Archives: 16 - 31 October 1998
4th Platoon News:
OK, It took me a while at practice 2nite but I finally got Pandemic to switch to my platoon.
4th platoon now has 3 members: Me, A-wal and Pandemic
Posted 22:24 EST by 2LT bIOHZRD
Surf's Up:
A Piece Of My Mind:
Halloween Tip: Don't eat the candy if it has goo all over it.
Halloween Tip #2: You may want to avoid the Hershey's Choco-Linty candy bars.
Posted 18:15 EST by CPT Rantage
Tempest's Ramblings:
Hehehe, you know your playing real good when your constantly being called a BOT when your on the server! heh
Posted 16:9 EST by 2LT Tempest
1st Platoon News:
To everyone who has not joined a platoon yet: Keeping your options open is good. Multi-Mod is part of that. Thank you.
Posted 22:41 EST by 2LT Reaperman
4th Platoon News:
First off, I am going to be needing some people for my platoon. For those who don't remember or know it is the ra2/rail arena/dm-based mods platoon. E-mail me to join my platoon.
Posted 20:9 EST by 2LT bIOHZRD
A Piece Of My Mind:
SMS Llama Alert:
ok guys if you see the waif (pimp) on the server.harrass his ass this loser.Was camping at the power armor on dm8 he said he was on the phone talking.Not camping .I shot him he got mad because he was on the phone. He continued to swear at me so i kicked his lame ass. I use to camp well high ping what you expect. But a LPB camper is the worst.Just my opinion haha haha...
Posted 23:51 EST by XO Ace
Contest Update:
...no, not another SMS contest. Sluggo's Mod Central is holding a contest where the top prize is a copy of the upcoming Extremities add-on pack. The catch: you've got to provide Sluggo with the greatest number of Quake mods, and the URLs where you can find them.
Posted 10:18 EST by CPT Rantage
Roster Changes:
The following assignments have been made:
- 2LT Reaperman is the platoon leader for 1st Platoon, the "multi-mod" platoon.
- 2LT Tempest is the platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, the DM platoon.
I'll continue to announce assignments as they are worked out.
Posted 10:13 EST by CPT Rantage
Miscellaneous Rumblings:
At risk of hammering the topic to death, I'd like to cover something that 2LT Tempest of 2nd Platoon (DM) asked me last night during an ICQ chat: namely, can platoons play mods other than the ones they're designated for?
The answer is a conditional yes. Here's the deal: during the platoon-led practices, the Platoon Leader can run that practice any way he/she wants. The DM platoon can play RA2...the CTF platoon can play Jailbreak, etc. The goal of holding practice is to build skills and have fun.
With that in mind, let me say this: it is a platoon's mission to go out and win battles for it's particular mod. The DM platoon may not arrange CTF battles with other clans, nor may the RA2 platoon arrange DM battles with other clans. The DM platoon only covers formal DM battles, the CTF platoon only covers formal CTF battles, etc.
Substitutions are OK too. If the CTF platoon (for example) has scheduled a battle but is short a player, members from other platoons are welcome to fill that position as long as the CTF platoon's leader is ok with it and it doesn't interfere with any other battle any other platoon is having at that time.
Hopefully I've just cleared things up and not muddied the waters even more...
Posted 10:11 EST by CPT Rantage
The Restructuring of Clan Steel Maelstrom:
Earlier this week SMS held a vote on a measure to reorganize the clan; the final result was 13 members in favor, 5 opposed and 4 not voting for one reason or another.
The new structure of SMS is based upon that used by the U.S. Army:
- Squads - A squad will be composed of 5 or more members, led by a Sergeant or Staff Sergeant who is the Squad Leader
- Platoons - Platoons are composed of several squads and each focus on a particular Quake II mod. For instance:
- 1st Platoon - A multi-mod platoon which will assist all the other platoons when they are shorthanded. This platoon will play all mods, as they see fit. This platoon is designed for players (new and current) who do not wish to commit themselves to playing a single mod for the majority of the time.
- 2nd Platoon - Focuses on straight DM.
- 3rd Platoon - Focuses on CTF and all CTF variants (LMCTF, etc)
- 4th Platoon - Focuses on Rocket Arena 2, Rail Arena, and other DM-based mods.
- 5th Platoon - Focuses on Jailbreak and other team-based mods.
- Companies - If SMS expands into other games (like Shogo), then multiple companies will be formed. A (Alpha) Company will cover Quake II. B (Bravo) Company could cover Shogo (or Half-Life, SiN, etc)
Platoon assignments are currently taking place. Updates to the website -- including a comprehensive explanation of the changes and new structure -- will be posted soon.
Gamers interested in joining SMS are encouraged to submit their applications as outlined here. I'd be happy to answer any questions anybody has.
Posted 22:48 EST by CPT Rantage
Tactics:
On_fire...er Biohzrd informed me of a neat zooming bind you can do. This works very similar to the sniper rifle in Sin, give it a try, it really helps out. Create an autoexec.cfg file with the following commands and put it in your Quake2/baseq2 dir:
bind w +zoom
alias +zoom "zoom1"
alias zoom1 "fov 30"
alias -zoom "fov 90"
You can bind whatever key you want, I just chose "W" since I'm a keyboarder, but for you mousers out there (which is the majority) you may wanna bind it to mouse2. Experiment a bit!
Posted 18:31 EST by LT Tempest
Miscellaneous Rumblings:
Just a couple of thoughts:
- Is anybody else as unexcited about the Heretic II demo as I am? The screenshots really haven't thrilled me enough to want to download a 35+ MB demo...*shrug*
- Of course, I wasn't really thrilled about Shogo when I first heard about it, but the demo changed my mind. The full version of the game is reinforcing my belief that Monolith has shipped a great product, at least in terms of single-player games. I'm considering writing a full review, but I'll wait until I've given multiplayer a few tries.
Posted 7:40 EST by CPT Rantage
Quake-Related Software:
Hmmm, this thing is a must download. While SMS-Buck and was surfing around, he came across a PlanetQuake site called "Quake2 Late Night". Imagine putting a late night talk show and Quake2 together, you'd pretty much end up with Quake2 Late night. It's about a 5 minute movie (maybe more) set on a talk show stage. Then you got a couple of guys coming on the set talking about RA2: Inside and Out, and some other shit...it's only a 4.3 meg file, you'll be laughing your ass off!!. Buck and I are thinking of doing something similar except with the SMS cast. Anyway, definetly worth a look.
Posted 13:34 EST by LT Tempest
Gentle Reminder:
Mark your calendars, cause the Game Developers Conference is only six months away. That's right, if you want an insider look at the gaming industry, then I suggest you make plans to attend the conference. Unfortunately they haven't started accepting registration for the conference yet, but you may want to start saving up all that sick leave and money. You may also want to make your hotel reservations now, cause they were all full last year in LA for a 40 mile radius of the conference hall. The conference is in San Jose, from March 15-19. Thank God it's not in LA like last year!
If you have ever been to a conference then you know that it's mostly for people with a strong interest in the subject, and the GDC is designed for the game developers themselves. However, as an aspiring programmer I enjoyed the conference very much. It gave me insight into how games are actually made, and in most cases the developers of the game were actually there to answer some of my questions. Id Software was not there last year, but you can't win every battle. Maybe this year?
I did notice on their web site that college students can volunteer to work at the GDC, and even get in free. I'm not sure about airfare, but I plan to go anyhow so it doesn't matter if they pay or not. Sign-up for volunteers starts in three months,
and I'm going to try my hardest to get a slot! If your short on cash then you may want to volunteer. The list of jobs is on the web site.
Check 'em out at: www.gdconf.com
Posted 1:33 EST by LT A-Wal
100% Nothing To Do With Quake:
Here's one to rock your world: CNN is reporting a story out of the California Institute of Technology involving a successful teleportation experiement. If your brain doesn't cramp when you start thinking about quantum physics, give this story a read...it may be the biggest breakthrough since the transistor.
Posted 8:18 EST by CPT Rantage
A-Wal's Quote of the Day:
Demo Time:
A Heretic2 demo is to be released later this evening. It'll weigh in at about 35 Megs. From the screen's I'd say it looks pretty original.
- Speaking of Game Demo's, a Blood2 demo will be released early next week. This will be a definite download for me, I'm looking forward to trying out the new LithTech engine, looks to be very impressive.
Posted 18:13 EST by LT Tempest
New Patch:
ID has released a new Quake2 patch: 3.20, however, like 3.18 this is a *BETA* only patch. If you wanna give the new beta patch a test run, you can grab it right here. I'm still waiting for ID to release a new set of DM maps...I was hoping 3.20 would be that, guess not! :(
Posted 18:7 EST by LT Tempest
Mod Watch:
100% Nothing To Do With Quake:
As some of you may know, Netscape Communicator 4.5 is out of beta and available for download. I upgraded my work machine this morning and really haven't noticed much of a difference, although some people claim that the new version is faster. All I can tell you now is that it seems to work fine, so give it a shot if you have some extra time and/or bandwidth.
Posted 10:7 EST by CPT Rantage
Miscellaneous Rumblings:
Anybody else wanting to join me in Hell can surf on over to the Jesus of the Week website and laugh just like I did. When you die, bring some cards because Hitler, Stalin and I will need a fourth for a game of Bridge.
Posted 10:4 EST by CPT Rantage
Surf's Up:
Shit, you outta check this site out. It records every single stat of every single player on every single goddamn Quake2 server out there. It's really amazing, it's like a fragboard for every single server. Too bad the SMS DM server isn't included. however the CTF one is (I suspect because it's a DMPAK2 game). It's called Champions of Quake, check it out, you'll definetly find your name.
Posted 13:49 EST by LT Tempest
Files O' Plenty:
SMS-Buck and myself put together a little movie for the rest of ya's. We just called it RAIL! It shows Buck and I screwing around with a quad rail in q2dm2...you'll see. We got amazing music to go with it too. Download the SMS RAIL movie here.
Posted 15:36 EST by LT Tempest
Reading Material: