thpsX

- => Create-A- => Topic started by: ShOscar on August 25, 2022, 06:03:59 pm

Title: On hiatus from THUGPro content, and Blender tools rant
Post by: ShOscar on August 25, 2022, 06:03:59 pm
EDIT: I consider myself to be more or less on an indefinite hiatus rather than retired. I might get back into custom content, but don't hold your breath on it.

Hello all,

This is to let you know that I will no longer be making custom content for THUGPro anymore. It was fun while it lasted, but I simply do not find it fun or fulfilling to work on content for the game anymore. Now it just doesn't feel fun. I don't feel any joy or satisfaction when working on a map or playermodel. Just headaches and sore eyes.

I have been working on THUGPro content since early 2017, and at the time, I was so dedicated to wanting to make content that I was willing to learn a program that I never used prior to then. I did not even know what a Blender was until those thug_tools were dropped by the mysterious asdf__, but that did not stop me from wanting to fulfill some silly little dreams from my youth. I mean, skating around collecting S-K-A-T-E letters in Delfino Plaza was what dreams were made of... to me at least. But as time went on, the magic just kinda withered away, and it just isn't fun or cool anymore. Also did not help that I've had projects that remained unfinished even five years later. Progress was just slow, and it was slowly eating me from the inside.

Also didn't help that working on content took a major toll on my mental health, having mental breakdowns because I spent years working on one thing that could have taken a fraction of a fraction of time, among other personal issues i wont mention here. It wasn't like i was busy either. I had college, but i wasn't working or going out with friends. Just staying home mashing away on a port of a level from a shitty BMX game. And sure, it wouldn't get as much recognition as something like Baltimore, but that didn't matter to me. I worked on maps because i enjoyed it... at least i thought i enjoyed it.

I did try taking a break from making content back in 2020, and resumed in 2021. And at the time, it seemed like it was going good, getting back into making content with a fresh mindset and being more "professional" about level making by making sketches and writing down ideas instead of just wingin' it in blender. It worked for the most part, but all the negative shit immediately came back, and it just started eating me from the inside again. I decided to release Mushroom City, a map i have worked on for years. It isnt finished, but i have no interest in finishing it. But at the same time, I dont want to let five years of work go to waste.

What really broke me was how disorganized the documentation for these Blender tools is. It is almost impossible to get any help for some tool functions if you're either not in the THPSX discord server or weren't there when it was first discovered. For example, I tried getting time-of-day functions to work on a map, but for some reason, it just wasnt working. So i tried looking it up online and got zero results. Looked through the THPS tools page on tharchive.net, nothing. Looked in the github repository, nothing. I then decided to download a map that had working TOD stuff, and the readme mentioned a "new time of day system"... What new TOD system? What is this new system that i should apparently be aware of? Also, i dunno about you, but if i gain new knowledge about something that could be useful to others, i would try to let others know about it. Not keep it to myself and vanish from the community without a trace.

I dont know if other communities are like this, because i havent been in said communites, but it seems like a big problem here in the THPS modding community. "oh it's in the discord go look there." i am not gonna go in a server and look through thousands of pages of backlogs to find one little thing. and not everyone is interested in joining discord servers, either. see? this is what i mean by the documentation being garbage. This knowledge is scattered among various discord servers and channels said by people who are gone from the community. at this point, the challenge is less in learning the program itself, and more in trying to find this information. Also, i know i cant say much in how documentation is made since i havent made a blender tool myself, but i dont need to be a coder to tell you that documentation sucks. I don't need to be a five-star chef to tell you that food sucks. I don't need to be a musician to tell you that a song is forgettable. I don't need to be a graphics design major to tell you that your design sucks.

All in all, if someone needs help and all you can say is "go look in the discord", then something isn't right. I don't need to rip out my own scalp just to find something that someone else already figured out many years ago. Modding communities are supposed to be supportive, helpful, and have resources readily available that aren't locked behind a cool-kids membership. I shouldn't have to pester various people who never respond to DMs or friend requests just to know how to do one thing. And I get it, thug2 is a closed-source game. It was bolted down to prevent reverse engineering. It isn't like TF2 or Fallout where tools were provided by the devs themselves. But guess what? Super Smash Bros Brawl is closed-source too, and there are TONS and TONS of resources on how to mod that game. So that's a moot point.

And that's pretty much all I have to say for now. Sorry if I sound mean-spirited or salty, but I really want to let my feelings about this be known. And like I said, I won't have plans on making any more THUGPro content. I feel like focusing on my mental health and well-being is a lot more important than dwelling on tools for a video game from 2004. Hope y'all can understand. If not, that's okay I guess.

-ShOscar
Title: Re: Retiring from THUGPro content, and Blender tools rant
Post by: RainbowDash321 on August 25, 2022, 06:23:48 pm
I have planned to retire thugpro too but there things I would like to do before I stop making stuff. I started playing thugpro few months after the mod launched in August 2013. I stopped playing it in 2014. I started to play again in 2017 and stopped again. I came back in 2021 because but this time I build better parks. There are parks things I would like to do before retiring.

I stepped away from thugpro because I don’t have much parks to make. I started working on thug1 because there’s not much stuff from that game.

I joined couple of discord servers that I don’t really care for because there are some projects I’m following and after mod comes out and complete…I leave the server because I got a mod I want to get. I joined a Luigi’s mansion modding discord server because I was following a project I would like to have. After the mod came out, I left the server because I don’t want to be involved talking to people. Staffs don’t mind people joining and leaving a server. You don’t have to stay in a server. That’s your decision if you want to stay or leave the servers.

Most projects and documents are now in community discord servers nowadays. Years ago before discord, people use to post in forums.

You are always welcome back to the community.
Title: Re: Retiring from THUGPro content, and Blender tools rant
Post by: Sneeze on September 02, 2022, 11:54:57 pm
A conscious decision I made back in February, in order to make up for the lack luster documentation the custom level scene has to offer, was to always include my level's .blend file (and any other design assets) in it's entirety while uploading it to the net, and that's something I hope more people take to doing as well.

Something I picked up in my time producing MUGEN content, or literally anything programming related for that matter, being able to copy off of someone else's work is an EXTREMELY valuable asset. In the level's I've uploaded since they're chock full of gap scripts, shatter scripts, ToD scripts, that anyone with a minimal understanding of 2.79 would be able to easily lift and adapt to their own needs. As opposed to the teeth grinding endeavor that is scavenging years old Discord server chats and trying to use Pre Tool.

Heck, even the .blend provided with Mushroom City proved pretty useful, very useful actually, guarantee you I wouldn't've been able to find custom vehicles and custom goals so readily available anywhere else.

If you still have it, I would love to see the Acid Factory .blend to surface online if it hasn't already, it was always one of my favorites, felt like the standard I held all my own custom levels up to.
Title: Re: Retiring from THUGPro content, and Blender tools rant
Post by: ShOscar on September 04, 2022, 12:41:44 pm
I would love to see the Acid Factory .blend to surface online if it hasn't already
It has not surfaced online, but I have thought about uploading my level projects online for others to see. I have messed around with some scripting and graphical stuff on some levels, and maybe some people would find it helpful to look at them. I might upload them later today and make a separate forum post about it. And glad my Mushroom City project file was helpful to you, too.
Title: Re: Retiring from THUGPro content, and Blender tools rant
Post by: ello-officer on September 25, 2022, 04:33:25 pm
Damn it sucks that modding the game put so much negativity on ya lad. All you can do it take it easy and not worry too much about this kinda stuff. I personally do modding in my spare time just to relax and have fun even if the end result isn't worth showing to anyone. Anyway  hope you have a good one, cheers!