FCF: July 2, 2009 - TENTATIVE

Folks, when it rains, it pours...

• Three weeks ago, the laptop that I track all of our FCF fun on had its video card go out.
• Last week, my A/C went out (still not fixed) Inside temp has been steady at about 94°F (34.5°C) for the past week.
• Last Thursday, my PC got hit with the devastating "reader_s" virus and all its minions and I'm still running virus scans
• Last night, my TV went out.

So, as I prioritize what NEEDS to get done and paid for against what I'd LIKE to get done and paid for, the A/C (a health and comfort issue) and the laptop (my livelihood) are bound to take precedence.

So, while I'd like to say that come Hell or high water there will be an FCF this week, I can't really promise that.

I'm not cancelling yet, but there is a 50% chance that that will happen.

Stay tuned...

CONTEST TIME!!!!

Wanna chance to win 1600 Microsoft Points?

Here's the deal:

July 4th is Independence Day here in the U.S.A., so to celebrate we are going to do an Independence Day theme for next week's Far Cry Friday. And to sweeten the deal, I'm making a contest out of it!

You have until 11:59 PM CDT on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 to create, publish and submit an Xbox 360 Far Cry 2 map on the theme "Independence Day".

You can use that theme in any way you like, as long as it makes sense. For example:

• a Red, White and Blue extravaganza (traditional USA fireworks, etc.)
• a Red, White and Green fiesta (Cinco de Mayo)
• a tribute to the movie Independence Day
• a representation of the Martina McBride song

...or anything else that you can imagine that would fit the "Independence Day" theme.

Your map will be judged by a panel of judges during the FCF event. Judging criteria will be:

• Playability (does the map play well, are the spawns good, etc.): 25%
• Fun (separate from playability, is the map fun?): 25%
• Adherence to the contest theme: 15%
• Creativity: 15%
• Overall appearance: 20%

You can submit up to two maps for this event. They must be YOUR ORIGINAL WORK. Submitting or refining someone else's map is not allowed.

The mapmaker receiving the highest overall score will be awarded a 5x5 code over Xbox LIVE for 1600 Microsoft points!

You have less than a week from the time of this post, so let those creative juices flow and get crackin'!

FCF: June 26, 2009 @ 7PM CDT

YES! WE ARE ON FOR TONIGHT. See the original schedule for June 12th.


Note: I've had some horrible computer issues, including getting hit with the "reader_s" virus, so this announcement is bare-bones.

But yes, we WILL be playing Far Cry tonight.

See y'all there!

Servers still down...

Well it's been eleven days and the UbiSoft Far Cry 2 servers for Xbox 360 are still down.

I'm calling it a day early. No FCF this week, kiddos.

FCF: June 12, 2009 @ 7PM CDT

Updated 6:00PM CDT:

MATCH POSTPONED TO JUNE 19.

The UbiSoft servers have been down all day today and running a room is miserable when Ubi’s servers are down.

We’ll be back next week at 7PM with the schedule outlined below, assuming Ubi gets their act together.

---

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

This week is another Mapmakers’ Choice week!  I have contacted several more of our regular FCF map makers and asked them to pick two of their maps to be played this week.  Note that this is by invitation only.  If you didn’t get contacted, please don’t send me “submissions” – I need to limit the number of maps and this is how I’m controlling that.  But never fear, this is the second of many Mapmaker’s Choice events, and I’ll be spreading the wealth around.

The artisans for this Mapmakers’ Choice event are...  Gwar Junky, I Daddy253 I, mambonuts and PrisonedBullet.

New maps are still welcome for this event, so send ‘em in if ya got ‘em!

---

Key Session Settings:
	Friendly Fire:	No	Join in Progress:	Yes
	Balance Teams:	No	Voting:	Yes
	Time Limit:	10 mins	Dedicated Server:	No
	Weather:	Map default	Map Sharing:	Yes
	Time of Day:	Map default	Starting Rank:	7
	Respawn Time:	10 secs	Hardcore Mode:	Yes

---

New/updated maps submitted for approval:

Gamertag	Map Name	Preferred	Status
Hilbillee	Shock a Zulu CTD	CTD	Not reviewed.
Enfadel	scourge amplified	Uprising	Not reviewed.
winnipeg2008	LUMBERJACKED	Uprising/CTD	Not reviewed.

MAP LISTS ARE NOT FINAL

Small Maps:

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
I Daddy253 I	the rooftop cafe*	Old	S	DM	DM
Gwar Junky	beatdown	Old	S	All	TDM
mambonuts	Junkyard Dog**	Old	S	All	TDM/CTD

Medium and Large Maps:

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
mac777777	Remains of the Day*	New	???	???	CTD
CrazyUncleDave	Valley Ho***	Old	L	All	CTD
mambonuts	Shipping Lane Reload**	Old	M	All	TDM
Gwar Junky	HQ Invasion	Old	M	All	CTD/TDM

* I Daddy253 I’s choices.
** mambonuts’ choices.
*** carryover from last week’s Mapmakers’ Choice.

FCF: June 5, 2009 @ 7PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Big news below the horizontal break, but first this:

This week is Mapmakers’ Choice week!  I have contacted several of our regular FCF map makers and asked them to pick 2 of their maps to be played this week.  Note that this is by invitation only.  If you didn’t get contacted, please don’t send me “submissions” – I need to limit the number of maps and this is how I’m controlling that.  But never fear, this is the first of many Mapmaker’s Choice events, and I’ll be spreading the wealth around.

The map makers for this Mapmakers’ Choice event are:  Broken Piggy, CrazyUncleDave, PolishFreak8 and Empires Rayge.

We also will be looking at some new maps, just to keep it fresh.  :)

---

There will be a big change in how we work our lineup this week and I will be looking for your comments: I’m going to try and do away with the small map/big map sessions.  The plan is to work things like this:

The first map of the night will be the first map from the small maps list.  That map will always be a small “warm-up” map that can accommodate 4-16 players in Deathmatch or TDM.  (We have a number of these: Barge Battle, Ilanesia, Jaynes Oasis, Dark Knight and several others.)  After that, the host will evaluate the size of the room and then take the next map from the small map or large map list as he sees fit.  Maps will still be played in order from their respective lists – but the selected list will change to conform to the dynamics of the room.  This does mean that a small map may get flooded from time to time, but we’ll deal with that as it occurs.

I’ll also be listing more maps than we can get to in our five hour schedule, since I need to overload both the small and large map lists for this to work.  If a map is listed toward the bottom of a list, there’s a high liklihood it will not get played unless the room stays a certain size or we play for an extra hour or two.

I would really appreciate your comments on how well this works compared to segregating out the room as we have in the past.  I really liked having the small map session, but I’m much less fond of the idea that I might be frustrating people who want to play when I have the bandwidth available to host a full room.

Key Session Settings:
	Friendly Fire:	No	Join in Progress:	Yes
	Balance Teams:	No	Voting:	Yes
	Time Limit:	10 mins	Dedicated Server:	No
	Weather:	Map default	Map Sharing:	Yes
	Time of Day:	Map default	Starting Rank:	7
	Respawn Time:	10 secs	Hardcore Mode:	Yes

---

New/updated maps submitted for approval:

Gamertag	Map Name	Preferred	Status
Mikk Q	RIVER FACTIONS	CTD/Uprising	Accepted.
Mikk Q	RAILYARD	CTD/TDM/Upr	Accepted.
Hilbillee	Shock a Zulu UPR	Uprising	Reviewed – requires minor changes regarding occlusion blocks
Empires Rayge	Yodas Refuge UR	Uprising	Accepted – spawns could use some rework/expansion

Small Maps:

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
The Govener	City of Echoes	New	S-M	All	CTD/TDM
Empires Rayge	Far Cry Football	Old	S-M	All	CTD
Cold Justice	Jaynes Oasis	Old	S-M	DTU	Uprising/TDM
The Govener	Ilanesia	Old	S	D	Deathmatch

Medium and Large Maps:

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Mikk Q	RIVER FACTIONS	New	L	All	CTD/Uprising
Empires Rayge	Yodas Refuge	New	M-L	TU	Uprising
Hilbillee	Shock a Zulu UPR	New	M	TU	Uprising
Mikk Q	RAILYARD	New	S-M	All	CTD/TDM/Upr
Broken Piggy	Factory Fight	Old	M	All	CTD/TDM
PolishFreak8	Waterside SE	Old	M	TCU	Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Doom Dome	Old	M	All	Uprising
Broken Piggy	Chemikill Plant A51	Old	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising
PolishFreak8	Khardi Uprising	Old	M-L	All	Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Valley Ho	Old	M-L	All	CTD

FCF: May 29, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Map-makers, rev your engines… er, or whatever map makers do.  Get those map submissions in by Wednesday – because we’ll be cranking out another night of militaristic mayhem this Friday night.

Note that after last week’s craziness, I may just open the room up all the way at the start of the 7PM session.  We may eventually do away with the small map session and find a way to work small maps in when the room falling to lower levels. I’d appreciate your comments, because I’m really not sure what direction to take.  I really like the small map session, but I don’t like frustrating the community with “room full” all of the time.

Key Session Settings:
	Friendly Fire:	No	Join in Progress:	Yes
	Balance Teams:	No	Voting:	Yes
	Time Limit:	10 mins	Dedicated Server:	No
	Weather:	Map default	Map Sharing:	Yes
	Time of Day:	Map default	Starting Rank:	7
	Respawn Time:	10 secs	Hardcore Mode:	Yes

---

Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

There will be 6 private slots for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Barge Battle	Old	S	D	DM
The Govener	Bliss in Concrete	Old	S	All	TDM
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	Old	S-M	DTU	Uprising/TDM
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	Old	S	All	CTD/Uprising

---

Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 10 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
The Govener	City of Echoes	New	M	All	DM/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Updated	M	All	CTD/TDM
Gwar Junky	HQ Invasion	New	S-M	All	???
Drac30akaRaziel	Garden of the Gods	New	S-M	All	???
Mac777777	Katerina	New	M	All	???
Mikk Q	MONOVISTA	New	M	All	CTD/TDM

FCF: May 22, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

We received this letter today:

Dear Editor:

My friends have been telling me that
there is no such thing as Far Cry Friday.
But my dad says that “if it’s published
on a blog, it has to be true!”

So tell me: Is there a Far Cry Friday?

Sincerely,
Virginia

Yes, Virginia, there is a Far Cry Friday.

And we’ll be playing tonight!

Sorry folks for the late post, but I’ve been working some pretty severe hours lately and haven’t been able to post to the blog or go through the maps you’ve submitted. My evenings have consisted pretty much of collapsing in front of the TV at 9PM, playing a bit of Sacred 2, and heading to bed by 10:30.

To complicate matters, my trusty sidekick for the past five years, my Toshiba Satellite Notebook, bit the dust this afternoon. That’s the machine I keep all the FCF information on, so things may be a little rougher than normal this evening.

But, rest assured, we are playing tonight, there are new maps and I will publish a map list about an hour before game time.

---

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Key Session Settings:
	Friendly Fire:	No	Join in Progress:	Yes
	Balance Teams:	No	Voting:	Yes
	Time Limit:	10 mins	Dedicated Server:	No
	Weather:	Map default	Map Sharing:	Yes
	Time of Day:	Map default	Starting Rank:	7
	Respawn Time:	10 secs	Hardcore Mode:	Yes

---

Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

There will be 6 private slots for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
The Govener	Ilanesia	New	S	DM	DM
Cold Justice	Jaynes Oasis	Old	S	DTU	DM/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Updated	S	DTC	CTD
The Govener	Bliss In Concrete	Updated	S	All	Uprising/DM

---

Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 10 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Broken Piggy	Beach Slapped	Old	L	All	Uprising
AMRI LAMBO M4TT	Congo Uprising ALM	New	M	All	TDM
TG Lime	Rocky Playground	New	M-L	All	TDM/CTD
solusmoth	Japanese tea garden	New	L	All
Drac30akaRaziel	CAVERN TEMPLE	New	M	All	CTD/DM/TDM
XxM4574GRUN7xX	Savana Strife	New	M	All
The Govener	Forgotten Giant	Old	M	All	Uprising/CTD

Recap: May 15. 2009

Definitely another crazy night.  We had a full room or nearly full room most of the night.  There were some very memorable incidents:

• During the small map session, playing Uprising on VistaDelMar MPD, Mac777777 team killed his own team captain, PolishFreak8, THREE TIMES IN A ROW with an IED!  It was my team, but after the third time I was laughing so hard I couldn’t see through the tears.
  
  
• Overheard during a match: (frightened voice) “Oh God – a flare gun!”
  
  
• Toward the end of the night we had someone from Argentina with limited English join the room.  He tried to butter up the host by saying “Cold Justice – you are my hero.”   It didn’t work.

Remember something fun from tonight? Post it in the comments.

FCF: May 15, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Key Session Settings:
	Friendly Fire:	No	Join in Progress:	Yes
	Balance Teams:	No	Voting:	Yes
	Time Limit:	10 mins	Dedicated Server:	No
	Weather:	Map default	Map Sharing:	Yes
	Time of Day:	Map default	Starting Rank:	7
	Respawn Time:	5 secs	Hardcore Mode:	Yes

---

THE UPDATE IS HERE!  THE UPDATE IS HERE!

Yes, UbiSoft finally released a title update for Far Cry 2 on the Xbox 360.  So there will be a few nice changes coming to our sessions.

The main changes will be:

• The room will be set up with a starting rank of seven.  That means that every player will be able to fully upgrade two weapon classes immediately – even after a disconnect. 
  
  
• We will be giving Hardcore mode a shot.  I really want to get your honest feedback on this one.

Wouldja look at all those shiny new maps?

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

There will be 6 private slots for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Broken Piggy	Ocean Bleeds Salty	New	S	DTC	DM/CTD
The Govener	Murphys Law	New	S	All	DM/CTD
The Govener	Scavenger	New	S	All	CTD/Uprising
Mis7aPapz D3A7H	VistaDelMar MPD	New	S-M	All	Uprising/DM

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 10 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
The Govener	MONOLITH ASLT	New	L	DTC	CTD
Broken Piggy	Beach Slapped	Updated	L	All	CTD/TDM/Uprising
The Govener	Forgotten Giant	Updated	L	All	CTD
Drac30akaRaziel	Isolated Canyon	New	M-L	All
Mac777777	Watchfire*	New	M	All
Drac30akaRaziel	Abandoned Fortress	New	M	All	CTD/Uprising

* Removed from play at the map author’s request.

Recap: May 8, 2009

Fun Times everyone! We had almost a full room the entire night (and only 1 ban,
and He really deserved it) Only 1 Invisiplayer, that I know of, and no major voice issues for once.
Hope to see everyone again next week!

FCF: May 8, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Broken Piggy 
Host Connection: Cable - 5Mbps down/500Kbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Your host for this week is Broken Piggy – so BEHAVE!

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Barge Battle	Old	S	D	DM
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Old	S-M	All	CTD
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	Old	S	All	CTD/Uprising
mambonuts	Junkyard Dog	Old	S	All	TDM

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
The Govener	Scavenger 2	New	M	All	Uprising/CTD
Broken Piggy	Chemikill Plant A51	Old	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising
The Govener	Forgotten Giant	New	L	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Beachslap Alt	New	L	All	CTD/Uprising
PrisonedBullet	Snake River	Old	L	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising

Recap: May 1, 2009

What a great night!  We had an almost full room for the majority of the session, only minor mic/event reporting problems, and only a couple of no-mic bans.

And yes, the session went to almost 3 AM CDT…  8 hours of Far Cry Friday goodness.

Thanks to all who joined, it was a total blast.  It’s fun to pull out maps that you all have tagged as your favorites.

Shout outs to The Govener, Nothe Tagiwant, Mr Skimy, Skater JC and Arcus Arcanus who have now established themselves as “regulars”. Welcome to the family, guys!

And to those of you who were there at the very end – I know we’ve done it before, but I don’t remember playing Roadie Rage Reverb as a TDM map.  That was so much fun!  I think you guys have finally convinced me that it’s a fun map – and on a game mode I wasn’t all that thrilled about putting on it.

FCF: May 1, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Workers Unite!  And power to the people… er, players!

This special May Day edition of Far Cry Friday features maps chosen by YOU – our Far Cry Friday comrades.  So if you haven’t voted, do so NOW using the ballot in the sidebar.  Remember, you can vote for as many maps as you want – so, as they say in Chicago, “vote early, vote often!”

The votes are in, the polls have closed and here are your winners!  13 winners total and I refuse to choose between the bottom tier – so we’ll play them all.

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

There will be 6 private slots for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Votes	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Barge Battle	4	S	D	Deathmatch
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	6	S-M	All	CTD
mambonuts	Junkyard Dog	7	S	All	TDM
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	4	S-M	DTU	Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	4	S	All	CTD/Uprising

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - 1AM CDT:

There will be 10 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Votes	Size	Modes	Preferred
CrazyUncleDave	Curve Damage	5	L	All	Uprising/CTD
CrazyUncleDave	Fatalitrees	5	M	All	Uprising/CTD
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	7	L	DTU	Uprising/DM
Broken Piggy	Lincoln Logs	5	M	All	CTD/Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Spherikill	5	L	All	Uprising
PolishFreak8	Khardi Uprising	4	M-L	All	Uprising/CTD
MARK TW	Mall Madness	4	M	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Pipeworks	4	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising

Recap: April 24, 2009

Very fun, very wierd night. Sorry about the voice issues, guys. For some reason I was suddenly set up to where I couldn’t hear any of you in game chat. We finished off the night with (most of) my team in a party.

Best part of the party was that we kept gotcherrr in the party even when he wasn’t on my team. Ah, fun times…

We played every map on the list (EDIT: except Trench Trouble because CJ is a dork.) I hope you enjoyed them. We also, for pure humor’s sake, did a quick round of CTD on “We B Crabs” – honestly one of the funniest, though crass, maps I’ve ever played on.

Next week it is YOUR turn to pick the maps. So be sure to vote for all of your favorites in our sidebar ballot before the poll closes on Wednesday.

Voting now open for Players’ Choice Night!

Take a look at our sidebar anytime between now and 8PM PDT on April 30th and you’ll find a ballot for Players’ Choice Night.

The rules are simple:  VOTE FOR AS MANY MAPS AS YOU WANT.  (Just don’t vote for all of them, because that would be silly and would be the same as not voting at all.)  Once you cast your vote, you can’t go back, so be sure to pick all of your favorites.  Please only one ballot per person.

Voting closes at 8PM PDT on April 30th.

I’ll take the top 4 small maps and the top 6 medium-to-large maps and create a map list from the results.

FCF: April 24, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

It’s Host’s Favorites Night! Woo-hoo! I’ve picked out 13 of my favorite maps of the past four months for your bullet-slinging pleasure. I couldn’t just pick 10, so we are planning on going for 6 hours this weekend.

And yes, there are two of my own maps on here. What can I say? I like my maps…

---

Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Barge Battle	Old	S	D	DM
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	Old	S	DTU	Uprising
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Old	S-M	All	CTD
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	Old	S	All	CTD/Uprising

---

Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - 1AM CDT:

There will be 10 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PrisonedBullet	Snake River	Old	L	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Trench Trouble	Old	M	All	CTD
Mambonuts	Shipping Lane Reload	Old	L	All	TDM
Reyule Reborn	Kesselschlact	Old	M/L	TCU	Uprising
mambonuts	Vertigo	Old	M	All	TDM/CTD
MARKTW	Mall Madness	Old	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Lincoln Logs	Old	M	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Justice	Roadie Rage Reverb	Old	M	All	Uprising

Do you Twitter?

Far Cry Friday tweets! You can follow the FarCryFriday twitter feed at http://twitter.com/FarCryFriday.

And if you are feeling voyeuristic, you can follow Cold Justice’s twitter feed at http://twitter.com/donperk. About 80% of the tweets there will be Xbox 360/gaming related -- with a smattering of what it's like to be a single forty-something with too many cats who spends his days writing banking software.

FCF: April 17, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

THIS WEEK’S PARTY CANCELLED

Sorry folks, but C.J. has a gig on Friday and it just dawned on me that it conflicted with FCF.  Our alternate hosts are unable to do the full night for various reasons, so we’ll take a rain check this week.

Note that CrazyUncleDave may host a pickup session sometime after 9:30 PM CDT.  Nothing guaranteed or official, but it would be worth checking out if you are on.  I’ve been to one of his Crazy Thursdays (usually too late for me on a work night :-( ) and he hosts a good room.

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Okay, so you refused to file your taxes and remade Boston Harbor into a giant cup of Earl Grey.  What are you gonna do now?  Chase off the UFLL oppressors who put you into this mess, right?

Looks like our map makers have all been too busy paying Uncle Sam and Granny Bertha to do any important work – like creating maps for us to play on – so this week it’s going to be a “Host’s Favorites” night.

Recap/Trench Notes: April 10, 2009

Kind of a strange night. This is the first time in quite a while that we were struggling to keep the room full. Several notable events, though:

• At the end of the small map session, Sh0tgun Murphy realized he had been hoarding diamonds – right when we got ready to dump the room for the large map session.
  
  
• First time I’ve ever seen LIVE or Ubi’s servers go so haywire – It looked to me like the whole room got dumped and then slowly filled back in. As host, I couldn’t talk to anyone. Turned out I played an entire match as a ghost player. I couldn’t even heal my teammates – hitting [Y] on a dying player as a ghost just bleeds them out.
  
  
• AMRI LAMBO M4TT’s URBAN COMBAT ALM was pretty amazing to play on. Hard to decide what I liked better, CTD or Uprising, but I think Uprising may be the winner.
  
  
• It’s been a while since we’ve played Broken Piggy’s Lincoln Logs and I just had to see what CTD would be like with a full room (16 players.) It was a BLAST! We’ll have to do that again.
  
  
• PolishFreak8’s Blitzkreig is a great layout for 3 on 3 and 4 on 4 action. It could really use some visual cleanup, though. And it would be nice to have an underground path leading from the back of each base – possibly with a center exit. Seriously, though, it plays very well as is.
  
  
• Steampunk City turned out to be a great 3 on 3 map during the small session. Only there’s a really ugly spawn that requires you to hurt yourself – You need to get that fixed, Dayton28.
  
  
• We tried playing TDM on Njeve Haki Uprising and I was pleased to see that it works pretty well in spite of my fears that it wouldn’t. Of course, that map shines on Uprising, which it was designed for.

Two maps on the list did not get played: Roadie Rage and Dark Knight, due to room size. Instead, we substituted Wizard Incarnate and Beach Battle.

Also, tonight we saw a lot of communications issues. Not sure what the cause was. Some people were having issues with hits not seeming to be registered and a few odd voice issues. Ubi REALLY needs to get their act together and get this game fixed.

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SH0TGUN MURPHY!!!

FCF: April 10, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Okay procrastinators, what are you gonna do on Friday – file your taxes or steal diamonds from those APR scumbags? I know where I’ll be, and it will involve lots of scumbags, er, APR scumbags, not IRS scumbags…

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Dogon Wars	Old	S-M	All	Uprising
PolishFreak8	Blitzkrieg	New	S		TDM/CTD
Dayton28	Steampunk City	New	S-M		TDM/Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	Old	S		CTD/Uprising

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session -- and we will be carefully watching the public population on those 3 remaining slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Empires Rayge	Dark Knight	Old	S-M	All	Uprising
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising
AMRI LAMBO M4TT	URBAN COMBAT ALM	New	M		Uprising
Broken Piggy	Lincoln Logs	Old	M	All	CTD
PrisonedBullet	Snake River	Old	M-L	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Pipeworks	Old	L	All	CTD
Cold Jusitice	Roadie Rage Reverb	Old	M	All	Uprising

Recap: April 3, 2009

Kind of a weird night, but a really fun one. Amazing number of deadlocks in the small map session.

Greetings to my buddy from work, TW 615 JoeReich. Glad you could join us!

FCF: April 3, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Sorry for the late post, but it’s been nuts here in Central Tennessee.  Lots of tornado and severe storm warnings.  But will we let that stop us?  Heck no!  We’re on and ready to rumble (along with the thunder.)

IMPORTANT!!  Note that the stated play times are U.S. Central DAYLIGHT Time.  That puts the times at GMT-5 instead of GMT-6 until the rest of the Northern Hemisphere switches over to daylight time for the summer.

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PolishFreak8	Barge Battle	Old	S	D	DM
Big Jigz	Sinking Ruins	New	S-M	All	CTD/Uprising
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	Updated	S	All	CTD/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Wizard Incarnate	Old	S-M	All	Uprising

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session -- and we will be carefully watching the public population on those 3 remaining slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
AMRI LAMBO M4TT	HUMVEE RACER ALM	New	L	DTC	TDM/CTD
Gwar Junky	SeWaR WaRs	New	M	All	CTD/Uprising
PolishFreak8	Khardi Uprising	Updated	M	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Chemikill Plant A51	Old	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising
MARKTW	Mall Madness	Old	M-L	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Jusitice	Roadie Rage Reverb	Old	M	All	Uprising

Recap: March 27, 2009

Turnout was a little light for the large group session, but it was a fun time over all.  Several maps saw a single half-hour run and the dreaded ban hammer stayed in its sheath the entire night.

I was really pleased to see that CrazyUncleDave’s new map Suspendead played as well as it looked in the editor.  We’ve been needing some new blood for the small map session and that one is definitely in the permanent rotation.

Broken Piggy’s liberal take on Halo’s Wizard, Wizard Incarnate, proved to be a worthy challenge as well, with plenty of room for snipers and CQB play.

gotcherrr’s Four Corners showed some promise both for CTD and Uprising, though it could use some additional team spawns and some minor sprucing up.

The other welcome surprise of the night was MarkTW’s Mall Madness.  Again, more team spawns would be welcome, but overall, it played well.  I was especially fond of the fact that you need to break the jewelry cases to get at the diamond in CTD.  Very nice touch.

Finally, I’d like to welcome Arcus Arcanus to our little FCF family.  Good playing with you, man.

PS: nick b ocher – dude, I appreciate your dedication to the cause, but you really need to make sure you don’t tick off your woman as a result!

FCF: March 27, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

C.J. is back from China and ready to kick some UFLL behind!  Not too many new maps this week, but that gives us some time to play on some favorites from the past month, as few as a few oldies.

IMPORTANT!!  Note that the stated play times are U.S. Central DAYLIGHT Time.  That puts the times at GMT-5 instead of GMT-6 until the rest of the Northern Hemisphere switches over to daylight time for the summer.

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
CrazyUncleDave	Suspendead	New	S	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Wizard Incarnate	New	S	DTU	DM/Uprising
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	Old	S	DTU	Uprising
Mikk Q	AEGIS CORE	Old	S	All	Uprising

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session -- and we will be carefully watching the public population on those 3 remaining slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
gotcherrr	Four Corners	New	M-L	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Chemikill Plant A51	Updated	M	All	CTD
MarkTW	Mall Madness	New	M	All	CTD
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	M	DTU	DM/Uprising
Empires Rayge	Dark Knight	Old	S-M	All	Uprising
PrisonedBullet	Snake River	Old	M-L	All	CTD
Broken Piggy	Pipeworks	Old	L	All	CTD
PolishFreak8	Khardi Redux	Old	M	TU	Uprising

Recap: March 20, 2009

Good times Tonight, We kept a full room almost the entire Night without depending on Public slots at all. Pretty much all maps were memorable since they all lasted over 30 minutes per match!

Thanks for attending! I hope everybody had as much fun as I did! I'm sure I provided a target rich environment for you all ( I do what I can) It seems I was taking more bullets than I was giving Tonight!

FCF: March 20, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Broken Piggy 
Host Connection: Cable - 5Mbps down/500Kbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

This week Broken Piggy will be hosting his favorite FCF maps, while C.J. walks across the top of the Great Wall with a bevy of Geritol-swiggin’ grannies.

MAP MAKERS: Submit your maps to Cold Justice as usual.  They will be considered for the March 27th party.

IMPORTANT!!  Note that the stated play times are U.S. Central DAYLIGHT Time.  That puts the times at GMT-5 instead of GMT-6 until the rest of the Northern Hemisphere switches over to daylight time for the summer.  (Thanks go to George W. Bush for confusing the heck out of everybody…)

So, for those of you in the United Kingdoms, the small session starts at Midnight, March 21 and the large session at 2AM, March 21.  Everyone else – figure out your local time from there.

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	Old	S	DTU	Uprising
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Old	S	All	CTD
mambonuts	Junkyard Dog	Old	S	All	TDM
Reyule Reborn	Kesselschlacht	Old	S-M	DTU	Uprising

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
CrazyUncleDave	Fatalitrees	Old	M	All	Uprising/CTD
mambonuts	Shipping Lane Reload	Old	M	DT	TDM
Broken Piggy	Lincoln Logs	Old	M	All	CTD/Uprising
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Chemikill Plant B4	Old	M	All	CTD
mambonuts	Vertigo	Old	M	All	TDM
Broken Piggy	Trench Trouble	Old	L	All	CTD/Uprising

Recap: March 13, 2009

Full room almost the entire small session and a healthy group during the second.

It seems we are all getting much better at playing CTD and Uprising – it’s not unusual to see matches go over a half hour on a good map these days.

Most memorable new maps for me were the three in the middle of the session: Snake River (PrisonedBullet), Pipeworks (Broken Piggy) and Far Cry Football (Empires Rayge.)  Not quite as memorable, but certainly fun, were the sessions on Dark Knight (Empires Rayge) and Battle Fort (Gwar Junky) – too bad we didn’t have a full room for Battle Fort.  :-(

Of course, Deathmatch on my Njeve Haki Uprising is always a blast.  Most of you don’t know this, but I’m not a big fan of straight Deathmatch, but I make an exception for Njeve Haki Uprising and Broken Piggy’s Apocalyptica.  For me, those are both great deathmatch experiences.

Several maps from this week are definitely going into our regular rotation – keep up the good work, people!

I’m off to China tomorrow (Sunday) so you will have a break next week from my California drawl, MGL, IEDs and bloody ban hammer.  Broken Piggy will be hosting the session with a selection of his favorite maps from the past six months.

FCF: March 13, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CDT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Repeating Unfortunate Friday the Thirteenths, Batman!  We have EIGHT new maps this week!  (Too many new submissions to do another Friday the Thirteenth theme this time around.)

IMPORTANT!!  Note that the stated play times are U.S. Central DAYLIGHT Time.  That puts the times at GMT-5 instead of GMT-6 until the rest of the Northern Hemisphere switches over to daylight time for the summer.  (Thanks go to George W. Bush for confusing the heck out of everybody…)

So, for those of you in the United Kingdoms, the small session starts at Midnight, March 14 and the large session at 2AM, March 14.  Everyone else – figure out your local time from there.

I’ve already had a lot of new maps submitted for this week – not quite as many as last week, but we are certainly truckin’.  If you have a new map, please get it in by 11:59PM CDT on Wednesday.  Late submissions will not be considered until the MARCH 27th party!

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CDT:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Gwar Junky	Beatdown	Old	S	DT	TDM
Empires Rayge	Blood Diamond	New	S-M	All	Uprising
PolishFreak8	Dogon Wars	New	S-M	All	Uprising
Broken Piggy	Beach Battle	Old	S-M	All	CTD

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CDT:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session -- and we will be carefully watching the public population on those 3 remaining slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Gwar Junky	Battle Fort	New	M	All	CTD/Uprising
Empires Rayge	Dark Knight	New	M	All
PrisonedBullet	Snake River	New	L	All	CTD/Uprising
Broken Piggy	Pipeworks	New	M	All	CTD/Uprising
Empires Rayge	Far Cry Football	New	M	DTC	CTD
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Uprising
Empires Rayge	War Ensemble***	New	L	All	CTD/Uprising

***May get moved to March 27th, depending on how things go.

Recap: March 6, 2009

Great times tonight guys. Full room most of the night and lots of great teamwork. People wonder why I bother to organize this thing – it’s because of nights like this one.

EDIT: By the way, there were a lot of great new maps introduced in this session. Not a stinker in the bunch, y'all.

FCF: March 6, 2009 @ 7PM & 9PM CT

Party Host: Cold Justice
Host Connection: Cable - 20Mbps down/2Mbps up
Match Type: Player (unranked)
Game Modes: All

Look at all those NEW MAPS!!!  Wow!  Shiny…

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Small Map Session (8 players max.) 7PM - 9PM CST:

This session will be restricted to all private slots. If you aren't on the host's Friends List, you won't be able to get in the room.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
PrisonedBullet	Crossroads	Old	S	DTU	DM/Upr
Gwar Junky	Beatdown	New	S	All	TDM/CTD
Mikk Q	AEGIS CORE	New	S	All	Uprising
Gwar Junky	Mars colony	New	S	All

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Large Map Session (16 players max.) 9PM - Midnight CST:

There will be 12 private slots reserved for this session -- and we will be carefully watching the public population on those 3 remaining slots.

Gamertag	Map Name	Status	Size	Modes	Preferred
Empires Rayge	DIVIDE	New	L	All	CTD/Upr
AMRI LAMBO M4TT	Air Base ALM	New	M	DTC	TDM
Cold Justice	Njeve Haki Uprising	Old	L	DTU	DM/Upr
CrazyUncleDave	Doom Dome	Finalized	M	All
PolishFreak8	Jade Uprising	New	M	TU	Uprising
Dayton28	The Hunted ASLT	New	M	TC	CTD
AMRI LAMBO M4TT	Defense tactics alm	New	M	All
Johnny2 Fingerz	Prison JCC***	New	M	All
CrazyUncleDave	Curve Damage	Old	M	All	Uprising

***Map suggested by a player.  Map maker will not be in the room, so this may get moved/skipped in the order.

FAQ

1. What is a typical Far Cry Friday like?
2. The room’s full, can you get me in?
3. The room’s full. When do you think there will be an opening?
4. Why didn’t you answer my XBL text message?
5. Why didn’t you answer my XBL voice message?
6. Did you even listen to my XBL voice message?
7. You’ve got voting turned on, but told me “we don’t allow that here” when I proposed a vote. Why?
8. Hey, you banned me from your room! What kind of a jerk are you?
9. Do you enjoy banning people?
10. Why is your room so laggy?
11. Why do you talk so much?
12. I submitted my map – Why haven’t you looked at it yet?
13. Do you, like, have no life and just play Far Cry all the time?
14. Hey, I sent you a game/party invite during the week and you ignored/denied it, why?
15. Is Cold Justice gay?

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1. What is a typical Far Cry Friday like?
   It’s like an online party – at least, that’s how we like to think of it. You come in the room, we play a bunch of maps and we have a lot of fun. People are encouraged to talk, banter and otherwise interact with each other.
   
   We try to maintain an attitude in the room that is edgy, but still respectful, and that contributes to the fun.
   
   It is a mature environment – we expect people to behave themselves (for the most part) and act like adults. Children and adolescents are generally not welcome unless they can comport themselves as adults.
   
   I try to be as prepared as possible. The map list is always set before we start (and is usually published here on the blog.) We play each map for about a half hour. This gives people a chance to get a feel for the map before a new one is switched in.
   
   Our hosts try to get a 2-3 minute bathroom break in at the top of each hour. It irritates random people who join the room, but our regulars seem to really appreciate it.
   
   Unlike a lot of Far Cry servers out there, we are totally focused on team play. We play Uprising and Capture the Diamond more than we do Team Deathmatch. And while we do play some straight-up Deathmatch, it is by far the least played game mode. You will find that most of our players are good communicators during team play because that is the environment that our hosts have encouraged.
   
   We shuffle teams often (usually after every match) to connect as many people with each other as possible (kind of like a cocktail party.) That also helps keep the room from becoming lopsided or cliquish.
   
   We do leave a few open slots in the room, both to fill it out and to attract new people, but for the most part, we expect to fill the room with people we know who want to play on user-created maps, and have fun in a shifting team environment.
   
2. The room’s full, can you get me in?
3. The room’s full. When do you think there will be an opening?
   Most nights, we run a pretty full room. The Small Map Session, which runs from 7PM-9PM CT and is limited to eight players, usually fills up by 7:15. So pretty much the only way to make it in for that session is to show up on time. I know that can be difficult for those of you with jobs on the U.S. West Coast, since we start at 5 PM PT.
   
   So, for the Small Map Session, if you don’t make it in, you are probably out until we start the Large Map Session. People occasionally do drop from the SMS, but it is rare.
   
   For the Large Map Session, which runs from 9PM-Midnight CT at 16 players, we usually have open slots up until about 10PM CT, when we start seeing the public slots filling up. The room normally stays full after that (with random public slots dropping in and out) until Midnight. We often play past Midnight, so that’s a good time to get in the room if you weren’t able to get in earlier.
   
   I do not kick people from the room to make spots for a friend – that’s no way to make new friends for sure. I do kick people from the room for violations of the Code of Conduct, though, and that happens three or four times a night (usually for not having a headset plugged in.) I also have been known to kick borderline annoying adolescents from the room if I know a friend is blocked. When that happens, I immediately send out a game invite to that friend. So, it never hurts to send me a text message indicating that you are locked out and would like to get in. Note that because of hosting duties (I have a room full of people to think about) I normally will not send a reply other than an invite.
   
   Bottom line: Get in early. It’s the best way to guarantee a seat in the room and to garner the most diamonds.
   
4. Why didn’t you answer my XBL text message?
5. Why didn’t you answer my XBL voice message?
   
   As host, my duty is to the people that are in the room, and I firmly believe that my first responsibility is to them. Any distraction from those people does them a disservice and takes away from the Far Cry Friday experience.
   
   My policy is that I read text messages when I have a free moment (when the room is engaged in conversation in the lobby, usually) or when I am sitting in the Death Room, waiting for a re-spawn. I rarely have time to make a response in those situations, other than to send out an invite. Text responses will not be sent until after the evening’s party is over.
   
   For voice messages, the answer is simple: I do not listen to any voice messages during a Far Cry Friday party – period. Voice messages remove me from the room’s voice chat, eat up bandwidth, and can interfere with gameplay. If you send me a voice message, I will not listen to it until after the night’s party is over. If it is a message that I feel requires a response, you will receive one.
   
   The same goes for photo messages.
   
   Note that messages that are overtly profane or abusive DO get reported to Xbox Live Support. I have no tolerance for that kind of hotheaded, infantile behavior.
   
6. Did you even listen to my XBL voice message?
   Not if you sent it while I was hosting the room. See above.
   
7. You’ve got voting turned on, but told me “we don’t allow that here” when I proposed a vote. Why?
   I’ve got some specific things I’m trying to accomplish with Far Cry Friday, and the top three are:
   
   
   • Provide a fun party atmosphere with lively, team-oriented people;
   • To test out, critique and enjoy user-created maps;
   • To provide an organized session, because that engenders trust and helps keep the party fun.
     
   So there are a few things I don’t allow in terms of voting. The main one is that I don’t allow voting to switch maps. The reason for this is that we follow a set schedule of maps each week that is pre-planned. Every map gets a half-hour of play (normally two matches) so that players can feel like they had a chance to learn the map a bit. We play a lot of new maps and it makes it difficult, especially for team-based play, when the map is constantly changing. Also, a single play through is usually not enough to evaluate a new map. So, out of fairness, every map gets its half hour.
   
   There is an exception, but it calls for a different kind of vote: If a map is not working and not fun, anyone is welcome to call for an “End Match” vote. If it goes through, we will discuss in the lobby why the map didn’t work and then decide whether it is worth trying it in a different game mode or should be skipped altogether.
   
   The key is that we discuss the map. A vote to skip doesn’t allow that. I want people to talk during our sessions – if you have mic fright, you don’t belong in Far Cry Friday. It’s that simple.
   
8. Hey, you banned me from your room! What kind of a jerk are you?
   A pretty big jerk who hosts a popular weekly gaming session.
   
   If you were banned from the room the reason can be found in the Far Cry Friday Code of Conduct.
   
   My first statement was meant partially in jest, but has a lot of truth behind it. I think much of the reason why FCF is so much fun and has such good a following is because our hosts make the hard decisions and follow through.
   
9. Do you enjoy banning people?
   
   No. But it’s a duty that I know I must fulfill in order to best serve the room.
   
10. Why is your room so laggy?
    
    What room are you playing in?!? It certainly wasn’t one of ours!
    
    Honestly, I’ve only heard complaints of lag when:
    
    
    • The map has too many destructible objects on it, which actually causes processor lag on each player’s system, not network lag;
    • The map has too many objects in view, either because the area is too busy and/or the map author did not make proper use of occlusion blocks. This again causes processor lag on each player’s machine, not network lag.
      
    While none of our hosts have the latest in Fiber Optic Internet connections, we all strive to have the best connection we can get in order to properly host Far Cry Friday.
    
    Cold Justice, the primary host, has a connection that uses a 20Mb/s downlink/2Mb/s uplink. That’s equivalent to the bandwidth of almost 15 T1 lines and is more than sufficient to host a 16 player room.
    
11. Why do you talk so much?
    Because I’m the host of the party. It’s my job to keep you, my guests, happy and entertained. So I talk both to keep the room lively and to encourage my guests to participate.
    
    During a match, if it’s a team game, I talk because communication is one of the keys to winning. I talk and I want everyone else on my team to do the same.
    
    In Deathmatch, I talk for the same reasons as I do when hosting the Lobby – to keep things lively and fun.
    
12. I submitted my map – Why haven’t you looked at it yet?
    
    My normal schedule is to review maps on Thursdays, after the Wednesday cut-off.  I intentionally do not look at any maps before then for a variety of reasons.  Probably the most important is that I do play other games than Far Cry 2.  A LOT of other games.  If I reviewed every map as soon as it was submitted, I would end up playing Far Cry 2 all the time, and that’s just not the way I roll.
    
    So be patient.  Some time Thursday I’ll get to your map and will let you know if it will be included in the current week’s lineup.
    
13. Do you, like, have no life and just play Far Cry all the time?
    
    Whether or not I “have a life” is certainly debatable.  But I can clearly state that I do not play Far Cry all the time.  I am a forty-something year-old gamer, and I play a LOT of games on all systems, but mainly on the Xbox 360.  I created Far Cry Friday because I saw early on the potential to have a regular gaming session that wouldn’t get stale provided by having a solid map editor.  I’d seen attempts to do regular gaming where the game changed every week and also saw how fragmented the group playing it would become. 
    
    I’m not a Far Cry freak by any means – I just think the game provides a multiplayer experience through it’s map editor that can be leveraged into a special weekly event.  And so far, that’s exactly what it has given me.  (Now if they’d only fix the voice problems and start releasing more detail pieces for the editor…)
14. Hey, I sent you a game/party invite during the week and you ignored/denied it, why?
    
    As I said in #12 and #13, I play a LOT of games.  Many of them are single-player games and it’s often not easy to save and get out.  Or I may just not be in the mood to be in a multi-player game.
    
    But please, don’t let that stop you from inviting me to play – I do like to play multiplayer games outside of Far Cry Friday.  Just be aware that I do play games other than Far Cry and I’m not always ready to jump out of them.
    
    Also, note that I tend to prefer private chat requests over party invites.  You are almost always going to get an immediate answer from me to a chat request, whereas I generally avoid party chats that aren’t organized ahead of time.
    
15. Is Cold Justice gay?
    
    No.  Please stop asking.