Elrond

[Elrond]

Hey folks, I'm bad at intro's so I'll give you the down-to-the-point version of what I call...'me'...

Username: Elrond
Other names I've used: [gOP] Elrond, [pGA] Elrond, Elrond_the_White, JoshpGA, pGAJosh (in game names in battle for middle earth because there's already like 10 elrond's there LoL).

Real Name: Joshua B.
Age: 23.
Birthday: June 5, 1982.
Gender: Male (duh).
Local Nation: United States
Local State: Pennsylvania (PA)
Local City: (New Rivendell) - not the real name of the town btw, *cough* not yet. Mwahahahahahaha.

Educational Experience: Bachelor's Degree in Earth Science and Computer Science (to be upgraded by this fall hehe - the big guy on campus is about to be the big guy on campus again).

Coursework:
- Earth Science:
-- General Geology (duh duh duh easy A)
-- Environmental Geology
-- Paleontology
-- Historical Geology
-- Biology (2 courses)
-- Chemistry (3 courses)
-- Physics (4 courses)
-- Mineralogy
-- Petrology
- Computer Science:
-- C++ (five courses, I still use it sometimes)
-- ASM (Assembly Programming) - 1 semester
-- Java and JavaScript (one year)
-- SQL (1 semester, did kinda crappy, got a C, kinda using it now, but with bad results)
-- php, asp.net (2 courses, did very well, still use php a lot)
- Education (Teaching):
-- Completed 30 credits in this; however, did not want to go into student teaching because of some things I learned about our state's education policies that I thought were lame and I knew I would not like it then.

(WTH am I making, a resume. I'm so used to making these and reading these that I don't know how to just plain introduce myself LoL, and nope, never used LoL in a resume - except once - and I got hired because of that LoL. No kidding).

Relationships: Wife: Amy H., now Amy B. Most loving person ever to live, ever, saved my life at least three times.

Interests: Coding and making modifications to sites (when it works), going to the park and walking and talking with Amy, going to the movies with Amy, hanging out with friends, running the server, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, digital photography, taking digital video, editting digital video, architecture, architectural drafting, and best and foremost, just love.

Quirks:
- I often have been known to get really depressed and blame everything on myself. Ended up in the hospital for it a few times in just this year.
- Unnecessary honesty (such as even mentioning that I get that depressed because people probably think I'm weird for mentioning it).
- I get huge amounts of time where I have no motivation at all towards anything.
- I'm nervous around large groups of people.
- I oftentimes find that I am getting advice from people younger than me and that kinda gives me a complex of "oh, I must be a moron."
- I have insomnia and can't get to sleep if a boxer tries to knock me out.
- When I DO get to sleep, sometimes a nuclear explosion couldn't wake me (well, it probably wouldn't anyways as I wouldn't be able to get up if a bunch of radiation poisons me). LoL I'm such a geek LoLoL.
- I'm quite forgetful and have forgotten things that I heard 2 seconds ago. Fish have a higher tolerance of memory sometimes LoL. Yet I can remember things that happened 20 years ago.
- Very infrequently has anyone ever seen me actually cry. But I cry when I hear sad music, even joyful music. I'm really a cry-baby when it comes down to it, but few have seen that side of me. Amy has seen me cry though, quite a few times.

Positive Traits:
- I find myself giving advice on a regular basis, the thing is it's advice I usually myself don't follow, so I end up being a hypocrit, but it's all good LoL.
- I'm very serious when I have to be, but I always like to throw a little humor into (most) situations (not all situations though because there's some things that just aren't funny and are wrong on like 10 different levels).
- I'm cute (according to Amy).
- I'm smart (again, according to Amy).
- I will cry whenever Amy cries, no matter where we are.
- I stand for the right things (my friends, my family, and love). Never have I really hated anyone. I have said it before when I'm angry or full of despair, but I never mean it.
- When I was younger, no one took me seriously. These days, I kind of am completely the opposite. Everyone knows that when I'm joking, I'm joking, and when I'm serious, I'm serious.
- I have my own faith that is different from any organized faith on the planet, a faith built on common sense, logic, and of course, when it comes down to it, faith in God. To me, it is not necessary to discuss religion because to me, everyone knows in one way or another what is right and wrong. It just depends on what people choose to do, to follow the light, or hide in the shadows. I would consider myself one who follows the light.
- I work to better myself so that those around me are not burdened by me.
- I appreciate change, but I still know that when something's not broke you don't fix it.


And that's my intro. It was hard to begin, but it was easy to start rambling and posting a full autobiography.

 

[Majestic]

Welcome to the new MSFC mate.

 

[Elrond]

Thanks dude. Now we'll just wait and see when Amy posts her's. Oh I can't wait to see what she posts!!!

 

[Queen_Amy]

Guesss what, I'm aboutt to do just that!

Nice place, yall.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks dude. Now we'll just wait and see when Amy posts her's. Oh I can't wait to see what she posts!!!

Any time my friend. We look forward to seeing Amy posts, we need more female members here, I think Borg_queen, Jess and Iccky are getting lonely.

EDIT: Welcome Amy, feel free to start your own Introduction thread as well. Welcome to the site.

 

[Queen_Amy]

Thank you, Mr. Majestic. hehe

- I'm cute (according to Amy).
- I'm smart (again, according to Amy).
- I will cry whenever Amy cries, no matter where we are.

You are cute and smart and more. That's not accordingg to me but anyone who uses theirr mind.

Aww, you admit that you cry. See that's whatt I like to see, someone who admits that they cry. That's sooo sweet. Somehow when we cry together, crying doesn't seeem all so bad at all.

 

[Jess]

Holy crap! That was the longest intro in history!!!! LoL

And don't be worried that we know you cry sometimes... most men won't admit that they do, but I admire the ones that do admit it!

Welcome to the new site! So glad that you reregistered! And brought Amy along too! YAY!

 

[Elrond]

I return from the voids of a mostly-4-year spasm of inactivity. Tis time to reintroduce myself.

Sites been on in the community: AFC, A2files, LotRFiles, TESFiles, and here.

Sites I've run: Some in a past I'd like to leave far behind.

Personality and Views: Shy, reserved, sometimes humble, sometimes arrogant, unpredictable (except not in the dangerous way), oftentimes confused, very boring, pessimistic on most days, hypercynical, sometimes a hypocrite, getting more honest with myself by the day, anti-delusional, agnostic, moderate, says the wrong things at the wrong thing, not afraid to cry, very Data-like when it comes to some emotions, a real pain in the arse, slightly paranoid, infamously memorable or not so at all, here to make reparations for damages I have incurred, here to fight the good fight.

Current afflictions: headache, long-range sensors offline, main power at 50%, shields at 1%, core breach unlikely but possible.

What you can call me: Josh, that guy, some dude, J, Weeeeeeee, and whatever else applies.

What I can do (all depends on motivation): web design, PHP, XHTML, HTML, HTML 5, CSS, ASP.NET C#, Javascript, jQuery, .htaccess, SEO, SQL, graphics such as lolcats, record podcasts, have administrated PHPbb (almost all versions), vB, SMF (including making mods), worked with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't like so I didn't use it for long, and I can play the piano and the guitar.

Anything more: ask

:Y

 

[Hellkite]

I return from the voids of a mostly-4-year spasm of inactivity. Tis time to reintroduce myself.

Sites been on in the community: AFC, A2files, LotRFiles, TESFiles, and here.

Sites I've run: Some in a past I'd like to leave far behind.

Personality and Views: Shy, reserved, sometimes humble, sometimes arrogant, unpredictable (except not in the dangerous way), oftentimes confused, very boring, pessimistic on most days, hypercynical, sometimes a hypocrite, getting more honest with myself by the day, anti-delusional, agnostic, moderate, says the wrong things at the wrong thing, not afraid to cry, very Data-like when it comes to some emotions, a real pain in the arse, slightly paranoid, infamously memorable or not so at all, here to make reparations for damages I have incurred, here to fight the good fight.

Current afflictions: headache, long-range sensors offline, main power at 50%, shields at 1%, core breach unlikely but possible.

What you can call me: Josh, that guy, some dude, J, Weeeeeeee, and whatever else applies.

What I can do (all depends on motivation): web design, PHP, XHTML, HTML, HTML 5, CSS, ASP.NET C#, Javascript, jQuery, .htaccess, SEO, SQL, graphics such as lolcats, record podcasts, have administrated PHPbb (almost all versions), vB, SMF (including making mods), worked with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't like so I didn't use it for long, and I can play the piano and the guitar.

Anything more: ask

:Y

Who are you again ???



Good to have you back my friend.

 

[FahreS]

good to see you here. Do you plan to do some mods again, too?
not that i want to make you do more mods, but i know their quality.

 

[Elrond]

good to see you here. Do you plan to do some mods again, too?
not that i want to make you do more mods, but i know their quality.

Well, I've been doing a lot on the Battle for Middle Earth front, as well as doing some stuff with TES4: Oblivion. I made some successful models so far that I haven't yet released, most of the stuff I keep to myself because when it comes to the internet, I'm just a little bit shy because stuff happened, and things blew up, you know the story that's been told a thousand times by many people.

3dsmax used to be something that scared the **** out of me! Now it's a little easier. Although I use proprietary DDS editing tools for my Battle for Middle Earth modding purposes. I've used Maya as well, much of that for attempting Battle for Middle Earth models. I'm getting better at it, so if I can do that, hopefully I'll be able to go towards some Armada modding.

Unfortunately, my A1 CD is scratched and there's just about no hope for it. My A2 CD just disappears from time to time. I last played A2 like 5 months ago with the Patch Project installed. I still need to look into playing around with Fleet Ops. I'm sure my old laptop would be appropriate for that!

As far as posting some stuff on Filefront, I would, but when I check in from time to time, there seems to be a lot of drama going on (not that there hasn't been on my own site), so I sort of dread posting on Filefront Gaming Forums. When I posted on Filefront during those turbid times, it felt as if it was certainty of a bad day ahead for me. So I just like to keep quiet when it comes to big communities like that. Although, I download anywhere from 15 to 30 files from Filefront on any given week! Winter's a great time for gaming, that's for sure!

 

[Syf]

Hello Elrond. Welcome back. I've missed you bud. Do me a favor and don't be a stranger anymore.

 

[Elrond]

Hello Elrond. Welcome back. I've missed you bud. Do me a favor and don't be a stranger anymore.

Amen brother. I've been here for almost 4 years now, off and on. The next 4 years I'm sure will at least involve me being more active around here. Except for the next few days...going to be away from home till Monday next week. If I get access I'll be on. Just some family matters.

 

[Syf]

No problems with that. I have those things myself. More than I want sometimes.

I am just glad to see your still here. As far as you modeling and stuff, be sure to show off some of it. Unlike other web places, you will not find mischief run amock here.

Heck. How long have we've known each other... Almost 10 years now (all the way back to the days of AFC).

 

[FahreS]

Well, I've been doing a lot on the Battle for Middle Earth front, as well as doing some stuff with TES4: Oblivion. I made some successful models so far that I haven't yet released, most of the stuff I keep to myself because when it comes to the internet, I'm just a little bit shy because stuff happened, and things blew up, you know the story that's been told a thousand times by many people.

3dsmax used to be something that scared the **** out of me! Now it's a little easier. Although I use proprietary DDS editing tools for my Battle for Middle Earth modding purposes. I've used Maya as well, much of that for attempting Battle for Middle Earth models. I'm getting better at it, so if I can do that, hopefully I'll be able to go towards some Armada modding.

Unfortunately, my A1 CD is scratched and there's just about no hope for it. My A2 CD just disappears from time to time. I last played A2 like 5 months ago with the Patch Project installed. I still need to look into playing around with Fleet Ops. I'm sure my old laptop would be appropriate for that!

As far as posting some stuff on Filefront, I would, but when I check in from time to time, there seems to be a lot of drama going on (not that there hasn't been on my own site), so I sort of dread posting on Filefront Gaming Forums. When I posted on Filefront during those turbid times, it felt as if it was certainty of a bad day ahead for me. So I just like to keep quiet when it comes to big communities like that. Although, I download anywhere from 15 to 30 files from Filefront on any given week! Winter's a great time for gaming, that's for sure!

From my knowledge the a2files community is one of the friendliest you could find. Most responses to mods are either positive or helpful. You just shouldnt care about the votes...
And if someone comments in a negative way, there are two possibilities:
1) Thunderfoot tells him to be friendly, and some other will follow thunderfoot, or
2) The person will be banned from Freyr

Another opportunity is releasing your mods to this site, MSFC! Because on this site you will find only the best, friendliest and most helpful people from a2files.


And about your a2 cd, if you have find it, create an image!!!

 

[Syf]

Indeed, Even I have backups of the disc and backups of them, and images of the CD backed up. Can never be to sure of one of your prized possessions.

And for the most part, I agree A2Files is not a bad place. The few that make it feel unwelcome are ones that will get what they have coming to them in due time. Sadly, the number of members also increases the number of bad members. Those people, while they may get away with things for a limited amount of time, eventually will meet their end on such a site. All we have to remember is we are better then them simply by not reacting in a fashion that only encourages them. While I do not control such matters there, I do know that the staff here will not stand by and allow such ill-manners to escape unpunished. And I believe the staff there really do strive for the same goal. They just have a larger pool to swim in. In most cases comments from people are not intended to be hurtful. Misunderstood at times is more so the case. I have witnessed that on too many occasions.

 

[Achilles]

ha, I had no idea you were still knocking around! I still fly the elven cube in my home build, innovative design.

 

[Elrond]

Thanks, and yea, A2files itself is cool. Going to the forums IMHO...not advisable in all cases, unless you don't easily offend people. I easily offend and tick off people, so I tend to keep my distance from things I know will make me ladder bait eventually xD.

Ey Achilles! Been a long time! I'm glad you're still using the Elven Cube design. In effect, what you can do is retexture it to be a Borg ship, and retexture the pods too, and then you end up with what is basically a tactical cube that can remove its own tactical armor.

Now that I think about it, I'd like to give something like that a try on A1. In A1 you can give objects multiple class labels. In Armada 2 you can't. This is the main limitation of A2 modding. With the patch project for A2, I'm not sure about class labels, but I know a lot's been added since last I tried it. If the patch project would enable multiple class labels, it would be possible to make...

A starbase that can build pods on top of it that are like shipyards coming out of it. The pods themselves would be able to construct ships, or its own research pods, or whatever else!

In Armada 1, I made a Borg station of some sort that is like a big Borg hyper-pyramid. The thing can build a shipyard, a research station, and resource gathering along with other things on it. I made it back in 2005, never really got around to releasing it. I'll try to dig up the screenshots - some of you may have seen it. They were on my old Phoenix Galactic Alliance site from the long-past. Now...I cannot seem to locate them. I know I have got the mod somewhere there. I'm a packrat like that.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Now that I think about it, I'd like to give something like that a try on A1. In A1 you can give objects multiple class labels. In Armada 2 you can't. This is the main limitation of A2 modding. With the patch project for A2, I'm not sure about class labels, but I know a lot's been added since last I tried it. If the patch project would enable multiple class labels, it would be possible to make...

As far as I know, you can't have multiple classLabels. BUT the patch re-enabled modular stuff. And the replaceWeapon, which makes it a cool addition to the 1.1 install.

 

[Achilles]

oh yeah, the patch project enables the modular yards, thank god for the FO teams work

 

[Elrond]

oh yeah, the patch project enables the modular yards, thank god for the FO teams work

And thank God for the multi-quote system! xD

Gotta love the patch project!

I play BFME (Battle for Middle Earth) a lot, and there are model surface conditions that enable things such as the Balrog being able to take an electric bolt hit from Gandalf, and the Balrog's surface texture is affected...almost like skin shields. So...that being said, it'd be interesting to see how Battle for Middle Earth could be modified to include Star Trek models. The game operates off of commandsets, making just about anything possible. The weapon FX are quite advanced (mainly because it's just a more recent game than Armada) and that's a plus too. Somebody was working on a Star Wars mod for BFME2: Rise of the Witch-King, and although that project I believe was canceled, space physics are possible in the game as well, so that was interesting too.

As far as I know, you can't have multiple classLabels. BUT the patch re-enabled modular stuff. And the replaceWeapon, which makes it a cool addition to the 1.1 install.

Yea, Armada 2 had no support for multiple class labels, yet Armada 1 did have that support - it may have been an oversight in the game development to allow that in Armada 1, and apparently it was just removed in Armada 2. I don't know how removing something like that was considered a good idea, but I would imagine the developers saw something like that as something similar to a program bug, so they removed it in Armada 2.

The patch definitely was a God-send for Armada 2. Last I played the game, I was playing that with the physics project, plus the Fed and Klingon compilations mods. In my personal mod of that, I had added some things from Xtreme Mod (A1) that I could add, and that was nice.

The weapon pods idea, although not thought on back when Xtreme mod was released for A1, was done in that mod - the one Cardassian ship in that mod enabled weapon pods that had special energy limits, so it would simulate a sort of an ammunition system. In theory, if every weapon in the game is made into a special weapon that auto-fires like any regular weapon, the simulation of limited ammunition is possible. Then it's only an idea of having to "refill" or in this case "recharge" the special energy of a pod.

Sorry, got off-topic. I remember that this is the stuff I left off with when I got into the phase when I wasn't modding the game much (back in late-2005, early 2006).

 

[Achilles]

The patch definitely was a God-send for Armada 2. Last I played the game, I was playing that with the physics project, plus the Fed and Klingon compilations mods. In my personal mod of that, I had added some things from Xtreme Mod (A1) that I could add, and that was nice.

The weapon pods idea, although not thought on back when Xtreme mod was released for A1, was done in that mod - the one Cardassian ship in that mod enabled weapon pods that had special energy limits, so it would simulate a sort of an ammunition system. In theory, if every weapon in the game is made into a special weapon that auto-fires like any regular weapon, the simulation of limited ammunition is possible. Then it's only an idea of having to "refill" or in this case "recharge" the special energy of a pod.

Hail the Xtreme mod. Got me wanting to make my own conversion. I learnt by scanning through that mod, picking Kleotol's brain and bothering the Warlords moddiing guild... I feel old now. My first major release was the Xtreme addon mod, I think I ended up adding bugs to the mod still gotta start somewhere.

 

[Majestic]

Elrond you'd be surprised what FlOps itself has done recently. They even allow mods to be released on their mod, as long as you abide by there guidelines which are pretty straightforward. Oh and they don't allow their units to be ported out and put into a standard game.

But I am considering of making a mod on their platform. They have heaps of features that actually make A2 into almost a completely new game.

Hail the Xtreme mod. Got me wanting to make my own conversion. I learnt by scanning through that mod, picking Kleotol's brain and bothering the Warlords moddiing guild... I feel old now. My first major release was the Xtreme addon mod, I think I ended up adding bugs to the mod still gotta start somewhere.

Yes we all do. I remember my first mod, adding the Dauntless class into A1. No install instructions either so I have to look and at other downloads to get it to work.

But I really like enjoy the Xtreme mod and the Millennium Projects the best back then. I love looking back at those days when A1 was in it's height and A2 hadn't even been released yet.

 

[Elrond]

Hail the Xtreme mod. Got me wanting to make my own conversion. I learnt by scanning through that mod, picking Kleotol's brain and bothering the Warlords moddiing guild... I feel old now. My first major release was the Xtreme addon mod, I think I ended up adding bugs to the mod still gotta start somewhere.

Aye, I played that game online so many times, and played many mods with a new Excalibur (2450's era) model (one huge ship on the map, so everything had to be scaled smaller). Added all kinds of special weapons and stuff, but never released the ships. I played that mod of the Xtreme mod on A1 online with folks such few may remember here, such as brobrodeel, Shadow Phoenix, Blindeye (maybe), and Admiral Krause (a member who I met when Ryan's Twilight Team was still together in 2005).

One of the Borg addons was a Borg station that I think I mentioned here, that allowed multiple class labels. You had a resource collector, shipyard, research center, weapons and armor pods, shield regeneration platforms, a type of phase cloaking that could be used while fired, and this station could move, making it far more devastating. It really was over-kill. I'll be posting a screenshot if I can find it.

Elrond you'd be surprised what FlOps itself has done recently. They even allow mods to be released on their mod, as long as you abide by there guidelines which are pretty straightforward. Oh and they don't allow their units to be ported out and put into a standard game.

But I am considering of making a mod on their platform. They have heaps of features that actually make A2 into almost a completely new game.



Yes we all do. I remember my first mod, adding the Dauntless class into A1. No install instructions either so I have to look and at other downloads to get it to work.

But I really like enjoy the Xtreme mod and the Millennium Projects the best back then. I love looking back at those days when A1 was in it's height and A2 hadn't even been released yet.

I'm definitely itching to test that old A1 Borg mobile station out again!