<Leigh> which they are
Cmaj
Fmaj
Gdom7
Cmaj
N o N e w s o f t h e D a y
31 May 1999
Gone
No update today, but I figured I'd ramble a little. Bugger, no time to ramble. Went to see Besieged today. Great movie but not for everyone. In fact it is probably for very few of us. I have the new Spacetime Continuum and there is a saxophone on it. Gawd. Sorry to whoever got unjustly banned fro the Sheep Cloning Facility the other day. I didn't set it. Some mod is fired but I don't know who yet. Would the fired mod please contact me? Thanks. Goodnight and happy June.
Today in Subspace history
Happy birthday to my mom, who does not read this page but oh well. Someday I'll get her hooked. Also, to moon bee's mom. (No they are not related. Quiet, you.)
Oh, and for the "Who is moon bee?" contingent: There's the door; use it. :P
<Pl0k> I'm too selfish to be involved in a relationship at the moment
Under the tongue root, a fight most dread,
and another rages behind in the head.
A N H
30 May 1999
Subspace is saved
Three days ago, Baudchaser posted the following grim comments to Gamehacker.
The remaining SSCentral, which as for now seems to be a dying race, and need an own National Park for protection, is German. And, it is NO nice person, running this for charity. The SSCentral there, is hosted by a Company (shiver), and they earn Money ($) on Subspace. How they managed to trick innocent Germans to actually pay for their playing, I don't know. But nevertheless, as a general warning to the Subspace community, I would like to add - Be advised, this server might get shut off for the non-Gamesonline.De Subspace servers. Unless, of course, somebody pay money to use them as sscentral.
Mark your calendars, boys. This time next year we are celebrating, cause today is the day we got the Subspace directory server. For the first time ever we can go to bed at night knowing that when we get up in the morning, somewhere in the world there will be a Find Servers address to connect to. I take no credit for this and I'm not naming anyone else involved unless they wish it, but you can put away your cyanide tablets because the players now have it. :)
Baudchaser posted the news this afternoon, and SuperFly has confirmed a likely address of sscentral.gigaparts.com ...we are home free; have a look.
br>
Shanoyu mapfolio incoming
Shanoyu has begin work on a very special love letter to the Subspace community in the form of a mapfolio. It should be done soon and I will post it here and you will read it and gape in awe and horror. Erm, actually it's officially done and just doesn't contain any images because I'm expected to do that (?) because Shan is lazy. Look for it here tomorrow.
Another short update
Sorry. It's nearly midnight and I have to go eat, or the women in my life (girlfriend, cat, Mary Tyler Moore, and whichever porn stars are on Howard Stern tonight) will be very upset. Bye. Well, now the cat's already upset. I'd better go...
Today in Subspace history
Submissions are still being accepted. AHEM.
SilentDragon's 90% unoriginal ;) Powerball map goes up in the SCF. (1998)
Hadar announces that the Rod/Jolly map will be replaced in Chaos West. (1998)
Once you get laid at a lock in at a church, you're pretty sure
that whatever the church you're in is the religion for you.
Shanoyu
You look so good when you're coming down.
I wanna be there when you hit the ground.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
29 May 1999
VIVA LA NMEBASE BABY
Slayfest, aww yeah
If it's still Saturday night (or Sunday afternoon if you're an Aussie, but then you better be there anyway), the odds are that Slayfest is still going on. Get in there! Sorry to be posting this a bit late, and posting nothing else, but I'm in a hurry and this weekend's game is already going to take a nasty bite out of this hurry. What we're playing is to my knowledge a new kind of Turf game--that's right, when Harloch says capital ships, he doesn't mean those goofy slow turning ships 7 and 8 but on the map itself. These bases will be "destroyed" by capturing all the flags inside them, and will then no longer be in contention. I intend to fight for the Empire this time because i HATE that Correlian Corvette base. :P
Today in Subspace history
Someday you'll kick yourself.
- Gommy publishes his War Zone map. (1998)
- Gommy completes the first draft of his superb mapping guide, sadly still unpublished. (1998)
- Paintball Zone moves to Outer Rim. I think. (1998)
- The Romulans closes SubScene, a superb but understaffed monthly webzine. (1998)
- Woop calls me an asshole. ;) (1998)
- This page receives its 10,000th hit. (1998)
- Rod/Jolly map uploaded to Chaos West for the last time. (5.27.98?)
You need to be, like, tougher.
- moon bee
This place is old. It feels just like a beat up truck;
I turn the engine but the engine doesn't turn.
It smells of cheap wine, cigarettes...this place is always such a mess.
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
28 May 1999
Jackpot Zone
I haven't the energy to do much of an update at the moment. I just wanted to drop a quick reminder that the Jackpot Zone convergence is tonight at 7pm eastern. A few people were unhappy that this is a time during which they are normally intoxicated and making public spectacles of themselves, and were unhappy that the map for this reset will be picked today. If you really want to sound off on the map but can't be there, feel free to express your thoughts on the bulletin board or through email. ;)
Because the UK server is down, we are now listed on the German one at sscentral.gamesonline.de
If you'd like to add the zone manually, here is the information from my favorite.lst file:
SSCE Jackpot/Running,198.88.20.161,21500
#[Hosted by Verio] Also hosts SSCE Dueling Arizona. Info can be found or requested at http://subspace.inet.fi
The 10 greatest Subspace maps of all time
Cuz I'll never get around to this if I don't just barrel into it, and cuz I feel like getting some nasty emails this weekend. If you have strong opinions on this send me your top ten lists. Preferably include some interesting history or poetic waxing on why the maps you chose are so badass, even tho I haven't done so myself. (Sorry.) I'll exclude my own stuff from here for the obvious reasons. For the record I would have put 31 Flags on this list but probably none of the others.
- War Zone 1 (Arctos)
- Chaos West (Rodvik and Jolly Roger)
- War Zone 2 (T2-17)
- VS Turf (GiGaKiLLeR)
- Scenarios of Irony (A Clove)
- Speed West (Mafia)
- Powerball II (The Romulans)
- Battle Drone (Dev's Apprentice)
- _castle.lvl (unknown)
- Jackpot/Rabbit (Arctos)
Today in Subspace history
Because it matters, dammit!
- Mafia Turf premieres in the Sheep Cloning Facility. (1998)
- I get a new cat. (1998)
- Not much else. Send me your historical research please. :)
<Shanoyu> If I move to santa Barbra can I be in your movie?
<eisaway> no
<Shanoyu> I have refrences
<Shanoyu> Decatur School of Acting
<eisaway> you're overqualified
<Shanoyu> it's a crappy school
What are we going to do now it's all been said?
No new ideas in the house, and every book has been read.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
27 May 1999
sscentral at VIE UK down
At press time (4:12am pacific) the directory server at VIE UK is down. In theory this may not be such a bad thing if a player run directory server pops up in its place, but without a smooth transition I fear we are going to lose quite a few players this way, if this is permanent. In the meantime, you may want to check the German directory server at sscentral.gamesonline.de or use the Zone IP List at DS98. This list is pretty out of date but some of the older zones probably are still using the same addresses. Also here is my Favorite Servers file which may be helpful. If someone out there has the time to hammer together a more complete IP list it would be greatly appreciated. If so, please send it over to me as well as to Minbari Warship. Thanks.
(Thanks Suicide for the heads-up.)
So long and thanks for all the BITCH
I'm going to be streamlining my involvement in Subspace from here on out so that I can spend more time on Hyperspace. Among other things, I think it's time I stopped making maps for this game because it has reached a point where new maps are no longer welcome or useful, and although I do not consider Subspace dead, I think the evolution of Subspace is very much over, and that I have exhausted every reason to continue this hobby. Although I may do a few more maps "on commission" for scenarios and am considering (pointlessly) finishing a Chaos Zone map that has been on my mind for some time, my newest map will most likely be my last and I am definitely headed down that road at this point.
Instead, I'll be gathering my stuff up and putting together a new, "complete" release of my mapfolio, which will include the final versions of all my finished maps plus remixes I did of other people's work, maps that other people made with designs borrowed from me, collaborations, and maps that were heavily influenced by my criticism, as well as odds and ends--SSME sketches, stuff I threw out, dumb ideas I had, etc. Even a few scans from notebook sketches.
Point being, it's been a while that I've been doing this and I don't necessarily remember everything, nor have I seen every map ever used on a server. If you've ripped off my designs or have a map that was made with my help somehow, please send it over so I can include it.
The new map I mentioned above is a 2Fort-style version of my Trench Wars map, called Scarab Opposition. It will probably run at Slayfest sometime in the next few weeks.
This week (or month; sorry) in Subspace history
- The Sheep Cloning Facility is reborn. (5.9.98)
- Chaos Nevada is replaced with Chaos West. (5.9.98)
- I start mapping. Sort of. And uh...crash my car. (5.12.97)
- Maxgaming bites the dust. (5.23.98)
- The infamous zero divide Turf bug is out of the bag and the zone begins to die. (5.24.98)
- The first custom SCF map, Shrines ov Mutton I, premieres. (5.27.98)
Fucking hell, linked by people I don''t even know, who center themselves
around a game I don''t even have! How cool is that! :D
- Pl0k
So don't you look for me
I'll be where you can't see
Somewhere I can't be found
My little underground
N e w s o f t h e D a y
24 May 1999
Omicron is back
At one time Omicron was a crucial member of the Subspace community, the author and maintainer of the Subspace Database and then for quite some time the glue that really held Warstrike together and made it something more than a reworked Addiction's Subspace Page. Unfortunately he was forced offline for a long period of time during the Summer of 1998, and only resurfaced on rare occasion at the Warstrike messageboards. It appears that Om is now back in the game. In my opinion this is some of the best news to come around these parts in quite a while. Welcome back dude, we missed you, even those of us who started playing after you left.
On a side note, it was reported recently by another site that Blackie is apparently also back. I did not mention this because I have dealt with him in the past and I know how he reacts to people wanting stuff from him. However, since the news is out, let me confirm it and then say this: If you want Blackie back, leave him alone. No offense to anyone by that, but having a bunch of people contact you to ask for things and strike up needless conversations is not the sort of thing that makes you remember how much fun an old game used to be back in the day. Just sit on your hands and let's see what happens. ;)
No one does much of anything
In an astounding development late last week, all interesting activity within the Subspace community ceased. In response, the news pages dedicated to the once popular game observed a week of silence broken only by the unruly Star Wars fans at DS98 and PCGaming. All this culminated in an event held Saturday in the Sheep Cloning Facility based not only on Infantry but on Trench Wars...
Strangely enough, I was in attendance. Despite my natural hostility to both Infantry and Trench Wars, it was a first opportunity to play in RuneCaster's superb Trench Wars base, which the actual TW zone has never been willing to even test much less run--despite the fact that the current map's author has asked many times for it to be taken down. No surprise, then, that Trench Wars had more people in it during Slayfest than the SCF did. Oh well. Another plus was that the game ran very smoothly, from what I saw. I wasn't able to stay for the Circus games because of pressing and very irritating circumstances offline but I am told it went well. Ideas are already being tossed around with regard to next week's scenario, and Rune is involved again so you know it's going to be good.
Jackpot grand reopening moved
The supposed grand reopening of Jackpot Zone was supposed to be this Sunday but did not happen because of a dearth of spam, an incomplete staff of moderators, and my lack of will to force people into playing a game they aren't interested in. The event is officially changed to Friday evening at 7:00pm Eastern time. Among other things, we will decide on a semi-permanent map for the zone. I'll be stacking the deck with Arctos fans so if you prefer one of the two older maps be sure and show up for this. Staff for the zone now consists of myself, Suicide, unholyone, Byobong7, and Shanoyu as well as the usual gang of SSX criminals and Turf slime. Cheaters are invited to show up and test our patience.
Shanoyu lives
The infamous Misc.txt makes its triumphant return this week. One of the requirements for Shanoyu's place on the Jackpot Zone staff is he has to publish his porn fanfic, so be sure to check the site daily. He's lazy and he doesn't keep an archive. In its revamped form, the Misc.txt is one of the featured subpages at Baudchaser's new Gamehacker site and is a founding member of the CEFS™ Gaming Network.
Where's e???
Playing TeamFortress Classic, piecing his movie (yes, that one) back together little by little, coming up with a name for the first (or maybe second if Alioth does the first) Hyperspace map, listening to a badass U2 bootleg I picked up today. Check this out, it's called This Aint No Swap Meet: A Clearance from the Aisles of Pop Mart. Eighteen b-sides and compilation tracks dating from 1979 to 1995, great quality duplication. Considering finally playing Xenogears. Listening to Blue's brilliant Nightwork over and over and over. Collecting the elusive skeletons of Subspace's ancestors. Waiting for Andrew Blake's movies to come out on DVD. Oh, and adding up the potential blow to my savings account that all the TPM pod racing merchandise will do should I be caught in a weak moment.
In a related story, my most heartfelt fuck-off to all the people who dissed The Phantom Menace this past weekend, and that includes the obligatory, product-of-their-era, utterly predictable Jar Jar detractors. Bunch of precocious grunge-fed teenyboppers, I hate you all. :P
Never mind e; where's Cybrid????
Everybody's favorite hybrid slacker-journalist urged me to update while his own page continued its high velocity fall from grace into ruin and obscurity. "Mention," he added, "that news.txt will be updated as soon as I remember what my fucking news script password is." Don't worry, I staked out top quality burial ground for Cybrid's page near mine, over by the basilica, on the other side of the railroad tracks from where InfantryZone and Warstrike are going.
<tennin> i think hustler is a dumb name for a magazine
baby you drive me crazy
don't come around here no more
N e w s o f t h e D a y
16 May 1999
Damn
Been kind of busy and all but I didn't know that much time had passed. I'm a bit out of the loop, which isn't a bad place to be these days considering how small the loop has become.
Slayfest
This isn't just a pimping here. The week's big news, as far as I'm concerned, is all the cool new shit running at Slayfest. Harloch put together some new small arenas which are very nice looking and highly playable, not quite as cramped as the older Circus arenas, and also carved a Warball game out of a big capital ship I sent him that was originally designed for an Armada-style Turf game. Let me publicly say here that I know the base is a big fat Warball ripoff, I already told Arctos about it, I know Arctos' arena is better than mine, and I never intended for there to be a powerball involved in the first place. My hands are clean and my soul remains pure, so PISS OFF. And now that you've acquired a taste for the stuff, go play the real thing at SSCU Warball.
Jackpot Zone returns
I've been given control of SSCE Running/Jackpot and mean to rebuild it the right way this time. We were very close to bringing the zone back about a month ago when allegations of corruption and cheating more or less scuttled the operation and emptied out the zone. Here's how we're going to work things this time, to make sure nothing like that happens again.
No anonymous moderators. Full disclosure, and trusted players.
Messageboard already up at sog.java.net courtesy of Suicide.
Suicide will be putting together top player listings and map voting.
A few well known mappers will be making some new levels.
The zone will probably alternate between Running and Jackpot to keep everyone happy.
If you want to get involved in this, we need all the help we can get but we especially need that help to be dedicated. Yes we do need moderators, but a lot of people will have to vouch for you and you must be willing to be reasonable and even wrong at times. Because of the sensitive nature of this kind of game, a lot of decisions will be judgment calls, and naturally a sizeable number of those judgment calls will be wrong. Purity of action is less important than approaching everything in good faith and with a sensible attitude. We also need mappers and I would like to be able to feature new full-size VIE-style levels now and then. New maps will have their time in the zone to be tried out regardless of voting, but we will never abandon the classic maps.
If this interests you or you can help in some other way, please chime in on the messageboard. Oh yeah, the zone officially reopens next Sunday the 23rd. Watch sog.java.net for more info and be sure to help spread the word in the meantime. ;)
Slaying with the NME
Captain Harloch's new homepage is hands down the best Subspace page since DS98 first came around. This will replace the old Slayfest page and remain as the headquarters for all things Slayfest, but also contains a lot of news and the kind of ranting you've come to expect from those of us who give a damn. ;) I've got a bit of counter-ranting to do, actually, on the subject of recent Infantry™©Zone® posts, but it can wait. For now I'll just send out an open request for that Bizarro Baudchaser go back the fuck to where he came from and return to us our original Baudchaser, i.e. the one we could trust who had some honor, balls, and integrity.
For the details, head over to the NMEBASE. I haven't the stomach to go into it right now.
Hyperspace
I think it was ZombieBobie who started this off by linking Hyperspace Dock from his Warbird, and a few other pages followed suit. Since then I've received quite a few messages asking about my involvement in the project. To clarify, I am designing levels and my other job is general bitching and moaning. I cannot talk about either of these things and am not in a position to answer any requests, etc. Thank you for asking, however. :) If there is something you absolutely must know, contact RuneCaster--but be sure and do so before I have a chance to convince him not to tell you anything either. (Sorry.) It's not that I've learned any kind of a lesson from watching Infantry eat its own tail; rather it's a matter of principle...
Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough
drafts. It is like passing around samples of one's sputum.
Vladimir Nabokov
Q: How do you make God laugh?
A: Tell him your plans.
(author unknown)
<BigImp> romero is crying now
<BigImp> poor romero
Remember the time that the sky went black?
We waited alone on the sands.
Remember the taste of the raging sea?
...but nobody held out their hands.
N e w s o f t h e D a y
10 May 1999
Sorry
Just a quick update for now. Might reupdate in a few hours. Otherwise check the mapping section in a while if that interests you. I'm going to start work on my Top 10 list which should be kind of interesting and a bit nostalgic.
It's out
In case you've been sleeping on a sidewalk in LA for the last 22 days, the Quake III: Arena test for Win32 is finally out. The mirrors are of course clogged to the overflow as usual, but here's a couple of obscure ones I picked up. The first one is giving me a nice consistent connection.
ftp.telepac.pt /pub/3dfiles/games/q3test_1_05.exe
http://quake2.cyberplant.com/~kingrat/q3test_1_05.exe
There is also a mirror of the official id mirrors list here:
http://hartford.ne.mediaone.net/quake3/quake3arena.html
Rambly shit
People just don't know how to count to ten anymore, or maybe it's that people take you too literally when you suggest doing it. Not to forget what actually started this, but there is SO much of the ongoing Infantry mess which could have been avoided if a few select individuals had simply turned off the computer for a few days and gone out to get some coffee and watch the turtles swim around at the park. I seriously think so many people these days don't even know what inner peace is that it no longer seems like an option. This is not to rip on any of you (except maybe Locutus, who is completely off his rocker--I love you man but you need some quality time in a decompression chamber with some porn). Guys, calm down. It's not just a game; it's the most important game in ten goddam years--but it's still just pop culture.
I hate to admit it, and I've tried to force feed myself an illusion, but the truth is the new Orbital album really sucks. I was listening to it right after it came out, the first song had me riled up and is pretty strong, the second is really pretty damned weak but I was spacing out and enjoying myself too much to notice. Along comes track 3 and I am in HEAVEN, one of the best god damned electronic pieces I've heard in years, a perfect track on a level with the best material from their last album, In Sides, which I consider a landmark musical watershed type thing. Track 3--"Know Where to Hide" if you must know--is alone worth every dollar I paid for the import CD and because of it I recommend the album anyway. But still. Track four rolls around and the album just falls to pieces. It's absolutely horrid, and this is for about thirty minutes or so. Finally we make our way to the last song and....you guessed it, the final track is the single I've been listening to for a month already. God I hate when they do that. Talk about an anticlimax.
They are finally doing some really interesting things with Teamfortress Classic for Half-Life. There are about 60 player-authored maps out for it, and they aren't all CTF games in symmetrial opposing fortresses. There are weird objectives like ownership of certain control points, escorting one player through ruins to an escape vehicle under sniper fire, or dominating the only building on the map, Trench Wars style. If you're jaded by the strategic shallowness of most FPS, sick of Tribes' baffling underachievement, or just had too damned hard a time configging the old TF mod for Quake, give this a try. It rules. Oh, and Half-Life is as good a single player game as everyone says. Kick me in the ass for waiting this long.
Has anyone got an mp3 of the long version of The Cure's "Just One Kiss"? With the three and a half minute intro, off of The Walk, not Japanese Whispers. A sighting on a bootleg cd would be nice too. Preferred, actually.
I forgot what else I was going to say.
Oh yeah. Pickled eggs. I'm serious. Where the fuck can you buy pickled eggs anymore?
Sorry about no history. History tomorrow, promise.
<Shanoyu> e wtf
<Shanoyu> i'm turning into you and you're turning into me
<Shanoyu> i'm becomming angry and smart
<Shanoyu> and you're slowly going dumb and happy
you had all of them on your side, didn't you?
you believed in all your lies didn't you?
the ruiner's got a lot to prove he's got nothing to lose and now he made you believe
the ruiner's your friend well he's the living end to the cattle he decieves
N o i s e o f t h e D a y
8 May 1999
Freedom and reality
What a mess. The culture is ruined at least temporarily, the anchor is gone, the game is not a game anymore but a liability that threatens to step into your world offline in the form of a lawsuit if you misbehave. A rude awakening for people who for years now have lived cloistered off in one of the few quarters of the internet that is still as the internet was in the old days and was meant to be. Like all rights, it's easy to get worried about the right to speak one's mind, to rationalize abridging that right. Why, we can't have people running around doing this, and we can't have people running around doing that. There must be recourse for the victim. There must be justice. Most important, there needs to be a central administration, a Terms of Service agreement, and someone to stop people like you from saying things about people like me which people like me think have crossed a special line that people like me drew. What we need is force, laws, police, and violence, because without that we would have chaos, and we know what chaos leads to. Chaos leads to you finding out what people think of you.
It's time to wake up and realize that Fortress Subspace has fallen. Those who are spoiled by Quake also need to watch out because there are barbarians at their gate as well. They've got a pretty firm structure in place, at least until GameSpy realizes how much money they could make by offering a version full of parental filters and controls. But then again....there's Tribes, with its filters added by default in a patch, our words not only censored but insultingly replaced with !@#$ for anyone not savvy enough to remove the filter file. No, it is not a check box under the options screen but a file that must be removed or renamed. The main Tribes IRC channel is now censored, with offensive--even mildly offensive--names being thrown out.
Just you wait until some Democratic senator hears the Gamespy Dude say "let's get on with the killing" in five point 3D surround.
I'll miss Infantry HQ, and I'm pissed at Suicide for taking it down, but I admire him for doing it. It could still have been an asset after the controvery over the chat log we posted there, but after what's transpired between Suicide and Trixter it cannot. It can only be a protest, and act of spite. On the other hand, the blue ribbon is a pretty big sign for one man to take down for pragmatic reasons, don't you think?
It's just a computer. Turn it off if you don't like what it says about you.
Honor and libel
Since Suicide posted his log with Trixter, the Harmless-Brainscan camp has several times asserted that the log is not valid and that nothing is official unless it appears on InfantryZone. It is important that they be taken to task for this false dichotomy. The final Infantry HQ post from Suicide was not a matter of passing along a message and a warning; it was an accusation. It was Suicide exposing an alleged tantrum or bullying by Trixter. The issue is not whether or not it is policy, but whether or not it was said. The posts from Trixter, Rod, and others imply that the log was falsified without actually saying so. In fact, Suicide has not been accused of falsifying anything. We are to simply accept that the fact that they could have been tampered with means they are invalid.
This simply isn't the case. Unless Trixter actually claims Suicide falsified the log, it can be assumed he did not. If he does claim falsification, he is accusing him of a crime and needs to produce his own version of the log on general principle.
It is likely there will be evasions here. This has already turned into a series of evasions: Instead of denying the conversation ever happened, pretend that the issue is the policy outlined therein. Instead of justifying your actions, claim to be too busy and not interested in dragging things on. Slyly leave your accusor stranded with a suggestion that they have lied but an insistence that we don't really care if they've lied. It's high time we put this behind us and got on with the work of the people. And so forth.
For a long time I assumed Trixter to have been wrongly painted by years of accumulated bitterness. Strangely enough, he has left me alone throughout all of this, and I remain banned from the Infantry alpha test not because of Trixter but because of Jeff. For all the nastiness of Suicide's recent news posts at Infantry HQ, he may deserve an outright flame, but he doesn't deserve these sneaky, veiled allegations of criminal behavior, and it is shameful for people to be posting them, especially with such easy escapes into formality so carefully built into them. They are impossible to respond to, and they are designed for that. After the last few days I've come to be unsurprised by Trixter's behavior and attitude, but it really saddens me to see no one publicly taking offense to it in this case.
Culture and ruin
These recent events have left the community depressed in ways that I could not have imagined. It's common for me to accuse people of trying to predict the future, and in my opinion I am usually right to do so. It is easy and convenient to foretell disaster and there is no end to people doing so for dishonest reasons. However, in this case I attempted to predict the future where it could perhaps be said that the default was disaster. I looked over the possible flash points and judged them to be minor, and overlooked the tinderbox of Suicide and Trixter's history. Although I have a number of good friends who strongly dislike Trixter, I have never given proper respect to the position. Why?
think it is because the people who dislike him, who have had serious troubles with him in the past, are not the angry, outspoken ones who stand up for themselves but the quiet and meek, the easily bullied. I have seen several logs of conversations with him and they always end the same way: with the collapse of the other party, crumbling and apparently afraid, willing to appease. I don't know why I only noticed the soft-spokenness of the voices raised in protest (forgiving the abject flames and character-assassination noise), and never took note of the fact that after these people crumble and have visibly lost the argument, Nick Fisher will not relent, The only word I can give to it is cruelty. True, we should all be so lucky to experience nothing worse in life, but still it is cruelty I see in those logs.
Still, hindsight is 20/20. Nevertheless, this was not supposed to turn into an all out war. At very worst it was supposed to result in: "WTF? You guys are out. I'm disappointed in you." Everyone is responsible for its escalation, fair enough. In particular, had Jeff left Rod's response as official and privately thrown Suicide and myself to the dogs, this might not have happened. It is absolutely Jeff's right to post the message he did to Infantry HQ, but it contradicted Rod's post and set a precedent for Trixter to override Jeff. There's no question that the escalation rests, in varying proportions, on the hands of several different people ..but my place in this is unique. I could have stopped it cold.
I've lost enthusiasm for Infantry over the last several weeks, and I did so because of a lack of information which I felt was conspicuous. I have later learned that what looked like evasiveness may have only been prudence and class, and that many of our concerns have in some ways already been addressed. What a waste, then, that I lost my alpha account, and Suicide his web page, not for any sacrifice but for simple impatience.
But I do not love Infantry. Unlike Suicide, I am very fond of it. Infantry is a solid action game with a unique fight on foot that offers something with no relationship to Subspace whatsoever, and it also offers elements which are very much like Subspace. Infantry kicks my ass, but right now...it is not Subspace. Infantry is something I hope for, but Subspace is something that is happening today, is dear to my heart, and is at risk every day. Subspace is alive only because people works at it, most of them so hard that they don't really have time to play the game and enjoy it.
For the last several months, my own main enjoyment of Subspace has been Captain Harloch's Slayfest events in the Sheep Cloning Facility. These have been massive scenarios and races and J12 style lag fests and awesome elimination matches usually topping 70 or 80 participants. They are usually in standard VIE settings, and they are usually fun as hell on a cool and breezy day. This week, for the first time since it started up at the beginning of the year, Slayfest fell apart. What usually lasts for six or seven hours and holds the interest of at least 50 people throughout dwindled to 20 and then 10 after a little over two hours, despite a well organized and fun scenario and competent moderation. It is true that Captain Harloch had to leave near the beginning, and it is true that the moderator he picked as temporary sysop had problems organizing a game in his absence. These problems are old staples of Slayfest, though. We have seen Slayfest survive far worse for far longer, and seen it remain fun in the process.
This weekend we started with a turnout of 30 players, nearly ten of who were sitting in spec mode. I believe we peaked at forty before we started losing people. I had to go offline for some time as well, but I am not at fault for my absence any more than Harloch is. I am at fault because I allowed that chat log to be posted.
Let no one say that Suicide ever forced my hand, or that I'd have made a smarter decisision at a different time. I do not acknowledge that Infantry has suffered as a game because of it. I believe strongly that this is untrue--but the ensuing firestorm simply was not worth all the good that might conceivably have come from it. That firestorm pitted the players against each other for no good reason, caused pillars of the game to appear as nothing more than flesh and blood holding up slabs of marble, and in my considered opinion it obliterated the spirit of the Subspace community. As much as I dislike having to say it, I think the infantry HQ fiasco ruined Slayfest this weekend. Sorry everyone.
Out of time
This stupid Infantry HQ controversy has dominated my life for the last three days and I have nothing else to post tonight. Apologies for the long rambles and lack of other content, but it was that or nothing. I think I'm done with this for now. Back to our regularly sacheduled bitching and moaning and obscure map references tomorrow. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world.
<Pl0k> I got my monitor fixed e
<Pl0k> It turns out there was a loose part inside...
<Pl0k> which was caused by my hitting it so severely every time I lost a chess game
<Pl0k> Which, on average, was about 430977 times a day.
i can reduce you if i want
i can devour
i'm hard as fucking steel, and i've got the power
i'm every inch a man, and i'll show you somehow
me and my fucking gun
nothing can stop me now
N e w s o f t h e D a y
7 May 1999
Pseudospace
Pikachu has alerted me to an alternative for those of us who are sick of Subspace, unwilling to wait for Hyperspace, and wary of fighting on the ground (or in a snakepit). Silent Death (I shit you not, that is what it's called) is an ambitious, very polished looking Subspace clone run under the GameStorm imprint. I have only played it for a few minutes thus far, so I will mostly refrain from comment, but I do know that it is played on maps that are mostly empty and involves rpg elements such as character creation, faction alignment, and long term ship building, as well as in-game construction and destruction of bases, escort missions, and other things that so far have piqued my interest. On the other hand, the control and sound are absolutely awful right now and there are some other problems. Nevertheless it has some potential. For more information dig around in here.
By the way, Pikachu retired from Subspace last weekend. Later man, you'll be missed.
Map pages updated
I've made an update to the Mapmaking page here, linked from the left frame. My MMG page is updated to include the members who've joined over the last half year or so, and the Mapfolios page has been added. I am hosting Gommy's mapfolio here because I can't find the complete version at his webspace and the images are broken. Also listed are folios by The Romulans, SilentDragon, and GiGaKiLLeR. The Romulan is a great page designer and his one is particularly nicely done.
I'm going to be focusing a bit more on the Mapmaking section over the next week or so, with some new thumbnails and information added to the Subspace Map Index and I hope to finally put up my Top 10 and Seven Wonders lists.
Subspace Net is back AGAIN
Thanks to Locutus for this tidbit. It amazes me constantly that people still check that address for content. Well, in fairness I guess the staff changes and redesigns do happen more often than certain pages out there update, ahem. ;) What's different here this time is that The $niper is now running the show, and apparently going it alone. The design is actually nice for the first time since last Summer, the messageboards are working, and The $niper seems to have done the right thing and given up entirely on the idea of keeping a staff. I've dissed Subspace.Net and The $niper a bit in the past but this is somewhat promising and I wish him luck in it.
I'm Spartacus !
Infantry HQ is looking for new staff members and you're qualified! Make an instant enemy of Trixter. Get job offers from InfantryZone. Lose your Infantry account for life! Infantry HQ is proud to welcome new staff members Danneskjold, VectorBoy, Shanoyu, Refluxis, and Conspiracy Theory. Don't worry, there's still plenty of room. Sign up today!
And speaking again on the subject of sheep . . .
SlientDragon and Mine GO BOOM have put up something really cool but SD won't let me link to it because he's an asshole. However, in lieu of that for your browsing pleasure I bring you a Minefield® Exclusive Link™....here, for the first time ever....
sheep clonin' dot com
Star Wars
OMG there are five of them. Or four, and a special fifth one, or something. Thanks Moby for the linkz. God I am a sucker for good marketing campaigns.
new Star Wars tv ads
Today in Subspace history . . .
Cybrid abuses his powerful position to engage in blatant character assassination against me. (1998)
Bobby D's SubArena returns after a long hiatus. (1998)
I publish my Turf FAQ (now sadly outdated but good for a laff). (1998)
VIE posts BFrog's new server patch to the Downloads page at Subspace HQ, effectively ending the negative packetloss double bomb cheat in the player zones. (5.1.98)
The big racing map may or may not be a year old today. (5.7.98)
Dammit, missed one again. Happy 5 year birthday (I think) to the immortal Crimson Tide. (5.6.94)
<Shanoyu> I'm tank tell me where you need an exit
hey pig
nothing's turning out the way i planned
hey pig there's a lot of things i hoped you could help me understand
what am i supposed to do i lost my shit because of you
nothing can stop me now
i don't care anymore
N e w s o f t h e D a y
6 May 1999
Bending Over 101
I've moved the page a bit prematurely in order to avoid giving Trixter an excuse to punish Warstrike for my actions like he's punished Infantry HQ for Suicide's actions. Apparently the guy doesn't understand loyalty and thinks he can turn people against one another by harming them through their friends. Sorry dude, relationships based on ambition and fear might work like that but frienships based on respect don't.
My association with Warstrike more or less ended some time ago when I became upset with some internal issues, but to make things crystal clear I've taken down my old mirror there. This is with apologies to Reaps and Wampit for poor form, as I'd wanted a clear transition that doesn't have the appearance of me taking my shit and leaving in a hurry. We've had our disagreements and I've had my objections, this recent incident with Infantry reminds me that there is a big difference between people who piss me off personally and people who are simply slime. At this point I'd sooner give Reaps one of my kidneys than pull Trixter from a burning wreck.
I haven't signed my name to any "boycott" though I thank Shanoyu for keeping me in mind and including me. ;) In my opinion a boycott would do more harm than good at this point, and hurt people who don't have it coming. However, if you're following the board, I think I've made it pretty clear that I want nothing to do with the whole mess unless something changes very drastically. I am not as stubborn or as forgiving as Suicide, and unlike him I no longer "into making Infantry a success". I find it hard to care anymore about this game when the people making it behave this way, publicly contradicting each other and showing zero loyalty when their publisher is abusive to their most devoted fans. Judging from the looks of Infantry HQ, Rod and Jeff have heeded Trixter's statements. I balked when Suicide used the word decree, but it seems that this is what it was after all. Their decision to abide by that is an internal matter, but their silence over Bishop22 and Georgia--banned from the alpha test solely because they are on suicide's staff-- is very disturbing.
You'd think that a couple of relatively intelligent guys could spot a trial balloon when one floats right past them. Does anyone really think this is the last time Trixter will ever tell Rod and Jeff what to do? This sudden and conspicuous disappearance from the Infantry HQ board is more than just a slap in the face to Suicide and to the Infantry HQ staff (who alone kept enthusiasm alive for months while Trixter fumbled to assemble a makeshift staff for his placeholder page at InfantryZone). This is a slight to everyone who has participated in that page and the messageboards there, the Question of the Week and the contests. Everyone who made the choice of an uncensored page over a censored one, of an independent news team.
I tend to doubt that this decree is anything more than an opportunity to march the community from a free, community-run page to a site with moderated messageboards and press-release style news. That Rod and Jeff have gone along with it truly baffles me. Somehow they've gotten it into their heads that the distribution of this game is all that matters, and that the community can be safely screwed over, manipulated, and beaten into submission.
Maybe it can be, but not on my watch.
But enough about me . . .
The freaking Slayfest event is named after me this weekend (no I did not put in a request, heh) and I can't even be there for the damned thing. How do you like that? This should be a killer scen if we can get the settings right. All about repelling defenseless ships into mines. Now where did Captain Harloch ever get that idea? Check the Saturday Night Slayfest page for the lowdown.
And speaking of sheep . . .
Sneakster has informed me that he'll be running USWB Zone's Happy Hour tomorrow (Friday) in my zone (ahem) at 7pm US Eastern time, which is 10am Aussie Eastern time on Saturday because they are on the upside-down side of the world or something. To make things even simpler, Harloch may or may not be forcibly relocating the event to Sunday, which is either Saturday or Monday in Australia depending on whether you're counting days from the North Pole or the South Pole. Just remember the US owns the South Pole and came up with the idea for all these time zones in the first place. Next time you see an American, be sure and thank him for helping you keep organized.
Anyway, in all seriousness please check back here for game time. I know very little about the event but it has Captain Cohn's seal of approval so by definition I am looking forward to it.
Star Wars
New 15 second TV spot floating around, maybe not as new as I think it is but I do most of my television viewing vicariously so cut me some slack. Anyway they are one hell of a 15 seconds. Natalie Portman ownz me.
By the way, I've received a few complaints that having the counter and the mine sound going at the same time are slowing down loading time for the page. Personally, they have crashed my browser a few times. If anyone else is experiencing this, please let me know and I will get rid of the counter.
Today (and five days ago) in Subspace history . . .
Cheaters thwarted by BFrog's bug fix flock to the player zones. (5.6.98)
Arctos posts a proposal for a set of major changes for King of the Hill. For you nostalgists, I've still got the post in crude text form along with a draft of my response. (5.6.98)
I send Blackie a big ol' manifesto on the promised "test zones" discussed briefly at Vangel meetings. Later it will become the itinerary for the early days of the new Sheep Cloning Facility. (5.6.98)
Jolly Roger's remixed version of Rodvik's Chaos map wins the Chaos Nevada vote. Combined with votes for the original version, the level earns more votes than all other candidates combined. Amazingly, when it is finally uploaded the zone dies almost instantly. (5.1.98)
This page moves from Maxgaming back to WestNet. Maxgaming continues to sink. (5.1.98)
Doh, forgot this one. Happy year-and-a-half to this page. Special thanks as always to Cybrid. (12.1.97)
SilentDragon> the uber blueberry will roll on thee
Oh denial, oh denial, oh denial...
N e w s o f t h e D a y
5 May 1999
Burn baby burn
Flame war of the century over at Infantry HQ. Fuck me if I'm in a mood to comment on it right now. I said pretty much all I have to say on the subject in my post to the messageboard, but be sure to look at the news on the main page so you know what exactly this is about. If you give a damn about Infantry you're going to be outraged at someone, that's a promise. Maybe even me.
And speaking of dust . . .
I'm in the process of moving out of Warstrike. If you aren't reading there already please shift your attention over to emf.cx sometime in the next few days. For various reasons I am unwilling to participate in the move Warstrike is making to its new server. (No it is not just so I can have my cheezy domain.)
If you have a page on Warstrike or have friends with pages on Warstrike, please be aware that news of this move has only gone out by way of news pages like this one and Warstrike e-mail accounts. Existing pages will not be moved by Warstrike. You must back them up yourself and reapply to Reaps for a brand new account then upload your files again. There are quite a few static pages at Warstrike, so please mention this to anyone you think it might concern. None of this is to say Warstrike hasn't been good to me. We've had some disagreements but I am grateful to Wampit and Reaps for the hosting and to Peasant's Paladin for all the support and linkage.
I've just now got the new page set up so please don't tell me about broken links and stuff like that until a few days have gone by and I've had an opportunity to take a stroll through the new setup. After that I will appreciate any help. ;)
And speaking of Paladins . . .
Infantry Warstrike Com is seeing a rebirth over the last few days, so if you haven't been there in a while you might want to take a gander, especially if you're a staff member on the page because, well, because you're fired, and it's about time too. PP has taken the wheel and no one else is getting on board. This is going to be my kind of Infantry page. Even if he did already call me a jerk. :)
SPOILER WARNING - IMPORTANT - READ
There are big spoilers in the song titles on the soundtrack album for The Phantom Menace. A clue to what will probably be an amazing scene which we've not yet been clued into, as well what appears to be the death of a major character. If you don't want to hear the music until you see the movie, you might want to avoid record stores for the next few days or even until the movie comes out. They will be playing it. Lastly, the book is out, so anyone dumb enough to read it before seeing the movie knows the story. Watch your back; there are Star Wars terrorists everywhere.
Today (and yesterday) in Subspace history . . .
Rincewind closes The Unofficial Subspace Home Page. (5.4.97)
I lose a duel with Tito's Burritos which decides the fate of the Leviathan in Chaos East. (5.4.98)
Cybrid caught downloading tentacle pr0n. (5.4.98)
Happy birthday to the infamous Turf Now button. (5.4.98)
Administrative meddling turns the News.Txt into a mess of blank templates. (5.5.98)
It is announced that Chaos Nevada will go down, to be replaced by a new Chaos West. (5.5.98)
BFrog patches the negative packetloss bug, effective ending the double-bomb cheat. (5.5.98)
