<Shanoyu> nothing makes people happier than watching something EXPLODE
Curse the English day for what it forces us to say.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
29 June 1999
Renaissance
There is a brand new map up in Extreme Games--the long awaited Turf map by Dr.evil and hydro, complete with some configuration tweaks by Captain Harloch and a nasty old powerball with a nastier new function. In what could easily be called a sister work to the kick in the ass Harloch recently delivered to his own Star Warzone, the EG staff have single handedly brought back back Turf style flagging and set a new standard for intelligence and dignity of design in the player zones. Based on one evening in about 1/3 of the map, I'd say it pretty much sets a new standard.
Most importantly, this is fun. Nice big open nonlinear tunnel systems and a powerball that turns your ship into a very powerful but stationary guard turret allow teams to lock down huge sections of the map, but because of this the fighting is all the more hair raising when the lines of defense come under threat. One particularly memorable experience I had on this first night of the map's active life--a teammate and I were sneaking the second ball around the back of the nearest enemy's defenses. This was kind of a chore so we were taking our time at it....I have no idea where the son of a bitch came from but all of a sudden I see this guy clinging to the wall and then his entire team attaches.
At this point I'm thinking do I camp with the ball and hold them with heavy fire, or run for cover, call for backup, and let them take control of the ball? This is the most frightened I have been while playing Subspace in a very long time, because we were deep in the base and had a long term investment in keeping our position. Ever play the Playstation version of Tomb Raider? Ever find yourself two full hours past your save point, hiding in a corner of the room and shaking like a little girl while something weighing at least two thousand pounds stomps around in an adjacent hallway? Well....this is not quite that hard on the nerves :) but I was honestly rattled, and that sort of suspense is just waiting to happen in this map. It is Turf the way it was meant to be played, Turf the way its detractors have never experienced it.
More changes are on their way, as is often the case with Extreme Games--and my hunch is that they are going to bring even further improvement.
Tomorrow's update will be a special feature on the new Extreme Games and the new Star Warzone. Fear me.
Running Zone . . . is about . . . to die . . .
Sources inside Running Zone are hinting at big changes, including but not limited to its impending demise. According to zone insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity, Friday's planned flagging game may involve a special edition collectible map featuring a tiny box with no exit. We at the Minefield will keep you up to date on this important story as it develops.
ASWZ temporarily in SCF
In what is becoming a weekly tradition, Mine GO BOOM has blown up another server. ;) This time it is the poor denizens of A Small Warzone who are temporarily without a home. mDK, sysop of the zone, will be using the Sheep Cloning Facility for a backup server until the dedicated SSCD zone can be put back up. God damn it's disorienting going into the SCF and spawning inside a map with a border. ASWZ faithful who are not yet savvy to the Way of the Wool can find the Sheep Cloning Facility listed on all three directory servers as SSCE SCF West. We are hosted by SSX--former host of ASWZ, actually-- which has occasional local routing problems, so there will likely be some spikes involved. However, SSX is the favored server of Australians because it is in the northeastern United States. If you're an aussie who misses ASWZ or has never played there, now's your chance.
New stuff, old stuff, lame stuff
Out today: Rushmore, The Shining on DVD (finally!), and best of all, the new Luscious Jackson album. Possibly also out today which probably no one reading this cares about: new albums from Kristin Hersh and Red House Painters, and the domestic release of the new Autechre cd. Out last week which I didn't find until yesterday: Storm of the Century, Stephen King's amazing TV miniseries/special from a few months ago. Oh, and NOT out today--in fact not out for another two months, Allah be praised, Soul Reaver: Legacy of Kain. Or is it Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver? Funny, the name of the series is Blood Omen, not Legacy of Kain. Maybe the people who made this game actually had nothing to do with the original and have no right to be putting it out at in the first place? Could be. Dear Crystal Dynamics, Fuck off, eat shit, die, rot, and burn. Thanks. Sincerely, einexile.
Sorry
I forgot to pimp someone and I just realized I haven't been doing my history section, plus there's something else I used to do all the time that I also haven't been doing and I forget that too, plus once again I refuse to proofread this because it is three in the morning.
Help the Minefield help Subspace
I've put up What and Why sections under the Get Subspace link in my left frame, as well as a short primer on getting started. If you have a hapless newbie at your disposal, please consider referring them to it and asking them to send me some mail about what is or is not helpful, what should have been covered, omitted, etc. This would be very helpful to me in honing and trimming down the documents. I would also love to have some illustrative screenshots for the What section and maybe the primer. To that end I'm planning to organize a screenshot taking party sometime in the future, but if anyone would like to send me some good ones that really illustrate the points made on the pages I would appreciate it. (Contact me on ICQ please; don't just mail them to me.)
<Plok> hi im a wrestling homo too
<Plok> THE UNDERTAKER WENT RIGHT THROUGH THE CANVAS!!
Like when you fail to make the connection you know how vital it is,
or when something slips through your fingers you know how precious it is.
And you reach the point when you know it's only your second skin.
Don't fuck with dolly
28 June 1999
OMG WLI LOL
Everyone's favorite super zone bank is down. Gone are such gems as WLI Annihilation II and WLI Zone 66 Fight for you life [sic]. No word at the moment on whether this has anything to do with a certain WLI sysop's threat made during this weekend's Slayfest to ping flood the Sheep Cloning Facility. Frankly, I hope so...and to whom it may concern: You have pleased Dolly, and all who are Truly Flaxen send you ovr gratitude. Baa ram ewe.
Nostalgia . . .
hallu has put up an archive of the old WSL Special Events pages. Back in the Fall of 1998, hallu a.k.a. hallucination ran a kick ass event every single Wednesday in the World Subspace League. They were big and fun and lasted long into the night. In many ways the WSL Special Events were the ancestors of Slayfest, and the now famous All the King's Men has its origins back in those games. Although the event itself is long past, the old pages are now back up again for history's sake. Included are comprehensive details of how each game was played and configured as well as the names of the winners of each match. The configurations might also be posted eventually, for anyone wanting to rerun the events.
WSL Special Events
CFC moves
The Cult of the Final Call has relocated to a new home courtesy of EpiK. and is now under the care of Conspiracy Theory. If you have contacted me in an attempt to join and received no response, I will try and get back to you, but I am no longer running the organization so it would be best to reference the new page and reapply. Conspiracy Theory also wants to reconfirm the old memberships since we have no mail/uin list and we have been out of activity for a while. The new page is sweet and exactly what the CFC needs. Thanks CT.
For those not acquainted with the Cult of the Final Call, it is an organization I started in July of last year dedicated to saving Subspace by undertaking various projects having to do with newbies, visibility of the game, etc. I am leaving the old page up for curiosity's sake and it is linked from the new site. Please do read the requirements before signing up as they are a bit hardcore.
Lousy news for Geocities users
I also received this bit of news from Conspiracy Theory.
Heres some news for you..
Geocities finished their merger with Yahoo, and now all their webpages and member IDs are fucked up, meaning everyone with multiple Geocities accounts is screwed since you have to set up your preexisting account with a yahoo ID.
Basically...you have to have multiple Yahoo accounts to get access to all your Geocities accounts.
Personally, I think it was only a matter of time before two of the lowest scum organizations on the Internet got together and screwed a bunch of people over. If you are running a Subspace page--or even a more general page--on a Geocities account, move it to DS98 or GameHacker. Both are run by reputable people, and as long as you are not storing illegal files on your account your pages will be respected there.
And speaking of webhosting . . .
Wampit has informed me that Warstrike's long running conflict with their providers over DNS entires has been resolved, and the subpages hosted there should probably be back up within the next few days. Warstrike has been under the weather for a few weeks now because of these issues, but the server changeover is finished so they will probably be a reliable host for web pages in the foreseeable future.
Yuck
It pains me to say this, but this last Saturday, for (to my knowledge) the first time in history, Trench Wars had twice as many players in it as were in any other zone. This was not in the middle of the night. There were 53 people in Chaos Expert and 106 people in Trench Wars. Shame on all of you. :P
Oh yeah . . . Slayfest =)
I knew I was forgetting something. This weekend's Slayfest went very well and was probably the best I have been in charge of, thanks largely to Altec's kick ass moderating skillz. We went through seven different Powerball games, each in a different Warball style map, including the original map designed by Arctos (who also invented the game).
Warball is essentially Powerball played out in a nonlinear tunnel system, and was a dedicated zone at iNET for several months. It recently enjoyed a chance revival when I sent Captain Harloch a Turf base which I had unwittingly ripped off from Arctos' map, and without any suggestion from me he altered it into a Warball map and it became a minor staple of his Braveheart map which is well known to the Slayfest faithful.
More recently, last weekend there was essentially no planned Slayfest, because the game I had put together (a 2 team elimination flag game in SSCE Running Zone) basically fell apart as it required too many players. The cast iron skeleton of our player base went back over to the SCF to screw around and played a little Bomberman. When this got boring I stuck together two J12 bases and we played a horribly lagged CTF nightmare for a while. Someone suggested I spawn a powerball to kill safe zone anchors with, then it occurred to me that I could stick together two Chaos West tunnel systems and do the same thing. I figured hell, why not put in some goals for the ball....bingo, Warball returns again, and those tunnels were wonderful to play it in.
So for the last week or so I consolidated the existing Warball maps, fixed up the Chaos West arena, made a new map of my own and commissioned one from Pikapoo, and come Saturday night we had a nice set of games. Thanks to Altec we blew threw them quickly--20 minute games with minimal wait inbetween.
The success of the different maps varied. Pikapoo's and The Romulans' maps both had problems with too much wall passing and easy attaching, and my own map was disappointing because it was far easier than I had expected for players to fast break right to the goals, and there was a lot of wasted space on that map. Pikapoo's was great until the wall passing sort of ruined it--a problem I could have fixed in the settings had there been time, but it was better to just tear through and move on. Arctos' original map was by far the best, and for the end of the event we went back to the original version of it which had been used for a game called BattleTurf. (I took out the flags and put in some goals.) Try as I may, there is just no beating an Arctos map. Props again to the master. You shoulda been there. :)
Aside from Altec, who saved my ass more times than I can remember, I want to also thank Khris Kruel for picking up after me while Altec was stuck lagging out of the game. After the main event both of them ran some solid elimination touraments and these were a lot of fun while I was there. (I had to leave.) Thanks also especially to Pikapoo for all the work he put into his map--I thoroughly enjoyed the design of it and the problems involved were my own fault--and lastly, again, in all seriousness, to whoever's name is spray painted on the ruins of the WLI server bank. The threat made against the SCF was serious and the retaliation is appreciated.
Captain Harloch returns next week. Not a damn one of you is to miss it this time. :)
Messy
I haven't got the time or energy to proofread this update. Sorry if I got the boom in the shot.
Yes, a map with the geographical locations of many Eblanaites,
useful in targeting small scale nuclear strikes, etc..
- SoSD
I'ma teach you not to touch my shit.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
23 June 1999
Outlaw sysop strikes again
Shanoyu has posted at the Misc.Txt on a topic I won't really go into today because I am a bit close to the issue and need to speak with a few people before I can comment on it. In a short piece that agrees with statements made to me yesterday by other sources, Shanoyu claims that The Ghost Ship, sysop of SSCU Trench Wars, used a third, unpublished variant of the Twister cheat to hack sysop power in a new competing Trench Wars server run by SilentDragon, who is the castle map's author--and then proceed to shut the server down.
Obviously if any of this is true, The Ghost Ship (not to be confused with the better known sysop of Pro League) has created what could easily become a with-me-or-against-me scenario pitting a good number of zones against Trench Wars' host, iNET, which also runs the billing server. Whether or not it is true hasn't yet been proven, but the accusations are consistent with claims made in the past by The Ghost Ship.
Level design is everything
I realized earlier today that the powerball I described in my last update was nothing more than Warball in a different map. It was, however, a completely different game. Then it dawned on me that I'd already ripped off Warball once, again with an entirely different effect and creating an entirely different dynamic. The funny thing about all this is that against Arctos' carefully designed and wonderful original Warball map and my own Arctos-ripoff which turned out to be far more fun to play in than I had expected...a simple 5 minute job of flipping and connecting mirror images of a great design from a map that otherwise isn't always impressive put both of those newer maps to shame.
Then again, the old Tunnels have been played to death. I knew to choose them, and I knew how and where to connect them. We are all aware of why they are so damned good even if those reasons might be a little hard to nail down specifically in casual conversation. Maybe I'll go into it a bit more later but right now I am again in awe of the endurance of that tunnel system.
What a waste
It irritates me that administrada running around discussing the future of this game is in fact the only sign of life marring an otherwise still and silent present. In fact the only people in Subspace who are doing much of anything at all are those who are wrapped up in this discussion. The order of the day among the community at large seems to be stagnation and nostalgia--protection of the status quo because a slow drain is still less painful than a pissed off player base.
The popularity of Extreme Games and Star Warzone has fallen dramatically--apparent the players' response to those zones' continuing dedication to keeping the game fresh and circulating. Meanwhile, the three most stagnant zones in Subspace--Trench Wars, Death Star Battle, and Chaos Expert--have recently been joined by revivals of Dueling and Alpha. In defense of Alpha Zone, Minbari Warship switches things around now and then, but never seems to generate much enthusiasm by doing so, and the zone always goes back to its roots. The five most popular zones in Subspace are all absolutely static.
Are people living so free and easy and close to the edge these days that for escapism we turn to tedium? This goes beyond a simple distate or fear of the new; no one seems much interested in digging up the old gems either. Considering the overwhelming hostility to change within the Subspace community combined with this total and unapologetic disregard for what a few of us would call "the classics", I am forced to conclude that a great many of the players who remain in this game are here simply because they lack the computing power, bandwidth, or patience to become involved in anything else.
Subspace is not dead, but it is the oldest living action MPOG by almost a year--and it's looking at some competition in the future. Do you really want to spend your last year or two in this game--a game that probably once appealed to you for its freshness and depth--playing out the same old stratagems, standoffs, and endgames, over and over again? When the community has moved on and there isn't a single active game server left, will you say to yourself, "I miss Subspace, but at least I enjoyed it to its fullest, for all it had to offer"?
When was the last time another player in this game surprised you? When was the last time you shut off your computer after a long session of Subspace, knowing with certainty that at the end of your life you will not consider that evening wasted?
And another thing. None of this is helping the Cause. While it's true that most of us are courteous and helpful to new players, in the end we as a community make for a dead boring host. A gamer experienced in Quake or Starcraft or Ultima Online who stumbles into our realm is almost certain to marvel at the depth and intelligence of the game, only to conclude that in spite of this encouraging vibe there is really nothing going on here.
He'd be right. There is nothing exciting happening in Subspace today. Why do so many of you fight so hard to assure that this remains the case?
oh yeah, Im sure theyll care. half will say: "whats slayfest?" others will say
something like: "ez $" or "stfu son" the rest will '?ignore jimbobwey'
- jimbobwey
Anybody know my skills what the deal,
Anybody feel my skills is the real
Anybody want to come fuck with steel
Anybody gonna get they whole body peeled.
Q u i c k i e
22 June 1999
Good weekend
Response to my second map in Running Zone this last Friday was pretty positive and the game went on for at least five hours. This coming Friday I'll probably start with it then shift to WolfPerson's zone midway through.
Slayfest started out on a very disappointing note. The game I planned did not happen at all so the five or six people who came piled into the SCF for some stupid neg games. These evolved from a Trench Wars type game set in two opposing J12 spirals to a powerball game played in there and finally to a powerball game played in two opposing Chaos West tunnel systems that I threw together in a matter of minutes. This was one of the funnest damned games I have ever played in Subspace. Goals were in the center of the spirals (where the safe zone goes) but the real action happened in the tunnels between, with all the sneaky cat & mouse stuff you would probably expect if you are an old Chaos West regular. Harloch came by for a few games and loved it so I think we'll see a bit of this at the upcoming "real" Slayfests. This coming weekend should be the last of the AntiSlayfests as CH finishes up his school semester.
And then I spent a much needed 48 hours offline. Woot. Now that was fun. Except for being trapped in my house with no coffee.
New stuff out
Today: Superb new albums by Echo and the Bunnymen, Missy Elliott, and the Chemical Brothers. I know because I have friends in high places. ;) Well and the Bunnymen record has been out as an import for two months. I already wazed poetic on this one, and consider it a shoe-in for best album of the year thus far, so that's old news. The new Missy Elliott is far better than the last one, which in my opinion was mainly filler with a few really strong tracks. This is a full blown album with a continuity to it and a nice feel going through. And face it, she just rocks. The last Chemical Brothers album was so bad that I felt very stupid after impulse buying the new one, only to be pleasantly surprised. The new one is possibly better than the first album. Oh, and the new Autechre album (actually an 11 track, 70 minute EP; go figure) should be out as well. Cheap too; import price was $9. Verdict is still out on this one.
Lame
Lot of complete bullshit going on in our so-called "community" that is looking more and more like a pecking party in recent weeks. More on this tomorrow or something. I suppose it's early morning and I might end up adding to this update. Meanwhile, goodnight.
Sorry
Not proofing this, just going to bed. No offense. :)
<The-Pretender> Leigh...you just ruined my boner for eternity
The senile sea numbers each single
Slim silvered stone.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
18 June 1999
I'm leaving you for a monster
No, I'm not quitting Subspace to make maps for Trespasser II, but at present Running Zone seems to be taking up much of my time between slinging mud at the players and working on a new map to make up for the vault of horrors I unleashed on the poor bastards last weekend.
I have some interesting stuff which I will post late tonight but at the moment I need to do quite a bit of tiling. I probably won't add more to this update but check early for the next one if you are rant-starved. ;)
Anyway come to the game in SSCE Running Zone tonight at 7pm if you're able and want to play some good SVS. The new map has actually been pretty well received by some of my previous detractors.
No Slayfest this weekend ?
The Sheep Cloning Facility has crashed again, this time without explanation, Captain Harloch is still unable to run any games, and the scenario we were hoping to do (FlippMode's Aliens Vs. Predator probably won't happen for lack of a map, lack of a zone, lack of ability to test anything, etc. What I *might* do is run some big ol' elims in Running Zone instead. They would of course have to be SVS and adhere to basic standards for flagging games, but i'll set it up for some large team elimination games or something if it doesn't disrupt an ongoing game. If this is an idea that appeals to anyone I need to hear from people about it first so I know it will be worth doing.
Links
I'm going to be messing around a great deal with the left frame over the next few days. If something doesn't work or sends a page to the wrong frame or something ugly like that, please let me know so I'm not doing something embarassing for te next month without knowing about it. ;)
That's a mighty big bug you have up that ass of yours.
- Cybrid
You're like a boat drifting on a lonely sea,
and the stars and moon shine down on me.
Down, down the river we go,
calling out for dear life.
m y a s s
14 June 1999
Actually it's the 15th now but who's counting
I swear I wrote all of this on the 14th. Except this part. Erm. Actually the date is an outright lie. It's the 15th. I should really change it.
Scenarios of Irony . . .
People who don't play Turf and never did, telling me I must not know anything about Running Zone because the level I uploaded on Friday looks like a Turf Zone map to them. Also, I haven't spent enough time playing in big open maps to know that a small, dense maps just don't work. Funny, because until this weekend the only zone that ever ran RZ flag games in small, dense maps was the Sheep Cloning Facility. I guess I just haven't spent enough time in the ol' Sheep Cloning Facility to understand that such games are no fun. Sog Java Net for all the fun.
For what it's worth, the name Run! comes from the title of a song on the Final Fantasy IV soundtrack. The name of my upcoming second Running Zone map cannot be reprinted here for reasons of decency.
If I've disappointed anyone by suggesting anything was about to happen with the old Scenarios of Irony zone then I apologize. I can put it up for a day sometime if it'll make you feel better.
Slayfest Resurrection
With no end in sight to the ongoing Famine of Harloch, I was sure we'd end up with no Slayfest this coming weekend, but actually there is a very good chance we will do a Big Scenario this coming weekend by FlippMode. Watch this space and others like it for new on the long awaited (read: almost a year) Aliens Vs. Predator scenario. While I'm at it, special props to Pikachu, the official Zeta ambassador to the Sheep Cloning Facility.
omg latte
Best damned cup of coffee I've had in maybe two years, and it came from a Starbucks if you can believe that. yes I drink lattes. Yes I can handle regular coffee and I even grind a kick ass blend you would not believe, so lay off me. ;)
new Suckage is out
Probably my favorite page on the entire web right now. Not quite as funny as The Onion but also not nearly as disappointing. Read it religiously over at the Shugashack.
<shanoyu> My goal in life is to incorporate =P into standard chess notation
The world is a vampire, sent to drain.
Secret destroyers hold you up to the flames.
the angriest neg in the world
11 June 1999
I have nothing nice to say to anyone
Maybe tomorrow. Well, I do have nice things to say to some people. You know who you are. Thanks. No thanks to anyone else. I'll update as soon as I can write something about Subspace without having to delete it and start over.
You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but
you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
- Marilyn Manson
Bells
High on a hill
History chimes
And you want a new beginning
N e w s o f t h e D a y
10 June 1999
Are my hands clean ?
Shitty news about a fellow Subspacer's brush with death over at the NMEBASE. Cabbit posted at the Zeta board regarding an attack on Jigga_3 which left him in the hospital in critical condition. If you pray please say one for a fellow pilot. And stop opposing measures to lock these people up permanently.
More info on this at Harloch's page.
Where is Alpha Zone?
Minbari Warship has moved Alpha Zone from his own DS98 server to the SSX server, in order to accomodate the growing population and address lag issues. SSX has, in my observation, been making a swifter recovery from recent crippling lag than anyone had expected. Alpha players should add SSCX Alpha West SVS to their Favorite Servers list. Please help spread the word on this as Alpha is in fact beginning again to function as a real newbie zone, and is seeing quite a bit of new blood lately.
Run !
That's the name of my map. Sorry I lied to you. And fuck me I forgot The Spy Who Shagged Me is coming out tomorrow. Maybe I'll screw up Jackpot on Sunday instead of tomorrow, but you never know, so keep an eye out.
You're not going to like the map, but it will give you an easy target on which to focus your pent up premillennial angst.
The contest is still on, or whatever it was. Contest? I think it was a contest. Anyway, the first person to identify the inspiration for the title Run! cgets probs and a big kiss.
Today in Subspace History
einexile waited too damned long to update and it was midnight again by the time he got to the history section. Also there is a creature with a high voice in the other room beckoning to me. Must obtain creature. Mmm.
Fuck you. It's a green goat.
- Cybrid
If I knew now what I knew then,
I'd wonder how, not wonder when.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
9 June 1999
TV
I guess there is an important television program starting soon cause there are people getting ready to watch TV on all the living room couches around. In order to avoid the mobs of hapless closet Trekkies I have decided to go out and catch a movie. ;)
OMG JP RZ WTF
In response to a recent outcry among the population of Jackpot Zone over the recent map change, I've reassured him that the map will only be up temporarily as Witch Doom has squatters rights on the thing. Since the target audience for Jackpot and Running clearly enjoys no overlap with the Pro League communtiy, I'm going to mess with people's heads a little. Friday afternoon a brand new map will go up, designed for smaller arenas and greater shock value. This is going to be a map that is more difficult to fly in, a map in which players will be easily cornered unless they are extremely careful and thoughtful in the decisions they make on a moment to moment basis. here will be more like it, and Jackpot--soon to be returned to its proper name, Running Zone--is going to be leaving the past where it belongs.
Wait
I'm not done updating yet but that stupid program is on.
Dear God
That was bloody awful. I'm sorry but I'll never understand what people see in Babylon 5. Oh well, as long as it keeps Minibar happy...and the game looks good. Man, I haven't had a harder time thinking of something nice to say since...well, I won't say it..........
Bah
The new Autechre disc looks to be pretty disappointing. But listen to fucked up sound samples anyway by clicking on the big Levi and fishing around the Warp site.
Hurry!
That's the name of the map. Genuine simulated Dolly® Prize™ to the first person who can tell me where the name comes from. :) We regret that Eblanaites are not eligible for this prize.
If no one is complaining, then you've done something wrong.
- SoSD
You reap what you sow:
put your face to the ground.
Here come the marching men,
your colours wrapped around.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
8 June 1999
Subspace: A New Hope
No, it's not yet another directory server, it's the best map designed for a player zone since Starseed kicked off the post-VIE era a year and a half ago in Shine World. But wait, there's more--it's by Captain Harloch? WTF? That's right, when the Cap'n isn't turning out a map a week he tiles like a bad mofo. Mind you he does this with a great deal of help from Cuervo Muerte, whom he credits as a co-author of the map. (You've seen Cuervo's work on tons of Slayfest maps and in the funky Shockwave intros to the various Zetasquad pages.) The brand new level made its premiere in SSCX Star Warzone early Tuesday morning and differs drastically from previous maps made for the zone, with roomy nonlinear bases and campless flag chambers. It's a tunnel rat's wet dream and a mediocre pilot's living nightmare. Best of luck to CH on this because the differently skilled are going to eat him alive and throw his corpse to the dogs.
Allow me to step out of my newsy self here for an aside, because I realize all my mooning sounds like a sales pitch or a review from Nintendo Power. It's not. I've enjoyed Harloch's maps but never loved them. While usually superior to most player zone maps, they were usually linear and full of cramped areas, without any strategic antechambers, disincentives to camping, or in-base combat areas. I've not been through the new map in its entirety, but in my initial opinion it is a pro quality War Zone map with some very nice touches, some wonderful bases, and a combs system which rewards piloting skill better than most I've seen. If any among you miss War Zone, get yourselves to Star Warzone because the game there is becoming more and more satisfying with each succeeding change.
Arctos RZ
Over the weekend I switched Jackpot Zone over to Running-style settings and put up Arctos' famed "Running/Rabbit" map. Since this level has become a trademark of Witch Doom it will only run in JP until the end of the week. Friday will see the glorious return of Melted. The untimed RZ settings will stay up indefinitely.
News flash
Playing Subspace with a gamepad really kind of sucks. :P
Hot new zone !
I'm going to put up a new zone just for the hell of it. I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. Fear my k'rad zone oppin skazillz.
I'm going to have to quarantine my computer after visiting that site
- Pl0k hr>
Show me the way to go home.
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
7 June 1999
Long, bad day; no news 4U
I wanted to come through for you, my loyal readers, but it's late and I have this image in my mind of spending tomorrow with a relief of the home row keys imprinted in my forehead. There actually is a bit of very good news, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I'll say that this piece of good news is presently featured in SSCX Star Warzone. Play there a bit, then come back here and we'll talk...
I really would post more except that I am so damned tired and I don't know what's going on in the world. I can't even remember what the hell elseI was going to post. Word has it there are finally samples up from the new Autechre release at the Warp Records site. I'm hardly going to type in an href under the present circumstances but if you click on my Lev it will take you over there.
History makes its triumphant return tomorrow or something. For now, thanks to everyone who came back to Chaos West on the second day my map ran there. :)
Please don't send me any fake 44444's as they will depress me. A real one will make me very happy of course, but otherwise I'm in a mood to put you in my kill file. :P
Here's Kate. God bless the web.
Goodnight.
He is not "stupid", but he suffers from mental carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Baudchaser
Don't think 'cos I understand I care;
don't think 'cos I'm talking we're friends.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
6 June 1999
Slayfest sputters out
Well I said I wasn't going to do it again, I went and did it anyway, and I guess I got what I deserved for trying. In spite of old-style scenarios with no new ships to learn, the smooth execution that this simplicity allowed, and some of the best promotion we've ever had, the game maxed out at a puny 35 players and remained between 20 and 25 for much of the night. What's even more discouraging is that this was not a case of people coming and going as sometimes happens. One night a couple of months ago we held 30 people for about 7 hours, but it was a different 30 people every couple of hours.
Not so here. Those who showed up at the beginning stayed for the most part; the problem was that very few people even came in to see what was going on. To my mind, this is unquestionably either an unwillingness to play SVS or an unwillingness to play with myself as MC. Either way I am out of the picture as far as the greater SNS is concerned and will go back to making my goofy maps for Harloch. He'll be gone next weekend as well, but someone else--probably Mine GO BOOM--will be taking over this time.
Having said that, thanks to everyone who did come and especially those who stuck around and gave each new game a try. We moved through them fairly quickly, often at the request of a die hard Slayfester, cuz these people are the reason the game runs at all. Shanoyu's map wasn't working out--and I take responsibility for that because he didn't design it for this game. (Personally I enjoyed it.) We used Gommy's old Alien Resurrection map instead, which has not been played in since Dawn of the Dead, so all you punks who keep asking us to rerun DotD before Halloween missed out.
By then we had lost most of our players, so I put up Bomberman for a while and then we fought team style in my funky Zen Dueling map. This was really the best part of Slayfest because the arena size held out at a small but stable number, and we played on like that for a couple of hours with just the loyal SNS elites and no one else. Special thanks to Khris Kruel for his endless dedication to the event not to mention good advice and much needed boosting of my morale.
New map for Bomberman
Pikapoo has taken on the daunting task of creating a brand new Bomberman map--something I was unable to do even though I invented the zone. My second Bomberman map is one of the worst ever made, and I didn't even learn anything from watching it fall on its ass. You've got your work cut out for you, dude. Good luck.
Playground explained
Suicide revealed the nature of an "experiment" that has been running at the Sog Java Net in a messagebase parallel to the Pro League main board, called the Playground. Kind of intriguing what he was playing with here. Props to LilSerf for being the first to figure it out.
Cafe Eblana, buh bye
I quit IRC and deleted all my DALnet servers (I still need the client for Tribes), so you won't find me in #eblana anymore. I am however always on ICQ in invisible mode, or at least I might be. :P Respect and love to the three or four IRC users worth keeping; you know who you are. I've been using that network for a few years and in retrospect it was an almost complete waste of time. Fun on occasion but not nearly worth the trouble, and the crowd has gone from being a bunch of likable gamers to a snakepit consisting largely of angry, sex starved shut-ins who have cybered practically everyone they know. Eblana has become the internet they warn you about in the mainstream news media. I'm taking my piece of it and getting the hell out.
I've also purged my squad ranks, and the Space Police roster now consists solely of myself, monocle, SoSD, SilentDragon, Shanoyu, and RuneCaster.
This weekend in Subspace history . . .
Someday you'll regret it.
irst sketch for my third Chaos Zone map, The Lunar Subterrane--still unfinished. (1998)
Gommy completes his Frontier Zone map. (1998)
Second map for Trench Wars completed, the last prior to SD's famous Castle map. (1998)
31 Flags finally goes up in Chaos West. Thanks Hadar. (6.5.98)
Here is a guide I made for it.
Armada runs in the Sheep Cloning Facility for the first time. (6.5.98)
The new Smashing Pumpkins album is out. Yes, this did matter. (6.5.98)
APB out on Dev's Apprentice, author of the Battle Drone. Still no luck. (6.5.98)
My first visit to Dueling Zone. (1997)
<Shanoyu> dumbassed jedi.
<Shanoyu> 'shrouded this boys future is' fuck you.
yyyyut dut dut dut, d'dut, dah!
ayah dalah d'dah dut, dah!
N e w s o f t h e D a y
4 June 1999
My Slayfest™
Captain Harloch is going to be gone tomorrow, and can't seem to make up his mind whether there will be no Slayfest or if I will be running it. Read NMEBASE for details. In a strongly worded statement early Friday, I reassured Slayfest fans that there will be a Slayfest this weekend, but we're going to try something unique and that will also help the community. First, we're going to see whose computer can load 1,048,576 tiles of safe zone without crashing. While we're doing this, Mine GO BOOM will give a cooking seminar focusing on Cajun style deserts and Pl0k will be holding a chess tournaments in the Chess Squad chat. To participate in these events, you MUST join either the Chess Squad or the Subspace Culinary Society. Admission is free.
Hmm. Can you tell I haven't slept?
Actually the scenario is called Ancient Kingdoms. There's no story or blurb or shipset, so don't go off looking for one. The idea behind it is very simple...pick your favorite old castle from Subspace days of yore, run there with your flags, and defend the place as though it's been in the family for thirty generations. I'll warn you now that the map's going to look like shit but it'll be a trip own memory lane for some; for others it will be an education in the works of the Great Masters.
After that we're going to play Mapper's Comeuppance. This week's victim is Shanoyu. I'll plop him in the middle of his horribly cramped second War Zone map which he made solely as an act of revenge against WZ players (I'm not joking), and whoever catches the bastard wins a prize. ;)
(It's actually an excellent map, just not for War Zone...)
Jackpot Zone today
I have not had time to rally the troops or get the word out this week, so if you know someone you can drag to this event, please do. The game starts at 7:00pm eastern time tonight. Arctos RZ will be up for the duration. This may be your only chance to enjoy a big SVS game in an amazing level that has only thus far been used in super zones.
Your friendly neighborhood mods include Suicide, unholyone, Byobong7, Pikapoo, Shanoyu, and Wizard64. They are free to consider this a mod meeting as well. :)
Two great stereotypes in one sandwich cookie . . .
The damage thus far: Watto is a racist caricature of Jews, Arabs, Hispanics, Cajuns, and Italians. The Federation cornholes are Japanese, Korean, and German. Jar Jar Binks is African American, Jamaican, gay, and something else I forgot. Gosh, do you think maybe someone has an agenda here?
How wude.
I updated late yesterday
Just in case you missed it. :) Nothing important though, or even anything bordering on readable, actually, heh.
Oh yeah
I lied last month. June 1st was this page's year-and-a-half birthday, for what it's worth. My god would you look at all that mess? I'll give someone $50 to sort it for me. (Hurry. Pretty soon I'm not going to have $50.)
<Shackled> hey
<Shackled> stop talking about this
<Shackled> i haven't seen it yet
<Shackled> :P
<Switchback> Then get the hell out of here. The moratorium is over.
keep on jumpin'
let your body grind
everybody pumpin'
til you see the sun in the sky
(thanks ZombieBobie)
N e w s o f t h e D a y
3 June 1999
Delays, delays....
Doin my lax updating thing again. There is a lot of stuff I need to post but I am sort of short on time lately and things are going to get into a grindstone situation sometime soon as I will have a lot of work to do over the summer. Fortunately I am likely getting a news script put together here soon to make things just a little quicker. Bear with me, I'll be around; I'm just going to be around in a scarce sort of way.
Racer ownz me
The new Star Wars pod racing game is either the best game I've played since Subspace came out, the best game I've ever played, or a very disappointing game with an incredibly strong opening. his sucker seriously makes Wipeout XL look bad. It's gorgeous, the gameplay is solid, the pods are very well balanced which is practically unprecedented in futuristic racers, track design is brilliant and very fun wth a lot of jumps and hairpins and other neat landscape details. Best of all is the depth of control, which is very complex. I find my fingrers doing more dancing around on the keyboard more than they do in Subspace or Quake II, in fact.
All that, and this beautiful game--probably the best looking game around right now except for Quake III--runs smoothly on my mid-to-low end system: Pentium Pro 200 with 64 megs and a 12 meg Voodoo 2 card. I don't yet know how to check it or if it is possible, but I am getting better framerates from this game than I do in Quake II, in fact.
On the down side, at least so far: No TCP/IP support and no level editor. And I hear the splitscreen mode on Nintendo 64 sucks hard.
Still. Game of the year easy.
No more update
Sorry, I am out of time and don't really know what's going on today. Please remember the Jackpot game tomorrow afternoon and spread the word. I have decided to put up Arctos' genius RZ map for the duration of the weekend.
Wait
I would like to mention however that contrary to what certain people may think, the Space Police are still the best squad in Subspace, and when we actually manage to stage an invasion we can still turn any location in this game into our own personal love fortress and hold it for as long as we please. The other night we sat in the Battle Drone castle floating bomb lines out all four sides and watching all the sissy duelers run into them and blow up. For like an hour we did this, and you punks couldn't even get inside. Then we took J12, then we took the juncture southeast of there, sat in it, barbequed anyone who came near us and at their gizzard too. You Chaos dudes are nice guys and all, but I gotta say this, sorry. EZ. :)
hr>
ios this the keep on dancin song? let your body fly let your
body move you till you see the ..something or something
- Captain Harloch
Keep on jumpin;
let ur body fly.
D a y o f t h e N e w s
1 June 1999
It's here
sscentral.gigaparts.com has arrived, courtesy of GigaParts by way of SuperFly and Baudchaser. Baud posted the news at Gamehacker early this afternoon.
As of about five minutes ago the new and improved SSCentral software is up and running on our faultless NT Server. No longer will we have to worry about the good grace of VieUK or some bunch of bloody germans who leach money out of SS players. Baud and SuperFly are working with Minbari Warship of DS98 on this, and it is likely that sscentral.ds98.com will act as a backup for the new server should there ever be a problem.
It's back
Fiery called VIE UK this morning and read them the riot act; shortly thereafter the old directory server at sscentral.vie.co.uk went back online. For those who choose to use this server, I urge you to double-list your zones and check both directory listings for new game servers. In my opinion, the return of the VIE UK server to active status, while a gracious act by the company hosting it, is not really a good thing for Subspace because it leaves us once again in a situation where the community depends--at least in part--on a company whose service is not necessarily reliable.
More later
Just posting the breaking news. Check back tonight for some juicy stuff. I'll post the history section down here; the rest will probably be up top.
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