Dancer Archive
Thread: Bots do more good than harm
Vorpaks wrote:
Actually I play on a Mac monitor, left over from my old G3. The colors on it are so much brighter than any of the PC monitors we have. My husband hates it - too big, too ugly. Has anyone seen The Dark Crystal? Well, my monitor looks like a big blue Garthem, legs and everything. When I first got it we were scared it was going to crawl across the desk and eat the other computers.It is almost the color of my sig. Except brighter and more glowy. Ahhh... I love it.
Message Edited by Vorpaks on 08-05-2004 03:29 PM
I'm just picturing that.... Disturbing....I play on a LCD. I think the computer store people think I'm nuts when I go in and start playing Microsoft Pinball on all the demo computers hooked up to LCDs. I then buy the one that it's easiest to follow the ball on. The colors are superb, the thing is tiny, and of course has a DVI connection for super crisp picture. I go to work and can't stand the CRTs I have on my desk.
For those looking to get LCDs, here's a few tips on shopping for a game LCD... First, bigger contrast ratio is better. I believe CRTs are in excess of 1000:1, whereas LCDs range from 200:1 to 500:1, sometimes high end has a little bit better. The bigger the number, the blacker the blacks, and the whiter the whites. Second, it doesn't matter how the blacks and whites look if you can't follow action. That is the biggest downfall of LCD monitors; while they don't have refresh flicker like CRTs, they are slower to change, especially between light and dark colors. Whereas CRTs are all electronic in their display, LCDs are in a sense mechanical; the color change happens by changing the alignment of the so called "liquid crystals". Since that involves them physically moving, it can be slow. The current good and cheap technology for fast action is TFT. Other technologies you might see are "Active Matrix" and "Passive Matrix". There are a few others, and may be something new since I last went shopping. You may sometimes see TFT referred to as "TFT Active Matrix". It's the same thing. So why pinball? It's a good contrast changing action. You will always see a little bit of a ball "trail", but on a good monitor the current spot of the ball will be crisply defined, and the trail will be minimal, sometimes just one extra frame of display. On a bad monitor, you'll see the ball "fade in" and "fade out" as it moves. Don't try and overanalyze things, just pick what looks best to you. However, be ware of the contrast settings, and play around with it before making a final choice. The contrast setting can alter how quickly the display can change.
My current monitor is a Samsung 181T, which is an 18" with both DVI and VGA inputs. It's a couple years old now. Next to it I have a Samsung 17T, an older model 17" with VGA and 13w3 (Bonus points to whoever knows what that's used for), which is a couple years older. It still performs flawlessly. If you're used to a 21" monitor, the 18" isn't much smaller; it's 18" viewable, whereas a 21" CRT may be as small as 19" viewable. While the viewable is a little smaller, it feels bigger than the 21" I use at work.
Probably the biggest drawback is the resolution. The best your average LCD can do is 1280x1024, or 1024x768. Some of the smaller ones still only do 640x480 or 800x600. You can get some fancy high-end models that go pretty high, but they aren't cheap.
DeniraWyles wrote:
The best analogy I can use is taken from a real world industry to compare entertainers to something real and tangible. An entertainer is just like a server/waiter/waitress, minor difference is that a real world server/waiter/waitress actually gets money from their employer, and they earn the bulk of their money from tips that come from their customers. If you are rude to a server you will get your butt tossed to the curb by the manager of the restuarant because you harassed an employee. You stiff a server and you go back to the same restuarant the other servers will remember what you did and will give you poorer customer service. On the other hand if you treat a server properly and you tip them the standard 15%, or more, of the check you will continue to get great customer service. Customer service will mean that you will get your food faster, waited on faster, and you will always get well attentive service from the server. Of course, this goes both ways and if the server fails to provide the highest quality service to you then you are not obligated to tip a lot of money, but you are still obligated to tip the bare minimum of 15%. If a server royally screws up then you can leave a one cent tip that gets the attention of the server to let them know they messed up. Leaving no tip is just rude and uncouth because that's what the other servers will think about you the next time you go in.
Sigrun wrote:
No. Buff bots do more harm than good.
See..its all a matter of perspective.
I feel weapon decay does more harm than good.
I have a really nice set of vks (which i'm forced to use, since most high level content has at least light armor, and to be effective I need to pierce that armor)
Now...using those vk's degrades them. I find that the need to replace them does MORE HARM THAN GOOD...to my bank account, and I have a personal attachment to them, since the were hand crafted by a well known master, and are a named object that is UNIQUELY MINE
Causing decay to them directly harms me...
However, my favorite weaponsmith is anxiously awaiting the chance to make me a new set of enhanced vk's, and charge me a ton.
See...its all about perspective...
Buff Bots do most of the player base a world of good.... yet they make the entertainers feel 'not so important'
I personally feel that if entertainers had been more available, and a more heavily played set of characters...buff bots would not have been created to fill a vacuum...god knows I wouldnt be sharing the cost of an alt with a buddy to support our buffing character.
hawkbatleader1 wrote:
However, my favorite weaponsmith is anxiously awaiting the chance to make me a new set of enhanced vk's, and charge me a ton.
How do you suppose your favorite weaponsmith would like for someone to set up a weaponsmith bot who could make the exact same vk's you'd get from him and charge little to nothing for them? At least, up until the point where continuing to be a weaponsmith was no longer viable and the weaponsmith was forced to either switch to a different profession or quit the game entirely?
Osawa
How do you suppose your favorite weaponsmith would like for someone to set up a weaponsmith bot who could make the exact same vk's you'd get from him and charge little to nothing for them? At least, up until the point where continuing to be a weaponsmith was no longer viable and the weaponsmith was forced to either switch to a different profession or quit the game entirely?
Then, how do you thinksaid weaponsmithwould feel if when the devs went to put a stop to AFK weapon-smithing some very vocal combat class people came out and shouted "This is not fair!! I wont be able to find a weapon anywhere, and I *need* weapons to play!! Because I am combat, and you technicly exist to serve me,so there forI am more important your profession does not matter."
This situation is so clearly unhealthy for the game on a whole *and* its destroying more then a few professions out-right.....Combat types need to start thinking about the over-all game and not about what they can pwn all the time....
Message Edited by Taewyn on 08-05-2004 06:43 PM
hawkbatleader1 wrote:
Sigrun wrote:
No. Buff bots do more harm than good.
See..its all a matter of perspective.
I feel weapon decay does more harm than good.
I have a really nice set of vks (which i'm forced to use, since most high level content has at least light armor, and to be effective I need to pierce that armor)
Now...using those vk's degrades them. I find that the need to replace them does MORE HARM THAN GOOD...to my bank account, and I have a personal attachment to them, since the were hand crafted by a well known master, and are a named object that is UNIQUELY MINE
Causing decay to them directly harms me...
However, my favorite weaponsmith is anxiously awaiting the chance to make me a new set of enhanced vk's, and charge me a ton.
See...its all about perspective...
Buff Bots do most of the player base a world of good.... yet they make the entertainers feel 'not so important'
I personally feel that if entertainers had been more available, and a more heavily played set of characters...buff bots would not have been created to fill a vacuum...god knows I wouldnt be sharing the cost of an alt with a buddy to support our buffing character.
Naish wrote:
As far as discouraging people from becoming entertainers, imagine grinding to master dancer or master musician without macros. Are you kidding me!!!
i danced for 3 months to master entertainer. i did not once go afk. i did not once use a macro. i did it all just button pushing, and i enjoyed every minute of it i probably would have used macros if i had know about them and how to properly use them, but this was before macroing was as popular as it was. sure, some people macroed, but it wasnt nearly as wide spread. ) just having fun talking to each other while dancing. although, you cant repeat the past, and having a future made in the image of a past idealized isnt always possible, but it is entirely doable without macros of any kind. ^_^
Osawa_Scylla wrote:
hawkbatleader1 wrote:
However, my favorite weaponsmith is anxiously awaiting the chance to make me a new set of enhanced vk's, and charge me a ton.
How do you suppose your favorite weaponsmith would like for someone to set up a weaponsmith bot who could make the exact same vk's you'd get from him and charge little to nothing for them? At least, up until the point where continuing to be a weaponsmith was no longer viable and the weaponsmith was forced to either switch to a different profession or quit the game entirely?
Osawa
They already have this functionality...its called factories and vendors. To allow them to be functional to the community while the player is unavailable.
Entertainers seem to feel they have a right to the same abilities.
Fine. jump on the buff vending entertainer bandwagon - craft holos of your performance, and allow us to watch holos of a performance for a buff. Spend the same time harvesting, and spending lots of money to secure uber resources... craft a great recording, and you will make money...and you will be well rewarded...and NEEDED for your skills.
Right now, you are a social club that the rest of us need to belong to, in order to facilitate our game play.
I don't have to be polite, or hunt all over the galaxy for the mysterious roving weaponsmiths vendor. Its a constant....and it doesnt act like a primadonna. And its logged on 23 hours a day...
Message Edited by Taewyn on 08-05-2004 10:44 PM