This never happens when I watch TV. Besides, if it did my wife would punch me.

BOTE NEWS- August 16

[7:20pm CT]-Game is early yet. Only less than 90 minutes of action. Cherokee won the Tri-con 4 times. Loki had the first pod and kill and Medusa was his victim on both counts. [9:15pm ct]-Angus Thermopyle was first to go red, at least according to fed posting of bounties in logs. He also was first to p-bust for exp and hit furbs in cashing. Currently as of this post, 3 players are red – Angus, Cherokee, and Rammar. Tweety appears to have been first blue in ISS according to CLV as he is only one in ISS as of this post.

BOTE NEWS- August 17

[7:30AM CT]-Tweety killed CBS228 at Stardock today. CBS228 hit a bit of lag for about 10-15 seconds during a critical portion of a properly set macro. The lag was pinpointed to his ISP, not the BOTE server. At least CBS228 was killed in a scout, which saved him a death. Intrepid podded Zep’s Merchant Cruiser. Then Tweety podded Zep in his Merchant Freighter. Poor Zep. Can’t hold a ship for 2 seconds :).

[8:30pm CT]-Intrepid podded Artaxs’s MC this afternoon. Otherwise all is quiet on ship to ship fights.

[Before Extern]-Zep found Artaxs’ pod and killed him. Blue Adept podded Jughead for eating one hamburger too many :).

BOTE NEWS- August 18

[8:20am CDT] – Only one player was towed – Crystal Knight, who was not killed after the extern eviction. Corp 1 did lose 3 ships to the Repo Man. Blue Adept podded Banano, his old Big Game teammate. Banano is a careful player that does not die easy. So it was a good kill by Blue Adept.

[9:15pm CDT]-Intrepid captured Banano’s Battleship and got his pod. Banano has 3 deaths now after just 3 days of action. Blue Adept podded and killed Crystal Knight after a photon.

[Before Extern]- Bone Collector was p-torped by Blue Adept and CBY’ed to save a death sometime today.

BOTE NEWS- August 19

[10am CDT]- Blue Adept podded Severian and Prestone got the pod. Cherokee captured Excelsior’s Merchant Freighter! Cherokee captured Excelsior’s Merchant Freighter! Cherokee captured Corp #3’s Merchant Freighter! Cherokee captured Corp #3’s Merchant Freighter! Cherokee captured Corp #3’s Merchant Cruiser! Cherokee captured Hollywood’s Merchant Cruiser! Cherokee captured Corp #4’s Colonial Transport! – Wow..looks like CK put his ship cap script to good use 😉 [8:45pm CDT]- I missed the fact that earlier today at extern, the Repo Man grabbed 4 ships owned by Corp 6, the F3 corp. Also before CK’s ship captures earlier, Bounty Hunter got Beam’s pod (Not sure how Beam got in a pod in the first place) and commented he wanted a death back :).

Then this evening, Banano was busting planets and got podded in the ensuing nav haz, putting him at elimination risk. He now becomes at risk for the Space Ghost Award – first to be eliminated from a death limit game :). All it takes for Banano’s elimination is for him to be podded then #SD# and he’s done for the game. Very unlike Banano to die this much in less than a week of action.

Tweety fired a p-torp and Dartanian CBY’ed right after that.

[Before Extern]-Someone began construction of a Starport named Starport 1506. Is someone trying to pull a “Prestone” here? Intrepid podded Jughead’s Battleship and got the pod. Then in the kill of the day, SupG photoned Blue Adept and Tweety went in and capped BA’s CFS and got the pod. Sir Lancelot destroyed Diamond’s scout but took radiation damage in the process.

Props to Lost Traders Tavern for getting the kill of the day in Blue Adept’s demise. Capfile posted here

BOTE NEWS- August 20

[2:20pm CDT]-Artaxs was towed at extern and was immediately killed by Tweety, who earlier lost 4 furbs at extern. Intrepid podded Peacemaker’s Battleship. Loki killed Dartanian after Dart tried coming back from a CBY. Doctor Who hit Corp 5 (Alien Base) and destroyed some furbs and a fake-furb, then was blown up by mines in an orion. Then he hit Corp 3 (Coastgames) and destroyed a Battleship and an Orion. FEAR ME was lawnmowing and went bam right into LTT’s fighters.

[Before Extern]- Blue Adept podded Bone Collector and Angus got the pod by blowing up a planet Bone was trying to hide on.

BOTE NEWS- August 21

[8:35am CDT]- Intrepid podded and killed Big12ozhog. Looks like Hog was p-busting and Trep was trying to get him before finally succeeding. Cherokee swiped a few furbs from SE Corp as well as one from Alien Base. Doc Who #SD# Crystal Knight’s Scout. [4:40pm CDT]- – Blue Adept swiped a colt from Corp 6 (Fugitives).Didaskalos CBY’ed after a photon from Intrepid hit him which appears to have been a set up by Sir Lancelot. Kemper has updated death list.

BOTE NEWS- August 22

[8:35am CDT]- Loki podded Nudo’s Havoc. Intrepid podded Jughead’s Havoc and also got SupG’s Battleship and Blue Adept got SupG’s pod, getting a death back. Didaskalos nailed Mangol’s pod, getting a death back from his CBY. Doctor Who destroyed Intrepid’s unmanned havoc. [Noon CDT]- Big12ozHog returned to P-bust and this time he did not die, at least, not at the time of this post 🙂

[Before Extern]- Typhoon laid the smackdown on Tweety by blowing a planet named “Tweety Gives Good Pod”. No response from Tweety. But Didaskalos podded and killed Typhoon later on. Now THAT’s a response. I’m sure Tweety gave Didaskalos a high five there. Loki CBY’ed as he was way blue for his corp and did not want his reds busted down at Tern. I’m sure Loki figured he would get that death back as he is a damn good killer.

Game has been running nearly a week now. Corp 7 (Vid Kid’s world) first corp to probably be out of game. They never had a chance from the start. Game appears to be still wide open between the remaining 6 corps though Alphamoon should be the next corp to go as they took a lot of hits recently, most recently Jughead’s podding and Diamond’s death. But Triple H , Merdock, Outkast and FEAR ME are trying their best to keep their team into the game. Stay tuned.

Week 2

BOTE NEWS- August 23

[4pm CDT]- FEAR ME podded Bone Collector’s Havoc, but in a terrific show of back-up, Loki podded FEAR ME’s ISS right after that and FEAR ME CBY’ed to avoid Loki getting a death restore. Then Intrepid blew Stardock after a lengthy battle with port authorities. It was said that Coastgames bought 40 ships before their terrorist attack on Stardock. Then Prestone podded Cherokee’s T’KO and his CFS was destroyed in the ensuing corbo reaction. Cherokee quickly hopped into another ship, found Prestone playing hide-and-seek in a port and blew up the port. Because it was not ship to ship, CK did not get a death back for #SD#’ing Prestone.

[9:45pm CDT]-Doctor Who podded Reaper’s Havoc and Tweety got the pod. Typhoon and SupG returned from deaths and p-busted their experience back – and did not die 🙂 Didaskalos podded Hollywood’s BS and Tweety mopped up with the destruction of Holly’s pod.

With the destruction of Stardock and radiation set at the default at 14 days, it should be interesting to see what happens over the next week (SD will be rebuilt on the 30th). Will Coastgames suceed in their strategy of blowing SD or will it backfire on them and have it actually work in other corps’ favor? Stay Tuned.

[Before Extern]- Outkast blew a port in sector 2257. Doctor Who captured Angus’ Havoc and Tweety got the pod. Outkast CBY’ed, probably to lose alignment.

BOTE NEWS- August 24

[12:30 am CDT]- Not often I log in shortly after midnite. Just home from the clubs early on a rare Saturday night off. Damn, it seems like 99 of 100 people smoke at the clubs and I’m the one that doesn’t. To make matters worse, the club I was at had no ventilation at all. I still am having trouble breathing, but should clear up in a day or so. Anyways on to Today’s news. Not even 40 seconds into Sunday, Prestone goes and captures a manned ISS from Tweety. Four minutes later Alexio swipes that ISS from Prestone, though since he did not post it was manned, I’m assuming Prestone was not in it. Then Tweety killed Severian coming into the game, getting that death back he lost a few minutes earlier.

Normally I would try and be objective here, but personally I want to state I think corp 7 (Vid Kid’s World) should stay dead since they can’t win anyways. By trying to come in the game and then dying, all they are doing is restoring someone’s death back, as was the case with Tweety and Severian.

[2:20am CDT]-The Bounty Hunter’s Battleship was destroyed by Nav Haz. Nav Haz??? In a Battleship???? OK. Next.

[4:10pm CDT]- Blue Adept swiped 4 furbs from Medusa.

[9pm CDT]-Doctor Who tried potshots at someone in fedspace about a dozen times. Space Ghost finally enters the BOTE after a week off for unexplained reasons. Welcome Back, SG!

[Before Extern]- Blue Adept blew up Typhoon on a planet and got his pod, restoring a death for BA. Blue Adept swiped yet another 5 furbs from Medusa, which is very important for SE’s reds with a blown SD. Didskalos podded Merdock and Cherokee got the pod, putting him back at 0 deaths in the death restore. Prestone CBY’ed. Looks like another alignment management thing.

BOTE NEWS- August 25

[6:40am CDT}- Blue Adept continued stealing furbs in the game, but this time he swiped SIXTEEN of them from Corp 3 (Coastgames), the very same corp that blew up SD. Now it looks like this tactic may blow up in their face, but it is still too soon to tell. “I tawt I taw Alexio. I did! I did!” exclaimed Tweety as he shot Alexio in a lawn mowing attempt, captured his T’KO, and nailed the pod. Nice work on Tweety’s part.

[6:50pm CDT]-Intrepid shot Tweety, capped his ISS and killed the pod.

[Before Extern]-Blue Adept destroyed a TLTT CFS then podded Cherokee and got the pod. Didaskalos fused and his pod ran smack into nav haz. Put on that seat belt next time, Diddy boy 🙂 Loki swiped a TLTT ISS. Typhoon was p-busting and was podded twice by nav haz.

BOTE NEWS- August 26

Sorry for late news. Busy day today. [8pm CDT]-Doctor Who blew up a planet with collies on it. The collies were so upset they were gonna die, they set off the dets early and took Doctor Who down with them. Doc cursed like a sailor in the logs 🙂

[Before Extern]- Doctor Who shot Prestone and Tweety followed up with a capture of Prestone’s ISS and #SD# of his pod, getting a death restored. Phoe6e invaded a planet and then destroyed it. Blue Adept swiped a colt from Alien Base.

BOTE NEWS- August 27

[10am CDT]- Peacemaker got evicted at extern. Intrepid captured Peacemaker’s BS and #SD#’ed the pod and that’s no BS 🙂 Big12ozHog swiped a colt from Alien Base, AB’s second colt loss in as many days. [2pm CDT]- Loki picked a fight with Captain Zyrain – and after a valiant effort, lost the battle. The game has such alignment extremes from Cherokee’s 4.5M red to Blue Adept’s 4.5M blue that it looks like Loki attacked someone that was highly aligned blue and got a visit from Captain Z for his efforts. Cherokee and Nudo, both red, are also both busted down to 0 exp with no Stardock to get g-torps and dets from. As of this post, Loki is still in a pod and still red, again with no SD to get a replacement ship from. Game is 11 days old, 3 days beofre SD is rebuilt.

[Loki Update – From Didaskalos]-Actually, we found c6’s base and loki was trying to defend against an incursion. DW put down personal figs and Loki plowed right through them, going red, and later getting podded for moving, in his words, 3-4 sectors. Hehe. We then proceeded to photon cbs who was on the planet.

[6:15pm CDT]- Didaskalos shot Hollywood and Hollywood CBY’ed. But this time Holly didnt CBY to do a “Res” :). He CBY’ed to save a death.

[7:55pm CDT]- Alexio podded and killed Doctor Who and then swiped a Havoc from TLTT corp. Intrepid blew up a starport in sector 113.

[Loki’s Version of him going red and being podded by Cap Z]-haha I was defending but doc who never laid personals. I shot him with 20K figs and went red and after doing so he twarped out. I tried to test my luck seeing as how zyrain sometimes is nice to folks and twarped out of sector leaving me a shiny pod. CBS was never torped. I was on the planet when they torped. I twarped to planet sector and sat in cit until a red arrived to align swing me. Just a lil clarification for the record. My jedi mind tricks can be a Bitch poor who and diddy never listen to the enemy on a port pfffft.

[Before Extern]-Bone Collector used an improperly configured autoreply macro at the wrong moment, resulting in an inadvertant CBY. So, along with your tire pressure, check those macros folks– it could happen to you! Alexio CBY’ed for alignment.

BOTE NEWS- August 28

[4:50pm CDT]-Blue Adept podded Cherokee’s Havoc. Then in the kill of the day, Intrepid capped Space Ghost’s IC and got the pod. [Space Ghost Update from Intrepid]-Space Ghost exited the game — not sure whether he intentionally logged out or was dropped. But either way, he had no cloak.

So I fired a wave, pinged his IDC to the next sector, jumped there, capped the ship while podding him. (got about $600K, only took maybe 16K figs to cap his IDC)

A few other hunters looked around but I had a hunch and twarped to Sector 10 and SG’s pod was there.

I then waited and tried to get Typh00n (a corpie needing restores) into the game but after a few minutes of waiting, Blue Adept warped into the sector and I blew the pod before BA could get it.

[8pm CDT]- Loki swiped a battleship from Coastgames. Then in another kill to make the highlight reels, Blue Adept blew up a port Prestone was in. Prestone’s pod hit a TLTT fig or two and Cherokee swooped in and got the pod, getting a death restored. I guess it was NO PROBLEM for Cherokee to do the kill 🙂 And BTW, according to Kemper’s death page, Prestone is eliminated

[Before Extern]-After Interpid fired a photon and proceeded to destroy a colt and MC owned by TLTT, Tweety capped Intrepid’s manned ISS. But then Rammar podded and killed Tweety just seconds later and Trep capped the unmanned ISS back from Tweety. Then Doc Who capped an unmanned ISS from Trep. Nudo was gridding and ran into a series of offensive figs owned by TLTT. He also ran into some ferrengi fighters of whom I thought were removed from the game. Perhaps Macahan removed the planet, but probably forgot to remove the figs as well. Reaper and Hoggy also gridded through offensive figs.

BOTE NEWS- August 29

[Morning] – Blue Adept swiped a frigate, an ISS, and a havoc from TLTT after a photon shot. Then Hoggy and Doc Who got into a photon war with Doc capturing a havoc and furb from SE corp. Hoggy capped back the furb and then Doc Who blew up that furb. Doc Who then got shot and according to DW, he landed on a planet with 0 figs set, got podded, his pod went adjacent and he CBY’ed when Blue Adept came in sector to avoid giving him a death restore. [Afternoon]- SE Corp then hit a base owned by TLTT with Blue Adept capping a furb and blowing up an MC and a CFS owned by TLTT. He then invaded a planet Tweety was on, blew it up and Tweety went poof with the planet. Hoggy then got Tweety’s pod to get a death back. BA then destroyed a port in sector 2405.

[Evening]- Intrepid podded Hollywood and killed Holly’s pod. There was some controversy surrounding Holly’s death, namely accusations of Intrepid allegedly getting a death restore as a gift from Holly. I received a cap file of the convo from a source and will review the cap file first to make sure there is no confidential information is on it such as sector or subspace numbers then post it sometime Saturday afternoon (the 30th).

[Late Evening]- Typhoon plastered Space Ghost’s scout after SG came back from an #SD# the previous day. When SG has to die like that, I think it is quite obvious Alien Base is no longer in the running in the BOTE. Any non-fedsafe schmo with a decent log in script or macro should be able to come back after an #SD# and live – most of the time anyways. Then Blue Adept invaded a planet and destroyed it.

Week 3

BOTE NEWS- August 30

[10am CDT]- The repo man had a field day today even though extern was on time. Alphamoon lost 3 colts and 2 other ships. Looks like someone blew a ship possesion assignment there. Then Stardock is finally rebuilt after a long week of construction by port authorities, which started a mad dash to SD. Furbs and planets were blown by the bunch today as reds got busy getting exp up then cashing and hitting furbs. With the game’s nav haz removal set to just 2% daily, I would expect nav haz in SDT sectors to fill up quite a bit though players probably will pop a planet every few days to clear it and even then, that wont last long once the sector reaches its planet limit. Later Alexio killed Hollywood’s manned scout but took corbo damage in the process. [11:35pm CDT – HHH Pedigreed]- Blue Adept laid waste to a port Hunter Hearst Helmsley was on and Nudo got the pod.

[Editorial – Using Cargotrans as Furbs]- I’m not sure about the SE corp using cargotrans as furbs. Why? I did some math. It costs $68837 to furb a full colt using a cargo tran but it also costs 12 turns to tow the cargotran. It costs $69667 to furb a full colt using a merchant freighter but towing the MF only uses 8 turns. If I’m correct in my figures, then SE is wasting 4 turns to save about $800???????? Perhaps some light can be shed on this. Maybe there is something I don’t know.

[Before Extern]- Angus blew up a planet Space Ghost was on and got the pod. Blue Adept swiped a colt from TLTT and destroyed an unmanned TLTT pod. Intrepid podded Medusa and Lancelot got the pod. Medusa tried to CBY to avoid giving away a death restore, but SWATH had auto-anti CBY on. Intrepid was also going for the capture on Medusa who appears to have no figs on the ship (I have no idea why) but somehow Trep entered 11 instead of one going for the capture resulting “in a corb dinner”. Later Trep killed Jughead’s scout but took corbo again though no corbo dinner this time. It did give him a restore.

BOTE NEWS- August 31

[Early AM]- Fear Me timed out. Repo Man got busy today. Many ships repo’ed were scouts from players coming back from an #SD#. But Corp 5 (Alien Base) lost what appears to be a missle frigate as well as 5 furbs. Angus killed Cherokee then swiped a colt, T’KO, and frigate from TLTT.

[Angus Thermopyle’s Account on CK’s Death]-CK was offline on vacation this weekend – when we invaded their old SDT zone he was on citdadel there – they moved him to another base which nudo found this morning – they had switched him to a pod in the citadel – most likely to have him suffer only one death

he was sitting above planets in their last sector — all of c1 was offline – I got ck’s pod and we started capping ships before doc who came on and we fell back. Blue adept has been phtoning them all day for turn denial — but we figure only one c1 has remained behind

BOTE NEWS- September 1

[Early AM]- The Bounty Hunter decided to challenge Captain Zyrain to a fight – and lost. Tweety blew up a planet Angus Thermopyle was on and got Angus’s pod, getting a death restored. [Afternoon]- The SE corp really took it to TLTT corp today. They gridded many TLTT offensive figs. Then Doctor Who was shot, podded, and killed by Blue Adept. Doc is eliminated. Blue Adept then swiped 4 ISS’s, 3 Havocs, a colt and a battleship from TLTT. Blue Adept later swiped another colt from TLTT.

Didasaklos was podded in his colt by Alexio and Bone Collector got the pod and said he wanted a death restore and only 4 to go. However…3 minutes after that, Bone fused right after Loki blew a port Bounty Hunter was on. That’s back to 5 to go now, Bone 🙂 Bone did get TBH’s pod, which again puts Bone back at 4 deaths.

Looks like TLTT will have an uphill battle at this point.

[Before Extern]-SupG picked a fight with a port – in a merf. Obviously he lost. Blue Adept blew another port SupG was on. Alexio CBY’ed just before tern for alignment.

BOTE NEWS- September 2

[Morning]- Banano was evicted at tern, shot and capped by Blue Adept, and #SD#’ed by Reaper. Reaper got a restore with the kill. [Evening]- Intrepid kept shooting at fedsafes in fedspace for 4 hours and blamed it on a stuck keyboard, but did apologize for the flood in the logs. Blue Adept podded HHH but his ship was destroyed in the ensuing corbo reaction. HHH CBY’ed to avoid giving away a restore. Then later Intrepid podded (and took corbo damage) and killed Blue Adept. Trep got a restore for his efforts.

BOTE NEWS- September 3

[Early AM]- Corp 6 lost quite a few ships at tern. Hoggy shot TBH and TBH CBY’ed only 4 seconds later and Hoggy laughed, saying it was a quick CBY. [Evening]- Typhoon fused.

BOTE NEWS- September 4

No ship to ship fights, at least not in the logs. Just p-busting, cashing and the like.

BOTE NEWS- September 5

[Early Am]- Intrepid killed Space Ghost’s scout. — 09/05/15 — 11:51:02 PM —
The Federation hereby posts a reward of 386,385 credits for the destruction of Excelsior’s ship! (-Editor’s note – rumor has it Excelsior banged Admiral Nelson’s wife which resulted in the high bounty :))

BOTE NEWS- September 13

Logs went out. It appears CBS228 died at Blue Adept’s hands. I need info. Also Lancelot either got p-dropped or mothed as he was podded by a Q-gun.

BOTE NEWS- September 14

[Afternoon]- Alexio fused. Blue Adept swiped a few ships from F3 corp. Alexio , Excelsior and Intrepid gridded thru SE offensive figs. Intrepid got P-dropped. [Evening]- A photon war erupted. Blue Adept blasted 5 ports to oblivion. Loki’s Havoc was destroyed in a gridding mission. Intrepid swiped a colt and havoc from SE Corp.

BOTE NEWS- September 15

[Morning]- Blue Adept swiped a few ships from CG corp. Trep did swipe a CFS from SE corp. Then a tug of war ensued in several unmanned ship caps with Trep podded by a Q-gun in-between. SE corp eventually won possesion of the ships. [Evening]- Alexio and Loki gridded SE figs. Blue Adept found an old SDT area of F3’s and blew several furbs. Intrepid gridded and was podded twice, once by deployed figs and the other by a q-gun. Hoggy posted in logs that Trep was manned. Duh! Like we can’t see that. Typhoon destroyed Blue’s Quickie Mart Port. Guess Blue Adept would have to find another port to have a quickie. Wait..you mean it’s a store…not a…never mind.

BOTE NEWS- September 16

Lots of gridding. Blue Adept is podded by deployed figs while gridding.

BOTE NEWS- September 17

[Afternoon]- Angus swiped 3 havocs and 2 ISS’s from F3 corp. Nudo drove his orion into a Q-gun and is podded. Another idiotic comment in logs saying Nudo was manned. Duh! Like an unmanned ship can be blown up by a Q-gun.

BOTE NEWS- September 18

[Morning]- SE corp hit CG corp..swiped a few ships and invaded a couple planets. Photons went flying all over the place. [Evening]- Trep busted 10 planets. Looks like a sector got nav-haz’ed. With the game’s 2% daily clearance, it will take 50 days to clear that on its own.

BOTE NEWS- September 19

[Morning]- Excelsior was podded by a Q-gun and another idiotic comment in the logs saying he was manned. [Afternoon]- Alexio invaded a couple planets and blew them up. Lancelot was podded by a Q-gun and yet another idiotic comment posted that it was manned.

BOTE NEWS- September 20

[Morning]- Lancelot was podded twice by Q-guns. Wow. No dumb comment saying he was manned? I’m amazed. [Afternoon]- Excelsior was podded by a Q-gun.

BOTE NEWS- September 21

[Morning]- Typhoon and Lancelot both get evicted at tern and Reaper podded both players though not sure why the pods were not #SD#’ed either. Did he forget to surround? Hoggy podded Alexio twice, then later capped a CFS, Colt, and Havoc from F3 corp. [Evening]- Hoggy went hog wild on Treppy and podded/killed him to eliminated Treppy from the game. Then the F3 corp smelled blood with Treppy out of the game. They invaded a CG base and podded and killed Excelsior, Nimbus, and Rammar. Sir Lancelot tried to put up a good fight, hid on a planet, was blown up and killed by Alexio. Then CBS228 was podded by atmos cannons while invading and then..at 3 minutes before Midnite, Alexio was podded by Blue Adept. Because Alexio was already at 2 deaths for the day, the podding was a #SD#, giving Blue Adept a death restore. Had Alexio waited 3 minutes, he would have not been #SD#, just podded.

Coastgames is done, leaving Star Endeavors and Fugitives from Fate in the game.

BOTE NEWS- September 22

[Evening]- Hoggy and Blue Adept each got podded by a Q-gun.

BOTE NEWS- September 23

This was the final day of the BOTE. In a scene reminiscent of the Alamo, The F3 staged a valiant defense of their last base. First Reaper and Blue Adept went in and got BBQ’ed by Q-guns (BA twice). Photons got fired all over the place. Angus did a moth and went boom. Blue Adept somehow went red and was killed by Captain Z, eliminating him. Then one by one, the F3 corp began to fall with CBS228 podded and killed and Loki podded then CBY’ing to avoid giving away a restore. When the smoke cleared from the intense fighting, F3 conceded the game to SE.

Summary

Can any team stop Star Endeavors? They have been on a roll as of late. The next major to be played will be the USO 2004 since there is no HHT this year. Congrats to Blue Adept and company for winning BOTE 2003!

To hell with it, it was adding too much overhead. I hope to have at least gained 200ms over the horrid 500ms in-game ping times I had. Let me know.

I needed a fresh test slate, so the only game on the TWGS has been rebanged. Please post notes in the forum.

Stability testing officially resumes. Please post your thoughts in the forums. I plan to bang an array of games in a day or two if things go well. I hope to take this sucker straight to gold ASAP. It’s been long enough!

To celebrate, I present the ductape bikini contest.

Man dies from crushed testicles.

We have pics in the forum.

Yeah I know I have not updated BOTE news – or any TW news. I’ll try and get going on that in the next couple days. But way it looks now, with Coastgames out and the settings set up the way it is, we are looking at a 2nd stalemate in BOTE history. IMHO, I think future tournaments can do without the death limit if settings are set to prevent rebuilding when a team’s base is invaded. Low terra regen is one option. They then will have to concede the game. With no death limits, teams can show, to coin a WWE phrase, ruthless aggression in competition instead of sitting back in defensive mode to avoid being eliminated. They can then afford to moth a heavy defended enemy base for days on end until the ore wear down and they can break thru without worry of invaders being eliminated. If invaders get #SD#, they simply will be back the next day to resume play instead of being eliminated, keeping the game going strong. Just keep pounding away and it’s over, one way or another. Sit back and it will stalemate.

Ship delay is another factor in the BOTE. Gridders and lawnmowers are more at risk of being podded so they are more hesistant to do their jobs unless they really have to.

To sum it up, for tournament games, I think settings should be set up for offensive play, not defensive play. And currently, in the BOTE, offensive play is just that..offensive..given the current settings. Therefore, I think the death limit should be abolished and the ship delay set to none IMHO.

It’s been a long hard few months here at work. My boss resigned, and I am the only one who can pick up the slack. But, I’ve emerged from the ordeal with a promotion and a raise worth bragging about. Now that things are settled down, I plan to get the HS website going again.

First order of business will be to get the update checker a little more accurate. The second will be to raise the TWGS. There is no reason it’s not running other than I just didn’t want it up yet. It’s sitting right here.

Someone brought up to me that I should do more game coverage news. Why? I don’t play in the games. I don’t even pay attention. There are other people who do that already, and do a good job of it.

Truth of the matter is I don’t really want to concern myself with other people’s events. That’s why I have guest editors. They do that already. If you want to post stuff to the website, let me know and I’ll consider giving you access to the news poster. More posters the better.

BTW, anyone seen my Ent. Editor?

Web-based remake of Legend of the Red Dragon. Cool.