Full Correspondence between PA! and MK
Private: Welcome to the Reef! › Forums › All Correspondence with Pirates Ahoy! moderators/admins › Full Correspondence between PA! and MK
Tagged: Pirates Ahoy!
- This topic has 12 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
-
AuthorPosts
-
-
January 17, 2017 at 9:56 pm #3467modernknight1Keymaster
Well I hate that it has come to this but they just can’t stop beating me up even after all of these years. I will let the reader be the judge.
I did indeed talk to my lawyer about a libel suit against Pirates Ahoy! but he said it wouldn’t be worth it because its a foreign (outside US) site owned by foreign owners.They continue to accuse me of things I have never been responsible for and they have no proof. They might as well accuse me of Global Warming and hacking the DNC before the US elections as well. This has become ludicrous. I noticed recently on their site that a new member began to post all kinds of nonsense. I remember that same guy when I was on the site as his jargon and nonsensical musings are unmistakable. Thagarr said I was warned about banning – thru one of my other alter-ego false memberships. Well guess what. Those people he is referring to ARE NOT ME!!! That guy posting over there right now IS NOT ME! They are just making really bad assumptions here with no proof. I now know how tall tales get started – I am MK the SUPER TROLL with my ARMY of minion super trolls!
I wonder if they have ever considered the following. OK so maybe they are being attacked all of the time. However, I can tell you that it isn’t me or any of my people. I made some threats when I left because I was really angry and hurt – but they were more akin to KARMA coming back up on them to kick them in the ass and to watch out.
1. Could it be that other people may really hate them? I am not the only one they have banned and it may escape their comprehension, but a few of their moderators come off constantly as extremely condescending people who talk down to others with a tone of utter superiority. Anotherwords – A5sholes. Could it be that there might be others that are conducting these alleged attacks against them?
2. Their site is not well protected and is unsecured with only an http prefix. When one checks the address using threat assessment software warnings for malware come up concerning their website. Our own site here is attacked by spammers all of the time trying to gain membership. This even has made it hard for legit people to gain access because the email buffer will fill up with thousands of these fake requests for membership and our EXTREMELY GOOD filter will pick them up and hold them for my review. Well if I have no time for a couple months to go through these there may be several thousand and only a dozen of them might be from legitimate people who really want to become members. Could it be that because of their poor protection that they can’t avert these types of commercially driven and scammer phishing attacks? However, instead of actually looking at their origin points they just blame me? MK the Super Spammer extraordinaire? Frankly I don’t have the inclination, the time nor the energy for such a weak pursuit.
3. Could it be that because of their name alone “Pirates Ahoy” and the fact it is an unsecured “foreign” site with membership from all over the world – that several nations might have identified their site on the surface and its members as simply being “internet pirates” and are treating them as such without actually looking more than an inch deep at what they are really about – and thus erroneously labeling them as another PIRATES BAY type of site? Subsequently they might have dedicated a certain amount of national assets in probing them, blocking them, etc.??? With my own experience this is the one that I would guess might be more true than anything else.
So now because Mr. Boelen continues to attack my character with unwarranted slander, defamation and calumny, (Read this post on PA!: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/gentlemen-of-fortune-2-0.19345/page-76 ) I am publishing here for you all of the complete and full correspondence between myself and PA! members to include himself from the time I was banned so that you can make up your own minds about me.
To set the stage: A modeler who had built a beautiful model for POTBS had come over to PA! I knew her work and admired it greatly. I was very excited she had joined PA! The contract that POTBS modelers had signed (which I have a copy of) with Flying Labs and still stands with Portalus allowed them to give their models freely to anyone they liked. They were not restricted to POTBS only and this is why we have some POTBS models in the 2.8 Storm mods now. I asked this modeler if I could get a model called the Oliphant (a beautiful Dutch style 50 gun two decker from about 1650) and was even willing to pay her because I wanted it for the COAS and Storm mods. I was also willing to pay her to build more models if she was willing for both ERAS and for a new game I was trying to get off the ground at the time. If she had given the model to me, I would have freely shared it with anyone else on Pirates Ahoy!
However, I was attacked immediately by the guy/PA moderator (Post Captain) leading up the Hearts of Oak effort. He deleted all of the posts having to do with my queries to this POTBS modeler because he could not stand her doing anything for ERAS. At the time the PA! modding team were almost twisting the arms of all members to get on board with HOO even if they wanted to support other games or activities. This was one of the largest areas of concern I had and why I was beginning to make my exit anyway. Then this same moderator comes onto my mod thread and starts deleting my posts telling the community about what he has just done and nobody can be an honest judge of the matter because he would continue to delete my posts which had no profanity of any kind in them. I posted my side of the story six times in a row and each time he would delete it. Finally I had had enough and asked publicly when someone was going to limit QUOTE: “this little Hitler Nutjobs power here”. Well he knew he could get me with that comment and so left it up without deletion…….and that was the comment that they all ganged up on me with and threw me out of the boat. I was angry and hurt = especially after so much contribution that they would regard me so poorly.
Bottom line this was all about getting a ship model – nothing more. But they never got that. The resulting unpleasantness caused this modeler to disappear forever taking any chances of future contributions with her – such a shame.
At that point they decided to blame me for all that ails the world. There has never been any proof of any of their allegations to this day. I have challenged them and they have never produced one iota of proof.
Because of this I now offer for your entertainment and their utter embarrassment the full correspondence that took place directly after my banning so that you can see that I am not the monster they suggest. I am so tired of this. But I have to do something to defend my character – right? MK
{CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PIETER BOELEN AND MYSELF}
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 3 2014 says:Sorry Pieter,
I posted a comment to your personal profile when I had intended it to be a message.
My first question is: would it be possible for me to get limited access for an hour or so to copy all my personal messages from my inbox?
Second question is: Is it possible to wipe out all content I’ve ever contributed to the site?
R,
AS
Pieter_Boelen
Pieter_Boelen Apr 4 2014 says:I send this reply to you in confidence and good faith.
Before I answer the above (because it is not just my decision to make), let me ask you about this here which appears to be aimed directly at myself:
modernknight1 wrote: Last, a few people at PA always said they would support me and some did to an extent. However what I find amusing about that is – none of them actually game that much or even play COAS. I also find it funny that people who gave me their supposed “best wishes” would decide to ban me and not even look at the core complaints that were the source of my unhappiness before taking such action – nor even answer the complaints.
It is exactly things like this which have allowed the problem to escalate in the first place.
To address the various issues you make here:
1. Indeed I do not play much, which is due to a severe lack of time on my part.
I cannot do ALL the following at the same time:
– Have a very demanding professional situation
– Lead some sort of a personal life
– Provide support to everyone on the PiratesAhoy! Forum, including those playing and modding AoP and CoAS
– Continue modding PotC myself
– Support and supervise the Hearts of Oak project
– Post news articles and promote our work on various websites
– Actually play games
That is physically impossible, even though I try to juggle everything as well as I can.
It is also beside the point, so I do not know why you bring it up.2. I can assure you that we DID and DO look at the various concerns you have voiced.
In fact, we have been discussing them in private and hope to address them properly soon.
Unfortunately these are quite difficult discussions, so they take time and effort, which is why nothing has been posted about it in public yet.I have always been on your side and tried to support you as well as I could, given the limitations listed under #1 above.
Additionally, I have also given you the benefit of the doubt wherever and whenever there were conflicts going on.
That only ended with this post of yours here: Piratesahoy.net
The following personal attacks have not been helping either. And neither does the above.It would be my biggest wish that everybody can get along and treat each other with proper respect.
If we can do that, then we can continue doing productive things again and have FUN.
Like we’re SUPPOSED to be doing with this hobby of ours!
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 4 2014 says:Pieter,
That was not directed at only you. With the exception of Hylie, none of you game much and have all of you have said as much one time or another. None of you play COAS. I made the comment to illustrate that I have not got a fair hand in this business because of how you all judge and value my contributions. They are not of value to any of you because none of you care about them. However, other members do very much, but I don’t think you guys can see that. I have always felt like a second class citizen and alone in this regard, and that my opinions and desires were never or rarely considered. The fact that you could allow Post Captain to delete my posts whenever he pleases and for no good reasons is what really set me over the edge.
Just so you know – that last bit with the Hitler comment was added only after I had tried to justify my own reasons in my own thread six times. Each time, Post Captain would delete my post and each time I would put it back. Finally I was so upset I put the Hitler comment in and that’s when he let it stay because he knew he would have ammunition against me with it….what a piece of work.
I have always been a passionate gamer that made the time to game any time possible even during a long military career. I am addicted. I was programming the first TRS-80, Apple, and Commodore 64 games back in the late 70s/early 80s. I spent a whopping $6000 on a state of the art IBM 486 when they first came out in the mid nineties and I am the owner of every single video game console ever made. In addition, my Aspergers syndrome causes me to be overly passionate about a couple areas. One is computers and the science of data morphology and sharing, another is sailing, and the last is ships. My 1st and 2nd grade teachers had to bribe me with brand new pieces of typing paper to get me to pay attention during class and not draw little pictures of ships on my assignments. I won first place in the junior art fairs from 1st grade to 7th every year with drawings and paintings of…..sailing ships.
This is why I am willing to pay thousands for good models and am willing to share with everyone with no profit for myself. You guys just are unable to understand me or who I am. You guys don’t even realize that Jan Marten released a new version of MOTCS with unbelievable amounts of new content. The mod compressed is even bigger than ERAs at over 9.5GB. I would have made an announcement and published links but with Post Captain ruling the roost and HoO the only consideration I’ve been kinda like, “why bother doing anything.” I wrote several really great historical articles when their dates came, and I thought, “why bother”.
I don’t think any of you even know what the model Oliphant is. It is absolutely gorgeous and a think of worship for those that love the Golden Age and ships of the 17th century. Post Captain ruined my chances of ever getting that model. I have been in discussions with Marion anyway privately about employment in six months time. And I do not see a conflict of interest here if she wants to volunteer her time at PA! but she gets to be paid for work that she would really love to do.
If you don’t already know it, there are a lot of people besides me that are unhappy with Post Captain’s dictatorial ways. Anyway, enough ranting. I will just say that a new website about all things Pirate would not have to be considered a threat. It could even be a partner site with a lot of mutual cooperation. I tried to buy PA! from Keith, but he didn’t want to sell. I thought about offering him more than he could resist, but decided against it. With my own site, no one will be able to delete my posts. With a focus on COAS, we can get much further with it also. There are a lot of break-throughs happening and Jan has had a lot of breakthroughs as well. POTEHO is about to be released in English and that will open the flood gates for so many new things. Not every gamer wants a super realistic environment. I know lots of guys still playing 16 bit side-scrollers. Also, these games are here and available for someone that gets the itch right now.
Aaron
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 4 2014 says:Oh and BTW, Post Captain has gone and deleted more of my posts now that
I’m gone after the fact. These posts were of a historical advisory
nature only and had nothing in them that could be considered incendiary
or offensive at all. But he knows best…Aaron
Pieter_Boelen
Pieter_Boelen Apr 4 2014 says:Do you really seriously believe for even a split second that I do not care about the Storm games?
I have spent TEN YEARS working on PotC! Is that not proof enough in and of itself?
True, I have never been able to support CoAS as much as I supported PotC, but that is mainly because it is too much to do everything at the same time.And I did try to get work done on CoAS. I distinctly remember a time when it had just been released and I was actively contributing for a while.
Of course back then, a LOT of my suggestions went completely ignored, resulting in me caring less and less.
But I never completely stopped caring. Was it not last year that I sorted out some issues you had been struggling with?The same goes for Armada. In fact, last year we were both looking into porting PotC stuff to CoAS!
That didn’t work out because the games are too different for this to be a simple job and we just didn’t have the people to actually make it happen.
But again, we DID try. And it is a crying shame that apparently you were never able to give us the benefit of the doubt.I am very well aware of the concerns about Post Captain and have indeed heard things about it from several people.
Not to mention the things I have seen and experienced myself.
For example, I personally don’t even remotely care about realism as much as he does and often get tired of the continuous debates on it.
Especially the ones that keep going round in circles with a distinct amount of not listening to each other going on.I am really very sorry it has had to come to this. But we are trying to address it. Which is quite annoying in and of itself,
because it does mean getting several people (including him) to FINALLY agree on what we have been discussing for two years now.You really should have sent your concerns in private to Armada and/or myself though, rather than making a public scene on the forum.
That just made things worse. And worse. It does not help to antagonize those people who were on your side to begin with.It would make me very happy if we can continue making actual progress again. But for that to happen, the fighting must end.
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 6 2014 says:Well I do believe that you care very much about POTC. However, I seem to remember when we built our very first modpack you didn’t even want it on PA!. You wanted us to put it on MODDB.
I don’t feel you read or considered my explanation at all – and I am not fighting with anyone. I can’t – I have no voice. Most websites at least have a warning system. In my mind all of you took his part before mine. I had no advocate in the matter. I don’t think any of you have the love of sailing ships that I do nor understand my love of ships. That is the major reason for my highly emotional reaction to how I was personally treated and injured by Post Captain. We will now never have the Oliphant….that is still an extreme tragedy to me and I don’t think any of you care about that at all.
It also comes down to one additional very simple equation in my mind:
Post Captain’s contributions and administrative rights are greater than MK’s contributions and his ability to manipulate his own content/intellectual property.
MK’s contributions are not that great or substantial to PA! or it’s current focus, and Post Captain is so engaged and committed to HoO, so he should have the rights to censor MK at anytime – even on his own threads.
I still would like to get my messages. I will ask again, is it possible to remove all content I’ve ever posted?
Aaron
Pieter_Boelen
Pieter_Boelen Apr 6 2014 says:The reason I wanted to have your modpack posted on the ModDB is so that interested people would get to SEE it.
And also to make sure there were extra mirrors available. In other words: I advised to do that specifically to support you.
This had exactly nothing to do with “not wanting that on PA!”. That is nonsense, plain and simple. And you should know that!If you hadn’t noticed, the ModDB has been the MAIN download site for the PotC Build Mod for years now.
It is a great place for sharing modpacks with the “general public” and I would have been very happy if it could have been used for Eras as well.
It would have done a lot of good. For Eras and for the regular GoF versions as well.
But virtually nobody on the CoAS Modding Team would listen to my advise. Well, that was your loss, not mine.And if you remember, both Armada and myself suggested making a separate subforum for your modpack.
This was to actually give you the space you deserved. It was you who decided you did not want that.
The both of us also spent quite some time and effort to promote your work,
adding it to the forum banner and posting about it on our public profiles. So don’t claim we were unwilling to support you.There never was a “Post Captain’s side” vs. “Modernknight1’s side”. Mostly all forum members had great respect for both of you.
Until the fights started. That didn’t do either of you any favours. But I never saw PC actually attack anyone personally on the forum.
There were definitely mistakes on his part too. And a great many at that. You are not the only person to get annoyed there, I can assure you.You had a lot of supporters on PA!, most definitely including Armada, Hylie Pistof and myself.
In other words: Just about all the long-time staff members. We would have probably agreed with you if you had contacted us directly,
rather than posting increasingly unpleasant and disruptive posts on the forum.I remained on your side for the longest of times, which, as I said, only ended with this post here: Piratesahoy.net
That was unfair, uncalled for and also on many accounts factually untrue. As were most of your posts made after that.I had hoped that you might have been able to realize this. Apparently not. I am really sorry that I have been unable to convince you.
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 6 2014 says:You guys banned me. What else is there to be said? There was no discussion with me included. No offer or opportunity to retract what I had written or apologize. You talked among yourself and banned me.
Let me ask you this….if I was not starting my own new website, continuing my work with me mods, and trying to reclaim my content from PA!, would any of you have bothered contacting me to convince me of anything? Would any of you tried to get me to come back? I don’t think so. I think you guys were hoping I would just quietly disappear and you wouldn’t have to bother with me anymore.
I am quite willing to apologize for the Hitler comment – even in light of my explanation of it. I am even willing to apologize for becoming emotionally distressed. But I am still so unhappy about losing the Oliphant and Post Captain’s out of control deletion powers. You guys do not care about acquiring new ships for our members. That is the single most important thing to me. If I was unbanned I would never write another story for PA! or ever comment again on anything but questions about my own content with simple concise one line answers. However, because I am banned, I do not want my intellectual property or comments to continue to exist on a site that doesn’t appreciate my contributions. So I will ask once again, is it possible to pull all my posts and content from PA!?
Aaron
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 7 2014 says:Is it possible to pull all my posts and content from PA!?
Pieter_Boelen
Pieter_Boelen Apr 7 2014 says:You have been warned on the forum several times, so surely your banning did not come as a surprise.
You have lost the trust and goodwill of just about every senior forum member. And through your own doing, no less.
Every post above is still downright disrespectful and has only reinforced this.On the subject of your PMs, you should have considered that before making some of the posts you made.
Shame, because I would have been willing to help you with it if this were not the case.We are already cleaning out the dead wood on the forum.
We don’t like deleting threads unless they are spam or something repulsive, but they definitely will be closed and unpinned.
In other words, they’ll be going down to Davy Jones’ Locker soon enough.As for your content, what is left to be removed? You already pulled the links to your modding work.
None of your work was ever included in the PotC Build Mod either.We have done a lot for you over the years, but apparently you were never willing to accept our good intentions.
I have better things to do than to waste any more of my time and effort on what is clearly a lost cause.
Just know that if you want people to do something for you, it helps to treat them with friendliness and respect
modernknight1
modernknight1 Apr 7 2014 says:I am sorry we are at such an impasse and you will not consider my position at all.
Please show me where I was warned. There are no tools on the site showing number of warnings as other forums have. I received no written warnings that I was about to be banned publicly or by PM. For goodness sake, I was receiving best wishes messages from you people so I don’t know what you’re talking about.
You say you have done a lot for me. What about what I did to educate the PA! population and provide countless hours of fun for gamers. I have had many of my supporters tell me that I was the only true historian PA! ever had and that they came there often to read what I had written.
As for my content, it should be obvious I am talking about my news articles and stories of historical fiction that have received thousands of looks. I guess you never read them. I am also talking about over 2300 posts – many advisory or long discussions of historical authenticity on numerous subjects. So if you consider all of that “dead wood” then please just clean it out.
Respect is a two way street young man. I have commanded thousands of men and know full well what the measure of respect consists of. I have had men risk their very lives for me. I can tell you that one of the most important aspects regarding respect – is fairness and consideration of others value and opinions. I received very little respect from you folks. If I had – we wouldn’t be having this discussion now.
I am sorry you consider this your final dealing with me because it forces my hand to take actions I didn’t want to. (*NOTE: I was referring to legal action to remove my content – not hacking or attacks. My lawyer advised against as I cover at the top of this topic – and he told me the same thing again just yesterday. )
Good Day Sir,
AS
{CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THAGARR AND MYSELF}
FROM: Thagarr to MK
You are the last person I am going to take any kind of advice from about my conscience, I sleep perfectly well at night, thank you very much. Even more so since you were banned from PA. Which, since you are so interested in the details, was not my decision alone. In fact, my opinion was that you be demoted, and your moderator privileges taken away. However, it was rightly pointed out to me that you would use whatever “clout” you had obtained with people around PA to further fracture the forum, which is exactly what you have been doing from day one. You are also the last one to be giving me a lecture on forum rules, you know very well what they are because you have violated every single one of them, in fact we had to make new ones to deal with the crap that you pulled. You were warned on many occasions, and several times by me. Those warning may not have been issued to moderknight1, but you were warend. You are hardly an innocent party, and we are still dealing with your spam bots and troll logins, not to mention your DOS attacks and hacking attempts.
I am well aware of your communications with Pieter, he showed me every one of them. And since your obviously curious why I came back to PA, it was to deal with your crap, and the aftermath of your banning. Apparently you forget just how long I have been around PA, numbers as far as visitors mean absolutely nothing to us. A big reason for some drop in numbers is the fact that your bots disappeared when we banned your IP’s. I also don’t need a lecture from you on how the Internet works, I have been a geek for 40 years. Your “son” can blame you entirely for his banning from PA. I will continue to ban anyone that is a threat in any way to PA, and using IP’s linked to your account is a threat.
I am also well aware of the fact that you tried to buy PA, and I thank God that Keith is a good judge of people and turned your offer down flat! I still have all our PM’s, and knowing what I know now, it is very easy for me to go back through and see just how much division and contention you were stirring up on PA. I am sure that there are other PM’s you sent to other members that were just as divisive, I have talked to some who received them. Yes, we wished you luck, but you just couldn’t resist stirring the pot even more before you left could you? Couldn’t leave well enough alone and just move on. To be honest Arron, if that is indeed your real name, I hope your new website succeeds and is a big hit, then maybe you will realize just what it takes to keep a site going, and all the crap that you have to deal with from trolls and spammers, both of which you are intimately familiar with.
Lastly, there is absolutely no need for you to correspond with me again for any reason. You have nothing to say that I want to hear, or will pay any more attention to. You have shown me just what your friendship means, and I want no part of it or you.
—– Original Message —–
From: “01 11”
To: “Thagarr” email address omitted – if I were a really horrible person I would include it…
Sent: Friday, June 6, 2014 6:21:27 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: RE: Pirates Ahoy!Hello Ron,
I must say that I am really disappointed in you folks at PA! I thought you were a fair minded bunch and that you yourself were a Christian centered person, but I can see your temper and pride are much stronger than your moral compass.
The only word that comes to mind when I think of this whole business is “hypocrisy”. I wouldn’t even bother sending this but my son just informed me that you banned him too? REALLY? You know I should point out that anyone that has a home network has routers. I have a 4000 square foot place and I installed a CAT-5 LAN network in it to every room over 6 years ago. The IP that you banned is a ten port router that serves the entire house and all the computers within, NOT my own computer’s mac address or any of my other actual computers. I can simply plug direct to my native router or I could go down to Best Buy right now and buy a new router if I wanted to get back on to PA! to see whats going on, but I have no need to as free proxy services are easy to obtain if I need to reference something from past posts. This is a computer Geek family you see. Both of my sons are gamers and have both played my mod. My nephew in Idaho has helped with the mod a lot although has lost interest after my banning. I also have friends that play and help out.
So you can believe that my son is me if you want to, but he isn’t. He is not a spammer either. He has a lot of time on his hands right now as he is out of school and not working. He is an avid gamer and made a music mod some years ago for COAS. He decided he wanted to play the latest version of my mod when I got back here from Idaho and he has been the best beta tester ever. He says with all my added content that the game is now as good as Borderlands – and that’s high praise from him.
He has played almost all the quests in the last two weeks. The game has inspired him to change the music again and I have encouraged him. I am so glad that he is inspired so much by the game that he wants to create and contribute. He has been very active on Corsairs Harbor of late and I think this is awesome because his major in School for the last five years has been Russian. Last thing I want to tell you concerning my son is that he didn’t deserve what you did to him today. You did it at the drop of a hat and without thought. You just assumed it was me. That is not only unfair, but should be against your flimsy forum rules at the very least. I guess rather than follow any type of procedure, protocol or rules yourselves, its just easier to ban whoever makes you slightly angry. I guess PA! isn’t a very good example of our American free press and ideas concerning open communication anymore. But I guess you know best Ron. My son attempted suicide a couple months back which is one of the main reasons I returned here from Idaho. So just squash his creativity if you want, but that will just allow him to thrive on the Russian sites and on my own site when its ready.
As far as I am concerned, I have hardly paid you guys any attention since I left. I was leaving anyway you know. You guys gave me best wishes. My new site will be up by July. The only reason I haven’t gone public yet is because I want to ensure there is plenty of meat on the bone when it comes up….and believe you me there will be. The only thing that makes me mad is your actions in banning me as I was leaving anyway. Again no rules or procedures. No verbal or written warnings received. I don’t know if its possible for Xenforo to issue warnings like is regularly done on other sites. Many of the Russian modders have asked if it was a temporary banning. I frankly don’t know what to tell them.
You know I am just so confused by so much of this. You disappear for a year and leave me alone to fight all the little late period whipper snappers. When you do suddenly and miraculously come back you take a stand with the little goofballs instead of with me. Boelen is as wishy washy as they come and follows the winds of popularity. He never takes a stand on anything unless it might be something that makes him or his precious Build mod look bad. Sometimes one must make a stand and for the right reasons. People are never going to agree on everything or get along. His bad leadership is largely what broke up the COAS modders because he let them go in a dozen directions instead of maintaining one logical united front….all while he had very little to do with our efforts. This made me always suspect this was intentional and that he was jealous that we had more interest on our projects than his precious buildmod. He was always trying to convince COAS players to come play the build when they were already involved with GOF. In addition, his wishy washy stance allowed the later era to prevail over the Age of Piracy when the surveys showed overwhelming desires to develop HOO in OUR (PA!’s) former favored era. That stance alienated a huge (but silent) segment of the community whether or not you people want to admit it or see it.
PA! has become so misguided. Instead of trying to recruit modders and modelers for all of PA!’s efforts, only HOO is considered. Look at how dead the rest of the former efforts have become since that focus. I attempted to buy the site from Keith before I started my own effort. The reason was so that I could steer the ship back in the direction it needed to go in. You know that I have a huge following. I get a dozen emails a day asking about what happened and when/if Eras is still continuing. Last time I checked on my closed topic, it was hundreds of views ahead of where it was a week before and that’s in fact hundreds of more views than most of your other topics on PA! get at all.
Last, I think your decisions to do what you did to me have been really bad for PA! and have made the site and all of you moderators look really bad. Rackham immediately responded to Boelen’s statement that it was not right and his concerns were the same as mine. But as usual you guys closed ranks so you didn’t have to hear the opinions of the PA! populous. You know your decisions should be to try to service their needs and desires….not your own egos. In my final dialogue with Boelen I told him that another Pirate website did not need to be seen as a threat. That it could be seen as a cooperative partner. But no. I have had many long time modders write me and give me support. Modders and modelers that have now gone silent on PA! They are waiting for my site to come up so they can continue their hobby there on an open forum that will not simply ban someone for voicing a strong but justified opinion about something. They all know that what you guys did was very wrong and you all must realize by now that it was very damaging to you and not popular at all.
PA! has never had a strong readership or attendance, but since I left I have noticed your numbers dipping down to the single digits – Something I never saw before. I have to believe that this is in part due to how you guys are rolling and how you dealt with me. Your negative treatment of my son today just reinforces that and he has been telling others in the gaming community and the Russians especially all about it. You realize that the Russian pirate game sites get hundreds of members online a day – not just the trickle of double digits that PA! does.
If you have any kind of a conscience at all you should at the very least apologize to my son Stephen, regardless of how you may feel about me…..even though I still don’t think I deserved the malice and treatment I have received in all this rotten business.
Good luck and God bless you.
Aaron (MK)
> Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:41:06 -0500
> From: Thagarr
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Pirates Ahoy!
>
>
> Hi Aaron, good to hear from you man! Yeah, I have been a bit scarce around PA for a while, I just needed a break. I appreciate your kind words mate, I was getting a bit burnt out and just needed to take some time off away from PA. I am used to the no comments thing, it’s been like that for a while, with a few exceptions such as Hylie and yourself and a few others. The main reason however has a lot to do with me reconciling my love of all things pirate with my Christian faith, there is quite a lot to reconcile and I have been doing a good bit of soul searching lately. It’s something that I will have to come to terms with myself, but I wanted you to know exactly why I haven’t been around.
>
> There are a couple of other minor reasons as well, the Hearts of Oak project for one. It really doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at the moment, and seems to be completely dominated by the Napoleonic crowd. Overall the Seven Years War was a pretty boring era for pirates, with a couple of exceptions.
>
> There is also the official AC4 announcement a couple of weeks ago, I had heard rumors for several months but I never posted anything about them, I was hoping that they really were just rumors. I have many issues with the AC franchise, the least of which is the blatant disregard for actual historical fact. I simply have no desire to get involved in another pointless argument with some 19 year old kid who thinks the whole world revolves around his narcissistic perception of reality. As you point out, there does seem to be an abundance of them around lately.
>
> Sorry to hear your funding didn’t pan out like you wanted, I was really looking forward to seeing what your team could come up with. I sometimes get the feeling that Pieter thinks that no work gets done around PA when he is at sea, but I know there is still quite a lot of activity going on for both Mods. He would be the one to talk to about getting access to the source code. I am really looking forward to your Era’s mod, and I know several other people are as well!
>
> Anyway, thanks for your concern, I am sure that I will probably be back at some point.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ron
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: “01 11”
> To: “Thagarr”
> Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 5:54:29 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: RE: Pirates Ahoy!> Hey Ron,
>
> Just thought I’d drop you a line and ensure all is well. Your absence from PA! for a few weeks is very conspicuous. I took a week off from the site and modding last week because I got burnt out.
>
> I know participation these days is thankless because of the youthful generation that make up the majority of participants.
>
> Some of these folks are just lost or idiotic. I keep plugging away and see myself as an educator on the site. So if none of these knuckleheads ever give you any encouragement or kind words, for what it’s worth, I appreciate what you have done/ and do for PA!
>
> I was only able to raise 770K for my game development. Which fell short by two thirds of what my business plan required. That’s OK. I plan to use AC IV’s popularity this year and my own GOF Eras mod as an example of what’s possible to refine my pitch to investors for next year. The 770k obviously isn’t sitting in my bank account but is pledged support from some people that want to make my effort succeed. In the mean time I plan to sail, visit relatives, improve my property and make GOF: Eras the best it can be.
>
> BTW I need the 2.8 sourcecode to get new colonies and flags to work in GOF properly. Simple scripting of executables will not work here and I have some expert friends helping me out. Pieter Boelen made the comment that modding for New Horizon’s and GOF was dead. He has never bothered paying attention to what we do and has never played our mods. I think he will be shocked by the popularity of Eras when it goes public in a few more weeks.
>
> Let me know if you’re OK at least or just on vacation or something. I’m sensing burn out or “fed-upted-ness”.
>
> V/R AaronThanks for the birthday wishes Arron, much appreciated. Things are slowing down at work, but that just means I have more time to do yard work now! I hope things are going better for you my friend, sounds like things were a bit rough from your last email. I dealt with a lot of that crap back when I was on IRC, script kiddies never change. I have had a couple of people poking around, but I really don’t care who or why, I figure if they are wasting their time on me they are leaving someone else alone.
I have noticed that there are usually 60 or 70 people just hanging around, and yeah, only a handful actually logged in, and I agree, the last few years have changed a lot of things. I think part of it has to do with the fact that there really haven’t been any good pirate games released lately, and the modding activity has dropped off quite a bit. It’s been almost 3 years since COAS was released in the west, and 5 years since it was released in Russia! As much as I hated the fact that Armada of the Damned was going to be another Disney game, it was at least going to be a pirate game. I have lost all confidence that Raven’s Cry is going to be anything but worthless, and Risen 2 is simply trying to cash in on the pirate craze of the POTC movies. Port Royale 3 however looks fantastic, and it appears to have the same solid game play mechanics as it’s predecessors. I am not sure how modable that one is going to be, but it should pick up the traffic around PA a bit, and maybe spur some new modding interest as well.
Take care,
Ron—– Original Message —–
From: “01 11”
To: “Thagarr”
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 1:05:28 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: RE: Pirates Ahoy!Hey no issues Ron,
I have been really having hard times myself. I moved out of my nice DC apartment into my motorhome in hopeful anticipation of retirement in a few more month. Moving all my crap into storage and cleaning was really hard while I’m still weak and recovering from my surgeries.
I have been depressed and burnt out as well and very lonely. I got attacked worse than ever last week. Nearly destroyed my computer. I’m still going strong though and rebuilt everything. I have numerous good back ups both in terms of hardware and software. I’m very demoralized about the origin of the attack. I have a couple of netbook type PCs I’ve never put on line. I’ve never even updated them because I keep important stuff there I don’t want to lose. I take them everywhere with me.
Seems like a few people were wondering if I would post again and it got some additional looks. Its funny because I put a really obvious nugget in this last one that lets me know when someone actually reads it, because its so goofey, people have to say something to me about it. No one has left any comments, but I have got some PMs which makes me happy to see that folks notice.
I’m going home this week to refinance my house, so that will be good. I’m sure my mood will improve and I will want to contribute more.
Have you noticed that we have about 60 to 70 folks online almost at all times, but it seems like only 2 to 5 members are signing in at any given time. I think this is a reflection of the times we live in. Everyone is guarded. Its really too bad. The internet was supposed to be a free area to share ideas. I hate that some people and governments/industries/corporations have to ruin it for everyone.
Hope things get lighter at work for you and that you can jump in a little more. I also hope you had a great birthday.
Take it easy brother,
Aaron
From Thagar to MK
Hi Arron, sorry for taking so long to reply mate, but I wanted to take some time with this one. Part of the reason why haven’t been very active is because of work, but there are other reasons as well. The recent influx of script kiddies and morons has been part of it as well. We have had our share in the past, but this recent wave has been almost intolerable. Part of it is just the way the forum has always been ran, in a way, we are an awful lot like a group pirates. Taking in the misfits of society that don’t fit in anywhere else. That’s the main reason I have called PA home for such a long time. Usually the good ones stick around for a bit and contribute, and the rest loose interest and drift off. Part of what makes PA a special place is the fact that our mods are rather lax and do tend to tolerate a lot more than what a normal forum would. They have always been more tolerant, but I think a lot of it the past couple of years is they are just plain loosing interest, some of them hardly ever show up anymore.
I believe I understand exactly what you mean about some of the old modders, I have seen several do that. Some only show up when we get close to a big release and do just enough to have their name added to the credits, then disappear again. I wish you could have been around back in 2003 and 2004, PA was a much different place and mods were being churned out all the time. I wasn’t around much during 2005 and 2006, and that’s when a lot of things started to change and most of the original modders disappeared. But I am not trying to give you a history lesson mate, just trying to point out that we have had growing pains in the past, and I have a feeling we are going through some now as well. I am sure we will come through them stronger, we always do, but I also sure that PA will be a different place going forward. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.
I’m glad you are enjoying New Horizons mate, it has really changed POTC into a completely different game. To be honest, I have only played it a few times over the past couple of years, and that was mainly just to check out a few things and make sure my install was functioning. I haven’t played CoAS much at all either since early last year. I tried to fire myself back up for it during December and play a bit to check out some of the great things the mod team has added, but I just couldn’t work up much enthusiasm. I think I have just become a bit burnt out, not on pirates, but with the whole supernatural crap that Disney, and almost every game developer over the past few years, has been forcing on us.
The recent stuff with Raven’s Cry hasn’t helped much either, that game was supposed to be a realistic look at genuine pirates. Instead we get a game that focuses on a psychopathic lunatic that chops off and collects peoples heads and summons ravens during battle. Yeah, supernatural crap on top of it. Back in January I sent an email to my contacts at Octane Games, trying to get them to finally answer the questions we sent in 8 months ago now. I got a response saying that they would talk with their new publisher Topware Interactive and see if they could release any information, and I haven’t heard anything from them since, well over a month and a half. I’m assuming Paradox isn’t even involved with the game anymore, but I have no conformation on that. These people have no clue who or what pirates were, they simply found a couple of examples of what they considered to be bad asses and decided to build a character based on them. Typical game development, give them blood and blow stuff up, a little bit of eye candy and get it out the door as quick as possible. I should have really expected nothing more than that. At least I have Port Royale 3 to look forward too, I am pretty sure I know exactly what we are going to get with that one.
Anyway, enough with the wall of text! I hope things are going good for you mate, I’ll try to be a bit more active, but sometimes it is tough to work up the enthusiasm to post anything for the current crowd. I just have to keep reminding myself that there are a LOT of other good people like you out there who really do appreciate all the posts and all the information that we can dig up.
Take care my friend,
Ron—– Original Message —–
From: “01 11”
To: “Thagarr”
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2012 12:35:55 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: RE: Pirates Ahoy!Thanks for the reply Ron,
I thought you might just be taking a breather. Well I posted the movie review and its had 40 hits as of this afternoon. I don’t understand how to use the rating bar tool. I set some ratings but they haven’t appeared, and I got a little message that said they would be reviewed.
It is interesting to watch who shows up regularly. I think lots of folks get tired of the forum. Some of the older regulars only stop by from time to time. I’m a bit frustrated with the modding because it takes us so long to get anything done. There are only a few of us that consistently work the COAS mods. When old guys show up for a little while, they download the mod and want to play, but usually don’t want to help. They simply ask a lot of why questions, sometimes criticize what we’re doing and dissappear again.
The other thing that frustrates me is the hackers on our site. I have been attacked numerous times. They’re always trying to leave backdoors on my system so they can snoop. A couple of times they’ve been successful and I didn’t find them until hours (in one case a whole day) later. I suspect one of the attacks originated with the german modders (I traced the IP) and so I haven’t been doing anything with them since that happened. I just don’t trust them now. Ever since that attack (a couple months back) their activity on the site has diminished noticeably.
Big brother is watching me all the time because of what I do professionally and I just accept that. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the perpetrator didn’t get some unwanted attention – and the word spread. The thing that sucks is that I just want to have fun and contribute. I just got back into POTC with the new Build 14 with ENB graphics. I am amazed and completely hooked again. I love these games and with my poor current health, they are my favorite hobby and pass-time, along with the writing and art. I wish people could just keep their grubby hands to themselves.
I’ll see you back at PA! when you’re ready. I know what you mean about the Kindle. I bought one for XXXXXX for her birthday and she reads it constantly. She reads to me sometimes which I love. I haven’t got into it yet just because I have so many books on my list that I’m currently reading. I too have watched every version of Treasure Island and own them. I’ve even got the old hokey Long John Silver series from the 1950’s on DVD. Lets face it, Pirate stories are the stuff our dreams are made of. They were the first thing to really inspire me to consider other possibilities/paths in my life might be possible when I was just a small child.
FYI, I may find something else to post as filler just so their is a larger gap between story chapters. I will post the next segment of the story this weekend. Take care my friend.
V/R Aaron
- This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
- This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
-
January 18, 2017 at 12:50 am #3471modernknight1Keymaster
And now I will comment and answer to the current blather:
Pieter Boelen said:
If there is one thing I really DON’T care about, it is that particular site. (referring to Buccaneers Reef) MK
It’s a scary place. (referring to Buccaneers Reef) MKI don’t know what “latest version of GoF” you are referring to.
There have been a gazillion versions, some of which are GoF “in name only”, but are not actually related to PiratesAhoy! (He is referring to ERAS obviously) MK)
So you’ll need to be more specific version of what version you mean.No-CD cracks are not all equally safe; can’t say I’d be surprised if there is something unsafe in there.
(Implying that because it’s from our site its unsafe) MKPieter Boelen, Sunday at 2:02 PM
#1506
ChezJfrey (Jeffrey)MK
ChezJfrey
Sailor Apprentice
Storm ModderJoined:
Apr 24, 2015Messages:
91Pieter Boelen said: ↑
If there is one thing I really DON’T care about, it is that particular site.
It’s a scary place.Give me a flippin’ break. I think you need to just let it go, seriously. The site is hosted by GoDaddy and is simply a WordPress plugin site. I am there nearly every day and in fact, probably the sole largest presence, besides another that does ship modeling. I work in IT and have not a single virus from anything on that site. The only danger there, is if one were to read my posts about my trials/tribulations curing some of the back-end flaws…especially my extensive diatribes where I investigated a possible replacement for malloc (that was probably unwise as I’m sure many tears of boredom were shed by any readers). Tangent: I abandoned that after finding LAA was not supported by Lea’s old work, and simply upgrading to VS 2012 and the newer MS Win SDK was an easier and suitable solution.
At risk of repetitiveness, just let the scaremongering go.
@Oldtimer if worried about that .dvm and/or the .exe and .dll files, all version of GOF run the stock AoP2 City of Abandoned Ships’ executables, so you can simply delete the start.exe and modules/*.dll files from the download and simply copy in AoP2 start.exe and .dll files in the modules folder. You can also use these:
ERAS, GOF & AoP COAS Files: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg
AOP2.Patch. = patch files for vanilla COAS with fixes
GOF1.2Patch = patch files for GOF 1.2 with fixes
ERAS.Patch.zip = patch files for ERAS
AoPTest.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 8
AoPTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled vanilla COAS in DirectX 9
GOF1.2Test.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 8
GOF1.2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 1.2 in DirectX 9
ERAS2Test.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 8
ERAS2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled ERAS in DirectX 9
GOF2.5SModTestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 2.5 in DirectX 9
GOF2TestDX9.zip = Our source compiled GOF 2 in DirectX 9ChezJfrey, Sunday at 7:26 PM
#1507
Pieter Boelen
Wageningen, The NetherlandsI said I personally do not care about that place, which is true. (“That place” being Buccaneers Reef)
And if you want to know why I call it “scary”, it is because the people there tend to come back here to troll.(PROVE IT BOELEN! Prove it!)
Which is unfortunately very true. (Prove it Boelen! MK)
Whatever happens there can STAY there.
I refuse to have anything to do with it. :no(You say you refuse to have anything to do with it but by making BASELESS accusations YOU ARE DOING JUST THAT!)
Pieter Boelen, Sunday at 8:34 PM
#1508
Hylie Pistof
Hylie Pistof
Curmudgeon
Staff MemberThat dvm.dll is the nodvd crack for coas. It is Russian so of course it has something there, but it has been benign as far as I can tell. I used it for years.
Dropbox has informed me that they will stop supporting the Public dropbox beginning in April. This is of no concern as MK the Russian Knight has had it under almost continuous ddos attack for years. If anyone wants any of that content they will need to PM me, but there is nothing there that is not already stored elsewhere.
(REALLY HYLIE? REALLY? So now I am a Russian Knight? Please elaborate. Please. I really wanna hear this LMAO!!! I am a retired US Army Colonel that lives in Idaho and Louisiana most of the time. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-shields-9a3b293 MK)
Hylie Pistof, Yesterday at 2:17 PM
#1509
ChezJfrey
ChezJfrey
Sailor Apprentice
Storm ModderJoined:
Apr 24, 2015Messages:
91Hylie Pistof said: ↑
This is of no concern as MK the Russian Knight has had it under almost continuous ddos attack for years.
LOL, a single person launching a DDOS attack? This demonstration of knowledge is as stunning as that other user here I used to see warning of a need to defrag because a downloaded file was fragmented, meaning the file was uploaded from a fragmented machine, so it stays that way, fragmented on the host server…never mind the fact that it is the local OS that determines where to place things on a disk…it is uploaded and downloaded as individual bits, so when it is uploaded, no matter how fragmented the user’s laptop/desktop drive is; it is then the server’s OS that will store the file on its own disks, that may/may not be fragmented, but that has nothing to do with where it came from, or how fragmented the uploader’s file system might be. Then when downloaded, again they are sent as individual bits and YOUR OS determines again where to place them on disk. So if the downloaded file is fragmented, it is because your disk is already fragmented, and has nothing to do with the fragmentation of where it might have come from. Anyway, I digress.
DDOS…here’s a succinct explanation: How to Launch a 65Gbps DDoS, and How to Stop One
A single user is constrained by the bps of their own, single connection and at best, might be able to perform 1Gbps, but a typical home user will be around 50Mbps, to some of the top tier residential fiber offerings of 500Mbps. A DDOS attack needs to be much larger to even worry about, because anything else is just typical web traffic — over 5Gbps. To borrow a relevant quote from that linked article: “It is highly unlikely that the attacker has a single machine with a big enough Internet connection to generate that much traffic on its own.” A DDOS attack typically needs a collection of 100s of machines, coordinated to attack a system; typically a collection of 100s or thousands of botnets/compromised and hacked computers across the globe that are then instructed to launch the attack against a single entity. And unless Dropbox is dedicating one machine, solely to this single set of files you mention, all of Dropbox and its users would be feeling the effect of this DDOS you claim. So no, I highly doubt this claim is even remotely true.
Not to mention that DDOS is a U.S. federal crime, subject to imprisonment and 6 figure monetary fines as well, so if it were that simple to determine this sole person were responsible for several years of a continuous, ongoing DDOS attack against Dropbox.com, I’m pretty sure since it was so obviously this person you claim, it would be a simple matter this person would be in federal prison by now…has this happened? DDoS is a Federal Crime – BLOCKDOS
No? Is this because the accusation is a baseless, made up story?
ChezJfrey, Yesterday at 4:25 PM
#1510
Pieter Boelen
Staff Member
Administrator
Location:
Wageningen, The NetherlandsChezJfrey said: ↑
No? Is this because the accusation is a baseless, made up story?
Are we really going to have this argument? (You’re the one choosing to. MK)
Very well, I’ll play ball. But just this once. (Really, seems like you wanna play all the time when I do not! MK)If this message does not suffice, then a thread lock is just around the corner.
(No surprises there really. Isn’t that your usual tactic whenever ANYONE says anything that your don’t want to hear? MK)I have not the faintest clue about the validity of those DDOS attacks, though I also have no reason to believe @Hylie Pistof would make that up. (You were just told it is impossible by an expert but then say you don’t believe he made it up. So what do you believe then? More classic Boelen wishy washiness… LOL MK)
What definitely IS true is that there has been a lot of deliberate trolling at this forum, which very distinctly originated from MK or people affiliated with him. (Which is it Boelen, Me or people I put up to it or my members? PROOF PLEASE – Please provide proof of this trolling!!! MK)
You cannot expect the people he repeatedly tried to hurt to be positive or even fully neutral to him or his forum or his mod. (Please define who has been hurt by me or my website. Please provide specific things I have done on your website as proof. PROOF PLEASE!!! Not more conjecture and allegations. MK)
My words above were extremely mild, really. And not untrue. (In your opinion they were mild and in my opinion they are VERY UNTRUE. MK)
Whatever might be the case really does not matter.
(It very much matters to me because you keep dredging this crap up. MK)
What does matter is that:
1. We have zero intention of going out of our way to be obnoxious to “MK and co.”(DO YOU NOT SEE THAT YOUR BASELESS ALLEGATIONS ALONE ARE BLATANTLY OBNOXIOUS TO ME RIGHT ON THE SURFACE??? MK)
2. We really DO NOT WANT to have any affiliation with him. (NOR DO I WITH YOU JACK. MK)
It is a “live and let live” policy from our end. (NOT MY EXPERIENCE. Your way or the highway more like. MK)
We leave him and his “fans” alone and all we wish in return is for them to do us the same courtesy.
(Classic Boelen condescension. My “fans” in quotation marks meaning that either I don’t have any or they are people of some sort of inferior caliber. You do realize that sometimes people see through your passive aggressive condescending nature RIGHT BOELEN? MK)Truth is that, no, we are not pleased with his shenanigans; not one bit.
(What “shenanigans”? Are Dutch people even allowed to use that word? I am at least of Irish descent. Please provide examples of my shenanigans. MK)But if any negativity on our forum regarding him happens to offend you, I hereby apologise.
(I am touched. It’s really a heartfelt and sincere apology to Jeffrey I am certain of it. MK)We are only human and occasionally something is going to slip through.
(Like a bunch of stinky fart gas from all of your allegations? MK)Pieter Boelen, Yesterday at 6:39 PM
#1511
Oldtimer
Oldtimer
Master MarinerJoined:
Dec 27, 2005Messages:
188Hi ,
THX to posters for info on ways to avoid possibly infected dvm.dll GOF file. In the end, I followed Pistof`s path and use the file as is. I seem to recall similar worries with SOFS and they were unfounded.
Rgds, Oldtimer
Oldtimer, Today at 10:54 AM
#1512
Hylie Pistof
Hylie Pistof
Curmudgeon
Staff MemberYou choose to disbelieve me? (YES they do Hylie because your are so full of BS. MK)
Ok fine. Try to access my folder in the Downloads section at the top of the page. You can’t. You never will be able to. It has been like that for years and all that is there is POTC and COAS stuff.
(Wow you sure proved your case! So because they can’t get into your dropbox file that is me doing it right? PROVE IT. Otherwise STFU!!! MK)
Last year one of your trolls got me to send him some files using a different account. That one too came under attack and crashed until I removed the files they were attacking. I choose not to wallow in the mud like you and have chose to ignore your childish actions. Soon enough you will no longer have anything there to attack. What will you do then?
(One of Jeffrey’s trolls, one of MY trolls? Whose troll? Jeffrey’s childish actions? My childish actions? Can’t get more childish than what you’re alleging. What will I do then? Maybe I will take a trip to Europe. I dunno LOL what an idiot. I again SAY – PROVE IT!!! MK)
Hylie Pistof, Today at 3:55 PM
#1513
pedrwyth
pedrwyth
Privateer
Storm ModderJoined:
Jan 8, 2015Messages:
575Gender:
MaleFrom the sidelines I find it difficult to understand the underlying animosity that surfaces whenever topics stray towards the existence of ERAS and its support site. No doubt if I had been active at the time of the bust-up I might have more understanding – but I doubt it. Whatever – things are as they are.
However I must say that to make assertions of anyone’s involvement in any activity by mere association alone is a perilous road indeed.
(This guy sounds like he has a lot of good sense IMHO. MK)
pedrwyth, Today at 6:22 PM
#1514
Pieter Boelen
Wageningen, The NetherlandsI assume with “you”, Hylie means “MK himself” or “members of MK’s forum”.
That is how I choose to read it anyway. (You chose to read it that way because yours is the only opinion that matters ever. Right Boelen? MK)Of course “being guilty by association” is not a situation that I’d like to support on this forum.
(…really? and yet you have done so many times that my own members “fans” LOL have made me aware of. MK)That being said, anyone associating with MK on purpose clearly doesn’t know him the way we do.
(You never took the time to know me Boelen, because if you had you would have actually read my emails and considered my side of things. All you have ever cared about was looking bad and that work must continue on your precious Build mod as the most important priority in the universe. MK)So for those people, I can only say this: I really truly hope that you will never find out either.
(THAT SIR is a blatant insult of the worst kind. If we lived in the same place I would challenge you to a duel with whatever weapon you prefer or our bare hands. I am serious. You offend me Sir. Like a slimey worm who hides under a rotting stump. MK)In the meantime, I’ll ask everyone to not put more oil on the fire.
This has escalated enough as it is.
(Who poured the MOST oil on the fire Boelen I ask you? Can you really not see just how utterly offending you are? MK)Pieter Boelen, Today at 8:27 PM
#1515 -
January 19, 2017 at 8:41 am #3480AnonymousInactive
MK, in my humble opinion you shouldn’t bother. Pieter Bolen is a VERY rigid person and i left PA! because of him. All he does is support that old(i’m not even saying it’s name) game in disadvantage of all other games , because he cannot move in his life to new projects/new areas. I’m so sorry that i lack of english complexity and this is not allowing me to prove that more clear (i have the psychological knowledge), but for people who know both Pieter and you, that should be enough.
Move on with your projects, with your dreams, take better care of you and FORGET about people who already proved they do not have the instruments to appreciate/understand your universe.
Way too much energy spent on that subject, mate.
That;s not good for your healt either (or neither?… no idea the correct form, sorry)
Take care 🙂 -
January 19, 2017 at 9:06 am #3482modernknight1Keymaster
Thanks Ram!
Your English is fine Mate! You’re totally right of course. I will likely pull this whole topic down in a few days. I’m doing this just to make myself feel better and I also just worry that people will actually believe what Boelen says and it might make them afraid to contribute here and have fun here.
They are making it seem like I am this super troll who has nefarious designs on everyone. They just can’t get that I might be angry and bitter not because I am some kind of bad guy, but because of the way the treated me before and continue to treat me now. It is just not right.
Slander is slander and its not pretty. I was telling Jeffrey just last week that it doesn’t even bother me anymore and that I had almost completely forgotten about it. Then all of this happened and the more messages they posted that specifically mentioned me – the madder I got. The frosting on the cake was when Boelen said that people that hang around me don’t know me like they do. That was the straw that broke the camels back.
He is the slimey one with integrity issues who tries to placate and pander to everyone so that nothing ever gets done. Leadership means that sometimes you have to make a hard stand and do what is right no matter what others might think. He knew what was right when it came to me, but he caved into pressure from others and now that I am gone its so easy to label me the bad guy and blame me for everything that goes wrong. It just isn’t right you know.
I am very proud of Jeffrey. He called things like they were with total honesty. I really like that. If Boelen wonders why no one is joining their efforts these days he should just go look in a mirror.
I will reverse what he says about me back onto him like a KARMIC BOOMERANG. I hope no one has to learn what its like to work with Pieter Boelen and the people he chooses to surround himself with. They might just regret it one of these days when they need him to stand up for them. Once he knows they’re no longer useful to him he may just stab them deeply in the back as well.
Anyway enough of that. Back to work on the site and the mod. I have been pulling all nighters the last three nights trying to get all of this stuff done!
MK
-
January 25, 2017 at 6:09 pm #3508DevoidbrahParticipant
Hey MK,
I would say that this thread is a great reminder of a monument as the reason why this site got created in the first place.
PA! is on a downwards way, not being able to adjust to the current.
Too many wrong decisions have been made to reprimand anything. But thats not what this thread is here for.
THis thread is a reminder of how some PA! Moderator treat other minds who dont think alike.Should we forget the holocaust or WW2 because its been so long ago? No, we should remind ourselves of this, of all things past, learn from them and remind us from time to time why things happened and what for.
THis thread if anything should be stickied and have a golden cover around it. Not because the grudge one has against another, but for the sole reason to understand what the events were that lead to this glorious modifications, the hardships, the mistreatment and ignorance. It all was the powder that led you to show them that they were wrong and they were indeed!
You are thanks to Jeffrey and Orazio at a point where everyone who knows of it is filled with pride & joy that such a magnificent project that has no funding whatsoever is growing by the day. If anything this game will be at some point the most complete sailing RPG that has ever existed.
A feat not many might aknowledge but those who know and expirience it will be forever grateful that they can expirience such an overhaul or better yet such a game version. 😀
Cheers,
Devoidbrah -
January 25, 2017 at 9:00 pm #3510modernknight1Keymaster
Hiya Dennis!
Thanks for the support and the kind words mate. It really means a lot. THANKS!!!!
The only reason I talked about taking this topic down after a few days is that I consider all of this to be so petty and desperately would like to leave it far behind and in the past. However when those guys continue to dredge it up it just seems to make me more angry than I would ordinarily expect. I usually am very calm and cool, but these guys kind of touch a nerve or something.
They say that I’ve injured them and hurt people. HOW? By leaving? They were the ones that banned me without warning and they just couldn’t comprehend the repercussions. But they blame me instead of looking at themselves as the architects of the path forward. It illustrates very limited & compartmentalized self-centered thinking along absolute black and white lines. “Only SITH deal in absolutes.” LOL
After what you say, perhaps I will leave it up longer. Jeffrey and I had a discussion about it yesterday and I told him that the toxicity of this old argument might scare new people away and I definitely DO NOT want to do that.
Oh yeah and one other thing I need to note. I am not in the least anti-semitic. Some of my very favorite authors and musicians are Jews and I truly have the utmost respect and admiration for them. However I am VERY ANTI NWO, anti-globalist and ANTI-Zionist. That said, your mention of the Holocaust sets me off to remind people that there were a lot of other NON-Jewish people killed in the Holocaust to the tune of around 11 million that are never talked about which I think is un-excusable. I think many Russian people also laugh at this because they lost 65 million during the bolsheviks and another 40 million during WW2 and Stalin’s purges. So the Russian people lost over 100 million people during the 20th century. And just because I know Russian history REALLY WELL (MA in History & retired Army colonel remember) that does not make me a “Russian Knight”. LMAO. Did the Russians even have knights? I guess Boyars are the equivalent. Right?
Any other opinions on this topic and if I should keep it up or take it down?
MK
- This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
-
January 26, 2017 at 6:20 pm #3524DevoidbrahParticipant
Well I brought the Holocaust up as an example that there are events which should be remembered ever so often, I could have picked evenly the 100 years war or the “cleansing” that you mentioned that was orchistrated by Josef Stalin and Trotzki. Im no Jew and I didnt take you as antisemitic so no harm on either side. Maybe I picked the wrong example in that one. Another example I would have taken instead might be the Rise and Fall of Rome, a structure that shows how an upstart nation can accomplish so much through working together, only to be brought down by their own sons and their decadence that was their main downfall. If we want to learn about ourselves we just need to look at the known aspects of history and we can see ourselves in those fragments. Today as thousands years ago, people were and still are motivated by the same few things. Reminding oneself of off this helps us be down to earth and realistic, because only when we looked on all sides of the sphere we just might aquire knowledge and a bigger picture.
To answer your questions on the medieval rus, in the feudal russian system we had Bogatyrs and vityaz as the equivalent type for knights. They formed up groups of household type knights who defended areas in a different manner than the germanic nobles and knights did. When no war or crimes happened, these “knights” were usually labouring hard in their homesteads and living with their families, not ruling over them but actually working with them together. Now when war times arrose or threats were bordering their lands, they banded together, donned their battleready armour and went to war. They were called “Drushinas” as derived from the viking battle groups that manned ships. This was upheld up to the 16th century. The ideal feudal system started to change in the 13th-14th century as more and more these Bogatyrs grew richer and wealthier and copied parts of the feudal system of the west. But they changed it to a point where the peasants were more slaves than property. It took sadly a path to the worst and remained in that frozen state up to Peter the Great who reformed the Russian Empire to be more “modern”.
here are a few pictures:
Their armor was similar to the Islamic Warriors of the 13th-14th era with a distinct favour for halberd type axes paired with bows as secondary weaponry. The reason for this was most likely the Byzantine influence, that was paired with the Viking and Mongol influence, since most Russian noble houses came originally from the Vikings who were invited to protect and rule over big parts of the weastern parts of Russia.
Coriously enough these axetypes outlived the bow and were even used up to the middle of the 17th century and those axes were used as arquebuse stands for those soldiers who could afford and wield a rifle. -
January 26, 2017 at 6:38 pm #3525DevoidbrahParticipant
This:
Evolved into this:
-
January 26, 2017 at 7:28 pm #3526modernknight1Keymaster
Very cool Dennis! So are these Bogatyrs a derivation of the word Boyar? Very interesting and thank you for sharing the medieval history piece. I am way more knowledgeable of Russian history from the rise of the Muscovite Trading company through Pieter the Great up to WWI. It’s no surprise to me that the medieval Russian military adopted the Viking military customs/tactics/formations. I mean hey… many people don’t realize that RUS (as in Rus in Russia) is their word for Vikings that was used back during the time of the Viking eastern expansion and raiding/trading down the Volga to the Black Sea where they traded with the Byzantines. The Vikings I believe are a big reason behind why so many Russian people are so good looking. Viking plus Slav often equals very good looking people – especially the girls.
I remember when I was stationed in Germany that we would exchange officers as part of the SALT II treaty. They would come and inspect our facilities and make certain we were not hiding any nuclear capable material that could be used at the tactical level. Nuclear artillery rounds had been made illegal and they were all destroyed. My first unit in Germany had not yet deactivated so we still had nuclear capable M110 8-inch howitzers. We used to joke that we would fire the nuclear round and then turn around and run and hope we could get away from our own impact. kinda scary that we used to have those things.
Anyway I digress, once they were all gone we had to go around painting the storage container locks yellow to show they were in accordance with treaty. Our inspector was often a Ukrainian female captain. OMG I have never seen a woman before or since that looked so good in a uniform! I mean sergeants would be yelling at their men in formation to keep their “eyes front” because the men could not help but stare at this vision of beauty. Even now all of these years later I remember exactly what she looked like. Ah to be young again…
EDIT: I failed to mention that I was an artillery lieutenant at the time and was her escort officer who had to go everywhere with her, take her to eat, etc… where ever she wanted to go….
Anyway enough digression. You guys all know its very easy to get me off in a tangent or to follow an non-related rat hole. I would rather have this discussion than talk about the slander above anyway. LOL
MK
- This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
-
January 27, 2017 at 2:25 am #3531modernknight1Keymaster
If you want to know the real truth they say a picture is worth a thousand words. PA!’s admins may not understand this because they never listened very well. Below is the REAL singular reason why I was so upset and what led to my posts being deleted, the admins just ignoring it and banning me. Not really fair. My Waterloo with them that I lost….. one word: OLIPHANT
-
March 9, 2017 at 5:58 pm #3816modernknight1Keymaster
Well, It just seems inevitable that the PA! people would continue to be unkind. Someone brought up that our new mod was published over there. So I decided I would respond here because then those who read their very one sided view of things can see the rest of the story here. So this is a sort of BUMP really, but I want to say a few things to answer the comments made on crashes. Here’s the PA! post: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/gentlemen-of-fortune-eras2-2-6-0.28319/
Will no one from over here comment over there on how good their game is running and all of the great new features? There is actually a discussion occurring and it is SURPRISINGLY being allowed – although it seems to have degraded into a NH love fest now.
Jeffrey and I do not understand these few reports of crashing. On our PC’s the game is running fantastic. In my DX9 version after an hour or so of play the memory fills up and I get a little bit of lag in towns. So I quicksave, quit and restart – and everything runs as fast as lightning once again – LIGHTNING I SAY – faster than I’ve ever seen with no lag whatsoever! The fact is that I can’t get the game to crash. So I think you guys reporting this have something set up wrong and need to get in contact with us and report your problems HERE.
Also make sure to look at my recommended TWEAKS: HERE
We have had record days on the website the last few days with hundreds of visitors per day and with 50 to 60 ERAS downloads per day for the last four days. My stories are being read and getting thousands of Facebook likes (look at the bottom of the article pages) so we are getting some MAJOR traffic here now.
With the new version up for over a week now – hundreds of people are playing, yet we get only a few reports of crashes. Jeffrey has been attempting to fix a few graphical glitches/anomalies associated with native DX9. In addition, (SPOILER ALERT) he’s attempting a 64 bit version of the game. If he is successful, all of these VA/VM page filling memory cap issues will be eliminated. There will be no lag at all ever unless its that your system can’t handle the game.
Also consider that Jeffrey has a native DX8 version available for download as well.
So as far as crashes are concerned: For you guys getting crashes, why no reports? Can’t you help us make the game better? Send us your data logs? Please? I suspect that some DL’d the original stuff and then didn’t follow up with Jeffrey’s updates. I also suspect that some people are running the game on low end systems so hardware problems are the issue. I am posting some video tonight to prove how fast the game is working for me and to showcase some of the new features. If you guys are getting lag and have a good solid system, go into the START.ini file and erase the semicolon in front of FPS rate and make sure it’s set to 120.
MK
- This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by modernknight1.
-
July 31, 2017 at 9:20 pm #4329GalleonParticipant
I didn’t mean to cause any problems. I am sorry if I did. Did I say something wrong? I was just trying to find those plans you asked me about MK. Also just as I had successfully contacted YoHoHo, I was trying to contact Chandos or Rider88 as you had also asked me to. Why couldn’t he just answer the questions presented?
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/interesting-ship-plans.17705/page-2
Why is he referring questions to me now on this? If its not a banned subject any longer then why does he say this and why not answer the question?
I am very confused amigos. Could be he’s just gone plum LOCO now.
-
July 31, 2017 at 10:02 pm #4330modernknight1Keymaster
The answer to your last comment is: YES you are correct!
The answer to your first question is: No you didn’t do or say anything wrong. I PM’d you just as you were posting this but will reiterate here – I think it best not to even post there any longer. Simply PM the people you need to communicate with. Best to let him eat static. This will bother him more than any other thing you could do anyway as its always been all about him. Don’t feed the egomaniac.
I was just looking at my last post and I need to correct myself. Your monitor will not be capable of anything beyond 70FPS anyway so instead of setting it to 120 as I said above, 70 would be better.
Thinking out loud I would like to address something else I read over there at PA! a few days ago. I check their site about once a day usually. I was bothered about something said over there and wasn’t going to say anything, but this window of ridiculousness has allowed me an opportunity.
Here’s the commentary thread: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/extreme-difficult-missions.28619/page-2
The specific post that bothered me is number 32 and I will quote here:
QUOTE: “The special procedures are not cheats nor are they program flaws, either in TEHO or other games where they are used, and a lot of people like finding them.
New Horizons has the most mature content of any of the mods, and there is a lot of it. Over many years of development most of the not-quite-good mods have been removed. A lot of the COAS mods are shovelware; meaning they basically shoveled in everything they could find whether it improved the game or not. A lot of people like it this way, just like a lot of people like special procedures needed to win some quest. Some of the additions are pretty good though.
Keep in mind that there is usually a good market for any given feature in a game, even if you or I might not like it.” UNQUOTE
In reference to the “shovelware” comment I think it is pretty clear that he is referring to us and the ERAS mod. I actually really take offense to this as it just sounds like whatever I found I just shoveled in. That is so untrue. I spent hundreds of hours of my life picking out the best of everything and carefully reworking many of the characters, locations, items, weapons and ships. To say I haven’t put my own very personal touches on a huge amount of the content here is doing me a very REAL disservice and I am understandably insulted because its very clear to me that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about at all.
I have had a similar conversation with this guy on the STEAM forum a while back and I find his vision, game-play style, and explanation extremely limited. Not only do I disagree with him, but I am actually going to poke a little fun at him now.
So here is a guy that enjoys the trading aspect of the game and yet he only ever uses Xebecs. WTF. The number of ships encountered in TEHO and vanilla COAS is EXTREMELY limited with no varying hull skin textures for each ship. They have 38 ships in the game and that is including quest ships. So everywhere you go for the entire course of the game you can expect to find the same ships in every national convoy for all nations all of the time with no other variety possible. Do you think this is at all realistic? Imagine going on a journey across the country and seeing the same 30 cars all of the time everywhere you go all of the time – everywhere – and they would always be the same color. Imagine the French cars looking exactly like the German cars and those looking exactly like the American cars. Is that realistic? Is that the kind of immersion you want?
Imagine when you loot chests that it will always be the same very limited items and weapons in the treasure ALL of the time. Is this the kind of pirate game you want?
I believe when he says that New Horizon is the most mature he is simply kissing PA ass and blowing smoke comfortably up you know who’s backside. It is also a clear indicator that he has not even tried our offering.
GUYS, In ERAS we have convoys that consist of merchant ships and escort ships. You will encounter warships and corsairs and everything in between. If its a French convoy or French city you come to you will encounter ships that LOOK FRENCH! If its a Spanish town and Spanish convoy – the ships will CLEARLY be SPANISH! Dutch looks Dutch and English LOOKS English. This guy is a coder by background and has no real historical knowledge of the period. Our own SUPER-CODER Jeffrey has commented to me numerous times that it was the variety and the meticulous historical detail that attracted him to ERAS to begin with!
He is playing the game just to play a generic “pirate” game and doesn’t appreciate finding new items or weapons he’s never seen before at level 30 plus after he has put a hundred hours into that play-through. There is always going to be that uniqueness. He doesn’t appreciate the 600 plus!!! historical ships tailored for the environment. Its a pity. This is the kind of guy that if he ordered fillet mignon, I could simply get away with bringing him a plate of canned dog food and he wouldn’t know the difference.
Just look at all of our different varieties of decks and cabins and characters now. As far as weapons are concerned, I could have doubled the amounts we have now, but chose to carefully chose the best ones out there. Most of the 136 characters are REAL historic personalities and their ships are both the correct kind of ship they would have had at the time and EVEN NAMED the correct historical name!
Add to all of this that a bunch of new locations are just right around the corner and even more ships are in the works. Now historical battle modules are being produced even now and there will be brand new questlines coming – AND the writing is just on the wall for all of these other so called “pirate” games.
HERE’S TO US MY FRIENDS!!! TO BUCCANEERS REEF AND ERAS! CHEERS!!!
MK
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.
-
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
by modernknight1