I want to measure how much a computer downloads over different periods of time.  Is there a Windows program or feature that will do this?

When I installed the game, it ran very smoothly.  As time went on, it got worse and worse, and I had to decrease my detail settings more and more.

I'm not talking about during the course of a single session, I'm talking about over time across many sessions.

Any theories?

Inspired by the other thread.  This post is only half serious, so please no flames!


[Weapon Skill] times [Armour Skill]

Divided by

[Weapon Skill plus Armour Skill]



For instance, if you have level 30 sword and level 30 light armour, you're 30x30/(30+30), or level 15!

If you have level 10 sword and level 10 light armour, you're level 5!

If you have level 10 and level 30, you're level 7.

If you have level 90 and 60, you're level 36.



What do you think?

As a player, what do you do that nourishes the roleplay community and environment?

The roleplay environment depends on people interacting with one another.  How do you make that happen between people other than yourself?

What is it that you think others should be doing, or doing more of?

I want to keep it positive.  We talk a lot about what people shouldn't be doing.  Let's look at it from the other direction.

I did a search for "atheism" covering the last 400 days of the forum.  This topic has been discussed, but I don't think it's been discussed the way I'm going to discuss it, so I feel comfortable making this thread.

I'm approaching this topic from a place of ignorance.  I don't know the plan of the settings team and I haven't been involved in the discussions about religion and the settings at that level.

I made a new character today and the description of Atheists raised some questions for me.  I'm not sure I know what Atheism is anymore in the context of Planeshift, or how it's viewed.

Despite the obvious presence of Gods and Goddesses throughout Yliakum, some deny that these beings are worthy of worship.

This is the line that has me confused.  In discussions, we've always distinguished between two senses of Atheist: One, someone who denies the existence of the gods.  Two, someone who denies that the gods are worthy of worship.  Two very different senses.

My understanding was that the consensus was that the first sense, the sense closest to the real life definition of Atheist, is absurd in Yliakum.  First off, the definition of "god" may be synonymous with "infinately powerful wizard".  But secondly, people in Yliakum recognize the existence of the gods because people in Yliakum recognize the existence of the gods.  It's a cultural thing.  An outside observer, while they might find it right or wrong, would see this if they looked at Yliakum.  Everyone recognizes the existence of the gods.  This is ok because of the flexible definition of "god" and because the influence of the gods is so pervasive in Yliakum society.  In our own world, there was a time in Europe when pretty much everyone believed in God, and there was far less evidence.

My confusion here is because the line I quoted in bold and italics mixes the senses.  "Despite the obvious... some deny that these beings are worthy of worship."  This is clearly a reference to the second sense of Atheist:  That sense that says that the character recognizes the gods exist, but does not see the gods as worthy of worship.

So I'm confused.  In every discussion I've had up until now, we've treated the two senses of Atheist as very different things.  One was always completely unacceptable, and the other was tolerable (and perhaps even relatively common).  The quote I took from the character generator seems to be in exact opposition to that.

I'm hoping that someone can help me to better understand what's going on, and how I could misunderstand things so completely.



The rest of the information on Atheism:

Most people consider atheists foolish at best and a condemned object of pity at worst.
This makes sense for characters who deny the gods exist.  I'm not sure how this should work for characters who don't think the gods should be worshipped.  Is this another one of those cultural things, that is simply true because it is true?

Athests will bear the worst effects of the penalty for dying since no god will grant them succor from it.
This seems logical.

The atheist does not look outside itself for truth.
This confuses me.  Can someone explain what the author meant by "look outside itself"?  Is "itself" a typo?  It should be themself.  Also, why is this so prescriptive for the character's reasoning (or lack of reasoning)?  Or am I reading too much into it?

People attracted to this faith:  People who have had a bad experience with religion, anti-social people, staunch individualists, and the irrational.
Again, I find this highly prescriptive for the character's motivation in being an Atheist, and frankly I'm not sure where it's coming from.  What's the rational basis for this part of the settings?  In Yliakum, do anti-social, individualist, and irrational have the same meanings that they do in the real world?  Why should these qualities be especially applied to characters who are Atheist, and applied to all characters who are Atheist?  (By "Why", I mean "How does this serve the game?")


I'm hoping that this post doesn't offend anyone's work.  If it seems like I'm being critical, I'm merely expressing confusion on a topic I know little about.  Understanding this issue better will help me (and possibly others) become better roleplayers.

In the presentation Vengeance did for the google thing, one of the things that sticks in my memory was the concept of "diminishing returns" as a way to stop cheaters.  Basically, it means that the more you do something, the less incentive you have to do it.  An example would be mining.  The longer you mine, the less of a chance there is that you'll find anything.  Eventually, you won't be able to mine successfully anymore, and you'll have to take a break.  Vengeance thinks this will help stop cheaters, and I think he's right.  But can we also use this on powerlevelling?  When mental stamina was introduced to the game, part of the rational for it was to force people to take breaks from mining and killing things so that they would spend more time actually talking to other players and connecting socially with people.  The problem of course is that if you level your character enough, it's very difficult for you to run out of mental stamina.  Anything we do with stats and fatigue will end up affecting new players the most and levelled characters the least.  So how about "diminishing returns"?  Is there a solution in that?

- The graphics are much smoother.  I don't know what was changed, but I can look around and it isn't choppy at all, even in complicated maps with full detail.  Zones load quicker as well.

- The client crashes if sound is enabled, but that's something that comes and goes with each version.

- 70 people were online.  I found three in the tavern, and half a dozen smithing at harnquist.  Other places I went to were more or less empty.  I visited a lot of different areas but not the mining sites, so my guess is that the mines are busy as all heck.  It was disapointing that people weren't being more social (although people would answer questions if I asked them something).

- Gladiators are hardcore now, even though rogues are still easy for my character.  I could barely defeat basic gladiators with level 60 light armour and daggers that deal 300 damage every hit, and I eventually died to one.  On the one hand it's better for realism.  The gladiators are supposed to be the best warriors around.

- But since there are fewer rogues and gladiators in the arena to fight, and gladiators are no longer profitable, it means the arena isn't a source of income anymore.  Which explains why everyone is mining.  I probably shouldn't be annoyed by this because it works in favour of realism.  But it did reraise some questions for me: How good are our characters supposed to be before they're considered good at what they do? How long should it take our characters to get to that point? How much grinding should there be in the game?  Will there be other ways to make money besides mining?

- Lighting problems are worse.  The torches are awesome though.