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Apr 18, 2001, 11:52am

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a bot that would not only change the
backdrop automatically, but would also change the ambient sounds
accordingly. For example, during the day you have the forest sounds
etc... At night you may have crickets, owls, wolves howling etc. Could
be something like Microsofts Themes. One command to change everything.

Just an idea.

Holistic1

Apr 19, 2001, 11:56am

Try to get AW to allow you have a background first. I emailed tech support
about this and after about a dozen annoying emails they finally responded
basically with a huge NO.

Unless you shell out at least $80 bucks for the cheapest world, they won't
allow it. And that I ain't doing it. $80 just to flick a switch to allow
backgrounds, no way no how, nada. I'll pay a reasonable price for it though
like say $15. That's 75% of a citizenship just to download one file and use
it for a background. AW should be more than happy to allow that. I know
many people who would take advantage of it.

However, as long as they stay stubborn and require $80 to get a world before
you can change just the background, I wouldn't worry about it.

[View Quote]

Apr 19, 2001, 4:47pm

Am I missing your point here? Where else are you going to change a
background apart from in a world (?) ... and therefore the need to run a
world.

Sorry if I'm being dense. LOL

Grims


[View Quote]

Apr 19, 2001, 6:29pm

"Am I missing your point here?"

I don't know, but the point I am making is simply Active Worlds charges way
too much ($80 minimum)just to allow us to change a background which is only
one file. If you don't like to look at it that way, then I'll word it
differently. If you just want flick a switch and change a background, they
require you to buy a package which allows more than controlling the
background image($80 minimum). I understand this package may be a savings
of the lifetime from what Active Worlds only offers. However, that assumes
I need the package. All I want is to change the background. Buying a whole
truck load of milk could be a deal and sold cheaper too, but it will go sour
and not only will that milk go to waste but the money spent as well. Just
buy what you need, hence Active Worlds is charging way too much in the eyes
of the consumer who just wants one of the features. I am a potential
customer for something I don't think will cost them nearly as much as I am
willing to pay them to allow that feature. They are just being stubborn
thinking we will cave in and buy a world at a higher cost. I bought my
citizen account and that's enough for now til I see the prices become more
realistic.

"Where else are you going to change a
background apart from in a world (?) ... and therefore the need to run a
world."

Yes, they set it up so you have to buy a world in order to change a
background. I fully understand that. I am voicing my opinion in regards to
that which supports trying to find a way in which we can pay Active Worlds
to provide a feature which allows us to change the background without having
to spend at least $80. I don't mind a fee, I mind the $80 fee. I am
willing to pay Active Worlds %75 of a citizenship fee ($15) to see this
happen.

If others feel that there is only one service providing something they like,
or that one particular service only provides one service to them and they
are willing to pay for it then I support them in their decision to probably
buy a world in this case. It gives Active Worlds more money, and allows the
service to improve to hopefully one day where they can see forcing one
service and putting their eggs in one basket isn't the most economical
solution to increasing revenue. If you can get 100 people to pay part of
package A, and another 100 to pay the other part, you have 50 people
theoretically that bought package A. Right now, if I represented 1 of the
people they are down 1%. The other way, they could still get around by
1/2%. This doesn't address the people I have talked to who won't even pay
$20 for a citizenship. Possibly, if they knew they had more control they
would chip in the $20. Now, that is further money to fill AW's pockets.


[View Quote]

Apr 19, 2001, 6:39pm

Sorry, that's 100 people, not 50 near the bottom of my post. I apologize

[View Quote]

Apr 19, 2001, 7:06pm

[View Quote] I guess you are missing the point. AW has it's own background for ALL the visitors. What would happen if everyone would be able to change it? - Chaos :)
Andras
P.S. The original post did NOT ask changing in the world AW but have a bot which can change background, noises, etc. There is a weather bot which does almost all except a designated "ambient sound" object modifications. I never scripted a Xelagot but I think it is a trivial excercize :)

Apr 19, 2001, 7:18pm

Sorry, but I have to strongly disagree on this. I am sure they've never even thought about letting the users choose the background
they see in a world on an individual basis, simply because it's not the concept of activeworlds, and would ruin the ambiance of a
lot of worlds, and NOT for profit or something.
I had never thought about changing the background that I see in a world while others would see another one. The concept of
Activeworlds is to allow people who use the browser and pay a small fee or no fee, to visit worlds made and designed by those who
paid a higher fee, the worldbuilders. So being able to change your own background seems totally out of question to me, and is
definitely NOT something that should be allowed in the browser. It's a feature I would NOT like to see, even for free, as it would
limit the ability for worldbuilders to create an immersive and realistic world.

I'm sure they never thought someone would consider buying a world just to see another background image in his browser. Why do you
want so badly to change your background image? (no offense, just a question... because I don't really understand why you seem to
make this matter so important and are even willling to pay for it)

Fox Mc Cloud


"m a r c u s" <none at sfsdfsd.come> a écrit dans le message news: 3adf4a8e$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...

> Yes, they set it up so you have to buy a world in order to change a
> background. I fully understand that. I am voicing my opinion in regards to
> that which supports trying to find a way in which we can pay Active Worlds
> to provide a feature which allows us to change the background without having
> to spend at least $80. I don't mind a fee, I mind the $80 fee. I am
> willing to pay Active Worlds %75 of a citizenship fee ($15) to see this
> happen.

Apr 19, 2001, 7:23pm

note below

"foxmccloud" <FoxMcCloud at cyberbrain.com> a écrit dans le message news: 3adf561e at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> I am sure they've never even thought about letting the users choose the background they see in a world on an individual basis,
simply because it's not the concept of activeworlds, and would ruin the ambiance of a lot of worlds, and NOT for profit or
something.

The "NOT for profit or something" was referring to the fact that I'm sure they're not preventing people from choosing their own
background just for the profit of making it a paying feature. (I just found this sentence confusing when rereading it, so I
clarified this here :o) )

Fox Mc Cloud

Apr 19, 2001, 7:39pm

I have chaos, I (seem to) need chaos, sometimes I love chaos !

I will think about a function for random textures in my PHP thingie.

[View Quote] --
"_
|
/\
\ /
__/ /_

Apr 19, 2001, 8:50pm

I don't think marcus quite understands (or understood rather) what can be
changed by who in a world, that's all.

At the end of the day marcus, if you want a different backdrop in a world,
override the image in a local path.

Grims


[View Quote]

Apr 19, 2001, 11:27pm

I don't knwo if I understand or not, but Marcus, you pay 80$s for your OWN
world, not just ebing able to change the back drop, which if you have
CareTakership (which you should)you will be able to change EVERYTHING in the
worlds attributes.
~S p a r K

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 1:25am

Ok then I assume this bot is in a world someone buys then?

You still end up paying for the world. That is the requirement and that is
the point I am making which someone asked me to clarify. Regardless if you
meant in AW or your own world, the conditions are the same and don't change.
You have own a world to change a background, hence shell out the $80.

I think that is great for AW to offer backgrounds. My response focused on
the requirement beforehand to buy a world before we can change the
background. It isn't that hard to allow this. It is a feature that they
are deciding to offer after requiring us to buy a world. Sound is a lot
harder to manage than 1 single picture for a background and they seem to do
a mighty fine job with that. It's downloaded to your system just like the
rest of the files. Just because you don't see it offered to other citizens
who don't own worlds doesn't mean it isn't possible.

If an Active Worlds guru (roland, hint hint) wants to step up to the plate
and tell us why it "can't be done" then we will know. A 3d program where you
can walk around and build things but you can't change a 2d background? I
don't buy it. This is the work of a marketing team not a technician.





[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 1:39am

I appreciate your position. I have another position.

It may be raining in your neck of the woods, and it may be sunny where I am,
or vice versa. The "natural" ambience will be different. I would love for
the mayor of my city (in the real world) to pick one sunny climate and leave
it that way all day everyday and include drinks in the evening to enjoy the
night sky. I am sorry, but that probably won't happen outside of a dream.

Reality changes and that includes the background. Even a glance at a
weather map shows different weather patterns with clouds forming in some
areas, and not in other places. There is snow while there is not snow in
other parts. It is dark in some areas, and it is light in some areas. If
you travel, this change of scenary/ambience changes more rapdily, so should
the background in Active Worlds to reflect this "natural" ambience in a more
realistic sense and also so AW can get some more money from us, hehe.

I am willing to pay for it cause I would like a different background. I am
very happy with the objects I have in AW, and I have searched other worlds.
Now I am ready to pay for what I want, but not the extras.

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 1:47am

As for what can and can not be changed, Active Worlds decides that. It
isn't impossible to allow it.

And since you referred briefly on how to change a local path, I would love
to know how to do that and how someone else can do it who visits me then.
Maybe I won't have to pay AW anything for this service then. That's fine
with me :-)

I just thought if AW added this feature then we could click a button and
make it a one step process. It looks like from the World's Features
section, there is a path already in place. Why not leave that field open
and allow us to change that to say
http://www.domain.com/directory/filename.jpg just like we can do with create
picture htpp://...

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 1:50am

Yes, you are right. You have to buy a world first. All I want is to change
a background, I don't want the extras. I am willing to pay a reduced fee to
make this happen. %75 of a citizenship ($15) should be more than enough to
put a switch in place so we can do that without shelling out $80 and get
things that some citizens don't want or need.

All I want is to change a background using a $20 citizenship and a small fee
for this ability.


[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 3:46am

Now I understand your point. I think the problem comes from the fact that AlphaWorld is sooooooo much bigger than all (or most ? I
don't think there are other worlds that big but not sure) the other worlds, and as such has a lot of different themes depending on
the area you're visiting... So the background can't fit each one of those themes... It's another matter for the other worlds : most
have a clearly definite theme and their background is chosen accordingly, so there would be no reason to change it... if it's not
well chosen, that's up to the world owner to fix it.

But I still think your idea of changing it just for your browser by changing a "background" field in the options would not be the
way to go... if what you want is to have the right background according to the area you're visitng in Alphaworld, then I guess a
cool new feature would be to have something like a new "background" action, which would change your own background when triggered...
or to find a way to be able to define different backgrounds depending on what area you're visiting.
The difference with your vision is that you are finding the background of a certain place not to fit correctly the scenery of
whoever built it... and you want to fix that yourself. But it should not be your job to do it : it's up to the world owner to design
his world accordingly, or would be up to the builder of a certain place in AW... if it was possible to change the background like I
described earlier.

By the way, the "background" field you saw in the world options cannot be changed by everyone, because when it's changed the
background changes for everyone in the world, and you wouldn't want everyone to be able to change your bakcground :)

Fox Mc Cloud

"m a r c u s" <none at sfsdfsd.come> a écrit dans le message news: 3adfaf65$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> I appreciate your position. I have another position.
>
> It may be raining in your neck of the woods, and it may be sunny where I am,
> or vice versa. The "natural" ambience will be different. I would love for
> the mayor of my city (in the real world) to pick one sunny climate and leave
> it that way all day everyday and include drinks in the evening to enjoy the
> night sky. I am sorry, but that probably won't happen outside of a dream.
>
> Reality changes and that includes the background. Even a glance at a
> weather map shows different weather patterns with clouds forming in some
> areas, and not in other places. There is snow while there is not snow in
> other parts. It is dark in some areas, and it is light in some areas. If
> you travel, this change of scenary/ambience changes more rapdily, so should
> the background in Active Worlds to reflect this "natural" ambience in a more
> realistic sense and also so AW can get some more money from us, hehe.
>
> I am willing to pay for it cause I would like a different background. I am
> very happy with the objects I have in AW, and I have searched other worlds.
> Now I am ready to pay for what I want, but not the extras.

Apr 20, 2001, 3:53am

Just something else to add : I don't think you would even be pleased wiith the feature you'd get when purchasing a world : paying
the 80$ fee does NOT let you change your background wherever you are. It lets you change your background in your own world, and
that's all. As I understand it, you wanted to be able to change it in AlphaWorld... (if it's not AW then you could ask the world
owner to change it..). you will NEVER be allowed to do that, and your problem seems to be more of a feature that does not exist in
the ActiveWorlds software than a fee problem.
Of course, you can ask for new features, nothing wrong with that, but I don't think your discussion about the prices is right,
because the feature is not developped in the software (unless by using a local path, which would do the job, although a lot too
complex, but this feature was clearly not developped for that goal)

Fox Mc Cloud

"m a r c u s" <none at sfsdfsd.come> a écrit dans le message news: 3adfb20a at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> Yes, you are right. You have to buy a world first. All I want is to change
> a background, I don't want the extras. I am willing to pay a reduced fee to
> make this happen. %75 of a citizenship ($15) should be more than enough to
> put a switch in place so we can do that without shelling out $80 and get
> things that some citizens don't want or need.
>
> All I want is to change a background using a $20 citizenship and a small fee
> for this ability.

Apr 20, 2001, 4:02am

You are not 100% right, you CAN change the backdrop just for you.
Check that local object path thing in the browser help.

Create a local object path for the world where you do not like
the backdrop, copy the backdrop of your choice there, same name
as the backdrop the world currently uses, and the world will show
this backdrop - just for you. No bot and no bot rights needed.

You can schedule a program that changes this backdrop depending
on the daytime and it requires just re-entering so that the
changes can take effect. The scheduled program could have simply
the name "command /ccopy <yourbackdrop> <worldbackdrop>" or
"cmd /ccopy <yourbackdrop> <worldbackdrop>" on NT systems.

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 4:19am

I am a not a programmer and don't know what "'command /ccopy <yourbackdrop>
<worldbackdrop>' or
'cmd /ccopy <yourbackdrop> <worldbackdrop>'" means.

I would like a visitor to teleport to my location and either 1) see a
background I have put up, or 2)have them click a download button like with
other pictures and have a background download that way.

I am not interested in just setting it up for myself. I would like others
to see it as well. Right not the only choice is to buy a world at $80 with
all its extras (limiting the number of citizens that can be there at onetime
doesn't seem like an extra me though).

I would rather pay a smaller fee, and just get the rights to change the
background. If this means we have to use a bot to make it work, I'll learn
how to use a bot to do it then. It doesn't matter to me.

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 4:22am

"I guess a
cool new feature would be to have something like a new "background" action,
which would change your own background when triggered...
or to find a way to be able to define different backgrounds depending on
what area you're visiting."

YES!!! That is one way of dealing with this background issue. Click on a
button, and then it downloads. Works for me. Just like you can make any
location your home, you could select any background for that world to be a
default like wallpaper on your desktop.

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 4:24am

I don't mind having it a permanent condition. Whatever works to allow us 1
single background to appear at 1 time would be good.

If this means people have to download it fine, if it means it is permanent
that is fine too. Whichever AW would want.

I just want the opportunity to change it at some point. Right now, $80 is
the only way to go.

[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 4:28am

[View Quote] This does not require to be a bot programmer, it requires to know
your operating system, it is a DOS and Windows command.

> I would like a visitor to teleport to my location and either 1) see a
> background I have put up, or 2)have them click a download button like with
> other pictures and have a background download that way.

In that way it will not work in any world where you do not
have caretaker rights, no solution exists, sorry.

Apr 20, 2001, 5:43am

But AlphaWorld is the exception to every paradigm that AW really represents
(my view). A standard set of objects/avatars/textures for everyone to use in
a public world. It may have been the original, but its certainly not the
norm.

Paying your $80 still won't let you change the backdrop in AlphaWorld or any
other public building worlds. Its the right of the worldowner.

In order for AW to implement a "feature" where different areas have their
own backdrops, they would have to be able to define specific regios within
the world dynamically ... and for what? So that someone can change the
backdrop/lighting/etc. around their property without paying their dues.
That's what a world is ... and those attributes are what the worldowner has
control of. Public building only really exists to allow people to play and
chat at the same time. If you're serious about configuring the environent
that your property is in, get a whole world of you're own. You seems to want
the equivalent of the additional features you get the "Pro" version of
software while just paying to use the cheap shareware version.

If you want to do something ... and there's a cost involved, pay the price,
find an alternative or go without. Its a fact of life.

Grims


[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 7:40am

[View Quote] It is worthless to argue with this jerk - he only wants to rant about the cost of the worlds :)
Andras

Apr 20, 2001, 8:30am

"grimble" <grimble2000 at btinternet.com> a écrit dans le message news: 3adfe8a5$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> and for what? So that someone can change the backdrop/lighting/etc. around their property without paying their dues.
> That's what a world is ... and those attributes are what the worldowner has control of.

The feature I was suggesting would be useful even to world owners... right now there's no way you could have different backgrounds
in different areas, and i'm sure it would have some cool uses...
But anyway I don't think that will happen.

Fox Mc Cloud

Apr 20, 2001, 10:45am

My god....I guess I should have made it much clearer what I am saying..... I
am refering to world owners... NOT AW...seeeesh... give me a break. I was
assuming
an intelligence level higher than moron to understand the obvious. IE: In
AW you can't change the backdrop... sooooo.. I guess that would leave AW
out...geee... I wonder what is left.. private worlds?... Marcus, grow
up.... It is obvious that you don't own a world, and don't want to... so go
away.

Holistic1

[View Quote] > Wouldn't it be cool if there was a bot that would not only change the
> backdrop automatically, but would also change the ambient sounds
> accordingly. For example, during the day you have the forest sounds
> etc... At night you may have crickets, owls, wolves howling etc. Could
> be something like Microsofts Themes. One command to change everything.
>
> Just an idea.
>
> Holistic1

Apr 20, 2001, 12:00pm

Yea, doesn't he have better things to do like namecall and misjudge people
like you :-)


[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 12:04pm

When I go to the supermarket, I don't buy 1 of everything on the shelves. I
like to choose what I want to buy. Active Worlds is filling the cart now
dictating what services we will get when we leave the checkout counter.

I am willing to pay my dues. I never said they should give it to us for
free. Charge something for the ability to change backgrounds. I propose
%75 of the citizenship fee, $15.


[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 12:12pm

Well when this forum is called "holistic1"'s forum about only owning worlds
I will be more than happy to conform to your rules. It is called "bots",
which can be used in many public worlds as well as private ones owned by
citizens.

Therefore, I made a post that fit the criteria of the forum and people have
responded branching out to other areas. If you want your own forum, make
one. EZboard is very good, and you can erase whatever you don't want to
see. For here however, if you don't like something, move on.

As for owning a world, I have emailed AW telling them I did in fact want to
own a world. I felt the prices were too high and I offered a way they could
make more money actually by offering a $200 combo. If you read these posts
back to beginning of April you should see where I discussed it more in
detail. Hope you are you enjoying your world if you have one. Have a good
day.


[View Quote]

Apr 20, 2001, 1:13pm

I'm not quite sure you completely understand the nature of Activeworlds nor
the userbase nor the functions of our software.

We tried to install a "weather bot" in Alphaworld to change the mood, it
even included rain and clouds and all of that kind of thing - but there are
thounsands of people in there, and the majority of them thought "it messes
with our building" or "we dont want you to be able to change how our stuff
looks" or "I built my lot and I dont want other people changing the look of
it".

What you propose, is to give the user the ability to go in, and change the
look of a world in order to suit their own whims. This will never happen,
and it wont be a feature that will ever be offered - would you want someone
to walk into your art house, and take a can or green spraypaint to the walls
merely because they didnt like the color of them ?

Facter
AW Support.

[View Quote]

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