Post Posted: 02 Sep 2015, 05:27
Alright, I we need to talk.
Unfortunately I have not be active in the forums, I have been busy with work and actually working on more Unreal maps (the irony). Literally as of around a few hours ago, I logged on and read the forum posts. I'm sure one of the admins can verify this? Regardless i had no idea that this thread was going down nor my download for the map-pack itself. Or else i would have commented sooner, i mean it's been months since i've been back..and i have turned 25.
Anyways
From what I understand is almost everyone enjoyed their time with my levels while it lasted. For the most part i would say that it provided at least some bit of enjoyment.
First off we need to get the problem out of the way into a solution. I freely admit to not crediting the original map designer. I willingly and knowingly used multiple assets from Grayson Edge's Hexephet, and terrain from most all of Unreal level's. This is not debatable, this is not conjecture, this is a fact.
My offers:
1. I take the time and remove or replace The Far Lands and sections of Queen Ship with a map made or changes that do not come from other artists works.
2. I modify the Readme to state my wrong doings and release an updated version of Dead Star.
3. I try to contact Grayson Edge and issue an apology for using his assets, I post and response back on the forum that i may receive. I believe he still works at Epic Games?
My take/my apology: Listen guys, I've played Unreal since I was 15 years old. My brother bought the game for me in like a pack with the original Deus Ex. It was a huge impact on my childhood gaming. I have been doing this stuff for a long time. I was NEVER trying to mislead anyone. I never made it a point to try to cover up anything. I have trouble with terrain, i'll freely admit this. Its hard to work with and i do not know how to tesselate properly, and with the new Unreal editors the "floor" lofter tool was removed, in which i used to subtract to make the terrain i want. Look at Cliffside if you want to see an example of my terrain. I'm serious. Here's the thing, I don't do this for me, i do this for y'all. Who the hell do i show this too that really cares? The community. I care about your feedback, i tried to be caring about everyone's comments on every part of my map pack. Look at the posts. I tried to be open an transparent with my thought process. I don't want you to hate my work. Let me put this in perspective. I worked really hard on these maps. It feels really bad to throw away 15 other maps because 1 of them was an ignorant, unthoughtful mistake. There's a TON that goes into each map. Beautiful Skyboxes, lighting, mood, ambient sounds, creature placement, ammo quantity, tags, events, encounters, movers (dear God), special events, bosses, translator story arches, themes (suicide,despair), environmental setting. Taking one large terrain brush and subtracting is the EASIEST PART. Putting everything else in a level with considerations is the harder part. Everyone commented that they thought it was pretty, and that really made me happy. It really hurts to think i threw that away from uncrediting a single author. Definitely this is an eye opening experience and a hard lesson learned. I really never thought it would be a problem, but i understand if you don't trust me anymore.
But what you must know is that whatever happens, I'll deal with it. I let you guys know i turned a quarter of a century old recently. That really opened me up to what "lies" next. Whether these forum members approval or not, i'm going to still be making maps and working on ways of exploring what I can do with them.
Thanks for the patience in letting me get back, and taking the time to hear what i have to say.