Hello all. I'm new to the board. I hadn't played Arcanum for something like a year and a half, when last month I read a book called Perdido Street Station. It's an amazing steampunk novel, and it sparked my interest in Arcanum once more. Three play throughs later, and I'm feeling interested in constructing a mod that recreates the city in which the entire book takes place. On the one hand, I'm making this thread as a means of throwing the gauntlet down, to make sure I won't try to wuss out of it. On the other, I'm also extremely curious to know if any of you have read the book, as it resonates so closely and powerfully with Arcanum, it is uncanny. I've read through all of the AMTUT tutorials, and I've started plotting out ranges for scripts and such. I'm lucky(?) in that the general layout of the city has been done for me by the author of the book, in a map, and many unique and interesting locations already exist and merely need to be translated into WorldEd format. I know that mods have an incredibley high abandonment rate, but aside from that is there any advice from the learned that I could stand to hear?
Build it and link it here. The mod will be played, I assure you. We've been looking for some english mods for quite some time now, so I guess you came with the save, didn't you?
Take map making slowly. It's very easy to run out of steam. I finally got myself to a rate where I could maintain it for awhile without getting bored. I made and perfected about 1 or 2 buildings a day. By a day I mean in about an hour, as that's all I could spend on modding each day. But that got me to a level where each building got my all and I didn't get bored staring at that fucking screen. If you feel yourself getting bored of it, quit it for the day, but make sure you come back the next. But minor goals in your agenda book or planner, i.e. "I have to do the laundry, finish my paper, and I'll try to finish that general store today." When you get to scripting, find someone you can yell incoherent things at without them getting upset. It's very useful for venting.
True. Like a building-short, or something. I just can't figure that shit out. And I hate it. I hate it badly.
Ooh, that would be cool. A mod that takes place inside one single building... It wouldn't have to be that short either really, if you had a clever story. Best part is, you won't have to create some huge-ass map.
I've decided to build the Diplomats/Embassy floor of Perdido Street Station, the central railstop of the New Crobuzon. I figure it'll be a good starting point, and it being a seperate map from the rest of the world (being a third floor) I don't have to worry about long lingering side effects of design. It also means I can get to the fun part sooner, writing dialogue and sprucing the place up.
Don't use up all the fun in the beginning. If you do, you'll soon get bored by the mod and quit making it.
If you think that writing dialogue is the fun part then you are in for a real treat. For every 1 hour of map building I have spent 20 to 40 hours on dialogue. You mention that making a separate map avoids possible complications. All my areas are on separate maps which link to the world map using teleport tiles. This way even if I change the plot I don't have to remake the main map, all I do is change a few tiles. Just something to think about if you are planning a big project.
