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Quote by Impavid:
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the next step is to ban the bots.
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Impavid, are you sure about that? Bots can add good things, as well, and even help the developers add functionality to the game, in time, which then obsolesces the bots in question.
Don't be too iconoclastic without thinking long and hard about the consequences. It didn't go well for the Bolsheviks, either.
"
the next step is to ban the bots.
"
Impavid, are you sure about that? Bots can add good things, as well, and even help the developers add functionality to the game, in time, which then obsolesces the bots in question.
Don't be too iconoclastic without thinking long and hard about the consequences. It didn't go well for the Bolsheviks, either.
Toshiro,
You're a tool. There has never been an instance of a bot adding useful functionality to the game. The bots we do have open up these and only these functionalities: A small group can monitor a sector without being there; A large group of mostly non-subscribers can continue to troll and bitch on the in-game general chat channel; A smaller group of very clever players can use the bot to share goods, services and credits. Bots offer nothing more than ways to harass with impunity, functionality to monitor where other less talented or motivated players cannot, and advantages that only players with the know-how or access can utilize. In a thread filled with support for greater emersion, bots are just another APL waiting to be removed.
You're a tool. There has never been an instance of a bot adding useful functionality to the game. The bots we do have open up these and only these functionalities: A small group can monitor a sector without being there; A large group of mostly non-subscribers can continue to troll and bitch on the in-game general chat channel; A smaller group of very clever players can use the bot to share goods, services and credits. Bots offer nothing more than ways to harass with impunity, functionality to monitor where other less talented or motivated players cannot, and advantages that only players with the know-how or access can utilize. In a thread filled with support for greater emersion, bots are just another APL waiting to be removed.
Banning bots is another discussion, beyond the scope of this one, and opens a different can of worms. Let's keep this on-topic, as much as possible. I'm not defending bots, I just don't want to go there right now.
Some problems, like collecting data and mining it, are unsolvable as long as data is in some way exposed. However, if we can at least mitigate the amount of data, the simplicity of access and completeness of the information, we can improve certain situations. I'm aiming more for improvement here.
So, generally speaking, it sounds like most people are ok with the idea of no Active Players link, if we get Buddies Online as well as a "player density" graph colored by faction. I'll see about getting the former online next week. The latter might wait until I get back from California.
Some problems, like collecting data and mining it, are unsolvable as long as data is in some way exposed. However, if we can at least mitigate the amount of data, the simplicity of access and completeness of the information, we can improve certain situations. I'm aiming more for improvement here.
So, generally speaking, it sounds like most people are ok with the idea of no Active Players link, if we get Buddies Online as well as a "player density" graph colored by faction. I'll see about getting the former online next week. The latter might wait until I get back from California.
banning bots will simply put, never work unless you have randomly timed capthca's.
If i really really felt the need to have a bot, i could use two computers working together on it. even if the game were to monitor all activity on the computer. you could still rig up something using a camera and optical character recognition and then a hacked up keyboard.
If i really really felt the need to have a bot, i could use two computers working together on it. even if the game were to monitor all activity on the computer. you could still rig up something using a camera and optical character recognition and then a hacked up keyboard.
Yes. I am aware of the challenges of banning bots. That's why I asked that we not discuss it any further on this thread. Thanks.
So, getting back to the topic at hand, with a Buddies Online list + faction-colored Player Density graph, does that reasonably fulfill most needs? Any more suggestions or thoughts on that?
So, getting back to the topic at hand, with a Buddies Online list + faction-colored Player Density graph, does that reasonably fulfill most needs? Any more suggestions or thoughts on that?
I think so. I would still like to know if people are online :P
The graph would be neat.
The graph would be neat.
yea i guess so, i still like the apl better, their are people im freindly with that aint on my buddy list, but i can fix that easily enough. If I don't want them to always know where i am i can always fire up another alt on the same account and /buddy them all on that.
Awww, no APL? What is there to hide, anyway? That VO is so underpopulated that if it was a private WoW server it would be shut down?
I understand some people might want to have a little more privacy. But think with userbase this small the available extent of secrecy is already limited.
Still, it's not my call as I'm neither a developer, nor a subscriber right now. Hope that change is going to do only good.
I understand some people might want to have a little more privacy. But think with userbase this small the available extent of secrecy is already limited.
Still, it's not my call as I'm neither a developer, nor a subscriber right now. Hope that change is going to do only good.
I think the buddy thing and the graph solves most of it. I would also like to reiterate that showing the active guild members on the guild page should stay, that way we can still see when our friends are online.
I think the graph solves it all, if I wanna see if a buddy is online I could log in...
Maybe the guild list needs expansion instead, but thats for another thread.
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Yeah, please do not think the APL removal is a new thing, I'd rather have the old kills scoreboard in-place again, so you can see who is active, but that isn't gunna happen, so a graph will be fine.
Maybe the guild list needs expansion instead, but thats for another thread.
[edit]
Yeah, please do not think the APL removal is a new thing, I'd rather have the old kills scoreboard in-place again, so you can see who is active, but that isn't gunna happen, so a graph will be fine.
Please just take off the active players page already... it is better that way.
And the guild active players pages should only be visible to guild members, except for the general guild info, or it doesnt help to remove the active players page.
Non-guildies can't see which members of a guild are online
As of tonight, I noticed that /msg irc active no longer works. Also if you go to: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/active you now get a few graphs. Inc has been busy. ;)
Thanks. And now I'm locking this to avoid confusion.