<conspiracy-theory> son of sam donaldson?
<SoSD> If I were his son, I doubt I'd be talking to you low lifes
Then she became a fly
A fly all in the air
And he becamee a spider
And fetched her to his lair
N e w s o f t h e D a y
28 July 1999
Assault Craft's condition
As reported at the Gazette, CybeRise called the hospital where Assault Craft is staying on Monday night, and confirmed that he has in fact been admitted there. Also, either the hospital or AC's friend Cap 'N Hands has cleared up the matter of life support: he was on life support to begin with, but was later taken off of it, so his condition actually improved at some point rather than worsening. He remains in stable condition but in a coma. CybeRise also made available a special banner for those wishing to show their support in the game. Good luck and get well AC, we are hoping and praying for your recovery.
ep__ server to close
ep__ posted to the Center Ice main board with the unfortunate news that his server--which is presently home to A Small Warzone, Hockey Zone, and SilentDragon's recently opened Trench Wars Dark--will be closing on Friday afternoon. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of Hockey Zone, which begins a new series this weekend. Trench Wars Dark will be taking the place of SSCE (coming soon) server adjacent to Dueling Arizona, and the project slated to go up there in early August has been postponed until a later time. It's a safe bet that the other two zones will spend the weekend either in the Sheep Cloning Facility or Delta Zone unless they can find new hosts before then.
The ep__ server bank started earlier this year as a new host for The Dark Zone, one of the old super zones from early retail days (and the first player zone ever mentioned on this page). Later it ran a second Sheep Cloning Facility (named SCF Dark) during the months when the SSX server was plagued occasionally by packetloss.
Directory servers and Dueling Arizona
sscentral.gigaparts.com and sscentral.ds98.com are down at the moment. For reasons that are not yet clear, the Dueling Zone server is apparently unable to list with the VIE UK directory server, so while the Gigaparts backups are out of order you will need to add it manually as well as its Trench Wars sister zone mentioned above. The IP for the server is 198.88.20.161 and the ports are 21000 for Dueling Arizona and 21500 for the new Trench Wars Dark.
Hyperspace at Telefragged
After a short delay, Hyperspace HQ has officially reopened at Telefragged under the direction of Yazour, after leaving the generally crappy Warzone® Gaming Network©. To those who have been playing 2D neg games nonstop for the last three years ;) you should know that Telefragged is a serious and relatively huge 3D gaming network, and this is very encouraging news not only to those of us in the Hyperspace camp but for anyone concerned with increasing visibility for Subspace. Oh and the page looks about a hundred times nicer than it did before. ;)
War Zone board to be moderated
Perkins split the War Zone Main Board into two sections, a moderated suggestions board and a free-for-all flaming and trash talk board. Thank god. Then again he also cleared the existing board without warning. Oh well, at least you can't accuse the guy of being predictable . . .
SSCon 99
Minbari Warship updated DS98 with new information about the upcoming third annual Subspace Convention, including room prices. For more information as this event comes together, check back with the over at GameHacker.
w00t 50k
It's about damn time, too, stop listing me below Subspace.Net please. >:P
Anyone get a screenshot? :)
Today (and yesterday) in Subspace History . . .
My kingdom for a script that will help me search the hard drive for all this crap. :P
Gommy finalizes plans for Frontier Zone, the first VIE scenario in over a year. (1998)
Gommy becomes the only guest news poster this page has ever had. (1998)
Happy 2 year birthday to General Rage's immortal Turf Zone Arizona map. This was the final draft of a map that saw several revisions. The original map was uploaded several days earlier. (1997)
Prototype for my second Chaos Zone map, The Li'll Guardians, is completed. Its purpose is to revive VIE Chaos West through design for a smaller arena. While the level saw some good RZ action in the SCF, it was never used in Chaos West, whose Mafia map gained a loyal cult in August. The zone was closed in early September. (7.27.98)
The first to type "hydrocantpourdrinksfromakeg" will be king for their team
- Captain Harloch
Then she became a hare
A hare all on the plain
And he became a greyhound dog
And fetched her back again
N e w s o f t h e D a y
26 July 1999
Assault Craft is on life support
CybeRise of SubspaceNet and the Subspace Gazette has been in touch with Assault Craft's friend Cap 'N Hands, who originally posted the bad news this last friday. Yesterday it was reported that AC had suffered two bullet wounds, to the stomach and one of his lungs, and that he was in a coma. Today CybeRise has found out that AC is in fact on life support. We do not know if his condition has worsened or if this has been the case since he slipped into the coma. CybeRise plans to call the hospital sometime today and will probably post to one of the above websites if he finds anything out.
Burn-Up> this map is giving me a headache
Then she became a duck
A duck all on the stream
And he became a water dog
And fetched her back again
N e w s o f t h e D a y
25 July 1999
Assault Craft in stable condition
CybeRise reported at the Subspace Gazette with news that Assault Craft has been reported as is in stable condition, but also is in a coma. According to this post on the Orion squad messageboard, he was actually hit two times--once in the stomach and once in a lung. The post also details exactly what happened although there is no explanation of the coma. Although the news is signed "anonymous" it is clearly from the same person who posted under the name Cap 'N' Hands at the ZetaSquadron board early friday morning. This is a very g rim situation in my opinion, so please keep your thoughts and prayers on AC if you have been lucky enough to fly with him.
New map up in WZ
Happenstance, whose original map in April of last year was the first to replace T2-17's classic blue combs level in 10 months, has finally released his second work for War Zone, complete with a new tileset. The new map has been in various states of revision since late in 1998 but was only finalized recently, and was finally uploaded to the zone yesterday. Thus far it has met with mixed response, as many of the base designs feature long approaches which make for a slower paced game. However, these opinions were based on initial reaction and don't reflect actual game experience. Hopefully in the next week or so players will settle into the somewhat radical design of it and the response will be more positive. In my opinion this is a beautiful map and I am happy to see it up, although I have not seen it in action so I can't remark on the balance or game style of it except from what I have heard.
Aside from a busy Saturday evening, War Zone has had a low population for a few days now. Players waiting for a game to start have begin holding races from A1 to T20--quite an obstacle course in this new map and wuite a bit of fun. A longer circuit runs from A1 down to A20, over to T20 and then finishes at T1, where if you are lucky you will run over some mines I left there.
War Zone games are starting spontaneously at odd times of the day so keep your radios tuned to ?chat=warzone for updates and invitations.
Mapmakers Guild new home
The MMG left Warstrike during its downtime and we are now located at mmg.sheepcloning.com thanks to SilentDragon and Minbari Warship at DS98. Please note that the page has not been updated in quite a while (mostly my fault) and fails to mention both SilentDragon and GiGaKiLLeR as members. Happenstance will be joining our ranks very soon and we have two other prospective members who may also be joining after certain requirements are met. ;)
Slayfest
What can I say....this weekend's game went extremely well and is one of the most fun times I have ever had in Subspace. I had the map completed in time, the players were cool about us fumbling around with settings and didn't give up lip about how the game went, and Harloch ran one of the tightest events I've ever been to. mDK expertly picked up the loose ends, leaving the Cap'n to manage the essentials, and the game ran so smooth that for the first time I was able to play in a scenario I had worked on without being constantly distracted. That is something that would never have happened without Harloch and I am very grateful for that.
And not to pat myself on the back too much, because having made so many damned maps I had better get it right at least once ;) but one realy high point about last night is that the designs I'd concocted actually worked in the way I had hoped they would. Since the SCF was first revived in May of last year, one of my main goals has been to capture the fun of a running flag game in a tunnel system--a game that was really invented by accident when the sysop of Turf Arizona accidentally set the flag mode wrong. It has worked in the past, but never to the extent that it did here. The elimination game combined with hallu's "All the King's Men" idea (protect your pre-selected flag carrier or the team dies) had both frequencies dividing into offense and defense teams with the flag carriers sticking to the exterior tunnel systems. Sooner or later one team's offense would pin down the other's defense and everyone would attach in for a big fight, but the battles were longer because the elim rules had everyone behaving carefully. Some of these battles were truly hair raising, and numpf in particular performed some amazing escapes against huge odds.
After the main event, Harloch decided on a course of action that I have never seen from him, and only attempted in part myself--he ran the entire Slayfest in the same map, and entirely in SVS mode despite many requests to use Star Warzone settings. In the end the Cap'n was dead-on because the other games he set up--Powerball and traditional Running Zone, neither of which I expected to work out at all--worked out very nicely. The RZ game was especially chaotic and basically complete insanity because we removed the attach bounty requirement. As a result, the game went on for a very long time with almost constant action and was very tiring--obviously not the kind of deep RZ game you have when greening is an issue, but hella fun anyway.
I have been asked several times recently about rerunning Dawn of the Dead. I hate to stick to my hard line, but the next time we're going to play DotD is on Halloween. :) Mark your calendars and play hooky from the Subspace Convention, cuz this time we actually have the wherewithal to run it organized, so it may be a little more complex and will definitely be more scary. ;) As for upcoming Slayfests, next weekend will probably be the long awaited Final Conflict, an amazing ship/sound conversion based on the Hyperspace universe with an impressive 2Fort style map. Roseo will also be rerunning The Damned sometime soon, and of course in addition to that there will be more than enough Star Warzone settings to go around, you lamers. ;)
Today in Subspace History . . .
I write a new scene for my PoS movie for school. The scene is never filmed. Special thanks to my colleagues at Brooks Institute for that. (1998)
I have a cool chat log from this day between three Space Police and The Romulans...mainly trash talk but some discussion of new Lancaster art at the VIE page. I will post it later if I have time to read the whole thing and confirm that there is nothing sensitive or embarrassing in there. (1997)
T2-17's classic War Zone map nears completion as a late draft goes up for testing in the Sheep Cloning Facility. (7.24.97)
*kj* makes me the fuzzy orange "e" logo which has fallen out of use. If you can find it in my archives you just might win a prize. (1997)
<oswaldo> There's a NEW Mexico?
And those who deny this world
Is the soul of the unbroken one
Lie
This is indeed Paradise
N e w s o f t h e D a y
23 July 1999
Assault Craft hospitalized
As reported at the ZetaSquadron news page, a friend of Assault Craft who is a relative newbie to the game and goes by Cap 'N' Hands posted to the Zeta board with the upsetting news that AC was shot at least once in the stomach on Wednesday night and was taken to the hospital. The attack was apparently either a mistake or completely random, as several shots were fired at them out of a strange car. His condition is unknown.
This is only one of a series of tragedies and misfortunes that has plagued Star Warzone over the last half year. I don't know the complete history of that so I won't comment on it but it has been pretty grim. Be nice to the Star Warzoners if you are around em while this is going on, and please say a prayer for AC if you do that sort of thing.
RiSC to close; new SSC network opening
The RiSC zones are said to be shutting down on Sunday for reasons that have not been made clear. This from ShadowRip, one of the original operators at the server bank. ShadowRip is putting up a new network today, SSCT. It will replace RiSC's Star Wars server and host one other zone. Nfocipher has thus far been silent on all of this.
No word yet from VIE UK - cross your fingers
True to its namesake, VIE UK kicked off what we all hope will be a long and satisfying career of disappointing everyone in the grand tradition of its ill fated American counterpart. The day Ghost Ship up and invited one of their spies into our elite Subspace Council warez trafficking board, Subspace.nu mentioned that VIE UK would be making a statement later that night and Ghost Ship alluded to this as well. This was Tuesday, and so far the coast is clear. In the future we look forward to a long relationship of ignored e-mails, bi-monthly assurances that the company does in fact still exist, and what I am confident will become a formidable collection of dead links even CybeRise would be proud of.
War Zone: The Whole Story (Part One)
Adam Jones posted as near an explanation as we're likely to get of recent happenings in War Zone. Aside from some minor points of contention it seems to have gone unchallenged and will have to do for the official version of events for now. It is also noteworthy as being the only respectful or articulate denouncement of Mrs Perkins that has been posted thus far. Bone meanwhile kicked off his election campaign. Too bad War Zone, like most good things in life, is not a democracy...
Slayfest will be a bloodbath
This weekend's slayfest has not been announced yet because Captain Harloch is very lazy, but a little birdy tells me that it is called Big Bloodbath, that it will be at once very familiar and yet very new, and that the map for it is going to be really really nice, even if that little birdy does say so himself. ;) For more information read the NMEBASE whenever Harloch gets off his lazy ass and updates it.. =) Erm wait, there's his update now heh never mind...
Canada Vs USA II series finalizing
The Hockey event that will dominate August is nearing its start. SirSephiroth posted updated information at Center Ice and noted that he wants a draft roster by tomorrow, so if you want to be involved in this, get on the ball. By the way, the main Canada/USA site is maintained by Pikapoo and he needs someone to make him a logo. ;)
Turf representation to the SSCC
SunTzu posted a proposal to the Subspace Council public that a representative from Turf Zone be brought onto the Council, as Turf is arguably the only oldschool SVS zone not represented. Other players (including Harloch and myself) have pointed out that the zone presently has no population. To be fair, the lack of population in Turf may well be a problem the Council should address. I have suggested that the real problem though is simply that Turf players don't really give a damn. Well do you? SunTzu may have a point, but what he wants can't happen if he remains the only individual asking for it. Read the SSCC board every day.
Trench Wars US server
ep__ is hosting an alternate Trench Wars server at SSCD, which also hosts A Small Warzone and Hockey Zone. This has been set up by SilentDragon, designer of the castle map and a long time opponent of the present iNET zone's policies. iNET TW sysops PriitK and Dock> have asked him to take down the server; he has asked them to take down his map, and they seem to be at a standstill, except that the American zone is slowly gaining players because of its favorable connection for some players.
232
That apparently meaningless number is fast becoming a signpost on the timeline of Subspace. Possum's amazing page is getting funnier with each new installment, and all this time I forgot to link her. Go now and return often. And if that advice isn't enough for you, consider that Minbari Warship, hydro, and Captain Harloch all have shameless crushes on her. Not that I do or anything...
Misc . . .
Shanoyu updated his psycho webpage, the misc.txt, after a short hiatus. Featured in the present installment, more irrelevant Subspace news than you've seen all month, crammed into four square inches of text. Plus nasty things about nasty people you don't know as well as the usual hint at just how obsessed with mudding Shan really is. In less encouraging news, the infamous Pl0k also updated his web page (that's what it's called), and even worse, people are actually starting to read it.
In Hyperspace no one can hear you scream
ZombieBobie noted at the Warbird that the recent silence from the Hyperspace camp is due to RuneCaster and Valyna being away from home for two long stretches. Somewhere around the beginning of August they should be back and Rune is said to be planning a newly reworked Hyperspace Dock. If you need to ask me why I wasn't already aware of all this, you probably don't know me very well. ;)
Plaintext killed the radio star
Modem Boy at Subspace.nu has posted an episode of the old Subspace.Net realaudio show from last Summer, particularly interesting because it features an interview with Blackie. All seven shows are normally archived at SilentDragon's spiral but that page is down indefinitely.
SSCE (coming soon) coming soon
To clear up any confusion, the zone on Dueling Arizona's server called "coming soon" is coming soon. This means there is no game there right now so it might not be a very fun place to play at the moment, though you're certainly welcome to try.
<silentdragon> heh ein
<silentdragon> i went to your zone the other day
<silentdragon> it had 5 people in it
<silentdragon> they were complaining about how barren the empty map was
<einexile> 5 people in coming soon?
<silentdragon> yeah
<silentdragon> pretty funny
<silentdragon> i went in to see what was goin on
<silentdragon> and they were fighting around the box
Alien vivisection
If you don't care, you should. :) No, this is not about The Romulan's scenario series, it is about the actual movies. If you've considered shelling out the money for the Alien Legacy DVD box, now might be the time, even if you're presently without a player. While the VHS box set comes with a 5th tape chronicling the history and making of the series, with the DVD set this extra volume is available only by way of a mail-in offer. That offer expires September 1. reel.com carries the set for around $75 ($30+ less than I've seen it priced at stores) and for a while I saw it listed for $65 at Amazon. The VHS set is usually $10 or $20 cheaper.
Meanwhile, Bloomsbury Publishing has put out a book on the series by David Thomson called The Alien Quartet. While I'm not too far into it and it seems a little preoccupied with summarizing the movies, Thomson's critical view and his focus on the history of the series and its marketing makes it essential reading for any fan of the Alien cycle. The publisher's website discounts the book to only $10. This is the fourth release in a series which has also covered Apocalypse Now, Goldfinger, and Blue Velvet
By the way, The Romulans is slowly working on the next installment in the Alien scenario series which was well known a couple of years back. The rough version of the new map is absolutely awesome.
This week in Subspace history . . .
Sorry I let this section rot for so long. If it's any consolation to you, my laziness here is going to make things a lot harder for me a year from now. ;)
The Minefield Weekly temporarily replaces the regular page while I attempt to make a movie. These are preserved in the archive somewhere. It didn't work out too well but was pretty cool for a while. (7.21.98)
I am the sole remaining staff remember at the once promising NTiMiD8 Subspace page. By the end of the month the page has been taken down. (1998)
Wampit posts to Warstrike with a long history lesson which Rodvik has sent him. (7.23.98)
An interview which allegedly provoked Trixter to threaten Subspace.Net's WiZT with a lawsuit is reposted here without consequence. Trixter denies having leveled the accusation. (7.18.1998)
Mafia does his last work on the map for Cybrid's Battlegrounds scenario. The scenario is canceled and the map is never used.
The Dread Wooly denounces the Sheep Cloning Facility. tDW was one of the original Vangels of the SCF but was fired for religious bigotry.
He posted the following to a webboard on July 19, 1998 and touched off a firestorm of controversy. What a fucking idiot!
Today is a sad but necessary day. Today I bring my wrath upon the Vangels of Sheep Cloning Facility for their unjust treatment of myself and my followers ! Those of you who follow the internal struggles for power among the SCF will by now have read of my unlawful probation--nay, dismissal ! for surely this is what it amount to ??? from the Vangels of SCF. The Sheepdogs of Wrath, the Faithful of the Fields, the False Owner Himself--all tools Tools of the FauxWool™--all these be damned ! Where is the Code of the Meat, of which they speak? Where the allegiance to the Circle of Mutton? What man or beast can believe that they are in fact the Great Shearers to which their name holds claim, when at every turn they betray their Flaxen Brothers™ in the name of lesser ideals and false gods?
I come to you today in appeal to the reasonable among ur flocks--the Vangels of the Sheep Cloning Facility are stinking and false ! Today I say unto you, cast them out and let us rebuild the Pastures of the Last Grazing in our own true image ! Let today begin the wrathful days through which those Pastures stink of the meat and the bone and the foul black blood and bile of the false ones !
I remain ur FaithfulServant®,
The Dread Wooly !
<c-t> tp isn't here. did he sprain his wrist?
So much silence
Has deafened our ears
So much emptiness
Hinders our movements
N e w s o f t h e D a y
20 July 1999
news dot txt
4/19/97 - 7/19/99
Cybrid called it quits late last night in a final post to the News.txt after nearly a month of inactivity. He is not retiring from the game. "I'm still going to play, I'm going to stay on the council (if they'll keep me) and I'm still planning on being at the last game. I just won't post a summary of it on news.txt." The news.txt started up as an independent news page on 19 April 1997, filling a void created by the sudden closure of Rincewind's Unofficial Subspace Home Page. About a year later it became the official Subspace page at Warzone.If I am not mistaken, it has been the oldest SS news page for at least the last year. It saddens me to say I think the Minefield may now be the oldest news page in Subspace--especially because it was Cybrid who first brought this page to the attention of the community. Thanks Cybrid. You deserve a rest. Don't be a stranger. :)
Mrs Perkins breaks his silence
A peculiar quiet came over War Zone after the firing of Mrs Perkins from the sysop position there on Saturday evening, with almost no new information coming from Perkins, iNET admin Shuko, or new sysop Underlord in the 24 hours that followed. Yesterday Perkins finally posted a full update to the War Zone homepage explaining his side of the story. "I dont know what is worthwile to write," he wrote, "Shuko has not made a case against me so I cannot give any response to it." Perkins did respond however to the nature of what had happened as well as a number of assumptions and rumors that have been flying around, as well as answering to accusations of corruption.
Armed Armadillo remarked on the new Warstrike messageboard, "If thats all that needs to be done to get a sysop fired we are going to be running out of good sysops soon. It doesn't even seem that a second thought was given to the matter. Shuko recieves a banned for no reason email in his inbox, out goes a fired message to Perkins." As near as I can tell, Shuko has still not uttered a word of explanation, and Underlord remains relatively quiet. For the last two nights, War Zone has been a ghost town. A source told me late yesterday that Perkins is shopping for a replacement server. He has the support of many WZ players, but in my opinion he cannot get that support if he insults the present War Zone community in the process by sneaking around in secret.
Some disturbing words of wisom from Vipyr's Gay Lover which I can't help myself from quoting:
The zone has about 20 days of life left in it anyway.
Changing maps, experimenting with starting bounties and stuff have helped to generate some interest in the zone, but it made a comeback when you dorks came home from college and started watching The Price Is Right at home each morning instead of sleeping through history class.
At the end of Aug, it's all over, baby!
The truth hurts but we're not going down without a fight.
Turfnight returns
This week's doomed zone revival is...oh but now I'm being mean. Yazour is attempting to bring back Turf Zone. She won't live, but then again who does? Play while you can, guys. I hate to be a pessimist and mean no offense to Yaz by this, but Turf is never going to come back for real. This will likely be the only game if its kind to go down this Summer, so if you miss Turf, never gave it a chance, or never had opportunity to experience the game when it became truly intense and amazing...do not miss this game.
Oh, and Yazour does not know where I live because I was never dumb enough to fill out a form at Warzone.com. 8)
<VortX> Never tell the truth. Always incorporate a small inconsistency in it so that
everything you say is suspect and no one ever relies on you for anything.
Given the way we're living,
wouldn't you say we're killing ourselves?
N e w s o f t h e D a y
18 July 1999
Mrs Perkins fired
Shuko of iNET administration has kicked Mrs Perkins out of his position as sysop of War Zone, in response to complaints made by six different players after being banned in what was apparently a string of incidents involving harrassment of RAF members--specifically, a negging campaign and the spamming of a ?chat channel. Perkins posted a brief notice to the War Zone homepage but was otherwise strangely silent. This came on the heels of a number of complaints against Perkins, allegations of illegal bannings made by prominent players, and Shuko acted very quickly this time. Underlord has been assigned as new sysop, and kicked off his reign by--get this--asking the players what they want. Now there's an idea. ;)
Reaps, who is officially still a cosysop in the zone, posted to the newly revived Warstrike with a news story bordering on an editorial condemnation of what has happened, and asked for support from the rest of the community in reversing the decision.
Personally I think it was inappropriate to appeal these bans directly to iNET administration without first trying to work it out within the WZ community, by giving Perkins a chance to cool off, and more importantly inducing the rest of the staff to put pressure on him. Then again this had been attempted in the past, with results that were unsatisfactory to many. Underlord will likely do a superb job in running the zone--but let's not be so quick to condemn a player who did much good for the WZ game--who took it from a standard issue doomed Subspace revival to a full-blown healthy zone--because of what amounts to a bad temper. If we are to believe the picture of Perkins painted by his enemies, maybe he's a prick, but he's our prick, and he worked hard for the game. If we got rid of every player in this game who has a temper and makes bad judgment calls, the entire game would die, and War Zone would be the first to go.
DS98 joins the SSNet family
Well, not really, but it's always amusing to see some joker shoot his mouth out because all of a sudden he has a soapbox to stand on. Our horror story for the evening is Kula Shaker, who this weekend showed up hours late to the biggest Slayfest we've had in months and has summarily pronounced the event dead. Instead we are to spend Saturday nights in Star Warzone--which is also run by Captain Harloch. I'm sure the players will thank Kula for demonstrating that the zone needs to be taken down during Slayfest, which is essentially an SWZ event in the first place.
No disrespect or hard feelings whatsoever to Minbari Warship, of course. Every staffed news page has at least one of these morons sneak on board and use the moment to thoroughly embarrass himself, like Sinead O'Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope on television. Next.
<Grimp> The-Pretender, hey, is your hand like a claw yet?
<Grimp> I was just wondering.
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb,
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock, I am an island.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
16 July 1999
Suicide calls it quits
In a shocking turn of events yesterday, Ghost Ship moved the Pro League web presence out of sog.java.net and into a new home. While Ghost Ship has remained quiet on the subject, it is clear that he was at least in part motivated by Suicide's unwillingness to address a recent rash of impersonations that has plagued the sog.java.net board. There has however been much speculation that a major factor in the decision may well have been Suicide's threats to publish confidential documentation and mail about the new anti-cheat program BanG. These threats were made on the sog.java.net main news page over the last week in response to Captain Harloch's failure to remove Suicide from the Subspace Council mailing list.
The new boards are already up and running and the community reaction seems to be centered there, including most of the above speculation, some of which comes from within the Subspace Council. Meanwhile, rela posted in Suicide's defense at the SS Impact board, attempting to put things in perspective with a reminder of sog.java.net's origins and of Suicide's history of service to the game.
Suicide answered Ghost Ship's move by tearing down the old site in its entirety--all of the information there is now apparently gone including the guides and other materials authored by third parties. Sound familiar? Suicide also hosts this page, so needless to say I felt it appropriate to ask if he was still planning to be around at all or if I should start packing my bags. I received the following message from Suicide this afternoon.
yea you need to start moving your stuff off of my server and have the domain name point to your new home. You have a week to get this done e. I am pulling out of all subspace contacts. ill be getting a new icq number soon and will shut down all email addresses that go to me that subspace knows about.
Sui also posted to the new site with an angry response addressed directly to Ghost Ship. Lastly, read the NMEBASE for Captain Harloch's explanation of and thoughts on the recent mailing list incident.
SS Wire reopens at Gamehacker
Zuplar has moved his new SS Wire page for Pro, Am, and iNET leagues into the GameHacker Network. When it is completed the site will contain everything you might expect from a good league site. It is already a very nice design, with the Pro page completed and the others on their way. With the exception of unholyone, Zuplar is the only person who worked for the Jackpot revival effort and came through on his promises there while I was in charge of the zone. He is also a good mapmaker. :)
It's worth mentioning that yesterday's news at the site features an interesting and encouraging tidbit about changes made to the billing server by PriitK, which I have not seen reported elsewhere.
Why do you think we call them stormtroopers?
News from ZombieBobie of Warbird infamy. It seems a recent string of bannings at the Death Star Battle server have been dealt out for for offenses as inane as flying an objectionable banner, cursing, and criticizing the ban policy. At least twenty War Zone regulars have apparently been banned from the zone at this point, although ZB managed to get a ban against him revoked by the zone's upper administration shortly after it was set. A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself within 1024 tiles of a massive space station designed to blow up entire planets, watch what you say over the air.
sscentral . vie . co . uk . rip . gg . nt
The directory server at Virgin UK was down again at press time. Maybe it is still down. Who knows, who cares. Get your zone listings from sscentral.gigaparts.com or sscentral.ds98.com and for God's sake register your zone there if you run one. Sooner or later one of these VIE UK downtimes is going to be permanent.
DGAS
Special notice to those who don't care about Pro League or sog.java.net and skipped the first story. The Minefield is hosted by Suicide, who is taking his toys and going home. The page may be gone for a few days while it changes over to new hosting, which I haven't yet secured. You may also need to use www.emf.cx rather than just emf.cx depending on who my new host is. Thanks.
Oh yeah . . .
Eyes Wide Shut is out. Go and see it even though Warner Bros butchered the American version by digitally inserting extras in front of naughty bits which American audiences (who consume 90% of the pornography produced in the world) simply aren't ready for.
Using repels to throw off your pursuer's frames-per-second
rate when you are low on energy is not a defensive tactic!
- Dueling Arizona rules page
If together we fall into forever,
would we not notice the turbulence
that no longer waits?
N e w s o f t h e D a y
13 July 1999
Warbird flies the coop
ZombieBobie has moved his homepage to Gamehacker after an extended down period at Warstrike. Aside from being a good, Subspace page, the Warbird is noteworthy for being the first Hyperspace site other than Hyperspace Dock. The new page is still being pieced together so there are a few broken links as I write this.
War Zone back from the dead
In case you've been on another planet for the last few weeks, War Zone flaggins is back and under new ownership at SSCU Warzone VIE. Mrs Perkins is skillfully walking a nasty tightrope, between an approach conservative enough to hold the vets and one progressive enough to keep the game fresh. Yesterday the first brand new War Zone map to go up in almost a year made its debut in the zone, and other maps have been up for testing in WZ's sister zone, SSCU Warone League VIE. The new website and messageboards are finally getting some color into their complexions and the league is going in earnest.
Mrs Perkins has come under fire for some minor changes made to the zone and for what some have called a lax approach to dealing with cheaters, but BanG is now in full effect and a virtual dream team of moderators is in place to use it. Wizard64 mentioned yesterday that seven players have been banned in the last two days.
Meanwhile, an organization called the War Zone Clan has been started up, not unlike the Cult of the Final Call but dedicated exclusively to revitalizing the WZ game and keeping the server and community healthy. This is also based at the zone homepage.
And speaking of War Zone
HuMMiNg Byrd's new map is full of intelligent designs and varied base styles. While it's difficult to judge after only a few games, it seems the objections originally voiced by many (including myself) over an apparent randomness to some of the mazes was a little overblown, as those mazes are turning out to be well traveled with some lovely flag chambers and antiechambers nested in them. The combs structure which I suggested he remove is absolutely wonderful, and even the more cramped areas are showing a depth rivaling some of the best WZ designs of the past. Sorry for not mentioning the others who made this map but I'm not sure who was involved in what capacity. The map has received a very positive response thus far and HuMMiNg Byrd is happy with the way the fights are playing out. Special props and thanks to Perkins who didn't have to put it up and risked a lame player revolt by doing so.
Tyrsis would roll over in his grave
In another story I am reporting late but which also doesn't seem to have been reported elsewhere at all, Dueling Arizona's homepage at dueling.net is now sporting a full blown ladder, player search, FAQ, clearly defined rules, etc, etc. Quite possibly the best homepage ever put up for a single zone.
[silence]
[silence]
!--N e w s o f t h e D a y--> N o Update
10 July 1999
Just a note
Should have had this up sooner, probably I don't really need to have it up at all, but I thought I should mention since a few people will look here...we are holding Slayfest in a zone called SSCX SCF West (Temp) which has been set up for us as backup by Mine GO BOOM. No, he is not the one who crashed the real SCF this time but it is down anyway. :)
Mailliw> einexile, the point is, your a newbie, and you didnt see real turf
But don't despair; this day will be the damnedest day,
oh, if you take these things from me...
oh, if you take these things from me...
N e w s o f t h e D a y
8 July 1999
EG goes back to War
After a brief flirtation with its roots in Turf style game settings, Extreme Games has gone back to a War Zone game, with carryable flags again spawning in the center of the map. While this comes as a disappointment to some including myself, the new game is arguably a still more radical departure from the norm because the new Turf map remains in use--a base ring of largely nonlinear design and many points of defense. I haven't had a chance to play there much so I really can't comment much otherwise.
On that note, apologies for never putting up those pieces on the recent evolutions of EG and Star Warzone. Stuff offline has been pretty busy, and between the War Zone revival presently underway and my work on other stuff I have not been keeping up to speed on either zone.
ASWZ perseveres
Come lag nor crash nor exile, A Small Warzone lives, and its faithful continue to play. After a sudden, unanticipated crash of their server at SSCD due to configuration experiments, the zone was forced to set up a temporary home in the Sheep Cloning Facility, moving over the weekend to Delta Zone. With luck this will all be settled within the next couple of days, but what's remarkable about the whole chain of events is that mDK, the zone's sysop, took the opportunity (if a disaster can ever be called an opportunity) to put up a brand new map. The new level is by sumirp of Hockey Zone infamy, and from a glance appears to be one of the best and most carefully designed pieces ever made for the zone. Although nearly as small as the early dgus arenas, the bases are nice and open, almost in an SVS style, moreso even than my own ASWZ level.
If I'm not mistaken it is sumirp's first published map. Having seen his previous work that has not yet been used--really nice stuff for War Zone and Powerball--let me say this: You have not seen the last of him. There's more where this came from if you don't trash his map and piss him off. :)
Hypersnap guide
Conspiracy Theory kicked off the new Cult of the Final Call page with a guide to the use of Hypersnap in screenshotting Subspace, quick and dirty and exactly what you need. By that I mean it leaves out every bit of information that does not directly involve Subspace. ;) Accompanying the step-by-step guide are screenshots of the proper options configurations. Respect to tha Cap'n at NMEBASE for the scoop. Harloch also announced an inventive contest for best screenshot taken during this coming weekend's Slayfest. I'm not sure the prize is a good precedent to set, but hey...it's ZetaSquadron, right? :-)
-=[ S k i l l z ]=-
I'll just let this speak for itself. Be warned that it is a girlfight between myself and Mailliw. If you don't want to read a pissy argument but do so anyway, don't come bitching to me about lowering my standards. :P The log is edited for clarity and entertainment value. In short, it is A-list Subspace porn as only the Minefield can provide. BOINK, BOINK, BOINK.
Mailliw tells it like it is
<Garcon> I mean after all, who plays this to have fun?
Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world;
there can be no resting in the meantime.
H a p p y F o u r t h
4 July 1999
Nothing
Per my usual Sunday ritual, I have nothing nice to say about anyone. Actually that's not true. The Chaos Expert vangels put up the old Rodvik map for the weekend and the old Castle/Combs map is running in Warzone now. Two of the greatest classic maps of all time, in use for the first time in over a year. Enjoy them while you can; they boast some of the most wonderful terrain and base design ever in this game.
Running Zone is closed. A new non-SVS game will appear in its place about a week from now.
ASWZ has relocated to SSCE Delta Zone, I think. If the zone is closed, look in the SCF again. One will probably be open while the other will be closed for testing of something new. If your ASWZ scores are not preserved it was an accident. We are trying to keep them going but the switching does get a little bit confusing.
Oh well, I have a little more nice to say now then I did 20 minutes ago, so I'm going to end this update. Wouldn't want to ruin my reputation, would I...
<conspiracytheory> he was a cute baby.. but owen had to beat him with
the ugly stick because cute kids don't make good farmers
So you're super-connected now.
All the freaks gather 'round.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
1 July 1999
Quick notes
Apologies for not getting together the thing on Extreme Games and Star Warzone. I have been busy offline and it will all have to wait until sometime this weekend. I'll just rattle off some stuff here since I don't have a lot of time to be on here at the moment.
Captain Harloch is back and will finally be in charge of Slayfest again this weekend. Game time should be same as usual: 8pm eastern on Saturday.
SilentDragon has set up an American based Trench Wars server in response to the zone administration's continued refusal to take down his map. (There are at least five other Trench Wars maps available.) The last time he did this, The Ghost Ship (shadow sysop of iNET's TW) pulled off some kind of a denial of service against the server. This time the server operators are said to be considering a ban against him, supposedly in retailation for notices sent over billing server chat. Trench Wars. What a PRIZE.
Shanoyu got his gloves off as usual and posted a telling log of a conversation he had with The Ghost Ship over at the misc dot text
War Zone is back for real and strong under new ownership after half a year of directionless fumbling around. They are running the Ancient map there at the moment, Ancient meaning before the Castle-Combs-N4 map, Rod's fish map, and Arctos, Mixman, T2-17 etc. God awful unpleasant map to play in and there is a small outcry against it, but with a little help from 10 points of start bounty it has held a big ol' player base for a week now.
Running Zone is closing tomorrow. I'll be leaving the flagging faithful with my little parting gift to the community, the last in my elite flagging map trilogy. Sorry, but even if I include people whose only contributions to helping the zone were flames against me, I can count on two hands the number of peope who actually got involved in this so-called revival. I don't need it, Verio doesn't need it; BYE. Learn to fly straight, learn to fight like a man, and get thee to War Zone.
Subspace Net is back again, with the usual gang of staff jumpers at the helm. Rumor has it that this incarnation may be up all the way into the middle of July. Good luck, guys! You need it.
I saw The Red Violin a week ago, possibly the most amazing and wonderful movie I've seen in my entire life--beautifully made, crossing four hundred years and three continents, with a story that moves back and forth through different times and the violin in questions, many owners. You'd expect that a movie like this would just follow the lifetime of the violin in a linear fashion but there is a mystery involved, and a tarot reading tying much of it together, and it ends up as a moving and often very suspenseful movie. At the end, no one left the theater during the redits for about two minutes--something I don't think I have ever witnessed before, but under the circumstances it made perfect sense. A theater full of people all experiencing the same thing: Oh. My. God.
Samuel L. Jackson is a genius, by the way.
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