i think that the best way to get a really good welcomming to this forum, is if you just throw in an idea and ask people what they think! and possibly ask questions about stuff that is not currently understood perfectly. not if anyone would like to do it for you. cuz lets face it, nobody will ever do anything for anyone without some sort of reward. wether that be money or cookies or candy…
That means I’m nobody? 
according to my theory, yep…
and my theories are rearly wrong. BE GONE YOU USELESS DEAMON OF USELESSNESS!!! xD
how many “s” was there in this comment? counting the quote.
The latter point is a great way for the n00b as well as the other established modders to possibly learn together, thus enriching all of us.
Thanks, ponyus. That point requires additional details. These details take the form of a badly-needed general announcement to anyone & everyone requesting modding help from this point forwards. So:
[size=115]Dear modding n00bs,[/size]
It is not enough that someone asks nicely, politely, respectfully or even gets on their knees and begs us to create whatever (fill in the blank) mod for them.
If the person asking shows no inclination - I mean zero - to at least try to make it themselves, they should not expect much help, if any at all. The n00b modder typing some semi-coherent forum posts about how his Boosted Plasma-Hydraulic Barbecue Laser should have a tracking no less than 407 and a fire interval of -6, and then waiting smugly for someone else to drop everything and make it happen, does not count as trying to make it themselves.
Why? It’s really simple:
[size=200]Because we are NOT your personal army.[/size]
We’re not technicians for hire, talent for rent, mercenaries to the highest bidder, or even monks doing charity for the heavenly spirit.
We do what we do purely for the love of the game.
It’s okay to start off modding GSB from a personal knowledge base of zero; hell, that’s all of us started. 
However, it is 100% not okay to treasure your ignorance and expect aid if you yourself do not want to learn. And it is 200% not okay to give in to laziness and expect the active membership of Gratuitous Modding to do everything for you out of a stupid and misplaced assumption of “well, that’s what modders DO, right???”
If you don’t even care enough about your own concept, your own inspiration, to even lift a single finger to grow it and advance it from formless thought locked inside the prison of your own skull until it finally becomes files and doucments that mesh with GSB’s game engine for any willing player to see, hear and enjoy…
…if your idea isn’t even worth any of [size=150]your own[/size] time…
…then it isn’t worth [size=150]ours[/size], either.
I had to split my thoughts into two replies not just for clarity, but also because my carpal-tunnel pain is getting the best of me. 
Anyhow…
Now we get to the less unpleasant half of the subject. 
In this case, I think that most or even all of us feel the reward is more than just personal gratitude or even public acknowledgment of the debt. The reward is also the knowledge that a n00b modder trying to make something happen with his own effort that will let him or her eventually realize their personal creative vision. It’s the knowledge that this modder learned something along the way. It’s the knowledge that this modder is now in a position to continue creating improved or entirely new content for the game.
That’s what we want to have happen as a result of aiding someone’s own effort in modding.
I enjoy the thought of knowing that my time, insight and skills went into helping someone push themselves to reach that point.
If the established modders give them nothing but hand-outs, freebies, gifts or favors of mod content, that generally does not help them ever get to that point.
Why?
It’s not enough to simply get there; to get the work done somehow, by somebody else. That means you don’t understand how it was done. That means you don’t know how it functions. That means you don’t grasp the implications of how it meshes with (or improves) the rest of the core content in GSB. It would be a shame if all that the n00b became was just a glorified technician. Anybody can change an oil filter in an engine. Instead, we’d like to help them win the race at Le Mans or the Indy 500. But then again, a fresh oil filter might be all that you really need. We can assist you with a modest goal as well as a grand one. But we really HATE having people expect us to do everything for you as a right or a privilege that they’re due.
So, then…if the n00b modder asking us for help is not only shows us he knows how to be polite and avoid giving offense left and right, is enthusiastic about making his idea hap[pen within the game, and wants to learn how to do it himself, then I think it’s safe to say that we’ll roll out a warm welcome for you and try to help you get it done, or at least help you get enough of it done that you reach the point where “you get it” and understand how to do the rest with just your own effort. We’re available for advice and input and quality control, too. As long as you convincingly show us that you want us to help you to help yourself, then there will be persons willing to guide you through the maze.
In closing, no we are not a bunch of heartless ogres, or misers who never give anything away. Rather, we’re a bunch of easygoing folks who have seen one too many lazy GSB’ers begging for hand-outs, and heard one too many self-entitled jerks thinking that their mod plans are awesome but that they’re personally “too cool for school” and can’t be bothered to get their own hands dirty.
OK this is way too much typing for my injured arms. Gotta drop out of warp and make emergency repairs. All of thge above BADLY needed to be said, though. Carry on!
first of all. Archduke, that is amazing! you used to be a teacher right? (or am i thinking of someone else?) i think that everyone in this forum agrees with every letter of those two posts. thank you! 
second. my first post here was like, hey guys! i am working on a mod, but wont post here that much. instead ill post on these other websites. k? bye!
then Thunderbird responded that i should post here instead and look at me now! im working on two mods! yay! im not going crazy at all! what cookies?!?! we have cookies!?!?!?
SUGAAAAR! NOMNOMNOMNOM! MOAR PLX!!
I agree whole heartedly agree and support everything Archduke has said
Especially this part:
As an example, if i see someone working on a mod and they are making progress but have become stuck on one aspect of modding, i am willing to lend a hand and create whatever is causing in order to help them progress. For example:
CptFox - Man-O-War Cruiser for his Aqua Mod
Ponyus - Redeemner Cruiser & Siege Turret for his Deserters Mod
Praetors - The turret Graphics and Icons for the Praetorian Ind. FIRST COMMUNITY RACE
Cen2050 - Siege and MOAT turret griphics and a Few Cruisers for the Union Mod
Wasabi of IP - Locking Down the Standard Weapons for his Ancient Ones Mod
A few other mods that are not public knowledge yet. . .
When you look at the work i have done it is only a fraction of the mod, yet it helped the author one way or another (or so i hope) and they have taken my work and and built on it.
These very same people and plenty of other modders out there, have done exactly the same thing and helped other people in the community and so on and so forth building the modding community.
cough ancient ones cough 
or is exactly what you helped with secret? O_o
And I second this motion to purge this forum of laziness, rudeness, and other forms of n00bishness. Except the creative bit, we always need that :), and the lack of knowledge, that is inevitable.
OMG - I knew i had forgotten another important mod, Sorry ! (edit, fixed)
You have already announced that mod - so its not really a secret but an important mod non the less
Also i mentioned in the thread what i was going to do in the mod for you, so thats not a problem.
However there are one or two other mods that are in the works but are still not public knowledge.
I will let the authors disclose their respective mods when they are ready . .
But that is one advantage of helping - you get to play with the mod before any one else
Well, if someone would pay me to do something that I’d do anyway out of pure love for the game, I’d be happy! but, he’s not paying us is he?
That’s our Randy…such a passion for taking my conversational points well out of context, eh buddy? 
If it makes you feel better, pretend that I’m paying you in imaginary and nonexistent units of currency for the equally imaginary and nonexistent modding you’re doing for me.
As for the happiness you alluded to, the only race that signifigantly deals in “happy” is the Tribe. If I had their repair systems, I’d be happy too!
No need- I charge $0.49 (rounded off to the nearest dollar) per ship.
How about GSB credits?
Sure! I accept all forms of currency.
I completely agree with you Archduke. That sort of announcement was really needed.
Especially this part:
…THIS. ^^^
I’ve always been a creative person. A dreamer. I can easily get new ideas (normaly really strange ones) for anything without even wanting them. I’ve forgotten how many papers with sketches and random thoughts I have accumulated through all my life. I even had to stop using notepad for writting down about my creations and start using .odt text documents in order to easily navigate through the quantity pages that could span a single one of them.
It would be easy to request other people to make all those ideas a reality. It would be easy to sit back and watch how your grunts build your dreams. But then, when they are completed, when you truly see your creation somewhere else which isn’t in your mind; you won’t be watching what you dreamed. It will be someone’s else work, someone’s else effort. It’s true that the idea may have been yours from the begining but what you’ll have in front of you won’t be yours. Why?
Because you never bothered in participating to make that dream a reality and yelling orders will never count towards that.
As Archduke said, if you don’t even bother in working in your dream in the slightlest, if you don’t have the will to dirty your hands in order to accomplish it, other people won’t have any reason to bother in helping you.
I’ll tell for the newbies a story. A story about me reaching this same forums and my modding work.
I still remember when I first found GSB more than a year ago, it was the first game I bought online in my life and the sci-fi muse I had thought lost long ago. I quickly noticed the modding forum. It lacked proper documentation about how to mod the game but, scattered around many threads, I slowly found slices of information about random topics. The information seemed hard to understand at first sight but it was enough to get the basics after looking the game files. It was enough to experiment on my own in order to discover what each one of the lines in the code did. I’ve barely needed to use the forum to ask if something can work or how.
I started working on a new race with crappy looking ships. I barely knew how to use a graphics editor, I had never used one before which wasn’t Paint. I could have requested someone else to make them for me but nobody is better at making your own ideas than yourself. I built part of my Geom mod without the help of anyone. Those early Frankensteins may have been the worst looking ships ever but I didn’t care at all, they were my own creations and I’ve never truly aimed to get prestige with my work. That mod isn’t finished yet, RL kicked in, ironically, around this same dates.
Geom may be sitting in limbo in terms of completeness but I still have them for my own use. But that isn’t the mod people know from me.
The old ones may perfectly remember from where most of the ships I used come but, for the newbies, I’ll let you know if you didn’t that 20 of them weren’t made by me. The creator of those ships, Eich, created and uploaded them as free to use sprites. I asked for permission and, later, built my new mod with them, slowly implementing those hulls in progressive releases. There weren’t any designs for the DLC races and Eich offered to make the missing ones sometime later. I didn’t ask him to make them in any specific way or make X ships for the already existing mod, honestly, I didn’t even had initially planned the mod with more than those 20 ships. Life didn’t give him enough free time to work in them so I made a decision. I had two hands, a graphic editor and my own imagination. I was perfectly able to build the rest of the designs witout having to request them to someone else. And that’s what I’m doing at my own pace without having to bother anyone else.
And if you don’t believe the crappy ships part I said from my first mod, everyone started somewhere:
Now, there’s no excuse to keep pusing back your dream unless you are that goddamn [size=150]lazy[/size].
Thank you, SirJamon.
That’s the heart of it. Either put up some effort, or shut up. Everything simplifies to that one decision. I know which one this forum supports.
I think the Mod Squad knows that character type when it sees them. They tend to broadcast it loud and clear.
Well spoken, Archduke. And though you wrote it in a very direct style, it’s still much more polite than everything else that I would have said to that person if I had really opened the flood-gates all the way.
Noobs: Just start modding. Open up your game install, figure out “what goes where” with the folder structure, and start reading what’s in those textfiles. Ideas are easy to come up with; a dime a dozen, as they say. Making your ideas into a mod is not hard. We have no time for people with ideas who won’t get their hands dirty in working with them to make them playable.