Scrap FH. Take BG42
. Their approach is not realism, but historical accuracy (sometimes goes hand in hand), but always put point on the gameplay factor, even if vehicles or weapons have to be altered a bit. Means you have all the cool historical stuff (and very very much of it!) and it's still playable, unlike FH which is more of a showcase mod if you have less than 40-50 players.
I think the main aspect of a good mod is they have a good concept. And stick to it. You have to do the same as game designers, try to enhance the immersion level of the game/mod so everybody can like it. How to do this? That's where there are hundreds of possibilites. Just look at what all the mods out there took for target. Interstate 82 (racing fun, 1980s), GC (space warfare, crazy
), FH (hyper realism), BG (historical accuracy), XWW2 (more variety, action gameplay).
Pick your goal, and then work your way there. Work your way there good, with smart changes and keeping immersion high.
A good mod doesn't even need to change many graphics or sounds or whatever, just fix some of the nuisances in the vanilla game or add some highly unique stuff codewise and you also get interest.
Of course the huge undertakings (mostly Total Conversions) like DC, BF1918, GC et al require changes to all aspects of the game, but also require huge manpowerhours of work, and often tedious and boring work too. That's why it makes more sense to bake small rolls, as we in Germany say, and develop something small and cool. Or do serverside moddings. Or go to the limit of mapside modding. Or just mod for the fun for it and for fiddling around in the engine, like most of us do
.
There just aren't many BF42 gamers left that are looking for new mods. Most have found their favourite mods by now (well, the demand is low, the supply is high) and have no interest in testing out other mods. The only reason I myself am developing a mod for now over ~2 years straight is I have a steady demand base, as I'm developing for an online campaign project where we usually have ~12on12 (sometimes more, sometimes less) players which appreciate the work. Without that, I probably would have kicked BF42 goodbye some years ago. Playing public solo is annoying, playing vs bots...well...no comment. Even more so if you are used to high quality tactical combat which you have in such a project, both teams are 100% in Teamspeak channels and there really is a lot of commanding, reporting, requesting and manoeuvering to outsmart the enemy team.