Posts by Thrik

All right everyone, I think it's fair to say that a public forum isn't the appropriate venue for discussing an internal matter.

While I'll reaffirm FMPONE's position that there's been no ill will towards Sprony and he's very much been welcome to stay part of the staff, unfortunately there have been differing ideas on how to take the site forward and Sprony has made the decision to move on. Admittedly I didn't realise he'd made this final decision until this week following a long period of absence, which I suspect is what led to the curiosity from various people.

I'd like to thank Sprony for all of his contributions over the years. I'm sure we'd all agree that he's been at the heart of MapCore for some time, and the community is a better place for it.

So we should leave it at that, and if anyone wishes to discuss it further then please do so privately. I know it's 'just' an online community but please think of this like a dispute between employer and employee — it's not the kind of thing any of us should be seeking to gossip about, etc. No one side is necessarily the 'bad guy' and people's privacy should be respected.

Hopefully we can remember that it's Christmas and we're not meant to be getting stressed out about what's meant to be a fun gaming community. Thanks all!

Really enjoyed the first episode. And now anticipating the second. I also need to get back to Planet Earth II as I got distracted after a few episodes.

Ah right, yeah it's a fair shout. I have noticed a small increase in bots getting through since recently reviewing the anti-spam measures, one of which was switching to Google's fairly effective reCAPTCHA service. It's always a balancing act not making it too easy for bots or too hard for new members — and the fact that a lot of bots get signed up by real people for peanuts money makes it harder.

I'd say we stick with it for now, however it's always appreciated when spam is brought to our attention through hitting the report button. People who contribute in this way may additionally be considered for helping moderate if they're interested. If it does get too much we can look at tightening things up further. It's worth noting that the forum actively rejects loads of bots so it's doing its job fairly well, but like junk mail you always get some come through.

I am so disappointed. I've always enjoyed Kevin Spacey's work and absolutely loved House of Cards. I admit that at first my bias was towards Spacey and thinking it was just some people wanting headlines — the same trap that I guess many victims of powerful people fall into — but as with other high-profile individuals recently the accusations have been consistent, numerous, and from people with their own successful show business careers who have no reason to make this stuff up.

So basically it seems pretty beyond doubt that Spacey has assaulted these people, and yet how does that leave my enjoyment of his films and shows, and my intention to enjoy rewatching them again in the future? It's the whole separation of artist and art thing I suppose. At what point do you draw the line? Is it possible or moral to enjoy the work of a scumbag? Personally I refuse to listen to any Chris Brown music even though a lot of it is quite good, because he's an abusive violent bastard. But I find it hard to apply this same strictness to what seems to be an endlessly increasing circle of ethically compromised celebrities and their films/music/tv shows/games. Jeez.

We didn't have this requirement before, but we did have it configured that someone needed to post once in any existing thread before being allowed to create their own thread.

This was removed recently because I had feedback that it might be putting new members off of getting involved and/or confusing them. Typically if someone signs up it might be because they want to share something they've been working on — that is our niche — and also it led to a low level of people getting in touch asking why they aren't allowed to post

Personally I'd rather people be able to dive in and get involved without arbitrary limitations, but am curious why you feel it'd be beneficial? If it relates to certain forums getting junk then perhaps we could implement a more precise restriction. For example, if we're worried about spammy threads in the creative forums we could make it so people's first threads have to be moderated (at cost of extra staff monitoring).

Quote from Squad

On 24/10/2017 at 10:03 PM, Squad said: Not exactly HL3 related, but I think it fits in here nonetheless:

HL2 voice actor passed away.

Jesus christ we lost Eli Vance again...

Awesome stuff Ravage! Wonderful to see the memory of Hurg lives on too hahaha. Need to build a Hurg/MapCore sightings page some time.

I hate to say it but I think we're starting to become a bit desensitised to the horrific terrorism that's been happening. I mean literally in the last week or so I have read of:

1. Mass shooting in Vegas
2. Attempted car bombing in Paris
3. Attempted bomb on London tube
4. Two young (~20) women killed with knife in France

And you know what? It almost feels like just another month. Sometimes its more intense — like the mass shooting at the beach resort a couple of years ago — and sometimes it's vehicles running several people down. But it has become almost relentless. Every day I open Apple News on my phone and expect to read about another sick incident ISIS is claiming responsibility for, even though it's only actually them some of the time.

What more can I say? It's a messed-up world right now.

...

On a more personal note, I'm in the midst of moving for the first time in a few years. Things are going well with my girlfriend so we're looking at moving in together, although initially it'll just be me in an apartment we've decided on and then she'll follow a few months later. That's all great, but equally exciting is I'm getting to live in a really nice block I've had my eye on for a few years but couldn't get things to line up right. I've always enjoyed living high up, and my current flat is pretty crappy in that regard — my view is essentially a wall. So this new one is 11th floor, great panoramic views, and it's all new and modern. I can't wait to have a year or few there before finally setting down into a more practical house.

Of course, moving is an absolute pain in the ass. There's so much to take care of and a lot of money to spend, and adding to the pressure is my letting agent doing short-notice viewings of my current flat. But I've borrowed some cash to get through the crunch and it should all even out. It's just so crazy having to pay for 2x rent (both flats during the move), agent fees, deposit which is at least equal to the rent, moving truck, new utilities, etc. God day-um.

I'm yet to play Quantum Break. I really loved Max Payne and Alan Wake so hoping it gives me at least some of that same excellent writing and atmosphere those games were known for.

Yeah, all these BBC ones (Planet Earth, Life, Africa, Blue Planet) are absolutely sublime. I wouldn't say I'm massively into nature documentaries, but these ones just make them so epic and awe-inspiring. Plus you just can't beat an Attenborough narration.

I'm going to do some optimisation work soon as some of the images on the home page could definitely be better compressed for their size. That should speed things up so we have less problems like this, although once cached things should be fairly snappy anyway.

Quote from Vilham

On 27/09/2017 at 12:54 AM, Vilham said: Front page now has a scroll bar, its all fucked up.

Do you have a screenshot of this? I've not been able to see it myself (in Chrome or Safari in desktop or mobile size).

I have noticed that occasionally during the last couple of days the assets loaded a bit slowly, causing icons and various other things to take a while to look right. It is possible you saw some glitchy stuff if that happened... not sure though.

God yes

This film was great! I really enjoyed its blend of truly sinister atmosphere and jump scares. I know some aren’t keen but I find them to be a very enjoyable part of watching horrors — especially with company.

The story felt like it had heart, and its largely child cast was excellent. Of course that also made it very sickening to see them preyed upon by evil, with the first death horrifyingly setting the scene.

Uncharted 4 has to be one of the best games I've ever played. I don't know how Naughty Dog makes these worlds so damn immersive. Sometimes I was happy to just sit there with the game open while I savoured a cup of tea, watching and listening to the waves lapping away at the shore and it like I've got a window in my living room to a real lost island.

I have weird feelings about Lost Legacy. I'm so looking forward to playing it, but it's like I haven't waited long enough since my last Uncharted fix and I need to give it some more months at least so I can reward myself after the wait. It's a bit like how if Half-Life 3 had come out only a year after Half-Life 2 — nobody would have gave a crap.

Who am I kidding, it'd have been lapped up like the frosting on a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

I get the feeling I'm going to watch this outside of work and want to replay a whole bunch of games! Hearing music from a classic game always puts me in the mood for going back to it.

Jesus Christ. I never actually got past the first couple of bosses in the original, so I might finally get to enjoy this apparent masterpiece.

Oh yeah. Some games like Uncharted 4 are just beauty to look at in terms of faces. It's definitely not so slick across the board though.

That is absolutely superb. Uncanny how well such an old game captured their likenesses too. How is it games so much newer and better still struggle to make faces look as natural as HL2 did?! In some cases HL2 actually looks like a photo:

[Blocked Image: http://media.moddb.com/legacy/images/features/22/227/gallery/t_1117.jpg]

Yeah... I mean when you put it like that no wonder people are attracted to such a life. It's easy to disparage such behaviour when you're attracted to it in relatively cushy European countries, etc. But when it's somewhere where the options are so bad why not enjoy some years of exciting but extremely dangerous lifestyle. What a raw deal to end up born in those favelas.