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.

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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!

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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

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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.  :)

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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

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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