Lessons Learned: Advice to aspiring modders

[alpaca]

Very nicely written, I think this deserves a sticky

By the way: You're right about the fragmentation of useful information. The problem here is that writing tutorials is a pretty unrewarding task and something a lot of people don't dare (because writing a good tutorial is hard indeed). The simple collection of existing data is even more boring and means going through a lot of old threads and stuff searching for some snippets of information to use.
There might also be some way of thinking that people shouldn't be presented everything on a silver tablet because anybody who really means to change his game (and has the potential of becoming a good modder) will be able to bite through these initial problems and figure out a good deal himself.
For more experienced modders (eg most people who started with RTW, me for one), there's sometimes also the problem of seeing exactly what the problem is and what is really required.

Since you have a pretty good writing style, how about writing some tutorials yourself? You may help others circumvent some of the problems you faced (heh new smilies)

[adembroski]

Very nicely written, I think this deserves a sticky

By the way: You're right about the fragmentation of useful information. The problem here is that writing tutorials is a pretty unrewarding task and something a lot of people don't dare (because writing a good tutorial is hard indeed). The simple collection of existing data is even more boring and means going through a lot of old threads and stuff searching for some snippets of information to use.
There might also be some way of thinking that people shouldn't be presented everything on a silver tablet because anybody who really means to change his game (and has the potential of becoming a good modder) will be able to bite through these initial problems and figure out a good deal himself.
For more experienced modders (eg most people who started with RTW, me for one), there's sometimes also the problem of seeing exactly what the problem is and what is really required.

Since you have a pretty good writing style, how about writing some tutorials yourself? You may help others circumvent some of the problems you faced (heh new smilies)

I've considered it, but I'm not yet confident enough to do so. Perhaps once I've made some real headway on my mod I will add to it all...

The main thing I'm considering is a catchall that would link to other tutorials... a "Total Conversion To-Do" list to help people organize their plans before hand. Thats what I've been looking for... it doesn't exist, so perhaps I'll make one.

[alpaca]

I've considered it, but I'm not yet confident enough to do so. Perhaps once I've made some real headway on my mod I will add to it all...

The main thing I'm considering is a catchall that would link to other tutorials... a "Total Conversion To-Do" list to help people organize their plans before hand. Thats what I've been looking for... it doesn't exist, so perhaps I'll make one.

Well I'm sure people would help you out with the details and other suggestions if you ask for it