8.24.99
Don't worry, m'lord, I have a cunning plan...


Or something like that (can you tell PBS is showing old Blackadder episodes again?  Can you 
also tell I have nothing better to do on Friday nights?  Oh, the pain, the shame...)


Where was I?  Oh yeah, TRIBES Extreme.  Everyone's favorite mission designer/builder has 
been working hard on cranking out muy missions.  We have a new category called "Balanced 
Online."  Meaning, you know those OGL games where you fight over which side of Snowblind 
your team gets to play?  No more.  This particular class is perfectly balanced in environmental
and physical features.  Both sides are dead even.  So you can't whine about losing to skiing
heavies on Raindance anymore...


But, fear not, we'll still have plenty of the good old "unbalanced" mission type for those
who like'em.


Tinman has got me designing a mission or two for his addictively enjoyable "Hunters" deathmatch
variant.  Those howls of anguish you hear through the offices late at night are from those of 
us who got disked at the last second while carrying about a gajillion flags.  Hopefully have
that done in the next few days.  And while I must say Tinman has done a very nice job converting
existing missions to Hunters, his naming conventions lack that certain je ne se quois, that
special "smacks of Meddish" sense of hyperbole.  "TheOtherWhiteMeat"?  Perhaps, under my tutelage,
we can help Tinman make that a little more catchy.  It might be that Canadian upbringing or something
along those lines.


Speaking of naming conventions, we've been getting a nice steady flow of user-created missions for the
Extreme Open Call.  By and large, good stuff.  Picking winners isn't going to be easy.  Just remember,
the deadline is rapidly approaching, so if you've been waiting to send it in, 'twould be advised that 
you not wait much longer.


Being the Mission Building Guru of TRIBES (well, at least since Scott Youngblood left--his office,
curiously enough, has not yet been thoroughly looted of its treasures--it's like a holy shrine or 
something), I would normally say that anyone who has any questions regarding mission building can give
me an e-holler at dave.meddish@dynamix.com, however, being as we're approaching the crunch for TX, I 
can't promise anyone when I can get back to them.  But feel free to say hi anyway...it gets very 
lonely over in this part of the building :-(


We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast of "The Adventures of Analog Kid and
Ban-Me Boy," same Ban-Me time, same Ban-Me station...

6.24.99
Since everybody else is going on vacation, I figgered I might as well take a few days off
as well.  Celebrate my last pre-millenial birthday (31? How in the name of all that is holy
can I be 31?  Criminy, I'm gettin' old...check me into the home...).  The days drag on but 
the years fly by...


Spiffcat/Hexabolic/Whatever He's Calling Himself These Days and I will be pumping out tons of 
new TRIBES material for all you would-be writers.  Question: who out there would be interested
in seeing a TRIBES RPG made?  Starsiege had Rebellion, maybe we can do a roleplayer version
of TRIBES.  If enough people make noise, maybe we can make it happen.


Okay, that's the news, and I am outta here.  See you on the flip side.

5.4.99
Hmmm, been a while since I've updated the ol' .plan file.  But that I had something
to say...


Senor Spiffcat and I have been working on the TRIBES Writer's Guide and the backstory
and details for the new "BioDerm" race.  Starsiege players should remember the BioDerms.
Well, they're back and they're really, really angry.  Something about a dead parrot.


The Writer's Guide should be out soon, probably around E3 or so.  For those of you lucky
enough to see what we've cooked up for TRIBES II...pretty damn spiffy if I do say so 
myself.  Muy swank.


For those who have asked about the origin of the "Diamondback" moniker: When first playing
TRIBES, I was either going by my Quake nom du guerre (Count Fragula) or something off the 
Warren Zevon CDs I was listening to (Excitable Boy, Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner).
For a demo we were recording, BlakeH suggested that we try and use names that were more
"tribal."  Hmmm, tribal, I said, stroking my chin.  As fate would have it, I was going over
baseball scores at espn.com.  Hmmm, Arizona Diamondbacks, "Diamondback" -- works for me.  
I was going to change it later, but "dBack" kinda caught on, and that's been my TRIBES
nickname ever since.  And that, my friends, is the rest of the story.

3.2.99
Nothing worse than scoring a City League career-high sixteen points (4-6 from behind
the arc too--dBack was "en fuego"), but losing the game.  Drat.  I'm lucky if I 
score two points, it's too bad when Dave starts posting the big numbers and the
team can't capitalize...


Far too silent of late, ol' dBack has decided to liven up your days with a guest 
appearance in the .plan files.  I know, I know, you're lives have been soooo empty
with the wit and wisdom of David R. here, so I come to appease the masses.


As of now, the Tribes team is starting to ramp up for Tribes II (or 2--personally,
I prefer the Roman numerals), deciding what we can cram in for the sequel.  We'll
no doubt have some things that didn't make it in the first game, and some wondrous
new things as well.


At present, I'm finishing up documentation for the tools that we will be releasing
to the public sometime soon (and, no, I'm not getting more specific than that).  
This includes the Mission Editor and ZED, the in-house 3-D art tool that we used to
create static objects.  The docs are in spiffy .html format with lots of cool 
pictures and everything!  Very swank if I do say so myself (and I do)...we also
have tutelage for putting together your own "smack packs" using custom .wav files
and implementing custom-made skins.  


A big, big holler out to Dr. Jeep!!  You and Qui9 are truly *the men*!!  We'll have
to slip a little something into Tribes II just for you...we shall be quaffing a 
great quanity to a certain beverage in the near future thanks to your magnanimousness
(which may not be a word, but I said it, so it is now).

 
And Sifl & Olly is back on the airwaves with brand new episodes!  Huzzah!  Who needs
a life, I have Sifl & Olly.

1.27.99
Back to the grind...always good to hear and see the reviews rolling in.  Good Lord, it
looks like we might have a hit on our hands.  This is much better than my former place
of work, which shall go nameless, where I think our games sold a combined total of 32
copies...


So what is ol' dBack up to?  Making all you mod-makers happy soon.  Being writer-guy, 
I've been put in charge of making documentation for all of our tools that will be 
soon be released.  That includes the Mission Editor, 3D Art tools, the skin maker...all 
that jazz.  Not the most exciting stuff in the world, but hey, it pays the bills (and I
got plenty of those, believe you me).


1.4.99
Tanned, rested and ready (well, at least rested), ol' dBack is back on the case.  
Tried to keep track of things on the message boards, but this was with my parents on 
their *shudder* Macintosh.  I love Macs, but a Performa with a 28.8 just don't cut it.  
Maybe I'll get 'em an iMac for next Christmas.


Trust all had a safe and happy holidays.  Partied like it was 1999 on New Year's with 
friends at a certain establishment that shall go nameless but involved nubile young women 
in various states of undress.  Will not elaborate further (since I don't remember that 
much about it anyway).


First things first: As soon as SymLink gets his sorry butt back from Hawaii or wherever 
he is, we'll have an OpenGL patch out, as well as fixing our latest little problems.  As 
for me, I've got design issues to work on, new missions, new races, more writing, etc., 
etc...


Maybe a Diamond Sword piece.  That's the one tribe I haven't really touched on, so now 
that I've got a little free time, I'll try and get something out on the enigmatic ones 
for your reading enjoyment.


Oh, and by the way...WHERE'S THE BEER?  Nobody's mailed us any beer yet!  I am greatly 
disappointed.