Game Client modified by Ender

[EnderWiggin]

So now that the radar cat is out of the bag, will you include it in your client? The current versions of it require turning off updates for your client

Well, I do not like adding this stuff to my client. This is not right and even harmful for the game itself. But since damage is already done and beast is on the loose, I may include this shit sooner or later.

Hmmm, still having that same exact error. Any ideas on what I could do to fix it? I login, hear the music, see my character, but as soon as I click "where you logged out" I receive this.

Have you tried to login from default client? Plus try to update your video card drivers.

[Potjeh]

What damage? To quote myself from another thread

And it's not like having this gives you anything that maximum zoom-out on high resolution with all objects hidden doesn't. The only difference is that the latter makes the game fugly, so every time someone got killed due to client differences he was essentially killed for admiring the graphics. Is enjoying the aesthetics really such a great crime that it deserves capital punishment?

[EnderWiggin]

What damage? Hm... People not take this as a game, they do not enjoy game mechanics, all they try to do - crush the enemies by any means possible. They forage, mine, craft, hunt, farm etc. not because they like it, but because this is the only way to crush enemies. The whole client modding started for this purpose. If they could avoid or simplify any game mechanic to gain advantage - they will do so. This began with night vision and x-ray mods, and now came to built-in bots and curio/player/whatever highlighting. Hell, some time ago nightvision was cosidered almost a cheat, but now it is something everyone is using as if it was designed to be so. And yet starting modifications like nightvision weren't too bad - no one liked to venture into dark caves. Yes, it's fun and exciting for the first 2-3 times, then it becames boring as hell. X-Ray killed "hide behind tree or rock" tactics. It was fun, but I don't think really good mechanic, because victims could not do many things to protect themselves from such thing, this was a win-win for ambusher.
Yes, some mechanics, like sieges, are not great - it's almost impossible to do a proper siege without resorting to some questionable tactics such as blocking ram with strongboxes/houses, or even bug abusing. But they are breaking even properly working mechanics, like foraging and farming with those highlightings and bots. And what is worse - by doing this, they are breaking game for those who came here to play, not to annihilate. Peacefull farmers don't stand a chance in any raid with those abusers and this is understandable, though I think those who want to live peacefully should have possibility to do so. But all those who want to pvp and wage wars forced to use same tactics/modifications as "power factions", because otherwise they will be left behind. Yes, I know, player skill could make huge difference, but it won't help against much stronger opponent, and with curio foraging simplified, "power factions" even could afford loose some high-stat fighting alts, because it's not that hard to raise new ones.
I've always tried to make my client useful by adding features that fix some UI inconviniences and complements gamepley, without breaking/disabling any game mechanics. At the start core feature was built-in Google translate, to facilitate negotiations and trading. Yes, it included night vision and x-ray - but those were de-facto standart at that time, and I think no one would use my client without them. Later I've added object hiding - I think with this I was last one too. I mostly tried to improve interface, because it gives you too little info and on big screens it sucks. But on default 800x600 - it really not so bad. And I really hope I can continue this way, without adding more questionable stuff.

TL;DR:
If players trying to avoid/simplify some game mechanic - devs should notice and try to fix this mechanic. But if players trying to avoid virtually every mechanic game provides - maybe it is not their type of game and they should go play somewhere else?

[dirtydog]

Have you tried to login from default client? Plus try to update your video card drivers.

If I use the play button it works, but I really don't like playing in that tiny window. My video card is up to date, I literally just updated it a few days ago. Seems like i am almost outta options, I have really tried a lot of things to get this working.

[Potjeh]

The only things that are getting broken client-wise are things that deserve to be broken. Interface should *never* be a major obstacle, it just doesn't get much worse than that design-wise. The whole light and dark implementation sucks. Same goes for trees obscuring everything when they wouldn't do it from your character's perspective. As for botting, I believe Jorb himself said that it's just a symptom of problems with the gameplay. Ideally, people wouldn't *want* to bot. And that comes down to the amount of decision making involved. Farming is no-brains activity that takes inordinate amount of time, so it's only natural that it will be botted. The solution isn't to disrupt botting itself somehow, it's to redesign the whole farming side of the game so that it involves decisions you can't trust a bot with.

Anyway, bottomline is that the silly interface restrictions will be broken, and if they are then it's better that it's made publicly available so that there's a level playing field. I really don't see how would giving client advantages to a small select group of players be preferable. I thought this was the whole point of your client.

As for competitiveness, it's pretty much unavoidable in an open PvP game. People were always competitive, it's just that way back when we had updates this competitiveness was channelled towards racing to get to the new content first. Now that there's no new content, the only thing left to compete in is combat. This has nothing to do with clients, once again it's a game design issue. The way to address this would be channelling some of that competitive spirit away from destructive behaviour towards constructive one, ie making it more profitable to cooperate with newbies than to raid them. This would push the competition towards society-building, which is inherently constructive.

[MagicManICT]

I don't get to pull out lines from House very often because I feel that they rarely apply to "Normal" life. (or what we'd like to think of as normal, but whatever.) I believe that Foreman told one of House's new employees something along these lines: "He's going to keep pushing at you until you do something you regret, so it's best if you decide where the line is before you cross it."

I think it's quite apt about the community here and the client. I guess the question for you, Ender, is... You already started down the path by creating a custom client that does things the original client doesn't. Where's your line? As far as "game breaking" client features, the radar isn't any worse than animal highlighting, and in some ways, as has been pointed out, has absolutely no impact on the game since you can already A)hide everything so you can see the full ground layout, B) zoom clear out so that you can see the entire draw area, and C) turn on X-ray so that anything that isn't hidden stands out like a sore thumb.

[mvgulik]

I guess the question for you, Ender, is... You already started down the path by creating a custom client that does things the original client doesn't. Where's your line?

Considering the original client was not really intended as finished product I think that this is a screwed up way of putting it.

Personally I think that what happens on the client front ... is also part of the Beta test (or Alpha if you like). (if its not, it will be ...)

[Flame]

I agree ender.

Until the game is half broken, is not so evil use bots, highlight, etc etc etc.
But teorically a game should be the same game for everyone, not only for who have the better client. And if the game have a challenge with all that dark inside a cave where you could hide and run in the dark, or if you can hide behind a rock but there is a way to notice it, if there was some sense on have a nice eye on caugh curios...Well it could be a fun game mechanism. Challenge in the game.

But people used most of the game mechanism to win, and the game cant guarantee a fair chanche to run or fight. Plus, craft torcs was a waste of linen, they lasted too few time, there wasnt any other light that let you play enough time without fall in the dark again, and so on.


Surely, add "features", in other words is "Avoid an annoying game mechanism".

Dark in caves is Annoying. But is that a bug? NO. is that a interface deficit? NO. it was just annoyng, so we removed it.

This game is so full of broken things that one more or less dont make difference, so let's leave the dark, but we must be honest with ourself. We are Cheating. We are changing the game difficulty in a game that doesn't have the Difficulty option on default.

[killette2]

I am having a problem with using enders on my school computers.

After I enter my username and password, it goes to a black screen and it never loads from there. How do you suggest I fix this problem?

[EnderWiggin]

New version available through updater and update archives at MediaFire and Taggedup. Changes:

• added displaying of actions you have gained access to (by discovering materials or learning skill) in system Messages tab. Basicly implementing this idea.
  
• added object/beasts/humans highlight to minimap. What objects to highlight is configured in Options->Highlight. For those who want to fiddle with object list - look at highlight.conf file.