Are we wasting our time?

[popgun]

Not one for wasting words, I'll get straight to the point.

And trust me, this is not a moan, I seriously want to know whether my time is wasted or not.

Since Hawkger released his collection of really nice mods quite some time ago, me and Dose (in particular) have been the main suppliers of mods to the RPG community. Unfortunately, nearly all of the tracks that have appeared in the last year have not used these mods!

I build tracks AND mods. Sometimes I use the mods myself and sometimes not. Up to now Housekeepr, Cpart' and Iggy (with a minor change) have used my mods. I 'm not sure how many people have used Dose's mods but from what I see online there's not many.

Why not?

'We' (ie the trackbuilders) seem to be stuck in the same old 'GM' or 'Ancient Maya' mod rut.. They're nice mods.. but Sheesh.. move on guys. ?(

This is getting to the point now where I'm beginning to wonder why I bother.
I released another mod today.. and no.. I haven't got a track to go with it. I just had a load of concrete textures hanging around so made a mod.

So tell me why I (and Dose) should bother?

And before you answer, 'yeah yeah I used such and such's mod on my second but last track which flopped' - I don't want to hear it!

Tell me why we should bother wasting out valuable time building new and interesting mods (which you can't just make in an afternoon) if they're never going to be used?
What's missing here?

You could do the poll if you like but written answers would be better.

[dose]

First of all thanks for your comment,and thinking of me in this
Like you , i always hope people will use the mods i build and comment back afterall...
but no ;( not much do it
I sometimes get a mail saying that someone saw my stuff and need help ^^

*SAME THING FOR TRACK BULDERS
If you build Track too,Im sure you have track that you thought it
could get more award^^ just go have a look on my tmx page, i did'nt get a lot
of "awards" or "comments" but most of my tracks are download more than 100 times to 170 for
my "Rat race" .

let me tell you this; Yes I need "congraduation" from others to continue making my mods!
BUT, now I do it for myself first.then if they like it...Good for me;)
I even made my "VENICE" mod in january, and im waiting for Ign
to finish his track^^ because im sure that will be a sure shot!!so...I wait
(see the screenshots there *only mod/fake track^^)

To be truthfull to you, some of my mods were custom made mod for others...HousekeepR,Promaxer,etc...
and they were always kind to me by saying a big thx!!

Just continu to do your mods , you are more than good in ideals and beautifull mix of textures,
so one day your work will be reconize... by all !! but you may won't even know it!!!
(if its not already done)
for myself, I love your work (even if I never wrote it to you,ha ha ha !!! now I did!!!
BTW, we should do one togheter ^^

PS: I have an ideal about your ideal of asking people what ambience they want for they re mods.
We should have a page in this forum named " wish your mod here "
a simple page with space for them to wrote ideals, or next story they are working on.
I know its been done already but we always loose the post.

Maybe simply make a sticky note page. :thumbsup: with mod makers names who want to be part of this.
Track makers write the ideal of a mod.
Then if its doable , we , the mod makers reply by telling who will make it.
We could also make a part of the sticky note, WIP; so also between mod makers ,
we know what mods the other are working on.
so at the end; we don't get 2 identic mods at the same time :modo:

Keep the good work comming!!!

Dose

Btw guy's ...you like my mods? lol, just teasing you POP don't use your GUN on me for this...

[eie]

Myself I mostly use mods I've made myself for tracks, which in some cases might radically alter the way I view a track. example: Chocolate mountain was planned to be a rather rocky and rough place to be xD

Most of them haven't been used on other tracks than those, which might mean that a mod would work on that track, but not that one. The mods that are popular are those which might work on many different kinds of tracks, Grande Muraille works on Pyramids, Temples, etc. while a mod with concrete texture might not work as well as that, only because it's not a preferable track to drive, and might not create a good atmosphere. (lol I haven't even seen that mod so sorry if I'm mistaken)

Another thing that makes a mod bad, is its availability. Most of Hawkger's mods are available from the "mods"-page, and most of his mods are available from a single page. The preview pictures from the mods also are nice, simple and shows a good portion of the mod. (As earlier stated, I haven't actually seen any of your mods, since I'm not as active and don't remember a lot of what I have seen. xD)

Also, most of the times I try new mods, I always find a really awful texture that doesn't fit with the rest of the mod =P (and I'm usually too lazy to fix those things^^)

That's just some words from me, since I was also a mod-maker once =))

[Igntul]

agreed 100% with eie.. expectially on the 2 words "chocolate" and "mountain"
the biggest fault is: mod page is never updated..
the most of the ppl take them from there, they dont really look on a page like vinvkadnsmusic where they only see a list of names and not pictures or track examples, and they won't really search into a forum for mod presentations either..
taking an example for 1 mod i (and hawkger) did and 1 hawkger did for me..
sunn mod and darkside mod

in the track awards, or online, i sometimes get comments like "very nice mod" "great atmosphere" and such things, but in the end noone ever used sunn mod and darkside mod anywhere.. personally i think they are at the same level, or even better than hawk's other mods, but then why are they never used?? because ppl cant find them! unless someone got a really precise idea of what mod he wants, he is not gonna look into a forum or into tmx tracks descriptions, most of mappers get the ideas for themes from the mods, and what they need is exactly a list of mods with pictures.. and where do they find it, on blog's mod page.. so my conclusion is:

it has to be updated

[dose]

agreed 100% with eie.. expectially on the 2 words "chocolate" and "mountain"
the biggest fault is: mod page is never updated..
the most of the ppl take them from there, they dont really look on a page like vinvkadnsmusic where they only see a list of names and not pictures or track examples, and they won't really search into a forum for mod presentations either..
taking an example for 1 mod i (and hawkger) did and 1 hawkger did for me..
sunn mod and darkside mod

in the track awards, or online, i sometimes get comments like "very nice mod" "great atmosphere" and such things, but in the end noone ever used sunn mod and darkside mod anywhere.. personally i think they are at the same level, or even better than hawk's other mods, but then why are they never used?? because ppl cant find them! unless someone got a really precise idea of what mod he wants, he is not gonna look into a forum or into tmx tracks descriptions, most of mappers get the ideas for themes from the mods, and what they need is exactly a list of mods with pictures.. and where do they find it, on blog's mod page.. so my conclusion is:

it has to be updated

it has to be updated

as I said here in this forum a couples of weeks before: the MOD page need pics
I have started with the mod list and got from A to G now, i will finish until i got all mod!!! even if it take me months!!

I don'T know how many of you saw my Vinnumusik links page with pics but it was much better to find an ambiance for a furture project So if all want to have this page done...I will do it for you guy's!
The page will have direct link to the mod+PICTURE ^^.

IF I hade the possibilities to get the right to modify the forum link page, that could be awesome!!
Or I give all the pics (BTW I always get the Loadscreen for pics, so some won'T have pics unless i take a snapshot from ingame mount with the mod!) to the administrator of this site and you change it.

Anyway, I see that Its needed !

look at this, could be more interressing no?

[eie]

Loadscreens doesn't really tell a lot about the track imo... =p
but yeah screenshots or something from a track with mod would certainly be quite nice. And as long as my mods are included next time, all will be fine. =)

[HawkGer]

see, this is the kind of post we would have needed much earlier ^^
Far too few people complained about the mod page not being updated. I think I only remember D@SE and Igntul actually complaining, but not as heavy as in this thread. So there was not enough pressure from the community for me to be motivated to update the page I guess.
I will be on vacation soon...so I hope I can get it done till then

And btw. I don't think the issue is only that the mods are not easy to access. For example the Jurassic Park mod hasn't been used in any track yet and is listed on the mod page. Which makes me quite wonder...because the theme is different from any other mod and it's one of my favorite mods...

I agree with eie...loadscreens really don't say much...better to make some good snapshots.
And what did you mean by "forum link page" ?? You mean the vinummusik page?

[Promaxer]

I prefer to see the old ancient mods like egiptians, their simple and can be helpful for wonderful storylines.

[PCC_NS]

need pics !!!

and I agree with Eie, sometimes it takes a mod that seems to fit perfectly, but one or two textures is wrong with the atmosphere of the map.

a voting system next to each mod would be useful I think.

[popgun]

One of the problems with modding is that what I see as a great set of fitting textures may not be what others see. But, I've been producing graphics media for a very long time, maybe longer than some of you younger ones have been alive! If I produce a mod and think everything fits, then I'm going to be reluctant to make minor changes for one track. My reasoning for this is simple: For every minor change that I make, everyone who plays that track has to re-download the new version of the mod again for this minor change. Apart from the minor inconvenience per user of the d/l and pc storage, there is a more significant bandwidth issue for the mod host especially on a very popular track. And hosting costs money.
The next person who wants to use the mod may also want 'just a few minor changes' and so it starts again!

As a compromise:- For a recent unreleased collaboration, I produced a mod, and a set of graphics, and a sign set, and some alternate wall/door textures that can be used with sign blocks to change the way an area is perceived. This is one way of varying the mod and making it more appropriate to a storyline, without changing the underlying mod.

However, this slightly digressing from the point. Nearly all the people who answered here are the people I expected to answer here and they are nearly all mod makers. I'd like to see some replies from prolific builders who don't mod. But maybe that's too much to ask.
It's late and I'm off to bed. Maybe I'll add more tomorrow.

[eie]

a voting system next to each mod would be useful I think.

no voting please... a feedback system would be nice though =)

[Golo]

hm, I wasnt very active on this board for a longer time now, so I just discovered all the new mods by now... I really appreciate your huge work and can understand you.

But I cannot truely awnser your question because its a mixture of different problems...

right now there are just few good builders and most of them are quite active here.. those ones might be thinking about using one of your mods (which are definetely good-looking btw), but most builders are just on TMX, building mainly crap-RPGs (doesnt go for everyone of course) and probably dont even know about the mods like others already mentioned..

then again, an other issue might be that one has a special theme in mind and if your new mods doesnt fit to it, one wouldnt choose them but rather an old mod which might be better suited.



More reasons I cant tell, if it doesnt satisfie you to make mods without attention, nobody forces you, I would still highly appreciate it, because when I built my first RPGs I always thought that there are too less mods, I could just choose a mod which has been already used and now for me its exciting to be able to start with sth totally new nobody has used before and I will definetely use mods of you. But then the next problem: Building an RPG takes its time as you know. If I decide to take your mod now and begin to build, you will see the result maybe in 2-3 months

[Turbo Birdy]

Regarding this issue for me is that i get most of the mods i use for either my tracks or me placing a mod on my team-mates tracks( as he doesn't know how to place mods correctly )from vinummusik . But having pics with the mod link will be a great thing , even though I'm not the best track-builder on Trackmainia. i personally try to select the best mod that just makes my tracks that little bet better. I don't think for one second the mod builders are wasting their time as all of our tracks would be the boring standard blocks all the time, so i say keep doing what you guys are doing as if you didn't Trackmainia would be a boring place to be.

( don't know if my opinion is needed or wanted on here but I'd just thought I'd let you guys know from other fellow TM player )

Cheers Turbo-Birdy

[HawkGer]

I'm just gonna ask in this thread, think it's the best place for it.
I have updated the modpage on the RPG Blog with more than 30 new mods. And I have sorted the mods in a new way. Well, earlier they weren't sorted at all. But now I have sorted the most of them in a historical way from the earliest point in history to the farthest in the furure. The ones that I couldn't place in that category I have put into "Abstract Mods", "Natural Mods" and "Horror Mods"

The question......do you guys like this order or should I change it back to the old??

[PCC_NS]

thank you HawkGer !

I could find really nice mods!

[eie]

"sorted from earliest to oldest"
I know I'm trying to stop being a grammar nazi :p
Either "earliest to latest" or "oldest to newest"

Also, Might there be a category for Futuristic / Space mods?

EDIT Could you also make some clear transitions between the categories. Maybe different colour, or a bit more space between them, because now you almost can't notice it ^_^

[Igntul]

i think sorting them per theme is better^^
and making categories.. like.. egyptian mods, middle age mods, futuristic mods, horror mods, i dont know what else, etc..
but per historical time sounds good too,so you can leave it how it is.. i'm just giving an advice^^

[HawkGer]

I realized I would have had to make a hundred different categories and also realized it would have been much harder sorting them into the right one. Guess I'm too lazy ^^ But I like it this way anyhow
Hmm...I think all the futuristic/space mods are all pretty much next to each other. They are not really historical, but one can imagine them to be. That's also why I had this earliest/oldest mess because latest and newest don't include the future. Maybe "farthest in time" would be most suited.
Tried to make the headings a bit more obvious...