<Minbari Warship> i have never been able to win before so why start trying now :)
Dust...
fade without a name.
When I finish my war,
I'll fade the scene.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
30 April 1999
Slayfest if you know what's good for ya!
Star Wars Slayfest
Cargo Theft: The Search for Teneth Wildstar is the second Slayfest scenario to be based on Star Wars and the first to use the spainkin' new Star Warzone settings. It is also the first scenario that will require use of the shipset and soundset. The ship replacements are brand new and they are SWEET. Yeah baby we have rolling ships. WOOT.
Don't worry, the ship and sound replacements files do not replace any Subspace files so there is no reason to be afraid of installing something you can't uninstall. Subspace simply looks for these files and uses them if they are there. When you are through with them, simply delete all of the .wa2 and .bm2 files to get things back to normal. Of course, if you want to hold onto them for later use just store the zipfile away somewhere.
Alright, actually I'm sick of being nice about this. If you still refuse to use the ship replacements, you are an idiot. Plain and simple. If it's that frightening for you, contact me on ICQ and I will explain it to you in even simpler terms, but frankly, you are a human. Humans learn things. When those things are small, this process takes no effort whatsoever. None. Learn to use the freaking shipsets. More time was probably put into them than has been put into your education, and they make the game a lot more fun to play. Install the ship and sound replacements, or just stay the hell out.
There are other confusing details and rules over at the Cargo Theft event page. For more general information as well as recaps of each week's games, check the Slayfest Homepage. Slayfest is every Saturday at 8:00pm Eastern. Do not get there late or you will miss the scenario; do not leave early or you'll mis everything else. Basically, Captain Harloch owns your ass on Saturday evenings. No arguing, no opinions, no excuses. Show up for this or you are the worst kind of slime.
Shiner's Gallery updated
Natron-e? posted to the Pro League Board with news of a major update to Shiner's Subspace Photo Gallery. Included are pictures from the various conventions. Head over there and see how much better looking Subspace players are than other internet users. (I'm not kidding.)
Help!
If someone out there is expert with Quake II and knows why I now crash whenever I try to bring up the save and load menus (FS_Read: 0 bytes read), I would really appreciate a bit of help. I'm also looking for good (or mediocre) pages on id and FPS history and on map credits, and can't seem to find any.
19 days left
I am so tempted to listen the music you would not believe. Ugh.
No I do not have my tickets yet, no I do not own a tent...stop trying to make me feel bad.
Can someone please tell me why my java counter is broken? It's the exact same one that is running at PCGaming. Yes I know it's commented out; when it's not, I get a big grey rectangle up there.
Yesterday in Subspace history . . .
I lost one of my major sources of historical information on 4/19 which was the second anniversary of Rincewind stopping updates on his page. Please help me with this section by sending me old links, posts, screenshots... anything cool you happen to find in various archives, in your Subspace directory and other packrat directories, etc. In a few years you are sure to look back on your days in Subspace and think to yourself...WTF?
My map rises to second place in the Chaos Nevada poll, still many votes behind Old Chaos West. (4.29.98)
Probably the first map revision for Extreme Games. (4.29.98)
Blizzard sued by paranoid, ungrateful customers. (4.29.98)
(I think) Mine GO BOOM and Callisto publish a new racing map. (4.29.98)
Song quotes start at this page. I'll put up an index of these someday. (4.29.98)
Happy birthday to the Chaos East Homepage, founded by numpf. (4.29.98)
It's kind of tacky for me to reprint something I myself wrote (if you don't like it, send me something someone else wrote), but I think I'll do it here anyway. I do this not because I am so cool but because the history of the game is interesting to me and I think it's kind of nice that what I asked for here actually happened, the people involved didn't disappoint me, and the whole thing worked out pretty well. Keeping in mind what I said here a few weeks ago about Blackie and the Vangel system, and what Cybrid later added at the News Dot Text, consider that a full year has passed since this issue was in contention....
Cheating Rant - April 30th, 1998
Pardon me while I wax radical left again. VIE has a moral obligation to combat cheating in this game. Because it is not sufficiently staffed to take care of the problem themselves, they must trust the players to combat the problem. The only way to do this is to give full mod status to the zone owners. There is never one simple solution to a problem like this; it requires a creative response to the specifics of the situation at hand. I agree with Hadar about his inability to act. Where we differ is in the fact that I think he should be requesting moderator status straight up instead of just hinting at it. There has been a lot of paranoia about the potential Vangels abusing mod abilities.
So let's say VIE gives Vangels such abilities and they abuse it. Does anyone really think that this abuse would be as blatant, disrespectful, and destructive to the game as what is happening now?
The answer is no. Nobody in this game truly expects that. I submit that such alleged suspicions are patently dishonest. They are leveled at people we supposedly trust, in the name of some broad-based policy of caution. I think they represent a certain amount of ass kissing and an even bigger amount of pseudo-intellectual hooey.
Personally, I'm more inclined to distrust those who claim to worry that Chakotay, Hadar, et al are raring to abuse power and ruin the game. Where in the hell are you people coming from?
Meanwhile, the far more legitimate and rational cries for action against cheaters and other abusive players are utterly ignored.
Welcome to the Self Sustaining Subspace Community, beta version 0.1 and slowly, slowly counting.
WideEye> yes i know what you mean, my index finger is tired
You'll seek it. It'll take a while.
You'll seek this if it's a thousand miles.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
27 April 1999
Infantry alpha test on hold
JMCDaveL posted last night to Mostly Harmless with the irritating news that the alpha test for Infantry has been temporarily shut down in part because of nondisclosure agreement violations. JeffP later cleared up some issues of concern at the InfantryZone Alpha Board and elaborated on the other elements involved in the decision. The most important thing that needs to be stressed is that at present no one has been kicked off of the alpha list.
We don't want the testers getting burned out on the game too much, cause we are going to need them in it when we start having stuff to test. We started with 30 people a night for a couple nights, then down to 20, then 10, now it's about 5 per night, so clearly people are getting bored of it, which is understandable as there is little in the way of gameplay right now.
I realize the majority of testers have been very good about keeping their accounts secret and you need not worry about getting kicked from the Alpha test at this point; however, when things open back up, we will be paying closer attention since we have better tracking tools. I am hoping to have [database issues I don't want to repeat] solid by Friday and maybe we can open it up for the weekend. We may choose to wait til the next client-update which will fix a ton of bugs before opening it up again (which would mean next Wednesday probably).
Also, Cybrid says fuck off.
Baudchaser goes west
God-emperor of the SSC and former iNET zone wrangler Baudchaser arrived yesterday in the United States to spend some time in Alabama with Super.Fly as his host. He has taken to sexually harrassing federal employees and is cultivating an addiction to beef, so don't worry, he won't be here long. ;) The first of what will hopefully be many travelogues was posted to the Pro League board early this afternoon.
Super.Fly denied allegations that the two of them will be looking for a new server bank or plotting the mysterious disappearance of Fiery. "We are simply plotting world domination, playing music, drinking a little beer and having a good time. Nothing major."
The Community lives on. Have faith, my little plague.
Multiple fixed arenas in ASWZ
This is breaking news so I have very little information at the moment, but SilentDragon and Mdkathon have set up A Small Warzone with a permanent second arena, complete with its own map (Giga's small Turf level). The arena will stay fixed (though unlisted) so that one can switch between them on the fly without repeated map downloads. Exactly how they managed to get this to work is not something I know at the moment ("I rule," claims SD), and it is still in the process of being worked out, with quite a few problems arising. If it does work out right however, this may mean something of a small revolution for league play and scenario design.
Eye candy
Minbari Warship posted new screenshots to his Gratuitous Slayfest Pimpin' Gallery at DS98. There are some nice megaturret shots from this weekend's Slayfest, but the most notable ones are of the lightshow Philosophy Club put on this last Friday (I thought it was Thursday?) in the SCF. Mine GO BOOM really knows how to turn the Subspace client into an excellent screensaver. ;) Actually, we started that weekend's Slayfest with a short game of Fish in a Barrel which turned out to be quite successful. These aren't really super settings because despite appearances the game is nice and slow. Put aside some time Thursday (or maybe Friday as that may be the official time) and check out the most experimental event in Subspace.
21 days left
My god, that's only three weeks.
The novelization and soundtrack album both come out in one week. Bigtime spoiler alert, here. I plan on avoiding most major media until the movie comes out, just in case.
Oh yeah . . .
I did update yesterday, two days in a row for a change...so for all those people who got wise to me and are now only checking the page once every three days, it is now in the News Archive.
Today in Subspace history . . .
My map ties with Mafia's in the Chaos Nevada Vangels' map vote. A bit traumatic for me actually because Mafia's old Speed Zone map was the reason I got into mapmaking in the first place.
ljc> This may seem like a weird question but why
does the map you are playing on matter?
Everyone I know has got a reason to say:
Can we put the past away?
N e w s o f t h e D a y
26 April 1999
Ditto, and I'll leave it at that.
I found this in the Blue's News mailbag, and it eliminates my need to comment on the matter.
From: Andrew Smith
Subject: school shootings
I'd like to share a few indisputable facts with your readers:
1. Violent computer games DO make kids become violent. (I have no evidence to prove this, but it's true, and anyone who denies it is wrong.)
2. Violent films DO make kids become violent. (I have no evidence to prove this, but it's true, and anyone who denies it is wrong.)
3. Distributing information about explosives over the Internet DOES make people want to blow things up. (I have no evidence to prove this, but it's true, and anyone who denies it is wrong.)
If any of the people who were quoted in your last mailbag have a problem with any of these unsubstantiated statements then perhaps they should think twice before making equally unsubstantiated statements to the contrary, because that's exactly what they were doing.
Neither side of this tragic argument has any solid proof to support what they're saying, but one side doesn't seem to think it needs any.
The reactionary comments posted on your and many other web sites recently strike me as nothing more than a bunch of people crying because they think some big bully government might come and take their precious games away.
Slayfest sucked
I did a mediocre job of organizing and running what turned out to be a fun scenario. Unfortunately the bitching was a little too strong so I threw in the towel and ran a few elimination games and a few Bravehearts. You guys need to find another replacement for Captain Harloch or next time he's away there won't be a Slayfest at all; my skin is just too thin for that shit. Oh, and special thanks to the hard working staff at the Unofficial Peasant's Paladin Homepage, my soon-to-be EX-webhost, for being the only major (well, sort of major; not really) Subspace page to give the scenario no mention or promotion at all.
ljc does mapmaking
ljc, a programmer for Harmless Games--probably best known for SSME, the Subspace level editor of choice--has finally gotten around to making a map of his own, an Infantry map (by my count the fifth in the game's history) which originated as an experiment. ljc was interested in learning what makes people prefer one level to another. What he did instead was build a kick ass nonlinear dogfighting level that tops all the other maps yet made. I don't think I'm allowed to post a screenshot but check back here cuz I might do it anyway. >:)
Introducing CTB
Trust hydro to start up a flag game where there aren't any flags. More Infantry news smuggled through the Ganymedian customs office. The Infantry alpha test is all about testing the interface, weeding out the more obvious bugs, and seeing if the combat itself is any fun. Because of this, flags have not been implemented. So the other day the spoiled alpha testers are standing around, bored and talking shit at each other as usual, when hydro, ubergod of Extreme Games among other titles, says fuck it, let's play a flag game anyway. Thus was born Capture the Battlepack, a flag game in the tradition of Threewave CTF Quake where victory is obtained by stealing a certain vehicle (not shown here) from the enemy's base and taking it back to your own. The first Infantry flag game has gone down, and we didn't need your damned flags to play it, either! A great man once wrote, Da hoo dores, da hoo dores, and on that one occasion he was right. Do not think outside the box; there is no box. The contents are the container.
Good things
The huge convergence scenario mentioned yesterday at DS98 is already well into the planning stages. Captain Harloch is turning the crank on this one so you know it's going to work out fine. He may even squeeze another map out of me before I head off into the great blue yonder. I'll keep you posted on this as it progresses.
DS98 is now hosting the official Slayfest Screenshots page, presently featuring captures taken by sonic angel and wizard64, and soon to be expanded.
Byobong7 will be testing out a new racing zone in the Sheep Cloning Facility this week. I have no idea what it entails but I'll post about it as soon as I find out.
Tons of new Quake III: Arena screenshots, courtesy of Mac users kind enough to throw us Win32 scum a bone. Some of them are very nice, while others frankly make the game look pretty gay. I'm still very much looking forward to the Windows release, of course.
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~das/q3test/
http://www.quake2.com/sconfig/quake3test1.shtml
22 days left
The first single is supposedly out from The Phantom Menace soundtrack album, entitled "Duel of the Fates". I heard a tiny bit of it over the phone for about 15 seconds. Couldn't help myself. Madre de Dios. (Thanks QA Man.)
Today in Subspace history . . .
Happy belated birthday to Extreme Games, dating back to sometime late in April 1998, probably the 22nd.
The first paper sketch for the Suspended map probably dates back to a year ago today. This is the .lvl sketch I made the following day, if anyone is curious. The complete map (give or take a few tiles) finally ran this weekend in Slayfest.
<Air Young> come to ?team shit to drive tanks
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.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
22 April 1999
It's finally happening
I hate to give myself the headline but I am damned excited about this. Captain Harloch won't be around this weekend and it's a bit late to start pimping up something new...so I dug up my Suspended scenario which fell on its ass (through no fault of its own, the poor dear) back in early December. This is a very complicated and weird scenario in its pure form, and we will try things that way if there is enough demand, but for starters we'll keep things simple and play SVS style. It's a two team, 14 flag Turf game on a full size level, with lots of tunnel ratting and the goal being total domination of the map. The usual Braveheart and Elimination games will follow.
Have a look at the scenario details here and be sure to check out the Slayfest Homepage for the skinny on other events as well as Captain Harloch's weekly attempts at character assassination against me.;)
MMG meeting
The Mapmakers Guild is having what is probably its first meeting since it was formed. This is just an informal high tea in the Sheep Cloning Facility half an hour before Slayfest, next weekend. I am giving advance notice now because I know mapmakers have a habit of not checking news pages very often. ;) Everyone is welcome who wants to join or talk maps or scenarios or whatever else is appropriate, so please spread the word. Saturday May 1st in the SCF at 7:30pm Eastern time.
Philosophy Club today
I keep forgetting to pimp this up because Mine GO BOOM is kind of a hard person to reach and I never know what he's doing. What I do know is that today at 6:00pm Eastern is Philosophy Club, also in the SCF (yes I got sheep on the brain). This is the wildest game in Subspace by far, and the event is slowly becoming rather notorious. Last week, people came early for Slayfest--people who are used to getting 3 frames per second in the Braveheart scenarios--and left all pissed off because MGB's settings were still up. These games raise the concept of the "super zone" to an artform, eye popping yet slow and often very beautiful to watch. This is not to mention that he has a knack for making the Subspace engine do things you probably didn't know it could do. ;) Different game every week; pop in and see what's running.
gl Doom, R.I.P. 1998-1999
Unhappy news from the FPS world, which I am a bit late on reporting but then again I know there are quite a few on-again-off-again FPS'ers out there in the Subspace community. Bruce Lewis' Open GL Doom project has come to an end. Sometime in late March or early April, both the hard drives storing the source code, as well as the backups for those drives, were destroyed in a "mishap" at the author's home. On the 17th of this month, Lewis posted to The Official glDoom Homepage with the conclusion that data recovery houses had been unsuccessful in restoring the files and that the project has now been officially closed. The final version of the program does work rather nicely and is quite a treat to play. You can read the full story on how it met its maker at the official page.
The Wormhole lives
Remember this page? The old Vangel site for Chaos West was brought back to life earlier in the year with infrequent updates; now it has become a full blown independent news site for Chaos Expert, still owned and operated by good ol' Hadar who originally led the Chaos West Vangels. Hadar recently put together a beautifully retiled version of the old Battle Drone map which you can now see running in Chaos Expert or download from his page.
The Wormhole
27 days left
Tractor-beamed from the pages of The Onion. Thanks as always to Pl0k, the wrong Aussie. Yes I know the fucking screenshot turned pink.
Today (or yesterday) in Subspace history . . .
I write my first Subspace macros. =P (1997)
Hadar pens a short manifesto against the Sync Turret. (1998)
Turf Classic returns after some more downtime. (1998)
KrashRun's Tunnels is taken down against his wishes. (April 21, 1998)
RatMan closes the revolutionary Moolie Zone. (April 21, 1998)
My next column is going to be in poem form. With 3 storylines,
all intertwining. With trance music playing in the background.
- Cybrid
Without love where would you be now?
N e w s o f t h e D a y
19 April 1999
Happy birthday to the News Dot Text
Cybrid opened his Subspace page two years ago today. Go Cybrid.
iNET crackup
After much speculation, Baudchaser finally posted an explanation for his sudden resignation to the iNET Main Board, including references to his future plans.
I resigned due to one person publicly stating me as a liar, and iNET supporting this person in public as well. I have not lost my interest in Subspace, nor in serving the community. Hence, its natural for me to look somewhere else to spend my time, use my knowledge and resources to keep Subspace running a decent way.
I feel no obligation to keep my hands off Subspace related web/server/zone related work, even though I know that iNET has been seriously framed, and that [iNET] acted without better knowing.
I can not be responsible (or to blame) for moving parts of my activities elsewhere.
I think you will find out in time, what was right and wrong in this particular situation.
If I support Minbari Warship (subspace.ds98.com) or Ghost Ship (sog.java.net) or others I respect and like in Subspace, that is my personal decision, and nobody, especially iNET, should interfere with that.
I plan to reserve comment until some other time, except to say that I support Baudchaser's and Super.Fly's decisions to quit iNET, and do not consider that departure a blow for Subspace. It is a blow for iNET, and despite self-assured claims to the contrary, BD Vine will not successfully replace them except in their capacity as competent server administrators. For Baudchaser, and probably for Super.Fly as well, it is nothing more than a venue change and a loss of resources. The SSC lives.
RiSC shutting down ?
The Subspace servers at RiSC shut down temporarily over the weekend in response to an hacking incident allegedly involving Gemini Dream. Gemini Knight (no relation) posted a warning to the rest of the community, outlining what happened and asking that Gemini Dream be banned universally for his actions. Apparently the servers were crashed over a disagreement about RiSC's willingness to host a new Zero Annihilation. Despite this seemingly being a temporary shutdown, there is talk of RiSC permanently exiting the picture.
Silently into the night, part deux
In a statement Friday, The Regent expressed concern that he had perhaps been misrepresented. Anyone else a bit worried about this guy? Oh well, at least he's letting his hair down and kicking off his knickers, which is something one ought to do from time to time.
oh yeah and one last thing you test tube baby. For the record get your facts straight. The motions and iniatives broadcast over the SS Central Hud were made by your fellow sysops. Maybe 5% of them were by me personally, so we you talk about confusing don't blame for it bitch. Now I add you to my ignore list on this UIN, I have vented and have no intertest in hearing from you.
Prequel news
No, not that prequel. this one. Rodvik and Juan's long lost single player game, back to haunt them. This was originally kept at Rod's personal page on the VIE homepage. To the best of my knowledge it was thought to be all but lost. Strangely enough, I've had it on my hard drive for months. Enjoy. :)
29 days left
QA Man ownz me. And yes I know the counter isn't working yet. ;)
Slayfest
One of the best yet. I have a lot more to say about it, but...not now. I have too much to say about it. :P
Today (or yesterday) in Subspace history . . .
News Dot Text opens for business. (1997)
Su|c|de publishes the first issues of S3: Subspace Shrapnel. (1997)
Rincewind updates The Unofficial SubSpace Homepage for the last time. (1997)
I sample Speed Zone East and return immediately to West. (1997)
KrashRun's short-lived Tunnels redefines the super zone. (1998)
Turf Classic vanishes; ZERO Annihilation West returns. (1998)
Mafia publishes an experimental dogfighting map, entitled Grid. (April 18, 1998)
Paintball Zone map reaches maturity. (April 18, 1998)
<Gommy> yeah, i know, its just i gotta girlfriend, i didnt realise they
were so occupying, maybe ill trade her for a tamagotchi
We could tear out the floor
and find all the things we had ever lost.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
15 April 1999
Extreme Games going through changes
In response to a sharp falling off in population at what was once the most popular zone in Subspace, hydro and Mongoose are gearing up for a move away from the iNET servers in hopes of a connection where latency is less of an issue for the zone's regulars, who are mostly from North America and Australia. An arrangement with RiSC fell through after Larkins, an administrator of the server bank and long-time enemy of Extreme Games, hinted at revenge for past quarrels in the form of unauthorized tinkering with the zone. The folks at EG are presently looking at several other options.
Olympics canceled; some players rumored to care
In response to alleged apathy on the part of sysops involved in the Subspace Olympics, The Regent packed his bags and sailed off to terrorize another online community. This comes after nearly two weeks of dead silence coming out of SS Olympics Central, an ICQ hub set up to coordinate the events. That UIN has now been summarily closed, the events canceled explicitly with no replacement for The Regent appointed and no movement to replace him apparent.
Peasant's Paladin posted to Warstrike last night with a lengthy lament wrapped in a sermon, all genuine and heartfelt, I do not doubt, but PP has missed the point here. It's important for people involved in running this game to participate in things that benefit the community at large. There are not really a lot of us--twenty or thirty would be a fair estimate--and in my experience good faith and restraint has always been observed in these community efforts. Based on conversations I've had with the sysops I know, most of us went in on the Olympics effort for the simple reason that most of us are willing to help out with just about anything. If you read The Regent's "press releases" for DS Games a couple of months ago, you will probably notice a certain focus on procedure and an almost ferocious enthusiasm which nevertheless came across as mundane.
With the formation of SS Olympics Central, this style blossomed into an overbearing, confusing series of proposals and plans, and degenerated into such minutae that few people really understood what was expected of them. For some reason that still baffles me even after a lengthy thread on the subject, The Regent took our becoming involved at all to indicate enthusiasm and dedication, on all our parts, the likes of which I have never experienced online. Almost all of the zone sysops are among the nicer people I know--online or off--and it didn't surprise me in the slightest to find that many of them were irritated with the way things were going but hadn't confronted him with their complaints. Why cause a fuss? And so, for the most part, we did what was asked of us and nothing more.
The Regent's complaints came to a head two weeks ago, manifested in a form that offended me personally for reasons I won't get into here. At that point I decided I could not get along with him and that only bad would come from the association; SilentDragon took charge of the Sheep Cloning Facility's role in the Olympics and I decided to focus on the scenarios which were to be the opening and closing ceremonies. SilentDragon never heard from The Regent in any capacity, and the flow of information and organization seems to have cut off quite some time before the events were cancelled officially.
Why am I going so deeply into this? Because to me it is clear that The Regent was not motivated by apathy. He complained several times of widespread apathy while the events were still being organized; it was when he was finally told in effect to lighten up that the whole thing came crashing down, and because of this I believe the whole thing was an ego trip all along, perfectly in alignment with the officious press releases and "silently into the night" retirement message. The last thing The Regent told me was that the Olympics were more important than all of this, and that if he needed to put someone else in charge, so be it. Instead, he took his toys and went home, wronging those who were enthusiastic about this and insulting those who had politely put up with it, retroactively transforming their efforts into a complete waste of time. Peasant's Paladin was one of the few people who were honestly excited about these events and devoted to their success, and I frankly don't understand why his outrage is directed at the other sysops. It ought to be directed at The Regent.
Orbital album is out
And three weeks early, too. Haven't listened to it yet. Go get it.
Slayfest
I haven't got time to wax poetic about Armada this update, so I will just say it is going to ROCK. Be assured that there will be a boatload of waxy poetry tomorrow, right here on the ol' Minefield.
34 days left
Hey QA Man, can you make me one of those counters in a black-on-white? ;)
Today in Subspace history . . .
Green spaceship near R7 reportedly blows up a yellow spaceship. (1996)
A blew spaceship and another yellow spaceship who are friends move little balls from the big box to the little tube. (1997)
Unknown vandal burns holes in a wall near G8. (1997)
Unidentified spaceship bumps into the big clock. (1997)
Red and grey spaceships report loud noise from nearby tunnel. (1998)
Blue "space time hole" discovered near the Castle. (1998)
you kidding me, when i first started playing i used to play all weekend while
drinking. it took me about a week to figure out I didn't have to use the mouse
for repels and stuff
- Minbari Warship
So we chase the explosions
from horizon to horizon,
wrap ourselves around the distance
for as long as we can hold.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
13 April 1999
Cybrid interviews Rodvik
This piece was in the works for a long time and it shows. Infantry HQ = owned. Read it! (Cybrid, nice job dude.) Cyb also let me in on the secret elite alpha test for his new Soapbox and it is badass. (Yes I linked to the last column, not the new one which hasn't been posted yet.) Meanwhile, be sure and check out the last three columns.
appy birthday Subspace
A year ago today, the Vangel system went into full effect. Blackie's plan--opposed by many, later considered disasterous by some--was to place the VIE zones little by little under the control of players, as what remained of the Subspace Team saw their time increasingly dominated by other projects while VIE's willingness to support the game eroded.
The process started with ?owner status given to sound individuals, and worked its way eventually to sysop control as time passed and the situation remained stable. The first active Vangel was Chakotay in Turf Classic (see history blurb below), followed shortly thereafter (correct me if I am wrong here) by Peasant's Paladin in War Zone, Tito's Burritos in Chaos East, Hadar in Chaos Nevada, and myself in the Sheep Cloning Facility. Other players were given ?owner but were less active--or, in one case, not aware of it at all--and so not all zones benefitted from this...but some did, and most of those zones did pretty well.
Did we need those owners, later to become sysops, at the time? Probably not. Later, when VIE was truly dead, it was the Vangel system that migrated the VIE zones to new hosts instead of simply watching them die. And while not all of those zones are still alive and well, they brought with them a tradition of standard VIE settings and of propriety in moderator and sysop behavior. The player zones, torn apart at regular intervals throughout 1998 by infighting and moderator abuse, followed the example and matured into something much cleaner. Over the last few months, the two worlds have slowly combined into one, and it's a good world if you ask me..
All appropriate acknowledgment to Baudchaser and Minbari Warship's efforts, and to the player zone sysops, many of whom I work with frequently--but I believe Subspace would be dead and buried today were it not for this well designed, well selected player stewardship over the VIE zones. It was not the individual actions by those owners and sysops that made the huge difference here, but Blackie's choices of dedicated, level-headed people across the board to run those servers. In my opinion we owe him the game. Blackie, wherever the heck you went off to, thanks for that.
New Quake III screenshots
Ten of them! These are the first new images, other than that awful RealVideo movie, since March 5th. The bad part is they aren't up yet, but PlanetQuake should have them active sometime later today. If you have written off Quake as drab, ugly, militaristic, etc...well, take a look again; you may be impressed. God damned gorgeous game.
You want skull fragments? I'll give you skull fragments.
Duh
Early update today with minimal and/or weird news because I am in a bad mood, possibly because I am doomed. Stayed up all night doing really poor research on a subject too broad for me to possibly speak about with any authority...which is something I will need to do in about six hours. After that I am going to come home and sleep like a bum. This means I will not get any work done, be dumped by my girlfriend who will need a ride at some point, and (shudder) miss TurfNight. Anyway so have fun, kids!
36 days left
Please stop quoting the trailer. Please stop quoting the trailer. Please stop quoting the trailer. Please stop quoting the trailer. Please stop quoting the trailer.
Today in Subspace history . . .
SubZone opens. (1997)
Cybrid starts The Lair of the Shark. (1997)
Rodvik releases the Subspace screensaver. (1997)
Turf Zone, renamed Turf Classic, reopens under the care of Chakotay as the first Vangel-run zone. (1998)
Blackie pasted me with the most incredible bank shot I have ever seen. (1998)
SlientDragon opens the Spiral. (April 12, 1998)
Locutus of Borg> How do you get this much shit into one tileset?
Give me a hope I can lean on,
'cause I'll bend in the calmest of winds.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
11 April 1999
Infantry alpha testers notified
Good news for a few, bad news for most: if you got into the alpha test, you've been notified of it by now. Unfortunately the selection was completely random. 150 people are said to have been picked out of 2500 applicants. While Trixter's argument for fairness was a good case against favoritism, it has placed level-headed, active participants in the community on the same level as people who don't really care about the game but heard about the signups one day and figured what the hell, it's a chance at a free game and some bragging rights.
Please note that you MUST respond to the mail you were sent or you will lose your spot!
Personally, my suspicion is that these random signups are just a way of keeping whiners, ass kissers, and beggars out of the mix. Anyone know if Talisman got in? ;)
Good luck to everyone who signed up in good faith. A bunch of people are mad, and another bunch of people are grandstanding by telling the first group of people to calm down. Fuck that second group of people. Be mad. It's Terrible Form, of course, to ever suggest the loyalty that Subspace players have shown towards Harmless Games should be returned in any way, and it's honestly nice to see most of the angry alpha-rejections observing Proper Form here. Anyone who attacks them on the assumption that they feel they ought to be let in--when they haven't ever said this but have every right to, is an asshole. Let people be indignant about this. It's an insult and they should be indignant about it.
Speaking of Infantry. I realize it's been a while since I updated the Harmless Rant. It may be a while longer or I might do it tonight. It's kind of hard because I haven't gotten any specifics on whether or not it is alright to actually talk about the game, and since I can't stand to read the messageboards anymore there is precious little to talk about. Anyway sorry. More soon.
Slayfest !
Man, Slayfest really kicked ass this weekend, but it was weird. Only about 30 people showed initially, and Harloch missed the first few games. The game peaked at only around 50 players, but was also the longest Slayfest ever, remaining at around 30 players late into the night, even seven hours after the game had started. Thanks to Velo and Pikachu we were able to keep things pretty smooth in the early stages. Frankly, CH made a great War Zone style base which I don't think worked well with non-SVS settings, but we soon threw out that map and played Tank Tron. Harloch was back by this time and the game was a bit more well organized. Testing out the game on Friday, I was impressed with the design of the map, which was in the spirit of the old Tron arcade game's tank level. Flying (erm, driving) around this with just a few people was shitty, but I had faith....
Once we got a whole arena in there and a powerball game going...man, there is something just that ominous about those slow moving ships--using the Tank Wars shipset of course--lurking along the corridors, parallel to one another, firing off down the tunnel. Felt like a column of tanks. This was the first time for me that Subspace has really felt like something different and awesome since I was first introduced to the intense dogfighting of exterior base support in Extreme Games. In this end, this scenario became my favorite Slayfest game so far. It was god damn awesome and you should have been there.
Micro Machines...it was nice that we replayed this, because I missed it last week, but the lag was so horrible while this game was going on that it was basically ruined. This is a LONG race, and without teamplay there is no one to hold a place on the course for you should you lag out. You find yourself back in the center with no hope of placing. I am not a huge fan of racing zones, but this was worth it just cuz it's damned cute, especially in lo-res with names turned off.
The other new game we played this week was Blind Man's Blender, which went extremely well and was a lot of fun, not to mention a unique experience. We started off with a bunch of unarmed cloakers trying to evade one armed Warbird with no xradar and end with one very smug cloaker who is the victor. When a cloaker dies, he joins the hunt. This becomes pretty hair-raising once there are only a few cloakers left. I was particularly amazed by B a t t e r y 's evasion of the many, many people sweeping the corridors in an attempt to kill him. He finally was killed, with Assault Craft the last remaining cloaker, but I thought B a t t e r y did a more impressive job overall. (No offense.) I forget who won the other games because I played instead of speccing, sorry. :)
Then came my favorite part...the game falling apart. That's not exactly as evil as it sounds. This is starting to become a Slayfest tradition now...after all the non-hardcore players have quit for the night and are snug in their beds, and the last sysop (usually Harloch or Cohn) is done mopping up the final elimination games, I put up SilentDragon's excellent Chaos Zone map for a powerball-based Rabbit Chase team game. SD is a great maze builder and when this game makes its way into the tunnels it is like the glory days of Chaos West all over again. Next time you jolt awake in your bed during the wee hours of a Sunday morning, fire up Subspace and come into the SCF for some of this.
Woah
Assault Craft posted to the Infantry HQ board with an image of an original map which he has made for a future Slayfest game. It is damned nice looking, and I am a bit dazzled because it is rare to see such good designs--moroever, all original designs--from someone not established. In fact I think this may be his first attempt. Yes you will be playing in this level soon. ;)
AC Rocks the House
38 days left
Not only did I see Star Wars at Mann's Chinese; my parents took me out of school for it. Who said I wasn't a dweeb at heart? :) Thanks then to Dariakus for alerting me to this fuckhead. If the offices of the Detroit Free Press are still standing tomorrow morning it will be a testament to the uncommon civility and tolerance which George Lucas has inspired in his fans. Not really being that much of a fan, I say burn it down.
Today in Subspace history . . .
Well, not much as far as I can tell. Neg Lord posted this two years ago and I saved it for some reason. Maybe because I save everything that doesn't smell bad.
Rev.Spork> i am SO good at beating the hell out of decoys
Hey now love,
why are you so scared of
the light that breaks your darkest days?
N e w s o f t h e D a y
10 April 1999
Tank wars baby tank wars !
That's right folks, baby tank wars! :) Yes, even more tiny than our tiny spaceships we know and love. You're going to dig them. Be sure and get the shipset for this. I know a lot of people out there have never used a shipset; I avoided them for two years for no good reason. They are damned simple to use, and so actually are sound sets. No files named *.bm2 or *.wa2 are created by the Subspace installation; they always come from a .zip file, so by dumping these files into your Subspace directly you have exactly zero risk of overwriting anything. The file linked above contains one .bm2 file, which will replace your ships until you delete it, then everything will magically go back to normal. Don't worry about overwriting it next time we use a shipset either; save the zipfile in another directory for future use. Never ever worry about .bm2 or .wa2 files or you will never experience the fun of using them!
Tank Wars used to be a full time server, kind of a sister zone to SSX Star Warzone. The level is awesome looking and has to be seen to be believed. This is not to be confused with World War, which had flyover tiles all over the place representing grass, so don't worry, you don't necessarily need to play in 640x480 resolution. The map is however pretty dense and very interesting to look at. We'll also be playing Tank Tron, based on the old arcade game. This is new, I have played a little of it in testing, and it is very fun. The map is a brand new Harlochian design and will be perfect for team-based can and mouse games.
We also have a brand new game called Blind Man's Blender, which was Mailliw's idea, Mailliw being the dude behind Quest for the Necronomicon and everyone's favorite mod/spammer. It's kind of like a game of "sardines" in a tiny box. We'll start with one player, no x-radar, trying to kill a lot of unarmed cloakers. When a cloaker dies, he joins the blind man team. Last cloaker alive is the winner. This will probably be incorporated in Circus but it may turn out as the feature event, so get there on time this week. ;)
Sorry to be posting about this late. I was going to update yesterday but, you see......
Jackpot Zone has returned ! ! !
Yes oh yes, JP is back in full force. This happened some time ago but I never really understood it to be as big as it is. This is not a case of a zone coming back and being playable every now and then, not a bunch of "yeah we're getting a game together tonight" spam which most people have some to expect. The game is full blown, big, and constant, averaging at about 40 or 50 players for most of the day and tending to peak at around 70. Big ol' Subspace, the way it was meant to be. They want to remain in the shadows so I won't mention their names, but thank you a thousand times to the people who put this together and made it work. You rock.
Bolero really does retire
In the course of a partial April Fools joke suggesting he believed all the other April Fools jokes, Bolero also announced that he was retiring. Well, he really did retire, closing an interesting, short lived page that was once of the angriest and most out-the-window I've seen in the game, and I will miss reading it. Bolero turned out to be a pretty decent fellow, and I personally think he redeemed himself. Ready his farewell post here. Don't forget! Classic settings, half hour games, and Mafia's unmatched dogfighting level. Tonight in SSCD SCF Dark from 9:00pm to 1:00am. There is no longer a dedicated Speed Zone, and we won't be using the Mafia map again until May, so don't miss this. ;)
TurfNight Tuesday not exactly a dismal failure
At some point last week a typo was exchanged, or I possibly misread the message involved (which I can no longer locate), but TurfNight did not peak out at 3 players but at 13. I still feel the same way, but at least the die hard Turf people showed for the game. Sorry about that.
DS98 disses SubspaceNet
Minbari Warship kind of blasted the folks at Subspace.Net after a file mirroring deal fell through. "I should have known better than to get involved with them," he said. Though it's of little consequence, I thought it was kind of funny so I'm posting it here. Guys, OPEN THE DAMNED PAGE ALREADY. What you've done now is cause the entire community to expect a page that looks like it had three months of work put into its design. No page anywhere looks that good. What are you going to do when your files get corrputed or you decide you want to redo the look of the page? Close it for another three months? It's done; stick a fork in it and just open the page.
39 days left
No, I am not updating this from under a tent outside Mann's Chinese Theatre, but I might be soon. ;)
Today (well, mainly yesterday) in Subspace history . . .
Rodvik premieres third WZ map in War Zone East, featuring a new tileset. (April 9, 1997)
JeffP warns on the dangers of splitting the community. (April 9, 1997)
Tyrsis opens dueling ladder. (April 9, 1997)
I failed to update my page for an actual legitimate reason. (April 10, 1998)
Gotcha, bitch. That'll teach you to touch e.
- Cybrid.
Just when you think it's over,
just when you think it's done,
out of every nowhere
you never see it come.
F i l l e r o f t h e D a y
7 April 1999
Without equal
Echo and the Bunnymen have released their 7th studio album, What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?. At one time they were the greatest band in the world, but late in the 1980s the band fell apart. Nearly ten years later, due in large part to the mediation of Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, they returned with a new studio album, Evergreen--a work of unprecedented strength for a "reunion" project. Two years later, twenty years after the release of their first single, the band's newest album is arguably better than Evergreen, and I think Echo and the Bunnymen are back on the road to immortality. Johnny Marr walks on water. Cheers.
More good news
Kate Moss is buck nekkid in the new issue of British Vogue. Go get it.
Speed baby SPEED
Don't forget! Classic settings, half hour games, and Mafia's unmatched dogfighting level. Tonight in SSCD SCF Dark from 9:00pm to 1:00am. There is no longer a dedicated Speed Zone, and we won't be using the Mafia map again until May, so don't miss this. ;)
TurfNight Tuesday a dismal failure
I wasn't able to make it to the game (and so I of course have no room to criticize), but I've heard tell that TurfNight Tuesday enjoyed a pathetic turnout of only three players. If you are a Turf player, you need to get deeply involved in the game, which is truly on its last legs at this point.
Infantry will be a good game
Thanks to Cybrid at Mostly Harmless as always for extracting the needle from the haystack. Rodvik posted an update on some or other messageboard I usually force myself to read, remarking on new stuff that is being implemented in Infantry. Most notable are an elaborate warp system and highly configurable shortcut keys which will mean I don't have to keep reaching for my mouse anymore. There is plenty of other stuff to read about, too, so check the original post.
42 days left
It's starting to feel like it, too.
And speaking of counting days
Monday was my second Subspace birthday. Would you believe I've only just barely clocked 1000 hours in the game? Guess I should probably start doing this next section again...
Today in Subspace history . . .
(My sources here are few. If you can help me keep this interesting by picking stuff out of news archives or your own Subspace directory, I'd appreciate any contributions.)
Battle of the Zones scenario ends. (1997)
The Romulans (who else?) opens the first mapmaking page. (1997)
Rodvik reveals the secret of ship replacements. (1997)
Jay Hawk publishes N-Deep Conspiracy. (1997...does anyone have this?)
Starcraft is released. (1998)
VRGN takes down its game servers. (1998)
Small version of Mafia Speed premieres at iNET. (1998)
<Shanoyu> i was at the bookstore
<Shanoyu> and there were these five girls in the gay and lesbian studies aisle
<Shanoyu> and they were giggling at this picture of a naked woman
<Shanoyu> it was scary
If you don't listen up you're asking to be told.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
5 April 1999
Paladin's pardon . . .
I received this today from Peasant's Paladin.
Sorry to be away for so long guys, but I am stuck behind a faulty firewall that they put up at school. As of this moment, due to a server error, I cannot even view webpages through the proxy server. I was supposed to be patched through with a full access account 3 weeks ago, but the network admin has not yet figured out how to do it...Until I return to full internet access, this is the only email address I can be reached at. I will also not get icqs :(
PP also expressed some concern for the part War Zone will play in the SS Olympics. Since he will not be able to be active in organizing this in the foreseeable future, the zone may have a difficult time arranging for Olympic trials and putting together a team. If you are interested in helping to organize War Zone's piece of the Olympics, contact your favorite mod, or if you can't then contact The Regent...if you can't find him either then get in touch with me.
Map safety
A couple of friendly reminders regarding good level hygene, soon to be added to the Mapper's Handbook.
Do not store maps in .lvl format on a website. Always use .zip instead. For reasons unknown, .lvl files do not like http transfers, and maps usually become corrupted when downloaded in this manner.
NEVER upload a map to your zone without first opening it in SSME. There is more than one way for a map to get corrupted, and one of these ways is to just sit on your hard drive minding its own business. If you upload a corrupted level to your zone, the server will have to be restarted manually at the machine. Make sure and use SSME rather than SSLed, which sometimes doesn't register a bad file as corrupt.
Use a simple but unique name for Misc:DefaultLevelFile, and don't change it. Every time you recycle with that variable in the server.ini changed, there is a chance that the server will fail to recognize the name change, and you will suffer the dreaded 99% map download crash. This will prevent you from entering the zone to recycle the server again. In the event that this does happen to you, change the name back and load the last map that actually worked into the server ftp under the old filename, and you might recover. Otherwise the zone will need a manual reset. Learn to use the ?setlevel command like a good ?owner and you'll never have to worry about this. :)
Speed Kills
Minbari Warship closed several unused servers running on the DS98 server bank, one of which was Speed Zone SVS. I will be running this as a weekly event in SSCD SCF Dark on Wednesdays from now on. Game time is 10:00pm Eastern (same as the old WSL Events, as I recall), and there will be multiple games depending on interest (if any). Should the event continue, I will change the map each week.
...and, in other SCF news...
TurfNight Tuesday will also be running in SSCD SCF Dark this week. Featured is the oldest version I could find of General Rage's classic Turf Arizona map. We do not have iNET billing access yet at this server. If you want the favored SCF to be hooked into the SSC for future Slayfest, SVS Elim, and Turf events, remind Baudchaser that The Dark Zone is several months older than iNET and the most respectable server host online. Thanks.
Philosophy Club will also be held on Thursday at 6:00pm Eastern in this zone. I have NFI what this will entail except that Mine GO BOOM will be doing his settings-as-artform screwy configurations. If you like to fly through walls, always wanted a powerball that sticks to you, or ever wondered what the hell is at coordinates like W112 and d37, be sure and come by. MGB is out of his mind, but he is the master. ;) And of course he'll gladly put up your zone for a day if you send him your files.
Next stop: War Zone. That's right, the Sheep Cloning Facility is plotting a hostile takeover of War Zone SVS. You're going to eat it, and you're going to LIKE IT. (No, they don't know about this yet. Shhh.)
No one came to the Easter Egg Hunt, but hey...it was Easter. All the good little Subspace players were at church because Christ died on the cross for them...they weren't just fucking around in Chaos Expert or anything like that. Oh well, at least we've got an official holiday mapmaker out of this. Congrats to Conspiracy Theory, if indeed he does want the miserable task. Should he accept it, his next assignment will be a Mothers Day map...
<Pl0k> Hey, guess who was one of the guest therapists on DR KATZ!
<Pl0k> it's the same girl I've been trying to have lucid dreams about. :D
Follow, come with me;
I will feed your enemies.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
2 April 1999
Hehe . . .
Yes that was all a joke. No I am not retiring either. And I have little time to update at the moment but wanted to get rid of the April Fools stuff since it's not April Fools anymore, and link to this, a tally Blue's News compiled of all the stupid practical jokes played by the various Quake-related pages and other major gaming sites. Some of this was extremely funny, though perhaps a bit obscure. Also, while I'm at it....
fuk'n SLAYFEST baby !
I have seen the face of God, and it is Captain Harloch's tileset for the Xalimar Cup races tomorrow afternoon. I will post more about this as soon as I have a chance. This is going to rock, and I am PISSED it had to fall on a day when I have a wedding to attend and won't be around. Maybe I can bully him into an encore performance very late in the evening. ;)
In related news (maybe closely related news), we are opening a second zone thanks to The Dark. The host is in Chicago and we may be running games there, so be sure to check for SSCD SCF Dark or something like that, should you find the old SSCX SCF West empty. Hopefully we will have our pick of venues depending on lag. If we play on The Dark's server, we may well find ourselves without iNET billing support, at least this week. It is being negotiated. DO NOT exploit this to make other players miserable by stealing their names; there will be at least four sysops present who will be able to trace you to your IP and confirm your real identity. :P
YEAH BABY YEAH
SSX fallout
After losing its hosting at SSX due to cutbacks made recently by Xalimar, Hockey Zone is also in the process of setting up a new server at The Dark. Whether or not there will be any actual Dark Zone once they are hosting both the SCF and Hockey remains to be seen....Captain Cohn might use the SCF to run the elim games he used to run in SW Events. The obvious question here is well, why don't we close SSCX SCF West and let someone have to spot who doesn't have a second zone? I considered this, but thought it better to have the zone there for shared hosting of multiple games rather than dedicate it to just replacing one zone, and there is the issue of lag, which can potentially kill a Slayfest game....Philosophy Club will also become an event or series of events. Sorry all I have to talk about today is sheep but it's all I've been dealing with for the last three days. ;)
Easter in the SCF
I don't have the details on this ready yet, but there will likely be some sort of an Easter egg hunt in the Sheep Cloning Facility, probably a blind powerball collecting contest. Conspiracy Theory is making what will probably be a very pastelly and girly looking map for the event. I'll post more about this as I learn/decide more.
And no . . .
I do NOT have a third nipple, and there is no closed alpha test for any such alleged third nipple. Do not write to Rodvik about this as he is very busy working on EverQuest.
And just who the fuck is Pl0k ?
Your guess is as good as mine. He's within striking distance of you Kangaroo humpers though so keep your boomerangs at the ready. ;)
<Pl0k> I've been up for 15 hrs, and that is just unacceptable.
Would you have a wondrous sight?
The noonday sun at midnight...
N e w s o f t h e D a y
1 April 1999
Sorry about that . . .
I wasn't going to do an April Fools joke this year, because I did one last year and I felt the whole thing was just a little bit immature, but after hearing the news this morning from JPL and realizing it would be the last April Fools Day ever, I didn't want to be left out. I do plan on retiring from Subspace however, and will be closing the page soon so that I can start preparations for the cataclysm. The way I see it, if there's really no chance of survival, it's best to be at a vantage point where I'll be able to watch the whole thing when it happens. Anyway it was nice knowing you all. Bye. :(
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