Lady_Nerevar

Yea, I wasn't being very clear. See how the collision box is just a box framed with yellow? You can't see where its sides are on the inside, since they are transparent. For instance, I was using collision boxes as doors, and it was hard to make sure that the door marker was not located inside the box. What I'd like to create is something like the subspace boxes, that are completely shaded all around, so I could tell where exactly the collision starts/ends.

My problem with collision boxes is that you can't actually see where the collision falls. Do you happen to know how to create the material/texture that disappears in game, like Xmarkers and subspaces use?

1) Upload to a filehosting site, such as Rapidshare, Megaupload, Dropbox, etc. 2) Post link here. Blender can export collision, so you shouldn't need any Nifskope post work. My thought is that you did not have both the collision and regular mesh selected when exporting. Blender only exports what ever you have selected, so you need to make sure you select everything.

To get people to respond favorably to your project (i.e. offer help), you have to post what your project is about and what you need done. "Guild" says nothing, as does "help create exteriors." What is the storyline for the guild? How long is it? How complex is it? Is it good/evil/neutral/ambiguous/raisin pudding? How many exterior cells do you need? In Tamriel, or a different worldspace? How complex are they? Is region generation involved? If modders know exactly what you need they are more likely to want to help out.

D'aaw, thanks. Personally, I wish the little buggers grew up faster, mostly so I wouldn't have to pay so much attention to them They are my brothers though, not sons.

Welcome!

As G said, I think you really have to love your mod in order for it to succeed. A big mod, especially, requires a lot of dedication, and you simply can't do good work if you don't care about what you're doing. Since we all tend to have similar tastes (up to a point), something that you really love is likely to be wanted by the community.

Here's one of me from 3 (?) years ago in Russia. I like it cause of the Beth spirit. And heres one where you can actually see my face.

Sorry to single this out, but parts of TR for morrowind have been release years back. People are still waiting on other parts, yea, but its far from vaporware. TR is actually a really interesting example. In the very early days, there was a vehement opposition to it - any thread mentioning it quickly devolved into flames. After that it was relatively quiet. We had our supporters, but there was no huge community following outside our own forums. However, once we released Telvannis everything sort of exploded, I'd say TR is now held as the community standard in many ways, and many teams are trying to emulate what it did. Hammerfell is taking so damn long because we really messed some very basic stuff up early on. Its a pity, and something I regret, but we were really just trying to do our best (even though it ended up to come back and bite us in the butt). Nothing you can really do but move on Your post does raise another 'good' thing to do: do an announcement more than a wip thread. It seems that if a mod starts with content (whether its Nehrim which unveiled with a teaser video and screenshots or Anequina which did a fullblown release) it understandably generates more excitement. So I guess its better to keep your early stuff private. By the way, thanks to everyone who has contributed so far This is exactly the sort of discussion I wanted to have, and its been very enlightening.

I'll answer the posts in detail later (sometime between tea and drawing Angelina Jolie), but I just wanted to say that I'm not worried nor am I discouraged I'm just interested in the social dynamics of modding, and how all the little decisions we make influence the community's perception of mods. Vouivre: Indeed, the BSF is harsh to new modders. Its also harder coming into it later, because, as you've said, a lot of things have been done. I think TESA is a wonderful place to get started specifically because its a smaller, more tightly knit community. Critterman: I agree, though I don't know exactly how much it helps. There does seem to be a lot of interest in the community whenever non-English mods are presented. On the other hand, only a very limited number of foreign mods get advertised to English audiences, and it would make sense that only the best of the best make the cut. In other words, we're likely not seeing any mediocre foreign mods (which in turn could be creating the illusion that foreign = better). The question now becomes "is any of this a problem?" In other words, is it worth investing time into strategies to help mods and modders get the attention they deserve?

The Top 100 raises another issue: older mods will be more popular, even if they are not better. Not sure thats fixable.

So, how can a newer modder combat this? Make releases (difficult). Its also largely cyclical: must have releases to get famous, but popular release harder if not famous. It seems like you almost have to 'accidentally' hit it big or spend a lot of time on improving your street cred. And what makes a modder popular? Is it releases alone? Contributions to the community in general? For instance, I've been modding TES for 6+ years, but few know my name.

Its pretty safe to say that modders realize that there is a lot more to modding than just modding. Namely, that thing called "public relations" in the real world: how (and if) you advertise your mod, how people perceive it, etc. This is, I think, the single hardest part of being a modder (especially a modder with large scale projects that need public support). This thread is here to help figure it all out. This thread is brought on largely by two things: my recent release of Hammerfell and the subsequent English release of Nehrim. Nehrim is something of a freak phenomena - everyone in the community, including Bethesda, appears to be obsessed with it and the mod has no flaws in their eyes. It is a very good mod but we're not concerned with that. Here is their 2nd [WIPz] thread. It contains very little actual information on what the mod is about (most of the info consists of "we're doing it better than it was in Oblivion") and the screenshots (not readily accessible) must be reached through a website written entirely in German. So, what made it so wildly anticipated years before release? Was it SureAI's history (if so, what can a modder/team without 2 TC releases do to get such a positive response)? Was it the fact that they did structure it on fixing what was wrong in Oblivion, on however abstract a scale (if so, does a mod which does not seek to revamp OB's engine stand a chance)? Was it the screenshots (if so, what about them)? In contrast, here is an early thread for my Hammerfell project. As you can see, its almost directly opposite of Nehrim's thread: I include lots of detail about the world and the mod's progress and link directly to screenshots. That thread went better than most, and even then you can see that its not quite the same outpouring of support. Obviously, the content of the mods is rather different (they ditch oblivion, I build upon it). Is that what makes a difference (i.e. people are more interested in playing a new world rather than a TES lore one)? Or was it strictly a matter of how I presented my thread (i.e. is it better to be more cryptic and pitch the mod, rather than providing lots of information and progress reports)? Moving on, I have also been quite fascinated by the phenomenon that is Elsweyr: Deserts of Anequina. I add that subtitle there because there is another, much older, mod also called Elsweyr that got its start at the Silgrad Tower forums way back in...06? Although they did an alpha release covering vaguely what Iliana did originally, they never got much coverage and Iliana's mod is now the standard of the community when it comes to province extensions. Is this a case of the community's admiration of and fascination with lone "genius" artists (also seen in the case of Broad's Hammerfell mod, which did less than mine and had a thread posted by a 3rd party but had the whole forum excited)? Or is it a case, again, of 'better' marketing? Out of all that, I gather these questions: What is the role of advertising in mods? What sort of announcement thread works best? It seems to me that succinct threads with a very limited number of polished media and little or no progress updates work better than a detailed thread with tons of info and updates. How much does the content of mods actually matter? We all like to think we pick the best mods, but it seems that at times advertisement wins out over content. What exactly does the community look for in a mod? How does one advertise a mod with ephemeral content, such as quests? Is it enough to say "we have detailed quests that are better than Oblivion," and does doing so make you seem full of yourself? Your questions and examples (or corollaries to my examples) are more than welcome. Your feedback is appreciated. Maybe one day we can run a Modding PR class

D'oh, I completely forgot about this! I made these a while back, perhaps they can be of use? Right now the textures are just generic, I can make Tamriel related ones with minimal effort. The idea was mostly to create a set of very versatile meshes.

PM'd you the homework Great lessons and awesome sandwich metaphors.

Another great thing is the "Snap to Reference" button. You can select the piece you want snapped to and everything will align in reference to it. Its saved me many headaches.

Hey, thought I'd contribute some of my own experience in the area. Hope you don't mind 1) Start off with the general summary texts about the topic in question. If you are researching a province, the Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st and 3rd editions are your best resource. UESP can also be used at this stage, though you should always be weary of unsupported, outdated, or false information. Even if your topic is something specific, like the city of Sarthaal, it always helps to have a general overview of the geography, politics, and history of the greater area. 2) Narrow down your topic using terms from the general reading. This could mean using specific terms (like “Sarthaal†or “Shadow Scalesâ€) as search terms. The How to Become a Lore Buff FAQ is good for locating books on specific topics, as are the reference lists of TIL guides or UESP articles. By starting broad and then delving into depth on specific topics you should be able to learn quickly and efficiently. 3) After you think you have read all there is to read (or are bored of reading), figure out what you don’t yet know or understand. This could be something as simple as “what year was Sarthaal founded?†to something more complex like “what is the symbolic collage?†The best place to seek answers to these questions is at the official lore forum. Do a search for terms in your query - since you’re confused, others probably have been too! If you can’t find a satisfactory answer you can start a thread there or right here at TESA asking the question. Additionally: The Imperial Library’s new software allows all items posted to the site to be ‘tagged,’ which means each book, article, interview, etc. is labeled with a series of topics it covers. This not only allows you to organize all items by topic (such as “Dwemer†or “fighter’s guildâ€) but it also allows you to further narrow down your search (for instance, only find references to Nerevar in “Dwemer†tagged items). As we tag more of the items (there are thousands of pages on TIL, so its a daunting task) this system will become even more useful. Hope this helps, and hope I'm not out of line.

Hey, my name is Lady N, and I just spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to post in the shoutbox Other than that, I mod Morrowind and Oblivion and am really into lore. So, um, yea.