Comments - Turtle

You can tell the developers took Killzone 2 as an influence for the style of gunplay and animation. However, it seems they've taken it a little too far.

I've looked at the T1 intro and the design of the guns from that in no way matches the one they're showing here. In fact, the current gun they're showing is way too similar to the Killzone 2 ISA gun, right down to the way it's animated.

This could be due to the leads requesting the artists to copy the killzone 2 style too much, or the artist doing that of his own accord. Either way, just a few more tweaks would make these weapons and animations their own thing.

Okay, so you put up material that includes stolen ideas and models and you expect someone not to call you on it?

Um, hello? You post anything online and you expect people not to discuss it? The gameplay of the mod is not in question here, the content of the mod is.

So, it doesn't matter whether I've played it or not. Those pictures that you posted for everyone to see have a stargate from the movie/show in it, you have themes ripped off from the same movie and TV show. What's more, you call it "The Gate" clearly a take on stargate.

It doesn't matter if that's a placeholder, or even if gameplay is nigh godlike in FPS perfection, and you're showered in gold from all these magazine awards you're so eager to point out. The fact of the matter is you have infringed on someone's copyright and the only reason why you haven't been served a cease and desist is that the show's lawyers don't know you exist. Your responses show that you're ignorant of copyright laws by posting those images as they are, even if they don't represent the final product, it's still copyright infringement. That's clearly unprofessional.

If you truly understood copyright law, if you truly wanted to make a professional project, and if you truly wanted to represent your mod in the best light, then you would have realized that posting this news blurb that clearly shows ideas and imagery taken from other people was not a good idea.

So let's see, themes taken almost stright from movies and TV shows.
Models and probably other content stolen straight from other mods.
Complete ignorance towards copyright and intellectual property laws.
A stargate that looks exactly like the one in the movie.
Alien Egyptians like those in the movie/tv show.

Reality check here, the reason why Gate 1 was never shut down was that it was small and obscure. And have you taken a look at your own screenshots and writings? You mention stargate in the mod description, your screenshot clearly shows a stargate just like the one shown in the movies.

I suggest you think before you write because if you try to take that sort of attitude when the lawyers serve a cease and desist, you'll be looking a lot of legal fees.

You could, instead, try to make an original mod based off original ideas without stolen ideas (oh and stolen content it seems). Or you can sit here and deny the obvious fact that your mod is copying Stargate intellectual property. Because right now you're sounding like that idiotic Iraqi propaganda minister shouting that there is no invasion while tanks are driving in the background.

I just tried this mod, great work. I couldn't get through the intro sequence though, it was a little buggy. You really need to give the player more time to familiarize himself with is surroundings before dumping the zombies on him, and four doors to barricade are way too much for just one player, and the barricades don't last long anyway.

Anyone know the status of this mod? Their forums are down and the website hasn't been updated in a few months. It'd be sad to see this mod die after so much work was put into it.

It'd be interesting to see what they could do with the UT2007 engine, though.

So, how do you plan to avoid being served a cease and desist from Fox?

That's because they are traced, or at least drawn over a rough of the design. It's called artistic process. Draw a rough, refine the image, then finish it. In this case, after laying out the forms and getting the final design down, he probably did the inking on another paper over the draft. That or he did the inking digitally in photoshop.

Good grief, get a writer!

It's the year 2442, yes those old weapons are reliable, but in 400+ years they would have developed plenty of brand spanking new weapons that are just as reliable. The m16s of today would be rusted heaps or carefully preserved collector's guns.

Four-hundred thirty six years is a lot of time. Look back over our last century of history and look how much has happened, hell look at the last 20 years and see how much things, especially military technology, has changed.

Now tell me they're still actually issuing m-16s to troops 400 years in the future?

My suggestion is that if you want to keep a bit of realism, make derivatives. M-16s 400 years from now? No way, not even with that really bad excuse you've written up. New high tech ballistic weapons that use heavy masses propelled by a chemical explosion that are easily manufactured with year 2442 technology? Sure, I mean these older guns could be from 50-100 years ago, they won't be m16s and mp5s, but they'll have very similar designs, just updated with year ~2400 technology and materials.

For goodness sake, get away from the counter strike mindset that every mod must have modern day guns in it.

And this is supposed to be a mod?

All I see are generic photographs of real guns. Come back when you actually have some original and self made content to show.

Just because he has said nothing about No doesn't mean he wants you to do it. It's like stealing because there's no police officer there to stop you.

If he hasn't said anything yet, it's simply because he hasn't had the time to go pouring over the entire forum looking for things like this. He has better things to do. Also he has already registered the copyrights to NS, so that officially means you're working with copyrighted material without permission.

Does anyone ever read the plentiful information on copyrights and mod dev etiquette around here? Yeesh.

Yeah? Well look at your news post. There is no such mention of anything like that.

I actually have read your description, but that doesn't matter at all because most people won't be interested enough to take the time to read it. From seeing that image they've already lumped your mod in with all the CS clones and the countless other mods that show a bit of untextured models, then disapear.

Remember, people's first opinions always come from the first things you show them. Another untextured MP5 picture is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot, and it'll stick with the mod until the day it dies. Instead, I would have waited until I had a more interesting piece, like a good clean concept art, or better yet, an in game screenshots that clearly shows that this is not just another CS clone.

Oh look, yet another render of the same damn MP5 we've been seeing for the last 3 years. In this crowded mod scene, don't think that just a render of something so overdone will impress anyone.

Go and work on your mod and come back with in game screen shots of some more original content. Otherwise your mod is just going to be lumped with all the other abandoned and forgotten CS clones.

You do realize that the reason the first generations project got hit with the cease and desist order was directly converting over source material (like textures and models)?

I was wondering the same thing. They look good, but there's no game to back them up. I say stop posting them and actually work on the mod. When you have work done that matched the concept art, then show it. Otherwise it's really no different from some new team showing off their latest model.

Good god man! Clean those sketches up before posting them as concepts!

Seriously though, as good as they are, you should seek to show more professionality in your work by cleaning and defining the forms a bit more.

It's called predevelopment. Things like design documents, concept art, storyline, and game flow planning. You know, the sort of things that seperates dedicated and professional mod teams from the amateurs.

I recognized Sparth's style the moment I saw those images. He posts on forums I frequent.

I noticed you're a moderator, that'd most likely mean you have a good level of professionality and good experience in the mod scene. Good to see a coop mod being worked on so early and with experienced modders.

Too bad I won't be at the professional artist level for a while, I would love to do concept work for this mod.

And by the same coin, a game isn't bad until one actually plays it and evaulates the gameplay.

Me, I'll be getting on release day simply because Valve has already proven itself capable of making a good game, and at least one person I know on the Valve team is a very dedicated and skilled artist.

If I'm disapointed, it's my own damn fault for not waiting for reviews. ;)

I'm already writing the design doc and sketching concepts for a HL2 mod. Fortunately, I've had enough experience with modding to know how to properly get a mod off the ground. That involves not hyping it until I have something concrete to show.

Oh and since you hate the government so much and don't want to follow its laws, I'll just go rob you blind while killing you, your family, and all your friends. Hey, screw the law right?

I really have to laugh when I see people promoting anarchy, because often the kids that promote it would be the first to die if the world really degenerated.

Copyright laws are there to protect the work that you put into something, since it protects you, it also protects corporations.

The whole misconception that if you're not making it for profit, you're not in any legal trouble is off base. Copyright law only allows fair use in terms of satire, journalism, and academics (there's probably a few more cases too). It basically allows those areas to do their work without having to worry about stepping on anyone's toes. Fair use does not let you use someone else's ideas for your own work, and that includes mods. Whoever controls the intellectual property has a right to say who uses it regardless of profit.

Well the thing is, Valve hasn't gone out and said this isn't true.

Then again, they've been quiet all around lately, probably withdrawn to get some serious work done on the game instead of all these updates.

I do know that one of my favorite illustrators was recently hired by Valve to do texture work, and that she's extremely busy, so that's a good indicator that they're very hard at work on a new game.

Is it me, or does the Atlantean design look like a cross between a Covenent Elite from Halo and an Eldar helmet from Warhammer 40k?

It still looks cool, though, and I'm looking forward to the mod. It's nice to see you guys progressing so quickly.

It does sound too good to be true, but I'm not complaining.

The main reason I was skeptical about modding with Unreal 2 was that in order to get a multiplayer mode working for my mod, I would have to alienate my players by switching to UT2003.

It also helps that I'm a big fan of the FPS and RTS combination.

Well, it's like this Poll, I couldn't even find it first time I went looking for it! Of course it was late, but still...

First thing, and a pretty big change: See that big logo up top with all the empty space to the left? Fill that empty space with something that's being hidden away in the sides.

Try getting rid of the user control panel on the main page. Most people are probably browsers, so they won't need it. As for mod managers, they would probably go into a page with only the control panel so they wouldn't have to load up all the news every time they wanted to change something.

Heh, probably not. I haven't played CS in a loooooong time. There's also a lot of people named Turtle online these days.

Ah, CS. I remember my old days when I could just jump in the room with a pistol and cap five people in the head. I think I made a good trade off though, making games instead of playing them now. :)

Now, I should find something to add to my name to distinguish myself.

Actually, I'm more concerned with the layout of the site. There's imply too much information on each page, making it hard to find the comment box, let alone be interested enough to use it.

I also think the site could use some more color to help direct reader's eyes to the major points of interest in the site, in this case, the comments would be one of them. Otherwise all these little sections just blend into one shade of grey, and that's pretty harsh on the eyes.