[FAILED 09/23/09] [Artifex] ToonTotalWar

[Captain Blackadder]

Patrons Statment DerDiskusWerfer

Hail, members of the Cdec!

I would like to propose ToonTotalWar for the rank of Artifex. As a modder myself, I feel he has gone unfortunately unrecognised among our community, given his extensive achievements. These include:

• Heading an on-going skinning project for Empire: Total War, "Continental, British, Hessian, Spanish, French and Indian Armies mods for American Revolution", which has produced a sizeable library of new uniforms for the factions listed and will no doubt continue to provide players with further aesthetic improvements well into the future. In addition to this, the other main feature of this project is the creation of notable historic regiments, omitted from the original game, that help to expand and deepen the experience of Total War gamers; these include the American Green Mountain Rangers, the British King's Orange Rangers, the King's Royal Regiment of New York, the French Lazun's Legion Lancers, the Spanish 2nd Catalonian Regiment and many others. At present, this modification is the most extensive of its type available and is Toon's primary focus. Examples of his work on this modification can be seen below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This modification can be found here:



http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=244468

• Significantly, this project will be featured in the PCGamer UK and US magazine issue released on September 24th, demonstrating the far-reaching appeal of Toon's work among the gaming community at large.

• In the past, ToonTotal War has also worked in a multitude of modding roles for several other projects, including historian, skinner, modeller, coder and mapper, the latter specifically for the Medieval 2 Kingdoms: Total War modification Hegemon: Ancient Wars.

Toon's profile can be found here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=5662

As far as I am aware, ToonTotalWar possesses no user notes or warnings.


Patronee Statement ToonTotalWar

I, ToonTotalWar, wish to hereby apply for Artifex under your patronage. Through my application for Artifex, I am fully aware of duties as a citizen. If awarded citizenship, I will endeavour to take part in Curial discussions and votes, respecting TWC's ToS as I have previously. I take an active role in the modding community, my contributions to our site being solely mod-related. I have worked on several mods as a historian, coder, skinner and modeller, including my current Mod: Continental, British, Hessian, Spanish, French and Indian Armies mods for American Revolution (the mod which I currently work on) and my previous envolvement as StratMap modder with Hegemon: Ancient Wars for MTW2: Kingdoms Expansion. My own personally released mods have focused on retexturing and creating many new units for the American, British, Spanish, French and Hessian factions, with a specific focus on the American war of Independence period. It is because of this modding, that I apply for Artifex.

[Soulghast]

Poll added.

[Squid]

Isn't hegemon the mod that was shutdown for plagiarizing?

[Viking Prince]

The applicant has been here for over four years and accumulated a good many posts. I scanned the Released Mods forum where a great many of his 2009 posts are located. He seems helpful and useful to the Modding cmmunity with his posting style.

So, we have participation in an ongoing Empires project that will also be published and contributions to Hegemon which will not count in my mind. I would like to know a more precise nature of his contributions to the ongoing project (it appears from some of the threads that he should be considered a principle). I am assuming his contributions are to skinning, but how many skinners and what would be the estimated percentage contribution might be helpful.

I would also like to know the nature of his "contributions" to the ill fated Hegemon. A grab bag of

historian, skinner, modeller, coder and mapper,

and the incedental tie in to Hegemon is not helpful.

without better defined contributions such as projects, positions, etc. will make judging the merit difficult if not impossible.

Rather than vote now on this matter, I would like to see a contact with the Patron to rewrite the application and focus on more specifics. I will need to vote no without more information.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Councilors who are reading this thread, please see this new tutorial which explains how to view skinning contributions for yourselves.

The problem with basing anything on patron or applicant paragraphs alone without getting down and dirty, is all the contributions get glossed over. 500 New Skins! (Could just be 500 button re-arrangements, you simply don't know if you take the assertion at face value), All New Traits! (Could just be a few modified Affects values, again you don't know if you don't look). I would agree though that it would help to know which skins are his and which skins are others, as well as any examples on his part of his skins vs. their derivative.

What's a pain in the ass about this for me, is that the files are hosted with MegaUpload. They impose a downloads per 24 hr. limit, and he has something like 9 files hosted with them, none of which seemingly go over the ~300 MB limit set by the more accessible file sharing hosts like FileFront and SendSpace. That's not a reflection on the candidate per se, but it hinders my ability to look at the material and gauge it, because I don't generally settle for screenshots if they don't speak for themselves. And as someone who is keenly aware of element-transfer in skins, particularly where uniforms are concerned, though sadly not as much as B. Ward, I've yet to see any ETW skins that speak for themselves.

Anyways moving on, that's just my quibbles with the process of getting at these contributions. As to the contributions themselves, we can pretty much overlook the Hegemon: Ancient Wars involvement, as the mod was removed from TWC and The Org for using modders work without permission. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know anything about that since he says he mainly just edited the map(which would make sense), but we can't do much with it just the same.

As for the other contributions, what it looks like is he contributed ~75% of the skins listed in the thread. At first glance that seems impressive, but I'm not going to just take it at face value, I need to see just what is going into these skins.

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1- Loading Screens (DL Link)

Stated Content: 15 New Loading Screens

Impression: After downloading the loading screens, I wouldn't count them towards contribution. The vast majority are pictures which in no way can be attributed to him, he simply found them and crafted them into loading screens. Now trying to find the original artist is difficult, but they're essentially paintings, and really really really good ones made by a professional painter. I'm not saying he's being disingenuous, I'm sure he'd admit he didn't make them, but as such it's nothing more than picture gathering.

Example: Here's some examples of the loading screens to explain my impression of them, but by all means download them yourselves.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2- British, French, Spanish & Hessian Generals & Staff (DL Link)

Stated Content: More accurate Generals and Staff (together with gary)

Impression: My impression of these skins is that some of them seem to change a bit, whereas others are very marginal tweaks. I say seem to change a bit, because as I say without an in-depth knowledge of the Empire texture library, I can't pinpoint things which might be carried over from another existing skin(mixed and matched, if you will). For instance, euro_general3_diffuse is mainly a recoloring of euro_general_and_staff_officer_diffuse, whereas euro_general6_diffuse appears to apply more significant changes to the line infantry derivative at first glance, but might instead be derived from a nearer neighbor that uses the same model.

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I'm going to have to go through the other texture packs as well, and see just how much has changed about them. I'm not sure I'd grant Citizenship for 100 tweaks, whereas 100 textures from relative scratch no doubt about it, that'd be verging on Opifex territory depending on just what kind of quality and uniqueness we're talking. I would recommend, to this candidate if he doesn't pass, and to any other candidates who may read this if he does, that if you do re-textures to give many samples of your work vs. the vanilla textures it's based on, and to be dutifully genuine in that representation.

It helps Councilors better understand just what has been done, and better represents the work. I find it especially important to get examples of both skins which are changed a little and ones which are changed a lot to get an idea of both ends of the spectrum. If I get just a few examples of ones which changed a lot and then find a bunch more which were changed a little, it feels a bit like this story in terms of exaggerating the reality.

If I don't find a bunch of minor alterations passed off as skins to dissuade me, then I'll give him the benefit of the doubt based on the amount of work produced and vote yes.

[Astaroth]

I've had a look at his various contributions but, as AL said, there really aren't many made-from-scratch loading screens or skins. The candidate appears to have changed very little and I do not consider his work sufficient for Citizenship. I'll have to go with a no.

[Captain Blackadder]

I too will have to go with no his work on the surface appears impressive but it is actually a mirage the further you go in it the less it holds up.

[the Black Prince]

I have had the opportunity to consider the judgements of my learned colleagues and thank them for their valuable insights. I find myself in full agreement with their conclusions and the points they raise. I do not believe there is anything of significance I can add to further this debate and therefore cast my vote in the negative for the reasons already provided.

[Tankbuster]

I'm with all of you. There's just not enough of substance. If he keeps working and keeps modding he might get there one day, but at this moment I don't think he deserves the Artifex badge.

[Astaroth]

Failed.