.dats ftw! Or at least look pretty..

[hazina]

This is a .dat mod I am working on when I feel the urge or am bored, it's the beastmaster AF for Mithra. If I'm going to become a bst there's no way I'm wearing those horns and that powdery blue eesh, at least on my own monitor..



There's still a few tweaks, like the feathers on the tiara are giving me heck in game ; ;

[Rovec]

lol Looks great but how could you not like the horns and talons on the bst AF? That's the best stuff on the AF This one you've got is great tho too ^^ Feathers in particular

[taru]

I like the feathers =D

[kazeken]

Question, is this progran your using actually changing your look in game?

[hazina]

admin said:

lol Looks great but how could you not like the horns and talons on the bst AF? That's the best stuff on the AF

I really, really don't like the horns, it's too bulky, I know the boys like them, but meh.. ^^ I do love the talons and I have actually kept them, I'll post a side view when I get back to work on this.

Kazeken, you actually have to use a few programs to change .dat files, Virtual Reality Studio, Metaseqoia, the Viewer and Photoshop or GIMP. In VRS you can work with the dats directly and also with Photoshop if you have the right plugins, but wit meta you need to break down the .dat files into components, there's 3 or 4 different files that make up a .dat..

But to answer your question, yes it changes the look of things in game but only on your end. Because the files are changed on your own computer. Of course this doesn't work on consoles as you can't access those files.

I <3 my PC

[Rovec]

.dat changes are awesome, but the thing I dun like about it is that everyone else wearing that gear will also be wearin' the .dat changes. No way to let the normal AF stay on everyone else, but only change on you ; ;

Of course I play on the PS2 So I can't play .dats anyway.

[Chadness]

Yeah, people do this in WoW too, although its against the EULA.

[hazina]

chadness said:

Yeah, people do this in WoW too, although its against the EULA.

Technically, except the companies themselves don't really mind that much as it only affects the individual and does not change the gameplay. However I've heard that using modding to cheat is a very bad idea and might just kill the joy of modding for those of us who love to customize our looks.

Example: Mods that modify in game maps and indicate chest spawns, location of NM's ect.. Basically anything that might give you an unfair advantage over other players is somewhat frowned upon and is undergoing heated debate ^.^

I see the future of gaming that we will eventually be able to change anything about our character, wether it's more makeup, a new haircut or some crazy armor and weapons, there's the Elderscrolls series to give an example, and now Ryzom which is an mmo that lets players build thier own buildings and quests, and has always had one of the best character customization I've seen. The Chronicles of Spellborn will also have a unique crafting system that will enable you to make your own weapons, with stats and names of your choosing O.O

Hopefully as SE is working on this new mmo of theirs they are keeping all this in mind ;D

[Chadness]

hazina said:

Example: Mods that modify in game maps and indicate chest spawns, location of NM's ect.. Basically anything that might give you an unfair advantage over other players is somewhat frowned upon and is undergoing heated debate ^.^

I guess this is the biggest difference between FFXI and WoW right here. In WoW, something like this would be perfectly fine. In fact, there's a mod I used for a year or more called Gatherer, which recorded the location of every herb node or mining node that you looted for easy finding the next time you're in the zone. Then, you'll eventually know where all the spawn points are for those nodes and can create your own efficient path around a zone when you're out trying to make money.

In the last update, Blizzard has actually added this functionality to their game because they recognized that it was something that could be of great help to players and make gaming less tedous and time-consuming.

Another example in the same light...there was a mod that had functionality to put location markers and notes on your in-game zone maps...mainly used for rare spawn locations, out-of-the-way quest NPCs or quest target mob locations, etc. Blizzard recognized this as something that could greatly help players and make things less tedious and added their own functionality for it.

There's many, many examples of Blizzard adding functionality to the base game that you used to need mods for.

Now, S-E on the other hand, is rather paranoid about all this and dosn't think it can be done or should be allowed because of the possibility of malicious use. Well, WoW has probably one of the lowest botting records of any major MMO because they actually take an active stance against it and work to ban people for it. Their stance is "anything you can do using the Blizzard mod creation software is fair game". If they don't like some mod functionality, they'll write in code to make it stop working (as they did with a popular mod called Decursive this past update).

I think its a pretty close-minded attitude that S-E has taken in this regard and that Blizzard is on the right track in supporting its players rather than banning things that make the game experience less tedious.

[lizhellsing]

omg chad when will you finally stop dissing final >.<
we know you don't like it as much as wow but not everybody thinks so and never will so u can stop proving your point now

[Rovec]

I agree with Liz x3 But on topic, FF already has a system to mark places on your map Dunno how many use it, but I do. I've got every chest in the Maze of Sakgrkeghirh (sp >.>...) marked from back when I was doin' RSE. I've got important npcs marked, some NMs, etc. So that's not considered cheatin' by SE, but things that would be considered cheatin' would be changing the .dat mob on Mimics in the assualt Golden Salvage. If ya did that, you could just go right to the Golden statue chest and not do any work, or if ya did the same thing for the BCNM that has three chests, two fake ones, and one real one.

As for what you're sayin' Hazi, I hope you're right I'm a sucker for customization (Tis why I love puppetmaster). I'd love a MMO that has that kinda thing ^^

[Chadness]

So, you don't want me posting in any topics. I wasn't bashing anything, I was stating facts. I was being ON TOPIC responding to a previous post. I play WoW, you play FFXI. So what? We use each other's game of choice in discussion, what is the freaking deal? That's the way ANY online message board works.

Geez...I won't come here anymore...have fun...

[Rovec]

I hate to keep de-railing your thread Hazi But I'm evil like that and am gonna ^^' Sorry

Not that we dun want ya postin' Chad, it's just that it seems like every time WoW comes up, you somehow manage to diss w/e SE is doin' or did. We like ya postin, but we all still play and love FFXI. Just gets old after awhile @.@'

[hazina]

O.o oh dear didn't mean to offend anyone, my example in using dats to cheats with maps is like what Rovec explained, basically if you get everything without doing the work, whithout discovering it for yourself, it changes how the game is supposed to be played and many FF players don't like that, not just SE. That's why there's a debate about it on .dat forums =P

But if you use the map provided in the game to mark places as point of reference there's nothing wrong with that, I do it with coffers I come across and I might start with mining points if I get into that.

And Rovec, I'm the queen of off-topicness, or at least a good contender no worries ^.^

[kazeken]

admin said:

Dunno how many use it, but I do. I've got every chest in the Maze of Sakgrkeghirh (sp >.>...) marked from back when I was doin' RSE. I've got important npcs marked, some NMs, etc.

I use it to mark locations that would be good for filming. Like a spot near jeuno where u can see a airship aproaching the city.

And as for chad. I for one enjoy the points you bring up about SE, for the most part they haven't been wrong. It's also good to always have a different openion on things.

I can see where SE is (maybe) coming from. By trying to stop the modding early, u try to stop players from developing mods that will ruin the gameplay(Point in case D2). Not saying I agree with that, no matter what you do some hacker will slip through. Let's just hope Blizzard stays interested. with WoW. Whatever projects they leave have ways of ending up ruined.

[lizhellsing]

"I play WoW, you play FFXI. So what"

exactly let's keep that in mind.

[Chadness]

The point of my post was to show the differences between the two and (obviously) my opinion. If you don't want opinions (Rovec) you shouldn't be "running" an online message board.

In an interview years ago, one of the fan events that S-E held, one of the developers actually said they were paranoid about outside influences ruining the game, and didn't allow modding or external programs (two different things) to be run because of it.

Blizzard, on the other hand, allows modding, but not running external (or 3rd party) applications that directly affect gameplay. Again, they're two different things. Modding are not programs in themselves and can't be run unless the WoW interface and programming code allow them to. This is what Blizzard does to control stuff they don't want. If something can be written with the Blizzard interface design tools, its fair game. If they don't like something, they change the coding to not allow it.

This, IN MY OPINION, is the direction S-E should be going, not the direction they are. I can understand why they aren't going in that direction for one reason - the PS2. This is the only GOOD reason I see to not spruce up their interface and allow some mod functionality, because obviously PS2 players won't be able to mod the same way as a PC player.

When I moved to WoW, I was amazed at how much more fun a game was just because you could alter and adapt your user interface using mods to suit your specific needs and this, IN MY OPINION, is a huge plus to WoW and a con to FFXI.

EVERY GAME HAS PROS AND CONS, there isn't a single game on this planet that is perfect, so stop jumping down my throat when I mention something that is done better in WoW (IN MY OPINION).

[hazina]

See in my opinion, I have far more fun with a game with actual depth and challenges, then with an 'easy' game that had lots and lots of customization ^^;;

Remember I put easy in quotation marks I realize leveling is easy and raiding isn't (I think...) But since I have zero interesting in raiding, well there you go WoW has nothing to offer people like me, so imo FFXI rocks it's socks off lol

The fact that SE was very paranoid in the past, doesn't mean they will be in the future, I'm truly hoping they won't, there was a game I gave an example of before that has lots of custimization, The Chronicles of Spellborn, yet even though they have this mentality that the player should play the way they want to, they still won't allow UI modding like WoW, because according to them it opens up more problems then they'd like, and as a small company I understand them ^^

[Chadness]

Square-Enix and Blizzard are large companies that have similar resources at their disposal. While still maintaining each game's individuality, neither of them should be worried about what few and small problems modding, as I describe it above, brings.

If you don't like something that's done, simply take out that functionality. It doesn't take an entire rewrite of the code or anything. Blizzard just completely rewrote the base UI code in the last patch, after two years of not touching it. Its not that much of an issue for companies devoted to making their game enjoyable for players yet not so much so that it opens up the use of malicious software.

I could understand it if it was a small company with a small fan base (to start), just trying to get off the ground. It might be more than they want to handle at the time. But like I said, you have to put Blizzard and S-E on equal ground because they're both huge, multi-million dollar companies with a lot of resources at their disposal...they can't use that same excuse.

(I don't even want to get into it here, but I have a major beef with Blizzard on some things too...and think S-E is much better...customer service, for example...but that's a whole different subject.)

So, I'm not trying to diss one company or the other, or one game or the other, I'm stating fact and, in some cases, my opinion, from knowing and looking at the MMORPG scene as a whole and the two companies who make the games in question.

[hazina]

Well back on the original topic, I'm done!!

I'm submitting it to FFXI Dats right now and will update this post with a link to the download page when it gets approved ^.^ Here's another pic, not much has changed except for the wrist bands, some color issues and I've got the feathers fixed and looking lovely in game.

And here's the download page if interested:
www.ffxidats.com/page.php?id=1305