IC-LAN'07 - Offical Gaming Info

QCH

OK, here is the FINAL Agenda for Gaming...


Times & Games:

• Friday
  • 11:00 am - Minor Tournament (OPEN)
  • 3:00 pm - Age of Empires 2 (SIGNUP)
  • 5:30 pm - 2.5 hour dinner break
  • 8:00 pm - Unreal Tournament 2004 (SIGNUP)
• Saturday
  • 3:00 pm - Battlefield 2 (SIGNUP)
  • 5:30 pm - 2.5 hour dinner break
  • 8:00 pm - Half Life 2: Death Match (SIGNUP)

Tournament Info: (5 total)

• Team Captains – Pick teams 5 minutes before start
• Double Elimination (Timed)
• Minor Tournaments in afternoon
• Major Tournaments in evening
• Tournament Prizes:
  • 1 ticket - Entrance prize
  • 1 ticket - Each Team win
  • 1 ticket - Fourth place
  • 2 tickets - Third place
  • 3 tickets - Second place
  • 4 tickets - First place

Lottery Style giveaways…

• Bring a PC – 1 ticket
• Setup a pickup game - 1 ticket
• Discretionary tickets awarded as needed for pickup games and other useful participation.
• Lottery pick on Sunday.

EDITED on 06/19/2007

QCH

QUESTION: Why is Q doing it this way?
ANSWER: I want to blend gaming with the social aspect of the LAN. With set times that there will be organized gaming, you can schedule your parting and not worry about missing a tournament. This does not mean that you cannot eat, sleep, and breathe GAMING. NO... It just means you are on your own to set things up. If you can set something up during the off hours, let me, and/or my designee, and we may be able to award some tickets.

QUESTION: Why the ticket system?
ANSWER: If you play you have a chance to get something that the non-gamers will not be eligible for. I want those that are at the LAN to predominantly game to get something for it. If you win, you have a better chance, and you win a lot you have an even better chance.

QUESTION: Is Q bribe-able?
ANSWER: [strike]OH course I am.[/strike] No I am not... I am a fair and unbiased official. I represent the integrity of Icrontic.

QUESTION: Does Q need any help setting this up, or running this?
ANSWER: Uh.. Yes. I am good with organizing things but fails to offer any real skills to pull off some of the details like server management. Heck, I'm schooling to be a manager. Managers are not suppose to actually do the stuff, that's why they hire experts!!!

QUESTION: Does Q have any surprises to offer?
ANSWER: Duh... If I told you there was going to be a LCD Projector displaying the tournaments or that I was bringing a White Board to track stuff... Well it wouldn't be a surprise.

QUESTION: Why UT2004, BF2? Why not a newer game?
ANSWER: Cost... not everyone has the luxury of having the cash to keep up with the newest games. Be it because the game is expensive or the hardware needed to play the game is too expensive. I want games that are still a blast to play but not be too restrictive. I will be bringing at least two PC's with the three games on them in case someone does not have the game but wants to play. Talk to me beforehand and I may be able to help you out.

QCH

I am looking for suggestions...

• Do we want two tournaments with the same game?
• Do we want to break up and do many quicker tournaments?
• What other game might we play?
• What mods do you want for the servers?
• What specific rules do you want enacted to make things fair?

Also... I do need some assistance setting up the servers. I am not that knowledgeable with that stuff... We'll have the hardware but I need help setting them up and running them.

Thrax

I propose Supreme Commander, BFME2 or Warcraft 3 as our strategy games.

jared

UT2k4, great choice! A classic game

I suggest Age of Empires 2, great game that anyone (and any computer) should be able to play!

cheers!

the_technocrat

jared wrote:

UT2k4, great choice! A classic game

I suggest Age of Empires 2, great game that anyone (and any computer) should be able to play!

cheers!

I second AOE2. I can probably help set up the BF server as well.

edit: for those that don't know, AOE is a real-time strategy game.

QCH

I had not considered AOE2. I've played it and had a great deal of fun. How much work is it to setup a AOE2 server?

BF2 setup is not my primary worry since I play it a fair bit and I think I can muddle through a setup but ANY help would be appreciated...

Even though Supreme Commander look awesome, I think it is too new to run for this year.

Battle for Middle Earth 2 is my first choice since we ran it last year (well, we said we were gonna play it) and many of us got a reduced cost copy from Sledge, or free copy in the raffle. I have a never opened SIGNED copy that I may give away to a worthy person if we do run BFME2...

Warcraft 3 is another classic. I wouldn't mind playing that..

Sledgehammer70

AOE2 server?

server not needed, can run over the network

I say AOE2 or even AOM BFME & BFME2 are good games but same with WC3

QCH

Ah... that's right, each person connect together and starts a game. Forgot. How do you make sure things are set the same? Dan mentioned setting everyone to max tech so there is no advantage.

I liked BFME2 but didn't play it enough last year...

the_technocrat

Unreal Tournament
$20 new from Amazon Marketplace
(about $18 on eBay)

Minimum requirements:

• Pentium III 1 GHz processor
• 128 MB RAM
• DirectX 9.0b or OpenGL
• 32 MB video card, 5.5 GB HDD
• Mac OS X or Windows 98/Me/2000/XP (Linux not supported by Atari)

or

• PowerPC G4 933 MHz processor
• 256 MB RAM
• 32 MB video card
• 6 GB HDD
• Mac OS X 10.2.8+

Battlefield 2
$15 new from Amazon Marketplace
(about $10 on eBay)

Minimum requirements

• Windows XP (32-bit) with Admin rights
• 1.7 GHz Intel Celeron D / Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP/ Sempron or greater
• 512 MB of RAM or more
• 8x or faster CD/DVD drive
• 2.3 GB free hard drive space or more
• Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

the_technocrat

QCH2002 wrote:

Ah... that's right, each person connect together and starts a game. Forgot. How do you make sure things are set the same? Dan mentioned setting everyone to max tech so there is no advantage.

I liked BFME2 but didn't play it enough last year...

When I used to play AOE2, the host of the game would just do full tech for everyone from the get-go, but stiff everyone on money to make things more interesting...

the_technocrat

So I'm using I-LAN07 as an excuse to build a gaming machine. If anyone is looking, I might even sell ti at the LAN. So here goes:

The Technocrat's "best bang for the buck", "barebones needed to frag", "super ultra happy fun wish time" UT2K4 + BF2 + (other) gaming (and F@H) machine:

Note: this rig is built for its cheapness vs. ability to overclock. It's meant to be good and cheap, not great and expensive. Any suggestions?

As of 5/29/07, $587.92 + shipping from newegg:

• Intel C2D 805D (2.66Ghz, 2x1MB L2 cache, OC's to 3Ghz+ on stock cooling)
• Zalman CNPS7700ALCU CPU heatsink (120mm fan, easy supports OC CPU)
• G.SKILL 2x1GB DDR400 3-4-4-8 memory (I might be able to get away with faster 2x512MB here...can't decide)
• WD 40GB 7200RPM SATA150 8MB cache (eh, it's a drive, and it's $40)
• Sapphire x1950GT (256MB-256bit, 12 pipeline, AGP - but $155 and F@H likes it)
• Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH
• Rosewill R5604-TBK case - 2 120mm fans, ok case for $45
• Coolmax 500W power supply (120mm fan, good ratings on Newegg...)

QCH

Thanks for the info on Games... that will help if anyone needs a copy of a game and the specs.

As for AOE2... I DO have it and I am open to adding it to the list. Let's see who else jumps in.

Garg

I used to have AOE2, but I can't find it anymore. I'd pick it up again though; I'd much rather play that than most other RTS games at a LAN.

QCH

Looks like AOE2 gas a strong following... We have a few more weeks but unless there is a strong surge for another RTS game, AOE2 looks to be the choice.

GHoosdum

I own AOM and AOE3, but I never got AOE2. I might try to find a cheap copy before the event.

jared

GHoosdum wrote:

I own AOM and AOE3, but I never got AOE2. I might try to find a cheap copy before the event.

AoE2, imho, blows those other two away.

AOM and AOE3 were "decent" games. Play AOE2, it is the best hands down!

DogDragon

I think WC3

primesuspect

Gaming events have been entered into the calendar. I just put them in, Q will flesh out the details

primesuspect

Q: Please see this post and let me know if this is cool.

QCH

I'm thinking of moving times a bit... How about 6:00 until 8:00 pm is a dinner break? If we can get gathered between 8:00 and 8:30, we can start the night tournament. I'm shooting for 2-hour tournaments. If we can pull it off, we can do two tournaments in the afternoons and one in the evening. This would allow for different teams, or team tourny and a free-for-all tourny.

That will allow for more early afternoon activities on Saturday (Duct Tape).

QCH

For right now... I added Age of Empires 2 as our RTS. I also added Half Life 2: Death Match as the final tournament game.

Times have been tweaked also... check them out.

UPDATED FIRST POST: HERE

MAGIC

so are we lottoing teams for these or do we just form teams as we go?

QCH

I'd like to pick teams... like in high school. Captains are the elite players... pick in some order until all players have been selected. Nothing worse than having an entire team of great players and another of noobs... just not fun.

I am up for suggestions, though.

Sledgehammer70

I still think BFME2 is a valuable game.. as most people have it from last year

Um.. I have AOE2 and the exp... but for some reason my damn disk suck ass and won't run... might have to go buy another copy for cheap

Sledgehammer70

Will RTS action be 1v1 or 2v2?

MAGIC

Wii bowling!

Sledgehammer70

um... add that to the board game events...

QCH

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

I still think BFME2 is a valuable game.. as most people have it from last year

True but I am going with a group concensus. (and bribes... like a NVIDIA 8 series GPU... that would go along way towards swinging the balance, j/k... not really, but really... j/k.... sort of... not)

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

Um.. I have AOE2 and the exp... but for some reason my damn disk suck ass and won't run... might have to go buy another copy for cheap

I have the AOE disks and as long as you bring the license code, you can borrow the install disks.

Sledgehammer70 wrote:

Will RTS action be 1v1 or 2v2?

Probably 2v2 if we have enough players. That will enable the strong and weak to be balanced better... unless someone wants to go 1v2!!!

Garg

QCH2002 wrote:

I have the AOE disks and as long as you bring the license code, you can borrow the install disks.

I'm having a hard time remembering, but I think that might be one of those games that has the license code associated with the cds.

QCH

Gargoyle wrote:

I'm having a hard time remembering, but I think that might be one of those games that has the license code associated with the cds.

As far as I know... they do not tie the CD's to the license. We'll have to try it out. Heck... Microsoft has a cannot seem to tie the install media to a particular install code... :bigggrin: