Larry is a competitive player, 21 years old. Experienced in coding, he often makes suggestions to improve the game. Many players know him from his time in clans like eR, legacy, aG and now oNe. He's been playing AC for a long time, since version 0.93. Let's see what he got to say...
1) What is your favorite official map, and favorite custom map? Why?
shine since it's a classic and pretty fair. I like any maps I can use as tiebreakers in tournaments. I don't play any custom maps at all.
2) Outside of CTF, what is your favorite mode in AC and why?
OSOK because it emphasises reaction time and awareness.
3) Who are the best players in AC? Did or do you have a favourite player you admire because of his skills?
Many in oNe, rC, w00p, LC, BoB and other good teams. If I had a fav it'd be Waffles.
4) In competitive play, 2v2 or 3v3 CTF are most played. Which one do you like most, and why?
3v3 but it's very tricky to explain why.
5) What do you think of Assault Cube as a competitive game, like what it does well, what it doesn't? And how do you think it stands against other competitive, free multiplayer first person shooters?
It has very simple mechanics and does most things well enough. But it fails in the details which are orientated to casual play. If you balance a game for competitive play, casual play will be good for free. AC stands in its own tiny niche largely supported by kids who want to play something in IT lessons and Linux/Mac gamers.
6) What features would you like to see added to Assault Cube?
Half-time side switching, competitive balance, unicode characters, better matchmaking and ranking, much reviewed and rotated map selection, zero-damage sniper. (And relax, the zero-damage sniper was a joke, ExodusS. Or was it?)
7) Which three clans do you like the best, not counting a clan you've been in before, and why?
w00p, rC and LC. w00p consistently do well when they need to, rC are still improving solidly, and I remember a time before Christmas when LC were regularly beating us.
8) Are you a sports person? If so, which one/s do you practice and which ones do you like to watching on TV?
I play roller hockey because I like casual mild violence. Football just has a great atmosphere, universality and enough potential for smart play to be enjoyable for me. I also like playing it.
9) Do you have any pets in your house? If so, what kind of animal and what is it's name?
We have a cat we adopted from a shelter recently. He's about one years old and hyper.
10) Can you name a few of your favorite bands/music artists, songs or albums?
Old Red Hot Chilis, 3 Doors Down, Eminem, Hans Zimmer, and many others. I've found Xemi has a remarkably similar taste in music to me which is nice for discovering music.
11) What Operating System(s) do you use and why?
Ubuntu 13.04 (development version). All others have something that annoy me too much. For instance Windows 7 is slow and harder to develop on.
12) You've had success by organising tournaments such as the ACWC. However, the weekend cups don't take place currently. Maybe you could win some players over to help you out to make awesome tournaments like this a success in the long run. Or do you have other plans?
I think it wasn't special enough to be worth the effort each week. In the long-term I hope 1.2 is released and enough new players create enough new teams for a repeat of the aG Cup.
13) You've consistently asked to lower spread for automatic weapons, making all spread centered instead of uniformly distributed (concept of range). Nonetheless, there are players against this, they bring forward the argument that it would lower skill to master the weapons thus changing AC completely. What would your reply look like?
This argument is made only because it could weaken the need to pulse-fire. That's why I suggest centred spread which would still allow pulse-firing to be very advantageous. The other argument I'd make is that pulse-firing is already weaker in SVN.
14) I like the current score system because it rewards aggressive gameplay + teamwork. However, you can't really tell why your score is what it is. Should it be simplified? There are many players who just want ratio back to the scoreboard.
I think it adds very little for the space it takes on the scoreboard. I'd rather have a customizable scoreboard with damage, ratio and other more tangible stats.
15) There's little activity in the competitive side of AC. Do you think one of the reasons could be that most players have no clue what's going on in the development of the game and think it's stagnating cause there hasn't been a release for a long time? Would it be better to have regular releases even if there might not be drastic changes?
I think it's just because players aren't progressing from pubs to inters to clans. I would prefer rapid releases. But hey guys, Mystered is back... and his internet is no-longer on par with the Democratic Republic of Congo's!
16) After last years unfortunate performance in ACWC - How strong is UK going to be this year? And who's chosen to represent England - Vanquish, Jason, Optic & you?
I only really play AC when my mates call me to now. For ACWC we'll practice a bit and see how things go. I'm confident with some of our players (eg Jason, Optic, Shield, Vanquish and Enam). I just hope Jason doesn't get high and I will try not to get drunk.
17) Could an AC competitive mod be successful? Regarding the little activity in the competitive scene nowadays clan players might be glad already to find opponents for a cm...
It could, but I don't see anyone coding it.
18) Hypothetically: Let's assume you were a dev - what could you help to improve on and around the game?
Half-time side switching and better (in my opinion) balance.
19) Regarding official maps and the way they are picked - do you think the devs should trust more the experience of the competitive scene? Maybe the creation of a council of experienced players who are going to give advice concerning this matter could help for the future?
Yes, some maps such as snow are not popular in pubs or competitive play but are kept nonetheless. That could work, or just put some trustworthy competitive player in charge of map selection.
20) David Cameron & the EU: Do you think it was tactically astute to threaten the EU by a possible Euro-Exit of the UK? It seemed that he was rather trying to satisfy his own party - besides it was an unfavorable moment regarding the EU's current state...
I thought it was more UKIP that was for exiting the EU. My opinion much depends on the details.
____________________________________________________________
Up next: YourSister (not your sister, you know what I mean....). I asked some players if they'd be willing to be future interviewees - here's who agreed to be interviewed: SaXzE - Jason - slackie - XFA - Waffles - MeLonE.
1) What is your favorite official map, and favorite custom map? Why?
shine since it's a classic and pretty fair. I like any maps I can use as tiebreakers in tournaments. I don't play any custom maps at all.
2) Outside of CTF, what is your favorite mode in AC and why?
OSOK because it emphasises reaction time and awareness.
3) Who are the best players in AC? Did or do you have a favourite player you admire because of his skills?
Many in oNe, rC, w00p, LC, BoB and other good teams. If I had a fav it'd be Waffles.
4) In competitive play, 2v2 or 3v3 CTF are most played. Which one do you like most, and why?
3v3 but it's very tricky to explain why.
5) What do you think of Assault Cube as a competitive game, like what it does well, what it doesn't? And how do you think it stands against other competitive, free multiplayer first person shooters?
It has very simple mechanics and does most things well enough. But it fails in the details which are orientated to casual play. If you balance a game for competitive play, casual play will be good for free. AC stands in its own tiny niche largely supported by kids who want to play something in IT lessons and Linux/Mac gamers.
6) What features would you like to see added to Assault Cube?
Half-time side switching, competitive balance, unicode characters, better matchmaking and ranking, much reviewed and rotated map selection, zero-damage sniper. (And relax, the zero-damage sniper was a joke, ExodusS. Or was it?)
7) Which three clans do you like the best, not counting a clan you've been in before, and why?
w00p, rC and LC. w00p consistently do well when they need to, rC are still improving solidly, and I remember a time before Christmas when LC were regularly beating us.
8) Are you a sports person? If so, which one/s do you practice and which ones do you like to watching on TV?
I play roller hockey because I like casual mild violence. Football just has a great atmosphere, universality and enough potential for smart play to be enjoyable for me. I also like playing it.
9) Do you have any pets in your house? If so, what kind of animal and what is it's name?
We have a cat we adopted from a shelter recently. He's about one years old and hyper.
10) Can you name a few of your favorite bands/music artists, songs or albums?
Old Red Hot Chilis, 3 Doors Down, Eminem, Hans Zimmer, and many others. I've found Xemi has a remarkably similar taste in music to me which is nice for discovering music.
11) What Operating System(s) do you use and why?
Ubuntu 13.04 (development version). All others have something that annoy me too much. For instance Windows 7 is slow and harder to develop on.
12) You've had success by organising tournaments such as the ACWC. However, the weekend cups don't take place currently. Maybe you could win some players over to help you out to make awesome tournaments like this a success in the long run. Or do you have other plans?
I think it wasn't special enough to be worth the effort each week. In the long-term I hope 1.2 is released and enough new players create enough new teams for a repeat of the aG Cup.
13) You've consistently asked to lower spread for automatic weapons, making all spread centered instead of uniformly distributed (concept of range). Nonetheless, there are players against this, they bring forward the argument that it would lower skill to master the weapons thus changing AC completely. What would your reply look like?
This argument is made only because it could weaken the need to pulse-fire. That's why I suggest centred spread which would still allow pulse-firing to be very advantageous. The other argument I'd make is that pulse-firing is already weaker in SVN.
14) I like the current score system because it rewards aggressive gameplay + teamwork. However, you can't really tell why your score is what it is. Should it be simplified? There are many players who just want ratio back to the scoreboard.
I think it adds very little for the space it takes on the scoreboard. I'd rather have a customizable scoreboard with damage, ratio and other more tangible stats.
15) There's little activity in the competitive side of AC. Do you think one of the reasons could be that most players have no clue what's going on in the development of the game and think it's stagnating cause there hasn't been a release for a long time? Would it be better to have regular releases even if there might not be drastic changes?
I think it's just because players aren't progressing from pubs to inters to clans. I would prefer rapid releases. But hey guys, Mystered is back... and his internet is no-longer on par with the Democratic Republic of Congo's!
16) After last years unfortunate performance in ACWC - How strong is UK going to be this year? And who's chosen to represent England - Vanquish, Jason, Optic & you?
I only really play AC when my mates call me to now. For ACWC we'll practice a bit and see how things go. I'm confident with some of our players (eg Jason, Optic, Shield, Vanquish and Enam). I just hope Jason doesn't get high and I will try not to get drunk.
17) Could an AC competitive mod be successful? Regarding the little activity in the competitive scene nowadays clan players might be glad already to find opponents for a cm...
It could, but I don't see anyone coding it.
18) Hypothetically: Let's assume you were a dev - what could you help to improve on and around the game?
Half-time side switching and better (in my opinion) balance.
19) Regarding official maps and the way they are picked - do you think the devs should trust more the experience of the competitive scene? Maybe the creation of a council of experienced players who are going to give advice concerning this matter could help for the future?
Yes, some maps such as snow are not popular in pubs or competitive play but are kept nonetheless. That could work, or just put some trustworthy competitive player in charge of map selection.
20) David Cameron & the EU: Do you think it was tactically astute to threaten the EU by a possible Euro-Exit of the UK? It seemed that he was rather trying to satisfy his own party - besides it was an unfavorable moment regarding the EU's current state...
I thought it was more UKIP that was for exiting the EU. My opinion much depends on the details.
____________________________________________________________
Up next: YourSister (not your sister, you know what I mean....). I asked some players if they'd be willing to be future interviewees - here's who agreed to be interviewed: SaXzE - Jason - slackie - XFA - Waffles - MeLonE.
