# "The Ship" full game trial weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749 "2006-11-01T17:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/21 "2006-11-03T01:01:05Z")
Can I get a show of hands of anyone interested in playing tonight? If so, your best time? I can start the server now till whenever, we just need at least like 4 people to make it interesting. Otherwise, plan on starting it in about an hour and a half. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/22 "2006-11-03T01:11:14Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Can I get a show of hands of anyone interested in playing tonight? If so, your best time? I can start the server now till whenever, we just need at least like 4 people to make it interesting. Otherwise, plan on starting it in about an hour and a half. [/QUOTE] I’ll be on as soon as it finishes d/l…which could be soon! ---
**Author:** ![motomoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@motomoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motomoon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/23 "2006-11-03T01:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Can I get a show of hands of anyone interested in playing tonight? If so, your best time? I can start the server now till whenever, we just need at least like 4 people to make it interesting. Otherwise, plan on starting it in about an hour and a half. [/QUOTE] I’m in ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/24 "2006-11-03T01:16:41Z")
Okay, I’ll create the server now to see if we can get interesting going. “SDMB Killfest” password Cecil ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/25 "2006-11-03T01:20:58Z")
I am but I’m having a bit of a problem, but I’ll try. It’s telling me my driver isn’t up to date, but it is. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/26 "2006-11-03T01:22:44Z")
I may be a bit too clueless to play with you guys anyway. I’m having problems just getting out of the room. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/27 "2006-11-03T01:23:30Z")
I’m new too. Pop on and ask questions (chat window = enter key by default) and we’ll try to help. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/28 "2006-11-03T01:32:48Z")
Ok here’s what I’m gonna do. Unless we have some critical number of players, it won’t be interesting for a locked/SDMB only server. So… I’m going to make it public. When you sign on, PUT SDMB IN YOUR NAME, like [SDMB]SenorBeef That way, we can fill the server up with public people to make it interesting, but when I see 4-5 SDMB names, I’ll know I can lock it and we can have a private game. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/29 "2006-11-03T02:43:10Z")
Kinda fun for a while, but I don’t think i’ll be buying it. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/30 "2006-11-03T02:52:42Z")
If anyone plays again, let me know. I’ve been practicing! ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/31 "2006-11-03T04:37:09Z")
I’ll probably buy it, it’s a neat concept. Pretty nerve-wracking being suspicious of every person that comes close to you. I’ve got it mostly figured out, although some of the ships are pretty maze-like. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/32 "2006-11-03T07:58:28Z")
Let’s aim for an all-sdmb game tomorrow, for whoever has the free time. We had about 6 SDMB guys throughout the night, but never more than 3 at once I don’t think. Maybe 4. So maybe if we set a planned time, in advance, it can work. So, how about 5pm PST/8pm EST? We all try to play together at that time… One thing I really wish they’d do with the game is integrate the weapons more organically into the map. When you go through a kitchen and grab a frying pan, or grab a cue stick from the pool room, it feels totally natural and good. Not only that, but when you see that the frying pain is the top-priced weapon, you can head towards the kitchen… But instead, most of the weapon distribution is random, in secret nodes that contain a lot of weapons. Lame copout design. They really should’ve spread the weapons out more, and integrated them more organically into the map, than the way they did it. It’s especially crappy for new players who don’t know where the secret weapon nodes are. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/33 "2006-11-03T08:11:23Z")
I still say it’s odd that eyepatches are gender-specific. Sure, 8 sounds good. Assuming I remember to stop playing NWN2. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/34 "2006-11-03T15:36:55Z")
There’s definitely an art to acting nonchalant. This game sets up some pretty funny situations. At some points I was laughing so hard last night. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/35 "2006-11-03T16:19:15Z")
It reminds me a bit of being a spy in team fortress. You have to somehow convey, through FPS movements, that you’re not a threat to that person. Of course, in TF, there was a trick that worked about 90% of the time. If someone knew there was a spy in the base, and was staring you down… you looked at them… and jumped. Suddenly, they say “oh, whew, I thought you might be a spy, but you’re okay, you jumped” and leave you alone. At which point you stab them. I have no idea what goes on in their little monkey brains, but that was exceedingly effective. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/36 "2006-11-03T16:33:07Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] It reminds me a bit of being a spy in team fortress. You have to somehow convey, through FPS movements, that you’re not a threat to that person. Of course, in TF, there was a trick that worked about 90% of the time. If someone knew there was a spy in the base, and was staring you down… you looked at them… and jumped. Suddenly, they say “oh, whew, I thought you might be a spy, but you’re okay, you jumped” and leave you alone. At which point you stab them. I have no idea what goes on in their little monkey brains, but that was exceedingly effective. [/QUOTE] Jumping worked well because it was the quickest way that a real teammate would convey “yes I know you’re looking for a spy, but I’m a teammate” without having to stop and type that. Or maybe it just broke their concentration, maybe they thought that a spy wouldn’t jump and bring attention to themself. Of course if, as a spy, you’re unlucky enough to run into the real person who’s name you have, well you’re screwed. 😃 I’ve got to work on quickly changing clothing in The Ship, that should let you get within killing range before they recognize your name as the person that keeps following them. I don’t like playing on servers where the rounds are too short to do a proper stalking. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/37 "2006-11-03T16:54:15Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] Jumping worked well because it was the quickest way that a real teammate would convey “yes I know you’re looking for a spy, but I’m a teammate” without having to stop and type that. Or maybe it just broke their concentration, maybe they thought that a spy wouldn’t jump and bring attention to themself. [/QUOTE] Yeah, and non-spys would indeed do the jumping thing to indicate their non-spyness. Smart players would fire a single shot, as a spy can’t fire without blowing his cover. It’s still silly though, since any half-smart spy could obviously do the jumping thing too, as I did. And, often, I’d jump, they’d turn their back, I’d stab them to death, and then the next time I was in their base, the same trick worked. I might’ve been the best spy in TF history though - I rocked at it. I learned all sorts of little behaviors that people seemed to associate with a trusted teammate. I was good at situational awareness, figuring out where people were, how not to get caught, who to dress up as (like, if a particular soldier and heavy weapons guy guarded a certain room, and you see the soldier going on an ammo run, you switch to a soldier and run right in), all that stuff. Playing a spy in TF1 was really fun - a very different FPS experience. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/38 "2006-11-03T17:23:28Z")
By the way, if anyone else has a better ability to host, feel free to speak up. I’m just running it off my PC… which worked well most of the time, because I have a decent CPU and a good internet connection. For the first few hours yesterday it was glitch free, but then I started having problems with my power regulators screwing up (which I thought I’d fixed) making my video card freeze up for 3 seconds at a time every half hour or so. I can be a pretty decent host, but if anyone has a good internet connection and a second computer that can run a dedicated server, that’d work better. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/39 "2006-11-03T17:31:46Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] I might’ve been the best spy in TF history though - I rocked at it. I learned all sorts of little behaviors that people seemed to associate with a trusted teammate. I was good at situational awareness, figuring out where people were, how not to get caught, who to dress up as (like, if a particular soldier and heavy weapons guy guarded a certain room, and you see the soldier going on an ammo run, you switch to a soldier and run right in), all that stuff. Playing a spy in TF1 was really fun - a very different FPS experience. [/QUOTE] I didn’t play TF1, but I played a lot of TFC. One thing I always wished was that the disguised spies could be seen with different weapons; the model always showed the default weapon for that class. For example, if you disguised as an engineer, you’d always be seen as holding the pistol, but hardly any real engineers hold the pistol, usually the wrench or shotgun. I was an uber-medic, I concussion grenade jumped, shotgunned, and poisoned like crazy. I could easily score 100 points in a 30 min game. That was intense work too, I finally got too old or just burnt out to maintain that frantic pace. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749/40 "2006-11-03T17:32:56Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] By the way, if anyone else has a better ability to host, feel free to speak up. I’m just running it off my PC… which worked well most of the time, because I have a decent CPU and a good internet connection. For the first few hours yesterday it was glitch free, but then I started having problems with my power regulators screwing up (which I thought I’d fixed) making my video card freeze up for 3 seconds at a time every half hour or so. I can be a pretty decent host, but if anyone has a good internet connection and a second computer that can run a dedicated server, that’d work better. [/QUOTE] Last night I played on several servers where everyone’s ping was 600 or more, I think people were hosting on cable connections. I didn’t see your server, but I had pings above 250 filtered out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ship-full-game-trial-weekend/378749.md?page=3)