Yeah, TheHound. If you read this - don't screw up with Venice Mirror .
I certainly don't aim at failure
As far as I am a mostly newcomer to HLP, ill give my own word about it.
FRED is pretty easy to begin with, and making basic missions without any modpacks is like hell possible - Derelict is a fine example (even if old one, still rocks).
About the bar set too high... well, i think it might dwarf people from doing anything. In development of VeniceMirror i had a period i have set a bar for myself - make a cutscene that would be even more epic then BP intro... and ended up hanging up the whole project for at least two weeks, thinking how i should put this off. Thankfully i dropped the idea and continue at my very own pace.
FRED'ing also takes a lot of creativeness which not everybody can come up with. Some people create miracles (look at Axem cutscenes...)
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And i wouldn't say that it lacks FRED'ers, I am already aware of 5 project being worked at hand, and at least 3 scheduled for their release soon.
The problem is, that big project take a lot of time, and scene is rather unwelcoming for new people - i know that from my own experience when i started to post missions. There was barely any feedback, and if there were, that were the same few people.