erm.. how u go about making a mod?

[Shaun]

just wondering coz i hear its not as hard as u think. Just wanna know where to get started etc.

[Nitewulf]

I suppose it depends on the game your making the mod for and the depth of your mod, making new character skins, maps etc for Jedi Knight/Quake/UT/Age of Empires is easy, a more detailed mod like TFC or CS is a lot harder.

You'll have to go about finding out as much information as you need from the official site(s), fan/player sites, and the players themselves.

e.g. what language(s) are used, how big a mod are you doing and in relation to that how many people are you going to need to help, for example will you add new sounds, graphics, animations etc.
You'll have to talk to the players to find out what they would like to see changed to the original game. Could you include those changes in your mod? Would the players be interested in playing your mod, after all whats the point of making a huge mod if only you and your friends will play it? Finally would the developers of the original game support your mod or even allow you to make a mod?

I'm not really sure on exact details, hope this helps somewhat.

[-[Raven]-]

Tbh, coding a mod ain't that dificult, as the developers code is usually documented well enough for you to be able to get by with a threadbare knowledge of coding.

Tis true!

Plus theres plenty of articles on the net on how to achieve various things for your mod, with full descriptions.

I mean, CS is nothing but a bunch of coding tutorials mixed together, with some very fancy looking maps and guns :)

[Spid0r^]

You say mods aint difficult to code. Naa dont think so :D

[phlash]

Much depends on the language used, the complexity of the modifcation(s), and how much *testing* you are willing to put in to find those bugs :bomb:

Developers like iD put a lot of effort into making the modifcation process easy, to extend the life of their product, but that's not always the case. It also helps if you have the original game source code available (especially when bug hunting), and a good development environment (preferrably similar to the game developers own).

Experience in the language used is very helpful (even if the mod is just 'a bunch of tutorials' - honest), again more so when hunting down bugs..

Probably the most important thing is to *design* your mod carefully before rattling those coding keys... that way you avoid a great many of the problems that result in 'evolved code' (ie: a mess!).

Phil.

[Shaun]

where do you fine source codes and examples? I just wanna check it out to see how much work doing and whether its something to get into.