ARCHIVES: WEDNESDAY 26TH MARCH 1997 - MONDAY 7TH APRIL 1997

MODESTY IS A VIRTUE...

This has very little to do with UK Clan Quake, but everything to do with UK Quake, and its future.

Quake is not only a superb game, but one of the best Virtual Reality engines yet created. Whilst most people think of it purely as a game, some are seeing beyond that to some revolutionary ideas and concepts. Modesty, creator of FraQuake, the fractal Quake landscape creator, is one.

Her 3-dimensional Quake-based organic sculptures are- well, beautiful, strange, and quite unique. If you want to see one possible future of Quake, not to mention some lovely art, stop by her page.

SPLAT, AND OTHER NOISES.

I've removed the Results section, purely because I wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping it up to date, and added another two weeks to the archives.

Whilst I'm at it, I would do with some feedback on NFTF: what do you think of it, is it doing its job, and how could it improve? Are news articles too long, or too short (yeah, right)? Would you like more reports, or more general news, or more personal views and eccentricities?

If you can think of anything that would help improve NFTF, or even if you want to do something to help, email me.

4X LEAGUE ENTRY NOTICES

John Burton of the UKCL emails me with the following announcement:

"The UKCL are aiming to start their new 4X League on the Saturday 3rd May.

Any clan wishing to join the new league (and all old applications have been lost I'm afraid) then they need to send and email entitled "4X Application" to ukcl@minos.co.uk, containing their full clan details (clan name, URL and 2 email contacts). Please don't use the form on the UKCL pages to apply, as it is currently down (the form that is)....

The close-off for applications is 6pm GMT Friday 25th April."

In a similar vein, the UKCL are also running another QW 1.5 stress test on Wednesday. John again:

"The UKCL will be running another 32 player test on the UKCL 4X/QW 1.5 mod on Wednesday 9th of April at 9pm. Please be in IRC at 8:30pm so that we can split into 4 teams. This time we will be using DEATH32.

Once again, anyone is welcome to join and players will be selected on a first come basis. In the test on Saturday we only managed to get 22 people together (well, it was short notice) and this time we would like to get a full 32 players on the server.

If all goes well the UKCL will convert to QW 1.5 either the weekend 12th/13th April or 19th/20th April. "

This time I really should be there.

OW...

My hands are feeling a little painful. Since I seem to be (finally) climbing out of the pit of RSI, I'm going to rest them, and update tomorrow.

Sorry...

TG-CORPUS MERGER

As you will most likely know by now, Clan Corpus have incorporated the well-known Clan Terminal Gibbage into their ranks. CC-RawMeat had this to say about the merger:

"Following the leaked news to NFTF late last week, there have been some major developments. For the benefit of the UK Clan Scene I will explain what has been going on.

. On Thursday evening, I was approached by TG.InterPhaz and he suggested a potential merge. Following a debate as to whether or not the Corpus name was to be kept, the skin, the site etc. etc. we came to an agreement. So the news is that Clan Corpus merge with Terminal Gibbage effective from now. In fact you may have already seen CC-DocTyrell, CC-InterPhaz, CC-Besty and CC-Illusion running around on SlaughterHouse 32 this evening. They were kicking some serious backside, or so I hear!!!

The name of the clan continues for now to be Clan Corpus, though we may be changing this at the end of the UKCL season. Our web site shall stay where it is, and our email address shall remain the same, corpus@leevalley.co.uk . The clan is now reregistering for Modemer Clan Wars now that there are enough members to fight effectively and also UKSPC when the second season comes around. Clan Corpus now has roughly 16 regularly playing players. For this reason we want to organise a lot of friendlies, so challenges are welcome!!! We are assuming Clan Corpus' position in UKCL, whilst Terminal Gibbage is allowed to slip quietly away. Their members SHALL fight another day, albeit with a different clan.

The clan now includes the following regular players, all of whom you should have heard of :) :) :

RawMeat, InterPhaze, Angel, Scanman, Dibbler, DocTyrell, Quicksilver, Doofa, Shaggy, BestOfBritish, Onyx, Tommy, KamiKaze, GZA, Illusion, Matt, CopyCat(Clan Level Editor), Grim, VooDoo

Our clan now runs or helps run over 5 servers. These being Slaugterhouse X 3, Reapers Palace in conjunction with Ministry of Death, and Clan Corpus QW Server (currently down due to connection problems).

On behalf of the Clan Corpus I welcome all of Terminal Gibbage into the clan, and hope it will be one hell of a fragging experience."

TG- BIGGER AND BETTER?

Conversation with former TGs shows that for their part they are more than happy with the merger. CC-Onyx said of the merger "It's going to be mental! LPBs! We'll be able to stand up to clans like DC, QL and so on- you saw what DC did to TG a couple of weeks ago." CC-Illusion, asked if he was going to miss TG, says "Yeah- we were one of the first UK Clans", but feels that the merger is "a good move"

CC-Interphaze is thoroughly pleased with the merger.

"Both clans have benefitted greatly. We now have a strong selection of players, and so we can compete in MCW, UKCL and any other league we want. We have huge internet resources now, with 5 servers (4 running at the momoent), and websites are going to start popping up.

Asked about the huge number of servers CC now run, Interphaze says "We want to cater for all quake games. We will probably host a few one day tournies ourselves, when it goes quiet, and run CTF, TF, deathmatches, and whatever else pops up. The linux version of Quake (once Iget it working right) is a gift from above."

Finally, I asked Interphaze if he will miss the Clan that has been part of his life for so long. "TG will always be a part of me, in the way I play quake. TG started my (our) clan way of life,but progression, the competitive nature of playing in a Clan league has demanded we do something. TG wouldn't have performed well in UKCL, because of our low LPB presence. Corpus, likewise, didnt stand a chance in MCW.

Will I miss TG? Well, my answer is no, because I haven't left TG. We just got BIGGER and BETTER,and now we are going to kick major arse!"

Interphaze asks me to extend a big "thank-you" to all of Clan Corpus. "You have made TG very welcome. THANK YOU from the ex-TG's"

MINOS 4X GAME ON BASE32 TONIGHT!

This just in from John Burton at the UKCL:

"The UKCL are running a test on the mod for the the 4X league and QW 1.5 tonight at 7pm ish on base32.

I know this is short notice, but could as many people as possible turn up as we'd like to get a full 32 on the serer to test it to it's limit...."

I might try to be there myself...

COME IN, YOUR TIME IS UP...

Sunday is the last day on which CP-Spirit, Modem Clan War organiser, will be accepting entries for the War. Those Clans who have already registered will be recieving more information on Monday.

Good luck to all registered.

CORONA DISCHARGE- CLAN PENDRAGON MERGE

Yet another UK Clan merger, this time seeing Corona Discharge, aka H.T.S., being incorporated into the monolith that is Clan Pendragon. Keeper.CP.KoD had very little to say on the merger, which I assume was the result of his Clan's small size and low profile.

UKSPC VICTOR: DC.JIBSTA!

Congratulations to Jibsta, who despite a bad connection this evening managed to hold FK-Fuckall off in the final melee of the UKSPC to win his title.

Jibsta won by approximately 20 frags, followed by FK-Fuckall, DC.Zoser and Smebo.BB, in that order. Congrsatulations.

Full report coming up soon...

SORRY FOR THE DELAY...

I've been busy over the last few days, and so my reporting has suffered a little. I'm back on the case.

News in brief: Terminal Gibbage and Corpus have merged to form Corpus. Clan Pendragon has taken H.T.S in. UKSPC final this evening.

Oh, and one last thing. Sujoy, I hate you.

QWCL 1.50 OUT

Remember, you probabally didn't hear it here first. Get it.

Oh, yeah. In deference to Nick of the UKCL, with whom I have been having a minor argument over the past few days, I'd like to point out that strictly speaking this is an upgrade, not a new version of Quake World. True, it's a standalone. True, it's incompatible with QW 1.25. It's an upgrade, apparently.

Nick says that it's like the Service Pack for NT. I'm sure those of you who use NT know what he's talking about.

BLAST!

Missed my chance to run an April Fool piece. Ah, well.

UKQCR LADDER UP- FINALLY...

The UK Quake ClanRing Ladder rules have finally been written and posted. If you're in the UKQCR, you should know about this, and should have read them and entered the ladder already. If you need any details on the Ladder or the UKQCR, contact Marc Webb.

Of course, I'll be covering the Ladder games as they develop. Reports on games are always welcome.

UK QUAKE MAILING LIST

TG-Illusion mails me to say that the UK Quake mailing list that he proposed about a week ago is now up. Anyone interested in Quake in the UK (which should be everyone reading this...) would probabally benefit from subscribing, which you can do by emailing the majordomo with the subject "suscribe" and nothing in the body of the message.

I am already on the mailing list. I hope to see my readership on there too!

SUJOY AND DANOLD LEAVE DC

The Elite Alliance is a new Clan formed by someone with whom you may be familiar: Sujoy, who says he has left Demonic Core. Since the Clan has only two members so far, he's apparently looking for applications for membership.

This is shocking news. At first, I thought it was an April Fool's joke. However, I hear from DC Danold that not only is it true, but that he has also left DC, and has applied to join EA.

This appears to have blown up largely over the firing of DC.Mr_Blobby from the Demonic Core , apparently for no-shows in Clan games. Danold, who was vehement is his dislike for such behaviour in December when the Quake Lords thinned their ranks, decided that he didn't want to be a part of any Clan that kicked its members out in such a fashion. He says "The kicking decided me.They kicked blobby in a very bad way...I hate that behavior".

Sujoy, meanwhile, is refusing to comment overmuch until he has completed writing a "tactful" account for the EA page. He says that Blobby's firing motivated his actions "to some extent", but that basically "I'd say [it was] personality conflict. but it was more than that."

The EA is looking to enter the newly re-formed MCW, in which Sujoy thinks they should have an excellent chance. So, if you think you're up to Sujoy and Danold's standards, email them...

UKSPC FINAL PART 1 - RESULTS

Part 1? Yes, I'm afraid that for various reasons the UK Single Player Championship final will continue this week at the same time, so you're going to have to wait in suspense another week to find out who the winner of this grand contest will be. However, here's an update on the Championship final so far.

All games were played on DM4. As I mentioned a few days ago, scores in the final are calculated on an aggregate of frags, not wins.

FK-Fuckall, the fabled leader of the Frag Kings and former organiser of the Modem Clan War, had to leave earlier than he intended, and so didn't manage to finish all his games. Playing Shadow, he won 26-3 in a devestatingly mobile game in which Shadow never really stood a chance. However, playing DC-Jibsta he was not so lucky, managing to hold the game even for the first eight minutes, but then losing control to the DC player's devestating speed, accuracy and concentration. Jibsta took full advantage of his lapse, and quickly Quadded his way up to 21 frags to FA's 1. Fuckall is left with 27 frags and two games to play.

DC-Zoser had several unlucky games in this first session. Playing his teammate Jibsta he managed to hold him to possibly the closest game in the day, a cerebral, concentrated game of cat and mouse that had me on the edge of my seat and in which Jibsta only just managed to break away to an 11- -2 win in the last 5 minutes. This game could have gone either way, and only Jibsta's total concentration gave him a win. Even worse for Zoser, though, was his game against BB.Smebo, riddled with disconnects, in which the players thought the elapsed gametime when neither was disconnected barely totalled 12 minutes. Smebo won 7-1, an unsatisfying result for either player. Zoser currently has -1 frags and 2 games left to play.

Shadow, formerly of top modem Clan Vengeance and now an independant player, suffered a good deal as a result of the map choice. Although in theory alternative maps could be nominated, in practise this didn't seem to be possible, and as a result Shadow was stuck on DM4, a map he hates. He lost all three games, 26-3 to Fuckall, 23-4 to Smebo, in a game which began close but which he quickly lost, and 29- -4 to Jibsta, completely destroyed by the latter's formidable playing. Although he has done well to get to the final and is a formidable player, it was apparent that he was outclassed. He has 3 frags and 1 game to play.

Smebo, of the Buckshot Brigade and runner-up in the Minos Duel contest, was obviously playing well, but just not quite well enough. He beat Shadow easily after the first few minutes 23-4, but lost in a close game to the unbeatable Jibsta 16-6, and the poor, disconnected game he suffered with Zoser sealed his fate- despite winning, he only got 7 frags to Zoser's 1. He has 36 frags and 1 game left to play.

Jibsta had been playing Sujoy earlier on DM4, and it showed. Having managed to beat Sujoy 16-5 (he thought), he then used the master's own tactics to devestating effect on the other finallists, leavening the mixture with the skill, concentration and devestating accuracy of his own. Following a fairly tight win against Smebo 16-6, he played his closest game against his teammate Zoser, but managed to outlast him by sheer concentration to an 11- -2 win. Against Fuckall he broke away at the 8 minute mark, using the rocketjumping tactics he had faced earlier from Sujoy and the Quad Damage to notch up a devestating 21-1 win. Finally, he destroyed Shadow, who showed great sportsmanship by continuing to play in what was obviously a hopeless cause. He has a grand total of 79 frags, with no individual games left to play.

So, what remains to play? Four individual games remain to play, unless ScanMan re-enters the contest (he sent an email conceding on the evening of the final), plus the grand melee deathmatch for all the contestants.

Only Fuckall could reasonably beat Jibsta now, assuming he plays as well in the deathmatch as he did in the individual games. To do that he would have to win against Smebo and Zoser, both formidable players, by at least a grand total of 52 frags- 26 frags per game. However, all players could still upset things in the deathmatch: Zoser still has two games to play, whilst Smebo could certainly beat Fuckall, and perhaps Jibsta. The tension mounts.

Until Friday...

QUAKEWORLD 2- COMING SOON...

Yes, it's finally here. Well, almost. The new Quake World server and QPlug (whatever that is)has been released, and the new client and progs.dat will apparently be released within the week.

Just in case you have forgotten, the improvements in QW2 will include new rocket physics, improved prediction routines and general latency reduction, and, most exciting of all, 32 players maximum in a level. I personally can't wait- just think, I'll be able to report on 4x league matches!

Thanks to John Burton for that information.

TG/CORPUS MERGE RUMOUR UPDATE

Well, it would appear I've just learnt the first rule of journalism. Check your anonymous sources.

Interphaz, of Terminal Gibbage, says the following:

"This information is inaccurate and there are no firm plans for any sort of merge. This will now put undue pressure on myself, and Rawmeat. [The merger] has not be properly discussed."

I apologise. I represented the merger as a fait acompli, which in fact it is as of now not. I assure TG and Corpus in particular that I'll be checking tips like this before running with them from now on. Thanks to my anonymous source anyway- the cock-up was my fault.

Live and learn, I guess.

EXCLUSIVE: TERMINAL GIBBAGE AND CORPUS TO MERGE! (SEE ABOVE)

I'm meant to be covering the UKSPC final at the moment, but this news is so exciting that it just couldn't wait.

I am told by an anonymous source that top UK Clans Corpus and Terminal Gibbage are to merge to form one new Clan. Given the already considerable quality of its "parents" this new group will certainly, in my source's words, "be capable of challenging the likes of DC, QL or QPD". The new Clan will be jointly run by Interphaz of TG and Rawmeat of CC, although it will still be using the name "Corpus", for reasons connected with the company who provide the servers, e-mail and web services to the existing CC members.

There will be two major ramifications of this merger. Firstly, Terminal Gibbage will be pulling out of all competitions into which they are currently entered, including the UKCL, as the Clan is effectively dissolving. Secondly, as the two Clans will be sharing their resources, the new Clan Corpus will run no less than 5 Quake World servers (Clan Corpus, Reapers Palace [MoD], Slaughter House, Slaughter House TF/CTF and Slaughter House UKCL)- more than Minos!

What effects this major change will have on UK Quake remains to be seen- watch News From The Front for more details as the news comes in. If you have any comments, please email me!

MCW RESTART DUE SOON (UPDATE!)

As you may know, the Modem Clan War ground to a halt a while back, suffering amongst other things from problems with drop-outs. FK.Fuckall has been working on a restart for a while, and tells me that things seem to be working out: the MCW team have "struck deals" with several potential MCW organisers, and as soon as one of them agrees to take on the post the Clan War will be on again.

I was something of a fan of the MCW whilst it was running, and I wish it all success in its restart. I assume that if Clans would like to make any comments or offers of assistance they should contact Fuckall.

SCOOP UPDATE: I've just heard that CP-Spirit, the designer of the UKCLDM1 map, will be taking over as MCW Chief. The new MCW team will consist of him, Salamander (of Clan Dominion), CP-Fab (art and design), and possibly Zoser and Osiris of Demonic Core. FK-Fuckall will no longer officially be involved in the MCW admin team, preferring to spend his time " raising chaos in 3secs ".

In reference to his new position, Spirit says " I've been thinking it over for a while, and had loads of mails asking me to do it. If it's what the people want, then I'm only to happy to oblige." He will be making a few changes to the format, such as scheduling games later in the day (" give people a chance to have tea "), but will be remaining true to the MCW aim "to give clans games on an even basis".

All Clans interested in playing in the MCW should contact Spirit to sign up, even if they were members of the old MCW.

Spirit says that we can hope for a restart in "two weeks". I'm looking forward to it.

RAWMEAT SPEAKS

Assorted news from the head of Clan Corpus. I'll hand the mike over to the 'Meat:

"Firstly: Clan Corpus are currently recruiting. We are really wanting to swell our ranks with quality modemers, as we need more to fight in forthcoming Modem Clan Wars. However, saying that we are happy to try anyone out presently, so here is Sujoy's chance :). If anyone wants to contact us about trying out then please email us. We will not be playing any clan tryouts until the 8th of April, however, which brings me onto a second point.

Clan Corpus is going through a major connection problem at the moment, with over 60% of the clan being offline (the principle reason that we are sitting this easter weekend out). The office from where we play is having its radio receivers moved and adjusted (we connect to the net via a microwave link), and consequently the link to our office is down from today the 26th to April 8th. This also means that the Clan Corpus QuakeWorld server is down for the duration. We will being fielding a nearly full strength team on the weekend of the 5th-6th due to the fact that people are going to other places to play in games. We would play via modem, but most of us don't have direct dial up accounts, let alone modems. I myself have a real "powerhouse" 14.4 attached to my DX II but I think I will have to spare you from that one!

Just feel lucky that you guys are spared the wrath of Corpus....... at least for a little while. But don't get TOO complacent- we are still practicing on the LAN !!! "

OOPS...

I mentioned that Terminal Gibbage were hiring. I didn't mention that you need to email this man to apply...

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE?

Well, I'm assuming that by now all of the UKCL Clans are checking themselves out on UKCLDM1, the new UKCL map by CP.Spirit, like your lives depend on it. However, if you aren't, then this may just save your skins...

"The Rough Guide to UKCLDM1", that's what. Straight from the keyboard of QPD-BoyWonder, this detailed analysis of the level includes screenshots detailing the locations of most of the weapons, powerups, armour, and key tactical (camping) locations, plus a wireframe overview. If you're playing in the UKCL this weekend, you need to check this out.

Oh, yeah. BoyWonder has something to say about the screenshot I pillaged from the UKCL yesterday...

"Please take that screenshot of storm & me down - I wasn't taking the game seriously (I'm not saying I would nessesarily beaten him - but it would have been A LOT closer)."

So, are we going to see a serious game between Storm and BoyWonder soon, then? I'll be happy to post pictures...

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