FCF: March 27, 2013 @ 7PM CDT

Thanks to Broken Piggy and Panyc333 for running last week’s party.  And thanks to everyone who wished me good health – it is greatly appreciated.

This week CJ is back in the saddle for a Good Friday edition of FCF.  Here are the new maps we are serving up for you:

Beachtown Beatdown	JesterTheKyle	Domination/Transmission
It’s a sad day when mercenaries and pirates can’t get along.  This map features a number of vignettes of UFC-style action spread throughout the map, though most are concentrated around a campfire scene in one of the initial spawn areas.  Note that these guys were all trained by Jackie Chan – it’s Hong Kong style, no holds barred fighting. The majority of the action in this multi-tiered map takes place in a stilt village where the houses are connected by long rope bridges.  The play area is good for medium-to-large groups and has been fine-tuned for snipers.  Careful observers will find some custom-designed sniper nests scattered around. Navigation on the map can be confusing and there are several places where the player ends up walking on rails and needs to jump in order to pull themselves off the tracks.  We’ll see how this plays on the author’s preferred game modes tonight.

Black Box Jungle	FND Killer Tuner	Domination/Firestorm
The three-story tall mechanical spider surveys the wreckage with a mixture of concern and confusion in his multifaceted red eyes.  Is the wooden carnage below him the product of a cargo cult eager to please the sky spirits?  Or has Howard Hughes been defrosted and allowed to make a passenger version of his Spruce Goose? The wooden DC-10 below was fortunately bereft of passengers when it fell out of the sky – perhaps it was a maiden voyage that ended in tragedy.  Or perhaps the survivors have escaped into the nearby luminous cave, never to be seen again. So many mysteries – and yet we ignore them all for the pleasure of turning other people’s problems into our personal playground of carnage. The terrain on this map can be rough in places, so watch your step.  Also note that the giant spider is fully traversable, but, alas, the cable coming from her spinneret does not serve as a zip-line.

Tomb Raider	Broken Piggy	No preference stated
There is much that is deceiving about this map. For example, while it’s title conjures images of a busty, no-nonsense adventuress, the overall design is straight out of an Elder Scrolls Dwemer ruin.  Moss hangs freely in an all-indoor environment featuring pieces from the Temple object set. Another deceit is in its size.  Ostensibly this is a small arena taken up mainly by a moldering pyramid.  And yet, when one ventures through the moss-covered doorways on the side, a bi-level labyrinthine path is revealed that more than triples the overall size of the play space. It’s apparent to this writer that Broken Piggy is redefining his “arena within a ring” pattern in a way that encourages players to spend more of their time in the ring. There is indeed a tomb here – but any adventurer brave enough to enter it will find that it is likely they themselves that are raided.  The ghosts haunting this tomb are all too eager to have you join them.

As always, we’ll fill out the night with past FCF favorites.  See you there!

Recap for March 22, 2013

With a nice start to the night with a large number of players We jumped right in with Ancient Arena. BiTTeReRli0N and XxYAX is bakxX held high ground forcing the other team to change strategy, especially on Domination.

We played Ghetto Apartments by FND KillerTuner next. Unfortunately the creator of the map never made it in so it was only played once on Team Deathmatch. I particularly enjoyed finding the guy sinking in the bed Freddy Krueger style!

After that Firestorm was tested for the first time on BiTTeReRli0N's Map 1ions Den. Firestorm played very well on this map except some felt there needed more room in the middle Temple with the radio, but still very fun.

Next was My (Broken Piggy) Overgrown City. Panyc333 made this somewhat of a family night with His Wife Hestis and Bro.-in-law lil Dragon 69. As soon as the match started the game decided it was time to initiate Dragon to Far Cry Friday by placing Him on a team by himself against 9 other players, Panyc333 insisted we play so Dragon got a thorough stomping but he was a good sport about it. After voice problems during the next play of the map and the uneven teams We disbanded the party and was forced to play in silence for an entire match.

We decided it may work better with two parties since we had past the party limit and the game chat wasn't working. I believe We moved on to Cold Justice's Jonestown once again for another reminder not to drink the kool-aid. After a quick game of Firestorm we played Tranmission, once the tower was taken though the game was pretty much over with a good job by the snipers marking targets and foot soldiers doing the groundwork.

Somehow we lost the entire other party, Panyc333 thinks they may have been sick of shooting at easy (older and somewhat inebriated) targets so we moved on to Broken Piggy's Ancient Arena for some Team Deathmatch. At this point it was Everyone against Smoken Crow where he kicked everyone's a** with over 30 kills.

I decided it was a good time for My Contained since the room was small and the night was winding down. Once again Smoken Crow owned the map taking the high ground and doing a good job switching positions to keep us guessing.

After officially ending Far Cry Friday for the night we decided to go off script at Panyc333's request and a quick vote by the party to play a Star Wars map, Return to Endor. Nice looking map but was large, especially for the number of players we had. I would  like to see some pathways layed out but it still played well enough.

Hope everyone had a good time! As You may have noticed Cold Justice was not feeling well so Broken Piggy was the host for the night.

Players were: Panyc333, Hestis, lil Dragon 69, Broken Piggy, Smoken Crow, BiTTeReRli0N, XxYAX is bakxX, FND Killer Tuner, MorosePrism, Element Zn, 

 Get well soon CJ!

FCF: March 22, 2013 @ 7PM CDT

Sorry for the late notice folks, but I have a severe nauseas headache coming on.  I hope you regulars will still play tonight – perhaps Broken Piggy or Panyc333 can take the reins.

For those of you who have submitted maps, we’ll get to them next week.

FCF: March 15, 2013 @ 7PM CDT

Hey, it’s payday – well for some of us anyway – and we’ve got another session of Far Cry Fun coming your way.  No new maps were submitted this week, but we have a pantload of tried and true maps from past sessions upon which we can create mayhem.  (See what I did there?  I avoided ending that sentence in a preposition.  We’re just oozing talent tonight.)

This week the order of the evening will be Host’s Choice, so we’ll be pulling out the oldies according to the size and temperament of the room.  See you there!

And for those of you outside the USA (or living in Arizona, which might just as well be outside the USA), please note that Far Cry Friday is, once again, observing Daylight Savings Time.  Why?  We have no idea, but we’re doing it anyway.  So adjust your wayback machines accordingly.

FCF: March 8, 2013 @ 7PM CST

We have one brand new map, a couple of holdovers from last week and a revision to a previously-played map are up on the table to review.  We’ll spend the rest of the night playing favorite maps from past FCFs.  And yes, that probably means Kaiyu Shiki Teien, Apocalyptica and Jonestown will find their way into the rotation. Hey, I know what I like…

New/Revised Maps for Friday:

BF3 Gulf of Oman	EddieNES	Domination/Transmission
Not played last week, so we’ll give it a go this week if Eddie shows up. This Battlefield 3 remake has a good mix of CQB and open play. The environment is definitely war-torn. The flyover for this map can be deceiving – Eddie has decorated a lot of the area outside of the playable zone. I haven’t checked the spawns, but this looks like it will be a fun map.

Fallout Fury CQB	Dark Reyule	preference not stated
Not played last week, so we’ll give it a go this week if Reyule shows up. Don’t let the CQB subtitle fool you – this map has plenty of open spaces to complement its dark rooms and twisting hallways. The setting is difficult to describe and something of a visual departure from what we’ve come to expect of Reyule. It’s pretty much a tri-level indoor play area with a mix of open spaces, offices and narrow stairways and hallways. I believe it will play well, but again, I didn’t have time to review the spawn positions so it’s a bit hard to judge. Come prepared for anything – shotguns and sniper rifles are equally recommended.

NASCAR Speedway	FND KillerTuner	Transmission / Firestorm
All turns are left turns… This is a HUGE open-plan map.  Definitely a sniper’s paradise.  The playable area includes the entire speedway arena, including stands, executive boxes, broadcasters booth, the track itself, the infield and the underground infield garage. Aside from a couple of jaggy staircases, the map navigates very well.  But if you are anywhere outside of the infield, you will feel very exposed.  The stands and track have little to no cover, so RUN, FORREST, RUN!

City of Zinj	Broken Piggy	preference not stated
Zinj has been updated to now support all game types. The City of Zinj is set in an ancient ocean caldera, slowly eroding into the waters.  This is a multi-level arena map that uses the Temple building set.  It has a good mix of assault, CQB and sniper elements.

FCF: March 1, 2013 @ 7PM CST

New maps?  Of course – there are always new maps.  Here’s what we have on tap for this week.  And, of course, we’ll fill out the night with some old favorites.

New/Revised Maps for Friday:

BF3 Gulf of Oman	EddieNES	Domination/Transmission
This Battlefield 3 remake has a good mix of CQB and open play.  The environment is definitely war-torn.  The flyover for this map can be deceiving – Eddie has decorated a lot of the area outside of the playable zone. I haven’t checked the spawns, but this looks like it will be a fun map.

Thru the WORM	Chongokiller	preference not stated
A fantasy-themed map with just a touch of Myst-inspired steampunk added for spice.  Gameplay in this small, multi-level sandbox is likely to be fast and frenetic.  This is set in a spatial Nowhere, so watch your step or it could be your last as you fall into the Nothingness. Watch out for the worm guarding the wormhole…

Fallout Fury CQB	Dark Reyule	preference not stated
Don’t let the CQB subtitle fool you – this map has plenty of open spaces to complement its dark rooms and twisting hallways.  The setting is difficult to describe and something of a visual departure from what we’ve come to expect of Reyule.  It’s pretty much a tri-level indoor play area with a mix of open spaces, offices and narrow stairways and hallways. I believe it will play well, but again, I didn’t have time to review the spawn positions so it’s a bit hard to judge.  Come prepared for anything – shotguns and sniper rifles are equally recommended.

Desert Fortress	Smoken Crow	Domination/Transmission
A small desert base under siege by helicopters…. a single survivor valiantly defending what remains with his last shoulder-mounted beer-bottle rocket… this is the scene you walk into as play begins.  This map features a nicely detailed keep-style layout where there was apparently a sale on sandbags.  And, as always with a Smoken Crow map, there’s a sweet spot for setting off a fuel barrel chain reaction – the challenge is being the one to set it off. This layout is tried and true and should play very well.

Back to the Cellar	Smoken Crow	TDM/Transmission
As you enter the building with ancient stone lion heads sneering at you, you feel a sense of foreboding… a feeling made worse and validated as you see the bodies writhing in agony in the hole set before you that you know you must enter – are compelled to enter.  Back to the Cellar is a snaking shotgun topology map illustrating the evils that the fabled Rhinoceros Beast (posssibly a relative of the mythical Minotaur) performs on the humans who dare enter his dominion of narrow corridors. This is a true shotgun-topology map – you will meet the enemy and your mettle will be tested.  CQB is the order of the day.

Arena Ruins	Broken Piggy	preference not stated
Once again, Broken Piggy shows off his knack for creating nice bi-level arena-style play areas.  This map has a wonderfully overgrown feel to it and features not one, but two guarded perimeter paths for those who are looking to get a quick rest from the battle. Note that this is a work in progress.

Lockdown	Broken Piggy	preference not stated
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”  Almost five months after it was begun, Broken' Piggy’s first attempt at a FC3 map breathes in the light of day.  Or, rather, it doesn’t.  Lockdown is a dark hellhole of a prison where even the scant views of the outside prison yard fill the viewer with despair.  The prison features three offset levels and a variety of small and large play spaces.