The Gophur Hole

Nice View

2008-10-09T15:53:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't heard, 3840 x 1024 is the new widescreen. Thanks Matrox!

Kill - A - Rat Tonight

2008-09-24T21:14:00.000-05:00

An hour of good old fashioned PvP was just what I needed tonight. Too long have I mired in the trenches of development. Too long have I toiled upon the spreadsheet and the beta forum. Too long have I launched the dev client and ticked off tickets. Tonight we dined on carnage! Man what a great time. Many thanks to the dozen or so of you that managed to kill me.

Of course being me, I have a bullet point list, in no particular order, of things that I want to change. I bet it is a bit different than yours but if you have anything to add, please do. I'm not quite as verbose as some so I hope you can see through to the points I'm trying to make. I'll leave the more flowery declarations to my friend Oli. He's much better at that sort of thing anyhoo.

Air Raid Siren - Less is more. I thought we addressed that but, well, I guess not.
Show More Friendlies - Killer and Oli are right. I am wrong. We need to show more non mission friendlies if we can. Tonight we must have had half the server running around Canterbury.
Make Night Better - Actually I wrote this before I played in the night. My anticipation was worse than the reality based on years of night suckage. Still, while night has its place, we need to see what we can do in the new engine.
EVERY MISSION GETS A MOBILE SPAWN - I don't particularly care how.
Love the Atmosphere - I really like playing an infantry man slugging around and seeing the air battles overhead, the bombs going off, the tanks firing down range. I think we are really close to "the smell of napalm in the morning". And that just kicks ass.
BIG FIGHTS ARE COOL - We need to evolve the design to permit more of this action. This includes player management tools.
KILL MESSAGES ARE COOL - WTF were we thinking...oh yeah, sim. I want more game without losing the sim.
Squad Invites - These need to be more prominent in the UI and on the squad page.
Dynamic Missions - My group need to stay together better. Dynamic origins and targets selected by the mission leader live in game. I should be able to change brigades this way without even realizing it.
Flag Visibility - I want flagpoles and I want them flying high.
Who Captured - I want recognition in the capture message by squad or player or something.
Contacts - I was wrong. I want them auto. I want them shared. I want them limited.
Corpses - Cool but let's show deaths near me on my map. Yeah buddy!
Strat Map - I want to see more info about a town's facility ownership without zooming in. Either in the right map pane or preferably as icons on the map.
LMG - The sights can be better.
Mortars - Close but not perfect. I need a bit more aid in firing. Show me where they land? I dunno about that but give me better map tools for ranging. Maybe a mark where I am aiming.
AAR - The reserved vehicle thing needs a rework This, like much of this, is already spec'd it just needs time to do and priority. I should see what I have reserved at AAR or I should have to go back to the brief. Eventually, I'd like to be able to respawn without ever leaving the game world and AAR should be my quit history. See: Dynamic Missions (also known as persistent groups).

Thoughts?

Austin Game Developers Conference 2008

2008-09-15T08:08:00.001-05:00

We're in Austin! No time for notes as we are headed to the convention center. If you're in town give me a yell. We're hoping to meet up with Gryf and Mo and Squirm tonight for an adult beverage. Should be a good time.

Volkswaffe?

2008-09-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

I always thought there was more to my '65 vert than just a passing resemblence to Herbie. The truth is out there! Way out there apparently.

Where's Meh Patch!

2008-08-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

When I was a tyke my parents had a friend who worked at NORAD and another who was a boss at NASA Control in Houston. Between these two guys my youthful infatuations with space and art came perfectly together in the bags of cool patches they gave me over the years. Wired's Danger Room posted a bunch and I just had to share.

Rat Chat Today

2008-08-05T12:17:00.001-05:00

With yours truly. I don;t really have an agenda on this one so I guess we'll wing it. Motor wants me to talk about 1.29. In all honesty I'd rather be testing 1.29, working on the new tutorials system or the new keymappers but the girl does such good work I just can't say no. Tune in if you'd like to put me in your cross hairs. I'll answer any question asked.

Team Speak: 216.6.226.108:9652

Are We In Danger?

2008-08-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

We are if you read Wired's Danger Room blog daily like I do. It seems our hallway talk about building an MMO for the Army's recent desire to build an online training world got picked up. There's not much there really but it's nice to see us get a little press.

Link

AGDC

2008-07-31T13:56:00.001-05:00

We're headed to Austin! Not forever unfortunately but we'll be down there for Austing GDC so if you're going to be in town and want to chat, drop me an email. Bloo, Oli, Toto and Granik will be in attendance as well. This year the theme seems ot be on making free-to-play MMOs. Should be fun times.

Dungeon Runners

2008-07-18T11:24:00.002-05:00

So I'm easily amused. Lately I've been filling my head with min-maxing Dungeon Runners in an attempt to increase my loots-per-minute on The Snow Chieftain. What fun.

The game actually has a very nice mechanic on it. i like the simplicity of the class system and the surprising depth. I detested that WoW was such a loot game but pared down here to the bare essentials it works wonderfully better. I am working up 2 game designs based on the simple character mechanics that are evidencd here and in other similar games. One is a PvP map based game and the other a co-op level grinder. I'll share more..maybe.

Free Realms FTW?!

2008-07-17T16:01:00.001-05:00

Free realms seems to be getting the best of the press from E3. Granted i haven;t been to E3 for years. If you don;t know why it went under then you probably have never been. I'm still suffering a strange sort of vertigo inspired deafness from hawking wares under the bombastic carnival of some Tony Hawk never ending skate concert thing.

Anyway, this one seems to be just where the genre is headed. "Polished as WoW" they say. "Play a wizard one day and a warrior the next" they say. "Play it on Granny's old laptop" they say. Hmm. Winner I say.

Sounds like a true virtual world game integration with content generation tools that might actually make the first true amusement park online. Check this out:
Experience a vibrant new world that’s an exciting mix of real-world and fantasy.

Be a wizard one day, and a warrior the next, without having to make a new character.
Join your friends in the game and adventure with them, wherever they are, no matter how long they have been playing.

When you’re ready for some excitement, head out to the wilderness and
battle challenging enemies like giant spiders and forest trolls in
fast-paced, strategic battlegrounds.

Cooperate with or compete against other players in battle!
Explore, quest, and collect items that you can wear, use or display.
Play a wide variety of mini-games to craft armor, weapons, potions, clothes, furniture, and many other items.

Grab a root beer at the inn and hang out with your friends while a rock band plays on the stage.

Interact with humorous, unique characters, become their friends and receive emails from them!

Raise a dog or cat and teach it to be the kind of pet you want—shy, brave, or funny.

Decorate your own house and grow a variety of plants and flowers.
Send links, share images and videos, and chat with friends from your own, personal, customizable social networking page!

Goodbye My Dear Friend

2008-07-13T14:54:00.001-05:00

Babe and I have been friends for many, many years. She was given to me by a friend during the Christmas holiday in 1991 named Stephanie Davis. My room mate, Bobby Chambers, immediately named here Afro Baby and the name stuck.

She lived with me for all of those years except one, when she stayed with a family friend while I was unable to keep her. I still remember when I finally got my new apartment I went immediately to pick her up. I was afraid, as young as she was, that she might not remember me. But, as we opened the garage door, I called her. Babe had been up in the attic and she literally bounded down the stairs and into my arms. Sine that day, she would hardly leave my side.

She moved with me through the years and became great friends with so many of my friends and their friends and there are so many people that I should thank for loving her as much as I did. She lived with Kevin and Rob and Kevin's dog Sage, and loved them all. MikeD and Bloo spent as much timewith her and the seven or so cats we had at the time. When I started at Playnet I was living with my mom and Carl and their cats and no ne was ever as good to her as they were. There are so many more people to thank. Doc took care of her when I would go out of town. He brushed her and pet her like they were life long friends.

And it is also thanks to Bab e that I have the wonderful Shannon in my life. Babe always loved Shannon and she was the only girl I could have over that wouldn't result in Babe peeing on my bed. babe was always a bit protective of me. Thanks Babe, for giving me the other love of my life.

I have all of these people and so many more to thank for the wonderful years that we shared. Most of all though, I want to thank you Babe. You were my constant companion and dearst friend through thick and thin.

Babe passed away today, peacefully and with love in her ears. I'll miss you always my friend.

Good Morning to You Sir!

2008-07-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

35,000 Lego Clone Troopers == Awesome

2008-06-30T15:05:00.001-05:00

Danke Gizmodo!

Rat Chat Today @ 2pm

2008-06-25T15:03:00.001-05:00

Hop on over to the TS channel if you're planning to attend. 216.6.226.108:9577

DXX

2008-06-13T14:43:00.002-05:00

Synchronicity strikes! We were just at lone star where I was oogling a sweet set of matte orange polyhedrons and what do I find on my return? El BoingBoing showcasing this ancient Roman D20. Grrrrrowl! And to think, Granik said that anything other than a D6 is strictly old school. That man is an oracle. You'll need a lot of AdSense clicks to put this one on your WANT! list.

Link

Secret Weapons of The Lufwa... er... Allies?

2008-06-12T17:09:00.002-05:00

Mauserk posted these in The Hangar. Very cool and worth the watch. Check them out if you missed them.

Remember ing the Fallen

2008-06-12T12:10:00.002-05:00

Don't forget guys that we will be wrapping up our 7th anniversary week with a tribute to the Fallen. We'll be holding a cease fire at 2pm and 8pm Central. We've had a lot of fun this week with all of the special events and I hope you'll all join us for a brief moment to remember not only our friends from the community that have passed on but all those who have fought and died. The whole press release at:

Armchair General

MMORPG Tycoon?

2008-06-12T11:43:00.003-05:00

Want your shot at the show? Raph posted about this game the other day and I've yet to try it. Probably I'm scared. I will if you will.

MMORPG Tycoon

Daedalus Time Again

2008-06-11T15:53:00.001-05:00

Nick Yee has another version of his project up. This has been going on for a long time and is a great opportunity to be a apart of some of the core data gathering that is available to us indie developers. Help if you can. i used to preach to players to go there so that the entire MMO world didn;t always look like men in tights. Well, with the most recent 10 million of us in the last few years, that may be kinda futile but still... get heard.

The Daedalus Project

Driving on Google to the Truck Stop

2008-06-10T21:30:00.001-05:00

Car Wars spring readily into anyone else's mind? C'mon! I'll be playing with this for the rest of the night. At least. Where did I put that card of SJ's anyway...

Geoquake. Nice name. Thanks Giz doodz.

From Russia with Love

2008-06-09T09:29:00.001-05:00

You've probably heard about this one before. The Russian built anti-tank cluster bomb which can penetrate the top armor of every tank known to exist and 39 of its closest friends all at once. This little gem is affectionaltly refered to as a can of whoop ass. /agree

Thanks DT

Aniversary Week Goings On

2008-06-06T15:48:00.001-05:00

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Day 1- June 6th, 2008

WELCOME BACK SOLDIER
Playnet is inviting all previous players to enjoy 7 days of free game time between June 6th and June 13th. Tens of thousands of accounts will be activated for the promotion.
more details <

14-DAY FREE TRIAL
From June 6th through June 13th, new players can create a 14-day FREE trial account and to celebrate our anniversary, there is no credit card required to sign-up and at the end of the free trial, we're giving you a an activation key ($19.99 value) FOR FREE!
more details <

Day 2- June 7th

BLITZKRIEGERS VS THE WORLD!
Here's a chance for all our veteran players to really show their stuff! All players who have the 'B' or 'B1" decal are invited to join a special veteran's brigade. This elite brigade will dig into Area 51 and challenge the world. They will be hard pressed to hold against wave upon wave of fresh-faced recruits eager to prove their mettle on the battlefield. Who will emerge supreme? Only you can decide! Log into the Battleground Europe Training server on June 7th for a battle to remember!
more details <

Day 3- June 8th

HIGH SCORE WINNER - WE'LL MAKE YOU FAMOUS!
The highest scoring fighter pilot on June 8th will win an incredibly unique prize: Their own face immortalized in game! Don't miss this opportunity to have your likeness digitized and added to the Battleground Europe catalogue of avatar faces. Log in on June 8th and rid the skies of your enemies!
more details <

REALISM EVENT- OPERATION SEA LION
The Realism Event team is a group of players who volunteer tremendous amounts of time to create special events and recreations of World War II battles. The team is hosting an event of June 8th dubbed "OPERATION SEA LION".

The Axis High Command has captured the mainland of Europe and have set their sights on the capture of England to control all of Europe. Months of planning, preparation, training, and gathering of troops and equipment have come to a close and it's time now for "Operation Sea lion" to commence. The England invasion orders have been issued and dispatched to the troops.

Full details of the event can be found in the Realism Event forums. Please sign up and help make this event memorable!
more details <

Day 4- June 9th

HIGH SCORE WINNER - WE'LL MAKE YOU FAMOUS! (PART DEUX)
Here's the chance for ground pounders to make their mark in Battleground Europe: The top scoring infantry player for June 9th will have their face digitized and entered into the catalogue of game avatars. So log in, pick up a weapon, and hit the battlefield to scrap it out for this great prize!
more details <

Day 5- June 10th

KILL-A-RAT
Everybody's favorite! Add 3 Rat (Game Staff) kills to your CS&R (ststs) and earn bragging rights, a T-shirt and a shot at a free year of gameplay! An announcement will be made as to which part of the map The Rats will be located. Don't worry, they're splitting up and fighting for both the Allies and the Axis. T-shirts will be awarded for 3 kills on a Rat and the grand prize is a one-year free subscription.
more details <

Day 6- June 11th

THE RATS LAST STAND
Cornered Rats in name, Cornered Rats in reality...The premise is simple: The Rats have infested Willemstad Castle, and the community must exterminate them. The Rats have taken refuge in the castle and must hold it at all cost until a transport ship From Hellevoetsluis arrives to withdraw them to Cromstrijen. If Willemstad is captured before the transport ship arrives and the Rats cannot make good their escape, the community claims victory! If the Rats holds against the unwashed horde and can board the transport, then all shall bow before their might!

2pm - Rats will play Axis
8pm - Rats will play Allied

A few hours prior to the beginning of the event, there will be a sytem message reminding players to log in to the training server to begin this titanic struggle.
more details <

Day 7- June 12th

SERVER-WIDE CEASE FIRE
Battleground Europe may be the most immersive and realistic war game you can play, but it pales drastically in comparison to the real thing. Join us in-game at 2pm and 8pm CST to quietly honor all of the men and women in the armed forces around the world who served and sacrificed during World War II. Axis and Allied players are requested to meet on the bridge at Dinant for a 15-minute peaceful gathering and memorial service.
more details <

We hope that you all enjoy the celebration. The staff at Playnet and Cornered Rat Software is thankful for your continued support of BATTLEGROUND EUROPE. We look forward to providing you with many more years of quality gaming.

SALUTE!

Happy 7th WWIIOL

2008-06-06T15:06:00.002-05:00

Big seven years for us today. There aren;t many around that can say that. All in all I'd have to say I'm very proud to be a part of this project. Sure, there are other things I'd like to do and I wish I had the resources to make this game more than it is but you know what? WWIIOL is a great game, the community that supports us is amazing and the people that I've had the opportunity to work with past and present are amazing. I get up every morning smiling at the chance to go to work. That is the biggest prize of all. Thank you to all of our players, past and present for allowing us to make this amazing game.

From today's Newsletter

REMEMBER WHEN?

Many people have contributed to the success of WWIIOL over the years. Former Senior Producer Chris "MO" Sherland and CRS President John "KILLER" MacQueen remember what those early days were like:

"One of the things I'll never forget is designing the game on a park bench in Grapevine TX over the course of about a month." MO recalls. "We just had yellow pads and pencils...it was a super creative time."

"The most striking aspect (of WWIIOL)", KILLER muses "is that much of the team was from a background of multiplayer gaming going back into the 1980's long before even many in the games industry had any idea MMOG games existed."

One of the things that sticks out about the first development cycle for MO was the first test of the physics model: "Actually seeing a vehicle moving in the world gave us all a huge boost in confidence. Of course the first attempt is always perfect fodder for stories, HOOF had built a A6M Japanese Zero that went about Mach 1.5!!"

While KILLER wasn't overly surprised at the following the game drew when it was announced ("The idea of an MMOG war sim has been a dream of alot of simulation players"), MO found it exhilarating. "We were all blown away. Strategy First did a great job at marketing the launch...it was amazing to see that many folks signing up."

WWIIOLs launch wasn't exactly smooth, something many early MMOs suffered from at that time. "We couldn't just come out and explain that our ISP screwed the pooch and left us hanging", KILLER says. "It just wouldn't be appropriate so we just took it on the chin. Everything else was down to developing on a budget a fraction of what is typically spent on an MMO and some shortcomings that fell out of that." MO agrees: "I'd love to have had another 6 months of development, as well as been settled with our ISP. Those two thing could have made a huge impact on the launch."

WWIIOL a.k.a BATTLEGROUND EUROPE has outlasted many MMOs and is still going strong. The scope of the project still fires the imaginations of players. MO's pride in his participation is evident: "CRS took on the first (and possibly only real) virtual battlefield. It is still the only source of realistic combined arms combat available and that is what makes it so special. To have been part of the team that realized that vision is something I'll be proud of for the rest of my life". That pride is mirrored by KILLER: "Taking gaming where it has never gone before in terms of sheer scale of a game world and total PvP on a scale of combined arms that we have done. It's very cool to have experienced getting that accomplished."

QUICK LINKS

EVENTS SCHEDULE

ORDER AN ANNIVERSARY TSHIRT!

WELCOME BACK SOLDIER

Some Links from the Masses:
WWII Online: Battleground Europe Celebrates 7 Years Online
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA

World War II Online 7th Anniversary Celebration Begins
Inside Mac Games - Franklin,TN,USA

Battleground Europe: WWII Online: 7th Year Promotion
By news@mmorpg.com

Battleground Europe: WWII Online: 7th Year Promotion on MMORPG.com
By RSS Feed

World War II Online - 7th Anniversary!

JT Going Out with a BANG!

2008-06-06T12:09:00.002-05:00

Everyone's favorite anti-gaming lawyer, Jack "Machine Gun" Thimpson has finally done something that makes me smile. Sure his usual antics make me giggle at his sheer ineptitude but now he has gone and threatened to get the Judge presiding over his disbarment trial and the entire Florida Supreme Court removed from office. LOLerz. That Jack, what a nut. Apparently they al have forged loyalty oaths. Can you believe it? here's the gem:

The consequence of
all of this post facto oath taking is that all that the Florida Supreme
Court has done in this case is invalid and will be voided, and if you
think I will not accomplish that end then a) you do not understand the
lawsuit already filed, and b) you don’t know Jack.

What a wholesome fun loving game that was. I fear Jack may really be in the pickle this time. What a loss it would be for the community of gamers if we were to loose this valuable source of free entertainment content. Luckily JT is calling on his friends Clinton and Obama to aid him. that kinda sounds like Aquaman calling on the Wonder Twins to form an ice bucet filled with water but whatever Super Jack. For the full read...

Link

New Killer Bot

2008-06-04T10:23:00.001-05:00

For some reason this bot reminds me of playing Crusader back in the day. The little spider bot bomb was my fav. I guess the new 350 pound MAARS is probably a bit more action packed. You may remember this guy in the news recently as accidentally firing on some friendly troops. Accident they say? Yeah, u-huh. Everyone knows robots, especially the completely non-sentient, remote controlled kind have nothing on their mind but destroying all humans! Oh, this post merely exists to test my new ScribeFire plug-in. If you want more about the bot though...

Link