The STFR situation 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jack Rossman]

Hi there.
Some know me by NightScale5755, some know me by Jack. But everyone who knows me knows I'm the co-founder of the STFR mod.

A lot has happened since my last post about my pride and joy, STFR.

For starters, I rejoined the old team, despite my better judgement.
I expected things to be different, that they took me in with good intentions. I was wrong.
When I was talking to the fellow who was left in charge of STFR about returning, not only did it take them a while to agree, but they also made me agree to make the B41 version "feature complete" before work on a B42 version could start. My big mistake here was not asking for elaboration.
So, naturally, I began working on some of the old TODO list. After a while, one TODO item in particular began to get overwhelming. The old team kept piling things onto it. Despite my protests, they kept adding to it. Lots of things that, quite frankly, are out of the scope of the mod.
The TODO project in particular was expanding the mall security content in STFR. Adding vehicles and fixing up some of the uniforms.
It quickly became "Everything under the sun security", which, while neat, isn't exactly in the scope of the mod. Let alone more work that gets dumped on me to code in.
Which, speaking of dumping code work on me. That's why I'll be starting over with a B42 version of STFR. I'm tired of dealing with how things were. Tired of having all the code work dumped on me, despite my countless offers to teach the old team how to help out.
Yes, I did offer many times to give them a rundown, teach them how to do the work themselves. Every single time I got excuses in response. I even made a channel in the staff section of the STFR discord explaining it all. It never saw use.

So yeah. Shortly after this post, I'll begin polishing up the B42 version of STFR that I've been dabbling with on the sidelines, and leaving B41 behind.

This means I'll be leaving the B41 version in the hands of the old team, though they will have to make a fork, supposing they don't just drop it again.

DO NOT harass or spew hate towards the old team or anyone!

[Sloop]

You make it sound like it's some sort of serious business startup that went wrong, lol

Good on you for having the self respect to walk away though, I hope your project goes well

[Jan2004p]

Just finished reading, i dont necessarily disagree with core message however

I do disagree with portrayal of some of the events described in the post as i believe them to be misleeding or not covering full picture, whether thats intentional or not i wont try to decide because it could be just perspective thing.

>For starters, I rejoined the old team, despite my better judgement.

That is misleeding as it makes it sounds like you had to be talked into returning, that is just not true as you reached out on 2 seperate occasion in relatively close proximity in dms to rejoin the team the team which, did eventually happen after the 3 points agreement

>When I was talking to the fellow who was left in charge of STFR about returning, not only did it take them a while to agree, but they also made me agree to make the B41 version "feature complete" before work on a B42 version could start. My big mistake here was not asking for elaboration.

The reason why it took so long is because well, i wanted to hear others thought on this, as i was myself conflicted on the the topic. There was no malice in it taking so long, it just took that long to get enough answers to make that call. You are also not being entirely honest from my POV when you say it wasnt elaborated. It was, to quote "finishing on projects that were started and already WIP when you left". At the time of this agreement it was 5 projects: USPS Expanded, Chestown, Federal Service Addon, Mall Security and Remastered Rangers Uniforms. And now, at the time of this writting its 2 left (technically 3 but USPS expanded was finished long ago it was just never scripted so it wasnt particulary time sensitive)

(cont next post)

[Jan2004p]

Now some may ask for why this prevented working with B42 and 41 at the same time? Its manpower and motivation issue, those already on the team or just more familiar with inner workings know it painfully well. Majority our team is simply inactive. I can name total of, 3 people (Including Me & Jack) that are actually active/semi active on team. For 42 there would not only new additions but also remakes of already existing content from 41 like animated FRUC. So while this 3 man crew would work on 42 content they would also need to split attention back to B41. With this knowledge in mind one can perhaps see pragmatism in shooting down idea of working on B42 port until 41 is finished.

>So, naturally, I began working on some of the old TODO list. After a while, one TODO item in particular began to get overwhelming. The old team kept piling things onto it. Despite my protests, they kept adding to it. Lots of things that, quite frankly, are out of the scope of the mod.

Again misleeding. Like mentioned later in the Jack's post, this fragment refers to the expansion of security guard content. The feature creep is grossly overstated however, there was brainstorming indeed during the revist of the idea which included few new additions (Like Finnegan Research, Fossoil or LV Expo Security) however this is nowhere near in overwhelming size as how it was made to sound like in the original post.

(cont next post 2)

[Jan2004p]

>Let alone more work that gets dumped on me to code in.
Which, speaking of dumping code work on me. That's why I'll be starting over with a B42 version of STFR. I'm tired of dealing with how things were. Tired of having all the code work dumped on me, despite my countless offers to teach the old team how to help out.

I agree here, it was certainly overwhelming handling all code related features of the STFR, theres a simple reason for that: You're the person who wrote the code and the only one left on team with familiarity/comfort with it. As you self described yourself that texturing isnt your strong suit it makes sense that what you're good at will be given to you. I'm not good in coding, i'm willing to admit it, my comfort zone lies in texture work hence thats why i did. I do know the pain of trying to get someone to help you out with texturing because its overwhelming, it didnt happen back then and sadly it didnt happen here again. tldr: true

(cont next post 3)

[Jan2004p]

>Yes, I did offer many times to give them a rundown, teach them how to do the work themselves. Every single time I got excuses in response. I even made a channel in the staff section of the STFR discord explaining it all. It never saw use.

Somewhat misleeding but perhaps i should specify what i'm refering to and thats the channel at the end of the quote, that is a recent development, it did not exist for the longest time. As for the rest of quote, partially what i described above, rest of the team is not adept at coding which is why i can sorta understand why they wouldnt take on these lesson which well uh, the few rare times those happend before the channels existance it was honestly hard to follow. Now looking over actual channel's content i think its fairly comprehensive but still chaotic to someone not particulary familiar with coding when you have to dabble between multiple lua and xml files spread across folders, here i give 50/50 for it going unused by whatever staff can be considered actually being here for it either unwillingness to learn or genuine inability to understand the code due to its complexity for a regular user

(cont next post 4)

[Jan2004p]

>This means I'll be leaving the B41 version in the hands of the old team, though they will have to make a fork, supposing they don't just drop it again.

I very much disagree with the way this quote paints the team as it implies its their sole fault for having to suspend the project, rather than its creator posting singular announcement on staff chat and leaving discord server right away without further comment nor plan forward, other than just figure it out i guess. Now when that happend, Albion de facto took over server owner role but that didnt last, since she had already stated lack of interest in the project as she was merely here to drop in for occasional support for custom scripts which when it then landed onto my laps, someone that never wanted this role because i am not a good leader, still i tried all whilst further and further loss of interest and energy to work on the project myself, and i genuinely ask again you here again like i asked you back then in DMs after one of the messages sent after: What did you think was gonna happend? What did you expect us to do in that situation?

This among many previous incidents involving you that will not disclose is what broke camels back and necessitated that agreement should you have returned onto team and continue work alongside, to put it bluntly, people just got fed up.

Now, i will also repeat what Jack said at the end. Do NOT harass either him or the team. And i'll leave with the words of genuine good luck to you if its your intent to really move on with the plan of releasing 42 version of STFR because in spite of everything: i am not upset, i feel nothing really. This place been disfunctional for the longest time so, keep slaying it mate.

Anyway, regardless with whom do you agree more on this topic, i felt it neccesary to provide other sides account on the topic. Or maybe you dont and think both sides are in the wrong

(Repost from STFR Discord for those whom arent present in it)

[Emma]

With all due respect Jack, I'm sorry to hear how you feel but when you're constantly lashing out at me and the people I'm training you shouldn't expect me to treat you warmly in return.