Mailbag
August 18,1999 -- Previous Mailbag

Letters are edited for spelling errors only (occasionally), and may contain profanity. Commentary by Jason "loonyboi" Bergman.

Damn that game's good.

From: Erik Collett
Subject: System Shock 2

Oh blessed,

I just finished System Shock 2. Just curious how the loonyboi was doing on it himself. =] One of the most spine tingling, mind embedding, well written games I've played in a long time. A definite tribute to the first. Wow! All I can say... Wow!

 Strangely, it was more terrifying than most of the movies that have come out. Definitely worth a few nightmares.

===
__
|_ LC /\/\AN
\_ |..|

Sadly, I can't say I'm very far in it yet. While I've been playing it obsessively (well, comparatively speaking of course, I don't exactly have very much time to devote to pure game playing these days) I'm still in the cargo bay area. Actually, I'm at the end, but I can't for the life of me figure out where to stick that damn bypass board. :)

But the game rules. Genuinely creepy without being too bad (I had to stop playing Thief: The Dark Project...those Zombies scared the heck out of me).

Love that Blue's News effect.

From: Andrew Tetlaw
Subject: Statistical Proof of the Blues News Effect

Here's the output from Analog showing the Blues News effect. My website was linked to under the "Image Link of The Day" heading on August 2nd. Here's the effect: Can you pinpoint where it begins? :P

date time: #reqs: pages:
---------------------: -----: -----:
2/Aug/99 00:00-01:00: 7: 7:
2/Aug/99 01:00-02:00: 8: 8:
2/Aug/99 02:00-03:00: 4: 4:
2/Aug/99 03:00-04:00: 18: 18:
2/Aug/99 04:00-05:00: 26: 26:
2/Aug/99 05:00-06:00: 15: 15:
2/Aug/99 06:00-07:00: 12: 12:
2/Aug/99 07:00-08:00: 6: 6:
2/Aug/99 08:00-09:00: 17: 17:
2/Aug/99 09:00-10:00: 4: 4:
2/Aug/99 10:00-11:00: 2: 2:
2/Aug/99 11:00-12:00: 13: 13:
2/Aug/99 12:00-13:00: 93: 93:
2/Aug/99 13:00-14:00: 767: 767:
2/Aug/99 14:00-15:00: 641: 641:
2/Aug/99 15:00-16:00: 475: 475:
2/Aug/99 16:00-17:00: 351: 351:
2/Aug/99 17:00-18:00: 301: 301:
2/Aug/99 18:00-19:00: 259: 259:
2/Aug/99 19:00-20:00: 336: 336:
2/Aug/99 20:00-21:00: 443: 443:
2/Aug/99 21:00-22:00: 629: 629:
2/Aug/99 22:00-23:00: 630: 630:
2/Aug/99 23:00-24:00: 675: 675:

3/Aug/99 00:00-01:00: 605: 605:
3/Aug/99 01:00-02:00: 552: 552:
3/Aug/99 02:00-03:00: 510: 510:
3/Aug/99 03:00-04:00: 465: 465:
3/Aug/99 04:00-05:00: 408: 408:
3/Aug/99 05:00-06:00: 433: 433:
3/Aug/99 06:00-07:00: 273: 273:
3/Aug/99 07:00-08:00: 174: 174:
3/Aug/99 08:00-09:00: 260: 260:
3/Aug/99 09:00-10:00: 268: 268:
3/Aug/99 10:00-11:00: 219: 219:
3/Aug/99 11:00-12:00: 231: 231:
3/Aug/99 12:00-13:00: 191: 191:
3/Aug/99 13:00-14:00: 110: 110:
3/Aug/99 14:00-15:00: 111: 111:
3/Aug/99 15:00-16:00: 111: 111:
3/Aug/99 16:00-17:00: 78: 78:
3/Aug/99 17:00-18:00: 14: 14:
3/Aug/99 18:00-19:00: 35: 35:
3/Aug/99 19:00-20:00: 48: 48:
3/Aug/99 20:00-21:00: 43: 43:
3/Aug/99 21:00-22:00: 75: 75:
3/Aug/99 22:00-23:00: 67: 67:
3/Aug/99 23:00-24:00: 79: 79:

4/Aug/99 00:00-01:00: 58: 58:
4/Aug/99 01:00-02:00: 44: 44:
4/Aug/99 02:00-03:00: 60: 60:
4/Aug/99 03:00-04:00: 71: 71:
4/Aug/99 04:00-05:00: 22: 22:

Regarding Delta Force 2.

From: Randy
Subject: Delta Force 2

I read the statement you posted by Wes Echart. Rather than allow players to shoot through tents and water. Wes would be better advised to fix the cheating that is permitted in Delta Force. So it shall be written... so it shall be done...

Flattery will get you everywhere.

From: Nigel Atins
Subject: Appreciation

Just read the OotB for 8-4-99
Your comments are refreshinglly human and intelligent when compared to ALL other media (yes, even more so than the jurnalistic GOD, Stone Phillips ;) and are exactlly why i visit your site everyday (also for FPS news or something). You rock.

-sCiSs0rs

Damn lag at QuakeCon.

From: Pup
Subject: You were robbed!

Blue,

Just got done checking out the stats to your match. 9 to 8? You'd think that with all the techies there, they could have hooked up a better network than that. That guy had 1/3 your ping! I mean, how can they expect you to be competitive with a ping of 6. That's a load of crap. I demand a recount!

Pup

Konsole Komplaint.

From: Mike Buck
Subject: Consoles?


Thought Blue was about computers, not consoles. Consoles suck. The few good games on them always get ported to PC's, so who cares about them? Were not living in Japan, we have other options beside Nintendo. Nvidia, 3dfx, Matrox, etc. And this Dreamcast thing? Its a wannabe computer. The stores are already calling its games software, and it has a keyboard. Thats gay. Playstation is the only console that has any descent games (and those are limited) but I'm not gonna bash it becomes it comes from a good company. I have a Sony monitor, better than anything Optiquest in its price range. Keep Blue for computer users. Let console people :

A. get a computer then comeback
B. go to nintendo.com or something

Mike Buck

Yeesh. You do two console related posts in one day, and all of a sudden we're Nintendo Power to some people.

Any programmers in the house?

From: Matt
Subject: About that letter about Outcast

Obviously we don't have any 3D renderer coders out there bothering with the mailbag. The reason for the fish eye vision is that the perspective correction is only set up to correct for distance to the horizon, not for any angles up or down. It has to do with the 2d data structure of the level and how it is expanded into a volume. I think I have a fix, and I'm trying to retrofit Doom, but if any Doom coders out there wanna give it a try and beat me to it, just mail me and I'll try and explain.

-Czar

Oh, nimajneb, a SEAL I met a while back said that the worst thing SEALS do in his opinion are lockouts, where they 'launch' themselves out of a torpedo tube on a sub.

Why not use a hammer as a joystick?

From: Dead_Cow
Subject: Mouse surfaces!!

Why go through all this trouble with mousing surfaces? I swear... Here's the BEST mousing surface you'll find: a piece of 80 grit sandpaper! Grips the mouse ball like a champ! The best part about it is it's less that $.25 US per mousing surface!! Not only that, your hands stay buttery smooth. No calluses on your hands, no siree! And when your all done mousing, you can take you mouse pad and grind that ring off your coffee table from the Big Gulp you left sitting there for 10 days. It's just a solution that's full 'o goodness. I'm sure you can think of many other good uses too!

Dead_Cow

Hulk smash puny brain!

From: Simon Speichert
Subject: Hulk's brain hurts..

Wow.. If you ever think you're smart and are looking to be proven wrong, just talk to Corrinne Yu.. Are you sure she didn't make that stuff up just to try to fool us?

-- Simon "Spyke" Speichert

I don't think I need that headache. :)

They're baaaaaaaack.

From: Miller
Subject: Barrett Alaxander at ROGUE!?

Whoa. First American McGee returns, now it's "The Bear". Proves that you can NEVER run away from the game industry. When's Abrash comin back?

Foozmelon

Just wait for the "Mike Abrash's Winnie" announcement from Microsoft. He's secretly been working on a twisted first person shooter based on Winnie the Pooh.

Another SS2 addict.

From: Thomas Quarles
Subject: Ow!

What's that barbed shiny sharp thing protruding from the corner of my mouth?
Why, it's a hook...
Much like the Loonster, I too, am utterly hooked on System Shock 2...

Thomas Quarles
violet13

Post Scriptum: A couple of nights ago, my young, murderous nephew phoned all enthused that he had seen I had (again) made it to the mailbag. I wasn't even aware of it...just goes to show how deeply he pours over Bluesnews.

Made his Uncle Tom a hero in his eyes...my thanks and it is my great privilege to have been selected.

Oh, one more thing...if you're still planning on coming to Austin on the Q3 tour, know that we're having a 100 percent typical August. That is 100 percent humidity and 100 degrees. Eeeek!

Greeeaaat. Just great.

Thanks Mom!

From: DOOManiac
Subject: "thanks mom"

gee. We can tell how you treat your mother. :)

If you get a news tidbit from anyone else you (or loonyboi) always put "Thanks whoever" at the end. "Thanks Voodoo Extreme" "Thanks Llama Boy" "Thanks [AoL]ph3ar"

Was it too much for you to put a "Thanks Mom" in there?? huh? huh??

hehehe... well I'm just kidding but I just thought it'd be funny...

and if you're trying to think of an excuse yes I know loonyboi made that post but darn it, you can update it!!! You could've made sure he put "Thanks Mom" in there for ya when you called him on the phone...

hehe... sorry I've had not enough sleep...

Ahem. "Thanks Mamma Blue!" (after the fact, but still appropriate, eh?).

More on 56k users.

From: michaelh
Subject: Re : Id unfair to 56k modem users

Pardon me that I don't have the exact title of the post here, but I thought that previous post about how unfair it was to have higher ping players playing against the guys with low pings in their games.

Might I point out how much effort Id has put into making games playable with people with very very bad pings ? Remember falling into the lava with Quake 1 non-QuakeWorld and moving jerk jerk jerk style and then being lighteninged (?) and being dead while the other 20 users ran all over your dead body ? Then came QW and this changed, didn't it ?

And no.. someone with a low ping will not always win. There are some very good players with a high ping who wind up destroying everyone else (I admit they are not in the majority). A bad LPB is actually kind of funny to beat up on (and there are quite a few of them). If you combine LPB and a good player of course, you are kind of dead meat if you are not the LPB. But LPB makes you actually keep on your feet and kind of a challenge to play against, so I think they can actually be kind of fun to go up against a LPB where you just don't have that 1 or 2 seconds to think about how you will respond. What isn't very fun are the people who whine and call people fags and stuff like that when they loose or get killed by a camper or supposed camper. I suppose a LPB camper would be the ultimate distress to these people :)

Just for the fun of it I've joined some games with a 500 ping (I usually have a choice of games in the 200 range) in Q3Test. It actually works which is a miracle for that kind of ping and it actually can be fun to shoot yourself in the back with a rocket. Doesn't play very well the the railgun though with a 1 second pause between firing :) It does play though and it's still fun at a ping of 500 and this is a testament (sp?) to the fact that ID does work to make it playable for high ping people.

We 0wn. W3rd.

From: SlipMat]GOD
Subject: YOU OWN!!!!!

Hey guys,

Just looked at that ICQ shit, and yea, they always do that, and Yea.. I always point my broswers home page to BLUESNEWS! Where we just can't make this shit up. I liked that thingy. I dunno why, but I feel so much better that other people have their home page as bluesnews. I feel apart of the group now. Thanks Blue/Loonie and all the blue goats that run around in my head.

SlipMat]GOD

Ahhh...not quite.

From: Pablo J. Nevares
Subject: KAK's contest

"Send your guess to kak@idsoftware.com. (Hint: it's blue and it's a place you can go to discuss the bus tour)."

Is the Q3A tour bus taking an unscheduled detour to the Blue Tower in NY??

-Pablo.N.

Not exactly. But boy would that be more convenient than my flying down to Texas again. ;)

Yay! We're not whores!

From: Bishr
Subject: T-buffer...(no A?)

Hey-

Longtime reader, uh, several times before email-er.

Congrats, blue. And looni too.

Today you've proven not to be corporate whores.

Every website (and their cousins) have hyped up their particular coverage of the new "Napalm" with the T-buffer, and their excited ramblings made me think "HOLY S***! I've gotta get one of these!"

Then I snapped back to reality. This is all really eary, still possibly sketchy info. The hype provided by everyone (except y'all) was simply to increase readership of that article, maybe of the whole site. But then again, once you've read the scoop once, and seen the "amazing" blur, everything else is rerun, and you've got disinterested readers skimming.

Pawns, baby. Free hype, free advertisements, and a good way to cut into all sales of 3d cards right now (remember, 3dfx has been #1 in retail sales for awhile w/Voodoo^3, and by doing this they cut into all sales, reducing the competitions' chances of catching up before the year is up)

Stay the course. A thousand points of light. Uh, stay the course. ("Please vote for me. I'm begging, on my hands and knees. Please?" George Bush (Dana Carvey, SNL '92))

QuakeCon gripes.

From: kev
Subject: Quakecon and GCON

I went to Quakecon this year, and I went to Qaukecon last year. This years event was lame. I signed up the night that the signups started. I was number 1084, after the culling a month ago I went to number 634, on friday when I showed up I was told that so many people did not show up that there were open spots in the tourney. I asked if I could bring in my machine, the answer was "NO, you can not bring in your machine" I walked around for about 45 minutes. Only a little more then 1/2 the tables where being used. If someone with the 512 number did not show up, no one was allowed to take his place on the network, but could take his place in the tourney. The people that were over Quakecon let a bunch of no - shows ruin it for the rest of us. If you look at the numbers, I went from 1084 to somewhere within the 512 number. Theat means that around 600 people droped or did not show up.

Gcon, next month in Beaumont Texas. There is going to be a Q2 - Q3 tourney, the grand prize is a new loaded machine. Door prizeses will be given away also like new joysticks. Unlike Qaukecon, if you signup you can bring your machine. The event will be held in the Beaumont civic center.
http://www.pernet.net/~revy/gcon