Can you point to anything specific that inspired you to start modding fallout?
ether making mods or using them.
The one mod that you really wanted but nobody made maybe, to give to the community or to overcome a challenge?

For me it was the fallout 3 version of EVE.
i really wanted the shredder grenades in New Vegas, So i opened the GECK with the intention to create something rather then just change something.
It took me awhile but i succeeded and seeing them in action was awesome, it was my first real attempt at scripting and the fact that it worked after much fail was very cool, Looking back it was very easy but boy did i struggle back then.  

As it turns out i enjoyed making them more then actually playing the game, so i recreated all of the missing content from fo3 EVE for New Veges, as well as making some Crit kills of my own, its so much fun.

How about you?

My first game was not Fallout, but Oblivion is when I started the modding. I made all sorts of gun mods and modern gear, and still do for each and every moddable game I play. Fallout was a pretty hard learning curve before Skyrim, but thanks to some other who rigged the skeleton nif from OB to be compatible with Fallout's, I can port even my own armors into the game. Weapons are pretty easy to make too.

But what inspired me the whole time for modding games like Fallout 3/New Vegas and others, well you could say that I wanted to kickstart my own empire, my very own faction, the SKMC and immerse it into the game as a mod. Mostly future military stuff. I too wanted to add laser guns, tanks, VTOLs, etc. Already I'm in the process of modding an Enclave Commander template that will have 5 playable alignments/factions.

Since then, it became easier for me to mod as I earned experience all these years using tools like 3DS Max, and of course the GECK. I like modding games that have a more simplified developer kit similar to that of Bethesda's.

Admiral Slyther:

That sounds awesome! i wish i was creative enough to make a new faction and integrate it as well as you do.
The learning curve wasn't too bad for me but things like 3DS Max and Blender are beyond me for now, as much as i would like to be able to use them.

I'm looking forward to what ever you make.   

Inspiration comes mostly from other games. Splinter Cell, Arma 3, BF. And lack of good gameplay features and mechanics in fallout. Or badly made existing ones.

My inspiration came from just wanting to fix things I didn't like, my first dozen mods were all vanilla fixes which I preferred over other plugins that tried to fix them. My first 'fix' was spawning a dead UFO abducted NPC that had the Firelance and ammo on them instead of scattered all over the wasteland. I keep a compiled list of what is fixed and what needs to be along with ideas for mods I might do in my spare time.

hitman47101 wrote:

Admiral Slyther:

That sounds awesome! i wish i was creative enough to make a new faction and integrate it as well as you do.
The learning curve wasn't too bad for me but things like 3DS Max and Blender are beyond me for now, as much as i would like to be able to use them.  

I'm looking forward to what ever you make.   

Once you have the know-how's and the basic modding 101 skills, you might not need 3DS Max or Blender(Unless you want to rig something) to make your own mods. Most of these procedures can be done with the basic re-texture that can be done with either GIMP or Photoshop. Anything that supports a DDS plugin. And requires Nifskope doing so if you don't want to replace anything.

I should have a few mods uploaded soon, and share them with this site. But for now, I got political hiatus on my plate and everyone else's to resolve on the internet, and no, I'm not a politician, lol. On a side-note, the military like mostly USMC, and games like Splinter Cell, Halo, Metal Gear Solid, etc. did give me a few kickstart ideas to create the SKMC. Though I have my very own department of defense now, lol. And the 4 branches that are part of it. SKMC(Marine Corps), SKAR(Army Rangers), SKAF(Air Force), and SKN(Navy). Each from another country. 'MY' country.  

Usually my modding inspiration comes according to what character I am trying to emulate. More often than not, my characters are based off of other characters in other games or some times tv shows and books. I'll often try to create an armor or weapon that matches their skill set and backstory.

My inspiration came from Oblivion from the ghost armor. After that, I decided expand my modding experience overall. IF one armor could be made from a different video game, surely there was more...

Also, as Xilandro stated a lot of other games had influence in my modding too. I wanted to add armors and some of the gameplay aspects of the other games to Fallout.

New Vegas was my first modding experience. It sort of started with deciding I didn't like values set as they were and took it upon myself to change them within my own game to be more like what I wanted out of it.

That empowerment led to the realization that if there was something I wanted or needed out of the game I had the opportunity to make it happen instead of hoping and waiting that someone else would make what I want for me.

I'm far from where I'd like to be someday, but the mods I've put out are directly inspired by my writing. When I need something for images in my story, I make it happen or work with someone to make it happen. When possible, I share the fruit of the projects.

After playing through normally quite a bit and looking at it, I decided it was time to change. Same goes for Skyrim, I've never really looked back. I believe modding increases a game's life exponentially, and more games should allow it.

Often times I'll be going about my business and suddenly I'll come up with an idea for an amazing character. Often times they start simple and rather abstract. Putting them into New Vegas helps me to better understand the character because I can start to think like him. When the vanilla game is too limiting on this character I turn to mods to give them more life and a unique wardrobe to fit their personality. And of course I have always been heavily influenced by autocratic regimes and all the interesting things that come with them, so often times I try to start my own faction by manipulating a certain set of mods.

I've started modding with New Vegas because as opposite of FO3 there were many things I didn't liked and didn't fit my character, many dialogues and quests, so I've decided to change them, then I wanted to personalize my character, make her the way I really imagined her, so I started modifying and mixing the available bodies to reach the result I wanted.
The outfits and armor after that.
I've improved (for my taste) also the population and increased the number along many other things. Worked on some personal quests of course, to give her background or just for the sake of have some fun.
So, everything I did is born and unfold around her, in order to play her story as I imagined it.
I'm not done yet, it's really an endless task, sometimes something comes to mind and you want to try and experiment further, sometimes you see something can be improved or you have forgot this and that. And there is always to learn, I'm not any kind of expert, there is so much more to learn.

OP also asked "The one mod that you really wanted but nobody made", concerning Fallout, none. Everything I wanted, I did it, for my needs (so far) it was enough. But overall... about modding, my forbidden dream would be to mod one of the games I loved most in my life, Alpha Protocol, give some sort of extension to that game.
It's pretty much impossible and I'm not asking for a 2, it's not going to happen and if happens, I fear it will be anything like the first.
But that's it.

I missed that part. I honestly wish there was a larger star wars overhaul mod or something along the lines, but sadly I'll I've seen are the the Star Wars clothing on the Nexus.

I got into modding because Fallout is my favorite series and I've always wanted to be involved in making something to do with it. If I can't do it professionally, might as well mod it!

After watching videos on Alchestbreach's channel. I ended up crashing my game that night after installing so many mods. 

islandspa wrote:

After watching videos on Alchestbreach's channel. I ended up crashing my game that night after installing so many mods. 

I feel ya. AlChestBreach introduced me to modding and made me want to get NV on the PC. TheTuninator also helped before he dropped off the face of the earth.

I too started modding with fallout 3. After watching some youtube videos on editing weapon stats in geck I tried it out and got hooked.
After I got familiar with geck I wanted to start adding scopes and attachments to weapons and recolour there textures so nifskope and gimp was my next step.

I'm currently trying to learn how to use blender, it's slow progress but I'll get there eventually. I hope

Modders, generally speaking. Mystro, Rob J Helms, JIP... there would be definetely too many names I should quote. They gave me so much that I really felt the need at least I had to try to do something on my own. Mine's some sort of attempt to say thank you to them all. To you all.

The first time I was a mod for F3 I fell in love with modding. Then I bought a gaming laptop. When bought a copy of F3 and NV and started modding. When I taught myself somethings in the Geck and watch some youtube vids and read a lot of thing on the old VGU or when I joined F3underground. I just finished a mod for myself that add vendors in one spot and sells all the weapons,armors, junk, meds, and everything else.   

I had tried off and on for years to learn the geck but would always give up. Finally I did some serious beta testing for fiendishghoul's goodsprings schoolhouse basement mod( I got the name wrong I'm sure). Anyway I finally decided to crack the geck and after several days I put together my first house made completly from scratch using vanilla items. The first home was deleted and remade into what became my Novac wasteland home which has a strong resemblance to fiendishghouls house mod due to my reverse engineering his mod. Eventually I started making more and more complicated houses like the my novac wasteland home which is similar in many ways to fallout 3 megaton home. I've now started modding in fallout 3 and I'm working on and off trying to make a fallout 2 style sandcrete home using trickyveins sandcrete resource. I also do weapon and armor edits on the side but I don't know if that really counts as modding.