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Chowdown2K3
Another LAN party! Yay! Killing each other
before school starts is fun and nurturing for
our academic essence.
The Usual Information
- Date: Saturday August 23, 2003
- Time: 2pm - 2am (no overnight)
- Place: Err... my place
- Setup: BYOC; no speakers or watt suckers
- Food: Subs from Subway
Games at CD2K3
- Half-Life: Counter-Strike 1.5 (3v3)
- Ghost Recon (Team-based 4v3 Elim)
- Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance (FFA, 2v2 CTF)
- Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix (3v3 CTF, Elim)
- Ghost Recon (FFA)
Summary
Overall it was another small but successful
LAN party. Every game had their exciting high
points and everyone exploited the benefits of
LAN gaming (i.e. shouting across the room to
taunt, cheer, coordinate strategies, etc.).
The day was dominated by first-person shooters
but no one minded. A great time for all!
In what will hopefully remain a continuing trend, there were virtually no technical difficulties encountered. The game server's redundant multiple access points (Microsoft Network, HTTP, FTP) proved invaluable in providing the latest game patches to everyone's computers. The router's DHCP server kicked in and everyone had instant internet access the moment they were hooked up to any of the network's ports. No one had any major system issues. If anything, the biggest issue was the room's significantly increased temperature -- but that was somewhat compensated by a two-foot fan.
Game Retrospectives
Here are some brief accounts of the games we played
and some general events that occured. We managed
to log in a good 10+ hours of gameplay in the time
alloted.Counter-Strike
Ghost Recon Team
Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance FFA + CTF
Soldier of Fortune 2 CTF
Ghost Recon FFA
Player names
Philip = BombermanStephen = DuD
Thomas = Waark
Victor = me (Elder_MMHS)
Vincent = Puffy
Winston = Shishkabob
Wynn = NarcHead
Counter-Strike Retrospective
Years after its inception, Counter-Strike still has a
massive following. So it wouldn't be a regular LAN party
if we didn't play any CS at all. :)
We had a good stretch of 3v3 CS to start things off. The teams alternated between Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists depending on the map. Team 1 included myself, DuD and NarcHead. Team 2 was composed of Waark, Puffy, and Shishkabob. Maps played were de_aztec, de_torn, de_dust2, cs_office, and fy_iceworld in 20 minute portions.
With two Counter-Strike nuts (Waark and Puffy), Team 2 took four of the five maps (at least from what I can recall in my poor memory). Shishkabob has good accuracy, and it's augmented by the fact that I suck at CS and NarcHead tends to have a suicidal streak. Team 1 did manage to win dust2, successfully bombing or eliminating Team 2 multiple times.
Ghost Recon Team Games Retrospective
Ghost Recon always plays out as an interesting side-track
to "traditional" FPSes. It's less action, more tactics, and
usually more intense. Bomberman decided to join us since he
is quite the Ghost Recon player.
Our first set of GR games consisted of 4v3 elimination games. Team 1 was "inside" - me, Shishkabob, Narchead, DuD. Team 2 was "outside" - Bomberman, Puffy, Waark. Maps played were mp04_docks, mp01_river, m11_pow_camp, and m01_caves. Each map lasted 20 minutes.
The game results were somewhat lop-sided, with Team 1 generally taking the overall victories. However, Team 2 put up an excellent match, narrowing in very rapidly for the last two maps. I had a pretty low death count while racking in some strong kill numbers, while Shishkabob could probably be noted as the most cowardly (hiding away doing nothing!). NarcHead was once again the master of the M203 and killing himself, while DuD and Bomberman both put in strong performances as the main workhorses for each team. Puffy (who was obsessed with using the OICW's grenade launcher as artillery) and Waark went from green newbies to worked-in players. That lead to some really vicious long-range kills in our last match on m01_caves.
Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance FFA & CTF Retrospective
After dinner, we tried out some Mechwarrior 4. Since there were
really only two players that knew what to do (Shishkabob and myself),
a lot of time was spent both prior and during the day explaining
the basics of mech customization and what each weapon does. Puffy
didn't play too much Mechwarrior 4, and it's probably the same deal
many people feel given it's relatively in-grown complexity and
learning curve. NarcHead was out for dinner and didn't return
until the second SOF2 map (see below).
The game was split into free-for-all attrition (score based on damage dealt and mechs destroyed, not pure frags/deaths) and a 2v2 CTF match. The 2v2 teams consisted of Waark and myself against Shishkabob and DuD. Maps played were several rounds of Lunacy and GatorBait, a spot of DustBowl and Timberline for CTF. Each round generally lasted 15 minutes with extended intermissions to customize each player's mechs.
Matches were generally dominated by Shishkabob, seeing as how this is one of his favourite games. Mech restrictions were not enforced so there were a variety of mech duels. However, most people chose heavy mechs as their general platform. The CTF game was won by Shishkabob and DuD. The more experienced players used light mechs as flag carriers while the other two provided cover and support.
Soldier of Fortune II CTF Retrospective
SOF2 has had a lot of action, having been played for more than
15 months by myself and DuD. NarcHead and Shishkabob also have
a lot of time invested into this one. What I still call a
"refined CS," SOF2 is still my preferred FPS for more than
a year.
Teams were initially split 2v3 with one person (myself) flipping between Waark + Puffy and DuD + Shishkabob. The elimination teams were Waark, myself and NarcHead. The other was DuD, Shishkabob and Puffy. The remaining CTF games were played as team 1 with myself, DuD and Puffy and team 2 consisting of NarcHead, Waark and Shishkabob. Maps played were mp_jor1 (first and last map), mp_kam2, mp_barn, mp_shop2, and mp_hk2. Each game lasted for 25 minutes (except mp_barn, which was a 10-minute team elimination game).
Focusing mainly on the games post-elimination, Team 2 took all three games -- mp_shop2 by a narrow 15-14 margin, mp_hk2 with a 6-2 win, and mp_jor1 with a 8-6 win. DuD was undoubtly the best player in the game, with Shishkabob provided the best defense and Waark playing as the most agile flag carrier. NarcHead holds the suicide king crown once again, and Puffy ... poor Puffy... he has a poor habit of shooting his teammates. I straddled the middle of the pack as a regular workhorse. Individual stats will be available since logging was automatic on the server. Update: Stats are now available here, courtesy of AEStats.
Ghost Recon FFA Retrospective
By midnight, Shishkabob had to sleep. Short of an even
team count, our last game was played as a five player FFA
in a return to Ghost Recon.
There were three maps played - m04_village, m05_embassy, and mp03_railroad. Each map was the usual 20 minutes and were simply elimination games.
The "random" spawning was a minor by annoying issue -- sometimes players would die and respawn behind his killer for instant revenge. Village proved to be a somewhat large and spread out map. Encounters were not as frequent as embassy, where the bank was frequently the site of several skirmishes and acted as a pseudo-control point. Railroad was simply a mess -- the map was so small, the game turned into a run-and-gun. DuD managed to win all three rounds with the most frags. However, I was able to mostly maintain a good kill/death ratio, Waark played a solid game, NarcHead went M203-happy, and Puffy utilized his OICW grenade launcher battery-technique once again.
End
That wraps up the information for Chowdown2K3. Since
there were virtually no technical problems, I didn't really
move around much and didn't take any pictures. Ah well,
the gaming experience is always the best part and hopefully
there will be another session soon!
