Idea - Suggestion on .ini's

[Sum1]

Hey all,

Tone's recent comment regarding the state of the 105 Warrior .ini in Lettuce's thread gave me an idea that others have probably had.

It would be awesome if we could vote on .ini's or otherwise allow the community to differentiate between the great ones, good ones, and the not-so-good ones. That way, a comment like Tone's won't be lost to a buried thread or something.

Thoughts?

 

[dreamflux]

Hey all,

Tone's recent comment regarding the state of the 105 Warrior .ini in Lettuce's thread gave me an idea that others have probably had.

It would be awesome if we could vote on .ini's or otherwise allow the community to differentiate between the great ones, good ones, and the not-so-good ones. That way, a comment like Tone's won't be lost to a buried thread or something.

Thoughts?

I like this idea. Also a ton of the inis are way outdated for lower level folks.

 

[Dretski]

I agree.

 

[Redbot]

I like the idea, how would we do it?

 

[Sum1]

Well, I think step 1 is separating all the .ini's into their own threads. It's not super helpful if there is one thread with five .ini's in it. Any comments on one particular .ini or another end up mixed together. This also lets people commen/refine.

Step 2 is creating a ranking system fueled by user/voter inputs. My first thought is through a poll, but that has problems. I don't know if you can add entries to a poll once it's been started. Also, say a year from now we have this up and running and there are pretty well-accepted #1, #2 etc ini's with great documentation and lots of votes... but Tone is like "fuck this lame shit, mine is WAY better" and posts his ini, which DOES prove to be awesome. How does his .ini move up to the #1 spot where it deserves to be when the previous #1 has 1000 votes for being the formerly best .ini on the block?

I'll have to think through the logistics. One issue I will have is I'm not entirely sure what is within the realm of possible when taking into consideration of the underlying engine running the boards.

 

[Inkie]

... thinking out loud...

What if we started with a contest for best 105 War Pal & SK ini?

assuming we have access to a max AA 105 of each class. We use the same character with only a cleric merc and compare the following for each ini

1)mobs killed per hour in a specific camp & or mobs killed before medding with only cleric merc support).
2)how long tank lives against named.

If the same SK (or War or Pal) is using the same gear and the only thing we change is the ini, we should have a fairly objective measure for which one is "best".

winning ini gets (redbot insert prize here)
...

probably best to use KA 9 though, which means waiting for it to be not beta

 

[Incognito]

While I love these ideas, Sum1 is right, logistics are a bitch. My thoughts:

• Definately retire INI's more than a couple of years old. All it takes is DB to do a major AA revamp to completely out-mode an INI, oh wait, they just did that...
• Each expansion potentially limits shelf life of a posted INI.
• Yep, a new submission that is clearly better will never get top billing if we institute a voting system. However, that is the norm, look at EQUI, or SourceForge etc. They all have rankings albeit at the cost of a new and better submission being overlooked. Not sure how to solve that.
• I think a contest is a great idea Darkie! However once again, there is shelf life to consider.
• Red, perhaps a system that automatically deprecates a post/INI more than a year old. That way, even if the INI is still valid, someone has to update it for it to remain on the list. IF it IS still valid, its likely that it will get updated anyway (or at the least resubmitted). This way, ppl know that something is still working, still valid, and that someone might have actually worked on it. Old code is a major problem with all things MQ2 and that is an acceptable solution imho. How many times have you found macro code, shits code, or even plugin code that you simply can't get to work due to changes in the underlying engine. Yes INIs are prolly to a lesser extent but the concept remains true.

 

[Jax]

What about a "Quality INI" sub-forum that has some sort of red-cents voting outside of the normal "thanks"

How difficult would that be to implement?

This would incentivize active posting and reward those who posted good ini's and those who provided good feedback.

 

[hoosierbilly]

This sounds awesome, but as I think about it and try to write this response...

The idea of a benchmarked, repeatable test sounds best to me. New submissions could then be tested and scored against the current best. This needs to be objective rather then subjective, opinions are great, but repeatable hard statistics are better. Might be tricky coming up with the benchmark criteria for every class though. Some classes might need to be benchmarked against more then one criteria: Druid's, best healer ini, best dps ini, best group synergy? ini.

Yeah, this could be very difficult. I've deleted and rewritten this four times now... I'm done.

 

[Rustycat]

Well, I think step 1 is separating all the .ini's into their own threads. It's not super helpful if there is one thread with five .ini's in it. Any comments on one particular .ini or another end up mixed together. This also lets people commen/refine.

Step 2 is creating a ranking system fueled by user/voter inputs. My first thought is through a poll, but that has problems. I don't know if you can add entries to a poll once it's been started. Also, say a year from now we have this up and running and there are pretty well-accepted #1, #2 etc ini's with great documentation and lots of votes... but Tone is like "fuck this lame shit, mine is WAY better" and posts his ini, which DOES prove to be awesome. How does his .ini move up to the #1 spot where it deserves to be when the previous #1 has 1000 votes for being the formerly best .ini on the block?

I'll have to think through the logistics. One issue I will have is I'm not entirely sure what is within the realm of possible when taking into consideration of the underlying engine running the boards.

Step One, RedBot posts the rules determined stating class(es) etc, lvl or whatever is landed on. This thread is the contest thread and as the submissions are generated, their links added in the main thread with a numerical sequence that can be edited by RedBot (possilby others designated) in the original post until a week before the end of the constest. At that point, the a poll is added with the option of 1 to whatever number of submissions were submitted. Members only get to cast 1 maybe 2 votes from the list which then can tally at contest end.

Step Two, each person entry to start a new thread with a title formated Per Redbot's decision.. ie. KISS INI WAR 105 etc. No ranking or anything tied to this thread and only use NEW submissions. No need to go through the old INI thread and do all that work. After making their unique thread for their INI, they submit that link into the contest thread as a reply.

Step Three, after the contest is over, we copy the list of INI's into the KISS INI thread's accordingly with their links.

 

[Warl0ck45]

I don't use KA overly much, so take this with a grain of salt...

When figuring out X class (being fairly fresh and just not only looking over general info, but what other folks have actually done) I find it very helpful to review old (level appropriate) posts/ini's/commentary. It helps to not only know general "paladins are gimpy raid tanks" kinda info but also how X class has evolved into what it is today, and how folks utilized it... what strengths/weakness it had then Vs now, what game changer new abilities poped up and how did folks use it.

I got a sorta running file of holyshit/downshits for classes I keep adding to when soandso has a neato idea. I may not be using it, but it helps to look it over, and see what the idea was they were driving at, and how they accomplished it (or tried to) which can lead to new idea on current stuff (Damn I never thought of that)

Anyways... a lot of commentary on "don't make old INIs disappear pls!" Some of us take a little longer to wrap our heads around stuff then others! =)

Shuffling them over into an "obsolete" subsection (to make it clear they may not work on current stuff) would, IMHO, be a better solution

 

[Meistro]

What they said...kind-of.....great idea, very hard to regulate, implement and judge

Ok, a few classes are cut and dry as to role in group (Warrior, Cleric, Wizard, Berzerker), some are not so much (Shaman, Druid, SK, Pally).
What role a toon is playing can dynamically change the set up of the ini (my Shaman has 3 different set ups, my bst 2, my mage 2, chanter 3, and i could go on...).
And of course stacking.....I use this buff from this class, but if you have that class, it doesn't stack with that buff.....

Also there is going to be the difference between FTP<Ex-Gold<Gold.
That could also lead to Gearing helping this set more than that set (prestige vs non-). [this cleric ini set up heals great for me (Full TBM Raid gear)..isn't going to work as well for a Lvl 105 FTP Heroic wearing latent.
What expansion are they capped at will make a difference (see AA's below)
Clickies, toys, etc., these can change, and can be a game changer for some

AA's...Who's got what (and knows exactly what they do). And with this "revamp" coming up, that may or may not be as much of an issue (less selection, more levels).
So how many different criteria are you going to have for any given class?

I agree that i think the "ini" form should be stickyed for easy access, and should be divided between "new" and "old".
I think the best thing they are used for is a bases, and tweeked for personal use by each player seaperately.