Sat Aug 12, 2006 1:47 pm
Well, I looked at this thread again and decided that it's time for me to post a little story for everyone. If you read it, good for you, because it'll maybe help you with your dream of making a mod.
This is a story about my own personal experiances, and about how I personally went from a guy with a desire to make a mod but no modding skill to a person who now runs one of the top 25 most active servers and has a mod that has nearly 10000 combined downloads since March.
Well, I came to TLR several years ago, and I got into a few things. First was that I was drawn to the Evolutions Mod, which I loved and introduced me to mods in general, and second I was drawn to the Freelancer Fan Fiction which I still enjoy today. I played on various servers, wrote a few stories, played some RPG games, and generally made some good friends around the Freelancer community.
Something else. I happened to stumble across this community, but soon thereafter I realized that I was in the right place. Let's face it, this is one of the downright BEST communities for modding there is. Everything you need to know can be found right here on TLR. There are loads of mods already made that feature many, many new things. There are lots of servers running with lots of players from all different backgrounds.
#1: So, get to know the community. Make some friends. Have some fun.
My first crack at modding personally was last summer, when I made one dinky little system in Freelancer Explorer that only half-worked and had maybe two bases. But, the important thing was that I found I really enjoyed doing it, and I thought, hey, I can maybe make a mod of my own. But I didn't start by asking for help here, or anything like that. First I took my experiances from all the mods, all the things I had done, and came up with a unique experiance that I thought would be cool. I consulted friends, got them on board as testers and idea-bouncers, and then I went right to the Tutorials forum and read up until i felt I understood the basics of doing things like making weapons, commodities, and a few other things. A lot of it I didn't understand, but I got the basics of most of it.
#2: Learn the basics of modding.
The next thing I did was go take a look at a mod that I had remembered from the frontpage of the site. It was called the XML Toolkit, and I remembered the description saying that it would help you get started on making a mod of your own.
Well, that sounded like exactly what I wanted, so I got that. I read all the documentation, and looked at the code. A lot of it I still didn't understand, but I learned a few new things and decided that I knew enough to be able to start.
#3: Use the tools that are already there for you.
So, I had a basic idea in mind and I started using FL Explorer to edit Sirius a bit. But then I realized that I would need some new factions. So, where did I go? I went back to the Tutorial forum and found Moonhead's excellent tutorial on adding factions. I used that and made two new factions to put in the universe. Then I went back to FLE, renamed a few things, and inserted my factions into the univsere.
#4: Tutorials are your FRIEND.
Once my factions were in there and crashes were minimized, I decided, hey, this is pretty cool. Then, I added it to the XML Toolkit. I wanted to build my mod off of that because I liked the features and wanted to add some more things to my mod. Then I started telling my friends about it. All my friends from TLR, from servers I'd played at, I showed them all the demo and many of them liked it. One of my friends had a server he would host it on. So the mod "demo" was put on a server and a few people started to play it. But I wasn't happy yet. I wanted more, so on the next version I tried more stuff, and ran into major issues. Issues that neither I nor my friends could figure out.
That was when I finally came here for help. I read the sticky first, read the posts by Chips and Argh, and then made a new thread outlining the goals of the mod, the current features, and a link to a download of the demo.
I waited, with no reply. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong, but I didn't know what. Freelancer would just crash.
Finally, I got an email from a guy who had coding experiance who was willing to help me out some. I told him about my crash, and he showed me the problem and fixed it. Then he offered to add more things to my mod, things like new equipment, new commodities, and he even helped code a few new ships that I had gotten permission for. Best of all, he taught me more about coding things and how to fix bugs I found.
#5: If you need help, listen to what Argh, Chips, and Aldebaren have said. They DO know what they are talking about, and it might work for you. Post your thread and your demo or working beta and see what happens.
Soon he had to stop helping because of life issues, but I had learned enough to do more on my own. With the testing help of my friends, I worked hard, through all sorts of crashes and issues, but eventually I got to the point where I could release my mod to TLR. This was SIX MONTHS after the start of the project.
I got my server running, and lo and behold, people came to play. Two of the first to play were both skilled coders, and there were a few others I could teach. It just grew from there, and got easier and easier.
#6: Start a server to draw people in to your mod. Advertise, set up a site and forums, and do all that to get it to work.
Now, working on my third release, surrounded by a team of competent admins and modders, running a popular server, I am seeing my dream come true. I still don't know everything there is about modding, but I never needed to.
In conclusion, I want to say this. It wasn't easy, it wasn't always fun, and it was a long road. But now, I look back and know it was worth every hour I spent working by myself, and I know it was worth it. I know that was the way I had to have it work.
If you want the rewards, you're going to have to work for them. It's just like the real world, folks. The vast, vast majority of people who play Freelancer don't have a clue how to mod, so it's about drawing those who do in to you, and to do that, you NEED to be able to do it yourself.
So, I offer you a challenge. Sit down and think about your idea. Read the tutorials, and think about if you are willing to do what it takes. If you are, then start working on a demo. If you aren't, then go find an existing mod to play. But the one thing you CANNOT do is go into this not willing to do the work. All you'll get is disappointment.
Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps someone.
This is a story about my own personal experiances, and about how I personally went from a guy with a desire to make a mod but no modding skill to a person who now runs one of the top 25 most active servers and has a mod that has nearly 10000 combined downloads since March.
Well, I came to TLR several years ago, and I got into a few things. First was that I was drawn to the Evolutions Mod, which I loved and introduced me to mods in general, and second I was drawn to the Freelancer Fan Fiction which I still enjoy today. I played on various servers, wrote a few stories, played some RPG games, and generally made some good friends around the Freelancer community.
Something else. I happened to stumble across this community, but soon thereafter I realized that I was in the right place. Let's face it, this is one of the downright BEST communities for modding there is. Everything you need to know can be found right here on TLR. There are loads of mods already made that feature many, many new things. There are lots of servers running with lots of players from all different backgrounds.
#1: So, get to know the community. Make some friends. Have some fun.
My first crack at modding personally was last summer, when I made one dinky little system in Freelancer Explorer that only half-worked and had maybe two bases. But, the important thing was that I found I really enjoyed doing it, and I thought, hey, I can maybe make a mod of my own. But I didn't start by asking for help here, or anything like that. First I took my experiances from all the mods, all the things I had done, and came up with a unique experiance that I thought would be cool. I consulted friends, got them on board as testers and idea-bouncers, and then I went right to the Tutorials forum and read up until i felt I understood the basics of doing things like making weapons, commodities, and a few other things. A lot of it I didn't understand, but I got the basics of most of it.
#2: Learn the basics of modding.
The next thing I did was go take a look at a mod that I had remembered from the frontpage of the site. It was called the XML Toolkit, and I remembered the description saying that it would help you get started on making a mod of your own.
Well, that sounded like exactly what I wanted, so I got that. I read all the documentation, and looked at the code. A lot of it I still didn't understand, but I learned a few new things and decided that I knew enough to be able to start.
#3: Use the tools that are already there for you.
So, I had a basic idea in mind and I started using FL Explorer to edit Sirius a bit. But then I realized that I would need some new factions. So, where did I go? I went back to the Tutorial forum and found Moonhead's excellent tutorial on adding factions. I used that and made two new factions to put in the universe. Then I went back to FLE, renamed a few things, and inserted my factions into the univsere.
#4: Tutorials are your FRIEND.
Once my factions were in there and crashes were minimized, I decided, hey, this is pretty cool. Then, I added it to the XML Toolkit. I wanted to build my mod off of that because I liked the features and wanted to add some more things to my mod. Then I started telling my friends about it. All my friends from TLR, from servers I'd played at, I showed them all the demo and many of them liked it. One of my friends had a server he would host it on. So the mod "demo" was put on a server and a few people started to play it. But I wasn't happy yet. I wanted more, so on the next version I tried more stuff, and ran into major issues. Issues that neither I nor my friends could figure out.
That was when I finally came here for help. I read the sticky first, read the posts by Chips and Argh, and then made a new thread outlining the goals of the mod, the current features, and a link to a download of the demo.
I waited, with no reply. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong, but I didn't know what. Freelancer would just crash.
Finally, I got an email from a guy who had coding experiance who was willing to help me out some. I told him about my crash, and he showed me the problem and fixed it. Then he offered to add more things to my mod, things like new equipment, new commodities, and he even helped code a few new ships that I had gotten permission for. Best of all, he taught me more about coding things and how to fix bugs I found.
#5: If you need help, listen to what Argh, Chips, and Aldebaren have said. They DO know what they are talking about, and it might work for you. Post your thread and your demo or working beta and see what happens.
Soon he had to stop helping because of life issues, but I had learned enough to do more on my own. With the testing help of my friends, I worked hard, through all sorts of crashes and issues, but eventually I got to the point where I could release my mod to TLR. This was SIX MONTHS after the start of the project.
I got my server running, and lo and behold, people came to play. Two of the first to play were both skilled coders, and there were a few others I could teach. It just grew from there, and got easier and easier.
#6: Start a server to draw people in to your mod. Advertise, set up a site and forums, and do all that to get it to work.
Now, working on my third release, surrounded by a team of competent admins and modders, running a popular server, I am seeing my dream come true. I still don't know everything there is about modding, but I never needed to.
In conclusion, I want to say this. It wasn't easy, it wasn't always fun, and it was a long road. But now, I look back and know it was worth every hour I spent working by myself, and I know it was worth it. I know that was the way I had to have it work.
If you want the rewards, you're going to have to work for them. It's just like the real world, folks. The vast, vast majority of people who play Freelancer don't have a clue how to mod, so it's about drawing those who do in to you, and to do that, you NEED to be able to do it yourself.
So, I offer you a challenge. Sit down and think about your idea. Read the tutorials, and think about if you are willing to do what it takes. If you are, then start working on a demo. If you aren't, then go find an existing mod to play. But the one thing you CANNOT do is go into this not willing to do the work. All you'll get is disappointment.
Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps someone.
