Yes, I did exaggerate things in the original post. The situation which we are currently in is absurdous, and the best way to show it is to "reverse" the absurd, which is what I have done. Niko is right, however, it's time to put the emotions aside and go constructive.
What is going on now is a model witch-hunting. At first, Mia was reported for using fastped.cs. I think that most of the players (including me) were not aware that this mod does even exist. As much as I understood, it makes all turns instant, which is obviously far more than using a fast skin. At this point I understand the wrath of the community. If Mia used it, she would have gotten demoted and banned for the hack classified as Tier 2.
However, both Mia and Jonne explained what mod Mia actually used. She also posted a link to it. Did it stop the witch-hunting? No, it continued with renewed vigor. There were so many accusations regarding this mod which have nothing to do with reality. The worst thing is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place. Any player could download the mod by Mia's link and check whether what they're accusing us for is true or not.
Let me summarize everything regarding this situation in a small FAQ:
Q: This is fastped.cs, and I've seen in the video that it makes characters rotate like in a whirlpool!
A: This is not the same mod, this one is called skinchanger.cs. It does the following: it simply replaces the skin which is given to you by the server (let's call it S1), to any other skin available in the game (let's call it S2). The change happens after tying the client command: /fskin [skin id] So you see S2 while everyone still sees S1.
The fast skin trick is the following. Imagine that you want your favourite skin, in my case 73, to turn like a fast skin (for example, 272). In GTA3.img, you replace the .txd (texture) and .dff (model) files of the skin 272 to those of the skin 73. After that, you go ingame. The server gives you your normal skin (in my case, 73). Then you use /fskin 272, so your local skin is 272. But since you replaced the texture and the model of the skin 272 to skin 73, you keep seeing your old skin (and everyone else do), but the ped movements, which are used, belong to the skin 272. That's the only thing this mod makes.
Q: What you've described gives an unfair advantage and should be classified as a hack.
A: Formally, you are right. The hitboxes of many slow skins are smaller than those of fast skins. However, the difference between the hitboxes is very small, so there is just no way to abuse the "advantage". There is no need to believe my words, you can try it yourself and you'll see: there is no magic, it will not help you in a real fight at all, utterly and completely.
Sniper crosshair with a smaller dot, for example, is widely used and gives an obvious advantage: the accuracy of sniping on long distances increases drastically. The default big red dot can cover the whole target on long distances, whilst a small and neat one allows you to hit precisely: for example, in a car, in a rustler, behind the obstacle in a very small bodypart, and so on. I use the custom crosshair myself and I can simply explain the advantage. However, I fail to explain that of the skin changer mod.
Thus, there is no point in using this mod in other purposes but the aesthetics.
Q: Mia did it silently, because she was afraid of getting caught.
A: This is simply not true. First of all, she consulted with the owner of the server before using it. Second, it is clearly visible on her video. Third, it's quite natural that she did not announce it publicly: many players here do not really announce their discoveries (custom crosshairs) and don't share them on request.
Q: If it was some regular player, Jonne would not have allowed it.
A: Again, this is simply not true. Mia and I does not have any extra influence on Jonne. If you think that it's so simple, go and try to do it yourself. I doubt that Jonne handles this server for anything else but fun of the players, for the feeling of him doing something good and truly interesting and pleasant for the others. In this case, I don't see a way of a random person in the Internet influencing on his decision just like that.
Q: If it was somebody else, you, Altus, would have forbidden this mod and/or banned the user.
A: Once again, wrong. When I am an online admin, people sometimes ask me whether a given mod is allowed or not. I always reply with the same thing: the mod is allowed unless it gives an unfair advantage. For example, I have not done anything for those who used a mod which allows to reload the weapons or a mod which lets you apply custom ped animations (equal to those available ingame) from the client side. Anyone who talked to me about the mods, knows that I stick to this principle, and I do not plan to step over it.
Q: Why don't you simply use /vskin?
A: I thought that it would be cool to have my favourite skin, 73, rotating like a fast skin, since I am a VIP and have access to the fast skins anyways. Even if the skinchanger.cs gets disallowed, I will keep playing with the 73th skin (slow), as it is the only skin I like.
Q: You are lying or omitting something about this mod.
A: As I said, there is no need to believe me nakedly. Use the mod and check it yourself. I told you everything I know about it. We used it only for the aesthetic purposes.
Q: I do not believe in your "aesthetic" purposes. There must have been something else involved.
A: Like, what? Mia and I stay away from the game-related conflicts of the players and clans. We do not fight personally with anyone. We do not post humiliation videos or stories. We are fighting everyone and do it solely for the fun. And we lose a big percent of the fights. I am not any kind of a "pro"-gamer, I mostly play to relax. So it's not to assert ourselves. What else can it be? To farm score/kills? Well, there are way more effective ways, like to constantly survive as a president on specific maps with specific players online.
Besides, I was telling about giving all of my score away... Why not?
Jonne, I request you to transfer 22000 of my kills to the 22 best players on the server, 1000 for each. Seriously, I would prefer if there were no stats. Like there is no karma on this forum. Unfortunately, these numbers mostly bring unnecessary fights and grudges.
What I'm going to say next, applies to everyone taking part in the war which started from Mive's resignation, it also applies to myself and Mia.I had private talks with many of you, people. The vast majority of those talks were pleasant, interesting, entertaining for me and, hopefully, to my conversationalists as well. Yet... We ended up
here.
I will mention COBRA and Great_Khali a lot below. Don't take it as an offense, please, as I will do it solely because they are very old and influential players and owners of the biggest and eldest (for the moment) clans (= virtual communities) of Plan B.
As I told a lot of times and I repeat now, there are no truly "shitty persons" on this server. At least I have met none. Some of us prefer to trash talk, others stay silent. Some of us find the dignity in a knighty (no more irony in this word!) attitude ingame, others prefer to kill everyone or target specific people, or follow their own ways of having fun. Some of us are easy to annoy, others are impenetratable. It doesn't matter.
What matters, is that we all are wrong here. We all tend to think that we are somewhat more than we actually are. Or at least we want to look better for both ourselves and others. That's the first thing. The second one, we all belong to our Plan B society. We all are bound to the other people around with hundreds of threads, so it's natural that we follow them in the
games.
So, some of us utilize a slightest reason to wind the spring and get the adrenaline.
Others go help them because they cannot betray their friends (and not joining the conflict on their side looks like a treason for them).
The third ones try to enforce their authority and also to settle the score with someone for the past offenses, since they give a brilliant reason for it.
Reasons, reasons, reasons... Let us not utilize the reasons. Let us look deeper in ourselves, in our consciousness, all of our actions are rooted there.
Let us not give reasons for the reasons.Let us not patronize the others. Let us not be high hats. Nobody. Neither those who want to show their independence against those who currently holds the admin buttons. Nor those who rushes to use these buttons.
I used to be a part of another relatively big Internet community. The biggest difference of it from PTP lied in the fact that most of the people there could stop any hassle at any moment, because they remembered the main thing:
this all is a game.
So whenever I was involved in a conflict, I always knew that I could reach my opponent out at any moment. That we could come to the table and find a solution even for the most difficult situation. Can we say this regarding to each other? Mia and I and COBRA and Great_Khali?
Whenever we accuse or defend someone (= we try to get justice), we should ask ourselves:
at which extent are our own ambitions involved?
Personally I am involved too, of course. However, for some reason I get way less criticism than Mia, so what I am trying to achieve here is not to criticise, in my turn, everyone, starting from myself and Mia and ending with COBRA and Great_Khali, and name us all idiots. Not at all, although, again, everyone is wrong here. And I am really sorry for the irritation caused by my first post in this topic.
I want to suggest a solution to end this midget war. At least to try to make this server and this forum a pleasant place to spend our time on.
I suggest a status quo ante bellum, which is:
- All topics related to the war are getting closed, but not removed, to remain a good lesson for the future.
- Now and forever: all decisions about allowed/disallowed mods are to be taken by 3 Head Admins (with other level 4 admins as consulting body) and are announced publicly, in some topic, no matter if they were asked publicly and privately about the given mod. If Head Admins are having trouble making it, the question is getting solved on the forums, by a voting. By mods, I mean not just .cs/.asi files, but any other external modifications of the game, including: tools to unlock/limit FPS; ping force software; custom skins; custom textures, crosshairs, transparent leaves and so on.
- Even if the community decides to forbid a mod, no retrospective punishments are applied. Let us all remember that everyone of us did something good for the server. If it wasn't for COBRA and Great_Khali, we wouldn't simply have probably reached the 14th year of PTP existance. If it wasn't for Mia, we wouldn't have had a handful of nice updates.
- No punishments and/or other admin actions are applied in the situations which are not described in the rules: clearly, unequivocally and recognizably (@popcornZ' case). If such situation happens, it is getting discussed either among the Staff or publicly on the forum and, again, no retroactive punishments are applied, to nobody.
For last, I want to ask everyone, but primarily COBRA and Great_Khali:
under what conditions are you ready to coexist with Mia and me here peacefully? I am talking about our personalities, not ingame fights.
