Forum posts

Yeah, I've been following them for a while now, very good stuff. I linked the piracy one around at work the other week.

Agree with Ant/Urby, there's absolutely no excuse for piracy.

I pre-order retail games when I want the collector's edition, and Steam games when I know I'm going to buy them. As such, I have pre-ordered Portal 2 (Steam), and I will pre-order Uncharted 3 (retail) and Mass Effect 3 (Steam). And possibly Infamous 2 (retail) depending on price and availability [of the collector's edition] in Australia.

Sounds pretty paranoid to me! This is a public website anyway. If they really want your stuff and they can't get it on the postback, they'll just trawl the site.

Yeah, I'm not going to bother (that's when TWHL is on my own server, I can't do anything now even if I wanted to).

If they feel like it deserves to be paid for, then they are correct. It's improbable that you can't afford to pay a small amount for a quality mod. And if you can't, then there's always the free version of the mod to play if you think that it's not worth it "just because it looks all shiny". You have no right to complain that you can't get it for free. Even less in this case, because you CAN get it for free.

The idea of commercial mods is a very good thing. They expose the mod community to much more advertisement and interest, and mod creators put more effort into their work because they know they will get some money back out of it. It increases the size and output quality of the mod community in general, and helps hobbyist game developers on their way to a proper industry job. (On a related note, if any member of this site pirates any commercial mod, I will instantly and irreversibly ban you.)

Also, Steam is a publishing service, it's only fair that they get a certain percentage of every sale. A Steam release would get far more sales, advertisement and exposure than any attempt to self-publish. There's also the fact that Steam would take care of all hosting servers, online purchases, and the like. And of course there's Steamworks and Steam Cloud and all the other fancy Steam things that go along with a Steam release. And you think that Valve don't deserve anything in return for that? They're not "making money based on other people's work", they're making money from a quality service provided in exchange for a percentage of sales.

Plenty of people would buy Black Mesa if it got a proper Steam release for, say, $10-20. Another option could be one of those "pay-what-you-feel-like" type things, because some people prefer the idea of paying for a game as opposed to donating to the developers of a free game (or mod).

That's pretty much the idea, yeah. Just a place for members to chat about non-Valve game mapping.

A CPU running at 50 degrees is perfectly fine.

I did miss that. Sounds like the motherboard is fried, in that case.

Despite the ...strong wording, Luke is pretty much right. If we move TWHL to another domain, I would much prefer a first class TLD (com, org, net) than a dodgy one (info, biz). I really don't want a country-specific domain, because we're an international site. As I said before, I still think that the .co.za on the current domain scares potential new users away.

Ignore the PSU, you need to ensure that your motherboard is supplying enough power to the CPU socket. Last time I upgraded my CPU, I also had to grab a new motherboard because the old one wasn't letting through enough juice.

What model CPU and motherboard do you have?

I think we've come to a tentative solution: Remain a Half-Life site, but open up possibilities for extra games and engines.

There's still the issue of renaming the site. I'd be okay keeping TWHL, but we don't have a domain name to switch over to. (Anyone want to pay US$1500 for the .com domain? :P)

I think srry does have a point, though. There's no need to attempt to cater to all audiences and, as a result, satisfy none. I think we can retain the focus on Valve games, and do just as Interlopers has done, and open up a subforum for discussion of other engines.

OK, I've reset the password of the older account - try logging into the old account using the password from your new account.

Stu: The current site was written when I had only a small amount of HTML/CSS/SQL/PHP knowledge. I am far more experienced at all of those now, and I can do far better than trying to shove desired functionality into the bloated and unwanted codebase of phpBB. It's good for a single-use forum website with no modifications, but since I need high customisability, I can make a far better website without it. I'd be using my own MVC framework for any new iterations of the site.

Ant's on a 'crappy game' marathon

Stu: I'm almost 100% sure that the only reason TWHL is still hosted right now is because atom hosts all his other websites on the same hosting plan. What we'd be doing is removing TWHL's bandwidth use on his servers. And we are able to put in a .htaccess redirect or something similar.

No decisions have been made at this point, it's only a discussion at the moment. I want to create a new TWHL site, but I'm not going to if I only have my current limited access to the hosting. There's also the fact that I have no control at all over the hosting, and because of this, it's possible that TWHL could disappear overnight at any time.

We have had some contact with atom and he was supportive of the idea to transfer the website onto hosting that we control. Halfway through organising the details, we stopped getting any email replies from him. The last message we got from him was over three months ago.

At this point we have to assume that atom either cant or wont talk to us. In either case, the only way the site can improve is to move the site to a host that we can control. We can't redirect the domain, because we can't contact atom. We can't get another TWHL domain, because none are available. We want to open the site up to other games and engines, but the site name almost forbids this.

Stu claims that we are trying to "steal" TWHL from atom. You really think this? I think if atom had any feeling of ownership of TWHL, he would log in once in a while. I feel that ownership of TWHL has been passed down from atom to Seventh, and then to Ant and myself. Each of us have improved TWHL in our own way, making it unique, making it ours. In my opinion, this is the next logical step.

As for scope, theoretically, the site would still focus mainly on the creation of maps for any engine that provides a map editor of some sort. We wouldn't try to compete with a site like ModDB (which is mainly for mods), it would be more like the same style of site content, and so on.

There would be a much bigger focus on MOTM and various other 'featured map' kind of things. All the tutorials would be put into a less-restrictive wiki type thing. Basically, imagine TWHL except with more engines enabled in the vault, as well as an improved, more polished, more modern website.

Hosting the site ourselves would also mean we don't have to worry about storage formats, file sizes, file limits, and so on. We could increase the maximum size of uploads allowed to the vault. We could allow texture packs, models, sounds, screenshots, and so on to be uploaded without having to worry about running out of space. There's a ton of other nice improvements that we could add to the site if we had proper control over the hosting.

I only want to help the website evolve and improve. I like the TWHL name, and would miss it if it went away, but sometimes changes are necessary to move on. I hope that helps you understand why we are thinking about this.

We would like to expand the games the website focuses on. This means that we kinda want to drop the whole explicit 'Half-Life' in the site name. Also, I would prefer a first-class TLD like .org, .net, or .com. They're much nicer and appear more 'professional'. I think that even to this day potential new users are scared off by the .co.za in the current domain.

It's okay, but it seems kinda generic. I don't really like the idea of putting 'community' in the name. The reason TWHL is a good name is because it's reasonably subtle and unique.

Keep the ideas rolling in! Let's focus more on the name of the site itself, rather than the domain name. The site name is important - once we have a good name, we can work on figuring out the domain.

Urby/Huntey: I like that idea.

The admin team are deciding the theme for the next competition.

Nobody in their right mind can look at these side-by-side and claim that there is no significant improvement on the right. If Dimbark or Crollo are trolling, you need to stop.

Same as Strider, except mine is a crappy old Motorola.

I've just finished FEAR 1 and 2 - pretty generic shooters, though the second is loads better than the first. Also finished God of War 1 on the PS3, moving on to the second. On the PC, I'm playing through Dead Space.

Yeah, they have several teams - and they're all busy swimming in their vault of WoW cash

@kdunivan: Stop being so aggressively negative, please. As CapT and "a" said (please consider contacting me for an easier-to-notice username!), we try to be a friendly forum with nice people giving appropriate and constructive feedback. You're not doing any of that, and you're not helping anyone.

Guys, we're not having voting for this - the decision will be made exclusively by the admin team.

Hi All,

Since Daubster, our specialist map vault and MOTM moderator, hasn't been very active recently, we are currently taking applications for new moderators. If you are interested, post in this thread with a short paragraph on why you think you would make a good moderator. It would be good if you could show us an example of a map review you've done, too.

Here's a basic list of requirements for the two positions we are offering. If you are dedicated enough, you can apply for both jobs, but because we know that people never have much free time, don't try to commit to too much. Please only apply if you're going to be active on TWHL for the forseeable future.

Map Vault Moderator

• Must own Steam copies of all or most Valve games (required: HL1 & Orange Box)
• Reviews maps in the vault and gives constructive criticism
• Deletes spam maps/comments when necessary
• Fixes old/dead links to maps (if possible) when needed

MOTM Moderator

• Must own Steam copies of all or most Valve games
• Reviews the maps for each month and chooses a MOTM winner
• Writes up a full review of the MOTM for each month (Example)
• (Hopefully) manages a team of reviews to produce 2 or 3 total reviews each month
• Does NOT need to catch up on all the missed MOTMs (we missed 18 months :<)

Additionally, new moderators can be added to the competition review team if they wish (but obviously you cannot judge a competition you want to enter).

To make it a bit better for MOTM people, I will be putting MOTM in a prominent place on the front page for all to see. When we were doing MOTMs, they were presented excellently (both youtube and written reviews) - and I think they were an excellent addition to the site. For this reason, I will put the MOTM in a large box on the front page between the news and the forums.

We are looking for two people to add into the moderator team, but we could pick more (or less) depending on how many applications we get.

I tried to play Fallout New Vegas, but it was exactly like Fallout 3, so I just couldn't keep playing. It was so goddamn boring. It got a good three hours from me and it wasn't getting any better. The general bugginess, crashiness, and bad performance didn't help either.

I got more than enough of Fallout 3 while I was playing Fallout 3. I guess that means I don't need to play any Bethesda game ever again

As for Just Cause, I played the start of the first game and really didn't like it. The music was pretty good though.

My favourite sandbox game, and the only one I've really liked, is Infamous.

Ant's mac is one of those expenso-supermacs so there's no issues with his hardware.

While I don't hate GTA4 as much as Ant or Strider, I also think that the gameplay is severely lacking in many places. The tech is awesome, but the gameplay itself leaves much to be desired.

I'm of two minds about the driving. On one hand, the cars feel like they're made of jelly. On the other, when you pull off that perfect jelly powerslide, it's awesome. Another example of truly awful driving to add to Huntey's example? Saint's row 2.

They took a bunch of the good stuff from GTA3/3.5/3.75 and replaced it with stupid crap that nobody likes. ("Hey cousin, want to go see some BEEG AMERICAN TEETIES?")

Still. It's better than Fallout 3. (Since Strider brought up Bethesda)

Crollo: Uncharted 2 can be compared to ANY game. And it always wins!

Super Daylight: 28% better than regular daylight.

@Skals, Crollo, etc: Let's stop commenting on past dramas and keep this thread on the topic of the mod from now on.

Look, guys, I don't want to turn this into a big flamefest, as I said. Trapt, if you want to continue this, please take it to a less-public level. I know it's hard to stop debating stuff because everyone wants the last word, but please try.

Kasperg, I realise that my criticism was too harsh and could have been worded in a much less insulting and much more constructive way. I apologise for the overly agressive tone, and over the past few years I have worked on trying to stop such behaviour. At the same time, your reaction to it was equally uncalled-for and agressive. We were both at fault.

I am not trying to be arrogant when I say that our opinions on standards may be different than other sites. Both PlanetPhillip and ModDB have (I think) a higher ratio of mod players to mod creators. As mappers, I think it naturally comes with experience that we can recognise faults that players cannot - but we are also harsher critics because we know how it is done. Of course, I am not trying to justify anyone's behaviour because of this fact, but I think it might help explain why you get different feedback from different people.

I think you should put your work onto TWHL. I know the community would appreciate it. Put whatever past differences we had behind us. Let me be the first to say that past behaviour will not be repeated.

Kasperg, I'm wondering why you are here at all, if all you want to do is post a bunch of passive-agressive junk about why you are right and everyone who disagrees is an idiot. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and everyone has a different standard of what is good and what isn't.

Why aren't you getting criticism anywhere else? Maybe they have lower expectations. Maybe ours are too high. Maybe you aren't idolised so much on TWHL because you reacted so agressively when you recieved harsh criticism? If you don't want to hear it, it's best to ignore it. Starting arguments just increases tensions and distances members from each other.

If you want to "come back" to TWHL and contribute (or not) to conversations, please do - I welcome it, and I'm sure many others would too. We need more source mappers, and you're obviously one of the more experienced in terms of architecture and lighting. But all you seem to do is return only to post trollish comments insulting our users (this is at least the second time it's happened).

Do you monitor TWHL simply to wait for a mention of yourself and then post retalitory comments? Please, if that's your only intention, go away.

Trapt, you're at fault here, too. If you have a beef with Kasperg, discuss it via email or less public means. I am tired of trolling flamefests on TWHL and you're not helping one bit.

Crazy Europeans celebrate the new year a day early too!

Heh, some people never change.

The concept art and weapon models are fantastic. Were those weapon concepts made exclusively for the mod? They're very well done, and it's rare to see such slick artwork coming from the Source mod community. Great stuff.

The airship model needs a little work. The texturing is a bit bland, and the ropes holding the balloon down could do with a few more polygons.

The lighting in the outside area in the menu background map still looks a bit boring - don't add a big glare to cover it up, just add some more interesting lighting and shadows to the structures outside the window so they don't appear to be fullbright.

These are minor nitpicks, however. Looking very nice overall. I agree with Ant and Strider about the silhouette stuff, though.

Cool. I'll upload those ones overnight.
EDIT: Done!

Okay guys, I've downloaded all of the linked files on this thread and hosted them here:

http://files.logic-and-trick.com/Half-Life/

If I get some time later on I'll knock up a quick custom file listing site, but for now the default Apache listing will suffice.

EDIT: There, I made a custom file listing thingie. If the files aren't working for you, wait a while for your ISP's DNS cache to update itself.

Not looking bad, but the background bit (outside the window) needs work - especially with the lighting.

It's amazing how many people still don't have a backup and recovery plan in place. Computers fail often, guys. Back your shit up!

Alternatively, download Paint.NET so you don't have to submit yourself to the pain and suffering caused by attempting to use GIMP.

The following files are not available:

17659034/csb10full.exe
17659036/csb30-31up.exe
17659045/csb20full.exe
17659049/csb30full.exe
17659077/csb40-50up.exe
17659082/csb31full.exe
17659106/csb40full.exe
17659122/csb50full.exe
17659163/csb52full.exe
17659213/csb60-61up.exe
17659250/csb60full.exe
17659287/csb61full.exe
17659551/csb65full.exe
17660100/csb66full.exe
17660115/csb70full.exe

I'm downloading the rest, and I will put them all onto my FTP site when I can.

Dimbark, stop acting like an immature idiot. You may be one in real life, but the internet (at least the corner that TWHL is in) is less tolerant of such foolishness.

Well, you never know how many entries there are. I once won second place in a competition with what was basically a joke entry because there were only two entries.

I also recommend Spybot S&D. Download from another PC, transfer via flash drive, install in safe mode. Run a full scan and hope it works. Otherwise, it's probably best that you do a full reformat and start fresh.

Jesus copied the bread because the people couldn't afford it themselves. If they didn't get the Jesus bread, they wouldn't have been able to pay the baker for the bread anyway. So, the people get the bread, the baker doesn't lose any bread, and the baker doesn't lose any potential customers because they never were in the first place.

I'm not saying that all pirates are similar to this, but I think that the majority of pirates wouldn't have paid for the content if piracy wasn't an option. In fact, they get exposed to the content (game, music, whatever) and that equals increased customer base, which increases sales.

Copyright infringement and stealing are two different things. For me, all my music is pirated because the majority of them aren't even published (game soundtracks). I don't want CD's because they're silly and take up space, and buying from an online stores offers zero improvement over the MP3's I already have (unlike, for example, Steam, which adds value with automatic updates, centralised game lists, and so on). I would pay for more music if I could use the tracks in my own works under a creative commons license without the threat of having my ass sued off. The music industry is fucking itself over at the moment and only has itself to thank.

I pirate games that I wouldn't buy to see if they are any good. If I like them, I buy them. If not for piracy, I wouldn't have ever bought those games. Piracy can, in some situations, increase sales. The game industry is starting to adjust to piracy by offering more multiplayer elements, which increase piracy-to-purchase rates.

Of course you have the people who can easily afford the stuff, and would pay for the content if they couldn't pirate it - but pirate it anyway. This might be considered "stealing", but not in the literal interpretation of the word. The majority of pirates are just infringing copyright, not stealing.

I've read an analogy that likens software piracy to Jesus: Jesus had a few loaves of bread and some fish, and made free copies of them without paying the baker or the fisherman for them. Then he distributed these copies to the people free of charge. So, did Jesus steal that bread from the baker? The baker certainly isn't missing any bread.

It was also a bad idea to buy the components one-by-one over the course of a year and a half. You'll find that something that was $300 a year ago might be $100 or less now. You could have bought them at a better price now, or spent the same amount on a better piece of hardware.

Individually, the parts themselves are useless. Better to have your savings gaining interest in the bank, while at the same time have your intended purchases drop in price. Once you have all the cash, buy everything at once and start using it right away rather than having increasingly overpriced boxes sitting in your cupboard waiting for you to finish buying everything else.