Filed under: General NewsYou may of noticed this zone already on one of the advertising banners at the top and bottom of this blog. I checked it out for the first time today, took a few screenshots and spoke to zone owner LC. Here's what he said:
L.C.> hey vorbis
vorbis> hi
vorbis> just taking some screenshots. About to do a write up for the blog
L.C.> population hasnt really grown since my PC doesnt work any more
L.C.> :S
L.C.> I think my CPU died
L.C.> Heh.
vorbis> to get SVS players in here you really need SSC billing, the blog might help though
L.C.> Heh. :)
L.C.> It sounds very logical.
L.C.> Statistics/leagues and stuff.
vorbis> is it on any billing right now?
L.C.> my public biller which is on a dedicated server on OC48
vorbis> maybe you shoulf try a jackpot event night, I'll publise it for you. That might get people here, but it will be tough without any kind of billing
L.C.> This zone is connected to my public biller - you can find a thread about it on Shanky Server Forums (forums.minegoboom.com). It's established on a dedicated server on an OC48 connection. Very strong indeed. Server itself is like Dual Xeons or...
L.C.> ...something, each clocked at about 3600mhz. 2GB RAM I think.
vorbis> the problem is all the other SVS zones are SSC
L.C.> Indeed. ^^ The public biller is fully established with a database and all.
L.C.> SSCX primarily.
vorbis> all of svs is on priitk's server now
L.C.> I made the first 4 or 5 pages of F1 help too. :L.C.> The first part (letter) might need some color revision
L.C.> Otherwise it's my simple introduction.
vorbis> looks good
vorbis> got my pics, I'll do the right up now, I'll also add this chat as a little interview too
L.C.> Hehe
L.C.> I originally started this zone sometime in 2004
L.C.> I ran this for a time period in 2004, and successfully gained a daily population of approximately 8 players, and a peak of 15. It went offline due to malicious attacks, I lost its files.
L.C.> In 2005 I decided to try again, from scratch because I had to. I successfully rebuilt the zone spending numerous hours finding my resources for this zone. Back then it wasn't as organized as it might be today.
vorbis> are you trying for SSC Billing?
L.C.> It later went down because I lost interested, I quickly fell back into 3D Gaming, as I had been since I quit in 2004.
L.C.> I came back about 2 months ago, I retired from 3D Gaming because I got tired of it.
L.C.> Heh, from what I last heard, SSC was full.
L.C.> So I didn't really attempt to search for SSC Hosts.
L.C.> This is basically the 3rd Attempt at running this zone, and this time I won't let the chance get away.
vorbis> it's a lot tougher than it used to be
L.C.> I won't shut this zone down, ever, nor give it up.
vorbis> hope it pans out for you. It's not easy though. I was on staff in the last two attempts to get Turf Arizona back up
L.C.> 1stStrike, regardless of what some people think of him for what he did to end his reputation, replied to one of my private messages giving me an encouraging piece of advice.
L.C.> I'm checking my inbox folder to retrieve the quote.
vorbis> 1st was zone owner the first time, and he and testtube ran it the 2nd
L.C.> This is what 1stStrike advised me after I had asked him for it, word for word: "Never give random people sysop. Make a good zone and keep at it and eventually it'll get popular by word of mouth. My zone was never an instant success. It took a..."
L.C.> ."...lot of time and work for it to grow." -1stStrike
L.C.> I believe those words, and I truly believe I put together a good zone. It is only in the player's mind to decide its long-term fate.
L.C.> But regardless of what it becomes, I will remain at its side and support it.
vorbis> I never understand why people look for staff before they look for population
L.C.> I didn't look for staff. I only hired blue_monday because he was quite loyal and has proven it. I trust he is capable of maturely taking care or protecting this zone when I'm not here.
L.C.> It finally came to mind a little later after thinking of 1stStrike's advice and hiring blue_monday..It struck me very clearly.
L.C.> For those that just randomly come in and ask to be a staff member, they have nothing to prove of how worthy they are.
L.C.> They haven't proven you that they are part of the zone.
L.C.> It's my policy and philosophy.
L.C.> This zone doesn't quite have a bot, maybe it's because I'm not humble enough to lonely accept a MERVbot.
vorbis> A bot would help, specially with low pop.
L.C.> One of the plans I had in mind for this zone was to restore some of how Subspace was played back then. I had been told by older players than I that the person in the arena with the most points had the ability to use the Nightwasp.
L.C.> MERVbot might have a plugin for that, but I guess I can't fight it since I can't construct this zone a bot of its own with particular features.
L.C.> By nature when I work on a project, I usually like to construct almost every bit of it, leaving as little 3rd Party away.
vorbis> There is a plug in for it, DZA used to run it in pub. It takes the place of the shark
vorbis> I think Underlord coded the bot himself though, not sure if it was a merv
L.C.> I had one player come in here and claim they would make a bot through Underlord's bot tutorial...however I had doubted that, and can conclude my doubt is proven correct.
vorbis> ok, I got all the screenshots convert. Anything else you want to add before I make the post?
vorbis> coverted*
L.C.> I don't know. :p I think it's fine as you write it with whatever material you have recieved.
L.C.> Too much said would be too much detail, thus a liability for making a slightly negative impact.
Here's all the screenshots I took while we were chatting:
The zone has a real old-school feel about it with the original subspace ship graphics and the 1280 res cap, but not being on SSC billing is going to hurt it. You can find out more information about the zone on the
SS Jackpot SVS website. If LC takes my advice and tries to set up a weekly Jackpot event I'll post about here.
For now go check the zone out and wallow in some Subspace nostalgia.
