Space battles since 2000
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I still have the original cards that came with retail version of the game...and the CD.BackTrak wrote:QUOTE (BackTrak @ Jun 11 2012, 10:36 PM) Sounds like you had at least one Magic:The Gathering guy running around the office... I think back then they were pretty common, popping up all over. Yours just happened to appear in marketing... with a budget!
I rember those, and I think I have my one, and the three that came with Age of Empires II as well... (maybe it was the same marketing guy?)
I hope it was a positive experience, DW. It's always a high risk venture posting instructions for something online; people just want meth instructions typically and aren't too happy at the end of the process when they have nothing but a toy spaceship.Duckwarrior wrote:QUOTE (Duckwarrior @ Jun 12 2012, 11:59 AM) ...I did print off and make Stain Rat's Cut & Fold IC pod a few years ago though.
Brings me feels to read this. Yeah beginning RT was quite rough. We were the only new squad in like 5 years facing the likes or XT, SysX, GB, PK, ACE and whoever else. I think we lost every squad game for 2 years. 2 years after that we finally won the tournament of that year beating every squad! Gave a tremendous sense of pride to see what perseverence could bring you.Shizoku wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2012 10:25 pm Favourite years is a hard one.
I really enjoyed the time just after I left TC(x19) and joined sysx. I began getting really good at the game, XT started up and everyone began using teamspeak. Hanging out with Nak, GreySlayer, Noir and Kumshot on ts was lots of fun. The nights that Grey would come back just smashed sit on ts and whore away. It strikes me that the player base was about the same size as it is now, the major difference is that there was almost always at least a small game into the wee hours of the night. Occasionally it was a deathmatch, but for the most part it there was a game, it was where the new comms would figure out how run econs and @#(! like that. I practiced many a night vs Xanen, then I would bring what I learnt to prime time to challenge Geminii, Nak and Grey. I occasionally still sign on after coming home from the bar to see if anything is going on, nothing ever is though.
I actually really enjoyed the core wars during this period. In a sense the cores were run democratically because if a change sucked, everyone would just play the other core till it was fixed or changed. Now a days it's just whoever has the most time to make forum posts gets to change the core, regardless of if they play the game or not.
The beginning periods with Badger and RT were great fun too, hard as $#@!, but really fun. There were a couple points where we thought that we would have to shut down the squad, but instead just bombed the newbie server signing people up. Retention finally grew and it turned into a pretty good squad. Part of me is still a little proud that they are still around and doing well.
Probably my favourite period was just after I joined XT. Madaccountant left to make ACE, XT was like $#@! it let's rape. Everyone was just so on top of their game, commanding that squad was so easy, you barely needed to type anything or say anything over ts. I remember one sg vs GB(i think), we had a forward Bios Expansion with just lt ints and they ic frig rushed us. Somehow with great scouting, proxes and missiles being shot down we managed to stave off like 3 or 4 frigs. It's disapointing to see XT is where it is now, but everyone is in a different place as far as their real life goes, maybe if weed comes back everyone else will.
Interesting points of back then vs now:
-Same sized player base, yet there was still a late night. I think this lead to a lot of growth in the community as it opened it up to other time zoned players
-Pook was active. No disrespect to TE, or I guess MrC now but Pook even joined XT and played squad games creating excitement and stuff.
-Other leadership was active. BV played, you could even catch Dogbones in game from time to time (a dev playing the game hol@#(!!), @Allegs were being created to train new players not spank commanders for being a little too heavy with the boot. Both Spunky, Fofo and Noir all played (Noir especially played compulsively) and took notes of how their core was evolving, allowing them to react to shifts in balance, bugs and generally be inspired to create new fun things to put in the core.
-Cadet was new still had bugs, but it felt like it was evolving all the time and getting better, where as now it doesn't seem like anyone other than fwiffo cares.
Obviously we can't reproduce most of these things simply because the times have changed, but if we can capture some of these points I think there may be a chance of bringing back some good times.