modding mount and blade

MRTULES

So my little fellow is mad about mount and blade. He has come across people using weapons that shouldn't be in the game (pistols in native). He wants to try and do this himself. After a long look around the web I have come across a lot of conflicting info. Being that I will be learning this too I would appreciate any help on the following:
Is this OK to do or will he get banned?(seems if you set up your own server its OK to mod)
Is this coding and or a useful thing to learn?
Could you point me in the direction of a reputable source for info on how to do this.
As always any help is much appreciated.

RedXIV

MRTULES wrote: »

So my little fellow is mad about mount and blade. He has come across people using weapons that shouldn't be in the game (pistols in native). He wants to try and do this himself. After a long look around the web I have come across a lot of conflicting info. Being that I will be learning this too I would appreciate any help on the following:
Is this OK to do or will he get banned?(seems if you set up your own server its OK to mod)
Is this coding and or a useful thing to learn?
Could you point me in the direction of a reputable source for info on how to do this.
As always any help is much appreciated.

OK some quick notes. In general if you are modding games, in particular, from steam, there is no problem as long as you don't affect other people's enjoyment of the game. You may come across dedicated servers that do not allow mods and you shouldn't use them on these servers as they will rightly kick you from the server. But start with single player in mind at least to ensure your mod is relatively stable.

Depending on the availability of mods for the game (I'm not an expert on Mount and blade) you might not need to write a line of code, simply dropping files in the right places might work. In saying that, don't underestimate it, it will give a good insight into how the game works without having to go to a code level. If you want to write your own mods, that is difficult and that is not to be taken lightly. The most successful mods generally have days, weeks, months poured into them.

First port of call would be the steam community pages and steam workshop. This is where you will find the most popular mods at least and usually good guides on how to implement them.
Some general tips from my modding experience
1. Make a copy of game on your computer, all the files etc and use that as your mod copy. Saves you downloading a fresh one when you irreversibly destroy a copy.
2. Expect to fail a lot. Each failure will teach you something and modding is all about solving the issues caused by the addition of your code.
3. If you have no idea how to code and you want to create your own mod, I highly recommend spending about 3 or 4 days learning the basics of coding from codecademy or similar. Trying to do it with 0 coding ability will be insanely difficult and only luck will lead to success.
4. Walk before you can run. Find a very simple mod to install and do that one first. Lead up to the Complexity of bigger mods

I'll have a look at Mount and blade this evening and see if I can come up with any game specific help.

Enjoy!