Messages

21

General / Pressure Control

« on: May 25, 2005, 10:02:49 PM »

well although I cant provide clarification on the matter, I can relate a situation that happened today. it was on veil. Aliens had one hive. No higher lifeforms and all of the aliens dead. Rines marched into pipeline (our hive), with heavies, lv 3 armor, lv 3 hmgs. Full team. But instead of walking in and killing the hive, 5 of them walked in and shot nothing but skulks who were spawning...for 3 minutes. Now, during this time, one person set up a siege point outside on the stairs.  We were spawning one at a time, as is the process with one hive, and dying instantly from a hail of hmg fire.

Is this spawncamping? According to the way some people would have it, no. However, i believe it more than qualifies. For 3 minutes, a vastly superior force sat in the hive and gunned down other players who had no chance, while they just drug it out by setting up a siege (which they never really used by the way. Once the sieges were built, they fired one volley before the rines let loose on the hive with hmgs. It dropped in less than 10 seconds). To me, thats just ridiculous. In addition, they set up mines in the hive. When they were broached on breaking the rules, one player (and a reg at that) responded with "who cares, you guys were gonna lose anyway".  

The point isnt whether the aliens were going to lose or not. The point is twofold:
1.) Its against the rules. Period. If you're a reg and you know the rules, theres NO EXCUSE for breaking them.
2.) The game is supposed to be fun. Thats the point of it being a GAME. Watching yourself helplessly die 10 times while rines sit there and laugh because they have you pinned down and want to wallow in their superiority isnt fun. And it's certainly no excuse for prolonging a game.

I'll break it down plain and simple based on the way I play. To me, either you're spawncamping or you have an active role in taking down spawn. If im a marine and my team moves into a hive, i do one of two things: I build, or i move into the hive and kill the aliens. Once all the aliens are dead, depending on what the team is doing, i do one of two further things: if its a shotgun/lmg/hmg rush, i shoot the crap out of the hive and then the chambers and RT. If its a siege, i'll fall back to provide cover for my team and help them build. People who say they're "giving cover" for a team thats building a siege point by sitting in the aliens last hive and killing anything that spawns within 3 seconds of it spawning are SPAWNCAMPERS. You might as well be there alone, because your team is doing something else and you're nowhere near them.

Bottom line is that if you have a superior force, such as a full team of HA/HMG and the entire other team is skulks, dont friggin siege the last hive. Once all the aliens are dead, KILL THE HIVE. I gurantee you that 4 marines with ha/hmg can take down a hive before 2 skulks spawn. Maybe you lose 1 heavy there, but oh well, the game is over and we can all move on. Just dont drag it out because you want to feel full of yourself. People who comm a lot should wise up to this too and instruct your team accordingly (and if they dont listen, make them pay by continuously beaconing them until they do what theyre supposed to).

22

Off Topic / The Cooking Thread..

« on: May 24, 2005, 07:06:48 PM »

actually, my recipe, which is a family recipe given to me by my grandmother who was born in ballincollig (right outside cork...IN ireland), contains 3 cloves of garlic. pwnt. tyvm.

edit: and last time i checked, scallions ARE green onions.

23

Off Topic / The Cooking Thread..

« on: May 24, 2005, 04:30:28 PM »

actually sonic, you are WRONG.
Poached eggs are cooked in water.
Scrambled eggs...well if you dont know this then youre just retarded.
Fried eggs can go two ways: Sunny side up or deep fried.
Eggs over easy are similar to sunny side up in appearance. However, with eggs over easy, the yolk is cooked through, so the whites and the yolks are both cooked, more solid masses. Eggs sunny side up have the whites just cooked through and the yolk is still completely runny. Best served with toast and maybe some sausage or steak.
And this isnt the only few ways to cook eggs. There are several more that i wont go into detail about.
Expand your horizons son, dont limit them
As for one of my own favorite recipes:

4 (6-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 ounces goat cheese
4-5 stalks fresh asparagus
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons minced chives
1 teaspoon minced parsley leaves
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon essence (recipe follows) or other seasoning to taste
1 large egg
2 teaspoons water
1/4 cup clarified butter or vegetable oil
Chopped fresh parsley, garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

With a chicken breast flat on a cutting board, using a sharp knife, about 1/3 of the way down the thick side, cut a deep pocket horizontally into the center of the meat about 3/4 of the way down, being careful not to cut through to the other side. (The pocket will be about 2 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep.) Repeat with the remaining breasts.

In a small bowl, mash together the goat cheese, butter, chives, parsley, thyme, rosemary, lemon juice and garlic. Season with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Divide into 4 equal pieces (these will be formed into plugs to fit inside the chicken breasts). Cut asparagus to match the size of the pocket in the chickn breasts and roll 2-3 pieces with each of the four cheese pieces you have cut. Form these into plugs which will fit into the pockets. Insert 1 into each breast and press the edges of chicken meat to seal. Lightly season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

In a large shallow bowl, combine the flour and the essence or other spices you have selected (a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and onion powder does very well). In another bowl, beat the egg with the water.

One at a time, lightly dust the chicken on both sides with the flour, then dip in the egg, shaking to remove any excess. Place again in the flour and turn to completely coat, shaking to remove any excess. Set aside.

In a large, oven-proof skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Arrange the risotto in the center of 4 plates and place the chicken to the side. Arrange the carrots along the bottom of the plates, and garnish with parsley. Serve immediately.

I like to serve this with either Champ (Irish green-onion and garlic potato mash) or a truffle risotto. A nice bottle of pinot grigio or a dry-ish chardonnay goes well with the meal. Bon apetit.

24

General / Pressure Control

« on: May 23, 2005, 09:52:06 PM »

People need to understand what spawncamping is. Spawncamping is sitting in a hive, doing nothing but waxing every skulk that spawns in. Setting up a siege point in the hallway in Pressure isnt spawncamping. For the record, there are 3 exits to pressure. The direct route down the hall, and a vent to either side. A crafty skulk could charge down the middle and make it out clean. It's much easier to take the vents. However, I do have to agree with the fact that if aliens are DUMB enough to let rines start setting up a siege RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR ONLY HIVE, then they deserve whats coming to them.
But so long as the rines are doing their job and building like good boys and girls, its not spawncamping, no matter how much the alien team whines about it. Plain and simple.
Edit: seeing what esuna said about this Force guy, i'd have to say that's spawncamping. You cant sit in the hive and pop off every spawner while your team builds. You have to be back with the team, providing COVER. What force did constitutes spawncamping. If he had been near the TF and covering the builders, it wouldnt have been.

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That's where you get into some gray area. Who says that with his field of fire, he wasn't covering the builders?

IMO, if you being in the hive room serves a purpose other than just getting random kills and jamming their spawn Queue, all the more power to you. If you're there with your team, I should think that the lesser evil of capping spawners would overshadow the greater one of denying a marine team of a victory well-played because of an arbitrary rule, or perhaps even just prolonging the game.

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I dont see it as gray area though. If youre looking at an overhead view of the PC Hive, you see that theres only one place that would provide the opportunity for a player to "cover the builders" building in the hallway and not have his back exposed to attack (allowing him to effectively spawncamp), and thats behind the Box on the floor in the middle of the hive.  Now, the problem with being in this position is the fact that you cant see if skulks come at you from the left or right, thus making it ineffective for spawncamping. Being on top of the box would leave you open from the back of whichever direction you were facing, so, this isnt a valid spot either. The most plausible spots are either on top of the broken pipes, or to the left of the hive as you're looking in (in the nook where aliens frequently drop chambers). But neither of those spots provide cover. They simply allow someone to gun down skulks without being in a dangerous position. This means that someone in the hive is either exposed to a rear attack (which means he wouldnt be spawncamping for long if you had 1-2 decent skulks), or hes NOT covering his team.
There is no gray area about covering the team. Either you're providing close cover by gunning down skulks that are rushing toward the build location, or you're camping the hive and waxing skulks before they have a chance to move more than a foot.
And furthermore, "the greater one of denying a marine team of a victory well-played because of an arbitrary rule, or perhaps even just prolonging the game"? Yes, im confused. How is aliens fighting back against a last hive siege a bigger problem than spawncamping? How is it a problem at all? That statement makes no sense. Aliens have every right to fight back, just as marines do when they turtle in Marine Spawn. You cant expect a team to just say "oh, look theyre setting up a siege outside our last hive, lets just sit here and die so we dont prolong the game." Thats absurd. Thats like having rines who are just gonna stand in MS and let a team of skulks kill everything without firing a shot because they happened to be able to rush that far without dying.
And if you think spawncamping is such an arbitrary rule, i'd like to see your take on it when you're playing rines, down to nothing but IP's and an onos sits in MS, not destroying the IP's, but devouring or killing every rine that spawns for a nice long while.  Then we'll see how arbitrary it is, or how fast you summon the powers of admindom to get rid of the rule-breaker.

25

General / Pressure Control

« on: May 23, 2005, 08:36:29 PM »

People need to understand what spawncamping is. Spawncamping is sitting in a hive, doing nothing but waxing every skulk that spawns in. Setting up a siege point in the hallway in Pressure isnt spawncamping. For the record, there are 3 exits to pressure. The direct route down the hall, and a vent to either side. A crafty skulk could charge down the middle and make it out clean. It's much easier to take the vents. However, I do have to agree with the fact that if aliens are DUMB enough to let rines start setting up a siege RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR ONLY HIVE, then they deserve whats coming to them.
But so long as the rines are doing their job and building like good boys and girls, its not spawncamping, no matter how much the alien team whines about it. Plain and simple.
Edit: seeing what esuna said about this Force guy, i'd have to say that's spawncamping. You cant sit in the hive and pop off every spawner while your team builds. You have to be back with the team, providing COVER. What force did constitutes spawncamping. If he had been near the TF and covering the builders, it wouldnt have been.

26

General / NS Etiquette for Pub servers.

« on: May 23, 2005, 06:31:55 AM »

but it can! i've seen comms ejected by people for not spamming meds to a team that was trying to siege a hive as heavies, WHEN THEY HAD AN ARMORY NEXT TO THE TF! I mean seriously...this article is right on the nose. Anyone and everyone can be blamed for losing a game. I personally always try and blame the other team for being so hell-bent on winning.

27

Off Topic / Coffee Game

« on: May 22, 2005, 10:21:22 AM »

the giraffe is the only animal that wont become aggressive if attacked. it will run away. it's also the only species native to the southern hemisphere. it's also the only animal named that doesnt have any sort of toe-like appendage on its feet (yes, moose do have a toe-like appendage directly above their hooves).

oh yeah, and evil, the reason we're answering niteowl's question instead of yours is because yours involves math. i mean cmon man...im a teacher and i wont even stoop to the level of doing math for fun.

28

General / NS Etiquette for Pub servers.

« on: May 22, 2005, 07:43:23 AM »

^^^^^^^^^omfg yes.
i dont know how many billions of times ive heard this:

PlayerX: Stop dragging it out! Just come in and kill us all.
CryForMe: We're working on it, but skulks dont work quickly against HMG's.
PlayerX: We're not even fighting back!
***CryForMe has killed NSPlayer with bitegun***
***PlayerX has killed CryForMe with Heavy Machinegun***
CryForMe: Not fighting back eh?
PlayerX: You expect us to just sit here and die???

Yeah...ok.
Obviously dealing with Pub-i allstars on that note.

29

General / How to record a demo of commage?

« on: May 21, 2005, 06:16:07 PM »

um...so let me make sure im understanding this...you're trying to get a demo of you commanding from the rest of the team's point of view, correct?

if so, why not just have someone else on the team record a demo? it would be simple enough, just have one of the admins set someone up to glow white and give em godmode, but make sure its a responsible enough player that they agree to not shoot anything. this person can then make a demo of your comm skills without interfering with the game.

30

Off Topic / Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

« on: May 21, 2005, 03:42:42 AM »

i caught the midnight showing as well. i thought it was an excellent movie, but i did have a problem with a couple parts (which i wont discuss because theyre spoilers), but overall it was very well done. one thing i didnt really like though (that i can talk about anyway) was the fact that when there were 2 fights going on simultaneously (anyone whos seen it knows what im talking about), they kept switching back and forth between them and every time a switch was made, the people fighting were in COMPLETELY different locations (i.e. platforms, walkways, etc.). Ive always been a fan of the big epic duel that goes on for 5 mins, like the ones in ESB and RotJ.


By the way, has anyone heard anything about Eps. 7,8,9? George Lucas said he was pretty much done with star wars after this, but there have been rumors about leaked storyboards from episode 7, and many of the castmembers from episode 3 have said that there were other starwars projects in the works.

31

Off Topic / Absents, Excused ?

« on: May 18, 2005, 07:21:02 PM »

wait a sec, when was the last time i saw zero 7 hitting up some NS....um....cant remember because it was so long ago :p

gl with the exams intensity. dont study too hard, and if you do, remember: theres always beer.

32

Off Topic / PS3 v Xbox 360 v Revolution

« on: May 17, 2005, 08:36:05 PM »

two words to support the xbox 360:















































halo 3.
nuff said.

33

Off Topic / New vid card problems...

« on: May 14, 2005, 06:10:43 PM »

So i broke down and got a new vid card because im tired of my ****ty onboard video. The problem is, the new card wont seem to work, at all. If i plug in the new card with the comp off, it gives me no signal from either video port. I've tried waiting until i get into windows and installing the new card (which took), then disabling the onboard from within windows, even uninstalled it and had the new vid card set to be the default. When i did this, it looked like the video card was gonna work until windows started loading and then the video feed went blank. if anyone can help, plz let me know. the comp is a dell dimension 3000 bios A02, xp pro sp2, onboard intel 85865G graphics controller and im trying to install a GF Mx4000. I have all the nvidia drivers downloaded and installed, i just want the damn thing to work.
thanks guys and gals

34

Off Topic / I hate hollywood

« on: May 12, 2005, 04:39:06 PM »

speaking of which, some guys photoshopped the whole trailer to ep 3 and gave it leetspeak subtitles, supposed to be really funny. if ayone has it or knows where i can get a copy, let me know! the guy who originally created and hosted it got in trouble with lucasfilms for unautorized use of their trademarks....they just cant take a joke.

35

General / Is this an old or new strat?

« on: May 12, 2005, 04:36:19 PM »

and remember that rines generally dont work well together. usually 2 or 3 stay in base to build while the others go to cap the nodes immediately around MS. if the aliens rush all nodes relatively close to the hive, they can have em up and be back to skulk before rines even get close.

36

General / Is this an old or new strat?

« on: May 12, 2005, 11:44:26 AM »

which they generally dont, so it usually works. and for being a standard issue alien strat, i rarely see this strat being used. Usually its me dropping chambers, then maybe one person saving for hive and one person capping an rt, and everyone else screaming "i'm going lerk!" then dying 10 seconds after they evolve.

37

Off Topic / I hate hollywood

« on: May 12, 2005, 10:51:44 AM »

i do use paragraphs. look again, not all the lines run to the end of the page (plus the forums dont allow for spaced indentation) and i refuse to doublespace. in addition, what does being smart have to do with using paragraphs?

38

General / Is this an old or new strat?

« on: May 12, 2005, 03:38:43 AM »

well as much as everyone likes to discuss rine strat, i'd like to put out an aliens strat.

I've been seeing a lot of alien losses lately, even on teams with people who could easily overwhelm a rine team with skill in the beginning few minutes of the game. This shouldnt ever happen.

The strat is simple to execute and can vary with team sizes. There are four important positions to fill. When the game starts, one alien (generally done by me, as you all know) should gorge in the hive immediately and drop the first chamber. Regardless of what the chamber is, it gives the aliens an instant upgrade to use. One person should save for the hive, and possibly one for fade, although this isnt necessary due to RFK. EVERYONE else should run as fast as possible to a node, drop it, build it, then reskulk. On an 8 man team, if done right, this means that you can have 5-6 nodes in under 45 seconds, locked up tight. The gorge that dropped chambers should have enough res within the first minute to drop the second chamber, and by 2 minutes or less, the third. Now, assuming the chamber is movement, this enables full silence skulks in less than 2 mins. There are very very few comms who will rush MT, which means that skulks have a very strong advantage over rines until about minute 4, when mt should be done or in process.  However, by minute 4, if the RT's are being defended reasonably well, aliens should have a second hive going up and at least one fade and a lerk. By 6 minutes, the second hive will be up and the second batch of chambers dropped. After that, its all downhill for rines as theyre now dealing with hive 2 aliens with 2 upgrades and lots of higher lifeforms. To close, the best order ive seen for chambers is definitely M-D-S, simply because a wounded fade can blink to a hive, heal and be back in combat on one hive faster than rines can take down an RT, and then with metabolize and carapace, its all over.

The strat is VERY simple and i've seen it executed well, especially in games where Goldfish and Guen are on my team. They know the strat and put it to work. I've seen hive 2 going up inside of 3 minutes when done properly, and 2 fades killing everything in sight by the time the second hive was done.

Res is the key to winning NS games now. If rines lock down res, they win. If aliens lock down res, they win. If you are aliens facing a 2 hive lockdown, but you have 6 nodes and res out the wazoo, you can rush a hive with 3-4 fades or 2 onos and some skulks and there goes the rine strat out the window, as well as their base more than likely. But if you try and play it out with 2 or 3 rt's, you're going to lose because the rines are going to have JP/HA really quick and just march into your hives and take em out like butter. Same goes for rines. Rines with no upgrades, but 5-6 rt's (and well placed PG's) can drop unlimited amounts of shotguns and take down higher lifeforms with ease. Res is KEY.

39

Off Topic / I hate hollywood

« on: May 12, 2005, 03:19:05 AM »

hollywood has been ****ing up books by making them into movies for as long as anyone can recall. a great example is the movie that came out some few years ago called "simon birch". It's about a dwarfish kid who does interesting things. The movie is a pseudo-adaptation of a book by John Irving called "A Prayer for Owen Meany".
In the movie, the kid dies in an alley at about age 12 after a christmas pageant in which he was the part of baby Jesus due to his small size...and thats the end of the movie. That part happens to be at about chapter 5 in the book...and he doesnt die.  In the book, the main character (the dwarfish kid) goes on to grow up, join the army, is about to be sent to vietnam and gets killed by throwing himself on a grenade to save a group of vietnamese refugee women and children. They turned a first rate book with a heroic ending and a amazing plotline into a third rate joke of a movie that has been used as a punchline in the scripts of other movies (it's mentioned as being a sappy movie about "a goofy kid with problems" by david spade in the movie "Loser"). As a matter of fact, the movie was originally supposed to carry the title of the book, but John Irving was so pissed off about how badly they butchered the story that he revoked the contract rights for the name.
 I could easily name at least a hundred other movies which have followed the same pattern, but i wont bore you all. However, there have been some reasonably good adaptations, as evidenced by most of the movies adapted from John Grisham's novels (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, A Time To Kill, etc.)...but those are few and far between.
Yeah, hollywood sucks.

40

Off Topic / since i'm somewhat of a reg i feel

« on: May 10, 2005, 02:13:33 PM »

I'm very sorry to hear that fonz, having chronic illness sucks hardcore.  I cant speak personally on hemophilia or hepatitis, but i can sympathise with some of the symptoms you have because of the treatment. I have a disease called fibromyalgia.  There are about a million different manifestations of the disease and as yet, it has no cure.  The way it shows itself in me is that I am in pain, constantly, all over my body.  As a kid, it was very uncomfortable, but i've grown used to it as an adult.  As a side effect of this, I never sleep without HEAVY medication. Ever. My doctors have told me that the reason for this is that the pain receptors in the body are ten to twenty times more active while you're asleep (which is why someone could do something to you when you're awake that you might not notice or wouldnt hurt much, but if they did it to you while asleep, you'd be in agony and wake up very quickly), so when my body tries to shut down the pain level increases tenfold and I start going nuts.  As anyone who has been without sleep for an extended period of time can tell you, you get overly cranky and lose your head a lot. I've learned to keep it in check for the most part, but on really stressful days, ill slip hardcore and wind up screaming at people and such without realizing what im saying.
I'm not trying to make light of your situation, so i hope it didnt come across that way. I dont want people to feel sorry for me or anything, as its a part of my life that i've accepted and become very acquainted with.  Fonz, i'll keep you in my thoughts, and my fiance will as well (shes a nurse, so she understands what you're dealing with better than I) and i'll pass karma up the line for you.  Best of luck with the treatment, i know its a super beyotch to cope with.  Vaya con dios man.