Cannon_Fodder

I'm confused at time with what happens to the orb when you bring it into a node. I understand that as long as it's a linkable node it's instantly yours at full power. What I don't understand is that happens after that? Sometimes it stays in your possession and continues to charge the node until you leave with it but other times it seems to disappear. What makes it disappear or what am I missing???

I played for about an hour in the early evening yesterday on the GC server. It was either full or close to it the whole time. There is sure a lot to figure out between the new vehicles and unfamiliar maps. it's obvious some people are having a fine time picking off the strays from a distance. It will be nice when people start playing with some kind of strategy with the orbs.

Cannon_F.... I need to be more creative

Pat, Flitter is talking about video card drivers. Maybe others too but updating my video card drivers got my problems fixed.

Some of you heavy hitters better get in the game soon and teach Wentz some humility. He's having way too much fun being at the top of his team all the time!

UT3 adds"[]" around clan tags so ours comes out looking like "[GC][] which looks kind of strange. Time for something different???

Thanks H! I figured it out on my own today.

As Flitter requested I didn't create my character with the GC][ tag and have been playing warfare on line as Cannon_F. There is a place to enter a clan tag which I did but I can't see where it's displayed. There is a lot going on in a server with lots of people. MANY different vehicles to figure out, constant shifting between hover board and running. The whole "orb" concept turns things around. So far the maps seem a bit crowded and finding the base is often a challenge. It seems like there are LOTS of things close to kill you quick making it more mayhem then skill like a deathmatch with too many people on a small map. At the end of a map it only displays kills without any other indication of skill. I don't think you can transport between nodes but I hope I'm wrong. I know much of this is because it's new and different and I'm optimistic that it will improve with more play.

My PC is a 3.2 GHz P4 with 2GB RAM and a GeForce 6800GT video card. Initially, I didn't think this was gonna cut it as even with all of the video settings turned down I was getting jerky play when most needed. I took Flitter's suggestion and updated my video card drivers and there was a huge improvement. Also, no problems with the system freezing up entirely as seen with the demo. As far as real game play I've just scratched the surface. Onslaught is referred to as Warfare now and I'm not sure what to think of the "Orbs". From the manual, "The primary use of an Orb is the 100% instantaneous capture of a linked, neutral or enemy Node." It seems like the whole game is gonna revolve around these orbs. In general everything looks to different that it will be a while just to get my bearings but that's to be expected.

I did the trek to 2 Best Buy stores that claimed they had the game but couldn't find it when I got there. EBGames (gamestop) got their shipment shortly after noon today and I had no problem getting 3 copies. Yes, my kids are spoiled but it's about the only game we play together. Now to see if my old PC can play it decently. The demo was playable but randomly locked up my system.

The Best Buy web site is showing 2 versions, regular UT3 for $49.99 and UT3 Collectors Addition for $59.99. I assume grabbing whatever is available would be the right strategy???

I think this officially makes dark a bully! When I do jump on it's for ONS and Mad Pat is still lurking.

Thanks for everyone's comments. It's not the money (so I'm not hitting up Primus for a loan ) and it's certainly not the people. I joined GC to start with as I thought it was a great group and wanted to contribute to the GC server where I'd spent most of my time pubbing. I was very pleased with the welcome I got when joining and for all of the continued support. I guess it's really an issue of whether or not the official release of UT3 is decent. It's amazing how people are still actively playing the UT2K4 demo maps on a regular basis after all of this time and we've already given up on the UT3 demo. In the mean time my personal preference has been ONS but more on alternate maps versus freon or TAM death matches. The TK5 people will get together on occasion doing this and as I get slaughtered all over the map I'm always hoping some GC'rs will join the fray. I guess I should pay more attention to Vent so I can ask others to join. I suppose I should give freon more of a chance too. I have until the end of the month to decide on renewing and there should be some plenty of discussion on the quality of the final release of UT3 by then. I'll probably need to bite the bullet on a PC upgrade if I decide to stay in too. Unclean was very helpful with a recent PC build which was for my son so I know what I want to put together if I decide to pull the trigger.

My GC membership is due this month and I'm questioning if it makes sense to renew? First we burned out on matches (I don't know why we kept Temerity towards the end). Even before UT3 GC'ers were seldom pubbing much together. The demo for UT3 has no team warfare and it's not looking too hopeful for the official release. It's not that I'm too cheap to re-up. I'm just wondering why I should? What does everyone think?

The vote is seconded.

I think I've got my PC issues resolved enough to play a bit finally. It seems that my video card was overheating. The game would lock up my PC. Even after a reset (if I could reset) I'd often get garbage on the screen that would only be cleared by a complete power cycle. The fan is working on my video card but the card was still too hot for my liking. Adding another case fan pointing at the video card did the trick so far. Anyway, I have been reading about people mostly being disappointed and how could we not be being ONS players! Our game just ain't in the demo. I think additions like the hoverboard and even better being able to link your hoverboard to a vehicle are going to add a lot to coordinated team play. Imagine not having to stack as many people as possible on top of a Manta just to get somewhere. At least we finally have something versus seemingly never ending postponements!

I got things working late last evening. I was pleased to see that while a bit jerky the game was still playable on my old 3.2 GHz P4 system with a GeForce 6800 GT card. I'm sure it would have smoothed out if I tweeked the graphics settings a bit but I was mostly just looking around on a death match map. After about 3 minutes of play my system totally died just like the plug was pulled. The power supply must have shut down as it took a full power cycle to get the PC back up. I was half afraid something had really fried. I guess I'm pushing my hardware a bit!

I gotta work for a while this evening but will hopefully get a chance to join before it gets too late.

I don't much care for Freon. It's just deathmatching with a twist. I thought you guys were serious onslaught players? When I'm looking for something different I play the host of new ONS maps that are out there.

Yeah I'm ready for a new game for sure. Freon is a great time killer and I'll probably spend the majority of my final UT2k4 days playing it instead of ONS. It's got all the great battles without the tanks/roadkills. Plus the fast pace of it will make for a nice transition to UT3. You are just a Death Matcher at heart as seen by all of your time on Rankin. Tanks/roadkills is what makes ONS fun!

Just use GC][* to find everyone using our tag at the time. Nep does seem about dead. Even when a decent number of people are playing there they drop off quickly.

A slow weekend for Nepenthe... I'll be out of town until the 20th. Have fun!

No I wouldn't want to pay the kind of monthly fees I see my kids racking of for WOW. But how do they make back development costs plus some profit on a game like UT if the only source of income is just from the initial sales especially when they are hacked so quickly? I understand games are migrating over to home game system platforms which adds a significantly to the number of customers but that's a relatively new thing for UT. I know a fair number of full time game developers that work for Midway Games in Chicago. When Midway stopped doing coin operated games the hardware people were let go but most of the software designers stayed on and there is more than just a few of them. I guess maybe I don't have a good feel for the numbers. How many copies are sold and such???

I paid for UT2K4 but really like having the no CD crack so I don't have to fool with the disks all the time. My guess is that most of you aren't stuffing in a disk every time you play??? In general I've always been surprised that there isn't some kind of fee associated with the master servers or some other way for the game designers to get some money beyond the initial often pirated release.

Maybe that's why there are two redeemers on that map. They are close to being under the overhead archways on the way to the side node closest to the primary. Actually, they are pretty annoying as it often breaks down to just a battle over redeemers on that map.