An wierd idea for new modders

[The_One_Free_Man]

oh god i said AN i meant a

So i was thinking about people trying to get a job as part of a mod team, and i thought as a way to help newbies and people who have never worked on a team before get some practice, mabye some of the memebers here at Halflife2 dot net could put together a file that would have the basis of a single player level (only one) and it might be say: concept art of the enviroment/s, mabye a few custom models, some textures, and a small design doc kinda of how the level should be made how the action should be paced puzzles/ or no puzzles etc... and it could be sticky -d as a file to download for newbs or even more advanced people, but who have never worked from concept art, and a desgn doc. It would really be helpful i think. Let me know what you all think about this.

 

[egoncalo]

That's a pretty interesting idea. Could be fine tuned a little bit, but that would certainly be an interesting thing to do. It would help out alot of people as well... the question is though will new people be to stubborn or impatient to use it? I'd be willing to help organize something like this if some of the other members would help me along with it. People like Angry Lawyer, Mechagodzilla, Ennui, and other experienced members of the community please post your opinions as well!

 

[The_One_Free_Man]

the question is though will new people be to stubborn or impatient to use it?

i dont understand
you mean will they not have patience to see it through?

 

[Crispy]

Shhhhh! :O

I'm currently working on a website which aims to provide a community-driven 'school of modding'. This wouldn't be for Mods, like the ModDB, but for modders who want to learn, improve or contribute to the teaching process and the world of modding.

We have some pretty good ideas. One of which is a 'tutorial project'. Basically it's a task that any member can sign up to do which trains them in a basic but focussed aspect of their modding field. These tutorials increase in difficulty and introduce new techniques or tools. On completion the project would be rated (members) and graded (privileged members only) to give feedback to the learner, and a points based ranking system to reward both teacher and student for contributing to the community learning process.

At the moment we're going through each idea one at a time to get maximum discussion out of it before starting, although we have begun drawing up a technical plan for the database. It may be a while until you see us, we want to get everything planned out before we start creating the website, because it would have to be very professionally done and this takes planning.

Later on we'll be looking for experienced modders in areas we don't have covered to help put together some comprehensive tutorials for the site opening. If anyone would be interested in this send me a PM and I'll put you on the list we have for future reference.

But, shhhhhhhhhh! I've said too much :O

 

[Angry Lawyer]

That's a pretty interesting idea. Could be fine tuned a little bit, but that would certainly be an interesting thing to do. It would help out alot of people as well... the question is though will new people be to stubborn or impatient to use it? I'd be willing to help organize something like this if some of the other members would help me along with it. People like Angry Lawyer, Mechagodzilla, Ennui, and other experienced members of the community please post your opinions as well!

I'm a proficient mapper, but not to the extent that I could train someone else.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[egoncalo]

But what if you distributed a whole project so they could experience every different role.... coding, skinning, mapping, modelling, everything you know? Just a generic mod they could easily modify and learn from. Crispy I'd like to help with that project if you'd allow me, get in touch with me via MSN or PM. Thanks a bunch!

-Evan

 

[DrDevin]

I'm a proficient mapper, but not to the extent that I could train someone else.

-Angry Lawyer

You can map? :O I thought you were only a coder. Truely you are a legend among the modding world!

Well I think its a good idea. I can contribute if you tell me what to do. I have built up quite a bit of experience and am unemployed (not in a mod right now ie: hire me).

 

[Crispy]

At the moment we have a small and very focussed team working on this and we've already covered the site features to be included. Bringing more people in to discuss things would probably only serve to slow things down by taking it to a level of overdiscussion. Although we will be looking for someone with a lot of experience in PHP and backend webdesign.

That said, we will need people to give feedback on beta versions of the site and also to help put together an introductory level of content. If anyone is interested PM me your email addresses (including egoncalo and DrDevin) and also details of your exact modding experience [in which areas, with which programs, creating content for which games/Mods/Mod teams and for how long] then I may add you to a list of people to contact when we're at the stage for writing tutorial projects and also to test the site features and user friendliness. I can't guarantee anything though as we really want to create a comprehensive plan and updated design document before going beginning production on this, knowing this will require a long-term investment of time and resources to the project.

But what if you distributed a whole project so they could experience every different role.... coding, skinning, mapping, modelling, everything you know? Just a generic mod they could easily modify and learn from.

This has been discussed but we felt this kind of project wouldn't be focussed enough on a particular discipline. It also brings too many elements in for other members to provide valuable feedback. However, we do have this covered in the form of 'competition projects'. This would be either for ranking points or something more tangible but could link different projects together.

In addition to this on the tutorial front we have linked certain tutorial projects together with others from linked disciplines. As we feel it important that modders have at least a minimal knowledge of the processes which go into completing a creation, and preferably skills in all the disciplines required to achieving this goal. This is something equally valued by the modding world and the games industry and so something we would be glad to promote.
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I was going to post more but I felt I was giving away too much, so I took out specific examples.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

You can map? :O I thought you were only a coder. Truely you are a legend among the modding world!

Well I think its a good idea. I can contribute if you tell me what to do. I have built up quite a bit of experience and am unemployed (not in a mod right now ie: hire me).

I can code, map, model, animate, texture, record sounds, write, AND do PR. Although, coding is the only one I can do well, the rest I'm pretty average at. I'm from the days when a mod would have only one team member.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Mechagodzilla]

The best way to get experience is probably to just read tutorials and/or do it yourself.

If you want to map, make several practice maps for DM and get critiques from sites like Interlopers.net or Snarkpit.net.

If you want to do concept art, learn to draw. etc.