Last Dynasty - A Solclaim Community

I hear a lot of complaints about buffbots, and even a few people who say things like 'buffbots ruin AC', etc.

This convinces me that its about time to remind people how buffbots came about and what AC was like before their implementation. I don't really care if you like bots or hate them. My intent here is to refresh or inform the current AC players of the history behind and the reasons for implementation of the bots. As one of, if not THE(at least on MT), first buffbot operators, I feel qualified to make statements about the intent and circumstances of the arrival of buffbots.


Without rehashing all of AC's history, I'll cut to the chase. I played my main, Yew Wan Sum, who is a mage. I frequented newb towns and the obsidian plains, healer's heart in hand and there just to help. When I'd get tired of rebuffing and run through an entire charge on the heart(not easy!), I'd go hang out at the Mayoi LS, or in sub.

Invariably, in addition to the plethora of 'ne1 got p0rt4l 2 T3th?' requests, there would be an entire swarm of people begging for buffs. Most would offer a D note, some an M, for a set of 7's. Some would offer nothing, and get ***** with you when you cast VI's on them because you didn't feel like buffing up just to buff them.

Many friends of mine who also had capable mages, and even myself at times, would have to actually equip a weapon of some sort (I used Black Fire Atlan Claw) and a shield in order to 'hide' from buff beggers, who usually looked for anyone holding a casting implement and rarely took the time to ID your stats. It was a real problem.

In addition to random people, I always wanted to help out my followers, so I would take time to ensure they had buffs to get corpses, do quests, gain XP, etc. Even then, of course, you always get people who are unappreciative of spending your time doing this, and will actually complain to you that they had a corpse and you didn't come running frmo the middle of the obs plains to buff them. These people, in my allegiance, got a quick lesson in courtesy, then a warning, then a boot. That didn't stop them from playing AC, though. When whatever group they were with refused to help them, or wasn't on, I'd still get tells asking for help, buffs, and everything else.

This all got to the point where I, and a good deal of other mages I knew, spent most of their play time buffing others. Myuki Santoshi(sp?), I believe, is the one who even made an enormously funny flash animation in parody of the whole scene.

Link to Flash

Then, I was invited to partake in internal alpha testing of a new plugin called Buffy. It was the first of its kind. Full accounting capability, full customisable buff lists, tons of options, and somewhat hard to use, but far ahead of its time.

I though, "Hey! Instead of spending my time buffing, I can set up as a bot, and buff people while I *don't* play, and be able to actually hunt/quest/etc when I do." I thought a lot, even then, about the implications of true new players having access to buffs. Accordingly, I set up a pricing scheme where level 6's were darn cheap, 7's were more expensive, but came in minimal configurations, with 'mega' profiles being very expensive to reflect the amount of time and comps I spent casting them, and also to discourage their frequent use.

I set up a list of accepted items far beyond the simple trade note or comps. I wated to allow new players to *earn* their buffs by bringing in trophy items, plants, and whatever else they found while out hunting.

In short, it worked well. I had lines stretching out 20 long waiting for buffs, and the supply of 'buff babies' started leaving the mages alone. I accomplished what I set out to do. Of course, it ended up being so successful that I had to dedicate my main to 24/7 operation. Such is life and its a choice I made.

Some months later, the bot's creator simply disappeared. Gone. No response. Nothing. Fortunately, another old time portal bot owner and very competant programmer, Roxer(Conversion), offered to write a replacement for the ageing bot. He did so, with remarkable igenuity, and Yew continued his buffing.

Somewhere along the line, other bots appeared. Insane, Fluff N Buff, and eventually, Castaway. Buff were plentiful, and no one was bothered for buffs except maybe in family-hunts, etc.

Now, the bots are everywhere. They stand their post and perform the duties they have always been set to do. They provide buffs to the buff babies. Buff babies come in all types, and all levels. Bots service their requests so the general playing populace doesn't have to. People have always, and will always, try to play characters that require external buffs. So be it. Just don't curse out the bot for their existance. They were here, in great numbers(epecially when 10F/S melee templates were very common), long before the bots, and if bots logged off forever tomorrow, they would still be here. But then the mages would have to buff them by hand.


That is the end of my story, however, I would also like to throw out some information. Roxer(Conversion) has not played for quite some time. Since I am a software engineer, and he is a very generous person, he has passed the source code for Buffy on to me. The original Buffy stopped working a few months ago, so I am using Castaway temporarily, and am buffing for free. Buffy II is in the process of being converted, upgraded, and built. I will be maintaining it from now on. I am also adding features as far beyond current bots as buffy was beyond a portal bot when it came out. When its done, I plan on doing what has never been done, releasing Buffy to the general public. You have been warned.


Edit: Added flash link
Last edited by Yew Wan Sum : 05-04-2004 at 05:32 PM.

I bet most would trade anything for the ole days with the higher server pops even if it mean whining for buffs