[atlas]

hello everyone,

for a while now i've had an idea for a mod that i think would work well in the duke nukem 3d engine. i've decided to pursue this idea as a hobby on the side. but i do not have any serious modding experience - i once moved some lines of code around for a mod i made for battlefield 1942, but that's about it.

so now i am wondering where to begin? and i don't know if everything i want to create for my mod is possible. however, i am really impressed with mods like the AMC TC which has been able to accomplish quite alot. it seems like the eduke32 platform is incredibly capable. would it be best to start with mapping?

one of the biggest feature of my mod is i want to retain the 2.5D quality of duke. instead of modelling characters i actually want to drawn and animate them by hand in a very fluid manner (instead of using the jerky frame by frame animation that duke3d uses). i also want to create environments (maps) that can be travelled between each other at any time, saving the user's inventory and status info, and saving the location of objects that the player might have moved.

one last thing - i know alot of mods now use duke plus as a platform to mod from. however how does one do that ? what i mean is, how does one use the features from duke plus for their modification?

thanks!

[Spiker]

I think the engine is capable of most things you could imagine as long as you have an enthusiastic team willing to spend most of their free time to work on this mod. Having a team is a prerequisite for everything (with Muealsa as an exception, but even then it takes ages to accomplish anything).

It's hard to say what is the good place to start, you have to try it yourself and see which of these 3 (coding, art, mapping) is your cup of tea. Some guys are talented at coding, other guys are good at different things.

My advice is that you shouldn't have any ambitious plans concerning modding before you master at least one the aspects of it and show some amazing results to the others. Otherwise you have no chance to complete your team and you'll probably fail or even get criticised for posting mod ideas without any content actually made.

[atlas]

that is some good advice spiker! i never thought about that. i will think about picking one of those aspects mastering one of them - maybe mapping or art. and then getting a team together.

[CruX]

Seconding Spiker's advice, don't even entertain a big project until you've got a rough understanding of how modding in Duke works. Especially if you're talking about changing the game's code. I don't know about getting a team though. I haven't released anything, so I know I don't have room to talk, but every project that's under my belt I've started by myself and have made appreciable amounts of progress on each. When it comes to making a mod, I think it's best if you just rely on yourself.

[Mikko]

You won't get a team and even if you did, they wouldn't get anything done. Instead focus on making maps or helping projects that might see the light of the day one day. Mapping by yourself is the best bet, however, since bigger projects have a tendency to be abandoned.

[Micky C]

atlas, on Jan 19 2010, 02:51 AM, said:

one last thing - i know alot of mods now use duke plus as a platform to mod from. however how does one do that ? what i mean is, how does one use the features from duke plus for their modification?

Once you've set up eduke32 and DukePlus, just run the mapster.bat in your folder. How to use the DukePlus features in your maps is explained the DPEFFECTS HTML document in the same folder. I've only just started mapping myself, with a half-finished map, and this informational suite is a handy reference: http://infosuite.dukerepository.com/

[Danukem]

In a way, it's bad for beginning mappers to try to use Duke Plus, because everything you need to make a good map is in the unmodified game. If you don't develop a solid foundation of build skills first, your map is most likely going to suck no matter how many effects you add to it. Of course, I'm not disparaging my own mod: it does add some cool stuff. But I would hate to see people trying to rely on DP effects to make their map good at the expense of becoming good builders.

[NerdZilla]

im planing drawing my own guy too. im making a really fast ninja who can clime every wall. the only thing i need is a simple game.com that can do that.

and if your looking for an open map design. i mite be aboul to help you?