30 November 1998
News of the Day
Given the way we're living, wouldn't you say we're killing ourselves?
Why do you say don't worry?
This is the way we're killing ourselves.
-
- Fubar Part Deux -
It seems that the VIE version of subgame.exe may well have made it into the hands of rogue players after all--and well before the incident two weeks ago which resulted in Blackie ending player operation of the VIE zones. Yesterday, the son of a bitch responsible for Twister apparently released a new version which includes sysop commands. By the end of the day, at least one zone on the SSX board had been closed to the public, and the RiSC servers had suffered numerous acts of mischief. NfoCipher, who runs the RiSC server board, made the inevitable painfully clear earlier tonight.
My zones are getting shot down left and right, and players are banning players. This is happening in every zone. I'll have to take RiSC down if it gets any worse. We need a fix, and if someone who is not working with sage has it, we need it.
In my opinion, unless either a fix or the source code are released soon by VIE, or one of the several mysterious individuals (a minimum of four by my count, and no I do not know who they are) releases the code to the public, Subspace is dead. I saw an arena of 25 players destroyed today; A Small Warzone has now been empty for twelve hours. Smitty74 sits in spectator mode in VIE Chaos East, kicking Twister users quite literally all day long; it seems that now it is only a matter of time before one of those cheaters kicks him. He has been kind enough--or foolish enough--not to release their IP info. I wonder if he'll be afforded the same courtesy when that time comes? Not bloody likely.
It's this simple: If you're not with us, you're against us.
- Suspended II Reminder and Schedule -
I kind of messed up here, because I mentioned the date change for Suspended II only once without actually changing it on the Suspended II home page. The new game time is late Friday night. It will probably be midnight Eastern time, but it may be at 1:00am. The reasoning behind this is that most American players can stay up that late at least one night on the weekend, while it enables Europeans to be playing early Saturday morning. This isn't ideal, but it seems better than making them stay up until 6 in the morning, which is what would happen were we to hold it earlier.
So all you European players and others sharing that time frame, remember and get to bed EARLY on Friday night so you can get up and play. ;)
We've still only got 20 signups, by the way. I repeat again: If you have not contacted me directly, I am assuming you do not want to play. ICQ messages are far too easy to lose; please contact me via e-mail and make sure you are on the permission list for Friday.
I am putting aside Thursday to clear up moderation issues. If you are moderating this game or would like to, please contact me before then. For most of Friday, the zone will be open and I will try and be there and have the mods there so people can play around with the ships and we can fine tune the settings.
29 November 1998
News of the Day
Cast your eyes on the ocean,
cast your soul to the sea.
When the dark night seems endless,
please remember me.
-
- Sad News -
It was reported earlier on the League messageboard that The Survivor, a member of the squad Damn_Yankees, was recently killed in an automobile accident. The message is gone now; I'm sorry I didn't save it but at the time I felt wrong posting it as news, but on reflection I feel I ought to mention it. If friends of his would like to say anything about him, I will happy to post it.
- More Harmless Stuff -
pet virus has put up the first player owned Infantry page. It's on a slow server at the moment but will probably be moving soon. Also, both Jeff and Rod have started posting to the sog.java.net Harmless Webboard. This message board clears extremely quickly so if you are freaking out over Infantry don't delay in reading the posts, because they will be gone tomorrow. :P Cybrid is doing highlights over at yon News Dot Text.
- nivaG Interviewed -
The relatively new League page SubRealm is kicking off its interviews section this week to the tune of a long and highly readable interview with the legendary nivaG, one of the first Subspace players and always one of the most respected. A good interview by Underlord, full of history, insight, and a bit of trash talk. ;) I'm looking forward to more of these; let's hope they don't go the way of the SSNet Realaudio show.
- Harmless Webboard Up at Sog Java Net -
The official Pro League site has started the first messageboard specifically dedicated to discussion of the upcoming Harmless game, Infantry. From the looks of things, the entire League community have already packed their bags and are out waiting on the corner for the bus.
- This page is still moving! -
I haven't forgotten; I've just been busy. I'll have it all redesigned and relocated to Warstrike for the page's one year anniversary. (Which happens also to be the day before my birthday. I expect to get a lot of rare and antique maps in the mail on that day; please don't disappoint me. ;)
- Save the Animals -
I hate to kick a dead horse but you've forced my hand. Sign up!
yuk yuk yuk, e is funny, huh huh
28 November 1998
News of the Day
...He woke up and called out her name
But only the street organ answered.
The street organ plays down every road,
Moon-struck and gold.
-
- Hyksos Updates -
That is to say, Hyksos seems to update his site constantly, and unlike this and most other pages, he does so not with news but by compiling information and writing articles and guides on a regular basis. Here you will find a lot of good writing on the game, most notably an in-progress but largely completed guide to the game, it's quirks, and its zones. It only barely overlaps Rincewind's guide, and in many ways is nearly as good; it is certainly more recent. Among other things you will also find what is probably the best and most complete links list in the game. Hyksos seems to spend a lot of time lurking in the background, since he runs a League squad and makes maps, but he has quietly built his page into one of the most impressive ones I've seen, and one that is full of content and unique in what it offers. If you haven't been there recently go take a look.
Hyksos' Hangar
- Harmless IRC Meeting -
The meeting organized by Shanoyu (of the mighty Space Police!) went pretty much according to plan last night at 9 eastern. While nothing official was discussed, a good number of people showed and it was nice to have another one of those community-ish things like we used to have back in March and April. There will be another one next week, at which hopefully some more serious player related issues ought to be brought up once we have all stopped gawking and started thinking about how we're going to play this game.
One sour note about this is that someone spoofed mail to Shanoyu from Rod Humble, saying that he would be at the meeting, and though Shanoyu was suspicious from the start it was a pretty lame disappointment. You just made an enemy of the Cafe, pal. We're going to find you, and when we find you you're going to regret it.
- Yet Another GiGaKiLLeR Turf Map -
That's right, the new Master of Turf has another small map up in VIE Turf Classic, and his Gigaplex is presently being featured in Quicknet Turf SVS as well. Quicknet is experiencing some horrifying lag problems due to difficulties with the local telephone company, so you likely won't be able to play it, but check out the map anyway; it rocks. :) With luck the Quicknet servers, which are run by Chakotay, will be back up within the next week or two.
- Suspended II ... Sign Up! -
I still need more signups in order to run this game! I can't be too clear on this: Unless you have actually told me that you are going to be in this scenario, you are assumed to be not signed up and will not be let into the arena. For me to be flexible on this would be placing undue burden on my moderators, who are going to have a hell of a time as it is. If you have not explicitly signed up for this, please do so.
- Subspace Music! -
I haven't updated the Playlist section in a while, and probably won't until I have some time to integrate it into my normal music section I am not maintaining on and off, but I've got to bring this to your attention: the new Plastikman album, Consumed. Plastikman has released some very acidic music, some of it so repetitive and hostile that it's really only pleasing to listen to when very angry or under great stress. His most recent album was also fairly disjointed, and difficult to listen to in that over intellectualized way, when something that should have just been a dance record becomes too artsy.
Consumed aint like that at all. All though the album's 73 minutes you have long, repetitive, thumping tracks which develop from slow rumbles into groovy, pretty trances. Whle usually engaging, it remains mellow. It's sinister and often ominous, but never angry. The best comparisons that come to mind are the darker tracks on Moby's Ambient compilation. Not great music for a fast paced Speed game, but if you want to play the kind of slow, considered game that complements a solo evening in Chaos or serious, long-term Turf campaigns, this is a sure bet--suspenseful, consistent, and perfect for any high risk space travel.
I found a big review here at NovaMute's website. The official Plastikman site has a bit of realaudio from the first track, and quite a lot from one of his other albums.
- Damn it all. -
I should have taken out the fucking garbage while it wasn't raining.
27 November 1998
News of the Day
There's a girl in a green dress;
she's got eyes like fire and lips so tame.
She's huddled by the girl who's crying in the red dress:
hunger for life in this dying, dying age.
-
- Harmless Updated Again -
Just a small update to the main Infantry news, but worth reading. There won't be another update however until next week. Rod has been quick to point out that all testing starts January and there will be no closed tests before that. He also reiterated the company's promise to support the game after its release. A messageboard should be up at the site sometime next month.
Harmless Games
- Suspended II -
Barring anything unforeseen, I'll be putting up an untiled beta of the Suspended II map today and will begin working on the settings. This will be in SSX SCF West, not VIE, so don't look there. ;) The scenario is now officially next Friday, December 4th at midnight Eastern time. (This actually makes it the first hours of Saturday the 5th. I chose the late game time mainly out of consideration for European players. I figure getting up really early is better than being kept up until the sun rises, and this way of doing things was pretty successful in Dawn of the Dead. However, people who have objections should know that the time is still flexible within a few hours. For this reason, check here or the Suspended II page at least once before, say, Thursday, in case there are further changes.
I want to make one thing very clear so there are no surprises if it happens. This game is happening on a full size map, with a long, drawn-out conflict, and because of this needs a full roster of signups. At present I do not have enough signups to run the game properly, and I will postpone it substantially if necessary. If you want to play, sign up now. If you've already signed up, or don't care to, please be sure and let others know about it.
- Happy Thanksgiving -
Belated, of course. I'd kind of like to see this become less of a specifically American holiday; it symbolizes far more universal issues: Religious freedom, overcoming adversity and risk in the seeking of a new life. The collaboration between divine intervention and human perseverance against formidable odds. Anyway, happy Turkey Day.
25 November 1998
YES!!
Don't move
Don't talk out of time
Don't think
Don't worry everything's just fine
Just fine
Infantry - The sequel to Subspace.
- It's Here -
Cybrid got this for us. Send him your thanks and your first born. Cyb, if you ever need a kidney just give a shout! ;) Click the picture detail for the full story and more, bigger screenshots at Warzone, and watch Harmless Games for new news which will be posted sometime in the next few hours, hopefully at midnight Eastern time and not midnight Pacific. ;)
- I'm Back! -
The new Zelda doesn't suck, but so far it comes pretty close. I can accept the limitations of the N64 as a 3D platform, even though that's what it's designed for, and the game has a nice atmosphere so far even though it is pretty claustrophobic, even out in the opened. The real problem is the control scheme, which throws out the angle switching of Mario 64 and basically leaves you with very little control over camera direction. Too often you are turning corners without any way of seeing what's there. I'm hoping that this will work out to not be important to the gameplay, and that the action is designed more to deal with the sidestepping and auto targetting they've put in there. It's pretty irritating, though, because a Heretic II style camera scheme could easily have been provided between the D-pad and the analogue stick. Oh well. I'm not making a judgement yest but so far I'm a little disappointed, and would recommend that everyone play this thing before buying it.
- Hit Parade -
Welcome to everyone reading who has just now found the page. I realize I've picked up some League players since the controversy over my article on the sysops. Since I'm also playing in League now I may be doing a little bit of low-intensity writing on the place myself in the future.
A good portion of the hits, however, seem to have come from a link to this page at (!) Blue's News. What's disturbing to me here is that the story in question seems to have disappeared from the page--hopefully not for the same reason it vanished from PCGaming the other day. I've written in hopes of clearing up the nature of the situation. While I'd like to have at least seen the link before it went down, my main concern is that a story here isn't suggested to have been false or inappropriate on a major news page.
On that note, I want to make it clear that I consider Subspace PCGaming Com to be an essential and underrated page; it is one of the four pages I check constantly and I have a lot of respect for the staff there, especially QA Man. In no way was my recent criticism directed toward anyone other than Darkwing. I also want to say a special thanks to Cybrid and Wampit for ignoring pressure to remove links to me.
I have a bit more to say on the subject, but not today.
- To hell with the lot of you! -
In yet another related story, how the hell did I manage not to find out about nivaG's page after all this time? I feel as though an important secret has been kept from me. Ricochet Gaming is one of the best Subspace pages I've ever seen. It focuses more on League culture than on the games themselves, though news and results are properly treated. It reminds me in a way of Bobby D's old SubArena, which was a great page while it lasted. This is updated constantly, however, and makes for good reading even if League isn't your thing.
Ricochet Gaming
24 November 1998
Goodbye! Goodbye! I'll miss you!
Dum; da da da dum; da da da dum; da da da dum, da-da-dum, da-da-dum, da-da-dum-dum-dum.
-
- Cya! -
I am quitting the Internet forever as of 10:00am today because the new Zelda game is coming out. Later! :)
- The Blowup -
There's been quite a bit of fallout over my post from Sunday, the opinion of some being that I've spilled beans that should not have been spilled. There are three issues involved here: The potential for disorder within League zones, the potential for hacker wannabes to glean certain necessary information from my article, and the security of Subspace players' own machines. While I sympathize with the first issue, and will probably never post sensitive information--as long as I am fully informed of that information's sensitive nature--I maintain that, due to the dangerous nature of the VIE subgame.exe, the possibility that it has now gotten into the wrong hands is a far more important issue than any problem which could plague the VIE zones. I'm sorry to have pissed off some people I respect, and especially to have possibly caused trouble for League, but I would be wrong not to stand by the statement I made Sunday.
I'd like to thank the people who stood with me on this. I also wish to make it crystal clear that this information was NOT given to me in an off-the-record capacity. While it is possible that I failed to see an order or request to keep this a secret, and while I did ignore one cryptic statement implying that the players don't need to know about it, I certainly never misled anyone or agreed to anything, even by way of silence.
. There is one new development which I actually find more disturbing from my own standpoint. Yesterday, PCGaming reported on this story twice--once with a simple link and a second time with Darkwing's confirmation of the news. These stories were removed this afternoon after alleged objections from people who had also attended the meeting. While it's not my place to push my own retraction policy on PCGaming, I do think it is, at best, poor form to take down an accurate story for political reasons without any statement of purpose whatsoever. Since I've been unable to find out the exact reasoning behind these actions, I can't draw any conclusions just yet.
- SS Impact on Hiatus -
After a week of uncommon quiet and inactivity, Fatal Image yesterday took down the best League page, and the most reliably updated Subspace page ever. SS Impact is on hold at least until the next season begins. Without getting too negative, Fatal expressed general disappointment with the season, squad culture, and the community as a whole.
Speaking as a spectator/webmaster and not as a player, this season has really been a drag for me. Pretty disappointing, really. Too many squads dropping out and no-showing. Too many players retiring. Billing server problems. Lagged zones. Lack of parity (too many of the top players flocking to the powerhouses like Req Doomsday Elements). The decline of ONE. Refs not being available. Saturn. Unsureness of whether we'd even have a league zone tomorrow. The decline of sog, particularly the message board. Way too many games on Sundays meaning that on any Sunday you can expect to miss a ton of games.
This is a big loss for the game, but at least it's not permanent. Fatal is a class act, and while I'm unhappy that he's dismantled the page, he's done it in probably the best way possible if it had to be done. The messageboard remains up and the goodbye post did ring with no small amount of optimism. For the full post see here.
If you're without a suitable replacement, check out SubRealm, a relatively new page by Underlord and Candyman that sprouted from a newsletter launched in late July. I've only just now found it myself and am not much of a league nut so I'll refrain from comment, but it's updated regularly with news and results, and they're lining up a series of interviews that should be interesting.
- Huge MMG Update -
The Romulans has made what is probably the biggest update ever to the Map Vault at the Mapmakers Guild home page. Included are dozens of new maps, mostly by MMG members including The Romulans and myself, but also a few gems culled from the best player zone work as well as superb pieces by less well-established mappers like Happenstance and The Dread Wooly. Unfortunately nothing new from Gommy or Shanoyu, which is mainly my fault. I'll be updating the news there sometime in the next few days, and in the process maybe adding some of their stuff. I caught a few problems with links to my own maps, so if you see anymore please let me know. There have also been updates to several member bio and portfolio pages so be sure and check them out if you are into maps.
Meanwhile, we have a new member incoming, who in recent months has quietly become one of the best and most prolific level designers in the game. There's some red tape to cut through, but with luck the induction of our 5th new member this year will be official soon.
As always, if you have a good map you'd like to test for a few days in the Sheep Cloning Facility, or you'd like some help or criticism with some work--or if you simply have a few kick ass maps and it's time for you to finally join the MMG--this stuff is always top priority with me. Contact me on ICQ and I'll be more than glad to put aside some time for it.
- Hey, cool. -
I finally cracked 20,000 hits. :)
22 November 1998
...
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else.
-
- VIE Sysops Fired -
This much was made clear at a meeting in LeaguePro this Saturday night: Sometime in the last two weeks, someone used sysop or temporary sysop access to change settings within several zones. In the process, LeaguePro was caused to crash. Around this time, both the Sheep Cloning Facility and Paintball went down, and have not been seen since although they are still listed with the directory server.
In response, Blackie has removed all sysop access for players, and the highest level of security available at present is smod with ownership. This is the reason for all of the VIE zones' downtime yesterday. There has been no indication that this access will be restored at any time. Blackie does not know who is responsible for the mischief, and it seems that if there ever was an investigation it is now over.
Life in most zones can probably go on as normal--assuming the zones' owners are willing to maintain those zones after this--but in several zones, including the League zones, it may become impossible to keep the game working properly.
All this, however, is quite frankly irrelevant.
Blackie's real reason for taking sysop access from the players is this. The VIE version of subgame.exe was not in a secure place on the servers, and someone with sysop access--especially someone who knew enough to damage the zones as they have--could easily have downloaded the file, which is apparently named in such a way that it could be guessed. According to kboom and Ghost Ship, if this file is released into the public, it holds the potential to end the life of this game. Aside from questions of player server security, it has been confirmed that the VIE subgame.exe could be used to actually damage a user's computer.
Clearly, the minute someone is foolish enough to actually do this, the game is dead, because no one will be willing to risk connecting to a player run server.
When the servers were within hours of their promised Halloween shutdown, I attempted to guess the filename of the VIE subgame executable. My reasons are obvious, and it should be assumed that nearly the entire player base for this game would share similar motives--but there are people who play this game who also hate it. There are people who play this game because they hate it. Life is that way. Given that his attack was not surgical, it should be assumed that the offender had at least some kind of a general grudge against this game or against VIE. The obvious level of his knowledge suggests that he might be capable of finding the executable if it could be found at all.
If you have this file, please come forward--in public or in private to someone you know will keep your identity a secret. Until we know that the person responsible means no harm to the player population in general, or does not possess the VIE exe file at all, many of us have a very real reason not to play this game anymore. In the meantime, it is imperative that anyone who gave out temporary sysop at any time contact those individuals and ask that, if they did take the file, they refrain from distributing it in any way.
Many of the people who have worked hardest for this game are now out of a job for no good reason, and the players--who, I remind you, paid for the right to fly in these zones, and need thank NO ONE for their upkeep--are without anybody at all to maintain those servers. Assuming the changes are permanent, expect the smod and owner population to thin in the coming weeks as players including myself refuse to punished for mistakes made by inexperienced programmers.
It's funny how folks so often respond to wrongdoing in such a way that they end up deserving it.
21 November 1998
Hell yeah!
Leia and me, well we're
down with C3, and he's
waxing r2 for our long trip to
squadron 29.
Lando, he's he's fine,
chewie's a mime,
and the force is fine.
-
- YES, IT IS WORTH $7.50 -
Nuff said.but DAMN if there isn't a lot to be said about it. Yes, I'm talking about The Phantom Menace trailer. Finally saw it, finally got it on tape. It's way beyond the whole Star Wars thing, the same way that The Empire Strikes Back was surprising in its darkness, this has a truly weird epic, sweeping atmosphere to it, just visually speaking. Giganitic armies in formation against a backdrop lush, green hills. The vaulting, rich architecture of what looks to be the palace at Coruscant, all under the shadow of a future history we are already aware of. It has a brightness and openness to it that from a Star Wars perspective seems very much part of the past, and while it looks to be dominated by fate (after all, we know what happens to most of these people) there is much of it we don't know. It appears to be bursting with secrets, and germs of secrets later to come. I am really awed by this trailer. If the finished product is half the film it appears to be, it should be wonderful. Yay.
- The Dread Scarab is up! -
That would be my new Trench Wars map in the spankin' new <SSX>Trench Wars run by SilentDragon, who was nice enough to take down his own map to give it a chance. Come and try it sometime while it is still up and maybe it can stay a while more. ;) Even if you don't like it, it will at very least give you some insight into the way my fucked up mind works. :P
The SSX Server Page
Trench Wars at Warstrike
- Silence! -
Sorry. Been kinda busy, having a bad weekend so far. I'm gonna be busy some more, too. Very likely the betas for Suspended II will be next weekend, and I'll have the scenario on the night of Friday the 4th where it probably belongs. One gpod thing about having it late on the weekend is people living outside of the Americas can play without having to stay up til 5 in the morning. Instead they just have to get up earlier.
- U2 -
Interesting news on the various news pages, if you're the type of person who likes a band but never knows what they are doing. Brian Eno saying some damned bold things about the next album. Anyway, I used to know a couple of great mp3 sites for U2 bootlegs and studio outtakes. Nothing there was commercially available, but unfortunately they got closed down anyway. If someone would be kind enough to provide me with a similar site I'd be very grateful. I'd also kill for CDs from the 1993 Dublin and 1997 Rotterdam shows if anyone has happened to see them around. Thanks.
18 November 1998
News of the Day
It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky;
the universe exploded 'cos of one man's lie.
-
- No update yet. -
Later. :) It's actually still the 17th but I wanted to get rid of today's news so no one would come on and think the star wars stuff was on the 18th. I'm also loony as hell because I took some cough medicine. That map of mine is taking forever to tile but on the up side it is almost definitely going to get its time in SSX Trench Wars. check here much later today for info on that.
If it's still the 17th where you are as you read this, feel free to look at the appropriate update. ;)
17 November 1998
Star Wars Trailer TODAY
It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky;
the universe exploded 'cos of one man's lie.
-
- It's here. -
The trailer for Episode I: The Phantom Menace officially starts Friday, but it is in limited release today only at selected theatres around the US and Canada. While the trailers beginning Friday will be at random locations, you can view a list of the theatres showing it today here. They will be before and after the feature, so if you miss it by showing up late, stay for the credits. I've heard it will be shown this evening on Entertainment Tonight but haven't confirmed it. It should be noted, although this isn't a surprise, that there is no new music involved.
The following may contain SPOILERS. Granted, so does the trailer itself, if you are that picky. Dariakus of the mighty Space Police saw it already today. I hasten to add that he is not really much of a Star Wars fan. Damn I wish I weren't sick so I could drive to Los Angeles...
<Dar\Work> dear god
<Dar\Work> that's all i can say
<Dar\Work> dear god
<Dar\Work> SPEED
<Dar\Work> i have never felt such a sense of SPEED before in my life
...
<Dar\Work> and there are certain characters , MAJOR characters
<Dar\Work> WHO ARE ALL CGI
<Dar\Work> and they ROCK
<Dar\Work> the most realistic computer animation ever
<Dar\Work> EVER
<Dar\Work> oh, and man
<Dar\Work> the space battles
<Dar\Work> christ
<Dar\Work> speed
<Dar\Work> they no longer look like models with cameras following them
<Dar\Work> SPEED
<Dar\Work> SPEEEEEEEEEED
<Dar\Work> the amount of computer animation
<Dar\Work> dear god
<Dar\Work> the scene with the battle droids
<Dar\Work> all i can say is
<Dar\Work> OH
<Dar\Work> MY
<Dar\Work> GOD
...
<Dar\Work> there's one kick ass scene
<Dar\Work> in some big palace
<Dar\Work> with all these guards fighting off some weird soldiers
<Dar\Work> dodging behind pillars and shit
<Dar\Work> like HUNDREDS of them
<Dar\Work> it's fucking amazing
...
<Dar\Work> from what i've seen
<Dar\Work> it seems that NOTHING
<Dar\Work> NOTHING that people have said online about possible plot details
<Dar\Work> has been right
...
<Dar\Work> this is going to be the biggest thing ever
<Dar\Work> i mean ever
<Dar\Work> fuck the egyptians
<Dar\Work> fuck the crusades
<Dar\Work> fuck ww2
<Dar\Work> this is THE event
<Dar\Work> it will go down as the biggest thing in history
<Dar\Work> people will base their calendars around it
If anyone out there has seen it and wants to send me a more level-headed description, I'd welcome it. ;) Oh yeah, check out the new promotional posters at StarWars.Com if you haven't seen them already. They are subtle and beautiful and hint strongly at the more dramatic story I was hoping would emerge from all of this. In fact, I'd recommend you skip that page so you don't first see the images in thumbnail form. Go directly to the one-sheet and banner posters.
- The Scarab -
My new Trench Wars base is finished. I'm tiling it and it should be ready tomorrow. It's pretty big, so it might end up in Sheep Cloning for a while before it gets a shot at TW.
-
The Dread Scarab ov Eblan
16 November 1998
News of the Day
It's no secret that ambition bites the nails of success.
-
- Trench Wars News -
I'm sworn to secrecy...but, if you look carefully between the the billowing mustard gas and plumes of gore, there seems to be some movement....
Speaking of Trench Wars, I've started work on a map tentatively called The Dread Scarab ov Eblan which is kind of a companion to my Casa Eblana. It is designed for Trench Wars but I may use it in something else if it doesn't work out for TW, since it should theoretically make an interesting War Zone type base. It's going very quickly and I'll probably post an image tomorrow or later today.
- Suspended II signups have begun. -
The official day to begin signups was yesterday, but I forgot to post about it so it's actually today, I guess. If you intnend to play, please sign up soon so I can guage how difficult it will be to run and how many moderators will be needed. If the date (December 1st) is a problem for you, be sure and let me know; I will change it if there are serious objections. To sign up, e-mail me, send me an ICQ message, or catch me on IRC in irc.dal.net #eblana. (I would prefer ICQ.) Please be sure and give me the name you mean to use during the game, as the arena will be closed for the duration.
If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, have a look at the Suspended II Home Page. It's a bit sloppy right now, but it's got the basics. I'll update sometime in the next few days, with more specific information as well as real artwork courtesy of the SCF's resident Artiste Laureate, DataMunky. ;)
- MP3 Hell -
If you've got some serious idle time or a lightning fast connection, these are some extremely long MP3 mixes from ambient and other electonic releases on the Fax label, which is known for its long, droning dirges but also some very nice bleepy or atmospheric-watery pieces. These are endorsed by the company and are around 45 minutes each. There are six of them. I have about 2/3 of the Fax catalogue and can vouch for most of these tracks. Some are frankly obnoxious but there are also some priceless gems involved, especially the Modula Green songs. The second mix is probably a good starting point.
Laps' FAX Mix Page
14 November 1998
News of the Day
Jack walked out one stormy day
to see where his feet would go.
They took him north, they took him east,
but never took him home.
-
- Sheep Cloning and Trench Wars Find a New Home -
Thanks to SSX and the immortal SilentDragon, the SCF has been rescued from a watery death in the clutches of the quickly sinking VIE server board. At the moment there are two instances of SCF West; if / when VIE shuts down (which at this point looks like it thankfully may not happen), operations will move over there; otherwise we might be running mirrors or else change the nature of one of the zones.
Morer importantly for a great number of players, Trench Wars, which for large portions of the day is the most popular zone in the game, also has a new server up at SSX. While the older iNet server will remain up, the new zone is under the control of SilentDragon, who made both maps for the game, and in response to requests from one quarter of the TW community will feature the classic-style TW settings we know from earlier this year.
Special thanks to Xalimar for hooking us up with this, and to Captain Harloch who gave up a zone in the process. Be sure and connect to sscentral.vie.co.uk and add <SSX> Trench Wars and <SSX> SCF West.
- New Giga Map up in Turf -
One of the new turf Minimaps featured here on Thursday is now up in Turf Classic. Special props to Chakotay on this because he hates the idea and could very easily have prevented it from ever happening. As it stands, days may be numbered for the kick ass little GiGaKiLLeR design known as Triforce (even though the Rev. Spork appears prepared to draw blood over it, hehe)...so get thee to Turf Classic and enjoy while ye can.
On a side note, Mine GO BOOM is running the other map, Conflict, temporarily in MGB> Turfin' though it might move to SCF for a while. The settings there are very experimental but very tight. MGB is sort of a master when it comes to configging, so the ships have a real feeling of weight to them. It's a really nice cetup. Check it out on the UK directory server.
- Turf League -
Because of the lag problems which destroyed last week's Turf League game, this week's match will be held in one of the Sheep Cloning Facilities. Check back here for the final word if you can't find the game anywhere, or check the Turf League page.
- PGL! -
If you're not following Planetquake's PGL coverage, you're missing some high drama dammit! I've always preferred reading about StarCraft to actually playing it anyway (cough) but scandal brews in the finals as Immoral threatens to tear a hole in the fabric of space-time by actually beating Thresh in the Quake II finals. Good Quake stuff going on today besides: John Carmack at some point will be discussing Quake III Arena, and the news version of Rocket Arena comes out tonight, featuring 53 yes FIFTY THREE new arenas. If you haven't played the best Quake mod ever, you probably don't know how sweet the RA2 maps are--beautiful to look at and diabolically designed. If you haven't played Rocket Arena 2 before or even any Quake mod--hell, if you haven't ever played Quake II--tonight is when to start.
Check PQ of course for the full stories on all this yummy stuff.
- Cafe Eblana -
Okay, I played this up a lot and it didn't deserve all that attention because it's nothing more than a budding global conspiracy. Anyway, the Cafe used to be sort of a Final Fantasy II club. Since then it has gone to more general gaming, chat, and other noise that spans an IRC channel, a message board, and a few other things. Somehow it manages to feature both nonstop bitching and arguing and an uncanny fierceness of loyalty on the part of its denizens, to such a degree that very few ever leave. Eblana has its own squad and has also partly assimilated One Spirit. ;)
Island Festival is a really flakey art show and accompanying block party we do at the beginning of every year. Hopefully it will be a little more serious this year as a lot of people have something in the works for it. (My contribution last year was my first Subspace map, actually.) Anyway you're all invited. Be warned that there are a lot of genuinely bizarre people there and you may be offended by what some of them have to say. I certainly am. :P (I can say that here because the bastards don't read this page, heh.) If you dare, IRC to webzone.dal.net or another irc.dal.net server then /join #eblana and quickly find some cover.
13 November 1998
Good luck!
I'm falling with this tide.
They said that this would end.
I went as far as I could.
-
- Anyone remember Halloween III? -
I heard my first nasty story just now about ICQ 99, courtesy of a well known prof'vhet ov Dolly who for our purposes we shall refer to only as "jimbobwey".
After about a week of thinking ICQ99 rules, it decided it was too good for me and stopped running. It started, did "loading...*blink*...loadi...BEEP....ICQ99....This program has made a critical error and will be shut down." I tried lots of things--reinstalling, reinstalling ICQ98 then reinstalling 99...nothing. So I deleted it all and installed 98.
It's not my intention to bash the ICQ beta, though I personally always wait a while before trying something like that. HOWEVER...let me use this as fuel for the Universal ICQ Warning...BACK YOUR SHIT UP. Honestly, how many times have people had to re-add you to their list because something erased their contacts and history? You're next! Make a copy of your \icq\db directory and save yourself some trouble and grief.
- GiGaSTraVaGaNZa -
Those two new mini Turf maps by Giga that I showed here yesterday are now in the hands of Mine GO BOOM and one or the other should be up in his zone, MGB> Turfin'. It's running on his own machine, when it's up it should be listed on the UK Directory Server.
- Weren't you supposed to tell us about the Cafe Eblana and Island Festival today? -
No, that was tomorrow.
12 November 1998
News of the Day
Nothin' much to say I guess
Just the same as all the rest
Been tryin' to throw my arms around the world
-
- Go WSL -
Props to the staff of World Subspace League for sticking to principle and banning quite a number of cheaters and other idiots. This comes as a refreshing surprise after the flurry of secrets and sweeping-shit-under-carpet that went down in War Zone League a couple months back. I hope this doesn't harm the WSL, but if it does then all the more admirable the action, in my opinion.
- Who do you want to vulch today? -
I just picked up the Fall issue of Voodoo, the official 3Dfx magazine--a nice source because it is wall to wall screenshots with previews reaching far into the future, plus some capable writing. What caught my eye here, though, and in fact the reason I bought the issue, is a game called Oblivion in development at Microsoft. While I'm not thrilled by the look of the game, the article gives some exciting details, and some of the ideas behind it sound incredible, with teams forming in "strategy rooms", with team leaders assigning tasks and even monitoring the battle as it plays out. Games are said to take several hours. This will be online only, and apparently only against other players, though the article didn't rule out co-op style play. I wasn't able to find any info on this game at the MS website, but I'll post some more about it if I find out anything.
- Is GiGaKiLLeR the Gh'od ov Turf? -
Giga sent me two small Turf maps that could well save the zone, or might be great to use for small scenarios. Have a look at them here...
Conflict
Triforce
I've been a bit out of the map loop for a while, what with all the commotion and all in the game, but I'd like to remind you that Subspace mapping will be a legitimate artform long after Subspace is six feet under. ;) If you've got a good map, or even just need some help, send me your stuff (ICQ please, not mail). I keep what is probably the biggest map archive there is and would like to have it be as complete as possible.
Other new stuff I know to be happening in mappy land: Shanoyu is tiling something new that he made, Happenstance has made an awesome followup to his much maligned War Zone map (which was actually pretty good) from back in April, I'm of course finishing up Suspended II, and possibly the best news on this front, SilentDragon, best known for his small bases for Trench Wars, is nearing completion of his first full size map. He's tried that a few times before and it never worked out right, but this map is BAD ASS and you are going to play in it soon. Mark my words!
Oh, and I think The Romulans is working on something new but I can't say for sure. You have looked at his Mapfolio, though, haven't you? Silly neg, go read it. My and Gommy's folios are a pretty interesting and a fun read. The Romulans' mapfiolio is f'ckin CANON. Go! Now! GO!
- And Speaking of the MMG -
It's been a while since I plugged the Mapmakers Guild, but it looks like we're going to have some new members soon, and in this time of relative quiet I myself am also getting back into mapmaking, so I thought I should mention it. The MMG page boasts by far the best map archive online, both by members and non-members. Nearly every great map designer who has made more than one full sized map is a member. If you are serious about mapping, or just curious and need someplace to start, check the site out. Also know that nowhere in MMG is there the letter S. We'll be there when the Harmless game swings around too. As long as good people walk the earth there will be two dimensional games involving big mazes. ;)
More on the new members sometime in the next few days.
- Suspended II Signups -
Email or ICQ me on Sunday or after if you want to be in this. I may have some cgi up on the official page but the best way to signup is just to contact me personally. I need to know the exact name you will be using, because the arena is going to be closed tight to make things easier for the moderators. Yes I still need some mods as this will be a moderation-intensive game.
- What in the hell is the Cafe Eblana? -
I'll tell you tomorrow.
- What the hell is Island Festival? -
I knew you were going to ask that. I'll explain that tomorrow also.
11 November 1998
News of the Day
Under your command
wouldn't I have walked straight through hell,
and did I ever look down?
-
- Zone IP Page -
I gotta hand it to DS98 again for putting together the best Zone IP listings and instructions I've seen yet. In my opinion this page sets the standard. If it is updated on a regular basis and mirrored elsewhere it will probably be the standard. Definitely keep a bookmark for this page as it will be the most helpful to have around if/when the Directory Servers croak.
Zones and IPs at DS98
- Shanoyu Owns -
Congrats to Shan of the mighty Space Police (sort of) on getting not one but three articles published, not online, but in real life. You little SHIT. :P
- Real Life Special Event! -
Don't forget about 11:11, 11/11. :) You'll be sorry and have to wait a whole nother year! Of course, you'll have to get up pretty early to make the real 11:11, but if you miss it you can always just wait for the phony-ass rerun they're having at 23:11.
- Incoming Turf Scenario -
I'm not authorized to spill all the beans on this one, but the Monsterz ov Turf are putting together a scenario, or perhaps a series of scenarios, for an unspecified time in the future that is going to be groundbreaking, and a lot of fun if it works out the way it should. Moof!, everone's favorite neg killer and the only certified Dark Vangel™ of the VIE zones, started the ball rolling on this and is working with Chakotay, FlippMode, and other hardcore Turfites in putting the thing together. It's going to rock. I'm still not telling you what it is, but trust me on this. ;)
Okay, I'll give you a hint.
It's called Legos.
- Home Page Up for Suspended II -
The preliminary page is up, with a description of the game, a map image, and a schedule of events. If you are interested in scenarios have a look, and if you intend to play please keep an eye on the page as there may be some substantial changes made between now and the 1st of December.
Suspended II: The Liberation of Citizen 743XRL
- Ok, I'm just going to blurt this out. -
I put up my own map yesterday in the SCF for a while because Mine GO BOOM stole my passwords and pissed me off. :P I'm over it now and his map is back up. MGB may be a nice guy but don't give him temp sysop access whatever you do. ;)
- Dual D-Server Listings -
Props and thanks to Minbari Warship at Destruction 98 for the tip on listing zones with both VIE Directory Servers. Check the page for more indepth information.
If you are running a zone I would highly suggest setting it up to register on both of the directory servers, you can do that by changing the IP=sscentral.vie.com line to be IP=sscentral.vie.com,sscentral.vie.co.uk (no spaces) under the [Directory] heading in your server.ini file. If you need more assistance or would like more info feel free to contact me.
- Oh yeah. -
The midi is The Final Countdown, by some heavy metal band whose name I have quite properly forgotten. It's a joke. ;) For some reason though it's extremely popular among the kind of people who admit to collecting midi files. I promise I'll take it down soon and put back my stupid mine waves.
10 November 1998
It begins...
Under your command
did I not do well?
Was not my record fine?
-
- Minefield Über Warstrike -
I've officially started my move to Warstrike. I wanted to finish the Dawn of the Dead page, give it some final comments and closure and see-you-next-time kind of babble, and in the process get it out of the MMG directory where it was cluttering things up. I may have the very beginnings of a Suspended II page up tonight or tomorrow. If Dawn proved one thing to me, it is that the players must know the map, so there'll be some beta tests and so forth.
- Star Wars Trailer - November 20 -
I don't know if this was common knowledge on the fandom circuit, but I read yesterday in one of the trade magazines that the trailer for The Phantom Menace will be tacked onto a number of movies that are premiering on the 20th of this month. The trailer will not be a teaser but will include two full minutes of new footage! ROCK. The Phantom Menace of course comes out on May 21st of next year.
- Philosophy Club -
The untimely abortion of the new Philosophy Club is one of the sadder and less noticed aspects of VIE's impending collapse, more or less forgotten as we all run around like chickens with our heads cut off. Technically the last VIE zone to be added was Paintball, and ASWZ was hinted at but was cancelled because of a blow-up among the player zone community. Between those two events, however,. firm plans were made for the return of the Philosophy Club, one-time sister zone to the Sheep Cloning Facility.
Back in September, Mine GO BOOM, a player zone vet who maintains the best server help page, received the go-ahead from Blackie to begin preparations for a then-unnamed VIE zone whose purpose would be the temporary hosting of player-authored maps and configurations. Unlike the SCF, applicants would be required to submit a complete and well-tested set of map, configuration, and news, just as they would if they were starting a new zone on a server board such iNet or SSX. The purpose of this was to provide a high visibility forum for new zone ideas, so that players could see what their games were like with a decent-size player population and perhaps dazzle one of the player-run boards into supplying them with a spot.
MGB set up a page for policy and even a voting script for the name of the zone, including submissions. At my urging a few friends backed up my suggestion for Philosophy Club, and it caught on--something that made me very happy because I like bringing back old names and maps and so forth--and the name won by a wide margin. MGB was set to start the server itself, and I believe had received a number of good submissions, when the bomb dropped. Along with the bad news of the VIE servers' impending demise came confirmation that a reborn Philosophy Club would not get its chance after all.
Perhaps another time, on another server board.
The map and settings in the Sheep Cloning Facility are probably what would have been in the Philosophy Club between guest hostings, just as I've often used jackpot flags in Shrines ov Mutton or 31 Flags for interim games at the SCF. Mine GO BOOM and Shanky's funky map is a bit hard on the frame rate, and the tiny tunnels definitely show their player zone roots, but it's got some fun mini-base fights and a nice open space flagging arena between the various floating artifacts and structures. The configuration is rather nice, with a quirky balance of low acceleration and high speed that is difficult to get used to. Get some friends and enjoy the map while it's there, as the VIE network seems to be falling apart as I type this and it may be a while before the map resurfaces.
- What the hell is going on? -
It seems the Directory Server is back up, but has almost nothing on it. My estimate would that this is probably because it came back up while the VIE Billing Server was down--but then why are so many player zones also missing? The alternate D-Server at sscentral.vie.co.uk is sporting a slowly growing but still very small list of servers, including the VIE UK Test zone, which even after all this mess is still closed off to oldschool players. In total between the American and British D-Servers I see several zones fewer than are presently active on my Favorite Servers list. Go figure.
If you have an empty FS list, get mine and stick it in your Subspace directory. As part of my Sites of the Final Call duties I will probably be keeping that file online as I am obsessive about keeping it stocked with the most well-populated zones.
On a particularly ominous note, Dueling Arizona is down. If anyone knows something about this, please contact me.
- I did something stupid! -
Well, I guess the Sheep Cloning Facility is supposed to be a test zone...so I tested DS98's assertion that recycling your zone will get it back on the Directory Server listing--and unwittingly also tested my theory that the tiny D-Server listing was the fault of the crashed billing server. Well, it scared me for a moment because the server took a very long time to finish recycling, but I think this was because I changed over to the UK directory server.
I've relisted the Sheep Cloning Facility under the UK Directory Server at sscentral.vie.co.uk, with the name of VIE SCF West. I might change it back, or I might list it as simply Sheep Cloning Facility. ICQ me if you have thoughts on this issue. :)
Anyway, I suggest the rest of you list with the UK D-Server as soon as you are able, so that players can still find you when they finish dismantling the American servers.
9 November 1998
News of the Day
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else.
-
- Ahh, sweet release...maybe. -
It's 7:07 Pacific time. The directory server and the billing server are both down. Us VIE people probably should have followed Peasant's Paladin's lead and redirected the game servers to the alternate directory server. For the rest of you, be sure that once the main VIE directory server is down, you connect to the new directory server at vie.subspace.co.uk so that people can find your zone.
- Find Servers? -
If the main Subspace directory server stays down, you will need to use the alternate UK server to maintain your Favorite Servers list. In the first popup menu after selecting Find Servers on the Subspace front-end, replace sscentral.vie.com with sscentral.vie.co.uk. This will give you a partial list of available servers, but inevitably some will not be listed. These two pages should provide all the instruction and information you will need to keep your Favorite Servers fresh after VIE stops taking care of us:
zone address book at Warstrike
how to manually maintain your server lists
- Music -
New studio album from Dire Straits and live cd and video from Portishead. I managed to score the Portishead record early and it's a bit disappointing since they left quite a few tracks off of the CD instead of springing for a second disc. Oh well. Ack! It's also printed on damned cheap paper. :P At any rate a good recording at least. Meanwhile, if youb haven't heard any Dire Straits post-Money-for-Nothing you are missing some nice music. The last band album was weak in parts, but Mark Knopfler's solo release was wonderful and I'm considering staying up til midnight again for this new cd.
- How Off Topic Can I Get? -
Read this. It's funny and it will take you 5 seconds. :P
8 November 1998
News of the Day
I want to run, I want to hide;
I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside.
-
- New Subspace Site -
Hunter2 from Subspace.PCGaming.Com has started his own Subspace page, Ultimate Subspace. It looks pretty good and it's only on its second day. I will link to it as soon as he stops capitalizing my name. ;)
- Get Rid of Cheaters -
Cheating in Subspace ruins the game, both short term and long--and it's becoming more prevalent, cropping up at higher and higher tiers. Angry players tend to blame the zone ops and the game itself, and will eventually go elsewhere--often to a different game altogether. There is no question that your zone is going to be less enjoyable with a cheater operating in it than it would be otherwise.
Not as difficult as it may seem, and certainly not impossible--if the owner and players are willing to put up with a little inconvenience. Could it destroy your zone? Certainly. But if a zone by nature requires that cheaters be effectively banned, it can be done quite simply. Frankly I'm susprised this hasn't been implemented in at least some of the more serious zones. This is obviously a pain in the ass for the players, but if a zone is plagued by cheaters it may well be worth the trouble.
1. Close the zone and begin maintaining a list (permit.txt) of people who the server will let in.
2. Send *putlist each time you want to load an updated permissions list.
3. On the Description line of the server.ini file, include an email address or web page for contacting the zone, and an explanation that the zone is in fact open to the public, but requires that players provide either a valid email address or, if the player is stuck at Hotmail, etc, a trustworthy reference.
4. Forget about banning players by name or IP; simply throw them out by removing their name from the permit.txt file. Sooner or later
5. If you haven't got time to deal with all this, find a zone regular who you trust and offer moderator status in exchange for maintaining the permission list.
5 November 1998
News of the Day
I must be an acrobat to talk like this and act like that.
-
- Nothing Whatsoever to Do with Subspace -
This is the funniest thing I have seen online in a long time. Enjoy. :)
- How Quake III Will Bankrupt the Gaming Industry -
Ripped from the pages of the mighty PlanetQuake...all I can say is you guys aren't going to see any more from me after this March. If anyone asks you "hey, whatever happend to that mine guy" here in these two articles are the first details of your explanation. ;)
11.4.98 | 04:25 Games in Development
Quake III Arena "first impressions" (Updated) - by Gestalt
Redwood has posted one of those increasingly popular "First Impressions" type things about Quake III Arena, based on a viewing he and some other webmasters got of the game recently. Makes for interesting reading...
Update: Blue has posted his first impressions as well, touching on most of the things Redwood does, along with some other little tidbits. Q3A sounds pretty impressive at this point, to say the least.
- BBL -
I'm tired and haven't got a lot of time for an update right now but hopefully I'll be back later.
- SVS -
I've got some new banners for Standard Vie Settings sites but am not sure if their authors want me to put them up yet or not. (They might not consider them finished, or it might just be 2 in the morning and I can't think straight.) Anyway I'll put them up later today probably.
- Yay -
First (?) official word on the Final Fantasy movie. Woo!
- Music -
The second disc in the limited edition of the U2 anthology is wonderful. I'm not well versed in their b-sides, but there are some superb cover tunes here I haven't heard before (or have only heard performed on bootlegs). Dancing Barefoot and Unchained Melody are beautiful. Spanish Eyes and Love Comes Tumbling, taken respectively from sessions for The Joshua Tree and The Unforgettable Fire, are two of the best songs the band have recorded and would easily hold their own against most of the best tracks from either album. It fits together solidly as an album. As for the Best Of disc, it's almost exactly what i'd have picked, so I'm pretty happy with that. What's with leaving off In God's Country and Drowning Man, though? Oh well.
3 November 1998
Phat Tuesday
Do you really think that love is gonna save the world?
- oops, forgot -
The other night during or after the scenario I had to reboot in a hurry and I lost a lot of ICQ messages. It's possible that I still have them but I'd have to look through hundreds of history lists and I really don't want to. If you said something on Saturday night that I didn't repond to but should have, please resend it.
- ROCK! -
So much cool shit is coming out today...U2 anthology (get the limited double cd with the b-sides while you can), Cardigans, Oasis, Beck, the Lennon box and the companion disc, Rolling Stones, Alanis Morissette, Beck...other bands I'm not gonna mention cuz they suck. :) Did I mention the U2 anthology? Did I mention the KICK ASS new Cardigans record? You can bet I was there at the door to the record shop at midnight to buy that sucker. Beautiful album.
The lowdown on these as soon as I have a chance, on the Minefield Radio page.
- Okay, back to Subspace. -
I really am moving this page to Warstrike soon. Next few days. Watch for details. They set me up with a directory real quick while I was stuck without this account, and when I regained access to this host I figued it would be a better use of my time to work on Dawn of the Dead. I'm hoping to have time in the next few days to make the move to Warstrike part of my revamping and splitting-up of the page. As soon as I manage it, there will be a proper forwarding page and all that.
- Thanks FlippMode! -
I forgot to thank FlippMode in the Dawn of the Dead news and so really want to make a point that he was instrumental in running the game and saving it from ruin. He maintained security during one of the most crucial early games, and ran the second set of matches for quite a while Saturday night.
Flipp will not be running the long delayed Alien Ressurrection scenario, which is what Gommy's funky fresh Dawn of the Dead map was made for, because he and Rev.Spork are presently occupied with the organization of Turf League. The game is ready to go. Check out the url if you are interested in the best game in Subspace. Considering the recent shrinkage (ahem) of TC, the League is probably, for the time being, the best way to really enjoy a good game of Turf.
As for Alien Resurrection, it will run, but not for a while, and a new team for it is being assembled. If you're interested, drop me a note.
- SVS -
SVS is short for Standard Vie Settings, Peasant's Paladin's term for what I've been referring to as the Burst Standard (which unfortunately doesn't make for quite as nice an abbreviation). The idea is to provide a concrete identification of VIE-style servers for people who prefer classic settings. SVS should imply a good faith adherence to ship and game settings, with only very conservative tinkering if any at all. (Examples might include reasonable alternate Shark configurations, small changes specific to certain maps, exceptions for special events, Dueling Zone, etc.) No one's policing anyone, but we may turn it into a webring or something once the zones really do move off of VIE. Here's a logo I made if you'd like to stick it on your zone page; Cybrid and DataMunky are also working on banners.
-
- Coming Soon -
In 1983, Infocom released a unique text adventure called Suspended. In it, you controlled a team of robots from a state of suspended animation, in an effort to repair the failing systems of your planetary environmental control stations. The problem? Each robot had only one ability. Waldo could repair machinery and circuitry but had only a sense of touch to guide him. Iris could see but was limited in where she could travel within the complex. The diagnostic robot spoke only in rhymes; the robot with a sense of hearing had only one grasping extention. This presented the player with a unique set of puzzles not unlike the old story of the three blind men trying to identify an animal.
Suspended II is in the Sheep Cloning Facility on December 1st. Signups begin November 15th.
Please excuse the skull fragments.
TimeTrip> ZOMBIES EAT ZOMBIE BRAIN TOO
TimeTrip> SORRY
-
1 November 1998
Happy All Saints Day
The killing moon will come too soon.
- Rock! -
I was out kind of late Halloweening and was sure the SCF game would either fail to get together in the first place or else fall apart soon after it started. I was sure I'd be struggling all night to keep upwards of 10 people in the zone; I was pretty surprised to open the Subspace client and see that there were 66 people in my damn zone! Never seen anything like it. Big thanks to Shanoyu (and anyone else I haven't talked to yet who helped) for running the game while I was gone. FlippMode, Roseo, and Mailliw were also damned instrumental. (I also forgot to thank Giga for helping on Friday night.)
The arena peaked (akaik) at 73. Gommy's map is awesome to fight in, although it wasn't right for a few of the settings I used. We changed things around a bit to discourage running, and they seemed to work out well in the end, considering the zone had shrunk.
Anyway, this was my first scenario and I had a lot of fun running it. More importantly even though it was kinda dumb, it was pretty scary and I think not bad at all for something put together in a hurried panic Next time I'll make sure and arrange for it to require less moderation. ;)
- Upcoming Scenarios -
I'm no longer scheduling anyone else's scens; they can do that on their own, but these are mine and you can count on em cuz after this I'm actually interested in running scens. One has been in the works since March; the other just occured to me.
S u s p e n d e d I I
(December 1st )
The official (because I'm the guy who decides if things are official or not!) sequel to Infocom's 1987 text adventure Suspended. Turf game, brand new full size map, no two ships sharing the same abilities.
Christmas Scenario TBA
(December 23rd)
It's a secret but I promise it is nothing like anything you are thinking of right now. ;)
- Belated to Chak and Shan -
Happy Samhain. :)
- A Prediction -
VIE servers will go down on Tuesday. End of the month on a weekend, thus next business day, plus a day's courtesy grace period before doing the deed. Tuesday early afternoon.
- Did I mention I'm back? - :)
I'm kind of worried that I'll be forgotten so if a few key people could maybe mention in passing that I'm alive I would appreciate it. ;) I'll be at Warstrike soon, but when I go I'll simply forward from here. Good form and whatever.
- Sorry -
Apologies for not delivering on the promised second update yesterday. That was very annoying, but between the scenario, auditioning some extras for my movie (yes I am still working on that damned thing) and trying to concoct a genuinely creepy Halloween costume, I just had no time. Anyway I'm leavin these colors up for All Saints cuz I dig the holiday. Today's recommended listening: Anything by Hildegard von Bingen--the first great composer, and inventor of the morality play--considered a saint in Germany, as I understand it. Find a nice Borders and listen to something by her.
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