So, tryouts for the team are back open. Go to the IRC if you’re interested. Stay there since some of us are accustomed to idling and it may take a while to see.
Our glorious motherland has been on a downward slide recently. We’re the longest living site, we’ve done everything, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the way things look right now.
If you want to see new hacks, look below this post. I’m making this post public because we have a commitment to the public and I think transparency is an important thing to have.
I think we may need to revamp the way we conduct operations around here, or better yet, reverse them. See after the jump.
1. PAVGN does not have hiring firing power. I (PZT) and BP do. Come to one of us if you need anything. If we’re not there, wait. Get some patience.
2. PAVGN, if you want to hire somebody, come to us about it. I can’t necessarily say I like your decisions and me and BP reserve the right to veto within reason.
3. Come to the IRC, and keep coming. This is basically a prerequisite. We want to get to know people when they join. This used to be a de facto requirement but then suddenly everybody forgot.
4. Unless they’re incredible, don’t hire people who make PSAs as their only thing. This new guy gets grandfathered in, but seriously, PSAs are really hard to get right.
5. Try to look for new team mates who aren’t taken, show me or BP their work, and ask/hire if approval is given, and only if approval is given. Considering our workforce is way down, we could use some fresh blood. And if me or BP say no, no means no. Consult with me and BP. Not just one or the other.
6. We have standards. For you new people, we used to have standards about every post and GUESS WHAT they’re reinstated. Title the post. Describe what’s in the post. Put a more tag. (after the jump to bloggers) Put a gallery (6 square thumbnailed pictures with captions (title/description fields). Then a download. Then if you want more text after the download, it’s your call.
7. There will be a method of uploading files directly to the site if you are a staff member without FTP access. It’s not done yet.
8. Apply some tact to things. Don’t post stuff like half-finished Naruto PSAs or naked characters.
I suppose that closes this tl;dr post.
On 8: PZT only wants complete Naruto PSAs and fully nude characters. Don’t disappoint him
I really don’t think I should be in charge of deciding who gets in or not. My quality standards rule out nearly all vertex mods and, even though they always look like they were chewed on (even the best ones do), people still insist on making them! I don’t understand it!
I like the “we’ve done everything”. =P
BP sounds like one of those old guys who always complain about modern technology.
“You young folks and your vertex hacks. Those unreliable pieces of crap that I can’t comprehend will never replace a good ‘ol American texture.”
“PAVGN, if you want to hire somebody, come to us about it.”
Well I wanted to, but despite the fact that I’m rarely in the Stack Smash IRC, I’m actually there more than you are. And BP was getting annoyed at me asking for his approval of everything despite the fact that I’m rarely in the Stack Smash IRC.
I understand that you’re the leader of the team and that what you say goes more than anyone else. But It’s difficult to contact you about this kind of stuff when the only way to contact you is IRC chat and you’re hardly ever there.
Seriously, they won’t, and I can explain why
-In a vertex mod, the lighting on the model still affects the changed parts as it would had they not been changed, leading to the changed parts to look fake compared to the game’s original content
-Because the textures are mapped to the way the model is supposed to be, they always look distorted, skewed, and stretched. Even in the greatest and subtlest vertex mods, I have seen no exceptions.
-One’s imagination fills the gap when something is there that isn’t supposed to be or vice-versa. Dhragen’s textures are a great example for having amazingly convincing “additions” to characters without needing the help of silly models; you see Mega Ness, and you perceive Mega Man. And don’t deny it, they look better as he made them than when folks on BrawlVault decide to fatten Mega Ness’s arms and make him shaped more like the real Rock. You look at Boshi’s claws, fingers and shoes, they look more real like that than when you alter the model to actually be shaped like the claws are there, because of the lighting and fucked-up textures. The ultimate result? Your imagination doesn’t do any work at all. You see a chewed-up mess, and you perceive a chewed-up mess.
The only retorts to anything I say is wrong with vertex mods is, “Well, [example] looks good for what it is!” But why would you ever want “looks good for what it is,” when you could have “looks good?” I’m not claiming that all texture-only mods automatically look better than all vertex mods or even that all of my texture-only mods are better than all vertex mods… in fact probably more than half of the textures I’ve done are embarrassingly bad… but at least when they were bad, it was my fault for being less skilled at texturing, and not the medium’s fault for ruining everything.
But I realize, I’m speaking from an artist’s perspective. I’m sure the majority of the community is okay with a vertex mod if it looks okay from far away and from two angles, never mind it looking good or great, and don’t even mention “up-close.” I’m sure I sound like an elitist bigot and an egoist. And I guess there’s nothing I can say to prove otherwise… sorry. But I mean everything I’m saying.
On the subject of the current line-up of members: It’s not all bad.
yojj5 has some stage-making ability that will probably lead to great things if he gets more ambitious with the contents and the textures.
MANSTA8’s TRON Mario Bros. remind me of the wacky things Androu used to make just for the fun of it and they look great.
Even if I personally hate vertex mods with an angry passion that burns harder and nastier than a Chimchar’s ass, I could live with Snoopy’s works hanging around too. I’ll admit that his Woodstock Pikmin are adorable.
In the end, some polishing of the posts themselves would help more than anything. Six clear pictures for characters and nine for stages, with titles and descriptions. A clear description of what we’re looking at.
And no more mystery guests and stages–it takes away from the illusion when absolutely everything in the screenshot is a mod, and nobody knows what the stage behind the character is, or who the character the main focus is fighting, or, in some cases, what is even happening at all. Explain yourself!
You show ’em, boy!
You know what we need to do? SSF4AE PC mods. I wanna do those. Sometime.
Holy Shit PZT. It’s “Leon”
D0000D …. send me an E-mail mate, its been WAY too long since we last had a friendly chinwaggle (aka a chat)
skunk2457@live.com
Admittedly, if I could make Vertex’ I might’ve got back into Brawl hacking, but my Textures were awful enough as it is, doubt I’ve improved either.
well…if you guys only want the best than i could understand that. if in the end you guys end up kicking me off the team then id be cool cause i realize im not the best stage hacker out but yeah…
Not ALL vertex mods out there lack quality… I’ll admit 95% of them are terrible but there is some top notch stuff available. Beyond’s Travis touchdown for example looks perfect even “up close” Pik’s Quote is also damn near perfect. I have yet to achieve perfection myself, but someday i will.
People get distracted by drastic model changes and somehow overlook crappy textures, but if thats what the brawl community wants why rebel against it? I see no reason to hate vertex edits.
If you know how to apply textures properly you can make it look like it belongs in brawls lighting. It’s not impossible.
anyways my point: quit disrespecting the 5% of vertex edits that are good, they deserve recognition.