Web Series

[phazer11]

So in one of my 6 classes (yeah six high workload because some computer glitched up and won't let me drop I'm appealing because this isn't sustainable) we're required to do a few webseries so for one I would like to do a history of modding. Talking about Neverwinter Nights etc. to current day, how they've influenced the environment etc. I could use some help if anyone is interested in such things. Would probably include modding one of the games and filming via screencapture software.

[phazer11]

Bump. Also open to topics for the videos. Current plans are Neverwinter Nights, Skyrim, Warcraft III (for a DOTA map mod segment) and a intro episode. Meant to bump before this but had to batten down the hatches for Hurricane Matthew. No internet cept on phone right now but at least they got power back earlier.

[MonoAccipiter]

Might be noteworthy that Dota 2 has continued Warcraft III's custom game tradition since they moved to Source 2. Also, you probably know that Valve hired Icefrog to keep developing the game when they initially started on Dota 2.

Don't know all that much about modding history except that today's experience, with mod managers and intuitive sites, is a far cry from when I started out with Oblivion. Installing FCOM was a nightmare, and it gave me about 15 minutes of gameplay... before I got distracted by something else. Can't imagine it would have been any simpler before that.

There's a lot of mods for strategy games as well. Total War has a pretty extensive scene, with the modders giving CA's AI a pretty extensive overhaul with each new game. Darth Vader (who made the darthmods) eventually moved onto his own game, I think. I've also used mods for Dawn of War and Star Wars Empire at War (there was an Old Republic mod that let you play in the KotOR era). Probably all started with Warcraft III or some earlier RTS game, though.

Good luck with your video!

Edited October 18, 2016 by MonoAccipiter

[Audley]

Hey Phazer, I am willing to help in whatever way I can. I can think of several ways that modding has affected games. Even Bethesda themselves has taken ideas from the people modding their games. A lot of companies I think actually pay attention to the modding communities. For example, Obsidian actually made a reference to a mod made for New Vegas in the Honest Hearts DLC. If we take a look at how far modding has come from say Oblivion to Fallout 4, the advanced aspects of modding has become so widespread that many mods are becoming (and have been) as good as or even higher quality than what the developers were able to do. Heck, there could be an entire section alone in your video about cut content and how modding has made the game's much more interesting just by enabling things that were disabled. While I wasn't apart of the modding scene in Oblivion and Fallout 3, I think that modding has surpassed in terms of advanced aspects what the developers are willing to do. 

[phazer11]

All good ideas.

Still trying to figure out how to do the Neverwinter (or same era) games. Man I'm stressing. Being without internet for the last week and without power almost as long has really put me behind.

[phazer11]

Not having much luck getting the earlier era game stuff together. Anyone have an idea on an early era (at least 90's) with mods that might still be available? Otherwise might have to go with an early 2k prior to morrowwind such as Baldur's Gate II

[Kelmych]

What kinds of information are you looking for about games in the 1980/1990 era? Are you looking for a list of games that have active mods, and if so are you interested in a particular genre of mod like RPGs? Are you looking for web pointers to the mods and/or sites that discuss these mods? I have some of the older games which have mods that made these games more interesting.

[JUNKdeLUXE]

Just a small tidbit of information... the first game I ever modded was Baldurs Gate (1 and 2) and the modding community of these are still going very strong and has evolved a lot. Today it's (mostly) an automated process with special programs and scripts handling all the settings etc.

 

The Big Picture (i believe it's called) is a program you tell which addons you want, how to set them up etc. and then the program "automatically" pulls the requested addons from around the web, installs them, sets them up etc.

[phazer11]

Mostly looking for web pointers and information, especially since I'm still slogging through stuff, my efforts were severely impeded by not having internet or power for a bit over a week.

 

I'm specifically looking for games with mods that are fairly well known (either the mod or the game being well known I mean), even if not well known for the mods and have enough available mods and tools that I can download and get some footage of, or have someone get some footage of.

​

​This Big Picture sounds interesting, will look into it.

​

[JUNKdeLUXE]

Correction.. it's called Big World Project but it includes the Big Picture (AI Overhaul compilation) mod. Big Picture (BP) is the mod that, for me, got the ball rolling in the Baldurs Gate (BG) community in terms of modding. Before it it was mostly simple and few weidu scripts (and something even more archaic before this) to mod BG. With BP it big compilations were starting to see the dawn..

 

Link to the program and the page has links to various discussions sites about it

https://bitbucket.org/BigWorldSetup/bigworldsetup/overview

[Kelmych]

Some games from the 1980/1990 era that I know were were modded (since I used mods for all of these games) include the following:

• Zork (initial release on mainframe 1977): some groups modified the data files used in the game, but I don't have a good reference for the modding of the msdos game files vs.the rewrites that occurred later because this modding happened before the WWW
• System Shock (1994 and 1999): there are mods for System Shock 1 and extensive mods for System Shock 2; see the Systemshock website
• Jagged Alliance (tactical RPG) (1994 and 1999): Extensive changes to maps, items, and gameplay; see The Bears Pit
• Star Control 2 (1992): see the Ur-Quan Masters page
• Fallout 1 (1997): No Mutants Allowed and other sites have mods and discussions
• Fallout 2 (1998):  the Nexus and other sites have mods and discussions

[JUNKdeLUXE]

What about Doom 1?

[Kelmych]

In addition to Doom that I forget, there were some useful mods for the Ultima series, especially Ultima 6. I'll get some references for this.

[phazer11]

Cool thanks guys. Hmm.. Don't think I know anyone with Fallout 1 or 2 or most of those games really so getting footage might be difficult.

​Looking like I'll probably have to do an episode on say the total conversions for Command and Conquer Generals or Baldur's Gate. Trying to figure out what mods were more historical for Baldur's Gate.

[Kelmych]

By footage do you mean screenshots or videos? I have all the games I mentioned, although I'm not sure where Doom is at the moment. Of the games I mentioned the one with the biggest modding community is probably System Shock 2 which still has a fairly active modding community. The Baldurs Gate community that JUNKdeLUXE mentioned is probably bigger.