![]() |
The Black Wyrm's Lair Terms of Use |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
![]()
Post
#1
|
|
![]() Master of energies ![]() Council Member Posts: 3315 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Magyarország ![]() |
The title Distinguished Developer is awarded to the best mod developers of the Black Wyrm's Lair. The nominated member must meet very strict criteria. The most important ones are as follows:
On the ocassion of announcing the new title, Distinguished Developer, the Council of the Black Wyrm's Lair would also like to award it to its first holder, our dear member and powerful developer, Sikret! Sikret's masterpiece, Improved Anvil has become the metaphor of ultimate tactical challenges in the Infinity Engine mod developer community. Tactical challenges, which tax the patience of even the most experienced players, yet also offer a possibility for less skilled tacticians to learn hard while improving their tactical skills in a stupendous degree. It also opens brand-new dimensions of gaming experience, improving and extending the original Baldur's Gate II content in very many aspects. Improved Anvil alloys seamless technical implementation with the excellence of improved content and brand-new playing possibilities. Sikret has also contributed to several projects by creating ready-to-use content or by offering useful, modern advice. Please accept my congratulations, Sikret! -------------------- Mental harmony dispels the darkness.
|
|
|
![]()
Post
#2
|
|
![]() consiglieri ![]() Member of Graphics Dept. Posts: 2343 Joined: 13-August 04 From: Michigan, U.S.A. ![]() |
Congrats Sikret!
-------------------- |
|
|
![]()
Post
#3
|
|
![]() Forum Member Posts: 116 Joined: 12-December 07 ![]() |
Perfect choice! "Congrats Sikret"
![]() |
|
|
![]()
Post
#4
|
|
![]() Retired team member Posts: 490 Joined: 8-April 08 From: U.S.A ![]() |
Congratulations to Sikret on his achievement!
![]() -------------------- "Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box." - Italian Proverb
"I like criticism, but it must be my way." - Mark Twain "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." - Herm Albright |
|
|
![]()
Post
#5
|
|
![]() The Tactician ![]() Distinguished Developer Posts: 7780 Joined: 1-December 05 ![]() |
This is one of those occassions on which I really wish I could compose my post in my mother tongue, because I'm sure that I won't be able to find the best English words and sentences to express my gratitude and sentiments.
Thank you very much, Baronius, for your support and confidence in my work (even on those old days when I was new to modding and IA was a young mod). Thank you, Sir-Kill, for those shiny golden stars. ![]() Thank you IA testers (Raven, thetruth, Dago, leonidas, Clown, and even those testers who are new in the team: Nazar), for your time and efforts in play-testing the mod before each and every release. Improved Anvil is not solely my work; no single person can make such a mod (that's exactly why I won't hesitate to praise the mod myself). IA is indeed the highest quality mod ever released in the history of modding IE games, but the credit doesn't exclusively belong to me (far from it). The credit goes to everyone who took a part in its creation and development: Baronius (for helping me to write complex codes), IA testers (Raven, thetruth, Dago, leonidas, Clown) for the time and effort they spent to test the mod, and to IA-players for their regular feedback and support. For most other modders, modding is a hobby. For us, however, it is part of the real life. You can't probably imagine how often we (= myself and testers) have re-arranged our real life programs (and have even sacrificed significant income/job opportunities in RL) just to open free time and be able to spare more time on working on the mod. If modding was a hobby for us, IA wouldn't have been the mod you are playing now. I'm glad that I am a BWL mod developer; I love BWL, because it's a place for serious modding activity; it's unique in this respect. Thank you Baronius and the entire BWL Council for maintaining such an excellent site. Thanks, everyone! Didn't I say that I wouldn't find the best words and sentences to express myself and my deep gratitude? ![]() -------------------- Improved Anvil
![]() Cheating is not confined to using external software or the console commands. Abusing the flaws and limitations of the game engine to do something that a human Dungeon Master would not accept or allow is cheating. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#6
|
|
Forum Member Posts: 1072 Joined: 27-May 08 From: Oklahoma City, OK, USA ![]() |
Hear, hear! Woohoo for Sikret!
Well earned. -------------------- "Sometimes, when we reach for the stars, we fall short. But we must pick ourselves up again and press on despite the pain."
President Ronald Reagan, 31 January 1986 -In memoriam to the lost crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger |
|
|
![]()
Post
#7
|
|
![]() ![]() Gold Member Tactical reputation: 3 Posts: 879 Joined: 29-June 07 From: Budapest - Hungary ![]() |
Grats, Sikret!
![]() |
|
|
![]()
Post
#8
|
|
![]() 3ds Max Mage ![]() Mod Developer Posts: 663 Joined: 25-December 05 From: Slovensko ![]() |
Yep, congrats, Sikret, and thank you for all you´ve done for me...
![]() -------------------- Valiant
Tower Of Deception creator. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#9
|
|
Forum Member Posts: 67 Joined: 4-August 06 From: Wandering ![]() |
Oh, my goodness, so, what, Sorcerer's Place, Team BG, Gibberlings 3, Power Plane Group, Chosen of MYstra - all those communities aren't "real"?
Sikret, chill out a bit. Accept that there are other modders with skill who are spending a lot of effort to make their visions come true. IA is an astonishing mod in scope and effort. But, all in all, it is just a fun way to pass time. Probably wasn't the smartest thing to turn down real money to work on IA, but it's your life. Maybe you think work on IA will get you an "in" into a game devel position, or something, not really important. Congratulations on the work, it's worth recognizing as important. But don't disrespect the other dedicated modders, please. |
|
|
![]()
Post
#10
|
|
![]() consiglieri ![]() Member of Graphics Dept. Posts: 2343 Joined: 13-August 04 From: Michigan, U.S.A. ![]() |
um wizwom Sikret never said that other communities arent real, in fact the term real was used in really and in real life.
Sikret did not seem to need to chill to me, I have heard from many modders in many places that "it is just a hobbie" I do not know much about Sikret but for me too is is more than a hobble. and before you think me and Sikret are best buds and I am just defending him, I think we disagree more than agree on anything This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Jul 8 2008, 12:41 AM -------------------- |
|
|
![]()
Post
#11
|
|
![]() Master of energies ![]() Council Member Posts: 3315 Joined: 9-July 04 From: Magyarország ![]() |
WizWom, I see no disrespect here. Sikret told the secret (wow what a sentence) of Improved Anvil, or at least, one of the keys of the mod's success. He doesn't say that those who do modding as a hobby are unable to create nice works; he just tries to express that building and developing a very complex mod such as Improved Anvil requires extraordinary effort and devotion. That is, building a mod of such a size and complexity in such a short time without bugs is something what a hobbyist modder wouldn't be able to do with the current technology and methodologies. Simply because of time restrictions and lack of necessary knowledge. This doesn't mean that other "dedicated" modders cannot create nice works according to their own preferences and possibilities.
QUOTE Probably wasn't the smartest thing to turn down real money to work on IA, but it's your life. Maybe you think work on IA will get you an "in" into a game devel position, or something, not really important. I don't know where you get these assumptions from, but they are really funny. And it reflects a certain view of life as well. It seems you believe that a person would only want to do such a hard work in order to achieve something "serious", such as "game devel position", or something similar (and if not, then it's "not really the smartest thing to turn down real money"). You forget that there are people who undertake hard work (hard process) because they enjoy the result -- which is not money, "game devel position" or anything else you believe to be serious; instead, it can be own enjoyment & entertainment and/or seeing how players enjoy your work. The process itself can be hard and not so enjoyable sometimes (when solving a certain difficult problem), but it is worth it. It means more to them than "real money", "game devel position" or anything such. On the other hand, many of the mod makers whom you refer to as "dedicated modders" try to make this process (mod development) much fun and joy, which is also a completely correct approach. That is, they want to enjoy the process almost as much as the result. They want to achieve the result quickly (either by creating smaller mods in advance, or by developing them in a short time). Mod development doesn't play a central role in their life, because they can't afford the time or have no intention to learn IE modding in details. There is nothing wrong with this, however, it undoubtedly results in more errors and problems in mods. Why? Simply because IE modding is not easy. It doesn't matter what some modders and WeiDU programmers say or imply, IE modding is not easy, especially for beginners. We all know this. A lot of things in IE modding must be learnt in theory and then practised, just like when you study various things at school, for example. Without the necessary knowledge, it's impossible to create bug-free content for big and complex projects. But let's get back on topic: the hobby mod is finally released. New shiny topics in the mod's brand-new forum, the bug reports start to arrive (resulting in many posts and activity), modders are happy to fix them and are happy because their forum has traffic, then in the next version they include the names of those in the mod's credits who reported bugs etc. There is nothing wrong with this, but it's different from Sikret's approach, that's all. So the two approaches can peacefully live together, with precise compatibility notices and guidelines. However, when some of these "dedicated" modders try to force their techniques and mods on others (such as Sikret or myself) and when they fail, they attempt to discredit us with rhetorical and similar tricks on various forums (or worse, with unnoticeable propaganda and brainwashing), it's no fun anymore. For example, the following statement is a well-known element of the propaganda: "Bugs cannot be prevented; every mod has bugs". It's often used to justify the presence of bugs in a poorly written mod, when some author decides not to support compatibility with it (mostly because the "compatibility" would introduce even more bugs, and would make the bug-free mods buggy as well). Of course, every mod has bugs, but it does matter how many and how serious! No, serious bugs are not inevitable. Using the statement "all mods have bugs, it's natural" to justify the presence of serious bugs is humbug. Humbug. Similarly, when it's said to us "you don't support compatibility with mods you don't like", it's also nothing else than misleading credulous or inexperienced players, modders, visitors. They "forget" to mention the fact that we set up the strict guidelines to ensure two mods won't get into harmful interaction with each other (i.e. bugs won't appear), and thus protect our own hard work as well as the player's fun while playing. Those who find it normal to receive serious bug reports don't care about this and find our approach offensive (because they would be willing to fix bugs in order to make their mod compatible with ours); on the other hand, we do care because we know that applying some fixes is usually insufficient to make a complex mod compatible with another (or to make any mod compatible with a buggy one) in the long run. We know some aspects more deeply than others, but -- instead of listening to us -- several modders seem to know the details of our own mods better than we (!), and sometimes even pretend to know more on a certain field while their knowledge is actually much smaller in that particular field. So hereby (based on WizWom's last words) I ask the involved "dedicated" modders to respect our principles and methodologies, in the same way we respect theirs. I don't state that all BWL mod developers follow the strict approach I outlined above. In fact, some of them might prefer the other way. On the other hand, the title Distinguished Developer is only awarded to those who meet very strict criteria. If some people -- such as WizWom -- consider this as "elitism" (and as a disrespect to hobbyist modders), they are free to do so; it doesn't change on the fact that quality results don't come for free -- knowledge and hard work is required. -------------------- Mental harmony dispels the darkness.
|
|
|
![]()
Post
#12
|
|
Forum Member Posts: 105 Joined: 25-August 06 ![]() |
Let me bring an olive branch to the discussion. IA isn't my kind of mod (the style differences between it and SCS make that obvious), but its quality assurance cycle is to die for. And I think it's probably right that a lot of the reason for that is straight time: modding for me is certainly a hobby and while obviously I test mods I write and code them in a bug-resistant way, I simply don't have the time (more importantly: don't have the flexibility of time) to do anything as thorough.
|
|
|
![]()
Post
#13
|
|
![]() Multiclass F/C/M Forum Member Posts: 256 Joined: 17-October 04 From: Sweden ![]() |
I would also like congratulate both Sikret and Baronius.
The first for its overwhelming project and for the quality assurance that comes with it and the second for the courage of always sticking truly to his beliefs and opinions. Kudos to DavidW, a person (and modder) I have had many ocassions to appreciate! Keep it up, guys! ![]() |
|
|
![]()
Post
#14
|
|
![]() Retired team member Tactical reputation: 2 Posts: 177 Joined: 5-April 06 From: Greece ![]() |
Congratulations Sikret!
![]() |
|
|
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 6th September 2024 - 07:23 PM |