Memphis_Bill

Whippersnapper.

Happy birthday.

That... is a bug I wish I'd run across!

I'd actually send those to Microsoft anyway. See if NC will advertise with it.

Which driver release is it, and what settings, just out of curiosity? (Running Win7 x64 on a 7900GS.)

>.> as am I.

*throws confetti so hard it goes back in time.*

You may, however, want to be sure to keep notes anyway. Some builds "bloom" later, or work better after getting to a respec - note what you're doing before or after. What drives me up the wall with some is "Well, here's a guide, and at 50 you'll be awesome, especially with ten billion worth of IOs!" Well, great, but that's not helping me at 18, or 24.

For instance, often when talking about Human-form Khelds, some will suggest taking Nova anyway and dropping slots into that 'til the mid 20s or 30 or so, then respeccing, or for some other ATs (Emps and /Psy doms or /MM blasters come to mind) taking Stamina and respeccing out of it later.

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What if you know the artist works relatively fast, but you somehow keep getting pushed back? Do you expect the artist to be as consistent time wise for your piece, because of their reputation, or do you still only care that your commission be given its own time frame towards a satisfactory conclusion?

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It depends a great deal on *why.*

Say I'm commissioning someone who works in both digital and traditional media. I have a digital portrait on order. Their computer goes "Poof" and lets the magic smoke out. If I know that's what's up and they're waiting for a replacement, to get their files back, reload their programs, etc - yeah, I have no problem with sketches or other physical-media pieces being done first. It's beyond the artist's control.

With no explanation? I'd be miffed. OK, I'd email them first, asking what's up, THEN be miffed if I didn't get an answer, since they could have tried contacting me and gotten the email wrong or something.

Again, though... communication.

<-- loves seeing in progress stuff.

*shrug* I like watching how things progress. Art, manufacturing, doesn't matter. I'm a fan of process.

I have to agree wholeheartedly on *communication.*

I'm very forgiving of schedule slips and such. If something happens where a piece that was going to be done in, say, two weeks won't be available for a month - just tell me.

For instance, Graver has a long wait, typically, but he's a good example of what *to* do. He, and many on DA, have a queue on their site. You can see you're tenth, ninth, twentieth, whatever. And when you're nearly there, he contacts you, lets you know, and starts going back and forth with you on prelim sketches, poses, mood, etc.

He works *with* you, and I don't think I've heard of anyone being unhappy with a final product.

There are others that ask for a screenshot, and the next thing you hear from them is the finished piece. While these usually turn out OK with whatever info you give them... it irks me if it's something I've paid for. (Or paid for past a certain amount, rather.) I want input, since it *is* my character and I know what he/she would be like.

And then there are the ones who vanish off the face of the earth. I went and commissioned someone that one of our folks here mentioned last year, when the artist needed funds and help, so they were offering a sale. (This is back in april.) I didn't mind the style, and it was a decent deal. She'd had a body of work built up and prior commissions. So I commissioned her. Little back and forth, I hear I'm at the point of sketching the pieces... then nothing 'til October. When I'm still in sketching. Well, ok, stuff happens, fine. I haven't heard back *since* then, though. Not a peep. Sent a note, but noticed the person hadn't been on in four (now five plus) weeks.

Right now, I don't care if she shows up and gives me something that would make Rembrandt, Monet, and Michalangelo rise from the grave to offer her praises, I won't commission her again.

That kind of experience, though, is rare for me.

Now, if they're freebies? I don't worry about it... well, at all. I'll throw my screenshot gallery open and say "Find something interesting or somethign you need to work on. have fun." I'm out nothing if they don't finish something, and if they do, hey, cool, I have a new sketch! (The exception to this is "award" pieces, in which case, yes, I will ask if I hear nothing, but on the other hand, I do expect them to be much lower priority than paid pieces.)

Again, though, communication is *key.* Set realistic expectations. Keep your clients updated, even if the news is bad. And don't set *other* expectations if you don't know for sure that you can keep them. If things are running longer and you're, say, in college with finals coming up? Say that. Apologize for the extra time. Dont' start saying "And I'll throw in a free X Y Z at the same time!" unless you're going to, *and* know you can do so with the time frame given. It feels, to me, like being bought off or pushed off if it still doesn't happen. Heck, my reaction if it's been a much longer wait is "Well, just do the original and get it done sooner, then!"

The way you relate to the people commissioning is as important as the final pieces.

<-- is all over the place.

This past weekend, I was on Virtue, Pinnacle, Victory, Champion, Guardian... all over.

Woah.

Wow. Thanks. I like it! Sent you a PM. (Well, unless you read this, say, five seconds after me posting it, in which case hold on a sec, I'm sending you a PM!)

BTW, nice killing zombies the other day with you, Bayani, even if you did end up with my most suicidal, "Tanks don't get aggro, I DO!" blaster.

>.>

(Seriously. I think she could be on a team with seven tanks and STILL get most of the aggro.)

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Nice collection Bill, can't believe I've never done one for you... not even a freebie!

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Well, the number of people who have are *far* outweighed by the number who haven't... I think the day that's not the case is the day where even TA would say "That might be a bit too much art, there." It'd only be about 3 1/2 billion pieces though. >.>

Think I'd crash photobucket.



While I'd be honored if you wanted to tackle one, it's not surprising - I'm such an altaholic I don't have "a" character I'm associated with. Even my forum namesake... well, depends on which server you're looking at and which side. It makes even "impluse sketching" a bit more difficult.

With what I have here, where I think I'm missing a couple, and not counting "large" and "small" size, 37. 38 once I remember to put the copy up of what I got from Wassy.

<qr>

Re: 57 month.

Solid "Meh" here. I mean, I've got plenty of characters with 50+ tokens, so it doesn't affect my older characters, and the newer ones have all the vet costume change tokens to that point... plus can log out in Icon for discounts...

*shrug*

Re: 60 month

Before Safeguard/Mayhems, Goldbricker packs, etc. I'd wonder what they were thinking with this. Now? Just saves running a few radio or newspaper missions. *shrug* Not a game-shaker to me.

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Great read,thanks for putting this up.FYI, the link from the CCG for the Blood of the Black Stream character is borked.

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It is?

Just clicked on it (on a new installation on another partition - doing the win7 beta - so it's not cached.) Came up for me. What are you seeing?

If you're seeing the "City of heroes Secret Origins!" bit near the top, scroll down. It's a news item.

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thats the thing though how does the system know the content of a file still in transit? are thye just blockingthe file name?

That seemes dubious since their could be other people with similar file names

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It certainly wasn't blocking the file name (unless you know of a song/video called "Low Cost Villainy 001.") I'm not sure what they were doing. It *has* to be either recent, or complete BS - though the specific error message makes me doubt the second. I say it has to be recent, since I've uploaded other quick vids there with songs and whatnot without problem. (And I don't think "Everyone's a loser" is so popular it'd be instantly recognized...)

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that doesn't seem posible. how do you know whats in a file being uploaded? I'm more keen to think it was a bug

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Nope. I went through and asked, since (IIRC) the error specifically mentioned copyright.

Hmmm....

Let's throw Seeker 209 at you.

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It seems all the sites now a day are geting realy strict with their ULA. Youtube is now muting music videos with copyright music (WTF?)

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Want a kicker?

Photobucket (I think it was) stopped me uploading this video because it picked up the music that was in it and said it was a copyright infringement. Not removed... actually stopped the upload in process.

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Rather than using dA, you could always make your own site where you can post whatever you want. Often the cost of your own domain is less than at dA, without the pesky rules and arbitrary rulings.

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... well, depending on the host.

Well, wolf-whatever that's posting there (a) needs to grow up and (b) seems to be going well over the line into harrassment... and thus now has a report about them over at DA's help desk as well.

Didn't comment, as I hadn't read anything that was taken down, so I'd be arguing over suppositions. Still, yeah, DA's not getting a great rep.

Yep. They were fun, even if I couldn't always come up with something I was happy with.

So, late last night (or was it early this morning?) I took my 46 Thug/Poi through the final Destiny arc. Faced down and stomped all over Recluse. Then went to give him his helmet. Figured I'd immortalize it...

And I think the screenie turned out really well. (Nothing done to it, other than a small shrink by Photobucket.)

(Same character I had this piece done of by semaj007. Same outfit, actually...)

It's what I normally run at, and it runs perfectly fine both under XP (my usual) and, since I've done the update, under Win7. Been running it like that for the past few years.

Quickly touching base:

Win7-64 on a seperate partition. Very nice install... very hands off!

Athlon 64x2-4000, nVidia 7900GS, 2 Gb RAM, 1680x1050 resolution on my LCD.

Initial COH load - *Dang* that's bright... but a driver update seems to have fixed that. Only problem right now is that it refuses to let me change graphics settings, defaulting back to 800x600, everything "blah."

Seeing if TweakCOH helps.

Edit: Yep. It did.

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Make the zone coop, or pvp.

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Ugh, no and no.