13 replies to this topic

[Munchkin Mooch]

Hey. I'm asking, because mods are volunteers' marvels. I thought I could share my thoughts on the ones I played, but I wonder, perhaps it's not something done around the modding scene not to hurt modders feelings in case someone criticized their work? I'd rather ask beforehand. Last thing I want is to offend anyone here

[Mike1072]

I think honest feedback is usually appreciated.  Mods still in development often request feedback in their forums.  If you have suggestions you think would improve a mod, you might want to track down its forum and post there to ensure the mod author will read what you have to say.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

Usually the author's email is either in the readme and/or main tp2, if you specifically want to address it to the source.

[Roxanne]

If you want to provide helpful feedback you may want to look at threads here in the forum like

micbaldur's playthrough of BGT

or Syvishtar's Journal

They identify issues in the context of a large installation and also provide some neutral insight of what a player may expect from a ceratin mod or combination of mods.

If the intention is to provide just your own feelings of whether you liked/enjoyed/disliked a mod personally...that is just your own personal judgement and in most cases tells the reader more about the writer than about the subject. Mods are very divers in intention and contents and there is rarely a *neutral* way to judge them other than from a technical point of view (bugged or not, compatible with rest of game etc.) Otherwise, there are as many people who love Jan Jansen and cannot get enough of him as there are people who would never take him into the party at all. This is just personal taste, and it helps little if everyone posted their personal preferences here. (I read things like *I do not like NPC XXX because I do not like her voice* - who needs this?)

And what about mods adding difficulty, items, scripts and other overall game *improvements*. You either personally want such modifications in your game or not - it is pure personal preferences whether you enjoy battles more than romances or vice versa or both at - what you think - is the right mix....

Edited by Roxanne, 17 March 2016 - 01:44 AM.

[kreso]

Hey. I'm asking, because mods are volunteers' marvels. I thought I could share my thoughts on the ones I played, but I wonder, perhaps it's not something done around the modding scene not to hurt modders feelings in case someone criticized their work? I'd rather ask beforehand. Last thing I want is to offend anyone here

I did something similar. Take a look, you could post your toughts there or create your own thread. Mind you, it's a bit outdated and I still haven't uploaded a "tweaked" Fixpack.....bleh. 

I remember a lot of people said that it was fairly useful thread - so I'd say go for it. Public, honest opinion is always a good thing. Few might get offended, so choose wisely what you write .

 

If the intention is to provide just your own feelings of whether you liked/enjoyed/disliked a mod personally...that is just your own personal judgement and in most cases tells the reader more about the writer than about the subject.

There's nothing wrong about that, and isn't always true. If a mod is techically perfect, and other stuff about it is by most people labeled as bad (imba hackmaster equipment and similar) I bet more than a few would be willing to know w/o trying out themselves...

[Ulb]

A review will always be heavily influenced by the reviewers personal tastes and opinions but that's not a bad thing and certainly no reason to hold back on reviews or discourage them.

 

I think most people understand that perfectly well.

 

Personally I'm a big fan of mod reviews. With the amount of mods out there it is almost impossible to evaluate them all by yourself and decide whether you want to play them or not.

 

What is most important to me is that the reviewer offers his opinions on a larger number of mods.

Before a review of an unknown mod is of any help or interest to me, I need to read a review of a mod I'm familiar with.

Only then am I able to tell to what extent the reviewers tastes align with my own.

 

So, by all means, please go for it Munchkin

Edited by Ulb, 17 March 2016 - 03:35 AM.

[Munchkin Mooch]

Yes, I was thinking opinions-for-players to take a peek at, not a solid feedback for modders - I post all bugs in another thread where I consolidate them for modders to view, if they would feel like it. Once I'm done with SoA I'll update that thread and mark more important bugs red since there's a big bunch of those

 

I like reviews too. From a review that says "Holy cow, there was SO much text, no hints in quest entries and idk 100 riddles all over the stupid maze, not even 1 fight or useful item, I hated it" I might decide to instantly install the thing, because I like mazes. It doesn't matter the other person hated it But it could also tell me it wouldn't be something I'd enjoy.

 

I guess judging by your guys' opinions, I'll make a topic and post some reviews later. I'm not someone who bashes things and says THIS IS A PIECE OF MOOSE DUNG so hopefully no hellgates of pain will open if I point out something *I* didn't like

Edited by Munchkin Mooch, 17 March 2016 - 04:25 AM.

[Almateria]

Sometimes I wonder if Roger Ebert ever asked any director about their hurt feelings before reviewing.

[subtledoctor]

I think it's a good idea. Obviously you can review something and be critical of it, while using language that isn't offensive.

Personally, I wouldn't mind this kind of feedback at all. It's one thing when people track my forum threads down and point out bugs or incompatibilities etc. But I also want to know how players view them when everything's working perfectly. Do my feats for warriors turn fighters into crazy powerhouses? Do my mods create too many thac0 bonuses and make the early game a cakewalk? (I think the latter might be true, even though I bump starting thac0 from 20 to 21...) Did you uninstall my mod in displeasure after playing it for an hour? Why?

I want to hear that stuff so I can improve the mod. It's not always easy to hear, but as long as it takes the form of constructive criticism, I think it's a fine idea.

Edited by subtledoctor, 17 March 2016 - 07:00 AM.

[Munchkin Mooch]

I think it's a good idea. Obviously you can review something and be critical of it, while using language that isn't offensive.

Personally, I wouldn't mind this kind of feedback at all. It's one thing when people track my forum threads down and point out bugs or incompatibilities etc. But I also want to know how players view them when everything's working perfectly. Do my feats for warriors turn fighters into crazy powerhouses? Do my mods create too many thac0 bonuses and make the early game a cakewalk? (I think the latter might be true, even though I bump starting thac0 from 20 to 21...) Did you uninstall my mod in displeasure after playing it for an hour? Why?

I want to hear that stuff so I can improve the mod. It's not always easy to hear, but as long as it takes the form of constructive criticism, I think it's a fine idea.

 

I don't know if I have your mods installed Would you give me their names so I can check? Tweak-mod reviews are tricky though seeing how I mix a whole bunch of them and then... well, it's a soup. A special kind of stew where specific morsels might be hard to fish out and taste separately...

Edited by Munchkin Mooch, 17 March 2016 - 09:28 AM.

[The Imp]

I don't know if I have your mods installed Would you give me their names so I can check?

This is why the forum signatures exist, sub's G3 sign:

Faiths & Powers: Spell spheres and kit pack for priests and paladins
Might & Guile: Tweaks and kits for warriors and rogues
Scales of Balance: Game tweaks and ruleset overhauls
NPC_EE: More options for NPCs in BGT, BGEE, BG2EE

[subtledoctor]

I'll list my mods in a spoiler to keep from distracting from on-topic conversation...

Spoiler

Might & Guile... A spiritual... nephew? to Song & Silence - but aside from a tiny bit of kit overlap (Sharpshooter/Sniper, Chorister/Loresinger) they work great together.
Tome & Blood... lots of cool tweaks and kits for wizards and sorcerers. Most of it is by Aquadrizzt but several components were from me, like the revised wizard specialist kits, an attempt to spice up single-class wizards with unique bonuses, to make them as attractive for players as the standard dual>wizard or sorcerer.
Scales of Balance... A straight tweak mod. Some of it goes further from 2E PnP rules than most mods, in the pursuit of fun gameplay; but other parts of it are relatively minor.
NPC_EE... Enables joinable NPCs to have different kits and, to a lesser extent, different classes. EE-only, combine this with BG2Tweaks' "TOB-Style NPCs" for the closest thing to LevelOneNPCs for EE games.
Faiths & Powers... A spiritual... grandnephew? to Divine Remix. Several dozen new cleric and druid kits with different archetypes, a new kit selection method, and a sphere system. As per usual with my stuff, it gets further away from PnP in order to reach a more fun and interesting result. Not released yet, but we're hoping to have it ready in a couple weeks when SoD ships.

[Munchkin Mooch]

I don't frequent G3, how could I have known? ;p

 

Hm. I don't think I have those installed. I had issues getting Might & Guile at the time of my installation so I had to skip it, I recall there was something there I wanted but no luck. In general, I mostly stuck to my good-old familiar tweaks. I don't use custom kits from anything, so that's not much for me. If I have some PnP tweaks installed... I don't know. I probably wouldn't notice unless they bit into something super familiar

 

I know something made it that the Abilities from ToB are no more in Spellbooks and instead they are innate skills. Also, only 1 Spike Trap. What caused it? No idea It's pretty cool though. I fear I'm not the best player to give you valuable feedback, too clueless about what's happening in my install as you can see, hah. Thanks for making mods though, I'm sure some number-crunching/PnP lovers and players who seek rule refreshments appreciate them very much!

[Fouinto]

IMHO, if you don't want to hurt, don't name it "Honest BWP mod reviews" but something like "BWP mod reviews & personal opinion"

I see you already dit it

Edited by Fouinto, 17 March 2016 - 11:29 AM.