This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -- Yeah. The sad thing is that even if your mod isn't a realism mod, and has one of the most fun concepts ever, it is still so easy to fail. Take (for example) the mod I'm working on as a coder: Elite Force: Total Conversion. It is a continuation of the Star Trek Elite Force series on the Source engine, trying to bring the original Elite Force's MP and Elite Force II's SP into one. The original EF's MP was one of the most fun MP games I have ever played, and there remains a community for the game even now, many years after the game was released. Our mod started out with the full support of the entire community, and then some, but we started out too early (before HL2 was released), and by the time HL2 was released, and the SDK was ready, some of the members had left. However, we still had plenty of people with which to make a mod, and started out. Problems, however, have arisen because there weren't enough deadlines (well, I feel this is the case). People weren't told to "finish that model by this time"; they were just doing things at their leisure. Slowly, other people drifted away because they weren't seeing results, and now we've got three coders (who have all stuck with the mod), a PR guy (who's frantically trying to re-ignite the community), some die-hard supporters (who refuse to believe that the mod is, essentially, dead), and that's it. The leader of the mod hardly ever appears, and when he does nothing really happens. It's all rather sad really, as I would've loved to see EF on Source, and been able to play the game again. It was great fun to play EF, but the die-hard servers are starting to, well...die, and the whole community is slowly disbanding.
When making a mod, you really should ensure this doesn't happen; it's very disheartening. :-( Andrew (Bromfitsen) wrote: > -- > [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] > That's a good point, all these new realism mods are hell bent of have a > conformed look to them that makes them try and replicate commercial > successes such as Counter Strike. There are 2 sides to that coin. > > 1) The modding community has reached a level where they have so many > possible applicants and potential content creators to be able to deny many > people a position because they can't produce that specific genre to the > extent that the mod teams want it. > > 2) However the flip side of the coin is that these Realism Mods are all > flopping, and becoming abandoned. I know I wrote a majority of the code for > a Realism type mod but because the team wanted such specific models and > textures in the mod that they ended up using the CS models, and everyone has > seen them before. So their instant reaction was Oh it's just CS I'm not > going to play it. The Realism mods are all slowly burning themselves out, > granted there are a lot of people who play games like CS but they aren't > going to download another game to have similar settings. POA had quite a > big welcoming but it appears to have slowed down quite a lot. The new mods > that are appear to be making it big are the likes of Garry's mod and HL2 CTF > simple concept but much more open to new and unique ideas. Mods like > Neo-Tokyo, Dystopia and Hostile-Planet also have large focuses because they > are bending away from the pure realism style and adding in a lot of artistic > creativity. > > Personally I think you are going to see Realism mods that aren't ground > breaking or lack that something original to hold players attention will > start to fade away and all the unique and fun mods start taking their > places. It's almost like it's going full circle. > > Well, I suppose my attempt at giving some advice would be, if your mod > doesn't fit the the current trend that's fantastic, because gamers will be > more likely to try something completely different than they are to try > something in direct competition with what they already play. > -- > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please > visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders > > > > > -- [ philip.vcf of type text/x-vcard deleted ] -- _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
