Zloth

When you're playing, /loc will tell you your position. POS gives the position in demos. Remember the second number is the Z axis, not the third.

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Well that is pretty nifty and all, but once the novelty wears off is it still worth buying an whole extra card that you might not even be using in 5 years?

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The only computer part I might be using five years after I buy it is the monitor. I'll have gone through two video cards by then and probably be itching for a third!

This one is too dark but shows how you can change character size.

PPD Posedown

Do you really think that disguise is going to work on me!?

Weeehaaww!

...and what strange beast lurches toward CaD to be farmed?

You're wanting a challenge, eh? You're welcome to use my earth/mace tank Zloth. (A shot with more shading) (back shot)

His history is... complex. Bio

(After over a year's work, Icon finally got his armor a bit darker, though nothing near its original jet-black color. (Think this is one of the few pics I have with his mace drawn!)

Easiest way to do this (IMHO):

Pop into a mission with a friend. Have your friend turn off all power effects and whatnot.

Do a /demorecord Simple

Circle around your friend. Maybe have your friend do a ;wave or some such.

/demostop

Play out the mission - or not. Eventually, quit playing and get to work on your demo.

COPY your demo.

Open your demo up using Window's Notepad. In it you'll see your character's description and your friend's description toward the top of the demo (meaning in the first page or two). It will look something like this:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 3 NEW Tesslah
0 3 COSTUME 1 0f263d 16.140654 -0.598793 0.000000 -0.377646 ....
0 3 PARTSNAME shorts skin_tights Bikini 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME Tight skin_tights Top_10 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME Standard skin_glowing_eyes_01 skin_glowing_eyes_01b f17ebc ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME Smooth skin_bare Circuitry ff00a7 970099
0 3 PARTSNAME Flat skin_bare Circuitry ff00a7 970099
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME Bald skin_bald_01a skin_bald_01b 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 3d003d ff00fb
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none cc0087 000000 000000 000000 Auras/Female/Electricity/ElectricBody.fx
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 PARTSNAME none none none 00000000 00000000
0 3 MOV POSTREADY_BACK
0 3 POS 269.425232 42 -1823.016113
0 3 PYR 0 -0.042388 0</pre><hr />

Get rid of all that costume mumbo jumbo and make it look like this:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>0 3 NEW Tesslah
0 3 NPC Arachnos_Widow_06
0 3 MOV POSTREADY_BACK
0 3 POS 269.425232 42 -1823.016113
0 3 PYR 0 -0.042388 0</pre><hr />

You can change the name if you want, too, doesn't really matter.

Playback demo and see GW! (BTW, she has another model, Signature_Ghost_Widow, that shows up in RV. Looks similar to me.)

That said, here's some normal screenshots of some AV's without too much going on...

Crystal Titan using his rainbow attack

Infernal headed toward my poor Tesslah character

Ruludak T. Strong

The Sewer Monster gets its come-uppance

Adamastar in his native habitat. (Chat text is kinda fun, too. )

Oh, here's one you won't see often... Cmdr Dhit is off to the right on this picture, getting taunted by Xe. Cmdr Dhit was a dev-run Rikti at the end of beta.

No more static guide for me, I've webbed the guide and put it into FAQ format. This should make it a lot easier to update. This topic can serve to ask/answer questions.

OK, it's been a year and a half. Time for a major update. I've now webbed my guide so I can update it a lot easier. I'll start a new topic for it, too.

Unfortunately Shrek hasn't been upda.... ting....? Proxy? Oh frak. Thanks a ton folks, ShrekSilver is still cranking!

Nope, the UI isn't recorded in the demo. The only chatting you can see is the text bubbles that happen to be in front of you. Chats ARE recorded, though, even ones from out of the mission like Arena chatter. To see those, just open up the demo in Notepad and search on 'chat'.

Hmmm, I didn't even know I could turn off my PM. I'll check.

I've put a new version of the Demo Edit program up. I didn't really add anything yet, I just made it so the program doesn't choke on the new commands.

There's some strangeness going on with the ragdolls. I don't see any RAGDOLL_BELLY commands showing up in my demos now but there is a DEFAULT_DEATH move. Also, it looks like a few maps no longer work on demo playback. (Though I haven't checked today's patch yet.)

Ah my old guide! I think I'll add a bit now that I7 is out on the live servers....

First and foremost regarding Stamina....

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If there are three other powers you want to snag or if you just want to put the stamina power off for awhile, by all means skip over it. Personally, I'm going to keep it and switch several of my endurance reduction enhancers to other things.

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I got rid of Stamina completely and replaced it with some attacks from the Ice Ancillary pool. Ice Storm + Blizzard (+ Containment?) is pretty fine! It definitely IS possible for me to run out of endurance in the middle of a very long battle but, well, that's what the blue inspires are all about. They've worked quite nicely, too, and the additional damage has more than made up for the bother of having to watch my blue bar. I ddn't do this until level 50, though, so this may be harder to do while coming up the ranks.

Another huge change is that "pseudo-pets" now inherit our buffs. It hasn't been real obvious sometimes but a lot of the Storm powers actually summon pets. Tornado, Lightning Storm, and even Freezing Rain are "pseudo-pets". So now, with issue 7 out, these things will inherit your own buffs. Pop and Aim inspire before using your freezing rain and the rain will hit more times. Pop a damage inpsire before you do your lightning storm and it will do even more massive damage. I'm still not totally clear on how all these will work out (do they inherit your containment ability? if you are speed boosted, will your tornado zip around at high speed?) but I am clear that it's a great big help to us!

A big change was made to Hibernate either in I5 or I6 - it no longer can be left on indefinitely. When battles went very badly before I could just hunker down under the ice and wait for everyone to get back from the hospital. You could even take the "cheap way out" and simply log out while hibernated to escape any impending doom. No more. Now it just lasts 30 seconds. Still way more than enough time to heal up, though. Also, it now takes effect immediatly where the old version took about three seconds after you started the power to begin protecting you. I treat this power mostly like a super-rest power that works faster and that you can use right in the thick of battle.

Over in CoV my Corruptor has been using Snowstorm quite a bit. It's a very good power all right but dangerous. You MUST keep track of your anchor, particularly against teleporters like the Rikti! They can and will teleport to another spawn and your snowstorm will send that entire spawn out to hunt you down. Also, it's quite an endurance hog. It sure does a lot, though, by slowing down the enemies' recharge rate by roughly 40% and combined with freezing rain taking them down a bit more....

Oh, something else of note - I've been hearing from some people that some of you controllers have been getting lax in the immobilize department! Folks, on a lot of the teams out there the AoE Crushing Field power is actually more important than even the AoE Gravity Distortion Field! If your team has "scatter powers" that tend to send enemies running around and if the group isn't having much trouble with damage mitigation then it's time to switch gears. Rain powers, the fire tank's Burn power, Assault Rifle's Ignite power - all these do great damage but, without somebody to hold them in the area of effect, don't do the damage for long. Immobilize is also good for keeping enemies clustered after a tank has taunted them all into one spot which can easily translate into much more damage from all the AoE powers. And, of course, our very own Freezing Rain power can debuff much more effectively if they stick around in the rain.

Also an oddity - it seems that intangibility enhancers, unlike all other mez enhancers, add to magnitude of the intangibility. I have no idea how much it adds or even if it's true but it could give rise to some interesting strategies. Especially if you find yourself staring at Lord Recluse and Ghost Widow at the same time.

Oh, and Lift now has the -fly component so it will take down fliers as well. Gravity is getting quite good at knocking down the fly boys! Snowstorm can knock down the fliers, too. If you can get in the air yourself and you have the endurance, a lot of enemies are going to have a lot of difficulty getting into melee range.

Another one I could use a check on because I'm not certain.... If you put a slow enhancer into freezing rain or snowstorm you only slow movement rate, you don't slow the enemy's recharge rate.

Actually what it takes is cash money. If we all poney up $25/month they can hire more people to fix more bugs.

But anyway....

AnotherDeadHero, you forgot to mention DEMOS!!!

A little warning about Snow Storm....

This is a great power but a dangerous one. You've GOT to keep an eye on your anchor. Even slowed they can and will wander into another spawn. And guess who the additional spawns are going to be gunning for? (Hint: not the Brute!) This gets even more important against the Sky Raiders. Do NOT drop this power on a Porter! And when you get into teleporting Rikti.... well... hopefully your eye is well practiced by this point.


P.S. Yeah, Bluzzard does some massive damage but I think Ignite in Assault Rifle probably does more (over less area). The storm defender's Lightning Storm might do even more than both of them, though it will normally get distributed around several targets.

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If your card supports Geometry Instancing, enable the instancing in the driver, and enable this setting in game.

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Is it called that in the ATI Control panel?

Any comments on alternate drivers?

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Tonight brute and MM.. tomorrow.. I'm going with a dom and corr to see how they do.

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Corruptor? Mezzed, dead. Mezzed, dead. Mezzed, dead. It's really rough with no inspires. Find a team, buff'm up, then hide.

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For future contests, to avoid problems and/or complaints about rules fairness and revisions, why not lay out the rules several days (or even a week) ahead of time?

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Yep yep! Let us rule lawyers rip each other, not you!

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*remembers now how everyone and their mother has to game the contest rules*

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&lt;shrug&gt; Simple is rarely fair. This is NOT a contest with a major prize, though, so you don't have to be too fair.

Changing brightness/gamma sounds great to me. IrfanView can do that just fine and it's a free program.

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Like others I also am worried about the quality of my pictures, because they come out very dark. If I can't brighten them it's all over before it starts.

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That shouldn't happen, regardless of the video card. You've probably got a brightness setting wrong somewhere. Perhaps the card is turned up bright and the game turned down dark to compensate - or vice versa?

Anyway - a suggestion for an additional rule to keep the dozen-or-so of us who like to play with demos under control....

Screenshots from demos are allowed only if the image is one that can reasonably happen in normal play. Screenshots from demos with the time of day changed or some power effects removed, fine. Demos with a 50ft version of your character squashing a Tsoo sorc or an army of ninjas wearing the freakshow disguise, no. When in doubt, the judges will disqualify. Especially if they come from Zloth, who is a known perpitrator.

(Reasoning: just reflecting reality. Most people have no idea demos even exist, never mind how to maniupulate them, so they are at a disadvantage. I couldn't blame you if you outlawed demodump shots entirely. The thing is, there's really no way you can tell they have come from a demo. Worse yet, there's no way *WE* can tell! I've been taking screenshots from demos for two years now. Both my in-game and demo shots come out in TGA which I then re-save as JPG so I can't even check the JFIF info. The only way for either of us to tell is if something impossible is going on.)

P.S. You might have the same issue with minor cleanups like making the image brighter. If you took a screenshot back in May 2004 and adjusted the gamma a tad when you converted it to JPG, would you remember?

P.P.S. Come to think of it, converting an image from TGA to JPG is a manipulation.

Got some new stuff coming down in I7.....

1. You can now record demos in bases! You still get the blank MAP command but it is followed by a new BASE command. The map is encoded in binary so I wouldn't try to edit it. If you demorecord while editting the base you get the same camera angles but the base doesn't change. New items do not appear and the lighting changes I made didn't happen in the demo. Still, this will be great for people recording base raids!

2. Recluse's Victory has a big DYNARRAY command right after the Time. The data consists of several number pairs. The first number in the pair is normally 0 (evil?), 50 (neutral?), or 100 (good?). The second has always been 0 so far. More DynArray commands appear throughout the demo updating the landscape. I didn't have any demos that show the map that displays who owns what sectors but I wouldn't be surprised if it showed the real situation!

3. A new SKYFILE SKY command appears in missions and bases. I fiddled with this a lot but couldn't see any change when I changed the values. Maybe something for the future?

4. PHYSICS is in! Blown up cars blow up in demos, too (though the pieces probably don't go in exactly the same directions). NPCs have some new moves like "MOV RAGDOLL_BELLY".


On the downside, my demos seem to be getting a little out of sync between animations and movement. My character will slide forward a bit, then start running, for instance. Also, even though my registry says to use high shaders, they aren't getting used in demo playback for some reason.

Oh, sorry to be confusing, I was more than a bit giddy. &lt;g&gt; Those are just lines from a few demos I've made. The array appears to be a way to recorde what the state of the dynamic map objects in the new I7 PvP zone. Idunno what the Sky deal is but it has only shown up in a Mayhem mission so far. Same with destroying parking meters.

Now if you'll excuse me....

[Zloth has defeated a Carboard Box! ;]

Changes are coming! Right now on Test, physics is working in demos!

MOV RAGDOLL_BELLY
DYNGROUPS DYNARRAY |100,0|100,0|100,0|0,0|50,0....
SKYFILE SKY 0 1 0.000000
Chat 3 0 "You have defeated Parking Meter"
Muuuhahahaha!!

Should be a neat effect if you fill a road with cars then have all of them explode at once, don't you think? Probably need a physics card for that, though. I wonder what happens if the Atlas dirgible (sp!?) does a MOV DEATH now? Will it explode? Probably not but if it did..... oooh my!

Positron as lead designer, eh? Arch enemies following us through our whole career! Do it RIGHT and do it &lt;ahem&gt; soon! You Have The POWHA!!

Yeah, but Zazzle will be making money from it.

??? Couldn't you just do this online and record it?

Yeah, but it couldn't happen in a better topic. Except for the one she made with me in it.