Very new - looking for advice on honing skills

[Ymir]

I just registered here, and only recently found out about the Dark Mod a couple of days ago, so this post serves a dual purpose: an introduction and a request. I'm pretty excited about it and I'm interested in eventually making a full campaign. I had ideas about this already, but never had the tools to go through with it. TDM seems very promising in that regard.

 

I realize that a full campaign will require a lot of time and energy, as well as quite a few skills that I don't currently have. This is compounded by the fact that the world/story of my desired campaign is quite different from that of Thief or TDM, so I'll have to do a lot of custom textures, models, animations, and sounds. Though I have some limited programming experience, I know how to do almost none of these things. So my question is, what are the best resources for learning the skills I'll need, and how can I best practice them over time, eventually building up to making the campaign I want?

 

I've done a bit of reading on the Dark Mod wiki and it seems like there's a lot of useful info, but I'm curious about any specific tips you guys may have for me.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you have to offer.

[Melan]

Welcome!

 

You do not need any specific skill to learn editing (I didn't have any when I started), only inspiration and perseverance. However, note that making a full campaign is already a hard task, and making one with your own models, sounds and animations is a major undertaking even for a group of people. Many have tried, most have failed. I would strongly advise you to start with one small or medium-sized mission first, and try to limit the extra resources. Once you have a better grasp of editing, you will know how much work you can realistically do, and build your missions one by one.

 

The best start is the A-Z tutorial, which helps you build a simple beginner's mission. Fidcal's guide to mapping is a handy reference. There are some good beginner tips here. I also had a thread here on building quick, beginner-friendly mission design using prefabs. Understanding visportals is very important for performance!

 

It can be useful to use the Startpack map when you begin your mission, since it has the essentials included. And of course, it never hurts to look at maps others have built to see how they did things. (They did not always do things optimally!)

[Ymir]

Thanks for your advice and resources!

 

I'll be sure to hold back on trying to jump right into the campaign. Once my exams are done and I have some free time to kill, I can really start teaching myself how to work with all of this stuff. I'm looking forward to it!

[demagogue]

You learn by doing. Think of your first as a trial run where you'll make learning mistakes and learn as you go. Open up other FMs in DR to see how they do things too.

 

There are some wiki entries focusing on best practices or methods, so I'd really take those to heart, especially for visportaling open areas, the first big newbie challenge. And build clean. Stay on a big grid size like 8 or 4 as much as you can, and keep everything flush and 90degs for brushes, and save small details and weird angles for overlays you convert to func_stats.

 

In our experience, working on campaigns works best when you release them mission by mission, and think in terms of releasing just the next on the list. You're playing with fire to work on all of them at the same time and release together. Maaaybe if it's only 2-3 missions, but even then releasing separately is good.

 

Welcome and good luck by the way!

[Anderson]

Thanks for your advice and resources!

 

I'll be sure to hold back on trying to jump right into the campaign. Once my exams are done and I have some free time to kill, I can really start teaching myself how to work with all of this stuff. I'm looking forward to it!

Welcome and good luck to you! We love small missions!

[grayman]

Welcome!

[Springheel]

I can only echo what others have said. Start with a small mission first. (I'd recommend 6-8 rooms max). Only then will you have a realistic sense of how much work a campaign might be.

 

And welcome aboard.

[SteveL]

One tip originally from RJFerret that I've repeated several times -- but it can't be said enough -- is to use google when searching for info in this forum and the wiki instead of relying on the built-in search feature which is way too limited.

 

Search for whatever you want in google, and add site:thedarkmod.com to the search terms. It'll search both the wiki and the forum. Finding that out was what gave me my breakthrough in learning how the game and DR work.

[Ymir]

Thanks, guys.

 

Over winter break I can do some small maps as practice and familiarize myself with the tools. Next semester I'll be taking a class in C++, so I'll be much more useful in terms of coding then. I appreciate the warm welcome and the advice, everyone.

[nbohr1more]

You don't need C++ experience to be a mission author but I guess it helps if you wish to develop scripts since the syntax is "C like".

(Don't let that deter you from investigating the code though, we are always happy to see new patches that address bugs in the overall project.)

 

Here's a thread with a few editing videos to add to the above:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12554-tutorials-in-darkradiant/

[Ymir]

I just had an idea. Maybe you guys can tell me what you think of it.

 

I've been wanting a game based in a certain world for a long time now, but all of the ones that came out were received poorly and (if multiplayer) lost server support after a short time. So I already had a fair amount of ideas of what sort of game I would want before ever coming across TDM, and consequentially it's been pretty easy for me to come up with storyline/mission ideas. I've got a word document with pages of ideas and details that I wrote down for when I eventually get around to the campaign itself.

 

The thing I just thought of is this: why not use the mission ideas I ultimately want in my campaign as inspiration for my first few maps I make as practice? I can simply do smaller, less complex versions of the maps I want as the final product (of course omitting all extra textures and models, etc.) in order to get the hang of DarkRadiant and map design in general. For example, a couple of missions that ought to be early in the campaign are an underground "tomb raiding" style mission, a mission set in a mine (this will be somewhat similar to TDP's Cragscleft Prison, only you start at the surface and work your way down into the mines), and a fortress infiltration.

 

It seems like this would be a good idea because I wouldn't be overwhelmed with complexity right at the start, yet I would be making products that would eventually be useful to me as starting points when I begin the campaign in earnest.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Ymir

[Melan]

Ymir: That is a good idea, and how most of us are doing it. If you wish, you can update your initial missions later when you have had some more practice (Bikerdude and Sotha have done the same). You can also start with initial, mission-by-mission releases, and package the missions as a campaign when you are finished (as is the case with No Honour Among Thieves).

 

You don't really need programming experience to create missions (I have none, and am from a non-tech background), but the mindset can help.