noob score q's & notes on being mean to noobs

[vonseth]

Hi (hoping a bigshot like Lucifer or Tank will help with this),

I played my first game of Armagetron on the net a day ago.

I also played my first game of Armagetron EVER a day ago.

I notice it can be addicting...

Here's how it happened - my girlfriend had Sunday planned for us driving around Los Angeles, eating/shopping - her girl things, etc.

I found this game (love the movie, of course) & downloaded it sometime in the morning and proceeded to play until like 7pm, at which point I grew bored of playing AI opponents. She finally reminded me I hadn't eaten in 10 hours and took me out for food.

When we got back I played some Snood to take my mind off Tron.

Finally, my girlfriend gave up and went to bed, and about 2AM I logged-on and looked for on-line Tron players. I found one match (apparently going on in Germany, b/c everyone spoke German) that had like 3-6 players and was ranked highest at that time of day (at least, I think that's what the "score 356" means on the left) - most people in USA were evidently sleeping.

I got on expecting my ass to be kicked royaly by people who play this 24/7. After the first 3 turns - not rounds - that's exactly what happened, because they WERE good, and I was SO nervous to be playing real people that my hands were shaking too much to play steady (yes, I'm a young guy).

It didn't make it any easier on me that everyone was saying "noob" (I had no idea what that meant until I figured it out later) & cussing at me in German, which I DID understand since I know some German. But on the 4th turn my nerves settled, and I started what you guys call "grinding" and all the other things I picked-up playing against the AI earlier that day. I guess I also did a bit of what you guys call "running" during that 4th turn, and they were all saying "kill the noob" - but I ended-up killing the last guy from the other team who survived & won the turn.

They said it was a fluke, but what they didn't know is that I had been playing against 6 AI opponents locked at AI 100 with the imbalance locked (perm & temp) at 6, and with permanent trails - all day long - so I was constantly playing out-numbered, and so, playing on one of the on-line teams seemed easy. Plus, when I was playing my first games earlier that day, I'd jacked the game speed up to +2, and then +6 (even tried +10, but realized that wasn't much fun unless you're a microprocessor, cuz even when I won, it only lasted like a nanosecond), so when I played at whatever speed their grid was using, my reflexes were way faster than how fast the game was moving.

I won like 4 in a row after that first one, and not by "running" or "camping", but going after people, cutting them off - battling in the middle, corners - everywhere.

Then I won a round - maybe two or three - I don't remember, all the IMing & score-adding stuff happens so damn fast & everyone was talking in German. All I know is that after I won my first round, they stopped calling me "noob" & stopped cussing at me, and then people joined my team, and then I changed briefly from gold to blue (why did that happen?), and finally a message came up at the end of one of the rounds I won saying "Seth es Meister" in big gold letters ('meister' is German for 'master').

I'm not writing to brag (although of course it felt great to win the first 2 out of 3 rounds - I think it was 2/3? - I ever played on-line, on the first day I'd ever played the game). Especially when people were cussing and being sh-tty to a kid playing his first game ever. But I do want to ask how the f-ck the games are scored and what all the points coming-up meant ("seth acheived a personal high score" "seth ping increased +50 to 150 ping charity", "1000", "seth es meister", "round winner" - all that sh-t), and lastly, if any of that data is stored, because I checked my local log files in the Armagetron dir and could only find a record of the servers I had browsed - not my scores, points, rounds won - nothing.

Is there some "proper" way I should disconnect from the server to save this info.? Or is it saved remotely at the respective servers? Or are the type of points I earned all meaningless unless I play in some tournament (I keep reading about "Tigers Network") or rated game or something? And if so, how/where do I find games like that? Also, do you get more points as a noob for killing higher-ranked players?

I know I'll get my ass kicked when I play against you big boys, but that's how I learn, so I'd like to know where the good games are at, and also, what to set my ping at (I set it down to 100 even though I have broadband/cable), or if that matters, since it seemed like the place I played at was resetting my ping to their preference. It worked fine, actually (only a little bit of lag & I actually moved much SLOWER than most of the other people - except for when I grinded & after they increased my ping after I won some games). The reason I ask is that after winning at that server, I logged onto another with a high"score" and a lot of players, and jacked my ping up to like 300+ (don't remember how high - maybe it was 1000) - and I died instantly before I even touched the keyboard or anything. I just materialized & died. Was my ping set too high? Did the server have a ping restriction or auto-death for pings over a certain limit?

Sorry for all the questions, but if you can help a noob, I'd be grateful. I read through like 25 pages of posts in all the different forums trying to find some of these answers so as not to bother you guys, but to no avail for most of my q's (though a lot of my other questions WERE answered! ).

If I'm going to become an addict to this thing, I'd like to know how you all like to play so that I'm not interpreted as being rude when I play (not IMing, not playing like a team player, etc.). I just do what I learned from beating the AI 100 drones. For instance, I don't say a word when I'm playing & everyone else is talking most of the time.

Then again, who knows. Maybe I'll count myself lucky with my two beginner's round wins and never play again. lol

Thank You,

von seth

[Fonkay]

The Scoring varies from place to place. Some go 1 point per kill (best) but in some can get up to 3 points per kill, lose points for commiting suicide, and gain up to 10 points just for surviving.
These scores are general found on websites of the server hosts. Most rooms flash up a message saying what the site address is.

Uhhh.. yea, I'm sure someone can explain this better.

[Tank Program]

Welcome von Seth! I'm glad you like the game.

I think that's what the "score 356" means on the left

Roughly... It's a composite of all the factors like number of people playing, your ping to the server, to try and put servers that would play well high up on the list.

I changed briefly from gold to blue (why did that happen?)

This happens because, well, I'm not really sure, but it's nothing to worry about. Armagetron manages team colors so that no two teams have exactly the same color, when a player joins or leaves, it sort of shuffles things around to maintain this. Also you could note that the blue or gold or whatever color varried slightly between team members, this is a reflection of the color set it your player properties to give you a bit of uniqueness and it also allows you to tell whose wall on your team it is.

But I do want to ask how the f-ck the games are scored and what all the points coming-up meant ("seth acheived a personal high score" "seth ping increased +50 to 150 ping charity", "1000", "seth es meister", "round winner" - all that sh-t), and lastly, if any of that data is stored, because I checked my local log files in the Armagetron dir and could only find a record of the servers I had browsed - not my scores, points, rounds won - nothing.

You know, local score storage isn't a bad idea, or at least a console log. But sadly, as it is, that information isn't available. All you can do is take screen shots. Servers do log the scores overall, and most sites have some sort of online score/stats browser that you can check, again, check the server MOTD for that info or the server browser in 0.2.8.0 beta. The acheived a personal highscore means that in what ever category you beat your best, generally that applies to single player scores though. The ping charity thing is an automatic way Armagetron tries to balance gameplay so that people with disproportionatly highscores are not at too high of a disadvantage, again, nothing to worry about.

Is there some "proper" way I should disconnect from the server to save this info.? Or is it saved remotely at the respective servers? Or are the type of points I earned all meaningless unless I play in some tournament (I keep reading about "Tigers Network") or rated game or something? And if so, how/where do I find games like that? Also, do you get more points as a noob for killing higher-ranked players?

Anyway you quit tron that's not CTRL-ALT-DEL or kill -9 is a proper way. The 'type of points' you earned more or less are meaningless, they're just statistics of how much you've played how well you did... For the most part, statistics in Armagetron are sort of messed up. But yeah, it is saved remotely. 'Tigers Network' was a group of associated servers that I ran for about a year and a half until they were exploit attacked. Partially my fault, but they're on a hiatus until 0.2.8.0 is out. Basically there was one really popular one within that group of 4 servers called 'Classic Play' that people miss...

I know I'll get my ass kicked when I play against you big boys, but that's how I learn, so I'd like to know where the good games are at, and also, what to set my ping at (I set it down to 100 even though I have broadband/cable), or if that matters, since it seemed like the place I played at was resetting my ping to their preference. It worked fine, actually (only a little bit of lag & I actually moved much SLOWER than most of the other people - except for when I grinded & after they increased my ping after I won some games). The reason I ask is that after winning at that server, I logged onto another with a high"score" and a lot of players, and jacked my ping up to like 300+ (don't remember how high - maybe it was 1000) - and I died instantly before I even touched the keyboard or anything. I just materialized & died. Was my ping set too high? Did the server have a ping restriction or auto-death for pings over a certain limit?

I would recomend the one Lucifer runs as being one of the best in existence right now, but that's just me. I always liked it there, one of the only places I played besides my own servers. You don't set your ping persay, the ping is the time in ms between you and the server. You're probably thinking about ping charity, just leave it at its default. I'm not really sure how that made you die instantly, but, well, avoid that if you can.

Sorry for all the questions, but if you can help a noob, I'd be grateful. I read through like 25 pages of posts in all the different forums trying to find some of these answers so as not to bother you guys, but to no avail for most of my q's (though a lot of my other questions WERE answered! ).

If I'm going to become an addict to this thing, I'd like to know how you all like to play so that I'm not interpreted as being rude when I play (not IMing, not playing like a team player, etc.). I just do what I learned from beating the AI 100 drones. For instance, I don't say a word when I'm playing & everyone else is talking most of the time.

It's no trouble to answer someones' questions that are asked in such a nice manner, no trouble at all.

Might I ask where you found Armagetron though? I'm sort of curious how it's being spread around the internet...

[vonseth]

Nah, you're nice to ANSWER so nicely!

Thanks for all that great information. As Cpt. Kirk says, "It has been logged & noted!"

Trans.: Now that I've asked it, I won't bug you again!

Lol - okay, you ask: How'd I find out about Armagetron?

Well, I have a thing for old lowtech games (a friend of mine in Chicago started a site called 8bitpeoples that idolizes old funky games & game consoles, for instance). When I was like a baby (7 yrs old?), my brothers & I would play this 2D lowtech freeware/sharware/pubware game called TronLC (Tron Light Cycles) on 5.25" floppy! It was like two worms in a box with blue tails, lol, and you could have a player on either side of the keyboard (dual input).

My dad keeps all these antique computers (Apple I's, Timex Sinclairs - that kind of gook) around the house, and we still play them sometimes. I'm constantly looking for old games (usually at Underdogs), and play them (like Startrek 25th Anniversary, CW, Doom, Duke Nuke 'em, Loom - all kinds of stuff). My brother has Xbox and is like a pro ranked on Xbox live, but I'm not into all the killing. Still, the times he's made me play Halo, I kick his butt quite often! But the best I can do with him is trade matches back & forth. His reflexes have always been a bit better then mine (he's older than me), but I'm smarter then him, and predict things better - which is why I like Armagetron.

I also never quite saw all of Tron on T.V. as a kid, but I remember loving it and that my brothers would never explain to me what the hell was going on b/c they thought I wouldn't understand (f-kers). Finally, I bought the 25th Anniversary DVD on Saturday, and was able to see the whole thing from beginning to end! Plus 3 hours of special features! Yah! Then I made my girlfriend watch it with me a 2nd time! And then...guess what?

I hopped on the net because I remembered the old TronLC - and I wanted to find that same old game! Underdogs didn't even have it listed, and I Googled "tron game" or whatever & found this site that had the download, and continued my Tron adventure (first movie two times, then the game download/playing) straight through the weekend to my late night online play on Sunday/Monday with the Germans! LOL I was so excited that I did so well, I still don't know whether to keep going or quit while I'm ahead. lol

Anyway. Tron. I love that movie. I think it's so profound. Like the MCP is obviously Microsoft, and yet none of the people who were being interviewed in the special features even made a comparision to today's battle between GNU & copyright and how corporations are destroying intelligent free programming and innovation. I mean, Tron is probably the most prophetic movie ever to hit the planet, in that it predicts exactly the issues we only just ran into about 10-15 years ago with the internet, corporate domination of OS's, corporations buying-out, stealing the code of, and then crushing independent innovators (like Netscape), and so on, and so forth. I mean, Jesus, in '79 when they got the idea for this thing, we did even have PC's much to speak of - let alone OS wars, massive on-line data sinks, or a sharp divide between innovators and mega-programming corporations. Most of it didn't exist. People dialed into bulletin boards or their friend's house with like 800 baud modems and posted about games or game hints or whatever or did IM (ain't it funny how IM's the most 'advanced' thing now?).

Anyway, I digress.

It's good to be here. I'll stop talking so much. I guess it's to make up for my silent game play. lol

So, thank Google and Underdogs and Tron 25th Anniversary for some of your noobs, I guess. Hopefully there will be more. Tron should be like a religion, because it has some of the most important truths about the way this world works today. Way more relevant to our times - with morality way more applicable to present-day evils than most of the religions we follow.

Go Tron.

Free the grid!

vonseth

[Fonkay]

I thought he meant, where did you obtain AA.

[vonseth]

By 'AA' I assume you mean, Armagetron?

If that was the question, I followed this link from Google:

http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/tron.html

Which took me to Armagetron Advanced, which sent me to a list of servers across the globe where I could download the game from.

As I'm in California, I chose an Arizona location.

[Jonathan]

Welcome.

By 'AA' I assume you mean, Armagetron?

AA=Armagetron Advanced

If that was the question, I followed this link from Google:

http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/tron.html

Ah, I see:
http://www.google.com/search?q=tron+game

[dlh]

...I do want to ask how the f-ck the games are scored and what all the points coming-up meant ("seth acheived a personal high score" "seth ping increased +50 to 150 ping charity", "1000", "seth es meister", "round winner" - all that sh-t), and lastly, if any of that data is stored, because I checked my local log files in the Armagetron dir and could only find a record of the servers I had browsed - not my scores, points, rounds won - nothing.

There are a few settings which effect the scoring and when you win:

* score_kill => what you get when you core-dump an oppenent
* score_die => what you get when you die
* score_suicide => what you get when you kill yourself
* score_win => what you get when you win the round
* limit_score => If you reach this limit you win the match
* limit_rounds => After this number of rounds is reached the player with the top score wins
* limit_time => After a match has been going on for this long (in minutes) the player with the top score wins
* A bunch of settings for the ladder score

Round winner => you won the round
Match winner => you won the match (or one of the limits was reached)

Is there some "proper" way I should disconnect from the server to save this info.? Or is it saved remotely at the respective servers? Or are the type of points I earned all meaningless unless I play in some tournament (I keep reading about "Tigers Network") or rated game or something? And if so, how/where do I find games like that? Also, do you get more points as a noob for killing higher-ranked players?

The scores are saved on the server, and most servers have websites which list the statistics. Matches won, rounds won, ladder points, and some others. Some server, such as Tiger's Network servers, have a combined stats web-page along with the stats for each individual server. The higher points thing you are asking about is what the ladder score is supposed to solve. You should get a message about your ladder score after every round, or you can check the server's stats page if they have one.

I know I'll get my ass kicked when I play against you big boys, but that's how I learn, so I'd like to know where the good games are at, and also, what to set my ping at (I set it down to 100 even though I have broadband/cable), or if that matters, since it seemed like the place I played at was resetting my ping to their preference. It worked fine, actually (only a little bit of lag & I actually moved much SLOWER than most of the other people - except for when I grinded & after they increased my ping after I won some games). The reason I ask is that after winning at that server, I logged onto another with a high"score" and a lot of players, and jacked my ping up to like 300+ (don't remember how high - maybe it was 1000) - and I died instantly before I even touched the keyboard or anything. I just materialized & died. Was my ping set too high? Did the server have a ping restriction or auto-death for pings over a certain limit?

Well, Germany is far away from LA. Your ping (time it takes in ms from your computer to the server) is going to be high because of the distance to the server. Server administrators can not change your ping

Welcome

[Lucifer]

The server Tank was referring to that is mine is The Crack Pipe, but right now it requires a beta of the new version to play. I'll be removing the map rotator in a few more days and going back to the default map (intending to bug nemo to produce an OS 10.2.8 build for silly), and then you should be able to at least try to play with an older client.

If you want to download a beta build, they're here:

http://beta.armagetronad.net/

(I think, that's right, isn't it?)

[iceman]

welcome vonseth glad you are enjoying armagetron, its a shame the players in your first online game were abusive to you (you wouldnt get that attude in tigers network)

I'm also interested in old games and have just added a downloads page to my site with about 35 games with plenty more to come, I would like to visit your friends site so could you post the url here please

[vonseth]

hey thanks for all this-

i just got off a server called speedsters - it had like a 400 score. same deal, i got beat first few rounds (started at rank 556 or something), people made fun of me, then i won a turn got my rank bumped up, won a few more turns, got as high as about 170 (from 556 or whatever it was).

there were some ******* AWESOME players there (purple haze, demolition man) and i learned a lot from my second game. people were pretty cool, actually after the first few minutes.

i didn't much like the grind rules there though. i play where if you tap the walls at all beyond the initial grind, you die. in this game they had, you had like a lot of delay time where if you made a bad turn you kinda "slid" and not die. that seems too easy to me. i got used to it, but i didn't know you could change the settings that way.

but yup, that's how to learn allright. playing with those guys. i don't know how they go so fast (ping charity?), but it sure is hard to play them on a level playing field when they are FLYING. still, they're better than me, and that's what counted. it was totally fun, but playing that intensely tires me out. it's as bad as a hockey game or something. jeez. lol

okay, before i lose my girlfriend and my world, i think i need to take like a two week break from AA. or else i'm gonna be joining the real "AA" pretty soon. and all its "steps". lol

thanks for all your kind advice & help.

vonseth

[vonseth]

Hi Iceman - you guys are all nice.

The place where I download old video games is here:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/

They are finally having (after years of good service) bandwidth issues & need money (all the games are free), so if you can donate, that would be cool. It would suck if they shut-down. Everyone has access there to all these cool, free old games (+ manuals sometimes!).

The site my friend has is actually not a game download place, but kind of a shrine to old game consoles & tweaking them to make video game sounding music. My friend (only new him online for years - we traded our music) was like the greatest LSDJ composer in the world. LSDJ was this after-market music composition cartridge you could put in the old Gameboys, turning them into midi sequencers. He composed all this awesome music just using his Gameboy (and LSDJ) and ran the audio out of the headphone jack and into his computer to record the .wav files. lol! He's a genius. I wonder if he plays Amagedtron out there somewhere!? I haven't talked to him in like a year - I'll have to ask. I just checked the site www.8bitpeoples.com - and it looks like they dumped him (and his music!) from the masthead, which sucks. Maybe because he got married, started working, and wasn't considered "cool" anymore. God knows. I'll write him and ask. And if you want his music, send a msg to my e-mail, and I can send you some of it.

Now, I'm serious about leaving AA for a while! LOL

Bye!

[Tank Program]

i don't know how they go so fast (ping charity?), but it sure is hard to play them on a level playing field when they are FLYING.

Sounds like you were on what's called a turbo/speed server, where the brake has been replaced with a turbo, so that when you hold down the brake key instead of slowing you speed up.

Cool story about how you found Armagetron (AA, Armagetron Advanced) and welcome to the party .

[Phytotron]

8bitpeoples rules. I've had that bookmarked for a long time. 8-Bit Weapon is another good similar thang. And then there are the OneUps. And then there's ocremix.org....

[SuPeRTaRD]

removing the map rotator????!!

SuPeRTaRD's fragile little eggshell mind crumbles

um...

er...

wah..



someone should start another map rotator & make a website for it where we can vote for maps to run

that would be the awesome