ARCHIVES: SUNDAY 22ND JUNE 1997 - THURSDAY 3RD JULY 1997

CP-CHOAD AND CLAN PENDRAGON

CP-Choadsmoker has announced that he has stood down from leadership of Clan Pendragon. Here's a portion of the message he sent to the UKQuake mailing list:

"I stood down from CP as leader only as I felt I genuinely had no time for the input required. I, however have no intention of leaving CP as I consider certain things such as loyalty and honour to be paramount in the game of Quake- oh, and a certain aspect called fun. What pisses me off is the fact that certain narrowbacked spineless individuals say they are leaving a clan as they have no time for the one they are currently with and they within around five minutes join another. I find this strange that time can be generated from nowhere.

I have to say of late that every time I read mail from this list, issues such as racism leave me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a reluctance to play against people of this mentallity. This as a rule tends to put me off playing in the spare time that I do have. I will soon be moving to a job which will leave me unconnected for 6 months or so which will prolly bring me around to Quake II which hopefully will seen a breath of fresh air to a scene which IMHO has turned stagnant.

Sorry to stir the mire... bah!"

I've heard that there may be a few more resignations from UK Quake coming soon.

UK QUAKE NEWSGROUP NOW ONLINE

Adze has finally expedited the long-awated uk.games.computer.quake newsgroup:

"As promised, the UK UseNet committee have given us a brand new shiny newsgroup, uk.games.computer.quake. Sorry for taking so long to arrange its creation; better late than never, though!

Your local news server / ISP may not be carrying the group yet, in which case you may have to ask for it to be carried. You may not though- I'm just guessing!

Anyway, please let's move off this stone-age technology mailing list and off the Web forum ASAP: my mailbox can't take any more..."

Hoorah. Might be time for me to make my return to the world of USENET...

UKOOL VINDALOO?

Adze (who as he says is becoming quite the responsible Uk Quake community member) emails me the following cool news:

" I've set up a new server: Vindaloo UKOOLDM[1-7] FFA. It's a free-for-all [So that's what "FFA" means- Nomad] server which will cycle the UKOOLDM[1-7] levels, with Maxclients 4, Teamplay 2 (so you can play 2 on 2s if you want), Fraglimit 50, and Timelimit 0.

I thought it would be cool to give these levels the attention and testing they deserve, and this is probably the only way of doing it. I figure once people get these levels in their standard `repertoire' of known levels they'll be much more likely to want to play duels on them too."

I hope so.

REPORT!

In Monday's Modem Clan War report I mentioned that I could find no details on the TFS-Dark Deviants match which resulted in an ulmost unprecidented draw between the two Clans. Well, DEV have now updated their new page with a full report, plus a demo of the match. Check it out!

QUAD FRAGFEST NEWS

The new UK Quad Frag Fest league, a league aiming to take up games involving four Clans where the 4x League left off, is starting to get up speed. XC-Renton:

" The UKQFFL is in its starting stages with practice games being orginised as we speak. Also the map that was to be used in the UKCL4X is now handed over to the UKQFFL by its author and member of Clan The X, Slayer (Michael Oates). I wish to thank him publicly for letting us use it.

The UKQFFL now has a homepage, which is currently under construction, but which will contain details on everything and anything relevant to the UKQFFL. "

I'll be watching the UKQFFL closely: I always liked the concept behind the 4X league, and if the QFFL can conquer the 4X's technical problems, they could be onto a winner.

UTHER: THE LAST WORD

If you've been following the discussion, you'll know that Uther Pendragon started something of a brush fire in UK Quake with his decision to quit Clan play, citing the downhill slide of the UK Quake scene. Over the time since then, I've been printing updates on that discussion. Now, Uther would like to have the last word:

"The Final Word.

I had a chat with Rorschach on IRC last night, in response to the QL page,and have attempted to patch up the hassle. I have received an email from LordStorm which I have replied to, which effectively stops the hassle.

There are a couple of things that you, as the editor of NFTF, ought to be aware of though.

I have taken the anti-QL diatribe off of the Grail editorial - they were reactionary, and although the Editorial section is designed for the editors opinions, I recognise that the comments were a touch inflammatory.

However, I feel that your article stating 'bad press' is overstating the situation. As someone who is neutral, you ought to choose your words a little more carefully [See my editorial below- Nomad]

The only 'bad press' now on the Grail is contained in interviews. I will NOT censor the interviews.

The other thing that you ought to be aware of is the huge amount of support I have received - not anti-QL, but from extremely well known people in the Quake UK Scene stating their agreement that there IS a problem with the Clan Scene. The QL/Uther argument has hidden this. I'm not going to reveal the names of people that have agreed with me, simply because I don't want to start another hassle.

So the final statement is this - there is now NO personal 'anti-QL' diatribe on the Grail (and I hope this is reflected on the QL page). The hassle between myself and various QL members is over. There is still a problem with the UK Scene, no matter how much you wish to blame it on individual personalities."

EDITORIAL: THOSE EMAILS AND THE QUAKE LORDS

Hmm. Given my stated policy of neutrality, it would seem that I broke my word rather thoroughly yesterday, speaking about the Quake Lords. Allow me to try and explain my position here.

OK, I must admit I've stepped a little out of my normal position here, which may have been bad judgement. In future I'll confine my editorial to specifically editorial columns (like this one!). However, the Quake Lords are no better or worse on the many issues that have been raised recently than other Clans. They aren't angels, but they aren't the Rot at the Core of Quake either. They don't deserve the scapegoat status that has been foisted up on them. I'm rather sensitive about injustices like that, and that may have affected my judgement.

Bottom line: yes, I screwed up in the manner in which I articulated my feelings (and unfairly targetted Uther, who has been fairer to the QLs than many others. I'm sorry about that.). However, I'm not sorry about standing up for the QLs, and I stand by what I said. I am still neutral, and I am not biased toward the Quake Lords in any way. However, on this issue I feel they have had the short end of the stick. Part of the point of being neutral, I feel, is to be able to recognise problems like this, and to try to deal with them.

I'd also like to point out that that was in no way a reflection of my feelings on the "UK Quake" issue. Everything I am going to say about that, I said in my last column for The Grail.

BIRMINGHAM FRAGFEST WEBPAGE NOW UP

Yes, the Birmingham-based Quake convention now has a Web page, designed by Redshift of the Dark Deviants. The guest list now includes Nightwing, Copycat, Sujoy and over 20 others.

If you want more information on the BFF, as always, contact Aerotus.

UKCL SEASON TWO MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

John Burton emails me with an updated list of the Clans confirmed for Season Two of the UKCL Weekend League:

"Thought you may want an up to date list of Season 2 applicants ...

ACME, Allegiance of Death, BOG, British Knights, CIX, Clan Corpus, Clan Eagle, Clan Nasty, Clan Pendragon, Dark Deviants, Demonic Core, Devil_Boys, Dominion, Eat my Feces, Fallen Angels, High Voltage, Insomnia, Mandalore Warriors, McMental, Mere Mortals, Ministry of Death, Minos Academy, Quake Lords, Quake Police Dept., Rude Monkey Clan, Scull Scraggers, SPG, TFS, The Brotherhood of MOO, The Darkening, The Desperados, The Devils, The Riders of Telgar Weyr, The X, Vengeance, Weedkillers, Xtreme Chaos"

SCOTTISH GATHERING: MORE GATHERING

Yes, they're fully recovered now. If you want all the dirt on the Gathering and its aftermath, go look at their page.

Even if you're not interested in the event itself, it's worth looking at for the photos (soon to be added to the Who's Who) and the demos, which will be added to the Archive Real Soon Now (when it's back up) and includes such gems as the One-On One final: Ettu vs Cenobite! The server seems to be down right now, but keep trying.

Last thing: Ettu won the single-player contest, and recieved a Space Orb 360 as his prize. As a result, he's started playing with it. As a result, he's not nearly as formidable as normal. So, if you want to be able to say that you've beaten Ettu (most likely the Uk #2), go look for Orby-Ettu on a server near you soon!

Sorry, Ettu...

QUAKE LORDS SPEAK AGAINST BAD PRESS

The Quake Lords have been getting a lot of bad press lately, from Uther and others, and have long held an unjustified reputation for unsportsmanlike behaviour and "elitism". I personally don't think they deserve this, and I'm pleased to be able to refer you to their very calm and well-reasoned plea for fair treatment, on their homepage.

No matter what you think of the QLs, you should read this. If anything's wrong with Uk Quake, it's the tendancy for entire Clans to be tarred with negative reputations and used as scapegoats by the rest of the community.

Thanks to Lord Storm for pointing me to that.

MCW WEEK TWO ROUNDUP

Week two of the Modem Clan War kept the close games between well-matched Clans going, justifying once again the move to a divisional structure. Ironically, one of the most hyped games of the week, Demonic Core versus the Quake Lords, was actually a week 1 replay (QL won by a considerable margin: the other replay, Dark Deviants versus Xtreme Chaos, resulted in a narrow win for DEV), but the genuine Week Two games were just as exciting.

The closest game of the week was undoubtedly CIX versus Clan Corpus, with CIX winning by just two frags, 85-83. Sadly, there are no reports on the game up as yet, but CC-Best Of British said that the game was one of the five best he had ever played. With their loss against the Dominion last week, and this near-loss now, CIX are going to have to work hard to remain in the top half of Divison 1.

Elsewhere in Division 1, the Dominion continued their winning streak, this week beating top UK Clan QPD (the Quake Police Department) 74-69. DOM certainly seem to be on form at the moment: however, with QPD's recent aquisitons of Dogboy (formerly Dominion) and Spirit, it remains to be seen if QPD's star will rise higher then theirs in the MCW.

The other Divison 1 games were less even, although still far from the old-style single-figure demolition jobs of the former system. The Quake Lords beat Clan Pendragon 108-39: with their win over DC last week, it would seem that the QLs' traditional bias towards LPBs is being corrected, and that they may well come to be as formidable in the MCW as in the UKCL. And Demonic Core beat The Desperados 93-26: it looks as though the TDs are slightly outclassed in this divison, and they might be a good bet for relegation at the end of the season. However, given their erratic reputation for giant-killing, nothing's certain.

Divison Two seems to have been taking well-balanced games to the extreme, with the TFS versus DEV game providing what I believe is the MCW's first draw, at 60 frags apiece. Again, there's no report available, a ptiy given such a unique occurence! Terminal Gibbage returned a little to form, playing the Minos Academy, with a clear win of 161 frags to 62: it's still too early to see how well this old Clan will regain its old ability after its reformation.

The Fallen Angels continued their path of destruction through Divison 2, this week beating the Ministry Of Death, a newer and apparently less formidable Clan, 105-66: FA certainly look to be a force in Divison Two, and it'll be interesting to see how they do against TFS or the McMentals. Talking of that Clan, whose name has managed to get me into a lot of trouble (tell me, was I right in my guess last week?), they are looking to be one of the most promising new Clans to this season, this week beating ACME 127-75.

Lastly in Division 2, the Mere Mortals had a difficult and disappointing game against Xtreme Chaos, whom they were unprepared to play thanks to the general confusion over their apparent resignation from the MCW. Sadly, I wasn't on the ball here, and didn't report that XC were back in the MCW until too late, resulting in MM's loss 92-20. For more details, check MM's homepage: suffice it to say that The Borg congratulated XC on their play, and conceded that they lost fairly.

Lastly, Divison 3 had a quiet week, with Clan Dogz having a default win against the Legion Of The Insane, who have sadly had to pull out of the MCW. We'll miss them, even if it's only for allowing BOG to win at least once! BOG lost 73-182 to the Biker Klan, who are certainly contenders for the top of Divsion 3, Vengeance lost 63-152 to Quake United Tiger Attack (who apparently liked last week's Winnie the Pooh reference they want to use it on their homepage), and The X annhilated the Dark Preachers 233-2. I have no idea what happened there: all I can assume is that either the DPs didn't turn up or Bagpuss is back...

This week sees the Quake Lords playing QPD, CIx playing DC, TG playing XC, and The Dogz playing The X. Should be fun...

BIRMINGHAM FRAGFEST UPDATE

Two quick updates to the Fragfest news:

- The guest list is now up to 25 people!

- Aerotus has moved! If you want info on the 'fest, email him on aerotus@jamesmc.prestel.co.uk

SCOTTISH GATHERING: THE MORNING AFTER...

(No Scottish jokes. No Scottish jokes...)

Yes, they've recovered from the Quake Gathering, organised by Refux. If you want to know how it went, check out the links on Rorshach's page here at Quake Perfect. If you want the (ugly) mugshots, try RealityX's page for size...

Judging from the chatter on IRC, the hangovers must have been pretty severe...

SPIRIT LEAVES CLAN PENDRAGON!

In a shockingly sudden development on the Quake scene, Spirit, late of Clan Pendragon and the Modem Clan War organiser, has joined the Quake Police Department, along with Dogboy, a former Dominion player.

QPD-Coerj, himself a defector from CIX to QPD, said of the new arrivals

"I think they will be a great asset to QPD and look forward to them kicking some in future games!"

Spirit says that he changed Clans for "a change": he has been with CP a very long time, and simply got tired of playing for the one Clan.

EVENIN', ALL

I'm back from Manchester and StabCon, greeted as normal by a pile of email and more news that I can shake a stick at. Still, it was a very good weekend, so I'm feeling refreshed.

Although it isn't exactly UK news, I was slightly depressed that Sandy Peterson left Id last week. As you may know, Sandy Peterson was the writer of Call Of Cthulhu, the roleplaying game based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos: the fact that I dislike the Cthulhu Mythos yet still use the supplements should tell you a lot about the quality of CoC and Sandy's work. I'm convinced that Sandy's level design was one of the major factors in the success of DooM, DooM II and Quake, and I hope that Quake II won't suffer because of his absence.

The good news is that he's off to write a roleplaying game. Now that should be interesting.

The other thing: Links. Yes, I do use them on this page, yes, they are intended to stand out from the text, being red, and no, I don't know why some people can't see them. I'm working on it: please be patient.

DEV-XC FEUD RESOLVED

I'm pleased to see that the rift between Xtreme Chaos and the Dark Deviants, who played each other in Week 1 of the MCW, has been patched up. Renton (formerly Pinhead) of Xtreme Chaos made the following statement:

"You have heard about the XC Vs DEV spat ? Well I'm proud to say I chilled out finally and we've settled our differences. Thanxs to DEV Plas who I could get intelectual conversation from. I would like to offer a formal apology for me being a git to them. Thanxs. "

It's great to find someone who will make a public apology like that, and great that the rift has been patched.

4X IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE QFFL!

Many people were disappointed when the UKCL 4X league ended due to server difficulties. Among them was XC's Renton, who is now starting up the Quake FragFest League:

"The Quad FragFeast League is starting up really soon. With clans now confimed and players entered myself and ZENDog[moo], the UKQFFL admin team, are happy to announce that the season starts within the next month! When the new season starts (7 weeks time from the start) there will be openings for many more clans to join: if you want to join, email me! With the fall of the UK4X league we hope this will be a wish come true for clans who had their hopes crushed. "

I haven't got a URL for the QFFL yet, but if you're interested email Renton.

OOPS

Remember last week's Modem Clan War match between the Quake Lords and Demonic Core? Well, there was a demo recorded, as I mentioned, but the link I gave was incorrect.

To get that demo, try ftp://oxford.varsitygames.co.uk/pub/Quake/demos/qldc.zip.

CALLING ALL MAP DESIGNERS

John Burton of the UK Clan League has a request:

"The start of Season 2 of the UKCL is now only 6 weeks away........

It would be nice to start Season 2 with more custom UKCL levels, so if there are any map designers out there that are willing to do a map for the UKCL, please don't hesitate!"

MORE UTHER...

Since printing the correspondance between Uther Pendragon, who has recently left the UK Quake Clan scene, and Ql-Enrique, I've had a flood of new mails about the issues they raised. This is the last update that page will get, but if you want to find out more, check it out.

If you want to discuss this further, email the parties quoted!

SWINGING HOOKERS: THE HEADLINE THAT WOULDN'T DIE

I agree with Blue: that's a cool headline.

Even if you're not interested in the discussion, it's worth pointing out that in the middle of the emails mentioned above Enrique revealed a superb way to use the grappling hook in Capture The Flag. It's a long and complicated alias series, so it you want it, go there.

THE MEAT MOVES

Rawmeat, head of Clan Corpus, UKCL International Correspondant, Clanmeet organiser, UKCL admin and more other things than I can think of, has moved email address. Since about half the world needs to contact him, you should now try rawmeat@shootnsurf.co.uk.

THE END IS NIGH...

Angel would like to point out that the end is about to come:

"Voting for the UK Quake Awards '97 closes at 12 midnight today; so if you haven't voted already, now's the time to do so.

Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to vote so far: its been quite interesting!"

If you're hyperlink challenged here, the URL for the Awards is http://194.119.129.207/ukquake/awards.html. Who should you vote for? I couldn't say, naturally...

CLANMEET IS COMING...

Yep, it's that time again. It's coming. And soon it will be here.

What? The second UK Clanmeet, of course! In case you have been somewhere inside a Grey's spaceship for the past three months, this is the event when about half the world's Quakers will meet, have a few beers, have a few more beers, play Quake, have a few more beers and fall over. At least, that's what Uther tells me.

Of course, the UK Quake awards will be announced at the Meet, and since Shoot And Surf are hosting part of it, you'll have the chance to see that Sujoy can beat you senseless on a LAN, too. Uther also mentioned a Star Trek theme bar, but I think he was joking.

If you're coming, I'll see you there (note that the URL for the website, which includes a guest list, has changed). If you're not, you're missing out.

Oh, you might be wondering if you'll be able to figure out who I am. Don't worry. I'll be noticable...

QUAKE DOCTOR TAKEN ILL

Yep, the Doc's gone down (isn't that a line from Star Trek?). Kalgari sends the following notice:

"Its just that for the next 4 weeks I am not going to be able to do anything to do with Quake Doctor due to several *big* problems. Those of you p who cheered when they read this headline, that's meant to be bad news!

If you send a mail to me about quake doctor, or anything after about 10pm GMT Today (Sunday) I will not get it for several weeks. I know I said 4 weeks up there but it may be many more.

Quake Doctor will be comming back in a bit. Hopefully I will speak to some of you people again soon. "

Physician, heal thyself!

FRAGFEST!

TD-Kenzie sends an announcement about a Quakemeet, based in Birmingham, run by Aero and entitled "The Birmingham Fragfest", that is hoped to run sometime soon. Since it's kinda long, I've simplified the relevant information.

The Fragfest is intended to run on the 16th and 17th of August, at the Apollo Hotel in Birmingham. The total cost for the Meet will be £15, not including room or board. The Fragfest will in essence be a huge LAN party: if you want to play, you'll have to bring your PC, complete with network card.

Competitions over the weekend will include a both singles and doubles tournaments, plus a 4 vs 4 team tourney. Demos will be recorded and uploaded to the NFTF demo archive once it's back online, so if you want to be famous, this is the meet to attend. Guests confirmed so far include Best Of British, CopyCat and MNK, with Sujoy, Nightwing, myself and others as high probables.

If you want more information, email Areotus or DocTyrell. This sounds cool: I hope it comes off.

IQF? UHUH, UHUH.

The Meatster emails me to tell me that he's involved in yet another project, which is just gaining momentum: the International Quake Forum. Apparently this will be a worldwide centre for International Quake matches. Worth a look, no?

Whilst we're on the International front, I see that first-person perspective demos of the Red Annhilation final are now available at Blue's. Let me know what you think of them.

BUSY AND STRESSED

I'm off to Manchester tomorrow, and I'm rushing around panicing now. See you all on Monday.

DC-QL MCW MATCH REPORT

In case you didn't know, Demonic Core, former Modem Clan War leaders, played the Quake Lords in yesterday's MCW matches. And who won? Well, read Cenobite's report to find out...

"With the Quake Lords fresh from a Game against Clan Pendragon we were all set to take on the Demonic Core. When we entered the server we saw that the Pings were all very good, not to mention that Coerj, Spirit and Adze were all spectating! The spectators decided to record the game: unfortunately the Llama Coerj's demo didn't work, and neither did Spirit's, so Adze's (cinematic??) demo is the only one available.

The Level was DM3: a good level for Clan games, and a favourite of many MCW Clans.

I had a good start, getting the invisibility, Quad and 666 (yeah, yeah, jammy). The obvious starting battle was for the RL: many battles ensued and the QL's managed to get a small foothold on the RL, then moved to the Red armour. We managed to keep that area for the whole game, which definitely helped- for example, I managed to get 200 Red Armour and Megahealth quite a few times.

The Spectators 'kindly' accused the QLs of camping, which was quite funny. Then the match turned into the strangest game I have ever played on DM3: neither of the teams camped at the RL! Of course a small bit of 'Area Domination' was going on at the Quad: a tense few minutes ensued with both teams having their fair share of the Quad and the RL: then the QLs started to pull ahead. Nearing the end, the pattern of the game changed to fierce battles beside the RL and Quad with the occasional fisty-cuffs over beside the Super Nailgun and Red Armour.

The game was clearly very tactical and it seemed at times it stopped dead, with no one killing anyone- then a fire fight would happen, then silence again. This pattern infuriated Adze who said that anyone he observed did nothing! Coerj chipped in his vocal support for both teams (well, he was vocal, but far from supporting!), and Spirit kept an eye on the goings on as MCW Head guy. Finally, it ended, with most people fighting beside the RL.

The final score was 110 QL v 39 DC. Both teams enjoyed the game: hell, even I enjoyed that game! The QL's for once played a good team game and even surprised ourselves."

If you want to watch that demo, it's available at Adze's FTP site.

UKOOL NEWS

The Uk One On One League has moved! But that's not all: the first season is over, and so Onyx is now accepting applications for Season 2 through the "Join" section! Add to that a spiffy new layout, new skins for the UKOOL winners, a Reaperbot contest, and much, much more, and you know you've got to go visit the UKOOL. Now.

UKCLDM4- (FINALLY) OUT

Yes, the almost legendary map by skin designer Rorshach is finally out, and according to UKCL admin John Burton it's the best UKCL map ever. Since it's going to be the opening map for the UKCL Season 2, if you download it now, you can practise your tactics on it for almost a month!

If you have any earlier versions of this map, you need to delete them and get the latest version. Lastly, if you don't have a Clan pracise coming and you can't wait to try it out, it is running on the UKCL server at 158.143.100.69:27500.

DOMINION COMMENT ON DOM/XC ALLIANCE

Dominion have allied with the controversial Xtreme Chaos Clan. Salamander released the following statement about that alliance:

"It seems a few clans have commented about our alliance with XC.

Well, I'd just like to say that any problems those particular clans may have with XC are their own. Dominion have no wish to participate in their squabbles and our perception of XC is that they are good lads who like a laugh: we have had no problems what so ever from them.

If these Clans wish to make an issue out of our alliance with XC then that's their perogative. They are welcome to a match if they feel that strongly about it!"

XTREME CHAOS LEAVE MCW

Xtreme Chaos have left the Modem Clan War. Their side of the story is told on their Web page.

THAT EMAIL

Uther seems to have provoked a bit of a reaction with his comments earlier this week, particularly those directed against the Quake Lords. I'm not going to cover the whole thing here, but if you're interested, I've set up a section detailing the correspondance between QL-Enrique and Uther.

COPYRIGHT

I also made a bit of a cockup yesterday, when I ranted about copyright. Of course, I have forgotten to add a disclaimer about my use of the copyrighted names "Quake" and "ID Software" to NFTF. Apparently, Disruptor isn't worried about that, but here goes anyway:

"The names Quake and ID Software are copyright ID Software. No challenge to that copyright is intended by their use on this page."

Thanks to Lost Soul for pointing that out.

A BIT QUIET

I'm working on a major project for a convention this weekend, so news might be a little brief for a few days. Needless to say, I also won't be around on the weekend.

Could someone PLEASE write me a report of the QPD/QL game? Screenies would also be nice, and a demo, well, that would be just perfect. Please?

UKCL SEASON 2 UPDATE

John Burton has provided me with an updated list of clans now signed up for the UKCL second season:

"ACME, Allegiance of Death, BOG, CIX, Clan Corpus, Clan Nasty, Clan Pendragon, Demonic Core, Devil_Boys, Dominion, Eat my Feces, Fallen Angels, High Voltage, Insomnia, Mandalore Warriors, McMental, Mere Mortals, Ministry of Death, Minos Academy, Quake Lords, Quake Police Dept., Rude Monkey Clan, Scull Scraggers, TFS, The Brotherhood of MOO, The Darkening, The Desperados, The Devils, The Riders of Telgar Weyr, The X, Vengeance, Weedkillers. "

It's expanding...

BLOWING MY OWN HORN

I try not to blow my own horn here, but people have been asking me about my stance on the "UK Quake is getting worse" issue. Well, it's the subject of my first column for The Grail. Read, inwardly digest and feel free to disagree...

COPYRIGHT: NO JOKE

I'm unhappy to say that there has been a spate of copyright violations connected with UK Quake recently. Whilst I'm not going to name names, I would like to point out the following:

- Copyright is not a joke. It does not demand a license, a notice or anything else. If you rip off another person's work, you can be sued. For more information on myths about copyright, read this.

- It's normally very easy to get around this problem. If you want to use something someone has written, or drawn, ASK THEM! Include a note mentioning their work, and you'll almost certainly get the right to use the material, and a reputation as a nice guy.

- You might think that people are unlikely to take any action because of legal fees. Wrong. In the UK we have a wonderful institution called a Small Claims court, where matters that aren't important enough to warrant the full legal mile can be tried. A small claim can be up to £1000. Not all that small.

- A lot of the Quake community depend on copyright for a living: myself, Rorshach, Uther, and others. Don't imagine that people will take your ripping off someone else's hard work as a joke. It isn't, and we won't treat it as such.

It's nice to have that off my chest. Ok, people, play nice from now on, OK?

LEVELAB STAYS PUT!

Yes, for once the UKOOL Levelab hasn't moved...

Seriously, the Levelab, under the auspicies of CopyCat, has undergone a redesign. It now looks very cool, and very, very Quake. Since there are also three new UKOOL levels available, you might want to check it out.

QUAKESPY+LINUX= QUICKSPY

Quickspy, the Quakespy-alike for Linux users, has been released in 0.1b form. I haven't used it, but I'm told it's very good, so if you use Linux, you should probabally check it out.

MCW WEEK 1 ROUNDUP

Well, the Modem Clan War has been operating on its new divisional system for a week now, and the first matches seem to have gone very well, succeeding in their aim of making MCW games fairer and more exciting. It's also worth noting that the reduced length of the MCW season will actually mean that Season 1 will now finish earlier than it originally would have!

In the First Division, the biggest shock of the week has to have been CIX's loss to the Dominion, 178-112. CIX were previously unbeaten in the MCW, and considered favourites for the top place at the end of the season, whilst DOM, although a tought and respected Clan, had been beaten by several of the Division 1 Clans and were placed seventh when the MCW moved to its divisional structure. From DOM's timely account of the game on their Web page, it seems to have been a fair game, and one that will once again throw Division 1 into turmoil, with DOM proving themselves as possible top-spot contenders.

In other games, the Quake Police Department beat the weakened Clan Corpus (who lost many of their modemers to Terminal Gibbage's reformation) 95-56. This is a close result against a tough Clan: evidently CC's modem squad hasn't been much reduced by the split. Clan Pendragon won 100-49 against The Desperados, with their erratic and unpredictable streak showing again against the "superclan", which has presumably been strengthened by the Buckshot Brigade's top-class modemers. Demonic Core versus the Quake Lords was postponed to tomorrow.

Division 2, the largest Division, was at least as busy, with Jedi Knight spinoffs ACME beating the deceptively named Mere Mortals 54-94. It seems that ACME definitely emerged the stronger of the two Clans after the JK/ACME split, but it's too early to tip them for the top for sure. The biggest beating of the week came from the Fallen Angels, who are going from strength to strength following their merger with the Hellbringers, and who beat the newly reformed Terminal Gibbage 227-78. Possibly the fact that TG have but recently reformed, allied with the fact that the best former TG, ScanMan, has elected to stay with Clan Corpus, may have temporarily weakened them. We'll see.

The closest game of the week was between the Minos Academy, an erratic and oft-maligned Clan, and TFS. TFS are a strong Clan, but most of their more famous members, including Shmern of Clan UK, are LPBs, leading to their weaker showing in the MCW. They beat MA relatively narrowly, 107-75.

The McMentals (scottish, by any chance?) and the Ministry Of Death both made their debutant appearance in the MCW and on these pages, with the Men from the Ministry losing to McM 211-106. As unknown quantities, no doubt the rest of the Divison will be watching them closely, as they will be watching Extreme Chaos and the Dark Deviants, whose match was postponed, allegedly bacause of cheating on the part of XC.

Division 3, meanwhile, shook to the most astounding turn of events in Uk Quake since Fragga retired: BOG won a game, fair and square, thrashing the Legion Of The Insane 70-8! Will this be the start of a new golden age for BOG? Or were LI just ill that day? We'll have to wait to find out.

In other, less worldshaking games, Vengeance beat the new Clan, the Dark Preachers, 151-79: presumably DP's recent entrance onto the Quake scene means that their teamplay and general tactical awareness was not as good as the oldtimers Vengeance, but it could be interesting to see if they improve. The Biker Klan beat the Dogz 168-96, in what must have been a frenzy of stylish black clothing, and which certainly paints BK as one of the stronger Div 3 Clans, along with The X and Vengeance. Finally, The X beat the unpredictable Quake United Tigger Attack (Winnie The Pooh with guns?) 69-26: having gone through a bad patch, perhaps now The X's fortunes will start to rise again.

This week will see the DEV-XC and DC-QL rematches, along with the usual Week 2 fixtures. See you in about a week's time with the results!

UTHER QUITS CLAN ACTIVITIES

I recieved the following statement from Uther Pendragon, former leader of both Clan Pendragon and Team Pendragon, this morning. It's long, but I recommend you read it.

"As of this week (Mon 23rd June) I am standing down from all Quake Clan related activities. I am leaving TeamPendragon, and after Clan Meet II I will not be involved in any further organizational tasks.

Phew - bit of a statement that. And now for the reason...

I am f*cking pissed off with the way that the UK Clan Scene is, and has been for a while.

People like Spirit and Azrael are totally unappreciated for the amount of work they put in - all people seem to do is whine about how its 'not being done their way'. Superb Clans such as the Buckshot Brigade are disappearing, being swept up into big, faceless Clans.

I was involved in an IRC sesh with a couple of people that really opened my eyes to the amount of unhappiness that is rife in the Clan Scene at the moment - we all got into this because it was FUN, and enjoyable, and I think the bottom line is that I don't enjoy it anymore.

I formed TP to play CTF, and the guys I got were fantastic. The team was made up of the finest CTF players in the UK, Dibbler, Osiris, Dr.Chris, Flametop, Tine and the rest. Yet we got hammered in the first game we played, simply because the other team roped in a couple of LPB QL ringers, who proceeded to play CTF as if they were playing standard Quake (grab the RL, defend the weapons etc). Now this is fine, but personally I think it is missing the point. CTF is CTF - sure, you can win by a: being LPB and b: doing the weapon/armour/goodies thing, but whats the damn point?

Until we have a level playing field, Quake in all its DM forms will be unfair to the people with lower pings. We all know that. But now the UK Clan Scene has become a 'Get the LPBs at all costs - we must win' affair. What happened to the playing Quake for Quake's sake mentality? What happened to friendly matches? What happened to the camaradarie?

They say that those that can, do, whereas those who can't, complain. In this situation, whinging and moaning about the scene isn't going to change a thing, so rather than become (more) bitter, I choose to remove myself from the scene.

I'll be waiting with baited breath for Quake II, Hexen II, HalfLife, SiN and even Duke Nukem Forever, and hopefully these games will bring a breath of badly needed fresh air to the UK Scene.

I will be continuing the Grail, and hopefully people will start to use it for what it is - a place to air your views and share your knowledge.

I hope to see everyone who has said they are coming at the ClanMeet II. If you don't agree with what I have said, then talk to me there, or even better send a rant to the Grail."

I would comment here, but I've already done so in my opening column on The Grail, Uther's newscast site. All I'll say is that if we are losing people like Uther, there's something going wrong. Quite what it is that's going wrong Uther and I may disagree on, but something is definitely faulty.

UKCL SEASON II NEWS

On a happier note, John Burton (one of UK Quake's saints) emails me the following:

"Below is a list of clans who in Season 2. If your clan is on this list and shouldn't be please mail me and remove it. If you haven't yet applied to join the UKCL for Season 2 please go to the UKCL Website and complete the application form under the join section. With any luck we'll make Season 2 better than Season 1.

The list of Clans so far:

ACME, Allegiance of Death, BOG, CIX, Clan Corpus, Clan Nasty, Clan Pendragon, Demonic Core, Devil_Boys, Dominion, Eat my Feces [hmmm -Nomad] , Fallen Angels, High Voltage, Insomnia, Mandalore Warriors, McMental, Mere Mortals, Minos Academy, Quake Lords, Quake Police Dept., Rude Monkey Clan, TFS, The Brotherhood of MOO, The Desperados, The Riders of Telga Weyr, The X, Vengeance, Weedkillers"

Sounds fun...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO QUAKE

It's Quake's birthday today- it's a year ago that Quake Shareware first changed (or removed) our lives. Thanks to Stephen Mitchell for that reminder, and as he says, don't forget to buy it a card.

OOPS...

-The maintainer of the Gl Quake Dojo isn't a UK person. But he's a nice guy anyway.

- Quake Shareware, not QTest, was released a year ago today.

UK VS DENMARK: WE WIN AGAIN!

Clan UK lined up to play Denmark on Saturday with a team boasting some impressive players, including Quicksilver, Dibbler, Sujoy, Nightwing, J'honi-Bo, Shmern and LordStorm. The match was played on 2 legs (as is standard for international games), and started, after a rather brief practice, just after 8 o'clock on the 21st June. With the game afoot the first leg was on the Danish server, where ping fluctations affected certain players, but overall we were outplayed. The Danes, having only slightly better pings than us, we were on average pinging 60-100 (with one player pinging at 230) whilst they were pinging 30-100 on average, but ping aside they outplayed us. We had underestimated them in the first round, and there was some bad teamplay from the UK side, with LordStorm being nailed and pushed into the lava by a UK player, and numerous times where UK players shot armour off other UK players, did not share weapons and generally played badly.

After much shouting on IRC after the first round, the UK worked out some tactics for round 2, which was held on Doug's server. Our pings were now improved, and the Danes suffered the same degredation of connect quality we had experienced in the first half of the match. The tactics had improved for this round: we were no longer blowing armour off people, shooting them into lava, and teaming badly, and the second round went extremely well.

We took an early lead with myself talking the lead whilst fighting off Sujoy's climbing frag count, but then Adze decided he had had enough, and the tried and tested players (Adze, Quicksilver, Orlith, Dibbler and Shmern) took the lead and showing everyone how it was done. Special mention must go to Groffy for holding the DM4 rocket room downstairs particularly well: there always seemed to be a rocket launcher when people went in there, and the room always had him in the corner tooled up fighting off the Danes. Although the second round favoured the UK ping wise, it perhaps showed the true skill of Clan UK more than the first round, and it was obvious that the first round had been a shock to our system. The second round was won 737 - 254, which made up our frag difference from round 1 and took us clearly into the lead.

Overall the UK won 1220 - 867.

Clan UK are really to be congratulated for their performance, and particular mention should go to the players receiving their first cap for the UK (including Boywonder, who has written a report of his own) . Also, congratulations and thanks should go to the Danish side, for providing a server and a team to play against. Thanks is also to go to the admins of both sides for organising the game, and Doug for providing us the server yet again.

-RawMeat, NFTF International Correspondent

Full statistics for the game and the Danish side of the story are also available, if you want more details!

FAR FROM BOG-STANDARD

Great news from BOG-Gas, Clan leader of BOG:

"We won on Thursday in the McW league, playing against the Legion Of The Insane! This is history as it's our first EVER win...

But sad news to report, GAS (ME), failed to get a ping below 999+ when trying to join the game, so gave up and missed the win. I have been sitting in a corner crying for the past two days, because I missed it."

Congratulations to them! Sadly, there's no report on the game available yet, but if it appears, I'll mention it in tomorrow's MCW Update.

CLANMEET PC SPACES STILL AVAILABLE

Rawmeat emails me with the following news:

"This is just to say we have a few spaces left for PC's at Clanmeet II, so if you have your name down, and would like to bring your PC along please mail me ASAP. You need a network card ( a fast one) and an RJ45 cable to link it into the network at Shoot And Surf, and the PC needs to be down in Shoot n Surf EARLY on the saturday, where it will be locked away. It needs to be there at about 10-12 AM.

The advantage is that you get in free as a result, but the rule is you have to share your PC!

We have about 4-5 places left for PCs."

News From The Front and all written material therin is copyright 1997 The Nomad This page has had visitors since 26th May 1997 Report News to nomad@easynet.co.uk