Mod idea... Created 17 years ago2007-01-17 15:30:47 UTC by Erty

Hey, I got a great idea of a hl2 mod: "Your a youth at a school in norway. Its a normal day at school, u bully the nerds, talk with the chicks etc... Then, when class begins, u hide urself inside a cabinet. Suddenly, a "black operation" team comes to the school and kidnaps everyone! A explosion next by the cabinet sends u out of the consciousness. U wake up and finds the school almost empty, just few soldiers left guarding. U finds out its your job to save ur friends, so u go to the toilet and into a secret room u and your friend made. Heres a "anti-bully" suit u made and some spygears u made of pens and other stuff u can get to! U fight ur way trought a maze of corridors with a exact copy of a modern norwegian school! Fight mutant frogs from the lab, kill "black-ops" and much more!" So, what u think? If idea good enought, why dont PM me and we may start making this mod! (PS: Im going to be lead mapper, I got all the plans and stuff of the school!)

It doesn't really matter if the idea is good (seems original to me) or if you can actually map the school. A HL2 mod with your description won't work unless you have the necessary models and skins to make all those "nerds", "chicks" etc. Are you planning on using the standard npc_citizen models for that? I'm not sure that would work either...

For anyone who wants to make a mod, my advice is to ask yourself some basic questions:
-Do you have an idea of the scope of the mod? (how many maps will it have, how long it will take to make them, etc)
-Do you have the resources (models, materials) needed for your theme, or at least, the time and skill to make them?
-Is your idea enough to interest serious level designers?
-Will your inspiration to make the mod last or fade away?
I'm saying these things because I was working on a mod years ago, and my answers to some of those questions were negative. I haven't started any big projects since then, or the ones I tried just failed

Its a normal day at school, u bully the nerds, talk with the chicks etc

Not based on your life, then?

Sorry, but this mod has been presented horribly.
I would link you to the 'how to present' a mod tutorial, but it hasn't been put up yet.

I agree with Kasperg but also I think just a story came up to your mind and you though "OMG! I'm going to start today". I'm not going to offend you but you have to think of the stuff like models, skins like Kasperg said. You also need to think of your free time as well. How long is it going to take? Is it going to be hard to contact the team members? etc. Its not really that easy. So start yourself first then gather team members.

edit: I didnt like the mod's story as well. I personally wouldnt play a mod like that. It's weird :

A explosion next by the cabinet sends u out of the consciousness.

I love that sentence!

On topic I'd say that the idea is original and all but the story is lacking.

-Why are black ops invading the school?
-How was the secret room built without being discovered?
-Are the government involved?

You really need to go as deep as you can with a story. Otherwise its just as effective as saying "heres a school maps full of soldiers. Go kill em."

Also you will need a pretty big team to pull this off. Modellers, Coders, Texture Artists not to mention the advertising side of things (at least if you want it to be played anywhere other than TWHL.)

I'm not going to say "I won't download this" without giving it a chance to take off with a decent team and a reasonable amount of media.

I'm not going to say "I won't download this" without giving it a chance to take off with a decent team and a reasonable amount of media.

Actually, you are right. I was like judging a book by its cover.

Let me give you a list, of what you'll need to accomplish this:

Your a youth at a school in norway

If you're mapping - you'll need decent skills to map a whole school. Keeping it both realistic and non-repeating/interesting won't be easy.

u bully the nerds, talk with the chicks etc

For the nerds and the chicks you'll need:
1) Custom models/textures
2) Custom voice acting
3) Some coding for realism too, unless you're gonna bully the nerds with your 'e' key.

Then, when class begins, u hide urself inside a cabinet.

Suddenly, a "black operation" team comes to the school and kidnaps everyone!

o u go to the toilet and into a secret room u and your friend made. Heres a "anti-bully" suit u made and some spygears u made of pens and other stuff u can get to!

Fight mutant frogs from the lab

Agreed with Urb. Motivation, motivation, motivation. The player won't have a clue of what's going on and why those events are happening, unless you provide him with a logical story covering that.

"Black-Ops? What are they doing in a school?"

"Anti-bully suit? Weren't you supposed to be the bully?
Spygear? Why did you and you friend make it? Secret room? Why?"

"Mutant frogs? I thought, that the school was being invaded by the black ops!"

"Why would you hide yourself in a cabinet before class during a normal day at school?!"

Those are just some of the questions you'll be asked, due to the lack of background.
It looks, as if you've posted the idea without even reading it through. Think it over and try making it more logical.

The way I picture a story is like a pine/fur tree. Every question created the trunk, leading to the next explaination and as you get further and further down the explainations get longer and longer and create the sections of the tree. The reason for this is simple. The explainations have to get more detailed the deeper you go in order to answer the biggest question that all authors must face.

'Why?'

I'm going to just create an example by using your black-ops situation.

http://www.freewebs.com/demonicpuppy/explain.png

Notice how it gets thicker towards the end?

Hi Erty, don?t let this guys bully you!

The idea is good and seems to be an Comedy Mod.

Good Luck.

This doesn't sound so bad to me, if you flesh the events out a little better and have enough of your own work behind you, it could happen.

In my opinion, some things don't need an explanation (like the mutant frogs) if it's a quirky little mod, after all it's just for fun. I do believe you'd need some changes from the HL norm to make this work though, no overly exaggerated gore or military/scientific weapons for instance. I'm thinking slingshots, test tube/chemical grenades and a pencil-launching, home-made crossbow.

Whether its comedy mod or not, it still needs good who, when, what, where, why, and how details.

A good way to make a mod is to develop 2 things, the main character, and the world and how the rules apply to the player, or what rules can be broken by the player.

Definitely needs a lot of work before that story will be good. Even if it's a "comedy mod", nobody will be able to understand what's going on if you're playing the mod and everything happens like you explained it.

For instance, why did you hide in a cabinet? That makes absolutely no sense, unless you had some kind of previous knowledge of this operation happening, and then you would just get out of the school as fast as possible, not hide.

The secret room and the "anti-bully suit" just seem to be convenient ways of getting an HEV suit replacement on the player. I'd completely eliminate this part, and just give the player a HUD to begin with.

Having the Black Ops just "suddenly come in" is also pretty lame. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, and it could be for some humorous reason, but you need SOME reason why they "suddenly came in".

And last but not least, stop using "ur" and "u". It makes you look like an incompetent n00b, and people will generally take one look at a description written like that and decide you aren't serious about any of it.

Well, I have already begun the mapping on the school, and till now it seams good. I have 2 version, 1 for CS 1,6 and 1 for Source. So u can play on the map before its finished, but not all of the map is in the CS 1,6 version. So if ur a good skinner and/or modeller, u can help me making this mod!

I was just asking for anyone to help me with it, not announcence it...

hey, I only need help on skinning and modelling, but if u can help with hammer, its ok too! U can help with the cs 1,6 version! I'll just need a map over the interior of the school first, but I got a fly photo of it. I can get the map over the interior in 2 weeks.

One question, what does a singplayer Source mod have to do with CS 1.6?
You should pick a project. Either you map a school for HL2 singleplayer or you make a CS map of a school.
And they way to approach each is very different...

I am mapping for both, cause I got a job from my friends to port the map to 1.6 for them till a LAN were having. But the most detailed one is the one for hl2. The 1.6 version isn't going to be released, except if the ones coming to our LAN unleagally uploads it then...