Well to give an outside point of view...
FringeSpace was the byproduct of RazorsKiss and myself
going over what all "could" have been done had things not
been against Tachyon from the start. The more we went into
discussion, we found some of the following...
1. The groundwork had been laid for a mod, but all others had quit or
lost interest in a project with no future.
2. We both had some of the skills necessary to work on a mod, we
both had interesting ideas as to new content, and we both got along
fairly well and were of a single mindset when it came to plowing through
large amounts of work. (Communication is "a key" so to speak)
3. Tachyon had at one time a large following, but it was lost due to many
factors in the community and of course the game never being expanded.
4. We had able minds, why not just start it ourselves.
After this and we decided to go through with making a mod, we looked around
for a suitable similar program that would be able to mimic Tach's flight model.
Freespace 2 was settled on due to the modding community.
After that we gathered as much information as possible (and that's a never ending process)
concerning how to mod FS2 in particular, what was needed, what could and could not be
done with the tools or knowledge at hand, and tried to fill in "the blanks."
A website, forum, and registration/minor advertising was established afterwards to serve as
a base of operations. Shortly thereafter a project plan was penned, in order to provide some focus
and organization. A logo was made to be a symbol for the mod, and remaining players of Tach
were informed of the undertaking that was starting up.
We were able to jump "from 0 to 60" pretty quickly because we had models already.
In the process of testing and beginning to tweak, we found those models to be full
of errors, so we had to take a step back and re-evaluate what needed to be done to
get the best overall benefit. This was simply a result of we went (or tried) too far too fast
and needed to bring ourselves up in terms of skill - and recreate what we wanted.
Other fans or individuals began to fill in spots where we needed help in around this point -
the rest is pretty much in progress history.
So if you want some short points:
1. Find someone of like mind to co-author the proposed mod. Two heads
are better than one.
2. Research and build up your own skills, before and during content creation. You'll always be learning.
3. Establish a structured base, a flexible yet firm plan, and advertise a bit so people know you exist.
4. Continue working at it, toss ideas around, get & give additional help as needed.
5. Don't confine yourself to a time frame if you plan to do your best. Update your "news" as often as possible.
6. Try to have some fun at what you're doing, if it's not a "labor of love" so to speak then
why be doing it in the first place?
Oh and something from personal experience, "I can't" and "impossible" shouldn't
exist in your mental vocabulary. There's always a way... you just have to be patient enough,
flexible enough, or resourceful enough to find it.
Good luck
