Messages

41

General / Beta 6 changelog

« on: December 18, 2004, 03:36:07 PM »

and you'll get to have your ass handed to you by yours truly in the consti beta :p

Once they finish coding in the 'auto-ban Adj when he goes lerk' that I've been pushing for, I'm sure we'll be fine.  

To all the nay-sayers: just try it out for a while before you decide the game is broken. MC and SC first still have their weaknesses. (sup 2nd hive lockdown?) And getting an obs up in an important area overrides any SCs that might be hiding there. And if you have just two marines, one ping is enough to uncloak the aliens while you build. 30% cloaked is still quite visible, and once you put one bullet in them they become fully visible.

And the free upgrades just make things feel so much more interesting. It finally fixes the old problem of marines having to research once and then getting upgrades forever, whereas aliens have to keep wasting res to reup with each spawn. There's never a reason not to upgrade except when you've got marines standing in the hive. It adds a new level of fun on both sides.

The PT time has been limited, but it's getting back into full swing finally. I look forward to b6 fun on LM, hopefully it's not too far off.

42

Off Topic / Happy 100th birthday Wither!

« on: December 17, 2004, 11:52:03 PM »

You don't look a day over 95. No, really. Just as healthy as an 80 year old, practically. Still, it's nice to have an excuse to wet yourself and pinch the nurses, isn't it?

43

General / Beta 6 changelog

« on: December 17, 2004, 08:18:10 PM »

Throw in third-person animations and I'll be a happy boy

Those have been a bit gimpy... bugs still being worked out of 'em. Everything else has proven pretty fun in PTs. Once you've tried out free upgrades and free skulking, going back to B5 style is a real pain. Of course some of the changes are pretty drastic and there's no way we could ever PT them enough to be sure. The SC changes are obviously pretty wild. But, people have been unhappy with DMS since the dawn of time, so at least this proves that the devs are doing all they can to kill it.

No doubt the forums will be back up around the time B6 is finalized and you'll all have a chance to scream your opinions as much as you want.  

44

Off Topic / THE HORROR

« on: December 16, 2004, 09:15:54 PM »

Argh.

Up until this showed up, I was a beautiful, unique snowflake.

45

Off Topic / Um.... Best Flash movie evar?

« on: December 13, 2004, 07:50:01 PM »

i really enjoy this one

http://albinoblacksheep.com/flash/bunny.php

[snapback]36021[/snapback]

Beaten, I was totally going to post the bunny. Does anyone know if anything else by TISM is worth hunting down, or are the rest of their songs less catchy? They seem to be an obscure band from Australia, so finding info about them has proved difficult.

Also, this is awesome flash: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~toddgrif/awful/DadsHome.swf

And this, if anyone hasn't seen it yet. Makes me smile every time: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/ddautta.php

46

Off Topic / Warzone 2100

« on: December 12, 2004, 09:19:45 PM »

My only experience with 'design your own' was Microsoft's Incredible Creatures, or Amazing Critters, or Wacky Beasties or whatever the hell it was called. I wasn't fond of it. Balancing a game where the units are made up of a wide number of variables requires a load of work that I seriously doubt they put into it. I played the demo and said 'meh'. Give me a game with limited units that fill specific roles any day. You know where your strategic planning stands with a game like that.

47

Off Topic / Win2k pro, the mother of all viruses

« on: December 12, 2004, 09:16:16 PM »

XP is fine once you take out all the playskool styling and make it look and act just like 2k. The only thing that aggravates me to no end is the damnable dog in the default search tool. I know, it's easy enough to get rid of. But you have to click through a few options and then WAIT for the evil little beast to play through a 'happily trotting off the screen animation'. AAAAAAAARGGH!!! I don't want to wait for the dog to piddle off, I want a big red button that says 'GET RID OF THIS UGLY HOUND' and I want it to vanish the instant I press it.

Ahem. Ranting aside, I have no problems with XP once it has been properly whipped into shape.

48

General / Ns Identity Consistency

« on: December 12, 2004, 09:11:24 PM »

Maybe they are waiting to drop B6 and the new site at the same time? That way if/when we get additions or revivals to the playerbase, they won't feel so alienated in a fossilized community.

Hard to do, we just finally had another PT today, and we still have no place to give feedback.  

49

Off Topic / easter eggage!

« on: December 12, 2004, 06:11:52 PM »

So basically, Valve put that Vorti there to trick you.

I'm not totally sure, it may be a leftover bit of a part of the game that was removed. I know the game went through a ton of changes before the final version. If you open up the source sounds gcf file with gcfscape and listen to some of the sayings, you can work out some interesting details. For one thing, the votigaunts originally were intended to fight alongside you at one point, like the citizens do. They have all kinds of sayings for when they kill someone, or for when you talk to them while they're with you, and the human squad member even have responses built in for when a vortigaunt speaks. All of it was cut, for some reason. Maybe they didn't have time to properly build the AI for them, or something. Hopefully we'll see more vorti sidekicks in some later expansion.

50

General / Ns Identity Consistency

« on: December 12, 2004, 06:00:19 PM »

Anyone been idling in the NS irc chan and know what's actually happening (official statements not IRC heresay).

The word your looking for is 'hearsay'. The word you've almost got is 'heresy'. I giggle.

All I have is IRC 'heresy' (tee-hee) but what I hear is that there are more bugs in the new site than expected, and it's currently being hammered by grep and his extermination team. Once they get it working decently, the PTs will take a whack at it, and then if it is deemed passable it goes live. The word I keep hearing is 'soon' but I have yet to hear how soon.

51

Off Topic / My babies and Santa

« on: December 11, 2004, 07:54:20 PM »

I agree with your pet naming scheme. We have a cat named Guinness.

52

Off Topic / easter eggage!

« on: December 11, 2004, 10:55:49 AM »

Are you sure bob?

Yep, it's standard. Talk to the vort that gives you the gun for the airboat, same sayings. They're standard. In fact, if you noclip through to areas you're not supposed to be, vorts will say the same things there. (Like Eli's kitchen, for example)

53

Off Topic / Where's Waldo, I Mean Gman

« on: December 09, 2004, 05:21:39 PM »

TAK, your link-fu is weak. You can't just copy/paste links with "..." in the middle of them. Try clicking on those links, silly man.

54

Off Topic / easter eggage!

« on: December 09, 2004, 05:19:59 PM »

Actually this is standard vortigaunt sayings. The vort that adds the gun to your boat says the same things, and also the one at Col. Cubbage's base where you shoot down the first gunship. But this one is nice because you don't have people talking over him in the background. You just have to run across the poison ground to get to him.

55

Off Topic / speed demos!

« on: December 09, 2004, 05:14:46 PM »

Just because this speedrun is teh sex and I can't stop rewatching it, I have rehosted it temporarily. (Want to make sure zazi's bandwidth doesn't get totally nuked, so I'll take it down soon as the other site comes back up)

When the upload finishes in about two minutes, you can find it here: (link removed, page back up)

56

Off Topic / The Kids!

« on: December 09, 2004, 05:11:16 PM »

Lies. You know it's just all your offspring. If the ladies could just keep themselves off you for five minutes, you wouldn't have fathered an entire generation of Legionnettes.

57

Off Topic / I'M BACK

« on: December 09, 2004, 07:07:35 AM »

Hello who the hell are you?

(Meet me in the communal bathroom on the third floor in five minutes. Bring the rubber suit and the plaster mold of Grimm's head.)

58

General / :O

« on: December 08, 2004, 07:12:03 AM »

The question is, is everyone's favorite hev suit wearing hero named after this guy?

[snapback]35029[/snapback]

Quite possibly. Then again, the name isn't terribly unique, then again, ubar talent from MIT and the like can get a job in the game industry.

[snapback]35065[/snapback]

According to the Raising the Bar book, Gordon was named after Freeman Dyson. The Gordon part was just a good scientist name I suppose.  

59

Off Topic / Happy Birthday Bob

« on: December 05, 2004, 12:42:46 AM »

You must return. You went from being on the server 24/7 to being on it 0/0. What, are you being held for ransom or something?

Eh, general overload. Too many hobbies, trying to find a better job, trying to live life, trying not to snap. I'm on the server from time to time still, just not as regularly as I'd like to be. Such is life.  

60

Off Topic / The Story

« on: November 30, 2004, 03:12:23 PM »

How does HL1 finish again? o_O

Kill the Nihilanth. Teleported to the G-man

"Gordon Freeman, in the flesh… or rather, in the Hazard Suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons… most of them were government property… as for the suit; I think you’ve earned it.

"The border world… Xen… is in our control for the time being, thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there… I am impressed." (Scenery of Xen with busted tanks and dead marines strewn about)

"That’s why I’m here, Mr. Freeman… I have recommended your services to my... employers… and they have authorized me to offer you a job, they agree with me that you have limitlessssssss potential." (Scene has shifted to a tram car like the one you start the game in, flying through space)

"You’ve proved yourself a decisive man, so I don’t expect you’ll have any trouble decided what to do. If you are interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes." (Tram door opens, a teleport portal is behind it)

"Otherwise… well… I can offer you a battle that you have no chance of winning. Rather an anti-climax after what you've just survived."

(Gordon hops into portal)

"Wisely done Mr. Freeman! I will see you up ahead..."