L3#18 : The overnighter

[KingJackal]

http://webhost0.inspire.net.nz/l3/images/l3blacklogo.gif

Dates: Saturday January 31st - Sunday February 1st
Times: midday Saturday - midday Sunday
Venue: Rolleston Community Centre
Charge: $15

Some idiot released a 'Far Cry' demo... and I got distracted :(, hence the late notice...

Anyways, we're out at Rolleston again while we try and get our hands on another good venue in ChCh. If you're wondering how to get out there, follow your way out of ChCh via Hornby and then from the main south road you go:
http://www.l3.net.nz/images/map.jpg

As there's only 1 night at this LAN, we will only run 1 tournament, but I hear there may be some... surprises ;).

For more updates:
www.L3.net.nz (http://www.l3.net.nz/)
( registrations will be up very shortly )

[Z3RO 0]

*waits in apprehension for the registrations*

I really have nothing better to do, do I? :p

[.weasel.]

*also waits*

i also have nothing to do. funny that :P

[Quinny]

Has anyone who has been to this venue got tips for those who have not ie food, temp, parking?

Waits for the reg button......

[oOo Dragon oOo]

There is a supermarket not too far away from the hall. Also a petrol station, a bar and a couple of little shops. Going into Rolleston there is also a service station BP express I think that has some nice stuff. The parking at the hall is emmense.. ie heaps of carparking space. Last time I was there it had lighting for night times. I"d consider it a fairly safe neighbourhood.

[Wibber]

1) ample parking.
2) stupermarket is expensive and shuts early.
3) can be cold depending on what part of the building we are in so bring some warmer clothes
(not too warm, it is summer after all)

[O'Neill]

whoo
I'm ditching my plans for a camping weekend in the middle of nowhere for this
THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU KJ you have saved me from spending 4 days without a computer

[Secern]

Originally posted by O'Neill
whoo
I'm ditching my plans for a camping weekend in the middle of nowhere for this
THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU KJ you have saved me from spending 4 days without a computer

Words of a true geek. :D
Pitty I cant come *I would be welcomed*

[CrazySurfaNZ]

I will most defenitely be there, looking forward to it.. and should be there the whole time given its overnight.

Awesome stuff.. :D

[swiftynz]

I'm planning on making it to this one, work permitting.

I still owe you for the last one KJ, once we were let back into the building I just packed up and left, and forgot to pay. :p

I'll fix you up at #18. :)

[Sumo]

Hmm, can i get rid of a shift at work, or do i come out after work..... You'll still be there at 1 am, so i may have to come out then!

[CrazySurfaNZ]

Get rid of the shift!! Come on man, where is your L³ spirit!!

[Solid Snake]

Well, since I've got an exam on the 3rd of Feb, which is dependent on my University goals, it just means that I'll be leaving a little early and will probably only be there for the Saturday. My equipment will be staying with KJ until it's all wrapped up. It'll be good to see everybody again.

[TheChosen_1]

Yeah I think I will come too. Will have to get the saturday off work so I can come, but that shouldn't be a problem. :D

[Solid Snake]

Tournaments
The tournament this time round for L3 will be Worms. And here are my reasons are these:

It runs on any machine as long as the OS Win9X or WinNT. FPS here don't matter, and your machine even with that 32 MB Trident SVGA the king of graphic cards 10 years ago can still mean you get above 30 FPS.

Anyone of any age can play it. I've seen everybody from all ages play this game, and the learning curve is very short and small to get the basics.

Non-twitch game. Some of us play hard core simulation games like SimCity, Civilization and our twitches aren't very good or at least in the right direction. However because this is turn based, both skill and dexterity is required over twitch.

Low-skill & low-learning curve. This game, let's face it doesn't require a lot skills. You don't need to learn what jumps will lead to victor, how to strafe jump properly or how to double jump of walls. The names of weapons usually determine how strong they are ... although sometimes even names & graphics can be deceiving (Hey I mean, I never seen a concrete donkey before in my life, let along knew what it did.) The learning curve is very low. Point aim and hold and release. That's it.

High-skills & high-learning rewards. This game rewards those who do have skills in this game, for example, ninja ropping toppling. You can swing off your ninja rope at high speeds, collide into someone's worm and kill them. It's not easy but it can be done. Suicide manevures to kill the someone's worms is risky but it pays off if you eliminate their team. If you've learnt how to do all the fancy tricks such as combined weapon skills "Flame thrower push Worms into several mines = 0wnage", then your rewarded.

No game is ever the same. This game is INSANE. Stuff happens and all sorts of weird things occur. I've played this game a lot longer than most of us who play it, but I have the same chance of winning and loosing as they do. It's crazy.

Everybody has an equal chance. Even though there are some veterans to this game, I have to admit everybody more or less has the same chance of winning the matches.

In short, this game I think is fair and it also means there isn't a reason for why you can't play. I mean, if I choose a high-end FPS, RTS, Racing then it means that certain people get an advantage. Also because most of the above three require certain graphic limits they are also restricitive on the PC they are played on.

That's all I can think of right now, and besides the game is pretty fun and wacky. This is the only tournament with a prize attached to it.

Geek Hat
This was mentioned by Eagle32 and I loved the idea and I think it will work great. A small group of people will band together and play whatever game the hat wearer demands. To determine who wears the hat, maybe we just roll a dice or something because I think the hat wearer can choose a totally random game that he's damn good at... and so on. I know I'd be in for this.

Organised Crime
These will be just games that are organised and for people to play, such examples are BattleField 1942 + additions, Desert Combat, Quake 3 Arena, UT2003 ... whatever people want me to host. Because of the shortness of the lan, it would be appreciated if a single game wasn't run for the entire time. I mean it's fine to play it for 12 hours, but after that, a change would be nice.

If anyone else wants to add to the list feel free to contact me.

[Smudge]

yahh i havnt missed this one, finally a lan i can go to

if no one objects (& anyone wants theres done) i can do some xbox modding/chipping while im there

this gets better & better id forgotten all about worms

[psyrg]

Brothers wedding, or lan....

(five minutes later)

...Brothers wedding, or lan.

Hmmm.

[Solid Snake]

Why not have the brother's wedding at the lan? lol :)

[Evil-Elmo]

Can't come* :( I guess L3#19 will have to be my first then! :mad:

*The reason I can't come is because I am in New Plymouth.... no, I'm not going go fly down. :p

[oOo Dragon oOo]

Registration is up :)
YAY! 2nd Person to Register

PS: KJ the page still says L3#17 Registrants

[O'Neill]

Alright third to sign up for L3#17 ???????

[oOo Dragon oOo]

Are we sitting inside the hall itself? Or in one of the side rooms? Does it depend on how many people you have? Just wanna know.. because if we are in side rooms I could kick a ball about in the main area.

[Quinny]

Been and regd. Now have to find baby sitter for puppy. Hmm.

Anyway...thanks KJ for updating the clan list. Much easier than old way. Appreciated.

[.weasel.]

im registered and ready to go

im definatly in for a g33k hat game - you'll rue the day i get the geek hat... UT classic

[thabass]

a lan thats only walking distance away..
Thats got to be good!~

Around 1km round trip, i really need to setup my wireless link before saturday so can access more disk space remotly.

[nXus]

It's in the gym. btw if we need to book gigibit ports i would like to do so :)

[Smudge]

me to :)

[Wibber]

ditto :D

[oOo Dragon oOo]

There be 63 (or maybe 60 depending on some double ups etc) that are registered for the lan. Anyone else coming along?
What time are the bulk of people going to be there. I wont make it till after work so about 8pm. What time is the worms tourny going to start? Oh the excitment... wish i didnt have to work at all.

[KingJackal]

It's looking like Solid Snake may not be able to come :(.

The worms tourney will be Saturday night.... heh ;).

In other news, there should be plenty of gig ports.
*crosses fingers*

[MaZeR]

Hope to make it but have to juggle it with other things, I didn't realize how far out of town it is! :eek:

[Distorted]

*Starts *****ing about work*
*mumble*
*groan*
*whine*
I'll pop out for a visit on the day, sadly I won't be par-taking in the events, esp the worms tourney :(
got work at 10pm thru til about 7/7:30am
*stupid crappy work*
damnit.
This just aint fair.
The tournament is worms and im NOT going to be there for it :(
*complains a bit more*

Well KJ, seems like you won't have anyone to humiliate you this time...

[Smudge]

pull a sicky...

[Distorted]

I work at the holy grail, and on the busiest night of the week, that doesnt quite work :P

[CommanderK]

Man that sucks!

[mightybob]

gah, was planning on going to the next L3... but this weekend is my birthday, and then if i did go, there would be the problem of what the family is going to do while im lanning (no way in hell are they going into the lan...).

One of these days ill get a car and a license and drive myself up there.... might be like L3 #40 by the time i get around to that.

have fun all.

[swiftynz]

Bad juck Jebs :(
And bad luck Solid Snake, this would have been the first lan that we were both at.

I will be there, but what time depends how much I enjoy tonight...

See you all tomorrow :)

[Solid Snake]

Have a good time everybody. Aye, I hear you Swifty ... I can do my best to get there but no idea what it will end up like. KJ's got all my servers right now, so you guys will be set for that part.

Although I might be able to bike in and out, but may only be there for half a day.

[oOo Dragon oOo]

Ooo arrr tis a sad day when Solid isnt there to give us much UT mod fun. You need lift? I can offer as long as its after 8pm Saturday till whenever sunday if you need.

[Solid Snake]

That's a mighty fine offer, but I need to get back home on Saturday at least by the night. I have a bus to catch on Sunday morning 8am, so it was a bit of a pickle to get in and out of Rolleston. If I decided to stay most of the time, I might instead walk in the morning to get to Rolleston and then get a car ride back with you. Either way I'll do my best to get there, it's the least I can do for everyone coming :)

[MaZeR]

Solid, I am heading out to get there at 12 midday, and will be returning between 7-8 pm tonight into town. I pm'd u contact details if you need a lift.

Cyas all there!


hey can someone bring bg and 1.6 BF patch!

[Quinny]

Left late last night cos working rather than reflection on another great lan.

Venue is first class even if way on the otherside of town to my place. Roomy and having the zip in the next room is real good. Little on the cold side until all the pc's and bodies made an impact but a jersey took care of that.

Must develop a policy on slot begging in DC. Was hammered way more than normal and at times being begged at every few seconds took away some of the fun of the lan. i got to actually walking away from the pc in the end. By the next lan a remote server that ignores all will be the trick. i dont mind if a file is small, you are going, or there is some reason but I notice that some people queue stuff up and immediately start asking. It is a lan. You know goning to be here a while and so on. Most times within 10-15 mins people had slots anyway.

Gig switch was fantastic. Speeds very good with a solid 20-30meg uploads most of the time.

Was some good gaming going on around me (my pc just cant cope with you doing anything - even screen redraws - when dc is being hammered).

I left just as the blaster worm made its way around the room. Hope it was a newbie as anyone else deserves a blacklist. As to anyone not yet protected - no sympathy at all.

Another great lan KJ and SS. See u again at the next one.
I am off to play with my xbox that was modded at the lan.
:D That was fun to watch in process.

[Solid Snake]

Thank you to everyone who offered me rides back home at various times, Mazer, Quinny and Dragon. Without your help I wouldn't have been able to come, thank you! :D

Secondly, I'd like to apologise for a couple things.

Gamin', again this lan turned out to be good for the leechers but not so good for those who wanted to do some mass gamin'. Unfortunately I think with the size that was there we didn't really have many or enough people interested in games such as BF1942 (Although I did see some action going). I did managed to get a few rounds of WolfET, UT2003 mods and Worms in but they were short but very sweet.

If I seemed rude or distant from you it was due to that I had very little sleep and 4 cans of V within 3 hours of each other and also because I was rather busy doing all sorts of stuff. I know they aren't the best excuse, as a better one be something like a medical condition or something. Anyways, I'll try to detach myself from engaging tasks such as mod making ... although I think it might be better if I made one before the lan was comin', although it is only really at the lan where some good feed back come in. Bit of both I guess...

Failure of Worms tournament. Partly related to lack of gaming but mostly to the fact I got lazy and my brain started to shut down a little. The prize that was tagged with it will now go into a spot draw, so everyone who came to this lan is in the draw to win it, except of course myself and KJ. We will contact you as soon as we know who it is, if your email is not quite real (the one you give us) or your OCNZ account is dead or doesn't exist I hope your friends will pass the message. None the less, we will wait until the next lan to give it out, although it is all fair game after the next lan.

The Blaster virus. I put up the Windows patch for this asap on the intranet, but it didn't seem to help some people. Sorry that it had to happen very early in the morning and also at an L3 lan.

Pizza mix ups. We tried everything to get it right, and I was glad to hear that in the end the Super Supreme was delivered in the end. Not sure what we will do about that in the end, but something's gotta give.

Kicking people of the gig switch. Now a days gigabit cards are getting cheap, really cheap. My concern is that if you aren't going to use a gigabit connection because your gaming then I don't see the point of you bring on the gigabit switch. Also goes for people who only have a 100 Mbps card, although I really should have placed fair warnings about that. Now, as far as I know the LW clan have priority on the gig switch as well as a few other people simply because they get hammered so much in DC that I think it would be good for both them, us and you guys if they could upload as fast as they could. There isn't really such a thing as booking a port on the gig switch unless you have a very good solid reason such as that you want to use the port to extend to another gigabit switch. The servers are all on the gigabit switch despite them only having 100Mbps is because the gigabit is the backbone. If they were on another switch, and the switch got disconnected from the backbone, I know a lot of you guys won't be very happy to get d/ce'd of a game server or the DC server. How ever I'll be a bit more vigilant about this issue next time.

Lastly for the slow registrations. I am thinking of dumping Office XP and using a lower version of Office if that is more stable. Excel crashed on me at least 10 times that day. I am so glad that I save it very often.

Other than that, I enjoyed myself throughly that lan and I hope to see everyone next time. And hopefully I'll have less to apologise about!

[oOo Dragon oOo]

I left about 6 this morning, as were a few of the others that were still there. When I arrived at 8:30pm there wasnt a bad number of people there so it was nice to see. I noticed a few new people as well, so its good to see more and more coming out to participate in the events.

The one thing I have noticed over the last 2-3 lans is a significant downward trend towards the amount of gaming happening, and a massive increase in the leeching. Now I'm as bad as the next person when it comes to that, but we need a wee bit more game play to add to the enjoyment.

SS and KJ have organised the venues and are usually helping out others set stuff up or whatever, but they cant always set up games to please everyone. Most of the comps about these days are quite able to be used for hosting games on. Does there need to be a big ol whiteboard up specifying times that the games will be on? or do you want some hitler type dude running about saying achtung! you play dis game now!

Apart from that, nice venue, yeah its outta the way a little, but I didnt see anyones pc crapping out because of the heat.

Well thats my 2c

[CommanderK]

I agree we so need a notice board, or even just a notice for checking the intraweb if that would have game times. But I'm sure it would easyer to write it up on the white board than to the intraweb.

Does anyone know what we could all use to check what games are up.

I think something like ASE would do, but I don't know how many games it supports, and I don't know how to get it running on a lan.

$0.02

[swiftynz]

Very good lan but there does need to be more gaming. The large amount of leeching suited me though, since I recently lost an 80gb hard drive and the information that was on it needed to be replaced...

The other thing is the lack of variation in the games played by the majority. BF and DC are good games, but I can't help but feel that BF/DC is the new Half Life/CS.... :( There are other multiplayer games you know!! ;)

The geek hat sounded like a great idea, and I would have played were it not for NFSU. I thouroughly enjoyed the NFSU games with Wibber and co, even though there wasn't much in the way of competition. :D (I am sooo going down at the next lan)
The brief Jedi Academy game with antimatter was also fun, he won 30-25.

I missed the Total Annihilation game again dammit. :( (knew I should have played the geek hat :p)

[scrantinax]

Originally posted by CommanderK
Does anyone know what we could all use to check what games are up.

I think something like ASE would do, but I don't know how many games it supports, and I don't know how to get it running on a lan.

ASE is excellent for watching what games are being played on a lan. It has a special filter which checks that lan for games. As long as ASE is updated there should be no trouble using it at a lan for alot of games.

[Solid Snake]

I'll check out ASE when I get back from Dunedin. Getting games to be announced on the intranet would be easy to do as you could just get me to write it up, however not many people check it or can't get through to it (DNS not working on their computer or whatever else). The best would be a physical white board, but they are expensive. The last resort is shouting it out, but some people may not hear it due to head phones.

[varkk]

How about announcing things in the Hub chat, I mean most peopl have this open when not activly gaming so sending an announcement there will alert some, but there probably is no one method for reaching all lanners.

[Sumo]

Two large speakers, an amp and a microphone.

*Testing testing 1, 2, 3.

*GAMING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN....

[.weasel.]

and then theres good old net send ;)

[Wibber]

even though there wasn't much in the way of competition.
cheesy gozirra feind!

sides, you had better suspension and naws than us

[Oblivian]

Originally posted by .weasel.
and then theres good old net send ;)

You will find most people have the messenger service disabled these days with cable/DSL. Theres too many exploits and advertising spammers out there that utilise it.

/side note: Ventrilo could be used. I know many of us BFers use it at home and have at past L3s, it uses SFA resources so could be left on in the background when gaming and observing things on your desktop. Then announcements made over that :D Even if you have no mic on your headset you can listen.

But ultimatly theres not going to be anything effective that everyone likes so 2 methods may need to be used. I'll keep an eye out for a whiteboard being biffed at work.

[Solid Snake]

and then theres good old net sendBlasphemy! Don't even do that you will SPAM a lot of people and certain games might even Alt-Tab just because of that. Also if you do that I will myself make a looping batch just to spam you...

[Distorted]

SolidSnake: I decided to go out drinking after work, I drank a bit too much and there's a lot of blanks I can't remember, like me getting off the bus and walking in the opposite direction of my house for an hour in the rain before i realised what i was doing :P

[Distorted]

Get one of those air horn things that make a ****LOAD of noise. You can hair those over anything, that will really get peoples attention ;)

[Z3RO 0]

That, or pretend to be about to throw a bucket of water over the backbone switch :p

[NinJa_CookiE]

Originally posted by CommanderK
I agree we so need a notice board, or even just a notice for checking the intraweb if that would have game times. But I'm sure it would easyer to write it up on the white board than to the intraweb.

Does anyone know what we could all use to check what games are up.

I think something like ASE would do, but I don't know how many games it supports, and I don't know how to get it running on a lan.

$0.02

yea im sure something like a big white board would be ok, or if ya wanna get all fancy, and someone has one you can use, a projector maybe? with some kind of Powerpoint slide thing going on, with some sound in it so ppl can see it clearly.

[Smudge]

i can prolly get hold of a projector if someone reminds me for the next one.

or ive got a 1.5x1m ish whiteboard

[Solid Snake]

That'll be sweet Vizious, I will be reminding you :).

[Antimatter]

It really sucked that I couldn't get ET going. Damn error messages about data differing from the server. :mad:
Enjoyed the lightsaber hackage and the new Battal map. DC was some fun as well. :)

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Antimatter
It really sucked that I couldn't get ET going. Damn error messages about data differing from the server. :mad:
Enjoyed the lightsaber hackage and the new Battal map. DC was some fun as well. :)

Bugger :(

You sure you'd patched it to 1.02? :confused:

BTW, if anyone's got any photo's of the event... I'd love to get my hands on them...

[Wibber]

AW DUDES!
I left my hoodie on the back of my seat!

did anybody notice?

[KingJackal]

Originally posted by Wibber
AW DUDES!
I left my hoodie on the back of my seat!

did anybody notice?

Black one? Yeah... I've got it...

hmmm, isn't that the same one you left at a LAN just a few L3's ago? :confused: You're coming dangerously close to beating Paul Rhee for the 'most forgettful' award!

[Distorted]

How did the Worms tourney go down? aside from KJ's obvious hiding, who won?

[.weasel.]

Well, the sunday morning game of q3a: generations was my highlight of the lan. It was only myself and kj vs about 8 bots but man it was fun :D

It went on for a good hour or so on just the one map, but it didnt get boring at all for one good reason : earth soldier with a mortar gun :) ( or in kj's case, rocket launcher...)

[Wibber]

isn't that the same one you left at a LAN just a few L3's ago?

yeah, yeah it is :'(

do I get a gold star?

[Solid Snake]

How did the Worms tourney go down? aside from KJ's obvious hiding, who won?DIdn't happen... I got lazy .. I think KJ won the ol' Worms games though.

do I get a gold star?I think that stopped when Nazism died...