PoWater - Can we fix the clip plane?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by JerimShadowreaver, Aug 10, 2022.

  1. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

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    You ever open your eyes in water?! Can’t see shit!
     
  2. Saenayil

    Saenayil People Like Me

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    It would be cool if you could see perfectly underwater in outdoor zones. Lakerathetear comes to mind as a place I'd love to have more visibility of, because there's a whole world under the water.

    In Powater it would be fun if the clip plane were dynamic and adjusted depending on your depth.

    Depth 1: you can see ~50% of the normal distance
    Depth 2: you're further from the light, and can only see 30%
    Depth 3: nearly pitch black, you can only see your hands and a few feet in front of you (and only with a light source)

    This would keep challenging content challenging, while also opening up the world a bit more for exploration. Alas, it is only a dream.
     
  3. Auyster

    Auyster People Like Me

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    Remember kids, external log trackers are pushing the line!
     
  4. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

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    I don't care about stopping 'external log trackers' but let's not act like it's not making it easier when you can see otherwise hidden things (like coirnav, without being on top of him).

    This is why some games (like everquest) have spyware in their client, to catch people who are using external programs that make the game easier, because they want everyone to have the same limitations and share the same game experience. Some are good at boxing, some aren't, but everyone can look good with the help of automation and external log trackers. Machines can substitute for physical attributes and talent, but that diminishes the value of those attributes and talents.

    I think that the log parsers that show timers, generate alerts or show maps are not in the spirit of 'classic AK' whatever that means to each person. If it exists and some people are using it, it leaves behind those who don't have it or don't want to use it. I think the meta here has shifted to where people favor things that make the game easier and more like modern EQ. Maybe it was just a few vocal people, but I thought that players here liked not having the maps because it rewards those who can navigate without them. Now we have in-game maps that are 'external' so we can have maps but still pretend we're playing without maps. Some people are really bad at navigating and the lack of maps punishes them disproportionately. The same can be said for keeping track of timers or noticing charm breaks, but the mods level the playing field so everyone can do it.

    Ultimately all this comes down to trying to tell other people how to play the game, rather than worrying about ourselves. The trouble is that this is played together in a shared virtual world, not instances, and everything someone does affects other players too. I think of it more like a cooperative table top game where people agree to follow the rules. If it degenerates into doing whatever you can get away with, instead of cooperating, it becomes a different kind of environment.
     
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  5. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    I had to pull up EQAtlas the other day to figure out how to get out of Kaesora.

    All these years, I’ve camped probably 20+ Howling Stones keys, done the shaman and monk Iksar epics, camped a Fear staff, done the mage and enchanter epic steps in the zone multiple times, done over 10 VP keys… And not once in all of that, did I ever run out of the zone.

    But yesterday when working on another VP key for a character without teleport or a gate clicky, I had to figure it out. Was a very AKurate feeling.
     
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  6. Smudge

    Smudge People Like Me

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    If it wasn't printed out and taped to your wall then that sounds unauthentic.
     
  7. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    A view of the Coirnav fight area from July 2004 (Gates of Discord era):
    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    Incidentally, I used realtime log parsers before the Al'Kabor server existed, as did many PoP-era PC players. The primary tools I had back in the day were EQWatcher Advanced (used mostly for audio triggers) and EQ Companion (used mostly to plot my location on an EQAtlas map image anytime I hit my /loc hotkey, similar to ZlizMaps). No log parser could tell you the location of Coirnav--that would require interacting with the client, which was forbidden (without explicit developer permission, as with EQWindows). They also didn't do the fancy overlay things that current tools apparently do. The basic capabilities were there, though.
     
  9. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    I have to ask how you had Sylvan Infusion, those GoD spells were quite hard to obtain early on… yet didn’t have Karana’s Renewal from spectral turn ins.
     
  10. Mokli

    Mokli I Feel Loved

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    Look at that beautiful autoinventory hotkey
     
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  11. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    I had Karana's Renewal but rarely used it due to the mana cost. I could cast Tunare's Renewal more frequently, which I found more useful for long events.
    (Edit: Checking my logs, I did use Karana's Renewal more often than I remembered. But I never considered Karana's Renewal to be a full replacement for Tunare's Renewal, and swapped between the two depending on the event/activity.)

    As for Sylvan Infusion, my guild put a lot of effort into GoD group content for the first few months after the expansion launched. Looks like my guildmates managed to get it to drop in a sewers group instance. (This was before the rune turn-in system; at the time I guess spells dropped directly.)

    [Thu Mar 25 23:32:07 2004] Aerek tells you, 'Do you have Spell: Sylvan Infusion yet man?'
    [Thu Mar 25 23:33:48 2004] You told kanibal, '...running to natimbi sewers first to loot Spell: Sylvan Infusion!'
    [Thu Mar 25 23:38:43 2004] --You have looted a Spell: Sylvan Infusion.--
    [Thu Mar 25 23:39:02 2004] You say to your guild, 'yay! thank you Aerek for Spell: Sylvan Infusion!'
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2022
  12. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    Mokli likes this.
  13. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

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    Huh yea I know we would have lower geared druids use Tunares in CH rots but man those 3k heals don't compare at all to Karanas and especially Complete Heals against hard targets.
     
  14. rainessa

    rainessa People Like Me

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    Nice to know what the Coir area looks like :) Thanks for the video.
     
  15. Palarran

    Palarran Well-Known Member

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    Two druids occupying the same spot in a rotation using the 3k heal works nicely, though, if you have the druids to spare! (And I think we had over 10 active druids at the time, if I remember right.)
    Also, for the fight in the screenshot, while I seem to have lost the logs I think it was a multi-guild backflagging collaboration. If so we may have had 150+ people taking part and I probably only needed to heal group members. Looks like I didn't do such a great job at that, though!