A Majestic call to arms to the whole community!!

Started by Jimaras8, November 07, 2013, 02:52:11 PM

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Jimaras8

I know i don't have the prestige or the impact to suggest something like due to my little time around this forum but an idea came to mind the other day and as difficult as it sounds with great determination and cooperation it might have results.

So here goes nothing! What IF the creators of freedom reborn a.k.a those very talented people that create mpas, fxs, skins, skopes, voice packs, keyframes and everything else combine their knowledge into a Godzilla Mod that will be dedicated to a hero Universe? The obvious options will be Marvel or DC as those are worlds with great lore and sufficient resources to pull this off. Seeing what Benton pulled off alone ( of course the meshes, the maps and everything else were courtesy of their creators) with DCUG and MA i am tempted by the idea of having you people give your eveything to one mega-mod, the greatest effort of the whole community. Most of you can miles away from each other, most of us don't even know the faces of each other. Matters little! This community is the most dedicated i ve ever seen and i am getting into melodrmatic territory now but i like to be frank even if that means that people some times can be offended.

Well my desire is a Massive Marvel mod that combines various campaigns that eventually will lead to an escalation  much like the current Cataclysm of UMM. But that is just me, biased and huge Marvel fan. It' doesn't have to be exactly that. The issue that i see is how will so many people organize themselves to keep a steady pace. Well, e-mails are the easiest solution for communication and even facebook if you have accounts. I know it's hard and it will take a massive amount of time but i see it as the magnum opus off     

bearded

What you need for that is simply a leader with the motivation to pull it off.

Jimaras8

Bearded, nice to meet you. I don't think we have ever spoken before. You are right, this community has so much individual talent it surprises me something like that didn't come before. Of course i know it will be hard to divide tasks and have a united perspective but they so many guys that do different things here. I was just thinking that this project is the Christmas present to all the community in the 4-5 years that this forum exists ( correct me if i am wrong), like and endsong. I would be happy to hear from the all the fellas around here what they think about it.

bearded

All you have to do is dig into the game engine and start pulling stuff together. download your skins, meshes, and maps. If there is something you dont have, request it. scripting is not as hard as it seems. find missions similar to what you want and use those scripts as a base. Scripters  are also very helpful here. What I mean is, dont wait for everyone to come together and shake hands, just jump in and start it.

Cyber Burn

I hate to say it, but there's a really only a minimal amount of active content creators right now. Most of them probably have their own list of projects that they want to work on. Not to mention, each one of them has a life outside of Freedom Reborn. I think that getting people to commit to a project on the scale that you are asking, is more than likely not going to happen any time soon. Sorry Jim.

Randomdays

From what I've worked on in Neverwinter and here, the two hardest parts would be first - creating a great plot that would involve a good amount of characters in an evolving story that has a big payoff at the end. The second hard part would be game scripting the events to happen. The actual physical part - maps, items, character meshes - would be the easy part. There's so many resources out there already for FF or that can be imported that wouldn't be an issue.

The plot part doesn't need any technical skill, just knowledge of the Marvel universe and a good imagination. The amount of work on making something as big as Bentons DC mod would probably take a lot longer than Christmas to put together.

bearded

Make it like a comic book. One issue at a time. Who do you want in the first issue?

Jimaras8

Thx you all for stoping by so we can talk about this. Unfortunately bearded my university is really tight at the moment and considering the fact that i have to learn form scratch scripting, creating attributes ( not combo, solo ones), writing the strings and generally creating a mod form zero point discourages me a little bit. Of course CB i know that all of us have lives, colleges or even families that that absorb most of our time, as it should be. I didn't put any deadline and i will never will. My suggestion is on a beta stage if you like  :D. See if people are interested and then we see. Form what i get this might be the hard part. You see if i was to make a mega-mod like that it would be twice hard for because not only it would take times to connect the dots of a mod like that alone but also i must learn all the basics form scratch. Don't get me wrong guys, i would love to try, and probably i will. I was just counting to more experienced creators first.

Bearded, i had the same idea with you about the issues. The thing is the plan i had in mind included various campaigns with escalation on each lvl leading to one secret campaign only unlocking in the end( i don't know if that's possible in  :ffvstr:). For start a spidey campaign would be good as i have some fresh issues in my mind. Round robin arc sounds good as it included various characters like Moon Knight, Punisher, Night thrasher, Nova some of them being amongst my favourite. Anyway, the feeling i get is that the project is very unlikely to be created, however i would like to hear the all your thoughts. At the very least we will have made an interesting conversation.

bearded

I am only speaking for myself, I cant take you seriously, requesting the community to make a mod for you. When you are willing/able to put some time in it, let me know, I will be the first to try and fill a request for a mesh or animation for you.
Other than that, let me tell you, I have been working on a couple of mods for years. Simply gather a spiderman mesh and skin, and open ffedit and create the hero. It is very rewarding, and not hard to do. Then find a mission similiar to your first issue idea, and replace the characters.  Nobody is timing you. If you can get something complete, then maybe you can inspire some others to do some level making.
If you have any free time at all, even a couple hours a week would produce a lot more than you think. 90 percent of the work is already done and available for download.

Jimaras8

#9
Bearded you got me completely wrong. I don't this mod just for me. Of course i would be happy if it happened but right now i am perfectly occupied with MA and college. I just threw my 2 cents here and maybe give the community a motive to create something bigger than they already have. I am not requesting for a mod to be made, i am discussing the possibility of a larger project. See if anyone likes the idea. When you asked which heroes i wanted i thought i didn't realize you were sarcastic. I thought we were dropping ideas. Anyway, this thread is getting out of hand. I don't want any more misunderstandings to happen. Bearded, of course and i will give my own shot at scripting when i find spare time, that isn't possible for the time being but my intention isn't to make people do the work i don't want to make. As you state i am more than willing just not able right now.

bearded

I don't do sarcasm. Please, re-read everything I said as sincere. No judgement from me.

Also, scripting knowledge is not even necessary to make a mod. The first mod was a simple replacement of the characters in the main game. That has not been done for ffvttr, I don't think. It is funner to play than it might sound.

Honestly, I am not sure what you are asking. Content creators are making content, right at this moment.

Jimaras8

Bearded, form the beginning of the thread i didn't ask fo anything. I just said that i would be happy if a major team-up between the active creators happened and i wanted to see if the other members of the community, creators or not agreed. I didn't start screaming '' I WANT YOU PEOPLE TO MAKE A REALLY BIG MOD''. i just liked the ideas of such a project and wanted to see if anyone agrees. CB stated that the current active creators are occupied with projects and i am happy for that since we are about to see more stuff coming out.

Well, when someone says he isn't taking you seriously, the most possible explantion of his following statements is that he is making fun of you. I am sad that you can't take me seriously but i have no intention of changing you opinion. It's your after all. So all in all the only thing i am requesting here is opinions.

bearded

I wasn't making fun. I appear to have offended, and I do apologize for this. I begin to understand your agenda.

Out of respect for the original post, and to be more productive to that goal, my thoughts on it would be to use a new universe, with all new characters. That would justify a focused creation, rather than just downloading what is already available. People could create homages to their favorite characters.

Jimaras8

That's a very interesting idea. A new universe can be expanded to whatever the creator/s wish. Maybe with both heroes and villains campaign. I would like to hear what other think about it.

To clear the air and to end this, the way you earlier post came out looked kind of offensive form my perspective. If your intention wasn't that then i' ve misunderstood. It happens amongst people, i just don't want to give the wrong impression that i enlist people to materialize my ideas. This topic could easily go to general disucssion because that's what it is. A rhetorical discussion.

bearded

You could think of the mod as a comics company. Each creator will create a comic for it, as part of the shared universe, maybe even with some character crossover. Each comic will have its own heroes and villians.

Another idea would be an expanded Patriot City universe.  Maybe different areas, other cities, like the example of Liberty Bay.

catwhowalksbyhimself

Bearded is correct, you are coming on here and asking other people to make a mod for you.  Everyone with the time and ability to make a mod already has their own project.  If you want to make something, we'll be happy to jump in to help you.  If you don't want or aren't able to, then there's no point in requesting anything.
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

Jimaras8

Cat, i didn't request anything. I was asking what the creators or the non-creators thinked about a big-scale project in an existing or non existing superhero world. I was asking for opinions. If you didn't receive it that way, i am sorry. I just don't understand the hostility, i was aiming to just a discussion. I am not dillusional to think i will get 10 people to make me a mod. I will start scripting next week, to start getting the hand of it. This is the last time i am trying to explain myself, i think my above posts clarified that.

DrMike2000

#17
Bigger is not necessarily better.

Say you have three enthusiastic modders, one who digs the X-Men in all their continuity, one who loves Power Man and Iron Fist from the 70s, and one who loves the current Hickman Avengers line up.
They can make their own miniseries, and each fan can choose which of these to play. Many will play them all. Some may find the 70s Power Man/Iron Fist too cheesy, or the X-Men mod too convoluted or whatever.
The three mods may have wildly different production values and styles, but each have their own merits. One maybe uses comic panels for loading screens, one has some hand drawn art, or photos of action figures or whatever. One may be a light-hearted romp with lots of dialog and cutscenes, another a major tactical challenge to play through. Character power levels may vary wildly.

Trying to clump them all together into one big mod either turns three unique pieces of work into an ungainly mess, or you dictate an style and lose out on the quirks of the individual modders.

Fans also have to play through all parts now, not just the bits they want to. Whoever makes the final levels may never see their work getting played, because something earlier on put them off.

Add to that, the FF modding system isn't particularly friendly for sharing projects. Its not terrible, but the powers, stats, and all that game data are kept in big monolithic binary files, and the bigger a mod gets the harder they are to handle., as I know from experience.

Just my opinion, but I prefer modding to be a series of playful sketches than a massive top-down event driven enterprise.

I'd highly recommend modding this game, by the way - I had an absolute blast with it. But I'd recommend starting with something small and seeing where that takes you. (I did and ended up with a 30-odd mission campaign. :) ) If you've got any technical questions, fire away.

Stranger Than Fiction:
The Strangers, Tales of the Navigator and Freedom Force X
www.fundamentzero.com