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Thompsoncs
Clubman

posted 03-24-13 04:22 PM ET (US)

The last few weeks I've been thinking a bit.

Now I've decided that it is time to retire from heavengames, which sadly also means abandoning the Age of Italy Mod to its current version. There's a small chance I will upload one more minor update in the coming 6 months, but I will never finish all the ai files, the scenario editor and the graphics. If somebody wishes to take over, please let me know by my email profile.

Age of Empires Heaven has been a good place to visit, but I think I discovered it too late and only witnessed its slow downfall. There are hardly any newsworthy posts anymore, as most people have left.

Rome Total War heaven was also quite fun, I enjoyed joining the swap games there and having debates on faction, strategies and history.

OD and the Library seem to be overrun by childish people and people like Ephestion, despite attempts of people like Civis to raise the quality. Yet sadly, if you ban the trolls, you will be left with hardly any posts.

My personal and academic life has become very busy, and the idea that I also needed to complete a mod became more a burden than something fun to make. I also decided to decrease my amount of hours spent gaming and watching movies. Maybe I'm also getting to old for this site.

Good luck to all of you, and may the new AoK HD also bring back a little life here. People like Phatfish, Suppy, Fruktfisk, Basse, Rasteve, Gumble and many others I've come to see as good online friends, I hope you will do well in life as well.

Final note. If you have something important to ask me, for example about modding, age of italy or such things, you can reach me on ageofitalymod.webs.com or mail to thompsoncs [at] live [dot] nl. To make sure I dont regret this, moderators please ban my account to shut the door behind me. If I ever feel the need to return I will ask for an unban.

Download Age of Italy mod v1.2

[This message has been edited by Thompsoncs (edited 03-24-2013 @ 05:26 PM).]

Author

Replies:

Eurotool
Hero

posted 03-24-13 05:44 PM ET (US) 1 / 48

We'll miss you man... good luck in your academic life!

^꧁ 𝓎𝑒𝓈, 𝒾 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝓅𝑒 ^꧂

Suppiluliuma
AoEH Seraph

posted 03-25-13 00:14 AM ET (US) 2 / 48

Let's see.

First of all you will be missed, and I do admit that as much as I respect your decision i don't think it is the best course.

Yes, many great people have left, but leaving will just cause more people to leave.

We are in some sort of runaway process, a vicious cycle, where people leave, because some other people before, left, causing in turn more people to leave.

In my opinion if you want or need to leave is your decision, but I won't ban your account, I mean what is the point with it? you can just leave.

You will be sorely missed, but i know that real life can get quite...difficult to deal with.

Best wishes in your projects and you will always be welcome (you are free to reconsider your decision as well)

Thompsoncs
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 05:43 AM ET (US) 3 / 48

My biggest point is my real life, not the declining activity and quality of activity here.

I would ask you to do ban my account, user-requested bans have occured before. Not because without it I cant leave, but because I might still post here and I want to cut away that option. I really need to focus on my real life now and I find it hard when I'm constantly distracted and see things I might want to respond to. Set the fox to watch the geese, I want to remove the geese so to speak.

Download Age of Italy mod v1.2

dom0601
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 01:02 PM ET (US) 4 / 48

Good bye, sir. The only thing that I can remember Thompy for is teaching me about adding trainable units in the game. Good luck!

Why would you take the time to read this signature? Chances are that there are many other posts below mine.

chab
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 01:05 PM ET (US) 5 / 48

Good luck for your real life then ;-)

Try to share information you've got before leaving (source code, config files or anything about your mods).
That's one of the reasons I developed BinaryPatcher : the exe is just a (generic) tool, all modding material is now "open" (in ini files) and readable/editable with the tool.
It's also why I'm boring with Keisari Tapsa about AGE3 tooltips, writing detailed toolips is one of the best ways not to lose knowledge we've gained while searching for information

PhatFish
Mr. Beta

posted 03-25-13 02:13 PM ET (US) 6 / 48

Thompy, best of luck in real life. Things like this happens to a lot of us (I'm getting busier myself these days), but I hope you will still continue to visit us from time to time

The Heavenly Escort � Night of the Dragon � Corlis (DE) � Dark Forest 2v2 (DE) � New Random Maps � Night Mode � Lengthen Combat Mode � The Big Hill � 512x512, 768x768, 1024x1024 map sizes � All Map Sizes � All Map Sizes (AoK) � BTI Soundtrack

Guard of Osiris
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 03:13 PM ET (US) 7 / 48

gg wp

castwcrt rip 2010-2010

Guard of Osiris
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 03:15 PM ET (US) 8 / 48

In all seriousity, though, it's a shame to see a prominent member of the community leave forever. We'll miss you and always remember you as the person who got post #1000 in the best thread in this forum.

castwcrt rip 2010-2010

Thompsoncs
Clubman

posted 03-25-13 04:16 PM ET (US) 9 / 48

Good bye, sir. The only thing that I can remember Thompy for is teaching me about adding trainable units in the game. Good luck!

Glad I could share some knowledge to help a starting modder on his way.

Try to share information you've got before leaving (source code, config files or anything about your mods).
That's one of the reasons I developed BinaryPatcher : the exe is just a (generic) tool, all modding material is now "open" (in ini files) and readable/editable with the tool.
It's also why I'm boring with Keisari Tapsa about AGE3 tooltips, writing detailed toolips is one of the best ways not to lose knowledge we've gained while searching for information

Pretty much all of my modding experience has already been shared through my tutorials. As for the age of italy mod files. They are to messed up to just share here (and too big). If somebody wants to continue age of italy he can mail me and I will discuss it with him. All sketchup models I've made are available for mods as well, would be a shame never to see them ingame.

who got post #1000 in the best thread in this forum.

Where can I get my medal?

And thanks for all the best wishes, my academic career so far is going quite good, I hope to expand that in the coming years. I've also been going up in level of sport the last few years, so maybe I can rise even further.

I might still read some posts here from time to time, and perhaps in a year or so I'll say hi again.

Thompsoncs, aka gerben

Download Age of Italy mod v1.2

[This message has been edited by Thompsoncs (edited 03-25-2013 @ 04:18 PM).]

Guard of Osiris
Clubman

posted 03-26-13 09:48 AM ET (US) 10 / 48

Where can I get my medal?

EDIT: I hope you like it even though the text is a bit uninspiring

castwcrt rip 2010-2010

[This message has been edited by Guard of Osiris (edited 03-26-2013 @ 09:50 AM).]

That AoM Guy
Clubman
(id: aom expert)

posted 03-26-13 02:28 PM ET (US) 11 / 48

OD and the Library seem to be overrun by childish people and people like Ephestion, despite attempts of people like Civis to raise the quality. Yet sadly, if you ban the trolls, you will be left with hardly any posts.

I know the feeling...

Well, I didn't know you too well but good luck in wherever life takes you. Thanks for all the contributions to the site and the game.

Fisk
Champion of AoEH
(id: Fruktfisk)

posted 03-27-13 11:46 AM ET (US) 12 / 48

It's sad to see you go Thompy, especially as you have been one of the most active parts of the community. I've suspected you wouldn't be finishing the AoI project due to the size of it, big ideas are often easy to come up with but hard to finish, but I hadn't foreseen you leaving us altogether. I don't think such a decision needed to be made, but managing your time correctly is clearly important, so I can see why you've come to make this choice.

I can only wish you the best of luck as well, it's been nice to have you around and you will be missed.

//The warrior of Isola

"I lack quotes that demonstrate Humor Intelligence or anything about me."

Pineapplefish
Cleidopus gloriamaris

Suppiluliuma
AoEH Seraph

posted 03-27-13 12:56 PM ET (US) 13 / 48

I know you need to focus and I said it is your decision and I respect it, but you could spend just 30 minutes in a whole month to visit us and that's reasonable, as you will have plenty of time for your real life issues.

I won't ban your account, yet. If a couple of months from now you still want your account banned, I'll do it.

zapdotep
Clubman

posted 03-29-13 05:02 PM ET (US) 14 / 48

Hi!
Bye!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best stuff I made for Age of Empires:
　Composite Editor 1.1 Rated 5.0 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Utility)
　Coke vs. Pepsi Rated 4.4 ★ ★ ★ ★ ⅖ (Multi player scenario)
　The Map of the World (Real world map)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Basse
Clubman

posted 03-30-13 05:25 AM ET (US) 15 / 48

Well, this was just sad

dom0601
Clubman

posted 03-30-13 01:15 PM ET (US) 16 / 48

When I was in 3rd grade, I was part of a Lego forum. It became as inactive as here, and now it's full of spam. Except for the spam part, I'm surprised at how these events are similar.

Why would you take the time to read this signature? Chances are that there are many other posts below mine.

Basse
Clubman

posted 03-30-13 07:12 PM ET (US) 17 / 48

I was active in a game called Seven Kingdoms before. The game was pretty dead when I stumbled upon a fansite, and then something happened, a few tournaments started and more people joined the community. Then it died, quite fast. I don't know if there are still people left on the forums. It only took about a week before everyone had stopped posting on the forums and I stopped visiting when the last post was made 1 month ago (then).

dom0601
Clubman

posted 03-31-13 05:39 AM ET (US) 18 / 48

The funny thing is that I tried numerous times to reenter the forums (A Bionicle RPG), yet when I gave up completely, the activity picked up. Coincidence? I think not.

Why would you take the time to read this signature? Chances are that there are many other posts below mine.

zapdotep
Clubman

posted 04-01-13 00:28 AM ET (US) 19 / 48

Thompsoncs,

Well its a hello and goodbye...
(personally I check AoEH several times a month without posting anything...)

Anyway would you be willing to share the AoI production assets?
I am especially interested in 3d models (sketchup etc).

How big is it in megabytes (or gigabytes)?

Thanks,
zapdotep

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thompsoncs
Clubman

posted 04-01-13 03:31 AM ET (US) 20 / 48

It's only natural that older games eventually become less played. It are mostly people who grew up with the game and are coming at points in their lives where many stop gaming, get jobs, studies relations and such. And people go where there is activity, so it is mostly a one-way process eventually leading to a site/game becoming inactive. However, aoeh will survive for at least a few years more I think.

@Zapdotep. Yeah sure. As said, I would be happy to see it finished or continued. The sketchup models alone arent that big, the rest isnt too big either but mostly very messed up. Even I had to search for things. Good thing is though that data editing is mostly done, its mostly ai that needs to be done. And for the scenario editor to work one problem needs to be fixed. That is, player 1 is egypt, player 2 is greece etc. My mod uses unioque names per civ, so by using 8 players you can only properly do the first 8 civs. In order for the civs 9-16 to work you need a data version where they are copied over the 1-8 civs. And I was also planning on making some kind of enhanced/composite version.

Also, the aok modding community has a lot of graphic designers, some of them might be willing to make some units, which would be really great.

Another problem would be the crashing of the game, though that might be windows 7 related.

I'll let you know soon how I'm going to send stuff

Download Age of Italy mod v1.2

zapdotep
Clubman

posted 04-01-13 08:47 AM ET (US) 21 / 48

Thanks

I'd recommend using Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/ in a per-user install.

At this time I think Dropbox gives you 2 gigabytes with a free account.

I personally prefer per-user installs because I don't like things starting automatically in the background and slowing the computer down when I don't need them. But you don't actually have to if you don't want to.

0. In Windows, make a new limited/standard user account. Also, if desired, make a new email address (at gmail or live.nl or whatever provider you prefer) that you will use to register on Dropbox.

1. Do a per-user install: in the limited/standard account, download the dropbox installer and install it. DO NOT give it admin privileges when installing. This will make it so that it is installed only on that account, so it would start automatically only when that user is logged in.

2. Copy and paste all the stuff you want to share into a new folder inside the "Dropbox" folder it makes when installed. It will start uploading everything in the background.

3. Go on the Dropbox website and share the folder. (send me a share invite)

Oh and should you feel the need to be prevented from accessing AoEH:
https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+hosts+file+block+website

Run Notepad as administrator and add these line to your hosts file:

127.0.0.1     aoe.heavengames.com
127.0.0.1     heavengames.com
127.0.0.1     www.heavengames.com

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by zapdotep (edited 04-01-2013 @ 08:56 AM).]

Thompsoncs
Clubman

posted 04-01-13 09:02 AM ET (US) 22 / 48

Yeah I know dropbox, got a 25 GB limit myself thanks to the university. I will make a quick assesment of what can be found in which page and in which folder, so you dont drown in my mess.

Just a question though (I wasnt clear on that yet), do you want to continue the Age of Italy mod? Or only use the sketchup files? or another reason?

It will take a few weeks before I can organise the mess and send it to you.

Thanks for the suggestion on how to block myself from heavengames, however I only wanted to block myself from actively posting.

Download Age of Italy mod v1.2

[This message has been edited by Thompsoncs (edited 04-01-2013 @ 09:03 AM).]

zapdotep
Clubman

posted 04-01-13 09:14 AM ET (US) 23 / 48

While I don't have time to take over the mod (sorry) I feel at least the original 3d models should be saved. They look like a lot of work.

If everything fits in 2GB don't bother trimming it. (unless your isp enforces a quota, in that case trim all you want)

Secret project that might or might not start this summer.

Oh well, I had blocked myself from AoEH, YouTube and other sites when I really felt the need to concentrate.
Edit: Just letting you know, the way things are shaping up right now I'll probably be gone for a week or more.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by zapdotep (edited 04-01-2013 @ 09:41 AM).]

Duan Xuan
Clubman

posted 05-21-13 08:36 PM ET (US) 24 / 48

Well... I really don't see a need to self-ban your account. If you can't visit as frequently due to RL commitments (which I'm sure almost all of us here have experienced at some point in our lives), you can always just drop by once in a while to say hi.

I don't know what you guys think, but I have a feeling that the rise of social media has made online forums and communities less relevant and popular. Which is quite sad, because the people you get to know are different on both platforms.

OD has always been a place for BS since I joined...

And Ephestion has been there forever to be "childish". Assuming he was just 10 years old back then, he should be at least in his 20s now lol (he's obviously older).

zapdotep
Clubman

posted 05-22-13 02:09 AM ET (US) 25 / 48

Hey Broken String! Long time no see.

"New" social media...

Lots of things change over time. Social Media is now undoubtedly mainstream.

I had a teacher who was against "blogging" (this was back when MySpace was relevant).
Now he's all over social media; he has a profile on many sites.

For a while, Social Media companies rose and fell within short periods of time.
But now, the landscape has more or less stabilized, dominated by a small number of large corporations.

The "walled garden" approach seems highly profitable. But it only works if there is a "critical mass" of users. The barrier to entry is high; startups have it near-impossible even if they provide far superior service.

AoEH...

Ahh, 1997-vintage. These things only get better with age.

But I have also seen things become neglected over time. It's almost like the Voyager probes. After completing their main objectives, their mission still continues 35 years later. As the power runs low, one module after another must eventually shut down, but the old ship's still going, providing a valuable resource for all mankind.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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