Do-it-yourself Web Movies by Digitalfilms

nicolas.b · Post by **nicolas.b** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:03 am

hey, long time no see.

remember the fanta movies from a couple of years ago? this one's not particularly great, but i gave it a shot:

www.digitalfilms.com/play.php?id=708939

if anybody know of some other services please feel free to share.

Post by **Lucifer** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:25 am

Hey nic, you gonna come back and play some fortress with us? You used to like team matches a lot, iirc....

nicolas.b · Post by **nicolas.b** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:27 pm

wow, good memory, lucy/dave. i have no idea what fortress is but it sounds fun. i should give it a try just to see all the changes since i retired...

nicolas.b · Post by **nicolas.b** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:17 pm

btw is there a good changes log from the last year-and-a-half to show what's new in the game? about all i know is that there are multiple developers now and that z-man's been active again.

i retired from the game back then because most of the top players became enamored with speed servers like eggcozy's and that was just too fast for my aging reflexes. also my favorite server armagoshdarn got hacked too many times by assholes and got put down for good.

but it would be nice to know how things stand now...

Post by **dlh** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:22 pm

Check out the NEWS file: http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/a ... iew=markup

Post by **Lucifer** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:51 pm

Well, I'd like to say we've gone back to slower servers, but we haven't. There is, however, a strong trend towards smaller, more intimate arenas. The speed settings from the larger arenas are generally being used, but the grids are smaller, so actual speeds aren't as high.

The fortress server has a cycle accel of 20 or 21, just under eggcozy's preferred setting. But cycle trails are only 400m, and with the low rubber, speeds rarely go over about 65. Even then, it seems like the useful playing range is around 30-40, with some particular positions generally being slow speed (the goalie plays at about minimum).

There's two things about it that you'll probably really get off on, though.

You have a stationary objective to take and one to defend. That's one thing. So while the old deathmatch team games had good possibilities for group play, you just can't play fortress without group tactics. You can't win it that way. The other thing is the team chat. If you start a message with "/team", then only your teammates can see it. Combined with instant chats and there's a lot more communication going on. Communication is essential to good group play, so it works.

The players there do get a bit cranky about a few things, and there are some that are sadly very kick-happy. Depending on when you go, you might want to thicken up your skin a little bit. After you get the basics (which you can get off the wiki anyway, but are also in the fortress thread), then you'll no doubt quickly become someone everybody wants on their team.

General abuse has dropped drastically. The server can now ban people for periods of time after certain kinds of abuse have been detected, and z-man just posted a little while ago that on the fortress server, the first time you're vote-kicked, you're banned for 20 minutes or so. You can't rip the grid anymore, and I haven't seen a player try to exploit a server in months. Basically, the script kiddies can't really attack a server anymore unless they do the same DOS-style stuff they used to do occasionally, but that never happened much and it seems to have dropped off a bit anyway. So it's definitely a safer grid than it used to be.

Walking Tree · Post by **Walking Tree** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:29 pm

its a pity that tigers network classic is still 0.2.6 - I know see the server crashing a lot more often as it is the only popluar 0.2.6 server...

Phytotron · Post by **Phytotron** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:28 pm

I'll promote Shrunkland. That one's relatively slow.

There's a team server called Genk something or another that's slow, but the arena is way too big for the speed, I think. And I think it has brakes and infi-tails, which aren't so great in my opinion. But the rubber is set at 1, I think, which is nifty.

I too would like to see more slower servers.

nicolas.b · Post by **nicolas.b** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:21 am

thanks, luci! thanks, guys!

i'll give it a try soon when i have some beers handy to take the edge off.

btw, i still hang out online with subby and n54 noderunner. i wish we could all get back into arma together but node said he was pretty-much retired for good and subby has been working his ass off the last half year or longer. oh well...

Post by **Lucifer** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:46 am

Man, this 0.2.8 release is big.

There's maps, which you may or may not like. There's some new zone effects (well, one, but combining that with placing zones on the maps provides for all sorts of options we haven't even though of yet). There's just more tweaking of the simulation available. And most importantly, all of the old nuisance bugs have been fixed. There's also been a lot of general "make this better" stuff thrown in, too numerous to mention. While there isn't anything besides the maps that makes it blatantly a new release, it's a new game.

I'd like to see a lot of the oldtimers come in and give it a few more turns with the new release. That would really ice the cake.

DrJoeTr0n · Post by **DrJoeTr0n** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:32 am

Nic!!!!!!!! My god!.......

...they always come back. Check out my servers too!