Administrative Rights

The UEP has been release with no regard to its current state. Content has been included that should have never seen the light of day in its current state.

Here are some Excerpts from a delete topic on the Battlezone Forums site:

As I quote many of TJ’s posts, they are not included to prevent redundancy.
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Nielk1’s First Post

Here is a clean cut and simple set of my concerns and issues with the current situation.

First, on to history:
TJ was with the UEP from the beginning, having started it. He attained permission for various maps and also began to combine assets to create his own. He began the Dog Fight game mode which had a plethora of issues that were later fixed by a DLL of my construction. His use of existing assets to create new things, such as the DM River map, was amazing and it looked like a great situation to create a pack that combined the assets of many to both facilitate his creation and the creation of others. As in my 10 years of modding BZ2 I had minimal releases, and my specialty is creating full systems for other mods to use, I figured this was an excellent chance to jump in early and get my stuff used.

All was going well, but we came to a point were the rate of asset inclusion far overshadowed the rate of testing and the rate of bug fixing. As a result, we froze asset submissions and concentrated on getting a release ready. This release would of course have to conform with the various guidelines we received for using various assets, maps, and other content.

This was when TJ left. He claimed the project was complete and all that was needed was an installer to be made. I had been dabbling with plans for such an installer that would solve all the issues of our various use guidelines, but had nothing concrete at the time. As a result, all that followed was maintenance and bug fixing as in reality we were no where near the installer or even pre-release phase. As testing dropped off too we were forced to release a public pack of the included ZST maps for public testing, from which MANY bugs were found.

Some long time later, TJ returned, and when he did, he thumbed his nose at us for not completing the project and releasing it while he was away working on is pet project, the Serenesis mod. That is to say he was not ‘away’, he was just sitting in his own corner working on his own thing having abandoned the project.

He claimed he could no longer understand our version repository structure and then claimed to have completed some parts of the pack on his own. These being parts like the DM River map. He pushed for immediate release, of which we were still far from ready. All my concerns were entirely ignored when I raised them with him and the rest of the active group privately many times.

Issues with the release:
For one, many of our agreements were not followed. As a result any party who created assets has the right to refuse we make them available and kill the mod entirely. The former ZST maps were not made independently available for those who do not want all the added files such as the Recycler Variants, LMM program, etc. The unfinished update to the GreenHeart Snowman map was release, claiming to be version 1.3H, when it was not only unfinished, but had not been evaluated by GreenHeart and had not been made independently available on GH’s domain. He was not even contacted with regard to this. The LMM1 program we released despite that it had never been tested for stability. It now comes down to how well I can code around possible issues with no testing whatsoever. My unfinished DM: ShellShock map was included for which there are not only no powerups, but not even the falling meteors that were to give it its namesake; all you have is my pretty sky dome and terrain and spawn points.

TJ has showed he has also ignored much of the communication from when he was around as he has illegally included the BZ1, TRO, and Recoil soundtracks in the LMM1 install despite the explicit notion when they were added and many times after that they were for testing of the system.

Additionally, the release bore only TJ’s name, as if he had ignored the contributions of all others. In private he had claimed some asininely huge % of the content was his, when in reality he is responsible for about 10%, I for 10%, and various other authors for the remaining 80%. What of them? What of their conditions of use that were ignored, what of their hard work and labor? I raised this concern with hims privately but when I did he stopped CCing me on any of his group PMs and entirely ignored me. It is possible he just entirely STOPPED sending any group PMs at all.

Mod version:
Of course, TJ claiming that he could not understand the SVN, he was working from an older version where he made his change. So now, event though he claims he is going to or has update the SVN with the changes, if he has, he has destroyed the integrity of the SVN and horribly downgraded many of our fixes and updates.

So there you have it, all my concerns. I am horrified at how TJ has broken every agreement we have made with other modders for the inclusion of their content. As it was, some content was pulled after his actions on BZ2maps where many of the ZST creations singularly preside and I had to do damage control to keep the content. Now I fear my reputation is in danger too with these agreement going unhonored.

EDIT:
Additionally I forgot this. TJ went around hyping the UEP many many many times, well before anything was ready for release. He them used the public want for the mod as the reason for its premature release after he suddenly came back to working on it. Of course, what was the first thing he did when he ‘came back’ but to go on a hyping campaign. So, he created the conditions that he claimed made it so he had to release it.

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Nielk1’s Second Post

Quote of TheJamsh

I asked to use maps in mod. Mappers said yes. That was all. Nothing more.

There were rules that you ignored or forgot.

Quote of TheJamsh

I never said it was finished. I said get an installer together and we can kick something out. You didnt, I did.

How can we realse something that does not even work with what was at the time the current patch.

Quote of TheJamsh

YOU are the only one who understood the SVN enough to mod it.

Warfreak understood, AHadely understood, others did. Why not you? Why not ask?

Quote of TheJamsh

Illegal inclusions of Music (which was NEVER added by me), shouldn’t have been done in the first place if it was illegal. Already said that.

You were told from the beginning.

Quote of TheJamsh

DF mode did not have a Plethora of issues, it just wasn’t to its current standard, nor remotely finished. It would have been.

Yes it did, or would you prefer tissues ranging from the inability to land to unusable AI?

Quote of TheJamsh

DM River has 1 items and a few textures from SpAce. Still have e-mail to say I could use it if I credited him. I did. Trains were BBB’s, he released them with global permission to use them on BZU. I did.

My tunnels, spAce’s pylons, Coxxon’s statues, etc etc etc.

Quote of TheJamsh

Overshadowing of asset inclusion to testing is to be expected in a small community who arn’t getting paid for what they do. Hence to complete MESS of recycler variants in stock 1.3

Mess? Hence the freeze, not sure why you need to comment on this.

Quote of TheJamsh

Asset development froze because SVN was moved around, and it was too tedious for me to work on it. I stopped when it wasn’t fun anymore.

Thank god for that. I guess that means you ignored the numerous posted official freezes to asset conclusion and had it not become unable to you it would have been an unreleasable mess?

Quote of TheJamsh

Nobody did anything in 8 months. Not just me. NOBODY commited to that SVN build that was so ‘understandable’.

Actually, people did do stuff. Most of it was testing and filing of bugs, something you never paid attention too. A lot of the testing of maps is noted in the BZ2MD topic for it.

Quote of TheJamsh

I added GH’s map with his permission, a long time ago. Changes wern’t made by me until somebody created an ST version. That was the one I edited.

I added the ST version when I fixed the DLL so it would work right in the latest 1.3 as I had the ability. I asked you if you thought I should.

Quote of TheJamsh

The release bore my name because you didn’t want anything to do with it, and told me you were going off in your own direction. It also bore my name because I made the installer. It also bore EVERYBODIES name who contributed to it, in the very easy to find credits.

I told you that if you released it in its current state that I would have nothing to do with it, but I now have to have something to do with it since it features many UNFINISHED works of mine that reflect badly on me. See Ax’s post about the GGG rec? It WAS NOT FINISHED and was NOT meant for release. The SVN prominently featured an area for all unready stuff and the rest was nicely sorted, but you couldn’t understand that. Again, the correct author is “UEP Team”.

Quote of TheJamsh

Slaor, Lizard etc gave permission to use FE and FS assets. FE assets, as slaor said, are to be used for other mods because its “what its there for”. Still have that PM too.

That only covers a small cross section of assets sir.

Quote of TheJamsh

So, If you have all these amazing fixes along with the rest of the group, where are they? Oh right, not in the SVN. They are in YOUR private folders. No use to anyone, just like my private version wasnt.

And you base that on what? You already said you can’t make sense of the SVN. Actually, my work, mostly on maps, is on the 1.3 bug tracker waiting for 1.3 submission as I went and got the additional permission. This was because the UEP was NOT ready for release by any means and all the garbage hype you had made was becoming an issue.

Quote of TheJamsh

‘Damage control’ as you put it, was “Massive Asset leak” via Purplehaze. I had, quite obviously, fuck all to do with that.

Entirely wrong. damage control was for your actions, not the asset leak. And the asset leak ended up not even being massive, other than that one person had access to everything, they only took a small bit.

Quote of TheJamsh

I hyped my mod before you were involved.

And then you abandoned it and left me in control. Nice going. We should go back to that.

Quote of TheJamsh

In short: No agreements have been broken. I asked to use, they said yes. There was only EVER 1 condition, and that was from TimeVirus, who said he wanted his maps separated in the map list and ordered together. Which they are. In fact, most of the modders laughed at me for even taking the time to ask them, as they no longer cared.

I don’t know who the hell you talked to, because everyone I talked to seemed to really care, some maps are not even included because permission could not be attained.

Quote of TheJamsh

This is unbelievably petty and pathetic, as are those who choose to put forward opinions of me in IRC without any idea what they are talking about or quite frankly, who I am. I’m done with the topic now if I can contain replying to it.

I agree it is pathetic. There were opinions of you in the IRC? I would not know as I have a JOB that makes me WORK and I am only in the IRC on afternoons and weekends EST. (24 hours on weekends hoping to talk to YOU.)

You are rewriting history. Lets face it, if the UEP was just you it probably would have died a long time ago anyway. I never said that before but now I feel the need to say it because from your entire DROPPING of the project at that point.

Quote of TheJamsh

Oh and, I didn’t work on serenesis, I posted videos of concepts and a few bits of 3d art.

Yes, you did. You made many many weapons, you worked on tons of effects, you made models and other works, posted videos of them working, etc etc. Some, laughably enough, needing my code to even work.

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Nielk1’s Third Post

Quote of TheJamsh

I started a project, someone else got involved, wanted control over everything and took it over themselves. Now they want credit because they’ve decided everything I did wasn’t good enough and have spent the last 8 months replacing it. Big whoop, I put a lot of work into this too, so I’m as pissed off as you are.

Your summary is wrong. It proves you didn’t bother to read the little history bit I did. My replacements and edits, all but 1 I think I made post getting the maps in 1.3 proper, is in fact in the SVN.

Quote of TheJamsh

Even though I stand by everything I’ve said, I can’t believe any of it actually warrants all of this. The ‘UEP Team’ was me and N1. Nobody else contributed aside from a few minute changes here and there, which broke more than they fixed. ‘Testers’ if you want to call them that played a few games then decided they couldn’t be assed anymore either, which was when big leaks started happening.

We had one leak, and it was Purplehaze. And he was kicked off of the 1.3 testing team for entirely unrelated reasons. I don’t see how one universally bad apple is an indication of some systemic problem.

The UEP team was:
TheJamsh
TwinShadow/Shippo
AHadley
Warfreak
Squirrelof09
Topgun
Nielk1

Axillary members were:
GeneralBlackDragon
Admiral Manson
BlueLeader
Tempest Storm
GreenHeart

And then there were all the asset submissions and their authors.

That is a team that rivals that of FE, a team you ignore.

Quote of TheJamsh

As far as the UEP is concerned, wether my version be lacking certain fixes or not, it is THE version. Its the one from the SVN, which is THE UEP. Whatever you decided to break off and create in a separate directory on your hard drive and ALSO never bothered adding the the SVN in all this time, is something else. Hell, you can go and release what you deem “The Official Expansion Pack” if you want, or you can totally go out and step on my toes, I’ve lost the ability to give a fuck. The deciding factor being that only 30-40 people in the entire human population are ever going to know about it or give a shit anyway.

You show more and more you don’t listen. My so called ’separate’ version is nothing more than “1.3 proper submissions”. As such it is NOT a 2nd UEP copy in any way whatsoever. You however actually did an entire separate copy of it. You are trying to slam me for something I didn’t do, only you did. These edits on my end included isolating inter-map dependencies and removing them so the bits could be given to 1.3 in a modular, slowly testable and integrated manner.

Quote of TheJamsh

You saw a good idea, came into it and immediatelly took control, now its become this. I’d rather have released a pile of shit two years ago and been done with it quite honestly. Interestingly; you tried to also do that with Serenesis when you first got the description of the Pathan Clan race and decided you “had loads of ideas for them” and decided that was what was going down, which I put my foot down on right away and rejected out of hand.

I joined you in what was by description a project of many hands. I wanted to see my work used and I wanted to see a good central source for a large mass of playable assets. You had no issue with this, and I still checked without you before doing anything big other than adding content. You quit the project as soon as I made my first actual decision and said “hey hey now, let us stop adding stuff, get what we have working, and release”. You told not us, but the PUBLIC that all that was left was to wrap it up with an installer, a huge falsehood.

As for the Pathan Clan, you had nothing really for them. I put forth suggestions, and we thought about them. You threw some out and took some in and in changed for a while before eventually we came up with something which you liked. I had loads of ideas for them because I am a man with loads of ideas. You threw out the first few.

Quote of TheJamsh

I’m only ‘wrong’ on everything because you can’t teach the guy who thinks he already knows everything. I don’t know why you just generally think you’re so much better than me for all thats happened then have the nerve to call me out for an ego problem. I think you’ve made a big enough stink and thrown enough toys out of the pram now to save your precious reputation.

Unlike others out there I have this name, and aside from my real name, I go by no other. That makes my reputation my reputation. Half the stuff I put out there I give a note that credit can be as little as a comment in the ODF using my model, so you can’t possibly expect to pin some sort of ego trip crazy credit grab on me. You LEFT, and told us, the team, to work on it, I to make an installer, while you went off to your fun place with Serenesis. I have barely touched another mod in over a year because of you. Then you return, after all of us are burnt out, we have so much work to do in real life, one of us has actually quit entirely, take it all, the big thing, and throw it out to the public without any concern for what parts are unfinished, what agreement we have with others, and everything else.

Quote of TheJamsh

You PM’d me to tell me you were off to do your own thing, so off you go.

I can’t, you released my unfinished content. I can’t let something that I in fact produced go out there broken and unfinished.

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Of course, as TJ only responds when his public image is in danger, he ignored all PM sent both before and after release. This topic is locked and deleted so he continue on his marry exploits unabated.

Tags: MRVP, Personal //