I'm not a modder, not yet anyway, though I am making my first sincere effort right now with GalCiv2 TotA.
This is something of an irony because I've always wanted to try it, and have spent all kinds of time creating, "houseruling", and otherwise altering various non-digital types of games. It's an even greater irony because I am, as I write this, taking a course for a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Game Design. I'm sincerely considering of course following it up with appropriate degrees in 3d digital art and programming.
I mention this with a certain degree of disappointment about two things.
First, has anyone ever actually FINISHED a mod? It seems to be an astonishingly rare event, even for the simpler ones that don't include new or altered models. It just seems that both interest and support die off relatively quickly, and whoever was working on the mod simply drops off the face of the internet. No posts at least notifying those who ARE still interested that they've given up their efforts, let alone an explanation why. I understand they're not obligated, and they get nothing for their trouble, but to not even say "I'm not working on the mod anymore" just seems rude anyway. I mean, if you're doing it for yourself, then who cares if there's interest from others? If you're doing it for others, then couldn't you at least tell them you quit? Ah well.
Second, is it just me, or do the .xml files in most games seem ... well ... cluttered and sloppy? This actually kind of leads back to my first observation, in that modding is a difficult thing to do because of the intensive effort needed to alter the right files in the right ways, especially in instances involving major revisions. Obviously it's a tedious, time-consuming, and somewhat difficult task in its own right, to say nothing of the fact that in any given file, nothing is consistent in its organization. Looking over it all, it seems glaringly plain to me why certain games need so many patches, and in some cases remain quite buggy.
In such cases, I kind of understand why some mods aren't finished, while I think the rest aren't finished because the modder(s) didn't get enough attention by it. It's unfortunate in either case, especially when an idea has massive merit.
On a final note, as I pointed out I'm currently working on my own mod. I'd like to make it available to the community and see what everyone thinks, but I'm not yet sure how to go about that. Never done it before, after all. But even so, I'm forced to ask myself, would anyone even care to begin with? Does anyone even really bother with mods for these games anymore? I guess I'll find out.
