Corpnews :: View topic - Memorable Moments
I wounder if I'll buy his book? I probably will, it can go next to "Warbirds: The Story so Far" I already have.

Corpnews :: View topic - Memorable Moments

Lum
Red-Named Personage
Joined: 09 Jan 2004
Posts: 495
PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:33 pm
Post subject: Memorable Moments

I'm currently finishing up a book which is an introduction to MMGs for newbies (omg!) and one of the things I'd like to include is a small bit with 10 players describing their most memorable moment in an MMG. If you'd like to be included and have your exploits memorialized in print for the benefit of newbies everywhere, feel free to post it here.

Some various ground rules:

1) Must be G-rated.
2) Must be written in a way that someone who's never played the game you're talking about knows what's going on.
3) Length: can't be more than 3-4 paragraphs. More than a sentence.

Thanks!

I've got a couple, but when I try and write it down, it ends up sounding like Arnold J Rimmer from Red Dwarf describing his greatest Risk victory. Ever been to a roleplaying con and had to listin to someones amazing exploits about thier character? It's hard to tell good stories.

---------------------------------
Anyways, here's my WW2OL (newbie) story.

There was some town around the western end of Holland the BEF was fighting to gain control from Germany. We'd been trying for real-time days to capture it, and failed every time.

So I'm moving around town just acting a lone sniper when a newbie comes on the radio and asks "Hey I've found a capture point here. Should I take it?"

We all say yes, expecting a heavy german response and a very soon to be dead newbie....only for once the Germans are busy fighting elsewhere that day. So the newbie takes the table, and we start spawning in more people to try and take the place.

About 20 minutes later the same newbie walks into a undefended army base and takes the city. None of us so called Vets could belive it when he said he was capturing it. He couldn't understand what all the fuss was about afterwards, as he'd only been playing for a few days.

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, August 31, 2005 0 comments

 
Big glup, being the idiot he is, makes a bet
f13.net forums - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier Next week

Quote from: Big Gulp on August 29, 2005, 02:24:09 AM

We all know that the reason CRS's only source of income is WWIIOL is because no other publisher will touch them with a 10 ft. pole after the collossal fuckup that is WWIIOL. Would you, as an investor operating coldly from the view of whether or not you'll see a return on your investment, ever put any more money into CRS?

Well TriSynergy is one, and the other one is the Euro Publisher (can't find name right now). Or are you now advacating that 2 publishers would release it for free? LoL. Also, this page lists players who HAVE "invested" in CRS for $180 (Bronze), $500 (Silver) or $1,000 (Gold) dollers. The first round of people who did that, apperntly payed for the Speedtee licence, which help make the trees look a lot better (far better I would say, than a lot of other 4 year old MMOGs, but YMWV).

Quote

If so, why? I'd have to say that it's out of misguided love for your game and certainly not out of CRS showing any shred of competence, ability to execute in a timely manner, or even an understanding of what type of gameplay will be successful in the market.

As far as I know, most game makers are in it for the "making of the game", not the money, CRS is yet another representation of that (it's DEFINATLY not for the money I think you'd agree). They ended up building it because no one ELSE was building it so they could play the game themselves. However, you may be right. Do you think the devs of WoW or EQ2 made the game so they could play it?

I left Warbirds because CRS made a game I wanted to play for a very long time. And currently the only game you'll play like it for a very long time to come. UO lasted past it's first year because there WAS no game like it. if another game came up with a realistic battlefield, that was better, I'd probably take it (though I'd hate to give up the socity of people I know from it).

As for "what type of gameplay will be *successful* in the market", the answer is obvious: a better World of Warcraft. Not a better WW2OL.

Quote

How many new players do you really think this thing will retain? If you think it's over 200 or so I'd say you're delusional, and I'm being generous here.

Wanna make a bet? Though I'm not how it'd be payed off. For that matter, you'd probably have to trust Sirbruces chart, and I don't think you'd agree to those tems. Anyways if CRS annouces any numbers, I'll post them here if you want.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 30, 2005 0 comments

 
f13.net forums - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier Next week
I'm saving this thread.


f13.net forums - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier Next week

Big Gulp
Foozle
Posts: 823
Reply #36 on: Today at 02:24:09 AM

I honestly am not being snide, here, but come on, Comstar. We all know that the reason CRS's only source of income is WWIIOL is because no other publisher will touch them with a 10 ft. pole after the collossal fuckup that is WWIIOL. Would you, as an investor operating coldly from the view of whether or not you'll see a return on your investment, ever put any more money into CRS? If so, why? I'd have to say that it's out of misguided love for your game and certainly not out of CRS showing any shred of competence, ability to execute in a timely manner, or even an understanding of what type of gameplay will be successful in the market.

And I see no earthly reason why the relaunch will be a success. Any new customers you do manage to get will be almost instantly put off by the poor UI, shitty graphics, and lacking gameplay. How many new players do you really think this thing will retain? If you think it's over 200 or so I'd say you're delusional, and I'm being generous here. At best the only people who'll be buying this game will be current players as an act of charity towards CRS, and the clueless customer who'll pick it up at WalMart and proceed to be royally pissed at the amateur hour level of competence displayed.

If this is how CRS chooses to operate, relaunching a game that while improved, still wouldn't be even put into beta by a reputable company, then more power to 'em. Why you people continue to subsidize them is beyond me.

ETA: Also, I see no reason why you'd view spreading out the conflict by adding new theaters to the game as a good thing. Why spread out players in what is already a badly underpopulated game? I just don't see that as a wise decision to make. In theory it'd be possible to do if the game had been a success because you could then spread out your playerbase without harming gameplay. Unfortunately, the game wasn't a success, and never will be. That ship has sailed. Adding a new theater now to a playing area that is already way, way, way too large to support the number of players online in any given night is even more evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome run amok at CRS, or it's evidence that CRS is telling you what you want to hear in order to keep you paying your subscription. I think the latter is more likely.

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, August 29, 2005 0 comments

 
Willemstad Castle
moogaman
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 1
Willemstad Castle

------------------------------------------------------------

I found the castle around Willemstad using Google Earth.

Battleground Europe Forums - Willemstad Castle

Ha, that can hardly be the REAL castle. We all know the harbour is to the EAST, not the NW. Also the buildings are E of it, when we all know the town is more south of it.

Also, a lot of the fields are brown, and as we all know, you can't hide Tigers with brown camo in Western Europe!
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 28, 2005 1 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - The Green Tags are coming!
Battleground Europe Forums - The Green Tags are coming!

GOPHUR
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Republic of Texas
Posts: 4,356

Community Liaison Report

Issue 1: Performance
The top issue on most players minds is performance. As I write this we are putting 1.20 into the first round of beta testing and I am expecting some positive results on both stutters and frame rates. We�ve dug deep into the code and object structures over the past several months and that work is beginning to pay off. I�ll have some more definitive numbers and impressions for you once the beta goes out over the weekend but suffice it to say we have dramatically restructured how the objects in game are handled in an effort to reduce the work of the render routine. We�ve essentially redone all the models from buildings to terrain to vehicles to make them more efficient to load and delete. This should positively affect both frame rates and stutters for the 1.20 release. As always, this progress is ongoing so I don�t expect we�ll stop there, regardless of the amount of improvement.


Issue 2: Rank
Gaining rank for new players is a big topic of discussion so I though I�d go ahead and lay out the current rank table for you as some players are guessing that it takes a LOT more to gain rank than is the case.

Rank: Recruit
Points to attain: 0
Vehicle Level: 1

Rank: Private
Points to attain: 100

Rank: Lance Corporal
Points to attain: 400
Vehicle Level: 2

Rank: Corporal
Points to attain: 900

Rank: Sergeant
Points to attain: 1650
Vehicle Level: 3

Points are based on a variety of in game objectives based on your unit type but the primary scoring vehicle is kills. A kill of a unit that has relative value to you scores you 10 points, say a rifleman versus a rifleman. There is a maximum that you can get per kill so you can�t kill a Tiger and make instant Major but in general, by the time you have made about 150 kills in game you will have access to ALL equipment for your personas branch. All ranks above the rank of Sergeant are prestige ranks and in the future will be defined more in that vein. For instance in the future we plan to allow players to choose Officer of NCO ranks once they get promoted past Sergeant. This will allow for an officer track that is more focused on leading men in battle in the mission leader or brigade and command roles or the NCO ranks which will be more focused on combat equipment and the ability to move more readily to where they are needed. Both of these ranks will be king of the hill prestige ranks, giving higher rank to more effective players.

We do realize that the Navy in particular has a tough time getting these kills in the current system but I think our plans for Naval mobile spawning will largely address those by dramatically reducing the time to battle for naval players and thus increasing the amount of kill opportunities those players have in a given play session.

Issue 3: Starter planes for the Axis remains on the wish list for change. Many players feel that the primarily ground attack 110 is a tough bird to learn to fly in. We haven�t divided to change anything at this time for this plane, but I wanted you to rest assured that we are aware of the ongoing discussion about it. I would encourage further discussion about this plane and the contemporaries in its set as well as the role that it is intended to play. We also will take some time to review the stats and records on the plane to see how it stacks up and we�ll invite some more feedback from the liaisons about this one.

Issue 4: Bomb Testing
There have been some changes recently to how bombs work and more importantly to the resistance of armored vehicle crews to bombs. In the past crews had no resistance to concussive damage besides that afforded by the vehicle they are in (a function of vehicle mass and other factors). This was changed to give crews the concussive resistance that infantry have (we base this on several DoD research projects made available through the years under the Freedom of Information act, among other medical sources). This has defiantly changed the effectiveness of bombs against targets, especially when combined with high mass objects like the Sherman. The system is not a perfect simulation but we think it is working very well. Still, we encourage players to report when they feel something isn�t quite right and we can look into specific issues. The community liason is a great way to get the information to us for review.

Issue 5: Destroyer roll when firing
The harbor folks have requested a review of the model for roll while firing. We are going to look at that for 1.20. It�s not something that we have a lot of data on so if you have some please let us know. Regardless, it does �feel� wrong so we�ll take a look. In addition to that we�re going to look at adjusting the sea vehicles vis range calculations. Without getting too much into the mumbo-jumbo, visual distance is currently calculated in relation to height from the ground. The higher you are up the farther you can see in other words. This works great for both planes and ground units but ships need some adjustment, as they largely exist with a clear view to the horizon. We�ve got a couple other things in the wings for the Navy but we�ll save those for the Liaisons report.

Issue 6: Torpedoes
The report we got was a concern that torpedoes are only working in the �sweet spot�. That�s a bit of a misnomer as there is technically no such thing as a sweet spot in our vehicles. Each vehicle is made up of a series of components. Each component is a 3d object within the model or as part of the models external shape. These components all have mass and as well as damage thresholds and damage levels (for internal objects). That means that some components are more susceptible to damage than others. In this case ballast tanks and ammo dumps. Some of these components also have damage generating abilities like blowing ammo can catch fire and spread damage to other adjacent components that are susceptible and ballast tanks can be made to take on water. Some of these effects are slow and some are fast depending on the level of damage initially applied or cumulatively applied. This has the very real effect of making some components more deadly to damage than others and this is what is referred to often as the sweet spot. The reverse is that damaging some components just does not do much. Shooting a fuel tank will likely cause an explosion while an AP round passing through an empty compartment might not. Spalling and shrapnel also come into play to make for a very robust system, and the product of that robust system is a level of unpredictability as to results. Ok so there is the mumbo-jumbo after all�.



To actually answer the question, neither the torpedo nor the destroyer have undergone any significant changes but that doesn�t mean there isn�t something amiss. We�ll take some time next week to test it out and see if torpedoes are performing up to snuff. As you can see we have some pretty good tools for visualizing exactly what is happening in a given situation.

Issue 7: New Tanks
The motor pool is abuzz with the new tanks going in and making sure that we get them right. They should hit beta today and the internal testers will be putting them through the paces. It�s also possible that we�ll do an open test before release so that everyone can have a shot at them.

Issue 8: Plane Audits not new planes
I was speaking with Hatch about this earlier in the week and he does have a few audits that he�d like to do over the plane set, particularly lateral stability on a couple of the models. Overall though there are no major all encompassing audits currently in the works and he�ll be working through the issues with the planes over the coming months. Thankfully, he�s not an artist so that won�t have any effect on our ability to deliver a new plane set this year. We pan to do both.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 27, 2005 0 comments

 
BETA OPENS
Battleground Europe, click here fore OPEN BETA SIGNUP


- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 26, 2005 0 comments

 
You will never see a more vile den of scum and villleny....
ww2onlineofftherecord :: Index

Or so it is claimed. The WW2OL Off the Record Forums...where axis megatrolls lurk in the darkness and bitch about latest axis nurf.


- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 26, 2005 0 comments

 
Corpnews whoring for the rats
Corpnews :: View topic - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier this week

Yes, I posted this to F13 last week, but no ones mentioned it on CorpNews yet, and the open beta starts Thursday, so I thought I should as it is an open beta of a game thats going to be on the shelves next month.

Also, thanks to Rockstar, the game is now M rated. A rat with a weblog said it was because "you can shoot the bodies and they twitch" is the alleged reason the rating people raised it from T to M. We all know its the backlash caused by GTA:SA though.
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 25, 2005 0 comments

 
New sounds for 1.20?
NEW SOUNDs coming 1.20!

Battleground Europe Forums - Mike: New sounds for 1.20?

MIKE
Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Jersey, wtf you lookin' at?
Posts: 1,914

Re: Mike: New sounds for 1.20?

I have alot of stuff going into 1.20.

I tossed Hatch new sounds for the Spitfire, H81, Fw190, P38, and the 109. I cant say that 100% of these will make it in game.

As far as ground stuff goes, I've done a few new explosions (louder, more in depth stuff) changed up some older engines (Brit tanks) and reworked alot of the older cannon sounds and added some distant effects for all caliber cannons. (75mm+ only have distant effects in game atm)

Infantry will get new wounded effects now too; ears ringing, audible heartbeat, that sort of thing.

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 25, 2005 0 comments

 
time..NEW PWB THREAD!!!
I aSKED for this thread a week ago...and here it is! Some highlights, many more pics in the thread.

Battleground Europe Forums - it's time..NEW PWB THREAD!!!












- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 23, 2005 0 comments

 
Cute sig
bastable
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: -, New York
Posts: 988





- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 21, 2005 0 comments

 
Toto's Friday Update and Newsletter
Hmmm..Looks like someting willyt would do as a joke
This looks better












This weeks newsletter, pretty much covering what I've already copyied and pasted below. Willyt's in teh Navy being the only other news pretty much.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
f13.net forums - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier Next week
Bad formating because it's the BBcode, but I want to save it in case I should post it to corpnews too.

f13.net forums - WW2OL open beta and welcome back soldier Next week

First off, the [url=http://discussions.playnet.com/showthread.php?t=46100]Open Beta[/url]. (Follow link for full info)

Beginning at 1200CT (US) on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 account creation forms will be made available on the official website for test accounts. Participants will receive instructions on how to download the pre-release client and information on where to submit error reports. Space will be limited for the test which will run from Thursday, August 25th through Sunday August 28th.

[url=http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/]BattleGround Europe[/url] (the re-release after 4 years) is coming out Early/Mid September, so basicaly this is the version you can go out and buy later if you wish. I can't imagine this will be repeated anytime soon. The game is completly changed from 4 years ago blah blah blah (you know the drill). Anyway, the trees got a graphics update and look a lot nice these days for the graphic whores amonngst you (though the inf models are still getting a revamp). Brigade Spawning and Moblie Spawn Points means it's pretty straightforward to find a fight, and spawn in within 400m of the enemy (even closer if you capture a spawn building inside the town). 1.19 revamped the interface completly, and you can now map vechiles to the keyboard to drive them if you don't have a joystick (though I don't imagine it's as fun, and flying proabbly dosn't work either).

There's lots of pics at the [url=http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/]BattleGround Europe[/url] promo site (though most are pre the new 1.19 trees). There's a short 28meg movie semi-trailer [url=http://raft.playnet.com/files/beta119.avi]Here[/url] (the offical trailer is still being filmed, I played a Brit Para jumping out of a JU52 that had lost it's wing).

There are previews from various websites [url=http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=27246]here[/url], [url=http://www.gamechronicles.com/previ...ne/bgeurope.htm]here[/url], [url=http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/p26108.htm]here[/url], [url=http://www.game-boyz.com/g/review_982_p1.html]here[/url], [url=http://www.gamersmark.com/previews/view/263/]here[/url], and [url=http://www.gamesxtreme.net/pc/game/battleground-europe/preview-2282.shtml#]here[/url] of varing degrees of uselessness.

[hr]

Secondaly [url=http://discussions.playnet.com/showthread.php?t=46130]'Welcome Back Soldier' Returns[/url] (Follow link for more info).

Starting Monday, August 22nd all accounts that became inactive between August '04 and today will be eligible for free play through the return of our 'Welcome Back Soldier' program.

Free play starts Monday, August 22nd and ends Sunday, August 28th
- All returning players who resubscribe by August 28th will receive the Blitzkrieg theater participation decal.
- Effective January 1st, 2006, ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber.
- Following this 'Welcome Back Soldier' program (September 1st), ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback.

Q & A

Q. What time on Monday will accounts be re-activated?
A. Approximately 10:00amCT

Q. If the e-mail address bounces the message CRS sends out will the player still be eligible?
A. All eligible players will be able to log in after 10:00amCT on Monday even if the e-mail message is not delivered.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber."?
A. With the rise in new subscribers coming from the upcoming retail release, we need to free up gamenames from inactive accounts. If your account is inactive for more than 180 consecutive days, your gamename gets flagged as available. If an existing or new subscriber requests that gamename it will be assigned to that player. As long as nobody requests your gamename it will remain with your account. We're pre-announcing this change which wont take effect until January 1st, 2006.

Q. How will I log in if my gamename gets changed?
A. Your Playnet login (Member Name) will not change. Accounts with names re-assigned will be auto-assigned a new gamename which can be changed.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback."?
A. We want to be sure that the population of any given rank in the game is not skewed by players with accounts inactive for more than 90 consecutive days. As we make changes to the rank system, it's important for us to be able to predict population and allow us to roll back ranks on accounts not used. In addition, changes to the game and in-game organizations mean no player gone for more than 90 days should be jumping back into the game and leading missions.

Q. What about members of the military who get assigned to duty that can take them away for more than 90 or 180 days?
A. We always make special arrangements for individuals in our community. If you are a member of the military or have a need for special consideration, we will go out of our way to make something work for you. Contact Badger@playnet.com for details.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 2 comments

 
Semi-trailer for WW2OL
Battleground Europe Forums - pretty good video

Lindir made a semi-trailer for WW2OL. 28 meg, right click and download.

I give it 8/10.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
Open Beta/Stress Test 08-25-05
Battleground Europe Forums - Open Beta/Stress Test 08-25-05

*******
�BATTLEGROUND EUROPE� OPEN BETA/STRESS TEST
PLAY TEST MMOG WWII COMBAT SIMULATION

Bedford, Texas August 19th, 2005-08-18 � Playnet Inc. and its development studio, Cornered Rat Software are pleased to announce a public beta and stress test for the upcoming release of BATTLEGROUND EUROPE.

Beginning at 1200CT (US) on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 account creation forms will be made available on the official website for test accounts. Participants will receive instructions on how to download the pre-release client and information on where to submit error reports. Space will be limited for the test which will run from Thursday, August 25th through Sunday August 28th.

BATTLEGROUND EUROPE � Volume 1 of the WWII Online Virtual Battlefield Series � is a totally unique MMOG that delivers the ultimate Player v Player (PvP) experience where only your skills and knowledge, and those of your enemy, determines your fate and the outcome of the war. Its design allows players with adequate rank to plan and carry out tactical missions in first-person combat. Even decisions and strategic planning that control Research, Development and Production (RDP) of weapons, and the supply and deployment of equipment and troops, are in the hands of each country�s High Commands that are staffed by high-ranking players.

Grab a rifle or machine gun and experience heart-stopping infantry action or choose to advance your skills in one of dozens of accurately modeled combat vehicles, naval vessels or aircraft. Succeed and help the cause of the Allied or Axis forces. Fail and watch your side get pushed back and struggle for a foothold in this massive, persistent online world involving players from around the world competing in 24x7 action to help their country win the war for their side.

GAME FEATURES
- Thousands of players sharing a single world- First person perspective in all game play
- Huge game world measuring more than 350,000 square miles
- Character advancement and career paths unlock new features and permissions
- Strategic systems driven by player missions and command
- Growing list of 90+ weapons including aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, ships, trucks, rifles, machine guns and more!
- Groundbreaking physics and damage modeling - Localized in English, French, German, Spanish & Italian

official website: http://www.battleground-europe.com

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
'Welcome Back Soldier' Returns
Battleground Europe Forums - 'Welcome Back Soldier' Returns

Starting Monday, August 22nd all accounts that became inactive between August '04 and today will be eligible for free play through the return of our 'Welcome Back Soldier' program.

ELIGIBLE PLAYERS WILL BE CONTACTED VIA E-MAIL

Returning players will be joining with players from around the globe during our open Beta / stress test which also runs next week. This stress test will provide us added confidence that our upgraded bandwidth and server capacity is ready for our latest retail offering of the game titled, "Battleground Europe".

Here are some important details about the program:


- Free play starts Monday, August 22nd and ends Sunday, August 28th
- All returning players who resubscribe by August 28th will receive the Blitzkrieg theater participation decal.
- Effective January 1st, 2006, ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber.
- Following this 'Welcome Back Soldier' program (September 1st), ALL accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback.

We will be sending out an e-mail to eligible players to let them know about the free play time but please contact members of your squad or game buddies who have unsubscribed to let them know about the free play.



Q & A

Q. What time on Monday will accounts be re-activated?
A. Approximately 10:00amCT

Q. If the e-mail address bounces the message CRS sends out will the player still be eligible?
A. All eligible players will be able to log in after 10:00amCT on Monday even if the e-mail message is not delivered.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 180 consecutive days become eligible for gamename transfer to an active/new subscriber."?
A. With the rise in new subscribers coming from the upcoming retail release, we need to free up gamenames from inactive accounts. If your account is inactive for more than 180 consecutive days, your gamename gets flagged as available. If an existing or new subscriber requests that gamename it will be assigned to that player. As long as nobody requests your gamename it will remain with your account. We're pre-announcing this change which wont take effect until January 1st, 2006.

Q. How will I log in if my gamename gets changed?
A. Your Playnet login (Member Name) will not change. Accounts with names re-assigned will be auto-assigned a new gamename which can be changed.

Q. What do you mean, "All accounts inactive/unsubscribed for more than 90 consecutive days become eligible for rank rollback."?
A. We want to be sure that the population of any given rank in the game is not skewed by players with accounts inactive for more than 90 consecutive days. As we make changes to the rank system, it's important for us to be able to predict population and allow us to roll back ranks on accounts not used. In addition, changes to the game and in-game organizations mean no player gone for more than 90 days should be jumping back into the game and leading missions.

[b]Q. What about members of the military who get assigned to duty that can take them away for more than 90 or 180 days?
A. We always make special arrangements for individuals in our community. If you are a member of the military or have a need for special consideration, we will go out of our way to make something work for you. Contact Badger@playnet.com for details.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
Screens of the OFFICIAL WWIIOL MOVIE
That's a pic of me from the making of the WW2OL Trailer. Behind the cameraman is about 40 paras, 5 Spitfires and 2 JU52s.

I wasn't there for this pic. Nice showing of the smoke, and I HAVE seen battles like this.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
AAR: Battle of the Berm
WW2OL's Number ONE Infantryman.

Battleground Europe Forums - AAR: Battle of the Berm

IAmBilton
WWII ONLINE BUILDER [GOLD]
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: WW2OL Hall of Fame for True Believers
Posts: 13,573
AAR: Battle of the Berm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there I outside Dinant and crawling up a berm next to a clump of trees when suddenly I heard an Opel start up very close to me. I froze. This was way too close for comfort. I've never been this close to EI before without knifing them.

The Opel engine stops.

What's going on?

Yikes!

Footsteps. Many footsteps!

EI must have unloaded from the truck. The radio comes alive with German chat. Why can't I understand what they are saying when I can speak German in "real life"?

I instinctively grab my pistol and slowly, cautiously, quietly, edge my way along the berm back towards a small clump of trees. I have to confess I was perspiring. I'm not a risk-taker and this was too close for comfort. Being conscious of the legendary kill/death "perfect ratio" I have, I wasn't prepared to give up my first death to this chance encounter. No way. God isn't this cruel. There's only one way a soldier like me should die and that is to a better soldier, one on one, man to man. But not like this. I grit my teeth with determination. I must survive this no matter what.

Footsteps, footsteps, moving faster now. GOOD, they are splitting up. These fools. If only they knew what lie in waiting within that innocous-looking tree clump like a lion stalking its prey. If only they knew the name of the soldier who was there; sweating, calculating, utterly focused, and who was mentally entering that "zone" of ultimate killer.

I went from prone to crouch.

I had to see what was going on. It was a calculated gamble but I had trees around me. YES. They had split into 3 groups. As I went back to prone position, I had already made a plan in my head on how to take these guys out. I had absorbed their positions and facings and the lie of the land around me in under 5 seconds. It's these sort of talents that distinguish the exceptional WW2OL'er from the ordinary and it's a skill that has yearned me many a kill in plenty of sticky situations.

From that moment on their fate was sealed.

When the end came it was very quick. The 3 guys nearest me just on the other side of the berm were all facing the other way crouching.

Engaging sprint, I emerged from my hiding place and all 3 were dead in seconds with 3 quick stabs from my knife.

The German chat on my radio became frenetic. I can only imagine the dialogue. I sure hope no kids were reading it.

Next was the killer blow.

Of course the Germans assumed the phantom who had slaughtered their comrades was hiding in the clump surrounded by berms. They started to "pray and spray" the trees with their rifles and smgs in the hope of killing me.

Alas, the poor fools did not know the name of their Nemesis. I was lurking behind their Opel! I calmly took aim and 4 successive pistol shots rang out.

Down went 4 more Germans.

The chat bar was going psycho with Hun-talk. The remaining 3 couldn't see me from the other side of the berm/trees, so I sprinted into the trees and waited.

It was a small gamble. After more than 4 years of playing I have my opponents figured out. They all ran, of course, to where their comrades last reported seeing me next to the Opel.

I grinned. I wish my avatar could. I calmly, almost casually lobbed a grenade from my hidden position and didnt even have to look at where I was throwing it...........

8 seconds later I was back next to the Opel...just in time to see the last dead German despawn into nothingness. I then coolly shot the Opel driver in the head 4 times and he disappeared.

Thus concluded the Battle of the Berm. Funnily enough I received a few PM's from some German players later saying:

"was that you?"

I simply replied: ":-)"

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
Welcome to WWIIOnline Polls!
Welcome to WWIIOnline Polls!

The new 19th round is now active!!!

Sorry for the Delay! We finally got the server issues fixed!

What AO do you normally play in?
North

44.4% (16)
Central

22.2% (8)
South

33.3% (12)


What do you like to see researched first?
Air

33.3% (12)
Tanks

36.1% (13)
Infantry Carriers

30.6% (11)


Does the summer season change your PC games playing time?
I play a lot more

12.8% (6)
I play a little more

8.5% (4)
Summer doesn't change my playing time

27.7% (13)
I play a little less

23.4% (11)
I play a lot less

27.7% (13)


- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
I played dead bodie number 6
Just did some short filming for the WW2OL trailer. I played a BEF paratroop jumping out of a Ju52 that lost a wing.

Probably end up on the cutting room floor.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 20, 2005 0 comments

 
Say goodbye to THAT job
General manager sohigh they have own parking space: Are you going to do Overtime?

Me: I could. But I'm not going to.
--------------------------------------

That sound you heard was me hitting the Peter Princable.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 19, 2005 0 comments

 
War is coming
Battleground Europe Forums - Join the OT Zombie Survivors! Eat this!!!!!!

There are 103 humans in the OT home base, and another 15 or so in the Medical centre next door.

There are 2 groups of 2 zombies 4 blocks NW of the PD.



I pray I am online when the zombies smash the barricdes down...for the battle will be an epic and legend too all those there...
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 19, 2005 0 comments

 
1st Zombie dead!
Got my 1st kill, a zombie on 3 HP in the mall to the south east. He had a partner in a flak jacker with 35 HP. I bugged out and RTBed. Picked up a medikit on the way.
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, August 17, 2005 0 comments

 
I found a zombie
3 blocks east in a park. Hit him a few times, but he was on full health and I wasn't going to do much.

Ran back to the OT Home Base and noticed a zombie that had been there the whole time. Hit him once, and ran back in to cower with the 50 other people inside.

Rabbitldr went out and got his first kill with a Shotgun.


Edit: Theres 72 people in the OT Home Base right now. That's more than were in the forts when they fell. I think it's a record.

Going to be an amazing fight once the Zombies find us. A story for the ages..a story to sing around the piutful flame inside a burnt out building.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 16, 2005 0 comments

 
Small excusrion in undead city
With about 22 action points I left the safty of the OT Home Base and went into the next door Hospotil..found a medi kit immiedatly, and after a bit more searching, a book, which gave me my 1st XP. Moved over to the fire station and immiedatly picked up some...wire cutters (useless)...and then a fire axe!

From my reading, the fire axe is the best weapon for a scout such as myself. Now I have a shotgun with 3 shells, a fire axe, and a medkit.

Headed back to Home Base. Tonight I should have enough Action points to go do and see my first zombie....
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, August 15, 2005 0 comments

 
More news from Undead world
I just took a quick walk to the next door medic centre, found nothing. Came back to home base, and tripped over a shotgun woot.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
I join the OT force
Battleground Europe Forums - Join the OT Zombie Survivors! Eat this!!!!!!

Ok, this thread got me into the game. I'm just a scout, because I like exploring (and would like to report on whats happening in the area here). No weapons yet beyond 2 flare guns and some shotgun shells. I parachuted down only about 6 blocks from the PD, and never saw a single zombie, just dead bodies in 2's and 3's to the East of the OT Home Base (and 2 outside). Every building that had humans in it was heavily barricaded.

Is anyone else a scout, and has any tips for one? Or anything I could do to help? I fear there will be other "groups" who will notice the size of us..and do something to take over "our" PD?
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
OT survivial guide
Battleground Europe Forums - Join the OT Zombie Survivors! Eat this!!!!!!

From the game's forums

The Military is, by far, the most combat-centric class in UrbanDead. Sure, a firefighter may be able to seriously damage someone with their axe-skills... but that doesn't mean they're able to whip out a shotgun and take a zombie's brains out. Nope, that's pretty much the domain of the Military classes. They get all combat skills at a discount, and the grand majority of those "helpful" abilities that do no damage are priced at an XP range outside most peoples' desire to pursue them.

Expect to be doing a lot of killing. The positive side of that is, you'll be very good at it.

Starting Out:
More than any other group of classes, the beginning effectiveness of your Military character is determined by which class you take. There are several available skills to start with, but given your starting limitations and your future in the game two of them aren't really going to help you that much. In my own opinion, you will be best served by taking the basic Private class. I recognize that the other classtypes represent other potential playtypes, but each of them has a significant problem - the Medic has the same issues found in the Doctor class, as I talked about over here, in that the First Aid skill actually lessens your ability to collect experience. The Scout doesn't have that problem, but is saddled with the complication of starting with no effective weapons and no weapon-skills to use them; in a classtype that promotes combat, this is a serious issue. Having played one for a month, Scouts spend most of their time hiding in buildings and hoping they can find some decent equipment before something kills them. Their XP gain up to second level is torturously slow because of their combat inefficiency.

The Private, however, starts with 18 pistol rounds and enough training to hit with 30% accuracy - and each round that connects does 5 base damage. That is seriously significant, and it only really goes up from there. With what you have on your starting character's body, you have the ability to make it 1/4th of the way to your next level - and you'll still have half your turns remaining to you. That's the strength of firearms, actually: they do a lot of damage in a little span of time. Thus my recommendation for Privates is to hit the streets, fire off 12 shots at the nearest zombie, and then head away fast. Use the tactics of the Navy SEALS here - lay down a wall of fire, then retreat. If you have partners, let them lay down their own fire as you head back - significant damage will act as a cover, grounding the zombies while you head away from their line of sight, and if they're killed even their "Scent Trail" ability won't allow them to find you. Then find a police station and resupply - you should have plenty of turns remaining to do so.

If you're a Medic or a Scout, my suggestion for spending your first 50 turns is quite different. Find a hospital, and search up as many First Aid Kits as you can find, then hide out in a nondescript building and use your next day's turns to try and find the wounded and heal them. Combat is a waste for you right now - you have no skills boosting your hit percentages - and so it's better to get the guarranteed 5 XP per kit than it is to blow 20 turns trying to land a punch. Save your weaponry for when you're more likely to actually touch someone with it.

Surviving:
Being a soldier does not make you invulnerable. This is lesson one - you can always still die. See how I told Privates in their first 50 turns to find and search in a Police Station? Do not stay there overnight. Police buildings attract nearly as many zombies as military buildings. If you sit in the building itself for long periods of time, you might as well coat yourself in brains and dance a jig on the sidewalk. As I said, hit and run. No buildings are worth fighting for - there are plenty of other stations or hospitals in the city. Retreat from large, organized zombie forces whenever possible, especially when you're low-level. Hide in low-priority buildings - warehouses, factories, clubs and schools. Keep a Station nearby, and hit it when necessary... then go back to safe areas. If you're found, go a good dozen blocks away and make sure to lay down covering fire. If it hurts too much to go after you, in time or health, most of the zombies won't.

The thing to remember is that you're outnumbered, and zombies have the combat skills to defeat you in the long term. This is what we call a guerrilla campaign - your job is not to take them on head-to-head, but to harry them and work on building your own strengths. When you do take them on, do it on your own terms. Make them work to find and fight you. Make sure you're armed and stocked before you engage. It doesn't sound like this is what the military of a first-world nation should be reduced to, but when you're dealing with the walking dead you do what you must. We don't have tanks, so you'd better make yourself last.

As a mention, just avoid the Military Forts in the city. I know they seem attractive - I know it seems they'd be stocked with all the ammo and weaponry you'd need. They're deathtraps. You'd be better off just leaping out a window than you would be trying to hold a fort. This goes for everyone.

Also, these survival notes go double for Medics and Scouts. Run by where you see zombies, heal nearby survivors, and get the hell out of there. Your feet are your friends, especially for scouts who can travel between buildings without ever exposing themselves to the streets. Get an axe if you desperately need that safety blanket of being able to thrash about if cornered, but your best bet is never to be cornered in the first place. Hit. Run. Survive. We're talking about massed zombie forces here, or lone invulnerable hunters who travel between landmark buildings killing everyone inside. If you stay to fight, especially at starting levels, you're just feeding the ranks of the dead.

As an aside to Scouts, your Flare does not have the ability you think it does. Flares do not attract help. They attract zombies. If you're feeling surrounded, take your Flaregun and run about 4 blocks away - then fire it, and head in a completely random direction. The flare screams "human," so all the zombies in the area will come running to that spot, and you'll be able to move away to somewhere else while they investigate it.

Levelling:
It will take serious amounts of time to level as a Military character. Don't expect to have second level in a week if you're a Scout, or even a Private. It may take up to half a month or more, especially if you're one of the Military classes which doesn't have a firearms skill. Once you DO level up, however... you become a force to be reckoned with. If you're a Private, take Pistol - you get more ammo, you'll have amazing accuracy, and you should already have one on you. Afterwards, get Shotgun - you'd be amazed what 10 damage in one hit will do to most zombies' resolve, if they're chasing you. Only then should you go for Melee skills; if you follow hit-and-run tactics, you shouldn't NEED them for most things. Medics follow a similar, slower, path. Effectively, First Aid is a worthless skill unless you're in a group - so unless you started for one, or you've managed to find or build one, you're going to end up following the Private path of Firearms then Pistols then Shotguns then Melee... only you'll be one level behind on all of them. It sucks, I know, but that's just how things are right now ingame - your starting skill COSTS you more than it gives at the moment. The good news is, you have a 150 XP-cost skill for free that allows 5 kits to restore you to full health - so it's not all bad.

Scouts, however, I recommend a different path to. Go Melee. Your quick, stealthy movement means you can simply charge through a Hospital or Police Station without ever being exposed to the streets, so you'll have more AP to devote to attacks. Hide, build up your AP, then run rampant in a bloody swath... and then duck back into a building. They'll likely never find you. Even if one or two zombies you hit DO have Scent Trail, you'll be blocks away from them. Otherwise, continue to spend your time healing - they'll go together quite well, these attacks and the healing of people in the attacked area. Stay moving - it's good for your health. Get Civilian skills such as Barricade quickly - the zombies can waste their attacks on a weak Barricade while you're in another building entirely. Try to obtain Tagging quickly, and tag things for extra XP - it's a free, utterly non-risk skill. Misdirection and low-danger experience sources are your friends - make very good use of them.

Free Running:
The irony of Free Running is that it's better for other classtypes than it is for Military characters. Scientists do well to take it, since they only want to be exposed when taking DNA hits off zombies. Civilians do very well to take it, as it keeps them safe while they head between various necessity buildings and work out the focus of their character. Military types... don't need it too much. You're better off on the streets, running around and popping zombies one shot at a time as you move between hideouts. Privates and Medics would thus do better focusing on the Civilian skills such as Bodybuilding, which cost a little more but provide better security for a combat-focused class.

Scouts, on the other hand, are obviously unable to follow this advice - they're stuck with Free Running, and it makes little sense to ignore the skill. As a result, they're better off being effectively made into a civillian than they are in trying to be a slower-developing Private. In my case, I found that melee was a good fit - it kept my Scout away from dangerous areas such as Police Stations or Military Forts, while still allowing him to pop out and deal damage every now and again. In general, it's building a Firefighter from the top-down rather than the bottom-up.

Melee vs. Firearms:
Ah, the eternal debate - which is better, a shotgun or a fireaxe? Well, for combat I'd say "the fireaxe, easily." The fireaxe allows you to spend a day or two and assuredly kill someone, while firearms with their limited ammunition require a lot more investment to do lots of damage all at once.

...But that's not the point. The point is survival: which weapon-type allows people to get in significant damage and still make it out alive. Firearms win on this matter hands-down. To get 20 exp from a max-levelled fireaxe takes approximately 15 turns - leaving you with the choice between dealing lots of damage and remaining very close to your enemy, or dealing paltry sums while still making it away. To get 20 exp from a max-levelled shotgun takes... 4 turns, most likely. That leaves you with a net gain of 11 turns for running, searching, or other-activity time. Especially since zombies take little harm from being killed, doing them in is pointless. If you do damage, then get away, you're more likely to survive to the levels where you can start truly securing locations and doing damage to zombie forces. Want to make it to where Head Shot becomes an option? You'll want to stick with firearms.

The exception to this rule, of course, is the Scout. The Scout already has an escape-power gifted to him, and so spending several points on melee is an option because they can then quickly run away through buildings where the zombies cannot follow. Plus, given their lack of health-restoring abilities in the first few levels where stockpiling is a key thing - I don't reccommend they go to ammo-areas at all. Just too risky.

Higher Levels:
It's tough to say what Military characters should do in their higher levels. Spending points on both melee and firearms skills may make you a more well-rounded fighter, but it also takes up a lot of experience you can spend on other things. Barricades, Bodybuilding, and even NecroTech Employment are all good skills for Military people to have - flexibility is never a bad thing, so long as a character is good at something, and being able to both shoot zombies and tag them simultaneously is quite a nice combination.

Effectively, it's up to the players themselves. Go pure zombie hunter, with melee skills of all sorts and the tactical skills to match the undead menace? Switch between various civilian and even science skills, and give yourself multiple ways of earning experience? All are good concepts.

The important thing to remember is that you for the most part ARE a combat class. You focus on hurting zombies and breaking things, though of course there are several flavours of hurt and break available. You are not a looter, trying to make a comfortable life in the rioting city. You are not a scientist, trying to cure the zombie disease. You are a Military man. Your job is to drop zombies, save survivors, and keep order in the city until it is possible for a second evacuation or a more-powerful military response to occur.

And you're good at your job.


- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
Welcome to Urban Dead,
Urban Dead

Welcome to Urban Dead, OT Comstar

As a soldier stationed at Malton's army base when the quarantine laws came into effect, you've been airdropped into the deserted city to scout ahead of the other army units, to check the abandoned buildings for survivors and salvageable equipment.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
InTehNavywborder - new willyt movie
InTehNavywborder.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Willyt's new movie - In Teh Navy (we want ewue).

Somehow unusual and Tomba get a credit!

(easter egg: see Phew at one point)
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - 88 returns from space
Battleground Europe Forums - 88 returns from space



perconte
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 882
88 returns from space

Let me tell you about a little problem you encounter with 88s these days. Since the off-road speed for all units was reduced, HTs have a really hard time climbing hills. What you have to do is drive it up sideways, serpentine-like. If you turn a tiny little bit to sharp, your guns will flip upside down. A bit strange to see several guns getting dragged along upside down, but not that much of a problem. Back in the days, you could just deploy them and with a little skill, you get them back upright.

Here comes the kicker: if you try to deploy while being upside down, an Ariane 5 gets shoved up your pooper and you go right into outer space. We all know the crew of an 88 doesn't wear space suits, so you can imagine what happens to them. But we ain't done yet ...

After visiting the Lord, the 88 crew felt a strange need to visit his counterpart, so they wen't right through the ground on their way to hell, never to be seen again. They probably renewed their deal for the crew's damage model while they were down there.

Point being, that's the 3rd time this map i saw 4+ 88s lost to this and i would like to now whether this heaven-hell tour is a feature or a bug. I don't expect it to be fixed anytime soon, but i'd like to know if it even is to be fixed or working as it should.

Thanks

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 0 comments

 
A tree pic I took

1.19 tree pic, near the Shilde-Osstamlle Forward Base
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 14, 2005 1 comments

 
Comstars WW2OL Blog: August 2003
Comstars WW2OL Blog: August 2003

This blog is 2 years old TODAY! Wow. That's a LOT of text I've writtin.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
Movie Contest (?)
My question is: Who's going to HOST these 75meg masterpieces. YOU?

Battleground Europe Forums - Movie Contest

newfive
TRAINER
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: About to drop you for 50 daisy pushers
Posts: 2,386

Movie Contest

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best video contest.


I want all video makers to produce the best movie they can up to 75mb. These movies must be in the new format of the game on the last update within 30 days. Bring your training or your greatest fights to the table�. Show what want to others to remember about the game or make that impression so that if a new player see this movie they will want to join for a lifetime.


These movies will be judged on this thread and the winner will have their movie posted on www.thetrainer.info movie page. If this promotional goes well this may be a revolving contest to keep the best of the best posted.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
INFANTRY wish list mk II
Battleground Europe Forums - INFANTRY wish list

Changes of clothing (Not loadouts). ALL other MMOG's give the player the ability make themselves look as THEY want, rather than as the game dicates. People LIKE to make themselves look different. The "sims" effect is an important factor for a lot of people. The ability to choose mearly different coloured uniforms (darker, lighter, different shades) would help this. Adds atmosphere to see different people on the truck, but giving players the ability to make thier own choices on who they look like would add a lot more. Little things like glasses,, netting on thier helumt, colours of uniform (not even CAMO mind you, just a uniform washed with too much bleach).

Bayonets. Adds some gameplay, atmosphere and would make rifleman more popular in close quater fighting (gameplay enhancement there). The keypress can be the space bar.

Whistles (for misson leaders only!). Over the top you go! Rally my location! Charge! Help! Come here! Stop! All done through ONE command. It simulcatnously replaces a dozen emotes we don't have, adds a lot of atmosphere, and helps misson leaders do thier job (gameplay). With 1.20 having the ability to mark waypoints, you can strill have trouble finding someone, partcialy if the're on the other side of the building 10- feet away. Whistles fix this problem and give misson commanders another tool they need.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
My INFANTRY wish list

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
13/05 Newsletter
Get some allied ones in there!

WWII Online- Cornered Rat Software/Playnet.com

NEW SCREENSHOTS NEEDED TODAY!
With the new trees included in v1.19.5 we need new screens for the U.I., press and website galleries.

We prefer no icons, no chat bar, no map and no HUD elements to be present and 800x600 or larger. Please do not compress into JPGs- BMPs only! Send ZIP or BMP files to:

uiscreens@playnet.com
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
Friday Update and Gopher Quotes
Battleground Europe Forums - Friday Update

Coming up in 1.20...

-New Tanks
-Waypoints
-Contact Reports-Show Friendlies (for mission leaders)
-Squad Tab
-Mission Tab in HUD
-Brigade Tab in HUD
-Remaining Bugs from TEST
-Performance enhancments (stutters and frames)
-More manuals content
-UI polish pass
-Brigade MotD tool
-Work on Brigade Home and OIC to prep for deployed brigades (some call that ToEs but its different)
-Trainer Tools pass and GM pass

Q: How are the new trees supposed to help FPS?

A: These trees are supported by a new runtime from SpeedTree. Essentially they are much more efficient at rendering than the old trees in addition to having a better look and feel that comes from more polys. We�re working to replace the rest of the foliage in the world with these new trees and bushes but the bush lines take a lot of trees to make them up so we are still experimenting. Another cool thing these trees will have is a new wind animation that can best be described as �flutter�. We�ll probably add that to the 1.20 beta next week.

Q: We continually hear about Terrain II, what is it really, how will it help the game and is this something slated for next year?
A: It�s a terrain generation engine that allows us to create terrain with greater fidelity (more small undulations) and with greater speed. Our expectation is to roll it out next year. Rickb is team lead on that and is making some good progress. The terrain engine relies on a new render solution that we will be implementing before we complete the terrain II content and the render solution will be started on as soon as 1.20 goes live.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
WoW just got a R rating I guess
Read of Lums Blog,
Apperently you can melt peoples faces off in World of Warcraft. Priests are good at this it seems.

Mabye this will get a MMOG a worse MPAA rating than WW2OL has.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
I can see how many people...
who are NOT me are visting the site, using Site Meter - Counter and Statistics Tracker.

Amazing. Who. Where. Using what. When. I can now SEE how many people outside of Troop and Sres come here. Free too. Couldn't *quite* get the tracker number where I wanted it, for some reason it changed the font size of the sidebar if it was placed at the top of the screen. It's RIGHT down the bottem left of the screen, which for my blog is a good thing.

It was easy to do, and automaticaly added itself to the blogger template. Last time I'd looked at trackers they didnt do that. Progress is wounderful.

Edit: For example: Sometime in the last 5 minutes, someone running a Mac at 1280x1024, using Safari, on the east coast of the US, viewed this site, and probably read this message. Now, I don't know WHO, but it's interesting how much info every webmaster can get.

Therefore, CRS knows excatly how many people running what OS, in what resolution and using what browser, in what time zone, when, are logging into WW2OL, because until today most people went through the website. I wounder how different the people who log into playschool are from the regualr player base.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 2 comments

 
Netscape 8.0 is good
MUCh better than 7.2. I never want to use IE again. Ever. And now it works with WW2OL, I never will!

Also MUCH better than Firefox. Only missing an intergrated email program..Im using Netscape 7.2's email....
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
Netscape works in WW2OL 1.19
Least it did on a test PC.

YAY! Hopefully this one small item will ensure WW2OL's success, all because of me me me!
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 13, 2005 0 comments

 
1.19 Movie Trailer.
Battleground Europe Forums - pretty good video

Linders 1.19 Movie Trailer. 27 Meg, about 2 minutes in length. Everything you see and hear is from the game, except the Stuka Sirin.

I give it 8/10.

- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 0 comments

 
1.19.5 Live Release readme
This is a gaming blog, therefore it's in the Blogger contract that I post the patch readmes.

Battleground Europe Forums - 1.19.5 Live Release

=====================
World War Two Online
=====================
Version 1.19.5 (08-11-05)

Infantry:
-Fixed inf patches showing black borders

Vehicles:
-Fixed a bug with obscured tank sights (gray screen)
-Fixed twin engine props being too dark when spinning

Terrain:
-Adjusted tree colliders
-Updated player memorial
-Fixed shading anomalie with barracks objects
-Fixed open ocean appearing dark on the map
-Fixed a performance bug with trees
-Added all new trees

Launching:

Mac:
-Added "Play Battleground Europe" shortcut to install folder which launches the web page and launches PlayGATE

PC:
-Added new desktop shortcut to PlayGATE installer titled "Play Battleground Europe"
-Added new shortcut to Start menu/Programs/Cornered Rat Software/Battleground Europe titled "Play Online"
-These will launch PlayGATE and then login to the live server

Installer:
-Added PlayGATE installer to the patch installer to add the shortcuts mentioned above
-You will need to run PlayGATE Installer to use the new shortcuts
-Added new icons
-Added new faceplate to settings.exe
-Added DX9 support

Note:
-The previous full install shortcuts will not be uninstalled at this time
-If you participated in the test of 1.19.5 you can uninstall the software using the add/remove programs application or on a mac, drag the Test App to the trash.

Translations:
-Updated all translations

Manuals:
-Fixed British troops to have correct Webley .455 cal revolver
-Fixed lowercase blenheim description
-Fixed D.520 armament section starting with a square
-Fixes Char B1 bis description
-Fixed installer not clearing destination directory text on custom selection
-Fixed Spelling error for "Specil Weapons
-Fixed Blenheim misspellings
-Fixed "Hurricane Mk. 1I"
-Fixed "you are....mission\r\n"
-Fixed extra carrage return in Mle47
-Removed "." in Sd.Kfz 7

Mac:
-New OpenAL to fix several outstanding sound issues
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 0 comments

 
Seeing as we are now a 17 game...pin up girls in the barracks
Battleground Europe Forums - Seeing as we are now a 17 game...pin up girls in the barracks

And I'm not talking about HERE. Seeing as we're going to be playing a game rated 17+, can we have Toto please add some geninue 1940's pin up girl posters to the interiors of the infantry spawns?

Judging from the...popularity of the hot chicks threads in off topic, I'm sure everyone would agree it would add some much needed atmosphere to the game. It's perfectly historical, and all sides did it in way or another.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 0 comments

 
Alleged reason why BE gets a M rating
I agree with Rafter. Damm you to hell rockstar.

Battleground Europe Forums - WWIIOL:BE gets a "M" Rating

RAFTER RAFTER is online now
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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Posts: 7,325
Default Re: WWIIOL:BE gets a "M" Rating

Un0fficially, ESRB told me the twitching body motion with blood mist from weapons fire on post-mortem characters pushed us to M17+

I say BS, it was GTA.

Meanwhile...

Game:America's Army
ESRB Rating:Teen (13+) for Blood, Violence
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 1 comments

 
New colours
LIke or hate the new colours and format changes to the blog?

COMMENT ON THEM TODAY!
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 1 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - still loving this game..
A war stories post sums up the game pretty well.

Battleground Europe Forums - still loving this game..

rbnn rbnn is offline
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: West Bend, WI
Posts: 106
still loving this game..

With all the complaints I've heard, I still find myself unable to unsubscribe.

There is no other game that has the depth of this game. I've tried Brothers In Arms.. It's got great graphics, great sound, but it's the same thing once you've played it.

Here, nothing's ever the same. the options are almost limitless.. And it's all happening in real time with real players.. I guess I'm here to stay.
I'm not upgrading my system anytime soon (1.8 ghz althon, 1 g ram, 128 meg FX5200)... so I get average FRs, and poor FRs in major city battles..

but when I think about what I can be spending my money on in regards to a computer game, the overall enjoyment factor.. I really haven't found anything out there that comes close to WWII online.

I like the fact that the developers of this game take the historical reality seriously.

I usually play on the German side, and when I hear fellow German infantry complaining about the lack of air support, I think "get in a plane and do something about it!"... with this game you can actually do that!

There are no majic packs to find, secret healing spells... no matter who you are, what rank you have, you can be "dead" in one shot... by a rookie noobie private with a lucky shot.. and in the same regard,, I , being a not so good player,, can have a lucky day and bring a truck of infantry to a stop by causing them to crash with a luck grenade toss or even rifle fire... maybe even bringing the entire assault to a stop or at least causing problems behind the lines...

There are no "brownie" points for getting lots of kills... the battle goes on, with or without you..

After almost 5 years this game still holds my interest.. with all it's imperfections.. that says alot.. I keep coming back...

jeff

- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 12, 2005 0 comments

 
A nice 1.19 tree pic.
Battleground Europe Forums - when will the towns look european?

Not bad. Not bad at all



- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 1 comments

 
BREAKING NEWS! WW2OL BATTLEFIELD EUROPE RELEASE DATE
Dear EBgames.com Customer,

Thanks for pre-ordering from EBgames.com! As an added benefit to ordering from us, we’ll keep you informed of ship date changes. We are writing to let you know that the publisher has set a new ship date for Battleground Europe: World War II Online of 9/13/2005. As always, EBgames.com will not charge your credit card until we ship your order.


HA! Bout time I posted some genuine NEWS here.
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 1 comments

 
Recuriting movie
Over in the thread mentioned below, gnsache posts a link to a Battleground Europe Forums - Anyone have any recorded firefights?135 meg 10 minute WW2OL movie trailer.

It's 1.18, and starts a bit slow, but shows off a LOT of different WW2OL combat (just missing navy and bombing stuff).

Allied too! 9/10.
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 0 comments

 
Anyone have any recorded firefights?
JKust in case anyone reading this DOES have some 1.19 movies..

Battleground Europe Forums - Anyone have any recorded firefights?

MIKE MIKE is offline
Member

Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Jersey, wtf you lookin' at?
Posts: 1,871
Send a message via AIM to MIKE Send a message via MSN to MIKE

Anyone have any recorded firefights?
From in game?
Video's are fine.

I need the audio for something.

Thanks in advance
-Mike

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - well the M1 Garand is in apperently
Axis whinemark in full fight vs the M1 Garand
Battleground Europe Forums - well the M1 Garand is in apperently

For gawds sake...

Axis are whining that the allies are getting a good weapon. Even one they can't get.

WHERE IS THE ALLIED SPG.
WHERE IS THE ALLIED DIVE BOMBER.
WHERE IS THE ALLIED LARGE CALIBURE ARTILLERY PIECE.

Put up with it. The US army WHEN it is INTRODUCED (note: it's NOT going to be fighting Tier 0 or even 1 axis forces!) and we've gone through SEVEREL equimpment pases, THEN you may ask for a 1944 semi automatic weapon. And we might even let you ask for a counterpart to the bazooka (which the US should start with and the axis should need to RDP 1 tier later!).
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 1 comments

 
Doc PAWNS axis whinemarch
Battleground Europe Forums - Speed comparison - tier 0 n00b fighters. HATCH/DOC please comment.

DOC DOC is offline
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 6,934
Default Re: Speed comparison - tier 0 n00b fighters. HATCH/DOC please comment.

.....The 110 has been the standard "n00b" plane flying Axis since morethan 4 years ago. It did fine then and I see no reason that it should not continue to do fine in the future. A lot of Axis are complaining bitterly right now (in all branches) yet the fact remains that they haven't lost 2 campaigns in a row for many many times longer than the period since the last time they WON two in a row, and they haven't lost this one either I might add. I sometimes think they are so used to winning that they think the game is broken because they aren't winning right now. I don't know ... I do know they are not the holders of the most losses and I do know they have a lot of back to back wins, I don't know why anyone would make the assumtion that to win more than 50% of the time was something they could expect by rights, but the Axis DO HAVE more wins, more back to back wins, and I think they should be able to take a loss or two without throwing up their hands and screaming that everything is biased against them.

I guess though, since it's an opinion, it don't mean much. Oh well, I can live with that.

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 11, 2005 0 comments

 
BE to be rated 17+. MORE BLOOD AND GORE COMING!
Battleground Europe Forums - M17 Wtf

RAFTER RAFTER is online now
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Join Date: Oct 2001
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Default M17+ Wtf

Just got word from the ESRB that "BE" has received a "Mature 17+" rating with a descriptor of "blood and violence". This the rating we received for virtually the same game in regards to "combat special effects" that got a "Teen" rating in 2001.

I am sure this is, in part, a response to public and political pressure fallout from the Rockstar Games crap.

Anyway, we dont sell many copies to the under 17 console crowd and maybe the higher rating will be more appealing to an older crowd.

Do you think we should amp up the "blood and gore" in the game now that we've been upped to the M rating?

RAFTER RAFTER is online now
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Baby Jesus was born to ensure Bilton got time off to Mobile Spawn
Posts: 7,324
Default Re: M17+ Wtf

After only a few minutes with martini and squirm it appears that new blood sprites might be a quick, easy and pretty low-impact improvement to the current sprite which was pointed out in an earlier post to be left over from 2001.

Lost limbs (if ever) and ragdoll physics will have to wait in line behind a lot of infantry work already lined up.

BE pre-orders are still short of projections so if youre planning to get it, please pre-order today- it helps us secure good standing with retailers and our publisher.

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, August 10, 2005 0 comments

 
Update to the Skippy List
Update to the things Skippy is not allowed to do (for Iraq, USAF)

This was inspired by the now infamous "Skippy's List". However, that list was Army-centered, and is a few years out of date, since it refers to a deployment in Kosovo (or Bosnia, somewhere around there). So I've got a list for me, in the USAF, deployed to Iraq. Enjoy!

I'll probably add more eventually, as I think of them

135 things Jabba is no longer allowed to do in the Air Force

Acronyms and military terms used:
COMM: short for the Communications squadron, the guys who handle phones and computers and such
UXO: Unexploded Ordnance, like dud bombs and the like
MRE: Meal Ready to Eat. The chemical heaters are in plastic bags. If you put the chemical heaters into a bottle, like one of the many water bottles, and, well, add water, and screw the cap on tight, the bottle will explode from the built-up steam. That's an MRE bomb
EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Crazy mofos.
RAF: Royal Air Force, the UK air force
HQ: Headquarters
PVC: dunno what it stands for, but it's a kind of pipe that looks a lot like a rocket body if you're doing a UXO sweep in the dark, trust me
AA: Anti-Aircraft gun
VIP: Very Important Person
SecDef: The Secretary of Defense
BX: The Base Exchange, the only store on base, the only place to go to buy stuff outside of the souvenir shops
DCU: Desert Cammies
MEP: Mission Essential Power
CE: Civil Engineering; handles power, water, A/C, roads, and so forth. Everything infrastructure
RPG: Rocket Propelled Grenade
HazMat: Hazardous Materials
PT: Physical Training

The List

1. Scorpions are not mascots

2. Scorpions are also not housepets

3. Wild dogs are not "man's best friend"

4. It's not an acceptable form of entertainment to shut off power to the camp and see how long it takes someone to call in

5. Cutting COMM's power is not justifiable retaliation for a website being blocked

6. ...Even if it was a really funny website

7. Not longer allowed to protest next to the runway when the SecDef comes

8. ...Even if the signs are really funny

9. No longer allowed to ask Army personnel very confusing questions

10. An M-16 is not an action movie prop

11. The power plant's fuel bladder is not a "giant waterbed"

12. When asked about the location of any personnel or equipment, the proper answer is never "Dantooine... they're on Dantooine"

13. No longer allowed to offroad in any areas that have not been cleared of UXOs

14. No longer allowed to offroad at all

15. Leaving "MRE water heater bombs" outside EOD's building at 0200 when they're all sleeping is not allowed

16. The control room in the power plant is not "Just like Engineering"

17. No longer allowed to impersonate Scotty

18. Especially when an officer calls to request mobile generator support

19. Switching the "circuit open" and "circuit closed" lights on the control panel to make new plant operators think that a generator is disconnected, causing them to accidentally kill power when they try to close the breaker to "reconnect" power, is no longer allowed

20. Not allowed to ask the Brits or the Aussies "So when are you guys leaving?"

21. Not allowed to impersonate an Irish accent, or Lucky the Leprechaun, around Irish members of the RAF

22. Not allowed to run past the RAF tents with chow-hall bowls of Lucky Charms, yelling "They're after me lucky charms!"

23. Just because HQ is located in a building called "the glass house", not allowed to inform the base commander or any of his subordinates that they are not allowed to throw stones

24. Not allowed to heckle "Tops in Blue", even if they really do suck

25. Not allowed to tell gate guards "You don't need to see my identification"

26. Not allowed to pick up scrap metal in the junkyard and show my supervisor, saying "look sir, droids!"

27. Not allowed to ask supervisor if I can borrow the tug and "drive in Toschi Station to pick up some power converters"

28. ...Even if I really am going to pick up power converters, the Services tent is not Toschi Station

29. No longer allowed to give Star Wars names to locations on base

30. ...Or Star Trek names

31. ...Or Dune name

32. ...Or names from any science fiction or fantasy work

33. Not allowed to put fins on PVC pipe and stick it into the ground next to HQ and call it in as a UXO

34. Not allowed to point old Iraqi AA guns at arriving aircraft

35. ...even if they are already on the ground

36. ...especially if it's a VIP aircraft

37. ...doubly especially if it's the SecDef stopping by again

38. Not allowed to tell visiting media that if they really want to see how things are over here, they're welcome to go outside the wire

39. No taunting the Iraqi guards at the airport

40. No mooning the control tower either

41. No longer allowed to stop by the CIA compound and ask what they're up to

42. ...or ask them where bin Laden really is

43. No longer allowed to tell new arrivals that I saw Saddam Hussein in prison orange eating in the chow hall, because I didn't

44. Not allowed to picket the chow hall

45. ...or the BX

46. It's usually in bad taste to tell BX employees that you could get something much cheaper on the internet, or to remark loudly that Amazon has a much better selection, even if it's true

47. No longer allowed to befriend wild animals

48. ...yes, even the kittens

49. No longer allowed to feed the rat that lives under the power plant

50. If I couldn't catch the gecko the first time, I'm not going to catch it the next fifty times I try

51. If I do catch the gecko, not allowed to keep it as a pet

52. Not allowed to heckle VIPs at their speeches

53. ...including the SecDef

54. ...and the chaplain

55. Not allowed to hold Pagan Rites on base without first obtaining permission and filling out the requisite forms

56. Not allowed to call burn barrel fires a Pagan rite

57. Not allowed to sacrifice anything to the sun god

58. Sandstorms are not caused by angry djinn

59. My tent is not the Love Shack

60. The female tents are also not Love Shacks

61. The Laundry tent is not the Love Shack, despite appearances to the contrary

62. Not allowed to go into the base library and take all the Bibles and put them in the science fiction section

63. Not allowed to put books by Ron L Hubbard in the religious section

64. Not allowed to surround the power plant with a minefield for security purposes

65. Not allowed to call the Supply Tent "Costco" or "Wal-Mart"

66. Not allowed to lock the bathrooms

67. Not allowed to use camel spiders to scare people

68. Not allowed to call a camel spider "My magical talking companion"

69. Not allowed to get a Kiss Army patch on my DCUs

70. Not allowed to instruct the barbers to give me a Mohawk

71. Not allowed to try to wear my boonie cap backwards

72. Not allowed to try to trade my M-16 to Global Security contractors for an AK-47 and a case of beer

73. Not allowed to try to ferment grapes from the chow hall to make moonshine or hooch

74. Not allowed to use MEP-12 prime power plant generators as a still

75. Not allowed to shoot the radio and yell to my supervisor that "we're gonna have company" when somebody calls asking why the power is out

76. ...even if it was a boring conversation anyway

77. ...especially if it's the commander

78. Not allowed to make special requests at the chow hall

79. ...like for filet mignon

80. ...or "anything not fried"

81. ...or "something that doesn't suck"

82. Not allowed to demand a refund for chow hall food

83. Not allowed to sing showtunes over the CE radio net

84. Not allowed to sing anything over any net

85. Not allowed to sing in public at all

86. ...or in private

87. Not allowed to play the cat game (from Super Troopers) with anyone who needs a generator

88. ...even if "Meow long will you need this generator for?" is funny

89. Not allowed to operate a pirate radio station from "deep inside a secret bunker"

90. Not allowed to scare new arrivals with stories of a network of secret insurgent tunnels running under the base

91. Not allowed to practice law without credentials

92. Not allowed to dance with the broom while doing shop clean-up

93. Not allowed to pressure wash the inside of the boss's office

94. ...even if it is dirty in there

95. Not allowed to drive in and out of Security Forces checkpoints repeatedly just because the gate guard on duty is hot

96. Not allowed to drag race anywhere on base

97. ...especially "highway 1"

98. Not allowed to play "chicken" with armored vehicles

99. Not allowed to use the loudspeakers to play protest songs

100. May no longer insist on carrying a stuffed animal everywhere and asking it before I do anything

101. Not allowed to name wild animals

102. ...or to force others to use those names

103. Not allowed to drop something heavy on the roof of the control room and tell the people inside that a mortar just bounced off

104. It's not my job to point out holes in base security

105. ...even if they are pretty big

106. Not allowed to yell "Bring it on" at the civilian side of the airport

107. Not allowed to "punk" anyone

108. ...especially officers

109. Not allowed to ask civilian contractors how much more they're getting paid

110. The commander's office is not a HazMat storage area for waste oil

111. ...with or without the barrels

112. Not allowed to go to the supply tent for the sole purpose of flirting with the clerks

113. Not allowed to requisition "Maxim" or "Stuff" for "research purposes"

114. Not allowed to customize my M-16

115. ...that includes engraving my name on it or stealing scopes and laser sights from the cops

116. Pellet guns are not authorized on military installations for my own safety and I will remember that

117. Not allowed to sell bootleg movies from my tent

118. Not allowed to administer "A good death" to an ailing generator, with an RPG-7

119. Not allowed to yell "game over man, game over!" during outages

120. Not allowed to shut off fuel and see how long it takes the generators to shut down

121. ...especially if I'm taking bets

122. Not allowed to take bets on anything

123. Not allowed to speak in tongues

124. I am not a faith healer

125. A speedo and a wifebeater is not "Conservative PT gear"



Update [2005-8-9 9:34:29 by jabbausaf]:

126. Sock puppets are not in my chain of command.

127. Magic 8 Ball is not in my chain of command.

128. I do not "got the touch" or "the power"

129. ...even if I do light the darkest hours.

130. May not use interpretive dance to criticize command decisions.

131. The making of near-beer bongs is strongly discouraged.

132. I am not "Lord of the Sand Flies".

133. No longer allowed to burn superior officers in effigy

134. Med clinic personnel will no longer be referred to as "Dr Feelgood"

135. The Med clinic will no longer be referred to as "The Happy-pill Emporium"

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, August 10, 2005 0 comments

 
New rats shows what HE wants in the game
Battleground Europe Forums - WW2OL in the future?

jaeger55 is a NEW rat..alllegly. He was moaning on the fourms on how HE could do better grahpics...and the rats hired him Apperntly he wants to make it look like CoDII.

Which as Darth Vader told the General in charge of the "Dark Troopers" project...A noble cause.

Probably just as doomed though.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 09, 2005 0 comments

 
WORTHPLAYING - - WW2OL preview
Probably the best preview the games gonna get. Mike ort to very proud, the sounds rock. It's quite cool to try and talk to someone in TS and hear the rattle of machine gun fire in the background.

WORTHPLAYING - - All about games !

PC Preview - 'Battleground Europe'
Posted on Monday, August 08 @ 02:02:51 PDT

Battleground Europe – Volume 1 of the WWII Online Virtual Battlefield Series – is a totally unique MMOG that delivers the ultimate Player v Player experience where only your skills and knowledge, and those of your enemy, determines your fate and the outcome of the war. Its design allows players with adequate rank to plan and carry out tactical missions in first-person combat......

....The game's sound, as opposed to the graphics, is spectacular and adds a great deal to the gameplay. The sounds of battle surrounded me, making me feel as if I were in the midst of a war-torn city. Planes buzzed overhead, tanks roared to life and screamed through the streets, and the sound of far-off rifles brought me to a halt quite a few times. The game uses things like the Doppler Effect to maximum impact. Weapon sounds are realistic and can be quite loud, which leads to some very tense and hectic situations in the heat of battle (which I'm sure is the case in real gunfights). Overall, the game uses sound to enhance the experience the same way other games use graphics – create a realistic environment to further draw the player into the world.

Edit: there's some REALLY good pics showing off massed (blah, axis) pre 1.19 there, but you'll need to go the site to view them.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 09, 2005 0 comments

 
Doc says no Tier 4 for a long time...more early stuff first
I think it's good myself. Concentrate on 1940-43. Pity we won't see Comets or Challangers, but them's the breaks. Will still see Lancasters, even P51s, but mabye not the D model.

Battleground Europe Forums - Would the BEF minds wearing French kit for Shermans??

DOC DOC is offline
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 6,898

Default Re: Would the BEF minds wearing French kit for Shermans??

Look guys, there are LOTS of other tanks we're going to model. We only have the ones in game right now because that's all we have completed SO FAR.

We can't do them all overnight. When the Tiger, Churchill VII and M10 Wolverine are done and in game, the next tanks we do will be "fill out previous tiers" in terms of choices, we aren't going to do the tier 4 stuff for quite some time.

This will allow us to diversify the previous tiers more because we don't like being stuck with 1 or 2 choices per tier either, we are VERY MUCH aware that there were many choices we could have made but we need time to make them all.

It's about 6 weeks per tank NOT INCLUDING anything else our team must do, and they must also model, at the same time:-

Fighter aircraft
Bombers
New boats
ATGs
AA guns
Trucks
Infantry weapons
New infantry
Trees
Bushes
Buildings
Environmental objects
Other support vehicles
Audit existing vehicles and weapons for errors/bugs as the code evolves (it evolves constantly)
New code features like VDM (visual damage model) functionality (recent "tails breaking off" for example) ... these are huge tasks involving coders, artists and producers in an extensive update/testing program

I haven't even touched on other things like texture improvements, rendering updates, ground and environmental improvements, other art (vehicles require more art resources than anything else) tasks that have nothing to do with vehicles but require the artists to not do vehicles while they are occupied elsewhere.

We want it all yesterday too, but we don't mention it because we know it's impossible already. B)

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, August 08, 2005 0 comments

 
KC23's ALLIED SAPPER VIDEO
KC23 spent a lot amount of time to make the definative Panzer sapping video. It goes into both basic and advanced placement of sachel changes on all current axis armour.
Download it from here, 10:30, 14 meg in size

I give it a 9/10. Anyone interested in WW2OL is advised to watch the first minute when you get to see all many of panzers blowing thier turrent off into the air. Quite cool seeing it.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 0 comments

 
More Tree Pics
Battleground Europe Forums - New trees are cool, almost phot-realistic 56k beware

This looks good for infantry.


This looks BAD for infantry and MSP's trying to hide behind them...


- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 0 comments

 
NEW TREES!
If you're oin 56K, don't bother to look at my blog.

Shows how much notice I take....

Battleground Europe Forums - The New Trees Are Amazing!!! Gfj!!!
















- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - WOOT try the tiger in offline
Battleground Europe Forums - WOOT try the tiger in offline



- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - 1.19.5.3 Open Test
Battleground Europe Forums - 1.19.5.3 Open Test

1.19.5.3 Open Test

Download Full installers for 1.19.5.3:

Files will be available on Saturday (sorry gents).

PC 11953 Full Install (430Mb)

Mac 11953 Full Install (340Mb)

Read Me:
=====================
World War Two Online
=====================
Version 1.19.5.3 beta (08-05-05)

THIS IS A GOLD CANDIDATE BUILD:

This installer is an exact copy of the live installer, please test thoroughly as we will be releaseing this live and sending it out as a gold.

Please test for deleted movies (data/movies/tutorials/...) to make sure the game works with them missing.

Please report any and all issues and get as many people as you can and as many machines as you can to test this. Try different OSs and Different versions of DirectX if you can.

Please run this installer and test, then uninstall all WWIIOL Test/Beta and run it again. Re-test.

This build will default to C:\Program Files\CRS|Battleground Europe

When you install this it should try and install to your current directory

After your first install please uninstall the beta and reinstall it

It should now point to the Program Files directory
If it does not, uninstall again and run regedit (only if you are comfortable) and delete the appid12 folders from both the local_machine\software\playnet... and the local_user\software\playnet... directories

This installer will try and install DX9
Please test on machines that do not have DX9 installed

Infantry:
-Fixed inf patches showing black borders

Vehicles:
-Fixed twin engine props being too dark when spinning

Terrain:
-Fixed shading anomalie with barracks objects
-Fixed open ocean appearing dark on the map
-Fixed a performance bug with trees
-Added all new trees

UI/HUD:
-Fixed a path issue that prevented vehicle/troop info from showing on the right offline screen pane
-Adjusted the position of recently translated main nav button labels
-Fixed a path issue that prevented vehicle/troop info from showing in the manuals section when you clicked a unit's folder icon in the online mission screen
-Added tooltips to the LMS mission member headers and icons
-Buzzard users no longer show on the mission members list

Installer:
-Added new icons
-Added new faceplate to settings.exe
-Added DX9 support

Start Menu:
-Added links to web pages
-Added Play Now link that will launch web page and PlayGATE (takes you into beta for now)

Global:
-Reordered installer steps
-Added all translated tutorial movies
-Added all current translations (some still missing)

Translations:
-There are still a few known issues with translations but please test and report functionality and bugs using multiple language selections from Settings.exe

Mac:
-New OpenAL to fix several outstanding sound issues

Testing:
-This file will launch PlayGATE adn log you into the test server from the shortcut at Start/Program Files/CRS/Battleground Europe TEST/TEST Online...(PC)
-Alternately you can launch from this link:

TEST NOW

Reporting:
-Please only post about bugs with the installer, movies, translations or items in the read me
-This thread is not for discussion
-Please do not post bugs previously reported and confirmed
-Please post only once and edit your post if needed
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, August 07, 2005 0 comments

 
We need a WW2OL: BE version of all your box
Battleground Europe Forums - We need a WW2OL: BE version of all your box

Way back in the grey fourms there was a thread where people took the WW2OL original release box, and photoshopped it into many entertaning and amusing situations.

Later on, SmackD took it and made a movie based on All Your Base (takes a long time to load, but very good).

Now, with the release of BATTLEGROUND EUROPE I think we need to have a NEW thread with the new box. If you need some pics, Gopher has one here but we probably need Rafter to provide some better shots of it too (So how about it Rafter?).
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
SmackD returns, somewhat
N ote: These can take quite a while to download, but do work.

WELL WORTH WATCHING though.

Battleground Europe Forums - Can it be??? Yatta? What teh?

SmackD SmackD is online now
Member
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: bethlehem, pa
Posts: 4,656
Default Can it be??? Yatta? What teh?

If you know what's good for you...

you won't click on any of these links

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/wwiiolyatta.htm

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WW...wiiolyatta2.htm

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/OTYatta.htm


...don't say I didn't warn ya


oh and here are teh WWIIOL posters:


http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/posters1.htm

WWIIOL in Sixty Seconds?

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WW...ol60seconds.htm

ALL YOUR BOX?

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/AllYourBox.htm


SmackD Theater?.....soon???...nahhhhh.....


OLD? stfuOKthxbye


Here's a temporary page with 3 episodes of the WWIIOL Funnehs:

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WW...IIOLFunnehs.htm


A WillyTee and SmackD collaboration:

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/FoulPlay.htm

My first WWIIOL flash movie suxxorz :

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WW...eEnglandCtd.htm

Mr. Hatch's Off Topic Neighborhood:

http://www.streamload.com/smackd/WWIIOL/mrhatch.htm


enjoy

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Some pics from map 20
Matilda II at Dawn I messed this picture up by carefully NOT turning off all the UI. Oh well. I *think* its troop or downu for some reason.




4th BDE paradrop on Steenbergan, map 21 (mabye 22?). I think there was about 20 of us. Failed to take the town, despite it being attrited to rifles. Couldn't hold the depots even with the SMGS vs rifles, little lone blow the FB.






Camping a Vechile Spawn Sometime from Map 21. Note the tank blowing up. That's its turrent on the roof there. I think I was just watching while a 2 pounder behind me fired the fatal shot.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
I found the blog picture tool
But it dosn't work in Netscape! Gah, have to do this via IE
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Why get the box?
Asked on the ANZAC fourm: Why get the box?

You get the map and stuff on the CD and manual.

ONCE you use the CD key, you can get TRIAL keys you give to people for free. Every TRIAL KEY conveted to a full account, YOU get a FREE TSHIRT.

People will do a LOT for FREE TSHIRTS. Havn't you ever seen the Pinky and the Brain episode dealing with that issue?
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Chico Enterprise Record - Archives
I'd seen Phew in game, but never talked to her directly. What I see interesting here in the news story they talk about how people knew her through the online game.

Chico Enterprise Record - Archives

Bus driver recalled by friends from around the world
By RYAN OLSON - Staff Writer

MAGALIA -- Friends and co-workers -- both locally and across the world via an online game -- remembered the 57-year-old Magalia woman who died in a Tuesday morning fire.

Charlanne Corbin was known as "Popcorn" to many of her co-workers at Paradise Unified School District, where she was a bus driver. In the gaming universe of World War II Online, she was a colonel in the French army going by the name of "Phew."

Tom Brogden, interim administrator for the district's transportation department, said many drivers were emotional hearing word the well-liked Corbin died when her Nimshew Road home burned. Investigators said the cause of the fire was electrical.

"She was a very popular driver," Brogden said.

He said Corbin's family contacted him regarding a memorial service. The service will be at 1 p.m Aug. 13 at Magalia Pines Baptist Church.

She is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, who attempted to rescue Corbin but were turned away by the fire.

Retired bus driver Bonnie Fugh Saul described Corbin as generous person who loved kids. Corbin was a good driver whose passengers were well-behaved.

Corbin also loved her cats and dogs and often carried dog biscuits for awaiting dogs at bus stops, Saul said.

"The more she had, the happier she was," Saul said.

Mechanic Don Bongers said he will miss Corbin, who was hired a month before he joined the district in 1984. He recalled Corbin as an outgoing "free spirit" who had many friends in the district and throughout the community. Before coming to the district, Corbin had worked in area restaurants and as a truck driver.

"She was a great driver," Bongers said. "She had a great personality and got along with the kids."

He said "Popcorn" was Corbin's handle when she was a citizens band radio operator and the name stuck. She used the nickname on her car's license plate.

Bongers said Corbin enjoyed camping, fishing and motorcycle riding in her free time.

"She was into so much stuff it was hard to pin her down to one thing," he said.

Corbin's pastimes extended on the Internet to World War II Online — a massive multiplayer role-playing war game centered around the European theater.

Kerry Smith, a Nashville, Tenn., resident who goes by the name "Wolfie69" in the game, said Corbin was renowned for her defensive play guarding vital "capture points." She said Corbin was also one of the few female players in a male-dominated gaming world.

Smith and other players recalled Corbin at several online discussion boards dedicated to the game. Although most never met Corbin in person, many spoke with her during the gameplay using text or voice chat software called TeamSpeak.

"It's truly amazing because we are like one large family on there," Smith said. "A lot of us have never met, but we've all been together for many years."

Smith said there was some doubts from gamers about Corbin's death because several saw her online just two hours before the fire shortly after midnight on Tuesday. Many of Corbin's online friends gathered in the game's CPs for an impromptu memorial Tuesday night — remembering Corbin and shooting enemy soldiers.

"I don't think I've seen so many men in a TeamSpeak forum cry like that," she said.

Cristal Dorsey, who played on Phew's squad as "MzNqbus," said she and her husband have teamed up with Corbin since an earlier game on America Online 10 years ago. Dorsey, who lives in Lotten, Okla., said her squadmate was a "goddess" in the game who had earned impressive stats.

Dorsey said Corbin eschewed the spotlight, instead helping teach people in the game to be a better player and a better person.

"She was the mom, she was the leader, she was the voice of reason," she said. "She treated us like she treated the kids on her bus."

Fellow squadmate Adam "tgoviper" Rinne of Tucson, Ariz., said Corbin meant a lot to everyone. In addition to being a friendly, sweet lady, he said she was also a joker.

"She was a lot of fun -- always in good spirits," Rinne said. "She could cheer anyone up, no matter how bad a day."

He said he was trying to get in touch with the family for an online memorial fund for Corbin. More than $600 had been collected by Wednesday afternoon.

There are plans for an in-game memorial service for Corbin where there will be an in-game cease fire for gamers to converge in a town. Smith said other in-game memorials will include Corbin's name on a "missing persons" plaque in every town. Dorsey said Corbin's squad will also pay to have a permanent memorial added to the game itself.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Freaky and cool Space picture
124415main_image_feature_380a_ys_full.jpg (JPEG Image, 3032x2008 pixels) - Scaled (38%)

That is one wierd and freaky picture. It makes perfect sense...but think about it. You can see the earth and the space station behind him...err..front...er back.

Freaky.

Here's a smaller view of it

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - I ordered 2 copies. You should too.
Battleground Europe Forums - I ordered 2 copies. You should too.

I just ordered 2 copies from EBgames. Cost 88 dollers US (thats including shipping to AUS). I attempted to order a copy from gamestop, but thier crappy website and inability to tell me which form I had appernently not filled in correctly after 3 attempts, made be go to the Ebgames site (which I might add, has some nice previews on it too).

Mostly for the map and yes, supporting the rats. WE NEED MORE PLAYERS. We need more Devs. We need the game to get better, and it is the only game in town like it.

I am not, and are unlikly to ever be, a WW2OL builder, those people REALLY have put thier money where their mouths are. But increasing the rats objective by %0.2 percent will hopefully be an aid.

I don't like some things in the game. I don't like some people IN the game. But there are too many reasons WHY I am still playing the game AFTER FOUR YEARS to mention, but that should be enough. How many games are YOU playing after 4 years? Not many.



See you on the beaches, in the landing grounds and in the hills. On the water, in the air, and on the ground.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Purchase Confirmation
I have ordered WW2OL: BATTLEFIELD EUROPE. 2 copies.

GAMESTOP idioticaly refused to let me buy the product for some stupid reason but could not say WHAT part of the confusing and badly laid out form I had allegly incorrectly filled out

Therefore I bought it from EB GAMES.


So thats 0.2% of the way to CRS's target of 1000 pre orders. ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY. THATS A REQUIERMENT IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING THE BLOG.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 0 comments

 
Corpnews :: View topic - EQ2 Dupe story
How 1 man probably singlehandly made a fortune and probably killed EQ2.

I'm talking about bozo at Sony who made the mistake of letting this happen.

The Duper won the lottery. Batsarges, but still, he won the lottery.


Corpnews :: View topic - EQ2 Dupe story

This is a story written by Methical, about our adventure in molesting EQ2. He found a glitch and we all got rich. Notice the shoutouts, inside jokes, etc. All True....

"
EQ Duping and The American Dream

I write this story, for entertainment purposes. I have always been interested in EQ Lore. What guilds got banned, what characters were legends, who found dupes and what happened to them. This is the story of a Guardian named Methical and his pal Mr. Pink (who's name has been changed at his request, and also he doesn't believe in tipping) and the strange and wild journey that selling furniture would take them on.

Chapter 1: The Discovery
It started out innocent enough. I sell upscale modern furniture in the real world, so I figured it would be fun to sell furniture in EQ2 as well. I was promised that tradeskills would be more fun in this game than the last. I tried them, they weren't. In was like handing me a coloring book while getting dental surgery. Tradeskills were nothing more than a no a talent button mashing marathon, with the end result being unsellable, unwanted, and for lack of another "un" word, I'll say "crap." So, I passed on making furniture, and instead started buying it.

You can buy a nice painting for your room, a cool glass globe on iron legs, a stick with a skull on it and a nice wine rack for less than 50 silver if you have connections on the evil side and a general knowledge of what NPC vendors sell what. I found this out within the first few days EQ2 went live, while most other people didn't know for at least a month into it. So, thus began my blackmarket trading scheme. I was making 50 silver a pop selling Erudin Globes and Thexian Wine Racks. At that time, it was a decent amount to make. I went and bought new spells, and of course, a ton more globes and wine racks.

My bags were full, my bank was full, and I ran out of places to store globes and racks. This, coupled with the fact that people kept sending me annoying tells asking me what the racks and globes looked like when placed in your apartment, lead me to set up my own furniture show room. So, I started placing things around my house. A few wine racks here, a few globes here, a couple elven bed sets there. I made sure to keep a few in my bags to sell while I was in vendor mode. As I hit "start selling" I decided to close the sell window so I could look at my show room while I sold, being quite proud of my interior decorating abilities. As I was about to close it, I noticed I had a Gnomish Thinking Chair up for sale. I also bought this from an NPC merchant, and was only selling it to make a 10 silver profit. Still selling, I closed the sales window and rummaged through my bags to see if I had another one that I could place on the floor. No luck. I only had one and it was highlited in red, telling me it was up for sale and unplaceable.

I right clicked it. The menu popped up, "Examine-Destroy-Place".

Hmmm....I stopped for a moment, then decided to place it on the floor. I figured it would either take it off the sale list, or it would poof off the floor if someone bought it. I went afk, and threw up my patented "IF you need to see what the furniture looks like, come to my apartment in the Willow Wood, don't spam me with tells asking where I got it and what it looks like, as I won't answer," afk message. I had that hotkeyed. Fucking newbs. I had a clove ciggarette and returned to the computer what may have been 20 minutes later. I had a tell.

Jimbob tells you, "This chair isn't as cool as I thought it was."

I looked at the screen and was puzzled. What chair did I have? I was selling globes and wine racks. Oh yeah, the gnomish chair. I double clicked the message board and checked my sales log, nothing. Confused...I sent Jimbob a tell..

You tell Jimbob, "Hey, which chair is it?"
Jimbob tells you, "sec"
Jimbob tells you, "Gnomish Thinking Chair" (he linked it)

Instantly I turned my character around...and there, in the corner was a Gnomish Thinking Chair. I felt a twinge of nervous anticipation. I needed to verify this..

You tell Jimbob, "So you have a Gnomish Thinking Chair then?"
Jimbob tells you, "Yes."
Jimbob tells you, "Gnomish Thinking Chair." (again he linked it...he probably thinks im a moron)
You tell Jimbob, "Cool."

I started laughing like a silly little girl. It was the kind of laugh you have when you're a kid and just hit a house with an egg. I couldn't contain myself, I had to tell the guild.

You tell your guild, "!"
You tell your guild, "I think I just duped something."


Chapter 2: Testing a Hypothesis
The guild chatter started...it started with them asking me what I was talking about, what the dupe was. I was being told to report it. It started devolving into a nostalgic discussion of guild who had been banned for exploiting pathing in EQ1. I shouldn't have said a damn thing. I stayed quiet for about 5 minutes, trying to retrace my steps. I think I had it. I needed a test subject. Nobody on the friends list was on, so I again shot a flare to the guild.

You tell your guild, "Anyone near a broker?"

One trusty guildmate informed me that he was at a broker. I sent him his instructions: "Type in my name and search for what I'm selling. Don't buy until I say go." He told me he was ready to go...and I did exactly what I did before.

Opened the sale window. Priced the Gnomish Thinking Chair at 5 copper. Hit sell. Closed the sale window. Right clicked the chair in my inventory. Placed it. I gave him the signal, "Ok, Buy!"

He replied, "bought it."

I sent him a question in reply, "So you have a gnomish thinking chair in your hands atm?"

He replied, "yeah"

Holy shit.

I must have turned bright red. I was waiting for some alarm to go off. There, in front of me, was the most beautiful Gnomish Thinking Chair I have ever seen. I now knew a working dupe. God bless those gnomes and their thinking chairs.

Now, it's arguable what the morally right thing was to do here. On one hand, I could have just reported the dupe, maybe they would have just patted me on the back and said thanks. Maybe they wouldn't even have replied and just nerf fixed it based on my information. Maybe, if I was really lucky, they'd give me a cool title like "Methical the NARC." I had no interest in any of those results. I'm no Luke Skywalker, and I began to embrace the dark side.

I needed reinforcements. I called in Mr. Pink, a friend I've known for years in EQ1. He lives in Oregon so it was still early when the phone rang at his house. He picked up.

"Mr. Pink...," I chuckled uncontrollably, "You gotta come on EQ2 real quick...this is hillarious." He stayed on the phone with me as I explained what I had found. He laughed and told me I was going to get banned.

I weighed the consequences. I had spent maybe 2 weeks playing my guardian. In all honesty, I found EQ2 lacking the competition of the first EQ. At times, the competition is what made EQ a bitch to deal with. KS'ing, camp stealing, training...it all seemed to be missing or watered down from the first one. This also meant the fun of living through a train and laughing at people, KS'ing your own spawn back before the KS'ers could, racing a guild to a cool spawn...it was all watered down as well. That's what seperated EQ from a single player RPG. I missed the competition, even at the smaller levels. It felt bland and boring. I had no fear.

"Screw it, I don't care if I get banned."

Mr. Pink laughed.

I started trying what I knew about Gnomish Thinking Chairs with other pieces of furniture. I tried paladin braziers. It worked. I tried candleabras. They worked. I was duping items left and right.



Chapter 3: The Roots
I'd go into my apartment, set up 10 candleabras, and tell Mr. Pink over the phone when I was ready for him to buy them. He was sitting at the broker, awaiting my command. He would buy, then tell me he was done, and I would scoop up the candleabras and zone in and zone out. You couldn't dupe the same piece of furniture twice unless you zoned out and zoned back in. Then Mr.Pink would run to the wholesaler in his tradeskill instance, and sell all of the candleabras back to him for 2 gold a pop. He would then run back up the broker, type in my name and await my next set of commands. We eventually just modified this to be a simple code...

"R?"-Ready?
"Y"-Y
"N"-N

"Inc" -Meant I was hitting "Start Selling" but the items were not ready to be purchased because I had not placed them yet.
"B"- Meant I was done placing them, and buying them now would successfully dupe the item.
"d" meant done, and was my cue to zone in and zone back out...

Eventually all of our in game conversations were just a string of single letters.






Before I knew it, Mr. Pink and I had 2 platinum pieces. Wow. 2pp. Barely anyone even had one PP by this point. We were loaded. Unfortunately, I was also tired as hell. I ended up sleeping without spending a copper. I was certain I was going to wake the next day to find my account banned.

Day 2: Woke up and checked the account before work. Not banned. Sweet.

I thought about it at work. I remember hearing stories of people who found dupes in EQ1 and used it to make bank on Ebay (back when Ebay wasn't taking orders from Sony). Maybe this was my opportunity to make a couple bucks. When I got home that night, I duped like a fiend with Mr. Pink. We duped and duped untill our eyes bled. We moved on to high dollar paintings that sold back for 4g. It was slow moving. We had 10pp when we were done; a massive amount at that point in the EQ game. We were laughing the whole time. Occasionally we stopped to say, "We should just get some for ourselves, then report the dupe," but I never really meant it. Like Chris Rock says about organ donation, people just say they'll donate organs because they think they should say it. We had no intentions of stopping, at least not any REAL ones.

Suddenly it started to feel alot like Goodfellas. You know, that scene where they rob the airport, then all the mafia members are told to lay low and not spend any money. The one guy shows up with a fur coat and a cadillac and Deniro goes ape shit crazy. Well, we bought horses. Not just any horses, we bought the most expensive ones available. Not only that, but we bought sweet houses, upgraded our spells, bought the best gear we could equip. We started buying all the collection quest items and just finishing them for fun. We bought all the illusion eyes, all the best furniture, hell, I even bought stuff and then just destroyed it. I had a crazy idea that the more I spread the money around, the less chance I would get banned.

Chapter 4: How To Turn Fake Money Into Real Money
I checked the prices on PA, they were rediculous. 300 for a platinum. We were pulling platinum out of thin air. We set up some Player auctions and started selling. The first day of sales we made five hundred dollars and I felt that was plenty to cover the emotional damages I might incur if I were to lose my EQ2 character. Little did I know this was pennies compared to what we'd become.

Somewhere around the third day, Mr Pink came up with the idea to start using pets. This would eventually be our downfall, but I'll get to that later. In the meantime, each haulasian mauler sold back for 12 gold. 12 GOLD EVERY time we duped just one of them. We would buy one dog, dupe it then Mr.Pink would hand me his duped dog. Then I'd have two dogs to dupe. He'd buy them, and then hand them to me, giving us four dogs to dupe. We'd continue until we had about 20 dogs, then we'd sell them all and use the money to buy fresh, unduped dogs. We thought we were smart.





Ray A Kroc style, we started franchising. We'd pay 20 bucks for the minimum amount of gold on a server, then by the end of the day we'd have about 100 times more than the next highest guy selling platinum on PA. To anyone with half a brain and a list of our feedback history, it must have been obvious we were duping. Fortunately, nobody seemed to care. We were on 4 servers by the end of day four.

We started buying more everquest boxes. We needed more accounts, more mules, and some fresh accounts that had never been touched. We had totally tapped into the dark side now, and felt there was no way to return. Onward we went, pushing and selling and buying and duping and laughing the whole time.


We were getting on more and more servers, buying 5 gold, making 2000 by the end of a couple hours. Half the time we didn't even remember what server we were on. I literally had to /shout "What server is this??" more than once a day. You wake up on Kithicor, you wake up on Unrest, you wake up on Oasis......(obscure Fight Club reference)

Chapter 5: Boiler Room.
This is when I started hitting the distributors. You name them, I sold to them. Rock bottom prices too. There was a time in EQ2 where if you had bought any gold off the internet, it was probably a 50% chance it was from us. Didn't matter what company you bought from, we had a list of every company who bought currency and we probably hit 80% of them. Our money was spreading like syphillus at a nymphomaniac recovery summer camp.

Since it took basically no time to produce this inventory, it didn't matter what we sold for. We'd pretend someone was twisting our arm as we feigned like we were trying to haggle over prices. We didn't care. We just had to get rid of it. We were taking the whole market down. Within three weeks, plat prices dropped over 60%. We had companies buying from us, who directly compete with one another. We would sell to one company for .50 per gold, and another company for .45 a gold. Both companies would drop their prices, trying to compete with the other guy, meanwhile we were already talking to the next distrubutor. Doing an E-hand shake and a nod, we passed on the dirty money to the next guy. The whole time, we were sure we were going to get shut down by some Sony guy that we were quite sure would be named GM Frodo.

To be honest, it's the little companies that are the greediest. The bigger companies will give you a flat rate, they'll pay you fast, and they'll be nice about it. The little companies will try and negotiate like a mexican flea market, they'll tell you that you don't have anywhere else to sell to. They'll try and muscle you. They'll tell you the major companies will only pay you half of what they're paying, when it's usually just the opposite. Not mention they're unprofessional as hell. Half the time we had to sit and wait for them to create a mule and get it off the newb island just to do a transaction. Amateurs.

The auctioning wasn't working out so well either. We got hit by about 5 or 6 scammers who took us for a total of about $5,000 worth of platinum pieces. Of course, it didn't get us too hot and bothered, but just wasn't worth the hassle.

This is when we decided to quit dealing with the low budget distribution companies and go to the top of the line, which will remain nameless. I Guess Everyone will be able to figure it out, easily enough.

We started filling up accounts with money and handing it over to them as fast as we could. They moved platinum so fast, so professionally, so flawlessly, that we were just in awe. We hadn't had much experience with this company prior to now, but they were impressive. Our money was selling at about half the rate in which we could create it, and considering how fast we created it, that's pretty damned fast.

That's when the money started pouring in. Rediculous money. Money that made me so scared I went and consulted with a lawyer and an accountant. Needless to say, neither of them had a clue as to what the hell we were talking about. Try telling your accountant you're making money by selling pieces of gold in a video game. You'll get a good 20 seconds of them just straring at you and blinking. Throw the words "swords" and "dragons" into the conversation, with a thick and fake english accent, just for giggles. Bonus points if you can say "WE RESCUED THE MAIDEN FROM THE BALDUVIAN ORC MASTER FOR THE WIN," with a straight face.


Chapter 6: Cue The End of "Layla", The Instrumental Part where Clapton just goes nuts on the strings...

There were 3 ways in which we would eventually raise enough suspicion to warrent a e-investigation.

1. The downfall of the way we duped was that for a very brief moment in time, there was anywhere from 8 to 24 haulasian maulers up for sale for 2 copper apiece. It was just brief instances, so if the buyer could buy them fast enough, they would be off the market before anyone knew anything happened. Unfortunately, we would occasionally get busted. The tells would come in like:

"Hey man, where did you get all those dogs?"
"I want to buy a dog."
"Sell me all those dogs please."
"What are haulasian maulers?"





Sometimes people would just show up in my apartment. A couple of these times I had about 28 dogs walking around the room.



So, I had to start coming up with explanations.
"Well, I''m quitting EQ2, so I figured this would be a fun way to blow my money."
or
"I'm a guild mule, and we're transporting money to the evil side by selling dogs."
or
"It's a new tradeskill...dog breeding."





Other times, I would just remain quiet, or fake a link death. If these people saw us putting dogs up for sale, they'd put us on their friends list, meaning everytime we logged in, they'd watch the vendors looking to hit the lottery by snagging some 12 gold dogs for 2 copper. I couldn't blame them, I would have done the same thing, but I hated them. Some of these people got greedy eventually, telling us they knew we were doing some sort of exploit, and unless we gave them some dogs or money, they would report us. We told them to report us. We don't negotiate with blackmailers, company policy. Meanwhile, every chance they'd get, they'd try to steal our dogs off the market. On one hand telling us we were doing something corrupt, on the other hand they wanted a piece of the action. Well, we'd get our revenge on them eventually.....

2.) We didn't know much about EQ2 players and the types of information it had on the site. Pretty soon I was getting cross-server tells asking me how fast my horse was, what did it look like, etc. At times, I would get 4 of these tells within an hour. I went and checked the site. Sure enough, Methical was the first to own the most expensive clydesdale horse.



Ooops.

Then I checked the wealthiest player rankings for all servers, we had about 6 characters in the top 20. We had mules that were level 5 and the wealthiest on probably 5 or 6 different servers.





Double oops.

3.) We checked the forums on EQ2 players. Under the Kithicor section, there was mass complaints of inflation. Where was all this money coming from, why were the prices set so high? Who was inflating the market. People were pointing fingers left and right. "He sells his spells too high!" "He buys up all the bone chips and then marks them higher!" etc etc. I had to admit, it gave me a giggle. I felt like the Illuminati, pulling economic strings from behind the scenes. They all were so quick to blame each other, yet there was an obvious suspicion that someone was pumping money into the economy at an accellerated rate. Yet, other servers were complaining about rapid inflation as well. Servers that we hadn't even given our Midas touch to. Other people must have known about it.

Chapter 7: Sony Puts the Smack Down

I got a call from one of my associates. There was a new patch out.

I came home, ran the patcher and read the messages. Nothing of interest to me, untill the very last line. "Merchants will no longer have any interest in purchasing your pets."

It may have well as just said "Oh hey Methical, you'll be going down soon." Now, each of our mules had dogs on them. The dogs were fresh and unduped, but it probably looked pretty suspicious to have 35 dogs on your character. So we scurried and tried to destroy the dogs rapidly. One minor snag. Dogs are "No Destroy," Dogs also can't be sold to the vendor. So...what the hell do you do with your dogs? Well, I decided to get revenge. I went back to all the servers that people had friends listed me and attempted to buy my dogs or blackmail me, and I put the dogs up for sale for 3 gold. 35 at a time, then went afk. Sure enough, the same people who had gotten our dogs before, were buying them as fast as they could. I can only imagine the look on their face as they went and tried to sell the dog to a vendor, realizing they had been tricked into buying my non destroyable evidence. Hell, it's like if O.J. ebayed a bloody knife.

What's better than hiding incriminating evidence? Selling it.



Whatever I couldn't sell on other servers, I would put into my apartment, then relenquish the room. Poof, no more dogs. (Thanks for the idea Baminar)

Unfortunately, these last ditch efforts to cover my tracks were in vein. I tried to log into an account the next day, and it was banned. I checked the rest, all banned. This wild ride had come to an end. I was thinking that Sony figured out there was a dupe but had no idea what it was yet, so I was going to plea bargain to get at least one of my accounts back that had a considerable amount of money left on it. It didn't work, they didn't even reply to me. I finally sent one last email to Sony, in an attempt to see what they knew...


To: EQAccountStatus
Subject: Hi. I'm banned!
Hey,
I'm banned. Why? Thanks!

From: EQAccountStatus
Subject: Re: Hi. I'm banned!
Greetings,
I regret to inform you that your account has been banned for duping items in order to generate large amounts of coin. Your account will be closed from this point forward.
We always regret when this type of action is necessary. We ask that you please review our game policies, which are posted at http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/support.vm.
Regards,
EverQuest II Account Status Administration
EQ2AccountStatus@soe.sony.com
http://everquest2.station.sony.com/
--------------------------------------
Sony Online Entertainment
www.station.sony.com
---------------------------------------
-If you reply to this message please be sure to include the entire thread of our prior correspondence. Thank you


This is where the story ends. The exact total of what I profited is not important. Just know it's more than some people make in a year...hell..maybe 3 years, and it was enough to take my girlfriend and entire family on a vacation to Paris. But, It's the story that's important. The history of EQ1 is plagued with all sorts of scandal, and EQ2 should be as well. Scandal is what makes MMORPG's more than just a game, but a community. A really nerdy community.

I still have about 9 unbanned accounts so I may see you around...

Shoutouts from Meth and Daij to Fennin Ro: Baminar, Knifin, Sam and Jimmy, all my friends from EA, Feregal, TKR (I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry.) Sue, Ros (thanks for keeping it under wraps), Lethargy, OGaming, who has some of the worst board admins ever, my original HoK family- Aquaenus, Psyth, Mirtam, Raquell, Sueture, Kiyann, Connel, Egg, Notwen, and anyone I might be forgetting. Savik, who always encouraged me to "Dupe, lie, steal, that is the cobra code" And of course...the mastermind, Frank Stallone.

P.S. Sorry for ruining the economy and all that.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, August 06, 2005 3 comments

 
Allied Headquarters :: View topic - Pat Yourselves on the Back Allied Forces
Nice story. Let us hope a soon to be very commen one.

Allied Headquarters :: View topic - Pat Yourselves on the Back Allied Forces

radison
Joined: 05 Aug 2005
Posts: 2
New postPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:25 am
Post subject: Pat Yourselves on the Back Allied Forces Reply with quote

Greetings all. Private Radison reporting for duty.

Just started playing last night for the very first time and wanted to tell you all what a great community you have here. I have been playing less than 24 hours and have already met some great people and even joined a squad. I come from the world of BF2 most recently and the complete absence of "l33t d00ds" here is so refreshing. I really think you should all pat yourselves on the back for the shape this community appears to be in. I'm sure you are not told this enough so I feel obliged.

Let me tell you about my first night. I installed the game, ordered my cd key and bought my 3 month subscription and immediatley joined the game. I didn't read a manual because I was just too eager to get into the game. Also I am an IT guy and reading manuakls is against my religion. I don't know where I spawned but let me tell you there was some fighting going on.

It was pitch black out and the moon provided only the slightest bit of help seeing where I was going. Sounds of war attacked me from all sides. Tank fire, machine guns, rifles, flak cannons, the woosh of aircraft overhead. Being the private that I was I didn't know which way to go, what to do, whether the sounds I was hearing were friendly or enemy fire. Adrenaline was definately pumping as I ran into the woods hoping to take cover while I figured out my next move.

As I ran I saw a fellow soldier. I recognized his rank as Corporal and I knew he could direct me to the front lines at the very least. He was a bit of a run in front of me so I started sprinting towards him when out of the woods a figure darted in front of me. Enemy infantry right in front of me! He was stalking the Corporal for sure. He didn't see me so i followed and caught up with him deep in the woods just as he was about to pull the trigger on the Corporal. I dropped him in one shot. I didn't think I just pointed and pulled the trigger and watched as he screamed and fell limp to the ground.

I will not forget that kill or the other 5 kills I got that night. I can't remember my first kill in any other game I have played and I have played them all. This was different.


I hope to see you all in game on the front lines.

Private Radison
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 05, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - CRS how about a MISSION FINDER
Battleground Europe Forums - CRS how about a MISSION FINDER

They need to add an "INSTANT FIGHT" button now, and later.

Right now you need it becuase you can't find a brigade doing it.

Later on your brigade might be stuck in a defense or resupply and you just want to spawn in and do something, even just as a rifleman.


Once you spawn in you're AUTOMATYCIALY in a brigade with other people, doing things, probably with leadership and purpose. Once you've despawned the first time you can back out and see whats happening.

Add a filter for "Do you want Instant action: Infantry/Fighter/Fairmile.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 05, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe: World War II Online for PC at GameSpot
Battleground Europe: World War II Online for PC at GameSpot

CLICK THAT LINK. We're up to 737.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, August 05, 2005 0 comments

 
FREE BETA TEST WW2OL: BE
Press Release. Open beta for a weekend. Guess release will be the 1st week of September (hmm...1st day of the war in Poland?)

Battleground Europe Forums - Upcoming open beta and release

GMX Media and Cornered Rat Software are pleased to announce a public beta and stress test for the upcoming release of BATTLEGROUND EUROPE.

Beginning at 1200CT (US) on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 account creation forms will be made available on the official website for test accounts. Participants will receive instructions on how to download the pre-release client and information on where to submit error reports. Space will be limited for the test which will run from Thursday, August 25th through Sunday August 28th.

BATTLEGROUND EUROPE is the ultimate PvP MMOG in a combined arms simulations set in a relentless, action-packed 3D environment. Players command and crew a variety of accurately modeled vehicles, naval vessels and aircraft or sling weapons and fight as a foot soldier with and against thousands of other players.

-- Thousands of players sharing a single world

-- First person perspective in all game play

-- Huge game world measuring more than 350,000 square miles

-- Character advancement and career paths for rich RPG layer

-- Strategic systems driven by player missions and command

-- Growing list of 90+ historically accurate weapons including aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, trucks, rifles, machine guns and more!

-- Groundbreaking physics and damage modeling

-- Localized in English, French, German, Spanish & Italian

More details about BATTLEGROUND EUROPE can be found at the official website: www.battleground-europe.com. Battleground Europe is scheduled for release across Europe on August 26th 2005.

PC System Requirements: WindowsXP, 1.2Ghz CPU (2.0GHz recommended), 512MB RAM (1GB recommended), 128MB video card (OpenGLv1.2 compliant, 256MB recommended), DirectSound compatible audio card, 56k modem with Internet connection (broadband recommended), USB Joystick (recommended).

Mac System Requirements: OSX 10.4 or higher, Apple Macintosh 1.2Ghz CPU or higher, 512MB RAM (1GB recommended), 128MB video card (OpenGLv1.2 compliant, 256MB recommended), DirectSound compatible audio card, 56k modem with Internet connection (broadband recommended), USB Joystick (recommended).

About GMX Media GMX Media is on track to become one of the world's leading publishers and distributors of video games for all consoles (Microsoft®, Nintendo®, Sega® and Sony®), personal computers (PCs), and Macintosh hardware, as well as all available interactive platforms. Headquartered in the UK with operations or partners in every major territory in the world.
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, August 04, 2005 0 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - Fairness .....Can we please get 10 round clips for rifles like the brits do ?
I suspect the Mod agrees with me, which is why he didn't edit my comment (that and someone else had said the same thing early on in the thread.



Battleground Europe Forums - Fairness .....Can we please get 10 round clips for rifles like the brits do ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottman
So I of course am now asking the question if it ok to adhere to historical ammo clips why is not ok to adher to historical accuracey


Well, seeing as the BEF rifle ort to have a quicker firing time than the K98,. and the K98 dosn't have a 10 round clip, youre aruging that the k98 be slowed down and/or the BEF rifle speeded up.

I for one, agree with that sentiment.

I also agree, you're a few rounds short of a clip.

[Do not make negative comments about other Forum participants in the future.--Mod]
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 0 comments

 
MMORPG Study - Main Page
MMORPG Study - Main Page

Go and do this survey. Tell your WW2OL fellow players to do it. We really need to increase our presence so he'll add WW2OL as a game and we don't have to be a write in candidate.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 02, 2005 3 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - Houffalize
Battleground Europe Forums - Houffalize

You failed to attack the enemy FB (and you could have used a Ju to drop sappers behind it).

You failed to get enough air support to destory the enemy tanks and eaisly idenfited and obvious locations.

You fauiled to defend the edge of town KNOWING an AO was on for 20 MINUTES before a table could be capped.

You failed to defend 2-5 depots.

You failed to defend 2 gates into the AB.

You failed to do a fallback which would have put you in a postion to at least bring up a counter attack force (granted, you may not have much armour to do so).

You failed to counter attack yourself AFTER the enemy took the town.

BY THE TIME THE BUNKER TABLE WAS UP, YOU HAD FULL SUPPLY. If you lost all the depots by the time you had 50% of the infantry spawn list, I'm sorry, it happens.



Camps HAPPEN. They don't magicaly appear because the enemy waved a magic wand or drew a +5 magic sword of panzer slayers.

Sometimes, you lose.


- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, August 02, 2005 0 comments