Hi everybody,
Once again it has been longer than intended. I haven't had any sleep yet today, but I need to announce a few changes around here.
First of all a sincere thanks to everybody who has been helping out, and the players have been showing up in pretty good numbers again. I ask that you all keep it up! Keep spreading the word. I realize that a lot of people are busy around the holidays, but please keep us in mind and try to find some time to make it out. It is extremely important that we stay busy despite the holidays. We will be open all the usual days, holiday or not so if you need a place to be this is it!
A few of you already know what has been going on here, but not all, so it is time to put the word out officially. We have been given a beta copy of the RedPlanet 4.11 (Tesla) port. You heard that right! After almost 10 years it is time for Seattle to BOOOOOOOOOOOST again! We are proud to be the second site in the country to get our hands on this.
This is not a new RP game, this is the old Tesla game everybody loved, very faithfully reproduced on the new system. It comes with a few new features such as the ability to switch between BattleTech Firestorm and RedPlanet games in just a couple of minutes. No more waiting around Dalmuti's while the pods reboot and the techs pray!
Keep in mind the software is still very beta, there are definitely still a few quirks, but it is mostly on the install/console end. The game itself plays smoothly and is very stable. After a couple weeks of round the clock struggling (thanks to everyone who helped, especially Zax), we have all 8 pods and the replay machine working.
To mark this occasion, Roadkill, err... Splat! will be running a RedPlanet Rally tournament here Friday night at 7pm. Immediately after we will have our first BattleTech King Of The Hill Tournament. The tournaments are just $10 each plus tax, sign up for one or both, but we hope to see all of you! Roadkill has posted details in the forums!
The RedPlanet tournament should be considered a beta shakedown night. It is nowhere near official, but it will certainly be fun! All skill levels are welcome as this is a great chance for new RP fans to see how the tournaments run.
The other big announcement is the return of RedPlanet Mondays! We will no longer be running BattleTech games on Mondays, so if you are an RP only pilot THIS IS YOUR NIGHT! Other nights will be both unless there is an announcement to the contrary. Regular rates apply on Mondays which means our usual bulk discounts are available. Notice I did not *yet* call this football night. We will be running a lot of deathrace for the next few weeks as we get the new players comfortable piloting. We have already had a problem with RP experts talking new pilots into football too soon, and it has been hard to get those people back in the pods for another game of RP. We have a whole new generation of pilots to teach. If there is enough interest there will absolutely be a football night, and there will absolutely be league play. In the meantime I need help making sure that everyone who is interested gets some training this time around.
We realize that this all puts a burden on our BattleTech community, the novelty of a new game is bound to make us a little RP heavy for a while, but we promise not to forget that BattleTech is the game that has allowed us to be here today! So to answer the next question, BATTLETECH ONLY ON TUESDAY NIGHTS! We will still take a break from 8:30 to 10:30 to visit the comedy club next door for some cheap food and drink on open mic night. The whole rest of the night will be BattleTech only! If you are a RedPlanet fan that refuses to play Battletech, please show up on Mondays or on any of the mixed nights (Wed - Sat unless there is some sort of event scheduled). We need to provide a home for the BattleTech only fans.
Also, I hate to have to say it, but it has already come up... so... The RedPlanet fans need to be respectful of BattleTech Firestorm and its fans. BattleTech is the only thing that has kept the doors open for a year, and the only reason we lasted long enough to see the release of RP for tesla II. The BattleTech audience is huge compared to the current RP fanbase (although that fanbase is growing quickly as people get a chance to booooooost). We have a strong community of friends that hang out here, and we now all have to figure out how to share the toys and get along. Hopefully I won't have to bring this up again. I have a lot of confidence that if any group can do this, it is our group... (except for soto of course, I have no confidence in soto).
We will put these schedule changes into effect immediately. I do not expect tonight to be a busy RP night on such short notice, but if we get new players we will do our best to teach, and if we get old players it will be a great chance to run some speed laps and knock the dust off of your airbouncing skills.
There is still plenty of time to book holiday parties and team building events! If you need more info, drop us a line at pilotinfo@the-airlock.com. That reminds me... if I owe you an email, please be patient, my inbox has been busy lately, but I am working through my backlog as quickly as I can. Also I have been working on getting the tallies caught up, the RP battle has taken up a ton of my time, and I apologize for getting behind on those. We are starting to get events on the calendar again. We will be announcing a BattleTech Bloodname tournament very soon and several other surprises are just around the corner! Stay tuned for more info!
Other events to watch for soon include an advanced BattleTech boot camp and our first RedPlanet booooooost camp! Thanks to everybody that showed up on Saturday for Boot Camp. It was cool to see some people we hadn't seen in a while, and it was great to see some new players pick up the game so quickly.
The IRC (internet relay chat) has been very active lately and we have been having a lot of fun with the IdleRPG on that network. If you have never used IRC before, or if it has been a while and you need some help, just let us know. We would be happy to walk you through connecting to the channel. For those who just need the connection info:
/server irc.the-airlock.com (note it might be /connect in some clients)
/j #theairlock
If you need an easy client to use to connect, check out www.mibbit.com, a fully functional webchat system that can drop you right into the channel (again, let us know if you need help!) from your web browser. I am not saying you should definitely use it to connect from work... I am just saying that you probably can... :D
We have some ideas for some fun stuff to roll out in the IRC chat over the coming months, and I hope to get a chat client integrated into the website soon as well.
There is more to tell you, but I need to make a parts run and do some more paperwork before we open tonight.
Thanks as always for reading and sharing the news. There is a lot to be excited about here, but it depends on all of you to continue to spread the word that we are here.
Have a good afternoon everybody,
see you soon,
--uglyman
P.S. BOOOooooooooOOOoooooOOOoooOOOoOOOoOOOooOOooost!
