User talk:Farlo


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Mod backup bot[edit]

So, I am continuing from the work I started last friday, and I'm to the point of trying to figure out what should be done with file names and detection of broken links.

I have already decided that I am going to have to create a list of all links, and manually download most of them to the bots storage folder, which would then be automatically uploaded to dropbox, and their public links generated and stored. A simple database with the original links, the file names and the public link would keep everything copacetic.

I was trying to think of a universal "file removed or missing" script, but in all honesty there are too many upload sites that could be used. While I may be able to program in all the currently used file upload sites, the second someone used a site I don't have programmed in, there will be problems.

So I need an easy way for users to report the links as dead to the bot. As a programmer, my first thought was to just ask users to place a tag in the code beside each dead link using a wiki comment such as . But I quickly realized that most users would not go to all that trouble, no matter how much easier that would be for the bot.

I'm torn between writing up a javascript interface that allows any user to report a link only by hovering over the link and clicking a "Dead Link" popup, which I would ideally have alert the bot in some way.... Maybe through a Wiki page of dead links on the bots userspace? Or a much easier way would be for a user to copy and paste the dead link to the bots userspace page.... Which would still almost never be done.

Then again, do you think any users would object to the new links being automatically replaced with dropbox links from the start?--Kairu 22:07, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, first and foremost, please don't replace any links that aren't dead, a few of the authors (myself and Pyron Sy included) have contested people uploading mirrors and trying to consolidate all the mods into one host. If nothing else, it's simply so that we maintain control over the files and don't have to go through a 3rd party to get the links updated. There's been a fair bit of discussion about it on the various database talk pages if you care to read it.

As long as the bot is used solely as a "last resort" of sorts to prevent the files being lost entirely, I'm fine with that. If you're willing to put in the effort, I think the best route to take would be to make the popup window with a warning saying that the user is about to leave the GWW and then give "Continue" and "Report Dead Link" links. The easiest way of notifying you of the report would probably be to have it add a timestamped note with the mod reported added to your (or the bot's) talk page. Depending on how complex your bot is, it could then read the page, figure out which mod is down, and replace the link with the archived one, as well as notifying the listed author what you've done so that (s)he can upload their own updated version if they're still around. That way we get a fancy warning reminding people to watch themselves on external sites as well :D

One issue that might arise is griefing your bot by spamming the report button on everything. I think it might be better to just let the bot notify you of a reported link and then you decide whether it's actually dead and can "approve" the bot to do the switch to the archive.

If you wanted to automate the detection a bit more, you could probably make a universal script at least for the more prominent sites used, I don't think there are more than 5 or so being commonly used here, but it would still leave some of them in the dark, so you'd end up making both systems anyways. I'd love to help in more than just an overview, but the only coding experience I have aside from this Wiki is a bit of Visual Basic, so I probably can't be much help there. ~Farlo

Talk 20:17, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I figured replacing links from the start would be an issue, it's something I threw in as I was typing it out but when I thought about it more, most users want control of their downloads.

I'm actually not sure how possible a javascript interface is. I have seen javascript used in specific parts of the site (I'm thinking sorting tables on the fly and the countdown clocks), but I'm betting that for security reasons it is not something that can be added by regular users if at all... No matter how ideal it would be for this situation. I'll have to brainstorm an alternative.... Most likely some type of CSS, which is fine with me, but will add a bit of complexity to the initial setup, and will add another requirement to the bot's editing.... But shouldn't be too difficult, since most of that is already there in the bots initial code. I'm thinking that the bot should replace the link if one of two things happens. Either the link is reported by at least five different people (Or one specific person in the case of a list of specific users such as you or myself or others in a specific list.) or if it has been reported by less then five people, my manual check of that link.

I'm looking into tying the bot into a third party application that is meant to download from almost any download site. Not sure how well it will work but I'm hoping it is possible. That would take a large amount of the manual labor out of it, and would mean less chance for me to mess things up.

I have some things to do, but will continue work tomorrow. I should hopefully have the bot finished by next week at the latest. Time permitting of course.

And I just realized I forgot to sign my last edit. :P --Kairu 22:07, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Just tested a little and I realized that in order to do this, User:KairuBot would need to be granted exemption from AbuseFilter if that is even possible. Otherwise the bot won't be able to replace any dead links at all..... --Kairu 00:35, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, the cheap and dirty way to do it would be have a show/hide table with the links in them, but that might be too much. If you do figure out a javascript or css popup, one thing we can do it template-ize (yup, made that up all by myself) the mod's display and have the java/whatever operate just in that template, that'd cut down on annoying code for the authors and give your bot a consistant format to pull the info from.

I'm not sure if I like it automatically at all, but if it does five sounds like a good number, as long as it's five unique users/IPs. It'd be nice if you had a Wiki page as an interface for it, that way we can see what'd been done recently and possibly display the current vote counts for those that have been reported dead.

I've used a program called JDownloader a few times, just copypaste the URL into it and it'll download it'll keep a queue of everything and just give prompts for any Captchas.

As for the AbuseFilter, I'd ask Jon, he seems to know a good deal about the filters and can move your user groups if needed. ~Farlo

Talk 01:57, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

I agree on the unique, maybe even make sure the users are older than a day or so to further prevent abuse. And I would say they should be users and no ip's allowed, mainly because it is fairly easy to grab a proxy.

The main reason I want at least something automatic is in case I am away from the server for a long while, since I don't anticipate being able to work out a web interface. That way, if I forget about GWW for a few months (Which has been known to happen, sadly), or go on an extended vacation, it would still be possible to have the dead links replaced. Of course if I go the automatic rout, I would set up a user page meant to kill the bot if it started doing anything hinky. And of course everything would be stored on the Wiki, to keep everything as transparent as possible.

I was already thinking of template-izing (I like your word!), I'm just trying to write something up that actually does what we need at the moment, which isn't as simple as I first thought. I am trying to stay away from a show/hide table, but if it comes to it, I'm sure it could work. Ultimately I'm hoping I can get some sort of CSS up that will throw a large splash screen up (Not too large but noticeable) when a download button is clicked. I was initially thinking javascript because then it could keep track of more then just the reported number, but also how many times it has been downloaded and such for the developers, in case that was ever a want. But it would have to integrate with GWW so that's out the window.

The third party program I was looking into was called Toucan, and apparently it once supported command prompt input, but I can't seem to get anything to work through command prompt.... The problem with most apps I know of is that they are GUI only. And it might even be able to take stabs at the captchas to cut down on me needing to be there when it finds a new download that requires a captcha. I'll take a look at JDownloader, maybe it can do what I need.

I'll ask Jon about it, I was thinking of holding off till I got farther along, but it might take some doing. --Kairu 03:06, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Those restrictions work for me, I'm just afraid of inconveniencing any IPs that just want to report it and move on, but oh well. Perhaps clicking the link as an IP logs it separately from users and no amount of IP reports can make it automatically trigger as "dead".

I think bots usually have it so that a message on their talk page kills it, that shouldn't be hard. What'd be really badass is to have a page that shows the current "candidates" and their tallies, and users on a specific list (me, you, not Alex, etc.) could edit the page and add an "approved as dead" tag that the bot could pick up and (after confirming the editor was on the list) then replace the link. Making things a template was somewhat of a side note for later (perhaps my next large break from the maps) when we get around to actually reorganizing the database.

I rarely use programs through their command prompts, so I'm not sure if JDownloader has it, but it's a pretty simple Java program with keyboard shortcuts for most actions (it can even pull URLs off the clipboard automatically if you bring the window into focus). ~Farlo

Talk 03:42, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

So... what's going on here again, and why would it run afoul of the AbuseFilter? Removing a link shouldn't trigger an issue. The only time you hit the filter is when you replaced most of the sandbox with a single line. --JonTheMon 05:55, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Basically I am attempting to write a bot that would backup TPF files, but also overwrite dead links. While I see no issue with backing up the files, it's the overwriting dead links that I can see a potential problem, because it is possible the bot may need to overwrite a large number of links at once. (Given the right circumstances such as a users dropbox account being deleted or a similar scenario as with megaupload)

I may be wrong about the bot being stopped by AbuseFilter.... I don't know much about Wiki plugins so it may have been something else all together. Basically the bot was trying to copy Guide_to_modifying_in-game_graphics/Player_made_modifications/UI_enhancements to User:KairuBot/UI_enhancements, and was asked to fill in a captcha, which caused the bot to think it had properly saved without issue, but nothing had actually been done. When I tried to do it manually with this account, I was also asked to fill in a captcha, the reason being that there were a large number of new external links. Is that something other then AbuseFilter? --Kairu 14:02, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, it is possible that your bot could get caught by one of the filters, but that's only if it has like 2 or fewer edits. But the abusefilter doesn't use captchas, so I'm thinking it's something else that is stopping you. I'll try to ask around to figure it out. --JonTheMon 14:12, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Just wanted to let you know that I have made little progress on this, I have been sick and work has been busy. I'm still going though! --Kairu 03:06, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Good to hear that you haven't given up. Get well soon, can't wait to see the finished product! ~Farlo

Talk 03:47, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Texmod questions[edit]

Since I know you know texmod, I have two quick questions:

Are you willing to do a couple quick mods for me? ^^
Is it possible to "dissect" already made mods (aka downloaded from the wiki's list of mods) and mix/match/combine the textures we like into a single new .tpf file?

Been wondering cuz I've been fooling with some mods and there are some I really enjoy (for instance, the dark glass ui and the gray spirit mods), but I am getting tired of having to load up 10 different mods, usually in non-alphabetical order so some of the overlapping ones become what I really prefer, whenever I begin GW. And likewise would like some alterations to my characters to fit my fanon lore for them (but I lack artistic skills and texture knowledge). Konig/talk 21:17, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Just saw this and am wondering how that's going? I want less snow dang it. o.o Konig/talk 21:23, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

I can do some simple mods, but I'm not very artistic either, so don't expect any pretty new skins :P

I've actually done the same thing for most of my mods, I hate loading them all as well. You can open up the .TPF files using this app. Once it's extracted just drag-and-drop the TPF you want extracted onto the program icon (shortcut of "Open with...") and you should get a new .ZIP with all the textures and a .DEF file. Before you can recompile them, you need to open the various .DEF files with your favorite text editor (Notepad++) and combine them into one file in the same folder as the textures. When you go to build the file in Texmod and you're selecting the definitions file, change which extensions it shows to .DEF (or all) so you can select the text file. Just a warning, my compiled .TPF is over 60MB with CME, IGMM, the GW2 UI, my armors and various other mods. I haven't tested the difference between it and them all separately, but it'll likely cripple GW's initial loading time as well as take a while to build.

I've pretty much given up on the Login Screen project, I did a few more tests with other panaramics but I can't find any that are continuous and look good enough. The textures are also built to work with the snowy environment (duh) and I don't have the Photoshop skills to change them well enough to not look retarded. Also there's the issue of poor/dark blue lighting to the whole scene, which I can't fix with Texmod. ~Farlo

Talk 22:26, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

That's... complex... to me and my sleepy mind at least. Atm, I only want 2 or 3 mods: one for turning my necro's scar pattern into a single line as if from a blade, one to turn my ele into a bit of a Shadow Army figure, and the third being an extension of a mod I have (it turns ritualist spirits transparent gray - would love that for other one-color spirits).

Unrelated: I now have every single one of your wallpapers on a cycle for my background (mixed in with some official GW/GW2 wallpapers, and some of their concept-art-turned-wallpapers). I demand more (and how you even got them from such angles). Konig/talk 00:03, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Well I don't know Photoshop either, I do use the Gimp. The first thumbnail on my user homepage is the product of a few hours using Gimp. Three of those characters are layered into the scene. The Red Death Witch is the only one who actually belongs in that screen. I have also done some others but mostly simple things. As for Texmod, I only used it once and mostly used uMod as mentioned above. I never saved anything in the TPF format, I just used the zip files. But never saw any point to making mods on characters because no one sees this but me. If Konig can get me the scar pattern (extract it) I might give that a go. He can send me email from my user page. Your scar pattern might show up on others who have the same skin, I really don't know.--Wendy Black 01:29, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

@ Konig: It's not that complex, I just suck at explaining things in a concise way. If you want, give me a list of the mods you want and I'll package that and any of your requests I can do into one big TPF for you. As for the requests:

The scar pattern depends on if it's part of the armor texture or if it's "painted" onto the skin texture. I'll hop on more often and see if you're on so I can check it out.
The Ele one looks simple enough, just turning the saturation and brightness down a ton. Might take some fine-tuning to get right though and if the reflections don't cooperate it might just be solid black.
I might want to ask the original author if he remembers the settings he used, but that one's easy enough after I round up the correct textures.

It's good to know that someone else enjoys my background :D. I have a massive (400) Wallpapers folder that cycle every few minutes. I also found a nice little app that can change the background on the Win7 logon screen (Linky). Anyways, back on topic: I get most of them by randomly spotting something interesting when playing and I use the Argos-Soft Cam Unlocker to zoom out really far. I need to go through WoC Part 3 (officially) so maybe I'll find some interesting stuff. Also, let me know if you find a spot that has potential.

@ Wendy: You did pretty good clipping your characters. If you do other stuff like that I'd recommend my Photo Booth Texmod, it makes it super easy to highlight the background.

Looks like I found an excuse to cleaning up my Texmod folder and start using uMod more, woohoo! ~Farlo

Talk 02:23, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

I think I'm going insane because I cannot find the texmods I got not even a week ago from the wiki's list of texmod mods. o.o

Anyways, if you could combine them for me that'd be great. I'd like 2 mods though, one for playing the other for wiki purposes. First one including your photobooth mod and the one which takes the dye preview and turns it all white. (note: I think it'd be better if the photobooth mod changed a certain spot in each of the guild halls, as that means good semi-render pictures of tonic NPCs for the wiki!)

The second, for playing, would include: 1 (this seems to need to be regesterred before my ui mod), 2, 3, 4, 5 (this may need to be placed before ui mod, not sure as I just now found this), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (emerald color), 13 (dark), 14 (green flames), and then the one I cannot find in the lists anywhere (Q_Q): gray spirits. I can email the file I got to you later. Also, if you've gotten any progress on your hi-res pet texture mod, add that in. *_*

See why I was getting tired of loading up so many texmods? And occasionally I add in the Clear Skills or random equipment mods (like the terrorshield) just for a different experience.

I'll go and capture my necro and elementalist's textures. Remind me, for the scar texture will it be dependent on the rest of the armor (as in what's equipped) or just what's showing (e.g., having a costume but changing armors), or not dependent? Because I tend to switch between armors underneath my Grenth's Regalia. And if it is dependent, I will want to have it compatible with all of my armor sets. Konig/talk 09:35, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

While digging, I found this for that grey spirit mod, seems it was removed from listings? *searches more* Yes, it was previously referred to as "Shadow Spirits" - Alex removed it. because Megaupload got shut down. DAMN YOU GOVERNMENT!

Oh, and while I remember: I always thought that the Underworld - specifically Ice Wastes, Bone Pits, and the inside of the Hall of Judgement - always looked neat (especially the last) and would look good for wallpapers. There's also the Arachnia Plateau - nothing like an upside-down spider with dirt and grass growing over it on your computer screen. And I think if it's possible to get an image of the Lonely Vigil standing up for such, that'd be nice to have. Also think the pockmark flats giant crystal would be a nice shot. Would love to get access to that 400 file folder though. o.o Konig/talk 09:51, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

That is quite the mod list, I used to use about that many but I narrowed it down to 6 because of the annoying loading method. Through toying with uMod I found out you can save templates of different mods that'll load automatically when the template is called, which is nice.

If the scar itself is on the armor texture then it'll change if you re-dye or swap out any armor pieces, but if it's on the actual face, it should be static although I don't know if I can to it well then. The costumes are a separate texture over the actual armor, so those don't matter. If you're willing to capture them yourself then just email me all your different combinations and I can fairly easily copy/paste it across them.

That really suck that it's gone, but with a decent reference image I should be able to recreate it. I don't remember that mod making them so dark o.0

I'll see about those spots, although I may need some assistance getting through UW, I've never managed to (although I can't remember trying very hard). I wish I could get my hands on a free-cam/noclip mod, but I've yet to find one I think I can trust. If you want, I could sync my wallpapers folder with Dropbox, that way you can get any new ones I find and add some yourself. Mine aren't all GW though, it's mostly abstract stuff, space/sci-fi, and any badass landscape shots I come across.

Anyways, I'll start doing the high-res pet skins and then get the other mods together for your massive TPF. ~Farlo

Talk 19:57, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, I need to find someone with a Panda to rip! ~Farlo

Talk 20:18, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Having ripped the textures out, the scar is on the skin texture (I still find it odd hair is on armor...). So I guess with him I only need to send the skin texture and it should work no matter the armor (assuming that it doesn't alter the skin, like the Furious Dragon Mask seems to do) - which would mean 3 total (scar, normally scarless, and dragon mask version).

Would sending you the .tpf file of the grey spirits work as well for the texmod? Hmmm.... can one run mods and rip textures at the same time? o.o

For UW, you could wait for the Halloween quests - the first two gives you the original form of the Underworld's clipping set up, but it's the new map and space. That is, in those quests, you can go through the Hall of Judgment door and explore the hall Dhuum free.

There's literally 1 more GW official wallpaper I don't have on my computer (one of Thorn with a Desolation background and Halloween moon with Nightfall in a corner). I was gonna look for non-GW wallpapers soon (I think some DOOM ones would work well... and fit my UAC Station Locked screensaver).

Don't have a Panda atm, but will eventually. Of course, you could always make a Canthan Ranger and go do The Red Frog. Konig/talk 20:32, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, those three should do it. Another way to test would be to pop on your different armor sets with the scar/skin selected in Texmod and see if it's in fact the same texture. You can't run mods and rip at the same with Texmod, but maybe you can through uMod? I haven't used it enough. The original gray spirits would be great to have for comparison. I don't have many other gaming backgrounds sadly. Until recently the graphics weren't good enough for me :P Actually play the game to see the Panda?? What's wrong with you! ~Farlo

Talk 20:41, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

(Reset indent) For those of you following along, if you want access to the wallpapers folder send me an email with your email address and I'll send you an invite. If you don't have Dropbox let me know, because if you sign up through my referral, we both get an extra 250MB :D ~Farlo Talk 00:42, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

@ Konig: I failed at changing your Necro's scars, I'm no good at drawing, maybe Wendy can do something with it? I have almost all of the mods you wanted ready to be zipped up; Dark-Glass UI, Clear Skills, and Hi-Res Icons break the OpenTPF program so I can't get the textures out, I'd have to ask the authors for the source. So just the spirits, your Ele armor, a Panda, and any other pet touch-ups and everything should be ready. ~Farlo

Talk 03:05, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

I made a modified TPF opener a while ago, here. It's based on the one you linked above, but it works on the packages you mentioned (at least the ones linked from this wiki). Now if I can just find where I stashed it's source... -- Cat Slayer Calli

03:46, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks very much! Worked perfectly, and quite a bit faster I might add. Seems I have quite a lot of re-writing to do on the Texmod page what with uMod and this app. Without the pet skins or spirits, the TPF is up to 79MB (115MB uncompressed), hot damn! ~Farlo

Talk 04:09, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

That's big. o.o Goes to show what trying to change one's experience of a game to make it more entertaining/different will do. :3 Wonder if there's other mods I should look into adding to that (might as well, right? :P). BTW, I got a few more textures I'll send your way for hi-resing (and grayscaling more spirits).

I wonder why Anet never used the model for the sin CE dance shadows for NPCs... Konig/talk 09:18, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Lol, tell me about it, I've been anxiously waiting for a massive Skyrim mod compilation, about 3-4GB in itself, to come out for the last two days ("Tomorrow! I promise." >.>). That 79MB is 1300 different textures so far, although 1100 of them are from the Hi-res skill icons. If you don't mind, send them in different emails so I can more easily sort them, but thanks for saving me from actually logging in ;) . Once I'm done fiddling with the Texmod pages a bit more I'll probably hit it for the night/morning, but I'll try to finish up the pets tomorrow as well. ~Farlo

Talk 09:30, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

That's a lot of skills... 18 MB for that one alone? Shesh, and I barely notice a difference in that! Might be worth kicking it out. o.o

Incidentally, I sent the emails before reading this, so they're together. Sorry. Konig/talk 11:59, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Oh well, I'll figure it out :P Is that all of the spirits? ~Farlo

Talk 18:00, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Answer lies in email (no, I only grabbed some of the most common/easiest to get without actually playing). But it doesn't need all of them, tbh. Just the most common will do. Konig/talk 18:07, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I've got a few more shots that I think can make decent wallpapers, but the short 3D draw distance (the distance when the 3D models are replaced by 2D images) is really, really short. It wouldn't be that big of a deal except the 2D images look like utter shit. That and the fact that many of the large structures in-game aren't completely built because normally players can't see it all is a bummer. I tried to get The Lonely Vigil in her entirety, but she falls over before I can get a clear shot, even with the cam unlocker. I'll try to get a few more up tonight and I'm always looking for new places! ~Farlo Talk 06:53, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps it'd be possible to grab the Lonely Vigil from the Crystal Overlook? Also wonder how the Mouth of Torment would look. Konig/talk 11:34, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

I put a bunch of new images in the Dropbox folder under Guild Wars Only/New. I was able to get a fairly close shot of the statue, but it's more of an over-the-shoulder shot, I couldn't get close enough to get her entirely. She's way too far out from Crystal Overlook, but coming up from South through the teleporter gave me a much clearer view. ~Farlo

Talk 20:09, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Category[edit]

How do i make a category for users who love country music? --Thon Ghul Talk 23:34, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Those categories are usually made through a corresponding userbox. If you'd like a format to follow with that, take a look at this template I made. If you just want a category page, then add [[Category:Users who enjoy country music]] to the bottom of your page. ~Farlo

Talk 00:05, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

You know, I have to admit[edit]

I haven't used my RAT 7 since I wrote that review. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 00:44, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

That's a shame, I'm looking forward to it more and more. My second (first one had a button break, fortunately under warranty) current mouse is on it's last legs apparently. Even with brand new batteries and direct line of sight to the dongle a foot or two away, it's very flakey and can stop responding for up to a few seconds at a time. I've been trying to scrounge some money up and look around for discounts to make the $80 purchase less heart-wrenching.

I just recently saw the "MMO" version for $130 although I don't think it's worth it for a few extra buttons and back lighting. ~Farlo

Talk 01:15, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

You call that a mouse? That's a fucking decepticon! Konig/talk 11:50, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Dude it's amazing, the reason it looks so funky is because you can move every section of it around. I got to play with one once and after fitting it to my giant hand it was the best feeling mouse. ~Farlo

Talk 17:30, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, see. I'm a low DPI user, because that's what I'm used to. I set the DPI of the RAT 7 down to 400. It moves exactly like my normal mouse. You're thinking, what's the problem then?

Low DPI = picking up mouse and moving it over constantly. While the RAT without it's weights on the bottom still weighs twice as much as my normal mouse. So it can become tiring. If I forced myself to use it, I'd probably start using it more. I'm a creature of habit. If something works, don't fuck with it. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 18:49, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Lol, I completely agree with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Luckily the MS mouse has a fairly high DPI, so I don't think it'll be that big of a jump to the RAT. I also need to find a better mousepad, mine's a crappy plastic one a friend "borrowed" from work a long time ago and gave to me. ~Farlo

Talk 19:15, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

You have one of those friends too? We should hang out more. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 21:03, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Hey Farlo long time no type :) You left your name on the screenshot for my Interface Mod. Just letting you know ~ ~ Lee Himself

Moar wallpaper screenshot suggestion[edit]

Bloodstone Fen's Bloodstone
Primordus
Kralkatorrik
Ice column statue
The waterfall in Riven Earth
Atrocity Library
The Courtyard's view of the Hall of Heroes

Wonder how the Wizard's Tower would look when using that ultra-zoom out... Konig/talk 22:22, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

People in Need of Tutorials[edit]

If you or anyone else is asked about wiki editing or tutorials, I have what some call a sandbox with things I have learned in the last two months. My laboratory is ~~not yet on my main menu~~ is located under Micellaneous tab on the far right. What started out as a testing ground for myself, has quickly become a series of tutorials for the average person. So, if I can help teach a person to fish, point their nose my way and I will be happy to assist them. As a side note, the reason I don't call it a sandbox (as I told The Dervish of Ascalon) that is where the cat goes poo. Then he made a sandbox of his own with a cute graphic. --Wendy Black 20:24, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

HD texmod question[edit]

A quick premise: Lately I've been looking for mods for various games I own in order to create a new game experience as I wait without having to spend more money - sadly, the only good mods I can find are graphic improvements or game balancing... but this sparked a thought - why has no one bothered with a full/large scale GW graphic facelift mod? At this point I doubt one would be highly desired, but it certainly won't be equally disliked.
So I come here with a question: how do you make textures HD? Depending on how, perhaps a tutorial, because I certainly wouldn't mind slowly going through such a project (since it's one of the few modifications that folks can do to GW and recently (past couple months) I've been hit with a desire to mod games with mods that aren't crap like 80% of those I see). Konig/talk 06:41, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

From what I remember, it isn't all that difficult, just horribly tedious. You grab the textures with TexMod, edit them in Photoshop (This is the part I don't remember well, I haven't used Photoshop in years, but Farlo will know), and then create a package with it.

The main problem is that the end result will be Gigs in size, because you will be replacing every single texture with a new one. You will most likely run into some issues with a package that large..... Mainly performance.... But I would love to see an attempt! --Kairu 01:20, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Sorry for my absence recently, I've just been busy and quite frankly I've lost almost all interest in GW1.

I have thought about an HD make-over many times for GW before. The bad news is that Texmod can't inject higher resolution textures, so all we can do is improve how they look. That said, I have no skill with actually making textures, at least not in the sense of hand-building them. There are also a couple technical issues with how Texmod works.

The first obvious issue is texture leaking. If you were to replace the thousands of textures (if not more), there might be a ton of leaking. The next issue is the size and how Texmod loads stuff. Even with a modest 60MB TPF it takes an extra ~30 seconds to load on startup. Now imagine if it had to load a 3GB package. Also there's the issue of whether Texmod can even accept a list/file that big. I don't have any clue about it's limitations, although if it helped the package could be split up. ~Farlo

Talk 08:04, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

Hmmm, I see. Probably not really worth attempting due to size then. For the record though, I was thinking of putting it into 5 files (Core, Proph, Factions, NF, and EotN - with no duplicates if possible, anything shared between 2 going into Core, effectively requiring 2 files minimum - core and whatever campaigns owned). Konig/talk 01:24, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Activity level[edit]

Would you say you're still active, or down to semi-active? --JonTheMon 19:12, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately I'd say knock me down a peg. As much as I'd like to continue doing stuff here, I'm too busy right now. ~Farlo

Talk 01:19, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Ok. I'll mark you as semi-active. I hope things go well with you. --JonTheMon 02:25, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Inactive huh? Sounds to me like you just want to go away on Spring break and actually enjoy the sun light. :P Have FUN! LoL --Wendy Black 08:04, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

If I were to sell you my mouse, would you buy it?[edit]

Discuss. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 18:59, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, interesting question. That'd depend on it's current condition, can I get some decent pictures to look at? I probably wouldn't unless it was in pretty good shape and came with all the little doodads: side panels, weights, etc. If you're in the US, shipping can't be more than $5-10 or so for something like that and Paypal has pretty nice buyer/seller protection (not that I don't trust you in particular), so we can do that. How much would you be looking to get for it? ~Farlo

Talk 23:00, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

I bought it at christmas and I've only used it like 5 times. It's in the exact condition it came in and nothing's missing. I'll even put it back in the box it came in. I could go for like 60. As for pictures, sup. →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 22:50, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Good to know you took care of it! I might not be able to buy it within the next couple months since money's a bit tight, I hope you aren't in any dire need to sell it. Could you email me your address so I can see how much shipping is going to be and how long it'll take? 60 sounds reasonable given it's condition, can't wait to have it :P ~Farlo

Talk 18:43, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Done, ...annddddd done. Need any more sexual attention? :D →[ »Halogod (talk)« ]← 21:54, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Guild_Wars_Wiki:Projects/Images_to_update[edit]

Activity check please? Yoshida Keiji talk 16:33, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Maps, maps, and maps[edit]

← moved to Guild Wars Wiki talk:Projects/Interactive Maps#Integration of maps on explorable area articles

Awesome Wallpapers![edit]

Can you upload a clean version of File:Texmod CamUnlocker1.jpg, as I would like to post it on the Lion's Arch page (similar to Shing Jea Monastery). Also, your wallpapers are awesome and want to post uploaded versions of those unto their respective pages. ^_^ --Falconeye 20:51, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

(responding to your post on the image talk as well) You can always download the app and do it yourself, and I see that a similar "clean" version is a revision of the current image. By all means re-upload it as a separate image if you like it. As for my images, if the community would allow it, that'd be awesome to see them on actual pages. As above, go ahead and re-upload them to the mainspace, everything I've done I consider public domain (except that ANet owns the source material, blah blah blah). I'd be willing to make some more if you'd like, any other locations aside from Konig's suggestions you'd like to see? ~Farlo

Talk 19:42, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Afaik the argosoft site has been down for at least a week :P File:User Chieftain Alex Chieftain Signature.jpg Chieftain Alex 19:44, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Oh... well that's a bummer. I still have the EXEs (although not any of the documentation or other stuff that may have come with them) that I could upload somewhere as mirrors if you'd like. ~Farlo

Talk 19:57, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Happy Birthday 2012![edit]

^ 94.3.83.195 11:14, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! :D ~Farlo

Talk 17:01, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Happy B-Day! (even if its a bit belated) --

Thon Ghul|Talk 23:32, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Hmm bother, missed this one, but i did finish off nightfall maps :D File:User Chieftain Alex Chieftain Signature.jpg Chieftain Alex 10:01, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

WOO! Nice job. I can't wait until this semester's over, I have way too much Dust 514 to catch up on and I think we can easily knock out EotN in a week, if not sooner. ~Farlo

Talk 22:09, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Very late but...Happy birthday and good to see you online again (^_^).

Yoshida Keiji talk 08:53, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! With this semester over I can finally get back into wasting time on the internet ;) ~Farlo

Talk 08:59, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Wiki-Help[edit]

Hey, I was wondering if there would be a possible way to make This work on a talkpage, To add a new section. I was looking at This for help, but the <inputbox> does not work on this wiki..(so far as I've tried). Could i have your help? -- Thon Ghul|Talk 23:36, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately I can't help very much (swamped with finals :( ), but according to this page of currently installed extensions, we're using CreateBox. If you need some inspiration, check out the template for creating a user suggestion, that should point you in the right direction. ~Farlo

Talk 23:55, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Sadly, I have already looked at the Feedback, create sug. template, Either 1. I don't understand how to make it create, "A New Topic", or 2. It simply can't be done >_> . GL on those finals btw --

Thon Ghul|Talk 00:56, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Basically the "createbox" can only be used to create entirely new pages :p so its inappropriate for your task. The closest thing I can think of i've put at User:Chieftain Alex/sandbox 2. File:User Chieftain Alex Chieftain Signature.jpg Chieftain Alex 13:18, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

sigh*, I guess I can't do it. Thank you for your help anyways Alex, and Farlo. Also, I already have a link-box to make a new article.-- Thon Ghul|Talk 16:10, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Sysop rights cleanup[edit]

Hello, I appreciate you've been inactive for a fair while, but on the odd chance you've still got your talk page watchlisted/notifications enabled, I thought out of courtesy I would leave a message (admittedly I'm going to copy-paste the same message for all affected users). (1) We're going through a bit of a review of which inactive users have sysop rights (including reconfirmation), and (2) here's a link to yours: Guild Wars Wiki:Requests for adminship/Farlo. -Chieftain Alex 19:02, 30 May 2020 (UTC)