Memorials in missions

[Xolvix]

There's something fairly unique in TDM, at least as far as I've seen in a user-made game. I remember when grayman passed away last year, it wasn't long before we started seeing missions that had memorials dedicated to him implemented somewhere within the missions themselves. I can't remember the exact missions I've seen with grayman memorials of some sort, but I've definitely seen at least three. Just small things, in most cases requiring a little extra work from the player to find them always tastefully done.

Well I was recently replaying a bunch of missions and came across this within a recessed area in a mission called The Warrens, an area I hadn't discovered in previous playthroughs:

Sir Taffaslot was another mission creator who made a handful of missions who also tragically died a few years ago. The amazing thing is not only is it a nice little memorial to just randomly find when playing, but the author of this particular map (The Warrens)? grayman. Hell the guy even made a dedicated mission as a tribute to Sir Taffaslot.

So yeah. We may just be "nothing more than a cult posing as a game development project", but it does bring a tear to my eyes sometimes in way most other games don't.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Xolvix

[lowenz]

A kind heart. Simple as that

[OrbWeaver]

It's all those damn Social Clubbers ruining everything...

I remember finding the memorial in The Warrens. I figured Sir Taffsalot was some kind of musician based on the banjo, but never worked out if the glowing egg was significant or just a decoration.

[thebigh]

We have the best community here.

[AluminumHaste]

Yeah, close knit, wonderful community that rejects ego maniacs.

[STiFU]

A sad and heartwarming topic...  

 

On 6/29/2022 at 5:40 PM, OrbWeaver said:

It's all those damn Social Clubbers ruining everything...

On 6/29/2022 at 4:17 PM, Xolvix said:

We may just be "nothing more than a cult posing as a game development project", 

...but I have to just take a moment and appreciate, that these quotes are probably gonna turn into a running gag on these forums.  

[thebigh]

"nothing more than a cult posing as a game development project"

 

Even before that little drama episode I was going to put a reference to something like that in my next mission.

[OrbWeaver]

On 7/2/2022 at 11:45 AM, thebigh said:

Even before that little drama episode I was going to put a reference to something like that in my next mission.

I can almost imagine the briefing:

Quote

Tonight I have a simple job to do. A stranger from out of town hired me to acquire a precious gemstone — nicknamed the Floating Point because of its lightness and sparkling appearance — owned by a prominent member of the local artisan's guild. Fortunately for me, the entire guild is meeting in an up-town inn for one of their notorious "social club nights". My client assures me that the artisans are little more than a cult posing as inventors who will be drunk on ale and self-importance, so finding the owner and moving the Floating Point into my possession should be a simple task. But this particular client seems to be a few cards short of a full deck, so I'm a little wary of relying on his information. Let's hope there aren't any nasty surprises.

Then it turns out the artisans are all fire-throwing mages, the Floating Point gem is actually 8 feet in size and cannot be moved anywhere, and the "client" is an escapee from the local asylum and wouldn't have the money to pay you even if you succeeded.

[Xolvix]

I feel blessed to be ready to see potential "in-jokes" in future missions.

Maybe not quite in the sense of a memorial, but it does fit the spirit of the thread in that it's cool to see references to things related to the community/project embedded in missions that only those who've been around for a while might appreciate.

Although I admit, a small part of me feels bad since it's at the expense of a (former) user member. But then again they were the one who lashed out at basically everyone and the project itself, so maybe I'm just being stupid.

[ChronA]

28 minutes ago, Xolvix said:

feels bad since it's at the expense of a (former) user member. But then again they were the one who lashed out at basically everyone and the project itself, so maybe I'm just being stupid.

That guy obviously had no prior experience with hobbyist game devving/modding. If that episode was TDM at its most cliquish and acrimonious, then you are all seriously a bunch of saints.  This forum put up with a torrent of abuse before getting defensive and eventually threatening the ban hammer, while even then always providing constructive criticism and reasonable off ramps for the offender to return to good graces. He was the one who decided never to de-escalate. I've followed a couple of similar gaming communities and I don't think any of them would have handled that as gracefully.

TDM really is exceptionally among FOSS gaming communities I've encountered by being so welcoming to newcomers and open to experimentation and critique. I bet if someone came along and wanted to make a full-on Hexen clone or even an RTS in this engine they would be able to get help achieving their vision. The more common practice I've seen is to stonewall would-be contributors who do not align with the project vision. However, for the sake of maintaining civility and preserving the integrity of the software, lines do need to be drawn. You can't just risk breaking back-compatibility with hundreds of legacy missions, even for the sake of making FM creation more intuitive to newcomers. That is not a winning tradeoff. Nor can you just ignore repeated warnings that your approach and behavior is out of alignment with community practices.

IMO, this community deserves to have some fun with these memes. They are very funny and honestly more self effacing to the TDM community itself than they are mean spirited against the originator, who I very much doubt would ever have afforded us similar consideration. Common courtesy is just a quirk of social clubbing after all! 

[AluminumHaste]

Well said.

[OrbWeaver]

There's never any need to feel guilty about laughing at people who choose to make themselves look ridiculous.

[wesp5]

May I ask what this drama was all about?

[Dragofer]

Newbie comes on the scene imagining he knows everything best, insults everyone else as lazy/incompetent/drunk etc. every time he criticises something, spams nonsense or offensive status updates at a great pace and takes on a victim role when he gets called out and anti-trolled by others. Now he's banned and left behind some memes for this community as his legacy.

[Xolvix]

To be very specific, the source of the memes (make sure to click Read more): https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/47453-nort/content/&type=core_statuses_status&change_section=1

 

[thebigh]

12 hours ago, Xolvix said:

I feel blessed to be ready to see potential "in-jokes" in future missions.

Maybe not quite in the sense of a memorial, but it does fit the spirit of the thread in that it's cool to see references to things related to the community/project embedded in missions that only those who've been around for a while might appreciate.

Although I admit, a small part of me feels bad since it's at the expense of a (former) user member. But then again they were the one who lashed out at basically everyone and the project itself, so maybe I'm just being stupid.

Just to be clear, I'm not going to be poking fun at Nort. It's just coincidence that I was going to put a "there must be cult activity going on" joke into my map already, and then he went off on his little tirade.

[Xolvix]

11 minutes ago, thebigh said:

Just to be clear, I'm not going to be poking fun at Nort. It's just coincidence that I was going to put a "there must be cult activity going on" joke into my map already, and then he went off on his little tirade.

All good, I just didn't want people to think we're a bunch of trolls who pick on people for fun without any context. The main point of the thread after all was to show the strength of the community. But again, when a person starts slandering everyone along with the project then I guess they become fair game.

[datiswous]

17 hours ago, Dragofer said:

Now he's banned

I wasn't aware of this. In fact, it's not possible to see if someone is banned or not. Could be helpful in some situations. It's strange that although Nort is banned, I'm still able to write him a private message. Instead of stating "Member" it should state "Banned", I think.

[esme]

14 hours ago, Xolvix said:

To be very specific, the source of the memes...

 

Aaaah, I was wondering, thanks

Edited July 5, 2022 by esme

[Oktokolo]

Nort seems to have 

15 hours ago, Xolvix said:

To be very specific, the source of the memes (make sure to click Read more): https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/47453-nort/content/&type=core_statuses_status&change_section=1

I don't see memes there. Looks like Nort has a negative diplomacy skill and likes finding and fixing bugs. Some fixes actually got approved by a developer (and yes, that the console is full of errors and warnings by default isn't really nice when you try to debug your own errors). So i see nothing banworthy in my casual scrolldown of "Everything posted by Nort".

Wonder, what's actually going on here.

[chakkman]

Did you read his lament about Microsoft Paint? That was borderline trolling. Well, actually not really borderline. Pure trolling.

[STiFU]

25 minutes ago, Oktokolo said:

Nort seems to have 

I don't see memes there. Looks like Nort has a negative diplomacy skill and likes finding and fixing bugs. Some fixes actually got approved by a developer (and yes, that the console is full of errors and warnings by default isn't really nice when you try to debug your own errors). So i see nothing banworthy in my casual scrolldown of "Everything posted by Nort".

Wonder, what's actually going on here.

The most critical stuff has already been deleted, as we don't want to foster a harmful environment in these forums. We want to be as welcoming to newcomers as possible.

[Oktokolo]

14 minutes ago, chakkman said:

Did you read his lament about Microsoft Paint? That was borderline trolling. Well, actually not really borderline. Pure trolling.

Nope. Probably missed that - got a link or has it been deleted too?

2 minutes ago, STiFU said:

The most critical stuff has already been deleted, as we don't want to foster a harmful environment in these forums. We want to be as welcoming to newcomers as possible.

I have been playing 7d2d the last few days, so i might indeed have missed the trolling before all evidence has been burned.

Just remmeber a sortof passive-aggressive tone where i was like "ugh, that's not the way to ask when you actually want people to cooperate". Didn't see actual trolling or insults though (also am of the opinion, that a reasonable amount of trolling is okay, so maybe i just don't remember).

[chakkman]

22 minutes ago, Oktokolo said:

Nope. Probably missed that - got a link or has it been deleted too

Here it is: 

 

[Dragofer]

1 hour ago, Oktokolo said:

Nort seems to have 

I don't see memes there. Looks like Nort has a negative diplomacy skill and likes finding and fixing bugs. Some fixes actually got approved by a developer (and yes, that the console is full of errors and warnings by default isn't really nice when you try to debug your own errors). So i see nothing banworthy in my casual scrolldown of "Everything posted by Nort".

Wonder, what's actually going on here.

The guy's ended up on at least 10 ignore lists and in his final days was posting advice on how to avoid getting raped. It was high time for him to go.