August 1998

27 August 1998
Walk on the water. Step on the stones. Flesh becomes water; wood becomes bone.


- BREAKING NEWS -
I haven't even had a chance to read this yet except for just a short tease, but I will say it looks goddam great. Rod Humble has put up a set of short SF stories, Cutter 1 through Cutter 5, with the sixth in the series on its way. Check them out over at Humbling America.

- Pop Quiz: How many mapmakers are Vangels for Chaos East? -
The growing controversy over a map change for CZE (a move which I would cautiously support) has somehow turned ugly and changed shape into a discussion of how the Battle Drone should be changed. All varieties of cretins who have never made a map in their life are rushing to suggest alterations. "Take out the maze" and "a few more structures like J12" are two of my favorite suggestions from today's posts.
    Never mind the obvious question of whether or not it's proper to edit someone else's work without his blessing--how about we have several newbie map designers get together and learn to use SSME by taking out their aggressions on personal peeves they have with the landslide most popular Subspace level ever made?
    I am doing my part to see that all hell breaks loose on the Chaos East Messageboard. Be sure and chime in as well if map issues are your thing.

- Sorry -
For some reason I always update least when I have the most free time, I guess because a day off lends itself to long activities that leave little time to mess around on the computer, or maybe it's just that I can get more into actually playing. I actually have had Independence War for nearly a week now and haven't even installed it; my only experience of it so far has been through the demo. :/ Expect a full review of that sometime soon.

- Cat Out of Bag -
The MMG page is back up and running. I was tired the other night, and kind of pissed about a map related issue, so I linked to the new site in a messageboard post and now people know where it is, so I might as well make everything clear. The new Mapmakers Guild Home Page is up at Warstrike, but it is not yet finished. The vaults are not there yet, and some of the member pages need updating.

- Kill the President Postponed -
The scenario we were set to run in Sheep Cloning on Saturday is not going to happen for at least another two weeks. We're too sorely lacking in propaganda for the poor thing, and as a result of that (partially my fault) we've only barely had enough signups to run the thing if everyone shows up, which obviously never happens.
    The important thing I would like to point out here is that, in order for us to run scenarios with any more complexity and involvement to them than the WSL events already provide, the first thing we need is a person willing to set them up. The people arranging for future scens are going to lose interest if no one bothers to attend this one. (Mind you, I am a big fan of the weekly WSL events.)
    We are short on help at the SCF, and several of the people who usually get involved with SCF things have been busy elsewhere in the game. If you would like to get seriously involved with this game--and by that I mean in a capacity which is often thankless and frustrating--and you're willing to scratch others' backs in order to get yours scratched in return, even when you aren't personally interested in their projects.....if you want to be deeply involved in this game in a focused way and on a long term basis, contact me.

- Gommy updated his kick ass SCF page. -
As usual, lots of good reading. Maps and general Subspace stuff as well as personal notes. This has quickly become one of my favorite pages. Even if you think the SCF sucks, read it. ;)
22 August 1998
Between the spaces along the wall, appearing faces that disappear at dawn.


- Correction -
I screwed up the link yesterday for Kill the President signups. Thanks to Shanoyu for alerting me to this lameness. Signups this time really will go to FlippMode. Sorry for screwing up your scenario, man. :)
    For a reminded of what the hell I'm talking about, see yesterday's news.

- Circle Turf, Round One -
Yesterday's premiering of Chakotay's new Turf Map in the SCF was not quite the success that I'd hoped for in terms of player count, but it was a success insofar as the hall fights we had in the base ring were damned intense and a lot of fun. One thing I've noticed about this map is the ominous, epic character of the conflict owing to the circular design. Instead of taking a linear path a round the map, often you will be very close the the enemy physically, but a long way off as far as travel time is concerned. With only a wall between you, you race several sectors to the nearest juncture. Usually this pits an open field on one side against a tight maze on the other. Also because of this, there's not nearly as much flanking as the Gigakiller map provides, but you'll have to watch your back for long range approaches from several different directions. This is really a first for Turf Zone; I can see bottlenecks where not two but three or possibly four fronts will converge--the potential for a real bloodbath. Although I love Giga's map, I hope we get to play full scale in this level soon. I think it's going to be damned good.
    Round two is today at 6:00pm Eastern, in (yup, you guessed it) the Sheep Cloning Facility.

- MMG is set to return any second now. -
I know I mentioned this a few days ago, but I really mean it this time. ;) It's been a long haul, but the page is nearly done updating and may well be back up at its new location by the time you read this. Check back here for the link when it happens.

- Thanks for nothing; we'll miss you too. -
Pent has closed SubCenter for good after two months of inactivity. From Pent's heart-wrenching farewell to the Subspace community: "nothing really cool is happening in Subspace anymore, therefore I will take my site down and another site with the same name will be up by someone I don't know, but it will be called SubCenter, so bye."
    Don't count on it.

- Independence War is out! -
More commonly known as iWar, this game--and you can rub this prediction in my face if it does not come to pass--this game will be the model for the first great 3D space combat mmpog. Whenever the hell that happens. For the first time, fighting in three dimensional world, I find that I can maintain my sense of space and direction. This sensation, mixed with a wonderful feeling that there is no up or down, the feeling of vast distances all around, make this the best new game I've come upon since Subspace. Don't worry, it's not multiplayer just yet--it doesn't need to be.
    The look of it is amazing, and I speak from the perspective of someone without a 3D card to speak of. Although the accelerated graphics are unbelievable, the makers of this game pride themselves also on their software acceleration, and feature screenshots from that version at their page alongside the 3Dfx shots.
    On the other hand, people have called it boring--and they're right insofar as it is uneventful for significant stretches of time. It's certainly not for everyone, but they're doing something unique and effective here--game play over realism, but with realism commanding the atmosphere. You will certainly spend some time waiting for things to happen, but when something does happen you may well be more involved for all the time you spent approaching the action and watching it unfold.
    Particle Systems, the maker of the game, has set up a special Independence War website full of screenshots and other information. The demo is a complete mission from the game , nice and long, plus a training course. 22 megs but definitely worth the trouble. Hey, I was the first Subspace player to get sick of StarCraft....trust me on this one. ;)
21 August 1998
The world is a vampire, sent to drain. Secret destroyers hold you up to the flames.


- T2-17 Map Creates Chaos -
I have never in this game seen such a disgusting display as the reaction to the map change yesterday in War East. God forbid we should spend a few days playing in a map we predict we won't like and actually see first-hand how the base wars and chases play out. I was shocked also by the narrow minded assumptions made about the bases. No sooner had several elites finished calling the R17 structure impenetrable than it was stormed and taken by a public frequency. From several people I saw complaints along the line of "You can't tell where the bases are." This would all be fine if not for the abject lack of civility, the absence of any class or open minded approach to the situation. Countless people declaring that "this map sucks" before they had even finished greening their first spawn.The world ends tomorrow and I have to spend the last 24 hours of my life playing in a problematic map! Somebody help!
    I didn't want this map up either. I argued against this map at the WZVangels meeting ("it was announced at warstrike" - "wtf is warstrike?") and can see--nay predict--a number of problems with the bases, but for God's sake, when one of your own--especially one whose work you know from the past and owe the benefit of the doubt--spends dozens or maybe hundreds of hours on a level for you to play in and asks for nothing in return, you owe the map, and the mapper, and indeed the game itself, far more respect than that.
    I hope you people choke on those old VIE maps.

- Today's Schedule Again -
Just a repost of the cool stuff going down today, for those who didn't see my post yesterday. All times are Eastern.

    now - Signups begin for FlippMode's Kill the President scenario.
    now - A first look at Shanoyu's spankin' new War Zone map.
    4:00pm - Dueling tournament in iNet Duelzone. See the iNet page for details.
    6:00pm - Chakotay's Turf Zone map goes up in the Sheep Cloning Facility.

 - What exactly is Kill the President? -
(a mini-FAQ)
Q: WTF?
A: Kill the President is, as you're probably sick of reading but I get a kick out of saying it, the first full blown VIE scenario in over a year. It is throught up and designed by FlippMode and will be hosted in the Sheep Cloning Facility.
Q: What exactly is a scenario?
A: A scenario is a moderated event, usually with special map or settings, which does not play out as a normal zone but instead works around a story. Pilots role-play a bit, and each team has a defined objective. In the case of Kill the President, one side's objective is to carry out an assassination, while the other side's objective is to escort its target to safety.
Q: Do I need to know someone or have special access somewhere or know what the hell I'm doing in order to play?
A: Hell no. If you are reading this, you can sign up and play. The only requirement we make is that, if you do sign up, you read the rules and show up for the game at the time it runs.
Q: What is the Sheep Cloning Facility?
A: Just the old fashioned name for VIE Sheep Cloning GWest. Use your Find Servers button to add it to your Favorite Servers list. It's always open to the public unless we are actually running a scenario. (That should be a few hours out of the month.)
Q: So how do I sign up?
A: Send an email to FlippMode with the name you will be using when you play in the game. (It must be exact to the letter for inclusion in a permissions file, so you can get in during the scenario.)
Q: Where are the rules and story and all that?
A: Check back here this weekend and I'll tell you. It should be done by Monday at the latest.
Q: Isn't this in kind of poor taste?
A: I don't think so. The story is based in the future in an Subspace universe and has no basis in Earthly reality, historical or hypothetical or otherwise.
Q: When is all this going down?
A: Next Saturday night. We may have a King of the Hill game or two on Friday as a sort of "election" to decide who gets to be the President.
Q: Do I need to know anything else?
A: Absolutely nothing.

 - Shanoyu's War Zone Map -
Personally, after today I don't know why he bothered making it. Nonetheless, it did get a strong reception after being shown at the WZVangels meeting, impressing a number of people. That's right, Shanoyu ov the mighty Space Police sold out the ol' Minefield and showed his map to some people before my exclusive teaser pic, but it was a limited showing so I forgive him. ;) The map goes up in the Sheep Cloning Facility on Sunday.

    Shanoyu's 1337 WZ map

- The Hunter and The Hunted! -
I should have mentioned this yesterday but I don't normally keep up on League stuff. League has seemed kind of beyond me for so long that I forgot the event was open to the public. This was an interesting set of matches between turrets and swarms that took place in World Subspace League, a.k.a. VIE WS League MEast. I'm really glad that I'm probably going to be able to fly in the zone on a semi-regular basis as a guest; on first impression it reminds me a lot of the old Speed Zone, from a year ago. Good players, friendly attitudes, minimal whining and very little politics--as if all of a sudden the fate of the world did not hinge on whether or not someone was lagging. For anyone who prefers to play Subspace against other players who actually love it, I strongly recommend these weekly matches. They are generally held on Wednesday evenings, although the zone is open to the public all day Wednesday. For information on each week's event, keep an eye on their page.

 - Hyksos' Hanger -
Another stylin' page no one told me about. ;) It's just moved to Warstrike and so a few of the links are mussed, but it's a good, frequently updated page, noteworthy especially for its special attention to issues for European players. Hyksos--yet another member of the ever cool One Spirit doing the web thing--contributed an article to my Minefield Weekly before I closed it down, and his page is similarly highly readable. Have a look-see. :)

 - BAA! -
Gommy made a huge update to his Sheep Cloning Facility page, with a lot of information about the new scenario and his upcoming maps, plus his take on the WZVangels map contest and a long-past-due challenge to the VIE webmasters.

 - Omicron Sighting -
Since his departure from Subspace was not by his own will, I was hoping Omicron might pop in from time to time. Sure enough, Om appeared briefly on the Warstrike board yesterday. As it turns out, he's probably going to be able to log in from school every now and then. Head on over to the Warstrike Messageboard and give a shout.
20 August 1998
The world is a vampire, sent to drain. Secret destroyers hold you up to the flames.


- New Map in War East -
Well, Warhammer's map lost out due to some speculation about base strength, but was an easy second for the newest T2-17 map. The map change is going down as I write this, so be sure to spend some time in War East and check out T2-17's weird, revolutionary map. For those not in the know, T2-17 is the author of the map with the Blue Combs and B19 spiral which dominated War East for over three quarters of a year. He is also a master of the tileset, and the new map has a gorgeous, crisp look to it like nothing else I have seen. Well, what the hell am I doing here? Off I go.
    Read more about the meeting probably pretty soon at Subspace Warstrike Com.

- Big Ol' Friday! -
Stuff that is going down tomorrow. Take the day off. :) Sorry if I'm forgetting anyone.

    Dueling tournament in iNet Duelzone at 4pm Eastern. See the iNet page for details.
    Chakotay's Turf Zone map goes up in the Sheep Cloning Facility at 6pm Eastern.
    Signups begin for FlippMode's Kill the President, the first VIE scenario in a year.
    A first look at Shanoyu's spankin' new War Zone map, right here.
    There may well be a new map up in War Zone East. See story below.

Keep your dials tuned to the Minefield for up the the minute info, and maybe even a little opinion or two, here and there. ;)

- War Zone Vangel Meeting Today -
As reported at Subspace Warstrike Com, the War Zone Vangels are holding an IRC meeting tonight at 5pm Eastern in #wzvangels on EFnet. This will be the first hardcore meeting since Peasant's Paladin left for his tour of duty with the Shining Path in beleaguered southwestern Peru. War East has been running classic maps for two months now and PP is eager to put up a newer map; many others likely feel the same way. Mappers are encouraged to bring their stuff to the meeting, but not by me.
    Why? Because whatever you have to show, Warhammer's second map is better. Have a look.
    Moreover, this is a fairly old map, and none of his maps have been hosted on VIE servers. The result? It's been a while since we had a new map from Warhammer, arguably the second best WZ designer in the game. Support your fellow mapmakers and WZ pilots and don't contribute to great work going unrewarded.
    Next time around, you go up against me. ;)
    Get the level itself here while you're at it.

- And in yet another related story. -
The new MMG site is about to go back up, thanks to The Romulans' hard work on a cool looking new design. Keep your eyes peeled. The only thing delaying things now is me getting off my ass and writing the news setion. Meanwhile, I've updated my own MMG page to include newly-inducted Gommy on the members list, and made a few other changes here and there.

 - Old Maps Wanted -
I've been collecting maps for quite some time and probably have one of the most complete collections in the game. I'm gearing up to put together a giant map guide and could use some help, plus I would like to have early versions and rare scenario maps for the sake of preserving and archiving them as well as for my own satisfaction. I am especially looking for the early version of the classic VIE Turf Zone map and the Sheep Cloning Facility test/scenario maps that ran from last April to last June. I'm also sure I've missed a few good player zone maps. If you think you have something I would be interested in even if you're pretty sure it's junk, please contact me with a description of the map. Don't send me levels through the mail or I will probably experience problems with my disk quota. Thank you in advance.

 - Fireteam Update from Moby -
Moby has been playing a lot of Fireteam beta test and was kind enough to update me on the happenings in the game. If you're interested, here is what he had to say. Many thanks to Moby of course. :)

    There is a new phenomenon happening in Gunball (one of the four games in Fireteam).... people have figured out that a methodical, defensive approach to the game actually gives the best chance of winning! So what they're doing is protecting their ballcarrier in the back, while advancing slowly towards the opposing goal. The three guys basically blast away at anything while the ball carrier slowly moves up collecting medpatches and running away from enemy fire.

    Of course, this often means lots of games only have 1 touchdown, and the opposing team might never even have a chance to get possession!! Changes are being implemented right now to prevent this style of play (which ruins the spirit & fun of gunball) by putting in a "shot-clock". The ballcarrier will have a certain amount of time to pass the halfway mark or else he will lose the ball (fumble). We'll see if this works, I'm sure there will be lots of tweaking along the way.

    As for the game in general, the beta is going great (aside from occasional latency issues). The game seems to over-emphasize medpatches... these are like slow-acting full-charge greens in Subspace. If you have an abundance of them, you can take LOADS of punishment without dying. It seems to eliminate some of the strategy if the guy with the most medpatches wins, as is usually the case. Aiming and evading fire doesn't seem to be as important as it is in Subspace at this point. Some of the powerups are unbalanced IMHO as well... the auto-turret is a HUGE advantage in certain games and in certain locations. It's like having an extra teammate almost! We'll see how Multitude tweaks the game further to make it more fun and strategic before the final verdict is in though.

 - Another Awesome Page -
I've overlooked another great page at Shanky, which also hosts SS Impact. Mine Go Boom's server help page is the most in-depth and explanatory page of its kind I've seen yet, and if that weren't enough it's full of great advice, too. I've placed it on the links blob down below.
18 August 1998
News of the Day
Anybody with a heart votes love!


- Belated Player News -
A belated happy birthday to Prince Darien. Hope you enjoyed it. :) Also, welcome back to Peasant's Paladin from his 10 week exile in the mountainous regions of Peru, where I hear he spent his time burning peasant villages and herding prisoners into ditches. Way to go PP! I wish they had this when I was a boy. We missed you, man; don't do that stuff again. ;)
    And on the bad side of things, Omicron is losing internet access and won't be able to play Subspace anymore or do much of anything else. Omicron was instrumental in the building of Maxig and Warstrike, ran one of the best Subspace pages by himself for a while, and is a good player. His departure is not voluntary and so there is probably a reasonable chance of his returning eventually, but for now this is looking like just about the blackest day Subspace has known. I'm sorry to see you go, Om, and my sincerest thanks for all you've done for this game.

- What a fun weekend! -
The downed billing server provided a lovely opportunity to see the Subspace community make the best of a bad situation, pulling together and keeping their heads held high during hard times when others might well have faltered. It's this kind of can-do love for the game and zest for life that makes me really feel good about being an, um. Well. Makes me feel like neg killing, actually.
    Among this weekends refreshing events:

    WSL games canceled.
    WarZone League matches canceled.
    No one showed up for the Addiction Zone game in Jackpot.
    Planned game and newbie night in Turf Classic - R.I.P.

We need not thank the billing server for this weekend; it's not VIE's fault, but the players' fault. None of these events needed to be cancelled. Nullified in some cases? Sure, why not--but called off? Let's just NOT PLAY SUBSPACE because the billing server is broken? Come on! How many of you are actually playing not because you enjoy it but because of your stats? We all know that this information will eventually vanish off the face of the Earth, and is only important in the first place because of the game itself. So what exactly was the problem?

 - Great Page I've Overlooked -
It's not often that someone writes and asks me to pimp their page and I end up going there and feeling like an ass for not linking to it already. Fatal Image's SS Impact is a damned good page, a credit to the game, and I have to apologize to Fatal for ignoring it this long. The page promises daily updates at least and delivers 99% of the time--easily the best updated page in Subspace. Read it always.

 - First VIE Scenario in a Year Coming Up -
FlippMode's Kill the President scenario is all ready to go and is set for Saturday, August 29. Signups begin this Friday. Watch the skies for more on this. We'll have a page up soon, and signups will be starting on this Friday. It's a unique idea: A frequency of bodyguards protects the President from a smaller team of more powerful assassins while trying to get him to safety. Here's the catch: The President is on his own frequency and can be killed by the bodyguards as easily as he can by the assassins...

 - Map News -
As mentioned elsewhere on this page (sorry for all the overlapping stories but i don't know how else to do this) Chakotay's new Turf Zone map, entitled Circle Turf, ran for a short while in the Sheep Cloning Facility. It is awesome! The striking visual presence and beauty of the level had had me distracted from game play issues; where I did consider them, I expected to be disappointed. In fact there is some great level design here. With only seven entrances to the outer base ring, there should be come concentrated and nasty bottleneck fights when the time comes. The center neg-war base, now a staple of post-VIE Turf maps, looks like a classic fight as well, a great diversion for a small arena. My most heartfelt raised finger to all of you in Turf Classic who knew I was running this but didn't bother to come check it out. I don't see why you feel welcome in TC if you can't show some respect for the person who set it up. You'll have another chance when the map goes up again in earnest, this Friday at 6pm EST.
    In other news, Shanoyu (ov the mighty Space Police!) has completed the first draft of his War Zone map, which is looking pretty sweet as well--damned impressive for a first map, and full of interesting ideas. Shanoyu is actively pursuing Mapmakers Guild membership hot on the heels of Gommy's recent induction, and has a nice looking Chaos Zone map in the works as well. I'll be putting up an image of the WZ map on this coming Friday. It makes its SCF testing premiere Sunday morning.

 - BAA! -
Silent Dragon updated the SCF page, and I've moved that to the main links section in place of my own SCF page. Gommy has also updated his SCF page and I've added that down there as well. For your reference, Facilities #1 and #2 were at Warzone and Maxig but have since been abandoned or destroyed. Facility #3 is mine, #4 is Gommy's, and #5 is the new official one. If you can't figure this out it's probably just that you have better things to do or it's not 2:30 in the morning right now.
    We ran the Circle Turf map for a while but I took it down because I wanted to give it a proper treatment with an organized game. What's up at the moment is a racing map; I'm testing settings and playing with ideas for the Reaper's Circuit scenario. The god-awful eyesore that was up for the last week or so was my followup to the first Bomberman map. Anyone else want to take a shot at this? Because I give up. :P

 - Weekend SCF Events -
This is of course assuming that the billing server is running. If not, I will just have to PLAY SUBSPACE AS USUAL. (grumble). Just a rundown of all the ramble and blather I've hidden in random places around this update so you can actually make sense of it. ;)

    Friday

    Chakotay's Circle Turf map goes up for real. 6pm EST.
    Signups begin for Kill the President scenario to be held August 29th.
    Teaser image for Shanoyu's new War Zone map.
    
    Saturday

    Circle Turf game begins again at 6pm EST. Yes, head to head with TC. Let's see where Chak's loyalties lie. ;)

    Sunday

    Shanoyu's WZ map premieres for first test run. Noon EST.

 - Oh yeah, sorry. -
I saw someone complimenting this page as being updated on a daily basis, and it hasn't quite been like that lately. Maybe I'm making up for it some with the huge updates; maybe not. Anyway I'll try and get more on the ball about things.
16 August 1998
Nothing.
No one can give me the air that's mine to breathe.


- Just thought I'd say hi. -
Hello. See you in a few hours.
-
- 15 August 1998
B r e a k i n g  M a p  N e w s !
No one can give me the air that's mine to breathe.


- Chakotay Returns -
It seems that Chakotay is back in the game. Those of us who regularly fly in Turf Zone will likely have seen him by now, and he is once again maintaining the Turf Classic homepage. What you may not know is that, in his recent absence, Chakotay has been at work on a Turf map which has become one of the most unique and beautiful levels yet made for this game. I will be putting this map up Sunday around noon in the Sheep Cloning Facility for testing. For the time being, have a look at this.

- Gommy Joins the Mapmakers Guild -
I'm very pleased to announce that Gommy, best known for his small WZ map and the more recent Frontier Zone scenario which ran in Sheep Cloning a few weeks back, has joined the MMG as the first new recruit since HaNsMaN Jr and I joined way back in February. Have a look at Gommy's cool, weird maps here.

- Temporary MMG Page -
    If you entered at minefield.html (which I prefer but don't insist upon), you might have noticed the new link from the Mapmakers Guild logo. This is not the official MMG page, which is still in transit after the fall of Maxig. Rather, it is my own page about the organization, with my own spin on maps and mappers and so forth. I will probably be incorporating it into my section of the official MMG site when it goes up, or I may just keep it here in case we ever run across the same problems. For now it's just a lot of map-oriented rambling and some cool links. Enjoy.

- Even More Map News -
    The Romulans has a cool small map up in SEC Entertainment West, full of nasty dead ends and vulch corridors, plus some great open space fighting areas. This is a super zone so be sure and turn up ur frame rate knob to eleven. ;) Watch out for the naked chicks. Yes, there are naked chicks for banners in this zone. You probably knew that already, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. Not only can those things get you in trouble with the other slime inhabiting your dwelling, but they can make you bump into walls.
    Xirphoid, one of the Chaos West vangels and author of what will probably be that zone's next map, has started work on a new Chaos style map today. It's just a skeleton right now but I will be keeping my eye on this one.
    In the last few days, Shanoyu (ov the mighty Space Police!) also began work on a Turf map and a WZ map. They are both in the very beginning stages of design, but they look very promising.

- Addiction Zone Postponed This Weekend -
Betamax and D-Tox will not be around this weekend to run the Addiciton Zone game on Sunday. Instead, they urge us to hit VIE Jackpot at 3:00pm Eastern. Be there. :)

- Shade's Take -
LordShade, Chaos West turret fiend and fellow Space Police, has started a political column! Actually, he's calling it more along the lines of a talk show, but, we,, it's a political column. ;) It's pretty good, too. Kind of hard for me to judge when I no longer follow the news at all. He's doing it through an e-mail list. If you'd like to subscribe, contact him with your mail address in the message body.

- Subspace 2, *NOT* -
Rumor begets news story it seems. A post on Warstrike prompted QA Man of Subspace PCGaming Com to contact Blackie, and somehow he ended up with a response! Not my story though. Just passing along the good news. Go read Warstrike and PCGaming if you want to know what's up. :)

- Anyone still care about Star Wars? -
Of course you do! :) Not sure how widespread this news is in the popular media but I thought I ought to mention it here. The film thus far known only as Episode 1 will open on May 21, 1999. Lucas plans to control the release so that it only shows in the best theatres. Can you say ticket scalping? I'm predicting that small shantytowns will crop up around the ticket offices as far as a week in advance of zero hour. A shout out to the IMDB StudioBrief, from which I get most of that sort of news.

- More changes to the links table. -
I'm keeping the table itself reserved for frequently updated pages that I think make for good reading. The rest is below. I was asked a couple of times to put my mapfolio there and am putting Gommy's there as well. If you have one also, let me know so I can add it to the list.
11 August 1998
I'm back.
A man makes a picture, a moving picture. Through light projected he can see himself up close.
- Welcome to the Minefield -
Well, I give up. While the writing I received for the EMF Weekly was very good, there was not enough of it, and the Minefield Weekly didn't save me the kind of time I was hoping it might save me. It frankly had me spending even more time online, trying to gather submissions, structuring page sets, and worst of all just screwing around a lot because not doing the page depressed me.
    I don't like not maintaining this page, and on other levels I think it should not have been gone for the time it was. Subspace has been kind of a wasteland lately. Most of the news pages have either been down, under construction, or distracted by server problems. Those of them that have stayed alive and healthy have not generally been covering things that I think are important. The last several weeks has given us a lot of bad news: The fall of Subspace Maxig Com and subsequent mess with the subpages, from which they still have not recovered; the departure of Chakotay and Baudchaser from the scene, unending troubles for Subspace.Net and the 2xT3 servers. Sheep Cloning Facility excepted, I kind of felt like I was abandoning the cause.
    I also don't want to make this movie anymore. It's pretty well ruined for me. While things are working out okay, there are a lot of compromises that have had to be made for stupid reasons--reasons that could have been avoided with better planning. After many months of preproduction, I was talked into finally shooting this project despite an undependable crew with several important positions unfilled. Of course, I'd never made a movie before. I thought I could fill them and I can't, and have come to resent the movie pretty badly. It has ruined my Summer. I don't need an increased disassociation from Subspace adding to that resentment.
    So the game is more important than my life's work. Go figure.
    On that note, the most important reason I am back. I'd somehow forgotten how I look at the news archive for this page. I'd lost track of how it serves as a kind of diary to the game. Since the game is a large part of my life (and one of the few parts about which I am willing to write on the Web), it has functioned as a personal history, but I also think that because of its broad range of topics it serves also as a document for the game in general. I already hate the big hole I created there over the last three weeks. I don't want to expand on it.
    So anyway, I'm back. Hi everyone. You have to watch what you say around me again. }:)

 - Please excuse the mess. -
I'll be spending the next few days getting my links in order and so forth. The EMF Weekly is in July's news archive.

- New SCF Pages -
While Silent Dragon was busy moving the SCF page to Warstrike, I decided to put up my own, not to replace his but for a temporary substitute and eventually just to have it as a personal page for my capacity as SCF Vangel. Gommy followed suit, putting up his own page focusing on his projects for the zone. I've also set up a Come.To redirector so that next time Silent decides to move the page (or his server ends up in an FBI building) people won't lose track of the existing pages. Always on the cutting esge, us sheepdogs. ;) So check out the pages already! Get involved in your damned game! Make a map, write a scenario, tell us what you think of the settings. Dolly IS watching u.

    Sheep Cloning Facility
    my SCF page
    gommy's SCF page
    the redirect url

 - All Hail Destruction 98. -
I owe props to the folks at DS98. I neglected this page for a while because for some time it was not regularly updated, so it was always in the back of my mind. I only recently checked back and found it to be, before the return of Warstrike, the most reliable source of Subspace news. They have also been cool to this page and especially to the Sheep Cloning Facility. Be sure and check out the page, and remember to return there for at least part of your daily news dose.
- HELP! -
Silent Dragon is reworking the Sheep Cloning Facility and I just realized that some of the news is missing. These were the posts about The Dread Wooly being suspended and I really wanted to keep copies of them. If anyone out there can help me get this out of cache or something like that, I would really be grateful. If you've seen the posts I'm talking about, try connecting to subspace.maxig.com/scf and getting the news html out of your cache. Thank you in advance.