Written by Pollyanna (<old contact>)Copyright1997
INTRODUCTION
Well… here it is. I bet alot of you weren’t expecting this much, but I was destined to do it. I’ve decided to start my own Newsletter. I just felt like this is something that really needs some time put into it, and the previous effort (while brilliant) lacked what the users really wanted. An informative/helpful piece of work that offered insight outside the playing field. And that’s what I’m trying to bring you…
I don’t mean any hard feelings towards Socks. I think he had a wonderful idea, but I’m just trying to take it one step further. I too am open to submissions for the PBNN, but I reserve the right to modify any portion of the article so this won’t be a clutter of mindless dribble 😛 I am also up for any help anyone might want to offer. I’m currently awake at 4:30 in the morning CST, and trying to get this ready for a tomorrow release. I don’t know how long I can do this for tho 😉
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The Paintball Network Newsletter!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Polly’s VT100 GuideVol. 1 [REPRINT]
- Strategy Against Grenades by Polly
Articles
VT100 Paintball Net
Written by Pollyanna
People frequently ask me, “Polly, how did you get so good so quick?”. And the following is a little explaination of what I call “Polly’s Secret”, also known as, VT100. From what I understand, PBN was originally created to be played in VT100. But thanks to the creative talents of Dave/Dug, they came up with the Paintball Terminals. However, take into concideration that I have never PLAYED nor SEEN PBTerm in action. So, as they say on PBN, “Game Start”.
I. How do I use VT100? This is probably the most asked question on PBN when VT100 is being discussed. And the answer is fairly simple: Any TERMINAL program that you would use to dial your ISP shoult support VT100 Emulation. Personally, I use (and will probably always use) QModem for DOS. You can get the same copy I use at http://www.mustang.com. There are other terminals that support VT100 (almost all of them do) and Dug has a few listed on his homepage as well.
Once you have gotten yourself a terminal program, these are the steps that I take to connect to PBN:
- Set the program up to dial your ISP – Once connected, drop to the UNIX prompt (or if you have a menu that supports Telnet use that) – At the UNIX prompt type: telnet shell.busprod.com 4444 – Then login with your name and password
Now this looks like a fairly simple task, HOWEVER, some ISP’s differ from others, and there may be additional steps you must take to ensure that the program will work correctly. It would be impossible for me to list all of these, but I maybe able to help anyone out individually if you mail me at: orange@inetnebr.com.
II. Why VT100? Oh gee, where should I begin 😛 I use VT100 because I am unable to use WIN95 because of my software restrictions. I have always been an avid mudplayer on the net and VT100 was always second nature to me. I first logged in with VT100, and I’ve used it ever since.
Here are so advantages VT100 has over the Term:
(NOTE: This is in NO WAY trying to switch people from the PBTerm to VT100, however, I know there is an intrest in it. This is purely INFORMATIONAL material)
A. Speed – Unlike PBTerm where you must click to move, movement is done with either a). The Arrow Keys or b). Using “n s e w” (I use this method because I am familiar with muds). The advantage of this is the speed and accuracy in wish you can move. A fast typist can easily dodge incoming paintballs with quick evasive moves. I have never been victim to the dreaded “My guy went crazy” disease. With accurate movement, your failure percentage is VERY LOW. And it’s very easy to buffer your movement for quick assaults. This will give you the “Fake Jetpack [Iceman ™]” effect.
B. Text – While most people concider this a disadvantage, I think this is one of the better things about VT100. I’ve never seen the graphics on PBTerm, but the text is very easy to distinguish. Your team and then enemy will always catch your eye when they are on the map. The Text vs. Graphics point will always be argued however, and it usually comes down to personal preference.
C. Refresh/Center – With a fast modem, you can quickly refresh and center your screen with no problems. I personally use the aliases ‘sc : screen center’ and ‘sf : screen refresh’. When you think about it… when you tell PBN to center your screen, it has to send the information to your computer, then you computer has to translate that information into graphics. In VT100, PBN tells the term exactly what to draw, and it’s completed much quicker.
III. What’s bad about VT100? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! 😛 Just kidding, trust me the VT100 users have their woes too. Here’s a list of things that you will have trouble in when playing with the VT100.
A. Screen Garbage – This is one I dislike the most. Screen Garbage is when the map is garbled by ANSI/VT100 codes when it’s being drawn. When this happens it can distort your view of the field, and sometimes in the most critical situations you can be “screwed”. Even though the refresh is quick, if you type in commands while it’s being performed, it can mess up your terminal even more. VT100 isn’t flawless, and this is probably it’s biggest downfall.
B. Targetting – Personally I find targetting to be quite easy if you can master the use of aliases. However, unlike the term, you can’t just point and click where you want to fire. This makes it difficult in major situations. Say for example, there is a player to the left of me, and a player to the right of me. With the term you can simply click to fire, and then move the mouse and click the other side. In VT100 however, you target is moved by typing “tar “. This only moves your target 1 space at a time, but with the following alias you can make this task easier:
alias t tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1
When you type “t ” it will send your target 5 spaces in the direction that you wish. Usually at the start of the war, I will send my target 10 spaces in the opposite direction of the closest wall. Meaning, if the boundry is to my WEST, I will target 10 east. The only other problem with this is shooting at an angle. This is a much harder task on the VT100, and quite frankly I’ve yet to completely master it.
C. AUTO READY! – Quite simple… VT100 doesn’t have an Auto Ready (can we please have one DavidRM/Dug???)
D. Limited Space – The terminal can be set up to use 80×50 mode, however this is very hard to play in. With the 80×25 mode you are restricted to a small map and usually a small chat box. I use a 14×45 map, a 5 line chat box, and about a 6 line info box. My biggest problem is when I splat people sometimes the scroll will make me miss who I just splatted! (That’s why I only make fun of you guys sometimes 😉
IV. Conclusion?
I don’t think there will ever be one. Remember this is just my opinion about the VT100 vs. PBTerm. Everyone will find their likes and dislikes about the thing. And because I’m such an avid VT100 lover (they don’t call me the VT100 Queen for nothing), I will help anyone out who needs assistance with getting it up and running, aliases, anything… just email me at the following address: <old contact>
Strategy Against Grenades
Written by Polly
*TIP1-2 Missing for some reason * -QtPie
TIP 3: CAN CAN CAN CAN…! Now that the can really does AutoFire, the can is the grenaders worst enemy. Similar to TIP 2, you simply need to pull the can from your suit (an alias will accomplish this) and target it one space away from yourself. If you can close in fast enough, you will score with a splat 90% of the time. Basically, if the grenader misses you, you will almost always kill him with the can counter attack. I’ve just recently begun to use this strategy, and many will tell you that the spray can is lethal in speedy hands.
TIP 4: Most grenaders have the decency to avoid hitting their own teammates. You can use this to your advantage even when you are 2 on 1. Simply enough, if you are close to 2 enemy players, it will lessen the chances for someone to throw a grenade. Be warned though, there are grenaders that don’t really give a damn either way… just as long as they get the splat 😛
TIP 5: Finally, if you can’t seem to get this down at all. Just buy a launcher and give them a taste of their own medicine… I personally haven’t tried this tactic, but I do know of people who have gotten other players to stop using grenades from being splatted by them so much!
That’s it for this issue’s strategy guide. Next issue I will focus on the use of terrain to your advantage.
Polly-Girl signing out…
PBN’s Teams
Introduction to Team Profiles
This section is going to be dedicated to the Teams of PBN. Each issue I will be writing a profile (with the help of team members) about a team on PBN. Since this is the first issue, we won’t have a profile on a team, but you can look for THE GOON SQUAD profile next issue 😛
Alot of people really take pride in their team, and this will give each team an opportunity to telly a little bit about the team and the members. Anything from why the team was formed, to the requirements to join the team. Since this is the first issue of the newsletter, there isn’t really any set form on this section. It will be open to the team to write their own profile on themselves. In the future I will try to have some sort of set form for teams to use, and then they are welcome to put any additional information in with their profile. So be ready! Your team’s turn may be next!
Player Profile
Introduction to Player Profiles
This is probably my favorite section of the Newsletter. The “Player Profile” is going to focus on a different play every week. It will work sort of like a game of tag. I will start the “Player Profile” with myself, then I will pass it on to 2 other people. I will supply the people with the form, and they must simply mail it to me completed. Then they will each tag a new player and the chain goes on and on. Hopefully this will let people know a little more about the players, both on and off the battlefield. So here is the first Player Profile, and it’s about a little girl named Pollyanna 😛
PBName : Polly (Pollyanna)
Team : THE GOON SQUAD
Age : 19
Job : Writing music for video games (and going to college)
Hobbies : Playing the PSX, Skateboarding, Writing Music, PBN!, Watching Horror Movies
Stats : (EVER) BONUS:1310500 SPLATS:1421 ACC:31%
(CURRENT) BONUS:186000 SPLATS:198 ACC:37%
Time Played : 1 Month
Achievements : Being the VT100 Queen 😛 Being the first female (I think) to reach 1000 splats
PB Pet Peaves : Grenades, Getting stuck in the water, NOT HAVING AUTOREADY!
Fav. PB Weapon : UHV w/ No-Bounce and Can
Favorite Bot : Stealth Bot
Fav. PB Player : Eightball
Famous Quotes : “Bog”, “WTF’s up with this lag?”, “Hi kids!”, “Bog”
Other : I first logged on to PBN and was pretty excited once I learned how to play. For about the first week or so I didn’t even know that there was a graphical term for PBN. I was pretty damned confused when people were talking about point and click! When I finally spoke up about it, my true PB skill shined, and people found out I was the Queen of VT100!
TAG! Eightball you’re it! TAG! Deadpool you’re it!
What’s New?!
Written by Pollyanna
This section is dedicated to changes being made to the game, or any updates that may have happened. There have been quite a few lately, but here is a list and explaination of the major changes in the game recently.
- GRENADES: For those of you still catching up on old news, the Grenades now have “Friendly Fire Mode”: ON. This means that you will splat teammates and you will splat yourself if they are used carelessly. (BTW, thank you for this change finally. I don’ know how many times I whined about this until something was actually done) At one point some of the grenades were not working, but I think they are all top notch now.
- NEW PBTerm BETA: The wacky team that created the whole PBN universe and it’s terminal program have been at it again. I’m not including the site to the beta here because I believe it’s changed a couple of times. Inquire on PBN about the up to date link to the BETA. I haven’t used it myself, but I hear it has a seperate window for notes, a seperate window for shops, and it turns your ready game on if you have auto-ready set. Those are just the changes I “heard” mentioned, like I said, Inquire on PBN.
- The Chop Shop: This one sort of came out of nowhere, and from the likes of it, it’s both popular and confusing. First off “help chop shop”, that will help you better understand what this shop is all about. But since you’re reading 😉 Here’s the basic premise: You can buy “accessories” for your guns, suits, jackets, boots, etc. You simply buy a kit (with the attribute you want) and then put it on the item/weapon (refer to the help files for the exact syntax of these commands). For example, if you have turbo boots, but you’re fed up with getting stuck in the water, all you must do is buy a swim kit, and now you can move through water faster (and you don’t have to switch to flippers… then back to boots, etc). See the Opinion’s articles for further info on The Chop Shop.
- New Levels: Dave/Dug have added some new levels. Looks like each level increases with $10 dollars. You can get his address by typing “help moregames” on PBN. I don’t think these levels have any sort of reflection on the game (besides the obvious weight/games/aliases advantage), I think it was put here because people where sending them too much money! But hey… THEY DESERVE IT!
- New Server: This is a new PBN server. It’s run by David Marlow, and I’ve experienced minimal lag on it. Be warned however that you must start from scratch… the machine is mostly dedicated to newbies who want to learn the game, and people with too much lag on busprod. Please visit the new site at the following address: users.southeast.net 4444.
That’s all the new and exciting stuff going on. Next issue I think I’ll do a little Cover Story and all the WWW Sites assocated with PBN. If anyone wants to send me info about their site just mail me.
PBN Players
Written by Pollyanna
This section is dedicated to the players of PBN. Every issue we will point out some of the more outstanding achievements including best player, best newbie, etc. This section is open to nominations, but I’ve taken the liberty to pick some players for the first issue:
BEST PLAYER: Presto A fellow worshipper of the VT100. When I first logged in, I heard stories of this legendary player named Presto. And about 2 weeks ago I was finally matched up against his pure skill and instinct to splat. But the thing that has really impressed me about Presto is his all around skills. He is known to use grenades, but during the time in which grenades were rendered useless, he strapped on his paintball gun and proved to everyone that he can shoot just as fast as he can grenade! Some of my best match-up’s have been against Presto, and I’m sure many more are to come. He’s also shown the supportiveness that players look for in a 90, and I say congrats to his return… and hope that it is long lasting.
BEST NEWBIE: Black Cat Black Cat has shown dedication and willingness to learn. To date he’s racked up about 150+ splats, and he keeps piling them on. I logged in one day and splatted this feline soul, but he’s hung on and roughed it through all of the PBN hurdles, now you better watch out, because this Black Cat may cross your path on the battlefield… mind you… it won’t be pretty.
BEST 90: DavidRM and Dug WAIT! Before you say, “Oh Polly’s just sucking up to the admin’s” I want you to read the following. The reason I’ve picked David and Dug is because of all the new changes they have given to us. They prove that they are enthusiastic about making a game for us to play. Their dedication really shows that they care about their creation, and they want players to be happy about the game. Remember, if it wasn’t for this duo, you wouldn’t be reading this right now, and we may have never crossed paths. A big THANK YOU goes out to David and Dug for their efforts… we’ll keep it up if you do 😉
WORST LAGGER: Deadpool He’s a great guy, but hands down he gets this award. Recently the lag has been getting a little better, and we hope that Deadpool will once again roam on the link that can’t slow him down.
This concludes the PBN Players section. Remember that I am open to submissions and I encourage people to speak up about other’s achievements.
Opinions
The Chop Shop
Written by Pollyanna
Well, well, well… what this little new creation you see when you now login? Some people call it The Chop Shop, but I like to call it, The Rich Man’s Mr. Potato Head… let me explain.
One night I logged in and was frolicking across the open plains with my UHV in hand. At the same time a few of our regulars we talking about different combinations, like Turbo Swim Boots (padded), and I thought to myself, laff what the hell are they thinking. Alas, I finally spoke up about this mindless dribble, and found out that it was true. What I once thought could never ever happen was standing right next to my favorite shop. As I scrolled through the listings I said to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding”. That’s when I turned my nutcase mode on. When Presto made the announcement that he had a refracto suit with infrared/interference/x-ray/swim/etc/etc, I dropped my jaw. Of course you all know me too well so you should know that my next action was to bitch and moan 😉 Presto and Ez didn’t seem to care too much about my little speech. But that’s when Dug came on.
Immediately I spoke words about my disapproval of this shop. I tried to explain why this could be potentially dangerous. I mean think about it… One thing that kept people from being unstoppable was the ability to carry only a certain amount of equipment. While The Chop Shop is a wonderful idea, it wasn’t given complete thought in the effects of this shop on the game. For Example:
- A shop like this is focused towards the rich. See most of our best players already have some pretty sharp equipment. And from playing so long, they’ve collected thousands of dollars. When you give our best players (with the best equipment) the chance to make their equipment even better, and to make their view even more accurate, you are just creating Newbie Killers.
- Newbie Killers are players that are SO unstoppable, it discourages the new players that come to PBN. I mean, you must understand a situation where a newbie has little knowledge about the game and they get killed 30 times in a row from a grenader they never EVER see. Granted a few newbies will make it past the rough times… but they start with nothing. They must build their equipment up just like we did. Now they are at an even greater disadvantage because no matter what they buy (and remember newbies don’t carry around $4000) the better players will always have something to counter it… AND with the new shop, the combinations are too lethal. And that my friends, is what the Newbie Killers are all about. Do we really want to risk the future of PBN just so we can have “cool” equipment. I mean sure everyone wants Turbo Swim Boots, but wasn’t it better when only some people use flippers and had to switch with their turbo boots… but now… Turbo Swim Boots are a common item, and it makes the playing field pretty worthless now… except, for the newbies who can’t afford, or defend these mods.
Now Dug did make a wonderful jesture by limiting the mods on each item to two, but I think even these limits need to be reconcidered. I think mods should be a stat just like everything else. 25/25 games, etc. I think the standard should be 1 Mod Total, a registered (level 2) should be 2 Mods Total, and anyone above should have 3 Mods Total. Now don’t immediately start throwing things and saying, “That would suck, blah, why should we have limits?” first take a look at your character. If you are saying this to me, then you are a person with good equipment, that is completely MAXED in mods, just to make yourself “unstoppable”. Then ask yourself… Is this really fair? By limiting the Mod Total it would give the player a chance to decide what they need to play best with, instead of just adding everything you can afford for the hell of it. Seriously guys, the mods have been fun, but we should concider this.
I know I’ll probably get alot of crap about this from a few people (you know who you are), so just please understand that this is my opinion, and you won’t hear anymore about it, unless someone wants to counter my article and send in a reason why we SHOULDN’T limit mods.
Conclusion
This concludes the first issue of PBNN! I hope you all enjoyed it. And be on the lookout for issue two… It may be coming faster than you think! 😉