So yes, essentially, I would like a reality check.

Assuming an individual with very little experience using Bethesda's toolsets, very little knowledge of scripting, and a lot of free time on their hands were to turn their attention to modding Skyrim, realistically, how long do you expect it would take before they could handle building the equivalent of Skyrim's main questline? The scenario doesn't require the creation of new assets.

I ask because I'm sitting here making notes and churning ideas, but quite a few of them seem very daunting to someone who's not modded before.

We can't really say for certain until we see the language and the rest of the CS, but I'd guess that it would take a few months to a year of solid work to get good with the scripting. I'm not a scripter, though, just basing this on my experience with other people and other areas.

a few months just to get familliar with the tools at least, then probably a year or so on the actual making progress part.
making proper dungeons take time, creating a character takes time. voicing a character takes time. reality check here is that you need dedication, and time is different for everyone so nobody could tell you what you could potentially do.

try new things. make a real effort.

Time is all you really need, if you have any prior programming experience its a plus to scripting as you already have some background in basic syntax. I came into the toolsets in Oblivion with already some extensive programming experience and even I found them tedious and nasty to use, scripting was quite a hassle from my perspective, although it could have just been my lack of experience in their environment. They aren't impossible to learn, they have just previously been a pain in the butt to use, hopefully they have made the new CK more user friendly. If I were to just throw some numbers out for you considering what you've explained and assuming you'd be devoting a large portion of your time to it I'd say a few weeks to get a feel for the environment, and possibly a few months to get use to the language. You may not necessarily utilize the language to its potential but you could definitely produce "working" content fairly quickly with no prior experience. Also assuming you didn't create new assets such as textures, sounds, and meshes which take considerably more time and shift further away from the actual toolset and more towards... Life skills? Voice acting, art, modeling.

Back when I was interested in dabbling in Oblivion modding I wondered the same. I decided to take a crack at it and in about a week or so I got a decent grasp at things. After a month I managed to get a bunch of people together to develop a full questline. Complete with voice acting too. Think it was about 2 months total for the full completed project. Wasn't the longest questline in the world, but I was new, and so were the people I was working with. Could probably do it much much faster now, if I had the motivation and the ideas.

There's a lot that goes into developing a questline, and depending on what you plan to personally work on also affects the amount of time it takes. Me, I took a quick liking to programming and got kind of good at that. My friend that I partnered with for the mod really liked making dungeons, and so he handled that. Splitting the work among different strengths worked well for the speed of things, and I'd suggest the same for you.


So, it all depends, but surely not any more than a 2-4 months for a decent sized questline.

Something on the scale of the MQ is daunting, even for an experienced modder. But there's nothing stopping you from making an episodic questline, where you could develop your skills in the progress: start modest, and get more elaborate further into the questline as your skills develop.

Realistically, several years to decades. Probably never.

A quest line the size of Skyrim's main one would take an experienced modder months to years to make by themselves. This is why quest mods of that size pretty much never actually get released in a finished state. Even with a team of modders, you'll probably never get the whole thing in a playable state.

Do not start modding with a huge quest line. Start small.

It takes a while to pick up the tips and tricks of modding... It's harder to learn if you're working on a big project, it gets very frustrating, I've been there! You can learn everything you need to know in a few months, and make a long questline in a few more months, assuming you work efficiently and don't get caught up in playtesting like I always do.

A quest of that size (keep in mind I have not completed it, not by far, but I have a decent estimate of it's length)? A long time. Depending on how quickly you take to the CS and how easily you grasp whatever system is in place for quest design now. I can only speak from experience with the GECK but I spent two years or so and only pushed out a small amount of very simple mods, though I didn't devote all my time to it. (they're in my signature for anyone who still plays Fallout 3/New vegas...which is nobody now that Skyrim is here, but I might as well plug it)

Anyway, reality check: It will take a long time, a lot of work and a ton of patience and enthusiasm.

EDIT: If you really want to do this, here's how I would go about it. Start small. Make a short questline, work out the kinks, get feedback and learn from it. Then make a sequel, maybe make that a little longer or a little more complex, challenge yourself a little and again, learn from it. Then you go from there. Instead of making one massive quest, make a series of independant but connected questlines.

That way you deliver the content iin bite siezed chunks, making it much easier for yourself and allowing you to learn as you go and get community feedback and help. Once you reach the end there's no reason you can't just pack it all together into one mod and have the final version be the complete quest line.

If you want an example of this and own Fallout New Vegas. Check out the "New Vegas Bounties" mods. Last I checked there were two parts, but that was a while ago and I haven't been paying attention. Anyway, those two (or more) mods have their own quests that can be played independantly, but are connected so that when you play them in order you get the complete experience. They're good examples of how to do a series of quest mods instead of one giant quest mod. You can also see the creator improving and learning when you compare part 1 and part 2. The quests became more complex, there were more voice actors and overall there was a clear improvement.

I think that approach is the best one if you want to do a big story arc like you're describing.

Don't think about it, if you have the time and motivation you will get there, in due time. You might even have a good time.
Just start small and progressively try creating bigger mods, with more quest, quest-stages, NPCs, deeper dialogues and so-on.

The best thing to do, always, is to start small.

Try a smaller quest mod. Something very basic. That way you'll be able to see what the limitations of the Creation Kit are, and learn from your first mistakes. Better to make some mistakes in your first small quest mod than in a very large one, where going back to fix old mistakes could get very tricky.

You start with a house mod. Creating cells in Beth's tools is very easy, basically drag and drop. You can do that on day 1. Next, you want that house to have an NPC so you learn to do that and that's pretty easy. You want to be able to buy your house rather than just getting it "for free", so you learn to do that and that's easy enough...

What I am saying is, it might take a few months to become proficient with the tools enough to start writing serious quests but it will be fun and you will start to see the fruits of your labors instantly.

Oh yeah, before even the basic quest mod, start with a basic house mod with an NPC in it. Bonus points if you can give him unique dialogue.

I am not a modder but I am a programmer, and what they just said is absolutely right. Do one small thing... get it down and do it well. Then add a piece to that. That is how you build anything big. And if you practice the small for a bit, adding pieces and putting them all together later is much easier.

From past experiences with modding i would realistically say anywhere from 6-18 months, assuming you have NO experience at all. It really depends on how fast you learn the skills required to operate the CK properly and efficiently. Once that is down you could realistically with enough time on ur hands pump out a questline every few weeks! But learning the ins and outs and techniques that experienced modders have can take quite some time. and really it depends on yourself, your dedication, your aptitude for learning and how much time you are willing to invest. Some people pick this kind of thing up easy where as others have difficulty.

But it seems clear you only wish to use assets and ingame content already available. so if it just writing a new quest line then you may very well be up and ruinning in a few weeks. But once again, it depends on how fast you are able to learn your way around the CK...

Some people enjoy modding more than playing the game itself. It is a completely different kind of experience and not everyone is built the same way so some people like the challenges, while others dont have the patience. And you will need a lot of patience and perseverance if you wish to release viable content that others will enjoy. A lot of trial and error. You may even feel like you 'broke' your game cause its always CTD'ing (crash to desktop). thats just one of the many things a beginning modder will experience. And in truth, it turns people off straight away...

The good news is that this community seems very open and helpful. There will be tutorials to aid you and you may even find other people with similar interests and goals that you want to achieve in your 'mod'.

the bottom line is: How much time are you willing to invest? and how dedicated are you?...

This, I started modding Morrowind for about three days before I got fed up with it. I grew and matured and then modded Oblivion for about 3 months before I gave up on it. Then after a few more years I started modding Fallout 3, loved it and did it for probably 6-9 months. I tried making a large mod with someone on Fallout but it was a monumental task. I'd say it was possibly 2 hours worth of gameplay but even that took so much time to design, build, and fix.

I'd guess he's talking about something that is a bit more than merely "decent sized". I could potentially see 2-4 months if you have a small, complementary team where everyone is dedicated and has the time to do it... but that is a thing that happens extremely rarely. The fact that you are RL friends is probably the only reason it worked as well as it did for you. Group projects can often be harder to do.

I haven't finished the main quest line in Skyrim, but I'd assume matching it's scope would take at least 1 year for full-time effort (for a single individual). I was attempting to do about the same with Lost Spires for Oblivion, and that took 8 months of full-time work, plus a lot of extra time for fixing bugs, dealing with feedback, and doing the VO. I also had some help from talented folks along the way. I spent a lot of time on developing new art assets (meshes and textures) so if you avoid that, you can cut down on the time significantly. But keep in mind, that was Oblivion. Skyrim has raised the bar substantially, so I'd at least multiply any Oblivion development time scale by x1.5 or x2. Keep in mind, when I say 1 year full-time work, that's work at a vigorous, non-stop pace, not casual screwing around with the editor, chatting on the forums, etc. You need to draft design documents, be very clear in your vision, and put every minute of your workday towards building the content.

Time will depend a lot on the level of quality you're aiming for. Skyrim content is much richer than Oblivion's (not even counting art assets). If you want to match the main quest's uniqueness, scope, and richness, you're in for a very long haul, and realistically, I'd say you will not succeed unless you are extremely dedicated. Lack of experience isn't really an issue as long as you are dedicated enough and have the time (you will learn along the way). I started Lost Spires with zero modding experience (although I had a background in game development, including a good understanding of tools like Photoshop and 3DsMax, and scripting).

All the above applies to a lone-wolf developer model. If you're modding in a team, the dynamics are different. The biggest problem is the reliability of the team members. In my opinion, it's easier to work solo. If you work in a team, it will actually take you much longer to complete because you will waste too much time chatting away, coordinating, and disagreeing.

You need to have a very good reason to undertake a mod of this scale. Such mods are rare because most modders cannot justify or sustain a full-time development schedule for months on end. It is not easy. It is lonely. And it pretty much means you don't work for a living (you burn your own cash, your parents', etc.) Most modders fail to appreciate these realities when taking on a large project such as a total conversion. These are real problems that game development companies combat every day. And many times fail.

I have to agree with those that have already posted. The kind of project you're describing, even if you had alot of experience with the tools, is a long process. And, like others have said, start small. Do everything you can to make sure that it's bug free. Then, expand. The most important part of all of this is that you need to have a design. Not just in your head. Plan it out. Make the plan DETAILED. Oh, it can start with less detail, but you're gonna need to make sure to get more detailed in your plan as you go along PLANNING it. All your dialog will need to be written out, so that you can find errors, inconsistensies, etc. For the scope you're considering, I'd say just the planning part (not counting learning the tools, doing the actual work, testing, etc) would be a multi-month project. The over all time for someone that hasn't modded before, has to learn the tools, needs to design the project, testing, and everything, in my opinion, would be in the 2 year area. Honestly.


BUT, You can work towards that end. Often, by the very effort to make smaller, better mods, you develop that certain something that is needed to make the bigger ones, and in less overall time. And, at the same time, you can make some cool stuff. My biggest suggestion would be one that has been shared before, but bears repeating...take your time and learn all you can before embarking on a huge project like this.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1234537-relz-integration-the-stranded-light-the-stranded-light-integrated-with-no-requirementsno-gameplay-changes/ - no voice overs, no assets created by myself. Took around 1? years.

I've done all the .esp work, however I had a lot of help with testing and custom assets. Without the assets, a lot of its more shiny features would have been impossible. Without the testings... I likely would have needed a lot longer.