Contributions are the lifeblood of Millennium Dawn: Modern Day Mod, and given its massive scope, we are always looking for new contributors and new contributions, from the smallest authenticity fix to the largest focus tree revamp. The following is the transcript of Ted52's "Want to Help?" thread by in the mod's (now-defunct) Steam Workshop Discussions page, rephrased to remove all references to the latter, which provides basic guidelines on what the developers of Millennium Dawn and the required quality standards.
You came here presumably because you wanted to help in one way or the other in the development of the mod, and your help is greatly appreciated!
There will be one rule however: We expect additions to the mod to be modular, meaning that we can just put them in, run the mod and, after small adjustments, are able to carry on. We expect you to carry the bulk of the playtesting. Do not deliver things you did not test. There are console commands in game that help you test just about everything you would need.
Also, you will be placed in a command chain. We are by no means evil dictators (Nadamas has an evil master plan, but other than that...), but to organize this whole thing, we need a certain ability to take orders from our team members. There is a certain way of how we do things, in both coding and layout terms, and we would like to stay consistent with that.
Now, with the teeny tiny thingies out of the way, what do we need?
Translation
This is probably a big one, because we cannot do it ourselves. While I, one of the main guys of the mod, am German and speak my mother tongue somewhat well, I have decided against developing the mod bilingually, as that would be quite the amount of work doubling up. For the other languages – French, Spanish, Braz-Por, Polish, Russian – we don't have any team members in the core team at all. The mod is developed in English primarily, but we are looking for team members to extend our reach into other languages.
If you want to help with Translation, please get in touch with Ted52 directly as soon as possible.
Events
Ahh, events. Events are great for storytelling and immersion and we want lots of them, but they are primarily flavor and thus low on our priority list. We always would like help with event modding!
If you want to help with event modding, you need to be able to write fluent English flavor text or have contact to a community member who can. Experience with Paradox modding is not required, but we have quality standards. If you are just trying stuff out, don't be afraid to show it us, but don't be sad if we give it back to you for revision. Training makes perfect.
If you want to help with Events, apply at the Millennium Dawn Official Discord!
Writing Help
You are fluent in English, but absolutely un-fluent in programming? You want to help the mod gain more flavor and don't want to code? Then you can help with writing!
We need lots of descriptions still, or you will be able to help people that are trying to code but are not fluent in English.
If you want to help with Writing, apply at the Millennium Dawn Official Discord!
National Focus Trees
Ahh, the one thing everyone loves and wants their country to have.
We have received a number of more or less unacceptable entries for Focus Trees for various countries, which is frankly a waste of time for all parties involved. So we will need you to gain or bring experience with Paradox Modding, for example by having worked on the Focus Trees on other mods. Focus Trees are quite the undertaking, taking lots of working to design, code, set up, balance and maintain. If you want to develop one, you have, even with experience, a modding task of several weeks on your hands.
We know that this will not be popular with everybody, but a badly made Focus Tree is just a waste of time for both the disappointed creator and for us, because we will try to not give a bad Focus Tree to the players. The Chinese one especially was released in a pretty unplayable state and we regret that.
If you want to apply to help with Focus Trees, apply below, preferably with references of your past work with paradox modding. If you want to gather the experience we require, feel free to apply for either one of the other modding tasks or offer your help over at the submods that deal with additional Focus Trees. We are on good terms with the respective creators and will certainly notice your work.
2D Art and Flags
We always need new art designers for the 2D section, to create new technology and company symbols and stuff like that. The work will involve no implementing coding (unless you specifically request that).
If you want to help with 2D Art, apply below! If you want to help with flags specifically, the good Englishman and friend Walcanarus is your man; however still simply leave a message at the Millennium Dawn Official Discord!
3D Art
We have no experience in 3D Art ourselves, so we desperately look for people with at least basic knowledge and equipment in the field to give our 3D models a more modern overhaul.
If you want to help with 3D Art, apply at the Millennium Dawn Official Discord!
Research, Bugfixing and Brainstorming
While we do not 'employ' researchers, bugfixers and brainstormers, you can still help with that – that is what the Millennium Dawn Official Discord is exactly for. We are sometimes slow to respond, but we our best to reply to (and in Walcanarus' case sh*tpost in response to) every reply.