STO Integrated Combat Software
From Imperial Starfleet & Klingon Empire Wiki
Contents |
Introduction
All damage and healing that happens in your combat engagements while playing Star Trek Online can be recorded in a file on your computer with a feature of the game. Use the command ::
/combatlog 1
But to make sense out of the multi-megabyte log file of numbers you will need the freeware program STOICs. This program displays crucial damage and healing information read from STO combat logs. STOICs stands for Star Trek Online Integrated Combat software.
- stoic (noun): one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain.
It is a diagnostic program that produces statistics and graphs from a log file
generated by STO. It does not make suggestions for configurations (for example consoles,
buffs/debuffs etc.) or weapon load outs (for example torps vs beams etc.), but
shows damage and healing statistics in an interactive graphical form,
for the user to interpret.
So STOICs does not predict possibilities or even make judgments on the combatlog information.
That's why it was named stoic software... it is indifferent, you have to make the call.
STOICs is like a Vulcan science officer... to make best use of the resource you have to ask the
right questions, then decide on a course of action.
I also need to state that although the acronym STOICs includes the word
"integrated" it is referring only to being able to properly read a log file STO makes
on your computer. So it's not a hack of STO or
a piggy back program (like Fraps, which displays an "overlay" on other
programs). It is fully independent of the STO software, and only needs a log
file as input. It is a modest size executable "STOICS.exe" that does not require
any special libraries or other software to be installed, and will run on any
Windows platform. STOICs is not affiliated with any company
and contains no spyware, adware, virus(es), or trojan(s) (as provided in the
download here). No donation is requested, and the software is
indeed completely free. Finally, I assume no responsibility and you use
STOICs at your own risk.
Screen-shot
Download
- STOICs.msi 8.48MB (Installs STOICS.exe, STOICS_stats.txt, & example log file) V8.2
Installation
- Download the installer above.
- Run the installer and install the program (it will also add shortcuts to your Windows Start "All Programs" menu and desktop). Note that if you installed Star Trek Online to a special place (not the default directory) you will have to change the installation path in the installer to the location of the "Live/logs/GameClient" subdirectory of your "Star Trek Online" directory.
Use
- Play STO, when you are ready to start recording combat information type in the command:
/combatlog 1
- Do your combat and then exit STO. If you can alt-tab from the game to the desktop so you do not exit STO, I recommend turning off the log in STO first prior to alt-tabbing out and running STOICs using...
/combatlog 0
- Run STOICS.exe (using the shortcut).
- Click the OPEN LOG FILE button and open the file Combatlog.log.
- You will be offered a selection of which "session" to choose. If there is more than one engagement in the opened log file there will be multiple selections available in the CHOOSE: CLICK ME list. In addition the list of entities in the engagement is given, click the PvP List (#Entities) or PvE List (#Entities) depending on the type of action (if you wish you can select the first entity you wish to be graphed as the GIVER). Here is a screen-shot of the "session choosing" interface:
- Use the FX button to turn the sound effects OFF (or back ON).
- Review your combat using the STOICs user interface. NOTE :: STO will keep adding combat log information to the same file over and over. To break the data up into logical pieces (to keep things making sense) use the STOICs feature SAVE LOG AS to move the current log you are looking at into a file of it's own (you can name it something that makes sense too, like "PvP June 10").
- Click the DISPLAY button to change display modes. Available display modes are GRAPH (the default), PIECHART (a breakdown of damage given by team or player), TACTICAL (shows the exchange of dealt damage between a team and it's enemies or an entity and it's enemies), and TEAM (shows coordinated attacks between team members and team healing).
GRAPH Display
GRAPH mode is the default display mode of STOICs and the most complex as far as having the most user controls (see the Example Screen shot above). It can show raw and net values for damage or healing for any entity, including narrowing the information to a specific giver rather than whole team: GIVER, a specific type of weapon or healing: TYPE (such as Phaser or HitPoints), a specific skill or attack: SUBTYPE (such as Plasma Dual Heavy Cannons or Engineering Team I), and a specific receiver of the damage or healing: RECEIVER. In addition, there is a X FLAG selection that allows marking specific points on the graph with a X for the specified type (such as TYPE.Kinetic) or subtype (such as Warp Core Breach).
- Click the GIVER button to limit the graph to those things generated by that entity.
- Click the MODE button to select "Raw & Net" for both types, or "Only Raw" or "Only Net" to limit the graph. Raw describes the value prior to applying skills (buffs and debuffs) and defenses (like shields). Net is the actual applied effect.
- Click the TYPE button to choose a type of data to be graphed, such as a flavor of weapons (like Phaser or Kinetic) or healing (such as Shield or HitPoints).
- Click the SUBTYPE to further limit the graph to a particular weapon (such as Phaser Turret), skill (like Tyken's Rift), or effect (like Warp Core Breach).
- Click the RECEIVER button to choose to limit the graph to a particular target for the selected effect.
- Click the X FLAG to highlight a particular entity with an "X" at those points on the graph.
- Click the ZOOM buttons to change the scale of the graph display. Use the scrolling sliders to move the graph when zoomed in.
- Click the SAVE LOG AS to move (rename) the opened log file to another name.
- Click the SAVE STATS button to write all overall Raw and Net stats for each entity to the end of the file "STOICS_stats.txt". In addition, a HIGH SCORES list finishes the output, with a list of highest to lowest net damage dealt stats along with the kills and deaths for each entity listed. Here's an instance showing part of the SAVE STATS output...
=================================== STOICS V7.3 ALL STATS "pvp space c&h malicia solstice win.log" 10:07:14:11:43:24.7 SPACE PvP =================================== ... ...(all Raw and Net stats by entity)... ... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> HIGH SCORES (NET DPS) <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< 807.9 1039peak !AllTeamTwo 7 Kills 3 Deaths 526.6 743peak !AllTeamOne 3 Kills 9 Deaths 307.4 773peak 2) j4dy 2 Kills 0 Deaths 198.4 529peak 1) T'Anyssa 0 Kills 5 Deaths 168.5 334peak 2) Xander 0 Kills 2 Deaths 150.2 456peak 1) Jasen 0 Kills 0 Deaths 136.0 526peak unknown 2 Kills 0 Deaths 118.9 368peak 2) Taflek 3 Kills 0 Deaths 107.4 288peak 2) will.i.fix 0 Kills 0 Deaths 105.7 248peak 2) JEWL 1 Kills 1 Deaths 80.2 513peak 1) Solstice 3 Kills 1 Deaths 53.0 343peak 1) Domar 0 Kills 2 Deaths 44.9 163peak 1) Bryce 0 Kills 1 Deaths <<Total Time: 15.73 Minutes>>
The WRITE button in GRAPH mode outputs the displayed stats (with both raw and net) to the end of the "STOICS_stats.txt" file. Here's an example output of it...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STOICS V7.3 GRAPH STATS
"pvp space c&h malicia solstice win.log"
10:07:14:11:43:24.7 SPACE PvP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[GIVER] "2) j4dy"
[TYPE] !AllDamage
[SUBTYPE] Disruptor Turret - Rapid Fire I
[RECEIVER] "1) Domar"
---------- RAW DAMAGE ----------
MIN: 0
MAX: 915
AVG: 300
DPS: 24 (900peak)
---------- NET DAMAGE ----------
MIN: 0
MAX: 272
AVG: 76
DPS: 6 (229peak)
RATE: 0.08 per sec
TARGET RESIST: 75%
EVENTS: 76
<<Total Time: 15.73 Minutes>>
PIECHART Display
PIECHART mode shows a breakdown of total raw or net (selected with the MODE setting) damage for the GIVER selected, which can be a whole team or a single player. When a whole team is selected the pie-chart slices are the members of the team, sorted from highest pie slice of the total damage to lowest, drawn in a counter clockwise direction starting at three o'clock. The colored text list below the MODE button shows the pie slice percent of the total pie, the total damage value, and the entity name. Note that if the GIVER is a single player, the pie slices are all that player's weapon subtypes (specific weapon attacks or skills). Since only the GIVER is selectable, the pie-chart mode is best for looking at all dealt damage or healing rather than all received damage or healing. Here's a screen-shot STOICs PIECHART DISPLAY.
- Click the GIVER button to limit the graph to those things generated by that entity.
- Click the MODE button to select raw or net damage.
- Click the SAVE LOG AS to move (rename) the opened log file to another name.
- Click the RECOLOR button to redraw the pie-chart using different colors.
- Click the WRITE button to write the currently displayed text information to the end of the file "STOICS_stats.txt". Here's an example...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
STOICS V7.3 PIECHART STATS
"pvp space c&h malicia solstice win.log"
10:07:14:11:43:24.7 SPACE PvP
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[GIVER] "2) j4dy"
[TYPE] !AllDamage
[RECEIVER] !All
---------- NET TOTAL DAMAGE ----------
36.6% 100909 Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons - Rapid Fire I
17.7% 48920 Dual Heavy Disruptor Cannons
13.7% 37765 Dual Disruptor Banks
12.1% 33489 Disruptor Turret - Rapid Fire I
9.8% 26933 Disruptor Turret
4.3% 11928 Disruptor Array
2.9% 8031 Ramming Speed III
1.1% 3132 Dual Disruptor Banks - Target Shields III
1.0% 2872 Dual Beam Banks - Target Weapons III
0.3% 938 Disruptor Beam Array - Target Weapons III
0.1% 368 Quantum Torpedo
0.1% 308 Photon Torpedo
0.1% 221 unknown!
0.0% 106 Phaser Array
0.0% 96 Disruptor Beam Array - Target Shields III
<<Total Time: 15.73 Minutes>>
TACTICAL Display
TACTICAL mode shows the exchange of attacks (all damage given and received) in a graph for the selected GIVER entity of the selected mode (raw or net). Kills and criticals are indicated with a circle and square respectively (normal hits are triangles). The legend list below the MODE button shows the statistics of the graph with the list in order of most damage dealt to that entity, showing the name of the entity, the damage it was dealt (the part of the graph above the zero line) in thousands (K), the damage it gave the giver (the part of the graph below the zero line) in thousands (K), the number of times the entity was killed by the GIVER (a number followed by a "k"), and the number of times the GIVER was killed by the entity (deaths, only shown if it's one or greater, as a number followed by a "d"). Here's a screen-shot STOICs TACTICAL DISPLAY.
- Click the GIVER button to limit the graph to those things generated by that entity.
- Click the MODE button to select raw or net damage.
- Click the ZOOM buttons to change the scale of the graph display. Use the scrolling sliders to move the graph when zoomed in.
- Click the SAVE LOG AS to move (rename) the opened log file to another name.
- Click the RECOLOR button to redraw the graph using different colors.
- Click the WRITE button to write the currently displayed text information to the end of the file "STOICS_stats.txt".
Note that healing is not part of the tactical display mode. The intention of the tactical display mode is to show the relationship of who attacked whom and when. It's also the only mode where both dealt and received damage for the selected entity GIVER is shown at the same time on the graph. Here's an example of the WRITE text output...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
STOICS V7.3 TACTICAL STATS
"pvp space c&h malicia solstice win.log"
10:07:14:11:43:24.7 SPACE PvP
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
[GIVER] "!AllTeamTwo"
[TYPE] !AllDamage
[RECEIVER] !All
---------- NET DAMAGE ----------
3k 0d 1) T'Anyssa 230395 Given / 187261 Taken
1k 3d 1) Solstice 171730 Given / 75683 Taken
1k 0d 1) Bryce 150114 Given / 42419 Taken
2k 0d 1) Domar 100870 Given / 47408 Taken
0k 0d 1) Jasen 58514 Given / 141757 Taken
3k 0d 1) Domar:Minions 34289 Given / 2623 Taken
<<Total Time: 15.73 Minutes>>
TEAM Display
TEAM mode graphs all instances of two or more members of a team focusing their attacks on a single opponent over time, or all instances of a team member healing someone else in the team. Change GIVER to select the team displayed. Change TYPE to "!AllDamage" for an attack display, change it to "HitPoints" for a healing display. For an entity to be included in the list of colored text (which are members of the selected team) they must have done damage to at least one enemy that another team member also damaged, or if HitPoints is selected, they must have healed at least one other team member. The counts in the list are the number of co-attacked enemy targets, or team members healed. Here's a screen-shot STOICs TEAM DISPLAY.
- Click the GIVER button to choose between the two teams.
- Click the TYPE button to choose a type of team activity, either "!AllDamage" or "HitPoints".
- Click the SAVE LOG AS to move (rename) the opened log file to another name.
- Click the RECOLOR button to redraw the graph using different colors.
- Click the WRITE button to write the currently displayed text information to the end of the file "STOICS_stats.txt". Here's an example...
****************************************
STOICS V7.3 TEAM FOCUS FIRE
"pvp space c&h malicia solstice win.log"
10:07:14:11:43:24.7 SPACE PvP
****************************************
[GIVER] "!AllTeamTwo"
[TYPE] !AllDamage
7x 2) j4dy
6x 2) will.i.fix
6x 2) Taflek
6x 2) JEWL
5x 2) Xander
<<Total Time: 15.73 Minutes>>
Warnings :: Concerns
- The makeup of the STO logs is not determined by STOICs, but the game itself. Everything is being presented now that I know of, but in general the log is made up of combat activity that directly resulted in damage or healing. Information like ship size, ship type, or even a player's team is simply not in the logs. STOICs performs a complex algorithm to find out who is on what team to show that. It does this by grouping the players based on who they damage and who they heal.
- Since not all skills are represented in STO log files, to evaluate a buff or debuff that is not present you will have to resort to collecting data over time, collecting one log using the buff or debuff, and collecting another log not using it, then compare the stats using STOICs.
- The DPS values shown are for the duration of time shown on the graph. Note that DPS will be higher for short time sections, and lower for long time sections. Also keep in mind the best DPS reading will still suffer if the giving entity has not fired constantly during the time shown. In this case the peak statistic is very useful, because it indicates best possible sustained effect. The peak value is determined by the same formula as DPS but all 10 second or more gaps in time are removed, so periods of inactivity are excluded.
Help :: Getting Basic Ratings
Here's some steps to follow to get the basic idea of your effectiveness. You can also apply these to someone or something else to get their effectiveness, but note that non-player entities are grouped together as a single thing. For example, all Borg Drones appear as the thing "Drone*23" (which is all Drone activity, where there were 23 Drones). Also note that PvP provides the best logs as far as being in a competitive environment where the opposing players are similar in capability and effectiveness as you are. PvE logs can be used but the enemy does not have the range of defenses, attacks, and intelligence that a real person will have (so typically you will appear more effective in PvE scenarios than PvP ones).
- Overall Attack Ratings
- Although the SAVE STATS button is probably the slowest function in STOICs, it's still the quickest way to get a rating of everyone involved in a "high scores" list. So when you first load a log file click the SAVE STATS button and wait for the browser to bring up the STOICS_stats.txt file, and scroll to the bottom of it.
- The Example Results section above has an example of SAVE STATS "high scores" list (that is at the end of the output). There's a lot of info there, with the most effective (damage dealing) players listed at the top, and the least effective (damage wise) at the bottom.
- The first number on the left (which the list order is based on) is the net (applied) damage per second. This number reflects the overall combat effectiveness of the entity, higher being better. Note that in a situation like a PvP "Capture & Hold" where the goal is not simply combat alone but strategy as well, the rankings of the high scores is not a measure of how well an entity did in achieving success, just the fighting. Also note that if there was a long duration of time that no combat occurred in, the NET DPS ratings will be lower.
- The "high scores" NET DPS values are to be used as a relative gauge, so the numbers should not be used out of context. In other words, keep the entire high scores list rather than just recording your NET DPS number, as it is relative to that specific engagement. For example, the type of combat (like if it's PvP or PvE) and the type of enemy (like the star ships being cruisers versus escorts) will have a dramatic impact on the NET DPS numbers. Therefore the NET DPS values are not absolute versus all enemy, just the enemy in that engagement.
- Peak Attack Rating
- The "peak" value is an additional consideration in determining attack rating. This statistic is a theoretical value that represents what the NET DPS would be if all "dead time" is eliminated (every 10 seconds or more of inactivity). So it more accurately represents your full attack rating, assuming a target is always available and you are constantly firing. Again, as per the NET DPS values, the peak values are relative to the type of enemy in the engagement, and should be compared to the other player's values to get an idea of effectiveness, not taken as an absolute number.
- Defense Rating
- It can be useful to see how effective you are at resisting incoming damage. The TARGET RESIST value is the ratio of the NET DPS to the RAW DPS expressed as a percentage from 0% to 100%. For example, if you are taking every point of incoming RAW DPS as applied damage, your TARGET RESIST will be zero (bad). If you are only taking half of the RAW DPS as applied damage, your resist rating will be 50% (better).
- Select the opposing team as the GIVER, select yourself as the RECEIVER, and use the WRITE button to record the results. The TARGET RESIST value represents your overall resistance to the incoming damage in that engagement.
- Healing
- Another aspect of engagements contained in the combat log information is the Shield and HitPoints type activity which represents healing. View these by selecting yourself (or someone else) as the GIVER and changing the weapon TYPE to Shield or HitPoints (if there was some of that activity present in the engagement for the giving entity). Change the Receiver to a specific entity to see the effect applied to just that receiver.
- Note that negative weapon damage (for example a weapon healing you) is shown as a weapon TYPE of HitPoints and subtype Reverse Shield Polarity.
- Weak vs Strong Attacks
- It can be useful to determine what your weak or strong attacks are, so that you can change your ways if needed to eliminate weak attacks in exchange for something more effective. Switch to pie-chart mode by clicking the DISPLAY button and selecting PIECHART. Select yourself as the GIVER and use the WRITE button to record the results.
- Attack Exchanges
- The exchange of attacks over time is shown in the TACTICAL display (click the DISPLAY button to change display modes). Both damage dealt and incoming fire are shown, with the damage dealt above the zero line, and the incoming fire below the zero line. Select the desired entity from the GIVER button drop down list, and the MODE of raw or net damage. The entites who were given damage and gave damage to the GIVER are shown in the colored list below the MODE button. Kills on those entities and deaths given by those entities are also shown.
- Team Work
- Team coordination is shown in the TEAM display (click the DISPLAY button to change display modes). Select the desired team from the GIVER button drop down list. The types of information shown are team attack focus and team healing.
- Team attack focus is shown when the TYPE is set to "!AllDamage". The list of team members that focused on the same targets are shown in the colored text list under the TYPE button. The enemy that was co-attacked is listed on the vertical axis of the graph. A colored point is graphed for each player on the enemy that player attacked over time. A stack of points indicates well focused fire.
- Team healing is shown when the TYPE is set to "HitPoints". The team members that healed someone else in the team is shown in the colored list below the TYPE button. The team members that were healed are listed on the vertical axis of the graph. A colored point is graphed for each player on the graph on the player they healed.
Version History
- June 2 2010: I announced the start of the STOICs Project on the ISF forum.
- V1.0 June 3 2010: Initial test version.
- Old Revision Info
- V7.3 July 15 2010: Addition, fixes.
- Added a TYPE selection to the TEAM display so that team healing (HitPoints) can be selected and graphed.
- Some cosmetic changes, display mode is now shown in the title, the logo graphic was updated.
- The engagement type (PvE or PvP) is now shown in the SAVE STATS and WRITE header.
- TACTICAL display death counts were showing minion deaths as player deaths. Fixed.
- V7.4 July 16 2010: Small fixes & improvements.
- TACTICAL WRITE output was fixed so "TEAM HEALING" was in the title when HitPoints was the type (was showing "TEAM FOCUS FIRE").
- TACTICAL vertical and horizontal axis were made more noticeable (wider black).
- TEAM display graphed dots.. the square dots were changed to diamond shapes, and the vertical spacing of the dots was widened (if there is room more space is given).
- V7.5 July 18 2010: Height and width reduction of the STOICs main interface, minor improvement.
- The dimensions of the main interface were reduced to support a display resolution of 1280x800. STOICs now has a resolution of 1096x798, which means it can be used if the vertical display resolution is 800 or greater (otherwise part of the main interface will be off the screen).
- The triangle dots in the TEAM display were made a bit larger to look more similar in size to the circle dots used.
- V7.6 July 18 2010: Important fix.
- Fixed a problem that has apparently existed since V6.4 back on July 7 (11 days now), where if there was nothing occurring in numbers (such as "Sphere*3") in a log session, STOICs would fail and be unable to read that log. This was most likely to occur in a very short PvP, such as a skirmish.
- V7.7 July 18 2010: Bug fix.
- There was a problem with the TACTICAL display in that using a zoom button caused the kill and death counts to double. Fixed.
- V7.8 July 23 2010: Minor improvement.
- The X FLAG feature was improved a bit by always displaying the TYPE selections (if any) at the top, and now if a SUBTYPE is selected there are still TYPE options (provided TYPE is !All&Minions or !AllDamage).
- V7.9 July 26 2010: Improvements.
- The browser specified by Windows registry is now used instead of always using Internet Explorer.
- The buttons and some other stuff now have "help tips" when you hold the mouse over them.
- V8.0 July 29 2010: Cosmetic changes.
- STOICs moved, so the WEBSITE and EMAIL button functions were updated.
- I changed my nickname to Stray Genius on the logo graphic (to reflect the new domain).
- V8.1 July 30 2010: Minor bug fix.
- The TEAM display mode had a bug where if you had the graph zoomed and went to TEAM, it would not reset the zoom (since it has no zoom controls). Fixed.
- V8.2 Aug 16 2010: Bug fix.
- Denis_Picard reported a problem where "TFound" was causing an error and STOICs refused to open a log file. Fixed.
Notes
My software is completely wholesome and safe but no guarantee is given to users of my software, so use at your own risk. I regard the software I write highly, I have been writing and publishing tools like this for six years for the gaming community (I'm a retired software engineer). Tools I have written that would be easily recognizable are TESFiles and TES4Files, they are household words in "The Elder Scrolls" players community.
The language STOICs is written in is very safe by nature. It's an interpreted language so my software is never in control of the computer directly, the language interpreter is. Therefore if my software goes wrong somehow, the interpreter catches this immediately and alerts the user, rather than doing anything harmful. About the worst thing the language can possibly do is "hang" or become unresponsive (doing what is typically referred to as an "endless loop"). However the Windows operating system allows dealing with unresponsive software, allowing a user to terminate a program that has become unresponsive at will. STOICs is also intentionally safe in it's design, as the only file it writes to is the "STOICS_stats.txt" text file (which STOICs creates). The only other change to one's computer environment would be by the "SAVE LOG AS" feature, which simply renames a ".log" file to a new ".log" name specified by the user. Unlike typical software programs, STOICs does not access the internet and does not even modify the registry. STOICs invokes the browser specified by the user's registry setting (usually Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome) to show "STOICS_stats.txt", go to the STOICs wiki page, and start an email to the author. So it's true that if the user's browser is a problem, that's an issue, as STOICs can start it up. However, generally speaking the browser is probably one of the safest programs the user has, as a browser is so important to today's computing (very high profile).
People may be questioning my motives, but let me assure you I'm just trying to help. For example, there's a board game I wrote (in the same software language as STOICs BTW) which I wrote a long time ago (it's been a year and a half since I even updated it) that's available on my site. The game (Gladiator Board Game V14.2) gets about 700 downloads a month. I was rather curious about this, as the game is rather plain and generally "yawn inspiring" in terms of it's user interface and graphics. However the game is fairly complex and addictive, runs well even on minimal systems, and people seem to enjoy it. Do you think I get even one email saying thanks? No. Do I care? No, it's enough for me to know that people are downloading it and it's being used. The effort making it was worth it.
I don't blame people for being suspicious, it's very rare that a freeware program comes along that's not loaded with a virus, Trojan, ad-ware, spy-ware, or is some kind of scam. However the wiki and download for STOICs are hosted on my personal web-space, not piggy backed onto some garbage site (which is generally the case with illegal hacks, etc). People that peddle garbage are intentionally anonymous to protect themselves. For you concerned about stumbling onto garbage I would recommend you check the validity of the stuff being offered by ::
- Check the URL by looking up the domain with ip-lookup.net "Domain Lookup". In the case of STOICs, the domain is http://malicia.straygenius.com
- Click on the found IP address. Check the country of origin, in the case of STOICs, this is USA.
- Click the "IP owner info (Whois)" to get more information. Check the OrgName for the name of the organization or individual hosting. This should be a reputable organization, if it's not there may be a problem. Check the City and StateProv for valid information. If it's spoofed with obviously wrong stuff or is blank there could be a problem. In the case of STOICs, this is Scottsdale, Arizona. If the company or individual is reputable a phone number and email will be present in the IP site information. If you are really suspicious at this point you can email the address and see if it's a working email (it will bounce soon after sending the email if it's non-functional).
If you get this far and everything seems OK, you can actually visit the site at your discretion, but consider that your browser needs to be up to date, your anti-virus and spy-ware protection on, and your firewall working. The safest sites will have no banners and no adds. Banners and adds indicate that content is being shown that's really not the work of the host website, but 3rd party advertisers, so there's more liability in terms of who is responsible for any problems (the more people potentially responsible for problems the less likely you will be able to nail the responsible party for damages). In the case of STOICs, there are no banners or adds.
In general, media is the safest type of download, such as text, documents, audio and video, as opposed to an executable like STOICs. Media is severely limited in terms of what potential damage can be caused on a host computer, as far as executables go, the sky is the limit, it could format your hard disk if it wanted to.
But again, consider the anonymous or identified nature of the program, I would be very cautious running an executable authored by someone that is not identifiable. In the case of STOICs, I not only identify myself as the author, the buttons EMAIL and WEBSITE are right on the program for writing me email and visiting this wiki page, respectively.
For more commentary on the validity of potential downloads, please read :: The Kid, The Computer, & The Free Trojan Software
So in summary all I am doing is trying to help, knowing that people are downloading and using my software effort is all I need in return. Please enjoy STOICs.
Links
Stray Genius (Solstice) author of STOICs
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