5/28/98
Bile of the Day
Straight faced, but under my skin I am laughing.
- Not much. How about you? -
Things are real dead around Subspaceland right about now. I guess maybe it's StarCraft Effect manifesting itself in the release of Unreal. I've been working on the SCF page. Most or all of the Sheep Cloning news will be posted there from now on, in either the news section or the message base. Good little sheep will heed the Call and get their wooly asses over there on a regular basis. :)
- If you can't say anything nice, -
go a few days without updating. This, however, did not work for me. I still have nothing nice to say, so instead of nice I will aim for subtle--or at least cryptic.
1. Chaos West is in ruins.
The zone has cleared out before, but never like this. Even when VIE caused its location to be forgotten by neglecting to mention the January move to GWest, it managed 20 to 40 players during peak hours. We now have a situation where the zone seems to go for days on end without usage. Let's put it this way: I spend a lot of time monitoring Sheep Cloning Facility. This week has been relatively bad for the SCF. Since reset, I have only three times seen enough players in that zone to really have a game. That is to say: five or more people. This translates into 187 people total who have entered the zone since reset. Compare to Chaos West's 174. How the hell does a big, big zone like Chaos West become the most disused and obscure on the entire VIE roster? It sure as hell isn't lag that's weighing fate against this zone. Anyone who frequents GEast or MEast servers can attest to that. So what is it, then? Ignorance of the move? People seem to have found Chaos MEast just fine on their own. The map? Settings? The will of the Good Lord?
It doesn't really matter what the cause is as long as the response is the current recipe of sleep, message board posts, and prayer. Now is not the time to succumb to depression and sit around waiting to be fired.
2. Turf Classic is in ruins.
Is it really acceptable to allow a known bug to crash a server for any reason? Here, the reason is fairness. Not fairness in combat, but fairness in overall point count. Even if life was not unfair to begin with, and even if building and maintaining a large, working team wasn't a crucial and interesting aspect of the game--even if scores were more important than the terrifying battles Turf sees on a good day, it is not okay to crash a VIE server; it is not okay to keep settings in place which we know with absolute certainty are causing the server crash.
All that is necessary to stop Turf from crashing is to remove the team-size divider from the scoring system.
VIE has been promising an imminent fix. Promising to have it implemented on specific days, even. Those days tend to come and go without incident--as they probably should. BFrog is not here to fix our little $20 game every time our experiments prove beyond its limitations. Team-size scoring does not work for Turf, just like Jackpot scoring does not work for Turf. We should accept it and move on, and VIE's programmers should not waste any more of their time trying to fix the problem.
Assuming, however, that they are kind enough to do so, do we really need to be married to this stupid detail of the game while we're waiting? I'm informed that the bug fix is still imminent. All the more reason the scoring system ought to be changed for the time being. All the shorter-lived our shrieking horror at smaller point bonuses and unfair team sizes.
3. Wampit caves to public pressure.
Self-censorship rears its ugly head at Subspace Maxig Com in response to the shadey, omnipotent forces of Public Outcry. This over a demo on hacking javascipt passwords. What about those of us who wanted to read the damned article? To hell with all of you who wrote in and complained. How dare you?
If someone would be so kind as to provide me with the information, I would like to post it here.
- Arctos Is The Man -
On the brighter side of things, instead of wasting my time on Turf, I've been speccing in War Zone East, and sometimes even playing if the MCI routers happen to grant me a few moments of low packetloss. Arctos' new WZ map is a masterpiece, perhaps the best War Zone map of all time. Ingenious, organic bases are set into cool Chaos mazes that call to mind the Combs/Castle map's N4 and P18 areas and T2-17's scary rectangular castle. As in Arctos' other maps, the greening area is full of nice obstructions and floating space junk, making the level a hell for neg killers and turrets. The tileset, although based in part on others before it, has a sinister new look, perfect for the weird layout of the map and the creepy base designs. The bases themselves are for the most part neither Terrier- nor Levi-friendly, and require slow, well considered attacks. The lack of open space makes red chases more interesting than in many maps, presenting all sorts of opportunity for a flag carrier to lose a pursuing swarm should his team be unable to assist him.
I've been pretty skeptical about this map for a long time. In its earlier form, I considered it inferior to Arctos' first WZ map, which was withdrawn at his own request around this time last year. As he made his way through more recent revisions, I was skeptical about some of the base designs, and bitched about favorite bases from the earlier map which he had left out. Now, seeing the finished product, I know I was wrong. This is Arctos' best map to date and I'm proud to have played a small part in testing it. Be sure and play there while you can; War Zone is experiencing more frequent map changes lately, and it may be a while before we come back to this one--although I certainly hope not.
Kudos, also, to the WZE vangels for running what is now the best VIE zone in the game. Even if I do have to spectate there most of the time.
- Final Fantasy Online -
Yep, you heard me right. Just a news story. Perhaps a lot of hooey. Hopefully real. Check it out. Many thanks to Shanoyu of the mighty Space Police for bringing this to my attention. Go Eblana!
- Meow -
Oh yeah! I got a new kitty. Her unfortunate name is Anya; I think I'll call her Ornery instead. I already have a big scar across the back of my hand. I think I'm in love.
- Sheep Cloning Facility -
Mafia's weird, cool Turf map. Speed and thrust penalties for flag carriers. Big rewards for holding on to those flags, and an even bigger jackpot. Pick a flag carrier and head for the tunnels. :)
5/24/98
- Lameness Comes to Turf Classic -
This was perhaps inevitable. Shanoyu reports of a player by the name of "I hate blacks&jews" who showed up in VIE Turf Classic GEast today...
He immediately procedded to crash the server. We managed to stop him
for 5 dings, but he befriended Shikka- or something like that, and they
finally crashed the server.
This is the first incident I have heard reported of someone intentionally crashing the server. Expect to see more as the news spreads. I strongly suggest that anyone who understands the Turf bug not spread any information about how it works. The greater the proliferation of information, the more armchair troublemakers are going to show up in the zone when they can't find anything better to do.
Shanoyu has suggested one solution and I am working on a different approach. I'm sure Chakotay has something in mind as well. Let's hope this is resolved soon in some way.
- Maxgaming, R.I.P. -
It was announced late Friday that Maxgaming, which had for some time been the second biggest site for Subspace related page hosting (among other things) was on its last legs and would be going down by the end of the day. Sure enough, Maxgaming, former home to this page, is dead, and dead ahead of schedule--the server disappeared yesterday six hours before the announced time. While there was some confusion as to whether this would mean the end of the Maxig server as well, Wampit reported at Subspace Maxig Com that the server will in fact stay up. The question is, for how long? Let the death of Maxgaming be a lesson to everyone: The web is an unstable place. Keep backup copies of your pages!
- Sheep Cloning Facility -
Say goodbye to the weird powerball game. Tonight I'm putting up a red hunt in a tunnel system. A big, BIG tunnel system, dug up from the forgotten archives of the long-ago past. Stay tuned. :)
5/23/98
In the black sky thunder sweeping overground and over water, sounds of crying, weeping will not save your faith for bricks and dreams for mortar.
- Maxgaming Going Down Today -
Get your valuables and get a life vest. Maxgaming will be gone by the end of Saturday if not earlier, and by all reports Maxig is going with it. The machines they are running on are most likely being disconnected from the internet. Back up the files you need or you may well never see them again.
You will need to downoad multiple files one directory at a time. Omicron provided this link to Bullet Proof FTP for those in need. Sith posted at the Maxgaming main page that anyone wishing to find new hosting should contact Thump. Since there will probably be a lot of noise from this mess, Sith has requested that no one mail Thump about anything else.
If for some reason you have a dire emergency and are unable to back up your files, send me your login and password and I will try to do it for you if and when I am home/awake during the day.
Good luck everyone. Thanks to Omicron and WiZT for information.
- Sheep Cloning Facility -
New map up, a small powerball arena by Silent Dragon. Funky settings. Let us know what you think on the SCF Messageboard.
- Movies! -
For those not in the know, yesterday began a week of classic movies rereleased to theatres as part of Warner Bros.' 75th anniversary celebration. Each movie is showing only once. I saw The Exorcist last night and the print quality was superb, so they seem to have really taken some care with this. Great movie, too. Today is dedicated to the 1980s. The Color Purple, Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner director's cut, Full Metal Jacket, and The Shining. Woo! Check your listings. This may be your only chance to see some of these on a big screen. Remember kids, film has hundreds of times the contrast ratio of film and thousands of times better resolution. :)
5/22/98
- Out of the Loop -
Well I've been gone since Sunday so bear with me. I have no idea what is going on, except that VIE moved their servers again and AOL bought ICQ, and for some reason a lot of people I'd previously assumed were rational seem to give a damn for some odd reason. ;P Since Sunday I was up in Portland, Oregon and on my way down. Portland is a nice city but it only ever stops raining when I go there, from what I understand. Spent a day packing my sister's stuff. I don't think I've had more fun packing someone's apartment...all these people fresh from with finals and thesis papers were there helping out. Reed College is just a damned cool place. I'd gotten used to calling it the University of Benny & Joon or the University of Sodom and Gommorah, but the truth be told it is an awesome place. I have a shirt now of the unofficial "Seal of Reed College". It has their logo in the center, and around the edges: "Atheism - Communism - Free Love".Drove down through Cascades half covered with snow.
The rest of Oregon seems frankly pretty lame, and though it's even worse, I was pretty happy to enter northern California. Highway 5 sucks though. It's only really once you're on the 101 that the nice scenery kicks in...all those rolling hills with the sparse cypress trees, rickety old farmhouses and weird machinery hiding amongst them. I love those weird blends of sweeping natural beauty and weird man-made artifact. People who balk at such exquisite beauty are enemies of the Minefield!
If you ever find yourself in San Luis Obispo, there is a kick ass fruit shake place I always go to when I am dragged up and down the 101. Blazing Blenders, on Broad St. just off of whatever that silly main street is called. Get a Cherry Breeze and one of those kooky peanut butter things the name of which I forget.
- SCF -
I'll be focusing on Sheep Cloning Facility during the next few days. That and just plain playing the game. I haven't done a whole lot of that lately. At any rate, the SCF messageboard Silent Dragon set up is working out to be a pretty intelligent forum so far. Lack of updates to the Maps and Vangels sections are my fault since I forgot the FTP password. I mean to set up a kind of MMG-style chart of map descriptions along with downloads for both images and level files, hopefully soon.
The current game seems to be going well, except that the lack of a timer plus the Rabbit upgrade seems to encourage a lot of running. I'll be removing the upgrade and adding a 10 minute timer, probably by the time you read this. Saturday I will put the Sheep Shrines back up, with a few alterations. Play in this while you can because it is like limited or something. :) That is, the bases will change over time.
- Speaking of Maps -
I got a bit of negative feedback over the Mafia Chaos map, again over the L7 pentagram. The issue had come up previously during the Chaos Nevada (now Chaos West) map vote when some of the Vangels had expressed concerns that it might offend some people. Mafia agreed to make any changes requested had the map won...but he did not have to agree to that. I wonder what would have happened if his map had won and he had refused. To what extent does VIE care about the people who make maps for its games? Do what extent will Blackie and the other Subspace demigods encourage or tolerate censorship, if the issue ever does come up?
At one point motivation came into question. Is the pentagram a religious or political statement? Does there need to be such justification for it? I wonder if I will ever be made to answer for the crosses that populate most of my own maps.
No sooner had I finished ranting against a new objection to Mafia's Pentagram when I received a new map from Xirphoid. As I mentioned here a long time ago, Xirphoid's signature map detail bears disturbing resemblance to a swastika. I suppose my own self-righteousness may have caught up with me, because I do not know if I can run this map in SCF. Then again, who among us hasn't seen very similar structures all across the famous Alpha/League map? I've never been one to entertain the standard cop-out question, "Where do you draw the line?", nor am I interested in the question of who draws the line. What I ask myself is this. Can I draw that line in good conscience, and can I abstain from drawing that line in good conscience?
My impression is that some of us taking mapping very seriously and some of us don't give a damn about it. In my experience, the latter group is made up of players who don't make maps. At the moment I am trying to disprove this assumption. I don't like the idea of working to please an apathetic audience. I've asked a number of people to write me with their opinions and feelings about whatever map related issues concern them and plan to put together an article of some sort over the weekend, or perhaps for next weekend. This may include some sort of a realtime discussion as a followup, if I can get it together. I contacted very few people, though--only those I was confident would be interested in receiving spam about this. If you have opinions, please write in. A few sentences, a recalled incident, an issue which bothers you, or a big ol' manifesto. Let me know what you think.
- Elsewhere -
I know I've been slacking lately with respect to player zones and wanted to point out that Cybrid's page has had a lot of good zone news or late. I also want to thank Cybrid and the Maxig crew (especially Omicron who was kind to my Shark even tho he doesn't personally like it) for the nice zone and page reviews they gave the SCF.
5/21/98
News ov the Day
There is a silence that comes to a house where no one can sleep.
- Hi! -
I'm back. Got a stack of ICQ that won't fit on my screen, got a floor full of cat pee and a cat with a red bottom and no dinner. My feet are cold from the windows being open and I still have to feed the sheep. No update for you! Well, maybe later, but this is not it. Try me again at midnight. :)
5/17/98
i Viva los News !
In the black sky thunder sweeping overground and over water, sounds of crying, weeping will not save your faith for bricks and dreams for mortar.
- Bye! -
I'm gone til Thursday night proabably. I lied a little. What's running in SCF now is a Rabbit Chase game in the Mafia Chaos map. Enjoy. Thanks to the news.txt and Maxig for the p1mping. Don't trust my links table, and don't let the bat get your sword. Remember to play Turf! See you all next weekend.
5/16/98
In the black sky thunder sweeping overground and over water, sounds of crying, weeping will not save your faith for bricks and dreams for mortar.
- ZERO Annihilation West is back. -
The first hugely popular player zone is back. This place probably still holds the records for most players in a privately run zone. There was a lot of fuss when the server went down, but unfortunately little noise over its return. Annihilation went down for a few weeks due to hardware issues but it back in its old form--weird patchwork map, super settings, and a big flag game. A bit rambunctious for many people's tastes, but I feel warranting a prominent mention here because of its former popularity. Welcome back.
- Map Changes -
Gommy's WZ map made its premier yesterday in War Zone West. It should be stressed that it is being tested so don't go getting all testy about it, but enjoy its many splendors anyhow. One thing I've found unique to this map, probably because of Gommy's roots in small player-run war zone servers, is that it's playable with few people and low bounty. We played a 2-on-2 game in there for maybe 45 minutes yesterday afternoon, and I don't think anyone reached higher than 30 bounty.
Meanwhile, Hadar has changed the map in Chaos West back to the good old' Battle Drone standby in hopes of catching runoff from Chaos East's upcoming 0 bounty policy. Fat chance. The zone is still empty and you've lost the Jolly contingent, Hadar. Maybe we weren't all there building up the zone, but we were playing short games from time to time and I felt a growing mobilization. Don't give up on this after one week. Slow and steady wins the race, and this is not a popularity contest anyway.
If the Chaos West Vangels are dead set against hosting the Rod/Jolly map, may I suggest Mafia's or Slappy's map. Mine isn't too shabby either. I don't think people are sick of West of Rod.Jolly so much as they are sick of the game in general, and I think part of that is the lack of change. This is no longer a dynamic, living game, and we can't blame that breakdown on anyone's actions. It's a lack of action that we have been seeing, an atrophy caused by an absence of activity. The way to combat that atrophy is not to be part of that absence. For God's sake take some risks. Make changes that scare the shit out of you.
(See Shark story below.)
- Is Scenarios of Irony dead? -
The best player run zone of all time is gone. Where the hell is it and what are they doing with it? The last two weeks saw an inexplicable drop in population, of which I am ashamed to admit I was a part. Who killed Irony? Will it rise again? Clove, please bring it back!
Any information on this upsetting topic would be much appreciated.
- Sheep Cloning News -
Just to make it clear to anyone wondering, yes, VIE Sheep Cloning GWest is open to the public! Except under rare circumstances such as scenarios and other announced, temporary events, it will remain permanently open as long as I have any say in the matter. With the exception of a couple of months, the Sheep Cloning Factility does have a long tradition of being closed. No longer! Add the server and come play there whenever you like. Since the zone population is small and will probably remain so, greens and multiprizes are high, and most of the games run there should be playable by just a few people for the foreseeable future.
Page
Silent Dragon put up the official SCF Home Page, no thanks to yours truly who had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the zone itself on a number of occasions. SD has set up a nice page with a message board and a kick ass logo. There will be a section for maps we've used, and this will hopefully grow quite large over time. Some of it's not done yet but it's open. Have a look and make sure to use the messageboard if you'd like to see something tried out or have comments on current or past games. The FAQ is temporary, supplied by SD because I kept ignoring his ICQ messages. ;) Real one up soon.
Maps
I've changed the map. Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my Chaos map. I'd have taken it down a bit sooner because it did seem a bit self-serving to have it there for so long, but I was enjoying playing in it after all this time, and I got mainly good feedback about it. The new map is a small level, what I'm hoping to be a prototype "home map" for the zone. It'll be up when I can't think of what else to put up or want a few days between real maps. Just a hangout, really (I hope), though there is a game running. Five bases, each with one Turf flag. All five bases are brand new and most involve some sort of cheeky trick in getting to the flag. The flag chambers are set up as Sheep Shrines, the tileset being largely based on Silent Dragon's sheep logo. Most of the other tiles are mine, based in large part on T2-17's diagonals. It's kind of in-progress. I want the map to be more of a cafe than a battleground, so it will probably change over time, with some bases taken out and others added, including designs by zone regulars.
Ships
The Lev is back to normal. It's a bit easier to get high shrap now. If you green for it you can get really nice shrapnel. I got some good tests in for our special Shark design. The majority opinion seems to be that it is too weak. Good, because I'm enjoying flying it and hope with some familiarity that weakness will wear off on some other people as well. I didn't explain this fully here, actually. What I'm doing with the Shark is based on my opinion of its current design as redundant and an insult to the Spider. I drove a Spider almost exclusively between April and August of 1997 and the Shark frankly pisses me off. If you feel the same way about this, come test out the Shark in SCF and let me know what you think--then let the owners of other zones know what you think. We can never get rid of the ship, but I'll make it my crusade to remove its overlap with the Spider and make it worthy in its own right.
Time
The favorite time for this zone seems to be mid-evening, so I'm changing the time for the bubble from 4:30pm EST to 8:00pm EST, though certainly I don't expect anyone to go out of their way. This is really just my way of informing the Zone Faithful of when peak usage seems to be. Of course it would be better for the players to take care of this on the message board for the zone.
Laggers
I set lag tolerance to a maximum, figuring what the hell. The atmosphere is friendly enough and the population seems intelligent enough to figure out basic courtesy issues. Somebody won a 50,000 point jackpot the other day by sitting in a safe zone, so it's not as though score is really an issue. Please don't make me lower the lag limit by taking advantage of it, ruining flag games, etc. I have valued critics in New Zealand and Australia.
Next Week
Late Saturday night we will start a traditional Running game in Mafia's much-touted Chaos map. This should be up until the following weekend. Enjoy. Check the SCF page for news updates from SD. Please keep in mind that he can't make changes to the map or settings and don't bug him with that stuff. :P
- Turf FAQ -
I posted the wrong link to my FAQ for Turf Zone. Here is the correct link.
- Millennium -
Off-topic but I have to say this. BIG ol' props to Carter, Wong, Morgan, and company for what has to be the biggest kick in the teeth I've been dealt by a television set in my entire life. Millennium has become the best, hardest-core, most harrowing show on TV, and you missed the damned season finale. Catch up over the summer or you will come to regret it.
- I'm Gone! -
Well, not just yet. This game will probably squeeze another update out of me this weekend, but for the next week or so I'll be out of the state. Specifically I'll be in Portland for my sister's college graduation and to help her move home. Remember that I have magical powers and can see what you are doing even if you minimize the window. Also keep in mind that Silent Dragon is Grandmaster Sheepdog and can make bad little sheeps' heads unscrew from their shoulders just by thinking about it. I've seen it happen. Do not ask questions! All will be revealed when the time is right.
5/13/98
Kill the lights in the middle of the road and take a look around.
- Day Off -
A belated Happy Birthday to moon bee, a little known but very cute Subspace player who back around version 1.23 learned to fly, burst a three man turret, then retired, all in the space of a week. Tsk. Girls.
Back to Subspace tomorrow for me. ;)
5/12/98
Kill the lights in the middle of the road and take a look around.
- Map Problems -Silent Dragon put up the St. Patty's Day map in his directory for anyone who may have overwritten it by playing my zone. Keep in mind I still don't know how to change the filename so keep the file safe! Guard your maps at all times. I'm informed that this issue is what's making Chaos players have to download the map over again each time they change between East and West. When the Jolly map was uploaded, it kept the J12 map's filename. If anyone knows how to give a filename for the receiving end, please help us out.
- SCF™ News -
I saw the homepage Silent Dragon is working on for the Sheep Cloning Facility. It rocks. :) Grand opening soon, if anyone is interested. As for the zone itself, I will be taking down my map tomorrow and putting up a Jackpot game in a big maze. I have further weakened the Shark. If you drive a Shark alone you will be a sitting duck. Fly with a Shark wingman, hit fast and hard then fade into the shadows, and you will take your enemy apart. At least, this is what I am hoping for in the end. Input on this would be much appreciated.
As for the activity in the zone, it is growing. Twice I came on to find 6, 7, or 8 people already there. Went over 10 twice. Small potatoes, but then again so are a number of other VIE zones, and we're getting some ZF™. Preliminary Sheepdog list somday soon.
Tomorrow is the last day for the current version of my map. I'll be changing the map tomorrow night, and the game itself will probably change Friday if not sooner. For those people who have told me not to change a thing, please realize that change is the nature of the zone, but occasionally I'll be bringing back the more popular maps and configurations. Stick with me and I will keep things interesting even if it's bound to piss you off now and then.
- What in the hell is that on the Minefield!? -
I'm playing around with the damned sheep thing, ok? :P
- Mein Gott im Himmel, they killed Paintball! -
Paintball has moved to Warzone for new hosting. Congrats to Gold. Now don't abandon him. Find the server and keep playing. :)
- TC KA -
As reported by Cybrid at the news.txt, Turf Classic is really taking off. I played there for a few hours today and the population held between 40 and 55 the entire time, with most of the zone flagging and a minimum of neg killing, bitching and other annoyances. Chakotay made a point of asking that flagging teams not disband entirely without first losing their flags. Failure to do so could cause problems with the server for reasons not yet undestood.
- Chaos West is DYING. -
Due to some lag problems and an apparent lack of interest on behalf of the J12 contingent, the former Chaos Nevada has taken a huge hit and is spending most of the day with a playership of 0. This is no way to treat the most responsive and democratic set of Vangels in the game, people. These guys spent a month collecting votes for the Rod/Jolly map and now no one wants to play there? Best map in the game. I just don't get it. For those still wondering what exactly is going on:
FIND SERVERS.
DOWNLOAD LIST.
Scroll down the left hand list.
VIE Chaos GWest.
ADD.
FINISHED.
5/11/98
Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and sky.
- Map Disaster Averted -
Silent Dragon had the St. Patty's Day map archived because he is awesome. Sorry everyone for the mixup.
- SCF™ Home Page -
Silent is also setting up a page for the Sheep Cloning Facility™ and will be maintaining it, with myself probably supplying most of the news unless life in the zone becomes more interesting than just map and settings. At the moment there are no official Vangels for the zone, and I am a bit confused at the way some zones seem to be voting in Vangels without Blackie's approval. (That isn't to say I necessarily object, but it seems a bit radical to me.) Even so, I'll probably be setting up some sort of a membership for the Zone Faithful (ZF™) who want to regularly help out and participate in the Mutton Bubble™. ZF™ will be given Shepherd* status and possible access to the SCF™ Home Page*. (Sheep Cloning Facility™ is a trademark* of BRE Industries®. Resistance will not be tolerated.™)
- What in the bloody hell is a Mutton Bubble™? -
I'm glad you asked! Every day at 4:30pm, the ZF™ and Shepherd Legion* will appear as if by magic at the Shepherd's Pie. All who question our divine authority will be Slaughtered. Those who survive in the aftermath will be witness to Glorious Greatness. Baa ram ewe! The Way of the Wool cometh truly! Then we will blow up each others' little spaceships until Ovr Lvrd ynd Mvster Ch'ak'otay cometh. It is writ that when the sun reaches its point of Great Orangeness at the Blessed Eastern Grazing Grounds (BEGG™) all those who have survived the Slaughter will follow Ovr Lvrd ynd Mvster Ch'ak'otay eastmore still, there to assemble at the Turf of Ages for a great feast and a waving of many flags*.
- What in the hell is Shepherd's Pie®? -
The Shepherd's Pie® is that round thing that looks like the Death Star. Shepherds* and Zone Faithful™ will report there at 4:30pm Eastern for Lambination™ and a complementary "security check" courtesy of the League of Space Police. Please do not touch the flags. If the Death Star shaped thingy is gone, the Shepherds Pie® will be another roundy thing. Do not ask questions. Everything will become clear in time. Those who are late will not get Fruit Cup.
- What in the hell is that on the Minefield!? -
5/10/98
Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and sky.
- Addendum -
I'm gonna miss everything today cuz of Mothers Day stuff. That includes the bubble I myself suggested below. I guess it doesn't actually matter, but I didn't want my absence to seem rude or flip. Maybe Monday.
- Map Emergency! -
This is very important! If you have the St. Patty's Day map, first of all please back it up under another name immediately! Don't go into Sheep Cloning Facility until you do. I made the terrible mistake of uploading a new map with no target name, and by default it picked the current map name, so I believe people are downloading my Chaos map as the St. Patty map. I don't want to be the one responsible for overwriting that map everywhere, and I would like to keep a copy of it for myself, so please if you have a copy send it to me, and make sure it is safe in your own directory before playing in SCF. I'm really sorry for the mess.
- Sheep Cloning News -
I'm zonked out on cough medicine and have been playing in SCF most of the day so forgive me the self promotion but I wanted to get this up as soon as possible even though it will probably look kinda crazy once I am sober again. Just to keep you apprised of the SCF situation...
Official Game Time.
I am following Chakotay's lead and going to try and focus a bubble of activity in the day, to aid in building a population. The official game time is 4:30pm Eastern. That is 90 minutes before the Turf game starts. TC is back up and working, and I don't want to damage it in any way so at 6:00 I'm going to ask people to leave for Turf unless they are not interested in it.
King of the Hill
In answer to the assassination of King GEast, I have made the SCF a King game for the time being. The settings are a little different from what people might expect. I don't play a lot of King so I'm sorry if the settings piss anyone off and I'll be open to suggestion about this.
3000 point reward.
90 second timer bonus for non-crowned kills.
150 bounty required to receive this bonus.
Die once, lose your crown. Kill one king, get it back.
Shark 2.0
I am working on a nastier shark, designed for risky hit-and-fade attacks. It's a little quicker than the 'bird and has a faster charge rate than any other ship. On the other hand it has 900 start energy and only upgrades to 1500. Severe drain from stealth, cloak, x, anti. I mean that. Severe. And no mines. This is a first attempt at making a genuinely new and scary ship out of the Shark that no longer just serves as a replacement for the Spider. Please let me know what you think.
Other Changes
More mines for the Lev, and laid more quickly, but at a higher energy cost. Almost everyone gets more shrapnel, but it will require a good deal of greening. Lev gets the most shrap but will need to green like hell for it. Antiwarp is a tactic, not a way of life. Anti is more costly for all ships but the Warbird. (I know if I mess with the 'bird my head will be handed to me on a plate.) Because the map has some nasty tunnels, bursts are a little less severe.
SCF Page
Silent Dragon is setting up a page for the SCF at Warzone, with help from Zero3. Hopefully we will have a message base and some other good stuff. Yes, there will be voting. No, your votes will not be counted. ;)
- Turf Classic is Back!. -
Looks like all systems are go after a temporary and perhaps accidental one-day shutdown. Be sure and show for the game tomorrow if you are Turfy and available. 6pm Eastern. :) God damn...all this time playing R9 and south of there and along the bottom of the map...I always thought the west side of the map was a poor choice...too hard to defend and not enough flags to make it worth it. Now I know why people play the west side of the classic Turf map. It's funner'n hell. The fight at the C5 juncture is insane. For those who haven't experienced it, imagine a very intense tunnel fight in Chaos West, or even a J12 fight. Now make the spaces a little more open, stretch the battle out over five or ten minutes, and involve two frequencies numbering between ten and twenty players each. The last time I got this kind of a thrill from the game was in Rod's old War Zone map. Those hair-raising battles in the combs. The C5 fight is actually more intense. It is quite simply the bloodiest, scariest fight in the game, the closest I have come to experiencing actual feal while playing. And the D7 fight aint much to thumb your nose at either. The map has its problems but I am starting to understand why players put up with them. People will study this crap someday. Mark my words.
5/9/98
When I am king you will be first against the wall with your opinion which is of no consequence at all.
- Sweet. -
I've got ownership of Sheep Cloning Facility!@#%!@ God damned awesome. Thank you Blackie if you are reading this. I'll probably be putting up a page for the zone soon. In fact I definitely will because my rants and cursing shouldn't be on a page that is official for VIE Vangel stuff. Anyway keep your eyes peeled. :)
- Zone News Everywhere! -
As promised, Chaos Nevada is GONE, Chaos West is now up in its place and owned by Hadar, and the ass kicking Jolly Roger CZW map is back! Dueling Zone is back and waking up. On the disappointing side of things, Turf Classic is gone. In its place we have a Turf Arizona which is hopefully just a new name for the same zone. At the time of this writing it is closed, however. And despite a surprising resurgence in the popularity of Speed Zone, I entered the game late last night to find it running the same old map and no owner. I've actually become a fan of the reigning Speed map, but the newer map is better, and I think most of us know who should be running that zone.
- Sheep Cloning Facility -
For those not around early last year, Sheep Cloning Facility has been the traditional name of the Subspace test zone, and I believe was several times used for scenarios. Last June(?), when the Lancaster was introduced, the SCF was opened to the public for quite some time. We played simple, weird maps which were frequently changed. Occasionally there were super settings. I remember a base war based on bricking and cross bricking. Someone would warp deep into your base and you would haul ass to get there and he'd have bricked himself a little hole and you'd spend the next half hour getting him out.
Late during the Summer, the SCF became private again, and all this variation ended until the retail version of the game was released. Of course, back then a super zone was a rare treat. Today it is commonplace, but there are interesting games I don't think have been tried. If I have anything to say about it, Sheep Cloning will find a nice niche between standard and super that will be innovative but hopefully not offend the really passionate and dedicated players. At least not too much. ;) Maybe some of these ideas will find their own zones. The Romulans' Armada will probably get another chance, as will The Ghost Ship's Realism Zone. There will be tests for existing VIE zones, if requested, and maybe other zones as well. Most importantly though, I aim to make it a quality place to play, one that doesn't bore or frustrate the average player. Please let me know if I'm succeeding.
At the moment I am running my Chaos Zone map with fairly traditional settings, only--guess what--more mines. I couldn't think of what else to put up and I've been itching to play my map for a long long time. ;) Within the next week, if there are no objections or other plans for the zone,.I will probably set up the zone's first "red hunt" game, loosely based on the much-maligned Running-style flag game that snuck into Turf Arizona a few weeks back. Watch the skies. And please do let me know if you find buggy stuff with the current map or settings, including any tiling errors. Thanks and enjoy.
- Addenda -
First, a Fake Blackie Alert. Someone came into SCF and asked for my password. This would be pretty obvious except that he wanted me to send it via e-mail to Blackie's address at VIE. It was decided that he probably thought he could sniff the mail somehow, or was just messing with me. All I have to say is why don't you people get a fucking life, never again ever concern yourself with mod commands, and go make something like everyone else can? Christ almighty. Anyway, no disrespect meant to anyone at VIE, but to my fellow Vangel types: Trust no one. Send information only by registered mail. Monsters exist.
And thanks to Gommy for pointing this out: The credit for the map in the ?sheep response is wrong. The map is mine. Chakotay and Vectorboy made the St. Patty's Day map that was running there when it reopened. No offense meant in taking it out but I had to set the tone for me being a self centered prick, and after all it was a map meant for a holiday. ;P
- Annihilation Returns!. -
Everyone's favorite laming superzone is back up and running....for testing. It seems they lost their settings. Lord knows it'll be hard to redo that from scratch. ;) I'm just kidding tho. Annihilation may be superzone but it is a fun flagging superzone with a nifty brick fight. Don't be fickle and forget you grew up there, ok?
- Warzone Is Back -
Just thought I should repeat this for anyone who missed the late update yesterday.
5/8/98
- The Revenge of Chaos West -
Where the hell are the VIE servers? Scores have been down for most of the day, and now it appears that all of VIE is on the blink. Word from Control (Chaos West vangel and is that when all is said and done, Chaos Nevada will be no more and Chaos West will have risen in its place. Let's hope that we see some other changes kick in as well. Why is everything down, you may ask? Your guess is as good as the Minefield's on this one, gentle reader. I've never seen this happen before in a year of playing and then some. Perhaps VIE remembers what happened last time there was a major server move. A whole bunch of players who didn't feel like playing with Find Servers weighed down the few servers that hadn't moved, and in fact Chaos West never recovered from this. This time if you want to play you HAVE TO use the dreaded Find Servers button! :o
- Well that was damned quick. -
Warzone is back up already.
- The Romulans Return -
Subspace's nastiest cloaker and most prolific mapper has indeed returned from the dead after a long period stuck offline. Welcome back Rom! Bring back SubScene please. :)
- iNET Servers Overhauled -
Baudchaser has reworked the iNET Games servers and created five new zones based in Finland. This is great news for European users who have lagged connection to North America, and the zones should be (and have been in the past) a draw for non-European users as well, since they carry mostly original maps and fairly traditional settings. Read the spam here, as well as Arctos' glowing review.
- Dueling ZoneUpdate -
Tyrsis reassured the boards that Dueling Zone is down only for the time being and will return. You can read his post here, or you can just forget about silly ol' Tyrsis and learn to use your Find Servers button. ;) The OLD Dueling Zone boasts an oldschool Dueling map without the no-running-in-the-halls sign and the fun Dueling Tournament! safe zone.
- Rumor Dispelled -
Guys, it's not July yet. ;)
- Warzone Temporarily Down -
Warzone is doing some planned downtime with its servers to move junk around etc. I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about but since no one seems to have known I thought I would mention it here. quake3.net and entr.net are also broken for the moment. They should be back up soon, probably today.
5/7/98
So it goes. You come into this life alone; you're going to leave on your own.
- SubArena is back! -
One of the best Subspace pages returns to activity after a hiatus that had us all a little scared. ;) SubArena is alive and well. Welcome back Bobby D.
- Server Update -
VIE posted an update to the server program at the Subspace Downloads page. This apparently is the same patch applied to the VIE servers on Tuesday. If you run a server, you may want to upgrade with this. Can someone please confirm that this fixes the double bomb cheat?
- Turf FAQ -
To kick off my long overdue Minefield Guide, and mainly to help people learn Turf so we can get as many new players there as possible, I've put up a quick and dirty guide to Turf Zone. Comments and criticisms welcome. Enjoy. More of the M. Guide soon.
- Gommy needs a host! -
For the last couple of months we've been able to watch the development of Gommy's map for War Zone on his page as it progressed. Now, as it nears completion, Gommy is looking for someone to host it for testing purposes. It is a kick ass map, rather diabolical by my estimate. I also think it would be a great map for Chaos Zone. Have a look at the map and let Gommy know if you're interested in hosting it.
map
ICQ
mail
- TC Poll -
Two days left tocast your votes in the first Turf Classic poll. With regard to the new topic on team greening, although I did vote to raise it by 50, I would like to comment on Chakotay's apparent philosophy about the matter, which I think is shared by many--the idea that if something is a pain in the ass it ought to be taken out or altered in some way. Surely this is true in some cases, but whenever we're discussing making changes in the name of convenience or efficiency, it should always be considered whether the reigning inconvenience or inefficiency are really bad for the game, or if they enhance it. In Turf, having to green past 100 for energy or recharge may be bad for you, but is it really bad for the game overall? I don't think so. Considering that this is a problem likely to afflict most players equally, I think there's a good side to the frustration of greening alone for something your ship is missing. you're faced with the choice of aiding in a battle at 66% charge or greening that extra moment while your teammates fight without you. Once in the maze, you must make the decision whether or not to green again when things quiet down. I think dilemmas like these make the game more interesting.
Then again, I did vote to raise the team greening limit. It's worth testing out. To balance this, I think it might be interesting to see an decrease in DamageFactor (i.e. an increase in likelihood of taking damage). This coupled with a higher percentage of bounty added to kills might create some unique problems.
- Links Overhaul -
I finally tore up the links section down there in earnest, adding the Big Three server pages to the table. I kind of liked the idea of a separate chart for these, but the fact of the matter is they make for some of the most interesting and dependable reading in the game right now, which is what that table is for. maybe at some later date I can throw together a list of links to server-dedicated pages which are introductory in nature. Then again I might do this myself. Hrm.
The stuff below is basically on the no-update shit list but there anyway because they're important or good or whatever. I also linked to the Server Information page, which is not part of the shit list
- Elsewhere -
If you're gonna quote me could you please fix my typing errors so I don't look like as much of an ass? Thanks. ;)
5/6/98
- King of the Hill changes? -
Arctos posted a proposal to the Suggboard for changes to King Zone. Personally I think he's off his rocker. ;) They're sound proposals though, and could benefit a zone that has never really enjoyed any level of distinction or specialization.
- New Can of Worms -
Puppykiller of the mighty Space Police reports a nasty incident of cheating in A Small Warzone yesterday. Apparent doubling of nearly everything, a 49:0 kill ratio. A bad scene, if you will.
This brings up an obvious question I didn't think to ask, and which I think passed up most others as well. Will yesterday's server modification be made available to private zone owners? In our little euphoria over the end of this cheat, let's not overlook that for now we of the VIE zones have probably sent a lot of cheaters heading for the smaller zones. Maybe it shouldn't hae been implemented without warning. It even might have been proper to give the private servers the modification first.
A word to the cheaters themselves, if any are reading. It may be that in the VIE zones an argument can be made that you are just having fun with something innate to the program, or that you are sticking it to the man, or you're bored and there's not much else to do. None of this ought to apply to the player zones. The people running them had no hand in the design of the program, obviously have nothing to do with VIE, and are largely working to energize a game that many think VIE has abandoned. Mostly they are in it for fun, not for money or self promotion. These people have enough trouble dealing with the buggy quirks of the server code, responding to abusive players, worrying about people dropping flags outside their small maps, etc. They don't need someone intentionally jerking them around as well. Moolie Zone closed because of the bad apples. Let's not contribute any more bad blood to this game than we've already got. If A Small Warzone were to shut down again, we would all be at a great loss. Please give your fellow players a break and respect the servers they set up for you.
5/5/98
A man makes a picture, a moving picture. Through light projected he can see himself up close.
- Chaos Nevada, R.I.P. -
The Nevada server is apparently going down within the next week. Not to worry, Chaos Nevada will move to the West server and reintain the same Vangels who are running it now. This came up at tonight's Chaos East Vangel meeting with Blackie, along with other issues. For the full story check out the CZE Vangel Page.
I'd like to point out that the dedicated VIE zone pages are *all* kicking ass right now, with updates every few days. This is the kind of attentiveness the game needs. I have the three linked below the main links table for easy access, with the odd man out being War East which makes its home at Subspace Maxig Com. The whole links table is kind of a mess right now what with things constantly changing but I'll have it spiffed up in no time.
- Cheaters Fuck Off -
BFrog fixed the cheat. GO BFROG. You people who tried to screw with everyone at the expense of the game's integrity can go back to negging people in War Zone now. The bomb cheat is ded ded ded ded.
Posted by Chakotay on May 05, 1998 at 18:56:51:
In Reply to: Re: GOOD NEWS on cheating. READ!!! posted by Xirphoid on May 05, 1998 at 15:41:32:
I received this message from Robin (Bfrog):
New server code is in place. Packetloss in the range -5% to -30% will result in being put into spec. Anything less than -30%
will result in being kicked off.
The double bomb has been banned from VIE !!!
-Chakotay
-Head Vangel TCE
-suggestions and comments: TCEHP
-UIN for Assoc/TCE stuff: 7869244
-«auto-add UIN 7869244»
5/X/98
Super ! Template
Who needs a virtual world when I can see it now?
- Sassy Headline -
Unchecked rant against the "powers that be" goes here.
- Obscure Song Reference -
Chain together slogans about community spirit and wholesome togetherness. Optional screenshot.
5/4/98
I was born to fly.
- God damn it. -
I was going to say something important and I forgot it.
Oh yeah. Look at the cool button. :)
- Addendum -
Please see duel update below.
- Wither Vangeldom? -
With Blackie AWOL again and no one else from VIE active in the Subspace community, it may well be for nothing that we went through the whole Vangel debate and ownership process for nothing. A clean and well designed vote on Chaos Nevada's map and settings ended four days ago with decisive conclusions in all categories, but these can't be implemented until a VIE rep acts, either by changing the congifuation himself or by giving someone zone ownership to someone. Other zones have no vangels to speak of, or even don't yet exist in the first place.
- A Turf Gambit -
Chakotay wants Turf Classic regulars to try and move their game sessions as near to 6:00pm EST as possible. The idea behind this is to attract those players who might be interested but who mass up the zone because no one is in it. It seems to be working. Friday he made the request on the Turf Classic News and yesterday announced and increase in the playership. The zone peaked at 23. Let's keep this up. If you are in a position to p1mp, p1mp TC. We need your help. :)
- A Suggestion -
On that note, I'd like to point out that, since competition between the player run zones is obviously unproductive, their owners might take that fact a step further by linking up. Jurisdiction over the news.txt would make this a lot easier. Pointers along the lines of "if you find this server empty, please try (whatever zone) and come back later" would not simply serve to steal players from Chaos. I am convinced that many players open their client, look for zones they like, and on finding that only Chaos, Alpha, and Dueling are alive, kill the client an go play something else. Little reminders such as this upon entering a low-population zone might curb some of this dynamic, if in fact it is what's happening.
- New Settings for the Lev? -
I mentioned to Tito's Burritos that in order to combat the stagnation of Subspace something ought to be tweaked up a bit for Chaos East. Call me the devil on the shoulder but I am just looking out for y'all. Of course, TB was true to his Vangel obligations and told me to piss off. "I have a reputation to uphold," he said....so I challenged him to a duel. ;) Today, the fate of the Leviathan rests in the hands of its greatest pilot. If I don't get my ass kicked, maybe just maybe we will be treated to a new Lev with a 12 mine limit...at an additional cost of 300 energy each. I may be a self-serving bastard but I'm a balanced self-serving bastard. Wish me luck. The fight goes down in Chaos East at 9:00am Pacific.
You may ask: Does TB know what he is dueling me for? Probably not...but I can hope.
- Duel Results. -
I came. I saw. I got reamed and hung out to dry. :( Tito's Burritos and I fought in Chaos East around 8:50 this morning at N16. It was not pretty. Actually, quite honestly it was a good fight but I blew my wad early on a convoluted minerepel. An intense little fight followed, ending when TB caught me against a wall in an attempt at rushing him. He pinned me down and tore me in half. Oh well.
Be it known to all that Tito's Burritos fought with honor and risked his filthy, wretched Warbird hull, that the denizens of Chaos East might live the drudgery of their miserable lives safe from the threat of the Super Leviathan. All hail the mighty Vangels of Chaos East, protectors of the Old Ways. May they live long! May they increase in number!
May we have a new map please? :)
- Cybrid's Dirty Little Secret -
Remember kids, the Minefield sees all. Shanoyu, meet Cybrid. Cybrid, Shanoyu. Couple of sick bastards. ;P
- Elsewhere -
Elsewhere is dead. SubScene, RIP...SubArena, RIP...MMG, RIP...
Actually, The Romulans is back, after a fashion. Let's all cross our fingers that SubScene returns with him. As for the MMG page, its sorry state is as much my own fault as anyone's, and will be seen to shortly by someone in some capacity. That is a promise.
5/2/98
Happiness coming and going, I watch you look at me, watch my fever grow, and I know just who I am.
- All Hail the Ghost of Chaos West -
Congratulations to Jolly Roger as well as to Rod Humble for trouncing the rest of us in the Chaos Nevada vote. Also to Hadar for running the whole thing smoothly and with class. Chaos East Vangels please take note of who came in second. ;)
Now...how about a map vote for TC while we're at it?
- Shanoyu's Dirty Little Secret -
In case anyone was wondering what my good friend Shanoyu is up to in his spare time, wonder no more.
- How do you make God laugh? -
Tell him your plans. (Hence the .plan link below.) With that in mind I'm going to be up front about all of this since it's bloody obvious and I don't like being cheeky. I intend to move to Warzone eventually, and it is really just a matter of going through the process of applying for the space and so forth. As for the Maxgaming situation, I want to clear up that Sith and I are not enemies. I left Maxgaming partly in anger, but my reasons remain although my anger is now gone, and I won't be going back. The practical issue of the server experiencing problems was outweighed for quite some time by my perhaps naïve assumption that it was someone's baby. Sith had done me a favor by setting up my directories and responding to other requests, and I felt that leaving for practical reasons (as several others had done) would be disloyal and not in the spirit of construction, collaboration, etc. I left yesterday because I came to the conclusion that no one else saw it the way I did.
- Burn Baby Burn -
It was the Minefield's five month birthday yesterday.
5/1/98
With this hand I can blot out the sun.
- Collapsible C, All Aboard -
I left Maxgaming, obviously. No comment just yet. If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. There will be a comment eventually.
Let me say this now, however, to those still at Maxgaming. I may be out of line here, but someone has to bring it up. Having cleared 99% of my files out of my directory, there are now about 3.5 megs of space left on the drives there. Please don't fill it up with stuff you don't need. There are pages at Maxgaming that update news on a regular basis, pages with message boards and surveys that won't work if the space is filled. Until the problem is taken care of, realize that you are dealing with a shortage--that if you're to remain at Maxgaming you ought to try and conserve space or you risk crippling other people's pages. If you have room on another ISP, move your graphics there. Don't make people mess up their pages so they can update or post if there is any alternative.
Anyway, half my internal links are messed up again. Bear with me. For the time being know that almost everything should be in the current directory with the same filename as before.
- Maxig Fixed -
Subspace Maxig Com is not physically part of Maxgaming and it back up and running after some problems yesterday. If you still get an error message, it may be that your browser is an older version and you need to load the frames separately.
- PS -
Please don't update your links to me just yet. I have forwarding pages set up over at Maxgaming which I can alter if and when I find new hosting. I'm trying hard to keep everything smooth and to clean up after myself but there is no point in changing links around twice. Thanks.
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