In an attempt to push some of the activity on Lovesow, and using it for what it’s intended (:P), let’s discuss the latest big news in Warsow land: The announcement of the Association of Gaming Professionals (AGP) Tour!

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Right, I think for a change, why not use this Blog for what it’s intended, instead of your average Warsow-community spam site . I’m going to jot down my thoughts on a subject which has recently received alot of attention. Mainly after our announcement concerning the recruiting of 3D artists, and maybe even earlier then that; the first announcements of the improved renderer features (bumpmapping, specularmapping, normalmapping, etc.) of the Qfusion engine, alot of people seemed to have reacted in fear, worried that Warsow’s concept might be forsaken, worried that Warsow will turn in a resource-hogging-plastified-a-la-doom3 version of the Warsow you know. I’ll start off by explaining why we even want the improved visuals;

First of all, looks do count, and I’m not saying current Warsow looks shit (however I know alot of people do), but it’s a fact that advanced renderer features will make Warsow more attractive to a larger part of the ‘casual gamer’ pool. This may be dismissed as ’selling out’ or whatever, and I know this will be a controversial point. But at this stage in Warsow’s development, with the gameplay becoming more and more stable, and more and more towards what we are looking for, we can really start to look at the exterior. Also the amount of talent we have in the artist department of our team demands some more flexibility and experimenting.

Just like the people using picmip now, these settings and features won’t be forced upon anyone. Where people can choose to flatten the textures, dismissing the visual style of Warsow, people can also turn off the advanced visual effects. Other, seemingly smaller things such as improved (player)models shouldn’t need any explanation.

Secondly, visual identity and personality. Warsow’s concept of being cartoony isn’t dismissed by bump and specularmapping textures in maps, by having realtime reflections and whatnot. The goal is still to combine having a ‘cartoony’ game with lots of contrast and good visibility. With the new textures and visuals, the contrast between the players, models and the ‘background’ - the map - will be even bigger. Think of cartoons, where you have handdrawn backgrounds combined with the animated characters and moving objects, ‘popping out’ of the screen. This is the characteristic of a cartoony style which is maintained, even emphasized with the new visuals.

Right now, ‘colorful’ maps like wdm2 have little contrast. While many people see a wdm2-style maps as the Warsow style, I have to disagree. Bright colors, bad visibility, bad contrast, and the cel shading (in maps) is exactly what we don’t want. Think of handdrawn backgrounds, without sharp edges, no cel shading, with poppy, vibrant, high-contrast models, think of maps like wdm3 and wdm7. This will be emphasized with 0.4’s graphical effects too, currently we are toying around with cartoonifying some of the effects, such as the smoketrails of the rockets. They all help in making the distinction between moving, active object and the passive background.

So, we basically do take alot of care in choosing how exactly to apply and use the advanced renderer features (even taking alot of care to choose to use it; the possibility was there, the decision in how to use it took us some time). We actually have a fairly clear idea to what Warsow should look like, and why it should. It is far from a set-in-stone design, it’s more of a number of guidelines which change and evolve over time, with the same points leading; the concepts and ideas of visibility, cartooniness and low specifications.

We are still maintaining our own quality standards, and our own visual style and identity. A big part of the decision to go with these advanced features was figuring out how to be able to apply these techniques in line with Warsow’s visuals. This includes keeping the focus on visibility, with contrast being the keyword. This is not about colors of textures. I read people complaining about maps being ‘brown’, yeah, we have brown textures, just like we have grey ones and other boring colors :P. The reference to Q2 is easily made, as Q2 was all-brown, but believe that’s about all there is to compare. And remember, if you don’t like it, you can simply turn it off. And if you do, I really don’t think there’s alot left to complain about, as the difference in mapstyle atleast won’t be mindblowing at all, the maps will just be a tiny bit less pretty. Anyway the easiest would be to say to just wait and see, but I know that’s not satisfying to most of you, so I guess I could better say; have faith in Warsow

Feel free to comment.

Our good old polish friend Carmac from the GGL wrote a nice column on why making complex games more simple is not the way to gain more spectators on TV or similar old-fashioned media. This is a must-read for everyone who thinks he/she understands e-sport or simply does not like the Championshitp Gayming Series.

Whatever you say about the Koreans and the Chinese, they are not from another planet. Like you, they like to eat, drink, have sex and play videogames.

Yay!

In case you get cut off from the internet for a longer period, do not turn on your TV. It’s fucking evil! It sucks you in like the big vacuum from Spaceballs. If you haven’t seen it yet, go for it! It’s classic.

What I’m trying to say is that once you watch an episode of those TV series that end with a cliffhanger… BAM! Game over! Drawing dead! It’s like the World of Warcraft effect, which fortunately did not eat my brains.

So now I’m sitting here, addicted to Lost, 24, Nip/Tuck, Weeds,
Prison Break and Grey’s Anatomy. I just can’t stand missing one episode, it drives me nuts!

But what are your alternatives?

Go read some books or eat a sandwich. Even watching movies is an alternative, because they FUCKING END!

But the best thing you can do is to dig out your mapping/texturing/modeling/coding tool and contribute to Warsow. Or just get some vaseline and start wanking.

I’m out!

Don’t you know Trailer?
from raelzpedia:

“Trailer is evil god which descends on earth every 1000 thousand years. The scientists forecast his arrival to the year 2011, but they were probably mistaken.”

Lets look at the reason:

Part one - fantasy and his Warsownage
Do you remember warsownage? Maybe you do, it was a really very nice lookin fragmovie. And when fantasy released the trailer, everybody just couldn’t catch breath - it was so amazing, a lot better than any other fragmovie seen before (well, nealz’s promotional was good, but it was abit old). Everything was fine, fantasy was posting alot and doing nicely. Then, few days after his last post, he disappeared from wsw community. Although he can be found somewhere, he can’t talk about the movie coz Trailer made him not to do so (at least it looks like that you know :P)

Part two - impulZ and impulZive movie - airgeiz
You probably won’t remember this one. It wasn’t as popular, due to trailer (which was actually first thing released about the movie) with low fps. Although the music was nice, ppl were not as excited (ofc they WERE, but not AS MUCH). But they still sent demos.
But what happened then? You might know, you might just think and find answer yourself:
Movie was not finished
Why? impulZ said he is lazy or something like that. The truth is that he was put to silence by The Trailer

Part three - DebrisShot - A Dash Of Spice
“UNBELIEVEABLE SPEED” and “OUTRAGEOUS FRAGS”! Do you remember? Now, ofc you don’t, you have too much of 0.3 in your mind. This was trailer by DebrisShot. I must say I did not like it, sorry Debris, but anyway, many ppl did. The problem is I don’t really remember what happened to this movie, but the truth is already known. I do know it, you do aswell, right?

Part threeandahalf - absolutelyunknown movie onoez
I dno whats that, I found it somewhere on net, wasn’t a amazing one, wasn’t a known one (its not even on forum!), but it was trailer with no full movie…

Part four - First Contact
What should I tell you… in fact, this is the reason why i wrote the truth. I can only tell you my personal feelings - at first, I was amazed by the trailer. I knew it will be the movie that will make everybody at least try warsow and it will forever stay in my memory (maybe even as the first of my TOP10 from warsow). Few minutes later, I raelized - IT IS TRAILER, YOU DUMBASS.
I was skeptic, you know i was. But as the time went, i found that snp will do everything to get it released. So I waited… and waited
Everybody was nervous, no FC, right? Where is FC, I WANT FC. And then the forum post came. I am sad and I am not willing to speak about it… you can read it yourself.

Part five - the future a.k.a zEvon
zEvon (:-*)
We all know him, we all like him (RIGHT?). Most of his movies are very good and they are the best you can see in warsow. The truth is, that as I know zEvon (ok, its the internet, i CANT know anybody via internet, but still..) it makes me sure that the movie will come.
In fact he will completely destroy the nonexistence evil god of Trailer and finally bring us to the light side of the warcho0o
Right?

Gl zEvon, euphoria will surely rox, there is nothing to stop you, other than your own death :/

Warsow is a non-commercial (the whole package. adverts and stuff are another issue), free, indie ego shooter. Whether we like it or not, the community is not huge. We’ve had numerous ‘unsuccessful’ leagues and cups due to lack of players. On the same hand, we’ve had some great moments. Some great cups, some great tourneys, some great feedback and tens of thousands (probably : p) of downloads. Bamboocha style tournaments ‘feel’ local. You’re playing against people you know and play with regularly. Thats great.

I think that with 0.1 and 0.2 we had too much hype. Sure, the game got downloaded by a LOT of people thanks to hype generated from the team, on esreality and other gaming related websites and word of mouth. However the people who downloaded the game during this hyped up, early(-ish) stage in warsow’s development did not stay. They got disappointed. How often do things live up to the hype? How often to games that are still heavily WIP and have major bugs (as 0.1/0.2 did) live up to the hype? You see where i’m going - the hype.. and attempting to punch above our weight damaged warsow.

I want warsow to be a success as much as you do. I’m all for us being present at lan tourneys, cash prize tournaments and having a regular spot in clanbase eurocups. Just not right now.

A lot of great community work gets done and that has helped to create a small, stable, competitive and fun community. I fear that we are attempting to punch above our weight once again and that the prospect of 0.3 is leading people to think that it will cause the huge boom in stable player numbers that much of the community dearly want. In all liklihood, this won’t happen. I think that the key to warsow’s success for the time being is keeping a low-profile. Look at it this way: You’ve found a real gem of a game. It’s still heavily in development, it still has a lot of changes to go through. It has a small but dedicated community. Do you want the great mass of other people to download it now.. and cause the community to grow for a few weeks or a month and then leave dissatisfied that the game didnt live up to their expectations? Or do you want to keep it to yourselves, enjoy the game, let it mature and THEN let the outside world know how great it is. When it is in a fit state to deserve the positive comments that you know it deserves from those outside of the ‘core’.

It was the slk, the founder of wsw, who commented recently that we should keep a low profile. I can’t help but agree more. Lets keep this gem to ourselves for the time being. I think WRT tourneys, WRT appearing in the ‘public’ eye, WRT multi-gaming clans.. we need to keep a low profile. For the time being.

Digg/popurls/slashdot are all waiting for us in the future. For now, let the game mature.

So… It’s tradition in Holland to eat oliebollen at NYE. Since I had a NYE-party at my place i decided to make some oliebollen…
First comes the dough that’s needed… apparently it kinda gets more… volumy. Hence a friggin mess in my kitchen :(.

Then comes the part where you actually fry the dough in ¿sun flower oil? Well, another part where mess is created.
.
Since i was well wasted I didn’t care about the mess it gave. Today… hungover and sobering up, i wanted to break my face for ever having the idea of oliebollen bakken. So next year, i’m just getting them premade and all…

I’ll still give you the recipe for it:

1 kg of flour
1 liter of lukewarm (wat is de vertaling voor lauw man?) milk
15 grams of yeast (gist?)
pinch of salt
80 grams of butter

1) mix the yeast and the milk
2) mix the butter and the flour. While mixing it, slowly add the milk until the dough is erm… smooth?
3) let the dough sit for like half an hour
4) warm up a pan of oil, check with a piece of bread wether the temperature is good. The crust of the bread should make bubbles come up from the oil where you put the bread in. If the bread gets dark, it’s too hot. If the oil doesn’t do anything, it’s too cold.
5) roll balls of the dough and throw them in the oil. Wait till it gets nice and brown and eat that stuff. Serve it with powdered sugar.

Sounds sorta kinky. I bet pigs all around europe are trembling with fear that ETR might be near.

Fragfest 4v4 is nice and refreshing. For the first warsow TDM tourney, its been going quite well. Very high-skilled action. In the future it’d be cool to have the occasional 4v4 one-day cup. Cuts out a lot of CB crap of server searching, worrying about the opponent having 4 and waiting weeks in between games.

Did anyone see the tutorial videos that Science and Industry has upped?

Really nice. Warsow could really do with the same. Nice way to demonstrate the gameplay mechanics.

We should have weekly amphi cup’s. What a great way to relax ingame. I think that too many people get uptight when playing intense warsow duels, amphi is a nice way to chill out.

What about having an all-star 4v4 once fragfest is concluded? Directly following the final or something. Have a nice night of warsow exposure on live streams. Could organise a CTF all-star 5v5 followed by a TDM all-star 4v4 followed by a showcase duel on each map.

What about having some individual community awards for people to vote on? Biggest contributors to the community, best aim, best movement, best attitude, favourite llama?

If a game that appeals to the [hardcore of the] hardcore community is to gain players from outside this subset it needs a very friendly + helpful community. Resources need to be there so that players can pick up the game easier, regular tournaments need to be there so that they can guage their progress and there needs to be evidence of a real community spirit. I see too many people who get uptight with the game, aren’t willing to give new players the time of day and the lack of a unified community.

Although things look quite good for the future. Warsow has a wiki that will only grow, bamboocha has been running very well for a long time now, tide+hoshi will probably organise some more team-based tourneys, warsownews.net is looking sweet [wish I could remember my u/p or post anon!] and currently the community numbers seem quite stable.

Oh, and don’t forget lovesow!

slashthoughtdump

[16:31] i assume soh-lokirul-off is a lazy mawfaw

Aye. That’s why I didn’t get out off bet until 3pm today and watched half of a simpsons season.

Then I uploaded bamboocha demos and wrote some review about it. You will love it. Later I’m gonna make some chinese food and go to handball in uni later.

But in the meantime I have to expose ETR’s evil plans for overtaking upcoming german War§ow lan party with his dutchie friends. ettor, dezjeette and mark of take that will attend lan in january. You know what? Most of german War§ow players are under 18 and can’t go to lan. Fuck german laws! So it will be just the elite of warsow, the core to be honest. Lazy bums talking nonsense in irc and listen to dj shadow (except dezje who has no taste in music and ettor who has no good taste in music because he dislikes queens of the stone age and think it’s emo. zomg emo!).

That’s all for today.