Too Many Character Mods!

[Neosaurus]

Hey guys, I was thinking lately, WHY IS THERE BILLIONS OF CHARA MODS! Sure, there easy from a coding standpoint but the art is hard, I really think the artists should join Up and Away or something to put there skills to good use. By the way, I'm not saying I hate custom characters, Wren the Stormcaller is original and Octodad is well, Octodad! I just feel there should a lot more mods that add items or biomes, or dimensions! Up and Away and my mod More Items! I feel accomplishes this. Thanks for your time.

 

 

Neo

[TeoSS69]

The problem is that they're not unique and fun to play. Just a skin and a few different stats (which are all the same: faster, better if insane etc)

[Craig_Perry]

currently up and away have enough artists (8 in total), but any coders could help as currently there are only 2

 

 

 Sure, there easy from a coding standpoint

I dont think so, or am i just that bad at Lua :^P

[Neosaurus]

currently up and away have enough artists (8 in total), but any coders could help as currently there are only 2

 

 

I dont think so, or am i just that bad at Lua :^P

I wouldn't say your bad at Lua its just... your bad at Lua

[Spazmatic]

Or there should arise a new collab, which adds content to the existing surface. Or perhaps sanity... Yeah.

Agree with the OP btw, too many chars which only have their appearance/stats altered.

[Neosaurus]

Or there should arise a new collab, which adds content to the existing surface. Or perhaps sanity... Yeah.

Agree with the OP btw, too many chars which only have their appearance/stats altered.

Daym. I feel I should start one now

[TeoSS69]

Daym. I feel I should start one now

I will brainstorm for shiny badges.

[Craig_Perry]

I will brainstorm for shiny badges.

you need a sign "will brainsorm fer badgez"

[TeoSS69]

you need a sign "will brainsorm fer badgez"

That was the idea...

[Wilbur]

Agreed. There's waaaaay to many mod characters who have no interesting perks. I would love mods filling out the surface, as the supermod that I guess died out. 

[Seyph]

Wren the Stormcaller is original

Oh, thank you.

 

I'm currently lurking around in the U&A forums. I haven't contributed too much in terms of art, though, except for Winnie and a couple concept sketches, as I feel the some of the other artists just outshine me in all regards. c: (Plus, they're so fast! They pick things up and get them done much quicker than myself.)

 

As far as working for art on other mods, I'm afraid I just don't have the time for any new projects. I'm already working on about 3 projects - it may not seem like much, but I find it hard to juggle them all! If only there were more time in the day...

[Neosaurus]

Oh, thank you.

 

I'm currently lurking around in the U&A forums. I haven't contributed too much in terms of art, though, except for Winnie and a couple concept sketches, as I feel the some of the other artists just outshine me in all regards. c: (Plus, they're so fast! They pick things up and get them done much quicker than myself.)

 

As far as working for art on other mods, I'm afraid I just don't have the time for any new projects. I'm already working on about 3 projects - it may not seem like much, but I find it hard to juggle them all! If only there were more time in the day...

To me, Wren feels part of the game. That makes her a veru good addition to the mods

[TheDanaAddams]

I think the reason there are a lot of simple character mods is twofold.

 

Firstly, coding is not for everyone. It is a rare breed that can create quality art and quality code.

The majority of folks coming in to mod are going to be art-driven people who just want to get their idea into the game - no artist sits back and thinks "gosh, there are so many characters already - I suppose I'll do something else." Artists like drawing characters... and if an artist tries to mod, it's going to be because they want to bring their character to life.

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, there is no such thing as "too much art" and there is no such thing as "too many artists" - because nobody is going to do what you want to do, in the way that you want to do it.

 

These are personal projects, more than anything - they're made for themselves, and shared in the hopes that maybe someone else will like it. That's exactly how Link started - I made him because I wanted to play as him. I shared it, and others liked it. But I never made it for other people - I made it for myself, and shared it with other people.

 

Perhaps it sounds selfish, but this is how just about everybody works. There are absolutely instances of mods being created "for the community" - but they are a stark minority, and even then, probably stemmed from the same "this is what I want" idea.

 

Secondly, I personally constructed a detailed guide to help newcomers through the character creation process.

It was my intention that anyone who wanted to bring a character to life would be able to use my guide to do so! Will they all be fabulous? Of course not. But it makes the modder happy to play as their creation... and to me, that's what matters.

 

The negative stance seems to stem from the idea that the modder is "wasting" their time and skill by creating "just another character" when they could be using the same time and effort to do something that... isn't a character.

But the fact is, these people generally aren't interested in modding - they're interested in bringing their creation to life, for their own enjoyment.

If they weren't doing their character mod, they wouldn't be doing any mod.

 

I see it as only a positive - the simple character mod could be a gateway. Perhaps they like modding; perhaps they want to try something different; perhaps they want to get more involved.

 

Let people have their fun - you don't have to use the mod if it doesn't appeal to you. And you never know - the person who uploads that really simple character mod might just go on to create something astounding.

[Heavenfall]

Characters are fairly easy to put in the game and people like playing characters that they want to play as. I don't see a problem here at all. There are absolutely not "too many" character mods. If you don't like a mod, all you have to do is ignore it.

 

I would even go as far as to say that, with the excellent tutorials available, making a character mod is a GREAT way to get into the mod community of Don't Starve by making an important contribution. Very few are going to come to these forums and immediately join up an impressive collaboration like Up and Away.

 

Please be very respectful when you try to discourage people from making mods. We all lose something for every bit that doesn't get made. Doesn't matter if it's a TUNING tweak or a new world.

 

Edit: @TheDanaAddams said it better above.

[Neosaurus]

I think the reason there are a lot of simple character mods is twofold.

 

Firstly, coding is not for everyone. It is a rare breed that can create quality art and quality code.

The majority of folks coming in to mod are going to be art-driven people who just want to get their idea into the game - no artist sits back and thinks "gosh, there are so many characters already - I suppose I'll do something else." Artists like drawing characters... and if an artist tries to mod, it's going to be because they want to bring their character to life.

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, there is no such thing as "too much art" and there is no such thing as "too many artists" - because nobody is going to do what you want to do, in the way that you want to do it.

 

These are personal projects, more than anything - they're made for themselves, and shared in the hopes that maybe someone else will like it. That's exactly how Link started - I made him because I wanted to play as him. I shared it, and others liked it. But I never made it for other people - I made it for myself, and shared it with other people.

 

Perhaps it sounds selfish, but this is how just about everybody works. There are absolutely instances of mods being created "for the community" - but they are a stark minority, and even then, probably stemmed from the same "this is what I want" idea.

 

Secondly, I personally constructed a detailed guide to help newcomers through the character creation process.

It was my intention that anyone who wanted to bring a character to life would be able to use my guide to do so! Will they all be fabulous? Of course not. But it makes the modder happy to play as their creation... and to me, that's what matters.

 

The negative stance seems to stem from the idea that the modder is "wasting" their time and skill by creating "just another character" when they could be using the same time and effort to do something that... isn't a character.

But the fact is, these people generally aren't interested in modding - they're interested in bringing their creation to life, for their own enjoyment.

If they weren't doing their character mod, they wouldn't be doing any mod.

 

I see it as only a positive - the simple character mod could be a gateway. Perhaps they like modding; perhaps they want to try something different; perhaps they want to get more involved.

 

Let people have their fun - you don't have to use the mod if it doesn't appeal to you. And you never know - the person who uploads that really simple character mod might just go on to create something astounding.

Good point. Also, I forgot to mention that Link is another example of a great character mod.

[TheDanaAddams]

Good point. Also, I forgot to mention that Link is another example of a great character mod.

Haha, thanks. But go back to v1.0, and it was nothing more than some stat tweaks and a sword.

 

Gotta start somewhere! =)

[RCatta]

Adding new content to the game is much more difficult than adding a character. A character has predetermined animations. All you need to do is draw some textures and you're basically done. Should you wanna make it more interesting then yes , it can be as complex as you can code it to be. 

 

However , it's still easy work in comparison to adding actual new content. 

A new biome for example requires tons of original textures (and good luck pulling off quality textures if you're no artist) , new creatures that you have to animate yourself (yeah , more textures ) and without some interesting features to it you'd just have another block of land to walk on..and not much else , which pretty much defeats the purpose. Oh and then you also have to write piles and piles of code.

 

And even that is not "hard" per-se , but it's very extensive work especially if you're solo-ing it. Take U&A for instance. They got some serious muscle and it's still gonna take them a few months. And that's a team effort.

 

Not to mention that constant mod-breaking updates will discourage most people from taking on adventurous developing simply because it's very ineffective at the moment.

[simplex]

Not to mention that constant mod-breaking updates will discourage most people from taking on adventurous developing simply because it's very ineffective at the moment.

Updates are almost over!

[Neosaurus]

Updates are almost over!

Makes me sad yet also so happy

[Coffgirl]

truely I want to make my character to have epic special power but sadly I some how fail to do that because this is my first time code something seriously like this...

I believe every artist want something special for their cha... but what to do about it if they can't find the way even they looks so many tutorial and some mods to be the guide already... But still fail?

Like me got a headache looking through this forum so many many pages now..

[CJB]

[Tesability]

Hey, there are character mods that can evolve into other things, depending on the quirks given to them. For example, IF I manage to figure out the puppeted-follower perk I planned on giving an OC of mine, I can possibly turn that around and make it a seperate mod of its own somehow. Don't knock the 'toons!

[TeoSS69]

Yeah, good on artists for trying to put their characters in the game, but there's still the matter that they'll clogging the workshop with subpar character mods.

[tehMugwump]

Hey guys, I was thinking lately, WHY IS THERE BILLIONS OF CHARA MODS! Sure, there easy from a coding standpoint but the art is hard, I really think the artists should join Up and Away or something to put there skills to good use. By the way, I'm not saying I hate custom characters, Wren the Stormcaller is original and Octodad is well, Octodad! I just feel there should a lot more mods that add items or biomes, or dimensions! Up and Away and my mod More Items! I feel accomplishes this. Thanks for your time.

 

 

Neo

You think it's bad here, you should look at the Steam Workshop.  Some of the most pathetic crap I've ever seen.  

 

I've brought the idea of mod reviews before, but it didn't go over too well...

[Neosaurus]

You think it's bad here, you should look at the Steam Workshop.  Some of the most pathetic crap I've ever seen.  

 

I've brought the idea of mod reviews before, but it didn't go over too well...

I've seen.... The things I've seen here..... *shivers*