Zane_Marlowe

I thought Babylon 5 was good science fiction. That was only television, but that was the right medium for the story it was telling. Anyways, I don't think Sci-Fi film is dead. Other recent examples include Minority Report, Bicentennial Man (based on an Asimov story), Dark City, Gattaca, and AI. Remember, not all Sci Fi is space opera, but all sci-fi encourages us to think about what might be if... Several of those films listed above are extra credit for my philosophy classes because I'm trying to get them to engage big ideas, so that's why I think Sci-Fi is still alive. We don't always get it in a Kubrick-class art wrapper (ala 2001), but who says big ideas have to come off like art?

Quick question, has anyone considered trying to tunnel UC to get the better bandwidth settings in the LAN settings? I found a piece of tunneling software that I thought might be interesting to try, but I don't have a server to try it out on to see how it would work. Is there anyone who wants to test this out to see if it works? tunnel software link.

I can probably make M-F from about 2400 (6pm Central) to about 0400 (10pm Central), or Weekends from about 2pm GMT (8am Central) to...as late as is reasonable. Out of these times, I'm available, but being a married man whose work life doesn't stay at work (I'm a teacher) I can probably stay for at most 2-3 hours per practice or match. Also, Omega (Krasus) has been updated in the ISS Fleet Forums so that he's got lvl 1 access, but I really think our own ISS members start at lvl 3 don't they? At least lvl 2 as cadets, lvl 3 when they get cleared for full command, and lvl 4 as veterans (at 3+ kills, or so I'd thought). Do you want me to boost his access?

Alan Rickman is going to voice Marvin, Marvin. If you had to pick a look and a voice, who would you have Marvin look and sound like?

We're playing usually on Saturday mornings or Sunday afternoons. The fleet league is between seasons at the moment, but we probably could/should get in a practice before the season begins again. Hmm... 'scuse me, I have to attend to something now....

Checked off and complete. I noticed that Krasus also checked in. Who is that? Has he showed up here? Is he going to join us for multiplay? If we had a four man team, we'd own fleet matches--we'd be a bona fide battlegroup!

quote:Originally posted by Ben Zwycky: Zane, don't be so negative. If you want to say no to a suggestion, at least suggest an alternative. Let's just take part and give it a go. Carefully reread what I wrote. I said that if people were paying in, there should be something later that paid out. Remo was "disappointed" in me for not seeing that it was "quite apparent" he intended to do that, in spite of the fact that paying for fleet membership has come up before. Nonetheless, with that clarification I encouraged Remo to try his idea out, since he was going to find out if it was feasible when he actually made the offer and saw if people were willing to step up with their money. People say all kinds of things until they have to open their wallets--that's life, not criticism. Remo then went on to tell us all how he was going to basically take his bat and ball and go home since he didn't want to go through any kind of discussion process that would "slow him down," and that he was a "military leader," not a debater. He says that he's only going to attend to Prime fleet, since that's the fleet he's responsible for. On that point I agree with Remo, and I think that a "military" style leadership from anyone in one fleet where it concerns activities for other fleets is probably inappropriate for two reasons. First, because the only person with that power is actually SC himself, and SC has said this numerous times. Second, because this isn't actually the military, it's a community of people playing a game and giving of their time and energy consentually because they enjoy what they're doing. Where the militaristic atmosphere of the game would run over that basic value, then it's inappropriate, and SC has said that several times as well (remember he threatened to shut down the entire fleet structure if it stopped being worthwhile and fun?). In this case, no one argues that Remo doesn't put a lot of work into his ideas, but he himself has said on numerous occasions that he doesn't like to involve people in the process of putting them together. He's said that he is more interested in offering the finished product as he envisions it, and then letting people get involved if they're going to. Thus far, people have gotten involved because he's had good ideas, and when he presents them, people are willing to try them out, add comments, and ultimately they get adopted as other fleet leaders approve of them. If Remo wants a rubber stamp for his ideas in whatever form he decides to offer them, then you who are fleet leaders can decide whether or not you want to give him that latitude. However, that's not the current understanding between the fleets, and I'm not the bad guy here if Remo is disappointed with going through a process to approve his ideas. It strikes me that I put a lot of work into some ideas of my own not so long ago and heard exactly this line from him. I played ball then, and I stayed involved, so I hope he'll show a little more fortitude since ultimately everyone will live with the final gameplay results. If he sticks with it it'll probably be pretty good even if it doesn't happen as fast as he'd like.

quote:Originally posted by Remo Williams: I'm disappointed Zane I thought that would have been quite apparent... On second thought IÔÇÖll just donate a prize myself sounds like a lot less trouble than dealing with the critics. IÔÇÖll announce what the 2005 championship winner will receive at the start of regular season play.To your first point, the idea of a pay-to-play fleet has come up in discussions before, so this incarnation of the idea took some zeroing in on, but I think I see what you mean now. To your second point, just give it a go and see whether it's workable or not if you want to see it happen. Either it will be worthwhile and it works, or it won't, but "the critics" will vote with their absence.

Briefly, I'm in favor of pay to play only if both of the following are true: 1) it's paying for me personally to participate in the league, and 2) the money is paying for some kind of prize. I don't believe in using money to keep people out because ultimately money doesn't prove seriousness, seriousness proves seriousness. If we have problems with lackluster participation, then that's a policy problem IMO. When money changes hands, we'd better be prepared to give something equal in value, and currently I think Derek's the only one capable of doing that. Like I said though, if it's for a prize of some kind, then I'm all for it. That's good for competition, and I think it could draw good players. I do think RP should be rewarded, otherwise it's never going to get off the ground. If it ain't your bag, then fine, but if you make RP utterly irrelevant, then it's going to remain utterly uninteresting and unworking. Sorry for so much critique, but it did occur to me that you could make the league a kind of super-entity that has fleet membership as a pre-requisite, where some players will pay to play in the league, where they will get prizes, etc., but if they just want to be involved in a fleet then they can do so for free. The basis of this view is that people contribute to the fleets in non-MP related ways as previously discussed, and we shouldn't have money changing hands if it doesn't get you anything more than a club membership--even a country club has a good golf course right?

Zane is fortunately able to send and receive flash traffic from deep cover in Hawaii. I didn't know if I'd be able to do so, but as it turns out, a few of my well-placed "sleeper" agents are active and my spy network remains intact. Unfortunately, I won't be able to engage in fleet maneuvers without blowing my cover, so ISS will have to cope without me. I am thrilled to see how we're doing thus far. Way to go ISS! Can someone post me something more detailed on how we did these last few plays? I'd like to know how Rip's come along.

Hey SC, Just a question because I bet many might be interested in knowing your thoughts on this point. What games do you play, what did you like about them, and (where applicable) how did they influence or inspire your own game development?

These look fantastic Ben! I can't wait to give them a go! (No one will catch me if I'm in that shuttle, I swear it! )

Um, yeah...so for those of us who aren't moderators, when is that going to take place?

http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml

Well, Khan (CC) and I had some fun tonight doing some dogfighting and marine ops. I thought I'd try to sneak up on him in a Raven super fighter, so off I went to Gendar, stalking my prey. After a fortunate flux field jump that put me in Ralean, I exulted in the speedy transit through HS to the Gendar jumpgate. As I closed distance to the gate, I began thinking of all the glorious violence I would do to the hapless Khan, and moments later I entered the system, intent on my prey. Except it takes a second to load the assets in system. Ah ha! Khan was a mere...13km...and I, uh... Yes, I pressed accept. Okay, so then I convinced him to test out the dogfighting quality in MP, and he was game, so we engaged each other usefully. It says good things of the FC part that we managed to tally about the same scores on each other, and I'm really interested in trying more FC-based missions for the next set of fleet matches. Well, now I felt like really pushing my luck, so we went planetside to Procon and started marine ops. I took a MI marine and, boarding a gunship, took off from Procon SB01 and began making my way to the nearest Insurgent base. Then I learned that GALCOM somehow thought it worthwhile to allow Insurgents to spawn in their bases. (I hear the Insurgents allow this too, which is neighborly of them I suppose. I certainly wouldn't have allowed them to do that, but then I'm not at the top of the command chain for GALCOM. Of course, if this special brand of military planning persists, I may find myself there soon enough!) So I work my way back to base and Khan and I experiment with taking passengers on gunships before we start killing each other. (I thought it necessary to keep up the illusion of good-neighborliness until the moment was ripe to blaze on him you see.) Well, having had a good look at that (updating packets made it appear that Khan was on an invisible leash leading out the back of the gunship as long as it was moving, which by itself is reason to give the guy a ride). Then I dropped the ship and we began in earnest. Khan was kitted for AF to my MI, so I promptly jumped over him and, on landing behind him, promptly blazed him to ash with my laser rifle. It was starting to get dark now, so I had to watch especially closely for my prey (especially now that I knew he could pop up anywhere). I grabbed a vehicle and drove around looking for him with the radar. On spotting him I tried shooting him with an ATV turret laser, but it was difficult to draw a bead on him since he wouldn't stay still (imagine my shock). Of course, I noticed that as I drew near, he was actually hitting me adequately enough to draw attention from the female computer voice. (Makes me wonder if we're setting a bad precedent to those who desperately desire the attention of a female voice.) So I promptly left the vehicle in a fit of jealous rage and of course he didn't know I'd exited the vehicle until he had been blazed to ash yet again. Well, this is going swimmingly I thought. Still, I wanted to look around and perhaps see if I could rejoin the space game by hopping in a shuttle. I selected a nearby Mark 1 and tried to dock into it without luck. Hrm, that's strange I thought. Then I noticed the blue glare of the shield as it bloomed under the force of a rocket blast from Khan's AF launcher. I would have been rocket bait if not for that shuttle's automated defenses! I dropped prone and raised my weapon, sighting it to a distant AF marine only now realizing the folly of trying to attack someone protected by a vehicle class forcefield. Yes friends, moments later he was ash. Well, now it was dark and I realized that I had to be silent, and own the night like a...ninja, yeah, like a ninja! I jumped up to the roof of a local bunker and crouched prone, awaiting my next victim. I was silent, and dark, and sneaky as heck, crouched prone up there scanning the darkness for Khan to reappear. That got boring after about a minute, so I began to look up at the night sky. It sure was pretty. The stars were out, the clouds were constantly shifting the veil of night like a woman who--OW!!! I took a couple hits that brought me down to about 50% life. I dropped prone, mind snapping into clear focus through the pain, and leveled my rifle on the clear silhouette of my latest victim. Now let me take a moment for an aside. Gentle reader, you should know that there are many things in this dangerous universe one should definitely NOT do if one values one's life. Latest on my list is this: do NOT try to sneak up on the leader of CIOPS (remember the ninja skills?) while wearing SNOW WHITE AF MARINE ARMOR!!! Khan stuck out like a neon sign, and shortly thereafter I was warming my hands over his warm ash remains. Of course I still had to do something about the 50% life drop. I thought I'd check out those automatic thingies we use for replenishing life, armor, and ammo. What a neat invention I thought. I docked with it, and accepted its generous offer to fix my health. At first it was nice, being bathed in a warm anti-radiation shower, but then it was followed with an inoculation shot to ward off exotic diseases. Now I don't know about you, but I did NOT get the briefing that mentioned anything about needles on those supply stations! Then it examined my condition and elected to do surgery. What followed I cannot here recount, nor recall, but I am left with the firm conviction that I did not emerge from that encounter whole, and what I left at that supply station I mourn. It was now pitch black, so I hit the lowlight, and between that and the DIE, I managed to find him backed against a bunker wall. Now I was at least 50m from him, and when switching over from nightscope to the sited rifle, I had to make sure I was prone so my shot wouldn't wander. I snapped off a pair of shots, sighted a hair left, snapped off two more, sighted a hair further left and snapped off yet two more. Somewhere in there I heard him groan his last, and felt the soul of the ninja in me beam (no pun intended) with pride for having dispatched the enemy I couldn't see. I was like one of those Samurai archers who shoots guys through a rice paper wall.... Except of course that I used night optics, telescopic sights, and a six shot spread on a laser rifle instead of a single arrow from a simple bow. Of course, if you leave those trifling details out, I was a model of zen laser riflery. Anyways, Khan eventually wised up and took an MIM, and subsequently nailed me once or twice, but I'll leave him to shamefully brag about his accomplishments in another post. Hopefully he will emulate the model of humility I have here exhibited. Here's to a good game Khan

Let me know when you're interested in testing this out. Maybe we could meet online with Chavik and a few of the regulars this side of the pond to try it out. That said, one thing I like the idea of is doing a few pure FC scenarios; commanding CC's is fun, but FC combat has some definite appeal given how much larger everything else would be, and how fast (and relatively simple) the FCs are.

Our condolences Nick, sorry to hear.

Rip, look for Prime fleet west in your server filter (use "Prime"), that's normally what we use for an alternate TS server. Not your fault.

Rip and I will represent the fleet Sunday. Have a wonderful time Ben!

Alright friends, we've had some interesting discussions about the MP game, fleet roles, and the like. The fleet commanders have spoken with one another about RP in permissive terms rather than in definitive terms (i.e., boundaries but no plan), so this is the thread where I'm going to suggest we hash out the ground rules. I just spent a goodly amount of time looking over past RP threads, going all the way back to 1998, and two things are clear. First, we're not going to see the old RP because that's not how people are here anymore. Second, the MP game can serve RP in ways we're still exploring, and which we should work out here if possible. Given these points, I propose the following. First, RP requires not only combat, but non-combat actions, so MP by itself is not enough of a platform for RP. Second, MP can be used to resolve combat in an RP scenario, so long as the results allow interpretation in after action RP postings. Marvin suggested some rules which I reprint here for the sake of this discussion. quote:Marvin's Suggested Rules: 1. Only players who participated in the specific match can write up an AAR in role-playing format. Other than that, first come - first served. Those who come after can add to the story line. 2. The story must deal with a match already played and reflect what actually happened in that match. 3. Each player must write only about his/her own character ... in terms of thoughts, actions, and consequences. We shouldn't be trying to get into each other's heads. Include other players only when necessary and only to reflect what you actually observed. 4. No participant can be killed within another player's role-playing story line. Only the player, himself, can make that decision. Any of the kills associated with a fleet match will be attributed to a player's ship. Ways to circumvent an obvious kill include: Use of escape pods. Cloning of players. Being, yourself, indestructible (e.g. Marvin the robot). Using the transporter. Giving up (not a suggested solution). The player killed will decide how to come back from the dead, so to speak. For other players who must describe the kill, refer only to the destruction of the ship. 5. No story line should contradict any previous parts of the R/P story. Which mean, if you're going to contribute to the story, you'd better read what's already been posted. 6. To make the story more interesting, certain facts can be added by senior members of the match. For example, in "Shuttle Attack," none of the shuttles have been given a particular reason for being targets; they might be hauling dangerous artifacts or an alliance dignitary might be aboard. These details could be added to give the story more depth. More interest. But such details shouldn't be included without thought to the overall picture ... else they end up restricting what comes after. Which is why a senior member should be consulted prior to adding details of this type. 7. The story line will take place in the multiplayer universe. As far as Prime Fleet is concerned, Beta Wing need not adhere to this rule so long as their R/P activities remain within the purview of Prime's role-playing structure and posted either in the Role-Playing section of 3000AD or a similar section at Prime. But, either way, stories based on MP events must take place within the MP universe. 8. NPCs, if included in a story line, must not play a major role in the outcome of any part of the story. A player can use an NPC as an excuse for poor performance but only in general terms. Additionally, if you're going to name your NPCs, give them names not used by everyone (e.g. Resnig). The original crew belong to GalCom's Supreme Commander ... the best you could expect from that group would be clones. If your ship's name is associated with a specific group of characters from a book or movie or anime, think about using them, instead. 9. Any major background story must conform to original 3000 AD "history." Again, details will usually result in a more interesting story but, because of the effect it might have on future play, get it okayed by Remo before posting it for all to read.On my view, the following rules make good sense: 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9. The others depend on the degree to which RP is MP dependent. I'm going to weigh in on my own suggested adjustments to this scheme shortly, but for now I have to dash.

quote:Originally posted by BaBaBooey: First of all, I would like to know why RP is frowned upon in multiplayer. SC seems to be really down on it and I think it is integral to creating a feel and a reason for being in the game. Fleets exist for the purpose of uniting players and that's good but after that what's the function? Do you interact with other fleets? Do you draw up rules of engagement and divide the multiplayer universe between factions? I think it should be a firm yes. I think that intrusions into enemy space on any of the servers by an aligned player should dictate acts of "war". I think that there should be a neutral zone (one starbase and sector) set aside so that players can RP interactions that do not involve actual combat (as determined by fleet leaders and not involving the guy just popping in for some fun). Obviously, fleet play and some dude just looking for a game are two seperate matters and nobody is suggesting that everybody needs to interact in this way.... First thing to note is that RP isn't officially recognized as part of the BC universe. It's something the fleets with SC's "sanction" but that's not an official inclusion. That said, RP is genuinely a part of what the fleets do, although at present it's health is rather anemic. There are ideas on the table to reform RP, but your topic is about the health of MP. So I'd say if you want to talk about how to do RP better, let's talk about that in a separate post, and I'd say also take a look at the Fleet Roles thread over in Fleet Discussions to see some of the discussion that's been taking place there with respect to Fleets and RP. I think we can and should do RP within the MP game, but if I understand SC's objections, they are basically twofold. First, as is often the case, he's not committing to changing either his intellectual property (the gameworld) because of player RP. That's the reason why the fleets are official, but RP is only "sanctioned," which I read to be accepted but bearing no implications for the game world. The second objection I see him making is that he's not going to code anything new for the sake of RP. This is reasonable of course also since there is no wishlisting here and SC's running a business, not a made-to-order game service (if anyone actually DOES do this, I'd surely like to know ). Beyond that, SC's been very accommodating, and has given people free reign to do what they like so long as the fleet leaders are onboard and they're not using fleet elements without permission (I myself have had experience with this, just do a search for "Fleet Action" here and you'll find whole dissertations and clarifications by all sorts of people). Prime fleet has an RP wing, and RP elements on their website, and Dreada from Wraith is looking to perhaps blend RP into an MP context, but SC's been clear about the MP game not being a persistent world, so the "persistence" of any RP would have to be kept outside the game itself. (Shingen wanted this, and SC's response was to wait for the MMO version of this game. This is, incidentally, why I created Fleet Action also, and in my case, I just created a solution that people could do if they wanted, and which didn't require SC to change or do anything.) quote:Originally posted by BaBaBooey: The forum topic states that the area in which Remo Williams was posting is for Raiders and Indies only....Obviously...it got very heated. Remo's an admin/moderator for this site. SC's said what he had to say about this, and while Remo's temper is not unknown around here, there are apparently better ways to deal with a dispute than the route Shingen chose, and ultimately that's what SC cited as his reason for taking the course he did. This is water under the bridge, but remember that the admin community here is a community, not just Remo, and there are ways to appeal your case if you do so with some maturity and you think you have cause. Now past this point in your original post, you made reference to a lot of RP related stuff that I take my above response to speak to just as well. You did mention that fleets are essentially RP entities (given the command structure, etc.), and this is true given the past, but it need not be true given that other MP-only games have clan structures with command structures that exist for MP, not RP. Now, it's also not true that you can't get onto a server without fleet affiliation. Only server 2 is like this, but if you check your registration profile here, you'll find you have access to the passwords necessary to login to servers 3 and 4. So no, no one is holding a gun to your head to join a fleet, and fleets can exist for either MP or RP as they see fit. Nonetheless, there are fleet players interested in RP, so read that stuff and see if you can engage those discussions helpfully. Passion is good and welcome, ranting won't get you an audience, and what I've learned here above all is that if you want something SC's not already doing, you have to create it yourself. Fortunately for you, others ARE interested in restoring RP, and even in using RP within MP settings. Tell ya what, I'm going to create a thread for this in the RP area, and we can talk about it usefully there instead of ranting about "the death of MP" here. Fact is, MP is just getting ready to enter its halcyon days with the release of UCAWA (even though I'm going to have to get a new processor, dratted game!) with its reworked MP code, and the later release of UCHI. So hang with this a little longer, don't blow your stack, and put your passion into something for everybody who wants to come along for the ride. That's what I did, and do.

I'll take a moment to respond to this because I think it's a worthwhile question, even if the question is framed in a way that may result in your "forthcoming banishment." I am, however, going to post twice. Once now, in short, because I'd rather answer at length in a second post that speaks to the issues and I can imagine the admins perhaps killing this one. If they do, then that's their prerogative, but I'm willing to carry out this conversation if no one else wants to. I certainly don't think anyone else must.

Ah, well, I think I misunderstood the degree of change in the "add-on." So what's a 2ghz athlon processor go for these days anyway?

Hey, quick question because I was thinking more about how my machine doesn't meet the minimum spec for UCAWA. I'm thinking about maybe holding off on UCAWA until I get a machine that does meet the specs, but I was wondering if UC and UCAWA will be compatible with UC in MP given that they share a similar codebase apart from the upgraded graphics kernel. Would there be ongoing patches to UC as UCAWA and UCHI moves forward such that UC and UCAWA would be compatible in MP games for users on different kinds of machines?

It means there's something fundamentally wrong with you. How can anyone not like cereal?