How do people manage to get teams together to make those dlc sized mods?

[Nexus]

I got no clue how people manage to make the larger more complex mods.

I've been working on a script for the past couple of days for a fully blown dlc sized mod going by the current name of Fallout 4: Remnants that I hope to make.

but that's about all I can do. I'm a writer, not a coder or modeler or voice actor etc. Nor do I have any money to pay anyone to do so.

While I'm not quite satisfied enough with what I have (as I'm still working my way through act 1 of the story before proceeding to the further meat of the Mod so to speak) to show just yet, once I'm done with at least act 1 to allow for previews, I still don't really have any clue how to attract people to help work on it.

Has anyone had experience with making one of these types more ambitious story mods and if so, how did you manage to complete it? (or at least get a team together for it)

[Empukris]

I saw a few threads posting here recruiting with not many replies. Most modders are not lurking in steam forum. Nexus probably a better place for recruiting.

[Cor.]

You can go to a DLC page and find the contact info for the team that made it. Its usually on the right hand side.

[Rambit]

you wont find creators on steam forums. all you find here are people that cry about things they dont like in video games.

[Fear2288]

I feel you. A VERY long time ago I tried to get a project off the ground that essentially was going to be a total conversion mod for Medieval 2: Total War that was going to be based on the world of BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

I came up with a rough version of the campaign map layout/design, all the details for the various factions including their building and unit rosters, and even most of the two/three paragraph descriptions of the units and buildings.

But I couldn’t find anyone with the actual technical skills needed to bring the project to life.

I think I found a second “ideas/lore” guy and someone who claimed to know how to make custom units (who then never actually made anything), but that was it.

My advice would be to try seeking out possible team members on places like the Nexus forums or FO4 modding-related Discord servers.

It would also likely help you attract people if you learned enough to make rough versions of things for your mod (assets, locations, NPCs, quests). This will show you have some level of understanding of how to mod, and make potential team members feel a little more confident in your dedication to the project and your competency.

[Nexus]

Originally posted by Pookie101:

I will be brutally honest.

Why would anyone jump on board your personal pet project for free when they have their own ideas and pet projects to work on?

Ideas are cheap but you are going to need far more than just a story to attract a team of completely unpaid volunteers for potentially the next decade.

My suggestion is to open the creation kit and start tinkering.

♥♥♥♥ it, at this point writers might as well just be replaced with AI if this is the outlook on things.

I ain't exactly getting paid for it either. Much to my own dismay, there's little you can do as a writer to find any kind of employment cause nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥ about storytelling anymore apparently despite the constant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about how much modern stories suck.

I'm doing this because I want to. Like any modder does. It's really tiring seeing the enclave always be this generic evil faction that's evil just for the sake of it and I wanna make something that people will enjoy and will paint the faction as more then just black and white (pun not entirely unintended)

I love fallout as a franchise, I love the setting and all the potential it has. But it's absolutely infuriating seeing what little is actually done with it and what little is more often then not completely ♥♥♥♥♥ over the lore and pre-established rules (just look at sir Nate the Rake for the most recent example of the writers not giving a ♥♥♥♥)

If anyone else has the same want to see more in depth characters and more story then they can help where they can. I don't expect people to do so. I'm instead merely questioning where those that managed to get together the manpower for all the previous projects like this would go looking for said like minded people

[Von Faustien]

they largely dont most large scale mods die a stillbirth or get trapped in development hell and the ones that do drop tend to be of interesting quality ie new California or worse the frontier. the fallout comunity has a poor track record with large scale mods. even the TES games which have a better mod scene for that type of thing still have mixed results

[Fear2288]

Originally posted by Von Faustien:

they largely dont most large scale mods die a stillbirth or get trapped in development hell and the ones that do drop tend to be of interesting quality ie new California or worse the frontier. the fallout comunity has a poor track record with large scale mods. even the TES games which have a better mod scene for that type of thing still have mixed results

Very true.

Its part of the reason why FOLON is significant - its FO4’s first true total conversion mod that made it to the finish line (albeit having to delay to iron out the changes with the 4/25 patch), and while there’s a few others cooking in the oven, there’s no telling if those will ever get released (Miami and F4NV keep flip-flopping between “we’re dead, we’re not dead”, and the FO1 and 2 remakes seem to be in early development).

I’ve given up on being excited for Skyrim’s Beyond projects.

They’ve been teasing us for years, making it seem like one of them is finally about to release…and then we don’t hear anything from them again for another year.

Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I actually think they’re intentionally dragging their feet - enjoying the positive attention they get from eager/hyped up fans and game journalists, benefitting from whatever monetization they have via social media accounts and donation platforms, and using the projects (and the lure of being a part of them) to advertise for the “modding academy” that a couple of their team leads are “professors” for.

I couldn’t find any hard evidence that this “academy” charges some kind of tuition for their courses, but I find myself doubting that this group of individuals teach people how to create mods (and do all the things associated with creating mods) in such an organized and formal manner - free of charge.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Rambit:

you wont find creators on steam forums. all you find here are people that cry about things they dont like in video games.

They exist, they just keep a low profile and some use a different identity, kinda like witless protection. Yes, witless protection to keep people from spamming and pestering their Steam profile.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Its part of the reason why FOLON is significant - its FO4’s first true total conversion mod that made it to the finish line....

I not sure if I would want to exclude Sim Settlements 2 and Horizon from that.

Horizon kept map editing kinda minimal, with things like overhauling Hangman's Alley, Home Plate, and their new outpost north of Zimonja. Which I would love to get them into a non-Horizon game.

Sim Settlements added MANY interior maps and overhauled some.

However it you using Enderal for Skyrim as an example, the two do fall a bit short, lol.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by Pookie101:

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

They exist, they just keep a low profile and some use a different identity, kinda like witless protection. Yes, witless protection to keep people from spamming and pestering their Steam profile.

That's it in one. I had a tiny little mod on Nexus and Beth.net just changed the weapon names to be more lore friendly and specific. I had someone message me with a 5 page email full of demands for changes to the mod and when I said no I received a week of death threats.

It's terrifying to think of what an actually competent and good modder would get daily let alone a mod team of a popular mod

About 13 years ago I made a spread sheet for Star Trek Online for Duty Officers that cross referenced the officer and the missions which gave the best chances. It also help people to know which ones to buy as well.

I recently dusted off Star Trek Online and I had hundreds of in game mails asking for access to the database that dated up to as recently as a few years ago.

[Fear2288]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Its part of the reason why FOLON is significant - its FO4’s first true total conversion mod that made it to the finish line....

I not sure if I would want to exclude Sim Settlements 2 and Horizon from that.

Horizon kept map editing kinda minimal, with things like overhauling Hangman's Alley, Home Plate, and their new outpost north of Zimonja. Which I would love to get them into a non-Horizon game.

Sim Settlements added MANY interior maps and overhauled some.

However it you using Enderal for Skyrim as an example, the two do fall a bit short, lol.

Total conversion mods are usually considered to be mods which entirely change the original game into something else/new - so much so that there’s very little, if any, of the original game left in regards to location/setting, characters, assets, storyline, etc.

It’s pretty much using the engine of a game to make a different game.

Some examples would be…

Enderal and the forthcoming Skyblivion for Skyrim

Third Age: Total War for Rome: Total War

That Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings

Fallout: New California for Fallout: New Vegas

FOLON counts as a total conversion because it’s giving us an entirely new setting/map, a new protagonist, a new storyline, new factions, new characters, new enemies/creatures, and a mountain of new assets (weapons, armor, clothing, objects, architecture, etc).

Mods like Sim Settlements 2, Horizon, Fens Sheriff Department, and America Rising 2 don’t count as “total conversions” because while they certainly add a lot of content (I think FSD is still the single largest mod for FO4 in regards to assets, quests, characters, locations, etc) they’re EXTENSIONS of the core FO4 experience.

These mods ADD to and/or CHANGE the player’s experience in the Commonwealth in 2287. Something like FOLON is REPLACING that with an entirely new/different experience.

[Ollicron]

Originally posted by Nexus:

I got no clue how people manage to make the larger more complex mods.

I've been working on a script for the past couple of days for a fully blown dlc sized mod going by the current name of Fallout 4: Remnants that I hope to make.

but that's about all I can do. I'm a writer, not a coder or modeler or voice actor etc. Nor do I have any money to pay anyone to do so.

While I'm not quite satisfied enough with what I have (as I'm still working my way through act 1 of the story before proceeding to the further meat of the Mod so to speak) to show just yet, once I'm done with at least act 1 to allow for previews, I still don't really have any clue how to attract people to help work on it.

Has anyone had experience with making one of these types more ambitious story mods and if so, how did you manage to complete it? (or at least get a team together for it)

You socialize. You know, talk to people?

[Von Faustien]

Originally posted by Bored Peon:

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Its part of the reason why FOLON is significant - its FO4’s first true total conversion mod that made it to the finish line....

I not sure if I would want to exclude Sim Settlements 2 and Horizon from that.

Horizon kept map editing kinda minimal, with things like overhauling Hangman's Alley, Home Plate, and their new outpost north of Zimonja. Which I would love to get them into a non-Horizon game.

Sim Settlements added MANY interior maps and overhauled some.

However it you using Enderal for Skyrim as an example, the two do fall a bit short, lol.

my bench mark is tamriel rebuilt, enderal and new California or the various remake mods like morblvion and other dozen that never came out. and i suppose beyond skyrim if it ever get a province release which id bet only a fraction of the announced projects pull off.

SS2 and Horizion id lump more in with stuff like legacy of the dragon born. big but they arent making a map and content expansion on par with the base game just expanding it