artwork then I'd have to work harder to get across my message..

Having said that you've all got a good point, I haven't modded since morrowind so I forgot how fun it was to just explore and create. Having been working on this new mod for the past few days I can safely say I no longer have any kinds of resevations about how many downloads it may or may not get.

Thanks for putting me back on the path =)

Posh. I've released five mods, first one in November, and one finally got over 100 downloads. The rest are 85, 55, 51, and 11 downloads. I don't think they will ever get to 1000

Nevertheless, I enjoyed making them. And I enjoy playing with them. And that's why I made them. For myself. I released them however, for the public. And I got some glorious comments. Now people are even making translations of them But I didn't make them because of that. I made them because I wanted to try modding. Then I wanted to try making a little quest. Then I wanted to try scripting. All my mods were made because I wanted them to be made. And, in my opinion, that's how it should be.

Otherwise you won't enjoy the modding if there's pressure behind.

Harmy52