ARCHIVES: THURSDAY 24TH ARPIL 1997 -WEDNESDAY 7TH MAY 1997

THE GREAT RESPAWN DEBATE

If you didn't know, following the start of the UKOOL, a storm has arisen over the issue of respawn sequences in levels. For more details check the UKOOL page, but in brief many people are concerned that memorising the fixed sequences in which players respawn on any Quake level could allow any player who frags his opponent once to race to his next scheduled respawn site and kill him whilst he is unarmed and defenceless, then go to the next and do it again. And again.

This is a real problem, with advocates of both the Quake Classic fixed respawn sequence and the UKOOL patch's random respawn sequences. Onyx, the administrator of the UKOOL, would like everyone involved to think about the problem, listen to both sides of the argument, and vote whether to keep or remove random respawning when they give in their Week 2 results.

HONEY, I'M HOME...

Back from Shoot N Surf's all night Quakeathon yesterday- great fun, and I'm pleased to have met all those people I'm been spreading scurrilous rumours about for the past few months. Yes, I will be at the Clanmeet on the 5th of July.

Quite a lot of things have sprung out of talking to people there. Firstly, I am starting a UK Quaker Photo Album, similar to the US one now housed on Stomped, based on the piccies I took last night. If you have photographs of UK Quakers, including yourself, point me to them or email them to me.

Secondly, I am also starting a Demo Archive, in which will reside as many demos of top UK players competing as I can find. Again, this archive will be based on the demos from Shoot N Surf, but if you know of any others I've missed, please point me to them. Don't email them to me- I'm on a 33.6 connection, and the upload's going to be enough of a pain.

And lastly, you may have noticed the change of decor at the top of the page. Yes, as of now NFTF is the official news page for the UKCL, essentially formalising the working arrangement I've had with the UKCL team for a long time. I must stress that although I am now their official news page, there will be no changes to NFTF's policy of total neutrality. I am a member of their board in an advisory capacity (long words...) only, and if I find something in their policy to criticise, I will still do so (I might say I haven't yet). Likewise, non-UKCL events, like the Clanmeet, Varsity Quake and the UKQCR (with whom I am no longer associated) will still recieve equal coverage.

I'd like to thank them for bringing me on board, and promise both them and you that I will at least keep up, and hopefully improve, my coverage of the UKCL's various Quake-based leagues in the future.

BUTTON UP!

Another change to the top of the page- the NFTF Button. Thanks to Ql-Rorshach for that one, and I'm looking forward to the logo he's working on- coming soon!

IS HE COMING OR GOING?

A few days ago I reported that Nick, former Chief Administrator of the UKCL, had left that organisation. He emails me with a correction:

"I have not quit the UKCL as such i have quit UKCL (quake section) which means i have nothing more to do with Quake within in the UKCL but i still have an active role in the UKCL.

Our aim is to provide online leagues for new net ready games (depending on demand). At the moment, as we have said, we are looking at X-Wing vs TIE, Unreal, Prey.... "

I'm glad to hear he's still around.

MCW NEWS

By popular demand, CP-Spirit has removed the non-DM levels from the Modem Clan War's level pool. I'm disappointed about that- whilst players are less familiar with them, they gave the line-up an eclectic and varied quality which a list of soley DM levels is missing.

This week'd line-up of matches includes two potentially huge games. On Wednesday The Dominion play DC on DM2. Both Clans are highly skilled, with DC favourites to win the league and Dominion rapidly advancing into the same catagory, and this game could be one of those which determine the outcome of the MCW as a whole.

In a similar catagory is the following day's game, pitting the Quake Lords against the CIX Clan, again on DM2. With CIX already having toppled one giant in the MCW (the Frag Kings, if you don't remember), and the Quake Lords weakened by their inability to field their LPBs, this could be the first loss for QL this year.

I'll try to watch one, if not both, and bring you the report.

KOD VS QL REPORT- THE BIG ONE...

Yes, I finally got around to it.

Last Sunday saw a friendly between the Quake Lords and Clan Pendragon: Knights Of Darkness that was big in several ways. Firstly, of course, it was a pitched, 40 minute battle between two of the UK's most capable Clans, ranging over Death 32 in a cataclysmic war of attrition. And secondly- well, 21 players!

The chat on IRC beforehand was friendly, with neither Clan sure of victory by any means. KoD were of course aware of the awesome reputation of the Quake Lords, unbeaten so far this year, and fielding some of their finest players including the "bot-like" Ettu, recent aquisitions DragonTung and FlyingRibs, and their infamously capable leader Lord Storm. ChoadSmoker, one of the CP leaders, was also worried that the Quake Lords would be "as well practised as ever", particularly on Death32, a level with which the Pendragon forces were not particularly familiar.

Meanwhile, Lord Storm was noticably less confident of the outcome of this game than one might have expected. The Quake Lords were seriously outnumbered, having agreed to let all KoD members who turned up play, and hamstrung by their own small but select nature (only 12 Quake Lords are active members of the Clan). Even with the lesser-spotted Ql.Azrael (better known as John Burton of UKCL fame) and QL.Rorshach, former Clan Leader now rarely seen in Quake playing, they were outnumbered 8 to 13. Added to that, with Choadsmoker, Spirit and Carnage all lining up for the KoD, even at equal numbers Clan Pendragon would be a tough opponent. With the advantage they had, they might well prove unbeatable.

Both Clan leaders recognised that the key points of Death 32 are the Quad Damages in the DM2 and DM4 sections. Lord Storm intended his top four players (himself, Ettu, DragonTung and Flyingribs) to secure the Quads and "hope we can hold", whilst Choadsmoker said that whilst CP would be looking to control those areas, but would be playing a more fluid game.

The match started with a bang, with Ettu and DragonTung quickly climbing the scorechart, closely followed by Krush and Spirit for Clan Pendragon. CP quickly colonised DM4, desperately trying to fight off Ettu's assault on the area, and the battle was well underway. FlyingRibs started slower, but four minutes into the game Quake Lords occupied the top three positions in the frag count, with Ettu breaking away to 10 frags, closely followed by Tung's 9, and Spirit, Krush, newcomer Ledge.CP.KoD, Lord Storm and Redman.CP.KoD fighting for fourth and fifth place on five frags apiece.

Nevertheless, despite Ettu and DragonTung's attempts, the sheer numbers of the CP players began to show. Five minutes into the game the Quake Lords were still neck-and-neck with CP, 49 frags to 53. As the match continued, Ettu established a commanding lead, with 20 frags to the nearest CP, Death's, 10, but lack of recent practise was showing lower down the QL ranks, with Azrael on 4 frags and Rorshach on even less. The recent CP recruit Keeper, formerly of Corona Discharge, was showing his quality, and threatening to take third place from FlyingRibs, and even Lord Storm seemingly couldn't get a break, stuck midway down the rankings on seven frags.

"Match ends in 30 minutes" showed, and the score of 100-91 to CP seemed to indicate that the Pendragon were breaking away.

The action seemed to be centering on two fronts: DM4 and the second rocket launcher area in DM2 (above). In DM4, the reason was obvious: the largest open area in Death32, containing the Quad Damage and linking the two other level sections was always going to be a key place to take and hold for either Clan. DM2's second rocket launcher, meanwhile, sits in another junction between the two other levels, and is immediately adjacent to two Red armours and a megahealth. Either area would be a prize, and both are in almost any path through the level.

In DM4 the fighting was constant and fluid. With Ettu and DragonTung virtually in permanent residence, it was obviously a difficult place for Clan Pendragon to take, but their numbers and skill made up for it and ensured that the entire area was a constant confusion of rockets, grenades, nails and lightning bolts, enlivened occasionally by the doomed screams of lava divers. The fact that the Quad in DM2 is most easily reached from DM4 just added to the mayhem.

The DM2 area was quieter, but seemed to attract waves of both Clans- one moment it was silent, the next three Quake Lords and five CP filled the area with explosions, leaps from above and screams. A larger, less dangerous area for a battle, in here there wasn't a constant melee so much as intermittent, but devestating, war.

At the 20 minute mark, KoD were leading by 220 frags to the QL's 181. Whilst Ettu, FlyingRibs and DragonTung still maintaned their lead, Ettu almost unassailable now on 52 frags, only Lord Storm, Ql.Gerbil and they remained in the top 16 players. Ledge had in the meantime proven himself a skilled and devestating fighter, threatening to break into the top 3 and only two frags behind Tung, and the sheer numbers of the Pendragons meant that to respawn in an inhabited area was almost instant death for any QL.

By now any thought of tactical play had been abandoned by both sides, and the game was working on the level of instinctual teamplay and raw skill. Despite being outnumbered, the Quake Lords managed to collect the quads about as often as their opponents, but Clan Pendragon teamplay gave them major problems, with one QL invariably being faced by at least 2 CP players.

By 28 minutes in, disaster had struck. The Quake Lords suddenly lost control of the level, completely unable to aquire weapons, with Ettu only managing ten frags in an equal number of minutes, whilst Ledge reaped over 20 in the same time. All the way down the scoreboard, this trend repeated, with the Quake Lords virtually locked out of the game, scoring almost half the frags of their opponents. Ledge knocked Tung out of his third position, and Lord Storm suddenly found himself fighting for his position with Krush, coming from nowhere. With the Quake Lords on 215 and the KoD on 283, it looked like it could be the Ql's first loss this year.

And then, the trend reversed itself again. Ledge found himself rudely thrown out of his third place and fighting with a newly revitalised Storm to stay in the top 4, and Ettu and FlyingRibs recovered and began to frag CPs left, right and centre. At the same time,lower down the ranks the scene repeated itself, and for the first time since the beginning of the match all of the QLs made it up to the top 16. The Quake Lords were 50 frags down at 30 minutes, then 4 frags down, 349-353 at 35 minutes, and suddenly both Clans had a fight on their hands.

The Quake Lords' killing spree lasted barely thirty seconds beyond the thirty-five minute mark, but that was enough to carry them into the lead. With four minutes to go, the CPs were continually threatening to snatch back their lead from the Qls. In the high rankings, Ledge, Tung and Lord Storm jostled for 3rd place, with Tung finally pushing a few frags ahead in the penultimate minute. Lord Storm managed to gain 4th place for a second, but Ledge pushed him back in the last minute of the game. With 11 frags in the last 15 seconds, both Clans were battling right up to the bell, and the score was uncertain as the players spilled into IRC.

The match couldn't have been much closer. As recorded in the logfile, the end score was 398-391, to the Quake Lords.

The atmosphere on IRC at the end of the game was euphoric. "That was brilliant!" "Woaw.""Awesome game."To the players, it had been a game of Quake from the olden days- no planning, no camping, just skill, speed and old-fashioned violence. As Arathranar said, "Tactics- we totally ignored them!".

For myself, I found the speed and non-stop action one of the most entertaining games I've ever observed. If they ever do another game like that, I'll -hands permitting- be there.

I'LL BE BACK...

I'm hoping to get to the Shoot And Surf bash on Monday. As I'd like to be able to play some Quake, I'm taking the weekend off. Next update will be Tuesday.

Keep sending in news.

THIS IS THE END, MY ONLY FRIEND

Nick Rigby, aka Groffy, the longtime chief administrator of the UKCL, has quit his position. He gives his reasons in full on his Web page , but in short he has become disillusioned with the Quake scene in the United Kingdom. He will, I assume, still be playing Quake, but no longer has anything to do with the UKCL.

Frankly, I can understand some of the reasons he is doing this. Administrators for Quake leagues get an considerable amount of undeserved abuse and criticism, and that anyone continues doing such a job for any real length of time is a miracle. I've respected Nick, both personally and as Chief Admin, since I began writing NFTF, and I wish him luck for the future and thanks for the tireless work he has done on the UKCL in the past.

IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN...

Hot tip of the day- the UK One on One League is now part of the UKCL. More news to come...

COMING SOON...

Problems with Quake logfile statistic generators (know any good logfile parsing programs?) have delayed the report on the huge QL vs KoD game which happened this Sunday. It's coming tomorrow.

Here are the stats from that game, to whet your appetite...

EXTREME CHAOS COMES TO CAPTURE THE FLAG

XC-Pinhead emails me with the following information:

"I am the founder of Clan Xtreme Chaos and I'm here to ask you all a favour.

I am in the process of starting a CTF league for the UK. I need to know if your clan will be interested in joining it. Obviously if not a lot do this league will never take effect but I'm aiming to create a league that people have been asking for. If you clan does then great! Mail me back and let me know your clans details. i.e. URL, etc. And also I will be looking for clan sthat can offer us server to play the matches on. XC currently run 3 servers ALL CTF. One classic one QW32 CTF3.5 and one QW32 CTF4. But more would be nice.

So is your clan interested in this? Remember if your not interested still let your members know because they may be. This is all that has been discussed on the league so far but I'm gonna need at least 12 Clans to get the ball rolling. I have mailed 40 odd Clans in total.... lets see what happens."

It strikes me that the UKCL's posited CTF league will fill this gap rather nicely, but let's see how this develops.

TAKE A SHORT PIER OFF A LONG WALK

Yeah, yeah, OK... The Legion Of The Insane actually won the "Long walk off a short pier" award in the MCW this week.

On a similar note, the Clanlist mirror should work now. Whoever decided that HTML should be case-sensitive was, to use the technical term, a doofus.

UK CLANLIST MIRROR

We've finally got the mirror of the UK Clanlist, maintained by TD-BennyBoy of the Desperados, up on NFTF. This is an impressive effort on the part of BennyBoy, and I'm proud to have the mirror here.

If you have any information on UK Clans that is not listed in the Clanlist, please email it to BennyBoy.

MCW WEEK 1 RESULTS

Well, the first week's worth of Modem Clan War battles are finished, with few surprises so far. The big game of the week, Clan Corpus versus Demonic Core, finished with about the result I expected, with DC winning over CC 296 - 87. Whilst CC are a capable Clan, Demonic Core are, as they have proved with this result, one of the two or three strongest Clans in the MCW, and it would appear that the Curse Of DC hasn't struck the MCW. Yet.

One surprise was the X's game against Quake United Tiger Attack. Whilst they won, they did so only by a relatively slim margin, 92 - 68, rather than the decisive victory one might have expected from one of the stronger Clans in the line-up. Whether this shows QUTA to be stronger than expected, whether the X are weaker or whether it was just bad luck we'll find out as the War carries on.

Elsewhere, most of the games ended as expected. Popular favourites CIX and QPD easily beat their opponents, Clan Dogz and the Fallen Angels, by 169-46 and 251-29 respectively, whilst The Dominion took up their games where they left off, beating the far from poor Minos Academy 119-79. The Quake Lords easily beat the weakened Vengeance 199-43. The "short walk off a long pier" award this week went to the Legion Of The Insane, who managed -22 frags against the Hellbringers' 128. Oops.

This week's games include some interesting fixtures amongst the middle-ranking Clans. Clan Dogz play the Fallen Angels on Wednesday on E3M2, one of my personal favourites and the only MCW level to feature two Quads- this game should show how well the two Clans have prepared for the esoteric level choices of the MCW.

Leter on that day, the Weedkillers fight Minos on DM6, a battle that could go either way. Lastly, on Thursday there's a potentially important game lined up between the little-known but dangerous Hellbringers and possible top-spot candidates The Dominion. This game could prove to be one of the turning points for the whole MCW.

We'll find out on Thursday.

MCW GETS SPIRITUAL

Yes, CP-Spirit (MCW chief admin) finally has his domain on-line. The new address for the MCW is http://www.spiritualnet.com/mcw.

MCL? UKCW? MKUCW?

In the big news story of the weekend, the Modem Clan War and UK Clan League have joined forces. CP-Spirit sends me this message:

"The MCW and the UKCL have joined forces, aiming to provide a better gaming experience all round. This will provide the MCW with more resources (more servers, more admins, etc.), and also gives us access to the #ukcl, and #ukcl-chat IRC channels. From now on this will be the place to meet before your matches, please have your Clan leader, or 1 representative from your clan in #ukcl, and the rest of the clan in #ukcl-chat. Hopefully this will make things less hectic, as we can relay info to your clan rep, and they can relay it to the rest of your clan.

Below is the mail which John (UKCL admin) sent out to the UKCL mailing list:

The UKCL is always looking to expand. Both Nick and I have said on numerous occasions that if it is possible and if enough people want it then the UKCL will try and run a leauge for it.

The UKCL have been so impressed with the new MCW that we have invited them to become a division of the UKCL. They have agreed. As you will appreciate this pooling of resources and admins will only serve to make the UKCL and all of it's divisions the best online internet games league in the world.

For the moment the only changes that you will be seeing is that the MCW rules will be incorporated into the overall UKCL rules and you may see UKCL admins admining MCW matches and vice versa. The MCW now have full acces to both #ukcl and #ukcl-chat channels on CLANET.

John Burton (QL.Azrael / Fate)

UKCL Administrator

Hopefully this merger can improve the UK quake scene in general.

Spirit UKCL/MCW Administrator "

Sharing resources and personnel is always a good thing. Good luck to both the UKCL and the MCW in this merger.

UK TRIALS- THE FACTS EMERGE...

No, it's not some expose where I reveal that the Uk Trials were rigged. Sorry, guys.

I promised details on the match on Wednesday that led to the selection of the UK Team to play against Sweden in just under two months. Well, here are full statistics on the match.

I'd like some feedback on this method of recording a match. Whilst it's obviously no replacement for a full report on a game, I do think that it's useful either as a supplement to a report or in a case where I can't write a full one. What do you think?

If you'd like a game mentioned in this manner, log it using the /logfile command at the QW console, and then send me the qconsole.log file from the Quake directory.

THE NUMBERS GAME

John Burton emails me to correct me on a point in the MCW special. I said "the MCW has a much stronger policy than the UKCL on team sizes in games. ". In response, he writes:

"I don't know where you got your infomation about the team sizes in the UKCL but it's wrong.

We have definate rules about team sizes (they're in the rules section on the web) and in fact the MCW uses exactly the same system as the one I drew up for the UKCL. The primary difference being that a UKCL team, for both the weekend league and 4X League, is 5 players not 4.

We even have strict rules on how situations are handled when one team does not turn up with 5 player.

Firstly, if a clan turn up with 5 players then can field 5 players no matter how many players their opponent have.

If a clan turns up with 3 players then they have the option to play or forfiet. If a clan turns up with less than 3 players then the match is automatically forfiet.

It is the fact that the MCW are based nearly 100% on the UKCL rules than means we can join forces in the way that we now have....."

I stand by my point (4 players vs 3 is a good deal fairer than 5 vs 3), but it's worth noting that the UKCL do have policies on team numbers, and that this issue has not, as some people may have thought I said, been ignored by the UKCL admins.

WEB PENDRAGON

Team Pendragon, the Capture The Flag-specialised Clan run by Uther Pendragon, now has a Web Page. They are looking for challenges from anyone brave enough to take them on.

For those who remember Uther's MCW page, he assures us that it is entirely music-free.

SMALL TWEAK...

Never say I don't listen to feedback. All I'll say is "re-bookmark this page now".

Thanks to J'honi-Bo for that idea.

MCW SPECIAL FINISHED- SORTA...

Well, I've sort of finished the MCW Special. Sadly, it would appear that I pushed my RSI rather too hard, and so I've had to leave the Clan page incomplete. I may finish it at some time- in the mean time, I hope that the information that is there is useful.

Thanks to all Clans that responded to my emails, and I'm sorry if I didn't get around to you. It was purely a matter of logistics.

Of course, with the MCW finished, I'm back up to speed on reporting. Heh, heh.

Anyway, what are you waiting for? Go and check it out.

"BOG GET FLUSHED"

And thanks to DC-Osiris for that headline. Here's his report on last week's BOG-DC match in the UKCL:

"This weeks UKCL fixtures threw up a real battle of David and Goliath, the might of Demonic Core versus the inexperienced underdogs of Clan BOG. It was taken as read that DC would win, the only question was by how much. As it was we broke all UKCL records.

With 2 Demons making their debut (Dranath and Shadow) and me (Osiris) making a rare appearance I was just hoping for around 300 frags, but we managed a thumping 419! and restricted BOG to -7. Having 5 players would have kept the score down for them but, to be honest, I don't think by too much.

Id just like to finish off this small report by saying that I gained HUGE respect for these guys for sticking at it to the bitter end.|Well played, guys. As Rawmeat said to me on IRC " I respect Bog and RTW MORE than clans like DC, QPD, QL and ourselves"."

In a related newspiece, BOG spoke about their ongoing troubles:

"Just thought I would let you know about why BOG is so BAD!.

We are all on Cableinet, and we all play QW, all versions, on servers all over the place. And believe it or not it's only when on the UKCL servers we have problems!!. Major problems, LAG, even with the new QW, is so bad some clan members cannot move.

On Sunday there, I could not make it to the match, but I was told that all of BOG had average pings well ove 500. It makes us look bad everywhere, but the problems appears to be our ISP, when we are all on accessing the UKCL servers.

Anyway, we don't care, we will all be getting Cable modems in the next few months, then we WILL kick ass. ISDN pah!. 10 Mbs down our cable modems and we shall kick!!

If any one wants to se what I mean, we can host matches on one of our cable modem servers, play QW or CTF4, mind you we ain't that good at CTF yet."

TEAM PENDRAGON UPDATE

Uther Pendragon emails me with an update on the status of his new "CTF Clan", Team Pendragon:

"Thanks to everyone for the enormous amount of feedback - TP is now full (in two days!!!) for the moment. With the massive amount of people wanting to join a CTF only Clan, maybe other people should think about branching out.

The lineup to date is:

TP.Uther, TP.Spirit, TP.Ossy (DC.Osiris), TP.Tine, TP.Groffy, TP.Dr.Chris, TP.Dibbler, TP.Slayed, TP.Nimbus (yet to confirm) TP.Homer( yet to confirm), and TP.Pundit

There are a couple of others that I can't reveal at the moment.

We are looking to have a couple of Tactics Sessions, and then will be open to any challenges...."

So, if you think that your Clan is red hot at CTF, email Uther, and then, hands permitting, I'll come and report.

UK-SWEDEN UPDATE

Three pieces of news. Firstly, the UK-Sweden match is now scheduled to take place on the 10th of May, not today, as I had previously reported. Secondly, the UK team now has a Web page up.

And thirdly, there has been a lot of flak directed Pry's way for the manner in which he organised the team. Given the time frame he was working in, the method he used may not have been ideal, but it worked, and was fairer than it could have been. Others may have had ideas on this front they consider superior, but the fact is that they didn't get off their rear ends to organise the team or this match. Pry did. He has given up a lot of time and deserves our support.

In a similar vein, there have been some very ugly things said about the team members themselves. Again, like it or not, they were chosen, and so we should give them our support.

'Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go...

UK TEAM ANNOUNCED

Pry emails me with the following announcement:

"After a trial Death Match last night, the squad of 15 UK Quake Players to face Sweden in an International Death Match has been decided.

In what may have been the biggest gathering of top UK Quake Players in one DM, the 15 squad was choosen upon the result.

The squad to face Sweden is as follows :

Current date for the match is May 10, 21:00 GMT"

And good luck to that formidable team. I think that this marks the beginning of Quake becoming a serious sport, with the trials already having had coverage on the radio and other national media.

I am still trying for permission to report on this match. An update on the trials will be coming soon.

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