[Citizenship] Kaiser Leonidas (Patron: Aikanár) [PASSED]

**Aikanár** · April 05, 2015, 04:15 PM

Patron's Paragraph Esteemed fellow Citizens,

I come before you today to present to you Kaiser Leonidas for Citizenship. I first came across Leo in my daughter's mod project Dragon Born. I've silently observed his postings there, which caught my attention rather instantly since he seemed a nice and helpful fellow. Then I had to take a break from TWC for some time and when I got back he was still around. I like it a lot when you leave people and come back a considerable amount of time later and you find them still displaying the qualities you did like with them when you left. Leo is exactly such a person.

Hence it was a complete no-brainer for me to accept his application for the modding vault when I had the opportunity to do so. I thought he would be a good addition to the team when we re-started the Vault in August last year. I had no idea. Leo turned out to be a work horse. He not only took over and managed the Medieval 2 and Kingdoms section with great elan and work ethos but also was key to transform our upload index, which was basically a thread in which we listed all our stored mods, to the modding vault index sheet in the wiki, which now can be easily used by all members of TWC.

Also, whenever there's a task to do, he's the first to volunteer for it, like when a worker drops out and we need a replacement for that section or like with the recent 2013 modding awards. If it was for his volunteer contributions to the Vault alone I'd like to see him promoted to Citizen since it's people like him, who help without asking for rewards, who simply are there whenever you need them, who work for TWC's community and the better of the entire site that I think are a boon to and the heart and soul of our site.

I hope that, when you've read his bit, you will share my opinion, finding him worthy of rising in rank.

Regards,
Aik

PS: It goes without saying that he has no moderation history whatsoever.

Kaiser Leonidas' Profile

Applicant's Paragraph Dear all,

I first joined TWC in 2010, after seeing the mod Third Age: Total War, a mod which I suspect drew many people to the site, and being astounded at what could be done with the game using mods. I loved vanilla Medieval 2, but seeing this mod really took it to another level. And then from there I quickly found other mods. Although I initially posted very little, only to ask for help with certain problems, or post my support for a mod, I soon found myself reading other parts of the site too and I've stayed here ever since.

I was first approached by Aikanár about applying for citizenship last year, but I felt as though I hadn't really done enough to earn it at that point. Since then I’ve played a more active role in the Vault Staff, as well as helping to organise the perhaps slightly overdue 2013 Modding Awards, and so I thought I might as well have a go.

Vault Staff:
I joined the Vault Staff in August last year and am jointly responsible for managing the Medieval 2 section. My contributions can be seen in the upload log (I think this forum may be hidden for most users so you’ll have to take my word for it!). As well as my normal duties keeping the Vault up to date with the Medieval 2 mods, I also filled in all of the initial entries for the new Modding Vault Wiki, which serves as a replacement for the old Index, showing all of the mods currently stored in the Vault and when they were uploaded. If you look in the edit history of that wiki page, my name does seem to come up a fair bit, although I suspect most of them are just tiny edits to correct something I did earlier. I was awarded with a Bronze Technician’s Screwdriver as a reward for my time served in the Vault too.

2013 Modding Awards
I joined the organisational team following Aikanár’s request for volunteers to help from the Vault Staff as I thought I would be able to help with this. I was responsible for compiling a list of the mods released for Medieval 2 in 2013 (link 1/link 2), which involved searching through all of the mod forums to try and find anything that was either released or updated in this year. Although this wasn’t completely comprehensive, it still formed an important part of Shankbot’s index of mods released in 2013 to help people know what mods were eligible for nomination. After the nomination phase had finished, I compiled a list of all of the nominations across each game and category, and then checked that each of the mods was eligible using the previously assembled lists, as well as looking up any that we had missed out.

Modding Contributions
Although I would not consider myself a modder by any means (other than a very basic, but working map I made once for Medieval 2), I have tried to help out where I can. I joined the DragonDawn team as a beta tester back in October 2011 just before the release of the first custom battle, providing feedback on how it could be improved and spotting any bugs before it was released. My feedback was given over PM with Squeaks initially, but following this I was invited to join the developer’s forum where I could give input and feedback directly. My main work can be seen in my own thread (again, this is in a private forum sadly), as well as assembling a full faction preview. I also provided short video previews for the mod in the Total Warcast, Season 3 Episode 1 (it begins around 26:15 ish) and took screenshots for use in the unit info cards, a small selection of which can be seen below.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Outside of DragonDawn, I have tried to provide help in a number of mods, albeit in small way. I provided multiple download links for the Rule Britannia mod (1, 2, 3), as the creator has been absent for some time so I thought I would help out as I had a copy on computer. I have also tried to give help for anyone having problems with the mod, despite my incredibly limited technical expertise. I even managed to find the error in one case, I’m quite pleased with myself for that, even if it was just searching through the text files to find anything which didn’t match up to what it as supposed to be…

Other Stuff
I completed a course in Elementary German in the TWC University, being awarded with a bachelor’s degree in September 2013. Hopefully, this will soon be joined by my real bachelor’s degree in the summer! I was also nominated for ‘Favourite Staff Member’ in the 2014 TWC Member Awards, albeit by my esteemed patron, Aikanár.

So although I haven’t contributed massively to either modding or debating on TWC, I would still be honoured if you would consider me for citizenship in light of my vague contributions.

Thank you,
Kaiser Leonidas

**Aikanár** · April 05, 2015, 04:48 PM

I didn't want to edit the OP anymore, but I thought I'd give you a short insight in what the job of a member of Vault Staff is. You usually get a section that equals a game of the franchise assigned. Then it's your task to scan through the hosted mod forums, the mod thread forums and the wips, ideas and proposal forums and check every thread in them for mods. If you come across a mod that is larger than 100mb you look for a download for it here or elsewhere in the net, download it, install it, see if it runs, create an MD5 checksum for it, upload it to the vault, download it from there and compare the checksums, when all that is done you add the entry to the wiki sheet. Mod's smaller than 100mb you check for whether they're already hosted on TWCs download area and in case they are not, you shoot the modder a pm politely informing him about TWCs download area and its advantages.

**Veteraan** · April 05, 2015, 04:52 PM

Vague contributions, I know all about that. Work done in private forums and luckily also in places we all can see, helping people here and there and everywhere, and a friendly attitude. It is very reminiscent of my own application, which was a success just 3 weeks ago. This without me doing any staff work as this candidate obviously has done and still is doing, judging by his Vault staff badge.

I will support this application, although I might not had done so if he still went by his original name "Cheese Lord"

I do expect that a copy of MOS 1.7, which we plan to release in a few weeks time, will find a safe place in the vault though.

**Halie Satanus** · April 05, 2015, 05:48 PM

A strong all rounder. Genuine beta testing always gets a nod from me. As I have access to the DB forums I had a look around. KL has made pretty significant contributions in feedback and ideas outside of the beta testing itself which is up to a good standard.

Support.

**Sir Adrian** · April 05, 2015, 06:50 PM

Obvious support. Though I wonder what the thing in the middle screenshot is.

**Navajo Joe** · April 06, 2015, 03:25 AM

Just to point out that I cannot access info pages, behind also link1/link2 and 'I compiled a list', as well as the one's the applicant states.

On looking at what was available to view, I liked the Wiki, but could not tell what he had done or did he do it all.

I very much liked and enjoyed the Full Faction Preview, liked the colour, screenies and the info, a great job in its own right and people that help others is always high on how I value an individuals application.

I support, all the best

**mishkin** · April 06, 2015, 03:50 AM

His musical tastes are very questionable ("metal"). And he voted for ferrets as best political poster.
Despite this, he seems like a great guy and a great contributor.

**Ngugi** · April 06, 2015, 11:14 AM

Support

**Aikanár** · April 06, 2015, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by Navajo Joe

Just to point out that I cannot access info pages, behind also link1/link2 and 'I compiled a list', as well as the one's the applicant states.

On looking at what was available to view, I liked the Wiki, but could not tell what he had done or did he do it all.

I very much liked and enjoyed the Full Faction Preview, liked the colour, screenies and the info, a great job in its own right and people that help others is always high on how I value an individuals application.

I support, all the best

Ah, link one leads to the Vault quarters, hence why you cannot access them. Link 2 leads to the awards committee forum in the Forum Magnum, IIRC you need to be a member of that committee in order to access that, too. So what's behind those links is basically the medieval 2 part this post.

As for the Wiki, he compiled the list. However, if your question is what mods he archived from what is shown in the wiki, he did not, obviously, archive all those mods there.