The newest entries are at the foot of the page, so start scrolling...
Monday May 7th, 2001:
Crossfire has sent an e-mail about "his" (or Pimpfrog's) strange behaviour yesterday - find it on Archives II. He mentions that clan DW is dead, as Mike is not playing NAB and he is playing very little. Duo tells me his site is coming down, at least for a while, as Homestead keeps messing things up and losing the graphics. B-Ball has given his site a "new look", and that works well.
Justin has got a new remix/retex on his idrive, WW Four beta by name. It is obvious something terrible has happened to Civil War Remix - the grass is gone, the place is a wasteland, the wind whistles bleakly. Add a few crazed zombies and you'd have a really fun place!
Tuesday May 8th, 2001:
He may be on vacation, but SLAM has sent us this report from his hideaway: "I'm in Florida, but I do have regular internet access during this venture, and so I can keep you updated on what's going on that will affect you when I get back (heh, you think I'm on VACATION down here? I'm still working on what I'll be working on when I come back! :-)).
"The night before I left, I opened up NerfEd, and started messing around with a few basic ideas I think I either dreamed or daydreamed about. Soon, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, and I built one of my nicest skyboxes yet. I left it that night with not quite 200 polygons. I have been drawing up the final blueprint for the level, which like all of my levels, will be even better than the last one ;-). Yes, this one uses the Quake3a.utx package, but it uses it in a totally different perspective. I guess you'll have to wait and see it."
Sounds good. For some reason, Homestead downloads worked for me this morning; Icedude's DOM-UTbooty Unreal Tournament map was "not a valid archive" apparently, but Galen 99's pair, Space Station (with JB99) and Light Blast, are good solid little NAB arenas, and screenshot/review pages should be up today.
Oh, Crossfire mentioned that Pimpfrog is his stepbrother, which is why they have been known to share the same computer. Like they say, you can choose your friends, but you're stuck with your relatives!
Wednesday May 9th, 2001:
I suppose I should have been suspicious when it was Black Ninja who kindly gave me the address for the "Alpha Elite" website, but Alpha Flight, mysterious leader of the mysterious clan, now reveals that he is - Black Ninja! Lord of Darkness, Fry, & Vision are presumably also ex-KnC members. I understood BN to say that he was happy for Dr.Jekyll to remain in CD, however. I hope so, as Doc's a fine player and a real asset. BN made a Forest server to tell me his news, and so, predictably, scored around ten times as may points as I did! He is still unable to play very much at the moment, however. Also on hand was CurtSquirt, though he was calling himself "The Weakest Link" and seemed puzzled when lots of people kept saying "Goodbye" to him. PimpFrog had been on earlier, and someone asked if he was really him, or Curt in disguise...
SquirrelKing, the Elf Leader, pledges no more Elf attacks on our servers, just normal play. His clan has been expanding into other games - UT, all the Quakes, Diablo I & II, and soon StarCraft; with so much clan stuff to organize, he has very little time to actually play NAB. Poad dropped by while we were talking, and some heavy NAB action ensued - him scoring faster than both of us together, of course!
CurtSquirt has redesigned his site. It's looking good, but he warns he is not playing NAB much at the moment...
Thursday May 10th, 2001:
Boom(slang)'s update mentions Sharpknux's rather brief visit to his server yesterday, for what he called his "last game of NAB"; let us hope Sharp doesn't stay away from us too long, he has done a lot for our community - which includes the NAB Forum of course, so remember to drop by there regularly!
B-Ball tells me that he is adding another map to his "coming soon" list, which already has some tasty-looking arenas on it: Honor, which is unusual as it comes from the Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force demo. The "holomatch" part, rather than the single-player progression, I think. West Seiydder's NAB Community's Message Board still seems to have problems, with messages I try to post just failing to appear - but it's still worth signing up as a member...
Friday May 11th, 2001:
Tomorrow is the Clan League II event - let's hope everything runs smoothly! Today, on the other hand, is Boomslang's Birthday, he's now twelve - so everyone round to his place later for a slice of the cake, right? Happy Birthday, Boom!
I have fearlessly managed to infiltrate the highest levels of Clan Destiny for you, and grabbed a report and screenshot of SLAM's top-secret Security Testing map - so head for the Review Index and click that line. Nerves of steel and great agility are going to be needed if people are going to pass that particular test, I think...
B-Ball tells me that he will do a second remix from Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, as well as Honor - this one is called Delta Station. It will be good when we have some new maps like that to look at, but at the moment everyone seems to be waiting for SLAM! He should be back from Florida on Sunday, but whether that will leave him any time for NAB work, we will have to wait and see.
Saturday May 12th, 2001:
I have added links to the "NO_TS" map pack that FeEdiKo has made, containing versions of
Amateur Arena, Condemned and HoverCraft that do not include the triple strike; just use the "Review Index" button, and go to one of the three appropriate screenshot/review pages. Useful versions of those maps to have, particularly for Tourney use etc! We have also begun our third Archives page, which starts with last Monday's entry; we just reached the end of the available page-length on Archives II!
Amateur Arena, Condemned and HoverCraft that do not include the triple strike; just use the "Review Index" button, and go to one of the three appropriate screenshot/review pages. Useful versions of those maps to have, particularly for Tourney use etc! We have also begun our third Archives page, which starts with last Monday's entry; we just reached the end of the available page-length on Archives II!
Ace (as Acemaster2000 now calls himself) has joined CD, and is taking up the post of Clan Mapmaker. General policy should be for maps to be made available to everyone, rather than exclusively for CD members, though there might be exceptions for special testing or training areas.
Boomslang updated on his Birthday; it sounds as if he had a hard time at school, which is often the case. I was lucky, my birthday was always during the school holidays, so no being given "the bumps" or anything!
So, any new maps coming this weekend? Things have been awfully quiet lately, and this beautiful early-summer weather does not help! Maybe The Unknown will release that new Lego map he showed Duo...
The Clan League II should be later today, and the CD team are quietly confident. Check out the CL2 website tomorrow, and see if there are any results posted! And while you are doing such things, don't forget the NAB Forum, the NAB Community, and indeed the Hall of Fame - have you voted yet?
Sunday May 13th, 2001:
Well, earlier in the day Boomslang was saying that Rainmaker would postpone the Clan League II event (yet) again because not every team had four registered players - but the website still said "May 12th". Rainmaker himself did not respond to MSN Messenger Service messages. But he just did not turn up, and finally today the date for the event on the CL2 page has changed to Friday June 1st. Is he at all serious about this? The "teams" page seems to have gone wrong, as well. This event just does not seem to be working, mainly because its "organizer" just is not doing anything, visibly, about it... I don't think the lack of the Gamespy pointblast server made any difference, as for CL2 games surely a special team server is needed?
Anyway, As B-Ball mentions on his site (which now has the classy address of www.nerfarena.de.vu), after we had hung around for ages trying to register, we went off and played a team Hall of Giants game, which made a nice change, and was fun. And then B-Ball went off to try testing some CD candidates for the Security Section on the CD Security Training map, staying up until about 4:00am to do it! I also seemed to spend a fair amount of time in Ride the Dragon Remix, which Tmon & Tux's server seems to be running back-to-back lately. Other players included Black Knight and Armor, who is changing his name to Hulk, plus quite a few of the usual suspects.
Monday May 14th, 2001:
An e-mail has arrived from The Unknown, creator of our four favourite Lego maps. He warns that he has almost no spare time at the moment, so his second Lego map pack is proceeding rather slowly - expect it in "a couple of weeks to a couple of months maybe". Going by the first pack, it will be well worth the wait!
SLAM is back. "Okay, I'm back home after a fun and exhausting vacation. I've revised a list of things to be done in NN, and I guess I'll just have to see how it comes along," he says. I know B-Ball will be glad when he's online, he has been very very busy testing people on the Security Testing CD map - I was telling him that probably half the candidates were well-known NAB players in disguise, just wanting to play SLAM's latest map. Mainly CurtSquirt, probably, lol!
The good news was that one, Black Knight, was actually Sharpknux, taking time off from his plans for World Domination - great to know he has not left NAB! He was telling me that he wants to arrange a kind of "Boot Camp" training exercise for the newer NAB players, probably on a specially-made map he is planning. Sounds an excellent idea, so keep watching here, or on his own site, for progress. Of course, him posing as a new NAB player and joining CD and trying out for Security did take up a lot of people's time, but it is certainly worth it to have Sharp back with us all. And Icedude is back, too, a check of the NAB Forum reveals - some nasty virus problems have been overcome now, but the maps he was in the process of making have been lost. But the 'Dude himself is back, that's the main thing!
Tuesday May 15th, 2001:
B-Ball has had a good idea; go to his "NAB Covers" page and you can see the front and back covers (and the CDs themselves) for both the European and US versions of Nerf ArenaBlast. The European back cover has German text, but carries the same pictures and design as the United Kingdom version. All very interesting!
The password for the Clan Destiny "Hidden Page" has been changed; CD members should get the new one from me. The CD Security Testing map is not normally posted there, however - just sometimes, by arrangement!
West Seiydder is getting married in a couple of years - and if you want to see a photo of the Lucky Girl (?), Emma, check out the NAB Forum, where he gives us a link. He has a girlfriend like this, and still finds time to play NAB...? Look under "NAB In General" and "Big News"...
Wednesday May 16th, 2001:
I noticed a couple of the "web polls" on sites, when checking round this morning. CurtSquirt's "Who is the Best NABer?" gives the message "This poll (9738) was one of the few lost during a recent and unfortunate miscommunication between billing and service departments", when you click to look at the results, to which they add "We do not carry complete backups of users sites for liability reasons." More intereasting is the Alpha Elite Clan's "What is the best NAB Clan?" 2 votes each for TC and TA, 5 for AE, 43 for DW, and 209 for CD, for a total of 261 votes. Which is excellent, very nice, made my morning - until I noticed that the total number of visitors to the AE site is only 140. Something strange going on there, lol!
Well, B-Ball has added another "NAB Cover", the back of the European instruction booklet - very similar to the UK version, though with a different address. And Pure has now got his Big Top Beta 1 map on his own idrive, to which of course we have links. A revised and expanded version of that map should be available soon - which is not something one can say about Nerf Neighbourhood, I guess, as SLAM is being taken off on a 3-week family vacation, starting early on Saturday. Let us hope he at least has access to e-mail...
Thursday May 17th, 2001:
CurtSquirt (or indeed Crossfire) has updated, and has a brand-new poll - so you can vote on whether he should return to NAB. Apparently he is starting to get bored with the over-hyped Tribes 2... He also mentions his 9-year-old friend Hulk, who lives just down the road and who he has helped get started in NAB. There are some people, including Black (Sharpknux) Knight, who are convinced Hulk is really Curt, so it was really funny yesterday when Curt said a few words over Hulk's keyboard to Sharp and the rest of us. You had to be there, I guess!
Hey, I just posted my 100th message on the NAB Forum, which seems to be doing nicely these days. Boom has posted plenty of details about his VE clan. He is going to have a "Protection" section, rather like CD's Security Section, so we must be doing something right!
Dax tells me he has sorted out the "lag" problem in Celtic Arena, so we can expect a version of that we can actually move around in soon. There were too many points-lozenges, apparently! They may look pretty simple things, but not if you are a computer, it seems. There are other maps coming along, too - more news as we get it. Which seems a logical thing to promise, right?
Friday May 18th, 2001:
Dax's Celtic Arena is finished, now; it looks much like any previous version you may have seen screenshots of, but without the "lag" (well, it isn't that exactly, but the effects are the same) which was afflicting it, caused mainly by too many points- lozenges floating about. It seems to me more of a fun place to explore than actually fight in, but a good start. And Dax says he will be sending me Dilapidated soon as well - "I still need to tweak a few things."
Boomslang has updated; he has also posted the first part of a NAB story on the NAB Community message board. Stormforce (who wrote the "Trouble With NerfEd" story) has got a new web page as well as his regular site; this one is dedicated to Clan Destiny, so we have put a link on the CD page.
And with any luck we ought to have a new screenshot on the "Front" page, celebrating a million-plus score. Much cheating was needed!
Saturday May 19th, 2001:
Dax sent me a copy of the new map he has started work on, Delapidated - but he warns that he has a lot to add to it yet, and does not expect it to be finished this side of September. We have added a screenshot/preview page, so click to it by way of the Review Index page, in the usual manner. And we have now been able to add Celtic Arena to the Custer idrive, so go there and grab it, right?
My ADSL connection seems to be messing me about today - apparently I have received 16,034 bytes in the last half hour or so, which does not quite tally with the 576,000 bytes per second it claims! So that leaves me trying to work with an old-fashioned modem connection, so don't expect to see me playing this weekend unless the ADSL comes back on properly...
Galen99 has changed his e-mail address; it is now JLGLDR99@aol.com, OK?
Over on the Alpha Elite site, Alpha Flight (Black Ninja) reports he should be able to play NAB a bit more in upcoming weeks, which is good news.
Sunday May 20th, 2001:
Alpha Flight has updated his "Alpha Elite" clan page. He reports that they now have six top-flight members in the clan. And he tells me that he has started a new idrive account, with two new maps there already - but he is not letting anyone have the idrive address yet! I warned him not to save up until he has about a dozen, last time he did that we were overwhelmed with good stuff, and some excellent maps got almost overlooked. He hadn't gone to bed yet when I got up, or indeed for an hour afterwards; I know there is a five hour time difference, but that is still a pretty late night for anyone - about 5:00am...?
Well, various threads continue on the NAB Forum, including the "Rules of Gentlemanly Conduct" - to which presumably we need to add a "Code of Ladylike Behaviour" or something! My ADSL connection came right yesterday evening - and then failed when I was playing, after five minutes. But it came back later, and has been okay today, at least so far. These things always happen at weekends!
Pure is working on a website; we should have a link to it before too long, but he's waiting for a reply to an e-mail before some news can really be confirmed or released.
Tuesday May 22nd, 2001:
I would have updated yesterday if there had been any news; I guess with the warm and sunny weather, people have got better things to do than play NAB or make new arenas. So I downloaded a variety of Unreal Tournament maps, skins, and voice packs instead...
Boom has got a page of his site devoted to Veteran Elite, and has named the founder-members of his "Order of Defence" team - BoomSlang, Ace, Scouse, and Dreamcatcher (previously Andy), who are the four "Top Guys" in the clan, plus Mononoke. They stand ready to fight off any threats to VE, one of the largest NAB clans; and of course VE has allies, clans which will fight alongside Boom if some cruel threat comes along. There do seem to be some scheming individuals out there, unable to form decent clans of their own, who think that they can provoke Boom into an "ownership war" and, if they win it, "own" the clan. That isn't my idea of how clans work, and I don't think it is Boom's, either...
Ace was saying that a lot of pages of this site load too slowly, because of the number of links I have on them. So, I will be trimming off some buttons, to see if that helps. There isn't much I can do about the "Review Index" and "Screenshots" pages, as their whole point is to have lots of links, while the white-on-black "Front" page is really designed for people with a fast connection or a good book to read, and the "Links" page has to have all its links, right? But I will do what I can - see if it makes any difference for you.
Wednesday May 23rd, 2001:
Justin has made use of the "photo albums" function of his idrive - the screenshots there include (on shot 1's scoreboard) two million-plus scores, and various places that only "ghosts" can visit! Crossfire (CurtSquirt) has got his UT disc back, and so will not be playing NAB for a while, he says; he has a forum and an e-mail arrangement running. Hmm, I wonder what smileys the forum has...?
West Seiydder (NerfJoker) responded to my "ownership war" thoughts here yesterday on the NAB Forum: "lol this would be about me. hehehe. But hey, why not add a little excitement to the game. I have not seen a single clan war since I started playing NAB." And SLAM e-mailed to say "Okay, this isn't right...NO ONE can take a clan away from its leader, especially no one from outside. If some idiot tries to challenge you or something, just forget them. Also, no clan was ever wiped out by a war, so don't worry if another clan "challenges you to the death." They can't touch you, and they're morons for thinking they can." Well, there was a bit more than that, but that was the main part. Good to know that SLAM still has access to the internet, even during that three-week family vacation!
Elsewhere on the NAB Forum, there are plenty of tips on the "cheat codes" you can use to make your character big, small, invisible, shoot rockets out of ballzookas, spawn megapowers, and generally have fun. Great potential for some really weird screenshots, I think...
Thursday May 24th, 2001:
Ace says he is making a "Target Tag" version of Amateur Arena, which sounds like fun - where do the targets go, I wonder? Boomslang has got a new front page for his site, which should be quicker-loading and indicates which sites he links to have actually updated recently, which is a neat idea. Pure's new site seems to be the winner on the number of recent updates, as far as I can see, so check him out too. Oh, Pure, a useful small tip...the drop-down menu from "edit" at the top left of the Homestead screen does include an option to "undo delete", which I have found very useful. Or just close the page without saving it and you are left with the page as it was when you started. The drop-down menu from "page" includes "page bar" as an option - click that, and choose the other (hide frames) version, to banish the bar!
I have been busy taking the blue/grey page bar off as many pages as I can - I got a message that I had 58 new pages to upload, at one stage, and that was only part of it. I think the screenshot pages are clear now, and a proportion of the more recent review pages. Work will continue...
Friday May 25th, 2001:
His Amateur Target Tag map will actually be a brand-new arena, Ace assures us, not just the old place we play all the time with "TT" added. Presumably it will use the Amateur textures, and the general spirit of the place.
Well, Boom(slang) has updated, and put a short story on his "Cover" page - or is it the start of a serial? He has a couple of intriguing screenshots from an early, pre-release version of the NAB demo, too, which I had never seen before!
Pure has updated, assuring us that it is only Fry who hates other clans, not the whole of AE - and the Alpha Elite site has got new stuff, too. They have added some new members, and Alpha Flight himself is offering to train any of his people who need to improve their skills, which sounds a good offer.
Justin has added quite a few more screenshots to his idrive "photo album" - mainly fairly weird shots, but hey, it all adds to the fun.
Saturday May 26th, 2001:
If you are in CD, but have not got the new password (after "victory" was retired) for the CD Hidden Page, then you have a slight problem - how will you ever manage to get hold of the new CD Training Map, specially created by Ace, which is posted there now for download? FeEdiKo, B-Ball and I tried it out this morning, and it looks smooth!
Looking at the NAB Forum, and indeed replying to something West said (West Seiydder/Supreme), I wondered if some sort of "challenge tourney" would be a good idea, where any two first-rank players who met online could agree to go to an empty server for a one-on-one. Afterwards, the loser e-mails me the result, I put it in the next update, and after a while we have enough results to have some sort of contest of the top players...
Alpha Flight (Black Ninja) updated the Alpha Elite site, mainly about how some people are not nice to "newbies", and how we ought to encourage new NAB players. You can't argue with that! Personally, I do try, unless I am engaged in a life-or-death struggle with another player at the time. There is always the risk that the "newbie" is really some "oldbie" messing around, though, so people can be a little bit cautious about offering too much help!
Inspired by Boom's screenshots yesterday, CurtSquirt has put some more details about "The Evolution of NAB" on his site, including some more shots with strange-looking Heads-Up Displays. Do take a look!
Sunday May 27th, 2001:
Dax has released a new map he calls Sumo, because, as with Japanese Sumo wrestling, if you step outside the fighting circle you lose. It will probably be modified and improved as it is not perfect yet, but you can download it from the Custer idrive, and try it out, okay? We do have our screenshot and review up if you want more details, so click through to the Review Index in the usual way...
The Unknown, maker of those cool Lego maps in the first Lego map-pack, is still hard at work on pack two, but he has taken time out to make his own website - we have our links to it up on the Links page, and the Front page. Lots of nice new screenshots of the maps he is working on, and more stuff to come! Alpha Flight has also posted shots too, with The Unknown's permission; Alpha Flight (or indeed Black Ninja) has also got his Codes page full of good stuff - it is protected by a password you need to get from him, though. Still, a lot of the codes are on the NAB Forum too, plus plenty of other interesting entries. Boomslang is working on a new single-player tournament, so watch his site for details!
from: Ace to: Custer@NerfArena.com subject: My Mutators!!
Hi Custer.
Yesterday I was playing around with the script editor thing in NerfEd, and I made some mutators.
The first, NoWeapon.u, removes certain weapons. The classes under it are:
NoBallzooka
NoWildfire
NoScattershot
NoNerfCannon
NoPulsator
NoTripleStrike
NoHyperstrike
NoWhomper
The second mutators package is NoPoints.u. No, you still get points, but you must only get them by shooting others! Its subclasses are:
NoPointsPickups - Removes points that appear
NoTargets - Removes all targets
You can give them to everyone if you want. I hope everyone will use some of them, especially the NoTripleStrike and NoTargets mutators. =) See you later.
-Ace
Monday May 28th, 2001:
Ace has sent a couple of Mutators, which I have put on the Custer idrive. The e-mail he sent with them is on Archives III - I assume you put both files in the Nerf "System", and then they work as extra "cheats". With NoWeapon.u you can take certain weapons (such as the triple strike) out of an arena your server is hosting, while with NoPoints.u you can get rid of points-targets and points pick-ups.
Dax sent through a second version of Sumo - no Bots this time, some useful improvements "up top" and text prompts. He kept the map's name the same, so if you want to retain the old with-Bots version, rename it SumoOLD. The zip file on the Custer idrive for the new version I titled PM-Sumo][.zip - Dax will do at least one further version, I think - just add water!
Icedude has an idrive himself now, and has TheNABCannon.zip there - check our Review Index for Cannon Example, a simple map that is built around his new invention of a special NAB Cannon! He has also got 1 on 1 Amateur available there, his rather fun new map, which I should review today. And Spike sent me a rather more finished version of his "fragball" remix, Euro 2000 Remix, for me to check out!
Hey, Boom's new Tourney has nine top players registered now - he has increased the size to twelve people, so you can still sign up, just click the Tourney link from his cover page, okay? It should be held on June 9th or 16th, he says.
Tuesday May 29th, 2001:
Boom reports a change in the rules for his Tourney - if he and any two players (or for the final match, at present, three players) who are scheduled to play are online, they can hold the match right then, rather than trying to fit everything into one weekend. "This way it is similiar to your idea of a tourney, the "Challenge Tourney," he says. The prize for the winner will be to be able to call himself "NAB-MVP" after his name when he plays - though some "Wuss" has already copied that!
The Custer idrive now has Dax's Barracuda Sumo available, the latest version of his first "Sumo" map - however, it appears on the server lists as Barracuda, which will confuse people, and on the drop-down make-server list as a second Sumo. It also seems a little "laggy" to me, and while reducing the gravity is a nice idea, Dax may have reduced it rather too much. See what you think! Spike has issued a final version of his "fragball" remix, now simply Euro 2000 Remix. I guess I should update my review! Ace confirms that I was right about where to put the "muts" he released; you only need them if you make servers - even offline ones, if you use that trick to play the new arenas against Bots, using the player avatar of your choice, I imagine. We also have a new one up now: HealthBooster.u. This seems a cool idea of Ace's: "I made a more fun mutator than the others; it is the "HealthBooster" mutator. With this mutator in use, if you knock out another player, your health will automatically be "boosted" back up to 100! Same with the bots; if one of them knocks out another player, their health is restored also. This mutator is great if you want to go on a point spree!" And all in only 2 kilobytes...
Wednesday May 30th, 2001:
Tiggy has released the final version of Thunder, set high in the Sequoia forest, so rush over to The Blast Zone to download it! On the NAB Forum he is asking for your input on what sort of map he should try next, so tell him what you think - it is in the "mapmaking" section, unsurprisingly.
Icedude has 1 on 1 Sequoia on his idrive, another nice new map, the second in his continuing "1 on 1" series - our review is now up.
Hey, the end of this month means the end of the voting period for our (and Mac's) Hall of Fame - so, if you haven't voted yet, this is your last chance!
Dax has released a corrected version of Barracuda Sumo, which is up on the Custer idrive for you - it's the file PM-BarracudaSumo.zip, the one without the space in the middle! The one with the space I will delete soon, so if you are a completist about NAB maps, catch it while you can, okay?
The first game in Boom's Tourney has been played, though the result was too close to call: Peps versus Shignami. Poor Boom left a full server to download a new map so that he could enter my server where I was taking a screenshot, wanting to ask me to host the match - only for me to notice there was a place in that server now, and jump in! So he had to host the game himself...
Our Gamespy servers seem to have vanished, after the latest "upgrade" and support for new games at Gamespy - which is bad, if it means we have to rely on home-grown, smaller servers which can't take as many people - and, if they run the new arenas, are not accessible to new players. Let's hope they return soon!
Thursday May 31st, 2001:
Another new "1 on 1" arena from Icedude, 1 on 1 Orbital, available from his idrive; a rather simpler, sparser map than the previous two, intentionally, but still worth investigating. I put up Spike's new BattleField map on the Custer idrive, but it is in fact unfinished, so I guess I will take it down again soon! When it reappears it will be called Battle, as someone pointed out to Spike that there is already a map called "BattleField"! At the moment one main doorway is too low for even Todd to get through, and the sky is pumice/concrete. Thunderbird helped Spike to export the map, and Curt is now helping with the fixing-up - it looks like a rather useful arena, so let's hope everything works out okay.
I asked Ace for some further hints on how to use his mutators, once you've put them in the NAB "System" file. First choose your level, and start the server. Then hit [tab] and type "open [level name]?mutator=healthbooster.healthbooster", with [level name] being the name of the arena you have chosen. Then [line return] or [enter] or whatever you use to confirm a command, okay? You can run more than one mutator at the same time - for example, for an Amateur Arena game using two mutators together, what you'd have to type would be "open pm-amateur?mutator=healthbooster.healthbooster,noweapon.notriplestrike" to get rid of the triple strike as well as boost health. Hey, it works for me! Note that the only space in the string comes straight after the "open"...
Friday June 1st, 2001:
Justin sent me a copy of his latest retextured map - Euro 2001 Remix, which is his version of Spike's Euro 2000 Remix, logically enough. "I just improved Euro 2000, and made the soccer field a little bit greener. I changed a few of the blaster locations, and stuff. Also, Euro 2000 had some "concrete" textures, and didn't quite seem finished. I changed that :-). I might make another version of Euro 2000 soon, maybe not. Oh yeah, it also has a bit of music."
Sharpknux came on the Messenger last night, saying that, because he was playing another game now, and had also got himself suspended, he was not having anything to do with NAB now - maybe he will return one day. I hope it wasn't a lamp-post he was suspended from! This rather leaves the www.NerfArenaBlast.com site in limbo, though all its current pages and downloads should remain.
Well, the "healthbooster" and "notriplestrike" mutators certainly work, as we tested them in Mazon Remix yesterday. Having your health boosted back up to 100 when you blow away an opponent is rather useful! We still seem awfully short of servers, let's hope some of the e-mails sent out will get us some more...
Saturday June 2nd, 2001:
Sharpknux has been active on the NAB Forum lately, which, since it is his creation after all, is good, and brings a bit of form back to things; too many recent posts were short "flames" followed by big signatures! B-Ball has updated his site, with news that he has revised his downloadable "Codes Nerf ArenaBlast" so that it includes the latest mutators. I do wish he offered it as a web page too, for those people who would just like to browse it casually. And I've got the Review Index up to date with the latest maps, and even got Archives III up to date as well. And that is about all there is to report at the moment...
Sunday June 3rd, 2001:
FeEdiKo's latest map, TT-Aureecom, is now finished and available for download - take the handy link here to our screenshot and review page, which in turn has a (slightly slow) link to actually download the map. It works nicely for "Target Tag", and it works fine as a regular arena as well. Fee and I were playing for well over an hour last night before Joey joined us, battling against all four Luna Bots.
The mutators are working well; earlier I ran a rather busy server using, in the always-frantic Luna Bonus 2, notargets, nopointspickups, and notriplestrike - and then for the Skyscraper Arena I added healthbooster as well. Taking out targets and the points-lozenge that blowing someone away usually leaves does cut the speed at which scores mount up, but it avoids people "stealing" points, makes long-range sniping more important, and brings a slight touch of "UT" to NAB...
Justin tells me that he has a number of new maps, including a couple which make rather cunning use of "ballblast" mechanics; I await more details by e-mail! Alpha Flight has a map project or two under way; the Alpha Elite clan site has some early work on show. And the NAB Forum keeps busy, so is always worth checking on. Just remember to hit "mark forum read" when you finish each part, so that next time you will know where the newest messages are!
Monday June 4th, 2001:
We have added links to UltraBug's new idrive (on the Links and Front pages) for the very good reason that he has released his first three maps, all originals - and boy, are they original! Hop over to our Review Index and look up Castle Nerf, which was his first try at a NAB map, plus Swamp Snafu and Tootie-Fruity! They all support Bots, and they all look a lot of fun. UltraBug put a lot of work into these, so look out for some very cute touches and clever ideas.
Peps sent me an early version of Champ 2, a "one on one" map he is working on. Looks like he has got the hang of putting a map together - I'd better add that one to the Review Index too, as a work in progress. West Seiydder reports that he couldn't get FeEdiKo's TT-Aureecom to work, as he does not have the Quake3a texture file - quite a lot of maps use it, so most people should already have downloaded it with maps a few times, but as Id Software cracked down on the use of their textures outside Quake III, it is not generally available. Your best bet is to download an old map that includes it, such as (I just checked) good old Nali Temple Remix, okay?
Alpha Flight has updated the Alpha Elite clan site, mainly to warn that he will not be around much for the next two weeks, as important exams are coming up, and if he doesn't pass them, he will be brutally murdered. So his Sniping Map is likely to remain almost finished for a while; his secret idrive account has a new map on it, but he isn't revealing its location until there are five new maps to unleash upon us...
Tuesday June 5th, 2001:
I ran a server for Castle Nerf and then Tootie-Fruity last night, which gave me a chance to play them longer, with Wombat and his big brother UltraBug himself, plus Peps, Ashitaka and B-Ball mainly, and both maps did impress me - I found stuff I hadn't discovered before, and generally had a good time. So, both maps are highly recommended! B-Ball had trouble downloading from UltraBug's idrive, but I suppose the others, like me, managed it okay.
A message from Killer to say he is quitting NAB, which got boring for him...
Over on the NAB Forum, West Seiydder gives us details of his plans for a new map called Pax Romana, which is a kind of Senate chamber, with framed pictures of NAB clan leaders and other well-known players. He intends to have two different ways for clan leaders to settle disputes - either a brisk one-on-one battle (using an area based on Peps' Champ 2), or, as a test of smarts, something involving a maze and a puzzle. Sounds like fun, check under "mapmaking" for the full West Seiydder Story.
Well, not much else to report; B-Ball has some new screenshots, and the "Blog" at Sharpknux's site seems to be working again, though it is still telling us how nice his mother is, which comes under the heading of "old news"!
Wednesday June 6th, 2001:
Disturbing news on B-Ball's site, that idrive are closing down their service as of 18th June - which means that about ten idrive accounts we rely on, including mine, will vanish. So download everything you want as soon as you can! I will probably put what maps and mutators I can onto this website, even though Homestead is not very reliable for downloads, and space is limited. I didn't use it, but I also had a "myspace" account, and that service is closing too. A sign that some providers of free internet services are hitting trouble - I just hope that Homestead, and the NAB Forum "EZboard" people, are doing okay!
Crossfire tells me that he has four maps almost ready for release, including enhanced and improved versions of a couple of good ones: Fight Club Final and also Boeing Air Final. His Racing Mayhem is brand-new, and AE Enforced is a new training-type level, which will probably be available to all, when it's finished. As of last night, it was only about 10% done! Peps is adding a top level to Champ 2 (which at the moment appears on server lists as "1 on 1 Champion") - expect fire and fog, he says! In the first version, Bots seem to work pretty well, mainly because the place is too small for them to get lost...
Friday June 8th, 2001:
Well, I got the e-mail from idrive too - but that didn't stop me uploading two more maps there, even if they won't be there long! Champ 2 by Peps has now been expanded, with an upper area kindly added by UltraBug, so look for a map file now called Champion 2 ext - it is still not quite the finished version, as Peps wants to cut down on the rather generous supply of weapons there.
And Maze of Doom by Sk8er is now available. Be sure to go to our review and screenshot page, via the Review Index, first though, as I reprint Sk8's "ReadMe" file, which has tips about how to set off from the starting point, and what the final objective of your wanderings should be. And of course both map pages give a link-button to go to the idrive... sigh, what will we do without them...?
The "NAB Community" can host files, apparently, but you probably need to become a member to download them (not a problem, it just means getting a MSN "passport", which can be used as a basis for a hotmail e-mail account...), and the maximum size for any one file is 1.01MB - quite a few maps are larger than that, even when zipped! Any one community member can upload a maximum of 30MB of files, across however many MSN Communities he or she belongs to - but I have no idea if the downloads are reliable.
This is one of my busy weekends, so very little updating will be done this side of Monday; remember to check SLAM's idrive, he ought to be back from his three weeks away some time this weekend. Maybe good old Nerf Neighbourhood is nearly ready to have its final version published...?
Monday June 11th, 2001:
Dax has made a rather quick map called SLAMDUNK - not throwing SLAM in the water for taking so long over finishing a certain map, but a small yet enjoyable basketball map using the "Mighty Mo" nerfcannon. B-Ball has updated his codes page or download, while CurtSquirt reports that he has had a nasty accident on his bike (well, coming off it, I suppose) - much skin rubbed off on the roadway, and bruises. His mouse hand really hurts too much for much NAB or UT playing at the moment - so get well soon, Curt!
Mac's (and our) "Hall of Fame" attracted only 25 votes, in the end, but the worthy winner was Thunderbird, so congratulations to him. He has gone off to the family cottage in the country for the week, so things are going to seem awfully quiet on MSN Messenger around here!
Icedude mentioned something called Velora Remix. And I did try out a "beta" version of a (kind-of) remix by someone else, about which I am sworn to secrecy! I can't reveal anything about a big "signing" by one of the main clans either, yet, leading to a bit of a reshuffle of its top people.
Checking the NAB Community site reveals a new clan is out there and recruiting - Star Wars Clan. Is the force strong in this one? More news when we get it. LoneStar is mentioned as their Emperor.
The Champion 2 ext map may now be considered the final version, Peps tells me. Not a large map, but certainly pretty interesting. Remember, the idrives all close in a week, so download everything you want before it's too late...
Tuesday June 12th, 2001:
How nice to be able to start with a quote from SLAM after all this time. "Hey, everyone, I've made a new NAB site. This one doesn't offer all the content of my last site, but has something very important to gaming today: files. I've built it as a one-page, simple, no-nonsense site that will, after I finish uploading, have all the maps, textures, and more that everyone wants. Visit it and bookmark it now at http://www.crosswinds.net/~slamexpress/" - and, while the files were not yet working when I visited late yesterday, it sounds just what we need! In an earlier e-mail, he had mentioned that "Work on Nerf Neighborhood will continue as much as I can spare. At any rate, NN will have many new areas and surprises, and you will have it."
Curt reports that he is starting to recover, though one leg is rather bigger than the other. So maybe we will see him playing again before too long...
And the bad news is that Homestead, who host many of the NAB sites (this one included), say that they will soon start to charge people by the month for the privilege, except for tiny three-page sites. Eek...
Wednesday June 13th, 2001:
There are nine new maps (in his usual retexturing way...) on the Justin idrive, so if you want them, grab them quickly! Laser Tag did not work for me, the file somehow just was not a NAB map, but that still leaves Alien Planet Three, Sky of Fun ][, WW Four, one entitled "DSF [special lights]", Euro 2004 Remix, and Darkness, plus two that are technically BallBlast: Capture the Flag and Find Them All, though that last one, which is actually based on Civil War Remix, seemed extremely "laggy" for some reason. I will of course be adding review/screenshot pages...
New mapmaker SpUtNiK sent me his original BallBlast map Ball Attack, which is on my idrive. Click the special link-button to go to the brief review & screenshot, but check that you have the Crypt2 and Quake3a texture files before you download it! He is involved in a new clan that is forming, apparently, so watch out for further news of that, and a website and more maps in due course!
But time to quote SLAM: "For the next three weeks, I will be back in action as a mapper. My dad graciously decided to let me do my mapping every day until we move to Florida, so for the next three weeks, I plan to attempt to finish NN, and release my next project, Outcast Facility.
"Outcast will be a special kind of map. In one sense I am building it to make up to all the people whos computers couldn't handle NN. In another, I am building it as a tribute to the forerunners of modern 3D games. Some of the architecture and texturing (yes, custom textures) will resemble that of such classics as Quake I & II and Descent. It will run smoothly, and play well. I have big hopes for this one, and I'm sure already it will be one that many will enjoy. Construction is coming along quite well, and it should be little time before you see something of it released."
So, that sounds good! The "SLAM Express" site is still being worked on, as he finds a way to persuade Crosswinds to let him offer all the files he is collecting from the various idrives - so soon that link from his main page there should work!
Peps is trying to fix his NAB: too many "Assertion Failed: Actor Class..." error messages at the moment, so wish him luck. We may see less of him on-NAB until he gets it running smoothly. Alpha Flight had only one exam left, last time we talked, so he should be back in action soon. And a CD announcement is looming...
Thursday June 14th, 2001:
Alpha Flight has released the address of his new idrive, since that whole system is about to vanish: on it you will find two maps, Longest Yard 2.0 and Nerf Airlines, by Duo. The first of these is a 6.23MB download, as it includes three texture files the map needs: not just good old Quake3a, which you probably already have, but also Quake3c, and, at over 3MB unzipped, Quakearena. I can't play the map, though: I just get "Connection Failed" when I attempt to make a server. Nerf Airlines is a mere 1.77MB - a very fine arena, check out our review & screenshot page!
A new clan website has been revealed to us, made by the Star Wars Clan - and very nice it looks, too! We have added our links to them, so check the site out - and if you were wanting to join a new, fresh clan with some interesting plans, well, this looks like your chance! Ace has also made a new site - he is working on having all the maps available for download there, which is a massive task.
And the announcement from Clan Destiny is that, to celebrate their anniversary - Spike, their original founder and leader, has been invited back to head the clan once again! Spike was away from NAB for a while, mainly due to a bad internet connection, but he's back now, playing better than ever, and about to get a proper cable connection. Custer remains as co-leader, along with FeEdiKo, while SLAM, B-Ball and their other top people certainly make CD a clan to be reckoned with. So, exciting times - though unfortunately we really managed to annoy the leader of the clan Spike had been in recently, by "poaching" him...
Friday June 15th, 2001:
There were times yesterday when there was no NAB server of any sort online, not even a Demo one