SSNEWS.TXT COMMAND & CONQUER: SOLE SURVIVOR Copyright (c) 1997-1998 Westwood Studios, Inc. All rights reserved. "C&C", "Command & Conquer", "Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor" and "Westwood Studios" are trademarks of Westwood Studios, Inc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Sole Survivor News -- Welcome to Sole Survivor News. Each SS update will update this file. This file is available in-game through the menu (News), or by using the *news command in-game. Content Outline --------------- 1. Patch news. The latest news is at the top. 2. FAQ. 3. Squad FAQ. 4. Game Modes. ------------------------------ Feb 20 1998 -------------------------------------- Changes in 1.04 ---------------- - Note: This is likely to be the last patch for SS, unless there are absolutely necessary changes. However the SS community is likely to evolve squad infrastructure (amongst other things). We will also change server settings periodically to provide new gameplay experiences. - Squad news! We have decided to provide some support for squads. Please read the SQUAD FAQ below if you are interested in squad activities. - There is a new button on the main menu that leads to Westwood's Sole Survivor website. This has links to all related pages, including Squad resources, and (coming soon) Sole Survivor discussion boards. It also has links to the ladder pages. - The 5th and 6th buttons on the main menu are now customisable in conquer.ini. The new settings will appear at the bottom of your conquer.ini next time you quit SS. If you wish, you can edit the relevant information to change the URL's and Button text. By default they will point to Westwood's Sole Survivor page and to the team-ladder page respectively. - Team win criteria has changed. It is no longer determined by the player that scores the highest. It is now determined by your total team score. If players leave before the game is over, their points still count. You can therefore rank the performance of up to 4 teams in a game, based on their team scores. Team scores are shown in the player list. They are also displayed on the end-game dialog. - The OK button on the end-game dialog has changed to a "Take a Screenshot" button. This is useful if you want to snap end-game results. - The server now has the ability to control the exact ratios of different crate types (wooden, steel, orange, and green). Any combination is possible! Expect to see some interesting combinations! Pressing F2 will tell you what ratio is being used on any server. The default ratio per 1000 crates is: Steel = 50 Green = 100 Orange = 10 Wooden = 840 - Armageddon can be disabled altogether on the server. Expect to see some channels without any armageddon. Again, pressing F2 will show whether this is in effect. - The duration of the orange crate effect is another server option; it can be any duration over 1 second. Pressing F2 will show you what duration is used. The default is 30 seconds. - There is a new server parameter that determines whether or not you lose invulnerability when you pick up an orange crate. Default is true. Pressing F2 will show what setting is used. - Ion cannon now comes in THREE server settings. It can now be: - No ion cannon - ion cannon damages (most commonly used) - ion cannon always kills Pressing F2 will show you what setting is used on any server. - The guard-player key (ctrl-alt-lclick) has been disabled. Some annoying people were using it to be... annoying. - Note that there IS a key to "bump" a teammate: alt-lclick. Best use of this is to bump a teammate off your own flagspot when you are trying to cap a flag and he/she is AFK, or too daft to move. - The FAQ below has been extended, including troubleshooting information. - A Squad FAQ has been added. - Any message you receive containing your full nick will now warn you with a "Yo!", just like private messaging does. Case is not important. If you want to get the attention of someone, include their full nick in the message! If TypingSound is set to 0 in your conquer.ini, you will not hear it. - There is a new command called *log, which toggles whether or not messages from other players are logged to a file called LOG.TXT. If you want to save your witty dialog, this is for you. By default this is OFF. Pressing F3 shows the current status of this flag. Private messages are now marked with [] so that they can be distinguished in the log. - There is a new key action. Pressing B in a game of CTF will center the view on your base. This is useful whenever you don't know where your base is. - Improved namelist sorting code. - Any type of connection failure now takes you to the main menu rather than quitting out of the game completely. - Fixed a bug where AI units that shouldn't have range upgrades were getting them. - The following units have been "tweaked": - Visceroid: up armour, up reload, up sightrange - Jeep: up sightrange - Bike: up sightrange - Grenadier: up sightrange, up reload - FlameThrower: up sightrange, up reload - ChemWarrier: up sightrange, up reload - Artillery: up reload, up range - Rocket launcher: up range - TRex: up reload - Velociraptor: up reload - AGT: up reload In addition to this, rate-of-fire has been increased by 15% across the board. ------------------------------ Jan 9 1998 -------------------------------------- Changes in 1.03 ---------------- - On flag capture or goal scoring, name of flag-carrier is announced. - Flag-carrier gets significant points at end of journey. Only the person who plants the flag on their pedestal gets points. - A team gets more points now for flag capture. - Shift-s now shows a message about the screenshot. - There are now 10 default team macro's. - When you die, or kill, the message is a bit more varied now. - Team wins are now announced in the corresponding color. - You can no longer flood messaging in skirmish (for those odd few who did). - Team games always announce team wins. - New menu button that takes you to the SS ladder. To use this, you need to be connected to the internet, and have a default browser. - New command, *ladder, to do the same thing, in-game. It does not exit the game you are playing. - New menu button that shows ssnews.txt with your default txt reader. This file will prepend new version news for each update. - New command, *news, to do the same thing, in-game. It does not exit the game you are playing. - If a game is not a ladder game, it will be announced when you join a channel. Most games are ladder games. - When you join an autoteaming game, the server welcomes you onto the team it has assigned you. - When you are chasing someone and they teleport, you will no longer keep chasing them. - You will no longer teleport into enemy bases! - About 60 small map fixes (stuck places). After this patch, please let me know if you ever get stuck on a map - and where. - Crate allocation and geography improved on the "island" map - The unpopular units have been enhanced... try them! - Infantry no longer leave trails. - Centering bugs fixed. - Teamcrates bug fixed (sometimes for some players, teamcrates didn't work). - WChat changes: - If a game is AutoTeaming, Chat will show "AutoTeaming" in the "Choose Your Team" box - If a game is a ladder game (tournanment game), the channel will be colored yellow. Most games are ladder games. ------------------------------ Jan 8 1998 -------------------------------------- FAQ --- This faq will be extended over time. Here are some of the questions we are asked most often: Q. I can't play, the game doesn't load properly. What is wrong? A. Do you have other applications running? Try disabling them. Don't forget to try disabling your taskbar app's too! If this doesn't work, try turning off the movies and sound in CONQUER.INI. Q. My display is all messed up when I scroll, it doesn't draw properly. What's wrong? A. Probably your video driver is having trouble with DirectX. Make sure you have the latest DirectX drivers for your video card. Go to your video-card manufacturer's website for this. If this doesn't help, try editing the conquer.ini file in your Sole Survivor directory. Change VideoBackBuffer=1 to VideoBackBuffer=0 This is likely to fix the problem. Q. When I press "Play Online", Sole Survivor minimizes itself. What should I do? A. You always enter an online game through Westwood Online. Go to Westwood Online, Enter a Sole Survivor channel, select any options you want (such as your vehicle), and press "Let's Go". This will bring you into the game. When you quit you will find yourself back in Westwood Online. Q. Help! I don't know what I am doing in the game! What can I do? A. Press F1 for key help, F2 to find out about what parameters are controlling the game, and F3 for advanced commands. There are a number of websites concerning Sole Survivor, created and maintained by enthusiasts. Try visiting them too. Q. How does the commando use C4 explosive? A. Use control-leftclick on a unit or structure. Left-click alone uses the sniper rifle. Q. How do I start my own server game? A. You don't. Westwood hosts the games on servers located mostly in the US. Bandwidth requirement is high, and server parameters are complex. However we do change settings frequently to give players the settings they request. Q. How can I learn a lot of new swear words in a brief time? A. Pick up an armageddon crate without consulting your teammates. Q. What is the deal with swear words? How do I get rid of that *&%$*$# filter? A. Remove NL.CFG from your SS directory. This means that text you RECEIVE will be unfiltered. However, do NOT type text in a manner to defeat the filter, or be abusive or unpleasant to others. If you do, you may be banned from one or more channels, or from chat. Q. What are those suffixes on the end of channel names, like _LV? A. The suffix is for our convenience, and shows where a server is located. Presently our servers are at: LV = Las Vegas GW = GlobalCenter West GE = GlobalCenter East UK = United Kingdom Q. I have plenty of misinformed notions about Internet latency. Can you correct them? A. Let me try. When you experience the effects of Internet latency, or "lag", it means that the Internet connection between your computer and the Server you are playing with, is poor. SS is client-server, which means that all the clients (players) are connected to the server, but not to each other. Even if you have a fantastic internet connection like a T1 or T3, you are still vulnerable to any bottleneck in the path from your client to the server. The number of players inside a game does affect latency, in that you are more vulnerable to any Internet bottleneck when the traffic flow is high. The Westwood Online server and the SS servers are completely separate. The number of people on Westwood Online has no effect on you when you are in-game. Internet latency varies, as does for example traffic on a freeway. But server performance varies very little. In fact, our servers are not stressed in terms of CPU usage. Therefore *in general* if your connection is very bad, it is because of the Internet. The Internet was not designed for many of the things it is expected to do these days. You can maximise your experience of the Internet by making sure you have a good ISP and a decent modem. Do not run other network-intensive apps at the same time as SS. And find which servers generally give you best performance. Most of our US servers are located at Internet hubs on either coast of the US. Q. I hate the ladder SO much and NOT just because my rank is so low... (etc) Why don't you abolish it? A. Because some people like it, and we have provided NON-LADDER channels as well! If you don't like the ladder, play in a NON-LADDER channel! If they are popular, we will make more of them. Ladder channels are shown in yellow inside the channel list. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SQUAD FAQ --------- Q. What is a squad? A. A squad is a group of players who want to play together as a team on a regular basis. There is no formal process involved, Westwood supports the notion of squads but does not administrate them. Anyone can form a squad. It is up to the SS community to develop and police squad rules. Q. OK... If Westwood doesn't administrate squads, then what DOES it do? A. We have provided a minimal capability for squad games to occur. What we provide is a mechanism for passwording on designated "Squad Servers". The basic requirement for squad activity is that squad players are able to find a server with no players, and to prevent non-squad players from joining once a squad game is in play. Q. How do the squad channels work? A. A Squad channel is any channel starting with "Squad" in its name. If you are playing there for non-squad stuff, you may be evicted, as squad stuff gets precedence there. What happens is that if a SS sysop sets a password, then all players within the channel have a short time to enter that password. At the end of that time, anyone who didn't enter the password will be evicted. No-one will be able to enter that channel until the game is over. In fact, no-one can enter the game as of the instant the sysop sets the password. Of course, players who got the password right are able to change their unit in chat, and re-enter at any stage. Informative messages are shown on-screen during this process. At the end of the game, most players will be evicted back into the channel. [Note to sysops: be VERY careful that you don't set the password too early... There is no "undo". If you set the password early, or incorrectly, nothing can be done about it. You will have to wait until the game is finished.] Q. What is a SS sysop? How does he/she communicate the password to my squad? A. A SS sysop is typically NOT a Westwood employee. A few mature and responsible SS enthusiasts will be selected for this role. They are coordinaters for squad games. Any squad that wants to play in a squad game MUST coordinate with a SS sysop, to book a playing time and agree on a password. The suggested communication model is: 1. Two or more squads agree to challemge each other, sort out all the details and a SET of acceptable playing times. 2. One (1) of the squad leaders communicates with a sysop to establish a time and password. The sysop must be present at the start of the game. He/she may also play if on one of the squads. 3. The informed squad leader communicates the time and password back to the other squad leaders, who in turn communicate the information back to their squad members. Q. So... sysop's must be available 24/7 ?! A. Nope! It is up to them entirely to what extent they are available, and what hours/days they are willing and able to administrate. They are doing you a great favour, so be nice! You need to give them plenty of advance warning for a proposed match. We have selected sysops who indicate willingness to administrate on a regular basis. Their responsibility is to BE THERE at the appointed time and place. They must also communicate with all other sysops to make sure there are no double-bookings. Obviously there are some infrastructure things that would help, and we expect sysops and other enthusiasts to establish this. If one sysop is unable to administrate for you, you will have to find another. Q. OK, so I have formed a Squad, and we have challenged another squad. How do I contact a sysop to find a time and agree on a password? A. Well, the Westwood Sole Survivor Squad resource page, which can be accessed from http://www.solesurvivor.com, has communication links to all current sysops. It also has links to squads who have registered with Ted here at Westwood, who maintains this page. Registering is not required - it simply allows you to have a link on our squad page. If you want to do that, send your squad logo (gif or jpeg) and URL to the Westwood contact address shown on the above page. You will have to wait a few days or a week to see the page updated with your link. Q. Can I PLEASE be a sysop? A. Well, we want to have as few as possible, since they must all coordinate together. If we have a shortage we will seek others who are mature and responsible, and are prepared to regularly administrate games. Q. I entered a squad channel, but my connection was refused. What gives? A. A squad game is in progress, and you are locked out until it is over. When it finishes, all the players will be evicted into the channel, and you will be able to enter. But remember that you can be evicted at any time from a squad channel if you don't have the password for a scheduled game. Q. Boy, I'm MAD! I was supposed to play in an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT squad battle, and just because I was a FEW MINUTES late, I could not enter the game! That SUCKS! I HATE YOU! I am never going to play SS again! Nor any other WW game! Why are you persecuting me? A. Chill out dude. Get yerself a watch. And turn up EARLY for your pre-battle meeting. Your squad leader isn't going to be happy with you if you don't arrive on time. Q. What if I want to change the settings on the server for a match? A. This is not feasible, because there are many settings and they are complex enough that Westwood needs to do it. A sysop can not do it, please don't ask. We will set up a few CTF squad servers with different settings, please use these. The settings can be altered if the SS community wants that. But keeping settings standardised also helps keep squadgame performance relative. Q. So when a sysop starts a squad game, how do I give the password? A. You just type it as you type a normal message. Normal messaging is suspended during the countdown. Q. Fame, admiration and respect isn't enough for me. Can my squad win prizes? A. Westwood reserves the right to give occassional prizes to the top squad. This could only happen if the SS community develops their own solid and accepted ranking system. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GAME MODES ---------- Capture The Flag (CTF) ---------------------- This is generally the most popular game. It comes in many varieties. The number of teams vary from 2 to 4. In some channels you may select which team you join. In Autoteaming channels, the server selects your team for you when you enter. Autoteaming games tend to be better balanced numerically. The basic object of CTF is to take the flag of any enemy to your own base, carrying it onto your own "pedestal". Typically you will need to destroy some or all of the enemy structures guarding their flag in order to get it. Enemy bases come in many sizes. Football -------- Football is played with 2 teams and either 1 or 2 flags. In 1-flag-football, you fight to take the flag to the grey endzone that shows a square in your team color. Each time you achieve this, the colored square swaps to the other endzone. In 2-flag football each team carries their own flag (unlike CTF, where you may only carry another teams' flag). Human vs. Hunter (HvsH) ----------------------- HvsH is simply humans vs. AI's. The number of hunters is loosely matched to the number of humans. Humans work as a team against the AI's. Free-For-All (FFA) ------------------ Every man for himself! Every woman for herself too! FFA channels are likely to differ in the units allowed. Team Fight ---------- This is simply 2 to 4 teams against eachother; no flags, no bases. Practice channels ----------------- Any channel marked as practice means that it is not a ladder game. It is intended for new players. Vets should stay away! Vet channels ------------ Any channel marked as "Vets" is intended for people with plenty of SS experience. Expect no mercy here; newbies should stay away! Specialised channels -------------------- There are many parameters that control a game channel. In addition, we can allow any combination of units. For example, "BikeBash" might mean only nod bikes are allowed. Squad channels -------------- These are intended to be used for squad games. Please read the Squad FAQ for information about these channels.