Beware the MOLE
Penny Arcade! - A Field With Virtually Unlimited Potential

Penny arcade posts a new urban legeand, though I'm not sure Mythbusters can bust it or confirm it.

We received the following from a young man who we will call "Mr. Smith."

(CW)TB

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill.

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 30, 2006 0 comments

 
Shermans march to the Rhur
Battleground Europe Forums - Place your bets on that French division here:




A french Divison got behind enemy lines, and proceeded to rob a bank of 16million dollers of gold bullion.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 28, 2006 0 comments

 
FREE TRIAL FROM JAN 27 to FEB 10
"Battleground Europe- WWII Online Promotions"

1. Matrix Games 14 Day Free Trial
Jan 27, 2006 Feb 10, 2006
A 14-day free, all-access trial of Battleground Europe.
Open to new users only.
Starts January 27th (approx 1700ET)
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 28, 2006 0 comments

 
Losing one sense for 3 days
Fgo the last 3 days, my ears were so completly blocked with wax, my volume control for that sense was at 50%. I could hear fine...just at 50% of normal.

I didn't lose a full sense, but regaining my hearing was a wounderful experience. Woah, indeed.

I can hear again. I can hear again.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 28, 2006 0 comments

 
We're in S.hergbiohcn in 12 hours
Um, WTD? I go play living games at arcancon...and this happens 12 hours after map starts!?!?!

We're in S.hergbiohcn in 12 hours


Joined: 18 Mar 2002
Posts: 902

New postPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:04 pm Post subject: Yo damn busters
Reply with quote

S hert french af for ya and i'm stock db7s as i type this : )<

- posted by Comstar @ Friday, January 27, 2006 0 comments

 
SCOOP!!! Dilbert works for CRS :)
Posted everywhere, might as well do it too.

Killer to KFS1 is my bet.

Battleground Europe Forums - SCOOP!!! Dilbert works for CRS :)



- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006 0 comments

 
My brillent idea to stop map rolls
Battleground Europe Forums - small reminder about campaign 26 ( from DOC) and perhaps the next ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mgallun
it would be nice if we could somehow stop these guys who switch sides and stuff..


CRS posted that only about 5% of people swapped sides.

The axis doubeled thier numbers from people who wern't playing. Allied numbers stayed constant (though, like you, I gave up after I saw 70+(!?) towns fall in 48 hours or so).

You either prevent people logging in (bad), increase numbers on the other side (only way I can see if add Americans, and CRS won't and can't do that until they can get an expansion or NA), or add leavers into the game so doubleing your sides numbers does NOT cause a map roll.


Increase supply timers, the faster you go, the longer it takes.
Increase table timers, the faster you go, the longer it takes.


Force lengthened supply lines to stretch....(once the axis get to gent, it takes hours to build a supply of the town you captured, not 40 minutes)...and snap (once you get to gent, if it's taken you less than a week from antwerp, you've moved too fast and you have NO supply).



Unfortunatly, CRS hasn't stated any plans on doing this...though I'm sure the're still trying to figure out away to prevent the TigerShock from occuring again. We've only been waiting since Campgain #1, so I'm sure they have time...
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 24, 2006 0 comments

 
I think Doc says the word "numbers" more often than there are Tiger threads.
Battleground Europe Forums - Can we put the myth of "Axis were rolled" to bed ...

DOC
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 8,671
Re: Can we put the myth of "Axis were rolled" to bed ...

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DOC
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 8,671
Re: Can we put the myth of "Axis were rolled" to bed ...

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No Pirate, you are wrong on that score. What happened from Saturday night to today ... and the 70 towns or whatever the total now is, was completely the numbers that logged in from the minute the imbalance arrived (timed to match the tiger introduction) and nothing else at all.

I was watching the numbers at the time, it was a record high population and it was 2:1 (a little higher actually) in favour of the Axis, and it stayed that way until Monday morning, where it sat at about 1.5:1 fluctuating a little around there, ballooning occassionally.

The Allies couldn't "roll you" no matter ehat was in their spawn list because they never outnumbered you. It isn't equipment. Equipment can sometimes make a differance but only if it is in conjeuction with a NUMBERS ADVANTAGE.

Don't decieve yourself. If the numbers had remained in the 10% window around "even" that it generally fluctuates to both sides around ... we would not have seen what we saw happen. It was entirely numbers, and if the Tiger brought those numbers, it was still the numbers and not the Tiger. The Tiger is there now, the numbers are much more even, and the Allies can even grab some towns back.

It was the numbers, nothing else. The Tiger may be blamed by some, as the previous 3 weeks of "holding the line" is by some (while never outnumbered which is the important thing to remember, the Allies did not outnumber you at all, in fact, you outnumbered them marginally for more of that period than they did you) ... it ws pretty even numbers wise. I bet if they had 2:1 numbers advantage during the "holding the line" period everyone speaks of, you'd have lost your factories in 2 days flat.

It was numbers. If we fix that, with the new RDP, the problem is largely gone and solved. Indirectly you can point at all sorts of things that are being claimed. Directly, whatever side issue you raise, it was numbers. Without the numbers we saw (and were suprised at how large it was, yes, although a spike was expected, this was no mere spike) ... without those numbers the side issue of Tigers, 88's, "holding the line heroically" ... whatever you choose to believe really ... without those 2:1 numbers what we saw would not have happened in spite of whatever else is being indirectly blamed as a cause of this last 3 days of this campaign.

It was the numbers that were the problem, everything else comes under regular strategic campaign play and would have been acceptable and not a problem ...all part of the game that was going very well for awhile there.

Numbers seem more normal now maybe it will settle back into a long camapign again. We can only hope.

People naturally want to feel that they were rightful in being a part of what happened. Good grief, we're not blaming anybody, nobody did anything wrong !! We're just identifying a problem we need to solve, and we will solve it, and we hope it prevents the same kind of thing from happening again.

If you need to fight back and defend yourself for being Axis during that time, you're getting off entirely on the wrong foot. You weren't wrong to login and play Axis, we were wrong to allow such a huge spkie to influence a camapign so negatively. We just had no idea it could be THAT big a spike for THAT long a time.

The only thing wrong you could do now is deny it was a bad result for the game and claim it doesn't need to be fixed. You don't have to justify anything. Somebody giving you a hard time over it ? If you stop defending it and trying to justify why it doesn't need to change they'll stop attacking you for it. Well, some might not, but learn from us here that endure this daily.

Ignore the mindless ones. Don't join them.

The only reason it's going to change is it is bad for the game. That's the only reason we change anything, because something is bad for the game or something we add makes the game better. You don't have to take it as a personal attack on your integrity or character, unless somewhere deep inside you know you lack either or both. Then that's your problem not anybody elses.

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 18, 2006 0 comments

 
Doc does some swinehearding
Trolls dignifies them too much. I think I'll call them swine. Axis idiots who claim the allies had a number inbalance, or that the allies "rolled" the map for 3 weeks.

Battleground Europe Forums - Can we put the myth of "Axis were rolled" to bed ...

DOC
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 8,671
Re: Can we put the myth of "Axis were rolled" to bed ...

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No, they are pretty much right.

1) Numbers were astonishingly even for the entire 3 weeks. No land mass was taken or retaken at anthing but the same average pace for that time, barring salients or "punch through the lines" moves that were, in 100% of cases, cut off and restored.

2) While the Allies had an RDP advantage in terms of tiers for about 10 days, they had ZERO numbers advantage during that entire time. An RDP advantage in equipment type or number is fairly irrelevant when claiming "unbalanced" without the extra numbers to man that equipment. A division of 1000 tanks and manned by 3 players is going to lose to a attack by 7 players employing a division of 20 tanks.

3) While it is only 5 tigers, having double the number of your opponent as infantry, other tanks, ATGs and aircraft ... manning attacks and capture with far more attackers than the enemy can shoot (2:1 odds will do that) it doesn't matter if they have a million tanks, the same tanks respawned die as they try to get back to the fight in which the last tank they had was killed. The only way "superior numbers" of equipment generally win is if the differance in players logged in is not great and you can employ atrtririon with parity in players and excess inferior equipment (tough but doable) or you have superior numbers of players who can overwhelm the superior equipment of a smaller force with numbers but simultaneously, not in serial spawning, but at the same time. Superior amounts of equipment cannot have any advantage with even or inferior numbers of players to man it. Only excees player numbers over your opponent allows that method to work.

4) there was never any Allied overall advantage at any point in the first 3 weeks, barring the first weekend where most of that slight advantage (for 2 days) was regained at a different time of the day with the exception of about 5%. We don't need to make this up, we don't even care to, we actually know the numbers guys. Nothing remotely similar to the last 3 days and if you don't believe it then you ARE delusional.

Look this isn't a "bad Axis, make them look bad" post. It's only here for the following reasons:-

1) There's a lot of BS in this and other threads and we're not the ones generating it. What I'm telling you are facts that everyone needs to know if they care at all about the facts, and only the facts will ensure the game you love doesn't just go away through unsustainable gameplay.

2) Some people seem to think that what we have just witnessed is ok for the game. Well it's not, and we will make it go away if at all possible. Not the winning, not the ability to create an advantage, those are things we put INTO the game, even in some instances where players might not have liked to see some of the tools for that made possible in game. If you think we want to stop you winning, that's a very stupid perspective to hang onto. There are degrees of winning and the numbers advantage witnessed these last 3 days is not one we wish to allow to remain possible. If we were to let that remain unchanged, you would lose the very game you claim to want to play, there would be no one to play against.

3) It doesn't matter which side you choose what toys you want to play. We don't want to see the game go away just because somebody doesn't care how badly winning like this can ruin the game, you might be a winner today but it's like suicide as a way out. Yeah, it solves your problems but you have to stop living to solve them. Dropping a bomb on your enemies base will see you a winner of sorts, but if you're killed by that very bomb well you didn't win very much.

You can get bent over a post liike this, and you can call it all a lie. It doesn't really matter ... it's only here to inform. You may as well know the truth or as much of it as we can tell you. Nobody said it would be pretty. The forums are generally an ugly place anyway ... I don't really care to get all dressed up to come here. If your first reaction is to find any retort you can muster, then you just can't afford to deal with the facts, which is ok ... most people in the world can't deal with it any better than that either.

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 18, 2006 0 comments

 
Why we went from Massiekto Gent in 2 days
You could have nothing but rifelman in your spawn list, if the numberes double, you're enemy is doomed.

Battleground Europe Forums - DOC - Tiger RDP needs to be *very* expensive next map

DOC
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Posts: 8,639
Re: DOC - Tiger RDP needs to be *very* expensive next map

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The main cause was Axis player numbers doubled on Sunday, and carried well from there. If numbers had not DOUBLED on one side I'm sure even 5 Tigers would have been somewhat containable but it wasn't the numbers of Tigers, it's the number of players, period, full stop, that they brought with them.

We know it, we tracked it, and while we knew there would be a spike, we did not predict so high a spike, nor that it would carry so well. Had it been more moderate, things would not have turned out so badly for the Allies.

There was little available to contain it because it was so large and happened so fast. We have some things that may help this in the future, but other developments will probably fix it before then to a large extent anyway.

There has never been a spike even remotely close to what we just witnessed, not for the PzKw.IIIh at any time, ever, not the Fw190, not the Churchill VII, not for anything previous, ever.

A 100% increase of Axis players over the day previous, and NOT sideswitchers which make up about 5% of players ... was quite unprecedented. We do have to guard against that ever happening again in the future, yes, but there can never be a permanently equal all the time player population. Some fluctuation (as witnessed by the previous 3 weeks of this campaign) is fine ... and we are be looking at workable options to stop it from becoming anything truly overwhelming such as we just witnessed, as part of our on going development changes to the game.

As a side bar note: the more generous numbers of things that have a high impact on equipment ability will be a lot more contained (on both sides) in the next version of RDP, because for the most part, it was built out of what we learned from the old RDP. That's what evolution is all about.

- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 17, 2006 0 comments

 
Attention all ALLIED armor units
LOL. As good as explanation as any.

last night we were at Brussels. Today were at Avelgam,. 3 towns BEHIND Gent.

Battleground Europe Forums - Attention all ALLIED armor units


merlin51
PLAYER SUPPORT CORPS
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: HURRICANE FL Not a member of Cornered Rat Software
Posts: 12,600

Attention all ALLIED armor units

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Operation subterfuge is not going as intended.

THe purpose of wearing axis tanker uniforms was to STEAL thier tigers and DELIVER them to allied bases for use AGAINST the axis, NOT to enagage fellow allied armor!

So in light of this, please return all tigers to thier respective axis owners and report back to your bases for reassignment.
Operation subterfuge is thus cancelled.

That is all.

- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 17, 2006 0 comments

 
Map update:
Battleground Europe Forums - Excellent Campaign till now.

42 towns have fallen in the past 24 hours.

Also Doc posted that they know its a problem...and that the RDP changes will fix it. I'm dubious...but we'll see.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 16, 2006 1 comments

 
Maps Over. Rolling has began. We were at Leige Yesterday. Today we're at Brussels
Battleground Europe Forums - Excellent Campaign till now.




My predicton that we would see the numbers inbalance to end all inbalances has been proved right, unfortunalty.

Horse was right, yet again. Dammit. It *was* a good map.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 16, 2006 0 comments

 
BEF snipers wait for targets
British Snipers wait to move up closer. 

This is some town from 3 days ago, can't rembemer which once...mabye Achel? 
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Armour moves into town
Friendly armour moves past the depot. Behind the Churchill, an A13 has had its turrent blown off. 
 
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Defending the Depot
Holding the depot. Looking towards St Trudien town proper. 
 
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Following the armour attack, we captured the Tienein-St Trudien depot 
 
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Assault on ST T, yesterday
Allied armour moves out from the Tienin-St Trudien Forward Base 
 

Allied armour forms up at rally point 1 kilometer from St Trudien  
 
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Tiger...Before and After
 


 
 

This is the 2nd misson listed below. As I tried to get a pic of its engine buring, another tiger beyond it got me.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Tiger Tiger bruning bright
Both were engine kills, but a kill is a kill.
1st Tiger kill

KILLED OPPONENT PERSONA ORIGIN UNIT K C T
Jan 14 22:52 Capt Jikal DE Army Tongeren Sniper 5 0 27
Jan 14 22:54 2nd Lt Killum DE Army Tongeren Tiger 13 0 34
2nd sortie

Jan 14 22:56 Capt Juris DE Army Bilzen Tiger 7 0 22
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Now witness the firepower of the fully operational battle station!"
Battleground Europe Forums - if the allies arent scared.........

The text bubble says "Now witness the firepower of the fully operational battle station!"

5 Tigers in the spawn list. See you all in Antwerp by Monday?


- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 15, 2006 0 comments

 
Herculean effort by Comstar
Funny thing is, I don't rembember this.


WORLD@WAR
Herculean effort by Comstar
in Clash of Armour!

In an clash of machines lasting up to 32 minutes Comstar engaged at least 4 German units while moving through the frontlines. During this this harrowing tank versus tank confrontation Comstar killed 4 and reports afterwards say he was posted as Missing in Action

Officials of the British Armoured Command said today that this kind of heroic effort and skilled combat remains an example to all soldiers on the battlefield as they steel their esolve to move forwards to victory.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 14, 2006 0 comments

 
The best thing that would ever happen to this game - Free rifleman accounts.
Battleground Europe Forums - The best thing that would ever happen to this game - Free rifleman accounts.


RAFTER
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Don't ask about combat all I did was brain an npc with a butt where his mouth's supposed to be
Posts: 8,187
Re: The best thing that would ever happen to this game - Free rifleman accounts.

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Here are some thought that have come about in different meetings we've had. We came closer to pulling the trigger on this idea than ever before when the BE box went out in Europe but the publisher was concerned that all the rules attached to the "free" account might be difficult to explain.

*********************************
GOALS (no particular order) ...
- Provide additional infantry to gameplay
- Provide a side balancing tool as needed
- Provide a new way to introduce the game to potential subscribers
- Provide a P.R. tool to promote the game

CONCERNS (no particular order) ...
- Retaining goodwill with current subscribers
- Minimize premium subscriber loss to "free" accounts
- Make gameplay compelling for "free" infantry
- Minimize griefing
- Minimize game exploiting

"FREE" INFANTRY FEATURE IDEAS (No particular order) ...
- Limited game access;
Auto side balance (auto spawn to side with fewer numbers)
Server cap on number of "free" account logins
Max number of logins per month
- Reduced loadout (rifle only, low ammo)
- Auto-assigned gamename
- UI spam ("signup now!" messages)
- Identifiable game tag
- No rank gain
- No squad affilliation
- No forum access
- No CS&R stats
- Credit card required to create "free" account

*********************************

Please don't read this list as anything defintive or something we're ready to act upon. This is simply a discussion.

At one stroke you fix the numbers inbalance problem, get more people interested in the game, get more infantry, and allow them to multicrew, more multicrewed tanks and bombers and ships!

Give them less rounds, but allow everything else (they should keep the ability to supply each other).

Give them less stamina (the're representing conscipts after all, and paying to be a rifleman gets you obvious benifits).

Give them a single fourm access to ask questions/get recurited/tell YOU what they think of the game.

Limit the amount that can spawn from the spawn list, so they don't effect the paying players spawn lists directly (estially, a seperate rifleman conscript spawn list that is inderpendendt of the normal rifleman spawn list). That way they won't and can't waste normal supply getting killed a lot more often than everyone else.

While they don't get CSR, keep track of thier kills. If they pay for the game, and they have enough kills, they dont have to go back to being a recruit again, but can go to rank 2 immiadtly.


The benifts this would give the game would be huge. Do it. Do it as soon as you can. As they're still be keyed to a CC card, they still agree to the TOS and can be banned if they start abusing the privalge.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 14, 2006 0 comments

 
We have too many officers dammit
The 'reserve officer pool' now consists of:

Killufoo
Jamm40 (Jamm has accepted an RAF billet but will join 4 BDE as soon as posting comes available)
Grunt768
KC23
Comstar
Tomba

Good grief. We must be the ONLY brigade in the entire WW2OL that has a backlog of officers waiting to join it.

At this rate we'll have TOEs before I get HC access. Oh well. I dont do navy, I dont fly much, and I can't very much join another briagde. So I'll have to wait.



Note to future self: Am I still waiting?
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 14, 2006 3 comments

 
Black Watch -Allied Fightback
Battleground Europe Forums - Black Watch -Allied Fightback

bundyrum
Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Somewhere over an Axis factory
Posts: 1,449
Black Watch -Allied Fightback

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***Warning -two scenes in this feature what some may find disturbing -The rest is some historical images of ww2.**** The Tiger does not concern us this map - we welcome the Tiger to the game and look forward to killing all who spawn her.

Right click and save movie here. I think Ive blogged this before but its bascialy a video showing off a LOT of panzer pawning photos. One shows whats left of a tiger after it;s hit by 15" or 16" shells from a battleship. Another one has a turrent stuck in a trees branches.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 14, 2006 0 comments

 
WWII Online- Cornered Rat Software/Playnet.com
Gunnie usually posts this in HIS blog, but this is the news for the next what....3-4 months?

WWII Online- Cornered Rat Software/Playnet.com

INFANTRY STRIKE TEAM
CRS DEV PLAN TO OVERHAUL INFANTRY PLAY

As you are no doubt aware, the dev team has had their sights on an infantry overhaul for a long time. Other priorities and limited resources have allowed us to only chip away at some of the improvements needed, however the feedback from the community remained loud and clear... "We want upgraded infantry play!" We're listening.

We've put together an infantry strike team made up of 3 coders and 1 artist (KFS1, Codec, RickB and Toto) who are dedicated 100% to this project for the duration along with several other key people who play a support role. This represents over 50% of our available dev resources.

Models, Textures & more
The core of the FPS redo we've been working on is a replacement of the arms, hands and weapons that make up the view from first person. This starts with a completely new skeleton underneath. The new skeleton has more joints incorporated in order for us to deliver a more lifelike range of motion. On top of the skeleton we are adding new geometry with a much higher polygon count for each country's Infantry, Paratroop, Officer and Commander avatar. Coupled with a high resolution texture, these new first person avatars will be much more realistic and detailed than our current models.

In the past several updates we have upgraded several of our weapon models and will complete the weapon set redo with higher polygon models and higher resolution textures when we deliver the first person redo.

Animations
With the new skeleton will come a huge library of new animations. Instead of taking the old aim, reload, jog, deploy, throw and place animations we've used in the past we will be making all new replacement animations to make use of the more detailed skeleton we have. The result will be more fluid and life like animations in all first person avatar actions.

Prone / Deploy / Head Shake Code
In addition to improving the animations in first person we are currently at work on addressing the issues that make your avatar shake his head no when you try and do things such as go prone. We've reworked the collider and going prone is now much easier on inclines and around trees. The basic head shake is still present when you absolutely cannot do something from where you are, .like standing up under a table, but we are working to make the head shake not lock you into the animation so that while the feedback is still there, you can interrupt the feedback to continue with other actions.

Deploy is also getting a revisit and we are starting with making it faster to deploy and un-deploy your Anti-Tank Rifles and Light Machine Guns. We have some further discussion to do about even greater changes to this functionality as we mentioned in the Barrack Community Liaison report last week. We'd certainly like you feedback on ideas for further changes to deploy for infantry.

Prediction / Smoothing Code & more
Outside of first person we have several other improvements in the works. Infantry warping is a primary concern and we will be implementing an entirely new smoothing and predicting system to make the infantry you see in the world move and change position and direction without skipping, jerking or sliding. This client side smoothing will then be coupled with an improved update system that will allow for better transmission of data about the infantry and vehicles you see and will also help to improve the biasing system we have that determines who and how many other players you see.

Effects
Finally the dreaded red screen is seeing its demise. The effect for pain and pilot red out will still exist but it will be much more realistic, giving players a tunnel vision effect without instantly rendering their view unusable. Death and blackout also benefit from these new changes and infantry in particular will have a completely new, fall down dead view from first person. While we we're there we've decided to look at adding more visual feedback to the first person view with things like concussive effects, hearing loss and ears ringing effects.

Continue reading our weekly newsletters for more details on specific features and progress towards a release. Gophur will also be providing more information in his Production Notes.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 14, 2006 0 comments

 
BEF unit insignias
Allied Headquarters :: View topic - BEF unit insignias

I'd like to see the French and Axis ones too.


- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 11, 2006 0 comments

 
Someone updated the wiki WW2OL page
World War II Online - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's been updated, by eggyesrun I think, but still completly uncomplete. Really needs a WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE GAME, from the green tager up to HC players.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 10, 2006 0 comments

 
Create an e-annoyance, go to jail | Perspectives | CNET News.com
It is now illegel in the USA to flame someone

It's illegal to annoy
A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

Me, I'm not in the US, but I wounder who's going to be the first to snitch to the feds about a perceived flame.

From what I read in the report, if you put your FULL name in your contact details..you're ok.


Me, I'm jist waiting for Boog at Corpnews to post something stupid, and then I hope someone nails him to the wall. I expect my Off topic thread will be nuked shotly. I hope yello1 starts sending info to the FBI MWHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 10, 2006 0 comments

 
HMS Death Star
With all the posters in that thread, I'm glad someone else did a WW2OL based pic

Battleground Europe Forums - Create your own motivational Posters

tailgunr
Member
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Springfield, Massachusetts
Posts: 7,065
Re: Create your own motivational Posters

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I'm going to walk the plank for this one.

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 09, 2006 0 comments

 
GeorgH's blog
GeorgH's blog

Another WW2OL players blog...not updated since Dec 3rd though.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 08, 2006 0 comments

 
AO Yatzee on Friday night?
Allied Headquarters :: View topic - AO Yatzee on Friday night?

Well, Ersel was...not explained to me much either.

We were going UP in AO numbers, not down. Granted we didn't have infantry in town anymore, but we DID have armour on the edge of town (about 10 tanks or so, within 2km of the western side). My MSPS were getting killed, but I think my next deploymenty would hagve got more inf in town, because the lead tanks were 200m away from the western depot, and the panzers were all reported dead.

Then the axis attacked lommel....and there was some discussion of if the AO should be lifted from ersel on channel 6...not because we NEEDED the AO (though it might have been useful to recapping Walsjiwk or Osterhout which were empty of enemy briagdes), but because it was thought "oh the axis outnumbered us, therefore we need to defend".

And then the AO was lifted, without anyone saying it was going to happen on the briagde on objective channel, or to me directly (and I had been listed as the inital OiC on the .allied). And that was that, I told everyone on my misson and obejective to stop attacking, the attack was over.

Amusingly enough, we lost the lommel bunker 5 minutes later because presuably no one was guarding it (we had all flags but the north one). I'd gone up to defend the Boxtel-Tilberg FB (as tilburg had an AO on it and it had the 1sdt Div HQ in it byitself).

End lesson: If you're going to remove the AO on a town, YOU (whoever in the HC wants to remove it) needs to SPAWN IN on the objective channel and YELL IN CAPS what you're going to do, and WHY you're going to do it. Or at least make sure somebody else does BEFORE YOU REMOVE THE AO. People finding out by getting the info message that the AO is being lifted when there in a tank 200m from town is not a good thing to do. And we had a lot of people spawned in at the time.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 08, 2006 0 comments

 
Being creative
Note to future self: you just went through one of those "creative" periods when you get the urge to try and do something you're not very good at: like draw a webcomic, write a 6 month D&D adventure, make a WW2OL movie or redesign this blog.

Unfortunaly after staying awake till 7am, all you have accoplihsed is the 4 crappy posters below.


Thats a George W Bush MISSON ACCOPLISHED.


Still, found a few more rarly-updated-but-well-drawn webcomics to add to my daily reading.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 07, 2006 0 comments

 
Camping the boxtel Vechile spawn and RDP bombing
Boxtel garage, 3-4 maps ago I think.




One of the bombing raids (way before the Tiger came in, 1st map RDP came in I think)


- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 07, 2006 0 comments

 
More allied motervation
An old pic I can't rembember where it was taken, pre 1.19 at any rate. Note the last line in the text box.


- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 07, 2006 0 comments

 
I drove a DD from willimstead...


I don't rembemer the thread itself, just that it was silly
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, January 07, 2006 0 comments

 
Motivator: Inspire! Motivate! Mock!
Motivator: Inspire! Motivate! Mock!



The
OT thread hasn't really done ANY WW2OL topic ones, beyond some lame self self referintioal ones, and one cruel joke at CRSs expennce.

I'd hope SOMEONE does some ongametopic ones!


Edit! Apperntly if you have a Yahoo account you have a flicker account!


- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 04, 2006 0 comments

 
3rd time unlucky for the 33rd?
Battleground Europe Forums - 3rd time unlucky for the 33rd?



CRS ort to have a compition and prize for the divison routed most often.
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, January 04, 2006 0 comments

 
Memoirs of an AHC officer
Memoirs of an AHC officer

Another WW2OL blog, JUST started. I'll add it to my list if he keeps it up to date somewhat.

All the AHC officers running blogs, about 4 of us now. Pity the GHC dosn't have any :(
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 03, 2006 0 comments

 
Legostar Galactica version 3.0 This made me laugh today
Legostar Galactica version 3.0 - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 made me laugh today. A small, very D&D joke. But a good joke, as old as the hills, or at least 1990.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, January 03, 2006 0 comments

 
Whats your infantry dream?
Battleground Europe Forums - Whats your infantry dream?

....looking down the sights of my Sten SMG waiting to give the order to fire over in game voice comms tied to the spawned in squad/battalion/divison to my squad of Australian infantry at a squad of german infantry in camoed gear armed with Automatic rifles moving down the dark and shadowy streets in a howling real time rainstorm with the beams of searchlights playing in the heavens above as Lancaster bombers rain 10 ton bombs down onto a defined front line of trenches and minefields and barbed wire and mud while 10000 Chinese gold farmers work tirelesely to make the armountents and shells for a front line of 250,000 soliders that goes from the Arctic to the Qatra Depression...


And ragdoll phyics.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 2 comments

 
Things I would wish to automate
Battleground Europe Forums - Things I would wish to automate


After reading http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/laws.shtml (Raph Kosters rules for MMOGs) I had a thought: What things in WW2OL would I like to automate?

Automatic supply ordering: Theres a Tiger at the Div (and later this year, Corps/factory) HQ, but I don't want to have to drive it myself all the way from 1-5 (or for factory to corps drive up to 20-50!) towns back. So I would like to place an "order" for 1 Tiger. I go to the Div HQ, and find the automatic autosupply misson. I place an order for 1 Tiger. As soon as I get to the head of the queue (and a Tiger is avilable, normal 4 hour supply rules apply etc), an AI BOT autodrives it down the road, from the Div HQ, to my Brigade (which the game already knows about).

This gives those people who want to do supply cut off something to do too. The Bot will not fire back, just drive down the road to it's destination.

If it gets destroyed, I get told about it the next time I despawn, and a rough indication on where it was destroyed (it's last "reported" postion) and a rough indication on what caused it (air, naval, sea, the bridge was out, the town is now enemy owned).

Once it arrives, I get a message next time I despawn saying it's avilable. If I don't go and get it, it will be put in the general supply pool for anyone else to use.

To limit this, make it apply to ONLY the brigade you have "signed up for this campgain". This gives people a perk to play in one brigade, but not an overwelming one.


Around this point, a RAT will show up and say that the've got way too many things on thier plate as is, all new features are planned out already for the next 5 years, and the've already thought of 10 differnet reasons why this idea won't work.

But I'd like to see it, one day.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 0 comments

 
Old ATI drivers give you Predator vision
This is what happens if you use default ATI drivers.

Battleground Europe Forums - long time gone and thinking bout coming back, but for one thing....help!



- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 0 comments

 
.status
Battleground Europe Forums - .status


klesh
Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Posts: 2,387
.status

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

or /status

Whichever you prefer. This is a new and handy little command for the everyday player. Click on and FB on the map, and enter this command. The results are given for each the vehicle and infantry spawns respectively, in percantage form. Its great for active missionleaders to use when directing the assult from the Opel. Its also pretty good for the lone sapper-to-Fb runs which I make often, now you know for yourself "What needs charges?".

Dig the new command. Use it!

I had no idea such a command existed.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 0 comments

 
Clearly 109 20mm are nurfed...
I give the movie about 6/10, but it's quite dramtic how the allied planes just distergrate when hit by well aimed and will piloted 20mm cannon fire.

Battleground Europe Forums - ****MOVIE - Dweeb Hunter****

Zacast
Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Cooper City, Florida
Posts: 8,807
****MOVIE - Dweeb Hunter****

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

Hello Hangerites!

I've finally finished my first real movie. Consider it my New Years gift to the hanger =P I hope you enjoy it.

Pump up the volume and enjoy..... Dweeb Hunter!

Right click and save

Have a Happy New Year, guys!

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 0 comments

 
WoW does some things way better
The internet is for Porn

Dancing for example. With Toto not working at CRS anymore, I doub't well ever get dancing steps as good as this for a long long time. Not much you can do with /salute, /cheer, /laugh and /gyruss.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, January 02, 2006 0 comments

 
Stalingrad on the Meuse
Battleground Europe Forums - German 33 Infantry division / About to be destroyed

The problem wasn't Bouiltt, it was Hanut and they got greedy.

With a british Brigade in waremme, the oppotunity was obvious: destory St Trudien from 2 directions, using 3 AB's worth. If it fails, you can always hit Waremme with 5 5AB's and break out. And it's not like Huy would fall, it's been under attack for days, AND the bridge is out (and stayed down for the enitirty of the battle.

Unfortunaly the axis attack was done on both Waremme AND St T. St T was the main attack, but important rescources were increasingly drawm to Waremme (which had started as a low cost paratroop attack). Much like Stalingrad, instead of concentrating at the decisve point (the Caususes and the oil fields) more and more units were drawn to Waremme.

When the french counter attack NORTH of the river hit Huy the GHC probably wasn't that worried, after all, Huy had withstood attacks before, and the important bridge that gave the only vialble attack from the FB was down, and could be kept down by the Luftwaffe. So long as the Luft keep control of the air over Huy, the attack on St T would be uneffected. Moreover, reinforcments could easily be drawn from Bouiltt.

Unfortunaly for the 33rd infantry divison, the French attack on Huy had a LOT of people involved, and as the attack was from the NORTH bank, and not the south, the Luftwaffe wasn't that important.

Once Huy was captured, the 33rd infantry's divison fate was sealed. Desperate counter attacks on both Waremme and St Truiden continued, but gradully lesseoned in scale. Eventually St Trudien was liberated, and the GHC faced reality: the fight was over. The AO was lifted from ST T about 5 minutes later, and the division was left to it's fate. Hannut fell failry quickly, though Bouilttt fell only after large amounts of French armour arrived from Huy after 40 minutes or so.


The paralells to Stalingrad are remarkable
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 01, 2006 0 comments

 
Name three factors......that could be major steps forward for WWIIOL.
We'll see this time next year eh.

Battleground Europe Forums - Name three factors...


Server Tracked Objects (which gives you a LOT of things, bouncing grenades, artiallry, fire and forget /MSPs aka non-static spawn locations, minefields, hulks on the battlefield which THEN gives us the ability to bail). From KFS1's blog, I expect we'll have some of those by this time next year.

ToE's. Actually I don't think it'll have THAT much of effect. But we'll have it this year.

Weather. No other concept would change WW2OL so much. Stratagic, operational, tactical, graphical, gameplay etc etc. Not going to be seen to Terrien II at the earliest, and probably 3+ years away.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, January 01, 2006 0 comments