annabellica

Surely I could have packed my words in cotton and worded my comments nicer @Xplorer4x4, you ain't wrong. However, I feel like this community has cared long enough to be as nice as possible trying to get points across and it never worked. A harsher tone was needed to get my point across, and I'm glad it worked. It has sparked major discussions on Discord and I'm glad about the open discourse. My point still stands though. Gatekeeping sucks.

What confusion would accurate edits cause? I find you a lot more confusing, working on Airport apparatus without planning an Airport (?), French Missionspec vehicles (?) and so many more vehicles that make absolutely no sense + that you do not even plan on releasing. You work on Nicklaus ambulances but have completely ignored the Miami Beach Fire Rescue ambulances in its entirety - even though the map is set in Miami Beach. Nicklaus isn’t even anywhere near MB. What even is FHP doing there? There is no FHP in MB. You rarely ever see MDFR in MB - where is the MBFD? A second firestation doesn‘t fix the inaccuracy. You‘d rather see red Miami FR Ambulances than a Dade one. It’s just all so wrong I strongly believe anybody out here making edits makes them for the sake of finally bringing some accuracy to the mod. You make edits for… I don’t even know for what. 99% of the time it makes no sense. These downvotes also just add to the comedic effect, honestly.

How is stating a fact insulting? For years, nobody dared to say it publicly. Do you think it feels amazing being the only person daring to take it to a public forum? It's disappointing, yes. To everybody who has been to Miami, has a general interest in the area, or lives here. Especially those who waited a long time back then. But it wouldn't have been so disappointing if a specific person wouldn't gatekeep edits. There are so many talented people in this community, yet they aren't allowed to edit? If this is not the definition of a fragile ego, I don't know what is. By the way - I do have the skills. I've probably done more things for and in this community than you think - which is fine. Point being is that there's not just me, but many people willing to turn this mod around and make it a true, accurate mod. Yet - we can't. Well, we can.. technically. Technically everybody can do whatever they want. And that's how communities thrive. To be open to change and knowledge, instead of buildings walls.

If you believe what I said was insulting; then that is on you. There absolutely aren't enough modders because mods are being gatekept like this. Any sort of criticism in this community is being met with a shocked Pikachu emoji. People get offended at the smallest things. Ego's crushed by retexturing apparatus. Do you even see what's happening? Have you even read your response to my comment? Did you even fully understand my comment at all? This mod is a living example of why the community is the way it is. "Don't edit" - "Don't retexture" - "Don't showcase". If this mod would be the epitome of a Miami experience, I would understand. But it is FAR from. Different opinions exist, I am not judging yours. I'm just really tired of the way it's already normalized to gatekeep mods due to fragile ego's. So no, I'm not bowing down. If you believe that's a shame and laughable, keep going. Edit: Also, I don't see how I've insulted EM-C. Stating facts is not insulting, it's really needed. Criticism is needed. If we all keep affirming bad practices, we get nowhere. What you get in the end is the EM4 community. Maybe if we wouldn't act like fragile snowflakes, we'd be in a much better position. Admitting when mods aren't the way they're supposed to be and blaming lack of content and skilled modders on gatekeeping the simplest things. Sayonara ♥

Just do it. Realistically, what is EM-C gonna do? Gatekeeping a mod which is extremely mid (nobody dares to admit it) and so unbelievably off in basically every way imaginable is just plain insulting to everybody who lives in the Dade area. This mod is a fever dream of somebody who has no interest in accuracy and completely disregards the actual look and feel of Miami / Miami Beach. EM-C made his own weird version of Miami with this mod - How this has taken over 10 years is still absolutely beyond me. I understand the map texture itself was unchangable until I released my reverse-engineering tool, but it is so incredibly basic and inaccurate. I've talked to A LOT of people in the community over the past 12 months regarding this mod, and nearly every single person agrees (while not always publicly) that this mod is... "not as it should be". Everything about it is wrong. From the bottom of everybodies heart: showcase the edits! Downvotes just prove my point btw. Gatekeeping sucks.

Nice work!

Sure, my discord is linked on my profile here

We have a complete "Context" section on our GitHub page --- Magic

I was honestly worried there was a bug I didn’t catch

EM3 as well as EM4 maps work completely fine. Not sure what you mean with mixed results

It would have probably remained uncracked for another (almost) 17 years if I wouldn't have taken an interest in it, it seems

Much appreciated! Yeah, wish I would've joined the community earlier. It took us about 5 days to crack the format - unbelievable it took 15 years in general.

Hey everyone. Considering this is a tool, not a mod, I believe this is the right place to introduce this. We've worked on a tool which can analyze, modify & decompress *.EFT textures back into a readable and editable format. While this brings a lot of new modding possibilities (considering there was no method to decompress *.EFT files the past 15 years) I have to admit: With great power comes great responsibility. This tool is an important milestone for the EM4 community, however (and I cannot stress this enough) the respectful handling of assets should always be a priority. What can EFTX do? EFTXplorer (EFTX) can read & convert an Emergency EFT texture without using the original TGA texture. This allows you to reprocess "lost" textures or just convert textures whose source is unknown. How does EFTX work? EFTX is a "wrapper" for our LibEFT library. It reads the EFT, analyzes it and converts it via CPU into a readable format. Feel free to read details on our GitHub page! Download EFTX GitHub EFTXplorer Releases - GitHub Direct link to latest release Can you be of help? Feel free to post bugs, suggestions, bug fixes or similar on GitHub under "Issues"! Update 1.3: Fixes: Exporting to TARGA (*.tga) now exports to the correct 24-bit format. All other export options will export 32-bit RGBA. New features: You can now drag and drop an .EFT file to import it Large Preview option. Double-clicking .EFT files and opening them with EFTX as a standard option will open them in a large Preview window. Adjustments: EFTX now has an icon.

You know I do have vehicle liveries ranging from the red MBFR Ambulance, MDPD / MBPD Crime Scene Unit vehicles to MPD vehicles ready. In case you want to include any of these in any future updates, let me know! Instead of doing the work twice it'd make more sense to just include it in case it's planned because tbh it makes a lot of sense xd

Thanks for your reply - but it collides with everything. As far as I can see, it's a Miami-Dade mod, not a Miami Beach mod. You rarely ever see MDPD in Miami Beach anyway and I'm sure the fact MB was chosen for the map is simply because of EM4's size limitations. Y'all add Nicklaus CH vehicles which are in Doral and no where near Miami Beach, however Miami PD vehicles (which helps the MBPD on various occassions, Art Basel for example) are too far out of reach? 99% of the Law Enforcement Vehicles are just "reskins" - what else are the FHP vehicles in there for then? The FHP doesn't even have a station in Miami Beach. And with your focus on Miami Beach, you completely forgot that Miami Beach has its own iconic red FR Ambulance. Yes, it's only a reskin - but it's an iconic vehicle and supplements the entire experience of the mod. Gatekeeping this is honestly just limiting yourself. Also, with your focus on Miami Beach: The only real hospital in Miami Beach is Mt. Sinai. The livery used on ambulances transporting to Mount Sinai is usually "AA / American Ambulance". Why would something even further away than Hialeah have a higher priority than things that are absolutely trivial? (Nicklaus lol)