December LAN Report Thread

[Strings]

Well its 1:34 AM and for some reason I can't be arsed sleeping. So I thought Id make a thread where everyone can post their thoughts and feelings on the December LAN.

Feel free to make your own format... because it would probably be counter-productive to emulate mine.



Initial Impresions

Tables were all pre-laid out and cabled etc prior to the official beginning of the LAN. Fantastic idea. Made setting up as easy as overclocking an Opteron.

Due to the above, I didnt find many problems with lack of power, lack of network cables or lack of connectivity. For me, it was pretty much "Plug & Play"

All in all, kudos to those who did all the pre-seting up on Friday night.



Things I personally enjoyed

Skydiving with Dave & Yega and blowing up stuff in BF2

Rally Racing in Live for Speed

Playing Meteos on the DS with Viper and Richard

Riding in the SRC lift

That crazy musical light thing that Jan had.

And last but certainly not least, I finally got Halo(Demo) working on my machine. Turns out it was a dual core assignment trick.



Things I didnt like / could be improved

Not really that much....

Fyndir's passion for friendly fire

Didn't really abide by any game schedule

If we are going to have a tourney, then we really need to "officialise" it and make sure it damn well happens.

Diminished numbers overall and even less towards the end of the LAN.

The point above isn't anything I would consider sinister. But there was a few familiar faces (at least for me) missing from the LAN. And I think the reason people left, was BECAUSE of diminished numbers and just unfortuante circumstance. Gigs, exams etc

As some of us talked about at the end of the LAN; what we need is to get some good advertising of the society.

As far as posters and e-mails go... I hear more about the flipping Linux society more than the GUNS one. Im hoping others will also take the initiative, but I will be definitely trying to make some good GUNS posters to literally spam around the campus.

Nothing too drastic. But at least so they can be seen. The emphasis being on the forums. So they can come and chat and get to know everyone.

So with all that in mind, and considering how lovely the idea of setting up early was..... I cant see why the next LAN in February can't be our best yet.

[Fyndir]

Things I didnt like / could be improved
Fyndir's passion for friendly fire


Halo: I had no idea what I was doing since it was my first time ever playing Halo MP, I thought the green and Blue arrow mix over his head meant he had OUR flag and I couldn't see what colour he was from where I was shooting.

UT Infiltration: We had sod all clue what we were doing and I was aiming about three feet over all your heads, I was NOT expecting that massive amount of inaccuracy which led to a few of you taking damage. =/

BF2: We were all killing each other, repeatedly, anytime I tried to just wander up and join in whatever base-jumping etc you were all doing I got shot or blown up then called a cock when I took a revenge kill, you all had FAR more TKs than me when we finally stopped playing (with the exception of Caveman), so I'm not sure why you're mentioning me and not Doyai (who had the most) or yourself and Dave (since your scores were pretty similar but, again, higher than mine). Now you can say "but I was in the middle of DOING SOMETHING WHEN YOU KILLED ME", certainly, but most of the time I didn't know that because I tend to have my headphones pretty loud when we're not playing a serious team game (concentrating on game noises rather than background chatter) and wasn't really paying attention to what you were all saying, also I know you all killed each other when in the middle of doing something too, so that doesn't make sense why it would be "cock" to me and "hohoho" to them. Also why you got pissy at me for claymores on the helicopter doors when you were near constantly C4-ing them and then setting them off when people got in confused me.

EDIT: I just realised that some of this may sound excessively hostile, I didn't mean for it to come out like that and I'm sorry if it reads that way, I'm not going to edit any of what I said because I think it's worth reading even if it does read like an angry rant.


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All in all I had a great LAN, I didn't enjoy Live For Speed much because I was crap at it, far too realistic for me since I usually don't use brakes much in driving / racing games, was a bit shit that we didn't get round to Starcraft stuff properly, maybe next time.

[DAve]

BF2: We were all killing each other, repeatedly, anytime I tried to just wander up and join in
....
most of the time I didn't know that because I tend to have my headphones pretty loud when we're not playing a serious team game (concentrating on game noises rather than background chatter) and wasn't really paying attention to what you were all saying
I think that's why you felt excluded. There was lot of chatter about flying helicopters, what happens if the bridge explodes etc. etc.
If you had the headphones on all the time, I can see why you got the wrong end of the (boom-)stick.

Honestly, we weren't trying to exclude you, but when I climbed the crane for the third time to get sniped when the first and second time I said to wait so we could try something I did get a bit narked.

The second minor point is you never joined in up-close. I don't think you were ever in the same vehicles we were. I'm not sure if that was because by that point, we were all sniping each other or not.

The BF2 piss-takes were great fun though. I don't think I've ever seen helicopter flying like that (of YegaDoyai). I've still got to get the hang of pulling the parachute the latest.

Did anyone own a game called base-jumpers (http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=126)?
It brought back hours and hours of fantastic fun in my earlier days.

[Fyndir]

Honestly, we weren't trying to exclude you, but when I climbed the crane for the third time to get sniped when the first and second time I said to wait so we could try something I did get a bit narked.

The second minor point is you never joined in up-close. I don't think you were ever in the same vehicles we were. I'm not sure if that was because by that point, we were all sniping each other or not.

Anytime I came in close to where you guys were I got shot, which is why I ended up just taking sniper and watching the antics from a distance and occassionaly shooting someone. =/


I guess I'm too used to keeping my headphones on to block out background noise at home to really be able to take them off and listen properly while I play.

[Strings]

If you could keep any discussion to another topic it would be great. Otherwise others will be discouraged to post their opinion.

[Wind_Steaker]

I enjoyed the lan, and I could actualy play most of the games this time as I manhandled my PC all the way from home.
I did notice a few people missing aswell (oh and the setup was VERY smooth this time, thanks guys).

Im looking into getting a new graphics card as UT2007 is coming out soon, which by the way is only £18 at play.com

[YegaDoyai]

Setup = great

LAN = great (connectivity/latency etc)

Gaming = average (too few folk)

Things I liked, the folk at the LAN were generally up for playing whatever was being played and there was minimal bitching about crap games being played. I got all of you to try Infiltration which I hope you will continue to fart about with and come back to the next LAN as killing machines. Finally got to play Halo again (you are now alone Iain, you HAVE to play). Things that have lost thier magic Veitcong 2 with 3+ players, Hidden with 3+ players, any coop game with 4+ players. I say this as there is generaly too much noise in general to just speak to each other in a coop game but we all feel silly using VoIP when we are right next to the person we are playing with.

Tourneys are a good idea but if they are not organised by the 'core' group then they are likely to fall foul of the 'ideas being ignored' group. I was never invited to play my 3 way jousting with Strings and Exuus even though Starcraft was being played behind me pretty much all the time. DAve, Bluepixie, Exuus and anyone else who intends to partake in an active role in the society next year need to take a more positive role in encouraging people to play and get the right games played (like sticking to the schedule - impossable this time with so few folk.)

Like Strings I think there is far too little being done to advertise the LANs and once they are here there is far too little done to encourage them, there is a core element (we know who we are) and we are guilty of being somewhat exclusive. There needs to be more openess and a little less hostility to noobs (yes, I am guilty of this too). The thread with 'Things we want from GUNS/LANS is underused, I doubt everyone wanted to be doing what we did at the LAN and if you can't tell us face to face you need to use the forum to get your ideas over, we are actually open to suggestion but we are set in our ways once we get to a LAN.

I would like to propose an ammendment to the constitution. If any member of GUNS is caught playing a single player game when there is an open slot in a game running and there are four or more people present then they should be stripped of any privilages their membership entails. Exuus can be pardoned by way of him only just getting his 'pute back and running for the first time that weekend but anyone else not actively making the LAN happen should be punished.

Personally I feel sorry for Fyndir, by wearing your headphones you excluded yourself from the silly games we were playing. Even when I was shouting at you to tell you what we were doing you still ignored me. I, at the time, failed to believe that you were simply to engrossed in the game and were plainly ignoring me. If I then saw you come close I took you out before you could take anyone else down. If you were seriously THAT deep in the game that you couldn't hear me then I apologise. Yes I had the highest TK score about 250 to everyones 100 mark. But most times I TK'd you'd note that folk laughed their arses off (with the exception of strings who punched me in the arm AGAIN and told me that he was trying to kill me.) :) (Fyndir, a suggestion for you, DO NOT REPLY TO THIS, wait for others to speak up and then comment if you need to)

[YcMing]

Awww, sorry peeps ~~, I do try to play as much FPS game as possible....... My pc ain't that great compare to you guys...

I do like FPs, but i only got like 2 games which are CS 1.6 and Unreal.

As you may notice, everytime you guys play those game, i do take part :).

But overall, yeah i do like the plug and play ideas, very quick and easy to set up, also had none networking problems :).

[Bluepixie]

I’m going to go with your format Strings, I like it. :)


Initial Impressions

Well, seeing as I was helping, it would be retarded for me to complain about this. However, I was disappointed that the table closest to the door never got filled. :( It is a busy time of year I must admit, was temped not to come myself, lots of work to do. So, I'm not too surprised that the turn out was a little thinner than before.


Things I personally enjoyed


Live for Speed. Is great that everyone is enjoying it now, I think I'm going to give it an official slot......

Q3 pwnage. Xaero on Nightmare? bahh....no problem.

Counter Strike Source - Why do we play 1.6?!?! NUKE! :shock:

Vietcong 2 setting up Traps with Strings :twisted: Still the best setup in that map. Maybe I should get the full game, check out the other content.

Lack of Network problems.

Game Server :)

Hidden when it worked.


Things I didn’t like / could be improved


The Hidden. Damn they need to sort that server nonsense.

Steam in general, but nothing we can do about that.

Lack of Dawn of War. Ah well, maybe next time?

It was quite a small LAN in comparison to the last two, so the timetable didn't get enforced, as I'm sure you noticed. I'm not going to view this LAN as disappointment in anyway really, come Febuary it's going to be great. The second Freshers Fair will be a good opportunity and I'm agreed with Strings for some publicity. I'm sure we can draw some new people into the next LAN and numbers will not an issue. We certainly are getting the organising aspect nailed down and will continue to improve for future LANs.

Note: I apologise to all parties (Exuus) for my outbursts. I must admit, I can be a right cock. :(

Will post the LAN pics to DAve shortly.

[Phizz]

Initial Impressions

Set up was good nothing to do with me being there. :-D Meant that when I did get to the LAN I was all plugged in and good to go.

Things I personally enjoyed

Live for speed even if I'm still not that good at it

Things I didn't like / could be improved

My computer!!! Spent so much time messing with it that I just wanna kill it.

Having work mid LAN. That will be sorted next LAN

[Exuus]

Good Stuff

- I'll regret saying this, but Live For Speed was damn good fun. (There Yega, I said it. :) )

- The Hidden (Sneaky sneaky, stabby stabby)

- de_nuke

Bad Stuff

- Too few people, I went home early as there wasn't enough people to get a "proper" game of BF2 or The Hidden

- The Hidden (Why?! Why won't you load?!)

Apologies

- I'm a camping bastard.

[DAve]

THings that went well

The setup - this was one point of the LAN I was most happy with. We've been saying that we really have to get to a point that people just turn up, jack on and start playing. That happened, and I'm really pleased it did. A big thanks to everyone that helped: Niall, Chris, Peter, Phill, Aaron, Strings (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone important)

I finally got to play the hidden! Oh, I so enjoyed screaming like a little girl :) MOre at the next LAN!

Live for speed was really enjoyable too. I've lost the ability to play driving games though, more practice before the next lan.

The game timetable went well for Saturday

BF2 tricks.
This was really the highlight of the LAN for me. Mucking about on BF2 was realy fun, basejumping off cranes, bridges, blowing each other up. Fantastic fun. I really think we should timetable this as a section of the lan specifically for BF2 fun

Things that could have been better

Support Ming and the Starcraft Tournament.

More people for the next lan. There was an entire table unused. I expect people will have spanking new pc's and bits for Christmas that they need trying out :D
I suspect that the more people, the more likely we are to stick to the timetable especially on the second day.

Additional ramblings

What does everyone think about packin up time? I think the LAN died after about 6pm. Would it be a good idea to call time after this?