I didn't play many games because I couldn't! All that was people played a lot was CSS and COD4 - two pretty mediocore games. There were 2 10 minute games of UT99 and UT2k4 - the two best games played. If all you can do is offer 'fun comps' to get people interested, make them last longer please! HL2DM was something else I was interested in, but the 'fun comp' was overly populated and the worst map chosen for a lot of people... server ran like crap! Split it up ala Flatout 2.

Needs more sourceforts too.

Overall I had a blast, will get to V17 if I can.

Regarding players vs leechers - I don't mind leechers (Would be hypocritic if I did), but the guys that come with their laptops and HDD's - with no intention to have fun at all... ho hum.

This is just a small rant and I in no way mean to say this to offend anyone in anyway and if it does offend you please accept my early apologies.

I had a situation where one of the larger players at the event said some attempted offensive comments to me when I kindly asked him to move in with his chair for a second so I could get past. Now I know there's nothing that can be done by any staff or admins so I'm just directing this at anyone that could be reading, and I really try to word this without being offensive:

If you are one of the larger players that come to the event, please, for god's sake, if you are going to seat yourself near a wall, EXPECT other people to want to get past ! People HAVE to go to the toilet and you need to take 2 seconds out of your LAN'ing just to move in so someone can get past. They do it for you I'm sure, and without being rude about it either. I understand that it's probably an inconvenience and hard for you to move in because of the tight space confinements, but shit, expect it if you are seating near a wall.

Other than that, great LAN

That's all thnx xoxoxo

I just came to leech, which as always was pretty good.
So much for seeing 500 plus people though, the whole signing up, confirming and not turning up thing is not cool.

Would just like to say thanks to the power guys!

While there was only two/three blips during the event it looked like it was stable throughout the whole event!

-esky

Just coming to leech is so not cool too

Funnily enough when lanning was big 5 odd years ago- it was the exact same thing with lans and file sharing.. I'm mainly talking about Shafted- For those who don't know, was also run in Union hall.
It came to a point that file sharing wasn't allowed, this came mainly because of a few raids on lan parties in various locations because of the mass illegal file sharing.
That didn't mean file sharing was stopped.. it more just meant everyone had their DC minimized ;P
Its always been there and always will..
Lan parties obviously happened because of dial connections being insufficient to play games multiplayer. With broadband connections everywhere- there is more of an incentive to come for the leeching with all the caps and slow speeds of Australia's internet.
But gaming is still fun at lans
For me, things like more dedicated servers ready to go and perhaps more limited internet to allow particular steam games to work better to create a hassle free gaming experience!

Hey guys!!

We want you all to have as much fun as possible

So please provide some feedback in this poll, and we'll try and plan activities accordingly

http://respawn.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=1294

As it stands there is quite a number of dedicated servers going for the fun comps being run, but i'm sure deadman/Sir Squid can tell you what exactly there is..but afaik. ut2k4/hl2dm/quake3/cs:s/babo violent 2/tron etc.. all have dedicated server support and are run as such. The fun comps are usually free legitimate games which are easy to install and most people have access to and are available on the ftp for download.

Perhaps one thing which could be looked at is more notification to people before the event what standard funcomps will be back before the event and what new ones will be tried so people can get ready beforehand.

There is also a poll up about this sort of thing! go vote on it we need to give the admins/gophers positive feedback on how to do things better!

AS stated many times before steam is an issue because of the pipe size at the venue, and it sounds like there looking for better options. Since people can't browse the net, play online games, use other internet features anyway the solution would not be further restrictions.

IE. The same setup would still be applied anyway option 2 as SirSquid stated, a bigger pipe would just allow hassle free logins to steam. Then once that is in place they can allow port changes so people could have an active connection to play SC2, CNC4 , whatever ... maybe even MW2..but we all know that's a terrible game ;P

You can't say all laptop + hdd users are leechers.
My friend bought his because he couldnt afford a decent rig, played tf2 with me quite a bit, aswell as some tron.

To clarify I just meant lighter restrictions.. But obviously- the ideal solution is unrestricted internet

Nah the goal wouldn't be unrestricted internet, your at a lan..you can do all those things at home. If you really need to get on the net for facebook/msn/youtube and can't stand being away from it for 2 days then what's the point in coming, we would need quite a high capacity link to support 4/500 people and its not really feasible. If you however have something critical to check for email for example a cheap 3g option is your best bet since it would use very little of your quota, also having one then you can do whatever you want on it net related while still maintaining decent speeds.

A bigger pipe would probably allow for lighter restrictions for steam/active services yes, but not for online gaming. Really..again your at a lan convince the person next to you leeching to install a game and play it multiplayer with you! If you like RTS games come find me and i'll play

Hi Guys.

Let me start by thanking each any every person for attending V16, It was probably our biggest achievement "415ish in the door + aushalo".

With a LAN this large it is sometimes easy to forget that not everyone is into the game YOU play.
So as an admin team it can get quite hard to plan around it.

What I would like to see and will be implementing is the following:

• More Funcomps
• Public servers up 24x7 (pretty much every game we have)
• (hopefully) extra projectors and easier notifications
• Lanner approved music for the even (I honestly think we need "something"
• A Chillout area for lanners to play some console games/sit on a couch and relax
• An area for gamestah to cast to people who want to listen (perhaps also the chillout area)

Regardless of all of these things, leeching will happen. No matter what we do at a network level people can transfer files. There is no longer a respawn hub (one of the players was hosting it at V16) and DC++ is no longer actively supported by the admin team "I turned down many peoples requests for help with DC++" But in the end, thats all we can do about it.

As wolfmother has made clear the admins are doing everything in their power to promote a gamer friendly atmosphere, however this is also a delicate balance. Respawn is in the unique position to attract both pro teams and casual players. We cannot ignore either, but we cannot pander to the will of either. This is where the idea of funcomps came from. We can always attract pro teams by bumping up prize money etc.
It is much harder to get a casual player to close his/her DC++ session, or his/her episode of house, to play a game.

• We now have alot more casual gamers with limited technical knowledge, who require assistance installing/running games well
• We need to get the casual/fun games to the players easier
• We need to make it easier/fun to join in a major tournament (some sort of random team entry system?)
• We need to take "Some" focus off competitive play (Funcomps and tournaments) and get back to basics (Just play some games )

Trust me, the admin/gopher team are working hard to address all the issues you guys have raised about V16, we listen, and we learn

Looking forward to seeing you all at V17

R4N

What I've always thought would be a sweet idea is some kind of easy to read and ammend list of games up. Have a list/forum (but not quite) somewhere that people can just go 'add wc3 battleships game' and that will show up and people will know that people are playing it somewhere and maybe who to contact to get in on it. In addition you could have all the servers Respawn is running permanently listed so you don't have to open 5 different games up just to check what servers are running and if anyone is actually in them. Maybe an IRC type chat below it as well? So if someone was to open it up, they could see all the games currently going, add something if they wanted to or look at the chat to see if anyone is asking for players in a game they might want to play.

A lot of the time you might be after a game of something and so might other ppl but you'd never know to join up with each other. I think more gaming could be much encouraged by increasing the opportunity of people to play, and this a great way to do it.

Kale - I use a program called HLSW. It's a free program which, when you run in offline mode, shows any game servers running on the network at any point.
It haven't ever noticed it running any blizzard games, but all CoD servers, HLDM, CSS, BF games etc are shown on there. I'm pretty sure it was recommended in one of the forum posts a while back, but it's pretty useful to see which games have people in them.

As for my own comments, I would really like to see more gaming. V16 was the first time I tried to get a team together for the comps and we all had a lot of fun. It just kinda sucks that once our team was out of the CoD4 comp it was really hard to get a game going because no one wanted to play after that. Unless, of course, you went into the Gungame server, which had one of the teams in it, working together in a FFA match.. that seemed a little unfair, but it was the only server with peopl in it, so I didn't really have much of a choice.. any time I made my own server I never got more than about 3 or 4 people.. because it was so quiet, everyone left the server within 5 mins..
I know I can always just play online once I get home, but the LAN atmosphere is just so much more fun for gaming.

I said it in another thread, but I think it will be more appropriate here:
From where I was sitting, which was in that side room and right near the back, I could not hear any of the announcements. I had the notifier running the whole time with alerts on for all post but all that seemed to be on there was "Tron server is up for fun comp" and "Come collect pizza" which were good, but for serious comps they were, in my opinion, pretty useless..

I think all announcements should be posted on the notifier, we're all running it for a reason, remember
Maybe at the start of each round, just post "team vs team - server #". I didn't find out until half way through round 1 that my team had a bye.. We were all wondering if we had missed out on being in the comp.
It all worked out eventually, but I think better use of the notifier will help things be more organised. But that's just my opinion
Other than that, I had a great time! Coming to Respawn is something I always enjoy, and I guess the negative comments are just to try and see if I can help improve anything

EDIT: What's the chance of Respawn investing in a coffee machine? McDonalds makes horrible coffee and I think if admins served coffe for say $2, they would easily make about $30 from me.. I love my coffee

All of the CSS people need to shut up. They just make themselves sound like douchebags. The people who aren't playing don't care if you get a head shot. So shut up.
Their abuse ruined the atmosphere at times.

I got it the night before, heaps of fun. Would be great to get this going for next 'spawn

For anyone interested in having a game, nick alert me on #respawn IRC channel.




I was thinking the same thing. Forums are okay, but they're slow to update and not checked often enough. Maybe an extra tab on the website, where players can put up servers that they're running or ask for servers to be put up for certain games. It's kind of sad that most of this sort of chat happens in the DC atm...

AFAIK, there is still an irc server running at the event, so if more people were aware of it it would be a great way to advertise/ask what games are being played. You could talk about it there, and change your nick depending on what you were playing, eg.
Maelstrom|Tron or Maelstrom|AOE2

Not everyone is comfortable running and using and IRC client though, so maybe it needs website functionality.

I should encourage everyone to join the respawn steam group. Because then we would actually see who's playing what and when

if your thinking of IRC at the lan, we already have an IRC applet in the EMS

Because CSS is the only FPS game that was running. You have just proven that you have it out for people who might have different gaming taste to you. I heard people rage harder at playing Tron FFS.

Agreed Queenie, also take a moment to listen to the COD fags, much worse than us CSS Kids! They get violent D:

Yeah, I heard real threatening shit going on with that lot. :/

I yelled quite a bit... but that was only in COD and that was when my team of friends was vs'ing another team that was of my friends. I don't mean anything I say

Honestly this wasn't the best Respawn I attended, I can't quite figure it out why just yet. v15 was better and I can't seem to figure out what changed since v15. I mainly play Tron Flatout 2 and COD so I cannot really comment for the competitions. I don't think the admins are in the wrong though, it seems they are trying their best to make this as much enjoyable and such as possible.

Most around me were amused when I would rage randomly while playing CSS GG.

...Most kinda expect it. >_>

DURR I HAVE GOOD ENGLISH -Goes back to dying-

No.

• The venue is generally fairly noisy as it is
• With the position of the PA speakers, its always going to be too loud for some and too quiet to hear for others
• Someone will hate anything you play
• People can listen to their own damn music

Someone will hate anything we do, whenever we do it.
Its fairly simple imo to find an appropriate volume/EQ settings to please most of the lan.

However it might be better in the chillout area.

Yeah I know HSLW but it doesn't server everything, and I don't think it can be used as a chat client? It's the smaller games or the RTS games which are harder to see and that's why we really need a unified structure, not something that only services a part of the crowd. If you make it a text based kinda thing where the un-automated type stuff can be chucked up by people, then everyone can use and benefit from it.

I'm definatly a fan of having a lounge area. Clearly needs to have rock band on projector.

Where the poker is played is big enough for 3-4 couches and a projector type setup? Whilst being easy enough to later push away for poker.

Most RTS games are peer to peer, and are only joinable for a limited time in the lobby - It's not so easy to browse for them in this way.



... I feel sorry for the people sitting near the lounge area....

I really do think we need some kind of background music... doesn't need to be loud, stuff that is normally used as background music...

Otherwise it would be kinda dull

Would be fine, as speakers are banned right? RockBand on projector with Headphones ... no worries

Yeah, I must admit, the guy sitting just down from me was giving me the shits with his TV and rock band going all afternoon on saturday.. even though I had headphones on I could hear it maybe i'm starting to complain too much?

So all you will hear is the out of time drumming and off key singing?

remove mic, problem solved.

or... crazy idea... DIFFERENT GAME! I know, its like so out there. Mulder from the xfiles suggested it because it was so out there.

If he had speakers, which are BANNED, you should of come up to the admin desk and we would of spoken to him

-Tank

He was using a TV.. I guess he could have muted.. at least then I wouldn't have to listen to Nirvarna ALL F***ING AFTERNOON!!

v14 we had reasonably volumed Aqua, Blackeyed Peas and youtube...
Would be more then happy to see the same person control music again

*agrees with priorax*
music on sunday morning was horrid (way too loud and wth was it?)... almost as bad as the commentating.
as long as the music is normalised, i think it should be fine. It was annoying coz we'd have a track that was too soft, and then a ultra loud one that is even louder because someone turned up the volume to hear the one before it!!!

it'd be nicer to have the speakers raised to the where the roof is, so the sound would be more even. It would be an idea to have the speakers behind the admins, so they could feel the pain too!

More easy games are good. The problem with many of the comp games is that when you get pro teams in, that scares away the amateur/casual gamers coz no1 likes being bulldozed.
I much prefer games just for the hell of it. go fun comps!

A good notification system of games would definitely be a plus.
Perhaps have a list of games people could choose to get notifications from similar to the notification system, but for everyone to use. And you'd send out a message to everyone who subscribed to the FlatOut2 list, or the TF2 list, or whatever.
Have template messages, so peoples couldn't use it for evils - "Server up now", "Game going in 5 mins", etc

I know I'd be subscribing to the Flatout2 one to join casual games if I wasn't busy with other stuff.
That'd take it out of DC chat and put it in the hands of people who actually care.

Needs moar vomitting on the stairs IMO.

Well you cant stop that.... Its normal for someone to want to win, i myself want to win against the best. not just a few guys who just installed the game for the first time.... Competition will always be there its not unfair to play a really good team in the comps because there all double elim now so you get to play at least one "not pro" team.
I have competed in lots of different things for my whole life and everyone seems to want an easier win... I think you should just put a small amount of effort in and you mind find yourself winning some comps or at least placing well..

Pub servers are just for fun but there will always be someone better anyway. If there is any kind of prize people will be trying so you cant do anything about. Frookie one of the best gamers at this LAN entered Babo violent 2 never played it rolled out and won... you cant help good players betting you.

No, I actually enjoy CS. It's just the people who play it that shit me. Is there really a need to stand up and start swearing at and abusing people across the room?

like i said in an earlier post a lot of it internet slander so when they bee the other team there like so who are the baddies now?!?!? or what up now sweeds? WOOOOOOOOO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXh1sKkcYb8

or just sometimes to get extra excited and turn into a train D:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gj3c2HN28&NR=1

As much as LaTrobe Uni love us, They wont pay for unnecessary capital works

And hiring additional sound equipment when we dont really need to is.. silly

quick question... when will the pics be up?

steam is fine if you prepare
players cursing at each other is fine
shoutcasting should be done through the network and optional
to get more gamers and teams, advertise respawn v16 a lot more and increase prizes
peace

Zardoz is currently unavailiable untill i believe wednesday, so about a week and a half possibly longer, depending on his schedule.

-Tank

Damn you zardoz why did you have to go and get a ipad!!!!!!!!!!


lol okay. thanks tank