The Q and A Thread

[Red Cell]

I actually really appreciate all the feedback you are giving me. I honestly thought that when I posted the new rules/regs back in February, that people did know there was a contest going and were just quietly working on things. I also stated a few times around the forums that it was an "annual" event, so every year, but you are right that I should have made it more apparent and done a better job with advertising it. I will work on that.

As with things people want...I think you're missing the point. People typically want new games, which are more expensive, or money, which is just as expensive. I just don't have the funds for that, if you would like to donate to help with that, I would really appreciate that, but until otherwise, I'm stuck with what I can find on the cheaper end of things. But that being said, I will try to reach out more to find out what people want, and attempt to add those things that are in budget.

And unfortunately, and I've seen this time and time again, the whole "let the community figure out the problem" rarely, if ever pans out. There is no set goals, no accountability, people are rarely on the same page and ultimately nothing gets done. There is this large diffusion of responsibility in large groups that brings about an apathy and things rarely get done. Individuals typically need to step up (and put in the time/resources) to make things happen.

So with that being said, I'll definitely work on some of these things for next time, but I'm clearly not the "best motivator to capture peoples' interests," so who would be willing to step up and help out?

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

As with things people want... I think you're missing the point. People typically want new games, which are more expensive, or money, which is just as expensive. I just don't have the funds for that...

....I'm not the best motivator...

... I think you missed the point of the post.... :roll:

Seriously, though, I more meant that you need to offer something people -want-.... I'm not at all saying any of this is your job.... Have people say what games they want for a prize, as opposed to having a chest of cruddy crap that a vast majority of people already own.

This is becoming redundant. To sum this up, we need to be more organized next year.
Taking this on by yourself was not your fault, but is the reason that it did not succeed this year. Do not worry about it, no one is blaming you.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Thank you for the heads up on the tedious task of making music. Can anyone else confirm the 1:1 ratio of music to map making? If it is, I can change it for next time.

As someone who is decently skilled at both, making music is actually way harder than making maps if you don't "cheat" by using premade loops and you're actually composing like a real composer. Writing a professional sounding symphonic piece dwarfs anything that can be done in valves hammer editor in terms of difficulty and complexity. It usually doesn't take a decade or two for people to learn how to make something pretty and playable in hammer, but it does take that much time (for most people) to learn to play and instrument and write a song that people might actually want to put on their personal mp3 player.

...on the other hand, while writing an epic piece of music may be more challenging than making an epic map, we're obviously not going to get that kind of quality from the majority of our contestants. Furthermore I think people have really low standards when it comes to music these days, and I don't think a bad piece of music will be received the same way as a bad map. It's also worth considering that new music is less essential to the mod than new maps are, even if music might be harder to do well.

I understand the rewards aren't the best, but I'm literally living on student loans and trying to make this happen, so you get what I can afford. But let's keep it real too, some of those games (NSII: $24.99, Dead Island: $19.99, GTA4: $19.99, Mass Effect 2: $19.99, Payday: $14.99) are not from the 99cent sale on steam.

It's worth pointing out that I don't have all of these (I might not have any of them) and I plan on entering. I can't say I'm all that enthused about playing any of these titles, but that's because I don't really enjoy playing games as much as I once did.

Not to take it to the literal side again, the subtle announcements and insinuation that people should just know there's a contest going on is a bit silly. I'm not at all saying any of this is your job. It would just help to make it more of a public thing.

I did almost 100% of the advertising last contest by going in game and literally harassing every person I met about entering the contest or making a map. I didn't do that this year for a variety of reasons, so you should be blaming me for this, not Red Cell.

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

I didn't do that this year for a variety of reasons, so you should be blaming me for this, not Red Cell.

Do not worry about it, no one is blaming you.

 

[crazyghost]

I think maps are way more work than music. I think skins = music 1:1
if there is a contest. Put it on the main page. Msremake

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

Yeah there can be more work that goes into a map, but making music is arguably harder- just maybe not as long of a process in some cases. Skins and music are definitely not 1:1 at all, that's ridiculous. A skin is one of the easiest and dead-brained things you could make.

Edit: For the sake of a contest I truly believe it should be 1 song per entry. However, we could get into discussing length and layers and quality and and and so on and so forth. I entered 3 in, so I'm not complaining, I just think it's a bit of a steep thing to ask when music is one of the most creatively involved pieces of media included in this contest. We can keep it 3 for one entry, but I would suggest changing this possibly next year. Oyster says music making is way harder than mapping, he does both fairly well. I would listen to what he has to say, as I can hardly do either

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

I think maps are way more work than music. I think skins = music 1:1

As a musician this is almost offensive to read. Have you ever written music for an actual instrument or have you only ever used programs like fruity loops?

 

[crazyghost]

Lol okay I'm sorry
http://youtu.be/UR1r6NCeoaM

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

I mean, 1:1 with skins?

Okay, maybe that song is on a 1:1 ratio with skins...

 

[Thothie]

Dunno what you guys are on about... When I was a youngin, I used to sh*t out music compositions several times a day. Think I still can, even if they'd be a bit modular, so long as I ain't gotta rig up lyrics as well (not the edgy goth poet I used to be). Granted, I don't have the software suite for that anymore (or rather, what I have is all old DOS crap, and likely not Windows 64-bit compatible - also no CASS midi input on this system for use with my ancient synths), but could acquire/learn new stuff, I suppose.

Making a map from scratch in Hammer, on the other hand, will take me months, if I finish it at all (often takes me weeks just to fix someone else's). But hey, at least I have all the software I need.

As for paying people for content, I could probably dish out a $100/reward each year, no problem, which might be enough incentive for some of our younger, unemployed, mappers... But then there's the problem of getting it to them, as I just don't have an on-line civi to civi money transfer service that I actually trust, and as I live in Commifornia, there's also potential legal issues. So wouldn't know how to go about it and still cover my arse, short of getting someone's actual address and sending them a prepaid Visa gift card. (Why it is our credit cards don't have a separate number for incoming credit is beyond me.)

Plus, I used to be a lot more confident about actually getting maps into to the game within a few months of their creation, but between my own slow downs, and folks grabbing multiple maps for gigantic projects, I can't promise that anymore.

 

[Dridmar]

But then there's the problem of getting it to them, as I just don't have an on-line civi to civi money transfer service that I actually trust, and as I live in Commifornia, there's also potential legal issues. So wouldn't know how to go about it and still cover my arse, short of getting someone's actual address and sending them a prepaid Visa gift card. (Why it is our credit cards don't have a separate number for incoming credit is beyond me.)

From: Thothie
MasterSword Continued, http://www.msremake.com.

I will introduce myself I am Thothie a developer working on a mod for half-Life Until now I am the FN administrator to most of the masterSword continued player accounts and I have since discovered that most of the account are dormant account with a lot of gold in the account on further investigation I found out that one particular account belong to the former developer of masterSword DAN LANETHAN BRUINGTON,who ruled masterSword lore from 1998-2003 and this particular account has a deposit of $48m with no next of kin.

My proposal is that since I am the fN administrator you have won the media contest and the gold or the account is dormant and there is no next of kin obviously the account owner the former developer of masterSword has left long time ago, that you should provide an account for the gold to be transferred.

The gold that is floating in the bank right now is $48m and this is what I want to transfer to your account for our mutual benefit.

Please if this is okay by you I will advice that you contact me through my direct email address.

Please this transaction should be kept confidential. For your assistance as the account owner we shall share the gold on equal basis.

Your reply will be appreciated,

Thank you.

Thothie

 

[crazyghost]

Lol

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

...the account....the account.... the account... the acount.. blah blah... the account...

blah blah the account blah....

the account blah blah...

Thothie

 

[Thothie]

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nigerian-scams

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

You don't say




This thread has become Lol-a-thon2.0

 

[Thothie]

Red Cell has apparently informed me that I'm on the judges panel. (Damnitall...)

For maps, there's one major thing to take into account:
I favor maps that require the least amount of work on my behalf, regardless of aesthetics.

Rickler level maps are all well and good, but I'll take a crappy looking map that might actually see the light of day, over a dozen dazzling empty masterpieces, any day of the week. (Not that Rickler ever submitted an empty map.)

• For a map to be judged, I will need from ye an archive (rar/zip/7z) containing:
- Das Sauce (RMF)
- Das BSP (if ye've gotten that far)
- If you are not using -wadinclude in compile, I will also need: Das Wads
- Any media used by the map (music, sound, models) in the appropriate folders.
- Any unique scripts you have made for the map.
- (File space to upload can be provided, though I personally recommend Mega.)

Taking all that into account:
Those of you who have already declared entries have until Valentine's day (PST) to supply final sources.

I'm personally willing to take new late submissions until then, but Red Cell might poo-poo on that.

• For a model to be judged, I will need from ye an archive containing:
- Das SMDs
- Das Textures
- Das QC
- Bonus points for also supplying compiled MDL and Milk Shape importable source files. (Basically just about any non-proprietary format.)
- (File space to upload can be provided, though I personally recommend Mega.)

• For Music/Videos/Concept Art
- If I can see, hear, and/or play it, we're good to go!

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

This is absolutely asinine and completely ass backwards. You outwardly admit you are 100% biased against some maps, and in fact want POOR quality maps over maps that actually had effort put into them? By all means I would implore you to step down from being a judge because this is not at all what we need- someone who is not only a direct representative of the mod, but the leading developer. If this is the kind of quality you want in the game, and push for it, then the mod is doomed to continue digging its own grave. I am both offended and disgusted at this, knowing the years of work that has gone into some of the maps people are working on. If this is not recognized, and is not appreciated, then just don't even bother being a judge because you are by no means fit to be one.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Calm down now...

While I would never judge a map like Thothie, I consider him qualified to be a judge given his extensive experience working with hammer. There really aren't many eligible candidates with his level of expertise, even if aesthetics may not always be his strongest point.

I'm sure there will be more than one judge, anyway.

 

[Monika's_BFFEx0256]

If he doesn't care about effort put into a map, aesthetics (you know, the part that makes a map actually worth something in terms of substance ((not new shiny items that shallow players may want))), or whether or not the map is actually GOOD, then I do not think he would be a fair judge. He wants to make it easy on himself, he doesn't give a rats ass about what the mapper did. This is corrupt, and frankly...

 

[Thothie]

Hey, I appreciate the maps for Crytek, Dear Esther, or what not.

But, in regards to MSC, I dun really give a damn about them, if they aren't gonna make it into the game. Midas well be for some other game, for all I care.

Thus my first concern is, "Will it happen?". Second concern being, "How does it play?". Last concern being, "Is it purty?".

But, dun think I'm the only judge - so maybe someone else will appreciate aesthetics over chances of actually being seen in the game.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

...and that is why nobody plays this game!

 

[Thothie]

In some fifteen plus years of this game's history, no one's ever played it for its aesthetics.

It's also why we have 80 maps, and not 5.

MSS might change that - and obviously I'd use different criteria there, but meh, no submissions.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

In some fifteen plus years of this game's history, no one's ever played it for its aesthetics.

I beg to differ. If you don't think spawning in the Edana temple for the first time and hearing the music, or exploring thornlands and finding the old mans house, or saving up thousands so you can buy a meaningless but pretty crest at Deralia isn't responsible for generating our player base (not to mention plenty of the content you've had to work with over the years ), then you're out of touch with a lot of the people who play this game. Maybe that's because you don't actually play the game?

 

[Thothie]

Sank in about three hours last week - which is a slow week for me, not counting the time I spent developing. I play, I just cycle characters and smurf a lot - cuz if I actually use the one char named Saint Thoth, I don't get to play - just spend all day answering questions.

Even back when the engine was young, MS maps were sub par, aesthetically. Some of them maybe top tier now, but the engine's nearly two decades old, and fugly as hell compared to nearly everything newer. (Leaving aside the fact that everything you just mentioned looks like ass.)

Regardless, a map that isn't going to be in the game is worth nadda, set next to one that is.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

Regardless, a map that isn't going to be in the game is worth nadda, set next to one that is.

I'm not arguing over your judging criteria. I couldn't care less about that. I'm just pointing out that this policy you have towards releasing content is why this game isn't fun and has a player base bordering on the single digits.