Tales from the frontlines

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Comments

  • CMEastCMEast Join Date: 2002-05-19 Member: 632Members
    Brilliant stuff.

    I suggest you PTers take advantage of the power while you can, once the game is out you can shout as much as you like about you being oldschool but the newbs wont listen.
  • coilcoil Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    <!--QuoteBegin--CMEast+Sep. 04 2002,23:16--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td><b>Quote</b> (CMEast @ Sep. 04 2002,23:16)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"><!--QuoteEBegin-->I suggest you PTers take advantage of the power while you can...<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    SILENCE, WORM!!!!!  <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
  • the_stalkerthe_stalker Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 49Members
    LOL! 59 pages, 580 posts and 24035 views, now thats pretty rare  <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
  • WaffleSpoonWaffleSpoon Join Date: 2002-01-30 Member: 133Members
    humbaba.. had one knife... the alien.. an entire collection of em.. and humbaba wins?... I like dat  <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
  • humbabahumbaba That Exciting Tales From the Frontline Guy Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 86Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    OF COURSE I DID! . . . well . .actually . .aliens are team two. But believe what you wish about my talents . . .

    (doh . .shouldnt have posted this . .ah well)

    EDIT: YAY! IM THE EXCITING TALES FROM THE FRONTLINE GUY!  <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->



    <!--EDIT|humbaba|Sep. 05 2002,07:24-->
  • joevjoev Giving grief... With a smile. Join Date: 2002-07-20 Member: 977Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
    In a way this whole situation was weird.

    IRL (In Real Life): <b>I awoke at about 1:30am (CET) after 2 hours sleep feeling antsy and weird. Couldn't get back to sleep so at 2am I hauled myself into my computer office I re-lit my PC and thought I'd see if the mid week PT (which I expected to miss) had started... it had.

    I joined in at the end of a bast game that looked fun but was soon over for the marines. After that was a pretty disasterous nancy(?)

    Next Map, Tanith.

    OMG what a game.

    The entire feel of the game is getting close to perfect. Too perfect perhaps, Natural Selection needs a Government Health Warning:

    "Immersive? You can't handle Immersive!"

    For most of the game, my usual loquaciousness was replaced by my best Marcel Marceau impression, probably to the delight of the US based playtesters who can never understand my Irish Brogue anyway. The main reason was that it was very early morning here and I couldn't yell and wake the neighbours... couple that with the fact that my jaw was clenched shut most of the time to stop me from screaming in fright!</b>

    IGM (In Game Mode):
    <i>Marine Lexual (me) has just been teamed up with Marine Rhoads to go take out the Hive at the Satellite array. Rhoads is decked out with a Grenade Launcher and I'm toting a shiny new HMG, fresh off the mint and chock full of alien buttkickin goodness.

    We're moving west out of the CC when all of a sudden we're jumped by 2 skulks, jaws gnashing like one of those crazy old coots who's false teeth keeps slipping out.

    I dispatch the first at a straight run, as Rhoads whips out his pistol and pours some slugs into the second while it's trying to use my leg as a scratching post. A mere second later, we're looking at a corpse. Good job Rhoads, one I owe ya. A quick self assessment tells me I'm hurting, but I'll live.

    We move into the corridor that leads out to the satellite dish, moving more cautiously now, there's LOTS of Xeno movement noise around...

    As we come to the archway leading out to the dish, we're surprised to see a retreating Marine back around the corner firing furiously... I rush to assist but alas, it's too late.. the guy catches an acid rocket in the face and drops like a sack of potatos.

    Rhoads starts in with the launcher... *thwumpf* *thwumpf* is all I hear as he launches two grenades off to the left of the doorway and steps in to the right.

    Next thing I know, all hell is breaking loose... Rhoads beside me starts shrieking and firing his pistol like crazy... I glance over my right shoulder to see Rhoads being chomped on by a skulk. I whip my righteous cannon round fast and slam a couple of slugs into the damned thing as Rhoads continues to jump away and pump pistol rounds into it. Luckily, we got it in time, but Rhoads is hurtin bad, bad enough that we had to break radio silence and holler for med packs.

    One drops, Rhoads picks it up... lucky him! Next thing we know, an acid rocket hits us! We whip around and see over on the left walkway, a rapidly approaching Fade!

    It's weird, common sense says to run, laying down some cover for Rhoads and then getting some in turn from his grenades once he's back out the tunnel we came in... but common sense it seems has left the building.

    Instead, I see RED and charge down that damn Fade pumping a full clip into him as I run at him full tilt. I'm into melee range when my HMG clip runs out. As I fumble for my pistol, a grenade explodes right behind the Fade... Rhoads to the rescue! As the Fade thinks the better of this encounter and tries to disengage and scamper, I finally get my pistol out of the damned holster and start popping slugs into him. Another gren goes off in the doorway he's leaving thru and with a final slug or two from my pistol he keels over.

    I immediately jerk the empty clip out of my HMG and start shoving in another... As I'm doing this, I spot a Lerk creaping around the corner of the door... on the ground, his mistake! Luckily, at that second my gun gives me that re-assuring click-click-loaded sound... *budabudabudabudabudabuda* seconds later, scratch one more Xeno scum sucker.

    Rhoads has moved behind me and is making for the break in the wall over on the far left corner of the walkway that opens into a vent I quickly follow, assessing my ammo situation. 87 in the clip on the HMG, no spares, and 6 in the pistol with one spare, that's 16 pistol rounds... ######.. what's with the commander? we need ammo and more health packs... why's he not hearing us... what's all the damned shouting on the comms about... ah to hell with it, gotta support my fireteam comrade who, at this moment, is moving into the vent.

    I start following down the vent, until it comes to the final left hand turn. Rhoads moves forward and starts pumping grens into the next area. Very soon, over the explosions and the inhuman screams from dying Xenos we can hear the unmistakable click click of Skulk claws digging into a wall, more than one, not only that, but real close I can hear the flapping sound of a Lerks wings...

    For the umpteenth time this mission, all hell breaks loose, a Skulk pops up right in front of us at the vent exit, followed moments later by a Lerk. The Lerk rushes full tilt into the vent right on top of us. The Skulk, I have right in my sights and he comes to an untimely end through the introduction of many rounds of AP lined Lead slugs into his vital organs. The Lerk meantime is chomping on us, and it's hard to get a bead on the bugger in this confined space.

    Before I can get a decent line on him, the damned flying puss ball has taken several bites out of Rhoads and is setting about finishing the job. Heedless of the consequences I start pumping lead into him as fast as I can... too late. Before he keels over from my barrage, he succeds in getting in one final fatal bite on Rhoads.

    I have no time whatsoever to mourn his passing, just enough however to whip out my pistol, before two more skulks start coming in the entrance. One rushes me, getting in a decent chomp before I can kill him.

    My ammo situation is desperate, I've had to swap to pistol to hold on to the remaining 20 rounds in the HMG as the possible difference between life and death. Now I'm loading in my last clip of pistol ammo, and at that moment the second skulk at the vent exit decides it's time to be brave and rushes me. However, he just runs straight at me, jaws snapping, making him an easy target... I just empty the entire damn clip at him until, at point blank range, the final bullet drops him about 6 inches from my face.

    Ok... I'm on the ragged edge, I have about 20 health, 20 rounds of HMG ammo (equivalent to two short bursts) and seemingly my commander has forsaken me...

    A hurried retreat ensues as I start hearing more clicking on the wall outside the vent exit. I scramble as fast as I can out the vent the way I came, and I'm just about to run helter skelter for the doorway I came here through when I see a Fade backing up through it... I can hear the click-click of my persuers and the gnashing of their teeth...

    Well, better to die in glory than just to lay down here, so I decide to go for it.. and I rush the damned Fade's back and pump my remaining ammo into him. Lady luck was obviously smiling on me today, because whoever the Fade had backed off from had obviously had him near deaths door, because my mere 20 rounds dropped that sack of Xeno puke in his tracks.

    I'm close to the CC now.. I can make it if I run like hell... I go out the doorway, left down the corridor, and am just about to go out the doorway on my right towards the open area just outside our CC when I hear a hell of a racket going on out there... A quick glance behind me tells me my persuers are either not yet caught up (unlikely) or changing tactics to outflank me... I elect to creep slowly out the door.

    I come out the doorway and rush to my right, flattening myself and my knife against a side pillar... just in time... at that exact moment....
    </i>
    IRL: <b>my GF had awoken in the night and had entered my Computer Office (having knocked, but my earphones had kept me unawares) and kissed me on the back of my neck...

    Let me put it this way... thank the Gods that my flight-or-fight sphincter reaction is to clamp shut tighter than a frogs backside in Summertime... otherwise I would be hand-washing a pair of boxers this morning!

    I let out a yelp, jumped about 2 feet off my chair (thru buttock muscle clenching alone, my feet were not on the floor) and almost died of a heart attack. (The GF got a bit of a shock as well ;>)

    Let me tell you It took me a few seconds to get my bearings again and to slow my heart rate down below instant heart attack level.</b>

    IGM: <i>... a goddamned Onos walks round the corner, and I'm faced with the biggest butt in the known universe. At least that explains why the commander was too busy to worry about one guy caught out on his own.

    One last time the fates have smiled on me, he hasn't seen me and he's walking away from me with a Gorge and a Skulk in tow, I take my chance and dash across the intervening space to the relative safety of our CC... </i>


    IRL: <b>I should point out that the above took around about 4 minutes of real-time, tho it felt like hours!

    For the remaining hour of play (that basically consisted of us marines fighting a loosing battle to keep the Onos out of our CC) I was physically shaking and my heart was pounding like a smithys hammer... in a good way!!!!!

    What else can I say, this game completely and utterly OWNS!</b>
  • FreemantleFreemantle Join Date: 2002-06-16 Member: 783Members
    Wow! That's better than My Chiwawa story!
  • HobbesHobbes Join Date: 2002-03-17 Member: 328Members
    My, Joey.  Send that in to the Times.  Brilliant work.  =)

    (by the way, your girlfriend is exceedingly cruel)
  • GwahirGwahir Join Date: 2002-04-24 Member: 513Members, Constellation
    Hobbes, I've got to ask you, why the posting frenzy?  You've never been so active in the forums before.
  • TraneTrane Join Date: 2002-02-01 Member: 148Members
    My guess is the same reason we are all posting more, the release feels near and thus has drawn us into a forum frenzy... dun dun dun.  All part of the evil plan unveiled in the thread "important NS update"
  • UnknownUnknown Join Date: 2002-06-12 Member: 759Members
    Great story.  Loved the detail <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->  But the italics made it hard to read <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->
  • WaffleSpoonWaffleSpoon Join Date: 2002-01-30 Member: 133Members
    that is, without doubt, the best story so far.. except for one of ken's that is.. an encounter with an onos..
  • LegionnairedLegionnaired Join Date: 2002-04-30 Member: 552Members, Constellation
    That was probably one of the 10 times I've erupted into uncontrolled laughter in front of my PC....

    Thanks for that!
  • CMEastCMEast Join Date: 2002-05-19 Member: 632Members
    Brilliant story, you should definitely write more if they are gonna be like that...
    Humbaba has competition <!--emo&:D--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':D'><!--endemo-->
  • DunsbyDunsby Join Date: 2002-08-01 Member: 1042Awaiting Authorization
    OK MY EYES ARE KILLING NOW... Good story but i can hardly see the monitor and my eyes are watering... Damn italics.

    You used the word slugs to many times in the begining and it got annoying.

    -Good night
  • humbabahumbaba That Exciting Tales From the Frontline Guy Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 86Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    Heh heh. Competitions only helps the consumer <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->. I guess I'll have to acutally TRY this next time around. Its only just begun!
  • LegionnairedLegionnaired Join Date: 2002-04-30 Member: 552Members, Constellation
    WOOHOO!

    I see fam's been busy dishing out the custom titles <!--emo&:p--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'><!--endemo-->

    BUt yeah, anyone got another good commander story?
  • ErpErp Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 90Members
    That was a great story joev! very well written.


    *jealous*
  • humbabahumbaba That Exciting Tales From the Frontline Guy Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 86Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    Hah hah, I have 1 funny little command instances of marien disobediance.

    I was commanding early on in the playtest, and everyone was coming off their weekly NS withdrawal. Players were still not up to par, myself included. I had just finished placing down a large number of structures and, upon completion, told my men "Alright, secure double node at Atmo (short for Atmospheric Processing)". It was reasonably into the game, but the node was yet to be secured. Unfortunately . . I had hit All Chat instead of Team Chat. Well . no use sending my men into a fight. I had intended to minimize casualties, as my men weren't up to par to fight aliens in the numbers I was seeing turn up on my map. Well . . . I tell them to all gather at the airlock. To my disbelief, they all start heading down the ladder to atmo!
         A marine requsts health. They're goign through the door now. "Back, back" I type "Health by airlock". "GATHER AT AIRLOCK" . .they keep going, a few turning around, but most pushing inward. "STAY OUT OF ATMO!" My marines finally turn around, but too late. From both ramps leading down from Atmo they came. A lvl 1 from the left and a lvl 3 from the right. Caught in a crossfire, I lost 5 marines and 2 HMGs. They were ambushed and killed. Maybe NEXT time they'll listen to meh. heh.
           Im fresh outta stories for this past PT. Expect more with the coming weekend.



    <!--EDIT|humbaba|Sep. 05 2002,20:26-->
  • GwahirGwahir Join Date: 2002-04-24 Member: 513Members, Constellation
    oi that's gotta hurt.  Did they give a reason as to why they weren't listening?
  • humbabahumbaba That Exciting Tales From the Frontline Guy Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 86Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    They might have over voice comm . . but . .
    "O Commander has voice precedence (Note: this was removed for it didn't work right)"
    so . . . . I couldnt exactly hear them. This was actually the game where we discovered that it didnt work. See! We DO do things as playtesters. . .
  • LongtoothLongtooth Join Date: 2002-07-02 Member: 863Members
    Does anyone else see the subliminal messaging in humbaba's sig?
  • MooMoo_the_SnowCowMooMoo_the_SnowCow Join Date: 2002-08-03 Member: 1057Members
    I don't see it but I do have a sudden urge to use a shotty...
  • WaffleSpoonWaffleSpoon Join Date: 2002-01-30 Member: 133Members
    yea.. shotty.. I... must.. use.. O_O
  • BattousaixBattousaix Join Date: 2002-06-25 Member: 822Members
    hahahaha this is ########......
    *looks sig
    AWWWW ARGHHH I CANT STAND IT RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
    ......................................
    i must use shotty @_@
  • KhaimKhaim Join Date: 2002-06-28 Member: 841Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    humbaba means hugeness in some language or another...
  • coilcoil Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    25,000 page views.  I have to wonder how much of the site's bandwidth *this thread* is sucking up.  (:
  • WaffleSpoonWaffleSpoon Join Date: 2002-01-30 Member: 133Members
  • D_6969D_6969 Join Date: 2002-09-07 Member: 1298Members
    Yeah this is a huge post but I liked reading through some of the stories.
  • LockNLoadedLockNLoaded Join Date: 2002-09-05 Member: 1282Members
    the fan-fic does make u imagine how YOU want NS to be like -in your mind. Because u fantasize about it (in your mind) so it sets u for the mood to get NSing...but alas! ironically the mod, V1 is not out for public testing.

    have...to...keep...my...patience..
This discussion has been closed.