Hi. I Have been seeing a lot of crap on the forums lately with mods, And as the result, I've encountered a problem with mods.

I can't make a good mod.
Is it because I can't sprite? no. I've seen mods with worse sprites succeed without being flamed.
Is it because I can't code? no. I've seen bullet spammers and uber-guns do well.
Is it because my mods aren't fun to play? No, I've had people tell me there fun.

I made a very logical chart on how making a mod, and its success, should work.
I then compaired that chart to OTHER MODS.
that was a very inaccurate chart.

So then I tried making a chart that IS accurate.
it's just not right. my problem is as followed in the following two charts.

Can anyone please tell me, how to make a good mod, by the standards that actually work?

Reason your Tau mod got flamed is because you based it off a popular, existing weapon/series/whatever. People argue over whether or not it's true to the actual weapon. The end.

As you see, so is this community here VERY jaded with what type of mods that are released.
The result of that is ofcourse that they demand mods that meet different "Standards". So bullet sprayers and badly sprited weapons\actors\etc are roasted slowly over a fire.

Bah, i could go on but i will not bore you all too much...

Grif shits on everyone cause he's kind of a ♥♥♥♥. He's sometimes correct, but for the most part, he is just contrary. However, he is loud and prolific, and so people listen to him. Also he's a pretty damn good spriter with some ingeniously hacky mods. And there is the crux of the problem. Your graphs make no mention of creativity. Yes, sometimes mods succeed when the sprite is shitty. Yes, sometimes mods succeed when they're poorly coded. But very seldom will a poorly sprited, poorly coded mod take off. A creative idea, even when poorly implemented (*cough Grif's ABomb*) can still sometimes succeed.

Another thing missing is reading the trends. If a lot of people have recently released actors, and you release a generic actor, it's lost in the flow. If a lot of people have been releasing guns, and you release and even slightly above average actor, people will say 'eh it's not amazing, but it's something new'.

So far we have creativity and timeliness missing from the graph, but there's one other big one: this place is a popularity contest. If you're unpopular and you mod is mediocre you will get shat upon the likes of which the world has never known. I've been watching, and at some arbitrary point, people decided they disliked you. Maybe because your posts tend to be very long and frequent, or perhaps because you react to flaming very obviously.

Flaming is a foolish practice that wastes time for all parties, but it is a reality of internet culture in general and these forums in particular. Learn to roll with the punches, ignore those who spit upon you, and put effort into your mods. Custom sounds, custom gibs, custom flashes, attachables. The trolls will still ♥♥♥♥♥ at you, as they are wont to do, but random people will take notice of your calm demeanour and the obvious effort you've put into your work.

This is clearly more than you wanted to read, and also not specifically what you were asking, but it should still be applicable. Want to try it? Create a different account, with a new name, change your speech patterns, and change the style in which you mod. Unless you give yourself away, you'll get a different reaction. Take from any of this anything you'd like, or tell me off.

Grif has been banned for a little while. When he returns, he promises to no longer troll, and to return to normal posting. The end, no more discussion on this.

I'm also cracking down on grudges from here on, mostly to get rid of this pointless arguing and the sort of IRC gangs that go around stealing new modder's lunch money. There was a sort of IRC group that followed Grif around and flamed anyone that retaliated against him.. I'm looking at you, MrX.

Line your posts with respect to the audience, or there will be consequences.

Fair enough. Language toned down accordingly.

Djin.
Thanks, that kind of helped, a little.
I am NOT going to pretend to be someone i'm not, Just so they like me, I find that Immoral.

beyond that

A) I was not talking about just this mod, I was also refering to, a lazer, a flamethrower, and stuff that OTHER PEOPLE SUBMITED.

B) timing. yeah... a flood of 6 glowing actors in a row, and the ONLY ONE that isn't hailed as 'good' is the one that the new guy made, even though, i used all of them, and his was actually better than some of the others.

C) Ignoring trolls is hard to do, when all thats left are trolls, mods, and lurkers who never post.

but back to the chart,
the way it should be, includes, "is it corney" if it is, start over,
As a general rule, ideas that are corney, are un-origional, and ideas that are not, ARE origional.

as for well coded "does it kill stuff" ... if its badly coded, it wont.
and lastly, fun to play with. that covers the rest, does it not look like crap, is it not annoying.

that does answer allot of my questions,
but left me with a few still.

Why is it that the only mods that succeed are made by popular people?
lets see... How many people are registered, and how many people post comments on mods?
its VERY uneven. How can this change?

Is it because you can't sprite? Yes.

Mods with worse sprites have succeeded, but that was only because they had awesome coding.

Is it because I can't code? Yes.

The mod you are whining about is just a gun which fires bullets of variable sharpness, really. The guns you made were (mostly) less efficient than the default ones. Why bother downloading them?

Is it because my mods aren't fun to play? Yes.

You had some people tell you that they're fun. You had an overwhelming amount of other people who had also downloaded them telling you that they weren't.
You can't just ignore the majority because you think that they're trolls.

Damn you Metalchao, you should really be a moderator, atleast i can give you a cookie.

Okay enough that bull♥♥♥♥. So you made topic about when random people keep trolling on your mod, that is normal, and you just should stand it. This topic does not help you at all, thats why you should not feed teh troll with post like " ♥♥♥♥ you sir, your post isin't helping me at all " because They only respond whit " LOL LOL LOL ♥♥♥♥ YOU LOL ". So now we could close this topic silently, and stop crying about your modpack. (It was decent anyway) and you should make another mod. You don't have to listen troll, spam or flame, just simple use "report" button.

You are not going to get "respect" with one mod.
And you should be lucky, Grif is banned. BUT HE WILL COME BACK.

I think miles has a point. The popularity of some members gives them a sort of power. This is also held by the moderators, who use this in a different way. I've been here since the beginning, and most of the popular guys have been as well. We've seen everything, that's why a lot of mods are underwhelming to us. And out of our impatience, we feel the need to flame. That's my view.

My experience so far has been fairly positive, as far as releasing mods go. Though I release sort of "spam" mods where there's a bunch of actors and weapons that are supposed to be balanced around each other.

Perhaps thats a major part of it: balance. The feeling that what you made belongs with everything else. One way to achieve balance is to make something totally new that works well and has never been done before. Its very difficult to come out and do that a lot, though. So, I suppose you have to consider not only what has been made, but also the CC original content, as well as how the things your making will interact with one another themselves. If you make a few varied things that work well together, mesh well with the original content, and were obviously meant to do so, then people can immediately tell that you put some thought into it, even if the individual pieces aren't too incredibly original.

Like, if I'd just released my sniper rifle by itself, people wouldn't have been too awfully impressed. I probably would have gotten responses like "sniper rifles have been done before." Now, as a part of my pack, the rifle is obviously just one integral piece of a larger whole. People can see that, and can appreciate it. The rifle isn't even the most interesting thing in my mod. But I'm sure people would agree that it shouldn't be removed.

So, I guess this is why stuff like bullet sprayers and actors with a gagillion health fail instantly, because they're just not balanced. It takes no effort to run off and come up with your own thing that has absolutly no basis in what has already been done. Its working around whats already been done that makes what you do clever, because you have to actually think about it and plan it out.

Your sig says it all daddio.

The only people who feel that way are the people who aren't popular (whatever that means on a forum). I assume you're referring to a specific cadre of people who post more often.

Here's the thing, this whole perceived sense of "power" you think the more popular users have is because you are jealous--for whatever reason. We have no more power than you do, we just know how to utilize our relationship with the staff members.

If you have an issue you need to bring up, discuss it with the staff. Utilize the report function. Take advantage of the tools the forum provides you. Be a positive contributor.

And last, but not least--if you're a modder--make a decent attempt at a mod before release. It will increase your legitimacy on the forum. If you show yourself to be a reputable, competent, and just-plain-good modder, people will be more inclined to listen to you.

Miles, your problem is that you've lost that legitimacy. No one takes you seriously. You whine, ♥♥♥♥♥, moan, and complain every time you are on this board. You blame the failure of your mods on others instead of taking it upon yourself to improve.

Grow. Up.

I have never made a mod which is able to kill something. Except for the Liberator... but that was a co-mod, so it doesn't count.

I am popular, because everyone likes me, and also I'm awesome. Try it sometime.

The trolls love me. Except for the stupid ones that don't know how to troll.

What's wrong with corny. I'm going to make a corny mod that is successful just to piss you off.



I haven't.

I'm not going to reply to everything that was said.
First off, I wasn't talking about "just my mod" I was talking about alot of mods, not just my own.
from B13-18.

Lord tim.
no offence, you could make a gun, using the pistol sprite with inverted colors, and make it shoot 12 bullets of different colors, that kill the guy shooting, and people would still think its awesome.
they would say that "its fun to make all the rainbow colors and make the guy explode"
but really there thinking "its lord tim, if I don't download his mod, I might not be as popular"

your one of the popular people, the difference is that you aren't a ♥♥♥♥♥ about it.

despite the quality of the mod, popularity of the person making it plays a huge part, here's an example.
go back in the B18 mods and look at the last 40.
there was a series of a crap-ton of actors, that all had absurd numbers of glow effects and 'wow its shiney" crap. they where almost all identical to eachother. in the comments, the ones made by people who are popular, where called 'good mods, great job, keep them coming"
the ones that where made by unpopular people, that where still near Identical, some of which came BEFORE the others "uninspired, bland, boring, its been done, it sucks, not the best coding, this offset is off by ONE!"

compare all of them side by side, without paying attention to who made what. which are the 3 best ones? who made each? I bet that If you really ignore who made what, at least 1 would be one that was mentioned as sucking. now pick out the worst 3. I bet that one of them, was listed as being a good mod.

case and point.