Modding and the Infinity Engine games (a survey)

JuliusBorisov

Significant people out here discuss mods, their quality, the content many projects add... we really like that kind of discussions and they are important in the context of Baldur's Gate and other IE mods.

Would you like to share your thoughts on the topic? Do you like mods? Do you write mods yourself? Or maybe there are some aspects of modding you do not really like?

If you want to share your opinion and have some time, please, fill this survey: link.

Ardanis

I would add a checkbox for combat/AI enhancements in the type of mods question.

JuliusBorisov

Added, thanks!

kjeron

Do we need to redo the survey then?

JuliusBorisov

kjeron said:

Do we need to redo the survey then?

No. Just comment here if you want to change your vote

deltago

Even if everyone answers "No" to the Wild Surge question, @LavaDelVortel is still going to do a monthly tutorial in the magazine (or until he doesn't want to do it anymore).

lroumen

Done. Looking forward to the feedback of the survey.

Modding tutorials are good to continue. I think the basic stuff is okay to find but the advanced things may be more hidden. Just a matter of selecting when to share what.

tbone1

Done. Personally, I think we need mods for more Branwen, but that could be because she reminds me of my wife.

semiticgoddess

tbone1 said:

Personally, I think we need mods for more Branwen, but that could be because she reminds me of my wife.

Because she was cold as stone until she met you?

sarevok57

im working on a mega mod right now, one for IWD which completely revamps the entire game, and I just finished the IWD part, now its time to work on HOW

just to give you an idea of how big this mod is so far: I have added 1990 items to my override folder for completing the IWD section, and there will no doubt be 100s more with HOW, so its gonna be big

Flashburn

Sent in mine but didn't mark myself as a modder since I haven't released anything, its all tweaks for my own use.

I should make an NWN-style tweak pack since I've already got Ice Storm and the Cure Wounds spell line working like they do in NWN...

Lord_Tansheron

Mods have become indispensable to me. I could not and would not play without them. If I had more time I would love to get into modding myself, but I barely get to even play these days... Still, there are a lot of very active modders out there doing amazing work. They are keeping this series alive with what they do, even after more than a decade.

Wise_Grimwald

I may eventually start modding. All I have done so far is beef up the thieves in Candlekeep to make them worth fighting. Their better weapons make the fights quite dangerous, but with the reward of getting +1 weapons. Since that was done with EE Keeper and not Weidu, I haven't shared it with anyone, and since anyone could do it, not really worth sharing even if I had used Weidu. Only worth sharing if I changed a lot more.

Ravenslight

I am only just now seeing this post. The news that @LavaDelVortel will be doing a series of modding tutorials is wonderful! So where do I find this Wild Surge magazine?

Admittedly, I have not had much coffee yet this morning, but I am not seeing a link to it.

JuliusBorisov

@Ravenslight

You can find archive issues here - https://www.wildsurge.ca/archive, the modding tutorial starts in the 2nd issue and continues in the 3rd issue.

There're forum threads for each issue:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63222/issue-1-of-a-community-made-magazine
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63588/issue-2-of-the-wild-surge-this-issues-topic-dwarves
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/64171/issue-3-of-the-wild-surge-in-this-issue-dragonspears-birthday-and-endless-immortal-torment

Ravenslight

Thank you!

PaulaMigrate

Nothing against tutorials to show some basic stuff and start you. The downside is that it produces patterns and stereotypes. Learning it the hard way has the advantage that you discover more things by yourself, get a feeling for what you do and finally get creative. In the end your mod becomes unique and contains interesting stuff no other has. I have studied hundreds of mods and have seen similar things done in a vast variety of ways. Some of them opened new ways for further development etc.
You can learn some basic skills from teachers but the creative task is something different, otherwise you do paint-by-numbers and how-to-write-a-novel-in-five-easy-lessons.

semiticgoddess

If it weren't for WeiDu tutorials and copied code from other modders, I'd have never created a mod in the first place.

jastey

semiticgod said:

If it weren't for WeiDu tutorials and copied code from other modders, I'd have never created a mod in the first place.

This.

And: I am thankful for all the IE editing tools (including weidu) developped by much smarter persons than me. I am thankful they are still updated and developped. Without the tools I wouldn't be successful in making working mods.
And also, without tools like weidu the IE engine modding scene wouldn't be able to make compatible mods. I don't know much other games' modding scenes but I think the compatibility of so many mods in one game is the key element what makes the IE modding scene so special. So many mods created and they add up to a whole new world of game content. Not like some other games where every mod stands on its own and mods have to be packaged together to enable players to enjoy them in one game.

WarChiefZeke

semiticgod said:

If it weren't for WeiDu tutorials and copied code from other modders, I'd have never created a mod in the first place.

Definitely true in my case as well.

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lroumen

It is good to know the basics though but whether you get it from going through others mods or reading a tutorial does not matter to me.
The thing is that it is easier to use a tutorial if you want specific (bit general) things explained because you would need to guess which mod actually has the thing you are looking for.

So I hope the tutorials get a bit more advanced at some point.

JuliusBorisov

subtledoctor said:

I actually didn't make much use of tutorials; I learned mostly by emulating and adapting code from others. That's why, when I've written tutorial-style posts, I try to include actual code for others to drop into their mod and adapt to their needs.

What do you think of the Lava's tutorial in the community magazine (have a look at the latest issue, for example)?

CamDawg

PaulaMigrate said:

Nothing against tutorials to show some basic stuff and start you. The downside is that it produces patterns and stereotypes. Learning it the hard way has the advantage that you discover more things by yourself, get a feeling for what you do and finally get creative. In the end your mod becomes unique and contains interesting stuff no other has. I have studied hundreds of mods and have seen similar things done in a vast variety of ways. Some of them opened new ways for further development etc.
You can learn some basic skills from teachers but the creative task is something different, otherwise you do paint-by-numbers and how-to-write-a-novel-in-five-easy-lessons.

While I agree this is valid for the creative side, I would disagree on the technical side--which is where most beginners struggle, and I think the focus of most tutorials. With code, there often is a 'best solution' (or best practices, at the least) that you'd be well served to follow.

Or to put it another way, the best and worst written content mods will have very similar code running them.

PaulaMigrate

CamDawg said:

PaulaMigrate said:

Nothing against tutorials to show some basic stuff and start you. The downside is that it produces patterns and stereotypes. Learning it the hard way has the advantage that you discover more things by yourself, get a feeling for what you do and finally get creative. In the end your mod becomes unique and contains interesting stuff no other has. I have studied hundreds of mods and have seen similar things done in a vast variety of ways. Some of them opened new ways for further development etc.
You can learn some basic skills from teachers but the creative task is something different, otherwise you do paint-by-numbers and how-to-write-a-novel-in-five-easy-lessons.

While I agree this is valid for the creative side, I would disagree on the technical side--which is where most beginners struggle, and I think the focus of most tutorials. With code, there often is a 'best solution' (or best practices, at the least) that you'd be well served to follow.

Or to put it another way, the best and worst written content mods will have very similar code running them.

Things are never black or white. I never denied that tutorials are useful for some FAQ type of contents.
As a constant player of mods I have seen the problem of many mods just getting stuck there, repeating patterns and often even copying bugs over and over again. What I see a lot are mods that get stuck with what was found and understood there. I think a mod should stem from some unique ideas which the author tries to bring to the game instead of this-is-what I learned-see-what-I-can-do-with-it. You first have an idea, a vision or whatever you call it and then you try to explore how it could be done. Too often you see it the other way round.

_Luke_

Please, make the iOS versions of your games moddable. We NEED this.......

Gallowglass

Luke93 said:

Please, make the iOS versions of your games moddable. We NEED this.......

I'm not an iOS user, but (as I understand it) the problem is inherent to the way that iOS locks you out of so much file-access to your own device, not a problem with Beamdog's code. Thus this plea probably needs to be sent to Apple rather than Beamdog.

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