SO!

Being the troll that I am, and seeing how the Multiplayer community has one, I feel that it is time that we start rating our modders.

It is time that we appreciate what our best modders have given us.

Modders will be rated by dedication, skill, areas of expertise, and overall contributions to the community.

This list is not complete, so feel free to make suggestions, add comments, complain, troll, or whatever.

REMEMBER, THE ORDER OF YOUR NAME IN YOUR TIER LIST DOES NOT MAKE YOU BETTER OR WORSE THAN OTHERS!!!! (unless you are Seleuceia)

LEGENDARY TIER - MODDERS WHO HAVE SURPASSED THE REST AND WHO DESERVE THE TOP SPOT!

Major Stress - Artist - Besides being a member of the community since beta, Stress has always been hard at work on some project or another. He helped found the Sins Optimization Project, which helped influence game changes and the work of other modders everywhere.

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote} He is the only one to my knowledge to have been directly contacted by the devs because they were sticking his mod in the game.  Sure, I (among many others) have made suggestions that have made it in.  POH's heal/drain was me.  Various things from RR have been integrated (though there's no way of knowing if those were because they were in RR or if the devs liked the ideas enough to put them in the game as some of them were just things I'd heard on the forums).  Thousands of people play DS.  Thousands play SoaGE.  Thousands play <insert mod here>.  Stress is the only one of us that has everyone playing his mod.  Heck, even the MP crowd plays his mod.     His is in the game itself.  In fact, one could even say that Rebellion was in large part due to his mod.  TSOP may not be anyone's favorite mod, but it is something that no one is against.  I know some hate RR.  I'm sure some hate DS.  I'm sure some hate 7DS (or just refuse to pay for a mod).  Etc.  No one in their right mind would oppose the game being more efficient.  It is on those grounds that Major Stress is the only valid candidate for that position.

Goafan77 -When I called Harpo the model of a perfect modder, I forgot to cram Goafan's name in there too. Goafan is a modder who helps literally everyone with every problem he has the knowledge to assist with, and even if he can't help them, he'll still help them find the correct person to ask.

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote} E4X Is actually the only mod I play that I haven't made myself.  On top of that, he's a great guy who helps others and definitely deserves a high ranking, even within T1.

ZombiesRus5 -Zombie is another great modder who is well-rounded in his skillset. He has created tools to help advanced modders, and he regularly updates his mod projects. He also helps other modders with their questions.

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote} His tools are also very useful and he's made SotF.  Not my cup of tea, but still a very great deal of work.  He's also looked into the AI more than anyone else.  Very very important modder, but not the Legendary modder.  If Legendary is #1, then he's probably #2.

Tier One - Modders who are dedicated to the modding of this game with nearly every fiber of their being. It is hard to describe just how amazingly useful they are, but we certainly underappreciate them.

Harpo99999 - Code monkey and tinkerer - This modder is amazing. He created a set of tools intending to make other modders' lives easier, keeps the set of reference files available for everyone, and makes posts that help everyone. The model of a perfect modder.

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote} his tools are widely used, but as he has said, he hasn't ever actually made a mod.  Awesome programmer, just not as much of a modder.  Great assistant though as he made a lot of other things possible.

Volt-Cruelerz - A modder who has serious skills revolving around entities and coding. He is helpful around the forums, and has provided meaningful input for many mods.

{Seleuceia wrote} Volt - a geeky nerdy sissy pants who apparently is also a troll...so says the Troll King...

Oh, he also makes complicated buff chains and can use them to perform calculations faster than a Korean SC2 superstar with an abacus...

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote (self review)} (And I'm honestly not trying to tout my own horn here): I'm just stupidly good at buff chains and have a "grand vision."  Yeah, making a buff computer is awesome (or it will be when it's done) and when I finish, it'll come with a guide for others to make their own, but unless someone made a "Gate Stamper" program *looks at Harpo,* logic gate buff chains won't be terribly common.  Buff computing will have to be something reserved for those who actually have a background in computer science, electrical engineering, or philosophy.  

Even if you look at Rebalanced Races, I'm at all of 175 downloads on a single version.  I'm sure that some love it, but most people play mods to play drastic variations of the game, not how one guy thinks it should be tweaked.  There are so many times I've really wanted to do something (like sticking Phase Cannons back in), but had to remove what I'd just added because I realized I'd added it because it was "cool."  Great for other mods, but not for RR:R.  RR is focused on trying to make the game what I think it was really intended to be, and not living up to it's full potential (which IMO is more what Goa was going for with E4X).

Beyond the above two, I have a laundry list of abandoned mods over the years, definitely puts me out of the running on that alone.

Sinperium -This modder is creative and well-rounded. He helps other modders whenever he can, and keeps up with his modder help thread. He is currently working on a large mod project that seems promising, and wants everyone to work on it for him. Cookies for people who do.

Ryat - Ryat is far more active than Nacey, and he is well-known around the community for being amicable and willing to help everyone. He is also a contributor to the mod known as Distant Stars, which is extremely popular.

Mansh00ter - this guy is most certainly Tier One, as his skill with modding is extremely well-rounded, but he prefers to keep his work up-to-date only on the site ModDB. He is working on the mod known as The Last Stand. Many many people sit in eager anticipation of his work. He may move to the MIA tier depending on what I decide.

TobiWahn_Kenobi - Artist - This modder works on the Babylon 5 mod, and as such has great skills in the area surrounding said mod. He is helpful and he is awesome, just look at that statement made by him.

{TobiWahn wrote} I am awesome.

{Major Stress wrote} Yes, he IS Awesome.. His skills with XSI taught me a few things. Anyone doubts the skill just look at the B5 mod. AFAIK he is the only one that managed to pull off mesh animations in sins.

SwissKnight - I don't really want to review Swissknight, because if I do I'll be killed by his fan club. He also thinks this is dumb. How nice of him.

Stant123 - TBA

{Ryat wrote} Stant is a strong modder/code monkey with a good eye for error spotting. He loves to tinker and has made several improvements and mini mods to Distant Stars that has helped the DS team quite a bit as well as keeping the older versions of Distant Stars up to date while the rest of us move on to the next expansion. Word of warning though, he has a sharp tongue if you attack him or his companions without good reason.

Psychoak review - This modder is extremely helpful when it comes to entity modding, and assists in the maintenance of the Star Trek mod. He seems to be one of the primary contributors, and he regularly helps other modders with their problems. He seems to have garnered some kind of rivalry from other modders, but

{pbhead wrote} - An uneducated bigot who makes a star teck mod which is somehow more imbalanced than vanilla sins. Feel free to admire his work, but never actually talk to him about it, or anything else, he will drive you insane.

{Major Stress wrote} Psychoak- While he does have a bit of refreshing "wit", and not everyone agrees with his points of view. He is still a very good modder. Good enough to be the SoA 2 project lead. He knows what he is doing, he can organize, and he gets things done. Enough said.

Mystic Angel - Works on the Circa 2400 mod (unreleased).

{Mystic Angel wrote} I'm still active, too.  I just don't have much time to post, and what little free time I do have is devoted to my own full conversion Star Trek mod (circa 2400), which will be more geared toward the non-battle aspects of Trek (though ship combat will still be very important).  As you could imagine, that means I have a LOT of modeling/texturing to do, but I'm about 1/2 finished with the Federation faction.  You can visit my deviant art page to see a couple of the models.

Sneak Peak at the Federation ship classes that I'll be including:  Nova, Saber, Steamrunner, Norway, Defiant, Merian, Theophrastus, Galen, Intrepid (slipstream variant) , Prometheus (re-imagined), Luna, Akira, Nebula, Galaxy, Sovereign, Vesta, Mulciber, an as-yet undecided slipstream carrier, and a new explorer class for the Enterprise F (I hate that monstrosity in Star Trek Online).  The Vesta was unveiled several years ago, while the Merian, Theophrastus, Galen, and Mulciber are all part of the Full Circle fleet in the novel-verse and are currently in the design phase by Mark Rademaker.

Before I created my re-imagining of the Prometheus I was able to figure out a viable ability/buff tree to make the Multi-Vector Assault Mode work, so that a frigate could split into three separate ships and then recombine into it's original form.  Plus, I've reworked the shield hit pipeline file to better imitate shield impacts as seen in Nemesis.  I also have an alpha version of a cloaking ability that makes the ship totally invisible.  I'm not willing to share it at the moment, though, because there are some issues I need to iron out.

Dolynick - a dedicated modder who worked on a number of projects, from a galaxy mod, to Stargate Races.

SZ0 - Artist - A modder who worked on the Alliance Hidden Agenda mod. Quite a talented artist.

{SZ0 wrote} I made Alliance Hidden Agenda for Diplomacy, with help I might add, from ZombiesRus5, PUREVENOM, psychoak, Thoumsin, JTAYLORPC with some abilities, and of coarse Harpo9999 and Zanyth0x42's tools. I ceased work on it some time ago and spent some time improving my modeling and texturing skills, which I think needed it most. Quite obvious if you look at the ships in AHA's IMO. rjhughes may have it most up to date though.

 After that I made the mash up models for the Powerful Pirates and some for the Flagship addons for Ryat & Distant Stars. Ryat also help me out intergrating AHA's with DS. There has been some other bits and pieces I have made for people & I try to help out where I can though it is true that I am not very active on the forums and I never play MP, on any game. I'd rather spend what time I have trying to get my art work right, thus I don't consider myself very good at code at all. I did find the problem with the AI forming & breaking pacts continuously though, and with ZombiesRus5's help I did manage to make a research that had to have a specific pact as a pre requisite.

Thoumsin - TBA

Eomega - TBA

JTAYLORPCS - TBA

{Major Stress wrote}One of the few "Code Monkeys" i can get along with. His leadership, and work on SoA 2 is priceless, and SoA 2 would not be where it is today without his help.

IskatuMesk - TBA

Soase-Maelstrom - TBA

Danman - Artist - this guy got together a massive number of people to create a massive mod (7 Deadly Sins) and then left to work on it on a separate site. He is not super active on these forums, so he is not in the legendary list. He is most certainly very skilled at organizing collaborative work. He has worked on many other mods in the past, and has been a member of the community almost since beta. Very skilled.

{Danman wrote} I am in my 30's, married for 12 years this year, and I am the father of 4 boys, all under the age of 10.  I work full time, and also have 2 side businesses to help pay the bills.  I own a hardware company and my own web design and graphics company, all of which are just me.  The web and graphics stuff help a lot with modding and running a website and forum.  I work about 10hrs a day at my "job", and then more at nights with my freelance stuff...just to make the bills.  So, modding time for me has taken a huge cut.  A few years back, when 7DS was in its early stages and releases, I was much more active and doing a lot of the modding myself.  Currently, I do mostly leading my team of AWESOME and DEDICATED modders (again, who are on this list!) who are quite possibly some of the best people on this planet.  7DS and DMG would not be where it is now if it was not for them.  I am slowly becoming more active as my little free time allows.  I am always willing to help anyone here who asks for it...ask anyone whom I have helped.  I have also been the recipient of help, from again AWESOME modders here, on that list, including Major Stress himself.  And he is not the only one who knows Blair lol!  I know a few people on the DEV team too....we are both "old" modders who have been here since the beginning.  Stress since the Beta's, and I have been here since the release of the first Sins.

My abilities include entity editing and creation, or "code monkey" stuff, graphics including textures for ships, 2D icons, UI changes, etc.  Particles and sound creation and editing, model "MESH" creation and editing, and general bug fixing and knowing how Sins works, behaves, and what makes it tick, as well as what breaks it.  Basically I can make a mod from start to finish if I put my mind and time into it.  Thank God however, I have a wonderful team who helps me out, since my time is limited.

SpardaSon21 - TBA

{SpardaSon wrote} I showed up on the Sins forums soon after the release of Original Sins, interested in modding this excellent game.  Originally dissatisfied with the graphical appearance of the TEC's autocannon weapons, I created the now long-forgotten Metal Storm mod for Original Sins that altered the TEC's autocannons to appear to continuously fire, fed by massive ammunition belts that only starships can carry within their hulls.  This and my posting in the 7 Deadly Sins thread led me to be noticed by DANMAN3712, where I joined the mod as a coder and created the TCA, both in faction design and doing the entirety of their coding for their initial release in 7 Deadly Sins.  For my assistance with the mod and my interest in keeping it going, DANMAN3712 gave me the rank of Partner for his mod and his forums.  I now currently administrate them, banhammering spam and assisting the projects with forums there with their issues.  My interest in modding has declined after the initial rush, so now I mainly offer infrequent advice for modders here on the Sins forums as well as performing miscellaneous coding for Sins of the Prophets as well as advising them about potential gameplay issues.

Pbhead - modder who tends to help out around the forums, he is also good at player MP games, so ask him to help you if you need it in either of these areas. Moved from Seleuceia tier at the request of said tier's owner.

Tier Two - These modders are awesome, but have less time on their hands or are more specialized in their skills.

KrdaxDrkrun-I think Crackin' Dragon is a tool...

For one, he spelled "Crackin" wrong....also, Dragon doesn't have a silent "k" in it last time I checked...

Well, that's really my entire argument....but it's a good one, eh?  I mean, I have 2 pieces of solid kick ass evidence...

WHAT NOW CRACKIN DRAGON?!?!??!?  YOU MAD!?!?!??!?

Also, I think Unity Mass should do chaining damage...

Reviewed by SELEUCEIA

Boshimi336 - A modder who originally made the multiple stars graphical mod, and who is currently working on a number of projects.

SemazRalan - A modder who is skilled in a number of areas and who actively contributes to the mod 7 Deadly Sins. He acts as the go-between for Danman and the community over at Danman games. He also thinks this thread is dumb.

Nacey +1 - A contributor to the mod Distant Stars, and who just pops in from time to time and posts updates.

{Stant123 wrote} would be an extremely busy guy who knows how to manipulate the code to get Distant Stars to do what we want it to do most of the time.  Takes on the worst of the problems and is the linchpin that holds the multiple personalities (disorder) of the team together as well as does the final review of all officially released material to ensure the best possible playable mod for all of the fans.  May only show up on the forums to post from time to time, but that's only because the bulk of his modding time is spent actually working on the mod rather then posting.

CanadaMan -TBA

{Anonymous wrote } CanadaMan7 is a handsome modder currently in charge of the Halo based Sins of the Prophets mod. He plays 83 different musical instruments, holds the record for the most weight ever calf-pressed, and ranks first in the world in laser tag and good looks. However, he probably won't return your calls."

SilencedHawk - TBA

Lavo_2 - Tinkerer -TBA

Theophantus - TBA

-Ue_Carbon +1 - Tinkerer - This modder has some skills in mapmaking and entity modding. He is extremely helpful if you can catch him, as he has a somewhat sporadic posting schedule. He works on the Distant Stars mod, and helps out with the support and the testing of said mod.

{Stant123 wrote} Another DS team member who is willing to help out other modders and openly encourages discussion between groups.  Hates it when 'fans' come on and make asinine demands of any modder.  Excels at map making and trouble shooting of errors that pop up.

ImperatorPavel - TBA

Aplos - TBA

Makon86 - is one of the Three who are in control of the 7DS mod. He is apparently somewhat active on these forums, which would technically earn him a tier two placement...

{Makon86 wrote} Anyway, I am one the "three" second in command of 7DS and specialize mostly in 3d modelling and coding abilities, researches, etc.  Those of you who are familiar with 7DS.  I basically made the "TCA" race what it is today with passive hull (regnerative) hull tanking.  Passive hull regen via abilities, etc.

Not sure if I am even worth mentioning on this thread because others on this list have been worlds more active, and likely accomplished alot for than I have...But I did provide Lavo2 (I think thats his name) with a fix for the severe performance hit you get from increasing planet sizes (like we did in 7DS).  The performance hits are most noticible when the structure placement grid is active, and obvious minidumps when using high resolution textures.  The cause of both of those issues are when multiple planet meshes are loaded at the same time (i.e. if you are "at a planet", and you can physically "see" an adjacent planet)  by seeing a planet I mean seeing its mesh, and NOT just its icon.  If you can "see" an adjacent planet(s), sins will load all visible planet textures, AND structure placement grids, which causes the massive slowdowns encountered when planets are scaled up in size.  I found that an effective fix was to go into each galaxy file and increase the "meters per galaxy unit" by a certain factor (you need to mess around with the actual factor depending on how much your planets are scaled), and then increase each player.entity file's base warp speed by that same multiplier, so each race will phase jump with the same "relative" speed as before.

Tier Three - These modders are up and coming, but are not amateurs. Or they are just very erratic in their posting...

Haiyooo - TBA

Axeldude - TBA

Teun-A-Roonius  - TBA

Ben_Maxwell - Tinkerer - Modder with no finished projects, seems rather promising, however.

Scratch151 - modder who works on the 7DS mod, he is not too active, so I don't know much about him.  He might reach a Tier two status soon, if he decides to be a little more active.

{Scratch151 wrote} As 7DS' "Dr Frankenstein" of coding, I'm good at looking at already implemented code and fitting the pieces together in ways that makes other people (coughcanadamancough) wonder how I did it.  When Duke Skymocker left, I took over the coding and development of the Empire in 7DS, and eventually took over as second in command of the entire mod after Samaz left.  Since he's come back, Samaz, Makon, and I essentially share the responsibilities of being the second in command.

I also do a bit of modeling, but seeing as Sketchup has myriad issues when it comes to exporting in a usable format, I don't do as much of that anymore.

Oh, and I was 14 when I started modding.  Just thought I'd throw that in as well.

As for why I don't post much on the Sins forums..  Mostly it's because Samaz usually handles all the PR stuff.  I like to stay behind the scenes and do my work in peace.  The only reason I found this thread was because someone posted a link on the 7DS forums.

Tier Four - These modders are absolute noobs and need help with almost everything they do. This tier is also reserved for people who Sinperium convinces to finish his mod. (cuz they are liking cookies )

kcirtap42593 - Works on his mod Intarian Saga, he asked for a modeler and apparently found one to work for him. We need to see some of his actual work before he gets real placement

Seleuceia Tier -

Seleuceia - He would be higher if he wasn't also a member of the master troll club and the MP community. He is a skilled modder, but seems to prefer trolling to helping.

damn, Seleuceia is like the best modder in the whole universe...we should cast a bronze statue of him and put it in the collectors edition instead of a Kol  that doesn't even have lazers or nyan engine trails

Missing in Action - these modders have left us for greener pastures. We wish them luck.

Myfist0 - Created the SoaSE weebly that stands as a monument to his skill and dedication.

{Volt_Cruelerz wrote} - good, but I don't hear a whole lot from the individuals.  If Danman did more than just 7DS, then he might qualify[for legendary status], but he hasn't really done anything else with Sins in a long while so he's out.

Bailknight - created a mod replacing the game's particle effects and then left, leaving a wondrous legacy that is kept by many acolytes.

Uzii - made the Sins Plus mod that added a bunch of new planets. His legacy is kept by several mods including the Distant Stars mod.

TohKlidan - similarly to Uzii, TohKlidan created the Celestial Bodies mod that added new planets and maps. His work is also kept in the Distant Stars mod.

rjhughes - a modder who worked on a massive list of mods and kept a website called Rick's Galaxy. He also worked on a mod known as The Dark Secret. (I am not sure if his is MIA... sorry...)

NovaCameron - TBA

Annatar11 - TBA

MadScientist - TBA

Zanyth0x42 - TBA

Aractain - Was creating a tool to import tangents from Max to SoftImage. Don't know if he finished it. Also found and fixed the the white dot issue with Anti alias settings that was actually implemented into the game by the Dev's.

kyogre12 - modder who helped create the "Sins of the 13th Tribe" mod.

Kitkun +1 - A modder who helped everyone.

{SZ0 wrote}was pretty helpful!

Stannum - Created a Max plugin for converting SoaSE .mesh files.

SivCorp- Did a lot of work for TSOP & Assets for DS addons.

SkylineHun - Actually created the Distant Stars mod.

Feel free to complain about your placements and your reviews, and especially why you aren't on this list.

heeheehee

{Major Stress wrote}