Glitch Racer!?!?

Hey Toribashians!

So, as some of you may know, there was a post around April Fools stating that Hampa was working on Glitch Racer again! Well… It was a false statement unfortunately. If you don’t know what Glitch Racer is, just click here and find out.

Although it’s not being developed, here is an interview with hampa about Glitch Racer (Stated as GR in part of this blog) and future plans for it. I hope you enjoy:

(22:10:34)Beta: Hey
(22:10:34)Beta: Tell me when you’re ready
(22:11:28)hampa: ready
(22:13:10)Beta: Okay, so there has been word that Glitch Racer is starting to be developed again. It was on April Fools when posted, is this true that you are developing it again?
(22:14:18)hampa: no, I’m not currently working on Glitch Racer
(22:14:48)hampa: at the moment I’m working on Toribash 4.4 and Mace Windu 0.99
(22:15:28)Beta: Ah, well some people, such as NutHug, wanted to see GlitchRacer released. Do you think you will continue it in the future?
(22:16:33)hampa: yes, I still have the codes
(22:16:51)hampa: anything for NutHug :)
(22:17:43)Beta: Aha, so why was the development of GlitchRacer stopped/paused?
(22:20:25)hampa: I didn’t have enough time to code on both Toribash Wii and GR
(22:20:35)hampa: if I did both none of them would have been released
(22:21:26)Beta: Did you think about getting back to GR before you did minibash or piiracer?
(22:21:36)Beta: And now Mace Windu.
(22:22:18)hampa: I was more keen on doing some 2d stuff
(22:22:36)hampa: toribash takes up most of my time so I can only work on new games a few hours per week
(22:23:46)Beta: Oh alright. When do you think you will continue with GR? Somewhere “soon” in the future, or “later on” in the future?
(22:24:08)hampa: yes, but when I don’t know
(22:24:28)hampa: I just got a oculus rift devkit, I’m prototyping with that at the moment
(22:24:49)Beta: *Cough* Nuthug says asap *Cough* ;)
(22:25:02)hampa: say hi to Nuthug from me
(22:26:09)Beta: Will do when he’s on skype, or reads the blog, whichever is first:). Anyways, I guess this wraps it up for Glitch Racer. Thanks for your time hampa, and can’t wait to see GR come out and new things on tb as always.
(22:27:01)hampa: you’re welcome. cheers :)

Is it just me, or did you pretty much only get “anything for Nuthug”? Aha, well it looks like Glitch Racer will be worked on in the future, and hopefully sometime soon. Looks like a great game and *cough*Nuthug*cough* somebody should recommend hampa to get working on this game again when he has some spare time!

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this Blog, have a great day!

Thanks to sir, Russian Translation: here

Who’s This Shmevin Guy?!?

In a world, where nobody knows anybody, there is one stand alone person. One person that is going to introduce one man, to the public…

What’s up guys! So most of you already know Shmevin from his instant “fame” as an Item Forger. He just kind of popped out of nowhere if you are not familiarized with current duelers in-game. Today I interviewed him so you would get a better idea of who he is and what he is doing:

Shmevin: Hello.
Beta: Hey shmev, ready for the interview? Don’t be frantic if I go a little afk. I’ll be right back if I do.
Shmevin: Sure, I’m ready.
Beta: Okay. Lets get this started. First off, this interview is all about you. You and what you do as an Item Forger.
Beta: So most of you know you as a dueler, what urged you to apply to be an Item Forger?
Shmevin: I applied for Item Forger because I loved everything they released, and I wanted to have an influence in new items and events on Toribash.
Beta: So it says that you are the Event Planner… Are you planning to host huge events hosted by the Item Forgers anytime soon?
Shmevin: We sure are. If you saw the hype video and poster included in the Magma release thread, and the Ukayden banner that was put up 4 weeks ago, you can tell something big is coming.
Beta: Want to give any hints for the people reading this blog? eh eh ;) .
Shmevin: I don’t want to disclose too much important information, but it will be an event of a large scale. I’d like to say it is as big as the Toribash World Championships, but that sounds like I’m bragging. We are also planning on releasing a new hair that is themed towards the event.
Beta: Centurion possibly? Aha, don’t answer that, mostly because this is strictly based on you.
Beta: Now, it also says you are the in-game event hoster, are you planning to host an in-game tourney for each new release? Or just host more in general?
Shmevin: We probably won’t host an in-game event to sponsor every release. However, I have hosted events in which the prizes are Item Forger releases. Our job as Forgers are to make new items, not necessarily to replace the Game Masters.
Beta: Alright, cool cool, now how about that Manager position?
Beta: How exactly did you fall in that so fast, since you are a new Item Forger?
Beta: What exactly does it entail?
Shmevin: Manager doesn’t mean I am the manager of the Item Forgers, it means I manage events. That does seem a little confusing when you look at the Item Forger thread, doesn’t it?
Beta: Quite, should ask jusmi or some mod to change that for you. Would make a lot more sense if it was stated.
Beta: Well this has been quite fun. Anything you would like to tell the general public so they know a little more about you?
Shmevin: I’m a pretty open and playful guy, honestly. I know my identity as a dueler usually gives me a negative connotation among the ingame community, but who I am as a person is far from bitter and or ruthlessly efficient as some duelers are. I plan on making the in-game community more fun and entertaining with my position as event hoster.
Beta: Alright! Sounds good man, thanks for your time:)
Beta: You look pretty sexy in that purple babe.
Beta: See ya around.
Shmevin: Bye bye. :D

So there you have it people of Toribash! That’s Shmevin, one of the newest Item Forgers. Sorry it took so long to get this interview out, but here it is. Stay tuned for more information on the event that is going to be ‘huge’, as Shmevin says. Have a great day!

What’s Up With Trials?!?!

What’s up Toribashians?!?

So lately, as most of you already know, there has been an activity drop in the GM Trials. (GM = Gamemaster for people that are new to the forum) So a lot of us tend to ask questions such as: “Why are they still Trials? Why aren’t they just booted?” Well, today I decided to find that out by trying to get the inside scoop from EJM:

Beta: Hey EJM, ready for the interview?
EJM: You bet
Beta: Okay, so I am going to keep this strictly on the subject of GM Trials. If I go afk for a second, don’t worry. I’ll be right back.
Beta: So lets start this off. As most people know, GM’s are supposed to be quite active. Not to stray off the subject, we are keeping this strictly towards GM Trials, why are there still trials when they havn’t been active for Weeks?
EJM: If you don’t see a trial working doesn’t mean they aren’t active, there’s more to being a GM than sit in-game hosting a tourney all the time
Beta: Well, what about the trials like Fivah and Kevin?
EJM: If that’s not the case, then these trials have real life issues/exams/work to attend to
EJM: We prefer not to go in detail with particular trials
EJM: Let’s keep things in general
Beta: Alright, what about the trials that have been inactive for 2-4 weeks. Shouldn’t GM’s be actually active. I understand a few days, but what stops them from going inactive in the future for a large period of time.
EJM: Nothing does, but if you currently have to go on aa journey to find your kidnapped loved one far away, a journey that takes 2 to 4 weeks, we can’t stop you now can we
EJM: They just need to actually mention that they will be missing, which they already did
EJM: The other ones who didn’t get/got the boot
Beta: I see. So do the older trials, for example, Teague. He’s been a trial since somewhere in December if I remember (Not trying to pick out individuals, just an example), do they have just as much of a chance the newer trials have?
EJM: All trials have equal chances, it’s just a matter of who finishes the job the way we want them to
EJM: Think about it as a yes or no question
EJM: If they answer right, they get in, if not, they don’t, it’s as simple as that
EJM: However, some trials take longer to answer than others
Beta: So this summer, are the trials planning to be more active and host more things with full GM’s?
EJM: Well we can assure a boost of activity each summer
EJM: But only time will tell if the trials will actually be the ones boosting the activity
EJM: Or just us :P
Beta: Okay, one last question. How do you feel about the group of GM Trials as a whole?
EJM: By that, do you mean the general idea of trials GMs? Or the current group of trials we have?
Beta: Both in a sense.
EJM: Well it’s pretty self explanatory really, trials are there for us to know if they qualify or not, and we wouldn’t have accepted our current trials if we didn’t see potential in them
Beta: Alright! Seems like this pretty much wraps it up. Anything you would like to say to the people that read this blog? Any leaks or hints ;) (That of course won’t get you in trouble).
EJM: All I have to say is don’t bother us anymore, we never liked doing what we’re doing, we only do it for the mo… uuh, oh nothing actually, ignore what I just said
EJM: Have fun playing the game guys, and stay out of trouble
EJM: I should put a thumbs up here but IRC doesn’t handle that
Beta: *Thumbs up*
EJM: o/
Beta: Aha, alright thanks EJM
EJM: Any time

Alright, so if you read through that fully, you should be able to understand why GM Trials are inactive but still trials. Hope this answers most of your questions about the trials and if you think you have what it takes to be a GM, you can send an application to any current full GM or Smod.

Hope you all enjoyed this blog, have a great day and remember… GM’s secretly don’t like their job, shhhhh…

This Is A Hairy Subject…

Hello Toribashians!

Lets start out by congratulating CoKe and Shmevin, for they have both recently become full part of staff. No longer trials! CoKe is working as a dirty undercover soda for those GM’s, and Shmevin… well, I don’t know what he is doing… Nothing?!? Maybe not! Shmevin is now a full Item Forger. He is looking pretty sexy in the purple. I like purple…

So, moving on to the real purpose of this blog. Hairs in Toribash. Recently people have been getting really excited over the new hairs that are being made in Toribash and have been putting many ideas in the Item Forgers News thread, which can be found here. Here is some inside news with Yoyo:

Yoyo: hey
Beta: I’m going to ask you a few questions that are strictly on hair, since hair seems to be the most popular and most wanted thing from Item Forgers. If that’s okay with you ofcourse?
Yoyo: of course
Beta: Okay, to start this off, are hairs the most trouble to make in Toribash? What I mean is, is it hard to determine if the people would like that hair style?
Yoyo: it depends
Yoyo: it usually starts with a small discussion about certain hair style
Yoyo: if someone else agrees, then we usually forge it
Yoyo: even if it stays non-released for a long time
Yoyo: like a bunch of currently existing hairs
Yoyo: we never really know if people will like it or not
Beta: Ah, okay.
Beta: Do the Item Forgers take every idea for new hairs into consideration?
Beta: Such as the ideas posted on the Item Forgers News! Thread?
Yoyo: we read every post in that thread
Yoyo: every non-new-colour suggestion usually gets a small discussion in our private skype convo
Yoyo: most hairs are just inside ideas though
Beta: Do you all discuss each idea on your private board or just the best ideas?
Yoyo: we mostly use the skype convo
Yoyo: it depends on what the idea is
Yoyo: but most of them get talked about
Yoyo: the private board is the place hanz0 uses to scream at us for doing stuff
Beta: Ahaha. Okay, so, last/last few questions. You don’t have to answer these, but might be nice if you gave a hint ;) . Just as long as it won’t get you in trouble.
Yoyo: (next question?)
Yoyo: alright, go ahead
Beta: hampa is currently wearing the Centurion hair. Which appears to just be an extended version of the mohawk in my opinion. Is there any hints on the release date?
Beta: Is it going to be coming out next?
Yoyo: …I’m not really sure
Beta: Still in discussion? Or not really sure if you can state that?
Yoyo: it is on the shop for 50 usd, but that one is broken and doesn’t show up for some reason
Beta: ah
Yoyo: the one hampa is using is a different version-ish
Yoyo: we should fix that though
Yoyo: I’ll have to talk with hampa
Beta: Oh, okay. So one last thing. In my opinion, I like the spiky hair the most. What’s your favorite hair?
Yoyo: my wobbly devil horns
Yoyo: also, we just got static hairpieces added to the hair forger
Yoyo: so interesting stuff will be coming out of that
Yoyo: (unwobbly devil horns)
Yoyo: also, jusmi’s current hair is pretty neat too
Beta: Hmm, I like your hair. jusmi’s hair seemed to disappear for me, it was sort of like Sonic The Hedgehog right?
Yoyo: he said something about dragonball
Yoyo: I’m not quite sure
Yoyo: but yes, looks kind of like sonic
Beta: Okay, thanks for your time man. Anymore secret hints that you would like to state;) Or leaks? eh eh?
Yoyo: hmm
Yoyo: solax was working on a neckbeard
Yoyo: still have to check it out
Yoyo: but it sounds different from the current hairs
Yoyo: that’s really all that I can leak
Beta: Thanks man:) I’m sure the people will love it.
Yoyo: lets hope so :D
Beta: If not, hanz0 can just yell at you in the private board ;)
Yoyo: you get used to it eventually
Beta: Haha, well anyways, thanks a lot. Really appreciate your time:)
Yoyo: thanks for the interview, too

Okay, so there you have it folks. Some news on the hairs and a few leaks, if you would like to see these hairs and don’t know how, just go in-game and type: /dl hampa and then /lp hampa … You can also do that with the other members of the Item  forgers, such as Yoyo and his devil horns. To submit some ideas to the Item Forgers, just click here.

That’s it for right now, hope you all enjoyed reading this post and have a good day!

The Erth Is Blue

Toribashians!

As some of you may have noticed there are two new smods joining the ranks on the forum. Sir is returning to the position after a hiatus and Erth is taking on the role for the first time. Rather than read about what I have to say about Erth why don’t you go ahead and read what he has to say for himself. Special thanks to our guest interviewer Stellar.

    [05:50] <Stellar> Interview Time
    [05:50] <Erth> Ohgod
    [05:51] <Stellar> Well first off I’d like to say congratulations on getting Super Moderator
    [05:51] <Stellar> I might be a bit biased but I think it’s about time..
    [05:52] <Erth> Heh, thanks, I’m looking forward to it
    [05:53] <Stellar> I understand you have quite a few staff positions, you mind letting the readers know what you did to help the community before your big step-up in the power ladder.
    [05:55] <Erth> Well I’m a GameMaster (still doing those duties) and a clan mod most notably, then i was also a replay board mod, and events board mod and a gamegrad tester
    [05:55] <Erth> along with blogging too
    [05:56] <Stellar> Do you think having all of these positions shaped you into a better applicant for Smod?
    [05:57] <Erth> I guess experience never hurts, and I’ve been a gm for quite a while so, yeah, all in all
    [06:02] <Stellar> How do you expect to help the community during your term as smod?
    [06:04] <Erth> Well I’m hoping that i’ll be able to help out the gm team some more, and to deal with some of the more complex ingame related scams
    [06:04] <Erth> I’m hoping to remain as an “ingamey” person, except now I can help on a larger scale
    [06:06] <Stellar> Given the fact that you are one of the most respected players in toribash, how do you think the community feels about you getting Smod?
    [06:12] <Erth> Hmmm, well I wouldn’t say that :p but thank you
    [06:12] <Erth> the reaction seems pretty positive so far, a lot of congratulations so far – didn’t really expect such a big deal about it
    [06:13] <Stellar> Stop being such a bitch and be honest
    [06:13] <Stellar> You’re soaking in the fame
    [06:13] <Stellar> You cheeky bastard
    [06:16] <Erth> :<
    [06:16] <Stellar> Serious talk though, so how do you feel about the current smods
    [06:17] <Stellar> Trick question, they all suck
    [06:17] <Erth> Well the forum isn’t exploding so how do you feel about the current smods
    [06:17] <Stellar> Trick question, they all suck
    [06:17] <Erth> Well the forum isn’t exploding so I’d say they’re doing the right things
    [06:17] * Stellar cough Solax
    [06:17] <Erth> Except solax, that guy sucks
    [06:17] <Erth> !!!
    [06:17] <Stellar> Anyways, you’ve been my mate for a few years and I know from personal expierience that you’ll do a great job
    [06:18] <Stellar> You’re a valued member of the community and I wish you the best of luck
    [06:18] <Erth> heh, here’s hoping I will, and thank you :p
    [06:18] <Stellar> Have a good one
    [06:18] <Erth> you too

So if you see him on the forum give him a wave and make sure to bother him with all of your problems.

Until next time. o7

 

‘Tis the season

Greetings Toribashians,

We just want to wish you a merry christmas/hanukkah/kwanzaa from the Toribash Bloggers! It’s the season to be jolly, and thankful, and there’s no better way of saying thank you than blogging about it. We are so thankful for your support and positive attitudes that makes our community grow every single day. This will be one of the many christmases of this community, and let’s keep it going. Good luck, and have fun everyone.

 

Also, expect an interview of Jack Morris, also known as deathr0ad very soon. He makes dozens of funny, fantastic, helpful videos on youtube of toribash gameplay. Not only does he make awesome toribash videos, he has shortfilms, and gameplays of other games! If you haven’t already, check out his channel: http://www.youtube.com/manonfirefilms

 

Thanks again, and happy holidays!

~The Blogging Team.

The Russian Mafia

As of late, Russia has been at the centre of everyone’s attention due to the recent bans, ip bans, hackers and farmers. Top dogs got involved and sorted the mess out but to what cost, and what end?
Well, that’s what I wanted to get to the bottom of.

First and foremost I guess I should explain the situation.
1) The hacking – A few weeks ago, you’ll remember the forums being down a lot, and servers going online. GM’s found it impossible to operate efficiently, and moderators unable to moderate. This was due to a hacking technique called DDOS’ing. This essentially clogs up the servers with too much data and makes everything explode. Yay explosions, boo hackers.
2) The farmers – A huge surge of farmers have risen recently in the ban list, but why? Is it somehow connected. Rumours and speculations run riot ingame, I’ll list a few of my favourites later!
3) The bans – due to all of this, lots and lots of bans have been placed on both individual users and ip’s in eastern europe and Russia. This was a huge blow to the russian community and some argue that it in part stopped functioning.

Now, I had a little chat with the big man himself to see what was goin’ on. Who were the movers, the shakers, and the losers…

<erth> Hi there, recently there’s been a huge hooplah surounding the nicknamed “russian mafia” resulting in lots of bans and updates.
<erth> We all saw the effects, forums down, tourneys down, mass ban of major players. What was the trigger for all of this?
<hampa> attacks that hog all the server resources
<hampa> the trigger, I don’t know
<erth> Recently I’ve been asked a lot about how the tourneys are different now, what exactly has been implemented to “stop farmers”?
<hampa> we did an update to prevent a specific attack
<hampa> ..
<erth> I see. There are many rumours circulating about what’s been done and why, so it’s good to have an answer. My favourite rumour being “hampa owed the russian mafia some money, so they stole the site”
<erth> Now, there have also recently been a surprising amount of farmers being banned, is that connected in any way to the recent forum attacks? Again this originated in Russia, any connections?
<hampa> no, it is only related cause we had to monitor the log files closely so we noticed more farming operations
<erth> Ah, excellent. 1 more questions, admittedly on behalf of a few russian friends of mine
<erth> *question
<erth> Those that have been banned properly, or ip banned, yet haven’t done anything; can anything be done for them, as of yet? A few major players are unable to play lately due to it yet don’t exactly seem the “hacking” type
<hampa> yes, it probably doesn’t mean that they are farming
<hampa> there have been whole subnets banned when there are multiple bots running from them
<hampa> probably infected computers
<hampa> please PM me on IRC and I’ll check the ips manually
<erth> Excellent, it’s good to see a personal interest taken in these matters
<erth> That’s everything I can think of right now, seeing as it’s a bit off the cuff, haha
<erth> Thanks for your time
<hampa> you’re welcome

It’s good to see that something can be done for the mis-banned here. Take note if you’ve been wrongly banned (but be nice about it, if you’re gonna be angry at someone, be angry at the hacker)

Now, as mentioned before, a few rumours that I hope have been cleared up after this post…
Some serious, some not…

> “hampa owed the russian mafia some money, so they stole the site”

> “hanz0 spilled coffee on the internet”

> “Russian conspiracy to take over the world”

> “farmers caused all of it”

> “shut down by america”

All of these rumours I heard ingame and all of them, as much as I wish hanz0 spilled coffee all over the internet, sadly untrue.

So to re-iterate for those banned users who want to be unbanned, pm hampa and he’ll personally take care of it!

We’ll try and keep you posted as and when the situation develops guys, so stay tuned!

New items just over the horizon

Hello everyone. You may or may not have noticed that recently there has been a new addition to the staff. These staff are called item forgers and they are responsible for (unsurprisingly) forging new items. They have been responsible for the two new hairs (the ponytail and the kung-fu beard).
Jusmi, one of the new item forgers (new item forgers being the only kind of item forgers at the moment) came up to me one day with a proposition. It seemed that not many people knew about the item forgers and since a huge amount of the community reads the blog (that was a joke), I would write about it and he would give an interview.
The interview in question was quite informative and says most of the things I was planning on writing anyway, so here we go :

MrAakash: So you recently became a part of the staff. Would you mind explaining what is it that you do?

jusmi: Well it was really awesome when hampa decided to make the Item Forgers. We were discussing the idea of making some sort of group for item makers. When he decided to make the group, he chose me to be apart of it. As to what i do, in a nutshell i come up with item ideas and hampa processes and makes them a reality. I also do most of the art and hair styles, though hampa makes the icons, and…

jusmi: …some of the other forgers come up with great hair styles as well!

 

MrAakash: Sounds like a whole load of fun. How did you get into the item forgers in the first place?

jusmi: hampa and i were discussing ideas via skype, and he brought up the idea of a team of admins who create hair, the idea expanded into all sorts of different items. When he confirmed he was going to make the Item Forgers real, he picked firebolty and i as the first forgers.

 

MrAakash: So do the item forgers only consist of you two or are there others? Expanding that question are you guys recruiting?

jusmi: Currently, there is hampa, firebolty, solax, and myself. And we are always looking for creative minds to work with us. If you’re interested in joining, contact one of us, and we will vote. It’s highly suggested you know at least one member of the team though.

 

MrAakash: Do you guys have any plans for hair or do you just roll them out as you make them up.

jusmi: We have a few ideas that have yet to be tested. Afros, mullets, you name it. There are also hair styles that we have yet to release, such as the Cat Ears which is my personal favorite.

 

MrAakash: how often do you guys plan to release new hair?

jusmi: It’s still up in the air. Though we’re trying to get on a schedule where we release at least 1 new item every month.

 

MrAakash: So how does one make new hair exactly?

jusmi: Well, everyone has access to the hair maker, ctrl+o. Though only admins and Item Forgers have the ability to publish hairs.

 

MrAakash: so how long does it take you to make a hair?

jusmi: I made the Pony Tail and Kung Fu beard in less than 15 minutes. It’s quite easy to make them once you learn how the settings work with one another.

 

MrAakash: So you make the hair. Who makes the art for the top of the forums and the icon art?

jusmi: Solax and firebolty can also make hairs. Also i do most of the art, but hampa does the icon art because he has the work flow down, so everything stays consistent.

 

MrAakash: well that’s all the question i have for now jusmi, thanks for taking the time to do this interview

jusmi: No problem, glad we could talk!

MrAakash: If you want to give anyone a shootout now would be a good time

MrAakash: same for any other information you want to add

jusmi: I’d like to say that the Item Forgers have a lot more in the works than just hair styles. New joints, never before seen items, and other things that will change the way toribash will be played forever.

 

MrAakash: Alrighty, wait a sec

MrAakash: This is news to me

MrAakash: We will now officially restart the interview

MrAakash: Could you elaborate on these new joins and items?

jusmi: Well, i can’t give too many details because nothing is set in stone yet. But there could possibly be new colors, “possibly”. Along side that, there are more items we’re working on that could change the way you play toribash. I wish i could give a bit more info on it, but as i said, nothing is set in stone, but we do plan to do big things.

 

MrAakash: Is there anything confirmed or that might happen in the near future?

jusmi: Not yet, we have so many ideas up in the air, and only one coder to make it happen. Though, what i can say is if one of the ideas goes through, it could very well decrease scamming, banning, and over all bad behavior from other players by a huge amount, and reward those who are good sports. :)

 

MrAakash: Well that’s the real end of the interview

MrAakash: thanks again for joining me and have a good day

jusmi: You have a nice day as well!

That’s all for now people of toribash. If you have any questions feel free to ask about it in the thread regarding this blog or pm any one of the item forgers or even me, though i probably won’t know as much as the item forgers about item forging.

They are also always looking for feedback and suggestions so feel free to shoot them a pm if you have any ideas, compliments or problems about the designs.

Say hello to your new overlords….um….I mean staff.

Hello again avid blog reader(s).
Recently a new batch of trainee msquad members have been chosen and not so recently (but still recent enough to be newsworthy) a new batch of trainee GMs have been chosen.
These brave new trainees are as follows :
The new msquad trainees :

  • firebolty
  • dellalanri
  • Eason
  • Holotor
  • joonveen

The new GM trainees :

  • AikidoKP
  • Faint
  • uFantom
  • Lume
  • Fivah
  • Thrandir
  • Teague19

So these people are the future of toribash. The ones that manage to become full members of their respective staff postions anyway. Be nice to them and they’ll be nice right back to you.
This is an exciting time for both them and the rest of the community, what with the impending 4.3 e-sport release, the unknown date of toribash being put in steam greenlight and all the new members of staff.

To get into the head of the staff trainees more I decided to interview AikidoKP. My choice of who to interview was completely unbiased and has nothing to do with the fact that he’s one of the leaders of my clan.

This is how it went down :

MrAakash: Hello AikidoKP, what the bizzle of shizzle.

AikidoKP: Well, the relationship of shizzle to bizzle is quite simple really, you just need to factor in the influence of Flava Flav in modern pop culture.

AikidoKP: Also, hi.

 

MrAakash: Alrighty then, In simpler terms, what’s up?

AikidoKP: Ah, I’m taking a break from studying right now. So not much other than this.

 

MrAakash: Sounds like fun. So you’re one of the new trial GMs right?

AikidoKP: I sure am.

 

MrAakash: So what made you apply for the position go GM?

AikidoKP: Power. I didn’t have enough of it. Or part of it anyways. It’s also to find a way to give back to the community. Toribash has eaten up so much of my time over the past couple years that I figured I could help the little ones walk down the same path.

 

MrAakash: Sounds interesting. How long did they take to get back to you and how did you feel while your application was being processed.

AikidoKP: It wasn’t a long wait, they’re pretty on top of things, or at least they make it look like they are.

AikidoKP: How did I feel? I can’t say I was scared or anything, it was more of a “lets see how far I get.” thing.

 

MrAakash: What were your expectations for your application? Did you think you would get in?

AikidoKP: Hope for the best, expect the worst. I figured I had a decent chance of getting in, but I wasn’t holding my breath or anything.

 

MrAakash: How did you feel when you got the news that you had been accepted?

AikidoKP: Heh, I wasn’t all that surprised, but it was neat being welcomed into the fold of toribash staff.

AikidoKP: Actually, I was really surprised, but for a different reason.

 

MrAakash: Why were you surpirsed?

AikidoKP: It just had to do with a bunch of classified information that was my application.

 

MrAakash: Now that you’re a trail GM what do your responsibilities include and what sort of stuff can’t you do that a regular GM can?

AikidoKP: Well, GM’s hop around, running events and making in-game things run smoothly while also helping new players. Trial GM’s do that, but at a reduced rate. We’re the students doing “On the job work experience” who follow around the doctors.

 

MrAakash: So how much time does the trial gm thing take up for you?

AikidoKP: When I’m not bogged down with school work, I try to devote at least an hour or two each night for it. Ideally I would have time for an event or two each night, but that wont happen any time soon.

AikidoKP: I guess it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on what I do.

 

MrAakash: how long did it take for you to get accustomed to being a trail GM?

AikidoKP: Not long, a lot of the experience from running a clan helped there. It’s sort of like treating every new player like a new recruit.

 

MrAakash: Well that’s all the questions I have for now, Aikido, thanks for answering my questions.

MrAakash: If you want to give anyone a shoutout now would be your chance

AikidoKP: Thanks for inviting me to this.

AikidoKP: Hmm, shoutouts eh…

AikidoKP: I’m not big on those, but, the entire Secret crew (past and present), you guys are now in a blog. Jetfox4 <3. To Uric, something sarcastically inspirational, and to everyone else, uh… hi.

MrAakash: haha, well have a nice day then. Bye

Because the members of the msquad were just revealed today, I won’t be conducting any interviews with them in this post for now.

I’ll just end with something about my own experiences and opinions :

As many of you may or may not know, I am a part of the msquad and I was once also a trainee. The existing staff are really helpful and do everything in their power to make sure you turn into the best staff member you can be. Being a trainee is both exciting and scary. It may be too much for some people and others might find it a bit easy. When i was a trainee I had quite literally no experience in moderating but thanks to the effort of msquad members (past and present) I was able to turn into what I am today. The new staff may not look like much right at this moment to some of you, but they will most probably turn into great staff members and will someday be standing upon the great staff mountain looking upon the forums and toriworld, helping people exactly like you.

Farming and you, all the things you don’t need to know but I’m writing about anyway

Hello and welcome to the newest toribash blog post (at least until another one comes up). In this post we will be talking about a series or events that has shaken the community recently, specifically the Russian Mafia’s hostile takeover of the cyber pixies that run the forum and send data packages through the tubes of the internet.
Alright lets get serious for a short while. Recently the forum has been down for a bit, and if you’ve not been hiding under a rather large and hollowed out rock, then you should have heard that it was because someone DDoS’d the forums. I’m going to try to explain what happened a bit better but don’t take my words to be fact because I did all of 5 minutes of research on this topic.

As stated before, some people decided to DoS the servers. In its most simplest form that’s basically flooding the servers with so many requests / things to do that i can’t possibly do them all. Think of it like a shop. Depending on the capabilities of the server, you have a certain number of tills open. If the website never has to handle insane amounts of trafic then you don’t have lots of tills open to save money. There are some legitimate shoppers trying to buy stuff and everything is going well. All of a sudden, some million people come in and try to buy things again and again and again, thus flooding the tills and forcing the shop to either close or making it unresponsive or slow for the actual customers.  Think of it as this compared to this.

So now that you know what has been happening to the forum let’s talk about farming. Some people have started farming tournaments for tc and planned to sell that tc for real money. People made things like 1,000,000 tc in a few days from farming. Hampa has been doing his super detective rounds and started perma-banning people he finds who are farming. He has also put some measure in place to stop people from farming but we’ll get to that later in the interview. If in doubt think of these words : “Don’t farm, since farming is bad.”

That’s basically all I have to say for now. I might add a few things if I find out anything else that’s interesting.

To end the blog here’s an interview I had with hampa yesterday.

MrAakash: Hello Hampa. How are you on this fine day
hampa: awesome

MrAakash: I went on toribash for a quick spot of losing to people better than me (everyone) and saw the tournament rooms had gone. Can you comment on this?
hampa: I’ve disabled them for now, they need an update to prevent excessive farming

MrAakash: Do you plan on restoring them anytime soon, or will there be a major update?
hampa: there will probably be some restrictions on how much TC you can get for them
hampa: it is not mean to be used for bot farming

MrAakash: For approximately how long do you think they will they be down?
hampa: a day or so

MrAakash: besides the previously mentioned tc limit do you plan on making any other changes?
hampa: I think we’ve been to lean or farmers, hackers and DOSers
hampa: I’m a bit disappointed that players who are respected by others, played 20k games or more still think it is ok to DOS the servers

MrAakash: so what changes will you make to prevent things like that that from happening again
hampa: adding more restrictions to the servers and tournaments

MrAakash: speaking of DOS, is that the reason the servers were down recently. Who was responsible for that?
hampa: yes
hampa: the dosing has been from some old and some new players

MrAakash: I’ve heard rumors of some sort of experience point system being implemented or something among those lines. Is that true? If it is, could you elaborate on it?
hampa: no, not yet.
hampa: 4.3 is a e-sports release
hampa: we have a thread about it on the forum
hampa: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=381817
hampa: we are discussing the features there

MrAakash: that sounds amazing. I can’t wait until it gets implemented.
MrAakash: Speaking of future plans, when do you think you’ll apply to steam greenlight?
hampa: there is plenty of features and bugs I want to fix before I think it is ready

MrAakash: Well that’s about all the questions I have right now, thanks for your time.
hampa: you’re welcome :)
hampa: cheers

MrAakash: I’ll be putting this on the blog so if you want to give anyone a shout out then now’s your chance.
hampa: Any javascript or linux sysadmins that are looking for a part time job, please send a cv to my email.

In case you’re wondering, hampa’s email is hampus@nabistudios.com so if you’re awesome at the stuff mentioned above then send him an email.

For the lazy here are the contents of the interview in bullet point format:

  • Hampa removed the tournament rooms for a day.
  • He will be making a tc earn limit to prevent farming.
  • They should be back on within a day.
  • Some pretty experienced and old players decided to DoS the servers.
  • Toribash 4.3 will be an esport update and the link is in the interview for the thread suggesting ideas for that update.
  • There are still quite a few bugs that hampa wants to fix and features he wants to add before trying out for steam greenlight.

Aaaaand that’s about all for now, hope you enjoyed reading this post and have a good day.