Setting up your mappack thread properly THE FIRST TIME

Mapping related threads and questions go in here!
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MrCytosine
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Post » 05 May 2012, 15:48

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Hello, I'm MrCytosine, and I'm writing this because I'm sick and tired of having to reply to people to tell them how to set up a thread properly. Now this message won't be perfect because I'm writing and finishing it in one session. This fact also applies to mappack threads, but there are ways to do a pretty good job of setting it up first time. Trust me, it'll help increase the amount of downloads of your mappack. Sure, it's 10 times quicker to slap your keyboard frantically and create a thread in a minute, but by setting up your thread poorly from the start, you're only hurting yourself.

For mappacks that are very early in development, this message holds less relevance, but that doesn't mean you can just put up a download link, and that's it. Please note that this message is only a guide (basically my opinion) to creating a reasonable thread, and it should only be treated as such. You should note that there are other sites and software out there that may be more tailored to your needs that work in a similar sort of way, so don't fret if you don't enjoy using the stuff I use in this message. I will not be telling you how to install the software, because this message is going to be long enough as it is.

All of the screenshots and tutorials were made on a PC running Windows 7, but it should be pretty similar for previous versions. If you own a Mac, I'm sorry, I can't really help you there. Maybe someone else could help me construct another thread for Mac users.

Also, don't ignore this so people yell at you and constantly bump the thread to the top. People absolutely hate it when they go onto a recently bumped thread, only to see it say "Screenshots!".

Well, to quote Mario, "HERE WE GOOOOO!"
Your description is really important, as it'll will give potential downloaders a brief impression of what they're getting into, it should be fairly short, maybe between 2 and 8 lines. No one wants to read 10 minutes of waffling. Try to describe the general feel of the mappack, what you hope to achieve with the rest of it (if it isn't finished), and what makes your mappack interesting to play (maybe it's funny, it has a badass custom tileset etc.). Make it your own, people. You want to show off your mappack as best as possible, so try and make a good first impression.
You should also compress your mappack, as it reduces the size of the mappack, reducing download time. Try to compress your mappack in both filetypes; .zip and .rar. I personally use WinRAR (although WinZIP and 7-Zip are available) as it allows you to compress files to either filetype quickly and easily. I shall now give an illustrated tutorial on how to use WinRAR to archive files in either format:

Step 1: Firstly, you need to find the location of your mappack so you can archive it. You can do this by either searching for %appdata% via the Run application, or by searching it in the Start menu. After this, go to the LOVE folder, then mari0, then mappacks. The mappack you wish to archive will be in this folder (thanks Cheese for reminding me that this step should be here).
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Step 2: Select the file you wish to archive (try to archive the entire mappack folder, as it makes it easier when you are extracting the folder).

Step 3: Right click on it, and select "Add to archive...".
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Step 4: Select the archive format you want, and then click Ok.
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Step 5: When you have done this, you should get 2 archives. It's a good idea to keep track of which archive is which filetype. You can do this by setting up your files and folders to display as details, or by single clicking on the archive, and looking at its properties at the bottom of the screen.
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This is a necessary part, because a file uploading site is the link between Mari0 players and your mappack. Actually, it's kind of surprising how other people screw up other parts so catastrophically, when this part is arguably the hardest to get right. Anyways, lets get on with the tutorial. For this, I'm using MediaFire as my file uploading site (although there are other alternatives, such as HulkShare and RapidShare).

Step 1: Select the file via your chosen site. You need to click the upload button, and find your file in your PC directory.
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Step 2: When you have uploaded your file, copy the link of the file.
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Step 1: In the Mappack thread of the forum, create a new thread, and in the editor, click the URL button. Then, paste the URL of your file between the URL tags.
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Step 2: Preview your thread by clicking the preview button underneath the editor, and make sure your link is working. It should look like your average link.
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If it were me, I would make them in larger text, because it makes it easier to see. Either make it visible when the page instantly loads (pretty close to the top), or have them located right at the very bottom of your first post. Personally, I prefer the second option, because it encourages people to read the entire post, and reduces the chance of people asking stupid questions that could be answered with 10 seconds of reading.

Now don't go clicking the submit button yet, there's still a couple of things you need to do to get your thread to an acceptable standard, such as:
Through my own experience, this is the most common fault with many mappack threads. If I got £1 for every time someone said "Screenshots" as the first reply to any mappack thread, I'd probably have around... £12. This bit is kind of crucial, as people need to see evidence of a good bit of work before they go downloading your pride and joy.

Step 1: You need to find the actual "Print Screen" button on your keyboard (on some Spanish keyboards, it may be called "Impr Pant" or "IMP PNT"). This button allows you to take a picture of whatever is on the screen. It is not necessary to use any software to do this, as some pieces of software require you to click on another window to take a picture, which pauses the game. It's what has allowed me to put up these step by step pictures. The button is present on all modern keyboards, and it's around the top of the keyboard, and slightly to the right. It should say "Prt Sc" on it, or something similar:
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Step 2: Start the Mari0 game, and get the screen exactly how you want it to look on your thread. It's usually a good idea to do this in the "Test Level" mode of the Mari0 editor. Remember, you want to show off your mappack, so try to take screenshots of the best bits. Please, for the love of god, make your screen dimensions ratio 1 or 2, preferably 1. The image doesn't have to take up the entire screen.
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Step 3: Press the Print Screen button. Alternatively, you can hold down the Alt Key, and then press Prt Sc. This allows you to take a snapshot of the current window you're in.

Step 4: Paste your screenshot onto a image editing program (I use Paint.NET, but you can use alternatives, such as MS Paint or Gimp). Then save your screenshot (I would recommend saving it as a .png file, as it keeps the screenshot quality the same).
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Like your file sharing site, your photo uploading site is the middle man between Mari0 players and your screenshots. The process is similar to uploading files, too. I personally use photobucket, but there are alternatives (e.g. Flickr, Tinypic and Imgur).

Step 1: Select the photo via your chosen site. You need to click the upload button, and find your file in your PC directory.
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Step 2: When you have uploaded your file, copy the link of the file.
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Step 1: In your thread, click the Img button. Then, paste the URL of your image between the Img tags.
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Step 2: Preview your thread by clicking the preview button underneath the editor, and make sure your photo is working. It should look exactly like your screenshot.
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If you've made it this far, congratulations! You are now part of I'd say around 15% of people who, in my opinion, know that they're doing with a thread. Give yourself a pat on the back, eat some chocolate, stab yourself, I don't care what you do to celebrate, because it ain't my business. At this point, you can upload your thread, and people won't yell at you.

Here, you deserve this:
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(I've been waiting ages for an excuse to use that image)

However, there are other things you can do to further improve your thread, such as:
Title Image - If you can make a picture to help display what it's called and what it's all about, people get a better impression of what they're getting into.

Tileset - If you're using a custom tileset to make this mappack, and only if you really want to release it, you can put an image of your tileset on your thread, in a similar sort of way to screenshots.

Version History - If you haven't made the mappack and finished it in one go, you can go create a version history for every update of your mappack. It gives the impression to others that you're dedicated to your mappack, and it'll be improved constantly. You may also wish to put up download links to outdated versions if you so desire.

Trailers - Now this is for advanced mappack makers. If you can get a decent trailer made, it will really help to show off your mappack, as it combines sound, animation, and anything else you want to throw in there. There are a couple of people in the forums who could help you make a trailer. I won't list them here, because I'm fairly sure they don't want to be bombarded with thousands of requests. Just go search a little.

Help Meeee! - If you're really stuck with an idea or a mechanic, you can post a "Things I Need Help With" section in your thread. Don't worry, the people in this forum aren't jerks, someone will help you (unless you're working on The Gauntlet, then you're screwed for help).

Page Breakers - You can also put in a really thin image of a line across the page, to help divide the sections of text up (I've done it for this thread using the page breakers I used for the Gauntlet). Really, its only purposes are to make your thread look sexy, and to improve readability, so it's not completely necessary.

Resized Windows - Another thing you can do is to resize your Mari0 window dimensions. This is helpful if you want to do some sort of panoramic screenshot. Here's how (brought by Trosh):

Step 1: Open up the .love with your usual method (extract or read .love with whatever program you used to archive your mappack folder).

Step 2:Edit the main.lua file : Change line 38 to:

Code: Select all

width = 50
Step 3: Save the file. run the .love again

This setting should make the game window twice as large, and the game should work accordingly. This allows to see more of the screen in one picture, although it will reduce system performance and makes casual play less enjoyable. Of course, you can change the value to whatever you see fit.
Well, it looks like that's about it for now. Remember that this is just my opinion, and the most important thing to take away from this is to use your own judgement. If there are any suggestions for other things that should be included, just write a message below, and I'm definitely not giving a tutorial on message writing.

Thank you for reading,
MrCytosine
Last edited by MrCytosine on 11 Mar 2015, 15:13, edited 10 times in total.

cheese
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Post » 05 May 2012, 15:54

AWSOME!

Camewel
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Post » 05 May 2012, 15:59

This is a 5 star topic right here. Good work.

cheese
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Post » 05 May 2012, 16:05

Sticky this admins!

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kyudoxp
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Post » 05 May 2012, 17:12

awesome, maurice should PIN this in the forum!

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MrCytosine
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Post » 05 May 2012, 17:18

Aww, thanks everyone for the positive feedback.

But honestly, if there is anything, ANYTHING, that the message needs, just write about it below. It can only get better. We can't get rid of human stupidity forever, but we can damn well try. As Albert Einstein once said: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

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kyudoxp
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Post » 05 May 2012, 17:22

one thing you should think, in some keyboard it say INS IMP PNT instead, this is confusing.

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MrCytosine
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Post » 05 May 2012, 18:13

kyudoxp wrote:one thing you should think, in some keyboard it say INS IMP PNT instead, this is confusing.
Are you using a Spanish keyboard or a keyboard from a Spanish manufacturer, by any chance? It seems that, from the very brief research I've done, that the INS IMP PNT key is probably a combination of an INSert key, and an IMPr PaNT key (Impr Pant is the Spanish equivalent of the Print Screen button).

If that's the case, and the Insert and Impr Pant functions are located on the same button, then it's probable that you need to hold down an additional Function key, before you hit IMP PNT (there should be a button called Fn near the bottom left of the keyboard, try that). To be honest, that's gotta suck when you want to take a screenshot of a specific window, because then you will have to hold 2 keys, and press a third.

If INS and IMP PNT are located on different keys, though (from my research, it seems that Impr Pant is combined with a plethora of useless functions), then the IMP PNT function should perform exactly like the Prt Sc button, which means no additional keys required.

I'll get onto changing the message to accommodate users of Spanish keyboards.

cheese
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Post » 05 May 2012, 21:21

I could send you a picture of a laptop keyboard because you have to press fn

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Sky
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Post » 05 May 2012, 21:22

WELL DONE!

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MrCytosine
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Post » 05 May 2012, 21:31

cheese wrote:I could send you a picture of a laptop keyboard because you have to press fn
That would be nice, thanks.

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RWLabs
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Post » 05 May 2012, 21:47

This should solve about half of all retarded threads out there.

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trosh
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Post » 05 May 2012, 23:07

nice :D good work, well summed up.
just because it's really annoying me, could you also add imgur.com in the list of image hosting sites ? it's dumb but everyone uses it around here so ehh you know.
also why don't you do a small thing about making your game window bigger if you want to show more in one image ? (main.lua, change width to 50 or so if you wish)
this reminds me a <hr /> element would be useful for the forum. and probably very easy to add.

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MrCytosine
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Post » 05 May 2012, 23:38

trosh wrote:nice :D good work, well summed up.
just because it's really annoying me, could you also add imgur.com in the list of image hosting sites ? it's dumb but everyone uses it around here so ehh you know.
also why don't you do a small thing about making your game window bigger if you want to show more in one image ? (main.lua, change width to 50 or so if you wish)
this reminds me a <hr /> element would be useful for the forum. and probably very easy to add.
Don't worry, I'll add imgur to the list. To be honest, I can't really believe I forgot that one. With the game window resizing thing, I could put that in the "Other Things You Can Do" section (because it isn't essential), but someone would have to either show me how to do that (just screenshots, probably), or write the section themselves in a similar style for me, and I'll stick it in.
Last edited by MrCytosine on 05 May 2012, 23:45, edited 1 time in total.

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trosh
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Post » 05 May 2012, 23:45

open up the .love with your usual method (extract or read .love with winrar, whatever) and then edit the main.lua file : Change line 38 to something like

Code: Select all

width = 50
and then save the file. run the .love again and the game window should be twice as large, and the game should work accordingly. This allows to see more of the screen in one picture though it reduce performance and makes casual play less enjoyable.

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Sašo
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:20

A++ thread. Added anchors to bbcode and edited post to use them.

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MrCytosine
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:34

Sašo wrote:A++ thread. Added anchors to bbcode and edited post to use them.
Thanks for that, Sašo. I did not know about the anchors thing, that makes it a lot easier to navigate.

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Sašo
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:34

That's because I added them 15 minutes ago.

Camewel
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:39

Saso, your anchors are placed slightly wrong, it makes you scroll past the title.

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MrCytosine
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:40

Sašo wrote:That's because I added them 15 minutes ago.
Man, I'm stupid. It even shows in my screenshots that the anchor tags aren't there.

Maurice
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:42

Camewel wrote:Saso, your anchors are placed slightly wrong, it makes you scroll past the title.
Not for me.

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MrCytosine
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Post » 06 May 2012, 14:51

Camewel wrote:Saso, your anchors are placed slightly wrong, it makes you scroll past the title.
I think the same thing is happening to me.

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Sašo
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Post » 06 May 2012, 15:29

Fine, fixed. Now it should work well enough on terrible browsers too.

cheese
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Post » 06 May 2012, 16:27

gotsome images
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Image
ill/send/a/image/of/how/to/do/it/with/7-zip/later
/sorry/my/space/key/is/broken

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Superjustinbros
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Post » 06 May 2012, 21:06

Hey MrCytosine, I bet you feel so accomplished that now your topic has been pinned to the top of the mapping board.

EDIT: I take that back. Sorry if that made you hate me in any way.
Last edited by Superjustinbros on 15 May 2012, 19:07, edited 1 time in total.

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Zlmpery
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Post » 07 May 2012, 01:27

Sašo wrote:A++ thread. Added anchors to bbcode and edited post to use them.
Thanks for the anchors Sašo, I just added them to my hat collection thread. It certainly makes it a lot easier to navigate.

On topic: This is a great thread that deserved to be stickied. Hopefully some newcomers will use this guide to help them.

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LightningFire
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Post » 08 May 2012, 20:29

I would use it if this wouldn't be such a big wall of text. It would be better if you make it shorter, but I think this will end up in a no.

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cavejohnson99
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Post » 10 May 2012, 13:07

Thanks for this, it's really helpful! That helped me make my mappack thread, so thanks!

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MrCytosine
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Post » 10 May 2012, 19:58

LightningFire wrote:I would use it if this wouldn't be such a big wall of text. It would be better if you make it shorter, but I think this will end up in a no.
You're right, it would be better if I could remove some of the text. However, pretty much all of it needs to be there, and I've tried to counteract this by putting in page dividers and splitting up the text into smaller paragraphs. I think the only part of the message that really suffers is the introduction, and after I've written this I'll look into cutting parts out of the intro.

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mikewalker11
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Post » 18 Jun 2012, 19:50

one of the first threads i read, i don't regret it.

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Firaga
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Post » 02 Jul 2012, 18:46

Wow. This is just outstanding. Before, my threads looked like a piece of... well... nm, but now they look AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH! ^_^

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Mari0Maker
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Post » 29 Jul 2012, 23:09

Wow, this will help me so much when I start making mappacks. Thanks for making this thread!

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HuperHardBros
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Post » 09 Dec 2012, 16:52

i cant do it it just says image
im using imigr btw

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Mari0Maker
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Post » 10 Dec 2012, 03:55

HuperHardBros wrote:i cant do it it just says image
im using imigr btw
Well, if you're copying the link when you post it to Imgur, that won't work. You need to click on the picture once it's uploaded, then copy the link. Then all you have to do is put the [img] codes around the URL (Website Address).

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Post » 17 Feb 2013, 09:21

MrCytosine wrote:Aww, thanks everyone for the positive feedback.

But honestly, if there is anything, ANYTHING, that the message needs, just write about it below. It can only get better. We can't get rid of human stupidity forever, but we can damn well try. As Albert Einstein once said: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
after this where would the screenshot go please reply immidietly i want to amke a screenshot so badd :C

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PortalSnivy
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Post » 18 Feb 2013, 00:30

MrCytosine i need you to make a thread called how do you get a online mappack working on mari0? ok i need help on that.

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Legend_of_Kirby
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Post » 18 Feb 2013, 03:00

I was an idiot
Last edited by Legend_of_Kirby on 18 Feb 2013, 06:56, edited 1 time in total.

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TripleXero
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Post » 18 Feb 2013, 05:53

I think you misunderstood what they were asking

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Legend_of_Kirby
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Post » 18 Feb 2013, 06:55

Yes I did.

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Gramanaitor
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Post » 20 Jun 2013, 01:19

Extremely helpful! I'm actually working on two mappacks right now and this will is exactly what I need!

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HowToEatGirafes
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Post » 07 Feb 2014, 08:55

The "print screen" doesn't work for me, i haven't the capture tool in my computer but i have windows 7 starter edition

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Sky
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Post » 07 Feb 2014, 09:47

HowToEatGirafes wrote:The "print screen" doesn't work for me, i haven't the capture tool in my computer but i have windows 7 starter edition
After you press the key, the picture is copied to your clipboard. You have to paste it into a program like Paint, Photoshop, or GIMP.

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Superjustinbros
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Post » 07 Feb 2014, 14:50

Hint from a pro. You can also hold Alt before you press Print Screen to copy just the active window, therefore you won't have to worry about cropping out whatever else is in the background.

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crazyal02
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Post » 08 Feb 2014, 01:39

Also, if you're on a mac and don't have printscreen you can use Grab or a similar program to take screenshots

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Turtle95
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Post » 08 Feb 2014, 22:53

crazyal02 wrote:Also, if you're on a mac and don't have printscreen you can use Grab or a similar program to take screenshots
Or you know, use Command+Shift+3. It'll be on your desktop.

Vattler
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Post » 02 Mar 2014, 19:12

Thanks! You totally helped me out! I've added some screenshots to my post and also, you're the one who taught me how to make a map more interesting!

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Post » 26 May 2014, 15:24

MrCytosine wrote:Image
I want your keyboard.
(I just like those types of keyboards and can't find a good one. I don't know why I like them.)

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Shank
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Post » 26 May 2014, 16:20

bubba_nate wrote: I want your keyboard.
(I just like those types of keyboards and can't find a good one. I don't know why I like them.)
Image
Why are you even trying?
R.I.P. MrCytosine
May he live on in our hearts.

<3

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Sunset_Moth
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Post » 29 May 2014, 03:11

...I hadn't seen that and I was just saying that because I liked that type of keyboard.

Also, I was banned by my own antivirus from this website, just refused to load it.

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alesan99
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Post » 29 May 2014, 03:26

bubba_nate wrote:Also, I was banned by my own antivirus from this website, just refused to load it.
10/10 best attempt to stay on topic

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