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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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

---

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!

---

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

---

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…

---

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

---

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?

---

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.