Blam! Developer Communities Network

Everything about HD, MD, and their mods.

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Sparky
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Sat Oct 06, 2012 12:19 pm

For those who need to use a cheap e-mail address for questionable web sites or for junk mail where you don't even want to see it, then you can use a free e-mail account like AOL or Google or Yahoo or Hotmail. But if you can't use those for whatever reason, then we have a new e-mail account that is shared and that can be used as a junk mail thing.

Do not use this email address for web sites that send you passwords or other sensitive information.

Login: http://www.blamdevcom.net/webmail
Login Name: trashcan@blamdevcom.net
Password: MgM_Trash)(

This will be a shared e-mail account for registering at web sites where you're "not quite sure". On most sites, you can always change your e-mail address later on, at least by contacting the site administrator and saying "my e-mail address has changed to ____".

If it is used, fine. If not, I'll remove it at some point. Just don't abuse it, please.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Wed Oct 17, 2012 11:40 am

HaloDemoMods.com wiki:
The white page issue has been resolved. We're no longer using page attachments for the mod pages. Instead, simply use the "Download" field when starting a page for a new mod. The wiki is no longer read-only, so you can make changes again.

EDIT: I think I'm going to have this problem for a while; I don't know what's causing it, but I'm about to clean up the LocalSettings.php file to try to figure out why this issue is happening.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:16 pm

What is the Blam! Developer Communities Network?
BDCN Business Model Short Description wrote:As a business, the Blam! Developer Communities Network (BDCN) manages the licensing rights to the Halo 1 source code as an intermediary between Microsoft's legal department and the developers, such as people from Gearbox Software, MacSoft, etc.
It also offers modders the ability to sell their mods to the player community.
With Microsoft, it is a partnership.
With developers, it is a licensing rights manager.
With modders, it is a central location to discuss ANYTHING about the game.
With players, it is a place to download mods for ANY Halo 1 platform, and to financially support mod teams and developers that they like.
I now ask the halo communities to combine into this single location.
The benefits include:
Free web-related resources, such as e-mail addresses, ftp accounts, etc.
Free migration from their old server to this new free server.
Everyone who was a community leader maintains their leadership and benefits from using the resources.
They maintain their history also of their existing sites by having their forums and wikis migrated by myself.
They could participate in all the features of the BDCN and turn their hobby into a little bit of money profit if they mod.
That's basically it in a nutshell.
The BDCN is where developers and modders and players can meet to discuss ways in which the Halo epic will evolve
Halo Nation will jumpstart the Halo information pages
Halo Fanfiction will give more content to modders and modding teams who need story content for their mods
The authors who are skilled at writing fiction can work directly on modding teams with the modders.
I'm also developing the Zeus Halo Map editor
Which is an online editor of halo .map files
http://zeus.blamdevcom.net/
The potential for this is multifarious, not simply a merger of communities.
Developers can continue to work on the Halo source code instead of going through Microsoft's finicky legal department.
Modders and Players can have indirect access to the source code and work with the developers directly
Microsoft makes money.
Modders make a little money.
It's a self-sustaining business model.
Everyone benefits.
I await your comments. I extend an invitation to participate. The sooner each community participates, the more say they can have in how the BDCN evolves.
Take it from another Halo community leader, great things can happen with this.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by TaxiService » Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:08 am

Woah dude. I guess that getting paid to do mods would be pretty awesome. I do need some money, and modding is one of things i love to do,
but i have some concerns.

- Is this the right thing to do? Mods have always been free! Y-you can't ask someone to pay for mods! It feels like i'm Valve! Were you thinking about a donation system or something?

- Is there market? If we started doing this thing, will there be people willing to give us money for what we do? Won't people go to other communities that make mods for free? Like halomaps.org? I know you meant to merge it too, but what if they don't merge!

- Is this legal? Will M$ accept? Are they gonna suck our blood? I am afraid to be bound to them by some legal bullshit stuff..!



but yeah, i dunno..! I-it doesn't feel right to sell modssss
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Mike-N-Go » Thu Nov 15, 2012 4:43 am

Placeholder..
Edit3: Marked body as placeholder for massive editing; I had it wrong about legality of distributing halo maps (or so nil says). Check back latter.

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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:52 pm

There are no legal issues, since we would be using a partnership contract with Microsoft.
Taxi, it's donations, just like you would donate money to support a web site. It's even looser than a business would typically do things by selling things for a profit. In this case, donated money would support: the modder / modding team, blamdevcom.net, and Microsoft. Each would take a percentage, just like when you sell music on iTunes and Apple takes a percentage. Blamdevcom.net only takes as much as it would need for hosting expenses, Microsoft takes a fixed percentage, and the modders get the rest, which is always the majority. Right now from modding, Microsoft gets no money and we get no money. From this system, the player community financially supports the developers and modders (they are considered the same in terms of how they accept money) and everyone else who owns the IP or works on things. Nobody steals money (although I think Microsoft like any other IP purchaser can just do nothing in this situation and get income -- this is why I think so little of publishing companies).

It is VOLUNTARY to give money for playing a mod. It's like, if you rate a mod very highly and want to support future mods by those mod authors, you would send them money. Same thing here, but legal. In fact, Microsoft would not be able to do this without a third-party company; this is why they started 343i in the first place, to be a third-party company to handle Halo development and its communities. But the details of this contract are not able to be discussed here.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Mon Feb 18, 2013 6:45 pm

Mike-N-Go wrote:
Placeholder..
Edit3: Marked body as placeholder for massive editing; I had it wrong about legality of distributing halo maps (or so nil says). Check back latter.
1. I am considering allowing the distribution of Halo 1 multiplayer maps, such as beavercreek, and I'd like to know what you think about it. I know we've had this discussion before, but now that Halo Mini Demo is available, and it has been about 12 years since Halo 1 was released... and about 4 years since Halo 1 was even available anymore, I'm considering putting all the original Halo 1 multiplayer maps on HDM or the BDCN site.

2. This is somewhat unrelated directly to #1, but is related to plans for this year. I'm leaving very soon, like even this week. By leaving, I don't mean leaving MGM or HDM or whatever, but I mean actually LEAVING, as in, I will no longer have computer access AT ALL, because I'm leaving home. My entire life is changing, and I don't know how you knuckleheads are going to interpret this, but this means I'm not going to have the means to be able to have anything to do with the internet anymore. I don't even know where I'm going; it's like I'm walking out the door a lot, and at one point, I'll be walking out and not coming back. As it is, I hate coming back, but I'm just picking up and leaving; going to be dirt poor, no job, no family, no home. Gonna be rough like nothing else, just with any luck I won't freeze to death. You guys are probably all comfortable in your homes or apartments, and with your families. I'll probably have more nerve-wracking run-ins with the police, but I'll try not to get locked up for trespassing (we'll see how long that one lasts, eh? Haha...). If that explanation is thorough enough, I think I'm done. If I had to make a guess, I'll probably suffer almost every hardship life can throw at me. I probably won't live that long, but I never expected to live to 2014 anyway. Good luck, folks, with life. I guess I'm apprehensive a little, but I have no control over how much I suffer in life, only in my decision to trust in God.

EDIT: I think it's better not to know or care where I'm going. I hate this life, and I hate what society has made of itself, and I hate and want nothing to do with money, which means I'm not going to have anything but the clothes on my back, maybe a toothbrush, and my God. I don't even know why I bother telling you people this! I'm not asking for your help, what I am doing is telling you what I am doing now so that you can know what is going on with my plans and projects, which are probably now dead, as of October this year, or whenever the hosting is up. I'm going to have to cancel whatever plans I would have otherwise had, whatever they were, since my life has changed now. *shrug* That's how things happen.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Mgalekgolo » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:19 pm

Sounds good, you should get nil to sign of on this so we can all play some full maps.

Good luck on any future endeavors you wish to embark upon.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by nil » Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:10 pm

I personally don't care much if you release the full version maps, although I don't think I'm going to bundle them with MD or integrate them in the database.

Best luck, Sparky. Hopefully you'll be able to find something new and meaningful to continue with your life. Don't be consumed by money, but don't reject it either.. If you want to help society, you may have to accept it yourself. Try to find a job and make sure you talk to people, find friends, and talk to them. At this point of my life, I feel like I don't want to receive money for the work I put into my projects (I even have a project that is more used than MD, but I won't state it here) - but, I know that kind of life is not going to last me long, especially when I get out of school. I hope to see you find something and one day, come back to say hello.
I am no longer active to Halo or MGM, and don't guarantee a response on the forums or through email. I will however linger around the discord room for general chatting. It's been fun!

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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by TaxiService » Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:32 am

Oh lord, sparky. Try not to do anything stupid. ·⁔· If you have to leave everything try to travel to another country that can give you more possibilities for survival. Like, somewhere where there are plenty of jobs so that you can pay some rent and live normally. Maybe australia or canada? I don't know? Maybe you could sell everything you've got and try to live somewhere else? Dude i dunno what to say. Just good luck and keep surviving, dude. I know that society kinda sucks, but what can you do. Money is, sadly, a necessary thing you'll have to deal with if you want to have a, for lack of a better word, "decent" life. By decent i mean that if you want to have some commodities such as an internet access and a computer, you'll need to pay those thingsss so blurgh
Anyway i wish you the best of luck. If you somehow end up in the state i'm in (i am not sure where on this planet i'll be in the future. either australia or the UK) send me an email or attempt calling me! I might be able to pick you up and let you stay at my place a little, assuming i won't end up being a hobo as well.
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Sparky
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:51 am

I'm shutting down HaloDemoMods.com in a few days. Data will be backed up for posterity; the wiki will be locked. Significant information will be included in the BlamDevComNet web site.

BlamDevComNet is moving forward with the continued development of Zeus and the INCY Online which will be accessible through Zeus.

Say your farewells to the HDM wiki.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by rEsTnPeAcEz » Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:14 pm

HaloDemoMods.com won't move to BlamDevComNet website?

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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:27 pm

E-mail to halo@bungie.org:
Dear Halo Community Friends,

I am shutting down HaloDemoMods.com now and putting all the substantial information on a different web site, BlamDevCom.net. The MediaWiki software was not suitable for the way we were using it, and was too much of a burden on the server. The information will be translated from the HDM wiki onto the BDCN site in a way more useful to our purposes.

This means that HDemoLauncher will no longer be able to access mods from the HDM Mod Database page through the "Download" menu and that the HDM Mod Database page will have its Halo Demo mods presented differently. The domain "halodemomods.com" will no longer bring you to a MediaWiki software web site, but will redirect to the Halo Demo area of the blamdevcom.net web site.

BlamDevCom.net has been an extensive project to integrate and unify all the Halo development communities, including everyone who has contributed to the content of the game. So far, the web site has held nothing in it except the details of its plan, which I have shared with a few Halo community leaders including Dennis from HaloMaps.org, Monoman from MacGamingMods.com, the wiki folks at HaloNation and others. When I discussed the plans for the BDCN, I was always met with doubts about what I had planned; despite my assuring and logical explanations, these community leaders did not decide to participate or involve themselves with my vision. Therefore, I had to keep the vision by reflecting upon my own experiences of how the Halo communities grew and pursue the development of complementary projects like Zeus, realizing that the community members were the ones who determined whether things were useful to them, and those same members would support my labors and vision after they had been developed.

So I am working on three major projects now: the Blam! Developer Communities Network (BDCN), Zeus, and the INCY Online. The BDCN is a web site to bring together ALL the Halo communities so that we might work with each other. The BDCN will be a business. Zeus is an application built for OS X 10.6 that is intended to be a singular tool to replace the Halo Editing Kit developed by Gearbox Software. The Incyclopedia Online (INCY Online) is essentially a Halo map/mod/project and asset database integrated into the BDCN web site and Zeus.

This Spring, I started developing Zeus in earnest. Now is the time to do something with BDCN's web site. The INCY Online will be the main feature of files as the HDM Mod Database was to the HaloDemoMods.com wiki.

Thank you, and I look forward to working with you in the future at the Blam! Developer Communities Network.

Sparky
You can see what is going on with the BDCN by visiting that web site: http://www.blamdevcom.net/ . I am shutting down the HDM wiki now and spending some time moving the substantial content to the BDCN web site.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:41 pm

I added the Projects area for community projects, such as collaborative and team-developed modding projects, assets like model or level design, tag development, and novel writing for content like story lines.
http://www.blamdevcom.net/projects/

This uses the FlySpray engine for development bug tracking and group collaboration. You can use this area of the BDCN for any mods you have planned, any Halo stories or fan fiction you'd like to share, and anything related to Halo that can be considered in some sort of development stage and sharable.

Once you register, just ask me and I'll add your project and set you up so you can manage it. You can ask via PM here or in an e-mail to sparky@blamdevcom.net. Just say "I'd like a project called so and so" and I'll try to set it up for you that day.
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Re: Blam! Developer Communities Network

Post by Sparky » Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:08 pm

Continuing to work on the BDCN site.

I am using a custom set up for the INCY Online. I finished the database set up.
The Incyclopedia will be usable from the internet; Zeus will just auto-populate the site as a front-end for convenience, so you don't have to open your browser to the INCY. So there is no special esoteric functionality with Zeus except saving you time in downloading and uploading files.

The INCY works like this: The main page, here (http://www.blamdevcom.net/incy/) is where you will eventually see the whole list of files in a much fancier way than the HDM Mod Database had it. It will query the MySQL database to retrieve the information about each file:

File ID -- tells you the title of the file, the URL link to download it, and its file size
Project ID -- tells you the title of the project, the URL link to the project page (typically http://www.blamdevcom.net/projects/<something>), the date when the project was started, its date of most recent modification, the managing user, its original team, and associated files
User ID -- tells you the user's name, which teams they are in, which projects they are working on, which files they uploaded, and who their friends are
Team ID -- tells you the name of the team, the URL link to their web page, which members are in the team, and which projects the team is working on
File type ID -- tells you which of these file types is included in the download: Resources, Tags, Maps, and Projects
Description ID -- tells you the description of the file
Time Added -- tells you when the file was originally added to the INCY
Time Modified -- tells you when the INCY record's information was last modified

Some of this information would logically match up, such as the managing user of the file having that file ID in their user information, whereas other information can be variable over time, such as a project changing hands between different teams.

I'm using the basics of the old online version of Zeus to work with the file interpretation, so when you upload a file, depending upon the understood file type, it will be able to automatically record information about it, such as how many tags are in the map file. I didn't set anything up yet to record that information apart from the file itself, but that would be handy for displaying and sorting in tables. For example, you would then be able to sort the map files in the INCY based upon how many tags they had, or filter the list based upon the existence of a particular tag name. So like you could search the INCY for all occurrences of "CMT" and be presented with resources (like .obj models), tags, maps, and projects that contain somewhere in them the letters "CMT" in the tag name. So it's like that.
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