FUTURWAR: The new ÆoD?

[Ænima]

Threads such as these [1] [2] [3] inspired me to make another "WHAT DO YOU THINK OF X?" thread. This time it's FuturWar. I'll get to that in a minute. But first I'd like to throw an idea at you.

Maybe we can bring back the good ol' SkullStuff Reviews -- but instead of having a "staff" of reviewers (who may or may not have bias and who can't always write lengthy reviews on a weekly basis due to being busy), we can just give each mod its own "discussion" thread and let the members of the community discuss what they think about it. All common responses can then be noted and summed up in the OP. Almost like Consumer Reports but with mods. Just an idea.

Anyways, here's some screenies of "FuturWar" by Blood:

[spoiler]








[/spoiler]


I'll try not to say too much, but basically it's a giant mishmash of every ripped resource imaginable. Everything. AOW2, RGA2, Strife, Blood, R667, those old HL1 weapon rips, even Chex stuff. The author even ripped entire maps. Specifically, from Armageddon and Skulltag's stock maps.

Now, I opened the PK3 and found a text file where he does actually credit everybody, and he says he got all of the necessary permissions. But I find that hard to believe entirely ... How could he have gotten permission to use Skulltag's D2DUEL1 ("Alpha Station") and slap a "made by Blood" HudMessage on it when the map starts?

Now, I shouldn't really be one to bitch about this kind of stuff because I've gotten in trouble over resource-stealing in the past. But it just irks me when things are ripped (or even acquired with permission) and then just thrown in a mod, as if your mod is some sort of secondhand store. The author of such a mod comes across as having a "just cuz" attitude. What about consistency? What about theme? What about balance? And most of all, WHAT ABOUT FILESIZE? FuturWar is currently 160MB (the core is just 80MB, but it's ALWAYS hosted with the music PK3, which is another 80).

I hope the author comes to his senses soon, lest his mod become the next Æons of Death. The author seems to have potential too. He seems to have a firm grasp of ACS (either that or he's ripping code too), and the maps that ARE his seem to be slowly improving in terms of architecture and detail. So it's not all bad.

Now, when it comes to the actual "gameplay", I can't really draw any conclusions because I haven't played the mod for more than 30 minutes. It's basically just invasion with tons and tons and tons of extra fluff. Like AOW2 mechs and MW2 choppers. And tons of weapons (mostly projectile, almost no hitscans) that are all pretty much the same. And they're all given to you at once. So there's no real "escalation" in your firepower as the map progresses.

---

Incase you wanna try it:
http://static.[bad site]/wads/futur_ ... tav4.2.pk3
http://static.[bad site]/wads/futur_ ... betav4.pk3


So, what do YOU think of FuturWar?

[Lollipop]

I think it is good for a childs try, but if he was actually serious, then god have mercy on him.
ÆoD was what I thought, and all your points are correct, and another thing you did not notify:
The bosses takes like 5 minutes to kill when all players are using strongest weapons avaliable and there are like 50 ally forces, which just makes it lame.
It is fun the first one or two maps and then just boring for the rest of eternity.

[Ivan]

This is a terrible piece of shit that should've died long ago. Even AEoD is better than this, because it at least provides you with a "resource pack" that you can take a couple things but this, this is beyond bad.

I have no idea what people find in this either, I mean, it has no purpose or anything, AND IT HAS RIPS FROM ALL ZANDRONUM MODS. This sentence was to those who wanted GVHAOWZH etc.

[CloudFlash]

I have no idea why you bitch about it so much. The only bad things in this mod are 1: super hard bosses, 2:bad grammar 3: having too many weapons. But other than that, it is really cool mod to play when bored/alone. This is practically the only mod which doesn't make me think 'needs more projectiles', which is a great thing, considering that I simply love missilespam games, mods, addons and whatnot. I hope he will continue working on this project, but only if there wont be any more weapons.

[-Jes-]

The hud is a bunch of huge, random, locationally inconsistent icons, the hud font is barely intelligible, the weapon sprites are inconsistent as hell (lol @ rga2 and centered weapons amongst a sea of offset), widescreen fail, ASSAULT OF THE (badly spelled) ONSCREEN TEXT...

[Ijon Tichy]

I have no idea why you bitch about it so much. The only bad things in this mod are 1: super hard bosses, 2:bad grammar 3: having too many weapons.

• Rips from every popular Zandronum mod ever without actual credit.
• Has no consistency between its weapons at all.
• Why does this need 80MB of music?
• It covers your screen with a shitton of BIGFONT HudMessages, one of the things AOW2 got flak for.
• The author didn't even proofread; there's a typo in the very first screenshot! "Enemie"? "Welcome on"? "Custom controle"? "For begin"?
• Who the fuck thought a duel map was good for INVASION?
• Why does this have its own maps to begin with?
• There is no balance.
• Did the author even think about how these fit together in the slightest? My guess is "not even for a second."
• Oh, and yeah he is ripping code. He rips everything. There isn't a hint of originality in this.

This is from me playing it once half a year ago. If I played it now, I'd have a /lot/ more complaints. Hell, I think I even remember my stuff being in here, for no reason, without permission! What the hell?

edit: yes, android, 'hell' is a word.

[Combinebobnt]

I played this with my buds a while ago and it was actually really fun because nobody knew what the fuck was happening. There were explosions and rips that exploded and monsters and robots that exploded and the hud exploded and there were more explosions and loud sounds and holy fuck hold down mouse1 with whatever gun you have and then giant vehicles that caused explosions and a giant boss that created explosive explosions and then it exploded and then you win and nobody knew what the hell just happened.

[CloudFlash]

• Rips from every popular Zandronum mod ever without actual credit.

well, so does 50% of doom mods. This one is just doing it on a bigger scale.

[*]Has no consistency between its weapons at all.

...and how exactly is that a bad thing?

[*]Why does this need 80MB of music?

because there is lots of music? why do you even question the need for music.

[*]It covers your screen with a shitton of BIGFONT HudMessages, one of the things AOW2 got flak for.

hud_scale 0 / crank up resolution, you 240x320 fag

[*]The author didn't even proofread; there's a typo in the very first screenshot! "Enemie"? "Welcome on"? "Custom controle"? "For begin"?

this i agree. french grammar in eng words ftw

[*]Who the fuck thought a duel map was good for INVASION?

um, Blood? also just because it was used as duel, that doesnt mean it cant be for invasion. think outside of the box once in a while.

[*]Why does this have its own maps to begin with?

...eeeeee? so it would be better if he stole all maps, huh?

[*]There is no balance.

so is in 90% of doom mods.

[*]Did the author even think about how these fit together in the slightest? My guess is "not even for a second."

your second point repeated.

[*]Oh, and yeah he is ripping code. He rips everything. There isn't a hint of originality in this.[/list]

your first point repeated.
***
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ with only few arguments being valid points.... ... ... but well, this is pretty good for a mod made by one guy. ... ... ... or did he actualy get some support?... ... ... nah, dun rememba

[Lollipop]

• Rips from every popular Zandronum mod ever without actual credit.
• Has no consistency between its weapons at all.
• Why does this need 80MB of music?
• It covers your screen with a shitton of BIGFONT HudMessages, one of the things AOW2 got flak for.
• The author didn't even proofread; there's a typo in the very first screenshot! "Enemie"? "Welcome on"? "Custom controle"? "For begin"?
• Who the fuck thought a duel map was good for INVASION?
• Why does this have its own maps to begin with?
• There is no balance.
• Did the author even think about how these fit together in the slightest? My guess is "not even for a second."
• Oh, and yeah he is ripping code. He rips everything. There isn't a hint of originality in this.

I do want to comment these points, if you dont mind?
Whatever, I do not give a damn in if you mind:

1. Every would probably be hard, as not all popular mods got something he could use. I do not remember seeing any brutal doom in it?
2. there is one thing, they sometimes use same ammotype and shoot with same color.
3. it got 80 megs of music because blood do not know what a midi is.
4. GIANT LETTERS ALL OVER YOUR SCREEN IS AVOIDABLE WITH HUD_SCALE 0, but if you want it on, then take my advise to quickly look through all reasons not to play and decide not to play it.
5. Grammar errors from blood, I must admit I did not see it coming from when I usually talk to him, but when he made this he obviously was drunk.
6. Blood thought so, too bad he kind of failed, eh?
7. Why it got own maps?... just what invasion do not have it's own maps? O.o
8. It got the balance saying "all shit got shitloads of hp and weapons do 1 hp damage per second, that way they will play each map for decades"
9. He obviously didn't, must be drunk as I already stated.
10. There is one originality in this: The idea of wasting your time of going to 1 place on the map to find a yellow wannabegoldlooking metalpiece just to get an achive made with a ripoff achivesystem :\

All in all... your points are 100% correct, this post will make any fool able to get what you posted.
INB4 some low-intellect person who is too dumb to understand.

[Artega]

So becuase it has no rips from Brutal doom the point is moot? rofl. Logic.

[Cruduxy]

Seeing as Aeod is like +300 mb and has an insane amount of stuff and gamemodes, nah this still needs a long time to even compare..

But yea a focused small wad is better than a gigantic mish mash anytime. -especially when you can tell 90% of the rip sources just by the first 2 screenies-

[-Jes-]

Response to CloudFlash:
1. Two wrongs make a right? Nope. Other mods that abuse Realm667 also get flak, don't pretend that they don't.
2. Visual inconsistency disrupts the player, code inconsistency disrupts gameplay. Widescreen failures just look like crap.
3. Because optimizing properly isn't a bad thing. Properly compressing RGA2's core's sprites cut it down to half size and I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED ON THE DOZENS OF WAVE AUDIO FILES YET. Not everyone likes downloading hundreds of megs when tens would do just the same.
4. Or stop spamming text that clutters even 1920x1080. It's called being concise.
5. "You try learning french" - to which I can only say: Æd lort din snotåndssvage pongnisse.
6. It's called map design. One size does not fit all.
7. Or it could, you know, just not have added any maps at all and instead be designed to fit with most dedicated map wads.
8. See 1. Other mods with shit balance also get flak for it, and most of those at least try to fix it.
9. About every point of yours repeated ad nauseum.
10. Sprites != Code, Lrn2Difference. Blatantly lifting code and not adjusting it whatsoever to any form of gameplay balance is totes the same as reusing sprites intelligently.

[Watermelon]

Rofl I wonder if it even "borrowed" the GVH:NS achievement code

[Ruin]

I'm all for debate and discussion. Just remember to keep it civil. CloudFlash, instead of personally attacking people with a different opinion, how about actually backing up your points.

[Weiss]

Maybe we can bring back the good ol' SkullStuff Reviews -- but instead of having a "staff" of reviewers (who may or may not have bias and who can't always write lengthy reviews on a weekly basis due to being busy), we can just give each mod its own "discussion" thread and let the members of the community discuss what they think about it. All common responses can then be noted and summed up in the OP. Almost like Consumer Reports but with mods. Just an idea.

Having been in SSR, I totally agree with this idea. That way people can't bitch at the reviewers and call us biased when the WADs reviewed are absolutely terrible!

On topic though, it's never okay to rip coding and such without permission. I understand it's done frequently, but that doesn't make it alright. Someone put a lot of time into that, and for another person to come and take it and claim it as their own... It's messed up. Sprites are one thing - especially if they're available to the public, like Realm667's. Coding is a whole different ballgame.

From the screenshots, I can tell you that I wouldn't touch this mod with a 10 foot pole. Everything's too cluttered, the rips are way too obvious, and the spelling on some things is... heh. Looks like it was made by a 12 year old.

[Tux]

• Rips from every popular Zandronum mod ever without actual credit.

well, so does 50% of doom mods. This one is just doing it on a bigger scale.

nnnnnno

[*]Has no consistency between its weapons at all.

...and how exactly is that a bad thing?

hey lets have touhou weapons and blood weapons plus hexen runes as enemies lel poni as main char

[*]Why does this need 80MB of music?

because there is lots of music? why do you even question the need for music.

hey lets rip entire youtueb my mod so coll wil be xd lol 1 gb lol they host it anyway lol my grench engrish sory

[*]It covers your screen with a shitton of BIGFONT HudMessages, one of the things AOW2 got flak for.

hud_scale 0 / crank up resolution, you 240x320 fag

lel i maek wad u cant red mesaegs ur bad low res xd lol

[*]The author didn't even proofread; there's a typo in the very first screenshot! "Enemie"? "Welcome on"? "Custom controle"? "For begin"?

this i agree. french grammar in eng words ftw

wow, you didn't rant on this one

[*]Who the fuck thought a duel map was good for INVASION?

um, Blood? also just because it was used as duel, that doesnt mean it cant be for invasion. think outside of the box once in a while.

lel i rip misti halek from av map 20 noone will se i make it dm map lel xd godod idea

[*]Why does this have its own maps to begin with?

...eeeeee? so it would be better if he stole all maps, huh?

he did PLUS lel my ferst map i maek it godod inclued to 600 mb wad lol

[*]There is no balance.

so is in 90% of doom mods.

nnnnnno

[*]Did the author even think about how these fit together in the slightest? My guess is "not even for a second."

your second point repeated.

lel poni enemes end blod wepons mehcs i make wepons orca enemy LOL

[*]Oh, and yeah he is ripping code. He rips everything. There isn't a hint of originality in this.[/list]

your first point repeated.

ripping code is a big no and should be treated as plagiarism

***
QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ with only few arguments being valid points.... ... ... but well, this is pretty good for a mod made by one guy. ... ... ... or did he actualy get some support?... ... ... nah, dun rememba

pretty good for a mod made by one guy

pretty good

look at parkmore, look at samsara, look at gvh, look at cyberrunner, look at basically everything et cetera
also damn, I wanted to copy your style and I made a rant :( sorry

edit: I'm sorry if someone feels offended, I didn't want to hurt anyone

[Popsoap]

I hope the author comes to his senses soon, lest his mod become the next Æons of Death.

It won't be for a while, Blood would have to use resources from about 20 more games before it becomes ÆOD Reborn.

I found it fun to see how incredibly overpowered I could get on a map. Eventually got so many allies that the server couldn't handle it and crashed.

[wario]

FYI: I never gave permission to take my Armageddon maps.

[Ænima]

FYI: I never gave permission to take my Armageddon maps.

Additional Credits to : Phobus, Rabbit Lord, Wario, and all other who let me use their files.

Oooooh. Somebody's in troubleee.

[Watermelon]

After going through his source, it's copied really badly and just spammed in an attempt to look like it wasn't copied:

It even has the same format
[IMAGE]
NAME
REASON
DIFFICULTY

with the same offsets (some modified) and ironically the exact same display time floating point number.

Furthermore the coding is horribly sloppy and copy pasted as you can tell why some scripts are purely left adjusted with no spaces, and others are indented properly.


As one of the administrators on BE where this is hosted, I would like the creator to come out and state if he borrowed and/or modified the code with consent of the authors, because hosting content without proper source (or in other words, stealing without crediting) has resulted in mods being removed and users getting tossed out of the channel.