Mole40k

Ok, perhaps it's time for a different perspective... What is the purpose of the ladder? Why should anyone play on the ladder? What should a player on the ladder expect, in terms of a fair and competitive environment?

I see what you did there ?. Funnily enough, Pinball is one of the very few TS players I've met in real life! I actually went to his 21st birthday. And to think we're now in our 30s...

Put simply, it was making me deeply unhappy and covering a lot of other things up. Plus, I'd often play when at my most depressed, which would make me play worse, and get more depressed, and the vicious cycle would continue. It really wasn't healthy at all.

The other issue of course being the fact they have to be static to fire, and it takes time for them to deploy. As you say, they also have fairly weak armour when they do deploy and can be easily taken out by bombers. ? EDIT: oh, and I forgot to mention the issue of friendly-fire when using art as defense...

I've hosted a web-version of my player guide on WordPress for several years now. It still gets a remarkable number of hits, but I'm thinking of taking it down soon. https://cnctiberiansun.wordpress.com/

Black makes a good point -- when it comes to game balance, you shouldn't make adjustments in isolation. Art were weaker in FS yes, but NOD finally got something to balance out some of their other weaknesses.

I've been thinking about this quite a lot recently... I started playing TS in 1999, and then FS when it came out. I was at my peak of gaming competitiveness long before any of your here even started playing TS/FS -- long before some of you here were even born! What I never realised, and wish I'd known earlier, was how much TS was having a negative impact on my mental health. Thankfully, I gave up playing a long time ago, and don't ever see myself coming back. However, I do still like to frequent the forums and see what's going on. I see all the same old faces on here. Hope everyone is well! Anyway, I've been quite busy since leaving TS. A few years ago I published a YA novel. I also recently passed my thesis, so I guess you can all now call me Dr Mole. I've even appeared on TV and radio! If there's one thing I want to share with you, it's this: don't take TS too seriously -- life's way too short.

Don't forget, harvest bombing is one of the very few decent uses for the humble hijacker: https://cnctiberiansun.wordpress.com/advanced-tactics/nod/ (c) Mole40k circa 2001

Don't forget there's a fundamental distinction to be made between '# of actions' vs '# of effective actions'. Having a measure like APM is interesting, but doesn't necessarily reflect the quality or ability of a player.

Too true I'm afraid. While a lot of water has passed under the bridge since those days, that initial damage caused to the community (and FS community in particular) had a massive lasting impact on the game and the people who play it ?.

Have to agree with Black on this one.^

Disagree on just about every level, and I was there -- and I was good. Quite simply FS was/is: 1) More tactically diverse 2) Fewer bugs 3) Better maps Main reasons for it dying quickly: 1) Different type of player base, with more 'early adopters' who prefer new games, and new challenges. Many FS players left for Ra2 when it came out, and then Dune, etc. Dwindling community led to more people going back to the common denominator for easier/quicker games. Thus it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. 2) Power of the Terrace community. Resistant to change. Made false claims about a game they couldn't compete in. (A lot of them didn't like the blue tib economy, the different strategies, and the fact they couldn't man rush so easily.) 3) Cost of expansion, and time to learn. It was a completely different world back then. This was back when online gaming wasn't a big thing. Anyone who got into TS, typically didn't then go out and buy an additional expansion, with an additional layer of skills to learn etc. Easier to stick to TS.

I can confirm, Sunflight was a woman. This was pretty widely known at the time. No idea if the person in the Sunflight role changed over time of course, but the main Sunflight people interacted with was indeed female.

Yeah, it's funny how FS died out in the end. I think a part of this was because most of the people who moved from TS to FS were the more 'progressive' players, the sorts who are willing to go out and try new things, and as such FS suffered for the fact that most of these same players then went on to other things like Ra2, Dune etc., and various other online games that started to take off around that time. FS as a game is woefully underappreciated by the majority of the community who have been infected with the mindset that terrace is the only tactical challenge, and TS is the only 'proper' ruleset. I could argue about how flawed this whole way of thinking is, but I guess it's a bit late for that ?

So... I just published a novel! Available in paperback / ebook formats from a variety of retailers worldwide, including Amazon. Check out www.darkesthourbook.com for samples and even a book trailer!

^Yes, he's up there with sonjc ? If I get a chance I might write up some rough background info as a lot has happened over the years, and for one reason or another, I seem to have found myself at the heart of it. Here's my old profile page from gamerwarzone, with almost 5k posts(!) If only I had that much free time nowadays...

TBH I agree with a fair few points that IntoTheRain has made. I've been arguing for 15+ years that TS is fundamentally inbalanced and isn't really all that good from a modern standpoint. You certainly wouldn't make a game like it today. The progression is far too skewed and as you say, the 3-minutes-to-max-tech also leads to major issues in terms of how the game plays and the enjoyment non-pros can get from it. The thing you have to understand here though Rain, is that to most people on this forum, TS is THE game that got them into online gaming, and it's a game they've stuck with through thick and thin. I think you'll just have to agree to disagree on this one ?

Nice post corps Though I haven't played for years, and haven't played seriously for even more years than that, I do still like to come on here and read topics from some of the older players. In fact, this has inspired me to start sorting through my collection of random screenshots, and even look up a few old sites on the internet achive! So to start with, I thought I'd show you all something from the long distant past, c.2003, back when I was on Firestorm (where all the good players were :p), and where TRZ wished he was as cool as me and Pinball and used to troll our forums a bit. This is a screenshot from ggaming.co.uk / freestyle-gaming: OK, so next up we have something from Tibfields 2005. FS was on the way out at this point, and this was just as I was starting to move over to TS and real life started to take over for me. Check out Wuss (Reid): Next up it's cncgamer, 2006. I've tried to pick screenshots that show a selection of old players. Here are exile, t1tanrush and Ste_J: Then we've got cncwarzone 2008: Oh, and here's a good quality screenshot I actually took at the time of you giving me a compliment corps! :D Followed by gamerwarzone 2008 (I still don't know why Petter [the site owner and webmaster] thought it was a good idea to make the from cncwarzone to gamerwarzone. Considering I was an admin there for many years, I barely had more than a handful of conversations with him...): And then finally I've got an early screenshot of the cncevo project 2010. It was a good venture while it started, but lack of player uptake led to us not proceeding with it:

I remember YDT! Had some good clan battles with them back in the day. I don't play TS anymore, and haven't for years, but I do like to check out these forums from time to time.

Or of course, there's my guide, which has been around for ages. Corps' is quicker to read mind Browse as a blog: https://cnctiberiansun.wordpress.com/ Download as a pdf: http://mjryder.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Tiberian-Sun-guide-v4-c-Mole40k-2013.pdf

Oh do go away.

But it's ok Tib Sun fans, cos my (better) guide still exists! View it online here: https://cnctiberiansun.wordpress.com/ Or download it as a pdf here: http://mjryder.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Tiberian-Sun-guide-v4-c-Mole40k-2013.pdf The guide is now 10 years old -- can you believe it! First published in 2007, and updated in 2013, Tiberian Sun: A Player's Guide is your easy-access guide to give you simple hints and tips to improve your gameplay. :-)

You clearly fail to understand the *point* here... Learning a BO will not make you good at a game: learning skills will.