The "Feel Old Yet?" Thread | Post things to remind yourself of the passage of time

Author Topic: The "Feel Old Yet?" Thread | Post things to remind yourself of the passage of time  (Read 5289 times)


Blockland has had shadows and shaders longer than it had interiors and terrain

Blockland has had shadows and shaders longer than it had interiors and terrain
That means Blockland has been on the decline longer than it was on the ascension.

I guess that's better than having an instantaneous drop in users.

oooooh dude maps good shaders bad maps game alive shaders game dead oooogh duude
i'd attribute the inactivity mainly to celau's little spotlight moment honestly forget that guy

The Angry Video Game Nerd is 40


oooooh dude maps good shaders bad maps game alive shaders game dead oooogh duude
i'd attribute the inactivity mainly to celau's little spotlight moment honestly forget that guy
DDoS Attacks did not help. But the main thing that put this game on a downward track was the inability to listen to the community, and to instead degrade them because they didn't like the trade off of one type of content for another.

Belittling people as "unga bunga cavemen" who "no like change" because their main skill and strength that they used to add content to the game would be made useless in the upcoming update is obnoxious and doesn't give them any reason to stick around.

Blockland did not end up where it is today because of random hackers or because of some scriptkiddie getting mommy and daddy's credit card. Blockland is here today because of developer negligence and toxic mindsets that enable demonizing people because their skillset is being thrown out in favor of half-assed looking shaders. That totally couldn't exist alongside maps in the same game.

But on top of all that. I want you to seriously answer this question. In the past couple of years, every time there is an issue that needs to be fixed, how does it get fixed? If it does get fixed.
The Angry Video Game Nerd is 40
But of all the crazy stuff, this is the craziest.

maps allowed people completely new to the game/uninterested in building their own giant maps a way to have fun and explore. once they got used to the game mechanics, building on slate becomes preferable to them. having slate only makes the initial hurdle to get invested into the game a lot harder to jump (the building mechanics and addon installation), so most dont bother.

we have been debating the shader update for nearly a decade

i bought blockland in march 2012, nearly 9 forgetin years ago

we have been debating the shader update for nearly a decade
and we'll debate it for a decade more if we have to!

yeah i get that, and I myself love maps too but i hate when people say oogh map good go back need map oourgh blockland now BAD
i'd like both, and i don't understand why we had to remove one for the other (i think it was something about shaders clashing with how the maps are supposed to look?), but honestly i think i wouldn't be playing as long as I have if the only thing most people did was play on maps and fly around looking for the next nook and cranny to hide a 2x2 snake in.

also that static shapes mod, thats still a thing right? or has that phased completely out into obscurity

But on top of all that. I want you to seriously answer this question. In the past couple of years, every time there is an issue that needs to be fixed, how does it get fixed? If it does get fixed.
community badspot aint doin stuff no more good point
« Last Edit: February 12, 2021, 02:37:07 PM by CM1107ProjectInfinium »

the statement by badspot was that the shader code was just ???? not working well with maps and supporting the maps code was getting in the way of making updates cause stuff would break maps randomly or something like that

but clearly that wasn't what was preventing updates since post-shader launch the majority of the updates were just addons made (default addons). probably the only real player-visible new engine-sided update that was made post shaders was the %player.setMaxForward/Side/BackSpeed() function to dynamically set player speeds without requiring a datablock, and increased max brickcount. can't think of anything else really that counts as new (increasing max datablocks isnt really new) and only possible through engine changes.
« Last Edit: February 12, 2021, 07:49:30 PM by Conan »

Interiors and terrain were pure soul and I'm mad we never got to see them at their full potential because they were removed from the game before the really smart modders started getting active.

In almost a decade of shaders there has been no worthwhile replacement for terrain. PTG is unusable and modter is barely a quarter solution anyway. The novelty of shaders wore off after a year but maps served a purpose up until the day they died. Some of Blockland's greatest servers were lost forever and in almost 10 years there has never been a server in which any of it's mechanics benefited from shaders. Every replacement solution for interiors/terrain is an objective downgrade. And you can say "But graphics!" but the shadows do not even look good. I will genuinely never understand this sentiment

I'm mad we never got to see them at their full potential because they were removed from the game before the really smart modders started getting active.
this is such a true statement. think back to adjustable plate blowing everyones minds with being able to modify the environment in real-time for the first time. there was so much potential for mixing code with maps to really turn them into being far more interactive and great. but instead what happened is that the person who made adjustable plate just had all his efforts thrown in the trash and we never saw this potential in future maps realize

In badspots defence though, interiors & terrain really are extremely dated and are a pain in the ass to work with. its a part of torque that didn't age as well. its kinda like how hellish valve's old hammer is for making source maps. except even worse, since torques havent had any updates for so many years. but rehauling the map system and losing all old maps in the process is still a better outcome then having no maps at all whatsoever. though we know which of those takes far more effort lol

And you can say "But graphics!" but the shadows do not even look good. I will genuinely never understand this sentiment
also they run like loving garbage. its harder to tell nowadays because most people are running super modern GPUs but when v21 dropped in 2012-2013 so little loving people were able to run shadows well and the inability to run them just made the upgrade a downgrade for most people. such a wreck.

this is such a true statement. think back to adjustable plate blowing everyones minds with being able to modify the environment in real-time for the first time. there was so much potential for mixing code with maps to really turn them into being far more interactive and great. but instead what happened is that the person who made adjustable plate just had all his efforts thrown in the trash and we never saw this potential in future maps realize

In badspots defence though, interiors & terrain really are extremely dated and are a pain in the ass to work with. its a part of torque that didn't age as well. its kinda like how hellish valve's old hammer is for making source maps. except even worse, since torques havent had any updates for so many years. but rehauling the map system and losing all old maps in the process is still a better outcome then having no maps at all whatsoever. though we know which of those takes far more effort lol
also they run like loving garbage. its harder to tell nowadays because most people are running super modern GPUs but when v21 dropped in 2012-2013 so little loving people were able to run shadows well and the inability to run them just made the upgrade a downgrade for most people. such a wreck.

Basically. Instead of butchering an old game to shoehorn in new mechanics, a new game might have been a better route?