Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Go ahead, make my day
Some time ago I said I was going to have a moan about Punkbuster. Well, after banging my head against the wall, wrapping my c0ck in barbed wire, wrestling with a Doberman and watching an ENTIRE episode of Will and Grace, I still felt no better. So now’s the time.
Just as an overview, Punkbuster is a bit of software that looks for players cheating (such as using aimbots, etc). It kicks them off the server and ignores the rest of us so that we can go about enjoying being useless at the game.
Well that’s all well and good in theory, but there’s a LOAD more to it than that.
When I started playing Q3 I never had Punkbuster enabled, as I didn’t really know what it was. If I saw a PB server I just ignored them, instead visiting normal servers, and occasionally found myself being obliterated by cheating b$st4rds shooting through walls, etc. I was able to put up with that and thought it was something you just had to deal with.
So after a while I decided to try PB anyway. Immediately it would not let me get onto some servers that didn’t even have PB enabled. It said I had the wrong CD key. WRONG CD Key??? Even if my CD Key was incorrect, how the hell would you know, you piece of £$^& software?!!! You can’t read the inside of my CD box you bug-riddled ponce!
Right, let’s try getting onto a GunkBuster-enabled server. Oooooh, it worked! GGs and all that. Maybe it’s fixed itself? Right, lets go on another server – oh no, Imagine Arnie’s voice saying “ACCESS DENIED”. Right, that does it. Exit Q3. Nope, I’m not giving up just yet. Enter Q3 again. Ooooh, it let me on again, but oh no, what’s this? It’s saying “Client in distress”? What the….. OK, you are correct, I am now most definitely in distress you pieceofsh1tRuntBunker!
OK, so I’ll exit FunBuster and re-enter my exact same CD Key and join a game. Naa, F^&ked-Busted still wouldn’t let me on.
So I trawled the web looking for solutions, only to find many like-minded victims venting their frustrations in an equally overt manner. Hmmm, and then an angel shone from the sky (well, NastyJeff actually, but hey, you can’t win em all), and delivered unto me a small thing called pbweb.
This pbweb doodaathingy is meant to update your Crash-Busted for you when you click it.
So I clicked it, and it said it updated. And I said to the evil one ”I know what you’re thinking. Have I tried 5 or 6 times to use you? Do you feel lucky, Punk? Well, do ya?”
OMG it worked, and I finally Busted the Punk. Just a quick update before I play each day and there’s (almost) no problems. When I say I busted it, I mean I put it to sleep – it does tend to snore occasionally, but I now have a handle on it.
I can now soothe my head, feed the Doberman and watch real television again, in the knowledge that I can now use PunkBuster, just as long as I keep on top of it.
The barbed wire? I actually quite liked that so I keep it on :-)
Some time ago I said I was going to have a moan about Punkbuster. Well, after banging my head against the wall, wrapping my c0ck in barbed wire, wrestling with a Doberman and watching an ENTIRE episode of Will and Grace, I still felt no better. So now’s the time.
Just as an overview, Punkbuster is a bit of software that looks for players cheating (such as using aimbots, etc). It kicks them off the server and ignores the rest of us so that we can go about enjoying being useless at the game.
Well that’s all well and good in theory, but there’s a LOAD more to it than that.
When I started playing Q3 I never had Punkbuster enabled, as I didn’t really know what it was. If I saw a PB server I just ignored them, instead visiting normal servers, and occasionally found myself being obliterated by cheating b$st4rds shooting through walls, etc. I was able to put up with that and thought it was something you just had to deal with.
So after a while I decided to try PB anyway. Immediately it would not let me get onto some servers that didn’t even have PB enabled. It said I had the wrong CD key. WRONG CD Key??? Even if my CD Key was incorrect, how the hell would you know, you piece of £$^& software?!!! You can’t read the inside of my CD box you bug-riddled ponce!
Right, let’s try getting onto a GunkBuster-enabled server. Oooooh, it worked! GGs and all that. Maybe it’s fixed itself? Right, lets go on another server – oh no, Imagine Arnie’s voice saying “ACCESS DENIED”. Right, that does it. Exit Q3. Nope, I’m not giving up just yet. Enter Q3 again. Ooooh, it let me on again, but oh no, what’s this? It’s saying “Client in distress”? What the….. OK, you are correct, I am now most definitely in distress you pieceofsh1tRuntBunker!
OK, so I’ll exit FunBuster and re-enter my exact same CD Key and join a game. Naa, F^&ked-Busted still wouldn’t let me on.
So I trawled the web looking for solutions, only to find many like-minded victims venting their frustrations in an equally overt manner. Hmmm, and then an angel shone from the sky (well, NastyJeff actually, but hey, you can’t win em all), and delivered unto me a small thing called pbweb.
This pbweb doodaathingy is meant to update your Crash-Busted for you when you click it.
So I clicked it, and it said it updated. And I said to the evil one ”I know what you’re thinking. Have I tried 5 or 6 times to use you? Do you feel lucky, Punk? Well, do ya?”
OMG it worked, and I finally Busted the Punk. Just a quick update before I play each day and there’s (almost) no problems. When I say I busted it, I mean I put it to sleep – it does tend to snore occasionally, but I now have a handle on it.
I can now soothe my head, feed the Doberman and watch real television again, in the knowledge that I can now use PunkBuster, just as long as I keep on top of it.
The barbed wire? I actually quite liked that so I keep it on :-)
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Morning Glory
Another morning, and more work to do. But, I finished my work nice and early and then glanced at the ever-enticing taskbar. Hmmm, it’s 6am here in the UK, and Jeff’s server is on- that’s weird. And even weirder – there are 7 people on it. Weirder still, none of them are Nasty. Well, I guess it’s time to do something about that then!
I joined halfway through a game and got my ass spanked. Right, this means war – you can’t be a Nasty on a Nasty server and not fly the Nasty flag, so I had no option - I brought out The Gimp.
What followed was what can only be described as divine intervention. Every time I fired, I railed someone. There were some really good players in there, and I almost felt embarrassed that I was clocking up the frags so easily. I was expecting someone to accuse me of using a bot, but it was too late anyway – I hit the limit before they got a chance. OWNAGE on the Nasty server!!!
The next two games brought me back down to Earth again, but hey, I even used my new-found skills to take a screenshot to prove my allegiance to the House of Nasty! Click Here.
Rock on!
Another morning, and more work to do. But, I finished my work nice and early and then glanced at the ever-enticing taskbar. Hmmm, it’s 6am here in the UK, and Jeff’s server is on- that’s weird. And even weirder – there are 7 people on it. Weirder still, none of them are Nasty. Well, I guess it’s time to do something about that then!
I joined halfway through a game and got my ass spanked. Right, this means war – you can’t be a Nasty on a Nasty server and not fly the Nasty flag, so I had no option - I brought out The Gimp.
What followed was what can only be described as divine intervention. Every time I fired, I railed someone. There were some really good players in there, and I almost felt embarrassed that I was clocking up the frags so easily. I was expecting someone to accuse me of using a bot, but it was too late anyway – I hit the limit before they got a chance. OWNAGE on the Nasty server!!!
The next two games brought me back down to Earth again, but hey, I even used my new-found skills to take a screenshot to prove my allegiance to the House of Nasty! Click Here.
Rock on!
Monday, November 24, 2003
CTF n Stuff
I got an email from a fellow clan member yesterday talking about CTF. When I first started q3 I thought CTF was for nerds and people who really didn’t have anything else to do with their lives.
Well, either I am a nerd with nothing else to do in my life, or CTF is actually damn cool. I’ll go with the latter :-)
I have been playing a bit of Insta CTF lately, and agree that it is truly great fun. I sometimes play threewave, but I am so bad a baseq3 that I tend to visit the insta rail CTF servers instead, such as ukmatrix, Badabum, and P!SS. The last 2 usually have excellent new maps as well, from threewave and some mod ones.
In fact yesterday I set up q3hockey on my server for FFA. This is a CTF map, but a right laugh on FFA as you slide around on the ice rink. NastyStinkyFish <,)--< (hehe!) and Sweetness saw out the small download and joined in, and although the map is quite featureless it’s great fun.
There are also some really good team tactics in CTF that help develop your skills (such as NOT fragging an opponent because you know he’ll respawn near your teammate who has just got their flag). For those of you who haven’t tried it, I can highly recommend it.
Nick, get thyself a static IP address and set up a CTF server. Go on, you know you want to!
I got an email from a fellow clan member yesterday talking about CTF. When I first started q3 I thought CTF was for nerds and people who really didn’t have anything else to do with their lives.
Well, either I am a nerd with nothing else to do in my life, or CTF is actually damn cool. I’ll go with the latter :-)
I have been playing a bit of Insta CTF lately, and agree that it is truly great fun. I sometimes play threewave, but I am so bad a baseq3 that I tend to visit the insta rail CTF servers instead, such as ukmatrix, Badabum, and P!SS. The last 2 usually have excellent new maps as well, from threewave and some mod ones.
In fact yesterday I set up q3hockey on my server for FFA. This is a CTF map, but a right laugh on FFA as you slide around on the ice rink. NastyStinkyFish <,)--< (hehe!) and Sweetness saw out the small download and joined in, and although the map is quite featureless it’s great fun.
There are also some really good team tactics in CTF that help develop your skills (such as NOT fragging an opponent because you know he’ll respawn near your teammate who has just got their flag). For those of you who haven’t tried it, I can highly recommend it.
Nick, get thyself a static IP address and set up a CTF server. Go on, you know you want to!
Morning lags
This is happening to me more and more. I wake up nice and early to get some work done and someone else is up playing Q3, so I just HAVE to join in. But this time I did my work BEFORE I joined in – smart move.
The game in question was an Instagib FFA (not unlagged) on -=A51=- server, using the ubiquitous q3dm17. I joined whilst 5 other players were between 3 and 40 frags. Limit was 100, so I thought I stood a chance of catching up and being near the top by the end of play.
How wrong I was! It seems I have been so spoilt by unlagged servers that I had forgotten that I needed to shoot “ahead” of my quarry when playing else. And to add to that, I had the slowest ping there by a long way. But that didn’t stop me – I play for fun, not to win (but winning is nice, too!). After I had finally racked up a single frag, the leading guy was at 60. Hmm, I need to learn this, and fast.
So I set about getting into character and soon managed to leapfrog into 4th. And that’s where I stayed – 30 frags by the time the leader got to 100.
In the next game, loads of others joined in and it was one of those “meat feasts” – you know the thing – there’s just gibs everywhere and you can’t see your opponents through the thick entrails of railed gladiators. Spawn protection was on, so it was at least playable. Actually, with so many people on the map, it was quite easy to pick up lucky shots, and I was in the lead from the start! On the top platforms where you have 3 people runnig from side-to-side I just shot down the middle of them and got 2 at a time. HEHEHE – Hasta La Vista Baby!
My lack of experience was quickly overhauled though, and I finished the game in 3rd with a count of 73. Not bad, and I’m sure it was good practice for my pure skills.
This is happening to me more and more. I wake up nice and early to get some work done and someone else is up playing Q3, so I just HAVE to join in. But this time I did my work BEFORE I joined in – smart move.
The game in question was an Instagib FFA (not unlagged) on -=A51=- server, using the ubiquitous q3dm17. I joined whilst 5 other players were between 3 and 40 frags. Limit was 100, so I thought I stood a chance of catching up and being near the top by the end of play.
How wrong I was! It seems I have been so spoilt by unlagged servers that I had forgotten that I needed to shoot “ahead” of my quarry when playing else. And to add to that, I had the slowest ping there by a long way. But that didn’t stop me – I play for fun, not to win (but winning is nice, too!). After I had finally racked up a single frag, the leading guy was at 60. Hmm, I need to learn this, and fast.
So I set about getting into character and soon managed to leapfrog into 4th. And that’s where I stayed – 30 frags by the time the leader got to 100.
In the next game, loads of others joined in and it was one of those “meat feasts” – you know the thing – there’s just gibs everywhere and you can’t see your opponents through the thick entrails of railed gladiators. Spawn protection was on, so it was at least playable. Actually, with so many people on the map, it was quite easy to pick up lucky shots, and I was in the lead from the start! On the top platforms where you have 3 people runnig from side-to-side I just shot down the middle of them and got 2 at a time. HEHEHE – Hasta La Vista Baby!
My lack of experience was quickly overhauled though, and I finished the game in 3rd with a count of 73. Not bad, and I’m sure it was good practice for my pure skills.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
A considerably successful morning
Ouch! I was given a total pasting last night by that pesky Chatfraggincamper (AKA NastyCaptainKlutz) and a bonesy character called 133mhz. I did actually manage to win one map, but most of the time I was simply target practice.
So I woke up this morning at my usual 6am and plodded downstairs to my PC. All the Q3 servers are usually empty and it’s a good time to do some documentation, etc, for work without being disturbed. But damn, the little blinky thing in my system tray told me that someone was on my server. Oh, well, time to see if my wounds have healed and make up for last night.
It was a Polish KZN clan member looking for a fight, bouncing up and down on the central jump pad on DM17. This time my eyes didn’t have custard in them, so I could see where I was going. He had clearly been there for a while, as he was at –4. Great – at least I had a headstart!. It didn’t take me long to clean up, but he did put up a good struggle.
Next up was the space map with all the platforms and lifts. We had a good fight and it was only at the end that I overhauled him to win 30-28. Lots of holyshits and falling into the abyss. Great Game.
We were then dumped on DM13 (I think…), which is far too big for two. So I put us onto DM0, as I remembered the Klutz had done last nightWell, I was outclassed on that map last night, and I was again being outclassed on that map this morning. Boo Hoo. Towards the end of the game Buzz joined in, but I was too far behind to capitalise on that; he was pretty damn good as well. So I lost that one. :-o
Right, the next map was DM19. We were now joined by Widow, so there were 4 of us. Hey, let’s not faff about here – I got to the 30 limit in double quick time, with the nearest challenger languishing behind on 12 or something. Not being arrogant or anything, but they were well and truly OOOOOwned :-)
Was it 7am already? Damn, time to make breakfast for the kids. Will I EVER get any work done in the mornings?
Ouch! I was given a total pasting last night by that pesky Chatfraggincamper (AKA NastyCaptainKlutz) and a bonesy character called 133mhz. I did actually manage to win one map, but most of the time I was simply target practice.
So I woke up this morning at my usual 6am and plodded downstairs to my PC. All the Q3 servers are usually empty and it’s a good time to do some documentation, etc, for work without being disturbed. But damn, the little blinky thing in my system tray told me that someone was on my server. Oh, well, time to see if my wounds have healed and make up for last night.
It was a Polish KZN clan member looking for a fight, bouncing up and down on the central jump pad on DM17. This time my eyes didn’t have custard in them, so I could see where I was going. He had clearly been there for a while, as he was at –4. Great – at least I had a headstart!. It didn’t take me long to clean up, but he did put up a good struggle.
Next up was the space map with all the platforms and lifts. We had a good fight and it was only at the end that I overhauled him to win 30-28. Lots of holyshits and falling into the abyss. Great Game.
We were then dumped on DM13 (I think…), which is far too big for two. So I put us onto DM0, as I remembered the Klutz had done last nightWell, I was outclassed on that map last night, and I was again being outclassed on that map this morning. Boo Hoo. Towards the end of the game Buzz joined in, but I was too far behind to capitalise on that; he was pretty damn good as well. So I lost that one. :-o
Right, the next map was DM19. We were now joined by Widow, so there were 4 of us. Hey, let’s not faff about here – I got to the 30 limit in double quick time, with the nearest challenger languishing behind on 12 or something. Not being arrogant or anything, but they were well and truly OOOOOwned :-)
Was it 7am already? Damn, time to make breakfast for the kids. Will I EVER get any work done in the mornings?
Monday, November 17, 2003
Monday Morning
Another early start today to get a report done in time for a morning meeting. I found the off switch on the alarm at 6.02 and by 6.05 I was adjusting my eyes to my PC screen with a glass of Grapefruit juice.
I glanced at the system tray and noticed there was a lonesome soul on DRN1 FFA. I had to get this work done, but… well it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?
I landed on dm6 and lo and behold, (D.S)Sweetness was there. At this hour of the morning??? Crazy girl. With my eyes still glued together she took the first six frags straight. Right – now it’s time to wake up. I’m not letting a modem player – make that a FEMALE modem player – beat me, even if I am still in the land of nod.
Darn, pesky girl was all over me (!) but I managed to get off the mark with a decent downward shot from above as she tried to bounce up the jump pad in the column room. Then she got me from her excellent secret camping spot.
From then on it was a fair match, with a bungee cord between our score-rate, but I never caught up. OK, so I lost the game, but it was a good way to wake up. GG Sweet… but beware, I’ll be back!!!
Another early start today to get a report done in time for a morning meeting. I found the off switch on the alarm at 6.02 and by 6.05 I was adjusting my eyes to my PC screen with a glass of Grapefruit juice.
I glanced at the system tray and noticed there was a lonesome soul on DRN1 FFA. I had to get this work done, but… well it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?
I landed on dm6 and lo and behold, (D.S)Sweetness was there. At this hour of the morning??? Crazy girl. With my eyes still glued together she took the first six frags straight. Right – now it’s time to wake up. I’m not letting a modem player – make that a FEMALE modem player – beat me, even if I am still in the land of nod.
Darn, pesky girl was all over me (!) but I managed to get off the mark with a decent downward shot from above as she tried to bounce up the jump pad in the column room. Then she got me from her excellent secret camping spot.
From then on it was a fair match, with a bungee cord between our score-rate, but I never caught up. OK, so I lost the game, but it was a good way to wake up. GG Sweet… but beware, I’ll be back!!!
Q3 spam files
Ever since I started on Q3 multiplayer I am increasing coming across servers that force me to download a small file – usually called something like xyz_bot_q3.pk3 and between 5k and 400k. No big deal to download on broadband, and I usually presume it’s something that is required for the gameplay on the server I am joining.
Well bo**ocks to that! These are what could be called q3 viruses. They are distributed like email viruses, and are usually a right pain in the backside. Once you have downloaded one it appends itself to your server and thence everyone who visits your server will have to download it, too. And that means some people won’t join your server because they don’t like downloading something they are not expecting, and quite rightly so.
Getting grid of it requires stopping the q3 server, deleting said mischievous file, and restarting the server again. But you will get another one within two days, I can guarantee it. And in the meantime some regular players on your server may not come back, thinking that you spam them with useless files.
There are one or two useful ones, such as the more interesting chat bubble, and some useless ones, such as one that makes the bots say rude things, but surely the good ones should be brought together into an official q3 patch (version 1.32.1 for example?) for people to download from ID? This would really sort out the worthwhile ones whilst only allowing proper maps to be downloaded.
I would suggest that Punkbuster be updated to filter these out, but Punkbuster is another bad story altogether, which of course I will have a good moan about soon :-)
Spam files are difficult to police in this world of freedom of expression, etc, but it is something that needs addressing. I want to play q3, not spend half my time picking out idiotic nuisances from my hard drive. As Descartes said “I’m pink therefore I’m spam”.
Ever since I started on Q3 multiplayer I am increasing coming across servers that force me to download a small file – usually called something like xyz_bot_q3.pk3 and between 5k and 400k. No big deal to download on broadband, and I usually presume it’s something that is required for the gameplay on the server I am joining.
Well bo**ocks to that! These are what could be called q3 viruses. They are distributed like email viruses, and are usually a right pain in the backside. Once you have downloaded one it appends itself to your server and thence everyone who visits your server will have to download it, too. And that means some people won’t join your server because they don’t like downloading something they are not expecting, and quite rightly so.
Getting grid of it requires stopping the q3 server, deleting said mischievous file, and restarting the server again. But you will get another one within two days, I can guarantee it. And in the meantime some regular players on your server may not come back, thinking that you spam them with useless files.
There are one or two useful ones, such as the more interesting chat bubble, and some useless ones, such as one that makes the bots say rude things, but surely the good ones should be brought together into an official q3 patch (version 1.32.1 for example?) for people to download from ID? This would really sort out the worthwhile ones whilst only allowing proper maps to be downloaded.
I would suggest that Punkbuster be updated to filter these out, but Punkbuster is another bad story altogether, which of course I will have a good moan about soon :-)
Spam files are difficult to police in this world of freedom of expression, etc, but it is something that needs addressing. I want to play q3, not spend half my time picking out idiotic nuisances from my hard drive. As Descartes said “I’m pink therefore I’m spam”.
Friday, November 14, 2003
Jacobyte is dead. Long live *NastyGimp*!
After a few months of credibility-building and lonesome vigilante server-storming, I have now bitten the bullet and joined the fold of the Nasty Clan.
OK, OK, a few days ago I wrote about how undecided I was in joining any clan, but it seems that wherever I’m playing there’s a Nasty somewhere in the house. So it was with much pride that I was urged to join. I am no longer Clint Eastwood in a poncho; I am now one of the magnificent seven (though how magnificent remains to be seen).
Of course I did an initiation ceremony where I had to swear an oath, chew the claws off a hyena, drink everyone’s vomit, etc, but that was the easy part. The hard part is that I now have to be Nasty to everyone (in the nicest possible way), and maybe even get good at the game.
Brrrrrrring out the Gimp!
After a few months of credibility-building and lonesome vigilante server-storming, I have now bitten the bullet and joined the fold of the Nasty Clan.
OK, OK, a few days ago I wrote about how undecided I was in joining any clan, but it seems that wherever I’m playing there’s a Nasty somewhere in the house. So it was with much pride that I was urged to join. I am no longer Clint Eastwood in a poncho; I am now one of the magnificent seven (though how magnificent remains to be seen).
Of course I did an initiation ceremony where I had to swear an oath, chew the claws off a hyena, drink everyone’s vomit, etc, but that was the easy part. The hard part is that I now have to be Nasty to everyone (in the nicest possible way), and maybe even get good at the game.
Brrrrrrring out the Gimp!
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
When is a camper not a camper?
I sometimes join a game on a server, and notice a certain player doing rather well. At the end, another player will accuse him/her of “Camping”, when I saw nothing of the sort. Is this just sour grapes from a poor loser?… or is there another reason? One example is in the bouncy room, where they can railjump off the bounce pad and go really high. OK, they can shoot those below them – but equally, those below have just as good a view of them, so that makes it equal, right? Or am I missing something?
My understanding of camping (correct me if I’m wrong) is threefold:
1. Knowing where the respawn points are and fragging other players as soon as they spawn, as is all too often done in q3dm17
2. Hogging a power-up or weapon, such as the BFG room in the dredwerkz.
3. Remaining in an inconspicuous spot that is easy to kill your opponents without them seeing you until it’s too late (e.g. on a door lintel or on top of a hanging light)
Points 1 and 2 are clearly “lame” and I tend to depart quickly if I’m on a server that has players doing this.
Point 3 is variable, and I think can be OK, if done obviously. The fact is, you’re never going to win a FFA game if you stay in one spot, as you need to keep moving in order to get enough frags. Besides which, it can be a good laugh trying to land on a precarious ledge over an abyss, only to fall off or even be fragged by your intended prey before you have even found your footing. Occasionally it’s like a game of hide-and-seek (or “hide-and-frag”), with players swapping turns to be “found AND killed”, but generally only among buddies.
So where does that leave my initial story? The fact is, it is not good etiquette to indulge in points 1 and 2 (and sometimes 3), but point 4 I still need to figure out. Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.
I sometimes join a game on a server, and notice a certain player doing rather well. At the end, another player will accuse him/her of “Camping”, when I saw nothing of the sort. Is this just sour grapes from a poor loser?… or is there another reason? One example is in the bouncy room, where they can railjump off the bounce pad and go really high. OK, they can shoot those below them – but equally, those below have just as good a view of them, so that makes it equal, right? Or am I missing something?
My understanding of camping (correct me if I’m wrong) is threefold:
1. Knowing where the respawn points are and fragging other players as soon as they spawn, as is all too often done in q3dm17
2. Hogging a power-up or weapon, such as the BFG room in the dredwerkz.
3. Remaining in an inconspicuous spot that is easy to kill your opponents without them seeing you until it’s too late (e.g. on a door lintel or on top of a hanging light)
Points 1 and 2 are clearly “lame” and I tend to depart quickly if I’m on a server that has players doing this.
Point 3 is variable, and I think can be OK, if done obviously. The fact is, you’re never going to win a FFA game if you stay in one spot, as you need to keep moving in order to get enough frags. Besides which, it can be a good laugh trying to land on a precarious ledge over an abyss, only to fall off or even be fragged by your intended prey before you have even found your footing. Occasionally it’s like a game of hide-and-seek (or “hide-and-frag”), with players swapping turns to be “found AND killed”, but generally only among buddies.
So where does that leave my initial story? The fact is, it is not good etiquette to indulge in points 1 and 2 (and sometimes 3), but point 4 I still need to figure out. Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Clans, clans, clans
This is a hard one. I’ve been playing Q3 for about 6 months now, and after getting “OK” at basic Q3, completing all the levels and sometimes holding my own on internet multiplayer, I very quickly became a huge fan of InstaUnlagged. So much so that I now have my own server (212.159.20.126)
With all my I-U railgun practice, I have been improving more and more. In fact, after taking 3 weeks off in the Summer to fly to Malta, I returned to find I had improved without playing at all! Whilst I am not yet brilliant, I can often luck in on a flurry of great frags, and sometimes find myself being first to hit the fraglimit.
I have since been asked a few times by clan members if I am in a clan, and if not, would I like to join. Now, that’s a hard one. I always say I cannot afford the time. I have my name in white text and I still use the arrow keys to move. I’m 30, have a business, a mortgage, other half with two daughters, I’m a musician, and I race cars. How could I possibly fit in playing a teenager’s game on the internet?
The fact is, I CAN fit the time in (as proven over the last 6 months) and I have realised that most of the players I know are actually older then me!
OK, so the next problem is seriousness. I do not enjoy playing with people who call a newbie “f’ing n00b”, if I frag them they say “l4mer, che4t”, if they fall off the map they moan “kill yourself please, my mouse is f’d up”. I play for fun, and that’s what Q3 is all about. If someone is new, then “great, let’s help them become experienced”. If someone frags me, “great, nice shot”. If I fall off the map “LOL I’m a twat!”
So if I am to join a clan it must be a one that plays for a laugh but still wants a good fight. I know a few of these, and I expect I will join one soon – I guess I just need a bit more convincing.
This is a hard one. I’ve been playing Q3 for about 6 months now, and after getting “OK” at basic Q3, completing all the levels and sometimes holding my own on internet multiplayer, I very quickly became a huge fan of InstaUnlagged. So much so that I now have my own server (212.159.20.126)
With all my I-U railgun practice, I have been improving more and more. In fact, after taking 3 weeks off in the Summer to fly to Malta, I returned to find I had improved without playing at all! Whilst I am not yet brilliant, I can often luck in on a flurry of great frags, and sometimes find myself being first to hit the fraglimit.
I have since been asked a few times by clan members if I am in a clan, and if not, would I like to join. Now, that’s a hard one. I always say I cannot afford the time. I have my name in white text and I still use the arrow keys to move. I’m 30, have a business, a mortgage, other half with two daughters, I’m a musician, and I race cars. How could I possibly fit in playing a teenager’s game on the internet?
The fact is, I CAN fit the time in (as proven over the last 6 months) and I have realised that most of the players I know are actually older then me!
OK, so the next problem is seriousness. I do not enjoy playing with people who call a newbie “f’ing n00b”, if I frag them they say “l4mer, che4t”, if they fall off the map they moan “kill yourself please, my mouse is f’d up”. I play for fun, and that’s what Q3 is all about. If someone is new, then “great, let’s help them become experienced”. If someone frags me, “great, nice shot”. If I fall off the map “LOL I’m a twat!”
So if I am to join a clan it must be a one that plays for a laugh but still wants a good fight. I know a few of these, and I expect I will join one soon – I guess I just need a bit more convincing.
Morning Frag session
I got up nice and early to do some work, and noticed that I had left my server on overnight. Hmm, I’m sure work can wait for a few minutes, hehe!
As expected for 6am, the usual servers were all empty or offline, so I looked at my server log and spotted that Amelia had only just been there.
I then did an internet server search to find a random game to play on and saw instagibplus with a few players on. “Worth a try”, I thought. After downloading a 400k-ish file, it let me on, and – wouldn’t you know – Amelia was there. Great minds think alike and all that!
Anyhow, whenever I tried to shoot, the grappling hook would fly out. Damn, /bind mouse1 attack?? Change settings? Nothing worked. I was getting railed left right and centre and I couldn’t figure out how to get my weapon working (as the actress said to the bishop!)
The guys in the game were too busy to help, even when I asked, but eventually I accidentally moved my mousewheel and the railgun appeared! Ah, so the grappling hook will be my default weapon then. Strange! Each time I was fragged I would start again wit the grappling hook. Not much fun. Also, someone on there thought he was funny by being in GOD mode.
I persevered, but it really was a pain in the posterior. That was probably the least fun I’ve had on Q3 in a long while, so I thought I’d cut my losses and get on with my work.
Here’s looking forward to a good session tonight :-)
I got up nice and early to do some work, and noticed that I had left my server on overnight. Hmm, I’m sure work can wait for a few minutes, hehe!
As expected for 6am, the usual servers were all empty or offline, so I looked at my server log and spotted that Amelia had only just been there.
I then did an internet server search to find a random game to play on and saw instagibplus with a few players on. “Worth a try”, I thought. After downloading a 400k-ish file, it let me on, and – wouldn’t you know – Amelia was there. Great minds think alike and all that!
Anyhow, whenever I tried to shoot, the grappling hook would fly out. Damn, /bind mouse1 attack?? Change settings? Nothing worked. I was getting railed left right and centre and I couldn’t figure out how to get my weapon working (as the actress said to the bishop!)
The guys in the game were too busy to help, even when I asked, but eventually I accidentally moved my mousewheel and the railgun appeared! Ah, so the grappling hook will be my default weapon then. Strange! Each time I was fragged I would start again wit the grappling hook. Not much fun. Also, someone on there thought he was funny by being in GOD mode.
I persevered, but it really was a pain in the posterior. That was probably the least fun I’ve had on Q3 in a long while, so I thought I’d cut my losses and get on with my work.
Here’s looking forward to a good session tonight :-)
Monday, November 10, 2003
After successfully managing to prise the kids off MSN I managed to get a good hour’s worth of fragging this evening. All the servers in my favourites were empty, so I did the “internet” thing on the Q3 multiplayer page. I saw a “freeze” game and thought I’d have a look to see what it’s all about.
In case you don’t know (I didn’t until this time), freeze is a team game where you must frag the members of the opposing team, but when you frag them they do not respawn. Instead, they freeze into a giant ice block. You have to freeze everyone in the opposing team to get a point. However, if a team mate if frozen, you can stand by them for a few seconds to thaw them, and they are back in the game.
This was a right laugh, but I did take a little while to understand the rules. When I first tried to unfreeze someone, I thought I had to do it my shooting them - Doh! But I can highly recommend it.
When I decided that frostbite was fun, I then visited NASTYJeff's server where everyone was being owned by NASTYOldShark. Nothing unusual there, then. So in I went to help, only to get trounced by the fishy wonder. Damn, he’s good!
And so to bed, licking my wounds to fight another day…
In case you don’t know (I didn’t until this time), freeze is a team game where you must frag the members of the opposing team, but when you frag them they do not respawn. Instead, they freeze into a giant ice block. You have to freeze everyone in the opposing team to get a point. However, if a team mate if frozen, you can stand by them for a few seconds to thaw them, and they are back in the game.
This was a right laugh, but I did take a little while to understand the rules. When I first tried to unfreeze someone, I thought I had to do it my shooting them - Doh! But I can highly recommend it.
When I decided that frostbite was fun, I then visited NASTYJeff's server where everyone was being owned by NASTYOldShark. Nothing unusual there, then. So in I went to help, only to get trounced by the fishy wonder. Damn, he’s good!
And so to bed, licking my wounds to fight another day…
