February Gaming Competition - Starcraft: Brood War

[Slothy]

February 1st, so it's time to get the new months competition started. And it is, of course, the much anticipated Starcraft: Brood War.

35550

Down to business.

The rules:
This one is going to be a bit different than last months obviously since this is an excellent multiplayer game. The contest is going to be a free for all on the map Big Game Hunters on February 18th at 8pm EST. If we have enough people who want to sign up we may have to run more than one game, in which case we'll try to have how ever many games are needed on the 18th with the winners advancing to play again on the 25th at the same time, unless another time is more convenient and mutually agreed upon. I doubt this will be an issue though and we'll probably just have enough people for the one game. The time is also up for debate if the 18th doesn't work for some of you and there is a better date that can be agreed upon. I want the best turnout possible so if you can't make the 18th, tell us what dates may work better.

Now the rules for the game itself are straight forward. Every man, woman, or soon to be genderless robot for themselves. Alliances are allowed, but they may only be determined during the game, and all conversations must be public so all players can see them. And the game can only end with one winner, so if you do ally with someone, remember that only one of you can win and you will eventually have to duke it out. Backstabbing is not only expected, it's encouraged.

Once again, the top 5 will be announced after the game. I was originally planning on taking the game replay and doing a video with commentary, but I've had little time to figure out how to do that yet. If someone can help me out that'd be appreciated. Worst case scenario, I'll take a ton of screenshots and provide my usual scathing remarks so those who can't make it to the game can still enjoy the highlights vicariously.

The prize:
Once again, nothing except for bragging rights, and my undying affection. The player that manages to take me out will also get my respect which I usually reserve only for homicidal, drunken bending units. My offer to come to Canada for a firm, open palmed, slap on the ass still stands.

Don't own Brood War?
The Starcraft Battlechest is dirt cheap and still widely available in stores. The system requirements are also stupidly low since the game is 14 years old now so I doubt anyone will have trouble running this. For those who can't find it locally, digital copies are $15. This is seriously one of the best games ever made so no excuses. http://us.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=110000124

Coming up next month:
I haven't decided on a game for next month so I included a poll with some possibilities. I'd like it to be another multiplayer game but we'll see what gets the most votes. Touhou 12.3: Hisoutensoku was recommended by Ultima Shadow when I originally put the idea of a competition forward. It's a fighting game and has online multiplayer but I haven't looked into it much yet. Quake Live is another option being a browser based Quake 3 essentially. Lot's of fun, and free so it should be easy to get everyone into for a game. And we have a couple of options which would be similar to last month with Sonic 2 and Resident Evil 2. Any other suggestions are more than welcome obviously.

I also want to get some opinions on taking a break for the month of April. I know that'll be the busiest time of year for me at work so I may not be able to do much more than make a thread if we have a competition that month. I also don't want to have everyone burnout on this early in the year, but I don't want to lose a bunch of momentum either. So thoughts?

[Pike]

Every man, woman, or soon to be genderless robot for themselves.

:jess:

I'm not sure if I'm working Feb 18th or not, or what time, if I am. Worst case scenario I might have to ask to delay the start by an hour and a half, but hopefully that won't happen.

As for the next game, I voted Sonic 2 because it's the only one of the above games that I have access to at the moment.

[Madame Adequate]

Huh. Big Game Hunters.

Ain't that a thang. :|

[NorthernChaosGod]

Totally down for Sonic 2. For reals this time. xD

[Ultima Shadow]

Might have to skip Starcraft - haven't played it in many, many years. :p



Also, MUST HAVE Touhou 12.3! You build your very own "spellcard-decks" in it, allowing you to choose which special attacks (and passive effects, along with other things) should be avaiable to you.

And it has drunken demon-lolis (Suika):


Suika Spellcards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcgUG82j6us&feature=related)

[Slothy]

Might have to skip Starcraft - haven't played it in many, many years. :p

I'm pretty sure that's the case with most of us. I was playing it over Christmas vacation, but only single player, and only because I just had my netbook with me so it was either that or Doom.

[Hollycat]

Cannot afford.

[edczxcvbnm]

I voted for Resident Evil 2...my most hated Resident Evil game.

That said I just need to set a reminder for myself to get online at 7 on the 18th to get my ass kicked. I suck at these games in a multiplayer sense. I am way more methodical in the actual game. Those timed missions in Starcraft 2 were very murderous on me.

[theundeadhero]

I might join in but I haven't played the game in maybe 10 years and expect to lose pretty fast. A Warcraft 2 competition could be fun too. Much more so than Warcraft 3 I would think.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Don't own Starcraft but wasn't very good at it the few times I played it at a mate's house years ago. Voted for Sonic 2 for next month, I have the Sega Collection for PS3 & its the Sonic game I've got the furthest with :bigsmile:

[Del Murder]

I don't really feel like dropping 15 just to lose in 5 minutes. :p

I will hate you all if you make me play Sonic 2 again. Or maybe I can actually beat it this time.

RE2 is also good for lulz. I think I still have it for N64. :p

[Pike]

I got my work schedule for the 18th. I won't be available until 9:30pm EST. :(

[Jiro]

I'll try and join in this one because at least in these multiplayer games I can mooch off someone and have a chance at survival. Not at winning perhaps but we'll see. Plenty of time between now and the 18th for me to get a copy and practice.

EDIT: I'm cool with waiting an hour and a half for Pike.

[Slothy]

I'm fine with delaying the start as well. For most of us in North America it's a Saturday evening so things should be pretty flexible. For everyone outside of America, I really have no idea what sort of crazy time zones you're stuck dealing with, but I don't believe in those time zones anyway (or Newfoundland time for that matter) so you're on your own.

[Jiro]

Mountain Time sounds the sturdiest by far.

[Bubba]

OK. I've never owned a PC and therefore have never heard of this game. I do own a Macbook though and have just ordered a copy of this to see what the fuss is about. I'm happy to give it a go if only to consolidate my position at the top of the leaderboard!

My only problem is the 9.30pm EST start. I'll be up for it but it will be 2.30am on Sunday morning in the UK :( I may just be rolling in from a Sat night out anyway so bring it on! So is it like a Command and Conquer kind of game?

I reckon Sonic 2 next month would be a good choice. It might be an idea to alternate between multiplayer one month then one-player high-score fests the next. What do we think?

[Pike]

OK. I've never owned a PC and therefore have never heard of this game. I do own a Macbook though and have just ordered a copy of this to see what the fuss is about. I'm happy to give it a go if only to consolidate my position at the top of the leaderboard!

My only problem is the 9.30pm EST start. I'll be up for it but it will be 2.30am on Sunday morning in the UK :( I may just be rolling in from a Sat night out anyway so bring it on! So is it like a Command and Conquer kind of game?

I reckon Sonic 2 next month would be a good choice. It might be an idea to alternate between multiplayer one month then one-player high-score fests the next. What do we think?

It's an RTS so yeah, it's C&C-esque. As for the start time, if 9:30pm EST doesn't work for people let me know and I can find a night where I'm not working so late.

[Pike]

Bumping this-- I hate to be a party pooper, but work went and changed my schedule on me so I won't be back until even later that night. At this point moving it to another night might work better unless everyone's okay with a late Saturday. I'm off all day Friday if we want to do that instead.

[Slothy]

Friday is probably a good option. Is everyone good with shifting it to 8 EST that Friday instead?

[Bubba]

Not the best for me as it's 1am Sat morning and I work 9-5pm every Sat. But if that suits everyone else then I can just set my alarm for it. My copy of Starcraft arrived yesterday morning!

[edczxcvbnm]

It would probably work better for me to change the date at this point. I have the opportunity to go see a show on the 18th now and I would really like to lose in 5 minutes and still make the drive to the show =D

But don't count on me. I will probably forget no matter what anyway. My memory becomes more and more shot as time goes on XP

[Pike]

So what's a good day for everyone? I'm available pretty much every night that week except Saturday. I'm not sure about Sunday yet.

[Slothy]

I can probably make any other day in the week. Do we want to try Wednesday or Thursday?

[Freya]

OH OH I think I can do this! gotta find my SC: Broodwar but I may be able too...

[Pike]

I can't find my discs either, but honestly I wouldn't mind paying for a second copy because this game is that good.

I haven't "seriously" played in years but I feel confident enough in my abilities that I'm fine with snagging a copy at the last minute and going in blind and sans-practice. ...Which... of course means someone is going to swoop in and steal it all in a big upset, so maybe on second thought...

[Freya]

If you have it registered on your battle.net I think you can just dl it.

[Madonna]

Fifty-six percent downloaded. I have not played for years; anyone else needing to see how dull their skills are? We can work something out this week.

I may not be able to confirm availability if you guys are settling this late on a day. My work schedule varies weekly and it is too late to put in for time off next week. Here is to hoping.

[Slothy]

If you have it registered on your battle.net I think you can just dl it.

Yep. I don't know if you have the CD cases or the keys written down somewhere Pike, but if you do you can register them and download the game files. If you already registered them before though you can simply download them.

I was having trouble with my downloaded copies not connecting to battle.net to update properly last night. I'm going to have to take a good look at it soon and get this sorted out so I can actually play when the time comes.

[Pike]

So here's the deal with my schedule guys: there is a mass exodus going on at my workplace at the moment; in the last week we've had two people fired and one quit in my department alone (aka about half of us). I have this terrible feeling that management is going to come begging to me to pick up a bunch of extra shifts next week so basically my schedule for a little while is really up in the air. So you're all probably going to have to pick a day/time that works for most people and just hope I can show up. If I can't, no biggie; there's always next time!

[Slothy]

That's unfortunate Pike. Maybe if I get off my ass and get my copies working (planning to work on it tomorrow) I can get a practice game in with you sometime for fun.

So I'm thinking we have two real options here since planning the game for a weekday is kind of tough for those of us who work, especially those in those strange made up time zones on other sides of the planet. Either we can stick to the original date of Saturday the 18th, which we know doesn't really work for Pike and edczxcvbnm, or we can postpone until the following Saturday and hope people's schedules are a bit better. I would suggest next Friday, but that's a bit harder for Bubba and my wife might smack me for committing to a game on a Friday night, though I can swing Fridays if need be.

I'd like to get people's thoughts on it, but if I don't hear from anyone I may just decide to postpone a week since I think we'll only have enough people to warrant a single game anyway.

[Bubba]

Last weekend in Feb is good for me. BTW, I'm shit at this game. I like the Zergs but I'm not very good with them... any tips potential enemies?

[Slothy]

Don't die.

Honestly, it's been a long time since I played and I never really played that seriously back in the day. I'd say don't forget to expand, and build more hatcheries when you can. Being limited in how many units you can build based on the number of larva you have is a bit rough, so once your economy is rolling make sure you can keep that production up.

Also, I don't know if it still works, but apparently sticking 11 mutas and an overlord in a control group makes them stack even closer than usual and attack all at once. To say that this is would be very effective if it still works is a bit of an understatement.

I used to play a lot of Zerg actually, and with a friend of mine worked out a build for getting some very fast mutas out. Usually so fast that your average player had trouble doing anything. But that was a long time ago now. Oddly enough, I'll probably be playing Protoss come game day.

[Bubba]

Not dying is my main issue.

Cheers Vivi, I'm pretty sure that success in this game will be pretty limited for me though, I will give it a go! Seeing has Pike says she has 1000 hours gameplay on this... I reckon we're all smurfed!

[Pike]

I'm up for gambling with my work schedule the weekend after next if that will work better for everyone!

[Slothy]

I'm not sure anyone else was confirmed as able to come on the original date anyway aside from me and Bubba, so if waiting a week even gets us one more person I'd say it's worth it.

And 1,000 hours huh? Light weights.

[Pike]

I find it unfortunate that I'll never know just how much time I spent on Starcraft. It sucked away my life for at least a year, though, so I know the hours I poured into it are up there somewhere.

[Slothy]

I wish more games tracked how long you played like Steam does (poorly). I know that Starcraft ate up two whole summers for me during high school. As in me playing it for 5-6 hours before I decided I should eat and get dressed. Not to even mention however many hours I would play it during the school year.

Luckily high school was so easy I didn't really have to study and got my homework done in class or I would probably still be there. Playing Starcraft and failing everything.

[Madonna]

I work 6:30AM-3:00PM HAST both Friday and Saturday of next week. I am five hours behind EST, so that is the start of the game. An hour delay would work for me, but I think that was a no go for some? I could request a day off the week after.

[theundeadhero]

If I join in it will be without practice. I don't really care if someone has been messing around all week and destroys me. I think it will be more fun guessing as I go. Does someone have a vent channel they wouldn't mind sharing with the event? It would be a lot funner talking in real time with everyone than reading chat text.

[Slothy]

Shit, I just realized that I can't make it the 25th because a friend of mine is back in town and having a party and I already said I would go. I would be able to push the game to earlier in the day though. Maybe 5 or 6pm EST. Is that potentially cool with everyone?

[Pike]

I'm still waiting on my work schedule for that day, so it doesn't really affect me either way! I'm still holding out on luck.

[Bubba]

That's much better for me as it will only be about 10-11pm

[Madonna]

I can request that day off.

[Pike]

Yeah guys, as it turns out I'm working till pretty late that Saturday. As I suspected, they're drowning me in extra shifts now that they've fired everyone else. Don't worry; we can always do Brood War again in a few months and I'll ask for the day off that time.

[Freya]

I am dling the game as we speak so if you guys EVER pick a time already, i'll be able to join.

[Jiro]

Freya you should link me up to where you're getting it from so I can too. Nowhere in this smurfing country or on this smurfing internet does anyone take american express

[Slothy]

I am dling the game as we speak so if you guys EVER pick a time already, i'll be able to join.

Well, then let's settle it. The game will be at 5pm EST on Saturday, February 25th. No more changing it, so if no one else makes it and I'm losing to AI opponents that day then too bad. Notabot33 will tie for the lead in this competition if that's the case, and the insults I hurl at screen caps in this thread will be a lot less personal.

[Freya]

I have it attached to my battle.net, Dak. :( So I paid for it way back when. I do know that you can go buy the thing at gamestop for like $15. I saw it there yesterday hence why I went to DL my own.


ANDDDDD the 25th wont work for me xD I'll be in Wyoming away from my desktop. Partially on a trip to visit that loser known as Dakoda.

[Jiro]

well smurf a brick :( guess I'll wait for march then

[Bubba]

Maybe we could move the Starcraft contest to the March competition if that's better for everyone. It'll give time for everyone to get it set up.

We could maybe bring forward the Sonic 2 or Resident Evil 2 challenge to the end of Feb? Might be easier for everyone to submit there single player efforts in time for the month end.

[edczxcvbnm]

I just downloaded and installed Starcraft last night. I am ready to go!

[Slothy]

Maybe we could move the Starcraft contest to the March competition if that's better for everyone. It'll give time for everyone to get it set up.

We could maybe bring forward the Sonic 2 or Resident Evil 2 challenge to the end of Feb? Might be easier for everyone to submit there single player efforts in time for the month end.

I'm thinking that's a pretty good idea at this point actually. With Pike and Freya both wanting to play but not being able to make it I'd rather postpone and have everyone (hopefully play) than have to exclude some people because of scheduling conflicts.

So here's what we can do: we can plan for Brood War to be played on Saturday, March 24th at 6pm EST (a bit earlier just for you Bubba). I'd rather not have a lot of confusion about date this time and trying to nail something down, so if anyone knows it won't work for them now, speak up. But come March I'd like to have it firmly decided if we want to go this route. Those that may need to ask for that day off from work or anything will have ample time to do so. But if anything were to change last minute I wouldn't be moving the date again.

Another option is to set up a small tournament. It'll mean playing more games for some, but I could make up brackets based on who has said they want to play and those that are paired up each round can find a time that works for each. If we go this route, I'd like to give one week for completing each round of the tournament. If the two people who were paired up can't work out a time to play, or one is available and the other isn't then we can either give the person who's most available the following week the by to the following round, or decide it with a coin flip or something. Again, this is a bit more complicated due to playing more games, but it's a lot more flexible in terms of schedule.

I await opinions on that. In the meantime we'll consider Sonic 2 open for business since it won the poll. I'll update the OP later when I'm not at work, but for now, same rules as last month: the person who gets the farthest before seeing the game over screen wins. Ties will be decided by score. Come to think of it, I need to double check whether or not you get to see the level and score on the game over screen.

Also, as a bonus this month, I will give 5 extra points to the first person to become Super Sonic (doesn't have to be during the same play through you submit, if you get him at all take a picture and submit it).

I'll likely push the end of the Sonic 2 competition until sometime in March to give people plenty of time for it, and those who aren't participating in Brood War will have something to do as well.

[Pike]

Saturday, March 24th at 6pm EST

Gotcha. I'll see about asking for this off.

[Bubba]

Saturday, March 24th at 6pm EST

Gotcha. I'll see about asking for this off.

Perfecto. This date is all fine by me. I'm at a wedding on the Friday (23rd March) but I'll be back by Sat night. Cheers for thinking of the UK players too Vivi!

We should make a separate thread for the February Sonic 2 contest. Or maybe just change the title of this thread so everyone knows about it.

[edczxcvbnm]

Shit. SHit shit. I totally forgot about this but I don't think it happened anyway. I just can't do the multiplayer thing. Weekend is time away from work (most weekends) and by the time night rolls around I am looking forward to doing things and forget about multiplayer with stuff like this. I am just not reliable when it comes to this crap anymore =P