Goodbye to UsAaR33

Sixty · Post by **Sixty** » 01-02-2005 12:53

newsblog:

Concerning our new Karma Ball, I finally got replay working correctly with it. Replay also handles the multiballs well. In other words, the new version of Deathball should be out soon.

Concerning the Good Bye, I have decided to resign from Team Vortex. I enjoyed being a part of the Team for almost four years, but I have come to realize that not only do I have very little time to program Deathball, but also that after 2.5 years of working on the mod, I am hardly motivated anymore. I have been giving it rather low priority for some time, and I do not see myself working more on it anytime soon.

I wish the Team goodwill and hope to see Deathball continue to grow and improve. It has been a great time working with everyone on the team and in the community!

Since there's no room for comments in the blogs, i thought a thread would be suitable.

Thanks for all the work you've done all that time, and good luck with whatever the fuck you're gonna do in the future $\o/$

Post by **The_One** » 01-02-2005 13:24

I mirror your sentiment (without the swearing).

nameless · Post by **nameless** » 01-02-2005 13:57

beefsack · Post by **beefsack** » 01-02-2005 15:01

<3 usaar i will think of you when i see every replay :p

[1234]Jr · Post by **[1234]Jr** » 01-02-2005 16:05

Another one gone

Hope DavidM can replace the talent leaving soon...

..wonder if MSU helped..

InSaNe` · Post by **InSaNe`** » 01-02-2005 22:07

Another one bites the dust.

Good luck in life.

Post by **DavidM** » 01-02-2005 23:44

Don't get it wrong.
Usaar never had really time for deathball over the last 2 years. That's why he basically just made the replay, not much else (pass code maybe). And if we have problems with it, he'll still be there to help out. He told me so.

Post by **The_One** » 02-02-2005 00:08

That's great of him if he said that.

speedy · Post by **speedy** » 02-02-2005 00:24

thanks usaar. bye :<

[1234]Jr · Post by **[1234]Jr** » 02-02-2005 09:52

Aw well, shucks..

Messy · Post by **Messy** » 02-02-2005 12:13

Heh

as far as I've understood the past few months, he had pretty much left before

Abandoned WF and TEN, left karma to mpratt, that stuff happened months ago

He did a very good job in pretty much everything (sexy cameras, passing code, fixing demos, all kinds of stuff).

It's really cool he offered to jump in whenever TV is tight and he has some time.

<3 UsAaR33 hf with whatever you're going to do now $\o/$ (mostly uni-stuff I guess: sex, drugs, metal..etc.)

Robotojon · Post by **Robotojon** » 02-02-2005 18:44

what 60 said, plus some more swearing

UsAaR33 · Post by **UsAaR33** » 02-02-2005 22:12

Hey, thank you all for your kind(?) words. As David and Messy alluded to, I haven't done that much work (maybe only an hour a week) since Phase 2 (version 1.9?). I initially came in to code the passing code (more specifically, the algorithm to throw a ball to a moving target). Later, I developed the spectator cameras and still later replay, as well as some significant bugfixes. But after that, it was a really long lull. Warfare and Tennis didn't interest me enough to do what needed to be done to make them work (essentially seperate them from the db framework). Somewhere in the lull though, I managed to fix up our demo support, make the pass code target players better, etc. I began work on the karma ball, but superB and I agreed to split up the work once we realized how complex it would have to become for actual multiplayer support - specifically he wrote most the code while I got the replays updated again.

My only regret is that I was never able to fully extend the replay functionality to allow for loading/saving of replays and games themselves. Perhaps someone might add such features one day...

Orbitul · Post by **Orbitul** » 03-02-2005 00:47

Well sorry to see you go... seems you're one of the few that have been on the team since the beginning.

Your last post brought up a question though... The pass code is definitely one of the best things about the game but in one of the last few versions it got tweaked in a weird way. The tweak i'm talking about was supposed to avoid the 3rd jump volley whores but what it also did is make it so a certain % of passes just miss the person. It happens when someone is jumping and is passed to and instead of the ball meeting them in the air it just dribbles out along the ground and most of the time will just go completely under the intended receiver.

This has been brought up before and davidm had made some vague comment about it but nothing has been mentioned in a long time and i'm starting to think now that it will never be fixed, especially with you leaving.

This 'feature' in my mind is a bug... the pass code should not allow a ball to completely miss the intended receiver, assuming the receiver stayed on his path.

So UsAaR33, even though it's probably too late, do you know anything about it? Did you do the tweaks to the code and did you know about the unintended result it caused?

XiD · Post by **XiD** » 03-02-2005 01:53

Thanks for the work, gl in life. And what orb said.