Moving To Patreon Platform (with Status Quo Preserved)

Before I begin talking about my decision to move to Patreon, I would like to let everyone know that I will preserve the way of how I do things here; as in there will still be a publicly viewable post with a free mod (my favorite 😃).

As for the reason of the move, patrons who have been with me since my first post will know, my journey with skin mod started back when I was playing another NCSoft game - AION. And what triggered me to learn skin mod is because of my frustration with a costume that I deemed wrongfully colored. Even though the Game Manager acknowledged the error after I submitted a ticket, nothing was done. My 'volcano' finally erupted after months of waiting with no action from the GM and so, I took things into my own hands - learn to mod. And that bring us this Blog today.

Over the years, I had made and shared close to a hundred mods, fulfilling some requests by you guys along the way. However, I mostly created only one version of the mod for each outfit; and like how I find the outfit that started me on my journey imperfect, my mod may not be perfect to each and everyone of you (beauty in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes 😃). As such, I started to think about how wonderful it would be if everyone can have a mod that is close to their perceived perfection.

For example, the patron who requested for the Yun Colorful Silk mod actually only wanted the two huge pieces of translucent cloth (I call them wings 😅) removed. But for other players, they might like to keep the wings but hate the pin and rose on the chest. Some might prefer naked legs, while some prefer leaving the pair of leggings on.

From there, I started to think about making different versions of the mod. But thinking further, I feel that this is still incomplete. Firstly, with the different features that I kept separated on the raw file (i.e. short or long wings or none, pin or no pin, rose or no rose, naked leg or translucent legging or original legging, to list some of them), I cannot possible compile a file for every combination of them. I will probably blow the storage limit with one file for each possible version, because that may end up with like close to fifty files for each single mod 😰. Thus, I can optimally provide four or five versions for each mod. But that will also take additional time and effort.

However, that brings us to the second problem which is that I simply can't satisfy everyone's desire for the perfect outfit with just four or five versions. So I will also create a higher tier for my Patreon account where patrons can request for a version with the features that they may desire (as in what I have already made available in the raw file). I will also announce the next mod inline so that patrons on this and higher tier can chip in their ideas as to what they desire (except nude request 😇) in the mod. Of course, it would still has to be constrained within texture mods and its feasibility.

And if that is still not enough for some patrons, I have plan for a highest tier to give out the raw files (which are in pdn format - for use with the freely available Paint.net). In the raw pdn file, you can freely hide/unhide features (layers), or add in your own features and recompile them to make your very own perfect outfit. From the raw files, you can also gain an insight into how I made the mod. I will also be adding the raw files for older mods in this tier too.

You can take a look at an example of the raw file below, showing how hiding/unhiding a layer can add or remove features from the mod. Of course, you would still need to have UPKManager to compile the texture files after that (that is, unless the creator of UPKManager is willing to tweak the application so that it can automatically read the pdn files and allow users to simply click a button in the application to turn on/off features and compile it 😅).

Example of Raw File

Well, I am still thinking through and working on all the stuff mentioned above. But if the move to Patreon works well, I can fully re-invest my time and energy into mod-ding again.

Last but not least, you are welcome to give suggestions in the mean time.

But for now, you can visit my first public post on Patreon featuring the Yun Colorful Silk outfit mod.