27-Jan-2016, 1:17 PM
Hey everyone. This is chipster1059 here. It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't done many CC-related things recently except release C1059-CC2 in 20-level batches. Sure, there was that Create Competition in December, but the levels had been made a while before the competition, just unreleased. I just renamed them, changed the hints and removed a small bust. So where have I been all this time?
Firstly, I wish to apologize to Jacques Smith, Elizabeth Brockway and Tyler Sontag for not finishing the LPs of their sets, Jacques.dat, LizzyB1.dat and TCCLPRejects.dat. I haven't updated any of these LPs for a long time.
Secondly, I wish to apologize for my handling of C1059-CC2. The download link for the soundtrack has been broken for a while. The set was supposed to contain 200 levels, but instead I just stopped at 100 levels, which caused various problems. Per example, "149 is a meaningless number" (level 99) was a tribute to Special and was supposed to be simply called "Meaningless Number" and be in the 149 slot (meaningless because CC2 has 200 levels instead of 149). "Sisters in the Maze" (level 97) was supposed to be in the 147 slot. "Clover" (level 86) was supposed to be in slot 100 and "Holly" (level 96) was supposed to be in slot 150, so that one in every 50 levels would be named after a plant. I really should have done better than that.
But all these are merely the visible consequences of my absence. I haven't explained why I was gone, or what will happen now. In fact, a few weeks ago I didn't even consider writing this. I was convinced that nobody had noticed that I didn't visit CCZone as often as I used to. It was only earlier this month that I realized how inactive CCZone had become, with the only discussions being a few people leaving feedback on levelsets and the sets' creator replying. I posted about this in my status and Josh said "
We miss you chipster!" This was rather unexpected, so I thought I might provide an explanation for my absence.
Don't worry, I'm fine, I haven't been sick or anything. I was just very busy in real life. Busier than usual. Real life is obviously more important than other things, so I needed to get rid of certain aspects of my life which took too much time.
Now a confession. Some of you may have already figured this out, but for those who didn't: CC is pretty much the only video game I play. There used to be a note in my profile (with an embarrassing typo the went unnoticed for months until Tyler pointed it out) that said how I discovered CC: I researched old computer software and found some old WEP floppy disks in my basement. That's it. I don't play any other games on a regular basis. The reason behind this is simple. In CC, the possibilities are endless. There are almost 800 official levels, around 25 000 others and several editors that allow you to make your own. It can just keep going forever. (Also my computer is an older machine and can't handle any games with 3D graphics and stuff)
Anyway, CC was pretty much the only thing I could cut. The LPs were one of the first things to go, so I just uploaded everything that had already been filmed and got it over with. I also had to reduce the number of custom sets I played. Great sets had been released, The Other 100 Tiles and JCCLP2 for example. I just had to ignore them, I didn't have enough time to play them.
Also, the timing sucked: this was around the time where CC2 was released. I originally planned to wait until a Linux version was available to play it (as of this posting, no Linux version has been released, although the Windows version works fine in WINE if music is disabled). That would have given me enough time to sort out real life problems. However, Tom wanted me to LP CC2. So I just dug into my basement some more and installed Windows Vista in a virtual machine and played the whole thing. It was tough. But I pulled it off, because it's a great game. Around the same time, I worked on C1059-2, and only succeeded in releasing a decent set with Cyberdog's help. If he hadn't playtested it, it would have only been released much later and several good levels would have been much worse.
As October came to an end, I had managed to solve most of the real life problems. Pretty much the only two sets I had played recently were Flareon1 (Josh requested feedback, I spent an evening playing it so I could give some) and C1059-CC2 (mostly verifying for any busts introduced by CC2 mechanics, mainly item dropping). I could have started playing more CC again, but did I? No. Instead I wrote a novel. I'm editing and posting it on the Internet at a rate of one or two chapters a week now. Here's the link in case anyone's interested, but I must warn you that the basic idea is rather stupid. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK. Either way, writing that took nearly all my free time for November and early December.
So what now? Balance has been restored in real life, although I remain slightly busier than I used to be. I guess I can safely come back to the community in a "normal" way, but things will change. I will continue the LPs I started, but I won't begin any new ones, and there probably won't be videos every week. I will also resume designing and make more CC2 levels, but it may take a while for them to get released (send me a PM if you're interested in playtesting).
I don't know if any of you are still reading this, but if you are, I would like to thank you for doing so. There aren't many people in the CC community, but those who are there really make it a good community.
Firstly, I wish to apologize to Jacques Smith, Elizabeth Brockway and Tyler Sontag for not finishing the LPs of their sets, Jacques.dat, LizzyB1.dat and TCCLPRejects.dat. I haven't updated any of these LPs for a long time.
Secondly, I wish to apologize for my handling of C1059-CC2. The download link for the soundtrack has been broken for a while. The set was supposed to contain 200 levels, but instead I just stopped at 100 levels, which caused various problems. Per example, "149 is a meaningless number" (level 99) was a tribute to Special and was supposed to be simply called "Meaningless Number" and be in the 149 slot (meaningless because CC2 has 200 levels instead of 149). "Sisters in the Maze" (level 97) was supposed to be in the 147 slot. "Clover" (level 86) was supposed to be in slot 100 and "Holly" (level 96) was supposed to be in slot 150, so that one in every 50 levels would be named after a plant. I really should have done better than that.
But all these are merely the visible consequences of my absence. I haven't explained why I was gone, or what will happen now. In fact, a few weeks ago I didn't even consider writing this. I was convinced that nobody had noticed that I didn't visit CCZone as often as I used to. It was only earlier this month that I realized how inactive CCZone had become, with the only discussions being a few people leaving feedback on levelsets and the sets' creator replying. I posted about this in my status and Josh said "
We miss you chipster!" This was rather unexpected, so I thought I might provide an explanation for my absence.Don't worry, I'm fine, I haven't been sick or anything. I was just very busy in real life. Busier than usual. Real life is obviously more important than other things, so I needed to get rid of certain aspects of my life which took too much time.
Now a confession. Some of you may have already figured this out, but for those who didn't: CC is pretty much the only video game I play. There used to be a note in my profile (with an embarrassing typo the went unnoticed for months until Tyler pointed it out) that said how I discovered CC: I researched old computer software and found some old WEP floppy disks in my basement. That's it. I don't play any other games on a regular basis. The reason behind this is simple. In CC, the possibilities are endless. There are almost 800 official levels, around 25 000 others and several editors that allow you to make your own. It can just keep going forever. (Also my computer is an older machine and can't handle any games with 3D graphics and stuff)
Anyway, CC was pretty much the only thing I could cut. The LPs were one of the first things to go, so I just uploaded everything that had already been filmed and got it over with. I also had to reduce the number of custom sets I played. Great sets had been released, The Other 100 Tiles and JCCLP2 for example. I just had to ignore them, I didn't have enough time to play them.
Also, the timing sucked: this was around the time where CC2 was released. I originally planned to wait until a Linux version was available to play it (as of this posting, no Linux version has been released, although the Windows version works fine in WINE if music is disabled). That would have given me enough time to sort out real life problems. However, Tom wanted me to LP CC2. So I just dug into my basement some more and installed Windows Vista in a virtual machine and played the whole thing. It was tough. But I pulled it off, because it's a great game. Around the same time, I worked on C1059-2, and only succeeded in releasing a decent set with Cyberdog's help. If he hadn't playtested it, it would have only been released much later and several good levels would have been much worse.
As October came to an end, I had managed to solve most of the real life problems. Pretty much the only two sets I had played recently were Flareon1 (Josh requested feedback, I spent an evening playing it so I could give some) and C1059-CC2 (mostly verifying for any busts introduced by CC2 mechanics, mainly item dropping). I could have started playing more CC again, but did I? No. Instead I wrote a novel. I'm editing and posting it on the Internet at a rate of one or two chapters a week now. Here's the link in case anyone's interested, but I must warn you that the basic idea is rather stupid. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK. Either way, writing that took nearly all my free time for November and early December.
So what now? Balance has been restored in real life, although I remain slightly busier than I used to be. I guess I can safely come back to the community in a "normal" way, but things will change. I will continue the LPs I started, but I won't begin any new ones, and there probably won't be videos every week. I will also resume designing and make more CC2 levels, but it may take a while for them to get released (send me a PM if you're interested in playtesting).
I don't know if any of you are still reading this, but if you are, I would like to thank you for doing so. There aren't many people in the CC community, but those who are there really make it a good community.
CC is awesome!
CC2 sets (still being updated): C1059-CC2 --- Walls of CC2
CC1 sets (all complete): C1059-2 --- C1059-1 --- 1059PG01 --- C1059-Christmas --- C1059-INSANITY --- C1059-CCLP4
My Youtube channel --- Fiver's Honeycomb --- Fanfiction.net
Good posts don't cost too much, yet many go unwritten.
CC2 sets (still being updated): C1059-CC2 --- Walls of CC2
CC1 sets (all complete): C1059-2 --- C1059-1 --- 1059PG01 --- C1059-Christmas --- C1059-INSANITY --- C1059-CCLP4
My Youtube channel --- Fiver's Honeycomb --- Fanfiction.net
Good posts don't cost too much, yet many go unwritten.
But welcome back!
