I am so *stoked* about the number of people who have checked out and
given me feedback on Hunters. Thanks also to BluesNews, Adrenaline
Vault, Planet Tribes, and anyone else who posted word of it today!
(To think I had no idea anyone *ever* read my .plan file!)

I've made some modifications (mostly in response to feedback) which I
thought I'd mention - let me know if they help or hinder:

- The biggest drawback is not being able to tell how many flags an opponent
is carrying. I've made an attempt with 2 changes - I've added a column
to the TAB menu, and, only a player carrying 5 or more flags has
a flag mounted on his back.

- Another helpful addition is a function to find out who currently has
the most flags, and to track that person with your compass. To use
this function, you must add a key binding to query the server.

To do this, edit the file "configconfig.cs", search for the line:
NewActionMap("actionMap.sae");
and add after it, add the line:
bindCommand(keyboard0, make, control, "z", TO, "remoteEval(2048, HuntersFindTarget);");

This feature may prove too much, but for now it's nice to have a target.

- Several people have been "stashing" - finding a hiding place for their flags,
and then capping them all at the end for mega points. To discourage this
dropped flags will now disappear after 2 minutes.

- The "cacophony of sounds" as one person put it, has been toned down. The
pick up flag sound only plays when you're the one picking up a flag, and
the flag cap sound only plays when someone caps 5+ flags.

Again, thanks everyone, and happy Hunting!

--tinman

"kidney thief"

It's 6:15am, do you know where my mind is? It's been a busy week.
Things are progressing well for Tribes: Extreme. Not that I plan to
tell you *anything*! Too bad! :)

However, I finally decided that everyone else was having too much fun
creating their own mission types, so I decided to get in on the action.
I've adapted a new mission type for Tribes: "Flag Hunters"! (Much thanks
to the creators of "Headhunters" for Quake - I loved that MOD!).

The object? Kill everyone of course, but besides that... Everyone
spawns with a flag. If you die, you drop your flag and someone else
can pick it up. If you had picked up several flags before dying, you'll
drop them all, plus the flag you spawned with. The object is to take
as many flags as you can to the "alter". Scoring is additive,
so the more flags you bring at once, the higher your score. e.g.
1 flag = 1 point, 2 flags = 1 + 2 = 3 points, n flags = 1 + ... + n points.

This hasn't been released, so the only server you can play this on is:
"Kidney Thief's Domain" (address "IP:198.74.33.53:28001")

So... check it out. Keep in mind that I'm not a mission designer, so
I'd appreciate any *suggestions* about which maps (I've set up 5) work,
which need improvement, and which just plain suck. Also, any bugs.
Please keep in mind that this was just a pet project, and not
an officially sanctioned Dynamix release.

A final note, if you live within travelling distance of Seattle,
check out (a href="http://tribescon.teamplay.net")http://tribescon.teamplay.net for an upcoming tournament.
(And while you're there, if you like "Flag Hunters", you can buy
me a beer! :)

Thanks all. Happy hunting!

--tinman

"Kidney Thief"

Now that I'm sober enough to type again... on Friday, we received
5 cases of our favorite Mirror Pond Pale Ale! Did you hear me? I
said WE GOT BEER!!! Much thanks to Diane Lee and Wasif Azmat!

A couple of new developments: Frohny and I have coded up a debugger
for the Tribes 1.7 patch. Check out Mark Frohnmayer's .plan file
for the details!

Next, I've been feeling sorry for the HUD scripters out there, so
I've added a few minor changes in the hopes that their lives will
become easier. The class: "FearGui::HudCtrl" has been fixed up to
be used to drag HUD components around. In addition, 2 new functions
have been provided: Control::setPosition(ctrl, x, y); and
Control::setExtent(ctrl, w, h); This will allow you to resize and/or
reposition elements on the fly.

Another *extremely cool* development, our lead QA, Eric "Balefire" Lanz
has created a new mission type: "Rabbit". It's currently only available
on the "Pacific NW T1" server. The object is to grab the flag, and run
like hell while all the other players try to hunt you down. Once the
"rabbit" is dead (insert cautionary label for female players here), the
new "rabbit" is whoever can grab the dropped flag. All waypoints are set
to the rabbit to increase the hunt intensity.

That's all for now... back those five cases of beer... um.. I mean work.

--Tinman

"Kidney Thief"

Recovering well from Canada Day celebrations - as one of the *very*
few Canadians here, we really have to make up for it!

A recent development in Tribes has been the MOD developed by a "Rasia",
a gamer who has taken it upon himself to script a new mission type
called "Arena". The game play is that of a team deathmatch. It is
*awesome*! If you get a chance, check it out.

I've been abducted! I'll be joining Tribes: Extreme for the next
3 or 4 months so help out with the AI development. I'll let you know
more as soon as I do. All I can say is that our bots are going to be
"Sofa King BaddAss!" :)

--Tinman

"Kidney Thief"

I suppose it's about time I updated my .plan file.

Good news for all you budding Tribes scripters! Recent developments
for Tribes2 will make scripting a *whole* lot easier.

I've been impressed by some of the additional HUDs that people have
created. My favorite, and one I use frequently is "MadHud", found
at http://www.planetstarsiege.com/madhud.

After talking with several scripters involved, the limitations they
have faced, such as very limited font selection, difficult graphics
display methods, and a general shortage of creatable functional
objects, should be a thing of the past. Object creation is no longer
necessary through the "newObject();" function with it's limited
parameter specs. Any GUI object can now be "instantiated", and *any*
of it's properties can be specified. This includes specifying font
size, color, and style, and having access to base objects which may,
for instance, be draggable, outlined, translucent, etc...
The bad news? You'll have to wait for Tribes2!

On a personal note, SHE SAID YES! Cristine Otazu, my girlfriend of
2 1/2 years has agreed to marry me on July 29th, 2000. The wedding
will be in Victoria, B.C., and then off to Hawaii for a couple of
weeks. It's going to be a busy year!

--Tinman

aka "Kidney Thief"

aka "Thulsa Doom"