This time I'm actually being serious, so I'll make a thread here.

monkey0506 · Fri 01/03/2013 05:40:58

I have been immature and irresponsible around the forums lately. In some way, I've done it intentionally to help myself reach the decisions that I need to make.

I don't mean to make excuses. I'm not upset at anyone here. No one has done anything wrong for me to be upset about. I don't hold any hard feelings. I did, but... It's in the past.

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is pretty much summed up here:

https://sites.google.com/site/monkey0506/home

I went through my site on X10Hosting.com, my Google sites, and my local HDD to compile the list of files. I sincerely hope that it helps, and if it doesn't, well it was a fun ride anyway.

I apologize that I cannot be responsible enough to update my own links, but if anyone sees links to any of these files go dead, please refer to this link. Also, if it's not on this link then I don't have a current copy of it (except the IWWHIIWWHI... game and the OSD-OCD source, both of which are too large to upload to Google).

Thanks for reading. I'll be back, eventually.

-monkey

ThreeOhFour · Fri 01/03/2013 06:58:09

See ya mate, enjoy the next 4 months.

Crimson Wizard · Fri 01/03/2013 07:36:56

You are doing clever thing!
Internets are evil. You will benefit more than you loose.

Armageddon · Fri 01/03/2013 07:52:33

On a lighter note some how Draculator II got nominated for something and now my name has an ugly icon under it.

bicilotti · Fri 01/03/2013 08:17:40

Good luck!

edit: maybe it's better if I send him an SMS

Khris · Fri 01/03/2013 10:30:33

I assume you're away trying to spread Mormonism, right? Good luck with that.

Andail · Fri 01/03/2013 21:42:59

ok, SPLIT.
The topic, that is. Not you guys.

Monkey, I hope you'll find some peace of mind wherever you retreat for this period! I just browsed around the AGS wiki and realized how many articles you had authored there.

Grim · Sat 02/03/2013 03:30:19

What I'd really like to know is this: WTF happened and how did I miss that?

I'm on this forum nearly every day and it's killing me that I don't understand what's going on there. Who offended Monkey? Who did he Monkey offend? Why is he taking all this time off from internet?...

Well, whatever it is, Monkey, I hope you're all right.

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 02/03/2013 04:00:01

Quote from: Grim on Sat 02/03/2013 03:30:19
I'm on this forum nearly every day and it's killing me that I don't understand what's going on there. Who offended Monkey?

(it was me)

(actually, I don't doubt that it was me)

(I'm serious)

Grim · Sat 02/03/2013 04:12:28

Ryan, what did you say that had such an impact on him, may I ask?...

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 02/03/2013 23:07:00

Nah. It likely wasn't me. But I do have an odd sense humor which can easily be read as rude or obnoxious.

I sent him a PM months ago that he never responded to, so it made me wonder. Which is mostly why I was possibly joking or serious about it being me.

Slasher · Sun 03/03/2013 09:10:13

Well, things can really start taking over your life and every now and then you need to take break away for at least a while.

I have always found monkey ok and compliant.

Good luck Monkey ol' chap

m0ds · Sun 03/03/2013 12:22:43

Michael McMonkey, You'll be fine and I'm sure the community will hear from you again. Don't do anything silly!! And enjoy your time away from pc/ags/facebook... there's no denying it can be quite rewarding.

Khris · Sun 03/03/2013 14:58:44

Since monkey had a link in his signature ("be petty!") leading to a website he set up on which he was basically asking for donations to help finance his being a Mormon missionary, that's why he's off the internet, I presume.

The reason why he's upset, I believe, is that he feels that his contributions to AGS in the form of modules and other resources aren't appreciated as well as they should be, while sometimes stuff by other people is undeservedly so. Case in point: somebody who recently posted in Beginner's Tech was using the verb coin module bundled with AGS coded by Elektroshokker, and monkey feels that it is coded messily and that his template is superior (and I tend to agree on both accounts).

MiteWiseacreLives! · Sun 03/03/2013 15:17:46

The verb-coin is bundled. So of course we beginners are going to use it until learning how to make what we would like ourselves (or figure out modules).. Monkey would have to just get his version bundled and offend Elektroshokker then Elektroshokker can become a missionary, then I will probably decide to become a Monk because the weight of guilt I will have for ruining the AGS community forever. Then Icey will quit and then no one will ever visit this forum again, ahhhhhh!

Ghost · Sun 03/03/2013 16:20:15

Together with SSH's modules, monkey's codeworks were my main source of learning some proper AGS scripting. I think some of the tension comes from the engine development section where stuff seems to go at cross purposes most of the time. Sometimes I think that once you get good at clean, well-structured code it can become some sort of obsession (personally I try to write stuff clean, but if it gets messy while still doing what I want, I say screw you, script!)...

Get over it, monkey, enjoy your time out and get some rest- and then come back! You *know* you want to!

Calin Leafshade · Mon 04/03/2013 06:55:02

Quote from: Khris on Sun 03/03/2013 14:58:44
The reason why he's upset, I believe, is that he feels that his contributions to AGS in the form of modules and other resources aren't appreciated as well as they should be

Pfft, If anyone is under appreciated it is a brother right here. Can i get an amen?

Daniel Thomas · Mon 04/03/2013 07:25:45

I was about to write a long post, but I'll settle with:
Amen!

Andail · Mon 04/03/2013 11:52:23

Quote
he was basically asking for donations to help finance his being a Mormon missionary

I suddenly love his signature:

Quote
To Hell with anyone too lazy to maintain consistent formatting in their code.

Mission: Sinful coders!

Ponch · Mon 04/03/2013 17:05:27

What the heck? I go away for a weekend and I come back to find Monkey abroad spreading the good word and taking code to the codeless? It's like Dualnames going off to war all over again! Or Ben304 getting a haircut! I don't know what to think anymore!

Good luck on your travels, Monkey. Hope to see you back here again one day.

SSH · Mon 04/03/2013 18:01:27

Quote from: Ghost on Sun 03/03/2013 16:20:15
Together with SSH's modules, monkey's codeworks were my main source of learning some proper AGS scripting.

Thanks for the call out. Of course, I effectively stopped doing anything useful in AGSland except a once-monthly twitter-sized blog post when i feel guilty about not posting for a month. But I didn't tell anyone I was going to do it in advance! So at least Mr Monkey left things in a decent state.

Wonkyth · Tue 05/03/2013 12:01:28

Wowzers. :o

monkey0506 · Sat 01/06/2013 12:40:24

Well at least this thread made it to two pages and all that. Nothing to do with a mission, or Mormonism. That particular signature (not the one about coders) was a joke.

It was a long time coming, but there were a lot of AGS-related reasons why I needed a break, and a lot of non-AGS-related reasons.

Of course it's only June, not July.

By and large I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I did accomplish a fair bit. So, there is that.

I think that will be my signature for a while.

Regarding the AGS-related reasons, what it all boils down to is that I lost sight of why I came here in the first place. It really is that simple. Somewhere along the line I got so caught up in giving people code that I stopped trying to actually help them become better programmers in lieu of clearing every semi-technical problem thread. And then to make it worse, I got all butthurt when people didn't acknowledge every minuscule snippet I provided for their games.

I honestly feel that I have devoted more time to learning about the functional abilities of AGS than any other single individual. Whether or not that's strictly true isn't really important any more, but I have learned a heck of a lot along the way. There's a few things I'd like to post about in the wiki (basic data types by reference and array decay). I'll get to that at some point.

I will also openly admit (now) that I was rather offended by the whole project administrator fiasco. I started a thread because I had C++ questions, which eventually devolved into a discussion about proper open-source project management. Dave Gilbert was elected by popular vote to be the new project administrator in light of CJ's absence, but he was quickly advised not to do anything, because CJ might be coming back to say something about some other thing. That was around the time a lot of the keys for the site and forums were being handed around, but I still don't understand why nothing* came of all that.

*Of course, thanks to JJS's efforts, the engine development is being pushed forward. I really don't think that I have enough expertise in C++ to be really beneficial here. A lot of what I'm doing in C++ right now involves, essentially reinventing the wheel. C++ code is historically written to be ugly though. This ugliness can introduce a lot of hard to discover bugs or other issues. (Yes, I'm still harping about people being bad coders.) I personally would like to establish an entire framework (native code, not .NET) of utility classes to deal with what I perceive to be a rather serious problem. Most of that won't be of any use to AGS though.

Anyway. I have to go attend to my job. bicilotti, if you read this please PM me.

Calin Leafshade · Sat 01/06/2013 12:48:58

If i may:

In hindsight it was a mistake to try and prescribe some kind of hierarchy by popular vote. These kinds of things work best as a "do-ocracy" and I think the current system that has arisen organically is probably the best we could've hoped for.

So don't feel bad, everything worked out very well with very capable people in charge.

Ghost · Sat 01/06/2013 13:03:56

Welcome back, man!

Khris · Sat 01/06/2013 13:58:37

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Sat 01/06/2013 12:40:24Nothing to do with a mission, or Mormonism. That particular signature (not the one about coders) was a joke.

So the google website where you were asking for donations for you being a missionary was also part of the joke? Did or didn't you go try to spread mormonism? And if you didn't, why set up a website about it?

Gribbler · Sat 01/06/2013 22:34:22

I just want to say this: If it weren't for Monkey's help back in 2006 I would've never made my game. Monkey, I remember you answering my noobish programming questions in a matter of minutes which gave me confidence that this community is really fantastic and helpful. I always knew that there are people like you, SSH or Khris who are willing to guide me in scripting. After 7 years The Bum is out and you are among the first people that I should thank for it, which I rightly so did in the game's credits.

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 01/06/2013 23:18:52

So it WAS me! I knew it.

monkey0506 · Sun 02/06/2013 03:32:35

Yes, Ryan. Your love of Java has filled me with an unquenchable hatred for you.

Speaking of people I hate...(sarcasm much?) Calin, I absolutely agree in the fullest. About this one thing, only.

Khris: Yes and no, but the website was a joke in itself. By which I mean I never meant anything to come of it. And it didn't. So. There's that. I understand that a lot of people here would vehemently disagree with them, but my religious beliefs are very important to me. I will discuss them with anyone willing to, but I make a point of not pressing my beliefs on other people. I regularly encourage others to not blindly follow what I tell them.

Gribbler, and the others who have acknowledged me helping them, thank you for your consideration. I honestly do appreciate the recognition, but at the same time one of the things I wanted to accomplish in this hiatus was to break my dependency on it. I'm here because I enjoy being here, and I enjoy using the program, and I enjoy seeing what others are able to make of it. Goodness knows I never made anything useful out of it (hahahaha, just...kidding. I'm not going there).

Grim · Sun 02/06/2013 03:58:16

Oh, great! So now that you're back, are you going to help people with AGS again? I could use some of that!;)

I PM'ed you before but that was probably during your *afk* time. That, or you just don't like me for whatever reason;) (that's cool if you don't, just saying:P)

ThreeOhFour · Sun 02/06/2013 04:07:54

Aw man, I've totally missed you being passive-aggressive to everyone including yourself <3

Welcome back man!

Khris · Sun 02/06/2013 04:10:56

Cool, I'm still waiting for the answer to my last PM

monkey0506 · Sun 02/06/2013 04:54:25

I am surprisingly aware of that fact. At some point I had a text document saved on my hard drive where I was going to finish typing my response later.

Fortunately for everyone, I managed to completely corrupt and destroy my entire Windows partition to the point of being unable to recover anything useful from it. Good thing I never back anything up! It was a whole contrived and convoluted story, which I may share at some point. Being as technically inclined as I am, the irony did not fall flat on me.

I also may as well take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my latest wiki entry.

Crimson Wizard · Mon 03/06/2013 07:33:02

Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Sat 01/06/2013 12:40:24
I honestly feel that I have devoted more time to learning about the functional abilities of AGS than any other single individual.

This is, in my opinion, a core of the problem. This is scripting language, meant to script games. It does not need to be "researched", experimented with and searched for "hidden" abilities. It should not have anything hidden. It should be improved to have all those abilities right on plate.
Most of the people who use it do not - and should not - care about what is more efficient - to use String or array of chars. They simply must have a way to have a string or array of values, and make games.

If you would take on actually enhancing AGS script, instead of looking for means to use its good features to substitute its bad/missing features, that would be much beneficial to everyone.

Also, I should probably add, that your level of C++ is, in my opinion, less important than your willingless to work. The program is not about C++, it's about algorythms and architecture. If the latter made well, the incorrect usage of certain language features could be then fixed by someone else.

Ryan Timothy B · Tue 04/06/2013 00:13:43

Hey Monkey, here's your chance to be very useful to me. I posted in your module thread for the TruBlu script. I want the code for getting the true RGB color from an AGS color (instead of AGS's RGB colors). GetTrueColorRGBFromColor. But your download link was broken.

I need this super badly! Thanks

This time I'm actually being serious, so I'll make a thread here.

bicilotti

m0ds