Archives: 22/7

"After the highly successful Scottish Gathering 'Quake LAN meet', we're having another one!

The Date: October 25
The Time: 2pm-12:00 Midnight
The Place: Reality-X (54 Broughton St, Edinburgh, Scotland)
The Cost: £15 (£10 if you bring your computer)
The Plan: Deathmatch, CTF, HeadHunters, Tourneys, Prizes!!"

Anyone interested in attending should email Refux.

"Saturday and Sunday after the UKCL's matches were over, we played big games (containing anyone who was on IRC) on the UKCL servers (in other words, after 8 oclock). It is completly random, (the captains pick two teams from IRC) but there are 40 minute matches on death32a with mixed up, non-clan based, fun teams.

Either Spirit or I are the admins who will sort out a server for the games from the UKCL's selection. Good games, good fun, good laughs. There should be more games next weekend and the weekend after that- beware, they go on until quite late so get your duvet cover and a cup of cocoa if you're so inclined..."

- The captain of the Dark Deviants, Aerotus, has issued this apology over the incident of cheating in the Modem Clan War match DEV played against the Mere Mortals:

' I'd like to apologise to all of MM on behalf of all of our clan for that unfortunate incident in the MCW. I don't know the exact details, primarily because I was a few thousand miles away in Florida, but there's absolutely no excuse for what happened. Hopefully this won't harm our future relations, altough if I was The-Borg I'd probably hold it against me forever! Once again, guys - sorry. '

- ACME have announced the signings of three new Clan members: Ewan, Biohazard and Eldritch. They are no longer recruiting for their Clan.

"Yes, I've become bored of Levelab non-update-o-rama so I have started a .pak of my own...

"An upcoming level extension pak for the popular Total Conversion "Quake Rally" (to support current version v1.2) which will allow the driver to experience all the thrills of fururistic competitive racing. Based in the year 2097, you race through many challenging courses in order to achieve one goal: a win.

If you have ever experienced the game Wipeout© or indeed Wipeout2097© then youll will have already some idea of the pak's genre. Featuring complex tunnel systems, Dynamic speed trial circuits, Death defying situations and more, you are going to have to be alert at all times if you are to succeed. As yet there are only plans to create levels based on the existing code, but other oppurtunities may open up to allow more customisation."

The QuakeRally2097 pak design has started. A preview map is available from the site."

Copy is also looking for billboard hoardings which he can add to the .pak. If you've got anything to advertise, get in touch with him.

The Clan UK practise I mentioned earlier is, of course, on Tuesday. Thanks to my esteemed colleague RawMeat for pointing that out.

"The Quake Level Quality Control Centre aims to compile packs of quality custom deathmatch levels for people to download andservers to cycle through. When people download the packs they'll know the maps are of high quality, and that servers will play them. Likewise server ops will know that people have the levels in the pack and will play on the server if it cycles through them.

The way this will be achieved is this. A number of testers will download a level to be tested, and learn the structure of it offline. Then at some point all the testers will get together and have a bash on the level. We decide if it's any good or not. If it's good (and the quality will have to be high) it gets put in a level pack. The leve packs are likely to contain 4-8 levels. "

So far he has Ettu, Rorshach (the birthday boy-see below), Nightwing, and others signed up to test levels. If you'd like to help, email him.

Some early results from the UK Clan League Second Season's first day:

- TFS beat Clan Corpus by the narrowest of margins. CC-Rawmeat said after the match that he thought that on their current form TFS could well cause a severe upset in Division A.

- The Fallen Angels lost by default to the Mere Mortals in Division D, managing to field only two players. FA are mortified at their loss, and are now recruiting new weekend players.

- Terminal Gibbage have appointed a captain, TG-KamiKaze, to help them regain the form that saw them unbeaten in the first sour games of the UKCL last season. They are also "actively recruiting" low-ping players to help them make up for their deficiancies in this area.

- The Fallen Angels are Desperately Seeking Someone who can play on weekends, following their default loss against MM yesterday. Anyone interested in joining this up and coming Clan should email Andromeda.

- DC-Loki has, in fact, left DC to join Clan Corpus. He is now known as CC-Firecracker. Rawmeat would like to assure the UK community that Loki had left DC well before he joined CC, and that no improper dealings have taken place.

Happy birthday to Rorshach, UKCL PAK designer, skins man, and all-round good guy. Thanks to Leann for telling me about that.

Or something. If you'd like a chance to shine against the best players in the UK, and possibly even to play in the upcoming match against America, turn up in IRCNET #ukquake at 7:00 pm for the Clan UK practise. Play with, or against the Clan, and you might earn a spot in the team.

The UK Movie team are looking for a composer to write original backing music for The Stars Are Right. For more details email me or head over to the UK Movie Homepage.

Still no demo.Jibsta, if the demo wasn't a total disaster, get in touch, and then I can write the report.

More news from the final week of Divisions 1 and 3 of the Modem Clan War: The X won Division 3 unbeaten throughout the season, beating the Biker Klan this week 273 - 74. X-Mongrol reports:

"This match as you know was of vital importance. We had to win, and they had to win. Previously The X had had a bad time of it during the last UKCL season, due to the lack of lpb`s, members leaving, this starts up low moral, matches get lost, we didn`t prepare tactics much at all and more matches got lost, more left etc etc. Vicious circle. We were determined not to let the same mistakes ruin our MCW chances.

For the BK match we went to silly lengths to prepare for, something we`d never really done before. The level E4M3 has 5 Quads, 3 Rocket Launcherss, and 3Grenade Launchers scattered around a large area. We originally pinpointed key location to prevent BK getting weapons, but this idea was discarded when we realised there was only 4 respawn spots! We chose a spot each with mine being at the central Red Armour/lift area.

The match started, and I spawned at the green armour, ran round to the HUMP RL, grabbed, grabbed Quad, the Eyes, and took up position: three of us managed to get to spawn spots before BK got their act together. The spawn-death cycle was doing well, and continued to do well throughout the match. Of course BK realised what was happening. One BK player twigged to my position and repeatedly got a RL, a Quad and teleported onto the red armour platform and gibbed me where I stood, then took up my position. I just went and did the same back!

Other X in their positions went mostly unmolested, but my area was as busy as hell: I died a lot, but found it very easy to get rocketed up and get my position back. BK seemed to be having a lot of difficulty sticking to any plan they had. Once the scores were climbing BK's morale muts have plummeted, and they just couldn`t grab the chance to take the game back as they have done before. I`ve noticed in Quake that team morale is very important to winning matches. If the team feel even slightly low, it affects skill greatly.

The X's game went almost completely to plan, and just goes to show what good preparation can do for a match: we really shouldn`t have lost all those matches before like we did. I'd like to donate a pat on the back to BKCleanerExup for giving me such a hard time at that Red Armour area: if BK have any luck we`ll meet them in Division 2."

"We have had some hard times recently, but this Season of MCW hopfully marks new times for us as a clan. The clan has really pulled together to produce some fantastic team work in every single match, and I'd like to thank them for what they have done and how they have played. Well done The X!"

As I'm sure most people know by now, Rorshach has finished the UKCL .PAK file, containing all new graphics and sounds designed specifically for the UK Clan League. You can aquire it at Rorshach's homepage, or at the UKCL homepage.

Rorshach is also working on a new Total Conversion with Ravage, Notlob and others, entitled "Domination Agenda". They're currently looking for a "textures/sounds man": for more information, go to Rorshach's "King Of Skins" homepage.

-Clan Pendragon have continued their stunning recruitment spree, today announcing that Zero, formerly of the Fianna Clan, will be joining CP. CP are now looking for "one or two" new modem players to swell their ranks.

- Clan Pendragon have also lost a member: Pundit has returned to his original home in the Quake Lords.

- The Mere Mortals have hired The Mortician, formerly of the ill-omened Unclan. The_Borg says that the Mortals are very glad to have Mortician, who came second in their MCW match this week, aboard.

- Clan McMental are looking for players! McM, currently in the running to be promoted to Division 1 of the MCW, are looking for more players who can play in mid-week matches: their lack of players able to play at this time has contributed to their losses in the MCW. If you'd like to join them, contact Vendar.

Hot on the heels of John Burton's announcement of a "Quake Players' Exchange And Mart" to be set up on the UKCL page, BennyBoy, maintainer of the Clanlist mirrored here at NFTF, has had a similar thought:

"I've decided to let clans advertise for recruits on the Clanlist: I've spammed all the current Clanlist members and asked them to send
any recruitment details to me. The detail must take the form of - number of LPB's needed, number of HPB's needed and the clan recruiters e-mail addy (if different from the match contacts)."

If you need players, you now have an embarrasment of places, including of course NFTF, to ask.

Copycat emails me about the long-awaited Bristol Quake Meet, which has, apparently, now turned into the Bristol Quake Pub Crawl:

"Some people in Bristol have expressed their want for a mini-quake meet in Bristol. Basically this is where ten or so (if im right) quake players from Bristol (not limited to Bristolians, anyone can come, but it'd seem odd to travel along way to get to an event like this) go into a pub at about 1pm, get a few beers down their necks whilst talking about their favourite frags and stuff. Then we will probably go out on the town for the night, perhaps Lakota, or Bierkeller, or Thekla or wherever people want to go [latest update: most likely the Blue Moon, on a Friday night. Goth night...- Nomad] and then return home having had a good day out! This day will not involve playing Quake in any way at all, and no money goes anywhere apart from into the landlord's pocket, it is merely a beer meet,hence it's free. We have not decided on any place as definite to meet, so if you want to join us, you can mail me back stating your interest, and so everyone gets a say in what goes on.

**Proposed** plan at the moment is:-

One day in the week (probably a Friday or Saturday) we all meet in a Pub in the very centre of Bristol City Centre, namely "The Bay Horse", at 1pm or so. Then we drink beer for a long time. Finally we get kicked out for rowdiness, or when it shuts, and move onto some night entertainment.

Like I said, if you are interested, let me know yur name, when you can or cannot come, your email address for further correspondance, and your preferences on what you would like to do if the above does not suit your beer needs!

People who have expressed interest include Bigsquid (DEV), Copy (DEV), Plas (DEV), Manic (TFS), Cleaner (BK) , Droopy(CiA) , Spirit (QPD) and The Nomad. Surely there are more people around in Bristol who play Quake?"

Says it all, really. I was going to rush the report out today, but with little time and no demo I've decided to wait a day. Sorry.

On that note, news may become a little thin some time soon as I start work on the UK Movie script (Working Title: The Stars Are Right). Whilst I'm on the subject, we're looking for at least one female voice actor to play a lead role. Email me or the UK Movie team if you'd like to volunteer.

Coerj-QPD sends me an statement from the Quake Police Department on the allegations of their" poaching" players from other Clans:

"QPD have recently Signed a number of Quality players. I was personally involoved with all of the players recruitments and I can assure you that no underhand dealings have taken place: if decent players approach me to join QPD I will consider it. QPD of late have had problems fielding modem players and have suffered because of this in the MCW. This we have addressed, and I am pleased with that.

I stress that the interested parties have contacted me to join QPD. Serious discussions of this sort should not be confused with IRC banter: if you want to include this I'll give you a list of people who have asked me and other members of QPD to join their clans.

[Coerj then goes through the accusations of poaching. Dibbler was apparently approached unofficially by a member of QPD in the manner above, as was Best Of British. Coerj said of the approch to the anonymous member of The X that "The X thing was basically a misunderstanding on my part. I played the guy, liked what I saw and asked if he was interested in QPD. H e then said he was in The X: I said if you ever decide to leave then let me know. Again I don't consider that underhand."]

"Players *only* move clans if they are not happy, this I feel people need to remember. Getting players is hard, keeping them is harder."

- If you want to be my Clanmember, you've got to get with my friends: Scary, recently signed by Clan Pendragon, was in fact a member of a different Clan Spice to the Uk Team Fortress Clan.

- Cheeky emails me to tell me that the Dark Deviants have signed Adeptus, the older brother of QPD's Timber, who apparently " proved himself in last night's MCW game against Terminal Gibbage by coming top of the table".

Yes, the First Division of the Modem Clan War is finished. The Demonic Core beat Dominion by a shocking 200-61, on E4M3, in their last game of the season, but with around 10 frags to make up on QL to win the War, they were stymied in their efforts by the Quake Lords' stunning victory over the weakened Clan Corpus, 305-41. Thus, with one loss on the parts of DOM, DC and QL, the Quake Lords won the league on their frags for/against ratio, having 563 frags scored by them than against them across the course of the League, to DC's 526 and DOM's 119.

A full report is coming tomorrow, but for now, it's enough to say that the Quake Lords have triumphed again in an incredibly close and exciting final week, and congratulations are due to them, and to Demonic Core who managed such an astonishing win, but couldn't quite catch the Quake Lords. Better luck next season!

News in brief: Spirit says that the second season of the Modem Clan War will start "two, perhaps three" weeks after the end of this season, next week. He says that at minimum he will have to wait a week for new schedules, listings and similar things.

This isn't directly Quake related, but you might like to hear it anyway. Several computer companies, includign MSquared, have stated that in August all Pentium chips will be dropping dramatically in price. Sadly, Intel have recently stated that they will be stopping production of all non-MMX Pentia. As a result, the prices of MMX chips will be dropping dramatically (to £125 including VAT for a 166MMX), but the startling advertised price cuts to non-MMX chips will not now be put into effect.

Last week's game between the Biker Klan and the Quake United Tigger Attack was incorrectly reported on the Modem Clan War homepage. Pionir of QUTA emails me with a correction:

"In case you've read the first table Spirit put up of the MCW results last week, we actually lost to BK 74 to 91. I've told him about the mistake so it should be corrected soon."

I actually had this email prior to writing the roundup: apologies to Pionir for forgetting the correction.

Of course, this now means that the game between BK and The X tomorrow is of vital importance to both Clans: the winner will be automatically promoted into Divsion 2, whilst the loser will have to play off against QUTA for the promotion.

If you have downloaded the UKCLDM4, the map to be played in the first week of the UK Clan League second season, from anywhere but the UKCL homepage, you may well have an outdated version, which will not work in your match! Download an updated version from the UKCL Maps section.

John Burton is also setting up a "Quake Players' Exchange and Mart" on the UKCL homepage, designed to help Clans and players to get together. If you're looking for a Clan, or are a Clan looking for new players, check the UKCL page soon for details.

John also emails me to say that he has set up a QuakeWorld server running the new Deathmatch 4 rules, as featured on Blue's News, at 158.143.100.69:27500. It's currently unbound to a master.

- Clan Pendragon have aquired another LPB, Scary, formerly a member of the Team Fortress Clan Spice. CP-Spud said that CP's new players will help to "replace CP's recent losses" and rebuild them as a powerful Clan.

Spud also said that Clan Pendragon "does not wish to be associated with the abuse that has been hurled at people who have left to join other clans by one or two of our members- they do not reflect the feeling of the majority by any means." He says that amongst the ways in which he and the rest of Clan Pendragon's leadership are trying to improve the Clan "includes quashing this sort of behaviour.".

- Clan Corpus have lost Scanman, who has signed on with the Quake Police Department. His departure has provoked some controversy, with QPD being accused of "poaching" players from other Clans: CC-Dibbler claims that not only Scanman, but also Best-Of-British and he have been approached by QPD with a view to a transfer, and X-Extreme has stated that at least one of The X have been approached with a similar offer.

What a week. The penultimate week of the Modem Clan War's first (full) season, and full of surprises.

In Division 3, two of the four matches had a major effect on the final result. The Boys Of Grangemouth, in last place, played the Dark Preachers, in the last-but-one place, in a decisive match in which DP won 189-73. The Dark Preachers, who have certainly improved since their humble beginnings not long after the start of the season, could now finish as high as fourth in their Division, although that is unlikely. Meanwhile, it appears that BOG are certainly doomed to last place, with almost no chance of beating Vengeance on Thursday.

Elsewhere in the Division, the Quake United Tigger Attack (now, I'm told, their official name) put a substantial spanner in the Biker Klan's works, defeating the previously unbeaten Klan 91-74. With The X to play this week, whilst QUTA get their default win against the former Legion Of The Insane, this has certainly scuppered BK's chances of automatic promotion to Division 2: if QUTA can repeat their success in the playoffs, BK will be doomed to another season in the bottom Division.

Vengeance have been improving their lot, too, playing against and beating Clan Dogz. With BOG to play this week, and the frag ratio already in their favour, it looks like V could well have scraped past the Dogz at the last minute to put themselves in fourth place.

Division 2 has had an acrimonious week, with the Mere Mortals gaining a default win against the Dark Deviants thanks to DEV's attempt to pass DC.Jibsta off as one of their ranks. In the same vein, the catastrophic Xtreme Chaos- Ministry Of Death game provoked a flood of abuse from RedCelt of the MoD, directed at Spirit, the chief administrator of the Modem Clan War. Spirit has since reversed his original decision to let the undermanned (and apparently disorganised) MoD lose virtually by default, and has postponed the game to a rematch.

However, some Division 2 games did manage to get played. Terminal Gibbage continued their erratic behaviour (which seems to be a characteristic of the Division as a whole), losing by the considerable margin of 45-136 to ACME, who are now placed 7th to TG's 6th, on two wins to TG's 3. Given that TG have a difficult match against the Dark Deviants this week, whilst ACME play the weaker Minos Academy, we could see another reversal in place here.

The top Clans of Division 2 continued their unending dance, with TFS winning 199-129 against the McMentals, who only two weeks ago were a place above them in third, and are now two places below in fourth. With two weeks left in this Division, the top four places look set to shift yet more, with TFS, the Fallen Angels and XC all tied on one loss apiece, and FA currently in the lead only on frags. FA alone of the Division had a fairly quiet week, beating Minos 165-57.

Division 1? Yes, there were certainly shakeups here, too. The biggest news of the week was, of course, the Quake Lords' narrow defeat by The Dominion, 111-104, a defeat which means that even in the last week of the MCW, the top three places of the top Division are still anyone's guess. Currently, the Quake Lords are marginally ahead on frags, closely tailed by DC, with DOM well in the rear, 6% below DC. Given that DC beat DOM in the semi-finals of the MCW Cup this weekend, one might expect DC to beat them, leading most likely to a QL victory overall as they play the weaker Clan Corpus and pull ahead on frags, but DOM have certainly surprised us before, and with their only chance to win the MCW to win this match, they'll be trying their hardest. Ironically, DC are the least likely to win, having to not only beat DOM but amass enough frags to pass QL, and so are likely to be looking at a second or third place. Even so, there are only 20 frags separating QL and DC...

Clan Pendragon finally managed to push themselves away from the danger of relegation, narrowly beating current last place CIX 103-93. With two wins, they're still not entirely free from the threat of relegation, with TD possibly being able to beat them on frags if they win against CIX this week, but they're in with a good chance. The Desperados didn't help their position by giving away a default win to the Quake Police Department this week, but at the very least have a fighting chance of escaping relegation: unless CC manage the unlikely feat of beating the Quake Lords this week, even if TD lose to CIX they will still be ahead of the beleagured Corpus, and in a rematch with CIX to stay in the Division.

The only certainty in Division 2 is that QPD, as the only Clan in the middleground of the Division, will stay in fourth. Even if they lose to Clan Pendragon this week, their vast frag difference will see them clear to their fourth place.

One week to go, and still unpredictable. I'll be posting the results from tomorrow and Thursday's games as they come in, so stay tuned...

Both Clans involved in the Modem Clan War Cup final have now written reports on the game. The Quake Lords have a report up on their homepage, whilst on the Demonic Core side Sujoy emails me his tale of the climactic game:

"This was one of the most challenging games I've ever played, with quality tactical play from both sides. The QLs got off to a dream start holding the rocket launcher area with the quad and pentagon, forcing DC to retreat to the opposite end of the level, luckily with only a few casualties. The QLs managed to capitalise on their better armament for the first 10 minutes, picking up frags slowly but surely, while we were unable to make a dent in their stronghold. Lightning gun discharges did take out one player at a time, but with the others not far behind this attack didn't get us far. With 10 minutes gone we had our backs to the wall, unable to get to the rocket launcher and well down in the scoring.

By using suprise super nailgun attacks whilst armoured up we managed to scrape back a few big guns in preparation for larger assaults, and finally we took back control of the bridge and quad. With the minutes ticking away it was no longer a case of holding onto the rocket launcher to win. We had to go out hunting the enemy for vital frags. This left us a little open since we didnt always have anyone guarding the rocket launcher and quad, but we were pulling back the frag difference quickly. Cenobite worked some magic with his rocket launcher even on the defensive, and the QLs were impressive at vanishing from the level with DC attacking hard, not allowing us the frags we needed to make a come back in the dying moments.

All credit to QL for making the frags count for their excellent start, and disappearing cleverly on the defensive. I'm looking forward to our nextgame."

And that really is it for the MCW Cup. The last matches of the MCW season 1 are coming up tomorrow and Thursday, and they should provide at least as much excitement for nearly all the Clans involved.

- Longtime Demonic Core member and creator of the DMPlus pack, Paragon, has retired from Quake. Replacing him in DC is the ex-Clan Pendragon member and UK Movie Director Orlith.

- Clan Pendragon, in turn, have signed Mouserat (formerly of the Clan GI) and Scrunter, both LPBs, for their Clan.

- Rumour has it that the Mere Mortals are soon to sign a new, top-quality HPB player, claimed to be a future Jibsta or Fragga. That's unconfirmed as yet.

- The Dark Deviants are chronically short of players thanks to the holidays. If you're looking for a new Clan, email Redshift.

- TFS are also actively recruiting, looking for both LPBs and modemers. Contact Shmern if you want to try out.

- With the upcoming Season 2 of the UKCL, there's a fight going on for LPBs. Amongst the Clans known to be desperately in need of LPBs are the Fallen Angels and Mere Mortals.

- Talking of the UKCL, they've had their first casualty already, with Clan High Voltage disbanding. Their place has been filled by Clan DGB.

Many people have been upset by the grinding halt to which the UK One-On-One league has suddenly screeched. Onyx, the chief administrator of the UKOOL, would like to assure people that this state of affairs is temporary: he is currently working 50 hour weeks in a supermarket to raise money for a trip to Sri Lanka in the Autumn, and consequently has neither the time or the energy to finalise the results of the UKOOL's first season.

However, he assures me that they will soon appear. Plans for Season 2, to start in early september, are already afoot, with a larger administration team (including Babel as "chief whip", to chase laggardly players up about their games), and over 230 players signed up, from all across Europe. According to Onyx, Season 2 will be far, far better in all ways than Season 1.

"Not to be out done by those people in Croydon, we're going to do another "Quake all night"session, with a similar format to last time: start at around 8pm and go through till around 8am or whenever we all collapse. We're going to do ours on the night of the 24th of August and go through till the morning or the 25th which is a Monday and a Bank Holiday.

For more information, I've set up a Quakeathon page. Go there for all the details."

A correction to the UKCL Season 2 schedule posted yesterday: at 20:00 on Saturday, ACME are scheduled to play Vengeance.

And more news on the Modem Clan War Cup, which concluded yesterday...

Baby Fragger sends some brief comments about the Quake Lords' Cup (click the links for statistics for the game):

The Final: QL vs DC. It was a very close game, but in the end our teamplay won it for us, with "Cenomoose" fighting it out with Sujoy for the Quad and coming out on top."

A demo of the final is also available from Spiritualnet, courtesy of CoerjVision. Other demos are apparently available, and I'll let you know when I find out where.

Overall, the Cup seems to have been a pleasant, relaxing and fun weekend for all concerned. Let's hope the next one comes up soon.

Well, Clan Dominion have just signed two ex-Frag King LPB's! Ped and Cream have joined us to help try and replicate our surprising MCW results in the UKCL. and the QFFL. "

Did you hear about the recent PC Gamer championships, featuring Red Alert, Risk, Quake and other games? No, nor did I before last week. However, Reaper entered, and did rather well, winning the South-East Regional championship in the Quake section. Sadly, he didn't get through to the final due to his lack of experience with the other games in the competition, but...

A demo of his win is available from his homepage. Talking to Ledge at Shoot and Surf about the tourney, what surprised me was that so few people, and so few Quakers, entered. No Sujoy? No Ettu? Surely we've got the ability to qualify in this kind of competition!

I'm going to enter myself next time. After all, even if I lose I get a lot of cheap gaming...

The UK vs US International game is actually scheduled to take place on the 16th, not the 8th of August. Sorry about that.

Maniac.DOM emails me about the possible setup of a Capture The Flag league in the UK:

" Since the release of CTF 4 I have been playing very little else, but I am getting a bit bored of the public servers and the constantly unbalanced sides. With this in mind I have spent the last week or so trying to drum up support for a CTF league and indeed trying to start a CTF team.

With the start of my CTF team, there will be 4 CTF teams that I know of ,perhaps enough for a small league- nothing too serious, just a chance to play CTF with 2 teams of good ctf players rather than the chaos of public CTF servers.

Tp's Dr Chris has agreed to let the league use his server for matches: what we do need is someone to help with web space and perhaps someone to help with organisation (not my strong point). However, I will try to run it myself if no-one else in interested.

League structure and rules are still to be decided, obviously dependent on how many teams wish to join.

Perhaps there are more clans or teams of CTF players that would be interested in a league?"

We have a result in the Modem Clan War Cup! The Quake Lords won 74-63, gaining control of the Rocket Launcher area early in the game, beating Demonic Core. Ql-Treznor said that it was a "close, tactical game", whilst DC-Nightwing put DC's loss down to the early capture of the bridge area by the Quake Lords.

A brief update on the state of play in the Modem Clan War Cup today:

The semi-finals featured the Quake Lords, playing the McMentals, and Demonic Core, facing the Dominion. QL beat McM without too much difficulty, whilst DC beat DOM, leaving the final as an unsurprising QL vs DC game on DM3, which has just started as I write.

Reports tomorrow, including statistics, overviews, and a report and demo of the final.

Sorry about the abesnce of updates yesterday- the fact of the matter is that if there was any news from the UK scene yesterday, I missed it.

As a general point, the amount of news I'm receiving through my mailbox seems to have gone down recently. People seem to think that I'm not interested in "little things", like Clan news, transfers, signings and so on. I am. So are the rest of the Uk Quake community. If your Clan has just aquired a well-known player, or you've been running a mini-tournament, or you're setting up another wing playing Tie vs X-Wing, or anything else is happening that could possibly be news, email me! I might, possibly, not print it (unlikely, particularly at the moment), but even then, I'll still be glad I heard.

However, I'm sure that this is the lull before the storm. This week's MCW has been interesting for a number of reasons (roundup coming tomorrow), and of course next weekend the new season of the UKCL starts. If anyone would like to help with the coverage of that huge league, by the way, email me.

"Over the last few months I've asked various people if they can help out on the server side.

Now I'm asking for a definite list of people who would be prepared to provide the UKCL (and if possible the MCW and QFF) with servers for their matches. We need to get a pool of servers sorted so that we can continue to run your leagues to the best of our ability.

I've already got a permanent UKCL server donated by Refux (thanks mate), SPG.Doug has been a HUGE help during season 1 (I want to cut him as much slack as possible in Season 2- as much as I love .32 it ain't fair on him ) and Interpahse is hoping to be able to provide a server, but the UKCL will need to be running 2 servers side by side in Season 2.

So if you can run a server, and can let the UK leagues have a port that we can use, please reply to this mail so that we can compile ourselves a list of servers."

I managed to intercept a message from Quicksilver about the upcoming Uk versus US match, apparently to be held on the 8th of August. This sounds exciting: the US team is being selected by Thresh and Entropy (#1 and #2 in the Red Annhilation tournament), and Quicksilver is looking for players (presumably low-ping only). Although his request was intended only for the current UK team, if you think that you're good enough to play in such an important game, email him.

Of course, NFTF will have full coverage of the game from our resident International Correspondant, Rawmeat.

* 14:00 Clan Corpus vs TFS
** 14:30 Demonic Core vs The Brotherhood of MOO
* 15:00 Clan Pendragon vs The Dark Preachers
** 15:30 Fallen Angels vs Mere Mortals
* 16:00 Clan TDC vs The Devils
** 16:30 Weedkillers vs British Knights
* 17:00 Dark Deviants vs ON$LAUGHT
** 17:30 Insomnia vs Quake Police Dept
* 18:00 QCUK vs Ministry of Death
** 18:30 Dominiom vs Terminal Gibbage
* 19:00 NIQ vs Mandalore Warriors
** 19:30 Clan Nasty vs Xtreme Chaos

Sunday 3rd August:

* 14:00 Clan Eagle vs Pyscho
** 14:30 High Voltage vs McMental
* 15:00 CIX vs The Desperados
** 15:30 Quake Lords vs Lava Shadow Demons
* 16:00 Maniac vs Minos Academy
** 16:30 BOG vs The Darkening
* 17:00 Scull Scraggers vs Eradication On Arrival
** 17:30 Devil_Boys vs SPG
* 18:00 Clan Cornholio vs The Riders of Telgar Weyr
** 18:30 CiA vs RSI
* 19:00 Funky All-Stars vs Rude Monkey Clan
** 19:30 The X vs Allegiance of Death "

With so many mew Clans, this should be an interesting season. I'll try to get to at least a couple of matches to report.

Yes, we've hit five figures. Anthony Ashton, our intrepid first explorer into these unknown lands, sends a screenshot:

Thanks to everyone for their support, and here's to at least another 10,000 hits in the future.

"29th of August is the date for 24 hours of PURE GIBBAGE! [Don't blame me, they're his capitals- Nomad]

Taking place at Cyberzone in Croydon, without beer it's £65: with beer and food it will be a bit more

There will be no IRC. It will be all quake: Co-op, templay, ctf, whatever, but nothing else. Apparently some magazines might want to be in on this, and I've heard "PC Gamer" want to come down for it.

If £24 is tooo much for you , as long as there are even numbers some people can do 12 hours for £35.

"I changed my email address! I lost my address book and so I can't tell people who to mail
about the BFF. Please, if you're asking, get in touch with me!"

Well, Mortician got his connection going without me, but I decided to stay on and gib anyway. So, slightly late, here are the results for week 5 of the Modem Clan War.

In Division 1 it was the week for relatively clear victories. The closest game of the week was The Dominion against Clan Corpus, in which the still unbeaten DOM won 183-148. DOM are still going strong in this season of the MCW, but with the Quake Lords to play this week (Note: DOM won, 111-104, in a match which is likely to be the deciding result of the whole Clan War) ) and Demonic Core in Week 7, they've still got the hardest matches of the season ahead of them, and they could well be in for a fall.

The Quake Lords had a relatively narrow victory against the beleagured Desperados, winning 143-95, in a match which TD actually came close to winning: as the Quake Lords' homepage says, this result certainly shows how much TD have improved over the past few months. Of course, this result also eats into the QLs' frag count, a fact that could be important at the end of the season...

Other Division 1 matches were less dramatic, with CIX losing to QPD 63-22 in a spectacularly low-scoring game, and the Demonic Core thrashing Clan Pendragon 215-56. The last two weeks of the league are certainly going to be interesting for the lower end of Division 1, with CIX, TD and CP playing each other in a fight to avoid the bottom of the Divison and possible relegation.

In Division 2, the turnup for the week was the Ministry Of Death's victory over ACME, 100-82. This unexpected win for the lowest-placed Clan in Division 2 may give them hope in their fight to avoid relegation to Dvision 3, and of course means that ACME and the Mere Mortals will have to fight all the harder to avoid such a fate. The Mortals lost by a considerable margin to TFS, 49-108, this week, furthering their losing streak, and have ACME and MoD still to play in their next matches.

The Other Big Thing, of course, was Xtreme Chaos (former Division #2)'s victory over the Fallen Angels, who formerly occupied the Number 1 slot, by the surprisingly large magin of 149-77. Given that XC were beaten in their turn by the Dark Deviants, who in their turn fell to FA, this result just adds to the unpredictable and quick-moving nature of Divison 2, largely caused by the relative youth of most of the Division's Clans. No report is available at this time, but the Fallen Angels' homepage lists the scores as "FA: Ha, XC: HA, HA".

The Dark Deviants won their match against the hapless Minos Academy easily (with the aid, of course, of the MA alumnus and former Golden Gun DEV-Reaper), 160-71. And finally, Terminal Gibbage had a default win against the McMentals.

In Division 3, it was a relatively quiet week, with The X beating Vengeance 139-89, Clan Dogz beating the Boys Of Grangemouth (AKA BOG- yes, the letters do stand for something) 88-12, and the Biker Klan having their default win against the former Legion Of The Insane.

The closest match of the week was between the Quake United Tiger Attackers and the Dark Preachers, who have certainly appeared to be one of the division's weaker Clans up until now, but who gave a fair account of themselves against QUTA, losing by the relatively narrow margin of 100-151. Again, the rapid improvement in a new Clan lead to QUTA having a much harder match than expected, but one which they won through superior teamwork. A demo of this match is available on the QUTA Homepage.

And so, the MCW draws to a close, with only two weeks left to play in this season. Even so, it'd be a brave man who said he could predict the result: that is still impossible, which says a lot for the War's structuring and administration, and for the skill of the Clans involved. We'll just have to wait, and see what happens.

I've just been looking at the Quake Lords' homepage, and I notice a little snippet of information that seems not to have made its way to me:

"With the retirements of LordStorm, Azrael and Rorshasch, the modem department here at QL was
undoubtably lacking a few players, so we started looking for new Lords to fill the old timers shoes....
Anyway, the first position has been filled, and please give a big welcome to QL.TReznor, already a
known and worthy player from Clan Corpus, and now ready to kick arse in QL!"

For more information, including TReznor's new skin, straight from the pen of Rorshach, check the QL Newspage.

I'm trying out a Logitech Trackman at the moment, in my neverending quest to be free of RSI. It's uphill work, so sorry about any cockups it causes for the next few days.

Of course, you might not have played due to the lack of any servers. Worry no more. Refux has set a QRally server up at 158.143.100.69:26000 (Quake Classic, of course), so go there for motor- based carnage.

Oh, and if you'd like a faster site for the 8 Mb download, thank XC.Widowmaker ( I think) who has put a copy of the 1.0 version (no netplay patch- you'll need to get that from Blue's) up on his FTP Site.

No, I haven't forgotten about the MCW Update for this week. However, a friend of mine needs some help installing his connection tonight, so the Roundup will be up tomorrow.

Well, as you may have noticed, NFTF is heading for its 10,000th hit since the move to Quake Perfect. I'd quite like to know who is Number 10,000, so check and email me!

I've had the opportunity to test the beta version of the UK Clan League Season 2 .pak, being designed by Rorshach, today, and my first impressions are very favourable. The PAK is purely cosmetic in its alterations, and if anything those alterations need to be made on a grander scale: only two weapon skins have been changed, two new sounds have been added, and a few other things (including the base skin) have been tweaked, as you saw yesterday. However, as this is a beta, I've no doubt that many more features will be in the finished version.

Highlights? Well, the new status bar is very nice indeed, with a new face illustrating your character which is probabally the best thing in the PAK. The new death screams are also cool, and the new skin is gorgeous.

On the downside, I can see Rorshach being murdered in his bed if he doesn't take out the sub-Duke audio clips that accompany picking up a weapon. "Funky"? No.

Overall, though, this is going to be worth waiting for. Remember also that I have only seen a beta, and the finished product is likely to be much more impressive. If you've got any suggestions or comments, email Rorshach.

Arathranar, winner of the UK Award for most unpronouncable Quake .nick, emails me to tell me that he has made the source code for his various patches available:

"I've finally got round to updating my web pages and making the source for both the duel patch and the frag logging stuff freely available, distributable and modifieable (provided my copyright notice is left in the files).

So, anyone who wants it please go visit my site. All I ask is that you email me to say what you've taken a copy of so I know who's got it if I need to get in touch with everyone about it for some reason.

Have fun adding new features. The only real gotcha to watch out for is that sending too much login info (eg Message of the Day in the centre of the screen) will hang some modem connects and/or make their pings worse for the rest of their connect."

I'm back. The good news is that I won't be away again for another three months or so.

The UK Clan League has been gearing itself up for its new season, and has now set the Season 2 divisions and administration team. No more entries are being accepted.

Division A

Administrators:

John Burton (Chief Admin)
Leann

Competitors:

ACME
CIX
Clan Corpus
Eradication On Arrival
Insomnia
Mandalore Warriors
NIQ
Quake Police Dept.
Scull Scraggers
TFS
The Desperados

Division B

Administrators:

Killjoy
Kalgari

Competitors:

Clan Nasty
Clan TDC
Demonic Core
Devil_Boys
Lava Shadow Demons
Ministry of Death
QCUK
Quake Lords
SPG
The Brotherhood of MOO
The Devils
Xtreme Chaos

Division C

Administraors:

Pundit
Jace (MM-Borg)

Competitors:

British Knights
Clan Cornholio
Clan Pendragon
Dominion
Funky All-Stars
Maniac
Minos Academy
Rude Monkey Clan
Terminal Gibbage
The Dark Preachers
The Riders of Telgar Weyr
Weedkillers

Division D

Administrators:

Rawmeat
UrbanSciFo

Competitors:

Allegiance of Death
BOG
CiA (Criminally Insane Assasins)
Clan Eagle
Dark Deviants
Fallen Angels
High Voltage
McMental
Mere Mortals
ON$LAUGHT
Pyscho
RSI
The Darkening
The X

Rorshach has also been working hard on the UKCL Season 2 .PAK file, which will incorporate new maps, sounds and graphics, and John Burton managed to get me a few tasters, in the form of screenshots, of what UKCL members have to look forward to:

These really do look fantastic in higher resolutions: use "View Image" for the big picture.

John would like to reassure UKCL members that the PAK will not change the gameplay of the UKCL:

"I would just like to say that the UKCL.PAK is PURELY COSMETIC . It makes no changes to any gameplay in quake whatsoever. All it does is changes the skins on the armour, weapons and base.pcx. It also adds a few different sounds and changes the background of the console.

The pak is purely client side, and if people don't want to use it they don't have to.....but they would be missing out on viewing quake through the eyes of one of the world's greatest skin creators, Rorshach."

For more information on the UKCL, its rules, structure or anything else, check their Web page.

Operation Modesty, the group effort to send a huge "get well" note to Modesty, the injured creator of FraQuake, Quake Art and other innovations, has hit a snag: they don't know where Modesty, aka Vanessa Bell, is currently staying. If anyone has any idea of her current location, please contact the Op Modesty team.

I don't know wherther it's the sun, the summer or the Clanmeet, but LAN parties seem to be springing up all over Britain. In addition to the Birmingham Frag Fest, happening on the 22nd and 23rd (I think) of August and now full, DP-Zucc sends word of another gathering, on which sadly I have very little information. However, it will apparently be a "big, non-profit LAN party", featuring "Quake and all sorts of other stuff". For more information, check the Web Page or contact Zucc.

And the UKCL isn't the only league to have sorted its divisions out this weekend. Zendog, chief admin of the Quad Frag Fest, the much-awaited successor to the UKCl 4X league, emails me the first draft of the divisional structure for the league:

The QFF still has to finalise a fair number of details, including precise rules and server details. If you have a comment or could help, email Zendog.

News From The Front and all written material therin is copyright 1997 The Nomad
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