Making your own game is far more satisfying than modding something - even if your game never gets finished. You'll learn to code (or at least understand coders) and if you want a job in the industry it's better to show something you have made from scratch than showing a mod (although modding skills seem to be a plus these days too).
Homeworld and Elite are quite different games, you won't be able to mod homeworld to Elite... and Elite was a better game IMO even without the fancy gfx HW has. But I have never like RTSes that much so I'm biased.
Homeworld and Elite are quite different games, you won't be able to mod homeworld to Elite... and Elite was a better game IMO even without the fancy gfx HW has. But I have never like RTSes that much so I'm biased.