26 January 2001 - In December of this last year, I allowed the
Minefield to slip into a temporary state of disrepair while a new design
was in the works. During this time, I resorted to an almost plaintext
format, so important was it to me that I leave the old behind even while
the new wasn't quite ready. It was a mistake to do so, and I've
restored the month's updates more or less to the standard format for my
archives. Any references to the formatting refers to the aforementioned
plaintext setup, and any quotations have been added since thate fateful
month, for consistency's sake.
(no headline)
Answer
me this much. Is there anyone out there who managed to play Doom
properly -- on Ultra Violence the first time through without cheating -
who managed to finish the fucking game? I never made it past E2M4, in
large part because at the time I was forced to use the keyboard only,
because of a mouse bug I still don't quite understand. So I'm playing it
again and I know what's going to happen but I'm terrified. I cannot
play the game. I say to myself, well, I'll just blast through it and not
take it so seriously. Nope. Doesn't work.
Anyway, it
was Doom's birthday about a week ago, so I've set out anew on a quest to
actually find out what E3 and E4 look like. Think maybe I need thicker
skin. Quake II even scared me, and that game is downright silly
sometimes.
Apologies for the hiatus. I'm somewhat at a
loss for words, lately. At some point between my growing frustration
with Subspace's limitations and my growing enjoyment of it thanks in
large part to Extreme Games, somewhere along the line my tendency to
form opinions about it has been left by the wayside. I simply don't have
any to share lately. It's wonderful to have EG in its present state,
because in many ways it's more of what Subspace was originally meant to
be than is perhaps any other zone in the game right now -- but, at the
same time, a series of annoying limitations seems right now to prevent
the game from ever becoming more interesting.
Then
again, who cares? There's certainly no pressure today on game developers
to offer much more than the usual set of tired old teamplay variants.
The only games in the foreseeable future that seem to offer anything
truly exciting are MMORPGs -- Star Wars Galaxies and BigWorld, both a
good year or two off, and each already disappointing in its own way. And
don't even talk to me about PlanetSide. After recent "reassurances"
from its developers that players will enjoy an orgy of
instant-gratification-style combat without meaningful consequences, I
could not be less interested.
The problem is clearly my
own. The question is, what do I do about it? Bide my time in EG and
dream, that's what. And try to think of something more to say about it.
Meanwhile,
thanks to (on one hand) Rude Awakening, Questioning Silence, and the
other new staff in the Sheep Cloning Facility; and (on the other hand)
my newfound ability to leave things the hell alone and not broke what
isn't fixed, the zone is slowly becoming an interesting Zone type zone.
Medium sized map I am dying to change but won't, nifty flag game that
seems to be proving itself over the long run, childish point and bounty
system...hell if I know why, but it seems to be working out well. Come
in and have a gander sometime.
Saturday, December 16, 2000
Thursday, December 7, 2000
Here I go again . . .
Here I go again . . .
It's crazy the amount of time you can take up tracking down information on ICQ. If you start off with help of any quality at all, the leads multiply exponentially and before you know it a whole evening has passed - and you wind up somehow knowing a lot less about the subject than you did when you first set off on your journey.
Of course, that's what happens with any sort of research, which is why some people research their projects endlessly and never end up starting work on them. What the internet offers that traditional research can't is countless opportunities to drift off into long conversations which have nothing to do with the topic.
Fortunately for me, I'm interested in those conversations as well.
Unfortunately for everyone who reads this page, the fact that I don't have the sense to delay them until their proper time means I once again near midnight having bit off more than I can chew. Give me credit, however, that at least these days I am taking those bites.
You'll see some of that soon enough.
Many years ago, a distraught and forgotten Georges Méliès discarded some ninety of his films - nearly all of them - into the Thames. These were among the first films to employ the use of special effects. Most prominent of his works, thankfully surviving, is 1902's A Trip to the Moon. You may recall the comical image of an angry moon with a rocket embedded in its eye, common in any quick-cut retrospective presentation on film history such as one might see on the Oscars.
Years later, the major studios, faced with the threat of "talkies" - the first sound pictures - in their panic, despair, and smugness, similarly discarded hundreds, or maybe thousands, of silent films. Today they do not exist.
The negatives for today's motion pictures made today are customarily locked in a vault one full mile below the earth, in the Arizona desert. It took perhaps eighty years for this to become standard procedure.
I hate that our games have not yet reached such a standard. Yes, it's been what - at a very liberal estimate, fifteen years? Twenty-five by arcade standards. But oh, the arcade and even console crowds have got their acts together, often against the kicking and screaming of wooden-headed publishers determined to make a few dollars *someday* off of ancient, ancient intellectual property and source code.
You and I, we aren't even close. And don't let the smooth gloss veneer of the FPS and RTS communities fool you: Neither are they.
We're going to regret this soon. And the arcade / console weenies will be thumbing their noses for the duration of our horrified revelation.
We're going to discuss the long lost maps of prehistoric Subspace, soon. And if you have a heart it will feel pain by the time I am done.
Sunday, December 3, 2000
A funny thing happened on the way to oblivion . . .
A funny thing happened on the way to oblivion . . .
I was informed late last night of something I had not known since I started running Subspace zones three years ago, thanks very much. I owe a debt of gratitude to the wise newbie who clued me in to the fact, silly me, that I am required to have a rule against ball-killing in my zone. Not only that, but not withstanding my gross negligence - failing to post notices for a rule I didn't know I had - I am expected to punish my players for breaking a rule they didn't know about. Not only is ignorance of the law no excuse - it appears now that the absence of a law won't fly either.
Then I remembered that the individual scolding me plays in my zone because he is banned everywhere else. Not for any good reason, just for being his loveable self. A little secret: That's a damned good reason sometimes. Well, you get what you pay for, don't you. Perhaps I ought to start enforcing some of the other rules that are common out there in the chaotic fringe-worlds. Rules against lameness, for instance. Or cursing.
The Pointman interview will have to wait an extra day, as I didn't get a chance to approve some final changes with him. Instead I bring you a blast from the past, in the form of a long awaited reprint of The Romulans' Lamers Guide. This dates back to March 5th of 1997, exactly a month before yours truly joined the fray. All possible thanks to my old mapmaking mentor and evil homey for approving this at the last minute. :)
I was informed late last night of something I had not known since I started running Subspace zones three years ago, thanks very much. I owe a debt of gratitude to the wise newbie who clued me in to the fact, silly me, that I am required to have a rule against ball-killing in my zone. Not only that, but not withstanding my gross negligence - failing to post notices for a rule I didn't know I had - I am expected to punish my players for breaking a rule they didn't know about. Not only is ignorance of the law no excuse - it appears now that the absence of a law won't fly either.
Then I remembered that the individual scolding me plays in my zone because he is banned everywhere else. Not for any good reason, just for being his loveable self. A little secret: That's a damned good reason sometimes. Well, you get what you pay for, don't you. Perhaps I ought to start enforcing some of the other rules that are common out there in the chaotic fringe-worlds. Rules against lameness, for instance. Or cursing.
The Pointman interview will have to wait an extra day, as I didn't get a chance to approve some final changes with him. Instead I bring you a blast from the past, in the form of a long awaited reprint of The Romulans' Lamers Guide. This dates back to March 5th of 1997, exactly a month before yours truly joined the fray. All possible thanks to my old mapmaking mentor and evil homey for approving this at the last minute. :)
SubSpace: A Lamers Guide 0.9
SubSpace: A Lamers Guide 0.9
Welcome to the SubSpace Lamers Guide! In this document you will find out about the many lame things you can do in SubSpace.
Welcome to the SubSpace Lamers Guide! In this document you will find out about the many lame things you can do in SubSpace.
------------
Contents:
1. Compulsive Bursting
2. Vulching (Long-Lange Bombing)
3. Neg Killing
4. Neg Hunting
5. The Neg that shot a lvl1 gun
6. Suicide Runners
7. Spectators
8. Mining
9. Unessary Killing (War Zone)
10. Turrets/Swarming
--------------
1.COMPULSIVE BURSTING
Compulsive Bursting requires alot of greens, and no skill.
Compulsive Bursters are basically people that do almost nothing but Burst, they are usually found in Tunnel systems and corners.
--------------
2.
VULCHING
Vulching, otherwise known as Long-Range bombing, requires a 100 bty ship, and a small amount of skill, and a Levi is usually the choice for this activity.
Vulchers are people that stay away from the action and fire bombs from a distance into a crowd of people, or they just fire them off randomly. Vulching is extremely lame in the Running Zone, but then again everything is lame when you kill a Red ;)
--------------
3.
NEG KILLING
Neg Killing requires almost no skill, and a desently greened ship, the Spider is usually the choice for Neg Killers.
Definition of a Neg: A Neg is a player that has bounty below 20 (30 if your generous).
Neg Killers are people that go around to all the players below 20 bty and kill them. There is multiple techniques for Killing Negs, the most popular is using the Spider... with lvl3 guns, No Multi (turned off if they have it) they decloak next to the neg and shoot his ass off, this requires a little skill, another popular method is to fire bombs then recloak. Although i think it is sometimes funny when an entire Group of Spiders decloak around the Neg, not even shooting it, just 5 or so Spiders sitting around a neg, hehe.
--------------
4.
NEG HUNTING
Neg Hunting is a step up from Neg Killing, its just if the Neg runs the person pursues the Neg until it is dead (or in some lucky cases the Neg Hunter gets bored) This requires a small amount of skill, just to get the bomb on target (like i said, a small amount).
--------------
5.
THE NEG THAT FIRED THE LEVEL1 GUNS
This is a story about the Neg that fired the lvl1 guns....
It was a dark night in the Chaos Zone, the Newly spawned neg was lost in the maze that is Chaos Zone. On his radar he saw a high bounty player, he immediately followed the 178bty player. The Neg followed him down the tunnels, and finnaly to a dead end. The Neg by this time had 7 bty with Bouncing Bullets. He thought that the lvl1s might be enough to kill the 178bty player, if they bounce off the end wall... he started firing. The other player saw these lvl1 guns raining down on him... he laughed at the neg and said: "Hehe, Silly Neg" and the neg was turned into a green "Thanx 4 the Green!".
As you can see these are the Silly Negs, the ones that deserve a Neg Kill or 2. Being a Silly Neg requires a little skill (if he wants to stay alive) and less than 30 bty. And if the neg happens to kill a player with the lvl1 guns he obviously had Luck on his side.
--------------
6.
SUICIDE RUNNERS
Suicide Runners do nothing but Run into the NME bases (War Zone) and steal flags, they usually quit the game as well.
This is not lame IF *The same team keeps winning OVER AND OVER AND OVER (at least 5 times in a row) OR *If the NMEs base you are running into is the ReDS base ;)
--------------
7.
SPECTATORS
Spectators are only lame in Running Zone and War Zone really. It requires absolutely NO SKILL and is a lame way of aquiring flags.
All Specs do is sit back and watch, they look for the flags or the People holding the flags, then they tell their team to attack the site where the flags are.
--------------
8.
MINING
Mining is both Lame and Skillful, the miners i personnaly think are a little lame, if all they do is mine i mean but if they go off killing people while their mines are left where they put them, i think that is ok.
Miners require certain skills: Luck and Knowledge of where the good mining spots are. Mining is lame mostly in Running Zone, in War Zone it is usually used to protect your base, and in Chaos Zone it is a frequent practise.
--------------
9.
UNESSARY KILLINGS (WAR ZONE)
This is not that lame, the least lame on this list.
War Zone is for flag games, not killing other players like Chaos Zone, this is why it is lame.
These guys just kill people (negs included) all over the War Zone, they dont care about making base raids, they just want kills War Zone is for flagging if u want to kill people go to Chaos Zone.
--------------
10.
TURRETS/SWARMING
This is actually the least lame thing on the list, its just that the Turrets really piss me off :) Swarming is basically the same but they are not all on the same ship, sometimes there are multiple Turrets in the swarm.
The lame thing about this, is if the Turret/Swarm goes after one player that is less than 50bty it is a bit lame, they dont stand a chance. I love getting a mine field then frawing the Turret into the mines, Think of Turrets as one big easy kill, this is why Swarming is more dangerous, they are not all grouped together.
--------------
Super Teams are also little lame, although they require alot of skill and teamwork (all pub freqs cry out "TEAMWORK?!") :)
--------------
This concludes the Lamers guide to SubSpace.
Made by: USS Romulan-B and All you lamers out there :) Special Thanx to the SubSpace team for making a GREAT game, but unfortunatley the lamers described here spoil it for everyone.
This Document does not reflect any...er... many of the personal opinions of the creators ;)
Saturday, December 2, 2000
It's all good, boys.
It's all good, boys.
How did I manage to give so many people the impression that I am quitting? I thought I made it pretty clear over the last few days that I am anything but. Just give me a few more days and I'll have things rolling again, that's a promise. The design aside, I'm getting off to a slow start here otherwise because I came down with a nasty cold over the weekend, and you know what that means. That's right, endless hours of incredibly lame lightsaber dueling in Jedi Knight. I'm tempted to give the Space Police a makeover into a JK clan, except for the minor problem that no one else plays that poor old game. Actually, that's not quite true, as a decent number of people play it on The Zone, decent at least for a 1997 FPS game. There's a badass map out there called Duel of the Fates, perfect for falling repeatedly to your death. And there's nothing quite like watching a sabre-wielding C3PO fall into a bottomless pit.
I can still ramble with the best of them, but I'll be separating that stuff out into its own section from now on. Once the proper page is up the separation will make a bit more sense visually, and no, I won't be abandoning the quotations. To kick things off I have a cool interview with Pointman, which should shed some light on the history and inner workings of one of Subspace's oldest and best zones. In general, expect more of a focus on the people, both past and present, who've make this game what it is.
That's not to say this will become an interview site, but my hope is that with each update, once I've gotten the day's chip off my shoulder in the pithy section up yonder, the main area of the page will be a sizeable feature you can sink your teeth into. Sometimes an interview, sometimes a review or editorial or maybe a history lesson or player profile. There'll be news, but if so then it'll be an article and not just a blurb. In the past this page has often filled a role that is now well filled by other pages staffed by more, and more closely involved, members of the community. To keep this page unique, and to keep it honest, it's best now that I recognize this mostly vacant niche, to make it my own.
I've seldom said this before, but I say it now and from now on, and mean it. Your submissions are welcome, and indeed I mean to make them a part of the regular content here. Get in touch.
I have not destroyed the old page, and won't. For now, you can access it at http://www.gamehacker.com/minefield/y3-index.html.
Pointman interview tomorrow. Don't miss it.
How did I manage to give so many people the impression that I am quitting? I thought I made it pretty clear over the last few days that I am anything but. Just give me a few more days and I'll have things rolling again, that's a promise. The design aside, I'm getting off to a slow start here otherwise because I came down with a nasty cold over the weekend, and you know what that means. That's right, endless hours of incredibly lame lightsaber dueling in Jedi Knight. I'm tempted to give the Space Police a makeover into a JK clan, except for the minor problem that no one else plays that poor old game. Actually, that's not quite true, as a decent number of people play it on The Zone, decent at least for a 1997 FPS game. There's a badass map out there called Duel of the Fates, perfect for falling repeatedly to your death. And there's nothing quite like watching a sabre-wielding C3PO fall into a bottomless pit.
I can still ramble with the best of them, but I'll be separating that stuff out into its own section from now on. Once the proper page is up the separation will make a bit more sense visually, and no, I won't be abandoning the quotations. To kick things off I have a cool interview with Pointman, which should shed some light on the history and inner workings of one of Subspace's oldest and best zones. In general, expect more of a focus on the people, both past and present, who've make this game what it is.
That's not to say this will become an interview site, but my hope is that with each update, once I've gotten the day's chip off my shoulder in the pithy section up yonder, the main area of the page will be a sizeable feature you can sink your teeth into. Sometimes an interview, sometimes a review or editorial or maybe a history lesson or player profile. There'll be news, but if so then it'll be an article and not just a blurb. In the past this page has often filled a role that is now well filled by other pages staffed by more, and more closely involved, members of the community. To keep this page unique, and to keep it honest, it's best now that I recognize this mostly vacant niche, to make it my own.
I've seldom said this before, but I say it now and from now on, and mean it. Your submissions are welcome, and indeed I mean to make them a part of the regular content here. Get in touch.
I have not destroyed the old page, and won't. For now, you can access it at http://www.gamehacker.com/minefield/y3-index.html.
Pointman interview tomorrow. Don't miss it.
Friday, December 1, 2000
Welcome back to ground zero.
Welcome back to ground zero.
It would appear I am off to a slow start. I'm not real big on showing off works in progress. I think Nabokov said it best when he compared such practice to displaying one's sputum in public. Don't worry, that's the only Nabokov I can quote offhand, and I can't even actually quote it, can I? I do know how properly to pronounce his name, though, which is quite an accomplishment these days as I understand things.
There was a time not long ago when even I had very little hope for this game. I've looked to other games to pick up on where Subspace had left off - to the Tribes variants which have now been all but abandoned; to Allegiance with its long, slow conflicts and weird, abstract, Subspace-esque game balances; to the potential Infantry once seemed to have and the promise Hyperspace still holds for some. I look forward to Tribes 2 and to PlanetSide and TeamFortress 2, but over the past year one thing has become clear to me. Subspace has a monopoly. Certainly more sophisticated games have come along in terms of both realism and abstraction - the strategy's been more involving and the combat more intense - the teamplay's become more interesting.
I've been told teamplay is the future; surprise, kids: it isn't. All that philosophy that informs the gaming industry's directions - it is all good, and it creates games that are wonderful in their own way, but I have to wonder if anyone will ever again get the mixture right. The mixture of vastness and close combat; of fast action and cool patience; and indeed of teamplay, mad chaos, and the lone wolf ethic all rolled into one. It's probably bad business, and frankly it's probably not sound design - but Subspace has it, like that or not, and it's what keeps us rolling along.
But you knew that by now, didn't you. :)
It would appear I am off to a slow start. I'm not real big on showing off works in progress. I think Nabokov said it best when he compared such practice to displaying one's sputum in public. Don't worry, that's the only Nabokov I can quote offhand, and I can't even actually quote it, can I? I do know how properly to pronounce his name, though, which is quite an accomplishment these days as I understand things.
There was a time not long ago when even I had very little hope for this game. I've looked to other games to pick up on where Subspace had left off - to the Tribes variants which have now been all but abandoned; to Allegiance with its long, slow conflicts and weird, abstract, Subspace-esque game balances; to the potential Infantry once seemed to have and the promise Hyperspace still holds for some. I look forward to Tribes 2 and to PlanetSide and TeamFortress 2, but over the past year one thing has become clear to me. Subspace has a monopoly. Certainly more sophisticated games have come along in terms of both realism and abstraction - the strategy's been more involving and the combat more intense - the teamplay's become more interesting.
I've been told teamplay is the future; surprise, kids: it isn't. All that philosophy that informs the gaming industry's directions - it is all good, and it creates games that are wonderful in their own way, but I have to wonder if anyone will ever again get the mixture right. The mixture of vastness and close combat; of fast action and cool patience; and indeed of teamplay, mad chaos, and the lone wolf ethic all rolled into one. It's probably bad business, and frankly it's probably not sound design - but Subspace has it, like that or not, and it's what keeps us rolling along.
But you knew that by now, didn't you. :)
December 2000
26 January 2001 - In December of this last year, I allowed the Minefield to slip into a temporary state of disrepair while a new design was in the works. During this time, I resorted to an almost plaintext format, so important was it to me that I leave the old behind even while the new wasn't quite ready. It was a mistake to do so, and I've restored the month's updates more or less to the standard format for my archives. Any references to the formatting refers to the aforementioned plaintext setup, and any quotations have been added since thate fateful month, for consistency's sake.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
16 December 2000
(no headline)Answer me this much. Is there anyone out there who managed to play Doom properly -- on Ultra Violence the first time through without cheating - who managed to finish the fucking game? I never made it past E2M4, in large part because at the time I was forced to use the keyboard only, because of a mouse bug I still don't quite understand. So I'm playing it again and I know what's going to happen but I'm terrified. I cannot play the game. I say to myself, well, I'll just blast through it and not take it so seriously. Nope. Doesn't work.
Anyway, it was Doom's birthday about a week ago, so I've set out anew on a quest to actually find out what E3 and E4 look like. Think maybe I need thicker skin. Quake II even scared me, and that game is downright silly sometimes.
Apologies for the hiatus. I'm somewhat at a loss for words, lately. At some point between my growing frustration with Subspace's limitations and my growing enjoyment of it thanks in large part to Extreme Games, somewhere along the line my tendency to form opinions about it has been left by the wayside. I simply don't have any to share lately. It's wonderful to have EG in its present state, because in many ways it's more of what Subspace was originally meant to be than is perhaps any other zone in the game right now -- but, at the same time, a series of annoying limitations seems right now to prevent the game from ever becoming more interesting.
Then again, who cares? There's certainly no pressure today on game developers to offer much more than the usual set of tired old teamplay variants. The only games in the foreseeable future that seem to offer anything truly exciting are MMORPGs -- Star Wars Galaxies and BigWorld, both a good year or two off, and each already disappointing in its own way. And don't even talk to me about PlanetSide. After recent "reassurances" from its developers that players will enjoy an orgy of instant-gratification-style combat without meaningful consequences, I could not be less interested.
The problem is clearly my own. The question is, what do I do about it? Bide my time in EG and dream, that's what. And try to think of something more to say about it.
Meanwhile, thanks to (on one hand) Rude Awakening, Questioning Silence, and the other new staff in the Sheep Cloning Facility; and (on the other hand) my newfound ability to leave things the hell alone and not broke what isn't fixed, the zone is slowly becoming an interesting Zone type zone. Medium sized map I am dying to change but won't, nifty flag game that seems to be proving itself over the long run, childish point and bounty system...hell if I know why, but it seems to be working out well. Come in and have a gander sometime.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
7 December 2000
Here I go again . . . .
It's crazy the amount of time you can take up tracking down information on ICQ. If you start off with help of any quality at all, the leads multiply exponentially and before you know it a whole evening has passed - and you wind up somehow knowing a lot less about the subject than you did when you first set off on your journey.
Of course, that's what happens with any sort of research, which is why some people research their projects endlessly and never end up starting work on them. What the internet offers that traditional research can't is countless opportunities to drift off into long conversations which have nothing to do with the topic.
Fortunately for me, I'm interested in those conversations as well.
Unfortunately for everyone who reads this page, the fact that I don't have the sense to delay them until their proper time means I once again near midnight having bit off more than I can chew. Give me credit, however, that at least these days I am taking those bites.
You'll see some of that soon enough.
Many years ago, a distraught and forgotten Georges Méliès discarded some ninety of his films - nearly all of them - into the Thames. These were among the first films to employ the use of special effects. Most prominent of his works, thankfully surviving, is 1902's A Trip to the Moon. You may recall the comical image of an angry moon with a rocket embedded in its eye, common in any quick-cut retrospective presentation on film history such as one might see on the Oscars.
Years later, the major studios, faced with the threat of "talkies" - the first sound pictures - in their panic, despair, and smugness, similarly discarded hundreds, or maybe thousands, of silent films. Today they do not exist.
The negatives for today's motion pictures made today are customarily locked in a vault one full mile below the earth, in the Arizona desert. It took perhaps eighty years for this to become standard procedure.
I hate that our games have not yet reached such a standard. Yes, it's been what - at a very liberal estimate, fifteen years? Twenty-five by arcade standards. But oh, the arcade and even console crowds have got their acts together, often against the kicking and screaming of wooden-headed publishers determined to make a few dollars *someday* off of ancient, ancient intellectual property and source code.
You and I, we aren't even close. And don't let the smooth gloss veneer of the FPS and RTS communities fool you: Neither are they.
We're going to regret this soon. And the arcade / console weenies will be thumbing their noses for the duration of our horrified revelation.
We're going to discuss the long lost maps of prehistoric Subspace, soon. And if you have a heart it will feel pain by the time I am done.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
6 December 2000
(no headline)This format does not lend itself to quick, pithy updates lacking in Subspace content. I wonder how I will go about reconciling this with the fact that most of what I have to say inevitably consists of quick, pithy updates lacking in Subspace content.
Some quick, eleventh-hour jabs.
I'm famous. Check this shit out. Thanks SubspaceNet.
I have seen the newest draft of Thrulls upcoming Chaos Zone map. It is NICE. You cannot wait to play it, and you will not complain that it lacks a J12. In depth feature on this soon, if he'll let me.
It's midnight.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
4 December 2000
Interview: Pointman
I learned a little lesson today. It's the yang to the yin of "If you need help, ask for it." That yang being that often people who do, don't. The story is developing, but at the time of this writing it seems we might be losing a new member of the community to the game's frustrations and the community's failings, because on one hand no one bothered to ask and on the other hand no one bothered to check.
The moral of the story is that when someone asks you for your help, it's because they really need it, and they were willing to give up some of their own pride in return for the chance. Likewise, be careful who you take for granted, because they might be wondering why. No one takes somebody else for granted on purpose. It's always an accident. For that one ought to be careful.
Apologies for the preaching. With luck all will turn out as it should. As promised, here, finally, is the Pointman interview.
Long ago, a quirky player zone called !Extreme Games! crawled out of the primordial ooze and onto a landmass called SSX. It was soon to become the most popular zone in Subspace, but after a long chain of crises - very serious cheater problems, an ailing staff roster, a failed (if superb) attempt at a Turf game, and numerous lag problems - Extreme Games (EG for short) was for some time in danger of dropping right off the zone list and into history. Today it regularly tops both Trench Wars and Death Star Battle in population count - the first zone to do so, in fact, since EG's own Golden Age under hydro and Dr.evil. Pointman, head sysop of the zone throughout its recovery, is one of the major reasons for that return to glory. I talked to him Saturday evening - the first Minefield interview in nearly two years - about Extreme Games' past and future, why it works, and what it all boils down to.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
3 December 2000
A funny thing happened on the way to oblivion. . .
I was informed late last night of something I had not known since I started running Subspace zones three years ago, thanks very much. I owe a debt of gratitude to the wise newbie who clued me in to the fact, silly me, that I am required to have a rule against ball-killing in my zone. Not only that, but not withstanding my gross negligence - failing to post notices for a rule I didn't know I had - I am expected to punish my players for breaking a rule they didn't know about. Not only is ignorance of the law no excuse - it appears now that the absence of a law won't fly either.
Then I remembered that the individual scolding me plays in my zone because he is banned everywhere else. Not for any good reason, just for being his loveable self. A little secret: That's a damned good reason sometimes. Well, you get what you pay for, don't you. Perhaps I ought to start enforcing some of the other rules that are common out there in the chaotic fringe-worlds. Rules against lameness, for instance. Or cursing.
The Pointman interview will have to wait an extra day, as I didn't get a chance to approve some final changes with him. Instead I bring you a blast from the past, in the form of a long awaited reprint of The Romulans' Lamers Guide. This dates back to March 5th of 1997, exactly a month before yours truly joined the fray. All possible thanks to my old mapmaking mentor and evil homey for approving this at the last minute. :)
SubSpace: A Lamers Guide 0.9
Welcome to the SubSpace Lamers Guide! In this document you will find out about the many lame things you can do in SubSpace.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
2 December 2000
It's All Good Boys
How did I manage to give so many people the impression that I am quitting? I thought I made it pretty clear over the last few days that I am anything but. Just give me a few more days and I'll have things rolling again, that's a promise. The design aside, I'm getting off to a slow start here otherwise because I came down with a nasty cold over the weekend, and you know what that means. That's right, endless hours of incredibly lame lightsaber dueling in Jedi Knight. I'm tempted to give the Space Police a makeover into a JK clan, except for the minor problem that no one else plays that poor old game. Actually, that's not quite true, as a decent number of people play it on The Zone, decent at least for a 1997 FPS game. There's a badass map out there called Duel of the Fates, perfect for falling repeatedly to your death. And there's nothing quite like watching a sabre-wielding C3PO fall into a bottomless pit.
I can still ramble with the best of them, but I'll be separating that stuff out into its own section from now on. Once the proper page is up the separation will make a bit more sense visually, and no, I won't be abandoning the quotations. To kick things off I have a cool interview with Pointman, which should shed some light on the history and inner workings of one of Subspace's oldest and best zones. In general, expect more of a focus on the people, both past and present, who've make this game what it is.
That's not to say this will become an interview site, but my hope is that with each update, once I've gotten the day's chip off my shoulder in the pithy section up yonder, the main area of the page will be a sizeable feature you can sink your teeth into. Sometimes an interview, sometimes a review or editorial or maybe a history lesson or player profile. There'll be news, but if so then it'll be an article and not just a blurb. In the past this page has often filled a role that is now well filled by other pages staffed by more, and more closely involved, members of the community. To keep this page unique, and to keep it honest, it's best now that I recognize this mostly vacant niche, to make it my own.
I've seldom said this before, but I say it now and from now on, and mean it. Your submissions are welcome, and indeed I mean to make them a part of the regular content here. Get in touch.
I have not destroyed the old page, and won't. For now, you can access it at http://www.gamehacker.com/minefield/y3-index.html.
Pointman interview tomorrow. Don't miss it.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
1 December 2000
Welcome back to ground zero.
It would appear I am off to a slow start. I'm not real big on showing off works in progress. I think Nabokov said it best when he compared such practice to displaying one's sputum in public. Don't worry, that's the only Nabokov I can quote offhand, and I can't even actually quote it, can I? I do know how properly to pronounce his name, though, which is quite an accomplishment these days as I understand things.
There was a time not long ago when even I had very little hope for this game. I've looked to other games to pick up on where Subspace had left off - to the Tribes variants which have now been all but abandoned; to Allegiance with its long, slow conflicts and weird, abstract, Subspace-esque game balances; to the potential Infantry once seemed to have and the promise Hyperspace still holds for some. I look forward to Tribes 2 and to PlanetSide and TeamFortress 2, but over the past year one thing has become clear to me. Subspace has a monopoly. Certainly more sophisticated games have come along in terms of both realism and abstraction - the strategy's been more involving and the combat more intense - the teamplay's become more interesting.
I've been told teamplay is the future; surprise, kids: it isn't. All that philosophy that informs the gaming industry's directions - it is all good, and it creates games that are wonderful in their own way, but I have to wonder if anyone will ever again get the mixture right. The mixture of vastness and close combat; of fast action and cool patience; and indeed of teamplay, mad chaos, and the lone wolf ethic all rolled into one. It's probably bad business, and frankly it's probably not sound design - but Subspace has it, like that or not, and it's what keeps us rolling along.
But you knew that by now, didn't you. :)
N e w s o f t h e D a y
16 December 2000
(no headline)Answer me this much. Is there anyone out there who managed to play Doom properly -- on Ultra Violence the first time through without cheating - who managed to finish the fucking game? I never made it past E2M4, in large part because at the time I was forced to use the keyboard only, because of a mouse bug I still don't quite understand. So I'm playing it again and I know what's going to happen but I'm terrified. I cannot play the game. I say to myself, well, I'll just blast through it and not take it so seriously. Nope. Doesn't work.
Anyway, it was Doom's birthday about a week ago, so I've set out anew on a quest to actually find out what E3 and E4 look like. Think maybe I need thicker skin. Quake II even scared me, and that game is downright silly sometimes.
Apologies for the hiatus. I'm somewhat at a loss for words, lately. At some point between my growing frustration with Subspace's limitations and my growing enjoyment of it thanks in large part to Extreme Games, somewhere along the line my tendency to form opinions about it has been left by the wayside. I simply don't have any to share lately. It's wonderful to have EG in its present state, because in many ways it's more of what Subspace was originally meant to be than is perhaps any other zone in the game right now -- but, at the same time, a series of annoying limitations seems right now to prevent the game from ever becoming more interesting.
Then again, who cares? There's certainly no pressure today on game developers to offer much more than the usual set of tired old teamplay variants. The only games in the foreseeable future that seem to offer anything truly exciting are MMORPGs -- Star Wars Galaxies and BigWorld, both a good year or two off, and each already disappointing in its own way. And don't even talk to me about PlanetSide. After recent "reassurances" from its developers that players will enjoy an orgy of instant-gratification-style combat without meaningful consequences, I could not be less interested.
The problem is clearly my own. The question is, what do I do about it? Bide my time in EG and dream, that's what. And try to think of something more to say about it.
Meanwhile, thanks to (on one hand) Rude Awakening, Questioning Silence, and the other new staff in the Sheep Cloning Facility; and (on the other hand) my newfound ability to leave things the hell alone and not broke what isn't fixed, the zone is slowly becoming an interesting Zone type zone. Medium sized map I am dying to change but won't, nifty flag game that seems to be proving itself over the long run, childish point and bounty system...hell if I know why, but it seems to be working out well. Come in and have a gander sometime.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
7 December 2000
Here I go again . . . .
It's crazy the amount of time you can take up tracking down information on ICQ. If you start off with help of any quality at all, the leads multiply exponentially and before you know it a whole evening has passed - and you wind up somehow knowing a lot less about the subject than you did when you first set off on your journey.
Of course, that's what happens with any sort of research, which is why some people research their projects endlessly and never end up starting work on them. What the internet offers that traditional research can't is countless opportunities to drift off into long conversations which have nothing to do with the topic.
Fortunately for me, I'm interested in those conversations as well.
Unfortunately for everyone who reads this page, the fact that I don't have the sense to delay them until their proper time means I once again near midnight having bit off more than I can chew. Give me credit, however, that at least these days I am taking those bites.
You'll see some of that soon enough.
Many years ago, a distraught and forgotten Georges Méliès discarded some ninety of his films - nearly all of them - into the Thames. These were among the first films to employ the use of special effects. Most prominent of his works, thankfully surviving, is 1902's A Trip to the Moon. You may recall the comical image of an angry moon with a rocket embedded in its eye, common in any quick-cut retrospective presentation on film history such as one might see on the Oscars.
Years later, the major studios, faced with the threat of "talkies" - the first sound pictures - in their panic, despair, and smugness, similarly discarded hundreds, or maybe thousands, of silent films. Today they do not exist.
The negatives for today's motion pictures made today are customarily locked in a vault one full mile below the earth, in the Arizona desert. It took perhaps eighty years for this to become standard procedure.
I hate that our games have not yet reached such a standard. Yes, it's been what - at a very liberal estimate, fifteen years? Twenty-five by arcade standards. But oh, the arcade and even console crowds have got their acts together, often against the kicking and screaming of wooden-headed publishers determined to make a few dollars *someday* off of ancient, ancient intellectual property and source code.
You and I, we aren't even close. And don't let the smooth gloss veneer of the FPS and RTS communities fool you: Neither are they.
We're going to regret this soon. And the arcade / console weenies will be thumbing their noses for the duration of our horrified revelation.
We're going to discuss the long lost maps of prehistoric Subspace, soon. And if you have a heart it will feel pain by the time I am done.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
6 December 2000
(no headline)This format does not lend itself to quick, pithy updates lacking in Subspace content. I wonder how I will go about reconciling this with the fact that most of what I have to say inevitably consists of quick, pithy updates lacking in Subspace content.
Some quick, eleventh-hour jabs.
I'm famous. Check this shit out. Thanks SubspaceNet.
I have seen the newest draft of Thrulls upcoming Chaos Zone map. It is NICE. You cannot wait to play it, and you will not complain that it lacks a J12. In depth feature on this soon, if he'll let me.
It's midnight.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
4 December 2000
Interview: Pointman
I learned a little lesson today. It's the yang to the yin of "If you need help, ask for it." That yang being that often people who do, don't. The story is developing, but at the time of this writing it seems we might be losing a new member of the community to the game's frustrations and the community's failings, because on one hand no one bothered to ask and on the other hand no one bothered to check.
The moral of the story is that when someone asks you for your help, it's because they really need it, and they were willing to give up some of their own pride in return for the chance. Likewise, be careful who you take for granted, because they might be wondering why. No one takes somebody else for granted on purpose. It's always an accident. For that one ought to be careful.
Apologies for the preaching. With luck all will turn out as it should. As promised, here, finally, is the Pointman interview.
Long ago, a quirky player zone called !Extreme Games! crawled out of the primordial ooze and onto a landmass called SSX. It was soon to become the most popular zone in Subspace, but after a long chain of crises - very serious cheater problems, an ailing staff roster, a failed (if superb) attempt at a Turf game, and numerous lag problems - Extreme Games (EG for short) was for some time in danger of dropping right off the zone list and into history. Today it regularly tops both Trench Wars and Death Star Battle in population count - the first zone to do so, in fact, since EG's own Golden Age under hydro and Dr.evil. Pointman, head sysop of the zone throughout its recovery, is one of the major reasons for that return to glory. I talked to him Saturday evening - the first Minefield interview in nearly two years - about Extreme Games' past and future, why it works, and what it all boils down to.
Pointman: Fire away.
einexile: How long have you been playing Subspace?
Pointman: Since 97, I think.
Pointman: Since 1.24 ...I started in Chaos West when some of my friends told me to check it out.
einexile: I think I started around the same time. Did you branch out to other zones?
Pointman: Yes, after chaos and some Pro League, I went to Zero Annihilation, which I spent a year at or so, then had quit for 6 months till I came back to check on my friends, and got hooked on EG. I tried Dueling Zone, Chaos East, and some other zones. Nothing kept my interest long.
einexile: Is that what's up in ?go zero right now?
Pointman: We have ZA in EG, in a subarena, yes.
einexile: That was a fun zone, with the stupid bricking wars down around B17. The wormhole base.
Pointman: I like non-SVS settings. SVS is too slow and not as fun.
einexile: So most of your old friends had moved on to Extreme Games by then?
Pointman: No, my friends had quit, or went to Pro League.
einexile: How'd you find EG?
Pointman: I was checking out zones once, after I came back from over 6-10 months of quitting Subspace, and was checking out all of the zones. EG seemed most appealing to me. I always liked flagging.
einexile: Yeah, it's always had that feeling of a big fight that only WZ and Zero and a few other select zones have had.
Pointman: The concept of movable flags and the idea that you have to infiltrate the enemy and takeover an enemy base was what appealed to me.
einexile: May I ask why you quit?
Pointman: I was a mod in Zero Annihilation, but the zone had started to die out, so I thought might as well quit.
einexile: Had you tried EG prior to that time?
Pointman: Never before then. I think it was over a year I had quit. I was just reminded it was over a year.
Pointman: In Zero Annihilation I used the name WIPEOUT. During Chaos Zone I had too many names to even remember.
einexile: Do you remember Mr. Savoy?
Pointman: Yes, mr.savoy, luck, moondoog, comptessa, mr.scrotum and many others. I used to flag with them. Subzer0.
einexile: Mr. Savoy was my arch enemy in War Zone West. He'd drive this big lame turret and I got so pissed off at how uncool that was I organized this posse against him all the time.
Pointman: Is this the same mr.savoy? Some people have said it's not.
einexile: I think so. Mr. Savoy!!!!!!
Pointman: Yes.
einexile: So when you did find your way to EG, what era was that? Who was running it then?
Pointman: I know when I got back the thing I hated was how many cheaters were around. hydro and Mongoose were running it.
einexile: Ahh...sounds like late 1998 then. Bad times.
Pointman: I found it by trying out all zones. I was in the zone over a month when Mongoose recruited me to Rival, his squad.
Pointman: Before banG I had to do a lot more searching.
einexile: For zones?
Pointman: I mean when I got banG here a year ago, or whenever it was, it made my life easier.
einexile: I would imagine. Probably the best thing to happen to the game since they released the server program. Around what time did hydro and them leave?
Pointman: Oh a year ago, I assume.
einexile: They became really involved with Infantry and Pro. Did someone run the zone between hydro and you, or did he pass it directly to you?
Pointman: He started playing Pro League a lot, and I was smod in EG at the time. So he gave me sysop so I could test cheaters. It was Captain Harloch, hydro, and Mongoose. All 3 were always inactive, while too many cheaters were being found in the zone. So I got sysop to check on the cheaters and start getting info's on them.
einexile: Ah, I see. How come you never got involved in Infantry?
Pointman: I found it boring, there's no challenge in just killing
einexile: Not the CTF game?
Pointman: I know now they got flagging, but when I tried it they didn't have it.
einexile: I enjoyed the chaos-type random killing zone, actually. I was turned off by the flag games because they tended to be pre-designed in terms of what you had to do. For example, you couldn't choose your own base. One was assigned to you, TeamFortress style.
Pointman: Oh. Well in EG I liked the fact you picked any base and tried to defend it. I guess that's why I played Star Warzone too. It had the same objective, just slower paced.
einexile: I remember EG and SWZ being almost sister zones back then, with a big overlap of staff and so forth. Does that relationship still exist?
Pointman: Somewhat. Tail still chats in the Zeta chat, and when O do see a major cheater I warn him. But its rare.
einexile: That's too bad. Did Harloch become less active in SWZ around the same time hydro became less so here?
Pointman: CH was more active running SWZ than EG. When I got smod here, CH had already had become pretty inactive.
einexile: When you took over the zone, did you have any particular design or game plan in mind? Or was it mainly just on your mind to keep the zone healthy and so forth?
Pointman: It was at the time when SSCX had a lot of lag issues. We couldn't have more than 60 people without losing the server.
einexile: I remember that. EG almost bought it.
Pointman: Just to keep it fun, I created events, would update maps more often. Almost every month or two a new map, and between them a few new bases. I would ask for base submissions so that it was easier to do that.
einexile: You moved to SSCU for a while, didn't you?
Pointman: Yes, from SSCX to SSCU, then we thought moving to Verio was better, had some problems there, and moved back to SSCX. I guess we made a complete circle, hehe. I like SSCX.
einexile: Me too. I've had my zone there since VIE closed. How soon after you started changing the maps did you decide to change the style of the maps? Or did that come naturally with the submissions?
Pointman: A couple of months. I was noticing things people didn't like about the maps - the narrow tunnels vets liked because they were pretty easy to defend, but other teams found it impossible to attack them. It was major suicide missions. We still have that, but not as bad as back then. I also changed over to no neuting of flags, to stop people jumping from base to base.
einexile: What changed your mind? You had never really played much War Zone, had you?
Pointman: No, never, but I always flagged in EG. I would notice things which as a player I wouldn't particularly like to see when playing.
einexile: Small tunnels, even though I liked hydro and evil's bases a lot, generally peeve me a great deal, because you can't really maneuver in them. Did you like them personally? Or were you thinking, "damn, back in Chaos West I could have outmanevered these bastards..."
Pointman: Well I just knew I didn't want to try and run into a base to give the enemy 100 free kills. Bases were designed with too many bomblines and no maneuverability.
einexile: Did you try to address the base-switching problem by changing the antiwarp settings or rules, or by taking gates out of the bases?
Pointman: People hated the idea of wider bases, but no one cared about any changes in the beginning. Pub day - when I started it, people complained about that. Now not many complain, or even say anything about it.
einexile: I always found flag milking to be one of the more charming things about EG, although I admit part of the reason I liked it was it made people angry. :)
Pointman: I tried bigger anti range and no safes in bases, but then we had more antiwarping in center and other problems. The enemy always found a way around it. Use a door, or teamkill the player from outside the base, before the no-neuting rule was introduced.
einexile: Why did they complain about pub day?
Pointman: People complained about pub day cause they didn't want to play with newbies. I fixed that by making jackpots double during pub days. People saw it as a day worth gaining points. Also, making prox and other items buyable helped.
einexile: On pub days you also raise the maximum number of players allowed in an arena, don't you? And on teams?
Pointman: No, just teams. It's always set to 40 players, but instead of 12 on pub team and 10 private we make it 20 max per team. It causes the jackpot to almost double. We also give everyone team greening to 50 during pub days. Though pub days are limited 4pm eastern to midnight.
einexile: When did the arena max of 40 come into being?
Pointman: I was experimenting with settings. I noticed at 50 the people starting lagging out more. At 45 it was a bit less. 40 seemed to be much better.
einexile: Aside from that, how has the zone evolved over the time you've been here? Or is that too broad a question perhaps?
Pointman: Too broad.
einexile: When did kweef get involved with the zone?
Pointman: kweef - or used to be known as ShiningForce - made some nice bases. When I started asking for bases. He would submit many bases. So did others, but I liked his style - it was the bases I most liked editing. All bases I ever put here I have had to edit cause of problems or bad design somewhere
einexile: He submitted full size maps, didn't he?
Pointman: Yes.
einexile: Do the mappers get mad at you? :)
Pointman: Not really, most are just glad to have there base put up with their name on it. I only ever got one person who didn't like the changes, but I fixed it.
einexile: But kweef is more or less gone now, isn't he?
Pointman: Gone. I haven't gotten a base submission from him in like two months.
einexile: That's too bad, he is a one of a kind mapmaker. Do you still have a good base of designers without him around to contribute?
Pointman: I agree, I like his bases. I used a lot of his, but I did use other people's bases. I've got like 40 bases. They are too cramped, still.
Pointman: By the way, I talked to you a long time ago when my name was originally block.
einexile: block?
Pointman: Yes, when bolero was around I discovered him on the mod chat under ace113. Brought it up with hydro.
einexile: You are the one who flushed out Bolero?
Pointman: Yes.
einexile: Nice work. I will add you to the list of people who have made me look like an ass. ;)
Pointman: hehe
einexile: When did you start using the name Pointman?
Pointman: After Dominion dissolved I changed my name to Pointman.
einexile: What was Dominion?
Pointman: I was in rival, Mongoose's squad. He dissolved it, so he and zennor formed Dominion. But then Mongoose quit it and joined Zeta. When Dominion dissolved, I joined Zeta under this name. I don't really quit squads. I wait till they dissolve. I'm pretty loyal to my squads if I like who's on them. Which is only reason I ever join.
einexile: Back to the staff and contributors, when did Wormhole Surfer come back to EG?
Pointman: About 4-5 months ago, I think.
einexile: Has he done all this artwork for you since his return?
Pointman: He did the tilework, yes.
einexile: For this and the subarenas? How many different sets?
Pointman: He gave me the map for duel and elim. Both tileset and map are his. The main map/tileset, too, but most of the bases belong to others.
einexile: When I first looked at the EG main arena map in SSME, I was amazed all this stuff fit in that tiny tileset. I just had it in my head you'd done something to the game itself.
Pointman: Well, the elim and duel arena tilesets look very similar, just the coloring is different and a few tiles were changed.
einexile: So you've been slowly adding different events and subarenas. Is this mainly for fun, or in a spirit of competition with the other zones? I've noticed EG mopping the scoreboard with Trench Wars' severed head, lately. :)
Pointman: We always were into having events.
einexile: Aren't some of them relatively recent though?
Pointman: No, we have been running events over a year.
einexile: Why don't you add new ones?
Pointman: I've been busy with other stuff, namely right now editing the map. This new tileset makes my work a lot harder.
einexile: The current one? It seems nightmarish to work with, although well worth it.
Pointman: Yes, I know. It took me three hours to do one base.
einexile: Where do you see all this going in the future? Do you have a plan for the zone beyond what you're doing now?
Pointman: League, and other games. We had our first league game today on a separate server. Zeus is handling it.
einexile: How is the league starting out?
Pointman: 50 people there today. Not bad for a start. Once people get used to the slightly different settings, it will pick up.
einexile: What about these other games you mentioned? Or are they classified :)
Pointman: I'm talking about Conquer and Zombies, stuff like that. But we need a bot that doesn't keep crashing. :)
einexile: What's Conquer?
Pointman: Some event The Junky made up. We've also got Guard the King and Cloak Wars.
einexile: Pikapoo told me Evaugh had quit as sysop here. Will he still be running the website?
Pointman: I believe so. Zeus got promoted to co-sysop.
einexile: Does The Junky do a lot of the subarena games?
Pointman: Not to many. He is doing Conquer. I normally take people's suggestions and make a new event, or make one of my own. But I haven't had the time lately. Cloakwars was Manowar's. He made the map, but got it from an SCF idea, I think.
einexile: Are you involved in online games other than Subspace?
Pointman: Not really. Haven't had that much time. When I'm here I'm always in spec in Windows. :) I used to play other games, but haven't in some time. I know a lot of people who are playing quake type games, but shootem ups aren't very interesting to me.
einexile: Anything else you would like to cover or think we should cover? Words of advice? Chips on your shoulder? Praises to sing? Top 10 lists?
Pointman: Well, I want to thank the EG staff. They are a great help. I don't think the zone would have done so well if we didn't have people like them helping. I also wish to thank wormhole surfer and the many people who've submitted bases, for making the game more interesting. Also hydro for giving me ownership of EG.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
3 December 2000
A funny thing happened on the way to oblivion. . .
I was informed late last night of something I had not known since I started running Subspace zones three years ago, thanks very much. I owe a debt of gratitude to the wise newbie who clued me in to the fact, silly me, that I am required to have a rule against ball-killing in my zone. Not only that, but not withstanding my gross negligence - failing to post notices for a rule I didn't know I had - I am expected to punish my players for breaking a rule they didn't know about. Not only is ignorance of the law no excuse - it appears now that the absence of a law won't fly either.
Then I remembered that the individual scolding me plays in my zone because he is banned everywhere else. Not for any good reason, just for being his loveable self. A little secret: That's a damned good reason sometimes. Well, you get what you pay for, don't you. Perhaps I ought to start enforcing some of the other rules that are common out there in the chaotic fringe-worlds. Rules against lameness, for instance. Or cursing.
The Pointman interview will have to wait an extra day, as I didn't get a chance to approve some final changes with him. Instead I bring you a blast from the past, in the form of a long awaited reprint of The Romulans' Lamers Guide. This dates back to March 5th of 1997, exactly a month before yours truly joined the fray. All possible thanks to my old mapmaking mentor and evil homey for approving this at the last minute. :)
SubSpace: A Lamers Guide 0.9
Welcome to the SubSpace Lamers Guide! In this document you will find out about the many lame things you can do in SubSpace.
------------
Contents:
1. Compulsive Bursting
2. Vulching (Long-Lange Bombing)
3. Neg Killing
4. Neg Hunting
5. The Neg that shot a lvl1 gun
6. Suicide Runners
7. Spectators
8. Mining
9. Unessary Killing (War Zone)
10. Turrets/Swarming
--------------
1.
COMPULSIVE BURSTING
Compulsive Bursting requires alot of greens, and no skill.
Compulsive Bursters are basically people that do almost nothing but Burst, they are usually found in Tunnel systems and corners.
--------------
2.
VULCHING
Vulching, otherwise known as Long-Range bombing, requires a 100 bty ship, and a small amount of skill, and a Levi is usually the choice for this activity.
Vulchers are people that stay away from the action and fire bombs from a distance into a crowd of people, or they just fire them off randomly. Vulching is extremely lame in the Running Zone, but then again everything is lame when you kill a Red ;)
--------------
3.
NEG KILLING
Neg Killing requires almost no skill, and a desently greened ship, the Spider is usually the choice for Neg Killers.
Definition of a Neg: A Neg is a player that has bounty below 20 (30 if your generous).
Neg Killers are people that go around to all the players below 20 bty and kill them. There is multiple techniques for Killing Negs, the most popular is using the Spider... with lvl3 guns, No Multi (turned off if they have it) they decloak next to the neg and shoot his ass off, this requires a little skill, another popular method is to fire bombs then recloak. Although i think it is sometimes funny when an entire Group of Spiders decloak around the Neg, not even shooting it, just 5 or so Spiders sitting around a neg, hehe.
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4.
NEG HUNTING
Neg Hunting is a step up from Neg Killing, its just if the Neg runs the person pursues the Neg until it is dead (or in some lucky cases the Neg Hunter gets bored) This requires a small amount of skill, just to get the bomb on target (like i said, a small amount).
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5.
THE NEG THAT FIRED THE LEVEL1 GUNS
This is a story about the Neg that fired the lvl1 guns....
It was a dark night in the Chaos Zone, the Newly spawned neg was lost in the maze that is Chaos Zone. On his radar he saw a high bounty player, he immediately followed the 178bty player. The Neg followed him down the tunnels, and finnaly to a dead end. The Neg by this time had 7 bty with Bouncing Bullets. He thought that the lvl1s might be enough to kill the 178bty player, if they bounce off the end wall... he started firing. The other player saw these lvl1 guns raining down on him... he laughed at the neg and said: "Hehe, Silly Neg" and the neg was turned into a green "Thanx 4 the Green!".
As you can see these are the Silly Negs, the ones that deserve a Neg Kill or 2. Being a Silly Neg requires a little skill (if he wants to stay alive) and less than 30 bty. And if the neg happens to kill a player with the lvl1 guns he obviously had Luck on his side.
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6.
SUICIDE RUNNERS
Suicide Runners do nothing but Run into the NME bases (War Zone) and steal flags, they usually quit the game as well.
This is not lame IF *The same team keeps winning OVER AND OVER AND OVER (at least 5 times in a row) OR *If the NMEs base you are running into is the ReDS base ;)
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7.
SPECTATORS
Spectators are only lame in Running Zone and War Zone really. It requires absolutely NO SKILL and is a lame way of aquiring flags.
All Specs do is sit back and watch, they look for the flags or the People holding the flags, then they tell their team to attack the site where the flags are.
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8.
MINING
Mining is both Lame and Skillful, the miners i personnaly think are a little lame, if all they do is mine i mean but if they go off killing people while their mines are left where they put them, i think that is ok.
Miners require certain skills: Luck and Knowledge of where the good mining spots are. Mining is lame mostly in Running Zone, in War Zone it is usually used to protect your base, and in Chaos Zone it is a frequent practise.
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9.
UNESSARY KILLINGS (WAR ZONE)
This is not that lame, the least lame on this list.
War Zone is for flag games, not killing other players like Chaos Zone, this is why it is lame.
These guys just kill people (negs included) all over the War Zone, they dont care about making base raids, they just want kills War Zone is for flagging if u want to kill people go to Chaos Zone.
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10.
TURRETS/SWARMING
This is actually the least lame thing on the list, its just that the Turrets really piss me off :) Swarming is basically the same but they are not all on the same ship, sometimes there are multiple Turrets in the swarm.
The lame thing about this, is if the Turret/Swarm goes after one player that is less than 50bty it is a bit lame, they dont stand a chance. I love getting a mine field then frawing the Turret into the mines, Think of Turrets as one big easy kill, this is why Swarming is more dangerous, they are not all grouped together.
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Super Teams are also little lame, although they require alot of skill and teamwork (all pub freqs cry out "TEAMWORK?!") :)
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This concludes the Lamers guide to SubSpace.
Made by: USS Romulan-B and All you lamers out there :) Special Thanx to the SubSpace team for making a GREAT game, but unfortunatley the lamers described here spoil it for everyone.
This Document does not reflect any...er... many of the personal opinions of the creators ;)
N e w s o f t h e D a y
2 December 2000
It's All Good Boys
How did I manage to give so many people the impression that I am quitting? I thought I made it pretty clear over the last few days that I am anything but. Just give me a few more days and I'll have things rolling again, that's a promise. The design aside, I'm getting off to a slow start here otherwise because I came down with a nasty cold over the weekend, and you know what that means. That's right, endless hours of incredibly lame lightsaber dueling in Jedi Knight. I'm tempted to give the Space Police a makeover into a JK clan, except for the minor problem that no one else plays that poor old game. Actually, that's not quite true, as a decent number of people play it on The Zone, decent at least for a 1997 FPS game. There's a badass map out there called Duel of the Fates, perfect for falling repeatedly to your death. And there's nothing quite like watching a sabre-wielding C3PO fall into a bottomless pit.
I can still ramble with the best of them, but I'll be separating that stuff out into its own section from now on. Once the proper page is up the separation will make a bit more sense visually, and no, I won't be abandoning the quotations. To kick things off I have a cool interview with Pointman, which should shed some light on the history and inner workings of one of Subspace's oldest and best zones. In general, expect more of a focus on the people, both past and present, who've make this game what it is.
That's not to say this will become an interview site, but my hope is that with each update, once I've gotten the day's chip off my shoulder in the pithy section up yonder, the main area of the page will be a sizeable feature you can sink your teeth into. Sometimes an interview, sometimes a review or editorial or maybe a history lesson or player profile. There'll be news, but if so then it'll be an article and not just a blurb. In the past this page has often filled a role that is now well filled by other pages staffed by more, and more closely involved, members of the community. To keep this page unique, and to keep it honest, it's best now that I recognize this mostly vacant niche, to make it my own.
I've seldom said this before, but I say it now and from now on, and mean it. Your submissions are welcome, and indeed I mean to make them a part of the regular content here. Get in touch.
I have not destroyed the old page, and won't. For now, you can access it at http://www.gamehacker.com/minefield/y3-index.html.
Pointman interview tomorrow. Don't miss it.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
1 December 2000
Welcome back to ground zero.
It would appear I am off to a slow start. I'm not real big on showing off works in progress. I think Nabokov said it best when he compared such practice to displaying one's sputum in public. Don't worry, that's the only Nabokov I can quote offhand, and I can't even actually quote it, can I? I do know how properly to pronounce his name, though, which is quite an accomplishment these days as I understand things.
There was a time not long ago when even I had very little hope for this game. I've looked to other games to pick up on where Subspace had left off - to the Tribes variants which have now been all but abandoned; to Allegiance with its long, slow conflicts and weird, abstract, Subspace-esque game balances; to the potential Infantry once seemed to have and the promise Hyperspace still holds for some. I look forward to Tribes 2 and to PlanetSide and TeamFortress 2, but over the past year one thing has become clear to me. Subspace has a monopoly. Certainly more sophisticated games have come along in terms of both realism and abstraction - the strategy's been more involving and the combat more intense - the teamplay's become more interesting.
I've been told teamplay is the future; surprise, kids: it isn't. All that philosophy that informs the gaming industry's directions - it is all good, and it creates games that are wonderful in their own way, but I have to wonder if anyone will ever again get the mixture right. The mixture of vastness and close combat; of fast action and cool patience; and indeed of teamplay, mad chaos, and the lone wolf ethic all rolled into one. It's probably bad business, and frankly it's probably not sound design - but Subspace has it, like that or not, and it's what keeps us rolling along.
But you knew that by now, didn't you. :)
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