Lets Talk About Prefabs

I think most people would (and do) choose inferior aesthetics for the sake of being original before they completely copy what someone else made. You can even just spawn in a prefab, look at the objects it is made of, and then make your own slightly different version.

 

I made some in the past. Will probably save some more from my latest map.

 

some pre-fabs can be very useful in a utilitarian sense, especially for scripting. I have some scripting pre-fabs that accomplish some neat tasks for forgers, that I may post soon.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

Whats the point when goldfish spam shitty prefabs and drown good ones out, its always nice to make a huge furniture set and get drowned out by a crab with a hat.

There should be 3 basic catagories, assets (useful physical items for maps), scripts, and a section for the fun stuff so it doesn't drown out everything.

I mean really.....https://www.forgehub.com/maps/giant-cigarette.5350/

 

I don't care about recognition as much as I want to provide help for people who need a shortcut to getting something scripted. If someone asks how something is done, I want to be able to say, "go grab this pre-fab and change the variables".

Upcoming prefabs I hope to be able to post soon:

• Star Trek style auto-door (enhanced beyond anything you've seen yet)
• Player-count based vehicle release for BTB fairness when small numbers are joining.
• non-RvB player punishment - for maps where you do not want static spawning, but do want to prevent players from using multi-team.

 

That could be a great two part contest premise as well.

First part is making a set amount of prefabs for art and geometry.

The top 3 sets could be used in the next part of the contest. The only requirement would be to use every prefab of one set at least once and build for Slayer. This would allow maps of many sizes to be submitted as well.

 

I should preface that designing to work with multiple gametypes would be encouraged

 

Don't talk **** on Hatty McHat Crab.

 

When I first heard about prefabs I was sure it was going to be a huge thing. Imagine not wasting time doing something that has already been done? Just use a prefab as you would any other Forge object. Yet folks seem to be hung up on who "stole" what (even though every pixel belongs to 343). People seem more concerned about who gets credit for what rather than how do we contribute for the good of the community.

I mean, if I use your prefab in my map and publish it are you mad because I used your published prefab? I'm not allowed to call a map "mine" if I use your prefab (even though 343 and Microsoft get no credit for making it possible to even make a map, let alone the fact that the prefabs themselves are made from the stuff in the game and not from some other source only available to you)? Is there some weird scenario out there where you make a prefab that lapses into obscurity and I put it in my map and win the Nobel and the Pulitzer and your name doesn't get mentioned so screw it you're not making prefabs?

Seriously, you group some objects that looks cool and maybe does something cool and publish it so someone else can use it if they want, and it's OK if they change it.

I envisioned scores of Spartan Companies getting all industrial and churning out great prefabs on a regular basis.

I guess eventually prefabs will be more of a thing than maps themselves, but it's going to be a while.

 

The problem isn't people using published prefabs at all. The problem is people going into your maps and creating prefabs of your creations for use in their maps. Then it gives them 100% credit for someone's ARTISTIC CREATION. Yes, it's a video game map editor, but any creative thinking can create something artistic. I'm pretty sure which of these I view as worse; someone having no pride in their work and not caring if it's credited to another person, or someone who gets defensive at the thought of someone stealing their creation (and sometimes getting credited for it! [RIP Portaleer's guardian]).

No matter your stance, everyone wins from implementing a feature where you can check a box to prohibit the creation of prefabs on your map. Easy as that.

 

I see it both ways. While a published pre-fab should most definitely be considered "public" and therefore one should not always expect attribution (credit) in map descriptions, of course that is the respectable thing to do. However, as we all know, most maps that are created are not published on websites like this one. There would be no place for a lengthy description where an attribution could reasonably be made. We are very limited in number of characters for the in-game descriptions. If it fits, however, I would argue that one should always attribute if there is space in the desc. At the very least, mention in the map thread that you used pre-fabs someone else made. These are cases, many times, where those items would never have been created by anyone else, and therefore the creator deserves a "thank you", also known as a "shot out"

On the other hand, locking things down should be an option, so that pre-fabs are only released when someone chooses to make it public.

That goes for maps, too. There should be a way for people to force users to un-bookmark things they were not ready to have seen by others, and there should be a way to remove the "Save copy" for someone else's maps if they do not wish it to be copied.

 

Update on Coming soon items...

• (sooner than before ) Star Trek style auto-door (enhanced beyond anything you've seen yet)
• RELEASED -> Player-count based vehicle release for BTB fairness when small numbers are joining.
• (really soon) non-RvB player punishment - for maps where you do not want static spawning, but do want to prevent players from using multi-team.

This has potential for use in other BTB maps... It keeps lower numbers of players from being dominated by an asshole with a strong vehicle while they wait for a fair amount of players to join.

New Prefab:
BTB Vehicles unlocked by Player Count

 

Well, all I can say is when I publish a map or prefab that means i'm done with it. I have the original which is time and date stamped by Forge. I expect people might alter something of mine and republish it. It would be respectful get some credit, but I don't expect that. Claiming my work as their own would be problematic if there is a record of them downloading my work.

 

If there were any sort of real reward for forging something, then prefabs and maps might be better organized and accurately credited. As it is now, it just doesn't really matter beyond a slight dopamine boost to the creator when they see their name somewhere, which may be important to you but isn't to anyone else.

So, you can either realize that nobody cares if you use other peoples prefabs on your maps except that person, or you can go for the ultimate feels good moment when you release a 100% personal creation. Either way, the only thing that matters to anyone else is how the map plays.

 

What sort of "real reward" would get you to grind out prefabs, and what makes you think there's anyone out there that might even consider offering it? I swear some people believe they ought to get something just for playing the game.

Prefabs are not and never have been about rewards. The purpose of posting prefabs is to help others with their maps, and perhaps gaining some notoriety for doing something clever and/or first.

Is this why we don't see more prefabs? Is everyone waiting for a prize to be offered? Am I looking in the wrong place for people that like Forgeing and want to help others?

 

Nah. Some of us on here like Forging but we're all assholes so

 

I'm reminded of the Wright Brothers who, after coming up with a successful configuration of wings and propulsion, actually tried to patent powered flight. They asserted that anything with wings and an engine was their idea and anyone else that tried to sell such a contraption had to pay a royalty. As it turned out, they could only patent the way their plane was built, which is why to this day virtually no aircraft look like the Wright Flyer and no aircraft manufacturer today has the name Wright in it even though some of them go back that far.

Point being that sometimes the effort for recognition can go too far. The Wright Brothers get all the credit for first powered flight, but practically no recognition for why their aircraft flew when all the others crashed and burned.

The thing about Forge is that everyone has the exact same tools and objects to work with. Eventually everything that can be made will be. The best anyone can hope for is to be the first one to do something. Since there are so many ways to accomplish the same thing, claiming ownership and restricting access only means that someone else will figure out another way and get credit anyway. Therefore doing one thing in Forge will likely get you that fifteen minutes of fame they used to talk about but not much more. You will gain more notoriety for consistently doing interesting things than for any one thing in particular. In other words you will probably get more attention for making prefabs (plural) than for any one particular prefab. Same goes for maps. If you are going to get all bent out of shape because someone else got recognition because they used your work, you'll just be known for being bent out of shape. Better if other people got recognition for using your old **** while you continue to get recognition for your new ****.

I'll just let the community decide if you speak for all of them.

 

in your Wright brothers analogy, it kind of falls apart, because the best comparison is really that people would be trying to steal their specific plane and make exact replicas of it and claiming it as their own. If someone did that, in any industry, it would be considered theft.

I'm not saying your point about the sharing aspect of the community is invalid or incorrect, just that your analogy wasn't all you hoped it would be