Signatures, Stigmasures!

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by techumseh
No, you sound more like Jesse Jackson.

That is fighting talk!

Originally posted by techumseh
Don't assume that if people get pissed off, they will drop away. If this forum has a problem, it's that it's too boring. Everyone is WAY too nice.

I think the forum is OK. So please be nice.

If you want a blood-soaked battle...

You should hang out in the Poly OT for a week with your current sigline.

[techumseh]

Nice is maybe the wrong word. Avoiding controversy, maybe?

[Sarsstock]

I don't think its an issue of us at the forum trying to avoid controversy, but rather most of us don't really see the need to create it and or agitate it for such an issue like this.

Also, did Alex really try to charge people for using his units? How did he attempt to do this exactly?

[fairline]

Hey Tech, why are there no votes for 'one signature, the latest contribution'? Surely there should be at least one vote?

I think the bananas have it, which in my case was a vote for the status quo. None of this is important enough to get too worked up about, but I would advocate leaving the sig of the originator on the graphic unless it is made unrecognisable. Significant contributions warrant adding the editor(s) sigs, and to take Boco's point about multiple editors, just add more sigs. This business about indicating who was the last editor and suchlike seems a bit prescriptive.

[fairline]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
Also, did Alex really try to charge people for using his units? How did he attempt to do this exactly?

Alex claimed copyright and made his units files an 'uneditable' format, as Varwnos said. I don't think anyone bought any though, did they Tech?

[fairline]

Sorry, O/T

EDIT: petty wittering removed

[techumseh]

@Sarsstock: Alex showed up just before I did. When I first logged on to this forum, he was in the middle of being lectured by some of the early members about his mercenary ways. It was the height of Perestroika, and Alex was very entreprenurial, to say the least. My recollection was that he wanted 5 dollars US per scenario. (edit: I don't recall anyone actually buying one)

On his web site he used to claim to be the best unit artist anywhere, and challenged others to beat him. Later, he somehow fiddled with his graphics files so they wouldn't load in standard graphics programs, only in Civ. After that, he calmed down and posted very good illustrated tips on unit making on his site.

@Fairline: I actually opted for "most significant" to avoid the "touch up and switch sig" problem you talked about.

[Henrik]

Originally posted by techumseh
Later, he somehow fiddled with his graphics files so they wouldn't load in standard graphics programs, only in Civ.

His protection was quite easy to circumvent though

[Varwnos]

Originally posted by curtsibling
I think common sense and honesty should be the currency.

If you only change the paintwork of a tank or the helmet of a infantry -
Then I do not think an editor can be credited with any real work...

On the other hand......
If you slave for 6 hours, creating changes that render the unit unrecognisable -

Then, by all means, a sig should be added.
But the originator should still retain his sig.

That is my policy - I consider anything else un-gentlemanly...

hm, but then there is only a connection in theory. I mean one could base a unit on some other pic, but then it would be really unintelligent to use something out of the civ world, minimise it to civ2 unit size, and start blanking out surfaces there and deciding patterns to use, instead of doing the same thing with a civ2 unit as a base. i can post an example of one unit i made which doesnt look at all like the one i used as a base for it, but still i used the other one as a base so as to gain some time. Ofcourse i completely erased any of the old features, not keeping neither legs, arms, body stature, general feel, or anything else. It just helped me gain considerable time to start by looking at an already made unit, so that i could focus on making my own, without being miles away from even the most basic visualisation of a unit.

Ofcourse i could just have a concept in my imagination, and try to slowly build it up from nothing, but in my case i think that i am not finding this acceptable for me since my imaginary world is already linked to my literary work, and trying to make a unit this way would act against my decision to keep clear borders between my (serius) literary work, and my more carefree civ2 work (which isnt of high level anyway)

well, after all that, here is the example: the 'savage' unit is by someone else. The red unit is a goblin spearman i have recently made:

[Arthedain]

Originally posted by Sarsstock
I have to admit I'm a bit confused as to why this has become such a serious issue on the forum.

[curtsibling]

We should all use the Alex method and make un-editable units!

(joke)

[Broken_Erika]

Originally posted by varwnos

well, after all that, here is the example: the 'savage' unit is by someone else. The red unit is a goblin spearman i have recently made:

the "savage unit is by tamerlung, he is a unit artist on civfan,

[Case]

Originally posted by curtsibling
We should all use the Alex method and make un-editable units!

Why not include one of those 100 page licence agreements you have to scroll through before you can activate the unit?

...or better still, let's adapt the process Valve used for Half Life 2! (ie, so that you have to spend two hours activating the unit before you can gain access to it and then have to prove that you're not a pirate every time you load the unit). Incidently, as I've written elsewhere, I'm never buying another Valve product again after HL2.

[Stefan Härtel]

Originally posted by techumseh
@Sarsstock: Alex showed up just before I did. When I first logged on to this forum, he was in the middle of being lectured by some of the early members about his mercenary ways. It was the height of Perestroika, and Alex was very entreprenurial, to say the least. My recollection was that he wanted 5 dollars US per scenario. (edit: I don't recall anyone actually buying one)

Some very early designers did so before Alex. I remember one who built in a "self-destruct" mechanism in his events.txt files (i.e. all civs destroying each other after the fourth turn or so). Nice idea, but pretty stupid considering it is child's play to eliminate that.

Alex was maybe very jealous of his work, but he turned out to be a really nice bloke once you had the courage to email him. He's been invaluably helpful on my "Pharaoh" scenario and was a really sweet fellow when it came to ideas and inspirations.

[Timor_Leste]

Here's a position I've haven't heard someone take: I'm not so much focused on giving/receiving credit for units, but I think signatures are great because they tell you who you can contact for more of that type or style of unit. As many great unit makers there are out there, they each have their differences, some subtle, some not.