Messages

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Community Events / Re: Sunday Community Skirmish #81 (Signups for Sunday December 13th)

« on: December 11, 2015, 05:59:24 pm »

Solaris signing up

POC
Flash-

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Community Events / Re: Sunday Community Skirmish #79 (Signups for Sunday November 29th)

« on: November 28, 2015, 01:04:07 pm »

I may need to personally step out of this one, but Solaris will still be there. If you guys could change the Solaris POC to SlyCrossfox that'd be great. Ill be able to say whether or not I can show shortly.

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Community Events / Re: Sunday Community Skirmish #78 (Signups for Sunday November 22th)

« on: November 21, 2015, 11:39:15 am »

Solaris is signing up

POC: a DuSt NiNjA, SaLTy-

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Community Events / Re: Sandstorm Republic's 20th Chaos Skirmish

« on: August 19, 2015, 03:34:50 pm »

This is the first time I've seen an Asian timezone-friendly event; starts at Sunday 12:30 PM for me (GMT+8).

Its not by design, but you're welcome to come of course

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Community Events / Re: Sandstorm Republic's 20th Chaos Skirmish

« on: August 15, 2015, 06:16:04 pm »

^ What they said

Also, didn't see where i could take part so i'll leave it here K?

Take part in a european version?

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Community Events / Re: Sandstorm Republic's 20th Chaos Skirmish

« on: August 13, 2015, 03:08:16 pm »

*facepalm* Im very sorry. We always have these at the same time and day, so I forgot to put the day there. The event takes place at 04:30 (that 4:30 am) GMT on Sunday. For those of us in the americas, that means it starts on Saturday night. For example, if you're in EST, the event starts at 11:30 pm. If anyone needs help converting the start time of the event in the comments let me know, although I assume you all know your own in relation to GMT.

As for this being the 20th Chaos Skirmish, yes there have been 19 of these. We began hosting them each weekend a little less than a month after my clan was founded in January. The reason very few people outside those we invite ourselves have heard about these, and the reason we haven't advertised until now, is because of the importance of cooperation. I'm not a mod, I can't move people around, or force them to leave. We've had more than one bad experience where people wouldn't quiet down, listen to randomizations, leave the lobby, went afk for ten minutes, etc. Our close friends and the members of our clan have historically been the most cooperative, and this results in much shorter event times, which is very important to people.

As people who had never played before entered the chaos skirmish, the majority of those already there were their friends, and the new ones would cooperate and learn quickly how to help things move along. We were concerned about bringing in a much larger number of people new to the Chaos Skirmish and its rules, so we didn't advertise or open it to the public. We still wanted to show that we do this in the community however, so we decided to make the 20th Chaos Skirmish public to those on the forums, who are typically a cut above those players newer to the game and unfortunately unwilling to play other roles and/or cooperate.

We're testing the waters by opening this one to the forum players. If it goes well, we'll post some more. This doesn't mean if you want to come back you can't, the Chaos Skirmish has always been open to anyone cooperative, however we just won't advertise it.

I hope that answers those questions, sorry for my walls of text 

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Community Events / Sandstorm Republic's 20th Chaos Skirmish

« on: August 13, 2015, 02:46:10 am »

The Sandstorm Republic Chaos Skirmish

What is the Chaos Skirmish?

The Chaos Skirmish is a series of 3 matches where crews and roles are randomized from players in the lobby all three rounds. In addition to the randomized crews, the third round carries special rules or a "theme" that makes things especially chaotic. Past themes have included weapon randomization, ship randomization, and even choosing the load out of the person across from you. The theme rules are revealed at the beginning of the third match.

How are crews randomized?

I manually enter the names of every player in the lobby into a random group generator. The group generator can be programmed to return the names in groups of four. Each group constitutes a ship, and the order the generator spits out the names left to right is how I fill the ship top to bottom. That is to say, the first name is the captain, the next the gunner, and the last two engineers. I then ask the lobby to quiet down, and people use the swap slot function to move to their designated places on ships (this is because if you leave your slot to swap via a spectate slot, someone trying to join the lobby could easily take it by mistake and asking people to leave is never a fun thing to do, it also slows things down a lot). Once everyone is settled, preparations for the game begin as usual. For this Chaos Skirmish, I will be enforcing a 5 minute ready up timer to help move things along, which will be started when all players are in place.
Provided here is a link to the site I use: http://www.aschool.us/random/random-pair.php

Why participate?

The Chaos Skirmish is a great way to meet new people. Each match doesn't start unless the crew slots are all filled, so we pull in everyone we can from our collective friends list. You also won't play with your usual group of people, in fact all you know is that you'll play with people in the lobby. Randomized crews and roles mean many players will be out of their element or usual role, meaning a widely varying degree of skill. Competent gunners will find themselves at the helm, engineers behind the barrel of a lumberjack, and pilots struggling to maintain the ships they so often abuse. Given the usual pleasurable nature of people playing with you, all of this happens in good fun. You'll find yourself laughing at your friend's inability to dodge a mountain you could've flown around gracefully, and they'll be laughing at you as you miss every shot from your weapon. Scale this up to a 2v2 or a 3v3 and you have, well, Chaos.

Participation Etiquette

Unfortunately I do need to include a short section on this. People who are not cooperative greatly slow down the speed of getting every settled into their randomized roles. It is of the utmost importance that, for the sake of everyone's time and personal enjoyment, people follow these rules.

• Do not "bounce" around empty slots in the lobby. Often times I will begin entering people's names as they fill in to speed up the initial randomization. "Bouncing" prevents me from doing this and slows the first match down
• Stay off the mic and/or type when I ask. I need to be heard in order for people to know where they're going to be. When others talk, there's a lot of confusion that occurs. I do not type the randomizations. I am very clear on when you are free to banter, and will let you know the instant you can, I promise
• USE SWAP SLOT. It is extremely awkward and time-consuming to explain to a person who just took your spot that they cannot participate. In addition, it is very disappointing for them to have success joining, then find out they cant play. Please please please only use the swap slot feature
• Take very fast breaks. If everyone is cooperating, I can very quickly get randomizations going. If you are afk, the entire lobby is waiting on you to get back. Again, this is very time-consuming and people start to get squirrely. Take fast breaks. If you are going to take an extended break to contemplate your life, please exit the lobby.
• If you know you are going to leave after a match, leave immediately. We at SREP love you all very much for participating, but we can tell war stories later. Say your goodbyes in the end-game screen and leave so another person can quickly fill your place and we can get the next match going.
• Understand you are not guaranteed a slot at any point in the skirmish. If you leave, disconnect, are kicked for being afk, etc, I will not ask the person who takes your place to swap back with you. If you are able to reenter the lobby, you may ask them, although this may not happen either as spectate slots may be filled by our DJ and recorders. There are no reservations either. Be ready to join the lobby when it is created and announced via global chat.

Lobby announcement, start time, and password

Each match start will be announced in global. Matches are not timed, they take as long as they need. Unfortunately, this is not a euro friendly event. The start time of the event is 04:30 GMT. Only those euros with the broken body clocks will be awake to play. If enough euros tell me in the comments below they want their own version of this, I will happily host one, but I would like to see support for it first. Chaos skirmishes typically last as short as an hour and as long as two and a half, the latter being a very rare occurrence. The password for the lobby and for all three matches will be Chaos.

Recording, music, and this Chaos Skirmish theme

At least two spectate slots will be reserved for our own DJ Calvary and someone from our media team, who will be recording the match. Recordings of previous Chaos Skirmishes are available on our YouTube channel. I have provided a link here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Z1H9RlpXDXJX5c7-LWR0Q
If you are interested in recording the Chaos Skirmish, please contact me via the thread comments, private message, or simply contact any SREP officer or co-leader in game. We are more than happy to have you, and you can even record POV as well.

DJ Calvary hosts a music party while the game is being played. The music is kept at a reasonable volume and can be adjusted on request. Calvary creates a playlist via the requests of those in the lobby. Due to the program he uses to create these playlists and the nature of the party chat to be used often by players, you must send him your request in the following format, in a private message.

Artist - Song Name
I.E.
Darude - Sandstorm
(plz no)

If you do not like music, do not join the party. Songs are not skipped, not matter how much you don't like them. Remember, someone requested the song, although DJ Calvary doesn't tell who. They are more than welcome to identify themselves. Please be decent in party chat and allow the music to play.

Lastly, every Chaos Skirmish has a code name for its theme. They are carefully chosen so that only those who are truly twisted or clever can guess at the theme (most of the time). The Random Gods have told me they will be making a new addition to their ranks for this skirmish, and thus the name is "Random gods meet...". It will be revealed at the start of the third round!

Thank you for taking the time to read through this, I truly hope you enjoy yourself at our event. This is our 20th one since they've started, and we host each weekend as often as we can. We hope to see you there!

From Dust and SREP

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The Docks / Re: Current Available Clans

« on: July 30, 2015, 04:04:22 pm »

Sorry for not taking care of this sooner!

Im a co-leader of SREP, and our post is very outdated. ScheerBH is no longer in our clan, neither is Mr.Dev, and BarryC stepped down due to life circumstances.
Below I have created an updated version. If you could please put this in as soon as possible, that'd be great. Thanks!

Co-leaders: a DuSt NiNjA / Ikuto / Tfaltys / KingEridani
Officers: Lord November / haytheghost / ieatbugs / Skylord TrinPie / OverlordEgg
Clan Tag: SREP
Members: Currently ranges from 75-100 (members added and/or removed for inactivity everyday)
We utilize our steam group page: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SandstormRepublic
Location(s): Our largest population is in the West, with a sizeable European population and a small but growing Far East population
Looking for: Players of any skill level. We care about activity and good character above all.
Other assests: Teamspeak3 server, designated members to teach new players, YouTube channel, Art Team, and an entire forums dedicated to playing other games with the clan
Recruitment Thread: In process. Message any Co-leader or Officer as listed above via the forums or in-game

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Community Events / Re: Aerodrome: TMW Week 1 Rival Contracts (Red Spawn)

« on: July 17, 2015, 11:29:01 pm »

Company: Desert Marauders
Mission Statement: Wherever the winds take us
Base of operations: Cliffside, Dust Coast
Logo:
CEO: a DuSt NiNjA
Steam ID: a DuSt NiNjA
In-game name: a DuSt NiNjA
Contract Requested: Contract 5
Willing to Merc: Yes

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Community Events / Re: The Teaching Tournament!

« on: May 06, 2015, 10:22:16 am »

Tfaltys and a DuSt NiNjA

someone said there's gonna be a steam sale at the same time? how coincidental. tons of new people to teach haha

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General Discussion / Re: AN OPEN LETTER: "Return to crew form or rematch?"

« on: February 10, 2015, 10:52:22 am »

One of the issue Extirminator points out is one of the most important, and that is the troll clans and core 4 players who dont want to make friends will stlll exist regardless of the system made for clans. Even if they arent in a clan (because many dont figure it out right away), they will still run together. Regarding any changes to the game itself, I think that the "rematch" button could be changed to only appear when scramble is off, and a better word or phrasing used in most public lobbies where scramble is on to imply clicking that option will randomize the lobby. Also informing people of the swap ship and slot functions could be very helpful. One of the biggest reasons this game's community is the way it is is because of the nature of the game itself. Muse made one of the most team-dependent games ever, and it shows at the highest levels and best players to the newest ones. If someone gets the game alone and refuses to make friends, or doesnt find anyone agreeable, they will most likely leave the game. If the "core 4" IRL friends get bored, or one goes inactive, or they all think the learning curve is too high, they will leave. The troll clans leave when they get into serious trouble or when they get bored. I was personally extremely anti clan prior to playing this game, but the nature of the game depends on making friends to play with, online or bringing them with you. Im not sure if there is a solution to this problem, and Im not sure if i want there to be one. I enjoy the small community, and the emphasis on clan team work and competition. But, if I had to make any suggestion for the seasoned Guns players to help the newer ones, it would be this: stomp once and switch. Every vet has the right to play with their clan. Its fun, coordinated, and its great to play with people who are competent and even better than yourself. However, we cant keep complaining/worrying about the community size and quality if we stomp all the time. I am DEFINITELY not for stopping every stomp, but switching things up the 2nd round causes a positive reaction even in the worst bad sports and rudest new players. You get to play AGAINST your own friends/clan members as well, which is always a good challenge.

Just for those who dont want to read all my thoughts, the summary is this. Vet clans should "stomp once and switch" to help new people but still play with their clan. Also, the only change I think would be good to the game is the rephrasing of the "rematch" button when scramble is on to something more related to "shuffle teams".

From Dust