Newcomers will get annoyed with the extra crowd. You just have to get used to it. If you're a modder, with the years you will learn an "ancient" wisdom about modding; It is not about making the game as realistic as possible, it is about finding a balance between fantasy and realism. Making the game as crowded as it is today, is probably realistic, but it is undesireable, because you can create the impression and the effect of crowds without implementing huge crowds. It takes magic and skill to do that.
I suggest listening to Sid Meier, he is a very wise game designer. His philosophy is not to implement the entire world into the game, but to implement the entire world in the players fantasy. For example (This may not be the finest example) but the lack of clear voice from the people you talk to is one such effect that Sid Meier talks about. You can't hear what any person in the game is saying, there is no voice, other than a little bit of "noise" and "random talk". This initiates the fantasy of the player to imagine rather than to be dictated WHAT to imagine. You see, if you dictate what the player should be hearing, what he should be seeing, you are creating a game that suits your own fantasy but not necessarily the fantasy of the player.
But even as true as this is, if the player expects something from the designer, perhaps the modder gives the player a few hints that he is about to discover a treasure. Never let the player down, when you give the player expectations, never let him down. He will turn off the game instantly. There is a secret "relationship" going on between the game designer and the player, a "pact" I guess. The designer promises the player that he will be rewarded when being hinted, the player accepts that he is the hero in all situations and he expect to be rewarded without being cheated by the designer.
Any situation in the game should be "neutral", if you know what I mean by that. The player should be allowed to fantasize what is going on, what is being said and what is happening. If you can create a game that is almost entirely neutral, you leave it up to the player to actually "create his own game" in his fantasy.
And when you allow the player to "create" his own game in his fantasy, the game becomes perfect, because any fantasy the player comes up with, is what he wants to experience.
The same applies to text and conversations between characters in the game. If you dictate a conversation very strongly, using well definitive words, the player will be forced to follow that conversation. If you "neutralize" the conversation so that the player can "alter" the conversation in his own head, the game will become better.
Being strict should be used in a reduced manner, only as a tip or a guide to hint the player in what field he should be fantasizing. What happens in fantasy is often much better than realism. Realism dismantles your fantasy, fantasy builds up where realism can't go further.
A funny example: If you model a house, but nothing is inside the house, just plain textures around the house, but nothing inside, this gives the player one kind of fantasy, you leave it up to him to imagine what could possibly be inside that house. The modeller saves both time and effort, he doesn't have to spend hours designing what is inside that house, because the player can fantasize about it, and the game becomes even better.
That was a bad example, but you can do amazing things with very simple techniques.
If you dictate "fate" too much, you are robbing the player of his fantasy.
The designer/modder should be dictating somewhere around 30 or 40%, the remaining 60% should be left up to the players imagination. The dictating is important to lead the player into a category of imagination, as a hint.
As a modder, make it a habit to review your work when it is done. Can you find elements in your creation that identifies characteristics of your own personality? If you can find similarities to yourself in your own mod, the mod is not good. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything good in the mod, but it just means that the mod will most likely follow a strict path that corresponds to your own personality. It's the overall that is probably not good, there can still be good situations here and there, but if you can backtrace anything in the mod to your own personality, the way you like things yourself, or anything that identifies you (the modder), the mod is probably bad.
You can find examples of this in New Horizons if you follow the church missions, the modder is clearly an atheist and that ruins the game because you know what is going to happen next, because you know the modder is an atheist. Problems arise when the modder is modding his own personality into the game. You should always strive for neutrality in any way you can achieve that. That doesn't mean the church missions didn't have humor in it, I surely did laugh many times, but if you do that, if you implement your own person into the game, it becomes predictable and it absolutely destroys the players imagination.
Being a modder is a fine compromise between ego and sacrifice. Know yourself better, are you modding because you want to put your own person into the game or are you modding to innovate and create experiences for the player. Be honest with yourself, know what the purpose of the mod is.
For example, when you hire new crew, the text that displays "I want to hire dogs, preferably smarter than dogs". This is funny, but it goes back to that ego thing I was talking about. The "smartness" that repeats itself throughout the game. If you talk to that guy who retires from your ship, he says to you he is old and wants to retire, and the reply text is "As if your white beard isn't a testimony for that". The "smartness" repeats itself all over the game, and here comes the ego part again.
Is the purpose to create romantic experiences in the cabbin or is it to create experiences of being a true pirate? Is the purpose to create church missions where you can be an actor in the name of the church or is it to promote your ideas about atheism? What should be the purpose of the front picture when the game loads, is it to dictate what the player should imagine, or is it to let the player imagine what he wants to imagine. Learn from the original game, there were no picture in the loading screen, and it is a very healthy choice to leave it out. It's a very nice ship in the loading screen (I think it is the victory ship) but is it really necessary?
Define your goals. (We humans do this more often than we want to admit, but we often take our personal problems and mod them into the game without being aware of it)
It takes incredible skill to find that balance. Most people can't do it. You can't ask a modder to improve, if he didn't do better he can't do better. But I am only talking about this to make modders aware, I don't expect them to improve overnight, it's all about understanding. The mod is graphically excellent, technically excellent, but it suffers from a personal agenda.
Once you realize this very, extremely simple basic thing: That the game is not personal, it is interpersonal. The very basic idea of any game, is that it should suit a lot of players. It's the simplest form of understanding, that you should always strive to create interpersonal games where each player gets his share of the experience. The most simple form of mistake you can do as a game designer, is to put your own person into everything in the game. That's the most basic and probably the worst mistake you can do.
This proves that you can be a very good modder, but still a very bad modder. The foundational law of a game shouldn't be broken. To forget to put up the toilet seat before pissing is a very fine excuse to quit modding. That is a mistake you can't live with.
If there are 100 levels of mistakes you can do as a game designer, the first and most simple mistake would be to create a game that suits your own person. It's like Nathaniel Hawk in the beginning of the game with no skill points. You would either have to be extremely egoistic, or have extreme agenda.
I'm going to give an advice, it can be a blow to take it to you, but consider this: You're a modder, you're faced with a decision of what text to put into the game. You're an atheist and you sit between these two texts from the priest
"I'd like you to find my daughter so that she can come back to church and serve here with his holy father"
Nathaniel can respond with two answers:
1. "Why should she come back to serve God, he doesn't exist"
2. "I will do my best to find your daughter, mr. Priest"
You're a modder and you happen to be an atheist. Should you implement 1 or 2? You could implement number 1, but even if that one is random too, it's probably more wise to go for number 2.
When modding, try to put your ego aside, I would suggest you to try it just one time. See how far it will take you.
I suggest listening to Sid Meier, he is a very wise game designer. His philosophy is not to implement the entire world into the game, but to implement the entire world in the players fantasy. For example (This may not be the finest example) but the lack of clear voice from the people you talk to is one such effect that Sid Meier talks about. You can't hear what any person in the game is saying, there is no voice, other than a little bit of "noise" and "random talk". This initiates the fantasy of the player to imagine rather than to be dictated WHAT to imagine. You see, if you dictate what the player should be hearing, what he should be seeing, you are creating a game that suits your own fantasy but not necessarily the fantasy of the player.
But even as true as this is, if the player expects something from the designer, perhaps the modder gives the player a few hints that he is about to discover a treasure. Never let the player down, when you give the player expectations, never let him down. He will turn off the game instantly. There is a secret "relationship" going on between the game designer and the player, a "pact" I guess. The designer promises the player that he will be rewarded when being hinted, the player accepts that he is the hero in all situations and he expect to be rewarded without being cheated by the designer.
Any situation in the game should be "neutral", if you know what I mean by that. The player should be allowed to fantasize what is going on, what is being said and what is happening. If you can create a game that is almost entirely neutral, you leave it up to the player to actually "create his own game" in his fantasy.
And when you allow the player to "create" his own game in his fantasy, the game becomes perfect, because any fantasy the player comes up with, is what he wants to experience.
The same applies to text and conversations between characters in the game. If you dictate a conversation very strongly, using well definitive words, the player will be forced to follow that conversation. If you "neutralize" the conversation so that the player can "alter" the conversation in his own head, the game will become better.
Being strict should be used in a reduced manner, only as a tip or a guide to hint the player in what field he should be fantasizing. What happens in fantasy is often much better than realism. Realism dismantles your fantasy, fantasy builds up where realism can't go further.
A funny example: If you model a house, but nothing is inside the house, just plain textures around the house, but nothing inside, this gives the player one kind of fantasy, you leave it up to him to imagine what could possibly be inside that house. The modeller saves both time and effort, he doesn't have to spend hours designing what is inside that house, because the player can fantasize about it, and the game becomes even better.
That was a bad example, but you can do amazing things with very simple techniques.
If you dictate "fate" too much, you are robbing the player of his fantasy.
The designer/modder should be dictating somewhere around 30 or 40%, the remaining 60% should be left up to the players imagination. The dictating is important to lead the player into a category of imagination, as a hint.
As a modder, make it a habit to review your work when it is done. Can you find elements in your creation that identifies characteristics of your own personality? If you can find similarities to yourself in your own mod, the mod is not good. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything good in the mod, but it just means that the mod will most likely follow a strict path that corresponds to your own personality. It's the overall that is probably not good, there can still be good situations here and there, but if you can backtrace anything in the mod to your own personality, the way you like things yourself, or anything that identifies you (the modder), the mod is probably bad.
You can find examples of this in New Horizons if you follow the church missions, the modder is clearly an atheist and that ruins the game because you know what is going to happen next, because you know the modder is an atheist. Problems arise when the modder is modding his own personality into the game. You should always strive for neutrality in any way you can achieve that. That doesn't mean the church missions didn't have humor in it, I surely did laugh many times, but if you do that, if you implement your own person into the game, it becomes predictable and it absolutely destroys the players imagination.
Being a modder is a fine compromise between ego and sacrifice. Know yourself better, are you modding because you want to put your own person into the game or are you modding to innovate and create experiences for the player. Be honest with yourself, know what the purpose of the mod is.
For example, when you hire new crew, the text that displays "I want to hire dogs, preferably smarter than dogs". This is funny, but it goes back to that ego thing I was talking about. The "smartness" that repeats itself throughout the game. If you talk to that guy who retires from your ship, he says to you he is old and wants to retire, and the reply text is "As if your white beard isn't a testimony for that". The "smartness" repeats itself all over the game, and here comes the ego part again.
Is the purpose to create romantic experiences in the cabbin or is it to create experiences of being a true pirate? Is the purpose to create church missions where you can be an actor in the name of the church or is it to promote your ideas about atheism? What should be the purpose of the front picture when the game loads, is it to dictate what the player should imagine, or is it to let the player imagine what he wants to imagine. Learn from the original game, there were no picture in the loading screen, and it is a very healthy choice to leave it out. It's a very nice ship in the loading screen (I think it is the victory ship) but is it really necessary?
Define your goals. (We humans do this more often than we want to admit, but we often take our personal problems and mod them into the game without being aware of it)It takes incredible skill to find that balance. Most people can't do it. You can't ask a modder to improve, if he didn't do better he can't do better. But I am only talking about this to make modders aware, I don't expect them to improve overnight, it's all about understanding. The mod is graphically excellent, technically excellent, but it suffers from a personal agenda.
Once you realize this very, extremely simple basic thing: That the game is not personal, it is interpersonal. The very basic idea of any game, is that it should suit a lot of players. It's the simplest form of understanding, that you should always strive to create interpersonal games where each player gets his share of the experience. The most simple form of mistake you can do as a game designer, is to put your own person into everything in the game. That's the most basic and probably the worst mistake you can do.
This proves that you can be a very good modder, but still a very bad modder. The foundational law of a game shouldn't be broken. To forget to put up the toilet seat before pissing is a very fine excuse to quit modding. That is a mistake you can't live with.
If there are 100 levels of mistakes you can do as a game designer, the first and most simple mistake would be to create a game that suits your own person. It's like Nathaniel Hawk in the beginning of the game with no skill points. You would either have to be extremely egoistic, or have extreme agenda.
I'm going to give an advice, it can be a blow to take it to you, but consider this: You're a modder, you're faced with a decision of what text to put into the game. You're an atheist and you sit between these two texts from the priest
"I'd like you to find my daughter so that she can come back to church and serve here with his holy father"
Nathaniel can respond with two answers:
1. "Why should she come back to serve God, he doesn't exist"
2. "I will do my best to find your daughter, mr. Priest"
You're a modder and you happen to be an atheist. Should you implement 1 or 2? You could implement number 1, but even if that one is random too, it's probably more wise to go for number 2.
When modding, try to put your ego aside, I would suggest you to try it just one time. See how far it will take you.
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