Ben Zwycky

OK, bit of a change of schedule, I can't do Sunday evenings anymore, but should probably be able to do a given Saturday from 7-8.30pm GMT, if I get a couple of days notice beforehand. I'll try and get my rig sorted out again during the week.

Oh, I'm still around, just lurking mostly while I work on my book, since I can't upgrade to play the newest 3000AD offering, but my machine can just about handle UC:CE. I may pop along one Sunday evening GMT for a bit of MP if there's any organised (though mouse flight doesn't work so well in winXP as in win2k)

Haven't been able to upgrade my system, so I'm out of the testing loop, been working on a book in my spare time (actually finished, at the feedback and polishing stage now)

Progress update: Initial draft is now complete, I really need feedback on the whole thing from as many people as possible to help me polish it and work out any kinks before I think about approaching a publisher. Contact me by PM for details (if you haven't already ).

I'm going to declassify an old doc I wrote on that just after I took over ISS Fleet (for UC, a little out of date now, the Earth (moon) region no longer exists in UC:AWA and later, and that exit from the uncharted quadrant disappeared with it). You can find it here and the password to open it is Semblance

Don't work too hard, if that's possible

My apologies for my quietness of late (and for letting the ISS site disappear, the webspace provider's gone a little AWOL and it looks like I'll have to rebuild the whole site from scratch somehow, bleh, does anyone know of a decent free hosting provider that supports php-nuke with full database access?), I have been getting on with a lot of projects in my spare time, one of which I would like some help with. I've discovered some talents in myself since joining a writer's forum, many of which I initially developed in rp here, and I am very grateful to this community - past and present - for what it has enabled me to go on and do (as well as what I've been able to do here of course ). I'm writing a novel which I fully intend to get published (my own IP, completely unrelated to 3000AD or this community) and am nearing completion now (working on the first draft of the penultimate chapter at the time of this post, though progress has slowed this last couple of weeks with the kids being ill leaving me with less energy in the evenings to write, I estimate first draft complete within the next month or two). Problem is, I've had a severe lack of quality literary feedback (I do get a lot from my wife, but then she's biased, gets all the inside jokes and English isn't her first language ). I know there are a lot of intelligent and trustworthy people here and I was hoping some of you who are more into literature would be able to give me an outsider's POV and help me refine what I've got so far. Those who are interested, please contact me via PM. The thing that has surprised me most is finding I have a knack for poetry (The complete opposite of myself at school, I hated English). Here are a couple of pieces (the first was an exercise in pure wordplay, the second is more the kind I like to write): Frozen Hope? Huddled round a fire in the days of old, Hiding from the ire of the burning cold. Under the stars and the grey-white moon, Comes hope from afar that will get here soon. A fortress of ice that gleams in the day, With beauty to entice down a dangerous way. "Onward, you hounds! With all of your might!" Drowns out the sounds of the maddening night. Shallowing breath, sight fading to black, Shadows of death clawing at his back, An anxious friend gazes on in fear, As the desperate end seems to loom so near. A last long climb to the sheltered cave, No thought of the time, there's a life to save. Greeted with a cheer as he scales the slope, "The doctor is here, there is still hope." Days Days of wonder, days of hope, Days that help you learn and cope, Days of refuge, days of peace, Days that give your heart release. Days of struggle, days of stress, Days of pain and loneliness. Days that tear your world apart, Days to make a whole new start. Days to overlook a fault, Days to be true light and salt. Days to take a stand and fight, Days to defend what is right. Days to cherish and protect, Days to rectify neglect, Days to smile and talk at length, Days to be another's strength. Each new day is heaven-sent, Make every day a day well spent.

You can't deploy ODS's or anything else that's not part of your ship's compliment (i.e. your shuttles, fighters, vehicles and crew). The station will look after itself once it comes back online, you can protect it with your craft until then if you like, but it's not usually necessary.

Merry Christmas everyone! I wish you all every blessing at this special time of year. Being a bicultural family, we get to celebrate Christmas twice, once this evening (the Czech way ) and again tomorrow (the English way ) It'll mean eating lots of nice food, who am I to say no?

Excellent work all round there, SC the MFB looks like it could make an appearance on 'Extreme Machines', love the distortion from looking through water, all top notch, congrats and looking forward to more.

great news, echo! I'll be praying for you both to continue moving in the right direction.

Thanks, guys, (and nice rhyme, Quazar )

too late in the day for me, let me know afterwards what you discussed

Have a good one, Sho!

May this year bring you as many (if not more) blessings than the last

Happy Birthday Denny

Congrats to you both! Make sure you get the paperwork all sorted out early(not sure if there is that much in your situation), so you can take the time to plan more fun stuff and really enjoy your day.

Welcome back, Kal!

Congrats, Daniel (and especially the new mum ), may she bring as much blessing into both of your lives as my kids do mine.

Just saw this outstanding performance of this song on the Czech version of X-factor. The guy performs all of the voices and backing vocals solo, records them one after another building up to the full song and adding more voices each loop live on stage, you have to watch it to see what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mE1JNW8-7M

Really sorry to hear about your troubles, echo. Take your time and think things through, patience is such an underrated virtue nowadays.

I'll be around

I assume the meeting is on this coming Sunday? If so, I'd like to add another itemn to the agenda, all teh fleet leaders with UCCE should download the 1.06 beta patch so we can try that out with multiple clients.

OK, there is a way to include Shingen's contribution without endangering those wanting to enjoy the plaza: [rp] "Are there any signs that he noticed the transition?" "Not so far, sir, scenario Chi Lambda Six is running smoothly, he was tranquillised while in a normal phase of sleep and only transferred into the cubicle and hooked up to the simulator once his vital signs were stable. He is heavily restrained, though will not notice that since the psi-deck interface overrides his normal sensations with simulated ones corresponding to the virtual environment. We have a UPS and backup generator on standby to avoid power loss issues and are monitoring his vital signs carefully for any signs of rejection. His liquid nutripack feed and catheter tube lead out of the cubicle, meaning it does not have to be opened except in an emergency, and the cubicle is heavily barricaded and soundproofed. Should an unavoidable issue arise, the cubicle will be flooded with anaesthetic gas before simulation shutdown." "Very good, lieutenant, carry on, you will be relieved in four hours, then file a report on his activities." "Yes, sir." [/rp] OK, so Shingen has not really been released, he is in a specially adapted psi-deck cubicle in the Brig in ISS station (there are twenty of them in the brig atm). He has 'actor' status (see the description of what that means in the psi-deck description http://www.issfleet.com/modules.php?name=F...wtopic&t=63" target="_blank">here, though without the option of exiting the program and is not aware that he is in a simulator. The guards observing him have 'director' privileges and will be watching to see how he reacts and what choices he makes in the situations he faces, while subtly making sure any 'danger' he faces doesn't end up 'killing' him. The simulated world is a fairly precise replica of the ordinary rp world, though with some differences to avoid giving him access to classified info (e.g. that the plaza is an ordinary recreation area open to the public without stringent security checks, so he is free to leave it should he choose and it doesn't have any simulators in it so as not to arouse his suspicions). He will be interacting with extremely sophisticated AI characters, basically indistinguishable from real people. As a result, he is free to do anything he wants and go anywhere in this simulated world, though there will be realistic obstacles to achieving any outlandish feats, while his actions will have absolutely NO impact on the 'real' rp world going on outside, so other people wanting to enjoy the plaza can do so and feel free to ignore whatever is going on in his story, but they have the option of playing the part of an AI character in the simulation should they so wish (anything they want that's compatible with his current situation), but should be aware that since their character is only virtual it is dispensable. To this end, anyone wanting to interact with Shingen in this way will need to use an additional set of tags within the normal rp tags, for example: [rp] Ben got talking with the Earthcom staff about their journey to the station and introduced them to the facility's main features. [sim CL6] A somewhat drunken man stumbled his way over to Shingen's table and sat down inelegantly, "Whassup there, mate? You look like you've been in a brawl or twoo... oo, heehee. Lemme know who did it an' I'll go give 'im a thumpin' or summing, yeah. Have you tried the beer they got 'ere, two hundred and thirty four varieties ya know, hat's off to 'em for looking after ush and thinking of our perti... perticuler needs and all 'at" [/sim CL6] [/rp] Let's be creative,

Those shots are pretty awesome too, pass on my congratulations to the chefs