[karajorma]

Exactly. What kills most newbie projects is a mixture of a few things.

1) Feature Creep - If you're making a mod using only FS2_Open + Media VPs you have an easy life. If you're downloading and using a bunch of mods it gets harder. If you want to make a few mods - harder still. If you're planning on having entire new fleets of ships you might as well forget it unless you've proven that you can make them yourself very quickly (like Scooby can) or you get lucky enough to hire someone who can. The same goes for campaign length. 10 missions is a lot more work than it sounds. Even an accomplished FREDder is going to take months to make that many but some people have plans for 30 or 40 mission campaigns. I've even seen plans for campaigns with 80 or more missions.
 Keep your campaign plan realistic. If you can't tell your story in that few missions consider breaking the campaign up into chapters. That hugely increases the likelihood you'll get something released. Which also makes it easier to recruit new talent to work for you.

2) Supervisor Syndrome - This is where someone comes up with a great idea for a mod but doesn't have much in the way of skills to contribute beyond the initial idea. The problem is that projects only work if the team is committed to them. And if the leader of the project isn't doing any work he's going to find it hard to get anyone else to do any after the first 2-3 weeks. I can't think of a single project that has been released that had a supervisor in charge. Pretty much all the big releases have been helmed by people who have worked very hard on the project.
 In general that means the team leader needs to know how to FRED or how to model. I doubt there are many examples of successful releases where the team leader couldn't do either.

3) Enthusiasm Failure - When you first start making a campaign you'll work on it non-stop, every night and every weekend. But few people can keep that up for long. That's when the real campaign makers get separated out from the people who'll never produce anything. Cause even though it may sometimes feel like a chore the committed people will still open FRED or 3DS Max and get to work because they know the end result is worth it.



Okay, enough doom and gloom. Karabiner, since you're virtually my namesake I suppose I should offer some constructive advice. I can't help you much with point 3. Only you know if you'll be willing to grit your teeth and get the mod finished. But I can point you in the right direction for the other two points.

When it comes to Feature Creep, you simply should stop it dead and not let it affect you. You don't need your own mods for this project, so don't use them. Either use the data from FSO itself only or download some mods you like and use their existing tables to make your fleet. Don't get caught up in wanting your own fleet. You don't need it. There are lots of mods out there. You could construct several new fleets, If you lack a specific ship type, post and ask if anyone can think of a suitable mod. There are probably lots of ships that fit your description.
 As for the length of the campaign, you've already mentioned breaking it into 4 parts. Good. Release each part separately if you can.

When it comes to Supervisor Syndrome, that's where you'll have to back up your earlier statement about being able to understand FRED. Do the walkthrough, get a couple of missions written. Then go in hard on this campaign. If you're serious you'll find we're all here to help. Post questions on how to do things in FRED if you get stuck. We're all happy to show off our knowledge of FRED cause FREDders don't get much recognition from the community except by proving we know our stuff (or by releasing campaigns, but it will take you a while to get there )

[Snail]

BTW, saying

"Oh, if Inferno can do it, so can I!" isn't going to help.

Inferno started as Woomeister's tiny mod using a few reskins using a HEX editor. It was small. Woomeister did not (AFAIK) have visions of making a utopia of mods that Inferno is today. Inferno grew, it did not just explode into the environment. Keep this in mind.

And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, Inferno is: this.

[Fearless Leader]

how encouraging..... I wounder why they die....

The usual cause is that the originator of the campaign doesn't realise how hard it is to make a campaign. Now I'm not certain if you're making some snide comment about how the lack of veterans signing up is responsible for that but if you are you are way off the mark.

Well, the snide remark was aimed at your dreary comment about new campaigns dieing It seamed to me that you might discourage others from trying.
However your other comments on this subject have changed my mind. 

Sorry, Im just naturally sarcastic.

[woutersmits]

Exodus: Shivan Return
give me unfinished campain my email is not hiding and please give me the unfinished campain

[Jeff Vader]

Usually the campaign death issue is related to projects that are going to include 40+ missions, all new ships and weapons, one or more new species, cutscenes and professional grade voice acting. Not to mention that the mastermind behind such a project happens to need a group of people to do the modeling, FREDing, voice acting and much more. It just doesn't work.

Campaigns that have their own story but relatively little new features have much higher chances of survival. Teams can be good, but the best thing is to do most of the stuff yourself. It's your project, anyway.

Then, of course, we have our true heroes: the one-man campaign factories. Brave people like Blaise Russel and 0rph3u5, who do their campaigns alone and then suddenly release them. Particularily 0rph has been throwing campaigns at us so much recently that I've lost count. I bow to all you people who create campaigns singlehandedly.

And let's not forget Darius. Blue Planet is still the campaign I'm looking forward to most. And, as far as I know, Darius has been working alone on his project, without asking for help. I don't think it counts that he's been borrowing stuff created by others, such as Stratcomm's fleet pack. At least he isn't asking someone to create models for him.

[woutersmits]

now and just give me that unfinished campain i think its working well but its not finsht

[Titan]

depending on how thesizzlers mod goes, ill help. it sounds AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *drools like a baby due to brain liquifiying)