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We have lost a member of the TDM development team


Springheel

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12 hours ago, stgatilov said:

Grayman repeatedly said that if he does not have time to release these two FMs, then the story of William Steele ends on the fifth mission.

I specifically asked him about it in March, and here is his answer:

So unless anyone wants to ignore his will, WS6 and WS7 are dead too.

Sorry if I'm being paranoid and I really hope I am but what he said is that he wants WS 6 and 7 to be removed/forgotten or for the entire series to be removed from the game?! That is what sounds like to me from this!!  "No archiving it ‘as is’."    "WS6 and WS7 are dead too"

Edited by HMart
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5 minutes ago, HMart said:

what he said is that he wants WS 6 and 7 to be removed/forgotten or for the entire series to be removed from the game?!

Of course, it is only about the two missions which were not released.
Nobody ever talked about removing already released FMs.

I have added the question to my previous post.

 

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I interpret "no archiving 'as is'" to mean that Grayman was not going to provide unfinished beta versions to be released after his death — not that he wanted to retroactively remove the already-released missions.

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Hello grayson welcome to this community and I'm pretty sure that i'm not alone in saying that all here respected and admired your father and his work, my condolences and all the best for you and your family. 

 stgatilov and OrbWeaver thanks for the clarification and sorry for being paranoid was just lost in translation my bad. 

Edited by HMart
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10 minutes ago, grayson said:

Hi this is Graymans son

My father was a poet, a painter, a writer, and a giant nerd. He studied nuclear physics, aerospace engineering, and AI. But all he really wanted to do was play video games. He recently lost a very long war with Cancer. 

My dad has a little plaque you all sent him hanging on the wall next to handprints from his grandchildren. Whenever my children would call him he'd talk to them about "his boring video game stuff" according to my 8 year old... who never really understood why Grayman didn't like Pokemon as much as he did.

I found a file on his computer stating that the last few levels he was working on 95%, 95%, and 50% finished. He also said working with another dev would take up too much time that he wanted to spend with his family instead. To be fair I worked with my father my entire life on random things (including Doom mods back in the day) and he never thought anything was finished. So I'd personally consider the two 95% missions to basically be done. If whoever he sent them to to Beta test wanted to share them with the development team I don't think he'd really mind and you shouldn't feel guilty if you do. I'll leave that up to you guys, but I will not be uploading them and they should not be posted publicly. The final mission will remain unfinished though. I will mention that it was going to be pretty damn good from what I read in his notes.

He did ask that two levels that weren't related to the Steele missions do get uploaded to the abandoned level archive. I am in the process of doing that now. 

Thanks

 

My condolences to you and your family.

Your father was a great coder, mission author, and a great overall human being. (He seemed to act like our grampa here too, and always called TDM AI his children.)

He had labelled "William Steele 6" as "Release Candidate 2" so that one is probably unquestionably eligible for release given grayman's extremely high standards.

I will open a discussion on this internally and I have copies of the last missions added to the beta forum.

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It could have been his bet with God that if he is given that much time then he would pay back the episodes 6 and 7.

God has decided against that.

Respect the deal. Store the missions in a private storage and give copies privately by request.

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3 hours ago, grayson said:

Hi this is Graymans son

My father was a poet, a painter, a writer, and a giant nerd. He studied nuclear physics, aerospace engineering, and AI. But all he really wanted to do was play video games. He recently lost a very long war with Cancer. 

My dad has a little plaque you all sent him hanging on the wall next to handprints from his grandchildren. Whenever my children would call him he'd talk to them about "his boring video game stuff" according to my 8 year old... who never really understood why Grayman didn't like Pokemon as much as he did.

I found a file on his computer stating that the last few levels he was working on 95%, 95%, and 50% finished. He also said working with another dev would take up too much time that he wanted to spend with his family instead. To be fair I worked with my father my entire life on random things (including Doom mods back in the day) and he never thought anything was finished. So I'd personally consider the two 95% missions to basically be done. If whoever he sent them to to Beta test wanted to share them with the development team I don't think he'd really mind and you shouldn't feel guilty if you do. I'll leave that up to you guys, but I will not be uploading them and they should not be posted publicly. The final mission will remain unfinished though. I will mention that it was going to be pretty damn good from what I read in his notes.

He did ask that two levels that weren't related to the Steele missions do get uploaded to the abandoned level archive. I am in the process of doing that now. 

Thanks

 

You're father will be dearly missed and I am so very sorry for your loss.  I lost my own father back in 2006.  It leaves quite a void.

Thank you for taking the time to come to the forums.

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5 hours ago, grayson said:

Hi this is Graymans son

My father was a poet, a painter, a writer, and a giant nerd. He studied nuclear physics, aerospace engineering, and AI. But all he really wanted to do was play video games. He recently lost a very long war with Cancer. 

My dad has a little plaque you all sent him hanging on the wall next to handprints from his grandchildren. Whenever my children would call him he'd talk to them about "his boring video game stuff" according to my 8 year old... who never really understood why Grayman didn't like Pokemon as much as he did.

I found a file on his computer stating that the last few levels he was working on 95%, 95%, and 50% finished. He also said working with another dev would take up too much time that he wanted to spend with his family instead. To be fair I worked with my father my entire life on random things (including Doom mods back in the day) and he never thought anything was finished. So I'd personally consider the two 95% missions to basically be done. If whoever he sent them to to Beta test wanted to share them with the development team I don't think he'd really mind and you shouldn't feel guilty if you do. I'll leave that up to you guys, but I will not be uploading them and they should not be posted publicly. The final mission will remain unfinished though. I will mention that it was going to be pretty damn good from what I read in his notes.

He did ask that two levels that weren't related to the Steele missions do get uploaded to the abandoned level archive. I am in the process of doing that now. 

Thanks

 

I am not so long a member of this forum, to have known your father well. I have, however, really enjoyed the WS series, which are among my favorites. I also think that the last two missions, although incomplete, should be prominently displayed as a reminder of a great human being.

I am old and my father died when I was still a teenager, but I remember and understand this trance very well.
My condolences and a hug to you and your family.

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I wish the last time I interacted with him wasn't just to complain about some irrelevant point on emergent gameplay, that was maybe an annoyance he could have done without. My condolences to his family, and my respects to all the great things he created.

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I keep a .txt file of all Thief and Dark Mod fan missions that I've played. There's five TDM missions so far that have received my top ranking, and two of them belong to the William Steele series. 

Thank you, Grayman. 

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I'll be covering William Steele in his memory as the unfinished masterpiece that I noticed it as when I first routed it.

May he rest in peace and be remembered only well.

I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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I am very sad to hear of grayman's passing. I knew his battle with cancer had been long, and he was fortright about the possibility, but you always hope... This feels like losing an old friend, as he has been a member here for a very long time. It is not just his missions - which were justly cited as among the best - and not just his work on the core mod - which was essential. He was also a kind and friendly presence here, and that, especially, will be missed.

RIP, grayman! And condolences to @grayson and the entire family.

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Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Really sad news! I too never met him, but I played and loved his series. I hope, as his son suggested, at least the two almost finished missions can be completed in his memory, as otherwise all his work on them will be lost in time forever...

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Regarding the FM series he was working on, this is my take on it: I definitely feel the nicest route would be continuing them rather than leaving them abandoned. Ideally by those creators who knew him and the stories well enough, thus know what he'd most likely make of them and the direction he'd want them to continue in. At least the existing / unfinished FM's for sure, but why not new episodes too if someone familiar could assume the series and become their new owner to develop them?

Here's an extra idea if I may: In the next original episode, if anyone decides to produce one, add a memory of him in the world as a main plot point... like making him a character in the FM or something nice like that. There are many creators with inspiration here so I'm sure something remarkable could come out of such an initiative! This can be made into a moment of creating something nice that wouldn't have happened otherwise rather than letting it be just a moment of sadness, if that makes sense. Hope this thought helps.

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