[Artifex] Seether (Patron: y2day) [PASSED]

[y2day]

y2day's Paragraph

Hello members of the CdeC. First I would like to thank you for the time you will contribute to the research of the following application. Now we might as well get on with it. I bring before you today a find upstanding member Seether. I have worked with him for about a year now I think and it has been a more than pleasurable experience as well as educational. He has composed all the information you will need below so I will not add much here. I would just like to say that I asked him if I could sponsor him (as it should be) because I think he deserves the recognition for his considerable contribute to TWC. I'm not alone, below is a word from Gigantus as well. Rise of Three Kingdoms wouldn't be a quarter of what it is if not for him and I look forward to everything else he has planned for this project and his future contributes. Take a look at his paragraph and you will quickly see why he deserves it, besides being a great guy he has the right attitude and the work he has done on RoTK is more than enough.

Thank you again,

y2day

From Gigantus

Humble words send to me in August 2012:

If you are looking for a historian, I can offer my services. I haven't done any significant modding for TW in a couple years, as I did an modest submod that is now fully integrated into Stainless Steel and the RR/RC compilation, but I can offer my knowledge, advice, and input on your project if you so desire.

I so desired and haven't looked back since.

During the (still ongoing) work on the Rise of three Kingdoms mod I have come to appreciate Seether's input in varying fields, ranging from detailed knowledge of the period, be it historical or related to the 'Three Kingdoms' saga, to the endurance of translating all text files from Chinese to English (approx 30.000 lines) as well as coding of EDU and EDB. Suffice it to say that the mod would be still months from release were it not for is input.
The number of well laid out research threads in the dev forum have been an invaluable resource through out the development time and I wouldn't be surprised if he is going to release them in one form or the other.
Once we released the mod in it's beta form I got to know yet another side of Seether - he has been attending to the numerous questions pertaining to the mod as well as the inevitable 'Help, it crashed' reports and his response has always been friendly and informative.

All in all it has been a very pleasant experience working with him and I have no doubt that his willingness to share his experience will make him a valuable addition to the citizenry of TWC.

Seether's Paragraph

Salvete, esteemed members of the CdeC!

As a short introduction on my part, my name is Justin and I have gone by the username of Seether since I first registered at TWC on October 2005. To be honest, I can't even remember why I first came to TWC. My recollection is that, at the time, I was playing Rome: Total War, did a simple google search, and landed upon this community. For my first few years I was not active by any means; I was more of a lurker than anything else. Slowly but surely I got more involved in different areas, like the Political Mupit and various modifications, but my lack of "free time" and other personal issues kept me from getting overly involved. I had never given thought to trying my hand at modding until, by accident, I came across the famed Stainless Steel mod for Medieval 2.

My first foray into modding began as a personal mission to create historic family trees for the Stainless Steel mod, but soon turned into the initial release of Alberi di Famiglia Regal in October 2009. The major points of that mini-mod was to create family trees and bloodlines for all factions that were historically accurate as well as overhauling the name files of nearly all factions. AFR was fully implemented into the standard versions of Stainless Steel starting with SS 6.1, and has since been fully integrated into that mod.

Most of my modding work, however, has dealt with the Rise of Three Kingdoms mod, which was recently released in its beta version. In August 2012 I joined the project with Gigantus, originally as a historian, after I had expressed interest and knowledge of the era in its forum. However, due to the incredibly small size of the mod team (2 members at the time) and my background in text-based modding, I soon took on roles that far-exceeded that of an historian. Essentially I have been a lead designer of the mod, along with Gigantus, and have been given an incredible amount of leeway and responsibility on the factions, characters, units, events, and setting of the entire mod. Aside from general design, I have taken the lead role in all text-based aspects (outside of scripting), such the writing of the hundreds of historic character biographies, traits, buildings, events, units, and campaign descriptions, as well as all the research involved in doing such. I also delved into modifying and adding units, using EDU, modelDB, and associated CAS and TGA files. Since the beta release I have been extremely active in the mod's forum, communicating with members via answering questions, concerns, and updating them with my own personal game notes.

Although I had seen his name around the forum and in the credits of several mods, I never had the pleasure of working with, or getting to know, y2day until he also began working on the Rise of Three Kingdoms mod. His work is truly amazing and he is an outstanding person, and I can not think of anyone else I would rather be working with. Gigantus, too, has been more than fantastic. Aside from his limitless knowledge and expertise, he has been a willing tutor, teaching me new concepts and the finer aspects of modding M2TW. And I guess these two exceptional individuals, and how they have interacted with me for the past year, are the best examples of the embodiment of what being a Citizen of TWC means. Without any nonsense, the most visible aspect of being a Citizen is that there is a recognition of one's personal achievements and contributions to the community, whether it be through modding, debate, outstanding character, graphics and design, site content, or whatever else. However, what I learned from Gigantus and y2day, through their actions, is that being a Citizen means a lot more than being recognized for your contributions by the community and your peers. In simpler terms, it means giving back something to TWC and its members. It means putting your time, sweat, and tears into a project, not for your own recognition, but for the enjoyment of Total War, gaming, and history fans around the world and the betterment of Total War Center. It means sharing your talents, skills, and knowledge with those who desire to learn, either for their own personal use or so that they too can give something back to the community.

My work on Rise of Three Kingdoms, and AFR before that, has never been about my own personal recognition. It has been about sharing my own passions and desires with complete strangers on a gaming forum, in the hopes that what I have done will make their gaming experience better and give them, at least in some small way, a sense of enjoyment. By becoming a Citizen, I wish to follow in the foot steps of y2day and Gigantus: selfessly giving back to the community by sharing my work and knowledge with whoever would care to obtain it. And if I can make someone's day better, or their gaming experience less rage-filled, then that would make it all the more satisfying. On top of that, as a Citizen, I will be able to lend my voice and concerns to certain matters that pertain to the welfare of the site and its longevity and function. I really enjoy TWC, if I hadn't then I never would have come back after I registered nearly eight years ago, and I would like to see this place flourish and be a place where people from all over the world can share their talents, work, opinions, and personal experiences for years to come.

Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter.

Regards,
Seether

[General Brewster]

Seems solid.

I trust no moderation issues?

[Omnipotent-Q]

Seems solid.

I trust no moderation issues?

No moderation issues.

I like Seether. He has been here for some time as regular as it were - 2005 in fact. The knowledge he has shown, the spirit he has shown, with Rise of Three Kingdoms is superb. He came in just as historian, and then offered his services and skills in other areas as the need arose. It shows real character. I have yet to play the mod either as I only recently became aware of it when prepping a front page news post for it. But everything I've seen looks superb. The general info thread for the mod really shows the level of detail the gents have put in. I'm really looking forward to playing it in the coming weeks when I get a chance.

Now what's everyone else's opinion? Don't be shy now. Only one third of elected CdeC have even posted in here - 4 people. "Q's special prize" awaits those who miss the entire application without a word!

[Noif de Bodemloze]

Time to investigate this application, as this look nice in application. Let's see does this enough to get a vote by me.

[m_1512]

Good work in the mods. Must see if it is enough for citizenship.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

I like this The three kingdoms overhaul a lot. Really good units, nice campaign map, locations and events. But there is something, what also I want, I know you has wroted hundreds of files... I am not sure about this yet, because credit say you are done o

ther text stuff (family trees, translation, historian). Difficult choose.

[m_1512]

Hey M,

Gig just PM'd me. He saw Noif De Bodemloze's post. Below is Gig's PM to me.

I hadn't updated the credits in ages - hence Seether wasn't credited with all the coding of traits\ancillaries and stuff. Did that now.
Not sure about the do's and dont's in these applications, may be PM Noif to get in touch with me if he requires more detail about Seether's involvement in the project. (Script ideas as well in connection with his historical background while I am thinking about it)

Don't know if you could post his quote in that thread or what. Seether has done a ton of work for RoTK, believe me a ton!

Thanks
y

[General Brewster]

Ah helpful thanks for posting M!

[Noif de Bodemloze]

I wonder why Gig send to y2day and y2day to M? It would be easier if send pm to me. I am always open for discussion so no need fear that I bite.

edit: I got all what I needed now.

[Finlander]

I have just recently downloaded Three Kingdoms mod and I haven't had much time to get really into it yet but from the first glance it looks and feels like a quality product and it must have required a lot of work to make it so.
The applicat looks very promising and I like his attitude . I will play the mod and pay attention to see Seether's work in game.

[General Brewster]

The ROTK mod is indeed awesome. His work their, the attitude and the general positive attitudes people have towards him made me vote yes

[Lord William]

I regret that I have seemed to misplace my vanilla copy of medeival 2 so sadly I am forced to look only at secondary sources but I like what I see. He seems to have played an important role on the modding team, his posting is fine with no infractions. It is a yes from me

[m_1512]

Voted yes.

Essentially I have been a lead designer of the mod, along with Gigantus, and have been given an incredible amount of leeway and responsibility on the factions, characters, units, events, and setting of the entire mod. Aside from general design, I have taken the lead role in all text-based aspects (outside of scripting), such the writing of the hundreds of historic character biographies, traits, buildings, events, units, and campaign descriptions, as well as all the research involved in doing such. I also delved into modifying and adding units, using EDU, modelDB, and associated CAS and TGA files. Since the beta release I have been extremely active in the mod's forum, communicating with members via answering questions, concerns, and updating them with my own personal game notes.

The work involves quite a lot of effort, and trust me writing hundreds of creative content like the above is no mean feat.

[Confederate Jeb]

I know of Alberi di Famiglia Regal, as I looked into it when I started playing Stainless Steel. Sadly I still need to get it. While I am not a modder, I can certainly appreciate the work that goes into the hundreds of descriptions that fully flesh out a game. What I like is that Seether is able to both work on alone or on a team. I think there's more than enough support for giving him citizenship, what with Rise of Three Kingdoms having a beta release and Alberi di Famiglia Regal having been out for years. A solid yes from me.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

I'd like to test this rise of three kingdoms -mod, but I am lazy to install my medieval 2 total war and try this mod, so I looked his profile and those works, what he linked and made my founds in Gig's three kingdoms threads. Those screenshots, where was those traits, very interesting reading and even myself, I am interested about china's three kingdoms, seen movies and read books. Also units in game was outstanding and location's and building arts was marvelous. I noticed that he was been really long time in 2 projects and I believe he has given 100% on his works and that way, he and his team has created a beautiful overhaul mod.

So I will vote for:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Yes

[Derpy Hooves]

I have never seen this user in particular before, nor have I heard of him, however I am greatly impressed at one thing in particular that Gigantus mentioned, Seether translated over 30,000 lines of text from Chinese to English. That sounds like a heck of a lot of work, work that must have been extremely crucial towards the development of ROTK (given that it takes place in China and the best sources that could be found would be in Chinese). According to his profile he appears to be an American, making it all the more difficult to find the best sources, since they would all be foreign. His other mod is already incorporated into the Stainless Steel mod, and considering that Stainless Steel is considered to be one of the top ten best Medieval II mods, it means a great deal.
All in all, I think his contributions have great value. One of his mods is part of Stainless Steel and he has put in a lot of hard work into ROTK, which although somewhat new, might enter the top ten best Medieval II mods (it does have the potential).
I am going to vote yes.

[Radboud]

His amazing amount of work on RoTK (and the quality seems very good) make me vote yes, as well as the fact that he has other released work for SS. He also comes across as a very nice person.

Regarding the fact I haven't posted much lately it's because I've had some major issues with my voluntary work which is also keeping me quite busy with work load, it shouldn't be an excuse but it did happen.

[Inarus]

Back! and just in time it seems... Had a brief exploration of his works before I departed but was a bit rushed, seems safe to say that the remarks since have only confirmed my initial thoughts...

So to sum up, an excellent application, well explained and the applicant himself demonstrates a good attitude and strong contributions to which I'm sure hours were devoted. An easy yes... now I'll just hope I wasn't too tired to miss something