At 10/11/16 03:58 PM, Shantom wrote:

At 10/11/16 02:58 PM, HerbieG wrote: Thanks for such a fast response :-) By the way, any success in checking the other games I mentioned lately?

We already discussed what you mentioned here with the other mods (few days ago).
Right now, we can just remove medals if they're not working. This may not be the best solution. Some users worked hard to earn these old medals. They don't deserve to lose them just because they don't work anymore.
At the same time, new users should be able to earn all existing medals. It's not fair that old users earned medals that can't be earned anymore. Both users should be equal.

So, in other words, we're trying to find a way to satisfy both users. We're not sure how yet but we'll figure it out.

In the meantime, please keep posting the games with broken medals here. It would help ^^

Thanks :>

Edit: Also I already have some of the games you mentioned in lists
List 1
List 2
Try to check if the game is already in these lists or not ^^

I checked these games and you can remove the following ones from the lists because the medals seem to be working:

Monster Arena - last unlock: yesterday
Right-Click Menu Gen. V2 - probably, last unlock: 2 weeks ago
JugglePix - last unlock: 5 days ago, only the first medal is not working
Pirate Clock: The Game - last unlock: 8 days ago
Walls Lite has an error - last unlock: 12 hours ago
Zombie Kids Santas Survival - last unlock: 2 days ago
Portal Panic - last unlock: yesterday
Symphonic TD - Halloween - I just checked that game and unlocked a medal
Blob's Adventure - last unlock: 5 days ago
Melee Man - last unlock: 5 days ago
Cat Astro Phi - last unlock: 8 days ago

And the following ones because the medals from them have been already removed:
Bomboozle 2
Killbot!
Alien Wasp Invasion
Skincraft
Plunge N' Lunge
A Corny Platformer
Vector Rush - I remember reporting this one, the whole game should be removed, because it is not working
JugglePix
Free Fall
word puzzle
Color Invasion
Nine Souls
Spiral Escape
Experimental Shooter

There are also some games medals from which were unlocked 2 weeks ago and the ones that are just hard to get. And of course the secret ones.

As for fairness: if some of the medals from the games from your list were to be removed I would lose about 1000 points, but if they are currently unobtainable - I say: take'em down. I don't want to have any unfair advantage on my account. It's a point of honor.

About unfair advantages: there are 2 more things that still need dealing with: the medals from removed games and the issue I am calling the "overpoints". 1st issue is well known and I really don't see any other solution than removing those medals that nobody can earn anymore. The 2nd one: I mean those miscalculations of points present on many accounts where some people have even double amounts of maximum available points from some games. Nijsse promised to deal with it by resetting the stats, I even reminded him about it some time ago, but he did not respond.

At 10/11/16 06:18 PM, HerbieG wrote: I checked these games and you can remove the following ones from the lists because the medals seem to be working:

Thanks for checking them out :P
These games had at least 1 broken medal, and most of them have been removed already. I'll update this ancient list later. Sorry for the confusion :D

And the following ones because the medals from them have been already removed:

I will try to add them in a different list later. We may need them when we find a solution for the main problem.

As for fairness: if some of the medals from the games from your list were to be removed I would lose about 1000 points, but if they are currently unobtainable - I say: take'em down. I don't want to have any unfair advantage on my account. It's a point of honor.

Well, it's not about the points here. I don't mind losing points either (I probably lost 10k or 20k I'm not sure). If the problem had stopped there than it is fine, but when it keeps happening to old games again and again then we still have a problem. Some of these medals were hard to get, and I know people spent hours and days to earn them. For example, if 'Slaughter Rank: Genocider' medal in Madness Project Nexus stopped working, and let's say we removed it (it's only 1 medal 100pts).. I think users who earned it will rage and may quit medal collecting because of it (100pts but it's worth days and weeks). We should at least keep it as an achievement for them, but that's not fair for new users?
We really need solutions other than removing medals..

1st issue is well known and I really don't see any other solution than removing those medals that nobody can earn anymore.

Agreed.

The 2nd one: I mean those miscalculations of points present on many accounts where some people have even double amounts of maximum available points from some games. Nijsse promised to deal with it by resetting the stats

Many users? PM me few names let me check them out :o
And if there are a lot more, we'll look into it.
Thanks :3

At 10/12/16 12:23 PM, Shantom wrote:

At 10/11/16 06:18 PM, HerbieG wrote: I checked these games and you can remove the following ones from the lists because the medals seem to be working:

Thanks for checking them out :P
These games had at least 1 broken medal, and most of them have been removed already. I'll update this ancient list later. Sorry for the confusion :D

And the following ones because the medals from them have been already removed:

I will try to add them in a different list later. We may need them when we find a solution for the main problem.

As for fairness: if some of the medals from the games from your list were to be removed I would lose about 1000 points, but if they are currently unobtainable - I say: take'em down. I don't want to have any unfair advantage on my account. It's a point of honor.

Well, it's not about the points here. I don't mind losing points either (I probably lost 10k or 20k I'm not sure). If the problem had stopped there than it is fine, but when it keeps happening to old games again and again then we still have a problem. Some of these medals were hard to get, and I know people spent hours and days to earn them. For example, if 'Slaughter Rank: Genocider' medal in Madness Project Nexus stopped working, and let's say we removed it (it's only 1 medal 100pts).. I think users who earned it will rage and may quit medal collecting because of it (100pts but it's worth days and weeks). We should at least keep it as an achievement for them, but that's not fair for new users?
We really need solutions other than removing medals..

I agree that earning some of the medals take a lot of time and it can be extremely disappointing to lose them. But if there is one medal like the one you mentioned, then another one, then another... and one day you get a set of medals that are not working and are worth thousands of points in total. Thousands of points that new gamers will never get a chance to get.

Here is my point of view: Newgrounds need higher standards for games with medals. As for the old medals - there is no solution. If the authors of the games aren't around anymore - there is no way that those medals can be fixed. But as for the new ones in the future...
I know that there was a time when all medals had to be approved. Most of those medals still work and there are no problems with them. I'm not sure if there is any come back to it, but the Staff and you as the Moderators need more control in this matter. Maybe the authors need to be considered as credible, professional before being allowed to add medals to their games.

The other problem is the variety of games' engines and formats that are currently available. There is good old flash, swf, stencyl, construct (with the medal plug-in that as far as I know hasn't been created by NG), of course there is Unity, WebGL that still cause problems in regard to both medals issue and the working of the games itself. With all that variety it can be hard to determine what exactly is causing the problems with medals sometimes.

If everybody can add medals, even to the crappiest games the probability that there will be more and more problems with medals in the future will be rising and rising. And the risk of the need of removing medals will rise as well. So again: Newgrounds needs higher standards in regard to the whole medals issue. For example the statements from the authors of the games that they will fix the medals if something goes wrong.

1st issue is well known and I really don't see any other solution than removing those medals that nobody can earn anymore.

Agreed.

And there are still lots of those medals in the NG system, especially from the games with the notice "the submission has been deleted".

The 2nd one: I mean those miscalculations of points present on many accounts where some people have even double amounts of maximum available points from some games. Nijsse promised to deal with it by resetting the stats

Many users? PM me few names let me check them out :o
And if there are a lot more, we'll look into it.
Thanks :3

Here are some examples from Nijsse's account:
Kingdom reaction
http://nijsse.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=161
Cover the pengu
http://nijsse.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=64
Cole Slaw
http://nijsse.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=59

One from EdyKel's account:
Cafe "Sliding Plates"
http://edykel.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=42

There were even more of them on more accounts, but I did not wrote them down unfortunately.
There is also a specific game from which lots of people have less medals or points than they should have:
Space pizza defense, an example from Knuckstrike's account
http://knuckstrike.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=186

I got to say that I mentioned all of this in June/July and still nothing has been done in those cases.

There is also another specific case that Syrreal explained to me, the Floorlsland 4 hidden medal. There was a medal that could only be obtained by using the cheat engine from the developer's website, obviously working only on this game. It was worth 100 points, but at some point it was decided that a medal that can be earned only by cheating should not be visible, so the points stayed, while the medal is no longer obtainable. Even tellinc1 doesn't see it anymore from his side, I spoke with him about it. But the displays are still like the one on Nijsse's account:
http://nijsse.newgrounds.com/stats/medals?page=304

At 10/12/16 02:24 PM, HerbieG wrote:

I agree that earning some of the medals take a lot of time and it can be extremely disappointing to lose them. But if there is one medal like the one you mentioned, then another one, then another... and one day you get a set of medals that are not working and are worth thousands of points in total. Thousands of points that new gamers will never get a chance to get.

Rest assured, there were multiple points of views on this from the API mods, and staff, in our recent discussion over it. There is a possible solution to it. However, if and when this feature is added, we simply don't know. It's in the hands of the staff, at this point. We don't expect it to satisfy everyone, but it should address your main concern about points.

Here is my point of view: Newgrounds need higher standards for games with medals. As for the old medals - there is no solution. If the authors of the games aren't around anymore - there is no way that those medals can be fixed. But as for the new ones in the future...
I know that there was a time when all medals had to be approved. Most of those medals still work and there are no problems with them. I'm not sure if there is any come back to it, but the Staff and you as the Moderators need more control in this matter. Maybe the authors need to be considered as credible, professional before being allowed to add medals to their games.

The other problem is the variety of games' engines and formats that are currently available. There is good old flash, swf, stencyl, construct (with the medal plug-in that as far as I know hasn't been created by NG), of course there is Unity, WebGL that still cause problems in regard to both medals issue and the working of the games itself. With all that variety it can be hard to determine what exactly is causing the problems with medals sometimes.

If everybody can add medals, even to the crappiest games the probability that there will be more and more problems with medals in the future will be rising and rising. And the risk of the need of removing medals will rise as well. So again: Newgrounds needs higher standards in regard to the whole medals issue. For example the statements from the authors of the games that they will fix the medals if something goes wrong.

A lot of this stuff would be difficult to do, simply because of the site's philosophy: Everything, by everyone. NewGrounds has always been a springboard for people testing the grounds for game making and animation, and it does not discriminate over what flash based program they choose to use. Having an open system allows more people to submit their works, which draws in traffic to the site. There will always be a lot of sub-par stuff, regardless of the programs they use.

I don't see NG dropping support for any of these programs anytime soon. As is, it's difficult to know the reason why some games don't work for some people. Various factors could be involved, including code corruption. Whatever the reason, I don't see it as a big problem, or a reason why the current policy should change. Out of the hundreds of games with medals only a handful display this problem. That's not bad, in my opinion. But we will still continue to monitor this.

:The 2nd one: I mean those miscalculations of points present on many accounts where some people have even double amounts of maximum available points from some games. Nijsse promised to deal with it by resetting the stats

In those cases, you just need to alert an API mod, and they can repair the stats.

At 10/12/16 02:24 PM, HerbieG wrote: I agree that earning some of the medals take a lot of time and it can be extremely disappointing to lose them. But if there is one medal like the one you mentioned, then another one, then another... and one day you get a set of medals that are not working and are worth thousands of points in total. Thousands of points that new gamers will never get a chance to get.

Agreed!
I'm not saying we should keep them as they are, I'm saying there should be a better solution than just removing them.
A possible solution is to keep these medals as 0 pts.. so that old users can get to keep them while new ones won't be affected by a 0 pts medal. I think this would be fair for both users.

Here is my point of view: Newgrounds need higher standards for games with medals.

I don't think we'll go back to approving medals like before (and yeah.. these games that needed to be approved are the best.)
And, I did suggest a solution for this problem as well ( see #8 ) but I don't think anything will change.
In other words, mods are the solution right now. Maybe I wasn't very active but I know that the other mods did a great job in keeping things together.

Here are some examples from Nijsse's account

Thanks :3

There is also another specific case that Syrreal explained to me

Will check it out :o

Another game with medals that should be checked, I fulfilled the requirements for some of them, but earned none:

• 

  PinPunisher

  by kasehaussoftware

  Punish Pins with your shiny steel ball

  Game

  8,153 Views

  (Everyone)

Is that game currently working for anybody? After I click play I get only a black screen, tried on Firefox and Chrome:

• 

  Puzzling Rush

  by gamezhero

  You are at the last frontier, nowhere to run – only one will survive...

  Game

  11,369 Views

  (Everyone)

At 10/14/16 09:51 AM, HerbieG wrote: Is that game currently working for anybody? After I click play I get only a black screen, tried on Firefox and Chrome:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/636360

Works for me.

At 10/13/16 11:33 AM, HerbieG wrote: Another game with medals that should be checked, I fulfilled the requirements for some of them, but earned none:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/635041

Pin Punisher medal works, I just earned it. However, it still has the bug where the ball becomes heavy , and falls without it bouncing. The Author really needs to correct that issue.

At 10/14/16 12:31 PM, EdyKel wrote:

At 10/14/16 09:51 AM, HerbieG wrote: Is that game currently working for anybody? After I click play I get only a black screen, tried on Firefox and Chrome:
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/636360

Works for me.

Thanks for checking, on what browser/OS did you try it? What versions?

At 10/14/16 01:38 PM, HerbieG wrote: Thanks for checking, on what browser/OS did you try it? What versions?

You are welcome. It worked for me on Google Chrome.

At 10/14/16 01:38 PM, HerbieG wrote:

Thanks for checking, on what browser/OS did you try it? What versions?

It worked on both Firefox (48) and Chrome.

At 10/14/16 05:55 PM, EdyKel wrote:

At 10/14/16 01:38 PM, HerbieG wrote:

Thanks for checking, on what browser/OS did you try it? What versions?

It worked on both Firefox (48) and Chrome.

Did the Pin Punisher medal work for you? That is the only one that worked for me.

At 10/14/16 06:14 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 10/14/16 05:55 PM, EdyKel wrote:

At 10/14/16 01:38 PM, HerbieG wrote:

Thanks for checking, on what browser/OS did you try it? What versions?

It worked on both Firefox (48) and Chrome.

Did the Pin Punisher medal work for you? That is the only one that worked for me.

Haven't tried it, yet.

At 10/14/16 08:29 PM, EdyKel wrote:

At 10/14/16 06:14 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: Did the Pin Punisher medal work for you? That is the only one that worked for me.

Haven't tried it, yet.

It might be the only medal that works. If so, keep it, and the rest can all removed.

At 10/15/16 03:00 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 10/14/16 08:29 PM, EdyKel wrote:

At 10/14/16 06:14 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: Did the Pin Punisher medal work for you? That is the only one that worked for me.

Haven't tried it, yet.

It might be the only medal that works. If so, keep it, and the rest can all removed.

I think most of the medals work for it. I unlocked the medals from the first 2 levels, but not the space one. And I have no idea if their is a city level, or if it unlocks after you beat the first 3 levels. I'll try beating the space level and see what happens, but it seems kinda hard so it might take awhile.

At 10/15/16 12:28 PM, EdyKel wrote: I think most of the medals work for it. I unlocked the medals from the first 2 levels, but not the space one. And I have no idea if their is a city level, or if it unlocks after you beat the first 3 levels. I'll try beating the space level and see what happens, but it seems kinda hard so it might take awhile.

There might be a few broken medals , but some of them are definitely working.

At 10/15/16 01:11 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 10/15/16 12:28 PM, EdyKel wrote: I think most of the medals work for it. I unlocked the medals from the first 2 levels, but not the space one. And I have no idea if their is a city level, or if it unlocks after you beat the first 3 levels. I'll try beating the space level and see what happens, but it seems kinda hard so it might take awhile.

There might be a few broken medals , but some of them are definitely working.

The more I play, and unlock medals, the more I am convinced that all medals work. According to the description, there is also a secret stage. So, I'm thinking that people have not found it yet, and so no one, besides the author, have unlocked the medals for it.

At 10/15/16 10:36 PM, EdyKel wrote: The more I play, and unlock medals, the more I am convinced that all medals work. According to the description, there is also a secret stage. So, I'm thinking that people have not found it yet, and so no one, besides the author, have unlocked the medals for it.

That is a good point. Secret stages could be a hassle to find, and lead to hard to earn medals.

• 

  Aventuras do Sr Riso

  by lennonjp

  Platform game with lots of adventure

  Game

  4,610 Views

  (Everyone)

Circus Saved medal is broken, unless there's something I'm missing. Played through the entire game getting 3 stars on all levels and beating the final boss in that tent level. Waited around a long time while he's just juggling at the end and "Parabens". Both Chrome and Firefox. All medals awarded except that one.

It should be noted there is a comment from someone who apparently had even worse luck with the last three medals not awarding. For me, only Circus Saved refuses to award. Yes I realize there was a recent unlock of Circus Saved. Doesn't change the fact that medal is broken or doesn't award for at least some people.

Also there's several people (not just 1 or 2) who have all medals except that last one. The last boss isn't really that hard if you've managed to get all the way there and if you grinded all the way there you would be unlikely to just stop and decide not to fight that final boss. The likely scenario is all these people played through the entire game, beat the game, but were not awarded that final medal.

@Shantom I disagree with some of your games in your "100% broken" lists.

Keep in mind sometimes games only work correctly on one of Firefox/Chrome but not both. You should probably try it on Firefox first, and then only if it doesn't work correctly there, then try it on Chrome. Reason why is there seem to be more Firefox-only games than Chrome-only games, where I'm defining a game as Firefox-only if it doesn't work correctly on Chrome, and Chrome-only if it doesn't work correctly on Firefox.

Also keep in mind the extremely annoying timeout problem that plagues the entirety of Newgrounds. Medals might not award because the medal API connection in the game timed out before you earned it. The medal isn't necessarily broken. It's just this annoying ever-present site-wide bug decided to rear its ugly head.

You can get around this in games that save progress by -- saving the game just prior to doing something which would unlock a medal, reloading the page, loading your game, and then doing the thing which earns the medal.

For others, you can try to do things faster and *might* be able to get the medal in prior to the medals connection being lost. Or you can just try again a few times and maybe it awards one of the times.

At 10/21/16 07:19 AM, NeonSpider wrote: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/681214

I think I will try this game tonight.

@Shantom I disagree with some of your games in your "100% broken" lists.

I should probably change the description.. ^^;
Because 1 or more medals are 100% broken, not necessarily all of them. Mods can still see broken medals in these games. So, you'll think they are all working because you can't see the broken ones. (these lists were created before we could remove broken medals)
I'm keeping them for now for other reasons.. sorry for the confusion :>

You can get around this in games that save progress by -- saving the game just prior to doing something which would unlock a medal, reloading the page, loading your game, and then doing the thing which earns the medal.

Yep :)

I'm leaving an info for @weal10 - I hope he still visits Newgrounds.

• 

  Sea Bursters

  by weal10

  Burst the organ thief bubbles in this arcade shooter game.

  Game

  12,482 Views

  (Everyone)

The in-game achievements for max upgrades are not working - nor do the medals.
I tried to obtain the tic tac medal twice, during the game and from the very beginning, none of these worked. I also killed more than 2000 enemies - also no in-game achievement and no medal. The tough bubble medal seems to be broken for even a longer time, though it is hard to determine when you should be awarded with it. No idea about the chain master medal.

Does anybody remember this game?

• 

  Space Mole, The Treasure

  by NoCares

  Help our mole find the treasures and collect the stars to buy a new house.

  Game

  3,677 Views

  (Everyone)

Since all the medals are secret it isn't possible to easily determine whether they are broken or not, but for over a year nobody earned a single medal from this game. I spoke with the author @NoCares some time ago, he said that those medals are some kind of achievements, but when I asked which one of them would I unlock first - just to know if they are working or not - I got no response.
Some assistance from a Moderator that obtained those medals would be needed, I see @Knuckstrike and @Shantom on the medal wall of this game.

At 10/21/16 09:06 PM, HerbieG wrote: Does anybody remember this game?
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/613677
Since all the medals are secret it isn't possible to easily determine whether they are broken or not, but for over a year nobody earned a single medal from this game. I spoke with the author @NoCares some time ago, he said that those medals are some kind of achievements, but when I asked which one of them would I unlock first - just to know if they are working or not - I got no response.

I have never been a fan of secret medals. If nobody has earned the medals in a year, it does seem like they must be broken, or just too difficult for a normal player to earn. Both good reasons to be removed.

At 10/21/16 09:06 PM, HerbieG wrote: Does anybody remember this game?
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/613677

These secret medals are collectible items. The first one is a mask found at level 10. If you don't get the medal right away try visiting the inventory or refreshing the page (though I think they are obviously broken).

I will contact the author. If he's not active, I'll remove the medals in a week or so.

At 10/21/16 04:40 PM, HerbieG wrote: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/656849
The in-game achievements for max upgrades are not working - nor do the medals.
I tried to obtain the tic tac medal twice, during the game and from the very beginning, none of these worked.

So far, I've obtained every medal including the ones you mentioned. Using chrome (no ad blocker).

At 10/22/16 06:40 AM, Shantom wrote:

At 10/21/16 04:40 PM, HerbieG wrote: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/656849
The in-game achievements for max upgrades are not working - nor do the medals.
I tried to obtain the tic tac medal twice, during the game and from the very beginning, none of these worked.

So far, I've obtained every medal including the ones you mentioned. Using chrome (no ad blocker).

Then I got no idea... I am also using Chrome for this game (in Firefox it lags like hell). I survived even some 15 minutes without dying and still nothing. I killed over 2200 enemies - no achievement and medal. Also when I click the last upgrade (any category) there is no in-game achievement and no medal. How did they work for you? Did you get the in-game achievements? This is the weirdest thing: they are not unlocking.

At 10/22/16 06:51 AM, HerbieG wrote: How did they work for you? Did you get the in-game achievements? This is the weirdest thing: they are not unlocking.

I got the in-game achievements. I noticed 3 achievements showed up together after I died (and continued).

At 10/22/16 08:11 AM, Shantom wrote:

At 10/22/16 06:51 AM, HerbieG wrote: How did they work for you? Did you get the in-game achievements? This is the weirdest thing: they are not unlocking.

I got the in-game achievements. I noticed 3 achievements showed up together after I died (and continued).

I also even tried dying, but no use. Maybe I should die even more for these achievements - pun intended ;-)
I am only not sure if the 2000 kills one will even unlock since I am already far from it, about 2500...
It's a very bad thing if the author releases a single game and soon after quits Newgrounds.

At 10/22/16 08:11 AM, Shantom wrote:

At 10/22/16 06:51 AM, HerbieG wrote: How did they work for you? Did you get the in-game achievements? This is the weirdest thing: they are not unlocking.

I got the in-game achievements. I noticed 3 achievements showed up together after I died (and continued).

Ok, this sucks a lot. I maxed 2 types of upgrades, survived for 12 minutes, tried to die at this point and no achievements or medals... The medals should be working in a straight way, not forcing the player to guess how to trigger them.