Is EOL the holy grail?

Milagros has announced he will finish EOL this weekend, after which we'll have a two week testing period with more testers and it will be released. So that means EOL out in mid March if things goes well.

It's been, what? three years? in the making with continuously pushed release dates by mila. I believe he at one point said spring '08? Anyway during this period it has been hyped, forgotten, rehyped and sometimes talked of like the holy grail. But is it all it's cracked up to be?

Being beta tester and designer of the webpage I have been close to the development for the past 1½ years. There has been really A LOT of smaller and bigger updates and features added, more than mila or any tester can remember I'm sure. Big ones are things like cooperative multiplayer, but some of the smaller ones are important aswell, things that will make the daily use more pleasant. This is things like being able to download any level ever played ingame and TCP mode for port forwarding noobs.

However the most important thing maybe is the site, that hopefully will bring people together about more than just the current battle and the last five chat lines. This is what I believe will be what makes or breaks the great succes of EOL, the people. If people doesn't play online all the time and get their stats recorded, if people doesn't use the site to see stats for the levels they play and if people doesn't use the potential of the extensive stats it will just be belma with a couple of new battle modes. On the other hand if people do do all these things and really come together around it, this is not just a new version of belma but more than we ever could have hoped for in Elasto Mania 2.

So it really is up to the people and, well me, and what I make of the site. The holy grail is there, we just have to grab it ;-)

EOL site: Teams

As you may know I'm making the website for the upcoming elma online. I'll write some posts about some of the features that I make, or maybe just this one post, we'll see.

Recently I've been working on how teams should work. At first you could just join any team, but because of the team rankings this was not such a good idea. It's not totally decided yet which ranking system we're going to use and how the team ranking is going to work. However team ranking might work a bit like this. Right now it's an average of the players in team, but someone suggested that instead it works like the individual ranking, so that in a battle the best player of each team in that battle counts for the team ranking that battle and the ranking points achieved is calculated based on the teams and other teams ranking.

This is why it is important that no one plays a battle while in a wrong team, hence fucking up the team ranking. The solution I decided on after discussing it a bit with kd is as follows. By default you can join any team you like. Anyone in a team can then lock and unlock the team. So when the team is locked obviously no one can join it. It also saves a history of which teams you've been in when. So that in case someone joins an unlocked team he is not part of, plays a battle, and fucks up the teams ranking, we can edit his team history and recalculate the team rankings using the team history.

I have coded it all except the part that recalculates the team ranking according to the team history. So I hope I'll be able to so all this works ;-)

And sorry it all this doesn't make any sense, but it does in my head atleast.

Mopo Kup 3 Event 5

I know I said I would just play one event, but "pressure" from team StockCar have made me play this event aswell. Not to succesfully yet, but missed a decent run earlier today. It's another tijsjoris level. A little too straight forward for my liking though, it's so damn hard to improve in such levels, and pure hoyling isn't excatly my favourite thing.

Well, it's still a fun level. :)

Mopo Kup 3 Event 2

For a short moment before MKup3 started I wanted to play it, but I decided not too, as I didn't felt like using so much time on a cup again like I did during Master Cup 2, though I have no doubt I could easily have won MKup3 if I had wanted too. However, this brings me to the point. Sometime, maybe...

So I decided that I might play a single event if some nice level pop ups, which is exactly what has happened. Event 2 is an absolutely awesome level by tijsjoris. It has everything. Some shortcuts, but not too hard ones so it gets frustating. A lot a different styles which are almost equally fast. The perfect lenght, just over one minute. And that nice flow. I have played it some, but not much. So I might not win, but I'm confident I will get a decent placement, if I can only nail the ending.

Did I say how great a level it is?

=)

FVANG LAN

Sometime in early January we decided to have an FVANG LAN at my place this weekend.

Around 14:00 enil, Napol and Zerox arrived in enil's car. As they fixed up computers I had some lunch, and when I came back I realised I hadn't thought of any switch for the LAN. So enil quickly called epp, so he could bring Napol's. epp had to work untill 14:00 or something so he arrived later. While waiting for epp to arrive we played to battles, and basketball on my basketball game.

epp arrived around 17:00. As he fixed up comp we attached Napol's switch to our internet. However it did not work. Luckily epp bought his router aswell. It worked, had only four ports though, but that was no problem as I did wireless.

However a short time afterwards when we were going to play smultronet I could not connect. As I consulted my father I remembered my little sister has a switch. So we tried that one and it worked. \o/ I could not connect before as the router creates some kind of under network.

For dinner my parents bought some family pizzas. Some hawaii and kebab were eaten. That was nice for my stomach. Rest of the night was spent with some battling and smultronet. And random stening ofcourse.

Around 21:00 we drove 5 km to the nearest shop, to get some soda and chips ect. Around 3:00 we went to bed.

When everyone had woken up the next day we had some bread for breakfast. A few days before the LAN we had talked about going to Jesperhus in order to play bowling. So in the afternoon we booked a lane for two hours. Firstly Zerox tried to book, but failed. Then a short time after I tried and succeded.

Apart from that the afternoon was spent with some more battling, smultronet and stening. Also epp, enil and napol played a game of Dota.

My parents cooked a nice dinner, which we rushed a bit through in order to get to the bowling place in time, which were at 20:00. epp ruled. He won the first two games, Zerox won the third. In the last game of which we only played 7 rounds before the time went out, epp won again and I was second. Apart from the last round I sucked pretty hard.

Back we had a few beers and more battling and smultronet. And some leeching obviously. Around 2:00 we made some toasts, and went to bed around 4:00.

In the morning my father had bought rundstykker. After that some last time leeching and such.

They all left a little past 14:00.

GG LAN <3

PS. Battle results are intentionally left out of this entry, all to say is that I won two and enil won far too many.

PSS. I'll upload pictures later.

Best of 2006

Sorry about the delay, but some catagories was very hard to decide. Like last year the runner ups are more of less sorted. Here are the best of 2006!

Movie

Imagine Me & You

Runner ups:
Just Like Heaven
V for Vendetta
Just Friends
Superman Return

Comment: What would seem like a mediocre romantic comedy turned out to be one of the best movie love stories. Maybe not a year with big competition, and only two movie rated 10. However this doesn't mean Imagine Me & You wasn't a really really great movie.

TV Show

Alias

Runner ups:
Scrubs
How I Met Your Mother
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Lost

Comment: This was very hard to decide. Scrubs is a really great show aswell. Season four of Alias was awesome and kept up the great standards the previous seasons had set.

Song

Nelly Furtado - Maneater

Runner ups:
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Panic! at the Disco - I Write Sins not Tragedies
Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come to an End)
Roxette - One Wish

Comment: Extremely hard one this year aswell. Because Of You is a really nice song, but Maneater have that great power in it, and Nelly Furtado has a great voice too. Maneater didn't have me hooked from the beginning though, it took some time before I discovered how good it was. I Write Sins not Tragedies was close too.

Music

Hilary Duff

Runner ups:
Kelly Clarkson
Britney Spears
Mandy Moore
Shakira
Vanilla Ninja

Comment: Last.fm stats says everything. Didn't start using last.fm before June though, that was also around when I started listening Hilary Duff. 1,246 plays, around 3 times as much as the second place. Have developed a greate love for Hilary Duff during the last year.

Elma achievement

Upside Down 1:04,40 danish record

Runner ups:
Master Cup 2 12th place
Flag Tag win at DEM06
skintatious 4th place on kinglist at one point, 8th now
1 hour TT win at DEM06

Comment: Though I probably used more time on Master Cup 2 during the year, it was just such a relief to finally get Upside Down back after 3½ years of trying. Hopefully it will last this time.

Game

The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary

Runner ups:
The Sims 2 Nightlife
TrackMania Sunrise

Comment: Again a year where I haven't played that many games. The new version of Settlers II rocked, the best of the series with modern graphics and fysics, what a threat.

Hottie

Hayden Panettiere

Runner ups:
Natalie Portman
Rachael Leigh Cook
Keira Knightley
Eva Longoria

Comment: Hot cheerleader in the surprisingly good Bring it On 3, cheerleader in new hit TV show Heroes. Uhh babe.

Website

CSManager

Runner ups:
skintatious
IMDb
Live Privates
JenGarnerNet

Comment: A really great browsergame. Have played CS maybe twice in 2006, but CSManager have me hooked up big time. Has had some succes in it lately also, playing in league 2.2 now, and one second place in a weekend tournament.

Best of 2006 (Nominations)

Ever since finished the list for 2005 I've been looking forward to make this. I just love such kinda things.

From last years post: All are things made in 2006, or which I experienced the first time in 2006.

Movie

Just Like Heaven
V for Vendetta
Imagine Me & You
Just Friends
Superman Returns

TV Show

Alias
Scrubs
How I Met Your Mother
Lost
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

Song

Panic! at the Disco - I Write Sins not Tragedies
Nelly Furtado - Maneater
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come to an End)
Roxette - One Wish

Music

Kelly Clarkson
Shakira
Hilary Duff
Vanilla Ninja
Mandy Moore
Britney Spears

Elma achievement

skintatious 4th place on kinglist at one point, 8th now
Master Cup 2 12th place
Upside Down 1:04,40 danish record
Flag Tag win at DEM06
1 hour TT win at DEM06

Game

The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary
The Sims 2 Nightlife
TrackMania Sunrise

Hottie

Rachael Leigh Cook
Hayden Panettiere
Natalie Portman
Keira Knightley
Eva Longoria

Website

skintatious
CSManager
IMDb
Live Privates
JenGarnerNet

Winners will be puplished next Sunday!

New posters part III

I used a lot of time saturday putting new posters up. Of the new ones I had bought I didn't use two of them (Pink, The Notebook). A few old ones, but only very few and small ones, got up also. I also found a few from the archive which I've never had up before.





A total of 29 posters were put up. The number is this low compared to the number I took down because I have more big ones now. The elma one above my monitor is made with Rasterbator, like the one Abula have.

I just love the new look in my room <3

Master Cup 2 over

Master Cup 2 ended now more than a week ago. I ended on the 12th place which were quite satisfying. I had hoped for a top 10 but I never really got any good placements in any events, only two ninth and one tenth place. This was probably my most succesful cup, I was 45th in world cup five, which ofcourse had more paticipants. StockCar did fairly ok aswell, ending 4th. We were pretty close to EA at one point but they did some sick stuff in the last events and eventually ended on the second place.

It was really nice to see some activity from danish kuskis. Beside me jsim and sick_mambo also played pretty most all events. That's one more than in World Cup 5 :). Anyway I used a lot of time on this cup and I'm probably not going to play any other cups or such in some time atleast. Though I haven't cutted down that much on my playing time, but more on that later.

Master Cup 2 Event 9

I managed to find a pretty good style in this level, with mambo adjusting some details and way to much hoyling than what's good I got, what I though to be a very good time, 55 secs. Eventhough I got my best result so far I was a little disappointed. I was 10th. NASCAR had totally different style and EA had kind of the same as our but with a little change that made it some secs faster. Mambo had actually also thought of something kinda of like that change but we decided it was impossible.

It sucked that EA did so good as many of the EA guys are those I compete with in the overall standings, so now a top10 overall seems pretty hard.

New level is somewhat mongo, but will hopefully get better once I get the style in my finger as last level did.