zhardoum
12th November 2001, 18:25
Hello all,
If you play Allegiance on line in any amount, you will no doubt have come across a player called 'spunkmeyer'.
He grabbed my attention as being an addict, and more than that, an addict who was actively devoting his tme to enhancing the game for other players..
So in the interests of gamers everyewhere, I took him aside one game. grabbed his email and sent him some questions..
here are the questions and his replies
----------------------------------------------------------------
>From: "Adrian" <zhardoum@terra.es>
>Reply-To: <adrian@adriansworld.com>
>Anyway, I noticed you seem to do a large amount of work on the
>Allegiance game, even though it has been discontinued by Microsoft, so
>I was wondering if I can email a few questions to you, that I will then
>post over at http://www.multiplay.co.uk for other players of allegiance
>to look at, and learn about.
Certainly.
>Multiplay is a UK based LAN gamers group, hosting Lan parties for upto
>1000 people for 4 days at a time, one of the great games at these
>events is allegiance, which on a 100MBit lan, is really something else
>indeed.
>
>Anyway, onto the questions.
>
>1)Are you in anyway connected with the game officialy, if so how..
No, not at all.
>2)You seem to be often in the Allegiance zone, how many hours a week
>(or
>month) do you normally play or are involved with Allegiance?
Quite a bit more than I should actually. =) Basically I pour all my free
time into Allegiance: on average I'd say about 15-20 hours a week, although
sometimes it's a lot more, sometime a lot less.
>3) You developed a new switcher recently, can you explain what it is,
>and how does it help games players
The switcher has actually been written by Kirth Gersen. Allegiance has an
in-game auto-update feature that updates your game whenever something new is
released. Of course with the latest patch MS ceased any development on
Allegiance, so it's pretty much obsolete.
What the swithcer does is it "switches" your Allegiance configuration to
point to MyAllegiance (which is a central hub/website for all things
Allegiance) auto-update servers. That way Allegiance will automatically
download any new updates developed by the community when you login to the
Free Games lobby. Right now, for example, this unlocks previously
unavailable game settings and lets you get on the "balance patch" servers,
which is a mod we are developing. You do this "switching" just once, then
forget about it.
More information and the switcher itself can be found at
http://www.total-games.com/MyAllegiance - there should be a link on the
front page, as well as under the Files section. Also,
http://autoupdate.n3.net directly leads to the switcher page.
>4) What made you devote so much time to Allegiance
It happens to be a very extraordinary, very original game. Ah yes, it's a
lightweight space sim. But there's no other game on the market that has
built in facilities and a design that drives players towards teamwork.
Where, for example, Tribes tried and failed, Allegiance triumphs
beautifully.
>5) would you say you are a good player?
I hope so =) Interesting thing is I'm not a good "twitch" player at all.. my
aim is rather poor relatively, certainly not helped by my modem connection.
Yet Allegiance is, in a way, a thinking man's XvT, so I can find not only
ways to emerge victorious out of a dogfight, but also avoid dogfights
altogether and benefit my team in other ways. The whole key is understanding
of the game and being aware of the larger picture.
>6) What would you say was the worst aspect of Allegiance?
It's worse than Evercrack? :) The game's network protocol is liable to get
clogged once or twice every game (however take into account that the average
Allegiance games lasts about two hours) and drop you out of the game. You
can get back in without any serious consequences, but it's annoying when it
happens at a key moment.
>7) What would you say was the Best aspect of Allegiance
It's probably more like the absolutely GLOBS of things you can do: in
addition to basic "killing stuff", miner hunting, bomber stalking, forward
scouting, base capturing, defensive camps, dogfighter support via repair
craft, finding and eliminating the enemy early warning system network, the
actual bombing both head on and stealth variety, turret gunning, constructor
escort, miner area defense, mobile teleport drops, capital ship attacks....
oh I could go on and on ... and of course the whole RTS-like aspect of
investment, commanding and coordinating an entire team of 15 to 30 people
over a "god's eye" view (within the limits of your own intelligence
network.)
>8) Are there any other games that you think of as being close to
>Allegiance ?
No.
OK, MAYBE take XvT. Now, uh, at least quadruple the team size. Add a whole
RTS-like investment and command layer to it. Add a whole communications
layer. At least triple the number of ships, gadgets etc. that are available.
Update the graphics and sounds of course. Now carry the whole fight into a
strategic battle map of "sectors" that change sides back and forth over a
two hour battle (or perhaps quickly over within 30 minutes by a swift, well
planned attack or lasting over 5 hours when faced with equally balanced
teams).
That's somewhat close.
>9) Are there any games that are to be released which capture the
>essence of Allegiance and improve on it?
Nope. :(
>10) What is it that makes Allegiance so different in gameplay from
>other games involving multiplayers?
Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
Yes, there are somethings you can do in Allegiance alone if you sniff out
the right opportunities, but without teamwork the game will still be lost.
>11) How much longer will Allegiance be supported by gamers and Game
>servers now that it is so long since being released?
Ever since MS dropped the game, we always have a full game running around
the clock and during peak times smallish games spring up as well along the
side. I think there are at least 300 players actively playing Allegiance.
It's not gonna die until something better comes along. And that's not on the
horizon.
>12) Sovroute? What is it?
The Free Games Lobby, hosted by MSN Gaming Zone isn't always reliable,
although it is MUCH better lately. So when it goes down, you need an
alternative to find games. Marcus VenCain developed this ingenious little
program that lets you play while the lobby is down. Again more details on
http://www.total-games.com/MyAllegiance.
>13) if you create a server, how do you add it to sovroutes lists?
If Free Games is up, there's no point of course - simply have it connect to
the lobby. If it isn't, you go to
http://allegservers.hn.org - you'll see all those servers listed as offline,
that's because the lobby is up, so some of those servers are in "lobby mode"
(it's one or the other)
>14) If you were a new person to online gaming, and had a limited budget
>(say $20) would you recommend buying a copy of Allegiance, or putting
>your money towards a different online game? If a different game - which
>one? And why?
Oh absolutely. However, be prepared for a steep learning curve. Allegiance
is anything but easy. But once you get into it there is just nothing like
it.
In Europe, you can have it for as little as 7 Euro from an Allegiance squad
called German Borg (link on My Allegiance site) In the US, it's available
from several places for $30 or less.
A few months down the road, I could recommend WWIIOnline I guess, since it's
improving rapidly and large scale multiplayer simulations are my kind of
thing.
>15) What other games are you involved with in a post development way?
>And how do you help on those games?
I was *very* big on Quakeworld and later Quake 2, and actually worked on an
extensive mod for it. It's a pity Allegiance gameplay code is not modifiable
the way Quake 2 was, but there's plenty we can do for it. I also used to run
a sizeable Quake 2 clan.
>
>That's it, thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon, and
>see you online...
Thanks for the opportunity.
Spunky
If you play Allegiance on line in any amount, you will no doubt have come across a player called 'spunkmeyer'.
He grabbed my attention as being an addict, and more than that, an addict who was actively devoting his tme to enhancing the game for other players..
So in the interests of gamers everyewhere, I took him aside one game. grabbed his email and sent him some questions..
here are the questions and his replies
----------------------------------------------------------------
>From: "Adrian" <zhardoum@terra.es>
>Reply-To: <adrian@adriansworld.com>
>Anyway, I noticed you seem to do a large amount of work on the
>Allegiance game, even though it has been discontinued by Microsoft, so
>I was wondering if I can email a few questions to you, that I will then
>post over at http://www.multiplay.co.uk for other players of allegiance
>to look at, and learn about.
Certainly.
>Multiplay is a UK based LAN gamers group, hosting Lan parties for upto
>1000 people for 4 days at a time, one of the great games at these
>events is allegiance, which on a 100MBit lan, is really something else
>indeed.
>
>Anyway, onto the questions.
>
>1)Are you in anyway connected with the game officialy, if so how..
No, not at all.
>2)You seem to be often in the Allegiance zone, how many hours a week
>(or
>month) do you normally play or are involved with Allegiance?
Quite a bit more than I should actually. =) Basically I pour all my free
time into Allegiance: on average I'd say about 15-20 hours a week, although
sometimes it's a lot more, sometime a lot less.
>3) You developed a new switcher recently, can you explain what it is,
>and how does it help games players
The switcher has actually been written by Kirth Gersen. Allegiance has an
in-game auto-update feature that updates your game whenever something new is
released. Of course with the latest patch MS ceased any development on
Allegiance, so it's pretty much obsolete.
What the swithcer does is it "switches" your Allegiance configuration to
point to MyAllegiance (which is a central hub/website for all things
Allegiance) auto-update servers. That way Allegiance will automatically
download any new updates developed by the community when you login to the
Free Games lobby. Right now, for example, this unlocks previously
unavailable game settings and lets you get on the "balance patch" servers,
which is a mod we are developing. You do this "switching" just once, then
forget about it.
More information and the switcher itself can be found at
http://www.total-games.com/MyAllegiance - there should be a link on the
front page, as well as under the Files section. Also,
http://autoupdate.n3.net directly leads to the switcher page.
>4) What made you devote so much time to Allegiance
It happens to be a very extraordinary, very original game. Ah yes, it's a
lightweight space sim. But there's no other game on the market that has
built in facilities and a design that drives players towards teamwork.
Where, for example, Tribes tried and failed, Allegiance triumphs
beautifully.
>5) would you say you are a good player?
I hope so =) Interesting thing is I'm not a good "twitch" player at all.. my
aim is rather poor relatively, certainly not helped by my modem connection.
Yet Allegiance is, in a way, a thinking man's XvT, so I can find not only
ways to emerge victorious out of a dogfight, but also avoid dogfights
altogether and benefit my team in other ways. The whole key is understanding
of the game and being aware of the larger picture.
>6) What would you say was the worst aspect of Allegiance?
It's worse than Evercrack? :) The game's network protocol is liable to get
clogged once or twice every game (however take into account that the average
Allegiance games lasts about two hours) and drop you out of the game. You
can get back in without any serious consequences, but it's annoying when it
happens at a key moment.
>7) What would you say was the Best aspect of Allegiance
It's probably more like the absolutely GLOBS of things you can do: in
addition to basic "killing stuff", miner hunting, bomber stalking, forward
scouting, base capturing, defensive camps, dogfighter support via repair
craft, finding and eliminating the enemy early warning system network, the
actual bombing both head on and stealth variety, turret gunning, constructor
escort, miner area defense, mobile teleport drops, capital ship attacks....
oh I could go on and on ... and of course the whole RTS-like aspect of
investment, commanding and coordinating an entire team of 15 to 30 people
over a "god's eye" view (within the limits of your own intelligence
network.)
>8) Are there any other games that you think of as being close to
>Allegiance ?
No.
OK, MAYBE take XvT. Now, uh, at least quadruple the team size. Add a whole
RTS-like investment and command layer to it. Add a whole communications
layer. At least triple the number of ships, gadgets etc. that are available.
Update the graphics and sounds of course. Now carry the whole fight into a
strategic battle map of "sectors" that change sides back and forth over a
two hour battle (or perhaps quickly over within 30 minutes by a swift, well
planned attack or lasting over 5 hours when faced with equally balanced
teams).
That's somewhat close.
>9) Are there any games that are to be released which capture the
>essence of Allegiance and improve on it?
Nope. :(
>10) What is it that makes Allegiance so different in gameplay from
>other games involving multiplayers?
Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
Yes, there are somethings you can do in Allegiance alone if you sniff out
the right opportunities, but without teamwork the game will still be lost.
>11) How much longer will Allegiance be supported by gamers and Game
>servers now that it is so long since being released?
Ever since MS dropped the game, we always have a full game running around
the clock and during peak times smallish games spring up as well along the
side. I think there are at least 300 players actively playing Allegiance.
It's not gonna die until something better comes along. And that's not on the
horizon.
>12) Sovroute? What is it?
The Free Games Lobby, hosted by MSN Gaming Zone isn't always reliable,
although it is MUCH better lately. So when it goes down, you need an
alternative to find games. Marcus VenCain developed this ingenious little
program that lets you play while the lobby is down. Again more details on
http://www.total-games.com/MyAllegiance.
>13) if you create a server, how do you add it to sovroutes lists?
If Free Games is up, there's no point of course - simply have it connect to
the lobby. If it isn't, you go to
http://allegservers.hn.org - you'll see all those servers listed as offline,
that's because the lobby is up, so some of those servers are in "lobby mode"
(it's one or the other)
>14) If you were a new person to online gaming, and had a limited budget
>(say $20) would you recommend buying a copy of Allegiance, or putting
>your money towards a different online game? If a different game - which
>one? And why?
Oh absolutely. However, be prepared for a steep learning curve. Allegiance
is anything but easy. But once you get into it there is just nothing like
it.
In Europe, you can have it for as little as 7 Euro from an Allegiance squad
called German Borg (link on My Allegiance site) In the US, it's available
from several places for $30 or less.
A few months down the road, I could recommend WWIIOnline I guess, since it's
improving rapidly and large scale multiplayer simulations are my kind of
thing.
>15) What other games are you involved with in a post development way?
>And how do you help on those games?
I was *very* big on Quakeworld and later Quake 2, and actually worked on an
extensive mod for it. It's a pity Allegiance gameplay code is not modifiable
the way Quake 2 was, but there's plenty we can do for it. I also used to run
a sizeable Quake 2 clan.
>
>That's it, thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon, and
>see you online...
Thanks for the opportunity.
Spunky