Author Topic: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration  (Read 7571 times)

Offline ddv

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Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« on: January 15, 2009, 02:30:56 AM »
Think about it. Quest pack is one of those winner mods almost everyone plays on almost all installs, yet its not really anything earth-shattering in terms of modding work. All you have is a collection of small, unrelated, yet high quality quests adding up to one awesome package.

Today you find lots of people wanting to start out at modding coming along with really ambitious ideas like super NPCs or really long quest lines, with the result being that little gets done and the would be modders dissappearing from the community when they become overwhelmed with their new projects.

But what if a small group of people, wanting to get into modding, collaborated to create a new Quest Pack - each being responsible for one or two small quests that they design, write  and code themselves. In addition to their own quest, everyone will also help one another with code, dialog and ideas if need be. People could help eachother through the process of getting a mod finished - creating success where people with good ideas may otherwise give up in frustration. The project could be headed up by a veteran PPG modder, who would decide which quests make the grade (ensuring PPGs high standards are maintained), offer input, and eventually compile the quests. All it would take is 4-10 n00bs serious about making a mod.

This project could provide many people interested in modding with an easy entry point, while also answering the Delcia Caan question. What do you guys think?

Offline Moschops

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2009, 08:15:39 AM »
I would be down with taking part in this, but I definitely fit the description of n00b; I've just started messing with this over the past week.

If you're going to do something like this might I also suggest using it as an opportunity to update and consolidate the tutorials as part of the process, especially from a johnny-come-lately standpoint?  Learning has been difficult as a lot of the tutorials are redundant, contradictory, or worse, rely on software tools that are either deprecated or have changed functionality or design so much that the tutorials are unusable.

At any rate, I'll gladly take part.  Is there anything in particular I should start reading up on to get a bit of a head start?


Offline ddv

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2009, 09:37:37 AM »
...Learning has been difficult as a lot of the tutorials are redundant, contradictory, or worse, rely on software tools that are either deprecated or have changed functionality or design so much that the tutorials are unusable.

At any rate, I'll gladly take part.  Is there anything in particular I should start reading up on to get a bit of a head start?



I've also just started recently, and here's what I've found:

Tools you will need:
-Shadow Keeper
-Infinity Explorer
-Near Infinity
-A good text editor
-Later on, DLTCEP

Almost everything else is obsolete.

Tutorials:
-Ding0's complete scripting guide
-Weidu Basics
-Kulyoks Writing .d for real beginners

These tutorials will teach you most of what you need to know ito reading and understanding code. Then, the best way to learn how to do something more advanced is to find a part of an existing mod or something in the game that already does what you would like to do, copy that code (using the above tutorials and tools), and adapt it to your needs (for example, if I wanted to make an NPC, I would just download an existing NPC mod and adapt it. This advice his been given before.).

But I agree there should be a tutorial on 'How to start modding'. Also, imo a neglected area in tutorials is design and organization.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2009, 09:40:00 AM by DDV »

Offline Moschops

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2009, 10:12:33 AM »
These tutorials will teach you most of what you need to know ito reading and understanding code. Then, the best way to learn how to do something more advanced is to find a part of an existing mod or something in the game that already does what you would like to do, copy that code (using the above tutorials and tools), and adapt it to your needs (for example, if I wanted to make an NPC, I would just download an existing NPC mod and adapt it. This advice his been given before.).

Groovy.  I've been tearing apart other people's mods and have fooled around with them a bit, but I tend to learn better when I learn the "why" before I learn the "how".  The biggest obstacle to me has been the file structure of the game itself, discovering hardcoded limitations. and just coming up with an efficient work-flow.  I understand that I'm going to end up "re-inventing the wheel" a few times, but that's simply what works better for me.

Quote
But I agree there should be a tutorial on 'How to start modding'. Also, imo a neglected area in tutorials is design and organization.

This would be a perfect opportunity to do so.

I would also like to see a single page or resource that lists out where modded NPC's and quests appear so that any new NPCs and mods can be planned without cramming them into an area that may already have too much added to it.  Keep in mind that I'm in the middle of my first playthrough of SoA and ToB with mods installed and I can't possibly interact with all of them in a reasonable amount of time to learn how they work and what areas they use, etc.

Let me know when you're ready to start.

Offline al the dumb

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2009, 01:28:45 PM »
All I can offer are ideas to fill in this excellent one! And I really think it is excellent. There are many loose ends and bits that could use some resolution as well as some small questy things that could be added.

Offline ddv

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2009, 01:38:39 PM »
All I can offer are ideas to fill in this excellent one! And I really think it is excellent. There are many loose ends and bits that could use some resolution as well as some small questy things that could be added.

What are your ideas?

Offline Kaeloree

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2009, 04:47:33 PM »
Er, anyone interested in something like this, feel free to contact me or SConrad over at SHS; we've already got something a lot like it in the works. :)

Offline al the dumb

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2009, 10:41:01 AM »
All I can offer are ideas to fill in this excellent one! And I really think it is excellent. There are many loose ends and bits that could use some resolution as well as some small questy things that could be added.

What are your ideas?

Well they are fairly basic really:

-arrange for housing for the people dispossesed by the Planar sphere
-Make certain of the safety of the children in the slaver compund somehow
-Get rid of the dogfight master in the Copper coronet
-Get an additional mission for a smaller amount of Illithium to create the upgraded version of the Mace of Disruption
-Tie together lots of hints so finding the Twisted Rune is actually more than just walking into the building
     -Roenal's documents
     -Hints in Maevar's safe/ behind the 'painted door'
     -Hints in slaver compound
     -Hint in Guarded compound, with magic addition in the 'empty alcoves
-Make a lead-in to find the Horn of Valhalla. Just robbing houses annoys me.

Things like that.

Take care, Al

Offline al the dumb

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2009, 10:41:34 AM »
Er, anyone interested in something like this, feel free to contact me or SConrad over at SHS; we've already got something a lot like it in the works. :)

Have you got a link to a thread?

Thanks, Al

Offline Kaeloree

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Re: Quest Pack II - a community collaboration
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2009, 05:24:51 PM »
It's not public, there aren't any threads I could link you to. If you're interested, just send me a PM over at SHS and I'll give you more info :)

 

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