[Khamul]

I'm a beginner and I want to start modding , I honestly haven't got a clue where to start. So if someone could point me in the right direction it would be nice  

[Qent]

Go through the extended walkthrough in FRED. That's really helpful.

EDIT: Unless by "complete beginner" you mean that you can already FRED but nothing else, in which case disregard this.

[Spoon]

Depends on what you want to do.
Editing a subach to do 50000 damage is pretty easy for example. Importing a self made 3d model is a whole other can of worms.

First off, the wiki if your friend! http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
it has a ton of info on modding, tables etc etc You can also get a bunch of tools required for modding from there
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/QuickVP for example can open .VP files, so you can extract .tbl files (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Tables) from it, which you can then easily edit with notepad.

Make a new folder in your freespace 2 map (c:\freespace2\mymod\  for example) and place your edited files in it. .tbl files go in mymod\data\tables.
Select your mod folder with the launcher to test out your changes.
If you want to make a new mission with your mod (and you probably want to ) you'll have to make a FRED shortcut and add -mod mymod (or whatever you name your mod folder) at the end of the target path.

Hope that sets you off on the right path

[headdie]

i found a good place to start is to make a second FS directory and extract all the VP files into the relevant directories in data then you can play with setting and test them.

core tools needed
a VP extractor
Notepad
practice in FRED
lots bookmarks to the modding section in the wiki

for the VP extractor http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php is a good place to start

you might want to get a more advanced text editor to display line numbers for bug correction as many errors relating to tables will give you a line reference, i'm using crimson editor.

[Stormkeeper]

* Stormkeeper taps Khamul on the shoulder, and points him over yonder.

Specifically, here.

Headdie had a good suggestion. Seeing the original tables, and missions in FRED, can go a long way to learning how to do stuff.

And also..

[Khamul]

Thaks for the help 

[Getter Robo G]

Plus that was too generic...

You said you wanted to mod, but didn't explain WHAT area or aspect you want to try modding.