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Another good evidence to confirm what Baronius and I were saying.

You didn't check it correctly (if you have checked anything at all). You have just been influenced by what some people have wrongly said. Improved Anvil doesn't contain any code to break IU or to prevent it from being installed or from working. If you install them together, they will (technically speaking) work together. But the result will be a very low quality game for conceptual reasons. The two mods are conceptually incompatible. You could ask me instead of making judgements on the basis of what some people have said about the mod.

 

The readme I consulted stated the two mods were flatly incompatible. Those were your words I refenced, not mine, and not taken from someone else. I'm pretty sure that it was you that wrote your readme.

 

I still say that the two mods are incompatible, but the incompatibility is "conceptual" (rather than technical). It is not caused by any deliberate code or by any other technical factor. And no other alternative way of coding Improved Anvil can make the two mods conceptually compatible.

 

I'm not arguing that point, but it really should come as no surprise to you that people consider the mods flatly incompatible when your own readme (which may have changed since version 2) says so. Just my opinion, though. I'm well aware of the fact that you don't intentionally code your mods to not work with other mods. That's Vlad's department.

 

The surprise comes when that people claim that I have deliberately added breaking codes to my mod. They have also said other false things about Improved Anvil. For example, they have claimed that Sikret has overwritten area files and the game's area scripts instead of patching them, which is a "lie" of course. It's not a simple mistake on their part; it's a deliberate lie. When someone makes such a claim about a mod, it means that he has checked the mod's tp2 file. But if they had checked the tp2, they should have known very well that such a claim is not true. Nonetheless, they have publicly made such a false claim about my mod just to discourage a player from installing Improved Anvil.

I hope you grasped my main point out of these examples. Examples are many, but I don't think that it is necessary to repeat every nonsense such people have said.

 

No, that's not quite right. I've said some true things about your mod to discourage players. Let's count up what I've said in the past:
- I claimed that your AI is simplistic and the bulk of the mod's impact comes from hacked enemy creature stats. This is correct. If the mod ever actually appears for download again, I will deconstruct one of your scripts if you want, but the spoilers might give you a heart attack. No, I'm not going to PM you.
- I claimed that you add undroppable cloaks of mirroring. This is correct. Tweaking the item function does not invalidate the claim (and incidentally, it's still a shortcut to hacked resistances).
- I observed that where you claim all mod AI is bugged except your own, you are incorrect, and need to descend from your own high horse. SpellNoDec and STATE_IMPROVEDINVISIBILITY have been understood for years. You've just been exceptionally loud on the subject.
- I suggested that the mod's items were overpowered. I stand by this. I have previously expressed my preference for a powered-down game rather than powered-up, and as such I believe that introducing tougher battles to compensate for overpowered items is not a justification. Observe also that this is an opinion--you cannot easily refute claims of overpoweredness on a factual basis.
- I think I once told someone you eat children. This may have been false.

I've never explicitly suggested that you build incompatibilities into mods or break item upgrades, but I'm not going to defend you either when you come out with things like:

 

Ok, Tal!

Sim's post didn't deserve any special reply, anyway. I had already responded to and refuted everything he keeps telling to us. Players are the main judges and they have already expressed their positive opinions about the mod's quality in this forum as well as the mod's own forum.

[ December 17, 2006, 17:54: Message edited by: Sikret ]

 

You know it well that public posts on forums are often overlooked. If you had really wanted your mods to be mirrored, you would have contacted DHDC, instead of posting a public post somewhere (not even on a BWL forum which you know we check more often), and then using as an example to "You didn't mirror my mods despite the fact I asked so".

Now two quotes, from Drew and SimDing0:

There is something in mod creation that certain modders, including Drew and SimDing0, have never seemed to understand. It is something like: "Raw, technical compatibility doesn't stand above all."
CamDawg is the main representative of this "everything can be made compatible with everything without quality loss" approach. It ignores the fact that if the atmosphere or concept of two mods don't go well together, the author may decide not to support the other mod. (Here comes the big question of what decisions to give to the player's hand and what to the author's hand, but I believe that authors should decide this, to each his own.)

Let me tell an example. We have three mods: a pack of hungry lions, a symphony orchestra, and a heavy metal band. Unless the musicians have high-level taming skills, the first mod is incompatible with the second and third one: "installing" them to the same place would have fatal effects, the "game" would "crash". The second and third mod can be installed at the same time (neither of them would try to eat the other, normally), and the "game" would work, it wouldn't "crash". The symphony orchestra and the heavy metal band could play together, at the same time: no technical incompatibility at all.

If Sikret, Vlad or myself, as mod authors, don't recommend installing someone's symphony orchestra at the same time as our heavy metal bands, I think our decision can be respected. We believe that an author has right to decide the installation conditions of his mods. Others believe it should be the player's decision: OK, they create their mods in that way. The two sides can live together in peace, without characterizing each others' works as "rubbish", "silliness", "notorious" overwriter and similar:

About my Grey Clan Ep1 (TGC) mod:

Finally, CamDawg, about IA:

Sources of quotes: 1 2 & 3 4 5 6 7

I ask again: Why? Have you ever seen Sikret, Vlad or myself speaking like that?

I believe everyone is free to have his or her own opinion, and to express this opinion anywhere. On the other hand, malicious lies to mislead players on other forums and intentional insults which might hurt the author - I don't think it's nice at all.

To stay on-topic directly, the origin of the unfair attitude that certain people (including SimDing0) showed while DHDC required donations remains the same mystery for me as the reason of those comments that I've quoted above. Why, guys, why?

 

And if anyone wants to read true players' comments about Improved Anvil, he/she can visit this page.

 

(Heh. Clearly I do not meet the standards of a TRU PLAYA!)

 

By "true players" I refer to those experienced players (such as thetruth, Silverstar, ... and many others) who have played/are playing the mod in practice and have repeatedly expressed their opinions about IA.