tm_master

... Okay, I normally don't post on this forum system because I dislike it, but I think this calls for it. I am going to be careful how I respond to this because after I read the first post I was extremely aggravated to say the least. First off, I just want to say that I appreciate everything you have done for Devastation, Hakaku. However, with that said the zone will never die. With all due respect it is my belief that killing off the zone is not even Hakaku's decision to make. I don't care how much stuff he controls or what type of access he has. I think this post was made out of peaked frustration in the heat of the moment which I will forgive him for. I understand because I have dealt with that same frustration myself. I have been in his position before, except I was sole owner of the zone at least a few times in its history and dealt with the same problems. The trouble is they are magnified with the current state of the game right now. Trust me when I say that I have faith that Devastation's community will once again thrive and that there is no real reason for this thread except letting off steam. The fact is this zone has and always will belong to XDOOM, the original owner and creator and myself being staff since 2000 (owner, sysop, and head of staff through most of that time). As long as there is even ONE person willing to play it, it is worth the best efforts of everyone involved. I want it to be known that I care about this zone and its community probably more than anyone else in its history. Would I have made such efforts over the years to hold its community together if I didn't? In fact, it is my belief that Hakaku may have made this thread in an effort to just fire everyone up and get them to take notice or play. Consider the notice received. Now let me address some of your post with what little time I have left online here (since it is after 7am my time now and I have work at 10am). What if Hakaku killed off Devastation? Not likely to happen considering nobody can kill off what we have built as a community. That is stronger than anything. I would contact XDOOM and we would just re-open the zone. Indeed, its playerbase and community would definitely live on. Nobody can take that from us. Ever. Trust me, a close-knit Subspace/Continuum group of friends/players never truly dies. Point proven: I see people regularly enter Devastation whom I haven't seen in years such as Sani-Wipe, Odyessey, etc. Eventually people meet back up with you (even those whom I would never have expected to return..it's just a fact and has happened so many times since the revival in 2005 especially). To attempt to kill the zone at this point would simply be silly. Criticized from every end? How exactly have you been criticized from every end? I haven't seen you take any criticism, to be honest, besides that which you may find in this post. Completely ditching the zone, am I? I find that hard to believe considering I work 60-70 hours a week (sometimes more) busting my butt trying to make a decent life for myself and my family and yet I still find time to get online at home, message every single contact I know in-game and out to come play Devastation, and sit in the zone waiting for responses (which I am doing right now). Besides, I don't think anyone has put the time into this zone that I have over the years. I'm sorry but you picked the wrong person's devotion to question, Hakaku. I still am on for 2-3 hours a night which is about as much as my health can sustain. Just because I am not online when you are do not judge me. Nobody's able to host a bot? Fine, I played and thoroughly enjoyed Devastation in an era when there were no bots or buyables. No ASSS? That's acceptable to me, I liked things better with a conventional server running on tradional subgame. So, you have been doing a great job translating things to as3 that broke. Last I checked, you weren't the only one who helped contribute to doing that. I appreciate the added functionality but we need to focus on getting more players first. Mage+ will be back soon and is willing to help, I have been talking to him through instant message recently. As for settings, the only settings I truly care about are in the main arena, and those should not be touched; bot hosting: Deva has no bot; website and news updates make no difference anyway without more viewing the site/knowing of its existence (besides I have seen few); I have also seen Hakaku do little to no actual advertising of the zone or attempting to get players (hopefully he IS doing that when I'm not there and not just sitting afk). Devastation's population has never been high, huh? Again, showing your ignorance. There was a time when this zone was at 20+ constant (sometimes more) through all hours of the day. The real vets will remember that glorious time. From November of 2006 to January of 2007 the zone was hitting 20+ nightly, however it wasn't sustaining it like in late 2000. As for the zone not existing if YOU hadn't taken it up, give me a break. That isn't for you to judge. If you weren't there, I would have run it myself if not for limited time or probably found someone else. Besides, this isn't a staff popularity contest. I do everything I do for this zone and because I truly love its community, not to gain some kind of credibility or popularity. I know you're well-respected already on these forums and in the community, and hell, I respect you..but don't make a comment like that to make yourself out as some sort of hero when the only thing that should matter to you is the zone and its players. The way I see it, you were graciously given control of certain aspects of the zone by someone who had great faith in you, but that doesn't mean you have the right to kill it without the consent of others involved and it certainly doesn't make you some high-and-mighty savior of Devastation. Want recognition? You're spouting off to the wrong people, because your concerns should lie with the zone and its daily operations. The reason I have not replied to your messages is simply because while I appreciate you taking the time to set up subarenas, convert things to as3, and make settings in them there isn't much feedback I can give you when we have no players to play in them and test things out (at least at my time). WHICH is why I have been spending some time in EG if you weren't so dense to have been able to make the connection. I have found that if you make actual friends, get people to join the zone's chat, and utilize the community-aspect of the game to its fullest, you can successfully and legally convert people to another zone with similar settings and gameplay. It works and is one valuable tool I used to help Devastation back when it was revived in 2005. Sri plays Devastation plenty and I have never seen him give anyone a hard time. Judging from all the activity on this forum lately, there are MANY who care. 10 months of crap, huh? Try 10 years. I have heard it all. Truth is, there is plenty positive to look forward to in Devastation's future. The core community is still kicking, we just need to renew their vigor to play. And nothing major need be done, in my opinion. I would suggest a big event and everyone we know being contacted to agree on a day/time that would be best for the most...such as something as simple as a megajackpot night which should become a regular thing for a certain day of the week anyway. When there's a little action, it tends to turn into a much bigger amount in Devastation. All it needs is that spark, which I demonstrated last time I was in earlier in the day for a game. Even Hakaku commented on how much fun that was. Come on people! DEVASTATION LIVES!

This is the discussion topic for the wiki article: SSWiki:Community Portal

Wow, Attraction, thank you very much! I have been trying obtain that squadname on SSC (without the `' or - - around it) since 2000, with no luck at all. I thought District had quit playing altogether long ago (before a month ago every time I checked ?find it said more than 10 days), but it seems he has become active again recently. In any case, he never responded to any of my attempts to contact him over the years. Your efforts have really helped my cause here. BIG thanks again!

Thanks everyone. I had a really great birthday. While it wasn't the reason I was gone (my computer's hard drive died), I did have that day off of work and my girlfriend and I drove to my favorite place, a state park. It was about a 52 mile drive there, but it was well worth it. It is one of the most serene, relaxing places I have ever known. When we got there, the campsite and beach were almost completely deserted. I went fishing, tooled around with my electric RC boats, and then watched a beautiful sunset over a lake that was so calm it resembled glass with a reflection so clear and perfect it was as if the sky had fallen to Earth. It was so unreal, like something out of a Robert Frost novel. Definitely a day I'll remember.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner! I must say it is really entertaining to see how far your imaginations can go. Seriously, though, I want to genuinely thank you all for your concern. As it turned out, my hard drive died on September 1st (happy birthday me). I had originally planned to get it fixed within 2 to 3 days, but I was so incredibly busy I didn't get the chance to purchase a new one or re-install and restore all my data until more than a week later. Anyway, I really missed you all badly during that time and all the fun we have in Devastation daily. Several of the posts in this thread actually made me laugh out loud, especially those by rasta and SOS (better start forking over that $50 to Sound, which is like $5000000000000000000000 for you...i.e. just send him your life savings). Actually, I did manage to get some additional, well-needed rest. However, I would have been in Devastation if I could. Furthermore, I LOVE YOU ALL! Fleet commander tm reporting for duty! I'll be dusting off my weasel in the hangar and re-briefing myself on offensive strategies and defensive patterns in the days to come. Good to be back, see you all in the zone!

Oh...My...GOD.. When I saw who was the author of this thread, my jaw just absolutely hit the floor. I cannot believe I am about type this name.. ETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have not seen you in-game or talked to you since probably 2003...I am seriously in shock right now...MEGA shock! For those of you who do not know, Etropic was staff in Devastation during 2001-2002. At one point, he held an smod position alongside myself. In addition to being an excellent staffer, he was one of Devastation's best dogfighters (especially in a warbird), a fellow squadmate of mine on -Obsidian-, and a good friend. He was also one of the most well-respected people in Devastation's community (especially by me) for buying, paying for and maintaining the devazone.com domain of his own accord and facilitating a unique web-based iden!@#$%^&*y for Deva. That was the best, most visited website and forums this zone ever had, in my opinion (which existed from 2002-2003). Unfortunately, the domain expired and he disappeared from the zone and game and (I thought) had left forever (as most Deva players did) right before it died in 2003. Anyway.. Wow, what is up, man?!?! Last I heard years ago you were still spinning records as a professional DJ. Are you still doing that? Just so you know, Etro, Devastation was brought back up in late 2005 by XDOOM, SOS, and myself on Altec's SSCB server. It has had its ups and downs since then, but has managed to once again develop a great, close-knit community of committed players. The highest point was in late 2006 when it hit 31 players. We then went on to have maybe the best consistent population surge the zone has seen since November/December 2000 during December 06/January 07. The zone was hitting 20+ nightly during that time. When people returned to work/school/college/etc. after the brief Christmas break, the population took a dip, but it still hits 10+ nightly and there is still plenty of fun to be had. Unfortunately, Altec (longtime Devastation player and host) has once again ceased hosting and quit the game earlier this year, giving us no choice but to move to the SSCI server. On the brighter side, there have been more ideas presented as to how to make the zone better and more zone development in the last year or so then there ever was. I really wish you'd drop in once in awhile Etro, even if it is only for a few minutes. Your presence in Devastation is greatly missed by myself as a player and staffer. I have not forgotten what you did for the zone and our community.

Happy birthday, Synook!

One suggestion to improve flagging in Devastation would be to increase the flag timer from 180 seconds (3 minutes) to 300 seconds (5 minutes). This will give the attackers more time to make enough progress in a base to potentially stop a win. To help prevent run-winning, I suggest we make it so you can only drop flags inside bases (i.e. flags neutralize back to center if dropped outside of a base). This way, if you want to win, you're going to have to at least hold off an antied attack for the duration of the flag timer. It will also add the element of unpredictability that if you manage to push or repel an enemy right against a wall (or they foolishly choose to hide in a corner while waiting to win) the moment they are about to drop inside the base, you will still have a chance and the game may not be over.

Welcome back, Hakaku. Watch out, NR, rumor has it that Hakaku possesses a genuine Hanzo. Chances are, if God stands in Hakaku's way, God will be cut.

Negative. The problem with allowing private freqs of more than 1 person is that Nrg.InI! or 'Obsidian' would inevitably end up freqing each other and horde the flags to no end. All the newer, less-skilled, less-organized, more casual players just looking for a fun game end up facing impossible odds, and get squashed and leave almost immediately. Why do I say this? Because it has happened before, and originally was a huge contributing factor to the downfall of the zone, and the exit of a lot of good promising new potentially regular Devastation players years ago. 2 freqs only is infinitely better as it mixes players/teams/squads up enough to keep things interesting and fun for those less-skilled. They actually feel like they have a chance at winning the jackpot or at least shaping the final outcome of the game regardless of the fact they feel new or insecure in their skill-level. Thus, they are much more likely to return to the zone even if the outcome of that particular game is not in their favor because they leave with a positive feeling that they can easily get on a compe!@#$%^&*ive team with a chance at winning in the future. In my opinion, 2 freqs only also gets rid of annoying flanks, and boring, divided, all-over-the-place 3 or 4 freq games. I feel that Devastation is at its best when the fighting is centralized and fierce between only 2 bigger frequencies. Anyway, I have already discussed this at length in the past: http://forums.sscentral.com/index.php?showtopic=10042 Besides, I suggest that instead of implementing private freqs so we can "create elite flagging teams" we simply schedule some sort of (regular?) compe!@#$%^&*ive squad flagging match or squad wars, namely `Obsidian' versus Nrg.InI!

Happy birthday Xerax!

To me, it is basically like not being there at all. What's the point of being in the game if not playing, in spec, and most importantly unreachable through private messages? All this afk SSC usage-whoring was not what the game was designed for. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: You are not your usage. Since you have so many people exploiting this on a regular basis, it means absolutely nothing. What can you possibly be trying to gain by doing this? This game was meant to be played and enjoyed, and many of us are forgetting that, especially the veterans. I look at it this way: it's like calling someone, and getting an answering machine or voice mail every single time. Everybody dislikes it, and nobody ever wants to really leave a message. Even the chat system is supposed to be secondary, but it turned into the primary use of SS for alot of people, which is a shame. Many net-ops and upper zone staff do not enjoy playing the game with their players anymore. Existance is in their eyes only ceremonial, making them unreachable through most all means and turning them into perm-afking usage ASSS. From this stems ego-boosting and power abuse when others question their motives and judgment in even the slightest because they have lost their fundamental love of the game and feel like the other players owe them something for even still being there. I see this as a big reason the game is dying (possibly the primary one). People hate things that are so impersonal. This is why I have tried to create an atmosphere in Devastation where players feel welcome, and don't enter a cold zone filled with unresponsive afk-ers. You'll find that when I am on Continuum, I am playing or if in spec, always reachable through private messages and ready to jump in as soon as there are others willing to play. True, but any player who does enter and sees the same people in spec and always afk with no response when greeted or private messaged, will most likely either leave immediately or from that point on subtract the number of known afk-ers from the population to figure out the "real" population. Not a good reputation to have. The same goes for having too many bots. Anyway, I am not the one who kicked jDs. And I would never kick or ban someone from the zone myself for afk-ing. I do not believe in doing that, although I do not agree with constant afk-ing.

You were not banned. MEANING: Upon reading your message, I promptly logged into banG and checked ?listban. When someone tells me they have been "banned" this is the first place I check. Furthermore, as far as the conversation, it was obvious sarcasm (I was kidding and didn't think he'd actually do it). Furthermore, I don't even consider what SOS did a ban. It was no worse than a 1 minute kick, WHICH IF YOU WEREN'T AFK, YOU COULD ALMOST SIMULTANEOUSLY RE-ENTER THE ZONE. As far as the afk-ing, I think SOS has a great point. I don't think almost constant 24/7 afk-ing to up your SSC usage is necessarily wrong, but it's not helping the zone in any way. In fact, I think SOS is right, it's doing the exact opposite: giving it a bad reputation. I am very, very disappointed in you, jDs. I went out of my way to give you power in Devastation that nobody else currently has so you could help the zone, and you repayed me by afk-ing more than ever, doing very little actual playing and/or encouraging others to play, and are now trying to start pointless drama over a 1 minute kick through the bot, NOT EVEN A REAL BAN. Exactly the type of e-drama I try to keep out of Devastation. Hardly a reason to attempt to start a flame topic, especially with that !@#$%^&*le, on this forum. Tsk tsk. You talk about us acting like "!@#$%^&* heads," when in reality it is you who acts this way most of the time. As well as starting and attempting to start unnecessary drama in and out of the zone, you have publicly bashed me (the most), as well as the rest of Devastation's staff and even other loyal players on numerous occasions for seemingly no reason. I let alot of this stuff fly in Devastation, but you should know that it DOES bother me. In many other zones (including many of those you frequent), you can and will be banned without question or explanation if you do or say some of the things you have. That entire conversation was taken out of context, and blown WAY out of proportion. Anyway, I find this to be the most hypocritical statement I have read in quite awhile (I must admit I did laugh out loud after reading it): I never said you COULDN'T afk in Devastation, but I won't say that I AGREE with it. SOS is apparently the one who has the biggest problem with it, but I don't see why you should quit a zone for a 1 minute kick. Honestly, that's just overreacting, and this thread further proves that. Please just stop this nonsense and come back already.

Sounds alot like what I did on my last 2 birthdays. Anyway, No_Remorse, I'm glad that's not what you ended up doing. Happy belated birthday to you both!

Wow, great job, Gibbit!!! Thanks alot, that's some fantastic work for such a short time spent on it! Well, at least now there will no longer be any question as to why I chose this nickname.

Thanks for all your support, guys. Yes, indeed it was the scariest, most painful, and overall worst ordeal of my life so far. I'm currently working on getting back into the swing of every day life. I'd say I'm about 60-70% recovered. However, I'm still on a ton of pain medications for my wrist and ankle, so with the pain plus that it's been hard for me to sleep at night. I never did get much sleep, anway, though.. However, playing SS is a different story. I can type just fine, but with how messed up my wrist is (I have little to no range of motion with it), I don't know if I'll ever be able to play SS with the reflexes and skill that I used to again. For now, I'll have to resort to short play sessions, speccing, chatting, hosting, and running Devastation with the time I have on. In fact, I may not be near 100% until I'd say late February or early March of 2007 at the earliest (if ever). On the bright side, I'm thankful to still be alive with even the chance to fully recover. I can still enjoy life and this game (and of course, Devastation). That, I can be very thankful for. I must say, the response in the last week or so since my return (culminating in Deva hitting 23 people last night) has really helped me feel alot better about my whole situation and actually helped ease some of the pain. For that, I thank you guys. Let's make 2007 a great year for Devastation! -tm

Actually, the jackpot won on Wednesday night (early morning Thursday, for me) was not a Devastation record. However, it came really close. The jackpot won Wednesday night (December 27th) was roughly 1.33 billion points. After a quick look through my Continuum folder, I found a news post in an old news.txt file I made back on November 12th. Apparently, we had an eventful mega-jp night on Saturday the 11th, and a 1.35 billion point jp was won. That's the correct date and point total for the Devastation record jackpot. Anyways, however, that night we only had a consistent 10+ people for a few hours. This past Wednesday night, the zone hit 20 people and stayed at 20+ (topped out at around 22-23 people) for at least 2 hours! I wasn't here when the zone hit 30 players on September 16th (our max population since coming back up late last October), but that is the longest I have seen the zone sustain that kind of consistent population since 2001. I can't believe we're now approaching 2007. Yeah, it's been that long. It gave me chills and made me feel really nostalgic, but also gave me a real idea of how great Devastation is and has the potential to be. I just want to you thank you all for playing Devastation again. I hope that once the holidays pass you all will still make an effort to be in the zone as much as possible and it will continue to grow and thrive. I know I'll be there (God willing). This past month has probably been the worst of my life with my accident and all, but I know it will only get better from here on out. I can't wait to see what will happen in the zone in 2007. The Christmas map was only the beginning. We have great things planned for Devastation in the coming new year and it's you, the players, that make it all possible. So keep playing Devastation, guys! Because of you, Devastation still has a fighting chance! -tm

Thank you, Maverick. Because I take my job very seriously, anyone wondering why Spyed is banned in Devastation can reference the following post I made in the SSC forum and its contained links: http://forums.sscentral.com/index.php?s=&s...ndpost&p=132278 All I have to say, Spyed (if you read this), is that you are VERY lucky you are only banned in Devastation. It is my opinion you should have been net-banned from all of SSC for what you did. I hope this is the last post about this I have to make. Closed.

..Still mad at you for deleting the entire General forum which I had been enjoying reading nearly 3 months ago..Quite a way to make an exit. I must admit, you've got guts to come on here and start posting again. Speaking of which, weren't you banned from these forums? *ahem*

Happy Birthday, T-Man! I must say it has been a priveledge having you on staff in SSCB Devastation and working with you. I am so glad that you found and chose Devastation as your home zone, and have stuck with it since it came back up last November. The time and effort you put into sscentral.com in the past is undeniable. Have a great 22nd.

I almost spit out my Mountain Dew bursting out laughing when I read this, I must say. I won't quote Hakaku's post due to length, but this morning, myself and many other players witnessed Spyed spam SSCB Devastation's zone chat with 50 lines or more of ads for RS..I have the log to verify it. Then I log on to this forum to see he's deleted all the threads on the general board. Apparently, he's burning all his bridges.. This isn't the first time he's spammed our zone chat (or our players in pms, for that matter) or broken zone rules. Oh no...These compulsively abusive tendencies have been going on for MONTHS. I should not have let it go on as long as I did. Anyway, I thought it relevant because this whole thing started with him being banned by me for freqhopping in Devastation. See relevant topic: http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=11606 That said, it is my opinion that Spyed should be network-wide-banned from SSC for excessively spamming SSCB Devastation's zone chat cross-zone with ads for another zone. It really upset me, as there were alot of people on the chat who saw the spam. Keep in mind, this is a zone chat and it's not like the chat name could simply be changed to something else. Besides, I wouldn't want him doing this to some other zone or zone chat in the future. I believe that is SS-council/net-op policy, correct? Relevant topic: http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=11099 I guess I should probably explain my posistion on this to be clear. Netbanning for cross-zone spamming is only to be done in the most severe of situations. This rule can apply to a chat channel but there are some restrictions on that. 1) You may not network ban someone for cross-zone spamming any chat that could be made local with no problems or a chat that could easily be changed (Staff, Squad chats, etc). 2) The spamming must be extremely excissive. Using one alias to spam your chat does not qualify for a network ban. Using multiple aliases to continually avoid ?ignore while spamming your chat does qualify. Also for it to be considered extremely excessive the spam must last for a considerable duration and be quite rapid. 3) If the ban is ever disputed because of the questionable nature of this type of network ban I need to have a log of the event which if the ban was warranted should be easy to get. SVS

I don't normally post on these forums, but this is ridiculous. I will not remove the ban. And I did not ban you for "no reason." I clearly told you that you were banned for freqhopping (which is listed on the rules in F1), in this case to the team in control of the flags (the worst kind). And this is not the first time you have broken a rule. This repeated rule bending/breaking has been going on for months. You've been spamming other players, the zone chat (cross-zone even..), interrupted duels repeatedly, etc. I mean, there are few rules in SSCB Devastation. And I probably allow alot of stuff to go on that shouldn't. I could have banned you for SO many other things. This has been going on ever since you started playing here. You have been told repeatedly through private messages and in pub chat to stop your abuse of the rules. Nearly everyone who plays the zone has complained to me at one point or another that you should be specced or banned. Why do you think SOS went out of his way to create a bot-plugin to stop you from carrying flags, huh? Because every time you entered the second you got in you'd HOP to the team in control of the flags (which is ILLEGAL in Devastation) and attempt to grab all the flags and win the game against everyone's wishes. Then you'd leave. That's practically the definition of a compulsive rule-breaker (not to mention lamer) in my book. It really irks me because you seemed like such a nice person, but I have come to the conclusion after months of seeing your actions in-game that behind that nice exterior is a compulsive rule-breaker with the worst of intentions. You simply think you can get away with breaking the rules because you act nice to everyone. I have given you second chance after second chance to redeem yourself. Enough is enough. If you can't follow the rules in SSCB Devastation from this point on, Spyed, I will re-ban you for more time. Take your 1-day ban like a man. If you continue whining about it/reverting to spamming our forums, or spamming other Devastation players or the zone chat, I will see to it that you are banned for alot longer than 1 day. END OF STORY. TOPIC LOCKED.

Yeah, I was 16 when I started playing Deva and I'll be 22 this year. Wow, how time flies..... --TM_Master OUT...

Hiya Space, welcome back! Haven't seen you in years, what you been upto? How did you learn that the zone was back up? --TM_Master OUT...

Yeah, no problem Deus. I couldn't believe I ran into you that one morning in EG and that you actually remembered who I was. Thank God you did or I would never have had gotten your email and/or been able to let you know about Deva. X..what the !@#$%^&*...how could you not remember him?!...Maybe he just didn't want to remember Obsidian's reign of terror. --TM_Master OUT...