news archive
cheat test failed (10/02/98)
I tested a suggested cheat I found on another C&C site: Selling 3 Refineries right one after one should have given me unlimited amount of money. I tried it on WChat several times. It didn't work and I'm glad about that fact.
ladder improvements on the way (08/27/98)
question from MacMark:
Hi Ted, I have had several games where it was obvious that the d/c recognition doesn't work in CC. Best example was a game when I have had a complete base and lots of units and my opponent only a bike left which was half destroyed. After the "lost connection" count down the bike was killed in 2 seconds. I didn't get the win. My opponent told me before he pulled the plug: good game, too bad You don't get the credit. Give me a reason for some hope that such things will not be possible in the near future...
answer from Virtual Ted:
We're updating our entire tournament system over the next few months. I think You'll appreciate the improvements...
08/11/98
Convention
Last evening/night CmdrCD visited M00nraker and me (MacMark) in Paderborn (city in the middle of Germany). It was our 2nd meeting this year. We have had a 10 hours session of Command&Conquer and Quake.
Imitators
Several players surfaced at WChat who use a similar name to CmdrCD's. They asked him, if they're allowed to do that. He agreed. Wonder why they use a name like a tough player?
WChat results
CmdrCD and me (MacMark) found, that many matches we won on WChat weren't counted by the ladder system. Especially in games where our opponents have "left the game, it's just You and me now". Distinguish that from d/cing, what means somebody pulls the plug of his modem!
Apropos: I heard that the other ladders of Westwood handle d/cing very well. But the C&C ladder doesn't seem to perform well in that issue yet.
07/19/98
o8frost8o's tactics (for additional infos about that guy look here)
From a reader:
he usually builds power + hand of nod + helio + helio + helio + helio + helio + helio if he doesnt get in Your base he aborts!
he also does power + hand of nod + refinery + airstrip + refinery +15recons and attacks.
he also does a cheap helio + chinook strategy
07/09/98
Playwatch
MacMark:
Hi Ted,
i (MacMark) have yet this moment disconnected versus "Cadet131", who hided his 1 or 2 last Stealth Tanks while I'm having a complete base. Will such behavior (hiding the last unit) be punished anyhow?
MacMarkVirtual Ted:
Thanks. I'll keep an eye on him for the month.
-VT
07/06/98
Unfair player "Cadet131"
Cadet131 hides his very last Stealth Tank instead of surrendering. Don't play him!
06/30/98
Names
"Laserfang" = "NoSkills" = "Sunblast". The man with many names.
Details listings in beta
MacMark:
Hi Ted,
I found that the details of my ladder history are apparently false: As "MacMark" the ladder says I have 3 losses. The details list 10 or more losses for me. Strange. And some opponents I played are missing. Other opponents listed for me, I think, I haven't played them. On WChat other players said the details listings are wrong. Looks like trouble?
MacMarkVirtual Ted:
Yeah, we're still working on it, and its still in a "beta test" mode right now. Should have it all cleared up in the next day or so.
-VT
06/25/98
Ferroid (Ferroid2) in trouble
He has a red face on the ladder, but he's not a d/c player (I know him good enough...). So I asked him about it and got this answer:
"I have no idea why it happens, but about every 3rd or 4th game I play just cuts off for no apparent reason. I get a variety of different messages like 'packet received too late', or 'connection has been lost'. After that the computer takes over, so I abort. After this, I see a red face on the rank page, which I can never get rid of, because my games continue to disconnect by themselves, and I can't stop it."
Starcraft sucks
I took a look on it. I don't like it. It has no charm. Not the charm C&C has. By the way: Red Alert sucks too. Tiberian Sun seems to be better. But that remains to be seen.
06/24/98
Ladder improved
Westwood improved the C&C ladder Worlwide Ranks Of Heroes with more details about top players. You can now simply click on a player and see his gaming history: His opponents, who won, rank of the opponent etc.
But it's not available for all players yet. Only in the top 100 or so it will operate.
C&C: Tiberian Sun site
You want to know more about it? Visit Westwood's official site!
DrLux d/ced
DrLux was No.4 as he played me (No.100). Before I could completely get his base he d/ced. What a bloody sucker! He isn't very good. He didn't get the loss, I didn't get the win points.
06/12/98
C&C: Tiberian Sun details
Look here if You like lots of text, pictures and a movie about Tiberian Sun. No more rumors, but facts.
06/11/98
From another source:
"I played frOst twice on different names and both times he did a 7 helicopter rush,When I beat all of his helicopters during our second game, he d/ced. But I want this to be known, the REAl frOst does not d/c, right now his son is playing, so if next month he has a green face it is probably the father and not the d/cin son."
06/09/98
From a reliable source:
"When he (o8FrOsT8o) knows hes about to lose he always does the cheap way out by pulling the plug. No loss is counted on him (wonder why he has a yellow face?). When he plays GDI he usually does cheap rushes at the beginning and sometimes does Medium Tank rushes. When he's NOD, same story, when You're GDI he'll have a nuke and this huge army of bikes and tanks, nuke Your army and move in. I heard this from many sources and friends, I never dared to play him myself though."
If someone knows more about his tactix, tell me!
06/08/98
Who played versus o8FrOsT8o?
Copied from the WChat window chatting with o8FrOsT8o:
o8FrOsT8o-> if i play You
o8FrOsT8o-> Youll tell everyone my strat
o8FrOsT8o-> )Okay! Who can tell me, which tactic he usually plays? I will publish it here...
06/05/98
A new tough player?
I got a loss: Helena33 beat me. Look for her!
06/02/98
Westwood has had Internet trouble (solved now)
From Westwood's WWW server:
"June 1st, 1998 - 3:00pm PST
To our guests...
Less than one hour ago, the T3 line that connects Westwood's game service, web server, ftp servers, and other internet systems was severed between ourselves and our provider. While our Internet provider attempts to correct the problem, we have re-activated our backup T1 line. However, our T1 line cannot carry the huge amount of traffic as our T3 line, so several services including our web and ftp servers will be offline until the problem is corrected.
Westwood Online, our chat & Internet game network, will continue to be available for You to use. As soon as our T3 connection is reestablished, we will reactivate all of our services as soon as possible.
Thank You for Your patience and understanding.
- Westwood Studios"
06/01/98
Is Westwood's d/c detection effective? - Answer No. 2
Thanks to Zeroforge, who found another problem and sent it:
"I found a problem quite a while back...still works now but I quit using it since it sucked. I sold buildings for money and killed my own men. You get points for killing Your own people. Anyway, when both sides have powerful forces and is just needing a few more before the big attack, make sure You still have a large force but make sure Your score is about 10-15 kills higher. Then open all Your internet applications...this will cause major lag and after a while a d/c. When this happens just wait until it says 30 seconds for reconnect. Then quit all internet applications and You will have a win. The applications I use for the lagging were "web ferret" "file ferret" "news ferret" and "gamespy". I don't do that anymore since it is sooooo cheap but it still worked when my friend "Thatpsych" and I tried it."
Another thing, that should be fixed by Westwood.
Westwood's ladder was reset for the June tournament
05/24/98
Is Westwood's d/c detection effective? - Answer No. 1
Thanks to MacNODMan, who did some testing and sent his results:
"Here are my findings:
Apparently, no it is not. My friend and I did a few tests with this. On the first test in the middle of play I just turned off my modem and force quit C&C, what happens here is that the Game Results aren't sent to Westwood, and the loss and win isn't counted. Our second test was connecting to our ISP at low connection speeds with our old 14.4 modems, the horrible connection made C&C run at an incredibly low rate eventually one of us got disconnected with bad problems, but what happened was that the loss was counted but it was an accident! Third Test, during the game we pulled the connection plugs, and had the same results as the First Test.
So I conclude that Westwood has faulty connection detectors and that they should imrpove on future versions."
I hope some Westwood guys read that.
05/21/98
XxNorthxX removed from ladder!
XxNorthxX, known as a great d/c, was removed from Westwood's C&C ladder. He held his No.1 position with a red face indicating a d/c rate of 31% or more of his games.
It looks like Westwood do what they said: Every high ranked player will be checked for unfair playing practice and removed from the ladder in that case. He lose all his points too and gets none of the prices!
Well done, Westwood! (again)
05/17/98
Is Westwood's d/c detection effective?
Please send me Your findings and add Your Wchat nick! I would like to publish Your answers here.
05/04/98
Bad times for d/c players!
From Westwood's site: Westwood released a new version of the Westwood Online client software that detects who disconnected and automatically gives that person the loss (while the other player is given the win).
Question (MacMark):
"Will this feature be implemented to the Mac version too?"
Answer (Pat@Westwood.com):
"Since the changes were mostly on the server end, it should work for the Mac version as well, but I will have to check to make sure."
Answer (VirtualTed@Westwood.com):
"Actually, it will if You're playing against someone with a PC."
Well done, Westwood!
Famous undercover players (part 2)
Rquiem goes under "Rquiem" and "MQNH". MQNH is high ranked, very high. :-) Possibly Rquiem uses his other nicks too. He published them on his site.
Laserfang goes under "Laserfang" again. Last month he used to be "NoSkills". Very funny idea for a top player like him!
04/30/98
Rquiem's poll results available
I got email from Rquiem today. Read his results here.
26.Apr.98
Rquiem's comeback?
To my greatest surprise I found Rquiem listed again in Westwood's Worldwide Ranks Of Heroes. Didn't he retire some weeks ago? (Rquiem was the top 1 player in March.)
You're welcome, Rquiem!
20.Apr.98
Covert Operations for MacC&C
There's an easy way to play the missions of the DOS "Covert Operations" CD with MacC&C and to use the multi player maps from that disk. I did it already! The details are available here now!
Coming soon: Rquiem's "TOP 10 WChat Players Ever" poll results!
Rquiem started in March a poll regarding the best Westwood players of all times. Everyone could have sent in his private top five players guess. (For more info check his web site.) Now the ranks are filled with names. But Rquiem cannot publish it himself. He asked me, if I could publish the poll results for him, because he's low on space with his web site.
Rquiem promised me to send them last weekend, but still I didn't get them. He seems very busy at moment. Look for the results in the next few days!
07.Apr.98
Famous undercover players?
One of them is "Laserfang", who is using now another nick name. He is high ranked under that name. I promised him not to publish his new identity, because he wants to pratice a little. By the way: He killed me 2 times :-(.
He is the brother of Rquiem (formerly being the top player at Westwood until he retires last week). Question: Did Rquiem really retire or does he try a new nick like his brother does? As far as I know, he retired really.
And: I have a 2nd nick name, too. Nobody knows it, because I told nobody about it. Maybe I use it some day...
Ladder working properly since 2 days again
In the last 2 weeks Westwood experienced some trouble with the ladder database. This resulted in lost game results and/or updates not as scheduled. At the moment it's working properly and I hope it will go on.
02.Apr.98 Strange ladder results?
I got 2 losses by the ranking system, although I was not beaten. It seems, that 2 disconnects by my opponents (my connection to Westwood was not broken) resulted in that decision of the ladder. I think the reason was my sold CY. Damn! I got a huge tank rush army...
01.Apr.98 Rquiem retires as a champion of C&C
Rquiem, the champion of Westwood's March tourney of C&C, retires. He returns to social life. Maybe we will see him back with C&C2 as he said.
31.Mar.98 Database trouble in C&C ranking
In the last few days players experienced trouble in Westwood's online ranking system for C&C. According to VirtualTed Westwood is "having a few database problems".
If You're having still trouble seeing updates on Your scores and rank mail to VirtualTed and describe the problem. I observed that the "updated at 5.00 pm" changes every hour, but the entries remain the same.The ladder will be cleared today and be ready for the new May tourney.
01.Mar.98 Tournament Ranking's Official Start
The ladder is now official and fully functional and will be cleared every month. Help pages are now available, too. Read them. They're important and include the following:
- Calculation of points: You win/lose 1 to 64 points per match depending on the point difference between You and Your opponent. You never lose more than 10% of Your current points. If You beat the same person more than 3 times You may get no more points for such a match.
- Matches lasting less than 3 minutes are not reported to the ladder system.
- If You clearly win/lose and a disconnect (d/c) or out-of-sync-error (sync) happens, You will get the win/loss in the ranking system and a d/c point, too. The faces indicate how often someone had a (passive/active) disconnect: 20% of Your matches or less =
, 21-30% =
, 31% or more =
. Westwood recommends not to play someone with the red face.
- Unfair tactics like hiding Your very last unit are recognized, too.
For more details see the help pages here.
24.Feb.98: Tiberian Sun
Yeah, the spelling is right. You want to know what it is? Take a look at MacC&C. Click on sneak peak and enjoy the video of Tiberian Sun. These news are for my PC friends. :-)
I think C&C will remain my favorite game.
23.Feb.98: Surrendering
I had a game versus WolfCry. I won, but I got disconnected by my ISP. Wolfcry was honest and surrendered in our next game. But the ladder-system didn't assess that game. So we played again a little and he let me win. This time it was assessed. Bottom line?
Surrendering in the beginning of a match is the same as no match.
19.Feb.98: Color-faces on the ladder
Question:
What does the happy, mild, and sad faces mean on the tourmament page? I have been unable to find out by looking at various places.
Answer:
The faces indicate how often someone had a (passive/active) disconnect: 20% or less =
15.Feb.98: Ranking sections
The ranking system provides 3 sections: Combined, GDI, NOD. Combined contains all players and is THE ranking. GDI and NOD sections contain only players, who play the GDI (NOD) side more often than the NOD (GDI) side. Each player is in the GDI xor NOD section.
12.Feb.98: Win/Loss in case of disconnect
Question from me:
If my opponent leave the C&C game (computer: it's just u and me now!) will he get the loss and me the win?
In such a case I played the CPU and the CPU build infantry it normally couldn't: The CPU (my opponent left the game) was GDI and had no Adv. Comm. Center build Commandos (not possible without Adv. Comm.!!!) and Chem. Warrior ( a NOD force!!!). Is that ok?
If the game doesn't connect at start to the other player what happens to my results?
Answer from Virtual Ted (working on the ladder system @ Westwood):
Yes, however only if he quits. If You are both disconnected, then You will BOTH get that message, in which case, the win will be awarded to the person that was ahead at the time of disconnect.
11.Feb.98: PC versus Macintosh & ranking for all possible now!
Westwood released the new WChat for Mac (version 3.7). MacC&C players can now join the ranking party! And: play again versus PC players.
Download it from Westwood or me!
10.Feb.98: Mac ranking & Mac/PC games
There's one problem left to be solved: The un-released new WChat for Mac gives at the moment some trouble with Monopoly. (Who plays Monopoly?) This should be solved in the near future.
So we can expect the release of the MacC&C update and the brand new WChat for Mac every day, every hour. Depends on how fast Westwood can squish this last bug.
Weak Players
War has no rules! Who asks for rules, is a weak player. Examples of weak players:
- "Harvester Treaty (HT)?"
- "I hate rushers!"
- "Wonna be allies?"
- "Temporary start-treaty!"
- "No Engineers!"
- "No helis!"
Statements like these above indicate, that the player cannot stand the heat in certain situations. No mercy! If they can't stand the heat, they should play other games.
New WChat for Mac
20. Jan. 98 from pat@westwood.com
MacMark: "Still waiting for WChat for Mac".
Pat: "Me too! I think it's just about finished up."15. Jan. 98 from pat@westwood.com
"I hope to have it out by this weekend. It supports PC to Mac play, but at this time, it will not report wins to the ladder. We will likely have to patch the game itself to make it ladder compatible."
09. Jan. 98 from pat@westwood.com
"I just got a working version of the new beta yesterday. I have been playing with it, and so far, it seems to work well. The only thing left to do is to check to see if the ladder reporting works correctly. If this is the case, it should be released next week."
31. Dec. 97 from pat@westwood.com:
"The Mac WCHAT is coming, but unfortunately some coding problems have delayed its release. We hope to have it out early in January after Westwood reopens for the new year."
If this is true -and I have no cause to doubt- the bad news below are for my trash can in some days.
Ladder is up / no Mac ranking yet
Westwood's C&C-ladder-system is active. VirtualTed works on further improvements of that C&C-pages.
As I read there, the tournament-system will have finished it's beta test in January. I found many of my "Tough Players" top ranked on it. :-) I didn't found my name, although I won some games since the ladder went up. :-( Maybe VirtualTed didn't rank Mac players yet. But that should change according to VirtualTed:
07. Nov. 97 from virtualted@westwood.com:
"Yes. C&C mac players will be ranked. We just haven't been able to get our C&C tournament page up yet."
Now the ladder is up in beta, but no Macs are ranked. Reason: No WChat 4.1 for Mac available yet.
WChat Mac / PC trouble
PCs got "WChat 4" several months ago. Since then Macs and PCs cannot see each other in the C&C-section for joining a game. So Macs and PCs cannot play each other anymore. A new Mac WChat was delayed because a bug was found according to pat@westwood.com, who helped beta-testing it.
Here's what You can do: Show Westwood Your strong demand for compatibility in WChat between Mac & PC: Write
Make Mac- and PC- Westwood-Chat compatible again for playing C&C and rank Mac C&C players too!
to comments@westwood.com (as the name suggests) or to virtualted@westwood.com (ladder guy at Westwood).
MacMark asked Virtual Ted:
"Tried it, but doesn't work. I learned that no Mac can play PCs since PCs got WChat 4. The problem is: Macs & PCs cant see each other's game since then. Only MacMac or PCPC games are possible yet. When can I play PCs again?"
09. Dec. 97 from virtualted@westwood.com:
"I'm screaming and yelling about this right now. Found out and am very unhappy. I'll see about getting this fixed very soon."
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