forums.marpirc.net

Beejay mentioned a few posts back about whether autofire should be used in recordings. I have suggested to Angry that this be voted on in a similar manner to the game ban lists, if say 10 people vote against it, then autofire is not allowed, and all games that use it will be banned.
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Of course there is no solid proof to know if a person is using autofire or not, but it is usually pretty easy to spot.

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jwilson@sv.net.au

I have several new items to add to the voting list for banning game techniques/cheats. Since there are so many open items right now, I thought I'd let the dust settle a bit and clear the board out before adding to the vote list.
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In the future, I'll try to have no more than 5 open items at once.

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=Angry=

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greggg@ix.netcom.com

JSW,
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Only because this wasn't a option as part of the original controls on just about all the games from the past. But then again, neither is using a keyboard... Keyboard controls still doesn't compare to a human being able to hit a button 10-20 times a sec.!

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Just my 2 cents.

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Steve Krogman

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skrogman@concentric.net

I would like to see the use of autofire banned or at least the
auto/noauto games should be in separate categories. The reason for
this is simple, the use of autofire is an advantage - the same player
will get higher scores with the use auotofire than without.

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If we don't aim for a level playing field with equality for all
players then the whole point of hi-scores is meaningless. I would hate
to see the hi-scores table become a matter of who's got the most
souped up joystick.

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Take for example starforc. Currently, the 1st place starforc playback
uses autofire and reaches stage 20. The players impressive score is
higher than my best effort of reaching stage 27 playing on an actual
arcade machine I have at home (completing all 24 levels of the greek
alphabet + 3 infinity levels). In my game I played 7 more levels (the
really hard ones) but got a lesser score. The reason for the score
difference rests on one factor - firepower, I can't press the fire
button 20 shots/sec. Our game styles don't differ by much, it's just
that in a fixed scrolling game with more enemies than you can shoot at
any given time, the auto fire will win everytime. My point here is
that I think that reaching stage 27 in starforc is a far more
difficult and impressive feat than reaching stage 20 with turbo fire,
but that doesn't reflect in game score which would place the auto fire
first. I believe this anomaly applies to most games, especially
shoot-em-ups.

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I for one will always prefer playing back a game recorded by someone
who is using actual game skills to fight their way through a level
rather than a higher scoring game by someone using brute force fire
power and lesser skill. Unfortunately game skill does not exactly
equate to higher scores so many great recording won't get a look in
unless this problem is addressed.

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The problem is of course that it is hard to prove that someone is
using autofire (unless they have admitted it). This means that each
suspicious recording has to be put to a vote - which is of course a
subjective approach. It would be great if an objective test could be
developed, but it seems hard to think of one.

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This issue is one of 3 that I am concerned about. The other 2 issues
are the use of slow motion software when recording and pausing midgame
to take a break and coming back refreshed. There are solutions to
those two issue though, I'll raise these as a separate board item.

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Cheers,
Tim

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tjmorrow@bigpond.com