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Looks like Sierra’s assumed resonsibility for moderating the former WON services for Homeworld and Cataclysm (and other WON based games).

Here’s a quote from Morstaf, a Sierra fellow.

Morstaf (Multiplayer Services) – 10:40am Aug 28, 2002 PST (19.) Mark
Technology Bard, Sierra Entertainment
OK, time to clear up the rampant misconceptions.

First, WON is dead, kaput, toast, history, or any other colorful metaphore you want to use for no longer exists. Cataclysm is a Sierra title and as a result, when WON died, we took on the multiplayer again. Before anyone asks, both Homeworld and Cataclysm are older games. Nothing about their multiplayer implementation can be changed at this late date. Suffice it to say that any issues, espcially lobby issues, have been noted and taken into account for future titles.

Side effect of this? Cataclysm is now under Sierra’s online policies, not WON’s. The short version: don’t be a jerk and you’ll be fine. If you really want to read the lawyer speak, you can read the terms of use here:

http://www.sierra.com/motd/sys/tou.txt

Look at point 4 for behavior specifics.

Any moderator on the Sierra Forums can make banning requests for behavior in the online lobbies. This is not an abuse of their powers; it’s part of their abilities. They have no power to ban anyone; they can just submit incidents for review. This means a screenshot and full description of what happened. This information is reviewed and bans happend based on the results of that.

For bans, it’s from all online play. 1st offense results a 1 week ban, second offense is permanent. You can get a permanent ban on 1st offense if you do something truly dispicable. To date, there has only been 1 first offense permanent ban across all games: given to a user in another game who was spamming a link to a porn site in a lobby.

Examples of behavior that will get you a ban: spamming, repeated use of profanity, repeated spoofing, claiming to be a represenative of Sierra/Vivendi. These are examples, not an exhaustive list; users come up with new and creative ways to ruin other’s fun all the time. Mostly, use common sense and don’t be a jerk.

Finally, it’s impossible to moderate all lobbies 24 by 7. However, you never know when a moderator will be around. So, to quote everyone’s favortie animated toy Cowboy: “Play nice!”

Finally, there has been 1 ban with Homeworld and Homeworld cataclysm do to requests from moderators. This was for a person spouting repeated profanity in a lobby. The ban is for 1 week. There have been no other bans.

GG Sierra. Thanks to 1_Alpha for bitching, and mecha for the heads up. See the original thread on the Relic boards here. See the sierra thread here. See the Sierra Online gaming service MOTD/End user agreement here.

Just a reminder folks, the October PC Gamer is in stores now. The Homeworld 2 article is part of the “10 Best Games of 2003″ article and can be found on page 58 and 59. The pictures are of fairly good quality.

Of particular interest is the text in the article. While mostly a rehash of the May chat, there are some notable questions and answers. The first is this one:

PC Gamer: Same engine? Improved Engine?
Alex Garden: Homeworld2 will feature a brand-new 3d engine that has been designed to bring out the best features of all the new 3d cards. It’s going to once again totally redefine the 3d space-combat RTS genre’s graphical expectations.

WILL feature… It’s going to… which means it doesn’t right now… hmmm I can’t wait to see the final version of the graphics engine :-D

Until we confirm if we can post the images from PC Gamer or not, we will not be posting them on Relicnews.com. I recommend you at least go down to your local magazine shop and browse through an open magazine, if you can’t at least buy it.

Being the bored person I am (and the fact that the PA articles aren’t loading), I went trollin’ through the boards and ran across a gem of a thread:

hw trading cards: competition

For those of you who don’t frequent the gallery boards, you really are missing out as exibit A will prove:

And theres more of this goodness where that came from! So head on over and check out the thread.

Morgan Jaffit, game designer on Relic’s Homeworld 2, has submitted an industry column to Penny Arcade. You can find it here… when it’s up.

As a side note, there are also 6 screenshots from Treasure Planet up at PA as well… soon.

Thanks to lafrsta for pointing this out to me.

I’m still alive….I swear. A lack of internet connection at home has severely limited my participation in RN goodness. I should have a stable connection a little after Sept 1st (finally moving) so then I can get that pesky little IC preview out to ya.

Anyways…on to the news

The last paragraph of Tycho’s Friday rant at Penny Arcade had an interesting little tidbit (not to say its not ALL interesting…please, dont hurt me)

I’ve got some screenshots of Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon, the first in a series of articles from a designer on Homeworld2,

Now, I’m not sure if hes doing some Cataclysm to Barking Dog to Treasure Planet to Homeworld 2 mixup or if a worker on Treasure Planet is also doing some HW2 work…either way, might be interesting to catch when he does put up his article.

UberJumper Edit: FoX… I was at the Necrowombicon Friday night last week with UberWife, Mokona and Morgan. Morgan, the HW2 Designer in question, was talking to Tycho about doing an industry column on Penny-Arcade. To my knowledge, it won’t cover any HW2 specific details. Morgan’s going to let us know when the column’s up. I’ve got some shots of him talking to Tycho that I’ll put up tonight.

The Treasure Planet screenshots must be a seperate thing.

[edit]Here’s those shots[/edit]

FoXy Edit: Ahhh Yes. Now it all makes sense. Those are SEPERATELY listed items…amazing how commas do that! UJ >> FoX :|

There’s rumors circulating that the October PC Gamer is on store shelves. Check it out at your own risk.

Just a quick note, I ‘fixed’ our java chat script. You can now connect to the community IRC Server (IRC.AUSTNET.ORG) by clicking the IRC Chat link on the left nav bar.

PC Gameworld’s got a review of the IC Beta up. Here’s the general description of what they were playing with.

The beta version I played came with a very thorough tutorial, three skirmish modes, multiplayer, and four single player levels from the game, complete with cut-scenes, dialogue, and in-game cinematics. From what I’ve seen so far, the game is nicely polished and has a unique style while still maintaining standards from the real-time strategy genre.

Now if only FoX would emerge from the depths with his iCreatures review, Relicnews.com might be able to post it’s own. Spotted this on Blue’s.

Mokona sent us another link to an article on Gamespot about Hegemonia that mentions Homeworld as the ground breaking game Homeworld is.

Looks like Arioch got his copy of PC Gamer and has posted some information about the ships shown in the PC Gamer issue. He also seems to have gotten a copy of an image of one of the ships that was supposed to have gone up on the Relic Website back in November of last year. He proposes that the large ship shown in the screenshots in PC Gamer is the same as the ship in this “leaked and then aggressively suppressed” image. There is also an entry for the single fighter shown in the PC Gamer shots.

Pop by The Homeworld Shipyards and have a look. While you’re at it, check out his latest updates to the Outsider Web Comic.

I would like to take this time to point out something to some people that are angry “that pc gamer got information before the community did”, “Alex promised the community would see new information before anyone else” and “they said there’d be no new information until 2003!!”. I refer you to this segment of the HW2 Chatlog from back in May:

[Pike] [Earth] When will the HW2 site be updated with Screen Shots?
[AlexG] www.Homeworld2.com will start to get updated in 2003… the first looks will come from the newsletter to our dedicated fans. I really wish I could let you check it out sooner, but as I said before we’re keeping our cards pretty close to the vest for the time being so that we can focus on the game.

You will note, that the question here asks specifically when the Homeworld 2 website will be updated (with screenshots). Now you’ll note that Alex answers that the Homeworld 2 website will be updated in 2003. Logically, when he then mentions a first look to our dedicated fans, you should then assume that he’s referring to the HW2 website, not Homeworld 2 in general. There is no mention of Magazines, Relic.com, TV or any other media outlet about releasing HW2 information.

What irks me more than anything, is that the community is getting Homeworld 2 information and people are pissed about it! I’m sure Relic and Sierra will want to release more information when they see the reaction to this batch. ;-> Stop freakin’ complaining that Relic/Sierra has broken their word as they haven’t. Next time, if you want more precise answers, ask better questions :-)

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