We've been working with the engine for years and come to many of the same conclusions in regards to what kind of hard coded limits cannot be bypassed without an experienced coder, but if someone asks me to illustrate why H2v and the H2EK were released in shoddy condition I'm going to answer the question based on my views. Answering a question is not whining. I still support this site via answers to serious modding questions, not to feed any current drama.
I answer the question because I am the main person working on improving the editing capabilities so I feel qualified. I am all for scripting and what you are doing, at no point did I nor anyone I know say otherwise, that would be foolish as everyone of us wants online capabilities to be an option. I spoke with you, then I went back to work on my end. I asked you some questions about hosting custom content to which you responded by moving to a new site and declaring all other Halo 2 sites toxic or some such BS. I mean, you think you are the only one to be told no or to stop, that is just how Modacity roles and like you said, you just keep doing what you're doing and fuck them, because they aren't helping and they're certainly not going to do it themselves, you say this like it never occurred to us, like we have not had similar issues in the past, but no that would be whining.
We have been filling in missing content (tens of thousands of tags? I lost track) and repairing broken features for years, now you want a list of everything, we need to verify who we are and what we've done immediately, jump when you say jump, or we are negative and stagnant. Dude, that couldn't be further from the truth. I linked you to everything. I'm a realist, not a pessimist. I speak in facts, not BS. When someone wants an answer I'll tell them the why. You wanna know about ZTeam?
Zteam had working bipeds and anims in H2v. ShadowSpartan was having a fit over my team making any progress and seemed to consider what we were doing some kind of affront to him. So he released this video to make us feel horrible and tried to have us banned from Modacity, now that I recall it, Kant was banned. SS said it was H2v extraction, but either way it worked the assets can be seen here inside of the Halo 2 engine:
[BBvideo 800,490:1n60o9bt]https://youtu.be/SXpvlLdhZ7E[/BBvideo]
Depending on the tools we could we could merge both H2x and H2v, thats what we've been working towards, lotsa work on the tools and resource files and assets. Everything from multilingual issues to custom HUDs, to hybrid co-op/multiplayer, to advanced scripting. Imagine the more unlocked capabilities of H2x being imported into H2v. It would not be the first time assets were created in one engine to be moved to another for ease of access and a larger potential audience. Even now, to get a new render model into H2v requires a GBX model (Halo Custom Edition format).
You are listing off things we've talked about to death for years as if they never occurred to us. Modacity is very negative, indeed, but there is a reason for it as I said, they were not happy with a broken H2EK either. Many of us have worked to unlock that editing kit and it is much better now, the parts that are missing I explained to you over TS3.
The lack of proper model compilation and that of path-finding. Those are the main outstanding issues. Most of the other problems have been side-stepped by my team and various community members, all of which I could name but the list is pretty long so I stopped doing that as often.
The editing kit as a whole (many parts, not just the editing tools themselves but the contents of the maps that H2Tool calls on during compilation) were broken in many ways, hex editing was used to return some of the features. I spent the last month and a half working only on that project, because I love Halo and I love modding. I had my editing kit unlocked before there was an unlocked anything, and I didn't know much about hexing, but I wanted to so bad I just did it anyways, I was editing scenarios before anyone I talked to and I was loving it. Hell, just the other day, I'd broken my poor sweet Halo 2 so bad it will only say BORK BORK BORK, and I love it. This is an error I've never heard anyone else encountering, wtf are you talking about negative? I love modding and creating so much....thats why I dedicate so much time to it, and you nor anyone else can take that from me....for you to call me negative when you don't know anything about me or my career is insulting. I mod for the passion and the community. If something is broken, I attempt to fix it and/or seek help/tutoring, I'm still going to say its broken until its not broken. But you have to understand something else, I didn't join H2PC to fix broken tools, I'm an artist who knows some stuff about programming, and is learning more about reversing in general, but really I want to focus on the art, on the assets and levels, and we have, we've created hundreds of new maps and weapons, which is a large part of a more custom H2 vision. I asked you about that, you never responded. And when I asked you before you only seemed interested in scripting, which again, is fine, alternate ways of modding are always a boon. Your example though, I mean, my team that is...we did plenty of scripting research and know what syncs and what does not, we've been mapping this stuff out for a long time now. I get your example of critics though, they are everywhere and you see things differently when you are the content provider as opposed to the consumer.
Funny thing, I've been working so hard on unlocking the Halo 2 PC engine that I haven't been playing any games, well, not much. So recently I hit another wall, after jumping about 30 walls. I started using IDA and learning more skills with the hex editor so I could read and convert tricky strings. I have restored most of the mainmenu's menus, I even got the map names working, but I've run into an issue with selecting the map. I've been seeking help with this specific problem since 2013. I asked on Modacity, I asked on various sites, I exhausted most resources as many other modders had moved on, and for the reasons I outlined above in detail that is whining, read the part were I was whining the most, I guess, LOL, you guys and your mean comments, oh boo-hoo.
So I come back to it and work on various aspects when I have the time or feel like I know why one tag or menu is not working as it should. I did ask you about this, you had no idea. So here I am again, I was going to see if you ever got back to me, and now I have a lot more details to explain the issue, I also have revised theories on why its crashing at mp map selection. Its difficult to work with someone if they don't answer your questions, and insult you for no good reason. I have 40 Gigs of content for this project, I would like to see it realized, so I came here today to ask for some help. I will remind you, last time I asked you were bitter about the community response and you then you quit, you quit after a few months. So, from my perspective, you were either to busy, or couldn't be bothered, yet from your perspective its all on me for being negative....I haven't quit after years. I learn wheat I need to learn and often a new team mate will teach me a thing or two, and vice-versa of course; I see latent talent in new modders and like to encourage learning and artistic creativity.
I also have work obligations and family, and I have many other modding projects. Now I'm starting to make my own games, so there are times where I am overloaded; like all the time really.
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To think that we have been working from a pessimistic view the entire time we have been modding is ridiculous, disingenuous, and disrespectful to all the great work the team has accomplished. Why are we still modding? Why did we try so hard in the face of adversity? In spite of it, perhaps, but mostly because we love the game(s). I filled you in on everything you needed to know, linked you up. I explained all this to you over TS3, and now you act the fool? Bro, I smoke more weed then god so whats your excuse? I have a specific list of what I show someone when they are interested in actually making progress in the H2EK, I run them through what you call whining, its the history and current status of the game engine, what needs the most work and how it could be done. I do agree that someone else with extensive knowledge could replicate ZTeams work and then surpass it, but that is beyond my level of skill. Its a bit disconcerting to read this as your response I guess? You do remember our conversation right, pretty sure SuperSniper was there? You commented on my shitty mic, thus I tried to speak as clearly as possible, and I sent a shitload of links.
Ask SuperSniper, or Kant, or Shawn, or Himanshu,...the list goes on too long...ask them if they think I'm negative when I describe the H2EK, I'm just realistic. If someone asks a question I give a broad answer, I'm not going to censor myself nor my opinions to appease any person. I have modded all of the Halo PC games, in fact I've been modding PC games so long I cannot recall when it started, it was probably Quake, Duke, or DooM. I took part in mapping out Halo: Online with a hex editor & notepad++, provided much of the tag info for some of the DarkTools. So this picture you have of me is all wrong, I like the challenge, I like learning new tools and new languages. Don't try and take the wind outta my sails bro, cause thats what you're trying and its not cool.
Now the balls in your court, maybe you remember me linking you to a shitload of sites? Perhaps...eh, you recall meeting me in TS3, I wore a gray hat.
