Mod Authors

[Hamguy31]

Do you mod authors collab or are you working on things on your own?

I expect if its alone it makes sense it would take a long time to release your mods.

[Guest]

Never did a huge mod for FO4, but my experience on Skyrim will still apply.

 

Some small things are better done alone.

Some experimental things are better done alone.

Coding is difficult to share between multiple coders. Also for big projects.

Collaboration is really good when the different participants work on different things (one on Actors, another on Quests, another on coding, etc.)

 

When working with multiple people I always do a GIT repository to contain the data. This is the only way I found useful to exchange the progress and the modified parts between different contributors.

 

[RitualClarity]

How hard is it to get a GIT repository setup?

[DexesTTP]

How hard is it to get a GIT repository setup?

https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/

 

10 minutes ?

[RitualClarity]

Thank you.. this post might derail the thread a tiny bit but that link is so informative. I wanted to use this to keep my stuff organized if / when I do any changes on the mods etc. This can do so much for this. Need to read more and get some of the time to do this. (where I can really concentrate and learn to understand the process not just go through some steps. This generally takes double the time but usually I keep the skills for much longer and it is easier to refresh if I forget. )

 

Those curious.. have a quick look above and then go to the site. No chances of your hard drive failing and you loosing your work using GIT

 

Edit:

Dam, I already learned something.. lol. I though Pull was something totally different. I'd say everybody that does any serious modding should read at least the page if they cannot actually do the tutorial. Just reading it helps many understand what Ashal and others are doing when they use GIT. When you go to get a file from a GIT repository and what you are doing.

[Hamguy31]

Thank you.. this post might derail the thread a tiny bit but that link is so informative. I wanted to use this to keep my stuff organized if / when I do any changes on the mods etc. This can do so much for this. Need to read more and get some of the time to do this. (where I can really concentrate and learn to understand the process not just go through some steps. This generally takes double the time but usually I keep the skills for much longer and it is easier to refresh if I forget. )

Hello World · GitHub Guides 2016-09-29 14-41-54.png

 

Those curious.. have a quick look above and then go to the site. No chances of your hard drive failing and you loosing your work using GIT

 

Edit:

Dam, I already learned something.. lol. I though Pull was something totally different. I'd say everybody that does any serious modding should read at least the page if they cannot actually do the tutorial. Just reading it helps many understand what Ashal and others are doing when they use GIT. When you go to get a file from a GIT repository and what you are doing.

I wonder if there is a system like git but you can look at a treeview that everyone can look at and see how it's growing from a seed to plant.

[Halstrom]

I wonder if there is a system like git but you can look at a treeview that everyone can look at and see how it's growing from a seed to plant.

Another reason to use GIT is so the people accessing it are limited, a lot of time can be lost from false bug reports and repetitive questions from people without skills to understand what is happening.

[Gameplayer]

I work alone, usually I know exactly what I want and even when the projects are very big they tend to come together fast.

Quite a few works I've done can take months of free time and even then such a project is difficult to work on with someone else.  The other person has their own time constraints and may not feel as passionate about working on said project and/or have a clear vision and destination for the work.  There is also the matter of the experience of working on a project through its stages.

 

I don't know about other people but the more work I get done on the project the more eager I get to completing that work....I don't like the idea of stopping in a work once it has a significant time investment since that then is waste of time if its never completed, so I tend to start doubling down on time and effort.  So I come off as quite driven or something anyway....I have at times had family and friends yelling and screaming for my time during projects that are lengthy in hours, weeks, months.  Its a balancing act from hell as well since it starts to demand quite a bit of personal discipline over long periods of time.  Some of the projects I've done require a measure of faith/belief that the end result will in fact work especially when its something that requires an enormous time investment before testing can even begin like weeks of work before it can be put into game just to see if one part is working.

 

Large Outfit packs which I work on mostly can benefit from having additional people working on them well simply due to the shear massive scale of the project.  There are many parts that go into making that work so it can simply be a benefit to having someone build the ESP and another building outfits.

Of course several people could build those as well.

 

Key is clear communication,

The problem is committing time and staying motivated and on task despite nothing coming your way as a result of your effort.

[Carabosse]

Spite, vindictiveness, self importance and jealousy are poor bedfellows. Mod creators can represent the worst of these attributes.

[Hamguy31]

Wouldn't collaborating be more efficient, sure you can be as passionate as you want but take for example github. You can be the admin and set a end goal and a starting point. people can work on different parts of the mod to get it done and you can either accept or decline a revision. some people are better than you in some aspects of coding, you are better than them in other aspects. combining this could make something better, faster and could even produce something new that no one has ever thought of.

 

It would also make it easier to branch different versions of your mod and they can create entirely new mods based on your backbone.

 

Gameplayer complained about time, but you can work on whatever you want in your own time.

[RitualClarity]

I have been on the back end on some projects and some work very well as the group is well defined and work well together others are as carabosse stated.. and the project can't be completed and people soon stop work. See they aren't being paid for their work and many have different "visions" of what is to be done. This can cause problems even if there is an "admin" or group lead. Something that can be done for this is having a clear defined outline of what is needed, when it is needed and etc. However RL does happen and even the best intentions can fail and the project come to a standstill. Gameplayer's process does work... however often times has caused RL problems to those that use it and also causes modding burnout to some.

 

 

It would also make it easier to branch different versions of your mod and they can create entirely new mods based on your backbone.

You are talking about a framework? If so yes. having one would be good but however just like any other project .. there is great arguments on what goes in that framework and how much control over the dependent mods will be given. Any project that has more than 1 person can have conflict and issues with the "vision" of the final project. During this ... some get so fed up they leave the project and perhaps even the site that they were on.

 

I think it is best to work with someone on small projects first. Get a feel for them and how they work and then start building on this. Create a network of skilled people that you can call upon for help on project that you can trust. Doing this however might mean that you will also be working on and helping others as well from time to time on alternative projects as well.

[Guest kimbale]

Spite, vindictiveness, self importance and jealousy are poor bedfellows. Mod creators can represent the worst of these attributes.

 

Most of those never get the good stuff done or don't stay with communities where they could get help. I met my share of weirdoes ... suprisingly they are most civil around here. ^^

 

And well, how am i gonna help someone who doesn't even ask?  

[Hamguy31]

I have been on the back end on some projects and some work very well as the group is well defined and work well together others are as carabosse stated.. and the project can't be completed and people soon stop work. See they aren't being paid for their work and many have different "visions" of what is to be done. This can cause problems even if there is an "admin" or group lead. Something that can be done for this is having a clear defined outline of what is needed, when it is needed and etc. However RL does happen and even the best intentions can fail and the project come to a standstill. Gameplayer's process does work... however often times has caused RL problems to those that use it and also causes modding burnout to some.

 

 

It would also make it easier to branch different versions of your mod and they can create entirely new mods based on your backbone.

You are talking about a framework? If so yes. having one would be good but however just like any other project .. there is great arguments on what goes in that framework and how much control over the dependent mods will be given. Any project that has more than 1 person can have conflict and issues with the "vision" of the final project. During this ... some get so fed up they leave the project and perhaps even the site that they were on.

 

I think it is best to work with someone on small projects first. Get a feel for them and how they work and then start building on this. Create a network of skilled people that you can call upon for help on project that you can trust. Doing this however might mean that you will also be working on and helping others as well from time to time on alternative projects as well.

Why would they leave? they could develop their own version of the mod and take their vision where they wanted it to go.

 

Take for example The Animal Mansion the mod author made a great mod and for some reason decided he couldn't go on with it so he released it for others to take over. from that 3 different versions of the original mod have come out each are going their different paths or improving on existing versions.

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/2217-animal-mansion-plus/

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/2000-the-animal-mansion-redux/

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1827-the-animal-mansion-and-redux-uskp-fixes/

 

On git the original mod author can continue his mod and if anyone ever decides they want to branch off and go another direction they can easily fork the project and make their own version. some people will follow the original mod author, some people want a different version.

 

The mod author can decide if a person's code gets added to the branch or not, lay out a clear idea of where you want your mod to go, and introduce jobs you want completed so you don't have to do everything yourself, check their code or let others take the task of checking as a job.

praise those that help and contribute so they feel good about their contribution.

 

people work for free on things and feel good about it if they feel they are contributing to something and making a difference.

[DexesTTP]

I wonder if there is a system like git but you can look at a treeview that everyone can look at and see how it's growing from a seed to plant.

No idea if that's what you meant, but there's http://gource.io/ or similar tools to use with Git, to create a "blooming" animation of the project through time.

Example with Minecraft :

 

Also, to dispel some misconceptions people sometime have (maybe it has been said before, I haven't read everything above yet) :

- Git can be used alone or with others, but is useful in both situations because it allows reverting changes and storing data on external servers in one click.

- Git is pretty easy to use on a basic level. There's literally four "new" things to know about : pull, push, commit and merge.

- Git can be used without the command line ! A lot of people use TortoiseGit, but my personal recommendation is SourceTree. It's so step-by-step, you can't really get lost.

- Having a Git project doesn't mean everyone can change your code, especially on GitHub ! By default, you need to manually approve any change that make it into your code base, it just makes it waaaay easier to add contributions to your project (clicking a button).

- Git+GitHub can do on a basic level : version management, collaboration management, issue/bug tracking, contributors tracking, cloud storage. All of that represents just pull, push, commit and merge. There's much more to use Git for if you want to go deeper.

[Hamguy31]

 

I wonder if there is a system like git but you can look at a treeview that everyone can look at and see how it's growing from a seed to plant.

No idea if that's what you meant, but there's http://gource.io/ or similar tools to use with Git, to create a "blooming" animation of the project through time.

Example with Minecraft :

 

Also, to dispel some misconceptions people sometime have (maybe it has been said before, I haven't read everything above yet) :

- Git can be used alone or with others, but is useful in both situations because it allows reverting changes and storing data on external servers in one click.

- Git is pretty easy to use on a basic level. There's literally four "new" things to know about : pull, push, commit and merge.

- Git can be used without the command line ! A lot of people use TortoiseGit, but my personal recommendation is SourceTree. It's so step-by-step, you can't really get lost.

- Having a Git project doesn't mean everyone can change your code, especially on GitHub ! By default, you need to manually approve any change that make it into your code base, it just makes it waaaay easier to add contributions to your project (clicking a button).

- Git+GitHub can do on a basic level : version management, collaboration management, issue/bug tracking, contributors tracking, cloud storage. All of that represents just pull, push, commit and merge. There's much more to use Git for if you want to go deeper.

 

that video was basically what i meant, thanks for explaining git. You should make a more detailed topic so more people here could get into using git.

[RitualClarity]

 

I have been on the back end on some projects and some work very well as the group is well defined and work well together others are as carabosse stated.. and the project can't be completed and people soon stop work. See they aren't being paid for their work and many have different "visions" of what is to be done. This can cause problems even if there is an "admin" or group lead. Something that can be done for this is having a clear defined outline of what is needed, when it is needed and etc. However RL does happen and even the best intentions can fail and the project come to a standstill. Gameplayer's process does work... however often times has caused RL problems to those that use it and also causes modding burnout to some.

 

 

It would also make it easier to branch different versions of your mod and they can create entirely new mods based on your backbone.

You are talking about a framework? If so yes. having one would be good but however just like any other project .. there is great arguments on what goes in that framework and how much control over the dependent mods will be given. Any project that has more than 1 person can have conflict and issues with the "vision" of the final project. During this ... some get so fed up they leave the project and perhaps even the site that they were on.

 

I think it is best to work with someone on small projects first. Get a feel for them and how they work and then start building on this. Create a network of skilled people that you can call upon for help on project that you can trust. Doing this however might mean that you will also be working on and helping others as well from time to time on alternative projects as well.

Why would they leave? they could develop their own version of the mod and take their vision where they wanted it to go.

 

Take for example The Animal Mansion the mod author made a great mod and for some reason decided he couldn't go on with it so he released it for others to take over. from that 3 different versions of the original mod have come out each are going their different paths or improving on existing versions.

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/2217-animal-mansion-plus/

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/2000-the-animal-mansion-redux/

http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1827-the-animal-mansion-and-redux-uskp-fixes/

 

On git the original mod author can continue his mod and if anyone ever decides they want to branch off and go another direction they can easily fork the project and make their own version. some people will follow the original mod author, some people want a different version.

 

The mod author can decide if a person's code gets added to the branch or not, lay out a clear idea of where you want your mod to go, and introduce jobs you want completed so you don't have to do everything yourself, check their code or let others take the task of checking as a job.

praise those that help and contribute so they feel good about their contribution.

 

people work for free on things and feel good about it if they feel they are contributing to something and making a difference.

 

 

There often times is a battle over the work that they individually contributed. If they gave some armors and decided to leave.. they take the armors with as they have the copyright. This can be devastating. Basically they are the child that takes the baseball home when he gets mad at the other kids that are playing ball. Unless they have another ball... they are SOL. This is the most extreme situation though. Most just stop working on a project and the project languishes in the "development" mode until it just gets dropped all together. People generally can't take the mod elsewhere as others own the work and likely won't like or allow their work to be used for another project especially if the project they wanted it in isn't being completed.

 

One of the keys I have seen work fairly well is choose your partners well. Look to those that are present for a long time and have a nice body of work along the lines of what you are looking for. Currently active and a plus is if you can offer something for them in return. For example a coder might want a texture artist for some custom tweaks to an armor or such and the texture artist might want some coding done for his or her mod..Both projects being worked on at the same time or about the same time.

 

Even that don't work at times. There are a couple of big names here that had a major falling out because of things they did or didn't do in the project(s)

 

It is best to be as clear and concise as possible, what is being done, needed by the individual and what if anything you are returning in favor, times it will be done by. Keep in mind there is almost always steps in the process that can be shown from textures to animation to coding that can at least show that the work is being done on the project. Even if there are delays you can see pretty much from the updates what has been done and hasn't been done. Keeping up on the project and various status helps  keep things moving well and helps you focus on any of the partners that are having problems completing their end of the task so that hopefully you can help resolve those issues or at least help prepare for those delays. Really helps in the frustration if the team understands that something happened and x, y, and z will be delayed for x time but this is what has been done on it so far.

[RitualClarity]

 

 

I wonder if there is a system like git but you can look at a treeview that everyone can look at and see how it's growing from a seed to plant.

No idea if that's what you meant, but there's http://gource.io/ or similar tools to use with Git, to create a "blooming" animation of the project through time.

Example with Minecraft :

 

Also, to dispel some misconceptions people sometime have (maybe it has been said before, I haven't read everything above yet) :

- Git can be used alone or with others, but is useful in both situations because it allows reverting changes and storing data on external servers in one click.

- Git is pretty easy to use on a basic level. There's literally four "new" things to know about : pull, push, commit and merge.

- Git can be used without the command line ! A lot of people use TortoiseGit, but my personal recommendation is SourceTree. It's so step-by-step, you can't really get lost.

- Having a Git project doesn't mean everyone can change your code, especially on GitHub ! By default, you need to manually approve any change that make it into your code base, it just makes it waaaay easier to add contributions to your project (clicking a button).

- Git+GitHub can do on a basic level : version management, collaboration management, issue/bug tracking, contributors tracking, cloud storage. All of that represents just pull, push, commit and merge. There's much more to use Git for if you want to go deeper.

 

that video was basically what i meant, thanks for explaining git. You should make a more detailed topic so more people here could get into using git.

 

 

Yes... a more detailed topic on GIT would be nice. Also didn'n't know that the above video could even be used for GIT as well.

 

 

Gource includes built-in log generation support for Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and SVN. Gource can also parse logs produced by several third party tools for CVS repositories.

The more I read the more benifit it would be to use GIT for all the mod authors here regardless of skill level unless they don't like it.. Having the stuff stored on an external server protected. Able to change the versions and make commits and such to the main source... Just very useful.

[Love Space]

I like a team effort when developing mods, aslong others can use it and enjoy it.

To answer your question, I would like to collab with others rather I make the mod or someone else did. Which ever gets it finished, whatever keeps the modding community moving forward.

Most people like to work alone because credits glory or to prevent others from stealing it and uploading it else where. But they should stop, there is absolutely noway to prevent thief, and even a screenshot of OC can be replicated / stolen ideas.

1+ on thread, would like to see other opinions.

 

[Kimy]

Wouldn't collaborating be more efficient, sure you can be as passionate as you want but take for example github. You can be the admin and set a end goal and a starting point. people can work on different parts of the mod to get it done and you can either accept or decline a revision. some people are better than you in some aspects of coding, you are better than them in other aspects. combining this could make something better, faster and could even produce something new that no one has ever thought of.

 

It depends on what you are doing. I currently maintain two large projects, one I basically wrote alone (Deviously Cursed Loot) and another that's team developed (DD). The latter requires different talents, as 3D modelling, animations and code are all needed. Nobody in the team is well enough skilled in all three fields, so this project basically requires a team. In this case this not only means that we have professional or professional-equivalent talents available in each required field, but it also ensures that different ideas, use cases and points of view are represented. Which makes sure that DD (which is a framework mod) can serve a broad spectrum of applications.

Now, DCL is basically just code (and some 3D models I obtained permission to use but didn't create myself). It is also a content mod, not a framework. I can write code in a fairly efficient manner, and not having to coordinate with a team saves me time that I can spend for writing more code. DCL is still open source. People have contributed code fragments here and there, and I am grateful for them - but overall I never saw a good reason to make DCL a community project. Whether or not team-based or solo development is better really depends on the project. There is no universally valid answer to the question which approach is better.

 

It would also make it easier to branch different versions of your mod and they can create entirely new mods based on your backbone.

 

That's actually what you do NOT want. Forking projects is almost always a bad thing. Why? Because you usually end up with two fairly similar projects doing similar things, each having some desirable features, but none having all of them. Forks basically make you decide if you want Great Feature A or Great Feature B, but you can't ever have both. Had these projects collaborated, they'd have put Great Feature A and Great Feature B in the same mod and users could enjoy -both-. Also, a lot of time and effort will have to be invested into maintaining -two- projects when the same effort could have went into developing more actual features. There is a reason why forking projects is frowned upon in the open source community - it's just a waste of time and effort, and in the end everyone loses.

 

[DexesTTP]

Now, DCL is basically just code (and some 3D models I obtained permission to use but didn't create myself). It is also a content mod, not a framework. I can write code in a fairly efficient manner, and not having to coordinate with a team saves me time that I can spend for writing more code. DCL is still open source. People have contributed code fragments here and there, and I am grateful for them - but overall I never saw a good reason to make DCL a community project. Whether or not team-based or solo development is better really depends on the project. There is no universally valid answer to the question which approach is better.

 

Although I get why you think this is better for DCL specifically, and I wouldn't want you to change your method (I'd prefer faster releases over good methodology ), I'd advise against this for people who don't yet have an habit when working on a project.

 

I insist on this, and to be honest I'd never see it be wrong : team-based tools are the one, best solution to manage a project whether you intend to work alone or in a team.

 

Team-based tools require, again in my opinion, a GitLab-like solution (be it actual GitLab, GitHub, BitBucket, VS teams or any other thing you want with the same effect). The idea is to make your code visible, reviewable and externally testable as easily as possible. This can only have the effect to improve any issue/bug report you'd have, help you understand and merge eventual collaboration snippets you'd want to include or even provide you with QoL tools such as roadmap planners.

 

Even if underused, the simple fact that a project is managed for you for everything from version tracking to cloud backups should make choosing team-based tools for solo projects a no brainer.

 

What I mean is, if you've not started yet go with a GitLab/GitHub based tool for your project development. Also, a quick plug, LoversLab has its own GitLab (available at http://git.loverslab.com/ ) which is basically a non-github version of GitHub.

 

That's actually what you do NOT want. Forking projects is almost always a bad thing. Why? Because you usually end up with two fairly similar projects doing similar things, each having some desirable features, but none having all of them. Forks basically make you decide if you want Great Feature A or Great Feature B, but you can't ever have both. Had these projects collaborated, they'd have put Great Feature A and Great Feature B in the same mod and users could enjoy -both-. Also, a lot of time and effort will have to be invested into maintaining -two- projects when the same effort could have went into developing more actual features. There is a reason why forking projects is frowned upon in the open source community - it's just a waste of time and effort, and in the end everyone loses.

 

I agree with what you said about projects branches drifting apart being bad. We should all try to keep all releases as one single project, and as often as possible not branch into mutually exclusive options.

 

However, I'd actually like to make a point for forking. Forking a project is just to go develop the project on your own, without caring for the original project changes. Yes, this can (and rarely will) lead to the fork drifting apart from the project and the two becoming mutually exclusive, but in an overwhelmingly huge proportion of forks this isn't the case, and the projects are reunited after some time.

 

In my opinion, the main interest of Git is the assistance in merging branches. Git will handle all the trivial work of merging, and require just mutually exclusive changes to be manually edited. This means that, barring a complete code refactoring on one side or a particularly ill-formed project, you can include all the features from a different branch in the main project, and Git will only require assistance for the actual "combination" logic.

 

And, that's actually the case for all projects hosted on GitHub. Before contributing, you're usually required to "fork" a project, do what you want to do with it, then submit a "merge request" back to the main project. Then, either the main project people will make the two branches compatible via assisted merging or (most of the time) the person who made the "merge request" will have solved compatibility issues before by taking the main project's branch back and merging his changes with it.

 

For more information about this model (as well as some advice about how to enforce it for yourself in personal projects) you can see this article (warning : a little bit technical). I've used in in several private or professional projects now, including HKXPack, and it always have proven quite effective.

[Kimy]

 

Now, DCL is basically just code (and some 3D models I obtained permission to use but didn't create myself). It is also a content mod, not a framework. I can write code in a fairly efficient manner, and not having to coordinate with a team saves me time that I can spend for writing more code. DCL is still open source. People have contributed code fragments here and there, and I am grateful for them - but overall I never saw a good reason to make DCL a community project. Whether or not team-based or solo development is better really depends on the project. There is no universally valid answer to the question which approach is better.

 

Although I get why you think this is better for DCL specifically, and I wouldn't want you to change your method (I'd prefer faster releases over good methodology ), I'd advise against this for people who don't yet have an habit when working on a project.

 

I insist on this, and to be honest I'd never see it be wrong : team-based tools are the one, best solution to manage a project whether you intend to work alone or in a team.

 

 

Oh, I totally agree that using professional tools is always a good thing. I never said otherwise. My statement was covering the actual team aspect only, not the tools used. While I don't use GitHub for DCL as there is no point opening the development repository to the public if I have no intention of making it a community-driven project, rest assured I am using proper versioning control system locally. I am pretty much a Git fangirl, so yes, that's what I am using.

 

PS: Professional standards and fast releases aren't mutually exclusive.

[DexesTTP]

While I don't use GitHub for DCL as there is no point opening the development repository to the public if I have no intention of making it a community-driven project, rest assured I am using proper versioning control system locally. I am pretty much a Git fangirl, so yes, that's what I am using.

 

Well, that kind of was the point in fact  You are already doing most of the work, and you're missing on half the fun ! At this point why not just open a GitLab project and push your repository there... It'd take like 5mn at most, and provide you with - at least - nearly automatic cloud storage.

 

(no, I'm not at all thinking of setting a rss feed to monitor DCL commits )

 

As I said, I understand why you would not want to do it specifically for DCL, and the last thing I'd want if for successful projects to take more time or for modders to be less comfortable when developing their projects. That's why I was mostly aiming my reply to new modders

[Kimy]

 

While I don't use GitHub for DCL as there is no point opening the development repository to the public if I have no intention of making it a community-driven project, rest assured I am using proper versioning control system locally. I am pretty much a Git fangirl, so yes, that's what I am using.

 

Well, that kind of was the point in fact  You are already doing most of the work, and you're missing on half the fun ! At this point why not just open a GitLab project and push your repository there... It'd take like 5mn at most, and provide you with - at least - nearly automatic cloud storage.

 

(no, I'm not at all thinking of setting a rss feed to monitor DCL commits )

 

As I said, I understand why you would not want to do it specifically for DCL, and the last thing I'd want if for successful projects to take more time or for modders to be less comfortable when developing their projects. That's why I was mostly aiming my reply to new modders

 

 

As much as I like Git, but GitHub is nearly pointless if you're not collaborating online with others. Except you really don't run backups of anything else either, but let's just assume people smart enough to figure out CK and Papyrus aren't -that- silly.

Personally? People have called my backup regime "paranoid" when I explained it to them, so storing stuff in somebody's publicly accessible cloud isn't going to add anything useful that I am not already doing.   I will concede it doesn't hurt to do it either, but I can't see a compelling reason to use an online repository for solo projects.

[RitualClarity]

 

 

While I don't use GitHub for DCL as there is no point opening the development repository to the public if I have no intention of making it a community-driven project, rest assured I am using proper versioning control system locally. I am pretty much a Git fangirl, so yes, that's what I am using.

 

Well, that kind of was the point in fact  You are already doing most of the work, and you're missing on half the fun ! At this point why not just open a GitLab project and push your repository there... It'd take like 5mn at most, and provide you with - at least - nearly automatic cloud storage.

 

(no, I'm not at all thinking of setting a rss feed to monitor DCL commits )

 

As I said, I understand why you would not want to do it specifically for DCL, and the last thing I'd want if for successful projects to take more time or for modders to be less comfortable when developing their projects. That's why I was mostly aiming my reply to new modders

 

 

As much as I like Git, but GitHub is nearly pointless if you're not collaborating online with others. Except you really don't run backups of anything else either, but let's just assume people smart enough to figure out CK and Papyrus aren't -that- silly.

Personally? People have called my backup regime "paranoid" when I explained it to them, so storing stuff in somebody's publicly accessible cloud isn't going to add anything useful that I am not already doing.   I will concede it doesn't hurt to do it either, but I can't see a compelling reason to use an online repository for solo projects.

 

You can easily give the link to someone to help you  if you run into a problem. They if they are able to use GIT can do the work and then upload a file that provides the assistance you want. You then can test the file and make sure it is what you are wanting before committing it to the main

 

If I understand the process. I have only read some various articles on it. So even if you have your backup procedures covered, GIT can still allow limited distribution to those that you want to have some help. Even the best modder working on a solo project can and does run into a problem. Sometimes they are so fucking stupid easy fixes but the author just misses it. Easy distribution and collaboration does help with this. Gives a second, or even third set of eyes.

 

Also another reason is if there are a few dedicated testers that you have vetted properly (have the skills and willingness) you can add them to the GIT and they can keep on downloading the newest freshest patch and it will be properly setup as well. If they also happen to be semi skilled in modding and see a mistake they can re-upload a corrected file and you at your leisure can review it and see if it is what you want and if it does indeed fix the issue.

 

So even if you are solo, and have the backup covered. There can be times where a quick distribution would be convenient. The only compelling reason I would say not to use it is if you don't want  anyone else seeing your work.

 

[SlapMeSilly]

Some food for thought. Maybe a question or two.

 

I think I'm having trouble following some things. I'll admit my experience with Git (GitHub specifically) is pretty limited. I have 2 projects up there and I basically use it as a personal versioning dump for the code of those 2 projects. They happen to be GreaseMonkey user scripts for those interested.

 

 

I understand how a team can use the merging features for text related files. But I'm having trouble understanding how one would use it for something like a Skyrim/FO4 mod repository. I guess you can upload files of any type (nif, dds, etc) and it just stores it verbatim without trying to do diff calculations.

 

The part that I don't understand is how a team might work on a mod plugin itself. Or maybe I'm mis-understanding and only one person would be doing the esp/esm related things while there rest of the team is off doing their own (textures, models, sounds). I suspect that is closer to how most would do it. I suppose there could be instances where multiple authors could make plugin data on their own and then xEdit to generate a merged patch that contained it all. Though that seems like it could cause duplicated records or other intricate issues. I suspect that's how Bethesda does it in house though (multiple source plugins and an intelligent merger).