[Naomi Lastname]

When I see all the talent on this board I can't help but think what would happen if we developed a game, or large mission set, for Skyrim as a team. Just have everyone fill their roles, the things they are good at. It could be voice acting, writing, interior design, making the world map, making combat systems, etc.
We could vote on what sort of project to make at the beginning, and then develop our own content for the common theme.
For example, we could make a series of epic high level quests that eventually lead into the Dragonborn "mantling" (if you don't know what that means, you haven't wasted as much time as I have learning Elder Scrolls lore) Talos and becoming the hero of mankind that defeats the Thalmor. Something that would represent a major continuation of a Skyrim theme and incorporate a lot of Lore.
Or another game entirely. Up to you/us.


If you'd like to discuss the idea, just pop in and say hi. We can discuss how such a thing would be best run, and what sort of projects would excite us. Just please don't enter and say "This is a bad idea and here's why..." yadda yadda. I know it's fun to burst bubbles, rain on parades, and otherwise disparage ideas, but team efforts have been done before, and I think this would be good place to organize one.

Also, if you have one skill that you are good at and enjoy, post it here if you'd be interested in working on this.

For example:
Hi, I'm Il_Ducey and I make companions well. I'd like to make a companion that lets you choose their perks through dialogue trees that would serve as a plot character. I can also voice act, and would be willing to voice said character.

[Strawberry]

I think one of the biggest reasons a project like this wouldn't work out is difference of opinion.

Everyone would want to do things their way, and it would fall apart unless there was a leader who had final say in everything. But even then if the leader makes a choice and people didn't like it, they would just leave and the project would break up.

There have been smaller collabs (Like 4-10 people), and while I think a giant one with like 50 modders would be amazing and the result (If it was completed) would be the best mod ever made, I just don't think it would work for a lot of reasons. But maybe that's just me being a grumpy gills about it.

[Eve(G)]

I had this Idea a while back. I was going to offer to coordinate a colaborative project. Participants would submit their parts and i would put them together. But before I could get anything off the ground, as it always seems to do when I get excited about something fun, life intruded and I found myself without the time to do it.

Then I planned to do a Machinima series, but once again I find myself with too many disrtactions to focus.

This is one of the big problems with collaborative projects. Too may people having to deal with things that get in the way, even if they have the best intentions in the world.

I WILL do my machinima project. I just don't know how soon it will be before I can get any serious work done on more than just writing...

[Laura Wilson]

I'm just thinking like, a theme. Like, if everyone just said "Dwemer" and we all developed upon that theme. We could check in with one another, and give suggestions, but ultimately everyone is still responsible for their own stuff. At the end, and sometimes in the middle to check for compatibility, we tie them all in to one big modular pack.

[N Only WhiTe girl]

My experience with those kind of things is that they result in a large package that doesn't really fit together and is really weird and random and doesn't 'blend' well.

I think the only way this kind of thing would work is if it started small and built up from there. So that each new person joins with respect for those already doing work, and they learn how things work. Then it could build upon itself and possibly develope.

[Prue]

I love the idea of a collaborative project.

I'm not sure that it matters too much if it's a bit random, but I agree that we should start small, and add to it in small increments, so that we nearly always have something that works, even if it doesn't add much to the game. Otherwise people get too despondent at not seeing results.

I can do quests, scripting, NPCs. My particular interest would be in adding stories, and alternatives in stories - particularly alternatives that allow non-combat strategies for the player. I'd like to voice an NPC I'd created, as well.

[~Sylvia~]

:$ unfortunately, my talents lay in two things: coding spells and writing. I don't see the former really being of use to a project like this, and the latter just makes me the kid who goes "I HAVE A GRATE IDEA FOR A MOD. BUT I CAN'T CODE. I'D LIKE A TEAM PEALS."

[Jessica Nash]

I think one of the biggest reasons a project like this wouldn't work out is difference of opinion.

I disagree

If something becomes of this, I can chip in with scripting/menu making if needed.

[Jeff Turner]

How would you manage such a project? If its just a merging of similar themed mods, you don't get a bigger mod, you get a bunch of mods in one.

And I do thing difference of opinion would come into play, because there are things someone might want that I don't. The main reason i don't use many mods is die to it having aspects i don't like.

[josie treuberg]

How would you manage such a project? If its just a merging of similar themed mods, you don't get a bigger mod, you get a bunch of mods in one.

We'd need a subject and each contributor would do their part. I couldn't model my way out of a paper sack, for instance, but I can script most anything to do ...whatever.

And I do thing difference of opinion would come into play, because there are things someone might want that I don't.

It could have an options menu for added elasticity.

[Amanda Leis]

:$ unfortunately, my talents lay in two things: coding spells and writing. I don't see the former really being of use to a project like this

I do, at least in conjunction with quests to learn different spells/ acquire perks and so on. And I think a lot of quests could benefit from writing assistance.

And I do thing difference of opinion would come into play, because there are things someone might want that I don't. The main reason i don't use many mods is die to it having aspects i don't like.

I think that could actually be a strength of a collaborative effort, if it meant that we made more effort to provide alternatives for players.

[Marie]

Funny story - I just woke up when I wrote that and I didn't even realize I wrote 'Peals' instead of 'please.' Oh fingers, what will you do next?

Anyway, difference of opinion can be both a strength and a weakness, but for it to be a strength, you have to decide very early on what you're not going to do; otherwise you'll get a lot of fussing and hand-wringing and then when a direction is finally chosen you lose half the people due to "that's not really what I want to do."

[Cool Man Sam]

As an example of writing assistance, by the way, I was thinking about new books. I know for my own mod I want a lot of books, and have been dreading writing them, because a) I have chronic writer's block (except when writing argumentative forum posts) and b ) I know my lore knowledge is inadequate. So someone who could write could be a great asset in a mod, I think.

Edit: begone, bespectacled emoticon!

[Jeremy Kenney]

I write a LOT of books for Revenge of Colette, so I'd actually be pretty cool with helping you on that if you want, Ingenue. The amusing coincidence is that I'm actually more-or-less brand new to the Elder Scrolls series as of a month ago, but I've spent a lot of time reading up on it in order to be able to do my mod.

[Ross]

Wow, that would be wonderful, thank you.

However my mod is just a hobby and will probably never see the light of day, so I'd feel bad asking you to write anything for it until it became more likely to be published. Whereas for a collaborative mod, we could ask you to start writing more or less immediately.

[Jason White]

I suggested the same type of thing last week -
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1385630-your-thoughts-on-a-community-mod/

Not much response here, but folk over at the Nexus seemed a little more enthusiastic -
http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/706420-your-thoughts-on-a-community-mod/

[bimsy]

It could have an options menu for added elasticity.

But that would make it feel very seperated, and like we took a bunch of mods and duct taped them together. I think the only way it would feel good is if it was one solid project planned out with everyone working towards one thing. Otherwise it would become a big mess.

And that's just something that I don't think we could agree on, as modding is all about choice. Jamming them together get's rid of that choice, unless we make it all segmented and make everything optional, in which case, what's the point?

[carla]

Why does it have to be one mod. Why can't it be several released under the same team name.

Everyone who wants a mod done a certtain way would be a project lead. People in the team can join that lead's group if they are interested in working on what that lead has proposed, or if they are just looking for experience working on a team project. The only real concern then is making sure that the projects do not conflict with each other, so that they can be loaded separately and not break anything they individually attempt to accomplish.

In terms of quests, an agreement between groups would be made to ensure that each group places its quest-givers and quest locations in different cells to avoid stepping on each others' toes...

You won't need special menus. All the mods could be loaded together without conflict with each other. No guarantee about conflicts with other people's mods, but I think that if the groups keep their efforts focused away from altering pre-existing systems, then they should even theoretically be compatible with the mods that do.

The first order of business, it seems, would be to decide WHAT the over all goal is to be. Is it to build a new world with its own rulesets? Is it to simply build upon skyrim as it is now, adding story and locations, maybe new weapons and armor? Id this proposed project is to happen, A clear idea of the scope should be established. And even if you get a huge team of modders, the simpler the scope, the better.

We do know that there is presently a bug that breaks vanilla dialogue if altered. And we also know that there are issues surrounding the creation of new world spaces, based on the unofficial bug list. But at least the navmesh bug has been squashed and Creating new dialogue works, and if work is kept to the existing world spaces, there is a lot that can be done pending the resolution of those issues.

[Big Homie]

There was a thread that mentioned rebuilding helgen. Rebuilding other smaller cities could be included too. You could even tie in rebuilding one or 2 cities to however the revolution ends.

[Dale Johnson]

I think that could actually be a strength of a collaborative effort, if it meant that we made more effort to provide alternatives for players.

I cant speak for anyone else, but I personally refuse to work on something that I don't agree with. There is some wiggle room in this, but for the most part, I don't want to spend my free time making something I would never use myself.

Why does it have to be one mod. Why can't it be several released under the same team name.

We went over this. It would feel like one big stitched together mess rather then a big mod.

[Christine Pane]

I cant speak for anyone else, but I personally refuse to work on something that I don't agree with. There is some wiggle room in this, but for the most part, I don't want to spend my free time making something I would never use myself.

I wonder what you have in mind? There are certainly mods out there I shouldn't touch with a barge pole, but I didn't think it was likely anyone would suggest them as a group project.

Hm. I suppose we'd need to agree on some rules about what could be added to a mod with our names on.

[Lily Something]

have in mind for what?

[Erika Ellsworth]

Things you don't agree with.

[barbara belmonte]

That's kind of a hard question for someone to answer, I think, barring "hell no" zones.

In general, I think what a lot of people are pushing here is that a true community project isn't feasible - the best you can get is an all-star cast of modders who would still only represent a small slice of even the top stuff. Because you need direction and the only way to get direction is for someone or someones to make decisive choices which not everyone will agree with.

[Charleigh Anderson]

The bottom line is that the situation doesn't set up the needed structure.

I mean, the community is great. We have some amazing people here, and for the most part we are all friends. We help eachother, critique eachother, and get along great. However we are all here for fun and we are all using up our spare time to do this.

If the project got together and they had a leader, people wouldn't want to go with decisions they didn't agree with because it's their freetime, and they aren't getting paid or anything.

It works in a game company because you respect and trust the project director. You are paid to be there, and it's your job. It's your joy in life. Here we have none of those things, so it just doesn't lend itself to working well on one project together.

And sure we could make several smaller projects with the same name on them, but again, what's the point? That's just a name. And what if one group doesn't want to be associated with another groups work? (Perhaps because of quality, or the topic of the mod or something) Then it would all fall apart.

The openness of the community lends to amazing things happening, but it also just doesnt' allow for a cohesive effort resulting in a large coherant project.