Nemetos beats Hydross! 5/6 in SSC!

by xelha at Sep 25 2007 11:59

Hydross the Unstable

24th September

Hydross being a much hated boss by many of us; whom we first tried back in early June, but due to the Resistance gear requirements and problems with tanks we were forced to put off his inevitable destruction until today! Second day of tries (again!) in recent times.

Dropped: Scarab of Displacement, Boots of the Shifting Nightmare

This leaves Nemetos Order with only the final boss remaining in Serpentshrine Cavern! Good job to all and thanks to everyone who assisted grinding mats for the resistance gear!

World in Conflict

by alastriona at Sep 18 2007 20:43

Comming out this Friday is the RTS game World in Conflict. World in Conflict takes place in 1989, when the Soviet Union is about to collapse to a crippled economy. But instead of what really happened, in World in Conflict the Soviet Union decides to launch a massive invasion into Europe and the USA.

Campaign

There will be a campaign, which from what I've seen in the demo, looks very cool. The mission centers around finishing objectives, which can vary from taking out a sniper to taking out enemy artillery units. There are two types of objectives, primary and secondary. The primary objectives are the ones that you need to complete to finish the mission, and if you fail them, you will fail the mission. Secondary objectives however are optional, but they are definitely worth doing because they can award you with nice bonuses like additional units.

Gameplay

World in Conflict is not your typical RTS, where most RTS games offer base building and resource gathering. Instead you will be given a certain amount of reinforcement points that you can buy units with. Because of this, the game will focus mainly on strategic use of your units rather then who has the biggest base and can make the most units.

Besides reinforcement points and units, you also have Tactical Aid (TA) points at your disposal, which can be used to deploy tactical aid. There are mainly different tactical aids like paratroopers, napalm strikes and even jaw and frame dropping nukes (seen in the screenshot on the side). Using them well can make the difference between winning and losing.

There are also 4 roles in which you can specialize. For example choosing the infantry role gives you cheaper infantry units and will also reduce the cost of your Paratroopers tactical aid. However, if you decide to take units outside your role they will cost you more reinforcement points. You can choose from Infantry, Air, Armor and Support (Artillery, Anti-Air and Repair units).

Multiplayer

The multiplayer in World in Conflict will be different from other RTS games. You can join a game at any time you wish, even if the game has already started. At the end of the match you will be given points and awards based on your performance. These points and awards have effect on your ranking in the ladder and the better you are, the more points you get and the higher your rank will be. It is also possible to set up groups, so its very easy to join games together.

The game also features clans. When you create a clan it will get its own little page on which you can see how well your clan is doing, as well as having a message board. You are also able to play against other clans and compete on the clan ladder.

We already have some people in the TNGC buying this game, and we hope more people will join us. If you are interested you can visit the website, where you can also find the demo.

Nemetos Order down Leotheras the Blind!

by xelha at Sep 17 2007 22:32

Leotheras the Blind

17th September

Leo killed tonight, also the second day of attempts, with a 1% wipe the night before and 3% and 4% wipes before we got him!

Dropped: Girdle of the Invulnerable, Gloves of the Vanquished Defender, Gloves of the Vanquished Hero

Two days of attempts seems to be the lucky number for Nemetos at the moment, and with two totally new bosses defeated this week it shouldn't be too much longer before we're fighting Prince Kael'thas and Lady Vashj!

Keep up the good work guys!

Nemetos Order progress update!

by xelha at Sep 17 2007 22:30

Ok so after a very successful week with 2 new bosses down here comes a much delayed recent raiding progress report(in 2 parts im afraid)!

Morogrim Tidewalker

23rd July

Morogrim took quite a few days of raids, until we mastered the tanking and killing of the murloc adds; but now, 2 months later we have mastered the fight much better and have had a few nearly flawless kills!

Fathom-Lord Karathress

9th August

Second day of proper attempts, since then we had some problems beating him a second time, but have now defeated him 3 times with some comfortable victories.

A'lar

14th September

Killed on the second day of tries after an 18% phase 2 wipe the night before. Dropped: Phoenix Ring of Rebirth and Karoborian Talisman

Welcome SCUM!

by allicorn at Sep 05 2007 22:07

This week we're glad to welcome a whole new Division-full of members to the TNGC! These guys are SCUM - and I mean that in a nice way - a WoW Guild of renown from the Kor'Gall server.

Below is a little history of the Guild and an explanation for that funny name...

History of Scum

Once upon a time there were two guilds, Myst (M) and Scarlet-Knights (SK), who didn’t know each other, but were both small with some members who wanted to venture 25 man/ 40 man raids. There was no way in the near future, they could do it with their own guild. Some mutual friends in the guild the Ninth asked them to join them in their raids, they lacked some players. After a while the Ninth grew to big and didn’t need us anymore so we decided to join forces and MYSK was born.

We went ZG and all went fine, but next step was too far away. We, Myst (M) and SK (S), found ourselves two other guilds CES (C) and Uskoci (U) to join our alliance so we could go MC. SCUM was born.

Progress went slowly, since most of us were/are casual players, playing for fun and not 24/7. Some who wanted more progress, left us to more hardcore guilds, others stopped playing wow and we had to start over and over again and again to gear our alliance to get ready for BWL. Uskoci at some point wanted to go on their own, we had no choice but letting them go, leaving us with not enough good geared members left for BWL.

November 2006 we found Nementos Order to go to BWL with, while waiting for tbc. By then we all knew the gear from BWL would not much matter anymore since tbc was coming fast. But that didn’t matter, we just wanted to see BWL, Naxx and AQ40.

Tbc broke up alot of guilds, alliances by the change towards 10 man and 25 man raids and the need to level and gear up again. SCUM lost SK due to unsolvable discussions among the officers about the future of SCUM. Those SK members that wanted to stay with Myst and CES in the alliance joined one of those two guilds.

Therefor we are SCUM (We like the name SCUM too much to get rid of the S), our progress in WoW is Karazhan on farm, Maulgar on farm and Gruul 2 times killed and waiting for more deaths, while preparing for SSC, Maggy and The eye.

Reach out and touch some SCUM

SCUM's website and forum presence is already well established over at their domain http://www.wow-scum.com/ but their members will be dropping in to say hello on our boards.

SCUM's leadership includes MYST guildmaster Jadon and CES guildmaster Veleshar and I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing them and their Guildmates a hearty welcome to the Community!

A Grand Tour of TNGC Gaming

by allicorn at Aug 05 2007 23:55

One of the first things that struck me when I was elected leader of the TNGC was that I really haven't played a whole lot of the games that other members have been playing. So, I set myself the task of finding out a bit more about our Divisions and some of the other games that TNGC members have been playing or trying out in recent months.

rFactor: The Future of Race Simulation

My tour started with rFactor, a heavyweight motor racing simulator with the emphasis firmly on simulation. If you thought racing games were all shallow left-right-gofaster affairs with little to them except sparkly graphics, you're wrong - as was I.

rFactor is a beast of gritty realism with complex vehicle physics, detailed modelling of all kinds of racing variables, equipment wear, engine parameters and an elaborate variety of league, ladder and race-season community tools for building extensive competition setups.

The full game handles all kinds of motorsports on a huge variety of tracks and has a very active community of fans who make mods for the game and organize competitions.

Despite all this, it's really not that hard to learn. The game features a number of computer assistance tools you can enable to help keep you from flying off the track as you learn the game. The more you progress and learn, the less assistance you'll need and the closer to perfect realism you'll get.

A free demo is available on the rFactor website and you can hit up Aveox and the other folks in the TNGC Racing Series forum for help getting started.

Battlefield: 2142

Next up was Battlefield 2142. If you've played any of the several previous Battlefield games, you'll immediately be in familiar territory with BF2142. It's a team-vs-team shooter that revolves around capturing specific points on a relatively large, open-air map. Your character gets a selection of equipment based on your selection of a Class such as Engineer or Medic and there are a variety of vehicles and aircraft lying around on the map that you can jump into to increase your firepower.

A simple squad system allows a small number of players to team up more easily, showing your buddies in a different color on your minimap, granting built-in voice comms and adding a few hotkeys to quickly send orders and feedback to the rest of the team.

Overall control of the fight, on both sides, fall to a player who takes on the Commander role. This gives him an overview map; access to radar; some huge, area-destroying weapons; the ability to drop supplies and vehicles for friendly squads and also some tools to order the squads around. In practice, the Commander role tends to be used fairly poorly in most open online games though - squads don't follow orders, most people are playing solo.

Graphically, BF2142 looks pretty damn awesome with some very slick player models; chunky, dangerous looking vehicles and excellent smoke and explosion effects. Sounds (apart from the ever-annoying Battlefield theme music) are fairly corking too.

On the whole, like the previous Battlefields, it's really not that bad a game. Where I feel it falls down somewhat is in the out-of-game experience, which is really not much better than any of it's predecessors. Another major annoyance is that nearly all of the equipment and vehicles in the game will not be available to you when you shell out your hard-earned cash for the game. Instead, you need to create an account with EA (no, you can't use the one you already created for BF2) and slug away for hundreds of hours building up "points" which gradually allow you to "unlock" the content you've paid for, one item at a time.

While grinding and getting better gear might be fine for an MMO, it strikes me that this might just be an effort by EA to try to keep people playing what is - afterall - a pretty simple little game - for as long as possible in order to maximize the number of impressions they'll produce from viewing the in game adverts.

On the whole, a solid, fun, sci-fi themed FPS with a few annoyances. There's a free demo on the official site. It only has one map, but other than that you can play online with it to your heart's content.

Nate is trying to round up a few TNGC players for some BF2142 right now, so it's a good time to try it out if you haven't already. Check in on the Battlefield forum for more info.

Medieval 2: Total War

I had a little try with M2TW but unfortunately didn't get very far. The publisher's website doesn't seem to work once you get past the language selection and the official demo had corrupted text that made the whole thing unreadable.

Bit of shame, as from what I've seen it looks gorgeous and is fairly easy to pick up for a strategy game. In any case, several TV shows have used the M2TW engine to run re-enactments of famous battles of history, so it must have something going for it!

To find out more about M2TW I'd suggest checking out the Total War forum and/or contacting AmigaFan2003 for details as he's definitely the standard bearer for this one.

World of Warcraft

Well, here's a little game some of you may have heard of...

It was with some trepidation, I must admit, that I borrowed some install disks and got myself a buddy key to try out WoW. Would the game hook me completely like it's done to a number of my friends both online and IRL and turn me into a 7-nights-a-week goblin basher?

Beltain Lords

After a really easy install and setup process, I was soon transformed into a tall guy with purple hair, bunny ears and spooky glowy eyes. I gawped at the very striking artistic style of the game and puzzled over the steady flow of acronyms and jargon flooding the in-game chat channel. Pootling around the countryside for a little while, I was soon pounced by an enthusiastic party of heroes from The Beltain Lords who'd come to welcome me to the world of Azeroth.

Aveox, Vernatei and the gang took me on a whirlwind sight-seeing tour through forests, over mountains, across deserts - by air, by sea, even on a railway - through various sprawling cities and ending with the highlight of my explorations so far - a pub.

The Beltain Lords seem to have a wild old time just hanging out, chatting, doing a little casual adventuring and generally being cheerful citizens of Azeroth. The guild has regular days set aside for helping new members (or new alts) level up and regularly organizes all kinds of hilarious fun and games within WoW. If you're looking for a cheerful bunch of enthusiastic WoW players who really do love their game but also don't take it too seriously, you could hardly do better than looking them up on the Nordrassil server.

Nemetos Order

Later on, I managed to catch up with the Nemetos Order on the Kor'Gall PvP server. Nemetos couldn't really be more different than Beltain Lords.

These guys take their game very seriously and have the numbers, the flashy gear and the extensive list of big-name kills to show for it. At it's heart, Nemetos can really only be classified as a hardcore Guild. Although they do welcome members' friends and more casual players, their focus is on maintaining their excellent reputation as collectors of elite equipment and victors over the biggest, baddest raids in the high-level areas of the game.

Through tight organization and a demanding schedule of raids and exercises, the Nemetos Order constantly strives to be the best of the best on the competitive Kor'Gall server. If you feel you've got what it takes to succeed against the most demanding foes in the game, look up Orlanna, in game or better still drop by the Nemetos Order forum section.

World in Conflict

World In Conflict is another game I managed to briefly check out during my tour. To be honest, I didn't have a great deal of time to get familiar with it as the beta ended quite soon after I signed up. Nonetheless, it seems quite impressive. Also worth noting is the huge number of allocades it's already attracting from the RTS and general games review communities.

WIC is a modern-day themed Real-Time Strategy game with particularly lavish graphics and a fairly elegant - and quite granular - degree of control over your units. It certainly has a good chance of getting on all those "end of year - best of" lists around the holidays and if your old RTS game is getting a bit tired, WIC could be well worth exploring.

Eve: Online

Next on my tour, was the sprawling space-epic that is Eve: Online. I knew very little about the game when I first jumped into it other than it had a reputation for being rather complicated and, having played it for a while I'd say that's a fair comment about it. It is complex, but its not so much that it's hard to learn - it has a spectacularly good tutorial and lots of other in-game resource to help you figure it all out - rather that it's complex in scope. This is a huge game, huge in every way: from the sheer vastness of the play area, to the huge player count (25000 active most of the time, all on the single realm), to the enormous variety of paths you can take to success. Fancy being a space pirate, haunting the warp lanes of deep space and pouncing on unsuspecting players to steal their cargo? You can do that. Fancy being trader, striking deals, buying and selling? Sure, thats there. How about a deep space archaeologist, rooting out hidden alien secrets to bring fame and riches? Yep. But it goes on: Politician? Sure. Inventor? Yep. News reporter? No problem. Space station owner? You bet. Every time you load up this game with a question in mind, "I wonder if I can do such and such", the answer appears to be "Yes. Yes you can".

It wasn't long before I met up with BJ and Huntmaster, Starwolf veterans and executives of the TNGC's Eve "Corporation", the unfortunately named "Old Farts Club". OFC's corp members were all really helpful when it came to learning the ropes and their boundless enthusiasm for a game they so obviously adore was really quite infectious. Of all the games I've visited in the last few weeks, Eve turned out to be the one I most want to play again.

Add to all this graphics as good as many a sci-fi movie I've seen, a fantastic soundtrack and just about the smartest user interface you'll ever see, and you have a yourself a fairly compelling piece of software. If you're interested in a game that's a little bit different, a little slower, more thoughtful, that'll challenge you to find your own route to success and that has so much content that it'd be almost impossible to ever see it all, Eve could be right up your street.

PlanetSide

No tour of TNGC games would be complete without a visit to the old stomping grounds of Auraxis. I know I harp on all too often about just how great this game can be, so I'll save you all the pain this time. Suffice to say, if you haven't played it before and you have any interest whatsoever in First Person Shooters then keep your eyes on the General Gaming forum and Starwolf forum in the coming weeks because there's a rumor that Sony will be re-enabling their free-to-play "Reserves Programme" again in the near future and there really aren't any other shooters that do some of the amazing things that PlanetSide can do.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

The last thing on my list so far has been the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Beta. ET:QW is a great looking round-based TDM shooter, modelled almost entirely around the gameplay ID developed for the original Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory game a few years ago. (By the way: if you haven't played it - Wolf:ET is FREE - thats right, a totally free game from Doom/Quake developers ID Software, check it out).

Where ET:QW differs is in it's greatly evolved interface, XP system, graphics and - of course - the fact that its set within the Humans-vs-Strogg mythology of the Quake games rather than the Humans-vs-Nazi-Zombies mythology of Wolfenstein. I haven't played much of this yet as the beta has only been open for a couple days but from what I've seen it's every bit the solid product you'd expect from ID, with slick graphics, well thought out and well balanced gameplay and with a lot of emphasis on fast-paced twitchy action.

The old-school Team Fortress players, and those who enjoyed the original Wolfenstein:ET are sure to love it.

And there's more...

Of course there's more - there's always more. Folks are always posting links to new games and demos in our General Gaming forum and I'm going to do the best I can to keep up with the various things that we're all playing or evaluating.

I also know I've missed a few. I do hope to try them all when I've got time but its been a while and I wanted to get this posted.

So, have you found a new game? Maybe you've been playing something not-so-new but that the TNGC seems to have missed? Then please post about it! The more we talk about the games we enjoy, the more we can enjoy them together.

See you in-game!

Alli

Hazes Blizzcon Diaries - Day 1

by alastriona at Aug 04 2007 15:01

All right, here we go!!!

So i woke up very early today (7.30, jetlag again!) so i had to entertain myself until the event started.

I took a stroll around the blocks (and bought a camera so you'll have shots!!!), and tanned from white to dark-white.

Around 14.00 I went to the convention center to get in line.

I met some people, all US players besides one spanish, aswell as some very weird people dressed and stuff.

'Best' things I've seen today:

-Girls with draenei horns and blood elf ears

-A guy with a sign above his head mentioning character name and guild

-People with WoW-tattoos

Of course thats nothing compared to what ill probably see during the costum contests! One of the guys I spoke to is coming as a T3 warlock.

Besides that not much happened, now im going to eat at McDonalds and go sleep probably.

Over And Out, 2/08/07

Interview with Allicorn

by aveox at Jul 09 2007 11:54

With Allicorn having been chosen our new community leader in the last few weeks, I decided to have a little chat with "Alli" to find out more about the former Starwolf outfit leader and website guru.

Aveox: Congratulations on being chosen as the new TNGC community leader with an overwhelming number of votes. First thoughts?

Allicorn: Thanks! "Eep!" might've been my actual first thought I think.

Seriously though, I'm rather surprised and very flattered. I take the outcome of the vote very seriously though and I'm going to try to do everything I can to make people happy they voted the way they did.

Aveox: Inevitable ofcourse is that we would like to know a little bit more about the person that will be bossing us around now. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Allicorn: I'm in the UK, I run a company that started out as a marketing firm but somewhere along the line seems to have 'morphed into a software house. By trade I'm a programmer & website designer. I'm also pretty active in the indie music scene, producing, remixing (mainly electro, industrial, ebm) and occasionally publishing a few things of my own.

I'm not the oldest guy in the TNGC - hehe - not quite anyway.

Aveox: Most people here know you as "the guy that made the website" and that has indeed been one of the jobs you have always done so far. Do you think it will be difficult to combine website development and running the TNGC or do you intend to drop website development?

Allicorn: Drop my baby? I certainly don't intend to at this point, but we'll have to see how time constraints pan out I guess. I have some ideas for yet another re-write of the Portal, but finding the time to allocate to the project is tough right now.

Aveox: What will be your first course of action as community leader?

Allicorn: The very first thing I've just started out on is to familiarise myself a bit more with some of those other (read: "not-PlanetSide") games that the community is playing habitually or has been toying with recently. This week I've been spinning off the track repeatedly in the rather clever rFactor and blowing up random sci-fi shiny things in Battlefield 2142. Where demos and trials exist, I plan - over the next few weeks - to get at least a little exposure to Total War, Eve, some of the demos folks have been trying out and - of course - the battleaxe-wielding behemoth that is World of Warcraft.

Aveox: Ofcourse you are a gamer, just like all of us. Curious however is that you don't actively play any of the games we currently have on offer. What sort of games do you generally like to play and is there a game you would personally like to appear in the TNGC roster?

Allicorn: I haven't really been playing as much over the last few months due to ongoing work commitments but pretty much everything I do find some time for will be an FPS. For me, as for many of us that played it, PlanetSide really killed the whole "round-based" competitive FPS, or at least set the bar a lot higher for what an FPS would have to do to really hold my attention for weeks or months. I do love a good single player story though, and so am rather a fan of Half-Life. I'd also nominate STALKER for my own personal Game of The Year award.

In terms of other games I think might be fertile ground for a TNGC Division, I'd have to say that GRAW2 ("Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2: This time the title is even longer") looks like it has some potential to be an enjoyable squad-tactical shooter, though, there's that whole "round-based" thing again.

There are some things on the horizon (or beyond) that hold some promise. Huxley has been frequently commented on here. Tabula Rasa still doesn't really appeal to me personally, but does look like it might be a quality product that the TNGC might like to invest some time in. ET:Quake Wars of course, and perhaps even APB in the distant future.

I'd love a surprise announcement from Microsoft that MechWarrior 5 is on the way and to take the community right back to its chassis-crunching roots in the BattleTech universe.

Aveox: It may be early for this, but do you already have a sort of future plan for the TNGC, a direction you want to go?

Allicorn: TBH it is taking me a bit of time to put together some coherent thoughts on this and I think I'd rather save it for a post of my own once I get something down in writing.

Anyway, in conclusion - thanks for the vote of confidence folks and thanks again to everyone who participated in the process. Get hold of me by PM or Xfire anytime and I hope to be bumping into a lot more of you real soon in the game of your choice

Aveox: Thanks for the interview!

Voidreaver eats dust!

by killerwolf at Jul 04 2007 17:22

After the latest patch everyone is attuned with both SSC and TK. We decided to visit one of the easiest 25 man bosses in the game, the voidreaver and lucky for us he drops tier 5 :).

After a few tries and a 1% wipe we finally downed him! Tier 5 shoulders went to Orlanna & Zanta, the tanking bracers to eredar.

Good job all and lets go kill Hydross in SSC!

Orlanna

Nemetos Order Slays The Lurker Below

by Natedawgg at Jun 19 2007 14:36

Nemetos Order has killed their first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern, making them one of the top guilds of the server. Through good communication and Teamwork they downed this very buggy encounter! Congratulations to all members and officers for you first step in the Caverns.

TNGC rFactor Season 2

by aveox at Jun 19 2007 12:47

With Season 1 over and Rwold being able to lean back and enjoy the champagne as season 1 champion, the drivers now get ready for season 2. A lot of things were learned during the first season, and this leads to a number of changes for the new season.

First of all is the name change. The uninspiring "TNGC Racing Series" has been replaced by the better sounding "TNGC Tuesday Thunder". Tuesday evening is the day we race, and having that in our name is only logical, if only to stand out in a crowd of "Racing Series" and "Online League's"

There is also a change of cars. The trusty Porsche 911 GT-3 Turbo's are being replaced with 3.5 V6 Renault Megane's. The Megane's will have a slightly lower top speed, but their improved aerodynamics and wider track give them much better handling in the corners.

Second is a change in the race format itself. Instead of running a single 30 minute race there will now be two 15-minute sprints. Season 1 races often got boring after the first 15 minutes as everybody was spread out, consolidated their positions and were simply driving to finish the race. A 15 minute sprint will result in a much tighter packed field, and therefore more competitive racing, times two!

Another area that was closely looked at was the driving aids. rFactor being a race simulator means you can go to uncanny heights of simulation, right down to the mechanical failures and intricate details of car setup. Season 1 was run rather conservative, allowing full ABS and stability control and having damage switched off. Season 2 will see the ABS removed, stability control only allowed in "low" mode instead of "high" and the cars can now be damaged as well. Whereas at first a crash meant having no problem at all it can now mean a flat tire, damaged bodywork or even a retirement. This will require far more driver involvement and careful driving. So while still not being brutally realistic, it isn't an arcade racer either.

Last, the starting grid is now also opened to people outside the TNGC, and ofcourse that means we are also listed at one of the biggest rFactor sites there is: rFcentral

Interested? Head over to our forums and register for Season 2! Cya on the track!

TNGC Racing Series adds offline rFactor competitions

by aveox at May 09 2007 12:10

A new offline competition has been luanched next to the existing tuesday evening online competition. In this competition you don't race directly with your opponents, but instead try to beat their best laptime. In racing communities this is known as hotlapping. It allows you to race when and where you like and compare your laptimes with other racers.

What offline competitions are available at this moment?

Right now there are two offline competitions: A Nordschleife competition where racers hotlap on the infamous 20km long Nurnburgring Nordschleife and a "demo" competition offering both F1 and touring action.

Demo competition means that rFactor demo users can also join?

Yes! Although the demo does not allow online play or the use of mods, it still allows offline hotlapping and as such can be used for competition. The demo has two cars and two tracks, and this results in a Formula 1 and a Touring competition. The Touring competition offers a medium performance BTCC-style touring car that can be driven by both absolute beginners and veterans alike. The F1 competition is aimed at the more advanced drivers, although it is fun for new drivers as well. The sheer power and speed of an F1 car is awesome.

Where can i get the rFactor demo?

You can find the demo at www.rfactor.net in the Try/Buy section.

So how exactly does this hotlapping work?

Its quite simple: You drive as fast as you can and then post your laptime in the competition thread. Your laptime is then put on a leaderboard with all the other drivers. Ofcourse you try to shoot for the top spot, so you keep polishing that perfect lap and trying to beat the other drivers. You're free to discuss car setup and driving tips with other drivers to improve your best time even more.

Whats so special about the Nordschleife that it gets its own competition?

Its probably the most challenging real life track that exists today. It's a rollercoaster through hills and forests featuring 180 turns, a 4km straight and 20kilometers in length. It requires extreme concentration and it is one of those tracks that keeps challenging you and demands lots of respect to go faster and improve your time. We race there with 3 different types of cars: The F1 car also found in the demo, our regular 2005 Porsche's and the historic 1979 F1 cars. Even in a 300 bhp Porsche you are looking at a laptime of some 7 to 8 minutes. This competition is only for the users of the full version of rFactor since it requires you to install additional tracks and cars.

Are there any limitations in terms of setups?

Although we use a fixed car setup in our online competition it is impossible to check and enforce this in an offline competition. That is why the offline competition allows you to modify car setup the way you want to.

Check out the racing series forums for details!

TNGC Monthly - April 07

by allicorn at Mar 31 2007 22:24

Hopefully a New Feature you’ll see coming from the TNGC is the Monthly Admin Discussions; focusing on what we’ve been playing, what we’re looking forward to; what we’ve spent our money on, and any interesting snippets of gaming news.

Featured Games

Dawn of War (Aveox)

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War is an RTS game. Quite simple in concept, but challenging in practice. It's actually three games: Dawn of War, Winter Assault and Dark Crusade. There's a combo pack out there somewhere.

And I think Warhammer says enough: It's sci-fi, blood, guts, robots, demons and ultraviolent fun. You can get the Free Demo here.

Command and Conquer 3

By All account a solid sequal, As Absath, (from CAD) suggests: “The perfect blend of speed, action, fun and pretty graphics. I'm having a blast with it.” Can’t wait to get my hands on this one personally – I’m very jealous of FJ playing it!

You can get the Free Demo here.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Just been released, getting an 8.5 on Gamespot – but it has seemingly passed most of the Admins By – I think a lot of us are fairly broke at the moment.

Anyone has a chance to play want to post some comments?

Soldat (Alli)

A funky little retro-style side-scrolling multi-player shooter. Its shareware, you can play it free or pay the tiny asking price to get more levels and a few other features. Network multiplay is hilarious, challenging, and frequently buggy. You can also play against bots in straight deathmatch mode. It has DM, TDM, CTF and some other modes.

Other games worth checking out

# World of Warcraft

(Amiga, FJ Aveox, Prinses)

Haven't heard of it? Welcome to Planet Earth! It may not be the spring chicken it once was but there are still lots of TNGC members enjoying WoW.

# rFactor

(Aveox)

A fast paced, versatile and highly popular racing game. Find out more in the TNGC Racing Series area on the forums.

# Supreme Commander

(Prinses, Fen)

Real-time strategy game designed from Gas Powered Games. Considered by many to be the spiritual successor to the classic Total Annihilation which was ranked by Gamespy as the number one real-time strategy game of all time.

Demo: Supreme Commander @ gamershell, Supreme Commander @ 3dgamers, Supreme Commander @ Fileplanet

# Everquest 2

(Fen)

Nobody can fail to recognize the name Everquest. What you might not know is that you can participate in a special promotion that allows you to play it for free for seven days. Want to check out the daddy of MMORPGs?

# Jade Empire

(Fen)

BioWare's popular action RPG, available on both PC and Xbox. You can even get it over Steam.

# BF2142

(Crasp and BJ)

Futuristic team-vs-team shooter and the latest in an increasingly long line of popular FPSs under the Battlefield moniker.

# BF2

(Crasp)

Ah see... there's the previous one, modern day themed but very similar. If you like either, you'll probably have a blast with both.

# GalCiv2: Dark Avatar

(Dark)

At the heart of Dark Avatar are five new strategic mechanics that radically rework the game. They include "planetary environments" (which make about half the planets impossible to colonize at the beginning of the game without researching the proper technology), random asteroid fields that provide extra industrial resources, and new spy units that can be placed on enemy planets that shut down certain tiles. Each race also has a new "super ability" and there are new "mega-events" that can turn the game around on a dime. These are more than mere bullet points; the five elements work together to completely re-invent a title that GalCiv fans thought they knew. The Dark Avatar experience is deeper and richer without being noticeably more complex.

Some phenomenal reviews around for this game, including a notable 9.1/10 from Gamespot.

# Medieval 2 Total War

(Dark, Amiga)

Amiga is looking for any challengers on the battlefield – and checkout the M2TW Section if your interested in the TNGC Grand Campaign starting in a week or so when the new patch is released!

What We’re Looking Forward To!

# Penumbra

(Alli)

Released in the last couple days. Terrific looking single player horror game from an indie startup. Totally cool gestural user interface.

You can get the Free Demo here.

# Huxley

Everyone is hoping this will be good, but it's still a long way off.

# Warhammer Online

(Aveox, Dark, a few others)

For perhaps a more PvP Orientated game with more room for people with a social Life.

# Quake Wars

(Aveox, Alli)

# Champman and Le Mans mods for rFactor

(Aveox)

# Crysis

(Everyone whose PC will run it is looking forward to this one!)

Spectacular looking FPS from the folks who brought you Far Cry. Very few people who look at the screenshots come back without their jaw on the floor - seriously - go look!

New Purchases

Bought any fun new gear this month? A couple of the admins have...

# Dark: Samsung 22" Syncmaster 226BW

"Highly Recommended, Widescreen gaming = awesome"

# Amiga: two HUGE kites. X1950pro 512mb at xmas.

"Currently formulating my spring upgrade path - thinking 2.4ghz Intel C2D proc, Asus P5B deluxe mobo, 8800gts 640mb, 2gb Corsair 6400 DDR2, Corsair 700w modular psu and a Raptor 150gb main boot drive. Should be around £800 when I'm ready to buy. Then I'll sell my AMD 3800X2, Abit AV8 3rd eye mobo, Asetek 460w psu, 2gb Corsair Pro ram and x1950pro to recover about a third of the cost of the upgrade."

Other TNGC and Gaming News

# The PS Reserves Programme has now ended

No more freebie-play on PlanetSide for a little while unfortunately.

# Moderation Changes

After some discussion, and significant feedback from the community – We’ve decided to enforce the Community Code of Conduct in a much stricter Manner – Off-topic posts will be split, and locked, if totally irrelevant, or moved to a new thread elsewhere if Relevant to a different Topic. PM a Moderator if you feel you thread is being dragged off topic and we’ll try to help.

There are significant plans to help reduce the cause as well, especially removing the Post count and Post Based Ranks in the very near future.

Rwold wins the TNGC Daytona 500!

by aveox at Feb 21 2007 20:06

February 20th, two days after the real Daytona 500 (won by Kevin Harvick), the TNGC Daytona 500 was started. The race length normally is 200 laps. Since that will take over 3 hours we decided on a more friendly 50 laps. But with 49 seconds per lap it would still be an event that would last some 40 minutes at least. But why on earth go oval racing?

Oval racing is boring, right? Most people think it is. "Just running around in circles", "No skill required" and "You dont even have to steer to the right" are just a few things they say to defend their argument. To some extend they are right. Looking at it from a simple point of view oval racing is indeed running around in circles. But then again, looking at simple points of view makes the whole of motorracing pointless. I mean: who in their right mind gets in a car on sunday afternoon, drives a distance of 300km as fast as he can and then gets out at the exact same point he started? Such is also the case with oval racing. There is a subtlety to it that most people dont see, an interaction between drivers most are not aware of. And yes, on an oval you do have to steer to the right, and it takes skill!

Enter the Daytona 500. Around mid-february the whole south-east of the United States goes nuts as the Daytona Speedweeks start, leading up to one of the greatest oval races currently known to man: The Daytona 500 (The Indianapolis 500 being the other one). 43 drivers slog it out on a 2.5 mile course called a superspeedway, which in layman's terms means a track where you can drive very very fast for a very long time without slowing down for things such as tight corners and chicanes. The corners are banked at 33 degrees. So steep you can hardly walk on it, and going there with a car slower then 100 km/h means you'll slide hopelessly to the bottom. The cars of choice to race on this track are stockcars. Open wheelers are banned as the track allows them to reach such high speeds that it is no longer deemed safe. Even the Nextel Cup cars that race there are touching the limit of safety and they have been nerfed in the past, seeing their engine power limited to some 300 brake horsepower from the 500-600 that are used on a normal track in an attempt to keep their speeds on the safe side of 300+ kph. The cars themselves are a wonder of simplicity: 1.5 tonnes of tubular frame with sheet metal plating with a big thumping V8 under the bonnet.

But then comes the question: How exactly are you supposed to make this piece of metal turn left as fast as it possibly can? Just turning the wheel to the left is not good enough and thats where the simple nature of the concept ends. The cars are heavily tweaked and off-set in every bit of their chassis to make them very good at turning left. As a result they are simply crap for going in a straight line. In fact: a stockcar driver will have to keep steering his car to the right on the straightaway to prevent the car from doing a hard left and pay any unwanted visits to the infield RV's. It feels like driving with a flat tire, but then at 300kph. Adding to the challenge, there are other drivers around, 42 of them, and they also want to win. To make things worse, mother nature decided that stockcar aerodynamics are different then normal aerodynamics. If the cars travel in groups, then they can actually drive faster then a single car. This means that you are supposed to be driving at over 300 kph, inches from an other car, steering to the right and fighting the aerodynamic forces coming off other cars to even have a shot at good position, let alone winning it. And while doing that you'll have to figure out a race strategy as well and at the same time trying to cooperate with the very people you are trying to beat. Boring eh?

There were problems right from the start, as Rwold received vehicle mismatches, resulting in an autokick from the server. Frantic troubleshooting ensued, and at some point I seriously considered to push back the event to next week. Fjusel came to aid and helped Rwold solve the issue over the phone, which turned out to be a misplaced folder.

All of our drivers chose to drive a Chevrolet. Rwold the #96 DLP Chevy, Fjusel the #8 Budweiser, Elfredo the #4 Aero Exhaust and I was driving the #3 Goodwrench Chevy. Me choosing the #3 was a no-brainer. I've been a fan of the late Dale Earnhardt for ages and even though the #3 car is cursed when it comes to Daytona (It only won once in Daytona out of some 24 races and Dale Earnhardt was killed in turn 4 at Daytona in 2001 driving this car) it still was my car of choice.

Due to the problems Rwold had, qualifying was cut short to 10 minutes, which still proved more then adequate. Rwold grabbed the pole position, with Fjusel and Elfredo rounding out the top 3. I was in 4th position and was definately off the pace, compared to the top 3 who were relatively close.

The start of the race was a rolling start and it was the first time ever that we did such a start. Below there is a lap chart with everything that happened during the race.

Lap 1: Rwold uses his pole position as best as he can and keeps the lead. Elfredo and Aveox have a slow start, giving Rwold and Fjusel a chance to create a gap of about 2 seconds.

Lap 2: Fjusel puts the pressure on Rwold, but is unable to pass. Elfredo and Aveox are fighting for 3rd place.

Lap 8: After numerous attempts Fjusel finally succeeds in passing Rwold for the lead.

Lap 10: Aveox overtakes Elfredo

Lap 11: Elfredo kisses the wall and drops out of the draft. At this point both Aveox and Elfredo no longer had a drafting partner and started losing considerable time to Fjusel and Rwold.

Lap 17: The first AI drivers make their pitstops.

Lap 18: Elfredo makes a pitstop. Rwold gets in a fight with #17 Matt Kenseth (AI driver) and drops out of Fjusels draft.

Lap 25: Aveox pitstop.

Lap 27: Rwold pitstop.

Lap 38: Fjusel pitstop. Note that the cars were only having 38 laps of fuel. Fjusel had been driving for 39 laps already (38 lap race and the warmup lap), so he was really pushing it. At the time he was truly dominating the race. Nobody even came close to the times he was driving. Rwold regains the lead as the pace car comes onto the track.

Lap 38 also saw Elfredo collide with the #24 Jeff Gordon (AI driver). Elfredo ended up in the wall which was the reason for a full course yellow.

Lap 42: Race restart. An unfortunate incident occurred where Rwold had to brake for the pace car, and Fjusel passed him giving him a stop and go penalty for passing under yellow.

Lap 44: Fjusel takes his penalty, but mistakes it for a drive-through, meaning he gets a second penalty. Aveox inherits second place because of this.

Lap 47: Fjusel takes his second penalty, dropping to 4th place.

Lap 50: Rwold wins 4.6 seconds ahead of Aveox. Elfredo takes 3rd place and is one lap down. Fjusel is 4th.

Congratulations to Rwold for driving a solid race and winning the first ever TNGC Daytona 500! Go pay him a visit on the forums to congratulate him! ;-)

TNGC rFactor Championship race 3 and 4

by aveox at Feb 20 2007 15:11

Race 3: Zandvoort, The Netherlands

Tuesday February 6th saw the 3rd race in the TNGC Porsche championship and an important one for me personally as it was the only race on Dutch soil this championship. So I wanted to win this one. Badly. The winding and twisting rollercoaster that is Zandvoort is without doubt the most difficult track on the calender and good preparation is half the work so I spend quite some time training for it. You never seem to be going in a straight line on Zandvoort except for the main straight. Its all corners and there are quite some big elevation changes. Its really something to get used to, especially after the long straights of Silverstone.

Qualifying was as usual with drivers trying to find the limit and often passing it. I think everyone has at least been into the gravel once. I decided to take revenge for the Silverstone qualifying and put down a fast 1.44.7. First lap ever in the 1.44's. Rwold came close again, but not enough to take the pole position. The AI turned out to be extremely fast here, and Elfredo was unable to get in front of them. Fjusel settled in third with a considerable gap to 2nd place.

A new feature we would use during this race was to allow everyone to run as much fuel as they want. Normally we run the cars with full tanks (89 litres) but that is usually twice the race distance, meaning you carry around a lot of unneccessary weight that slows the car down and increasing tire wear. With the race length at 16 laps I decided to take 40 litres of fuel with me, which should give me 19 laps. Rwold decided on 38 liters and both Fjusel and Elfredo also took 40 liters. When I clicked the "Race" button I already knew that I made a mistake: I did not take the warmup lap into account. But it should be ok. I still had a two lap buffer.

At the start of the race I took the lead with Rwold right behind me. Fjusel clashed with the AI again (which is also the reason to put it down to 70% strength for the rest of the season) and Elfredo decided early to settle down in a rhythem. on lap 5 Rwold made a succesfull pass on me in one of the most tricky corners of the track, but allowed me to pass in the the next corner as he went wide and had to slow down to prevent running off the track. Later on in the race Rwold made a small mistake which gave me a comfortable lead of some 5 seconds. A crucial moment as it would appear later! Two laps before the end of the race my fuel warning light came on. A quick peek on the dash showed that I had fuel left for 2 laps. Apparently I had used a lot more fuel then anticipated. Stuttgart, we have a problem! I started to ease up on the throttle, letting the car coast a bit more to preserve fuel. On the final lap, the fuel gauge dropped to "0 laps". I still wasn't worried though as I knew that Rwold had less fuel then me. He would run out before I would. Or not? In the last corner the engine started stuttering because all the fuel in the tank was pushed to one side, making the fuel pump pull air. On the main straight it ran fine for another few seconds before it died completely some 200 meters before the finish line. Rwold charged towards me, but there was still a 1.8 second gap left as I coasted across the finish line.

After we crossed the race it turned out that for everybody except myself and the AI, the fuel had been reset to 89 liters again. The AI's ran the same fuel load as I selected, and they decided to pit in the last lap.

1. Aveox

2. Rwold

3. Fjusel

4. Elfredo

Race 4: Nurnburgring, Germany

A German car on a German F1 track. That has to be good, and it did prove to be the most exciting race yet. The track itself is wide and fast, much like silverstone, but it is hard to pass. There are two key parts of the track: A technical section right at the start of the lap which requires you to drive smooth and precise, and the chicane before the last corner, which has curbstones that reach to the skies. Running onto the curbs is fast, but dangerous and you risk losing the car and a lot of time.

Rwold grabbed pole position with a very good lap. I tried to keep up, but Rwold apparently found 0.5 seconds somewhere in the second sector that I could not counter. Fjusel was hot on our heels, and Elfredo also turned a few good laps. With the AI being "Fjusel-friendly" now at 70% it meant they were all behind us.

At the start of the race I raced Rwold for the first corner and managed to sneak by. Coming out of the 1st corner I made a mistake by going too wide and not defending properly. Rwold retook the lead and I now had to defend against Fjusel who was trying to pull the stickers off my rear bumper. I managed to fend off Fjusel and close the gap to Rwold. A titanic battle followed, with me trying to overtake Rwold four times. We banged doors several times but he managed to stay ahead. I pushed it too hard on the last attempt to overtake and spun off, losing only a few seconds, but enough to lose 2nd place to Fjusel. Fjusel tried attacking Rwold, but Rwold managed to pull away. I managed to close the gap to Fjusel and when he made gave it too much throttle coming off a slow corner I managed to get by, although contact was made between the two cars. I immediately put some distance between the two of us to prevent Fjusel from counterattacking.

Rwold and I were doing similar laptimes now, and the gap stayed between 4 and 6 seconds. Fjusel pushed it a bit too hard trying to keep up, going wide in a fast corner and losing precious seconds. Then in lap 7 Rwold spun in a slow part of the track. It was not enough for me to pass him, but it did allow me to close the gap and put pressure on him. On the backstraight I got into his slipstream and I wrestled my way past him at the chicane. This time I managed to put some distance between Rwold and me. A few laps later Rwold apparently made a braking mistake as he missed the first corner completely and smashed into the guardrail. I now had a clear track ahead and could run a safe pace until the race ended. Rwold kept 2nd place, with Fjusel at some distance in 3rd and Elfredo in 4th, who had been running a race without any major shunts and put down a nice pace near the end of the race.

1. Aveox

2. Rwold

3. Fjusel

4. Elfredo

TNGC rFactor championship race 1 and 2

by aveox at Feb 02 2007 11:44

The TNGC Racing Series is now two races old, and already there's quite a lot of things going on. What initially has started as a 2-player experiment has now turned into a 5 player league. Here's the overview of the first two races

Brands Hatch, race 1

The first race ever in the all new racing series! Months of testing had finally led to the start of the championship so its needless to say that everybody was excited about it. Next to Amigafan and myself there were now two new drivers: Elfredo and Rwold, both from Norway and friends in real life. 16 AI drivers filled the remaining grid spots. The hilly Brands Hatch circuit had been used as a testbed for the championship rules and there had people had run hundreds of laps in the preseason practices and testraces.

In qualifying I went out immediately to make sure I had an empty track for my first timed run. Brands Hatch is not the easiest place to pass, and if you get stuck behind another car your fast lap is ruined. Already on the 2nd timed lap I put in a 1:28.9 My fastest lap ever on Brands Hatch and damn near perfect in every aspect. I never got any better then a mid 1:29 after that. Rwold was driving like a man possessed and finally managed to squeeze out a 1:28.9 as well, only 0.003 of a second slower. If you put that in distances, the nose of my car would have been 12cm's ahead of Rwold's car when passing start/finish after that lap. Later in qualifying I managed to ruin Amiga's fastest lap as I passed him and put both him and me in the gravel trap (still sorry for that Rob!)

At the start of the race I floored it to keep ahead of Rwold and I managed to stay ahead into the Druids hairpin. That hairpin turned into a warzone as Rwold spun and Amiga overshot the braking point and plowed into the gravel. Elfredo tried to dodge the mess but was still involved. Rwold managed to keep a top 5 position and was soon back in 2nd spot. Amiga and Elfredo ended up at the back of the pack. All of this gave me a healthy lead and I could relax a bit and get into my rhythem. Halfway into the race Amiga decided to call it a day. A thumb injury was acting up and made it impossible for him to hold his gamepad, making him the first DNF. At that time I came upon the first AI drivers that had to be lapped. Elfredo allowed me to pass easily the lap before but the AI made things a bit more difficult, especially since they were all bunched up and racing among themselves. I took my time getting through them, but it seems that Rwold was a bit more aggressive and gained some 10 seconds on me. After we had both passed all the AI drivers I managed to pull away and win the race with a 17 second lead.

Race results:

1. Aveox

2. Rwold

3. Elfredo

4. Amigafan

Northamptonshire / Silverstone, Race 2

Race 2 had already been postponed a week. Internet problems in Norway made it impossible for Rwold and Elfredo to connect and Amiga had to work late so the race was canceled and moved to the next week. The venue of choice was Northamptonshire or better known as the Silverstone Grand Prix track. It's wide, fast and has some technical sections and its definately not one of my favorites. Amiga was again forced to work late so he missed his home GP. Fjusel, a real life friend of Rwold joined for the first time and was fast from the start.

In qualifying Rwold put down an ultra fast 1.56.1. A full second faster then my 1.57.2. I knew Rwold was fast, but this....Ouch! I drove the wheels off my Porsche to try and keep up but I couldnt improve my time anymore. Fjusel grabbed 3rd place and Elfredo was a bit off the pace and ended up last.

At the start of the race I got the holeshot and moved ahead of Rwold who didnt have the best of starts. Fjusel got some love from one the AI drivers which resulted in a spin. Elfredo's last position suddenly looked a lot better as he swerved around the stranded cars and moved forward a number of positions. Up front Rwold recovered from his bad start and was all over my rear bumper. I knew he was a lot faster then me so all I could do was drive defensively and somehow hope to keep that up for 15 laps. After two laps of door banging the inevitable happened and we crashed. Rwold went off into the grass and I decided to wait since I did not know who caused the wreck (later the replay would show that we both had our part in it). Rwold came back on the track and finally managed to pass me shortly after. Now it was my turn to put pressure on him, but after another two laps the distance had grown considerably and I decided to concentrate on driving clean to stay ahead of Fjusel. Then in lap 7 I saw Rwold's car hop around on the curbs in turn 1 before diving into a concrete wall. Its a good thing we have damage switched off!

I moved into the lead, but I was only 7 seconds ahead with 8 laps to go. Immediately Rwold started taking large chunks out of my lead and got it down to 4 seconds before making a small mistake and giving me some more room. At that point my tires started to go off and the car started to understeer a lot more. 3 laps before the end Rwold had come so close that I could actually hear his car behind me in the slower turns. The laps counted down and the last lap I was driving extremely carefully. There was no more room for error and pushing as hard as I could I almost lost it in the chicane. When we crossed the finish line Rwold was only 1.3 second behind me. Had the race lasted 16 laps then I would have never succeeded in keeping him behind me. Fjusel meanwhile had charged through the field coming from last place and was rather bored in 3rd place with no cars behind or in front. Elfredo did well and moved up into a top 5 position until a couple of spins put him at the back of the pack again. All in all everybody was happy with the results.

Race results:

1. Aveox

2. Rwold

3. Fjusel

4. Elfredo

The near future: The Porsche's move to Zandvoort next week and the Daytona 500 in mid february starts to get really close now! Stay tuned!

The Community in 2007!

by Firejack at Jan 02 2007 23:30

Always one for being awkward and doing things differently I'm going to start looking ahead to 2007 by looking back at 2006 as its a good time for a review of the community :D

2006 was a year of two halves. With the first part of the year fairly dominated by the rapid progress of Nemetos Order. Within the first few months of the year the Guild had established itself as one of the big Guilds on the server. Achieving many milestones including the completion of Molton Core and BlackWing Lair in record-breaking time from start to finish. Enrichment of the community was also achieved from this swift advance with many more liked-minded gamers joining the Nemetos ranks and committing themselves to the community.

One person I think deserves special mention is Tonny (Killerwolf/Orlanna). His outstanding performance as Guild Leader is an example for all and deserves special recognition. Brilliant leadership and commitment to the Guild has made Nemetos a very happy place to be. So from myself and the rest of the Community big thanks to Tonny who is TNGC Member of the Year. Gold star for you sir! ( And yes I did just make that award up ;) )

The second half of the year was mixed but still a great success. Many people have gone beyond the call of duty to make the Community better for all this year.

Particular praise must go to Allicorn who has once again made our website a marvel of the online world. Not only that but alongside 3D they produced a stunning article in PC Plus magazine. Hats off to both you guys for going to the trouble of publishing that article! You can view it in the TNGC Gallery

Innovate was another big plus to the second half of last year. Good old Straz set us up with our own CounterStrike division that led to our CounterStrike Source server that many of you will recall killing me on!

Was promising to see many others cross-over from other games and start mixing with others in the Community. Not only in CounterStrike but EVE online that has attracted a fair few recruits from other parts of the Community. Hopefully more will follow and give it a try with the Revelations expansion that has recently been added.

Looking ahead to the games of 2007

Some gut feeling I have for 2007 fills me with real high expectations for the next 12 months in gaming. Technologically the next 12 months promises to be packed with new innovations being powered by the latest hardware and software developments. With Dual-core processors becoming more widely used the possibility for even more advanced physics and artificial intelligence promises the best gaming experience ever. A major update to Windows with Vista also promises improvements to online gaming and graphics thanks to DirectX10 and compatibility online with titles released on both XBOX and PC.

There are many games planned for release in 2007, much more then 2006. These are a small collection of the games I'm looking at and what I think we'll be playing throughout the year.

The Burning Crusade

World of Warcraft is a favourite for many of us and The Burning Crusade looks like being the first must have game of 2007. Inside the expansion two new races are added, for the Alliance the Dranei and for the Horde the Blood Elves. The expansion also should provide a much more comfortable environment for the community to enjoy the game as a whole. Gone will be the nightmare of organising 40 many raids with smaller 25 man raids taking over. Shifting the focus of many from nuking to individual involvement of more tactical and varied play. More 5-man instances introduce new worthwhile targets outside of Raids to enjoy instead of mindless grinding of Raid materials. Definitely looking forward to having more time to explore this time.

While you wait for the expansion be sure to watch the Cinematic Intro from the WoW site

Huxley

Of all the games due for release in 2007 Huxley is the one that has me most excited. A new MMOFPS set in a futuristic war-torn world with a battle raging between Sapiens (Humans) and Alternatives (Mutated Humans) with all the hardware weaponry you'd expect to journey to victory with. There are also Hybrids in the game world that you can hunt down for experience and to complete quests.

So much am I looking forward to the release of Huxley provisionally I've set myself the target of relaunching the Myriad Apocalypse Project as the TNGC Division for Huxley :)

Links:

Website

Video

Tabula Rasa

For me this is a really interesting prospect. A Futuristic MMOFPS in a 3rd person perspective. Mixing a bit of RPG and FPS play together to make a sort of Planetside meets Guild Wars style, at least that's how I view it when I watch the game trailers.

The storyline appears to be very well written with a lot of lore about the battle for the Galaxy by the Alien race known as the Bane. You play as the rebels trying to stop them.

Those interested should visit the Website and check out the Movies page.

Iron Grip: The Oppression

Though technically this isn't a game, its a Half Life 2 mod. And technically its not a 2007 game it was originally released in 2006. I've put this down as a future game to watch because 1.3 is going to mean a lot of bug fixes that should make the game more playable as it suffers a bit from bad AI caused lag at he moment. 1.3 also brings a Linux server which will mean we are able to host are own server.

Ok with the technicalities out of the way. What exactly is Iron Grip? Without doubt its the most promising Half life 2 mod in development. Finally we are seeing what the source engine can do beyond a standard FPS point of view. Iron Grip is set in war-torn world where the insurgency is fighting an uprising against the Rahmos opressive Regime. Doesn't sound too different to every other FPS, so far. Here is the key to game that makes this stand out amongst other mods. One team consists of just one player playing an Rahmos City Legion Officer who plays from a RTS viewpoint and the other team battles against overwhelming odds working as a team from a FPS viewpoint! Sounds awesome I'm sure you'll agree!

Links:

Video

Website

Quake Wars

For me this looks like the most promising FPS of the year. Many of you would of playing Wolfenstein Enemy Territory yourself or when Dismus arrange an event night for the game. Well the same people behind that landmark game have been working hard to develop a game with the same integrated teamplay this time based in the Quake universe.

The concept is you play as one of several different classes with their own strengths and weaknesses and special abilities. Indeed this idea has been copied from Enemy Territory into many games like the Battlefield series.

The game is set in the future during the early stages of the Strogg invasion of Earth. The game has been designed to be an Online only multiplayer game and has therefore spent all the development time on outstanding graphics and gameplay with of course the usual assortment of vehicles and weapons to make it interesting.

Links:

Gameplay Video

Website

Crysis

Crysis promises to be the big PC game of the year. Not only is it by the same developers who made FarCry such an amazing game, it is also just about the most advanced game technologically being released this year. Stunning graphics and the instantly fascinating storyline based on an Alien spaceship crashed on Earth. This does appear to be the must have game of the coming year.

Multiplayer mode looks very interesting with a large destructible game world to play in. The vehicles look awesome too. Especially the Humvee an d Tank in the Video.

Links:

Video

Website

Other interesting projects in the Community

My personal project at the moment is the community Wiki. Many of you have already discovered it. For those that haven't you may want to take a look around at that I've been working on the last few months. The idea of the Wiki is to provide a complete resource for all things TNGC. This means everyone is welcome to add articles to add further content. There are many interesting and informative articles that are well worth a read.

The Wiki is still fairly new but its growing all the time. A Wiki is a community project where all can freely contribute. We want your knowledge! Be sure to add any words of wisdom you have on whatever gaming/Community related topic you like. Make certain you polish up on your TNGC knowledge. You never know when I'm going to spring a pop quiz on you! http://www.thetngc.org.uk/wiki

Medieval 2 Total War is proving very successful. Amiga is currently in the process of setting up a League and I'm planning a Grand Campaign for the Community. All are welcome to sign up. Check out the Total War section on the forums.

Some reminders

Many of you have already got yourselves signed up to the TNGC Xfire Clan. Highly recommend the rest of our members also spend 5 minutes and sign up. Xfire is proving a valuable tool for organising games and staying in touch with the community as well as allow me to spy on what every is upto and plan accordingly :) Visit the Wiki for more information - http://www.thetngc.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Xfire

Don't forget to visit the TNGC portal! Many people still skip this part of the website when they first the forums. Please take the time to check once in a while, what's going on and where. All the interesting news is posted here as well a collection of media. Don't forget to check out the Gallery and create your own profile. We'd love to know move about who we are playing with and so many still haven't introduced themselves with a picture. Instructions on getting the most from the Portal are available in the Wiki under Website Services

Currently we have 2 game servers and we aren't making the most of them. We just have Half Life 2 Deathmatch and CounterStrike Source running on them. Obviously I plan to add Iron Grip/ Crysis/ Quake Wars when they are made available. That could be awhile away. So if anyone has any suggestions post on the forums. Check the Game Servers page in the Wiki for more info.

Finally I hope you all have started saving for the TNGC Grand Day out to Blackpool! Hosted by the one and only Amigafan and organised by that funny fella Lews. Big thanks to you guys for arranging this. Hope everyone who wants to go is able to make it. Don't forget to sign on the forums so Amiga and Lews have an idea of numbers. No point arranging a minibus for transport is we need a double decker bus!

Thats about it. Thanks to everyone for making the Community a continuing success :)

The Burning Crusade

by Natedawgg at Nov 19 2006 17:21

World of Warcraft has been the biggest MMORPG ever made with over 7.5 million subscribers to date and you will expect a lot of people to be a little eager to get their mitts on the highly anticipated expansion pack The Burning Crusade. There is of course a lucky amount of people who got invited to the closed beta of the game from winning competitions and by being randomly invited. As you would expect from the biggest online game around it will have to up its ante to keep the hardcore gamers and casuals alike to keep playing this game and Blizzard has defiantly delivered.

The content in this expansion is based around Illidan and his mighty Burning Legion having returned from there epic defeat on Mount Hyjal to rid the whole of existence of life and only you and the new found allies of the Horde and Alliance venture into the continent of Outlands to stop this from happening. Outland is a vast region including areas that have been devastated by the Burning Legion and marshland filled with huge plantations and creatures. There's also the new neutral city Shattrath, the main home in the Outlands for both Horde and Alliance.

The Blood Elves and the Draenei have stepped up to stop the Burning Legion each with new low level areas and cities has had a lot of work put into them as each city is stunningly made. As you get 2 races you also get 2 classes that were once only restricted to factions. The Blood Elves have managed to bend the light in their favour and become paladins. The Draenei have learnt the ways of the elements and now have mastered them to become shamans. The new classes will bring new aspects to raiding and also a new balance to the player versus player side of the game.

Not only has the expansion brought these two new mythical classes but Blizzard has also added dozens of new dungeons Including Hellfire Citadel, Kharazan, The Black Temple and the eagerly awaited Caverns Of Time. The caverns bring a new exciting approach to parties allowing players to recreate big events in the past such as rescuing thrall from Durnholde Keep and The Battle on Mount Hyjal. Blizzard have made a new "Heroic mode" for all the outland instances that can only be accessed once you gain respect with a certain faction. Once you have this key you will be accessing the same dungeons as you did when you were levelling but now they are adjusted to make a lot more challenge for level 70 players and with it, the loot has also been adjusted. When you complete a heroic mode instance you get given a token that you can use to get yourself epic gear with from a vendor in Shattrath city. It is good that Blizzard has implemented a fair system for casual gamers to get good gear without having to raid but of course it’ll still be a little less good than the gear you get from raiding. The new raid dungeon cap has been lowered from 40 heads to 25 making raids less stressful to put together and also add more responsibility to each person. There is also new tiered armour for the level 70 raiding dungeons that now instead of giving the tiered item right away, gives them a token to hand in to a vendor where the more hybrid classes can now choose a different type of set to go with what they want. For example, warriors have a tanking set and a damage set each with different stats and different set bonuses. Blizzard have done this to try and break the mold with some classes who previously had been stereotyped into doing only one part of the role they could do.

The level cap of the game has been raised to level 70 meaning that there are new spells and two more tiers of talents in each talent tree for every class to get stuck into. Unfortunately its back to the old questing and grinding once again with fun but challenging quests for the level 60+ and the new Blood Elf and Draenei low level zones. With new quests comes new factions you can gain friendships or get unfriendly with. One example of this is in Shattrath city there are 2 factions there that: one you have to swear allegiance to and the other become hated by. Choose wisely! As one faction gives different rewards than the other.

The profession cap has been increased so you can now learn more Crafted items or enchants including the newly added profession Jewel crafting. This profession allows players to create their own rings, trinkets, necklaces and also Socket gems. The Socket gems are one of the big changes in the game, allowing armour and weapons that have gem slots to add gems with different stats, to improve and add uniqueness to your gear.

Even though you might be level 70, it doesn't mean you'll have fully explored the Outlands. Flying mounts have been added to the game and are essential to getting to some raiding areas of outlands. There are the gryphons for Alliance and the Horde fly on wyverns but there are also other flying mounts such as the Nether Drake that is obtainable through reputation grinding and questing.

The whole player versus player system has been massively overhauled removing the constant grinding to keep your PvP rank, creating a new more enjoyable system. Now every player you kill or PVP objective you complete you'll get honour points that you can accumulate along with Battleground insignias to buy PvP weapons/armours/potions and the PvP mounts. With an expansion you would be expecting new Battlegrounds - well - Blizzard has implemented the new arena PVP where you can have arena teams of 2v2 3v3 or 5v5. This is the old school you and enemy nothing else straight up death match.

Players can also make official Arena teams and be put into arena rankings to see who is the best team on the server. Also a new capture the flag battleground has been added, the Eye of the storm is a 15 v 15 battle over 2 floating masses of land connected by bridges. The objective is to capture 4 tower points around the BG. The catch ... only being one flag to capture a tower at a time. The more towers you possess comma the more points you get over time and the first to 2000 points wins the battle.

The Mount Hyjal battleground has been kept quiet at the moment.

In addition to these battlegrounds there have been outdoor PvP objectives put into every area of outlands that give the winning faction at that time bonuses such as +damage in that zone for all that faction or even battling to take over a whole village and get special rewards from the vendors there. Blizzard wanted to improve the PvP and from what I have seen so far they have done what they should of done when they released the first of the PvP content - making it more fun and less of a grind.

All in all The Burning Crusade is going to keep players occupied for months to come with Blizzard also implementing new content in future patches it’ll be hard for you not to have something to do in the game. This will be the game of next year! This will be the game that will cause 7.5 million people with square eyes but who cares when a game like this is so fun. Well done Blizzard, I want to see the same with the future expansions and you will be set for life!

Medieval II:Total War

by amigafan2003 at Nov 17 2006 14:45

The Total War series by Creative assembly have set the benchmark for RTS war games. Enormous real time battles have spawned legions of swordsmen, massed ranks of archers and even marauding elephants. A rich turn-based strategic game wraps all these tactical battles into a seamless world, of which you are King! It even had a TV programme built around it’s engine – Time Commanders and a Discovery channel programme used it to illustrate historic battles. All of this has just taken another step forward with the release of the latest instalment – Medieval II: Total War.

The Total War series started off in feudal Japan, bristling with Samurai and sneaky Ninjas. This was followed by a trip to Medieval Europe with long hard fought battles with immense ranks of Spearmen grinding each other down. The third instalment took us back in history to ancient Rome, fluid battles and quick attacks were the order of the day against rampaging barbarian hordes.

This brings us up to the present game, where we in fact go over well trodden ground. However, things look much more unpleasant this time around, which is a bizarre tribute to the enhanced graphics engine. The Middle Ages have never looked so disgusting!

In common with the other Total War series, this is a turn based strategy game where the battles are fought out on a real time tactical battle map. It’s probably worth making clear the distinction between “Strategic” and “Tactical” as it will have a big impact on how you play the game. Strategic defines the overall “Big Picture”. It’s you monetary income, it’s your recruitment, how you army are move and where too. What buildings do you build and what enemies do you attack. Only with the correct strategy will you win the main game. Tactical choices define the choices made in the individual battles and skirmishes. Do you flank to the right? Do you archers sit in the first line? How are you going to break down the castle walls so you’re men can loot and pillage? You may have very strong armies and you may be attacking the right settlements but without a sound tactical ethos, you will simply be throwing cannon fodder at the enemy. The RTS battles can be decided by the computer but where is the fun in that? Also, you often do better when you fight the battles yourself. I have often won against numbers three times greater than my own due to better tactics whereas the computer decided battles seem to only take into account unit composition and numbers.

The turn based game see you maundering your armies, collecting resources and making alliances – unless it’ the French as then you’ll probably want to head straight into and lay siege to Paris! Manuver your army to attack an enemy on the strategic map and you’re whisked into a battlefield that actually mirrors that on the main map. Attack an enemy that holds possession on the main map and you’ll actually fight that enemy on an RTS map with a bridge defended by that enemy. This makes battle choices on the main map and important consideration – even if you have superior numbers you could find yourself on the losing side if your enemy has set up camp in an unassailable position.

This brings me neatly onto the main mechanics of the RTS game, which I think is best explained by examples. There is an underlying principle of a rock-paper-scissors approach to combat. Cavalry units are very powerful and will sweep any archers away with ease. However, spearmen can stop a cavalry charge dead in its track if the spearmen stay tightly grouped together. The trouble is, if you keep your spearmen grouped in tight formation and the archers will have an ideal opportunity to pour a thousand arrows into ready made practice range. Every unit has their nemesis – the skill is to fight the battles you can win.

There are modifiers to unit’s effectiveness on the battle field. A unit who is up a hill and facing downwards will quite easily fend of anyone attacking up the hill against them. A cavalry charge into the side or back of a defensive line will simply roll that line up though. Have two cavalry units attack from each side of a defensive line and the defending unit will most probably pack up shop and leave the field to go crying home to mummy. Flanking attacks are the key to winning many battles. Learn how to manuver your army and get them into a good position for both defence and attack. Many battles fought in the Medieval period only lasted one or two hours but most of the day(s) beforehand were taken up by trying to out manuver the enemy. While battles aren’t going to take days in Total War, it is not a waste to spend 5 minutes arranging your army. It is very satisfying to out manuver your enemy and deliver a totally annihilating blow because they are not in a position to respond to your attack.

Playing the game for the first time, I was initially disappointed that the only things to have changed from Rome:TW were the graphics. Getting deeper into the game after a few days play shows there are quite a few subtle but worthwhile differences. First of all, you can choose your settlements to be either a town – for profit, growth and religious dominance – or you can make it a fortress for defensives, military and public obedience superiority. This adds a subtle layer to the strategic game. Do you make that town on the border with Scotland a fortress so you can repel the pesky skirt wearing rabble or to you make it a town so that you may trade peaceably with the mis-understood poets of the north?

In a nod to Civilisation, the strategic map is littered with resource icons. To exploit these, a new non-fighting unit type is available – merchants. A great dimension is sending a merchant into enemy territory to grab their resources. This is particularly effective against a large town with a large income. Careful though, as this kind of action may force that faction into open combat to protect its resources. That may be exactly what you want though and it’s a great way to initiate combat without you being the aggressor. The Pope isn’t keen on Christian kingdoms making war against each other but he comes down hardest on the aggressors.

Now is probably a good time to talk about the religious intricacies of the game. The Papacy is a big power in the Medieval period. You can expect the Pope to request you to take unruly rebel settlements, usually for a “standing” reward. You may even be requested to join a Holy Crusade against the Muslin Infidels. Beware though, upset the Pope and he’ll bear a grudge longer than your wife. Really annoy him and you might even be excommunicated – wave goodbye to the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal salvation. Being the power mad cloth wearing nut he is, he might even bring a crusade to your door, quite happy to leave Jerusalem to its own defences until the “heretic” threat is removed.

The Popes influence shows that while you may be King, you do not exclusively have control of your own kingdom (or even destiny). Every kingdom has a Council of Nobles. They occasionally make demands and suggestions, often offering a reward of money or troops if you complete their mission. Unlike the Pope though, they have the best of intentions for your kingdom. They may not have noticed one of your border towns is under protected and will ask that you send re-inforcements. A blockade of an enemy’s port may be suggested to reduce the strength of a powerful enemy. However, they do sometimes ask the near impossible, like assault a stupefyingly powerful castle – now is your time to show how good a general you are and put the world in awe of your might!

From a totally personal viewpoint, I much prefer the battles in this incarnation as opposed to Rome. The battles in Rome were very fluid but seemed to be over way to quickly. I find the long slogs in Medieval much more satisfying. It gives you time to move reserves in and alter the course of the battle, rather than it all being over before it has started. This coupled with the increased graphical quality make the battles glorious. Creative Assembly have done an outstanding job by “de-synchronising” the animations. No longer to all members of the same unit hack and slash in the same manner. They now have individual stances, attacks and parries. Zoom in up close to the combat and you’ll see a spearman thrust his sword forward only to have it knocked aside by the knight on horseback which is then returned in kind by a sweeping backslash across the back of the spearman’s head.

The last thing to look at is the multiplayer aspect. Unfortunately the turn based game hasn’t been made multiplayer capable. This is how it has been for the last the TW games. When Shogun was released, there were no ideas how to implement turn based games in a multiplayer environment. However, since then we have been shown it is possible with games like Civ IV. I think it’s about time creative Assembly seriously looked at this issue. Some people may be reading this why bother playing online if you only get half a game, i.e. the RTS battles. I prefer to look at it another way. Total War is two great games, seamlessly merged into one fantastic over all environment. So while only the RTS battles are available to play online, you are still getting one great game! There are also many variations to keep the battles fresh. For example, 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, 4vs4 (or any combination, 1vs3 etc) or even an 8 player free for all. You can play on various pre-rendered maps. You can have battles on a plain, in a valley, on a wooded hillside, fight for the control of a bridge. Why not shut yourself up in a huge castle and see if four of your friends can weed you out of you stronghold – it can all be done in the multiplayer. Many gaming clans set up a league table and organise regular battles. It’s a great idea to give the “one off” battles a persistent feel and some even create a pseudo map to be fought over. Creative Assembly are due to release their modding toolset to the community in the next two weeks. So keep an eye out for mods and historical battles - it also means you can create you own battle maps.

This is where I should give the game a score – I’m not going to. All I will say is this is the best strategy game I have ever played. Civ IV may be a better turn based game, some people may prefer AoE as an RTS game but nothing comes close to combining these two elements. Total War set the bar very high with Shogun – so high that no one ever got near. The bar is now almost out of reach.

Well, I hope you have all enjoyed my review and look forward to doing battle against many of you in the future. Keep an eye for the upcoming TNGC battle league!

Nemetos Order presents: The Grand Screenshot competition

by tricobalt at Nov 03 2006 19:12

Well, it is finally over. Our very first screenshot competition. And without further rambling about it I present the Grand Master of Screenshots:

Aczeren!

The task was a simple one: Make a screenshot of you character in an environment of your taste. And we got some nice entries indeed. Though what is a contest without a proper reward? Nothing of course. Thus everyone who participated donated money, crafting materials, weapons and armor to a certain bank alt character. And even with 10 legal entries the reward is about 230g+. So that was it for this competition, stay tuned! Tricobalt over and out.

The winner!!!

Second place

Third place

rFactor championship gets the green light.

by aveox at Oct 27 2006 11:47

rFactor gets the green light!

Brands Hatch, UK

There's a lot of work to be done before the TNGC rFactor championship can start it's first ever race in Brands Hatch on November 7th. Despite being a very busy person, we managed to get an interview with Aveox, co-founder of the series and in daily life CEO of World of Warcraft guild Beltain Lords.

TNGC: "Let's get straight to the point. What is rFactor all about?"

Aveox: "rFactor is a racing simulation with an open structure. This means the user can add cars and tracks as he sees fits, and mix them up any way he likes. The game was designed with modding and online racing in mind, and it shows. The number of high-quality mods available is just staggering, and there's more being released on a daily basis. You can race practically anything you like."

T: "Race anything you like? Can you give some examples?"

A: "Formula 1 2005, 2006 and 1979, Indy Racing League, A1 Grand Prix, Formula 3, Porsche Carrera Cup, V8 Supercars, Sprintcars, European Touring Car Championship, NASCAR, Seat Leon Supe...."

T: "Yes, yes, I get the point. thanks."

T: "With game having an emphasis on realism I think that means the newbie racers and keyboard jockeys are out of business?"

A: "Not really. rFactor has lots of driving assists to help keyboard drivers and newbies alike. Ofcourse, the more experience you have, the more you will find that these assists are in fact hindering you, but basically the car can almost drive itself with all the assists switched on.

T: "Ok, onto the championship then. Why did you decide to start one?"

A: "Well, I discovered rFactor some time ago when looking for some NASCAR Racing 2003 mods. It's only available online so I didnt spot it when it was released in 2005. I started racing and downloading mods (10Gb already). When Amiga got word of it he tried the game as well. With him and me being real petrolheads we decided to try an online race, which was quite a succes. One thing led to the other and here we are."

T: "What does the championship look like?"

A: "We plan on running several championships in a year actually. Each championship lasts 10 races, with a race being run every week on Tuesday evening. After finishing one championship, we will switch mods and run a different set of cars in a new championship to keep things fresh. For this first season we will be using the Porsche Carrera Cup 2005. The Porsche GT3 is pretty fast, but easy to control and therefore the ideal car for our first steps into online racing. The races themselves last about 30 mins. It's not really a sprint race, but just long enough to be challenging."

T: "So far there's just Amigafan and you. So only two cars on the track?"

A: "No. We have a 20-car grid. All spots not filled by players will be filled by AI drivers, which will be set to a very competitive level! Should more players join in, we will simply sack the lowest placed AI driver and give his car to the new player. So even with 2 people there is lots of racing to be had."

T: "Who is allowed to join the championship? Any sort of racing experience needed?"

A: "Everybody is welcome to join, regardless of skill level or experience. It's all about having fun and racing eachother. We do put a strong emphasis on sportsmanship and fair driving though. You can be 10 seconds a lap slower if you want, but don't try and wreck someone deliberately or any other sort of stunts."

T: "There is also rumor of special events...."

A: "Yes, we are definately planning special events! Some races like the Le Mans 24 hrs or the Indy 500 are too much fun to pass up, so we will run our own versions of those in the same month as the real thing."

T: "24 hours of sim racing on Le Mans?"

A: "That would be too much! Actually we're thinking of making it 24 laps instead. With laps on Le Mans being about 4 minutes, you're looking at around 1,5 to 2 hours worth of racing. That is about as much time as a regular race driver would be in his car during a stint in the Le Mans race."

T: "Thank you for your time!"

A: "No problem at..... wait a minute. That #^&*@ Amiga just beat my fastest time! Sorry, have to go now!"

Mindless Enthusiasm versus Innovate

by crasp at Oct 20 2006 22:07

The TNGC now has 2 CS clans, innovate as you all know is the more professional outfit, but a second less structured clan has been created for casual competitive play, Mindless Enthusiasm. (I thought it fitted quite nicely given the circumstances)

The first Practice Clan War of Mindless Enthusiasm's career was against community friends innovate, and despite getting thoroughly pasted all over dust2 and compound, we learned 2 valuable lessons. 1) that boomon is our greatest natural resource and that 2) innovate have a lot to teach us.

Despite the expected loss, we had a lot of fun with 6 players in total from the ME* team taking part. Our next steps are to practice a bit more, work out some solid tactics for our official maps and learn the technical side to the game which will be discussed on the forum I expect.

Big thanks to all involved and ofc to our opponents!

(obligatory screenies of us being taken apart like newbies)

ME* as Counter-Terrorists

ME* as Terrorists

Starwolf Joins an Alliance

by Evilelmo at Oct 16 2006 13:03

Just want to show what's currently happening in Eve. Starwolf has just entered into an Alliance which is basically a group of corporations. Imagine it as if you had join several guilds together to make a megaguild.

These are the Screenshots of the first fleet operation

Meeting point at Isinokka

Waiting for the 0.0 gang

The blob!

Let´s go!

Here also is a video of some of the action

Fleet Operation

Basically we had players meeting in 0.0 space and players in empire space. 0.0 space is basically a gereral pvp area where near enough anything goes, whereas empire space is protected by the empire police. The 0.0 veterans came and met up with the empire guys and took us on a general tour.

Starwolf is currently recruiting so if any of you guys are interesting in giving eve a go we'll show you the ropes.

Innovate joins the Community

by Firejack at Aug 29 2006 11:02

Buy some more Flashbangs and ammo. The TNGC kits up for CounterStrike: Source!

Innovate is the latest venture in our expanding list of games the community is now active in. Formed by Straz, a long term Nemetos member, Innovate is a small group of friends who previous played together under another name. Today however they have decided to join the community and carry the TNGC banner into Clan Versus Clan Warfare.

The Innovate CounterStrike: Source server is now online at: 212.159.6.226:27015

The Innovate Website is online also : http://innovate.thetngc.org.uk/

Big thanks to Straz for setting this up!

The Downfall of Vaelastrasz

by Firejack at Apr 27 2006 23:13

Tonight the corruption that is Vaelastrasz tonight fell as the Nemetos Order advance one step further into the heart of Blackwing Lair. Only 39 challenged this dragonkin but victory was once again achieved through superior tactics, teamwork and communication.

Tonight took several attempts. An average start followed by a few close run contests resulted in a 1% wipe! Then a server crash! Finally we succeeded.

Big thanks to all those who took part tonight and helped make this possible.

Irricas -- Officer of the Nemetos Order

Nemetos hits the bigtime, Razorgore killed!

by Firejack at Apr 11 2006 22:51

Tonight just after 9PM an epic quest to slay Razorgore and define the Nemetos Order as a Blackwing Lair raiding guild resulted in total success. With the right combination of classes, teamwork, communication, skill and determination we were able to down Razorgore on the 5th attempt after some unsuccessful attempts leaving us with 1 egg remaining on the 3rd try. This wasn't to stop us as we were able to refine our tactics and clear the first obstacle between Nemetos and Nefarian.

Here is a picture showing the loot and participants in this milestone for the Guild. >>

So many members performed outstanding tonight but some I think deserve special mention.

Crasp for doing an excellent job drilling us tanks in our roles.

Silentkiller for outstanding effort in helping us work out suitable tactics

Orlanna, couldn't kill Hogger without this guy leading us

We may be the longest standing Guild on Kor'gall and it may of taken us a long time to get here but tonights defeat of Razorgore really makes all the effort to get this far worth it.

Honour is the keystone of glory

Irricas - Officer of the Nemetos Order

We are still recruiting. Should you wish to help us progress further and have a lot of fun in the process APPLY NOW!

Happy Birthday Starwolf

by allicorn at Aug 04 2005 17:29

As part of the Two Year Anniversary celebrations for TNGC division Starwolf, Aveox has put together a cool video montage including shots of just about everyone who's ever been in the outfit, many of our greatest triumphs and milestones, and some of the truly hilarious craziness we've gotten up to in the past 24 months.

You can download the video here

Starwolf Anniversary to be held August 16th

by aveox at Jul 28 2005 12:00

August 2nd 2005, Starwolf will be 2 years old!

Originally an event was planned for that evening, but due to absence of several members the event has been pushed back two weeks to August 16th. At the time of this writing it is not yet clear what the event will be, but it will without doubt be an destruction-fest of epic proportions. This is especially true since several MAP members have also said to resubscribe for this event. Auraxis, prepare for war! :-)

TNGC event nights

by aveox at Jul 25 2005 16:38

The TNGC event nights schedule will tell you where most TNGC players will be on a given night.

By having game-specific evenings everyone can enjoy their favorite game with other TNGC players. Note: This schedule is not mandatory: You can still play any game you want on any day/time you want, so it is merely an attempt to organize things a bit. There is also a thread in the TNGC forum that contains this info.

The current event night schedule:

Monday : No events.

Tuesday : World of Warcraft: Nemetos Order Battlegrounds/Raids

Wednesday : Battlefield 2: TNGC server

Thursday : No events.

Friday : Planetside: Starwolf / MAP prime time

Saturday : No events.

Sunday : No events.

BF2 server patched to 1.02

by aveox at Jul 20 2005 22:04

Firejack patched the Battlefield 2 server to version 1.02 today. The 1.02 patch should fix the memory leak from patch 1.01.

Note that when you download the patch and install it, the installer title reads "1.01 patch". This is known mess-up by EA. It does not matter if you are upgrading from 1.00 or 1.01 with this patch.

For those that do not have it yet, download the patch directly from EA, or from BF1942Files

Battlefield 2 Server Online!

by Firejack at Jun 15 2005 15:04

The new Terra Nova Gaming Community Battlefield 2 Server is online. Join now!

Server Name = Plus.Net :: TNGC BF2 Server

IP = 212.159.6.220

Port = 16567 (Default)

The server is initially 32 players. We won't be running the 64 player or unlock weapons mods for the Demo until EA allow us too. VOIP is enabled on the server.

Thanks to Dark, Aczeren, Rocket and Mulac for helping me get a working config.

Thanks to Allicorn for the Community Logo

Big thanks to Josh over at Plusnet for settings up with this server!

Time for Aveox to get his video camera out and report to the frontlines!

Planetside Fan Fiction

by ratinox at Jun 03 2005 10:25

'Incoming TR armour south of Akkan.'

Allicorn's voice echoed loud in the confines of his exoarmour as Rat placed a final mine in the courtyard, carefully sited for maximum annoyance. 'Let's get some Maggies rolling - 3D, Luggy, we could use some Air Support as well', he continued. 'Time to ruin their day.'. There was a chorus of affirmative responses from the rest of the squad. Rat raced toward the Main Hall Equipment Terminal and quickly requisitioned a Repair Gun and a few packs of NTU before heading back out of the Main Hall into the searing heat of Ishundar, gasping as the baked air scorched his lungs. The sun beat mercilessly down, and with a sigh he started running in the direction of the pad. He rounded the corner as a Reaver launched, AG engines whining like hunting dogs held on the leash. It hovered for a moment above the pad, then with a screaming blast from the turbines and a crushing downdraught of air, it leapt into the sky. Rat caught a momentary flash of callsign - "3DMAN" - emblazoned on the cockpit as the combat aircraft banked around the upper levels of the Facility, and ran up the ramp to the VPad and slammed his hand down on the "Medium Tank" selector. Moments later, there was the familiar decon sensation, like a million ants crawling under his skin, as the planetary AI core issued instructions to the nanites infesting Auraxis. The alien-designed nanomachines swiftly disassembled the Sovereignty warrior, before reconstructing him inside the vehicle and transferring his consciousness in a way still not fully understood by the Sovereignty engineers. He'd never quite got used to this, even after two years in this hellish place and a thousand or more decons. 'One day', he thought, 'I'd like to meet the Vanu who designed that system and Beamer him in the face.'.

The noise of the Magrider quickly swallowed any other thoughts as the mobile weapons platform rolled from the pad with an almost stately grace under control of the AI Core. Rat wriggled and shifted in the narrow confines of the Mag cockpit before finally finding a comfortable position, and slid his hands onto the wheel and his feet onto the pedals just as the AI Core released control of the vehicle. He slowed, momentarily, to allow Atlanacha (who had been waiting patiently next to the battlement accessway) to climb into the turret, and then planted his boot to the floor. The strange grinding hum of the Magrider rose in pitch and intensity as he wrenched it into a turn, feet feverishly working the AG strafe controls, and the floating behemoth slid smoothly out of the courtyard and into the dusty wasteland surrounding Akkan base. The Magrider circled the facility perimeter, the Railgun sweeping from left to right as Atla scanned the horizon for targets. On the minimap set discreetly into the dashboard, Rat could see his squadmates moving as they requisitioned their various vehicles, and within minutes, he was flanked by another Magrider - this one crewed by Barkmann and Allicorn - and two Lightning tanks, driven by SgtFollvel and Killerwolf. 'Okay', came Alli's voice over the squad channel, 'let's roll. TR should be coming up from the southwest, probably not more than squad strength. Intel reports two Prowlers with escorting Lightnings and a Skyguard.'

'Copy', came Luggy's response. 'Best if me and 3d stay close to the deck then.'

'Agreed' replied Alli. 'We'll target the SG first - but we're gonna take some heat from the Prowlers so be ready to jump in as soon as it's down.'

'Copy'

'Okay, let's go. Remember, gunners - your priority is the Skyguard.'. The idling hum of the Magrider engines rose to a roar and the vehicles slid forward on their antigrav cushion, slowly picking up speed. The two Lightnings leapt into action and pushed ahead of the Magriders, turrets nosing left and right as Killer and Sarge sought targets in the hazy distance. The Sovereignty column moved off into the undulating Akkan hinterlands. Twisted, sickly looking Auraxian trees dotted the landscape, interspersed with dried-out scrubby looking bushes that looked as though they had died long ago but in fact had such resilient and deep root systems that they had been known to cause trouble for wheeled and tracked vehicles from time to time. The Mag drivers picked their way through the broken hardpan until they reached the point at which the Akkan plateau began its gentle descent down to the Warpgate basin. The column slowed, and finally came to rest perched on the edge of the slope, Magrider noses angled down slightly to present a better firing solution for the gunners.

All was silent for a minute, maybe more, except for the muted growl of the tank engines and whine of turbines as 3D and Luggy made passes over the squad, scanning the horizon for signs of approaching enemy. Then -

'Contact! Nine Oh, maybe half a klick off. I see dustcloud, and.....yep, ok, I see 'em, there are two Prowlers, a Lightning and..yeah, there's the SG in the rear.'. Atla's voice came stridently across channel.

'Roger, well spotted Atla,' replied Alli. 'Okay, let's back off this ridgeline a bit, start moving south and see if we can flank 'em.'. Again, the chorus of affirmatives from Starwolf. The engine noise rose once more as the tanks smoothly wheeled and slid further back into the desert.

'Rat', came Atla's voice over the private channel, 'if you strafe to the right slightly I should still be able to see them.'.

'Roger', Rat replied. The eerie hum of the strafe motors rose in pitch as the Magrider eased to one side a little more.

'That's great, thanks Rat'.

'Watch that dust, guys - let's not give them any clues'. Alli, not leaving anything to chance, scanned the squad's backtrail from his gunner seat in Barkmann's Mag. 'Atla, see anything?'

'Yep, I see them at two oh.....three oh........five.....ok, they're almost directly behind us now'.

'Copy that - squad, break and attack. Primary is that Skyguard, as soon as it's down we have air superiority. Let's go.'. Instantly, the column turned and the engine roar rose as the VS attack vehicles leapt forward. To his right, Rat could see the billowing tower of Ishundan dust that marked the enemy position. He angled his Mag slightly, and engaged the strafe motors to squeeze an extra bit of speed of out the protesting AG propulsors. To his left, Barkmann did the same, and Rat could see Killer and Sarge racing ahead in their Lightnings to engage the enemy. Suddenly, there came the distinctive thrummmm....ping! of the MagRail firing, and a streak of blue light sped across the desert, and bloomed as it struck something in the distance.

'Got him!' yelled Atla. There came a second thrummmm...ping! as Allicorn triggered his MagRail and a hyperaccelerated shell was spat from the cannon at a respectable fraction of the speed of light. Again, blue light bloomed as the shell struck the distant target.

'He's almost down!' Atla shouted, jubilantly, over the noise of the Mag engine. 'The Prowlers are turning though!'. As he spoke, a plume of smoke rose in the distance as a 100mm shell whistled through the air to land in a cascade of dust on the road behind the squad. The sound of MagRail fire echoed loudly once more in Rat's cockpit as both Alli and Atla triggered their weapons. The blueish impact blooms erupted into a billow of fire and black roiling smoke as a rail shell finally penetrated the Skyguard's armour and ignited the ammo store. Simultaneously, the sky ahead filled with smoke trails as the two Prowlers opened fire on the rapidly closing Starwolf squad. The shells thundered into the dirt behind them, creating pockmarks in the ground, but no-one was under any illusions. It was only a matter of time before the Prowler gunners found their range and if they were able to concentrate their fire, they would make short work of a Magriders.

'SG is down! Repeat, SG is down! Concentrate your fire on the Prowlers - Luggy, 3D, you're up!' Alli yelled over squad channel. Moments later, grit and sand plumed into the air as the pair of Reavers streaked down the road, passing low over the rest of the squad. Rat pulled the Magrider into a turn, manoeuvring to flank the Prowlers as Reaver rockets rained down from the sky, striking clouds of debris into the air where they hit the ground. The aircraft then banked, shot forward as the pilots each triggered their afterburners, before coming around for another pass. Lines of red light lit up the sky as the Prowler gunners returned fire, flashes of blue sparking from vehicles where the hail of bullets struck the vehicular shields and had their momentum sapped. 'Taking fire,' came Luggy's voice. 'Coming around for another pass.'

Rat's Magrider groaned and shook as the nearest Prowler found its target, and the rapid-fire cannon began to deliver its ammunition with deadly accuracy. Thanks to his targeting implant, Rat could see that the Prowler had sustained heavy damage from the continued pounding of the two Magriders. The Lightnings, largely ignored by the larger tanks in favour of the more threatening targets poured round after round into the opposing scout tank as its turret spun left and right, trying to choose one target from the surrounding pack. The Magrider continued to shake, as Rat watched his vehicular shield power drop and drop, until finally it was depleted. 'Shield down', he reported. 'Gonna have to bug out soon'.

'Copy that' came Alli's reply. 'Hold on for as long as you can, we're almost there.'

Finally, another eruption of fire and smoke lit the desert as the damaged Prowler succumbed to the sustained fire from the tanks and aircraft. There was a whumph and the blossoming explosion pulsed as the ammunition ignited, pushing the tower of flame and burning debris higher. All around the churning dustcloud that the combat had devolved into, flaming chunks of Prowler spattered down like incandescent rain. Another detonation sounded, orange-red flames lighting the inside of Rat's cockpit as a stream of Reaver rockets - Rat couldn't tell who from - impacted on the TR Lightning.

'He's pulling out!' came Barkmann's voice, and surely enough, the remaining Prowler began to ponderously turn in the direction of the Warpgate, the engine noise rising in pitch as the driver strove to put some distance between himself and the ambushing force. The turret jerked left and right as the gunner tried to compensate for the movement of the vehicle, a steady stream of shells coughing from the mouth of the cannon. Rat worked the strafe pedals like a madman, sliding left and right as the shells landed either side of him. Each detonation sapped a little more armour as the peripheral flames licked against the tank's armour. Blue flashes filled the sky to his right as Barkmann and Alli poured round upon round into the fleeing Prowler, his tank juddering from the tiny amount of imparted recoil as Atla, firing continuously, also strove to keep the Prowler in his sights. A line of explosions filled the road ahead of the TR tank and Luggy and 3d dove out of the sky, rockets pumping from their pods as the Reavers sought to fulfil their primary role. The tank began to turn as the TR driver battled to evade the devastating barrage of firepower, but the lumbering monstrosity was too slow and the onslaught of armour-penetrating rocklets hammered into its armoured body. Once again, flames bloomed in the desert as the Prowler's armour collapsed and the Magrails, shells and rockets reduced it to a twisted and smoking heap of wreckage.

The Vanu column slowed, and stopped. The engine noise died to a low rumble, the Reaver turbines retreating into the distance as instinct took over and the pilots circled out beyond the rest of the squad, looking for more enemies.

'Excellent work guys!' came Alli's voice over the comm, bursting with enthusiasm. 'Looks like Ish is secure for now. I'm just checking the global situation....ok, command are getting reports of NC incursion on Amerish - I've informed them we're responding. Recall, regroup, move out, kick NC ass. No rest for the wicked, eh?'

Auto Assault

by allicorn at Apr 08 2005 14:06

I've been posting links to Auto Assault articles in the forums for a while, so I figured it'd be a good idea to write up something covering what we know so far about this interesting-looking upcoming title.

Auto Assault is in production by Net Devil (of Jumpgate) and the famous NCSoft, creators of the highly successful City Of Heroes and Guild Wars and the totally massive Lineage and Lineage 2. The game, which they describe as an Action-Based MMORPG goes into Beta shortly with the Beta application process already open and invites expected in the next few weeks.

The setting is a futuristic one where, after a mysterious string of meteor strikes and human mutations that we'll doubtless learn more history about as the game world grows, man was split into three factions. The humans fled underground and bided their time while developing new weapons to prepare for the day they would reclaim the surface. The mutants are humans that stayed above ground and survived the radiation. They see themselves as the chosen few who are ready to lead the new humanity. The biomeks are former humans that have replaced their body parts with mechanical replacements as each bit started to fail. Now that all three factions are active, the battle for supremacy reigns.

What kinda game is it?

The game is primarily PVE like most MMORPGs although there are PVP areas in the wilderness where you can fight players from enemy factions. You can also challenge other players to PVP contests in Arenas in town. The Arenas also host a permanent duelling ladder which actually links up across all servers. A #1 placing on the ladder will mean you're the best in the world, not just on your server. When talking about the PVP experience, NC/NetDevil have made it very clear that PVP missions will always be optional and saying no to them won't cripple your character's advancement.

There's an elaborate and extensive mission system, including campaigns for both solo and group play. There'll also be dev-created Event scenarios that crop up regularly to evolve and expand upon the game mythology.

Characters

Character advancement in general is much more akin to World of Warcraft and Everquest type MMORPGs than the simple BR/CR system of PlanetSide. Your characters will have stats and abilities, a class, a permanent inventory and an array of skills. As you level up you'll get access to new technologies, better vehicles, bigger guns and you can learn new skills. Your stats and skills will determine how accurate you are with certain types of weapon, how much handling you can squeeze our of your vehicle and your access to a range of special abilities.

Classes

Classes within the game are common to all 3 factions. The classes we know about so far are:

Tank. The Tanker drives the heaviest, military vehicles and has a bunch of passive skills that boost his vehicles abilities.

Officer. The Officer is a very supportive class and is able to call in NPC reinforcements which vary by faction. For instance, a human Officer can radio in for an airdrop of friendly infantry soldiers.

Engineer. The Engi drives the biggest vehicles, like huge rigs and busses. He can repair things in the field and deploy turrets, traps and automated weapons.

Ranger. We don't know a great deal about the Ranger yet except that he's a stealthy type, getting access to cloaking technology amongst other things.

Combat

Combat is an interesting hybrid of true twitch-like PlanetSide style play and the more click-and-wait style of traditional MMORPGs. You aim your weapons with the mouse, line up the cone on your target and then select him. After that, the weapons will continue to track and fire on your opponent for as long as you can keep the cone facing his way by your maneuvering. Whether or not your weapons actually hit, and how much damage they can do is decided by rules and virtual dice-rolls like other MMORPGs. Line up all your weapons on a single target and you get bonusses to your chance of hitting. Relative speed, range, visibility, size of target and a host of other factors will all play a part in deciding whether or not your weapons outperform your opponents'.

One of the first things that'll become apparent when you watch some of the gameplay videos is that combat is going to be fast, ferocious and very very explosive. NCSoft have licensed the infamous Havok2 Physics Engine (of Halflife-2 fame) for Auto Assault and proudly state that just about everything in the game is dent-able, break-able and just plain blow-up-able. Vehicle physics are fluid and realistic. Collisions can result in spectacular crashes. You can smash through walls and fences, knock down lamp-posts and street-signs, make huge leaps from ramps or collapsed obstacles and bounce NPC infantry off your fenders sending them wheeling and flying across the road to splatter off the walls of some neighboring building.

Loot

Loot is another concept familiar from MMORPGs that makes it into Auto Assault. NC/NetDevil say that just about everything you kill will drop a variety of loot. Loot can take the form of entire re-usable components and weapons, parts and spares that you can use to Craft new equipment or things of value that can bump up your wealth.

Details on the Crafting system are hard to come by at the moment but NC/NetDevil claim is pretty flexible, allowing a wide variety of tweaks and buffs to be added to stock equipment and vehicles. There's also

Towns

Towns and cities form the safe areas for each faction, kinda like Sanctuaries in PlanetSide but with much more going on. Towns have shops and social areas, garages to store your vehicles and PVP arenas where you can fight for money and loot, or gamble on the outcome of other folks battles. Towns are also the only place you can go on foot - the rest of the world is just too dangerous for a squishy little pedestrian.

More Info

A bunch of screenies are available on the official Auto Assault website, but there are loads more circulating around the various games review sites such as Gamespy.

For video goodness, check out 3dgamers who have just about all of them listed. From the various recently-released gameplay videos to the jaw-dropping cinematic trailer.

And for more details on the game, early community fansite AA Outpost has collated together just about every scrap of information so far released or mentioned in interviews.

If you want to get some other folks opinions on Auto Assault, here is an absolutely gigantic list of sites, mags and blogs that have previewed the game or interviewed members of the staff.

Sounds interesting? Looks boring? Already got your Beta invite and not told anyone yet? (tsk tsk!). Have a rant about this article on the forums.

New TNGC Website Open!

by Firejack at Apr 03 2005 20:26

After much hard work crushing some last minute bugs. The new Terra Nova Gaming Community website is open :D

There are a bunch of new features all created by Allicorn from scratch;

*1 - Profiles

*2 - New Gallery

*3 - News generator

There are also a few more features I'll leave you to discover and many more additions are planned.

Since this is a new site there are bound to be bugs we have missed. If you could let us know any you find by posting on the forums that would be greatly appreciated.

Special mention to Allicorn for his superb effort in making the web applications. Also thanks to Aveox who helped a lot with the process of designing the website. Probably not meant to do this but I'm going to thank myself for such a great design for the site :P

With this new website I'm really looking forward to lots of new members joining and getting to know existing members better. We have a great community here and we are always looking for input from everyone to make it better.

Game on people :)