Hanging It Up

[Gen Cobra]

I realized this morning after logging onto my laptop here in this hotel, and sitting down to take in the advice and support about the newest maps I have made and came to one conclusion.... there were none.
My work is played by many people across the globe. Those of you who map and map well know what I am talking about. Your work is seen by people in other countries. With all the work that goes into html, pic creation in Photoshop, making the levels PK3s, etc. I find little input and a very small amount of insight.
I got into sending this work out to people so they could enjoy it and I could maybe get some insight into my work through the players eyes. So far I don't even have enough to write on a sugar packet.
This morning has made me realize I must think about hanging it up. After my near death experience I was happy to get back to programming mohaa. But I'm just another mapper to everyone else which makes me expendible. For those who have helped and supported me a BIG THANKS.
Maybe I can get your thoughts on this. If not then you have answered the question anyway.
-The General of Cobra Cobra Command

[Yarik]

Nooooooooo......................................
Gen Cobra. The truth is you are a great mapper. We need brains like you. You have a really big mind. I like your mapping and appreciate it. I like to steal your work. And add it to my map. You should be more with your friends and family but dont leave us...

[Gen Cobra]

Thanks Yarik. I have nothing against anyone here. I just feel after hearing what Mpowell said about me on alliedassault.com that maybe it's time ot hang it up. I just don't think that this is work being flamed for. I don't need to post any of my work, ever, anywhere. I do it for those who like my work, and I do it for feedback.
Look. I'm sick and tired of being crapped on by people. This site is great but I am informing the whole community that I have had it with people's shit. You don't like my work, fine. Let me know, but then shut your mouth. Don't pm me, don't e-mail me.
I work HARD on these maps I make. Give me feedback good or bad but please let's refrain from the childish insults.

[Yarik]

Mind if I see that comment?
Cobra DO not worry about what others say. Most of them are just there to show off and most of them are jealous. So what they do is try to find even the slightest problem with your map to criticise it. I will never criticise anyones map unless its truly CR*P. And as of now I havent seen so Called "Cr*p" maps

[nuggets]

hey GEN COBRA

read this whole message b4 u reply

whether you map/pak/script/skin/texture/etc... (i hoped you liked my use of rhyming ) it matters absolutely nothing to me, or probably any1 in this forum if they're really honest, we're all "expendable"

but ask urself 1 question, does it bother you really what people think, people can be critical, judgemental and a lot of the time just total assholes, so what their opinion is, should have no real bearing on how u spend the rest of ur life,

if you get fired from 1 job, do u look for similar work or just hang ur hat up and call it a day and find something new everytime? people can only improve if they keep at it, i've not seen any of ur work, but that's not an insult, i haven't seen any work of hardly any1's except for screenshots on here and JV's bot_map,

if i have nothing to say then i keep my mouth shut, but on this occassion, i really hope what am i saying is going in and staying in, no matter what MPowell says, if what your doing makes you happy stick with it, if not take up something new, but stay in the forums,

i posted a thread in here a couple of days ago when u were asking about something, i gave all the advice i had to give on the subject same as i'm doing now, but i also asked how u were,

what u've been through must of been a real eye opener for you and it would be for any1 else that would experience the same thing, but if u feel ur wasting your life just sitting infront of your computer dragging ur mouse from 1 side of the screen to the other, then giving up won't be a great loss to any1, we only map bcus we enjoy it,

but also think that i've spent the time to type this message to ya, i'm not asking for praises now, but what u decide to do, make sure ur doing it 4 urself

cheers for reading all this

[Surgeon]

Ok, time for some thought sharing from me seeing as I've been keeping very quite recently......

Its a fact that no matter if you are the best mapper on this planet you will face criticism, some just, some unjust, some just plain childish. It unfortunately is a fact of life. Its hard to take and I've gone through the same stuff in other game communities so I know what Cobra's going through. You face a choice : either give in and give your detractors what they want. OR pick yourself up, try to turn the critiscisms to your advantage, learn from your mistakes and carry on. The second choice is what has led me here to create this site. Yet I still go through massive periods of self doubt. I still havn't been able to release one of my MoH maps mainly because my confidence is very low. Cobra you've been through some eye opening stuff recently and you've come through it.

It can seem sometimes that mappers are 10 a penny, and its true that in every community there are a lot of mappers that release maps. Its also a fact that a large percentage of those are dross. In the MoH community most maps that have been released seem to be at least a step or two above that . If I said what I really thought on some of my reviews I'd either make the creator cry or get hounded out of the community for being a mean bastard. Instead I try and take the positive out of every map and push the creator in areas that they need to improve.....

Mapping is 50% imagination, 25% technical and 25% hard-work. If you have the imagination and the will to work and learn then you are doing better than most people. Its a learning process. I learn and refine my knowledge every single day.

Anyway back to you Cobra: The decision ultimately is yours. Personally I think you show a lot of promise and you could be a very good mapper - these are very rare in this community at the moment.

[Gen Cobra]

Thank you Nuggets. Thank you Surgeon(where have U been?).

After reading what you both wrote in full I can understand where you are coming from. So just don't care what other people think? Maybe I have been bred by the University to see it differently. I guess I see people's reactions to be the basic foundation for a successful game. Seeing little interest or a lot of interest and no responses, leads me to believe that my work isn't fun or valuable. I guess I will have to adopt a WHO CARES attitiude to stomach the 3 year old remarks with a certian sense of testicular fortitude (balls).

I am from now on only going to post and shut my face.
Thanks again.

[General Death]

Thanks Yarik. I have nothing against anyone here. I just feel after hearing what Mpowell said about me on alliedassault.com that maybe it's time ot hang it up. I just don't think that this is work being flamed for. I don't need to post any of my work, ever, anywhere.

The fact is as long as maps are submitted, flamers will flame them. Flaming a map someone spends any amount of time on is either ignorance of what it takes to map and/or a serious lack of character....courtesy. If you entered mapping thinking it would be all fame, now you know

I do it for those who like my work, and I do it for feedback.
Look. I'm sick and tired of being crapped on by people. This site is great but I am informing the whole community that I have had it with people's crap.

Why take the easy way out? How bout staying and proving your worth? You have potential....show them. I would rather see performance under pressure rather then duck and running....stick it out man

If it interferes with your family life of course drop it...it?s not worth it in that case

[UZZIEL]

Gen i hope you will not leaving us. Specially not now

I was Inspiered by your maps among a lot of other great works.
So i decided to map. Inspired through such work and the spirit of MOH:AA
is it a bit way weaker to fight through the jungles of scripts and radiantcontrols.
That guys flame your work is only an evidence that they dont respect the time, ideas, nerves etc. someone had invested in a map.
Of course there are some real dumb maps - but even there are some small things that raise some fantasies.

On your side try to forget dumb critisizm but let you inspire of construktive one.

Man I love my GermanEnglish - hehehe - I hope you understand what Ive written.

In respect.

[Gen Cobra]

Thanks General Death and Uzziel. It's really hard to get responses that help me in my situation. I started Mapping in Feb of 2003. I haven't stopped except for injury that set me back.
I am glad to know people like you because it makes coming to places like these an enjoyable experience. Remeber, I was a top rated MOHAA Online player once.
Literally I map 24-7, learn C++, and read script. Pretty boring stuff for people who just play the game. It's just too bad they don't realize the length of work I do to bring them the maps they play. My next project has me working with a group of 3 people in my home town. I taught them and away they went. We are creating levels for IRON TUSK 2: The Secret of Stalingrad A single player campaign utilizing most of the animation scripts and scrs of the game.

Thanks again.
-GENERAL COBRA

[UZZIEL]

Sounds very intersesting - campaign .

As far as I understood: You teached guys to map and after
that they ve gone? And now you left on your own with that project?

If this is the case I think here are some mappers that help you
willingly. Even Me - but my knowlege is in the basic stadium, so I would
slow the process down.

Nevertheless I see a lot of Big Projects that show that although weve been
left alone with a very poor SDK by 2015/EA some outragous mappers come very far - more far I bared to imagine.

I dont konow if its very private to ask - i saw it on MOHfiles - what accident happened to you?

[Gen Cobra]

I was in a severe snowmobile accident 3 months ago. Someone hit my snomobile going about 90 around a corner. He swerved into the trail lane and sent me over a bank of snow and into a creek. I laid under that sled for over an hour waiting for someone to come.
I ended up with 3 crushed ribbs, one of my lungs completely lost(still recovering from that), an arm broke in three places, and a broken femer. All and all not good. Had 4 surgeries to correct my lungs and bones.
I think that my friends that palyed this game on a LAN network or from abroad all thought what I was creating was cool so they decided they wanted to learn. I have stacks of tutorials all in folders to be read and understood. Ranging from creating splinepaths for vehicles, to creating lighting atmospheres in the game. These tutorials are of great use to those just learning. I have collected so many from websites located across the world. From Germany to America to Australia.
Right now everyone is all gung ho making their first Online map. I'm in the middle of creating a really fun map to play online. I'm leaving out most of the glamorous lighting and special effects to limit the drop in fps.

[kdja]

Gen Cobra how old are you?


kdjac

[nuggets]

i'm glad taht u read the whole of my post, but i feel i should of added another thing

i'll keep it short though

if you were to release a map that every1 enjoyed, every1 loved playing, every1 talked about to their friends, then you'd of released a map to only 1 person,

if every single map we released had 2 b liked by every1 then we would fail every time, that's why we have different game genre's, where 1 game falls down for 1 person it's fixed and made better by another, exactly the same with maps

i hope to see ur reply after this saying "i'm not hanging it up" that'll make me a happy person

[Butch]

Cobra, if we didnt get critisized (sp) we wouldnt learn. Its just listening to the right criticism, ie. suggestions, tips, corrections, advice and not the bad ones ie. 'This is Bullsh*t'.
After having played and enjoyed rampaging through Iron Tusk I see you have put a lot of effort into it. And its thought, effort and excecution that count.

Some people think they can talk the talk and walk the walk, but can do neither.

AND FOR GODS SAKE, STAY!