Subject: D-Day Loscon AAR Wow, another Loscon is under the belt, and I think everyone is pretty spent about it. I'm Already missing it greatly. I. Timeline of events Thursday 1700 This is the IP for Loscon. Nat and I do final house prep. 1900 Greg arrives from CA! Instantly gets on a machine to check out UNREAL. 2130 Weaselboy (L.I.) and Magic (MI) arrive. Set up begins 2300 All systems GO. ready for action. We start Quaking. Coggs arrives from MI. 0230 Sleep. Friday 0530 Milesbot gets up Nat and I. He must not have read the warning order about extended sleeping hours. 0900 Donut run. 0930-1300 Quake2 Jailbreak Mod. This is a very cool Mod. The closest thing we have to Q2 TF until TF2 comes out (if ever). 1300-1800 Boat trip on Bob's dad's Yacht in LI Sound. Nice relaxing diversion! 1900 PIZZA and DoKtOr ChUd arrives 2000-2400 Quake2, Quake2 Jailbreak, and more Quake2. Saturday 0900-1100 Abortive attempt at UNREAL multiplayer. COde is so shitty and graphics so intensive to render this game unplayable on multiplayer (even with P2s Voodoo 2). We also install a hub upstairs and run RJ45 to the lowerlevel fixing some network lag issues 1100-1330 COMPUSA run. We pick up some cool games. Battlezone (Awesome) and F1 racing. Followed up with a Joe Grates BBQ run. 1400 -1800 General dicking around. moto Racer and red line racing. F1 racing. Checking out Battlezone. Sabre Ace trial's. And Kurt whips out Die by teh Sword, which instantly captivates everyone. 1900-2100 Andale's! 2100-2200 Outlaws 2200-2400 Quake2 DM 2400-1300 Die by the sword. Sunday 0900 Die By the sword Multiplayer 1100 Quake 2 1300 Glenwood run. 1500 Die by the Sword 1700 Quake2 1900 Indian Take-out 1930 Watched "Army of Drakness" 2100 Quake2 DM 2200 Die by the Sword (<--See how this is taking over) MONDAY 0900-1200 Battlezone Multiplayer 1200-1300 Created a Die by the Sword video w/ Multiplayer and 3d tv out. FUN. 1300-1500 Watched SST again. ("What? You Apes wanna game forever?") 1500-1700 Quake2 DM 1700-1900 Die by the Sword 1900-2000 Chinese takeout 2100-2300 Battlezone Multiplayer 2300 Con breakdown and departure. II. Observations: 1. Die by the Sword was THE big hit. Awesome game and cool multiplayer. VSIM will be the way to go in the future. The move editor is cool. Single player Quest is well done. 2. Battlezone is another awesome sim. probably the best graphics around, which rich strategic options and fun multiplayer. 3. Moto racer and Red Line racer are fun and look really cool in 3d. F1 racing also. 4. Quake 2 still rocks. Everyone liked the Jailbreak mod. 5. Competition is runs deadlier than ever. Without any cannon fodder around every kill had to be earned the hard way. 6. Special mention to Coggs (Aka Boresite) for his move up to the next level of deadliness. He's rasied the chain gun to an art form. Stay out of his path. 7. The cleanup schedule worked well. Everyone pitched in. 8. Congrats to NAT on not only managing her duties as billeting officer nicely. But working out a good schedule for Milesbot sitting AND Quake 2 sessions for herself, while Aceing her exams at school. Don't know how she does it... 9. Congrats to Ze' on his new system (P2 300) and on finding something he can play well..Die By The Sword) 10. The taunts configs we made up were pretty funny. Can't wait for duke 2 and the return of the customizable RTS. Also while on Q2, the huge amount of skins and models we had added to the fun also. And on the down side... 11. Attendance was off. Flug was missing. JB and Dawn had last minute work commitment. No Bundy. Mary and Tyler also didn't show ( we were a little short on vixens, but I guess they heard that Flug wasn't coming) . Still DM games were up to 8 player. Don't know what to do about that as these things are posted far in advance... 12. UNREAL was (IMO) the bust of the CON. A big disappointment. Very pretty in single player on a P2 w/ voodoo 2 But unplayable in multiplayer (reminds me of our experiences with Jedi knight). Weapons are sort of lame. Basically our network handles the Q2 engine OK so lets stick to that. QUAKE killer it is definitely NOT. III. AND THE BIGGEST THING OF THE CON WAS>>>>>>>>> The D-DAY Loscon T-shirt. (limited edition). That's right, Kurt went out on his own expense and designed and had made, D-Day Loscon T-shirts! They look really nice and there's one for everybody, so if you weren't able to make it I have one for you. For you far-away types (Bundy and J.B./ Dawn) I can snail mail them if you send an address. IV. Future Improvements: 1. The network is pretty much set. We now have two hubs, one upstairs and one downstairs hooked in with RJ 45s and connected together. (We can support up to 16 machines). The only thing left to do is remove the BNC adapter from Los166 and put an RJ45 capable card in there. After that we can concentrate on our AV stuff (video in and out and sound video mixing) to create cool Loscon demos/movies. We've got many hours of awesome footage as it is right now. 2. If everone had shown up that was supposed to we would have been at max capacity. Someday we'll have to rent a place and have a huge con! 3. The long term upgrade project continues. Current status: Los266: Replace Diamond Monster 2 3d card with Canopus Pure 3d 2 i order to get video out. This machine will now assume the position oh honor upstairs. Nat 233: Receive Los266's DM2 card. Nat 133: Receive Nat 233's Diamond Monster 3d card. (This is going to Rob and Tina for use off cons) Los 166: Get new Dlink ethernet adapter to replace old network card. Los 133: All set. Note the 133s can't be upgraded any farther. Looking to see if they'll accommodate new boards. (shitty compaqs!) Los180. Already upgraded for now. Maybe a new P2 board is in it's future, but not this year. Los NB 150. This thing continues to render fine service as a server, despite it's harsh treatment in the deserts of Eritrea. No upgrade planned. Weaselair and Weaselbook. Pretty much OK, though I have a P200 MMX chip for weasel that he forgot to take with him. Jaton166. needs a Monster 3d card. Coggs166: Pretty much all set. JB 266. needs a voodoo2 card. Needs a network adapter. Ze266 Needs a Voodoo 2 card but ran great with Direct X. Needs a network adapter. Needs a real monitor. Magic266 I believe their machine is set, though he might need more hard drive space. Magicbook200. Might end up taking over server duties from Losnb150. Needs more HD space. Acquisitions on the horizon.... Losnb266+ I'm getting a new work notebook in the fall (Already budgeted. Will make sure it's the most high speed thing out there, (With a docking station for a Vodoo2 card also) Weasellair II. Kurt is probably getting a new machine before the year is out (right?) Non technical wish list... We need a weeklong con someplace (New Hampshire or Bob's Dad's mansion or we rent a place somewhere nice. It should be big enough to fit at least 10-12 machines and at least 14-16 people comfortable (A lodge!) Then we can have a week of gaming, with some other things thrown in like Shadowrun, paintball, and outdoor things too when we need a break. I propose that we plan on doing this for 1999. (Hell by year 2000 the world is supposed to end anyway) What do you guys say? That's it. Thanks to everyone for a great con, I feel real good about it. Good friends, good games, good times... Los (the most) Back To The After Action Index Back To LoneRanger's HomePage