Mercenaries Guild

So D*S has a "dueling" server that they've struggled to get near the top of the list. Seriously, a "dueling" server. In protest of all the stupid list spamming, and being a server operator who truly does not care if people know of my server, I have lodged my protest by changing my server's name to all boxes in the hopes that more will follow suit and maybe we will get this nonsense stopped. R1CH had/has a fix for it for the master server and while we had some fun with it when it was first released, most of us were ultimately glad it happened. Sadly, the change was short lived as the dev's decided to move the master server.

 

All unknown players have NO PERMISSIONS >:) and level 4 admins and up are hidden, so }MG{ members can show up as whoever they want! Take no offense at my nasty little MOTD though, I was being cranky!

 

I still need to add more boxes though, R1CH is protesting the same way I hear, and I have to make it so his server stays up top! :D

 Edit: Success!  I've added some characters so the server is second in line, just below R1CH's!  Yay!  I've half tempted to go all atcs with something like 20 BP :P but nah, I don't want to turn people off to tremulous (though I should change my motd to avoid that!)

The "popular" servers really have gone downhill.  I said they had gone downhill berfore but wows! I join SST tonight (other servers were full or empty) and it's a 4v4, with 260BP mind you. Ug, what a pointless waste of time. Who was it who said that they play to fight people, not bases?

So I go and join DretchStorm, right into "Rampage", or as I call it, Campage. I join aliens and find I can't even spawn. From previous experience I know that Rampage is 10-15 minutes of waiting around with my finger up my ass, even if I'm in the game. Noone does anything cause noone wants to die. Ug. I've seen some pretty good matches there brought to a complete halt by Rampage Mode.

Off to TJWs where there is a good, even match going on. I didn't want to unbalance it though. A good match can be hard to find sometimes, so take care not to hurt someone elses good match :)

Back to DretchStorm, where I realize (after questioning what I'm doing for quite some time) that only admins can use public chat. I can still hit t and say things but it will only broadcast to teams. I'm really starting to dislike this server.

Throw in a couple kill whores and it's no fun.

I then move on to Battle for Wesnoth, where I don't have to get worked up over silly server configs and/or being treated like a second class citizen for playing on someone's server.

I really can't wait for Tremulous 1.2, when servers will be set to a baseline.

 In the last couple days I have seen some of the worst builders I've seen in a long time.  Not just the brand spanking new put hive and trappers on the floor to block any stray humans from walking in type bad building either.  I'm talking the use every available bp to build eggs (with one acid each) all around the human base.  Aparently someone thinks the humans need more money!

Then there's s11.  For the love of all that is holy, if you ever want to pwn noobs to pass the time, go to s11.  I am certainly not the best player and I regularly dominate that server, having 20 kills or more than anyone else on the teams.  I love being accused of hax!  But then I find myself bored again.

 Of course, s11 lost the helm of the noobist server when sup came along!  What is sup server you may ask?  Its the top of the server list without a name but showing all boxes.  When you connect, the MOTD says nothing other than "Sup".  There is no share or donate, no !listplayers, !admintest, or any other command that would indicate it's not a stock tremulous 1.1.0 build.  I haven't tried any of the stock 1.1.0 exploits, though it seems like a good time to try the battlesuit bug!  Think of groups of naked humans who move slowly and can't aim and are unafraid of the tyrants they call when they constantly run out to do battle with the 3 goons waiting just outside the door.

Sadly, all these servers have a core of good, somewhat experienced players who speak as if they are the wise men of the town, which I have to admit is at least partly true. Though they make the matches interesting, they can at times be the most annoying.  So used to being surrounded by idiots, they are quick to assume that you are one too.  Many of these people are admins on their respective servers and rarely play elsewhere, it ever, and so aren't exposed to different tactics as quickly as some of us who seek out new servers to explore.  :)

 

It occurs to me that while share and donate may cause people to take longer to learn tremulous, it can also speed up matches. A team that is slightly better will distribute their winnings, increasing their capabilities at ever increasing rates (as they use their increased capabilities to gain more resources to distribute.) Rates that would surpass the lesser team. All of this would be accelerated. I don't like that so many games end after SD. SD has always seemed to me to be an artifitial time limit impossed when a game cannot be won by either side.  Unfortunately, most public matches seem to end in SD as the aliens wait for SD before they start the base destruction.

    Last night a played a bunch of good matches on the MG MercenariesGuild server.  Ironically, I think I also played more beta maps than I ever did when it was the Beta Server!  It was a great deal of fun and I am very greatful that it happened.  It's very refreshing to see that there are a lot of people who just like a good game.

    I have a tendency to want to wander.  In all things. I will learn about it and then wander off into the wilds.  Sometimes it's a great thing, I'll find something new or find a little used path to an interesting place.  Sometimes I get lost though, and can't find my way home.  The first time I got (literally) lost I was 4.  My parents found me about a mile from home, pretty far for a 4 year old.  I am like this in all things.

      I'm pretty sure I wandered from the good servers, the MG servers, the other clan servers.  I even wandered from myself, which is a strange though common occurence for me :)  I used SpiritHawk or Cranky Franky or, one of my favorites, "a proverb".  Tuple was gunned down by a proverb still makes me chuckle. :)

      I think I looked for mindless fun.  Noone begging for recs, scrims, etc.  As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side.  Uh, in this instance, it's not :)  I really missed playing with the other members and the server regulars.

    The larger public servers have become a cesspool anymore, sadly.  Oh for the days of playing on the big server, AKKA.  The fun thing then was that there was 1 or 2 servers that were always busy.  16 slot servers actually, AKKA may actually have been an 18 slot server at the time.  You could ALWAYS count on just about every match being fun and challenging with a good mix of us noobs learning the ropes and the old guard showing us the ropes.  This is what the clan servers feel like to me, Old school tremulous! (Old school for me anyways :) )  I certainly am glad that it still exists.

    Last nights games did bring something to mind though, I need to update the server!   I've gotten SVN 894 as well as Vcxzet's backport patch, so I think I may load that up and see how it does.  Some of the "add ons" appeal to me and I would like to have the option of enabling them, but generally I wouldn't have them on.  I guess maybe I'm a bit of a purist in that way, though some may say prude :P

    Some of them affect how the game is played in unforseen ways in my opinion. 

    For example, share and donate.  If I am a great player, I will be donating/sharing evols/money with my team to help them advance more quickly so that we can win.  However, I am also less likely to help my teamates to improve there gameplay so that they can get more evols/money since my suggestions are not likely to help significantly on any particular match, at least not as much as my focusing on getting more money/evols to share.

    If I am a poor to mediocre player I can count on the superstars to donate/share at least some and my motivation to seek out ways to get them will be slightly less if not a great deal less.  I will definitely improve in the begging category though :)

 

Anyways, enough for now, back to work!! 

    UG!  Good players looking to do nothing but pwn noobs.  Knockback that launches dretches so far that you can't even move around larger aliens.  Layouts that change per map, but are silly and put nodes all over or start everyone without reactor/om, not to mention 12 version of ATCS with different layouts!

    Lots of other things are driving me crazy about them.  It used to be that you could always find a good, straightforward match.  Recently though, it seems the  novelty servers are the rule.  It doesn't help that some of the more experienced players seem to be out of control, caring more for showing how l33t they are than actually playing a good game.

      Playing ATCS yesterday.  S1 aliens against S3 humans.  I am dretching a bsuit'd lucy who just runs up and down the halls killing dretches, then runs back to base to heal up/buy ammo.  WTF?  Aliens had 1 goon!!  1!!!  4-5 jetpackers in the center section just taking pot shots at dretches and the lone goon.  The bsuit in the hall occasionally went into base, occasionally.  Give me a pulse and I coulda taken out the entire alien base but they are screwing around deathmatch style.  Give me a break, I have better ways to waste my time.

      What happened to joining a server and having fun by playing an actual match?  Sure, the novelty servers are neat to check out.  For a little while.  But how can you run a server like that?  If the core game bores you that much, why are you playing it?

      While I'm in a horribly bitchy mood, can I ask why crappy admins from one server are suddenly admins all over the place?  Have these operators never seen them acting like asses?

      I really miss the scene from last summer, when a good 10-16 person game was easy to find and everyone played tremulous, as opposed to quake 3 deathmatch with aliens. 

    Betafest.  Being owned by great players who proceeded to help you out by pointing out how/why they owned you instead of bragging.  Helping new players to the point where they matched you, even exceeded you and contributed to some great games.  Having regulars visit cause they say it's just a nice server.

    I shouldn't complain, a lot of the "known" names aren't actually great players, they just get high kill scores though they don't help there team outside of the new sharing features, if that.

    All I want is a good, solid match.  Sometimes it seems that that is too much to ask for.

/bitch