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Since I tend to prattle on about my hobby of game modding, I thought I would explain a little more about it. I know nobody will be interested, but I am just silly that way.

A game mod is player created content or "modification". Basically games that support modding will have tools released by their development company that typically accompany the game itself, or can be downloaded for free. These are the same tools that the developer uses when they create the game, so some knowledge of programming and coding is very helpful. Just to clarify, my knowledge of game modding is limited to basically one game (outside of new artwork for a second one I like) so a game such as sayTES3 Morrowind will be fairly different from what I do with Dungeon Siege.

In essence, mods are "plugins" that work with the game itself, and add new content to it...whether it is a large modification or a small one. For RPG's, game mods could include new weapons, spells, armor, creatures, or even a new type of player character. One of the games I play, Dungeon Siege (an older action/rpg game) is very mod friendly and one can even have conversions that simply utilize the game engine itself and from that basic foundation add all new content...basically creating a brand new game from the "bones" of another.

I don't know that much about coding and so on...so I can't do that. What I have been doing is on a much smaller scale, but once again...it helps me figure things out, brush up computer and art skills and is just fun overall.

Armor is basically this:

2D layouts




Plus templates

[t:template,n:june_armor-1]
{
doc = "june_armor-1";
specializes = base_body_armor_cloth;
[aspect]
{
gold_value = 70;
}

[common]
{
screen_name = "Midnight Leather";
}
[defend]
{
armor_style = june1;
armor_type = a1;
f defense = 150.000000;
}
[gui]
{
inventory_height = 2;
inventory_icon = b_gui_ig_i_a_pos_a1_june1;
inventory_width = 2;
}
}
[t:template,n:june_armor-2]
{
doc = "june_armor-2";
specializes = base_body_armor_cloth;
[aspect]
{
gold_value = 70;
}

[common]
{
screen_name = "Scarlet Vest";
}
[defend]
{
armor_style = june2;
armor_type = a1;
f defense = 150.000000;
}
[gui]
{
inventory_height = 2;
inventory_icon = b_gui_ig_i_a_pos_a1_felix;
inventory_width = 2;
}
}

And from that (plus some other minor details, such as inventory icons) you get this:




Those are very simple templates (they can be a lot more complicated ) for a specific type of armor, in this case it is type a1...which is a type that mimics "real" clothes, in other words fairly fitted to the body. Armor in games is a combination of a 3D model or mesh that the character puts on, and a "skin" that lays over the mesh to give it a unique appearance. Both of these items are the same armor "type" a1, but both have very different appearances. In this game there are 9 different armor types, with 9 different 3D meshes. I like a couple of them, but some are just kind of ugly, so even with a custom "skin" they still don't really cut it.


Here is a picture of a type a1 body armor with two type a2 body armors...say that fast three times. (the a stands for "armor" btw)



The type a2's don't normally look like a dress, but I like dresses and made my textures for these accordingly. The long robe or gown is another type that is nice.



In addition to creating body armor, I make the hats, boots and gloves. In fact, if you know how, you can make pretty much anything.

Shields, for instance:



Or say...Toto from the Wizard of Oz



Toto is a combination of a really long template I am still working the bugs out of, plus some custom artwork, plus another template for a spell to summon him into the game, since he never existed there before. Well, there was a little white dog that roamed around one of the towns, but it never did anything and was just to create ambience. I utilized it's basic skeleton or mesh and created a black dog similiar to Toto.






So, in summary...geeky,silly, dorky...YES. But still....It is knowledge and knowledge is fun.