Editor: Pollyanna Copyright1997
INTRODUCTION: Yippie! Yet another Newsletter full of ramblings and fun stuff about our favorite game PAINTBALL NET! This issue goes out to the newbies of PBN. Believe me you are the people that keep it running. Sabot’s written a wonderful article about newbies and I add to the topic with my own thoughts. Hopefully the different items discussed in this issue will change the way people look at some things… however, it’s mostly opinion.
I also want to take a second to discuss the way people have been treating me on PBN. No I’m not going to use this as a way for people to stick up for me or make personal attacks. I just want to set some things straight.
1. I don’t do this Newsletter for personal gain – I was accused of using PBNN and other projects for personal gain and this is completely false. I do the Newsletter so people can be informed about PBN. It’s also gotten quite a bit of coverage… Many people have mailed me and asked about PBN just cause they came across the Newsletter. I think PBN is great and I just want to make it a little bit better. I wish that people would stop to think about how much time and effort I actually put into coordinating this and other projects I have going on PBN.
2. The Yearbook is going to be on hold for awhile. There were some people who were asking about possibly hosting the Yearbook on a different site (if anyone has anything availible mail me). I am putting the Yearbook aside because I am trying to concentrate on the Paintball Net Soundtrack. As some of you might already know David is in the process of adding music to the term. I am composing all the music and we’re putting in alot of work to get this done. Hopefully we will have some sample songs availible for download soon.
3. For people who think I play PBN for only SPLATS, you need to open your eyes. It’s pretty obvious to me that I enjoy the people, the chat, the game, every aspect of it. Quite frankly I’m sick of the personal attacks against me… if you have a problem with me why don’t you just send me some email.
One last note. I have been working my butt of trying to finish up all the music for PBN. You will notice that this Newsletter is lacking in some areas, and that’s because I’ve been pressed on time. The next newsletter will be right on track however because I should be done with the music (at least the hard part) and we have several people submitting. I thank everyone who has offered me help… believe me I need it.
Ok now that everything is out in the open… Let the Newsletter begin!
PBN’s Girl… Polly-Girl
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Articles
- The Importance of Newbies by Sabot
- Newbie Niceness Needed by Polly
- VT100 Guide – Part III by Polly
B. PBN’s Teams
C. Player Profile
D. What’s New
E. PBN Players
F. Opinions
- PBN Soundtrack by Polly
G. Conclusion
Articles
1. The Importance of Newbies
By Sabot, Newbie helper extraordinaire.
Hey there Newbie, type c to chat with us ——> c How the hell do I play this??
You’ve all seen my wonderful alias collection directed towards newbies. All 8 aliases that I have for newbies are probably burned into all of your heads by now…
Newbies are the key to the future of PBTerm, just like in any other game. With the expansion of PBTerm via the two (kinda) new servers, theres all sorts of room for new players to join in on our happy little home.
I feel that not enough is done to urge a first timer to come back and play. After all, theres not much fun in getting wasted in the first 5 seconds of a game by someone you couldn’t have seen even if he was 5 spaces away, armed only with a shooter no less. Barely even able to talk, the typical newbie lasts about 3 games in my experience. Then jets, never to be seen again. Only about 1 in 10 finds something about the game that latches into their head and makes em come back. This needs to change.
So we need to start doing something. We all need to do our fare share of helping a newbie adjust to the fact that they’re gonna get splatted, a lot, when they first blaze onto the PBTerm scene. Whether we like it or not, this game is equipment based, not skill based. He with the best equipment is the one left standing at the end of the splatfest. Newbies don’t stand a chance.
Newbies have a lot of questions. Most of them seem pretty stupid to us right? Well, think back…”How do I get something from my backpack??” That was you and me a couple months back. We had no clue, just like a fresh newbie. So we need to be patient. We need to realize that someone was there to help us so now its time for us to return the favor.
My very first game 5 months ago, Broke It and Ghost Face Killah were the only ones here. Within three minutes I was registered, had a big paintball gun and a jacket, had a basic knowledge of the commands and I was ready to get my dumb ass splatted all to hell. Thats what needs to happen now. BI was and still is my mentor. Its because of him and his attitude that has made me want to be just as helpful. Hence I have 9 aliases just for answering the basic questions newbies have.
I guess thats also why I get kinda mad when I see that a newbie is here and there hasn’t been one word said to him. I want this game to make the big time. I want to see it grow from the 30 player base it was when I started to a zillion players on a zillion servers all over the planet!!
Some people think that only 90’s have to help newbies. Thats bullshit in my opinion. Yes, that is a main function of the lev90 but it doesn’t mean the newest level2 isnt just as responsible. Its everyone’s responsibility to help a newbie fit in with the process. If they have a question, answer it. No matter how stupid it may sound. Some of us veterans ask questions that are just as stupid.
Some people say “Why don’t you use the ‘tell’ command Sabot! Quit spamming my screen!!”. Well tough shit. As long as I feel that people don’t help out enough around here it’ll be as chatted as ever. Because not only does it serve as an informational guide to the recipient, it serves as a reminder to you all to quit being lazy and answer some questions!
Sabot out..
2. Newbie Niceness Needed
By Pollyanna
Let me tell you a little story. I used to be involved with a great mud about a year ago. The mud had wonderful ideas and I really liked the players that resided there. But the mud vanished… it literally crumbled to nothing. And the reason for it’s extinction was the lack of players that the game was taking in. I watched a wonderful game turn into a graveyard of text. All because no one cared about the newbies.
Time to open up your eyes people. Newbies are the future. We need to get into gear and start supporting the newbies that are coming in. You might have noticed that PBN has had several new players join the club lately. Well thanks to Sabot, and some other people, PBN is slowly starting to get more and more coverage. I even got some email from an individual who happened to find the Newsletter on a web search. She told me that her son was interested in Paintball and she wanted to get the game for him. I helped her out and directed her towards DavidRM’s page. We can’t let the help STOP.
Think about it. We are the role models for these new players. They are going to take on the habits of the “older” PBN players. We need to show them that we help newbies and are always willing to help newbies. It’s great that people help out the newbies when they first log in, but this is only usually 2 or 3 people. EVERYONE needs to make an effort to make the newbies feel right at home. Even though one of the ‘so called’ duties of the 90 is to help newbies, but we need to stop using this as an excuse and help them ourselves.
When you see a newbie, put yourself in their shoes. Starting out with nothing… can’t really understand what’s going on… I would almost say that PBN is quite overwhelming for the newbie. I remember when I logged in, I didn’t get hardly any help at all. I read the tutorial and help file and I figured it out. Not every newbie is going to make this same effort. Many of our players aren’t familiar with the online gaming format. You must ASSUME that the NEWBIE KNOWS NOTHING and help them from that point. You will get the occasional newbie that’s got at least an idea on what they are supposed to do, but you’d be amazed at how many people are clueless when they first log in.
My suggestion is that we try our own little “big brother” sponsoring system. I think it would be nice if a newbie could have a name and email address of a PBN Big Brother so they could ask questions or request help. This would require some effort on everyone’s part, but it would pay off in the end. Just think if PBN picked up 2 newbies every day for a month. That’s 60 NEW players! Think about how more enjoyable PBN would be if you were up against 20 people instead of 5. Think about how intense survival games would be. Newbie’s build PBN, most of us have hung our newbie hats, but we need to think about those who are still wearing them.
Polly-Girl signing out…<click>
3. VT100 Guide – Part III
Written by Pollyanna
This guide is gonna be a bit shorter than the rest. It’s going to focus on the use of aliases to make your targetting faster. With the ability to use an alias within an alias you can make your task much easier. This is more of an update rather than a whole new guide, but I thought the information might help some of you.
1. NORMAL TARGETTING ALIAS
– alias t tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1\&tar %1
– alias tt t %1\&t %1
These are two alias I now use. I used to use the 5 step targetting alias which required me to hit “t <dir>” everytime I wanted to move my target 5 spaces. This new set of aliases will move your target 10 spaces at a time with only 3 key strokes. It will speed up your targetting like crazy. I know VT100 users hate it when they get splatted while they are trying to target, but if you use these aliases it will eliminiate typo’s and make more safe for you. My experience leads me to believe that 10 spaces is the ideal targetting distance.
2. REVERSE DIRECTION ALIAS
– alias rr tar h\&t %1\&t %1
THIS IS A MUST!!! How does this help you? Well I call it the reverse direction alias and that’s exactly what it does. Let’s say you are in a game and you are shooting people to the EAST, but you notice a few enemies are taking positions to your WEST. With old aliases, you would have to return the target to your home position and then target the right direction. If you use this alias however, it will do it for you. All you need to type is “rr <dir>”. It will move the target 10 spaces in the direction you wish. So if in the above situation, you would quickly type “rr w” to make your target switch sides. This alias takes a little while to get used to, but trust me it helps out tremendously (especially in invaders when you are always surrounded)!
These aliases will help you out in big ways even though they may seem like small differences. You will notice your speed increase by using these aliases. It helps to eliminate mistakes which was probably my #1 cause of death. I recommend you search through you alias bank to see if you can make your aliases better with the new system Dug has implemented.
Polly-Girl signing out…<click>
PBN’s Teams
Finally after stalling for so long, our first team profile is here! Of course since no one else offered to put a profile up for their team, Team 420 has taken the liberty of doing our own. Like the Player Profile, we will tag a team and then it’s their responsiblity to have someone fill out the team profile. Should be fun… should be easy… and most importantly, it’s your team’s chance to talk about what they stand for.
TEAM: Team 420
LEADER: Technically Pollyanna is the leader, however everyone is equal on our team.
NO. OF MEMBERS: 3
MEMBERS LIST: Pollyanna Iceman Reffoxel
REQUIREMENTS: You are ASKED to be in Team 420
WHO WE ARE: Let’s just say… Team 420 loves their bongs! 😉 But that’s not all we stand for. We are a team that proves we can be the best under any situation. We take pride in being a 3 person team who is currently one of the top teams on PBN. I’m there for my guys, and my guys are there for me. Unlike some teams who have several players, our team will remain small. We have grown close to each other, and it’s going to be hard for us to add new members to the club. Team 420 was created one day when Ice had left the Cows, and I decided that I was seeking more in a team. I always knew when I logged in I would be on Iceman’s team one day. And so Team 420 was created. I was originally the only member on it, but Ice wanted to be by my side and start fresh. Later that week, I was telling Iceman that I wanted Reffoxel on the team, and I was going to ask him to join. However, when I logged in the next day I noticed that Reffoxel had joined the crew. Iceman took the initiative and got Reffoxel at my request. Since that time, we’ve been the first 3 person team to scare the crap out of people. We dominate the field when all 3 of us are logged in… and we have the ego’s to prove it 😉 As for the 420… it’s a little secret you’ll have to figure out for yourself. Just ask your favorite pot smoker what 420 means… they’ll tell you 😉
ACHIEVEMENTS: Being one of the top teams and only having THREE people. I’m gonna have to slam JaZzer and say… The it’s quality… not quanity that counts. Even thought the SeaCow’s are number one on the top team ever, we know deep down inside that the 3 member Team 420 is the best. We are the close knit gangsters of PBN. Don’t disrespect!
OUR GOALS: To remain on the top of the charts. And to continue to hassle people with our 420 sayings!
MESSAGE TO THE TEAM: You guys are the best. I don’t think Team 420 would be the same if it was anyone else. Ice, Reff… I just want to give you a big hug *BIGHUG* and say I’ll always be there for you guys… even if it IS 4:20!
Player Profile
This issue we look at Jazzer and Presto. I’ve really been happy with the effort that people have been putting towards the profiles. I’ve decided that we are going to have THREE profiles starting next issue. I will go ahead and mail out the 3rd form to a random player. Thanks for participating!
PBName: JaZzer
Real Name: Christopher
Age: 17
Job: Jr. High School Hobbies: Playing PBN and other games. Reading( an aquired one, hehe). Being with friends and playing the guitar(which I stink at).
Team: Team leader( used to be co-leader) of SeaCows (the really odd but really good) =).
Stats: Ever: 3,710,500, Splats: 4516, accu: 37%
Time Played: Not sure but for a few months I think.
Achievements: Ummm being the most annoying pbn player ever =)
PB Pet Peaves: People who think it fun to be as immature as possible (AKA-Jr. High boys locker room humor).
Fav. PB Weapon: UHV
Fav. Bot: Dumb…that name is an oxymoron for they always gets me =(
Fav. PB Player: Mo, he gave me the game and is one of my best friends in reality.
Famous Quotes: mmmoooooooooo ( along with Iceman), umm thats all I can think of…
Other: I would like to thank all of you who modify your behavior out of kindness to me since I have different standards( am a Christian), and for you who dont that is your right also =). If anyone has any questions about my beliefs feel free to ask. Now for a special thank you to some of the players: Deadpool for helping me as a newbie and giving me both advice and $$ =). Davidrm for being the “cool” guy that he is( fun to mess around with). Eightball for just being..well EIGHTBALL! =). Iceman is just plain funky. DD is “cool” too. Broke it has to be one of the classiest players on. Reffoxel is so darn polite =). Stammel is a great player and person. Ez has a really neat car =). Polly invests a lot of her time in pbn making it more fun for “us guys”. Sabot is just plain cool…Dont know presto. Lance is a lot of fun. Uncivil helps newbies a bunch. KEL and the rest of the Euros are nice( although I dont see them much, including Dart).GFK and others are fun to play against.And Dug, the maker. And of course my fellow cows: Bob Nova, Stephen, Randy Gilbertson, Wood, Screech, BILLY, Johnny Hileman, and Morgis. If I forgot anyone then I sincerely apoligize..see you guys on the field! =)
Tag Mo!
PBName: Presto
Real Name: John M Till
Age: 21
Job: Student, Purdue University (Senior Computer Science Major) McDonald’s Employee
Hobbies: Playing Paintball (duh!) Programmer for Mortal Realms Mud (This is what Dug did before writing paintball, which is why I’ve known him for 3 years.) Collecting Star Wars Stuff
Team: Team leader of SpLaT (The swift, the elite, the victorious.)
Stats: Ever: 7036000 Bonus, 10101 Splats, 77% Accuracy
Time Played: Since play-testing stages (before bots were invented!) Which is slightly over a year now.
Achievements: Most splats/bonus/accuracy ever by a player not using PBTerm. 2/11/97-2/12/97: 1005 splats in less than 48hrs (80 games).
PB Pet Peaves: I only use 2 lines of chat (vt100) and I often miss what was said. I also dislike when people find good equipment on the ground and decide to keep it. (Hey! It belongs to someone.) Plus, lag during daylight hours is pretty horrendous.
Fav. PB Weapon: I don’t have one favorite. This is my arsenal: UHV, 75 rnds. Mid-range grenade launcher, 8 big grenades. 4 Small proximity mines. And a can of spray paint.
Fav. Bot: Stealth. It’s determination and speed are admirable.
Fav. PB Player: Stammel. Also a user of the vt100 interface. Him and I used to, and still, team up and play invaders. (“He’s quite good.”)
Famous Quotes: I don’t really have one. Though when people ask me to reset them, I usually do it immediately, and they don’t notice. About 2 minutes later they ask again, and I reply “nope”, and then I just chuckle while they try to figure out why I said that.
Other: I think this newsletter is great. Keep it up Polly! Some of you are probably curious as to what equipment I have, so, here it is:
HEAD -Pair of x-ray glasses. NECK -Bot locator w/ [player locator] [satellite locator]. R/L SLDR-Large backpack w/ [expansion] [expansion] carrying: Padded helmet w/ [infrared viewer], 4 small proximity mines, Mid-range grenade launcher w/ [expansion] [expansion] carrying: 8 big paint grenades. BODY -Down-filled woodland jacket w/ [refracto] [interference] [insulation]. LEGS -Padded leggings w/ [expansion] [expansion] carrying: Can of spray paint, Ultra high-velocity gun carrying: 75 ultra high-velocity paintballs. FEET -Padded boots w/ [swim] [turbo] carrying: All my tokens.
Yo, Stammel. SpLaT! You’re it, dude.
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.
– Command: who <name/#/team> You can now use the who command to view a certain player (who <name>), anyone of a certain level (who <leve>), or who’s on from a certain team (who <teamname>).
– Alias Nesting: You can now put an alias INSIDE an alias. WOW! Thank you Dug for making this possible. It opens up a whole new world for VT100 users, please refer to the VT100 Guide in this issue for more information.
– Autofire no longer shoots at people on your team.
– Stat: ‘stat’ now shows the number of games you have played. Maybe we can convince Dug that we need a Game/Splat ratio added too. It would be awesome to have ‘top ever ratio’.
– Shots have a chance of going through the trees now.
– You can no longer shoot paintballs in mid-air.
– Life after Death: You can no longer shoot bots after you have been killed. Thank you to all the players that reported this. Everyone was wondering why more invaders games were being won!
– PBTerm 1.50: For those of you who haven’t played for awhile… check it out!
[Taken from some email from DavidRM] PBTerm v1.50 is now available from my web page. URL: http://www.busprod.com/davidrm/software/download/PBTerm150.zip
New Features includes: * Fixed Auto-Ready bug * Clicking on your player icon now centers the map display * New, improved note reading interface (press Ctrl-N) * Added buying screen (press Ctrl-Y when your in a store) * Added online help reader (press F2) * Added alias editor (press Ctrl-E) * Added scroll locking (press Ctrl-K) * Changed movement plotting to a more intuitive “straight line” * Added support for dial-up shell accounts * Added sound effects (can be turned off and on) * Added Use True Movement option (allows moving and firing) (press Ctrl-D) * Movement, True and otherwise, much less prone to “berserking” than before
NOTE: You do not have to uninstall the previous version. Simply install v1. 50 on top of your current installation. [END QUOTE]
– TWO NEW SERVERS: Please check out the other servers at the following locations:
* users.southeast.edu 4444
* bundy.hibo.no 4444
These servers were put up for people who have terrible lag to busprod, and also to give the game a little more coverage. Hopefully the Norway server will prove that European’s can splat just as good as US’ians (when they have a good link 😉 Everyone involved is doing their share to make this happen, so let’s support them.
– Skyhooks: A recent announcement by DavidRM stated that Skyhooks will no longer be availible. This announcement just made Skyhooks priceless. So for further reference, the only way to get them is to buy them.
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.
BEST NEWBIE: (TIE) Zipporah, Cowbot, Angie I really tried to make a decision here, but all three are EXTREMELY good newbies. Zipporah has forced many paintballs down my throat since he’s started, Cowbot seems to be making a place for himself too, and Angie was even admitted on the SeaCows. Just a warning to everyone… stay out of their way! When Cowbot first logged in I thought someone was making fun of Sabot… little did I know that the little bugger would be introducing me to Mr. Paintball after his learning period ended.
MOST PISSED AT THE WORLD FOR EVERYTHING: Death Boy & the Reapers No disrespect here… but Death Boy definately takes the cake on this one. I know it’s hard to take a leave and come back, but Death Boy woke up the Reapers and now they’re backe… and pissed at the world for everything.
BEST PLAYER: (TIE) Presto, Deadpool, Pollyanna Presto and Deadpool both reached 10k and they deserve this award, however I must include myself for my recent achievements. 1200 Splats in one day. Of course this doesn’t amount to the time and effort put towards 10k! Way to go guys!
BEST 90: Uncivil Many people questioned Uncivil’s 90 status. But this is an obvious case of stat’s don’t mean anything. Uncivil is probably one of the most helpful 90’s on PBN. Uncivil DEFINATELY deserves to be a 90, and we’re happy that DavidRM saw what Uncivil was really capable of.
BEST COUPLE: Gary and Kiki (sorry I couldn’t resist… please forgive me HA!)
MOST ANNOYING: Gary The guy we all thought had been sucked into a black hole… is back. Probably 20 games into his return, he started laying mines at the start of invaders. Congrats, you not only pissed off everyone, but you did it 3 or 4 times after you were told to stop. Take pride in this award… it’s only handed out to the BEST morons!
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
PBN Soundtrack
Written by Pollyanna
As some of you might already know, background music for the PBTerm is currently under development. I’ve been chatting with different people to get some input on what the players want. Let me just put all the cards on the table… The sound track is TECHNO. Quite a few people have expressed disliking towards this type of music. I’ve let a few people listen to some of the tracks, and overall the response has been wonderful (even DavidRM like them! heh). We’re doing our best to try to add music that everyone is going to get into. I feel like a fast paced game needs fast paced music. I know I’m a techno bunny but this music fits with the game.
However, I’d really like to get some suggestions on what people want to hear, so I’m going to make the first “offical” PBN track availible to the public. It’s the track that is going to be used for the invaders song. Please if you decided to download the song, send me your opinions via email. I’m doing this more for myself than anything just because “I aim to please”. Oh and before you go asking to put in a country soundtrack… DavidRM says (and I quote) “No… I want techno”.
<old link>
Find the link to THE INVADERS THEME, and follow the instructions from there. This will only be availible for a short amount of time, so if you want it get it fast.
Thanks… Pollyanna
Conclusion
Well I hope everyone is satisfied with the BIG NUMBER 3! I love to write this stuff, I just hope that you guys like to read it!