March Lan #4 06/07 - LAN Feedback Thread

[Strings]

Will update this post later for myself, but please leave us some feedback on what you enjoyed, what you didn't enjoy and what you think could be improved.

Ta.

[Tiberio]

There really isn't anything bad to say about this lan, I definetely think this is the best so far.
Posivite things I can think of at the top of my head:

-Great organisation, even though the supposed schedule wasn't really followed (come on, bf2 all the way!), everyone joined the big games and made them really fun.
-Great use of the projector once again, watching those game trailers were brilliant, perhaps something we could use again for april, like have trailers playing for games/movies/other things (thinking big screen South Park here!:-P)
-Everyone ready to help eachother, thanks to both Jan and Pixie for helping me out with Ventrilo.
-Console usage kept to a minimum but still avaliable to those wanting a break.
-Was really nice that gaming finished before midnight on saturday, I could actually get up in the morning:-P
-Graeme/kustompc's was good to have as the more obscure drinks could be purchased (still don't know what Jolt Cola is :-P)
-Arma was really fun, even though we were only a few ppl (BAIL!!)

Only real negative thing I can find was the price draw, nothing against the really good players among us but it isn't really great for someone to run off will all the prizes, maybe i'm just jealous.
But definetely keep up the structure for the next lan, this one worked great and I had soo much fun, thanks to the guy who gave me a lift home, I never got your name though:-(
Promise I will practice Arma for the next lan so I will actually hit people with a gun, just like my new hero Octavion;-)

[GingerPrinz]

I echo that badness was in short supply at this LAN.

Pros

- Tourneys were top notch, I participated in far more on Saturday than I thought I would and had a great time while doing so
- The mic was used sparingly and maturely
- Help from nearby folk was awesome, and I'm indebted to Cannon_Fodda for letting me use his Steam, and Sid and Gor for showing me how to install Steam
- WoW play was 300% more praised (Greasel, Pit, Raymond) than it was reviled (Jan)
- Servers were really well run and nicely stable


CONS

- The use of YouTube drove me absolutely mental. I think it's generally bad form to EVER not use headphones to listen to something while at a LAN, no matter how many people you're showing it to
- Aztec is maybe not the best map for a 3 on 3 CS tourney, as AWPs rule way too much
- Jolt Cola costs more than a pint, yet people still drank Jolt Cola

Big ups to Gor for the lift, Greasel for the BF2 lesson, Sid for being a great commander with top chat, DAve, Uuuuuuurah and Caveman for a most fun CS:S experience (Aztec excepted =/, shotguns ftw), Pixie for the HGL trailer, Ru for the bigup and DoW molestation.

See y'all soon

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Despite everything, i actually had some fun at the LAN (for the short time i was there). Was particularly awe-inspiring to watch over ming and acc85's shoulders as they played a Starcraft friendly.

Big thanks the Jan for trying, gonna start on Plan B this week i think and hopefuly will have a working computer at the next LAN.

The standard of organisation seems to be increasing substantially with each successive event, so congratulations to everyone who was involved in that.

[TK-Maximus]

Pros:

BF2: For all that we got humped, pre-set teams is certainly the way forward. I got the impression that I was on a team being beaten by a better team, rather than being on the side that all the good players didn't join. More of this please!

CS:S: Tournament worked well, and will work better as more teams get involved. A notable lack of casual games going on though, which seemed odd.

DoW: I thought that went well, but then I would.

Cons:

Sunday: Sorry, but it has to be said, Sunday was a complete blow out. Nothing that was scheduled to started on time, when things started late they ran on into other slots, and the second half never happened at all. If it looks that way again, I'll be considering just knocking Sunday on the head in future.

Chatter: At times, it seemed like 3/4 of the lan was there to lan, and the other 1/4 were there to play videos on a speaker and heckle. At one point I heard Neill being shouted at for being crap (Or something) for not droping his game to look at something that was on someone's screen. WTF? If you're not interested in a game, don't play it, but don't try and distract those who are.#

Pit (A little narked in general today)

[Sideshow]

I enjoyed this lan far more than the last one. The CS tournament was actually fairly enjoyable, and I really enjoyed the DoW, which I didn't think I was going to. The 1v1 format works a lot better than 2v2, simply because you have more games per round which means a more even distribution of skill level. I think that, while I have no doubt that it was player skill that determined the outcome of almost every game, Necron and Tau do currently outclass every other race. Perhaps not at the skill level we play at, and while Tau are simply very powerful, fighting the Necron requires playing in a totally different style from the one you would normally use, and they are totally unforgiving to an enemy who slips up. I think it's this alieness which is the key difficulty in beating them.
The patch should be out before the next lan, which should hopefully address any balance problems. If it doesn't appear in time, it may be an idea to enforce a "No Necron or Tau" rule. That feels like a cop out to me, and I'd rather not go in that direction: it shapes prejudice which holds for a long time. There are people who still think Eldar are the most powerful out of the pre-DC races, which hasn't been true since pre-WA. A similar grudge was held against IG, which held even up to 1.51 (where IG were appalling) and has only been broken by DCs insane nerfing. You can be sure that even if Tau and Necron both get hit so hard with the nerf stick that they become weaker than the other races there will still be people who view them as broken and playing them akin to cheating.
So, in short: banning Necron and Tau is a possibility to think about, but I'd vote against it.

I think the starcraft tournament went well, everyone seemed to have a good time (please post back any comments in the Starcraft thread (http://www.pausegaming.com/forum/showthread.php?t=977)). Numbers were small despite the large number of people who said they'd play but then didn't (you know who you are!) (http://www.pausegaming.com/forum/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=37), but the skill level was fairly balanced, and the fights made good watching.
The format was a little ropey, as it was it's first outing. 30 min rounds are a constraint we basically just have to live with, created by the nature of the lan schedule. The draw-on-timeout was a little harsh in some cases, and will likely be different next time (it will probably be draw-on-timeout, but with a judge per game who may veto that and award a win to a player he feels has the game in hand). Stepping up the speed setting is also a possibility, as is allowing the final round to extend beyond time at the judges discretion, though this depends on scheduling pre-lunch again.
On the whole, everyone played better than I thought they were going to, and I think with a swiss format we could probably just let everyone play next time. Something to think about. Maybe everyone except Ming :).

What else? BF2 was... well, ignoring the fact I don't enjoy BF2 any more (since BF2142>>>BF2), it was actually pretty good fun. The teams need a little balance redress - I think assuming mogwai and greasel were equivalents may have been an error, and [GST] Cheesey (?) was a bit of a shock.

The lan felt lacking in free time to play random stuff, but I think that was more because of late starts knocking on through the day, delaying everything. Enforcing start times before everyone turns up may be a little harsh, I'm not sure. If you have enough players to play, it might be necessary.

Overall, good LAN. (even if some noob lucked all the prizes)

[YegaDoyai]

OK so compared to my last LAN this was just worlds better. Having your machine die is no fun and I think the committee need to focus on having an established protocol for dealing with folk that miss out through hardware failure. It is no surprise to me that the guy who came to the last lan with a busted computer did not come back.

Anyhoo, i think that the CSS, BF2 tourneys were great, DoW sucked becuase I'm a muppet that forgot to install the damn game. I didn't find it very surprising to see that Tau/Necron held the top three slots. LFS endurance was a joke and there will be penalties handed out, after the exemplary performance in the previous round I was hoping for more. Once again, Strings and Octavion commentary was amusing and inaccurate (you guys really can't read a race) but fun to watch - after the painful lap 1. Not so bothered about free time to play other games, I saw D2 up for a while and I know that supreme commander was attempted a couple of times. But once again the late starts continue to hurt the lan.

Having the Kustom PC guys here was great, I think Ches kept them entertained (or vice versa) the entire LAN, shame they didn't join in more becuase when they did they did themselves proud. (one of the cleaner racers in LFS on his first attempt, take note Sid). Can i preorder a case of that monster energy drink?

Cheers all for making the last lan one of the best we've had.

[Fil2eFly]

this lan was one of the best i recon,,

let me see,,,

LFS!! : i seem to enjoy this more and more each time, i could moan about the large amount of contact ,,, but hey its all in the fun of the event lol makes it more intresting.. the overall standard of driveing seems to be getting very good and it would seem the the compatition it getting much greater the next few races should be very interesting

BF2 : i dont rly play bf2 anymore but i did enjoy the games alot, GJ to to every 1 in string's squad ,,,, BUT the games was run way to late on sunday had a uber nock on efect

CSS/DOW : i dident take part in these events so i wont comment,, i get pwnt at them and im a bad looser :P

dinner time : yay food!!1

ARMA : first few games were shit, as people just fucked around, the last few games were good fun be good next time to have a few diffrent missions (il maybe help euan and make a few up). be good also to have every 1 have there games up and running b4 the games and a few more players too :)..i promice il practice my flying nxt time

UT2004 : only had a few little games but they were good fun!

sourceforts: no sourceforts :(!!1111 me want source forts!!1111

Starcraft: i was going to play this but arma was on at the same time

CONS: most people turned up late on sunday was quite shit as all the games were run late,
the prizegiving was to late as a result i dident get back to like 2am prity shit tbh
i recon there should be a bit more UT and the like
there was no sourceforts :(
some games i wanted to play chashed

PROS: satarday was well organised and ontime, nice to see a few new faces
and a good turn out, generaly a very good weekend!

.........
few more random things

glad myself and euan turned up to the setting up was actualy good fun got some games in later on the friday night too :)

btw Tiberio it was me who game u a lift home, was rather intresting, 4 people and all there stuf in my car,, wish i got a pic!

Oh and for the benefit for strings who thought preston was in scotland..
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5499/mapnu0.jpg
i go to uni in preston and travel 180miles to each of the lans

[Uuurrahh]

y hallo thar, waarrgrargh.

Overall the LAN was fun, although I agree with TK on the Sunday thing. I'll go through the stuff that I did.

BF2 - The organised games were fun. First one was excellent and I actually did well :O I think it was a mixture between greasel, me spamming inf Karkand when I played BF2 & actually playing well [I was [GST]-MrCheese]. Please don't use me as team balancing as generally I play shit, as seen by the second map.

LFS - As ever was fun to watch, however the "racer getting fucked at start of race by a n00b and then unable to get the position they otherwise would have" is getting old. Thanatos was especially entertaining in the qualifying :D

CSS - Enjoyed what I played, despite Team N00b not being on vent :P It's always nice [cough] to get a good CSS raping. I was disappointed at the lack of funmaps, as I'm actually quite good at them.

ArmA - Props to sid & mogwai for giving it a go. The numbers weren't too good so it wasn't as fun as it could've been. I got the feeling you didn't like the game/didn't know wtf was happening which was unfortunate. Give it another bash at some point.

For those who did stick around and got their hobnob [Firefly, Dave, Octavian & Hobbit] I think we all had great fun & the games were really good despite our pilot who seemed to think he was a lemming with his fanatical love of plummeting to the ground :P "BAAILLLL AHHHRCCGGHH" Would have been much better with more people, which brings me onto:

Starcraft - Fairly disappointed I couldn't play but the scheduling was pants. As I've said somewhere else, I think all the people who ended up playing ArmA would have played SC. No more double scheduling in future x.x

Sourceforts - where was sourceforts?!?!?!

teh secks - I enjoyed myself, was a good LAN with some solid gaming

teh buttsecks - Sunday was running about an hour or so late. LFS finished ever so slightly late, which is fine but then we spent about an hour pissing around in BF2. Am I mistaken or were some people playing Dawn Of War when they were supposed to be in the BF2 game and that's what held the start up...? Fair enough if things run late naturally, but don't sit on your arse and fuck up the timetable when it's not necessary. Sourceforts game > BF2 piss about & DoW.

For the benefit of Lemming:

http://waffleimages.inorpo.com/files/21/21f78db7724e3339603a9f42d8da2ce2cfb49ee6.jpg

[Fil2eFly]

For the benefit of Lemming:

http://waffleimages.inorpo.com/files/21/21f78db7724e3339603a9f42d8da2ce2cfb49ee6.jpg

for your information i died im my cockpit!!!! not eject as in your picture!!!!111

[Thanatos]

Hi,

Yeh the lan was really good fun, if ending up very expensive for me!

Good:

BF2: good to have structured games but some more random fights possibly would hav been good.

CSS: First Pause LAN and I made it to the final! mainly as i was drafted in last minute but hey. Yeh some more casuals would hav bin good.

LFS: LOL!! first time iv tried it and by the state of my car after the qualifying it should be my last. Think its still in the pit now....

UT2004: Should have been some more games of this. What about competition of something?? team DM?? or CTF?? ONS??

DoW: didnt play
ARMA: didnt play, looked pretty fun though
Starcraft: didnt play

Bad:

My crap PSU that died

Worse:

Having to buy a quite expensive, even shitter PSU that can barely run anything. At least it lasted the lan though.



Anyways im looking at the Tagan dual engine 700w which should hopefully restore my system to more than 2 of 3 Hdds, 1 of 2 opticals,1 of 5 case fans, no lights and no el string.

C u in April!

Michael

[Bluepixie]

Photos are up in the gallery. You still can't comment on them yourself yet, but I'm sure Craig will have a look into that soon.

Click here for the Gallery (http://www.pausegaming.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=26)

[Fyndir]

- Jolt Cola costs more than a pint, yet people still drank Jolt Cola

I'm not sure if I understand why that's a bad thing.

People are more awake instead of more drunk, if they didn't want to spend the extra money then they could happily and easily just pop downstairs and get a pint instead.

I'm honestly just not sure what it is you're complaining about there, and if you help me understand then it's something that we can think about for the next LAN.

[Chesire Cat]

LAN was good. muchly enjoyed.

good stuff:
-SNACK TABLE
-KUSTOM PCS
-more organized structure
-the projector/console setup (even though we kinda stuck to ps2 and that DJ game)
-servers were good.
-more people were playing it seemed.

problems:
-BF2!!!! but thats mostly my laptop and drivers.
-prizes werent really organized...it was really similar to last LAN and strings making up things to give prizes for. (ponders what mogwai will be doing with his mousepads...perhaps he could get more and make a quilt? :D)
-i understand that its hard to keep EXACTLY to schedule but the CSS tourney starting over an hour late was a bit ridiculous.

other than that, great LAN!

some suggestions:
-lets get posters for the next LAN out by friday so that we can try and get some more people.
-during dinner/lunch and in between games have a "radio". like have people request the song but putting the song file into a shared folder on the server and playing it from there?
--Pause Bakesale!!! everybody donates some food item (as bakesales usually go) that they've baked. Do it at the QM. better than seeing the PETA and SRC and GU Socialists standing out there. we're far more interesting :D

[GingerPrinz]

I'm not sure if I understand why that's a bad thing.

People are more awake instead of more drunk, if they didn't want to spend the extra money then they could happily and easily just pop downstairs and get a pint instead.

I'm honestly just not sure what it is you're complaining about there, and if you help me understand then it's something that we can think about for the next LAN.

Sorry but if you don't understand you are clearly beyond help :(

[Octavion]

O hai!

I think most of my points have been said so I won't bother repeating any.

Most fun moment was respawning in ArmA to see Fil2efly come in on a perfect descent to the runway in his shiny AV-8. Then I notice that something was wrong, shouldn't his gear be down. CRUNCH! Fireball nicely skids along the runway creating some lovely fireworks. Cue much piss taking of Fil2efly.

I'll get myself a Joystick for the next LAN so that Turk, Fil2efly and I can all use our 1337 flying skillez in ArmA. Hopefully more people will join us in playing it as well as it's an awesome game that only gets better as more people play.

My only complaint is that people should Install game they are intending to play in before the LAN or if that's not possible the second they arrive so there aren't any delays.

[Bluepixie]

good stuff:
-servers werent good.

problems:

-prizes werent really organized...it was really similar to last LAN and strings making up things to give prizes for. (ponders what mogwai will be doing with his mousepads...perhaps he could get more and make a quilt? :D)



WTF are you talking about?

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

I think she meant 'were good', since she put it in 'good stuff'.

[Uuurrahh]

-during dinner/lunch and in between games have a "radio". like have people request the song but putting the song file into a shared folder on the server and playing it from there?


haw haw haw. I'd enjoy that :biggrin:

[Scote]

Heeeya, Sc0te here. DAve's little brother, for those that don't know me.

Had a really great time at the LAN at the weekend, can't wait for the next one. Hopefully, dave might arrive earlier, and I'll get to compete more, but I think that's a pipe dream.....

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Jump on his head while he sleeps, that's what little brothers are for.

[YegaDoyai]

To ensure you get more game time, get someone to bring your computer on the friday for setup (normally games get played after we are done setting up). Then you can come anytime on Sat/Sun.

[Fil2eFly]

yeah ^^^

recomend more people to come on friday,,,little bit o work to set up then play games and get pissed ,, good fun!

[YcMing]

hmm , i'll keep this simple :)

Highlights:

Trying out Bf2 + CSS ( yes i am extremely uselss at it )
SC Tourney!!!!
Kicking the bottle with Ru ,that was class, we crack that light like 3 times :P
Nice and relaxing , not too intense

Bad points:

Unreal GOTY, did not get played :(, i love that shootig gaming ^^

Hopefully i can make then next one , exam is getting close ~~~

[Fil2eFly]

jst rememberd another bad ,, but slightly funny point...

bootlid of string's car twating him on the head,, fuck that had to hurt

[Uuurrahh]

jst rememberd another bad ,, but slightly funny point...

bootlid of string's car twating him on the head,, fuck that had to hurt

Ouch. Yeah, that looked rather sore :D

[GraemeKustom]

Hey folks

Really enjoyed the atmosphere at Pause and LFS was really good fun. I'll be sure to get a practise at it for next time and try and get BF2 setup to take part a little bit more. :)

Will be back next month !

Re the point earlier in the thread about Jolt - fair point, it's far from being a 'cheap' drink. A fair chunk of the price comes in having the stuff shipped over from America, as it's quite large and heavy. If we were buying 10,000s of cans at a time it would get cheaper, but that's fairly unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Ultimately though - compare it with red bull and it seems quite a good investment as the cans are huuuuge and it certainly keeps you buzzing. Compared to a little can of Red Bull which is usually around £1, Jolt Cola at £1.95 isn't too bad really.

Having gone round many LAN events selling Jolt / Bawls / Monster, they've always proved popular so there can't be too much wrong.

Anyways, look forward to seeing you all next month and thanks for the warm reception at #4.

[LastChanceHotel]

Re the point earlier in the thread about Jolt - fair point, it's far from being a 'cheap' drink. A fair chunk of the price comes in having the stuff shipped over from America, as it's quite large and heavy. If we were buying 10,000s of cans at a time it would get cheaper, but that's fairly unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Is there any chance of getting a crate of 24 bottles of Bawls for slightly less than normal pricing, if I pay up front? :D

I found the Jolt cola had a hell of a comedown - you felt all tired and sluggish afterwards. Still, awesome drink, worth every penny.

Jan

[YcMing]

Yup fair point .... red bull is around 1.20 in QM. That Jolt is price fairly considering the size of the fucker :P.

[GingerPrinz]

Wasn't complaining about Graeme's pricing scheme, more the drinking habits of you Pause folk!

[YegaDoyai]

To ensure you buy the correct product next lan please remember to read this

http://www.energyfiend.com/the-caffeine-database/

[Fil2eFly]

Jolt was good but,,, i think i prefer several pints of stella :lol:

[GingerPrinz]

That's what I'm talkin bout Fil!!!!

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Yeah, but then you do stupid stuff like forgetting to put the landing gear down.

[Fil2eFly]

for your information stalla gives me earges to beat up some chicks, not forget to put down landing gear!!1 better watch your self ches!11 lol j/k

[YcMing]

wow stella, makes you hit a girl :O , what a cracker of a drink.

[Fil2eFly]

oh come now sir,,, stella is t3h wifebeater!

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

Having your machine die is no fun and I think the committee need to focus on having an established protocol for dealing with folk that miss out through hardware failure. It is no surprise to me that the guy who came to the last lan with a busted computer did not come back.

Can i suggest a reserved consolation prize for anyone who's computer suffers a serious and lasting failure during the LAN that prevents them from playing?

Not that i'm planning on doing that or anything.

[DAve]

Can i suggest a reserved consolation prize for anyone who's computer suffers a serious and lasting failure during the LAN that prevents them from playing?
Tempting fate there, I think.

[--Mogwai--]

yah, my machine would die

[GingerPrinz]

NOOOOOOES has your lappy died again?

[Phizz]

lasting failure. Pfft, that's no good. Can't we go for oldest rig? 5yr old processor ftw.

[Ru]

lets stop trying to glamorise shite computers

[Fil2eFly]

lets stop trying to glamorise shite computers

oh,,, :( ,, and i was jst about to finish copying HL2 onto 5" 1/4" floppys

ohhh the days when floppy disks were floppy

[LastChanceHotel]

How about "Best Effort" at making a shite computer fly when it's quite obviously not intended to do so?

I had a look last night, and I can rustle a pretty fucking hot machine (all required components) for £111, that will almost beat my current rig :)

I think a consolation prize of a component to replace the one that exploded would be interesting. It'd have to be the absolute cheapest one that'll fit, though... But then I'd be tempted to buy an expensive Xeon board ;)

[YegaDoyai]

Jan, you are - at least - forgeting your £100 graphics card.

[GingerPrinz]

How about a gfx card that is 6 series unsupported by BF2 but still runs it like a beast eh????

[LastChanceHotel]

Jan, you are - at least - forgeting your £100 graphics card.

Yeah, I should've mentioned that. :D

[YegaDoyai]

The 6600 for some reason showed up as not supported on several games. Or at least did not show up on the supported list. Aowever, as its core is similar to the 6800 anything that supports the 6800 will run on the 6600 series but a little slower. Technically, if you were to write to EA with problems they would help as really your card IS supported. As witnessed by everyone that bought 6600GTs a couple of years ago. (they were the most popular card of 2005)

[GingerPrinz]

If you were talking to me there Yega, my gfx is ATI Radeon 9000

[YegaDoyai]

I'm Confused.

What was the "6 series unsupported" about.

The 9000 series is the 3rd generation radeon (original radeon was rebranded as a 7200 later and the 7000 series all use the same core) so that doesn't match up either. (technically unless you have a 9600 or more it's actualy a speed bumped 2nd gen with a tweaked core) And the 9000 series is supported. It says so on the back of my box here. Hell they even support the 8500 which is nuts cos it would horrible on that card.

[CaNNoN_FoDDa]

How about a gfx card that is 6 series unsupported by BF2 but still runs it like a beast eh????

The 6600 for some reason showed up as not supported on several games. Or at least did not show up on the supported list. Aowever, as its core is similar to the 6800 anything that supports the 6800 will run on the 6600 series but a little slower. Technically, if you were to write to EA with problems they would help as really your card IS supported. As witnessed by everyone that bought 6600GTs a couple of years ago. (they were the most popular card of 2005)

The 6600PCIe & 6600GT are listed as supported by BF2, so i think he probably wasn't talking about either of them. Ive got a GT and it runs it fine.

[GingerPrinz]

I just meant that the 9600 is the lowest suppported, and i have a 9000