Dearest ForgeHub, I sincerely apologize for bringing drama here but this is something I must address. NoX Ripshaw, or who you know as The 99 Forgers, who is actually Recon Speller has stolen structures and designs off of maps created by AceofSpades0707, Noxiw, and I. He did not come forth and ask us if he could use some of the designs from our work. All he says is that my work 'inspired him.' However, theres a difference between inspiration and flat out stealing. He also claimed CowboyPickle23 is a Co-Forger when he claims he has nothing to do with the map and was only present for a moment in the game. Keep in mind he has nothing to do with this. Here is the preview NoX Ripshaw/Recon Speller/The 99 Forgers posted on xForgery. Link to the thread right here. So, lets get down to business. -removed- Instead of pointing out every little similarity outright. I'll just post the overview shot of his map and post shots of our maps and let you check out the rips themselves. Overview of his map: Fireflies. Two screenshots from the unfinished and unreleased map in mine and Noxiw's map pack: Dez Moines. My map, Mudkip Farm. Look at his overview shot, to the left of the map name and the columns below the text 'Blue Base Overview' in my screenshot. I'm not too upset with this one but it still further proves my point. He also used the wall half posts idea from Galaxy Milk in between his outer columns. Here's a picture of what I am talking about. Now, for the killer. AceofSpades unreleased work in progress, Foreshadow. Also, I want to point out that I directly copied the links from the pictures on xForgery and have found out The 99 Forgers photobucket account is named the same as Recon Spellers Xbox Live gamertag. This is proof that Recon Speller, NoX Ripshaw, and The 99 Forgers is all the same person. Proof: The 99 Forgers picture post. Code: http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv103/[B]DANJESS99[/B]/103252249-Medium-1.jpg Recon Spellers pictures of Dez Moines that he lifted off of my recent screenshots. They are in the same photobucket. Code: http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv103/[B]DANJESS99[/B]/100156309-Medium.jpg I just thought I would bring this to light before he tries any more further thievery. I know that imitation is the sincerest for of flattery, but I speak for all three of us when I say that this is complete bullshit. Edit: There are more pictures of the map in his recent screenshots and the map itself is in his fileshare. http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=NoX+Ripshaw&sg=0 Edit again: NoX Ripshaw is DANJESS99, but with a changed account name. You can see that in his recent screenshots by looking at who took them: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Screenshots.aspx?player=NoX%20Ripshaw Last Edit: Just got a message from him over live: I'm not going to stop bitching after someone has stolen months and months of hard work, thank you.
And let me point out, from that link. The map pictures further down by DANJESS99 are the same as pictures Recon Speller posted in map previews a while ago... namely this and this. Moar: Second page of Photobucket account The first picture is the same as a picture Recon Speller posted a while ago. link to thread And if you notice on the same photobucket page, the map layout he has is VERY similar to the layout of mine and Scobra's recently released map, Sassafras. Recon Speller's thread And everyone, don't take this thread as flaming, hate mail etc. We are just tired of this guy stealing our map ideas and stalking our file shares for our maps.
Jesus Christ, I knew he was a noob but I didn't think that it was this bad. Eh, shows what I know. Interesting Note: I was just in a game with NoX Ripshaw; he talks the exact same way he types.
I see where your coming from, this reminds me of the long 3 hour debate I had against the Ignite/Amplified "Successor." First off I'd like to issue the following statement; You don't own the structures in the maps even if you are the first to use them. Second, A lot of people name their maps off of songs, I myself named my first map Vagabond from Wolfmother, and Schism of Light evolved from the song; Schism, from Tool. With that being said, you are right, and at the same time wrong. He may have used your ideas in his creations, but that doesn't mean he stole anything. People do this all the time. It's as if the first person to interlock power-ups in the wall half way were to post on all the maps that encorporate it saying they stole his ideas. Or perhaps columns connecting a platform to the ground. There's nothing really that you can do. Also if 99 is in fact Recon Speller or not, most people will dissagree with him and agree with you just because they don't like Speller. The only problem I see arising from this is if he used your map, deleted things, and formed a new map around certain structures. Otherwise you're out of luck my friend. If the structures were clearly copied and noticable, then people would say that he used the same as your map, not because you made a thread complaining about it. So the way I see it is that they're just minor similarities in your maps that will most likely be used again by someone else, you know? I know exactly where you are coming from there dude, really I do. I was about to start a co-forge with RC so I put up a structure on my file-share for 1 day so he could DL. I got about 5 people saying whats up with that map with like nothing on it??? It's annoying beyond belief. And this was before I was on Bungie Favorites.
I definitely see where you are coming from and agree with you to some degree. But you cannot deny that they're the same person. Recon Speller and DANJESS99 were banned from this site for a reason. Creating a 3RD account and having nobody do anything about it just because he probably made the account at the library, is unacceptable in my eyes.
I know where you're coming from, but the point I'm trying to get across is that he pretty much ripped out our structure designs and ideas from unreleased works in progress. Even more so is that a lot of his structures are unoriginal. It isn't that bad if someone takes an idea or a small structure from another map that has been released and puts it in there map which the only thing borrowed is the one idea from someone else. That isn't the case here. Over half of his map seems to be structures and ideas taken from us, it is completely unoriginal. Sure, he gives credit saying I 'inspired' him, but he never mentions Ace or Noxiw, and he doesn't even say what inspired him or how. Even more is that he said that he designed the map himself when some of the structures were thought up by the three of us. You'd probably pissed off too if someone tried to rip off of something you've been working on for an extended period of time and are still perfecting when you find out someone is ripping off ideas from your unreleased hard work.
Making structures based on another person's map is stealing? Then I'm pretty sure almost every map on this forum should reported, and the creator banned from the site. Seems like the appropriate thing to do...
No, you're way off. Most maps don't even take inspiration and are done as an impulse. The smaller percentage of maps that actually are modeled after another don't directly rip off the map geometry. What this forger did is take 4 maps or so, and just rebuild everything in different spots. I'd place that on the grounds of map theft.
This doesn't belong here. I'm locking this and will decide what I want to do with it soon; in no way does it belong on the public forums, especially in "Forge Discussion", unless you want to flame, which is exactly what this is. I'm not going to agree or disagree with anyone right now, but this doesn't belong in the public forum and it should have been brought up with a staff member instead of publicly flaming. Because of that I will consider infractions and such, and then we will decide to take action or not take action. LOCKED.