Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
There, I said it. I feel better and I don't care what anybody thinks.
If you always want all of your mods for free, you are actually TAKING time AND MONEY from the original modder that created the mod. You aren't -entitled- to it. that mod creator was KIND/RICH enough to do that for you. The longer people 'expect' it, the worse it gets. The attitude of 'gimme free mods when i'll gladly pay for crap DLC from the original company (that's swimming in cashflow)" is a crappy mentality and just really shines a light on how ungrateful most of the mod consumers in the world CAN be.
Per cover bands: THIS. This is actually an EXCELLENT point. Cover bands, in the music scene, make more money locally BY FAR than original music. It's a crappy reality, but it's true. You say I'm being a cover artist (when really, I'm more of a modern remix/remaster artist) but to me, that's a fairly accurate description. If cover bands get paid to play gigs because they are entertaining people with skill that took them hours to accomplish, why not the same for... let's say.. me? lol. Is it unfair that a cover band gets their gas covered, a few drinks, and possibly some cash to help invest in equipment? No. Should they make money hand-over-fist and TAKE AWAY from the original artist by doing so? No. But that's rare, anyway. I'm not a wealthy person by any means... and if you guys want me to keep making quality mods for you, it's a give-and-take. Square Enix DIDN'T EVEN Make this game... it's a re-release of an old SquareSoft game.
I spent 4 years, over 2000 hours, countless posts/hours of helping with troubleshooting, and all doing it while being a huge modding philanthropist with -maybe- $80 bucks in total donations over 4 years.. and it's WAY harder and more time consuming than learning other peoples songs.
In short: You get better quality. AND the mods are still free. If you WANT, you can donate and get a mega-pack. If you don't, you can still install the mods. For free. If I had started out charging for these mods, I can tell you right now that they would ALL be better, have less glitches, and have more detailed, serious art behind the work. Everyone in my life thinks I'm a complete idiot for having released these mods for free for as long as I have because every now and then, putting food on the table is a challenge. I reluctantly added a 'donation' to the large pack because they're right. If I'm giving something of value to anyone, I should be able to at least feed myself and not worry about where I'm going to have to sleep. The mods are still free if you want to install them all manually. What business would ever even GIVE you that option?
I think the idea that all mods should be free ad-infinatum is silly and detrimental to the artform. I think it should be like open-mic. If you kinda suck at making mods, by all means - release them for free and get your bearings. If you're adding to the value of the original product in HUGE ways because you are a skilled professional, you should charge. Now how much should you charge? Well, imo that depends on how much of the game is modded. If mods stay free for eternity, you'll only get the bottom of the barrel. Always.
For the record, people who make great 'free' mods these days are the ones getting hired to create your paid DLC. The modders themselves are the FIRST to bail on an ungrateful community and take that job because their 'fans' have very little real loyalty. Why support a game company who is only trying to squeeze more out of you instead of a private individual who's doing it out of passion? Especially since the DLC would cost at least 4x anything a modder has EVER put out. Just something to chew on.
IMO, modding communities are better investments than up-coming 'early access' kickstarter campaign indie games, and NO ONE has an issue funding those until they grab the money and run... and then you've paid and don't even get a good product!
The stigma of 'having to be free' in the modding community has got to go. I thnk crappy little mods should be free, and pro ones to cost. Plain and simple. I expect free mods to be crap and paid mods to be good. Supply and demand.
And remember: Mods take effort and time. Time = money. SOMEONE had to foot the bill for those mods to be made. Most of the time, it's some poor mom and dad that have to foot the bill for some person that isn't able to support themselves, or it's a mod that takes 2 years to complete because the person has a busy life without the 'free' time that you want to take from them with no compensation...
I hope I don't get a bunch of hate for this, because ... well, it's a sensitive subject. most of you don't complain and benefit from my mods... but it's something I feel I needed to say in light of people calling me scum. [s]I've -never- felt like I've gotten real support from the 'fans' aside from 'thanks for the free stuff!'[/s] EDIT* I feel like I said this in anger. The fans that have reached out to me really have shown me appreciation and respect, and I wanted to apologize to them and everyone else. Everything we do has been for the fans.
Anway - hope you guys have a great day, and I hope the modding communities don't die out in the next 5 years.
-MCINDUS-
P. S. If you really want to contribute, help us with new mods!
If anyone has any issues running the game from FF8_Ultra_Launcher.exe, please let me know! The game will still work fine from the 'regular' launcher with all of the Tonberry mods, but there might be a thing or two needed to 'tweak' the 'FF8_UVInject_EN.txt' file. If you don't like the current launcher (all it adds is the UV fix and the Add-On's/Hardmode) you can just use the UV fix by going to the link in the guide for the current UV 'fix'. It will give you a link to a HextEdit package that will do the same process (without the addon .dlls and hardmode) but prevent you from having to use a separate launcher as well. (some people prefer this method, but it must be done on a 'clean' version of FF8 and is only available for English as of now)
Also - if you are using any other language, you can go to the forums and download the appropriate SeeDReborn language pack and replace the folders from /FINAL FANTASY VIII/textures that match the ones from the mod. Do not just merge them, or you might have unforseen glitches! ALSO: make sure you only have ONE version of each mods' hashmap. so if you get a new seed reborn, remove SeeDReborn_hm.csv file from /tonberry/hashmaps and replace it with your own language. (SeeDReborn_DE_hm.csv) etc.
But still Mcindus made some really great mods for FF8, and no one forces you to donate cash. Sure no one likes ads but I don't mind to disable my ad blocker for his work.
Hell, I don't even care if people use ad-blockers, it just makes adf.ly a pain in the butt if you do.
I'm not trying to screw anyone over here (especially since the downloads are still individually free), but I'm just sick of feeling taken advantage of :) If you want the 'mega-pack' which includes over 2000 hrs of work, took me hours of troubleshooting, learning a bit of scripting, and LOTS of testing, then I'd like something in exchange... It's more than fair, honestly.
Also, I'm splitting this money with the other FF8 modders involved in this project, so just know that this is in no way just going to myself.
Here's hoping to see more material in the future. Quick question though.. Have you ever looked into modding FFIII or FFIV? I realise they are ds/ios port, looked into it myself but im not having that much luck. I would gladly donate for something like that. Im only one person though.
Hm... I haven't looked into that at all, actually - but wouldn't mind looking into it at some point :)
Time appreciated is never time wasted! Thank you!
My main problems are with some extremely low poly models, and well, generally the main characters, and the battle background textures (buildings, floors, walls...) which, while still better than the original, are very low res.
If you want to go 8x - just go into /tonberry/prefs.txt and change the multiplier, however this will make all current mods that use 4x textures to behave very strangely. You will need to convert whatever you use into 2048x2048, but watch out for performance. The reason we didn't go 8x on the rest is due to the type of injection Tonberry uses which can create stuttering/rendering problems for machines that aren't using SSD's.
If getting a bigger m.2 drive for express lane speeds will vastly improve how tonberry runs, ill consider waiting longer. I currently have no ssd's and would like to get an honest opinion without sales hype. My harddrive is by far the biggest bottleneck in my system lol. cheers.
Well, you're certainly optimistic if not a little manipulative.. it's like Space commander said; if you'd like to make money, make something new. Most artists make something because they want to express themselves; they don't usually make something for profit, although when they do put it up for profit they don't complain about what they don't earn. They look for ways to make money and I can see that you helped create a different game. That's how it's done...If you want to do something special for ff8, create a remake or petition Sony to let you use their tools... you have to really want it.
In defense of remastering/remixing music artists, artistic/photographic restoration masters, any musician that's ever covered a song, and graphic artists everywhere: I find your argument about originality non-applicable and maybe even mildy offensive... but - even if it were applicable, it falls short of being able to defend it's place in real-world sustainability. Hip-Hop today wouldn't exist without sampling other albums. This is just one example of many. I really do find the 'originality' argument void of perspective.
I'm an artist as well as a musician and I create art every day through expression, creativity, and vulnerability. This, however, is a mod. It's supposed to give new life to an old piece of art. And it takes a hell of a lot of work to do that to the pixellated mess of PSX era titles.
I don't understand the complaining about what they don't earn part. Who do you think created the idea of the 'starving artist'? Probably the guy starving, not the one ignoring his plight. Perspective.
This particular mentality is why people take artists for granted and expect them to all work two/three jobs or at footlocker part time in order to pay for their meals when they have thousands of hours honing particular craft-oriented skillsets.
Artists make art for a plethora of reasons - it's silly to claim their intentions are for solely personal expressive reasons. shouldn't one's art also feed oneself? even a replication? or an improvement? Like... how SONY created their entire empire? Or how Banksy uses stencils to create socio-political discourse? Or... pretty much every style of music ever created?
I mean... really. This took thousands of hours of skill, knowledge, and expertise to do. Could you have done it? Would you have? I think there's -actual- worth in these ideas and the hard work they spawned. I did hard work. You want to enjoy my hard work. I think the trade is fair and more than equitable.