Helst_navngivet Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 In regards to upkeep, support, etc. Is it too much to handle? I want to make a mod, but i also dont want to be one of those people who burn out and lash out at their fans and become grumpy and irritable. If its something like an hour each day its acceptable, but any more and its too much for me. Second question: is it fun? And if so, what part makes it fun/enjoyable? Would love to hear from some experienced modders! Thanks in advance for any answers!
Rainbow Fresh Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 I may not have made mods for Vintage Story, but I have made mods, even big ones with several years of support, for other games. Let's start with the primarily important question: Is it fun? That's a question you should ask yourself when doing it, because if not, you shouldn't be doing it anymore. What most users forget or blatantly ignore is that with modding, you are the one voluntarily offering something for others. You don't make a living doing it, and most likely never will even if you wanted to. You are investing your personal freetime and mental energy to do work for others. You have no obligation to do any of that. You don't need to give support. You can make a mod that works once, publish it, and proceed to vanish from the face of earth. You can un-publish your mod anytime if you feel like no longer sharing it. You owe nobody, nothing. Even if many people will demand things as if you do. So the only reason you should be doing this, is because you want to. Because you have fun doing it and/or feel great about what you accomplish. For me, I like coding. And a big problem of coding is finding a project worth investing your time in. Sure, you could just make a "Hello World" program or write a calculator - but what for? It's been done a million times and adds nothing new for anyone. And the amount of work needed to make a calculator that CAN do something all the others can't, is irresponsibly unproportional. An artist can draw a new image and it will be unique to other artists' artwork. Coding isn't that easy. So having a project you actually feel acomplishes something is a really great opportunity. That's why I enjoyed myself. I got to code on something that isn't done in 5h, share it with people of which atleast most were greatful because it positively impacted their daily gaming life. That's why I did it, that's why I continued atleast giving first-hand support for years after, and why it took me so long to finally acknowledge "I simply do not have the time or interest to continue this anymore, the mod is officially abandoned, feel free to fork it". As for your first question, building up on that: Another question you need to ask yourself and yourself alone. Is it too much to handle? Then you should rethink how you're doing it, or if it's worth to continue at all. If you can AND want to continue supporting it, updating it, keeping up with things: Do it. If not, simply don't. Don't ever risk burning yourself out over something you alone decide to do for others, for free. 5
Helst_navngivet Posted May 8 Author Report Posted May 8 @Rainbow Fresh Thanks a lot for the great answer, this was just the kind of response i was looking for!
Vexxvididu Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 My main motivation for making my mod was just that it was something I wanted to see in the game. I learned a lot making it, so that was fun! I do feel a bit of pressure to keep maintaining it with every new game version. That part is less fun... But overall I'm glad I made it and am happy I got it updated for 1.22. I love interacting with the community. That alone made it worth while to publish it.
Tj Pepler - Critcher Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 It depends on the kind of mod you make also, if you change blue shirts to red there is no more effort on your part probably forever, code mods are a lot more depending on how much change you are making. Big massive changes like our beloved Combat Overhaul or something would be a massive amount of work, you would be dedicating real time and effort for sure (like a job), something stupid like my repair basket you might revist every few months or when the game updates. Mod for yourself first : This isn't a job this is something you do for fun and in most cases you are your own biggest fan The best part though is that when you put stuff out there, while you will meet some less friendly and demanding people, you will make lots of friends, people will PM you out of the blue just to say thank you and that kind of floats you spiritually for a few days... for me anyways. I personally spend an hour or 2 almost every day working on mods, some weeks I do 4-5 hours a day, but I do it because it's fun and exciting and I am enjoying it, Vintage Story is an incredible gaming experience and I love being a tiny part of that! 2
LadyWYT Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 6 hours ago, Rainbow Fresh said: An artist can draw a new image and it will be unique to other artists' artwork. Coding isn't that easy. I wouldn't say it's quite that simple...if it was, there probably wouldn't be so many artists fighting over who copied who. In any case, I'll echo what you already said about mod creation: generally, it should be something one does if they have an idea they really want to invest in, because the results will generally be better if the creator actually cares about their creation. 13 minutes ago, Vexxvididu said: I do feel a bit of pressure to keep maintaining it with every new game version. This is also a concern, as well as pressure to add X or Y feature, or make a different mod entirely. It's up to the mod author on what they want to do, but personally, I'd say it's fine to only make what you'd like to see, with no requirement on keeping it up to date. Yes, it's frustrating when mod authors don't update their stuff, but community forks are a thing and the mod author isn't really obligated, in most cases, to keep their stuff maintained. It's a similar case for "how much time does modding actually require". It depends heavily on one's skills and the type of mod they're trying to make. Mods that require a lot of art assets or that are code-heavy will generally take more development time than simpler mods. That doesn't mean that a mod author needs to carve out hours of their week in order to make a beast of a mod, of course--that's entirely up to the mod author--but it does mean that it will take much longer to develop with only an hour here or there. 7 hours ago, Helst_navngivet said: I want to make a mod, but i also dont want to be one of those people who burn out and lash out at their fans and become grumpy and irritable. Fair warning--there's probably going to be haters, probably for some of the stupidest reasons. My advice: be genuine in your effort, make the mod you want to make, and ignore the haters. 3
Crabsoft Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 (edited) I've only made one mod and I rapidly lost interest immediately after posting it. Fortunately, finding someone to take it over was quick and easy. There's no reason a mod team needs to be just you, forever and always. It's a community, not a storefront, don't be afraid to engage with the unwashed masses and make a friend~ Edited May 8 by Crabsoft 2
Teh Pizza Lady Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 7 hours ago, Helst_navngivet said: In regards to upkeep, support, etc. Is it too much to handle? I want to make a mod, but i also dont want to be one of those people who burn out and lash out at their fans and become grumpy and irritable. If its something like an hour each day its acceptable, but any more and its too much for me. Second question: is it fun? And if so, what part makes it fun/enjoyable? Would love to hear from some experienced modders! Thanks in advance for any answers! It's never too much to handle. Usually by the time the mod leaves testing (I can thank my co-author for the rigorous amount of testing she puts into it every day!), it's solid enough to stand on it's own without too much fuss. Upkeep is simple, just make sure the mod doesn't crash with game updates and make sure it still functions or wasn't made obsolete by the game updating and adding new features. Support is yours to choose how far you take it. Do you support other mods for compatibility? Do you implement user feature requests? Do you fix bugs that users report, etc, etc. If any of that was too much to handle, the mod wouldn't make it out of my computer and onto the ModDB. Is it fun? Yes. It's always fun making something and then seeing others enjoy it, engage with it in the comments section, suggest new things. I get a hit of dopamine every time I log in and check the mod page and see the download count is higher than ever. My mods may not be super popular and used by everyone, but I enjoy them and I enjoy seeing others use them, too. 1
Rainbow Fresh Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 18 minutes ago, LadyWYT said: I wouldn't say it's quite that simple...if it was, there probably wouldn't be so many artists fighting over who copied who. Sure, there is more depth and nuance to it. Even art (as in drawing/painting) isn't infinite *ptsd flashbacks of fandom's destroying themselves in the endless struggle to have the single most special snowflake OC* But generall speaking, from a consumers perspective it's big differences. Two people can draw an image about "a female character sitting at a pond in a forest" and both will look similar but certainly like different pictures, and both are nice to look at (probably). Two developers can make "A calculator that can auto-suggets formular completions" and they will, effectively, both be the same. The inside code differences - nobody cares about. To the user, they are the same. And even if they are not, you will have to choose to either use the one OR the other cause nobody wants to install two calculators because of one minor difference.
Thorfinn Posted May 8 Report Posted May 8 Personally, most of my stuff is for people I game with, so anymore it gets no wider reach than that. Once it's set, there's not much to it. Recompile when something major changes, recode if the API changes (usually to something easier), but otherwise, rarely more than just changing the game version it's good for. Averaged out, it's got to be less than 10 minutes a day, but I'm one of those who will work on something 36 hours straight if that's what it takes to get it done. Not that I've done that with VS, but before retiring, shyeah. If you do it for you, because you want to, it's not really a committment.
Helst_navngivet Posted May 9 Author Report Posted May 9 Thank you all for the amazing responses, I am very grateful for being part of such a kind community!
Averixus Posted May 9 Report Posted May 9 I think Rainbow Fresh gave pretty much the perfect answer straight away. The amount of work involved is entirely your choice. I've definitely spent more than an hour a day on modding lately - because I wanted to! But when I don't feel like doing any, I spend zero hours a day. I always publish my mods with open source licenses so I know that if I ever lose interest, someone else could keep them going. And it's definitely fun, otherwise I wouldn't do it! I have a bit of a complicated love/hate relationship with programming. Before I got into VS a few months ago, I hadn't really done any coding in years. I find it incredibly satisfying, but it's also very draining and I get stressed and burnt out easily. Making a few little Vintage Story mods has been a lovely reintroduction, because they are very small, self-contained, low-stakes projects, with (to me) a high reward in terms of both my fun playing the game with my own improvements, and the community response to sharing what I've made.
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