ReK_

So, it's been quite a while since I've posted here, but I think I should say a few things about Dystopia, community developments, future releases and, to beat the dead horse one last time, the general community's view of TG.

I'll start off with that last one, because I do not want this to be the main focus of the thread, I just think something needs saying.
What happened with TwinCannon is in the past. TwinCannon is an excellent guy, I've known him for a long time and his work on Dystopia is incredible, as I'll mention more of later on. I don't think he'll be playing on TG anytime soon, but that is his decision. I personally agree that the admin who started this whole thing by kicking him was wrong to do so, but I also think that it went way too far and TC shouldn't have gotten so enraged over it, among other people. The general community has heard only TC's side of the story and many falsely believe that he was actually banned. Due to this, TG isn't very popular, but I wouldn't worry about it much at all. To be honest, your average forum-goer doesn't play all that much Dystopia, they're mostly just waiting for V1. I was glad, however, when I saw Chewy's thread on the state of your server, as, just as I don't fault one party over another for the fiasco, I hold them equally in regard for causing it. I came into this community from TGNS and if you, (we, as I intend to start playing Dystopia more in general and on TG specifically) can achieve the camaraderie and pure fun I remember from that server, I know that the Dystopia community will eventually forget what has happened, including TwinCannon himself.

Now, I'd like to move on from that and go into the meat of this post.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, there was a news update earlier today detailing one of the new maps we are currently working on for V1: linky. This map is the brainchild of the above-mentioned TwinCannon. I can say that, of the numerous maps we have been working on, this is probably the most exciting one. It really details the possibilities of cyberspace that were only touched upon in the current official maps. I am sure that this will become TG's new favourite map very quickly, as it requires a whole new level of co-operation between meatspace and your deckers.
And I would also keep your eyes out for a possible update 6 in the near future, as it looks like Durand is the next best thing to Valve finally getting its act together and giving us our SDK update.

Despite this exciting news, I'm sure many of you have noticed a steady decrease in player base and activity of those still around. We have too, but we aren't very worried by it. Remember that the curent release is simply a demo. It was originally intended to tide over the eager forum-goers until they were ready for full release. They never expected this kind of reaction to it. V1 is that full release, and it is just as much of a leap in progress as you would see from any commercial game demo to the full version, minus the cost
I, for one, and many others, are confident that we will bring back a large number of players, and countless new ones, when V1 is finally released. Until then, I am perfectly content to wait and work in the shadows.

On that note, I'd like to inform people of some of the community developments that have been going on. After our first official season ended, we made the decision to close up shop at the DGLeague until V1. I stand by this decision and believe that, despite the possible player-base loss it will, and has, caused, it was the right thing to do. Cyanyde, founder of the other Dystopia League and our new lead North American admin, is following suit with the STA. Both leagues are reforming during this lull and we will be ready for a bigger, better and louder season to be launched slightly staggered from the V1 release, to allow the players to adjust and get together some teams.
In the meantime however, some clans remain active and 'in training' for this launch. WW3 have survived the loss of their very generous financial backing from Dogg and jmh is now running things and, with the help of myself and some of the other unix-literate community members, slowly and seamlessly (to the public's eyes...) switching things over to his new server. HG is still around, waiting for their chance to prove that an undefeated season was not a fluke. gfh, one of the original clans, is filling its ranks and being reorgansied, largely thanks to the return of our beloved Cyanyde, who has brought back his dys_mappers server under a new name. DFC has garnered a few new members, including my partner in crime, urinal-cake, and I shall enjoy beating him up. This is just the North American scene, good things have been happening across the pond, headed up by our European admin Mole, as well.
And we may not have matches to play, but a number of teams scrim each other on a weekly basis as well as our Friday Night Dystopia program. You can find the details and discussion thread here, but, basically, we all meet on IRC every friday night (in all time zones) and play organised games. Thanks to Fuzzy's awesome pugbot, we are able to interface the servers directly to IRC and have the bot organise teams and hand out passwords. We currently have 3 servers hooked up: GameArena in Australia, DGLeague in the US and the Rx clan server in Spain. Come join us on friday, or simply idle #pugtopia, as many unannounced pugs are played throughout the week. The bot will nickbeep anyone idling in the channel when a pug is being formed.

And last, but definitely not least, is Mainframe. I get that tingly feeling when I think what this project will be like in its full glory. In short, we will be the ultimate community site, maintaining active links to the developers, the leagues, the public servers and the players themselves through numerous means, including an internet radio station, tutorials and learning programs, news and interviews, fan fiction and 3rd party maps and other modifications. We have been working away on the concepts for this and accumulated quite a large staff for all of our sections, but we have unfortunately halted the devlopment process. The codebase required for this project is daunting and, as lead coder, incredibly exciting and I am eager to sink my teeth into it, but I cannot do this without design concepts of the graphical nature. If anyone has some spare time and knows a thing or two about web design in the graphical sense (finally, a web design position not requiring knowledge of HTML ), please, feel free to contact myself or urinal-cake.

So, after writing this giant post and realising just how long it is, I think I will end off with a time-honoured saying: Good night, and good luck.

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So long and thanks for all the fish.

nulloperations

Thank you Rek_, we appreciate the post and the time you've taken to share it with us. It looks like alot of wonderful things are coming into Dys in the next few months and we all egarly await V1's release. The Screenshots and hype about TC's map do suggest a wonderful map, especially with promises of more MS/CS teamwork

*chuckles* I know what you mean about forum go'ers not playing too much. It's often easier to skim the forums while waiting for the game to come out when you don't have time to play. Hopefully this will change in the coming months as more and more interest for new maps, new gameplay, and new features start pouring out.

Looking forward to a (hopefully no later than) 4th quarter release.

ReK_

Note: If the site is slow, it's not just you. All the IRC bots and the main site, along with some ancilliary sites, are run from the same box and when we post news, we get traffic :/

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So long and thanks for all the fish.

TheFeniX

Hey Rek_, good to see you running around here again. Thanks for the info.

Barring the fact that I think urinal-cake would rather pass a kidney-stone than deal with TG (hehe), what kind of graphics were you needing? I can do a bit of photoshop as can other TGers. Throw out some specifics (either here or via PM) and I'll see if I can help.

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ReK_

Well, right now we need the overall design. Graphic artists will come later, as we don't know what we need them to do yet. By design I mean the content layout of the pages and overall colour scheme and feel of them.

And don't worry about urinal, he's as good friends with TwinCannon as I am and he got really caught up in it too, but on the other side. He isn't bigoted though, if you're willing to help us, he won't refuse on the fact that you're from TG. And if he tries to, I'll slap him around a little :P

If you're interested, we have some barebones forums up inhabited by our current staff for design discussion. http://www.dystopia-mainframe.com/forums
Stop by and post that you want to help and what you're good at doing/willing to learn.

You can also pop on the dgl vent, which has become the official dev vent and unofficial community meeting place and talk to any of us.
69.93.73.109:3503

It's good to be back fenix, I'm having flashbacks seeing all the old names.

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So long and thanks for all the fish.

Chewy

Thanks for the update Mr. Rek... much appreciated!

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