Welcome Comrades to the 55th edition of the Dispatch
Interviews seem to be the theme of this issue, we have the standard interrogation of
TheForgivenOne as usual, but
Master Fenrir interviewed
josko.ri for Hardballs, and
thehippo8 talked to
jcarter1 about XML. Many different opinions, so a great issue for anyone who likes to see some different perspectives.
safariguy5 -
Newsletter Executive If you would like to apply to join the news team, please visit the thread below for more details!
Click here for Recruitment Details... Hello again everyone, another Scum Insider for your mafia needs this week with an interview with
TheForgivenOne , as he talks about bowling, the color pink, and the origin of his name.
Enjoy,
safariguy5 Freestyle Executive The Scum Insider by safariguy5 , nagerous and Fircoal show
The Scum Insider Newbie Help Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information , Mafia and You , and Rules and Terms of Mafia . Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.What is "Mafia"? Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.Mafia News Mafia legend and resident Frenchman ga7 has returned! Also returning is veteran spiesr . Both have yet to begin playing in new games, but hopefully we will be graced with their presence in some of the games needing replacements shortly. In other news, Legend of Dragoon Mafia has started. Early game talk seems to revolve around appreciation of the game and jokevoting the villains in the game. With several games currently in night phase, the forum may temporarily be a bit less active, but I'm sure mafia are currently plotting who to kill as we speak.Mafia Callouts Calling all players interested! Some mafia games need some filling: Sign-ups: Seeking Replacements: Now get out there and investigate Mafia for yourself: viewforum.php?f=213 Advanced Roles and Strategy by safariguy5 This issue, we have a town strategy to analyze.Follow the Cop What is it? Follow the cop is a basic town strategy where the town cop claims and the town doctor remains hidden and protects the cop every night. In this way, the cop can methodically clear or catch every player in order and doesn't have to hide his investigations, which would have been lost should the cop have been night killed.Example Jack is the town cop. He claims on Day 1 and begins investigating people. Jane is the town doctor, she does not claim, and simply protects Jack every night.How to Use this Strategy Follow the cop is considered a beginner strategy mainly because it is only effective in smaller games where sanity is assured and mafia does not have too many power roles. Firstly, one must assume they are sane when claiming cop. Secondly, the cop player must be reasonably sure that there is still a doctor alive who has not claimed. Finally, this strategy relies on the cops ability to find mafia before mafia can kill the doctor. If the cop cannot clear or incriminate enough people before the doctor is dead, then town have lost two power roles with minimal information gained. In larger games, this strategy is almost completely negated by the larger amount of roles with night abilities. Mafia may have roleblockers or framers, which would either negate or throw off the cop's investigation. The larger pool of players makes it more difficult for the cop to find mafia. And the presence of third party or cult complicates matters as the cop/doctor may have to contend with additional nightkills or possible cult recruitment.
show: Interrogation of TheForgivenOne
Q. Hi TheForgivenOne, May I call you TFO for short? Go ahead, although I will accept Tefoo, ThFoOn and King Dedede Q. Are you multis with theunforgivenone? No, that is my evil twin who lives downstairs. I have to throw fish down to him every once in and a while. Q. Which one is you and which one is Victor Sullivan ? I'm of course the one in pink, Victor is that big stick figure in the background, and Pirlo is the naked guy behind me. Q. Who forgave you? My parents... my Fourth Grade teacher, Mr. George Wilson, and my neighbour who lives down the road. Q. How often do you give amnesties? Never Q. How often do you receive amnesties? Always. Q. Favorite female film character? Evelyn Salt. Q. And of what were you forgiven ? Personal things. I picked the name because I liked how it sounded, but later my parents forgave me for being gay, instead of giving me the stink eye and tossing me out on the... gravel road.Pics or it didn't happen I reject your pictures and substitute my own Q. What age did you begin bowling? My mom took me when I was 4 years old, and I started with YBC (Youth Bowling Canada) when I was 5. Q. How regularly do you bowl? When is your next tournament? And what are your future plans for bowling? I bowl about 3 times a week in 3 leagues, and I bowl in a tournament once every 4 weeks or so. I am basically near Professional status right now. In the 2009-2010 season, My average was second in all of Alberta, missing out on first by about 0.2 of a point. As of right now, I am ranked 2nd in all of Canada for Youth Bowlers. Q. Why isn't your name an orange color? Because you foed me one too many times Q. Do you really club baby seals and use bear dung for cooking and heat up there in Canada? You got this all backwards! We use baby seals for cooking and we club bear dung as a hobby. Q. Other than having jefjef web site banned what would you most like to have implemented by CC? Oh god. First off, keep the whole website [color=#FF40FF]pink . Add in a few Ponies (My Little Ponies) trotting along the margins... No? Dang, well, i'd like to see 12 player games or 1, 2 1/2, 5 minute speed games. Although seeing AA as an option would be cool as well [/color]Q. Do you think #1_stunna would be a great interrogation? Who? Q. Eh? What are you talkin aboot? Q. Opinion on Gaddafi's (you know, the guy who likes to thrust his hands at the air from his luxury car) facial hair? Should he shave it more often? That is the scariest fucking thing, that I have ever seen, in my entire life... BURN IT BURN IT BURN ITQ. If you admitted to having multiple personalities would you consider changing your username to "TheForgivenFew"? Who says I don't have multiple personalities? They just play on different sites because they aren't cool enough to play on here yet.Q. A twink, bear and muscle mary all walk into a bar, who would the barmen serve first? Before or after the barmen had his way with them? Q. How did you convince the goat to have a make over? Well, it all started with a simple massage. One thing led to another, then this happened Sorry bout that... But... My fellow members of Conquer Club, I have an announcement. *Ahem* I want to say one thing to the people of CC. I want you to listen to me. I'm gonna say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that goat, nor Hillary Clinton, nor Sarah Palin. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false. Indeed I did have a relationship with the Filipino that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It was damn good because he can damn near suck-start a leaf blower and makes Heather Harmon look like a nun, but it was wrong. That is all. Q. Who has the coolest avatar on site? Definitely not you. I liked whoever had Fluttershy as their avi (I think it was john9blue). But as of right now? Demonfork, I like his. Q. Who's your favorite person to talk to in chat? I'd say Ace Rimmer, but he creeps me out a bit. I'd have to say rdsrds2120, as he always gives me new music to listen to. Q. What's the funniest suggestion you've seen? Funniest? Not many funny ones come around, although the one where *snowman* suggested to get rid of Masli made me giggle. Q. What's the most amusing thing you've done in the past year? Well, I was at a friend's 18th party, and he had a tall glass of Capt. Morgan's. He had the glass half drank, when he went to the bathroom. I did a double take of looking at his glass then at my two friends. We cracked a White rum, Wyborowa Exquisite Vodka, and Gin and poured then into his glass, then added a Cooler, Pepsi and Root beer until it was totally full. He came back and we tried SO hard to keep a straight face, and he says "Oh hey, you guys filled my drink back up!" and takes a drink. He drops the glass and spits out the mouthful, and starts swearing at us in about 3 languages. Oh my lawdy, us 3 we're on the ground laughing so hard. Moral of the story? Look both ways before crossing the street. Q. What's the stupidest thing you've done? What's the stupidest thing you've seen someone do? What's the stupidest thing you've convinced someone to do? Decide to take the new slide at West Edmonton Mall called the Cyclone. Going 70km/h on a slide? No thanks, i'd rather not suffer a heart attack. My friend ran out into a hailstorm shirtless because he wanted to see what it felt like. I convinced someone who absolutely hates scary movies, to watch "The Thing". I said it was about as tame as The Village (Which he watched). So he figured that it wasn't scary. Yeah... he's still twitching in the corner. Q. What's your most memorable game on CC? Game 6082902 Probably that game. Red had 80% of the map when he was kicked out. Green asked why someone would ever make a second account and it was stupid. 10 days later, Green was kicked out for the exact same reason. I lol'dQ. If I (Victor Sullivan) was a teen, would I be sexy enough to date you? I am not allowed to disclose this information as it may or may not compromise my agents in the field. Q. Which Super Mario character would you say you are most like? Waluigi. I'm tall, skinny, have a fat guy as a best friend, and my plans to beat Mario/Luigi are always foiled.Q. What bothers you most about moderating Suggs? Queen_Herpes . I kid of course. Probably having people constantly asking me why their suggestion isn't being implemented, or when it is going to be implemented. I simply don't have those answers.Q. What do you enjoy most about moderating Suggs? Forcing JoshyBoy, edwinissweet, then Darwins_Bane, now Metsfanmax to follow "Policies", which include topless photo's of themselves once a week to me. I think that may be the real reason why JB, edwin and DB all quit. Q. What occupation do you most desire to have? Professional Bowler If not that, I really would enjoy an occupation where I used computers.. and math. Q. If you had to be involved in a different team of TeamCC (not Suggs or Chatters), which would you choose, and which would you dread? Multi Hunter (That was where I wanted to be for the longest time). Dread? Probably SoC. I am a terrible teacher. Q. Have you ever considered making a map in the Map Foundry? If so, what's your idea? If not, why not? No, because I can't draw to save my life or your life. My 6th grade Art teacher said i should stop drawing altogether. Q. Which of the three admins would you marry and why? king achilles. He has the coolest head, and I think Filipino's are sexy Q. What has kept you on CC for so long? because CC is my love and my drug. Also because I still find the game fun (minus a few hair pulls from the dice, but if you're getting overly pissed about them, well, winning isn't everything). Q. When are you going to be Deputy Suggsmaster? Can "Deputy Suggsmaster" be your official title? I kinda like it. Ask Jeeves. Or Andy, either or. Mmmmmmm No. Q. If you had the power to click on two suggestions and they were automatically implemented immediately, what would they be and why? Random Teams and Account Sitting. A) Because I absolutely love the idea of having team games set up with either random teams, or in descending order (Top score on Team 1, Second on Team 2, Third on Team 3 and so on) B) Would help out a lot of people. Q. Have there been any suggestions that you liked and were surprised that the community didn't get behind? http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=471&t=103692&start=0 I absolutely loved the idea of that suggestion, sadly, it didn't really go anywhere.Q. Is it true that you loveeee hugs? and do you especially love MY (clapper011) hugs? I sure do Looooooooooooooooove hugs You're about the only person who hugs me So that makes the extra the specialness. Q. What is your favorite thing about Conquer Club? Most definitely the games. I could easily live without clans or tournaments, but the amount of options in maps/settings is what keeps me here. Q. What would you most like to see changed? Repetitive question is repetitive. Turn everything pink! Although that would probably drive away 99.99% of the customers. Either that, or hire Web Devs, like, yesterday. Q. Thanks for your time TFO. Nonono, thank you!
Greetings my friends! This will be my first issue as your new Tournament Section Executive. After a very long career in this position,
jricart has stepped down to deal with real life, and passed the torch to me. I hope I prove myself in the coming months to be worthy of his trust.
Ironically enough, I too have been struggling with a new and very demanding job the last couple months, so I'm sorry to say that my first issue will be a very abbreviated Tournaments section. I promise that this is
NOT a sign of things to come: I have some big plans for this section in the near future. Meanwhile, however, for this one time, only
sonicsteve stands out as a beacon of accomplishment and has produced his
Join This? Or Not! column. I hope you enjoy it, and explore some of the fascinating tournaments out there! My
Meet the Tournament Winners feature will be back next issue, along with another
TPA Update and possibly even more. If you are interested in writing for us and would like to join in this renewal process, please drop me a line.
The big breaking news in the CC Tournaments world is the introduction of a
Round Limits option earlier today. Not everybody has even heard of this option yet, but every tournament organiser who has commented has been excited about the possibilities. It will allow tournament organisers much more freedom to create tournaments with No Spoils or Flat Rate games without fear of deadlock, and without the need to artificially impose limits in their tournament rules. I predict that No Spoils and Flat Rate tournaments will become much more popular with this option available.
Dukasaur Tournament Executive Join This? Or Not! by sonicsteve show
And now for our regular look at a selection of the tournaments in sign-ups: Any Tolkien fans out there would be well advised to check out Lindax 's beautifully designed Lord of the Rings tournament. This mixed tournament is limited to players with a score of 2000 or more on signup, but with a 1 year premium prize on offer as well as a great looking structure it is sure to fill fast. With a mere 3 years to go until the next Football World Cup in Brazil (yes, it is THAT close!), SNARF17WD is already getting excited. World Cup - Destination Brazil had 73 places available at time of press and follows the qualification process right through to the finals. Just think; only 3 more Christmases between now and the real thing. Signups are now being taken for a doubles tournament on the WWII Poland map. ckyrias is looking for 16 teams to fill ck's 2ble trouble in Poland which will run with a single elimination format, best of 3 games each round.offinthecorner is offering us a smorgasbord of a tournament with A little bit of everything . The event features a different game type in each round, starting with assassin, running through team games, terminator and ending with a 1v1 final. Finally for this issue, 313's Peloponnesian War Quads does pretty much what it says on the tin. It is a best of 3, single elimination quads tourney organised by merch313 . Either 8 or 16 teams will be accepted depending on demand. These are my picks, but if you don't like any of these go to the Create/Join a Tournament or Tournaments Tab and take a look at the many others waiting to be filled. If you're craving tourney action now, check out the Requests for Immediate Players section of the tournament forum. You can be playing very quickly after signing up as a reserve.
Talk about jam-packed! I am very, very proud to present with you with this issue's Cartographic Surveillance. Another Stampage Update from yours truly, Oliver's back with a vengeance, and koontz and hippo have two stunning articles for you all. In other news,
The Beta Bounty is back and the Foundry Foreman is
all ears about the Beta process . And for all of you "Extraordinaires," you may benefit in the near future from reading...
Victor Sullivan Foundry Executive Stampage Update by Victor Sullivan show
It's time for an update on all things stamped!
Classic Review - Age of Realms by Oliver F.A. show
Nowadays, the Foundry is plenty of life. We enjoy a continuous stream of creativity and talent. Thanks to the effort of dedicated mapmakers, new additions are quenched regularly. And many more maps are in the works. But there are also maps that were created long ago. Maps that despite having been with us for long time still feel fresh like the first day. Every day, many games are played on those maps. Those maps are true jewels that have stood the test of time. They are real Classics . They deserve our attention despite the time that has passed since they were created. Or maybe because of that.Age of Realms 1: Might by DiM Hello dear CCers! Welcome to a new trip to an amazing and awesome land. Which is our destiny this time? Well, we have been in many places with in our previous classics trips. We have crossed warm and arid deserts searching for the Great Oasis. We have fought nuclear wars for the control of the world. And talking about the world, we have visited several versions of such world, comind in small, medium and big sizes. This time we are not coming back to any part of the Earth. Today we are travelling to a fantasy world, a Realm of Might . First, look at how this land looks. The land is divided among six realms and a neutral land, the Sanctuary. There are only six castles and six starting positions, instead of the eight ones that have become regular. This is an indication on how classic this map is. Regions in this land are not all the same. In other lands, all the regions were similar in the sense that the grouped with other in the same region to create a region bonus. Here, income comes from special key territories, and not from holding a group of them. At the basis of this income system there are the castles. They provide 5 armies each turn. But if you own other resource territories in the map, you will get extra income for each of your castles. A Village and a castle provide an additional army. So 2 castles and 1 village are 2 armies. And 2 castles and 2 villages are 4 armies (2*2). Then there are the resource pairs. Each realm has two resources. Holding both of them provide 2 armies per castle and 1 army per village. This income system is an exponential one. So you'd better watch carefully your enemies, as one single region could increase their bonus by a huge amount of armies! The other feature in this map that differentiates it from our old known Classic is Ports . This map is pretty open in comparison with most of the other maps. Each realm has one or two ports, and each port connects to all the other ports . Or to say in another way, choke points are many and difficult to protect. It seems a lot more appropriate to protect your key resource regions than your ports. And anyway, the rest of territories have almost no value, because 1/3rd of a reinforcement is nothing compared to the number you get from the other regions. Games in this map tend to be short, but also very intense. There is very few room for mistakes, and the one that strikes first gets a huge advantage... If he does well. If he fails, he has just placed himself at hand of the other players. That reminds me of the Far West movies I have seen, those duels where almost everything is decided in one shot, and the one that first shoots decides the outcome, for good or bad. You can learn more Age of Realms: Age of Might about it in its Foundry thread viewtopic.php?t=24029
Sequels and Revamps (Part one) koontz1973 show
When I started thinking about this edition, I thought I would bring you all on a journey about maps with sequels and revamps. A nice little article about maps which have a big enough following to warrant the original map maker to do it bigger and better, followed by why maps get a revamp. A lot has happened and I unwittingly unleashed the beast that is Conquer Clubs elder statesmen. Therefore, this article is going to be over three parts. Sorry, but this is going to be B I G . This issue you get the maps with sequels , next week, revamps , followed by what can only be described as the mother of all revamps - Classic map .Sequels. Lots of our maps have a sequel but to cut down the list I have chosen only a few to look at. These include...Age of Realms Feudals Fractured World World War 2 The reason for these 10, they are all very successful and well loved (and ten is more than enough ). Ones that I have left out include the USA map pack and the First Nations maps. While sequels in a sense, the map pack was made as one and I have not heard from Tisha who made the FN maps for us (might get to hear from her in a later issue ). The Age of Realms series. OliverFA has the classic review of part one in this issue.Map maker - DiM Sequels - Age of Realms 2, Age of Realms 3. DiM wrote: Your three Age Of Realms maps, did you always plan on doing 3. If no then how did the others come about and will there ever be a forth. right from the start this was planned as a trilogy. i didn't know the specific details and gameplay quirks of each episode but i knew i wanted 3 maps based on the same layout that told the story of those realms.
No word on a forth but DiM is very busy with one map in Beta (Steamworks) and another in the main foundry (All your Bases Belong to Us).viewtopic.php?f=241&t=151174 Fractured World series. Map maker - isaiah40 Sequels - Fractured China (In beta now) isaiah40 wrote: Currently you have Fractured China in the Beta stage, this being a sequel to your Fractured America map. What made you feel this map warranted a sequel and why China? Actually I had thought about and decided that before I actually start a draft I'd get the communities take on the idea. After a few posts it was apparent that they wanted a sequel to Fractured America. I originally was going to do Europe but as that was nixed by the community, and they liked the idea of a Fractured China, so we know have Fractured China!What next for the Fractured series? Only time will tell on this one! I do have kind of an ironic type Fractured map. Basically, it is taking a country (or group pf countries), and having the out going leader warning the incoming leader to watch it because these satellites will separate if you don't keep them under your thumb.
Well, if you enjoy the two Fractured maps, and I know that you all do, keep an eye on isaiah40 and let him know what you want next for this series. But right now in the Drafting room isaiah40 has got probably the biggest sequel ever going through the foundry. I may not call the USA map pack sequels but this one I do. It will stretch the size limits of maps and tax any ones brain who plays it. Imagine playing all of the USA pack as one map. 6 small maps made into one. I just had to ask him why?You currently have the massive USA map pack combo in the draft stage. What made you choose this as your next map? When we first introduced Supersize maps, there was a couple of people that mentioned making the USA map pack into one great big supersized map. I contacted WidowMakers to see if he was interested in doing it. To make a long story short, after many talks with him about it he gave me permission to make it a reality as long as I keep the bonus structure with a few changes due to the extra connections. So now it is a work in progress!
viewtopic.php?f=583&t=152467 This one is going to be a great map for large team games. Feudals. Map maker - gimil Sequels - Feudal Epic. gimil wrote: sequel maps, you have the 2 Feudals. What made you decide on the sequel? The first feudal war was a massive success. In fact it was overwhelming how successful it was. Was a long time cairnswk kept map states and rank them according to the number of games were created per week. Feudal sat third/fouth on that list for a long time (and still could be there). With such popularity it seems ridiculous not to make a franchise from the Feudal name. So Feudal Epic was born, in the grand scheme the Epic is still a hugely successful compared to most maps. But it just doesn't match up to it older brother!What differences do these 2 maps have and is the second one different enough to bring something new? The second one was designed to give the Feudal flavour to 8 player games (the original map can only cater 6 player). However I went about making the 2nd map more symmetrical so that gameplay was more balanced. In hindsight this was probably a mistake. The balancing make games to predictable. What people love about the original Feudal is that in fog of war games the slight different between each starting position gives away hints and clues in fog of war games. This just doesn't happen in Feudal Epic.
Now the good news part...You started the third Feudal a while back but development seems to of stalled, any hope for the fans of feudal? Yes, this map WILL happen. Matter of 'when' not 'if'. I realised very quickly that this map was to much to do after my long CC haitus. There is alot of photoshop work that goes into making these maps and alot of cognitive thinking how they play. The initial feedback I got for the map was good, had has given me alot to think about. Don't fear though. I have every intention of making the map in the future.
viewtopic.php?f=63&t=147419 Last but not least for this part is...World War two series. Map maker - qwert Sequels - WW2 Western Front, WW2 Europe For this we start with a common mistake by many.qwert wrote: On map sequels your WW2 maps have to be considered in this way (WWII Europe Map, WWII Western Front Map, WWII Eastern Front Map) Why do the 2 small version of the larger map? and does it change the way the maps are played? Well actualy,first map what its created are WWII Eastern Front[started in dec 2006-finished 31 jul 2007], its whas great success, so i figure why we dont have Western Front to,[started 19 jul 2007-finished Nov 13, 2007]-Before Western front introduce to play,i get idea of combining these two front in one superbig map[in these days only WOrd 2.1 has big map].
That's it for the maps with sequels. What's next.Maps that need a sequel. We all have our favourite maps, and want another one - Feudal is one that will be made, but what of the other maps. One screams out for a sequel.WidowMakers wrote: If you had a chance to revamp or make a sequel of any map other than your own, which map would you do and why? As far as a sequel goes, I 100% say Draknor Level 2. There is a chance I might do eventually something similar but within a Map Pack that has a wider scope
Draknor Level one, just the title itself says a sequel is coming, but WidowMakers still has not got round to it. Here is a very rough first sketch of what he was planing on for you to look at.viewtopic.php?f=242&t=46719 As you can see, far from over. But one day he might just do it or like with the USA map pack, someone might come in with a neat idea and ask for permission to do it. It would be nice if Conquer Club had a series like this. Just think of all the tournaments that could be played. Found this looking through the foundry (the original Draknor map and thought you might like a look). This is from Jota . Other maps that could use a sequel is up to you. Would you like to see a World 3.1 or how about WW2 Pacific by qwert . What ever map you want to see, get on over to the foundry and tell the map makers, or find out how to go about doing it yourself.viewforum.php?f=10 We will be hearing from all of the people in this issue and more in the next issue, looking at the Revamps. Happy gaming everyone, whatever map takes your fancy.
XML is our Friend by thehippo8 show
Whether you are new to Conquer Club or a seasoned performer, XML may be something of a mystery to you. It certainly has been that way for me, but then I have little computer programming experience. Some of you may delight in ignorance, but many of us really want to understand how it all works. So, like pulling apart a favourite toy, I decided to scratch under the smokes and mirrors and have a look at the workings. Having done so I am left with a handful of springs, wires and unnecessary fixings but feel much the wiser for it. I started with an interview with jcarter1 ... thehippo8 wrote:
Hello jcarter1. I have invited you today to answer some of our community questions regarding XML. These are questions people usually ask when they think about making their own map for
http://www.conquerclub.com (CC). Maybe you can introduce yourself a little bit so the readers of this interview will have a little better understanding of who you are.
Hello Hippo ... and hello everyone else who is reading this. I grew up in Berlin, Germany and studied Computer Science in Wiesbaden, Germany. Towards the end of my studies I moved to the Washington D.C. area in the United States for an internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). My contract has since been extended several times and i also wrote my Diploma Thesis (Masters Thesis) from here during the summer of 2010. Lots of my work had to do with XML over the first two years here at NIST. It is fair to say that I have a good knowledge base in that field and everything that comes with it.
I have just recently joined CC and am very excited to be here. In the short time I have been here, I already met some interesting people and had a lot of exciting matches (does anyone of you old-timers still remember the feeling of winning your first 8 man clash? It got me hooked to the site). I joined the Society of Cooks (SoC - an amazing organisation on this webpage that helps new players for free around the game with tips and tricks) and also started posting in the Map Foundry section. That is where I learned that XML is being used for every map in CC. I got a little excited about that fact, because I know what XML is capable of and it just seems to make a lot of sense to me to use it here.
thehippo8 wrote:
As you mentioned: You are a computer scientist. How deep into computers do map makers need to get before they could be considered proficient with xml?
Well, you need to know how to work the mouse and keyboard of course. In theory there is nothing really that you need to know about computers in order to learn about XML except where the power button is to turn it on XML itself is very easy to learn. There are hundreds of great XML tutorials out there (Google is your friend) and you will have results within a very few minutes upon starting one of these tutorials. To be considered "proficient"... well, that word is kind of relative. I would say: If you really want to get into map making - then you have all the tools needed right here in the forums.
thehippo8 wrote:
Given that the by-line to the development of xml is "simplicity, generality, and usability", do you feel that it has met that objective or is there something more that map makers need to know before they can attain proficiency in xml?
Oh, I am a fan of XML and am using it for my personal projects as well. In my opinion it has met all the by-line items to a degree not matched by anything similar. If map makers follow the guide on the forums to the word, then they really do not need anything else.
ADDENDUM: Alternatively, there is an immense resource in asking the CC community for help by posting into the foundry or contacting one of the Cartographers. In truth, the usage of the xml on CC has little related to tutorials you can find on the web and a CA can give you more info about xml in 5 minutes than an hour spent reading on the web! Proficiency should not be a matter of months, or even weeks. It really depends on how fast you can learn and pick up new things I suppose, but I would be surprised if anyone here would not be able to write a complete XML for any of the smaller maps within an hour - or at the outside very few days (with lots of breaks in between).
thehippo8 wrote:
Given that there are so many different formats in xml, are there any that mapmakers here should focus on?
There is only one format map makers here are interested in and that is the one being used by CC for its maps. What that means is that all you need to know are the names of the tags that you can use, each tags possible attributes and where to put everything in the file. There is no need to look at anything other than the information on the CC forums.
thehippo8 wrote:
CC has a tutorial
(see here) , which is intended to give the basic on XML programming. Is this sufficient for the diligent adherent or should they be aware of anything else?
This tutorial does much more than just giving basics on XML programming. It tells you how to write an XML file for any CC map. As mentioned before: If you follow this line by line then you should get your XML file done without too much trouble. I would maybe add an index to the post, so you can jump to the different sections more easily. Other then that, it seems very good to me!
ADDENDUM: The current guide is going to be updated and improved ... you'll see what we're doing! thehippo8 wrote:
After diligently coding the XML, CC provides a checking tool at
(see here) . What are your thoughts on this feature?
Perfect! That is exactly what each map maker needs to test his XML. Actually, you will find two tools on this page. The first one will check your XML file for any mistakes like open tags, it will make sure that the names you used for your tags are correct and in the right place and it even checks semantic issues like it would give you a warning when a certain territory in your file does not have a border. Passing this test is a good indicator that you did something right. Those pages are in fact a part of a wider set of tools for mapmakers, which can be seen
here .
ADDENDUM: The XML Checker performs 3 tests on a map XML file. First, it checks that the file contains well-formed XML, searching for mistakes like unclosed tags or improperly nested tags (e.g. <a><b></a></b>). Then it valdates the XML syntax against a Relax NG schema, which is a set of rules that describes which tags are allowed and where. Finally it checks the semantics of the XML, specifically for the following errors and warnings – here’s an example:Warning: No other countries border on X (it cannot be conquered) Warning: Territory X has no borders Error: Territory X has border Y which does not exist as a territory Warning: Territory X has border Y, but not vice versa Error: Territory X borders on itself Error: Territory X has mutiple border entries for Y Error: Territory X has bombardment Y which does not exist as a territory Error: Territory X bombards itself Error: Territory X has mutiple bombardment entries for Y Error: Territory X has mutiple entries Warning: No continents found Error: Continent X has component Y which does not exist as a territory Error: Continent X has mutiple component entries for Y Error: Continent X has component Y which has not been previously defined as a continent Error: Continent X has itself as a component Error: Continent X has required amount higher than number of components Error: Continent X has override Y which does not exist as a continent Error: Continent X has mutiple override entries for Y Error: Continent X overrides itself Error: Objective X has component Y which does not exist as a territory Error: Objective X has mutiple component entries for Y Error: Reinforcement X - Y has lower limit greater than upper limit Error: Reinforcement X - Y has divisor of zero Error: Position X has component Y which does not exist as a territory Error: Position X has component Y with zero starting armies Error: Mutiple positions contain component X
Once you passed that test comes the fun part: You get to see your own map in action using the second tool under that link. It is very self-explanatory - just look at the example that is in the XML URL and Map URL and you will get the hang of it. This is a great feature, because it lets you see everything and how it works out as opposed to having to think about it all in your head.
ADDENDUM: It also help you too see if your coordinates are centred, that can't be done in your head in any case! thehippo8 wrote:
What is an XML engine and why is it important in terms of making changes to an XML format?
The XML engine is what holds everything together - kind of the backbone of the whole system so to speak. XML engines in general can either write, read, store or simply process XML files in any imaginable way (or any combination thereof). This could be a simple script with a couple lines of code as well as a whole database structure. In CC I assume there is some kind of database in the background. That means, if you want to make changes to the XML - say: adding a certain tag - then you would possibly have to go back and change all previous XML files including the database structure. Of course it does not have to be that drastically. It depends very much on the intended update, what it requires and how well the database was programmed to accommodate possible future changes.
ADDENDUM: All the updates (future changes) must be compatible with the current xml, we don't go with xml changes that are not backward compatible. thehippo8 wrote:
The manner in which the XML engine is currently programmed creates limitation in gameplay possibility, which bridles the otherwise limitless imagination of CC members, such as in the
Omega Cities ,
Trench Warfare and
Maze Craze games. In your opinion are such limitations able to be overcome by reworking the gameplay or graphics or do you agree that the engine needs reworking?
I read through nearly all the posts in your linked topics (puuuuuh!). Those are some crazy good map ideas in my opinion. The problem is that I do not know anything about our backbone - the engine - that is being used here at CC in order to make a fair assessment whether some of those changes are easy to implement or not. I was also having trouble to pin point exactly what part does not work yet, meaning: what do the map makers want to be implemented into the engine/XML. Seeing the amount of replies in those topics, it is probably fair to say that the current engine cannot be used for those ideas. However, people also have to understand that the engine is a tool that handles every map, not just a single specific one. You cannot force every map maker to use tags that they simply do not need, just because on other map needs them for a special case. However - XML has the possibility of optional elements. Maybe the problems can be solved this way? That’s a question for the CC programmers to answer.
ADDENDUM: The only limitation we have now is the size, the game engine is not able to handle file that are too big in term of size. But lackattack knows how to make the changes to add new features without having too much problems with the size. thehippo8 wrote:
Should we be frightened of XML?
By all means: No! It is human-readable (if you have not noticed this by now) and easy to understand. There are no programming features like while, for or whatever loops. There are no weird mathematical operations to do and no abbreviations to learn except the ones you use. I am sure most of you guys know this by now: You can think of XML like a tree. You have a root element which nests all the other elements. Once you start doing online tutorials, you will see how easy it is and understand that there is simply no way of being frightened. But for those who simply wish to avoid it can use an excellent
XML Wizard .
ADDENDUM: Agree, you just have to write a stupid list of tag that the game engine read to "print" the game on the map, just that. It's not programming or the like. The easiest and quickest part of mapmaking is exactly write the xml! thehippo8 wrote:
Thank you for your time! I am confident that these answers will help our community to understand XML in a better way and hopefully we will see an increase of active map makers for this community very soon!
You are welcome - I am happy to help. I am also available for any questions someone might have regarding XML, just send me a pm on these forums or find another way of communicating with me.
This was great but I wanted more! So where do you head to when you really want to know something – why the top of course. You cannot PM lackattack directly but nagerous saved me from the depths of unreachableness and passed my message on to lackattack . I am very grateful!! And to my surprise lackattack replied in quick time...Together with the Foundry we have established the top 3 programming priorities for their department. Two of these are xml updates, and I will point you to
thenobodies80 (Foundry Foreman) to describe them in detail.
I hope to update the xml engine soon, as cartography is super important to this website. I am capable of doing it myself but we are about to go through a hiring process for additional developers (details to be announced later) and that should help get xml updates (and other webmaster things) done on a frequent basis.
Cheers,
lackattack In no time at all, I had an overwhelmingly thorough response by thenobodies80 . Indeed, all the POSTSCRIPTS in the interview with jcarter1 come from thenobodies80 (thanks!!), And, rather than misquote, here’s what thenobodies80 said:Here below the description of the 2 next xml features I've requested to
lackattack (not so detailed since I don't know exactly how he will code them right now - more behind the scenes discussion is needed to say this. )
1. Conditional Borders: Previously (and frequently) referred to as Dynamic Borders, conditional borders have been mentioned a number of times under various guises. Their addition would open up Conquer Club to a whole new level of strategy. Substantially this features consist in have one or more territories that "connect" with another only if a requirement is satisfied. (e.g. : a 'green key territory' could be used to open attack routes through 'green doors'... hold a ladder/rope to climb/descend... etc. etc.)
The below example is an idea of how it could be implemented - continents have been included for versatility.
Code: Select all <territory> <name>Door</name> <borders> <border>Hallway</border> <conditionalborder> <required territory>Key</required territory> <required continent>Guardhouse</required continent> <border>Drawbridge</border> <bombardment>Moat</bombardment> </conditionalborder> </borders> </territory>
Obviously this is just a quick-stupid example but it's clear that with the addition of this new xml feature we will have the ability to create a real new type of maps to play!
2. Bonus Collections: This is not exactly a new xml features but more a improvement of the current xml, in fact it's clear that with the introduction of the larger maps and since our mapmakers nowdays use more complex bonus, we can have some problems with the file size.
This is an example of a current bonus (13 Colonies):
Code: Select all <continent> <name>Georgia</name> <bonus>0</bonus> <components> <territory>Chattahoochee</territory> <territory>Ocmulgee</territory> <territory>Savannah</territory> </components> <overrides> <override>South Carolina</override> <override>North Carolina</override> <override>Virginia</override> <override>Maryland</override> <override>Delaware</override> <override>Pennsylvania</override> <override>New Jersey</override> <override>New York</override> <override>Connecticut</override> <override>Rhode Island</override> <override>Massachusetts</override> <override>New Hampshire</override> </overrides> </continent>
You certainly have noticed the presence of a long list of <override> tags.
The override tag is optional and it is used to define a kind of priority among the various bonuses for a particular map; when you have a list of regions (or continents) that is shared you can use overrides to assign to a player just a bonus instead of both them. Certainly this is great, but it could create an endless chain of overrides in the presence of a big amount of bonuses/regions/continents. (e.g. hold the castle and X tower for a Y bonus, where X is a number between 1 and, let me say, 10.) So it is easy to understand how this long chain means bigger files and more possibility of mistakes while you're writing your xml file.
The Collection bonuses features will help us to prevent this. In fact, we will be able to create the chain of bonuses just at once, using something like this:
Code: Select all <continent> <name>Oceania</name> <bonus>0</bonus> <components> <requiredcomponents> <territory>Indonesia</territory> </requiredcomponents> <territory>New Guinea</territory> <territory>Western Australia</territory> <territory>Eastern Australia</territory> </components> <collection> <required bonus=2>3</required> <required bonus=1>2</required> </collection> </continent>
In the above example if you hold 2 regions you'll receive 1 additional troop (<required bonus=1>2</required>), but if you hold 3 regions instead you'll receive 2 additional troops (<required bonus=2>3</required>).
This without using overrides.
So, some exciting options ahead for mapmakers and the CC community in general. I’d just like to finish with a sincere note of thanks to jcarter1 , lackattack , nagerous and thenobodies80 for their sharing their knowledge and patience with me.
In this 55th Issue of the Dispatch, we welcome
QoH to the clan team as he discusses what was involved in the clan creation of some of our newest clans, alt spotlights the Legion vs Bofm war, and Hardballs addresses the josko saga
Also happening in clans is the commencement of yet another Clan Tournament, this
one by prominent clan director
chemefreak . And then there's the
Random League awaiting clan sign-ups, so if your clan isn't involved in any events just yet, now is the season to do so!
Leehar Clan Executive ++LEGION++ Mixes it up with Mermaids alt1978 (PR) show
In the midst of all of the cups and high profile elimination matches, there is an undercurrent of action swelling through the clan world right now in the form of some good old fashion clan challenges. A classic challenge pitting two teams evenly matched and knocking heads for the sheer enjoyment of locking horns in some games, and throwing some friendly smack talk back and forth is wrapping up between #15 ranked (in A400) ++LEGION++ and the #9 ranked Brethren of the Fat Mermaid. Both clans have notched double digits in clan war wins, as ++The Legion++ has been a constant fixture in the top of the clan rankings through the years, notching impressive wins over the highly regarded Imperial Dragoons and Generation One. BotFM has been surging up through the rankings riding an eight challenge winning streak including wins of the Imperial Dragoons and a Fist Full of Sixes. Their most eye opening performance came in narrowly losing to #1 ranked TOFU in the quarter finals of the second CC Cup in a challenge that could have easily went either way. The stage was set for a classic showdown. The BotFM pre-challenge smack talk seemed to get into LEG's heads at the start of the war, as LEG's focus was taken from the games to wondering just how far these pirates would go with a goat (the thread is both entertaining and informational...http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=441&t=149622 ) and BotFM jumped out to an early 5-1 lead. The LEG however regrouped in tight formation and battled back valiantly to even up the score at 7-7 in the best of 41 challenge. The challenge remained close as the second wave of games progressed, with BotFM holding a 15-12 lead with a bunch of games too close to call. At the end of the day however, the rum emboldened animal lovers were too much for LEG to overcome, as BotFM forced the armor cladden sword wielding LEG troops to walk the plank and sink into the abyss of Davey Jones winning 24-17. After the challenge, the sportsmanship and respect between the two clans was showcased in ++Legion++ clan leader Chemefreak' s statement, The challenge was great. Both clans approached it seriously and it is the classic example of how a war is supposed to work. Good natured, fun, and competitive. We do feel bad for the goat, although we hear that he likes it so I guess it is a no harm, no foul situation. Cheers to BG and the rest of the Mermaids on a well played challenge. We at ++The Legion++ look forward to our next encounter."
Keeping it as classy as a pirate clan leader possibly can, BoganGod responded, Was great to play a clan war that was fun, challenging and not marred by bad sportsmanship or childish antics from either clan. Playing against adults with sense of humour is such a relief. The war could have gone either way right down to the end. We lost most of our quads, which is almost unheard of for BoFM, and picked up the slack in dbs and trips. I believe that ++Legion++ are now having a vote as to which type of animal to adopt for the clan's needs. The short listed candidates are a ferret, alpaca, pot belly pig, chimp, and a armadillo. I think the turning point for us was the two cricket games. Lucky enough to have representatives of all western cricketing nations in our clan. A few lucky drops, some decent dice when called for that is all that separated the two clans. That and BoFM have the best hair on site. Look for
Snowgun s new avatar soon."
It was a hard fought battle waged by both sides. Hats off to LEG and BofFM.
Clan Creation by QoH (HH) show
Pop into the "Create/Join a Competitive Clan" subforum, and you're bound to find more than 1 new clan. In fact, there are currently 5 new clans (in Retribution , Manifest Dynasty , Headless Horsemen , Agoge and Les Hussards Du Dragon )! Some might wonder how one goes about creating a clan from scratch, and how said clan might end up competing with the elite such as KORT, THOTA, TSM, EMPIRE etc. (don't mean to offend any by not listing their clan there :p) To help get a bit of a glance into the inner works of a clan being born, I did an interview of ViperOverLord , who created Manifest Dynasty. Apparently, whatever he's doing works so far, since his clan's first war was against Grim Reapers in the ACC, and GR won by only 1 game. Pretty impressive1ViperOverLord wrote: 1a. Why did you decide to start your own clan? I think two aspects finally intrigued me to join or start a clan.
A.
Clan Rankings. There are various rankings but I believe they are a generally new development. I like the idea of hitting number one and/or climbing as high as we can in the rankings. I grew up watching enough college sports to know I'm into that. Of course rankings only mean so much. So perhaps like college football needs a playoff system so do the clans need one as well
I know that's a tangent but it just came to me.
B.
Clan Medals. I believe this is another relatively new development (I could be wrong). I don't think clan medals existed when I was an up and coming player getting recruited by a bunch of clans. Back then you were just playing for pride. I had a big enough game load as it was with all the tournaments that I was in that that just was not a big enough motivating factor for me to add to it (or subtract other games).
1b. Why not join an established one? I came pretty close to joining a clan on a couple of occasions. The first time,
jrhcardinal was recruiting for his newly formed Grim Reapers (he since left). We had a good rapport and I liked a lot of the guys joining. I won't open up any cans of worms, but a player who I felt had disrespected me joined and I decided not to join.
When I firmly committed to be a part of a clan I mentioned it to
squishyg who had previously recruited me to be in the Bullet-Proof Bandits. I looked at their clan and they had four leaders. That seemed like too many chiefs. So I joked 'Is that a clan or a frat' to her and
owenshooter .
I told them that I had already recruited a handful of players (Majors and above) and that we would join them if they shrunk their leadership from four to two leaders. They did not see it my way so I started my own clan. I was kind of hoping they'd see it my way though b/c creating a clan was just more work for me. It's funny though b/c in our (Manifest Destiny) clan description, we mention we're 'not a frat.'
2. What were some of your struggles with starting a clan? Successes? Even though the system is simple enough; as an outsider it is complicated. You're jumping from thread to thread to try and figure out what is what. They probably could use a 'Clans For Dummies' thread lol.
Then, once you've created a clan, you're worried that someone is going to get on your ___ for making a mistake in creating a challenge or w/e. Perhaps that's an unfounded worry though.
Our crucial success (for what I wanted to accomplish) came in recruiting. All of the Original Dirty Dozen as I call them, were Majors and Colonels and joining a clan for the first time. The five that since joined, also were Majors and joining a clan for the first time. I think in some peoples minds, we burst on to the scene.
3. How did you go about getting a core group of players together? Amazingly enough, I had played with almost none of the players I recruited. I believe that
Robespierre__ and
BritishDragon were the only ones I'd even played with in a game. Of course, I knew that any clan with Rob in it would have a solid foundation so once he agreed I got serious about recruiting.
As for recruiting, I went about it the same way that I created the largest single elimination tournament in CC history (
The Unsurpassed Championship 1 ). I individually recruited one member at a time with messages.
Targeting Colonels and Majors can be an especially tough market b/c in most cases they have already received invitations and declined. So you really have to be willing to talk to a lot of players and see who has slipped through the cracks.
Astro Gypsy was a great find.
gas made brigadier general shortly after I had already recruited him or I'd imagine someone else would have gotten to him haha.
Gigi1 initially turned me down. But then I saw he was closing in on brigadier general and I said 'hey I got the teammates for you if you to reach BG' and then he agreed haha.
After it was formed, I added
deantursx and he brought his friend
Demen into the fold. They were nice adds b/c they're familiar with all the maps. I think you can have high ranking players and still be at a disadvantage if they don't know certain maps.
I won't mention everyone, but we have some other good complimentary players as well. I threw together the clan pretty fast with rank/win percent the main two criteria. I found out after that some players are specialists or quite inexperienced in a lot of aspects. But overall I'm happy with the quality of players I brought into the mix and we are learning how to play together now.
4. What were some of the things that went through your head when you found you were facing the Grim Reapers in the ACC? Who's this
jigger1986 guy and what happened to
jrhcardinal haha.
Actually, I looked at our rosters. I felt we arguably had better overall players. But I knew they had tons more experience playing together so I felt like it was going to be interesting. I was prepared for anything really. I think at the start their experience paid off. We came back though and came within a hair of winning. To be honest though, I thought we'd win. So its hard for me to consider that some sort of moral victory.
It is sort of funny though. We'd been together about two months and we had not even done any practice games heading into the ACC. So I guess you could fault me for not preparing our guys in advance.
5. What do you say to people who comment on the amount of team games your clan has played? They're on to something. It really doesn't matter how good your individual members are if they're not experienced playing team games. But I think that after a few challenges that's not going to be much of a concern anymore.
6. What are your ambitions for your clan? For now, to beat anybody and everybody. I don't know if we'll ever hit number one or not any time soon. I think that takes a lot of experience and collective ambition. But I do know that there is no clan out there that should look at us and think they have it in the bag.
7. What were the differences going into a second clan war? Were you more prepared etc? We're definitely more 'prepared' in the second clan war. I at least have a better idea of who the players are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. We really went into the first clan war blind. Some of our players that specialized multi-player or 1 v 1 and just a couple maps were suddenly doing team wars against savvy players with teammates they had never played with before. Even in the second challenge, we're still a little green, but definitely closer to being 'prepared.'
8. Anything else (advice etc.) You'd give to players wanting to start a new clan? Consider joining a clan. There are plenty of them out there and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. But if a player and a few buds want the thrill of blazing a new trail then I say go for it. Just be prepared to put in some extra initial effort in figuring out how the clan system works.
In addition, I'd like to share some of my own experiences in the clan world, and also those about starting a new clan. Some will be from the present endeavour, but also the comical attempt of starting a clan when I first came to the site. When I was a lowly private (and a freemium at that) I attempted to start a clan called The Hotdogs From Hell. Yeah. Not gonna happen. Anyways, I got maybe 3 replies, one from TheSaxlad , who invited me to join his newly formed clan, The 4th Crusade. I joined up, got a lot of team experience, made a lot of friends, and ended up leaving, feeling the pull to start my own clan. I won't go into a lot of details as to why I left or why I started to start my own clan, but I will throw out there that I did ask around to see if I'd be at all able to even try out for some of the older clans, mainly Empire. When Empire turned me down, I figured, "What the hell. I'm gonna start my own clan." (no hard feelings guys, we'll kick your ass later!) Recruiting players was easily the hardest part, since I was the only player at the time. Slowly but surely, after hundreds of PMs explaining to players what a clan was, asking them to join, I got the required 9 other players. It became quite frustrating to send a PM and not have anyone respond. I thought to myself "What's so hard to respond to a PM, even with a curt 'no'?" Once I got 10 members, I got everything official, and everything went smoothly from there. We've entered a clan war with MD, and things are going pretty well so far (3-3). The only factor I regret not taking into consideration when recruiting was forum activity. It's been a bit of a struggle to get people to the forums and start partying! Remember this if you ever want to start your own clan. Hopefully ya'll have a bit of an idea of how things work when you start a clan! Top 10, The Headless Horsemen are comin' for ya! Thanks for reading!
HARDBALLS by Master Fenrir (FOED) show
Josko. Odds are that if you've been a part of CC's clan scene over the past year, you either smiled or cringed at the sight of his name. When it comes to josko.ri , commonly known as "Josko," there never seems to be a middle ground. You either love him or you hate him. Much of Josko's infamy stems from his part in the war during the first Conqueror's Cup between KoRT and TOFU . I won't get into the details, but suffice it to say that war thread is worth a read or re-read. My first actual interaction with Josko was during Lindax 's TLO 2010 tournament. Josko's team looked to sweep my team 10-0 and he inquired as to the possibility of earning a General Achievement medal for the feat. Now, realistically, my team was one of the stronger teams participating, finishing 4th out of 23 teams, so sweeping the 4th placed teams in a set of 10 games probably did deserve a General Achievement medal. At the time, though, I was highly frustrated with the games, seeing that it was possible that we would be swept (all games had not yet finished) and also embarrassed. My incredibly large ego wasn't about to let Josko's question slide. We got into it and there was one point where I was absolutely certain that if given the opportunity, I would be willing to drown Josko in a shallow lake. Josko and I stopped discussing the matter in the tournament thread and took it to PMs, where we both agreed to disagree. The only thing that was resolved is me admitting that I lost my frosty and acted like a douche bag. Skip forward several months and I found myself preparing to square off against Josko once again, as FOED was bracketed to face KORT in the 2nd Conqueror's Cup . After our TLO encounter, the thought of having to deal with Josko again made me cringe. I imagined the game chats and war thread peppered with Joskoisms and I damn near retired on the spot. However, Foxglove would constantly tell me something like "He's really not an asshole. He's just misunderstood." So, figuring that I would give her womanly wisdom the benefit of the doubt, I decided to enter our war together with an open mind about Josko and his attitude. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised. One of the things that Josko has been known for is what many have deemed excessive account sitting. During our war, though, Josko always met with me in live chat and notified me in advance of any sitting he may have to do, and when the sitting would take place near the start of a new round of games, always offered to delay joining the games so that there would be no sitting necessary. He also would leave me a wall message whenever he noticed out players getting close to missing a turn, which I found to be pretty classy. As for the actual games and our match-ups against each other, I quickly understood that the Josko hype was well founded. We played each other in 5 games:Game 9230784 Game 9326895 Game 9326897 Game 9430919 Game 9430932 Based on those games, I can say with confidence that he is easily one of the best team-game players currently playing Conquer Club. His board vision is exceptional. His strategy is always logical, and his execution of the strategy ranges from nearly flawless to flawless. The one criticism that I have of him is that at times his strategy can be logical to the point of predictability. If he were a baseball pitcher, my scouting report would be "great location of his 98 m.p.h. fastball, but rarely throws his curve." For example, I actually prolonged our C-man game about 3 rounds because I was preparing a counter to what I thought was Josko building a hidden stack, but I eventually discovered that the "missing troops" were just lost on some poor rolls. These games were the most enjoyable and toughest games that I've played in some time. Thinking back, the last game that I was forced to play on this level was Game 7221307 , which was played last August. Probably the most enjoyable part of this war for me was when Josko and I would meet in Live Chat to discuss a different matter, but the conversation would eventually turn to us discussing our games together, particularly the C-man game. Josko would say something like "Nice move doing this. You were trying to do this with it?" And I would respond, "Yes. I had wanted to do that, but you doing this forced my hand and I had to do this instead." Feeling that we had both sufficiently proved our intelligence and board vision, we would cheerfully pat each other on the back and declare ourselves geniuses. It was good times. The point is that I discovered that Josko is a lot like a Croatian mail-order bride. While he is friendly unless given a reason to be otherwise, one's relationship with him is largely dependent on the effort one puts into it. The anatomy is a bit different, though. Having completed the hate Josko/like Josko cycle, it dawned on me that an interview with him could be a good thing. It might help some gain insight not only into who Josko is as a player, but who he is as a person. Josko was kind enough to answer my questions, so now I present them to you. The first half of this interview contains a Q&A of a more personal nature, and the second half focuses more on this game.Fenrir : What do you do in real life?Josko : I am finishing Civil engineering college, MsC degree and will be over this month. besides that, I am self employed, giving additional lessons to students from statics and mechanics courses and will probably continue with that business after graduating.Fenrir : Do you have a boy/girlfriend?Josko : no/yes. no for boyfriend, and my girfriend and me are together more than 3 years and we are planning wedding in upcoming years.Fenrir : Do you have good bedroom strategies?Josko : I am not right person for answering that, my girfriend would know better. I think/believe that my bedroom strategies are excellent, but it is hard to have objective opinion about myself Fenrir : What is your favorite color and why?Josko : Probably light blue, because it looks sexy on women Fenrir : What do you do with your free time besides play Conquer Club?Josko : Various stuffs. the most often I spend days with my girlfriend, or have meetings with my closest friends, where we often make tasteful dinners, play card games, or/and going to pubs. during hot summer days, I often swim or travel in my vacation house near coastline, which is ideal place for rest of my body and soul. during football season, I spend weekends on football stadiums, because I am football referee. I very like dancing and carnival time, which is my favourite part of a year. Fenrir : Does it bother you when people call you Serbian?Josko : Not at all. I know that is expected perception for someone who is not from this region.Fenrir : Is Tony Kukoc a hero of yours?Josko : No. I am not big fun of basketball. among famous Croatian players, Goran Ivanisevic is my the biggest hero. Fenrir : You tend to be a “leader” type on Conquer Club. Is that just on CC, or is that a reflection of your real life personality?Josko : That is reflection of my real life personality. whenever I do something, I try to do it as much as possible perfect, and it annoys me when others from my surroundings are doing their tasks carelessly. sometimes I rather choose to do some task by myself than leave it for someone other who I know will not care about quality of the task done. Fenrir : Are you the Man in the Moo?Josko : I am not. maybe it seems from outside like that, but it is because I am the most often online and have the most free time, due to the fact that I am self employed and can manage my working time by myself. That said, I have more time for analyzing strategies in my games, and more time to make some forum posts than other Moo members. But in the Moo are much bigger Men than me. Fenrir : Several people on CC have admitted to having bad habits such as smoking, drinking, gambling, and having relations with animals. What are your bad habits?[/quote]Josko : I am extremely lazy. if there exist some job that can be done from lying position, I would probably try to master that job. also I am very stubborn person. I almost never give up from doing something that I believe is right. Fenrir : You seem to be a pretty brainy guy. Are there any physical activities that you enjoy, or do you stick to exercise of the mind?Josko : I am football referee since 2002. I very enjoy doing that, and also it is very good for my physical activities because I doubt I would do any of those activities if I am not referee. also, I like to play indoor football with my friends during winter time. I do not officially exercise my mind except with playing risk, backgammon, or some card games like poker, belot , briskula , or treseta . for successfully playing all those games players need to have precise feeling for different values of math probabilities, and that is what I like the most when playing those type of games.Fenrir : Are you superstitious about anything, or do you always try to be logical?Josko : I am trying to be logical, but I am aware there are many irrational things around us that can not be described by logic. for irrational things I believe the most of them are also logical but unable to interpret with nowadays known logic functions, but some of them for sure are coming from other dimension and will never be able to describe by logic.Fenrir : How did you and Moonchild meet and become friends?Josko : Moonchild 's ex girfriend was my middle school classmate so she connected us about 7-8 years ago. but we never became the closest friends because our lifestyles and interests are very different. He is good friend of my bother, who has the same lifestyle like Moonchild . In 2009, my brother told him that I was playing risk a lot on facebook zynga, and then he told me to come on the best worldwide risk site, so I accepted his request and joined here. _____________________________________________________________Fenrir : Compared to some people of your stature, you have played relatively few CC games. What made you join a clan so quickly, and why did you choose to join Kort?Josko : I have played my first team games with Moonchild as he was the only who I had known from real life before joining. He told me about his clan KORT, and recommended that I join. He also told me that there are a lot of friendly players and I can always find top skilled friends who wants to play a team game so it sounded interesting to me. I was almost being refused during test games because I have played less than 10 team games at that time so it was hard decision for them to accept new and inexperienced player. I was so excited to join the clan with so high respected players on CC, it was great honor to be in the same team with former conquerors and players who had regularly kicked my ass and impressed me with their gameplay on the time before joining KORT.Fenrir : Given how heavily the assault cubes influence games, why is it that you don’t like them being mentioned?Josko : Dice comments in chats often sounds like my team played terrible but only great dice caused that we won so mentioning it can cause only negative feelings from opposite team and public minorizing their win. It is especially negative to read dice complaining comments for one round of bad dice, after several rounds of great dice by opponents, which happens sometimes. As opposite question, I would ask why is it needed to be mentioned? Is it needed to inform winning team that they got great dice (like they are not already aware of it), or is it some kind of healing disappointment from losing team? I do not see any useful side of pointing which kind of dice someone got, and I see some bad sides, like minorizing opponent's strategy. If someone need to (constructive) speak about dice, there are many places on forums to do so.Fenrir : What is your favorite map and why?Josko : For team playing, Hive is my favourite map because on that map luck factor is the lowest of all available maps, and players' skill factor is the highest. Fenrir : Why is it that you prefer foggy games over sunny?Josko : Because I prefer doggy "games" over funny Joke aside, fog increases level of skill needed to play successful, it is addition which allows to use many different strategies which can not be used in sunny games. there can always be some factor of huge surprise for opponents when they discover something what they did not expected to find in fog, which can often turn a game in our favor. It simply raise a game to higher skill level. Fenrir : What gives you the most pleasure in a game? (example: an escalating sweep, a no spoils comeback, a game of complete dominance, etc.)Josko : The most pleasure is when my team lead in a game where opponents' team has more total troops than my team (No Spoils). It can often happen in Hive but can also happen in other maps. That fact mathematically means that my team outplayed opponents because we used our available troops better than they used theirs. I think my team owns record in winning a game with the highest troops deficit at one point of the game (including only no spoils games without deadbeats). We won Game 9327127 after having -67 troops in round 6.Fenrir : What would you say is the best game that you’ve played and why was it the best? (You can give more than one game if it’s a tough decision.)Josko : It is very tough decision, many of them were great on different ways. I will make top 5 for this question: #1 Game 8295297 Hive The best fight my team have ever received from any opponents. I especially remember the game because they maintained to give equal fight in several consecutive rounds when we had more drop than them. I learned some useful tips how to play a game successfully when there is a little chance to come back. #2 Game 9326897 Conquerman Also one of the best fights ever. This game was opposite of #1 game, because my team was in position to hold equal position with constant troops deficit. According to my memories, I even think we took lead in rounds 16 and 17, but then opponents turned it again. #3 Game 7592352 Feudal Epic I remember that I used unique strategy in this game which I have never used in any other game. In round 20, when my opponent cashed his +45 set, I was almost dead. My only hope was that he attacks GK castle and release my huge stack which was there trapped and unable to come into fight. His attack started from Gah 3 and he could choose to go on Rebel or GK castle. I wanted to make him go to GK, to release my stack, so I intentionally wrote chat notes, where 4 numbers were known for him (he could count it from log), and only 1 unknown, which was number of troops on Rebel castle. In my chat "notes" I intentionally wrote much more troops for the unknown number, wishing that he thinks that I have more on Rebel than I really had and choose other way for attack to GK. I knew he will for sure work out the "code" and then (wrong) conclude that I am very strong on Rebel and choose to go other way to GK. On that turn I equalized our position and started to build advantage which finally lead to hard deserved win. #4 Game 8087574 WWII Europe Opponents gave hell of a fight in this one, I remember they have played it practically without single mistake whole time. #5 Game 7511968 Age of Merchants The greatest turnover my team has ever made in escalating games. We somehow manage to win quads game with 2 of our players never got a single card in whole game. Of course that set combinations very helped to us. This game showed me that everything is possible in escalating games.Fenrir : A lot of your infamy stems from the war between Kort and Tofu in the first Conqueror’s Cup. Do you have any regrets about the way that turned out? Do you think it was worth it?Josko : I regret about everything that happened in that war, I wish that war never happened. But, that doesnt mean that I would change our decision to accept the rule. In real life, if someone calls me moron or cretin, I immediately decide to stop play a game vs him because that shouldnt be part of any game. From the other side, if someone says to me that my skills are poor, that only increases my motivation to beat him on playing field. That is my viewpoint for main factors which caused problems in the war and that is why I did not want to be fair to the ones who insulted us on personal basis multiple times and had never apologized for the insults during the war.Fenrir : You’ve shown a pretty good ability to laugh at yourself. Did you find any of those jabs from Tofu at all funny? I thought trapyoung ’s signature during that time was pretty hilarious.Josko : Honestly, I do not remember jabs from 2010, nor I remember which signatures TOFU members had at that time.Fenrir : Who would you say are the top 10 team players on CC? You can put them in order or not, you’re free to include yourself, and you can give your reasoning if you want.Josko : I will exclude KORT players and myself to not be biased and put top 10 in order. #1 Velvecarrots 2,2 Games played vs him and some games watched was enough to see how hell of a player he is. I have definitely learned multiple strategy tips in games vs him. #2 Blitzaholic One of rare players who outplayed me more times that I outplayed them, and maybe the only from first page of scoreboard who has positive head to head score vs me. His own turns were much better played than turns of his teammates. #3 waseemalim I played vs him on the time when I was beginner and I learned a lot of playing tips from those games vs him. The best school is when someone kicks my ass hard. #4 Seulessliathan It was great honor to play with him in the same team several times and see how excellent ideas he had. Some ideas were new to my gameplay strategies. #5 Big Whiskey His moves varies, from excellent to little mistakes. When doing excellent ones he sometimes play better than top 4. #6 Chariot of Fire Very different type of strategist than me, I very improved my strategy from playing games vs him and stole some useful tips for team play. Not great in 1v1 type. #7 laughingcavalier Great strategist, I have feeling that his strategy is the most similar to mine among all players that I met in clan wars. #8 Master Fenrir Very different type of strategist than me, some moves in multiple games very surprised me but later I realized sense of the moves. Sometimes make very little mistakes. #9 rabbiton He was conqueror when I joined CC so it was always my wish to play vs him. When i finally got the chance I saw why he was so long on the top, he showed great plan skills, making only little mistakes very rare. #10 Lubawski He very improved his strategy in last year, and now definitely deserves top 10 place on my list. I did not saw anything new from him what I did not know before, but he almost never do a single mistake. Unfortunately, I could not include all top players because I have never played vs them in clan wars or have not played enough to get opinion about their strength. I am sure someone among laddida , David_Wain , AndrewB , ahunda , thezepman , TheSpaceCowboy , or someone else who I cannot remember right now, would be on this list if only I had more chances to play vs them. I have heard about their excellent gameplay but had never or had a little chance to test it by myself.Fenrir : Having played against you in a recent war, I’ve been able to see first-hand what all the fuss is about. You’re very good at this game. What do you think sets you apart from most of the people that play? What is it that you do that makes you so good?Josko : I really do not know for sure what makes me so good. I think it is my ability to interpret and use math and probability laws on unique way, together with my ability to predict opponents' moves and plans according to their initial move(s), and then make counter plan. Also, I use some strategies that I did not see any of my opponents ever used. Those strategies are not huge difference from others, but a little difference can be enough to get position advantage and turn a game in my favor.Fenrir : What do you think about the clan world as it is now? Do you think it will get better or worse in the future?Josko : I think clan world, and CC at all are rapidly going down. I think admins do not lead this site on good way in 2011, and users notice that and massively decide to retire from the site, which causes chained effect that those users for sure wont bring new users to the site. I see there are fresh ideas in CLA with goal to improve clan world, but I think clan gaming will go down by time together with the whole site. I wish it will be different than I think because the site and clan gaming is really an unique project and great idea for having enormous internet gaming fun.Fenrir : What are your feelings on the verdict of the case against you for account sitting abuse?Josko : I think moderators did not consider the case according to presented arguments and decided to punish us because community made pressure in forums. It is especially sad that I was being punished for the reason that I have clearly rebutted:
king achilles wrote: For this case, at some point, josko.ri could/should have simply told the other players to stop relying on him to take turns for them.
So I was being punished for not doing something that I did, which may be checked here:
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4 ... onmoon.jpg Also, the other part of the verdict, which made Moonchild and Rodion guilty is:
king achilles wrote: Account sitting is for a definite period of time and NOT for an indefinite period. You can't assign an account sitter to account sit for you for as long as his blood is running into his veins. Then you can now sleep soundly whenever or do other stuff because you know he is going to save you from missing a turn. If you are capable of taking your turn, then take it. Do not make someone be responsible for your own account or lean too much for his advise.
I would not have problems with this part of the verdict if this was treated equally for everyone who did it. But, 2 months before it was opened the case vs me, there was other report (via e-ticket), vs
lord voldemort for doing the same type of "abuse" (sitter played turns when original player was available at earlier time to play his own turn but he chose not to take it), and he was cleared, and he wrote public statement in game chat:
lord voldemort wrote: 2011-03-23 04:28:41 - lord voldemort: b) i have two of the biggest guys on my side who have already looked at this game and said there was nothing wrong
That game had a lot of public watching because writing in forums about it, so many of clan players followed it and read the statement that there was nothing wrong in doing that. Unfortunately, "big guys" have changed their opinion when accused was normal player, and not former multihunter.
I have opened the C&A case against
Chariot of Fire , and have written it the same like it was in the case against me, with providing the same type of evidence. My deep hope was that
king achilles will realize that he made wrong verdict vs us when he see how much doing the same "abuse" is spreaded on CC, but when I saw that 2 of the 5 sitting which CoF was declared guilty for was being done during real vacations of players who needed sitting, I realized that he definitely did not consider the case according to presented arguments.
I will not stop fight for fair verdict, but I will continue my fight out of public forums, with private messages with admins. I am collecting evidence which will prove that the same "abuse" was done by current or ex Head moderators and multihunters so I think that proving that "mighty" names of CC were doing the same type of "abuse" may cause that admins will admit that they made wrong verdict.
I realized that opening public report causes huge flaming and negative feelings towards accused so I decided to not do it public again. Players are not guilty that admins do not want to admit that rules are not written clearly so they do not deserve public tainting of their name for something that is not their fault. For admins it is always the easiest to punish users than to admit that rules were not declared clearly.
Unfortunately, I believe that CC players showed their opinion about the way of ruling on the site with starting to massively retire from CC (sometimes reaching number of more than 100 players down per only one day, which is extremely high), and I think C&A forum decisions are main reasons for that.
Fenrir : Are you still planning on retiring after the 2nd Conqueror’s Cup?Josko : I never planned to retire after CCup2. After the verdict was done against me I decided to retire after I finish all my ongoing challenges, and I believe that HA's 200th tourney and not CCup2 will last the longest of all my ongoing challenges. I will still think about retiring because I met some great persons here and it would be pity to leave them all because of disappointment about the site officials. But if I not retire total, I will for sure just focus on playing my games without contributing in any part of the site which officials organize, like strategy guide forum for example, where I had planned to contribute someday but radically changed my plans after seeing what can be done to honest players on the site.Fenrir : Thanks, Josko.Josko : Pleasure was mine, thanks to you for choosing me for the Hardballs interview
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