TDZK Icons is a series of interviews with the VIPs of TDZK. The interviews consist of questions about how they found TDZK, their first experiences as a newbie, their most memorable moments and also questions about recent and/or current events.
At the top is a list of people that were interviewed, click their name to read the interview.
ZmaniacZ
February 9, 2004
Basic Info
Pilot name: ZmaniacZ
Player race: Zallun
Alliance: KAOS
Occupation: Raider, Op Leader, KAOS 2nd Wing Leader
Playing since: May 2002, few days before Round 5 started (aka 1.0)
The Interview
Interviewer: Lemmy (L)
Player: ZmaniacZ (ZZ)
General Questions
L: How did you find out about TDZK? ZZ: Darklyre IM'd me about two days before 1.0 (Round 5). I had nothing better to do, so I hopped in chat and started screwing around.
L: At first, what made you stay and play the game? ZZ: I knew lots of people already in KAOS. People I hadn't talked to in years, too. It was a lot of nostalgia at first, chatting about the good 'ol SM [Space Merchant] days and on and on. Plus, when I first logged on, Hype[rion] said something to the effect of, "That's not the real ZZ, just another newbie trying to capitalize on an awesome reputation." Mind you, he might've said nothing of the sort and I;ve just embellished it in my head over the years. ANYWAY, I decided to keep playing since the game was decidedly slick, and because even the new people I'd barely met were already interesting and worth knowing. Arion especially made me feel like I belonged and could hack it with all these new guys.
L: And what’s keeping you here now? ZZ: Oh, lots of things. I've got that [Leader] tag in K2, so that's probably worth having some fun with. I do love the community. There are so few people I don't like and the community, for the most part, gives everyone a chance to be heard. I like that. Plus, SOMEONE has to run the ShipCalc. Oh, and I need the ego-stroke of knowing that lots of people know who I am and might even think I'm not too terrible of a guy ;)
L: How did you experience TDZK in your first days? Was it easy to learn for you? ZZ: I had my hand held all the way through my early days. Almost right away after I joined, Lapis was putting together her raid squad for the next round, and I figured that sounded like fun, so I signed up. Okay, trading up to an appropriate level was scary. I start trading merrily away between two ports far from each other, only to have their goods change on me :/ . Then everyone laughed at me and bothered to tell me how trading worked. The jerks.
L: How did you learn most of your TDZK knowledge? ZZ: Mostly form the other guys in K, a bit from the forums, and a lot of play-time. Once I took over the calc from Madox, that really cemented my in-game knowledge. But remember, just because you know how to do something, doesn't mean you’re any good at it. ;)
L: Can you give us a summary of your TDZK career up till now? ZZ: Started in KAOS, raided throughout 1.0. Went to Maelstrom during the split period, did some raiding and some drone-clearing there. When round 7 rolled around, I had just gotten a new job and didn't have the time K needed, so I quit and formed The Closet and went on a drone-killing spree. Ahhh, and what a spree it was, the stuff of legends. Eventually I returned to K, was present for the tail-end of that legendary ass-kicking, and finally had a strong hand in bringing the old girl back to life. Plus, I get to raid again, finally. There was no way I was leveling up to 50 last round. Ugh. I hate trading.
L: What was your personal best experience in TDZK? ZZ: Everytime one of my guys says they think I'm doing an okay job with that [Leader] tag. I'm panicked to think that eventually they're going to find out that I don't know what I'm doing and lynch me for it. But until then, I enjoy the praise. Oh, and that time in 1.0 when we raided out a wheelie raid squad that was sitting on a level 7 port, yeah, that rocked too.
L: What do you think is the most important event in TDZK? ZZ: The loss of Jerle and Squee as admins. I know Aelanna is smart and knows what she's doing, but it's a lot of work and I worry about her. Jerle, especially in his last few days was doing so much to help the game that the lack of his presence is already being felt.
Player/Alliance Specific Questions
L: About that ass-kicking, do you think it helped KAOS to come back this strong in 2.2? ZZ: Well, yes and no. At the time, Baba had just left with practically no warning, we had no more planets, actvity was dropping fast and the end was very clearly in sight. Living through it, the thought was more along the lines of good god, I hope we can pull together 20 active people for 2.2. I think the dissatisfaction a lot of players felt with the CFA politics of last round really contributed more to K getting back on its feet. As we struggled forward, we kept getting more and more poeple interested in joining K because the allaince they were in wasn't fun anymore, it wasn't what they wanted to be doing in the game. But then again I don't want to understress the fact that we had a core of people who just weren't going to give up no matter what. So I guess, yes, that particular nasty fire helped solidify K, but there were more factors than just that that contributed to the healthy K you see today.
L: You’re now a KAOS leader, owner of the shipcalc, and admin of www.redial.net. How do you find time for all of these things? ZZ: Fortunately, redial and the shipcalc are pretty easy on the maintenance. Redial practically runs itself, especially with the INN hosted there now. Its that [Leader] thing that takes up all the time. I've thought about stepping down, focusing mroe on (shudder) school, but you know, the expereince is just too much fun. Everyone should get to lead a top-tier alliance
L: What can we expect in the future from the shipcalc? ZZ: Good question. The only thing on my docket for it right now is the shopping list...where it gives a you a list of stations to go to. But that's kind of hard, and I'm kind of lazy about it. Other than that, just whatever features anyone might suggest that seem interesting. I long ago gave up trying to keep it simple. I suppose writing a manual for it should be on my list somewhere.
L: What can we expect to see from KAOS in the future? ZZ: Not fiery death
K learned a lot last round. We learned that there are new limits in the game and we have to be a bit more careful about what we do. We've got friends this time around, ya see. There's still 3 months left in this game and I can't even begin to speculate what will happen down the road, but its obvious some kind of major war is coming, and I doubt K will stay out of it. No fun staying out of wars.
L: If you can pick 1 alliance as your enemy, which would it be and why? ZZ: A couple of weeks ago, I would've said ASx. But that's mostly a personal thing. There were a few people in ASx which I don't believe handled themselves very well, and I would've itched to show them that raiding every day, at the same time, over and over just isn't as big an accomplishment as they liked to believe it is. But for now, I'd have to choose Rens/Fury/FF. There's still some FF hate lying around, and I'd love to see what these guys are made of. Plus, their decent guys...I'd like to believe we'd be able to avoid the usual webboard nastiness.
About Recent Events
L: KAOS have been repeatedly seen in LoF territory podding their ships, what caused KAOS’ aggression towards LoF? ZZ: We kill what we kill. There's no big plan behind it. Some guys wanted to go hunt LoF for a while, so they go. It's not an issue of increasing hostilities, just K killing stuff when they get bored of newbies.
L: What do you think of Renegades’ and FURY’s recent successes? Is it just a start-of-the-round thing, or do you see them getting even better in the course of the round? ZZ: Fury/Rens is at least as strong a group as K/STS. I think this is the round where we'll see Rens finally find a place where they can excel and Fury truly come into their own as a top tier alliance.
L: SH is one of the favorites for top alliance this round, but with ASx disbanded, what do you think about their chances now? ZZ: They certainly weren't my favorite for this round. And I don't understand why people were so impressed with them last round. It was a rare day that they ventured out of their nebulas. And ASx raided every port in a system every day. Whoop dee do. It was so exciting that ASx collapsed. I don't want it to sound like I don't respect the fact that SH/HH can be a threat, it’s just that I think they're a bit over-hyped.
Nightmyre
February 22, 2004
Basic Info
Pilot name: Nightmyre
Player race: Kitaran
Alliance: FURY
Occupation: Subcommander, Lead Ship Designer, Op Leader
Playing since: Feb. 20th, 2003
The Interview
Interviewer: Lemmy (L)
Player: Nightmyre (NM)
General Questions
L: How did you find out about TDZK? NM: While browsing another forum i go to, i saw a post about this game, so i checked it out on a whim, and was instantly hooked, more or less.
L: At first, what made you stay and play the game? NM: At first, i enjoyed the trading system quite a bit. Not entirely sure what attracted me to it, but it was just a lot of fun and made me keep going back to buy ships even though i would repeatadly get podded.
L: And what’s keeping you here now? NM: Mainly the fun of leading an alliance and organizing raids. Its quite satisfying to orchestrate an assault on a heavy enemy target over a weeklong period, plan out the raider designs, gather all the hunters together, and then successfully execute the op and take out a large chunk of targets.
It’s also quite fun doing new things. like testing out experimental ship designs, or taking a break from hunting to raid, or target hunt, or etc.
L: How did you experience TDZK in your first days? Was it easy to learn for you? NM: Mainly through trial and error. In 2.0 i took about 10 pods before even figuring out what to do. At one point i camped concentric in a level 120 cruiser and shot at anything that came by - not camping inside and waiting for pings, camping outside for like half an hour. Took me a while to die too.
Learnt to trade by dying repeatadly mainly, like walking over an AL planet and dying to mines, or trading with three hunters docked with me online and dying to one of them, and such.
L: How did you learn most of your TDZK knowledge? NM: Analyzing the helpfiles, asking as many questions as possible, and learning from my mistakes mainly. Learning the equations from the admins and from anyone who would answer on IRC, and eventually piecing things together. Testing them out with ships ingame by myself until i had a 'solid' knowledge of the dynamics, then guinea-pigging random alliance members into testing things out for me.
Almost everything i learned the hard way, except for perhaps a few equations that i could get from the admins and/or other players.
L: Can you give us a summary of your TDZK career up till now? NM: I started the game in an alliance called 'iC', which was basically a collection of players from the other forum i visit. That alliance merged into 'OI', which was again an alliance consisting of mainly players from that other forum. After a while OI broke up, mainly due to AL raiding the only planet we had. From there i went to FLB, led by Dread Scot. stayed in there until that broke up too, again largely because of losing our planet.
After FLB broke up, i went over to SK, which was the precursor to FURY. haven't left the alliance since then, over 1 round in there so far.
L: What was your personal best experience in TDZK? NM: Thats a difficult thing to choose, but two things stick out in my mind in particular.
The first one was jumping an ASX planet raid and subsequently fighting with their forces for over an hour over several ports and jumpnodes, ambushing their fleet as they tried to run, then ambushing them again as they tried to return, camping them at ports after we holed them into a dead-end system, then getting flooded by their escorts as they rushed in to free them before we could call a raid in. Generally just the usual fun of a jump, except spread out over an hour long period of time.
The other thing i can remember is a large joint op between ourselves and STS against an SH planet, in which i roulette raided in my shield bubble ship for 10+ rounds against a 3000 drone SH planet before dying, and then reshipped and did it again. Also, suiciding my raider into a level 30 port so we could finish the raid after our normal suiciders ran out of turns.
L: What do you think is the most important event in TDZK? NM: Most important event? That’s a kinda hard question to answer, especially since i haven't been around for very many important events. I'd have to say the single most important events i can think of are Squee quitting, and then Jerle quitting.
Squee quitting wasn't such a major issue because jerle could handle most of everything himself. Jerle quitting might not be the case. It remains to be seen whether aelanna can handle herself or not
Player/Alliance Specific Questions
L: As most of us know by now, FURY-member Malhavoc turned out to be Jerle. What was it like playing with him, and when did you find out he was Jerle? NM: Playing with Malhavoc before knowing he was Jerle was always an interesting thing - namely because it was rare we could ever get in touch with him.
He would regularly take several days to answer a PM, and when he was on IRC he would take around half an hour to answer a PM then ten minutes between replies.
We found out about him a bit before the end of 2.1 - i think around early december or so.
After he revealed who he was, it was a lot easier to play with him. Quite a few times during 2.2 i would talk to him through Jerle instead of Malhavoc, who wouldn’t be there in our IRC channel at the time, and so managed to get considerably more done.
Finding out about the secret identity was interesting, but i for one wasn't altogether surprised, since i had my suspicions before as well. Although they were mostly jokes, jokes tend to lead to other stuff if you carry them through.
One thing i feel the need to again reinforce is that as jerle he never once revealed any information he couldn't find out as malhavoc. There were no secret equations we were given to help us plan raids, no planet intel stolen from the database to design raiders, and such. Everything we knew we knew from Malhavoc, as Malhavoc.
L: FURY is now working closely with Renegades while you used to be enemies. How did that happen? NM: Renegades as enemies last round was largely something circumstantial. Early on in the round we were allied with GC, and as such, indirectly allied with SH. when KAOS started making moves against SH, we tried to help in the ways we could at the time. Since Renegades were somewhat allied with KAOS, that made them an easier target - they were more at our level to target than KAOS were at the time.
At the same time, we had a war with DA going on, and DA and Renegades were allied as well. Renegades raided the planets of ours due to influence from DA, and so we retaliated.
After the KAOS war died down, SH more or less threw us away and started backstabbing us. So we dropped relations and declared war instead. The logical allies for us to seek were their enemies in the original war. KAOS decided to avoid allying with us, for their own reasons. Renegades on the other hand didn't, and so we signed a CFA with them and slowly started working together.
Come 2.2, we had an early conflict at the beginning of the round with HOLY. After claiming 23k, HOLY had 11k under their control. We decided early on that we didn't want to have the responsibility of controlling two systems on our own, and so we looked for potential allies. STS was the logical first choice due to our alliance the previous round, but they decided to ally with K instead and pursue interests in 17k.
At the same time, FF, which was formed from ex-fury members, was getting pushed around in 17k and likely evicted soon, and needed a new home. so we offered them 11k, and they accepted.
Enter Renegades now. We needed a solid ally to help cover for our lack of a major hunting squad, and they were the obvious choice. We worked with them for a bit early on, with them covering our raids, and us offering them a safe system to level in. After an incident over the 23k station involving myself, another fury member, and NG, we allied ourselves quite a bit more rapidly, and shortly signed an MOP.
After a few weeks of working together, we decided to reform our treaties as is right now, and that brings us to the current situation.
L: You mentioned guinea-pigging your alliance member into testing your expiremental designs, how many of those designs failed miserably? :) NM: Heh, depends on what you consider as guinea pigging. Last round i put zer0das in an experimental ranger and it worked quite well, until he got blown up in a disadvantaged matchup.
For the most part though, the designs succeeded quite well. Offhand, i can't recall any failures, although i have made mistakes in putting people into the wrong ships. Just a few days ago i designed a quick soloraider for an alliance member of mine, so he could raid out a high leveled HH from a low leveled port. Unfortunately i miscalculated somewhat and he proceeded to explode ;/
About Recent Events
L: When FURY/Ren captured Mazanrea (32) from SH, FURY/Ren looked unbeatable. But only a few days later SH/HH made a comeback in Antalon when some might’ve thought that SH would stay down. Do you think this is one of those wars that could keep going tilll the end of the round? NM: Anyone who thought that SHH were down after our raids need only look over shipdata to realise just how wrong they were. SHH have well over 3 times our numbers, and as such, considerably more room to suffer losses. Every death we take is worth three of theirs.
As for the latter comment - the only person who's going to be giving up here is them. You saw us last round - doesn't matter how much we are outgunned, outmanned, and outfunded - we'll keep fighting until the end.
L: Lately two alliance have been actively fighting in Peridon (25), LoF and AD, what are your expectations for that battle? NM: AD is very similar to GC last round - IMO they both have the same strengths and weaknesses. They have a solid core of members and are extremely good at retaining loyal members - however I personally don't think they can hold off against LoF. While their members may not leave, judging by their activity last round, AD won't be able to survive against the sheer numbers LoF will throw at them -- assuming they don't find an ally that is.
L: Phoenix seems to be making a comeback this round by podding several top hunter teams in a row now. What do you expect to see from them in the future? NM: Having fought TPF I can honestly say that most of their pilots are overrated. They do have a few solid hunters - Subversion and Nova Chechman come to mind - but for the most part they seem to be a pretty inactive, EXP whoreish alliance. Last round they did nothing much at all, just sat in their systems and used kitaran maneuver carriers to avoid dying.
From fighting them this round, they are quite good at guarding their home system -- we raided there a bit and they reacted near instantly. But outside their home I haven't seen much action from them. Isolated kills from a few hunters does not an alliance make.
iYRe
March 1, 2004
Basic Info
Pilot name: iYRe
Player race: Wraith
Alliance: GTG
(Previous) Occupation: Leader, Co-ordinator, Op Leader, Escort
Playing since: Oct 12 01:03:46 2002 CEST
The Interview
Interviewer: Lemmy (L)
Player: iYRe (I)
General Questions:
L: How did you find out about TDZK? I: A bunch of planetarion players in an alliance I was in were playing. Planetarion ended and so I had a look.
L: At first, what made you stay and play the game? I: I liked the idea of not having to be on 24 hours a day to protect my planet. I don’t know what got me through the first million deaths... /me glares at IGF
L: And what’s keeping you here now? I: My friends. Addiction. GTG. GTG has some of the best people you could ever want to know. I wish I lived close by them.
L: How did you experience TDZK in your first days? Was it easy to learn for you? I: I'm still a noob :). I think I was podded around 40 times in v1, in the various characters i had.
Never believe Madox when he tells you a sniv interceptor is a really good warbird.
I found it really frustrating as a noob. It wasn’t until Apricot and others in GTG and HOLY took my little alliance under their wing and gave us some advice. It took several months and the recruitment of some decent players before I learned how not to die.
I ended up at 53rd for kills with my Wraith character (177 kills). If you added my Kit that i deleted (I changed race a few times), it would have been over 200.
I think my biggest mistake ever was spam attacking DeathDealer, a lvl 74 Kit in a man ship (when i was lvl 28). I was F5'ing and typing "dock dock" to my wingmates who were camping with me, then "kaboom". I despise manuever to this very day!
L: How did you learn most of your TDZK knowledge? I: I learned from asking people, from trying and dying. I learned really very little from the forums. Mostly, because I was always leader, I tried to recruit people who could do stuff, a raider, a hunter, an RC, etc. I really learned alot from Apricot, Malice, Postie, and Master Chief. They were my main sources of info.
L: Can you give us a summary of your TDZK career up till now? I: Alliance history:
4D (1 week ubernoob)
B5 (2 weeks - disbanded - just a noob)
GDF (Leader, disbanded in 2.0)
GTG (SubCom Hunter, 2.0, leader 2.1 -2.2)
I stepped down from leadership this round due to real life pressures. I also retired my character. However, I am still around. I dont feel good about leaving them entirely, so I am helping them find their way with me in a reduced capacity.
L: What was your personal best experience in TDZK? I: My personal best experience? Hmmm. Helping raid a KAOS planet in 2.1, then planning, and executing a raid on a big AL planet in 2.1, despite some stout defense by Camoes and his crew. They almost did enough to stop us. We got lucky.
L: What do you think is the most important event in TDZK? I: I think there are 2 really important events in recent history.
a: The demise of KAOS in 2.1. KAOS had everyone in fear and awe. However, when they were "defeated" (if you can call it that) it showed that they were human. They still command a lot of respect because they are excellent players. However, I don’t think anyone will ever command the game with the same kind of authority again. The age of the COE/KAOS type control is gone. It’s a new game now. Different philosophy, and style of play.
b: Jerle leaving. It was a big shock to the community. I hope Aelanna doesn’t kill herself running this game alone.
Player/Alliance Specific Questions
L: Any idea when you will be returning as full-time leader in GTG? I: I dont know if I ever will. I am old, have a wife, and a new house, want to start a family and all that. I'm afraid gaming has to take second place to it.
I've also achieved my goals, I led an alliance and made it successfully through a round (2.1). I am still around though, and when I have time I am still co-ordinating and so on, helping Apricot and her sub coms with their plans and stuff.
L: What goals did you and GTG set for this round? How do you think GTG is doing to achieve those goals? I: That would be telling. If I tell you, I'll have to kill you, and anyone else who happens to read this.
Nah. GTG always has the plans. Blow stuff up and have fun. We're a bunch of friends. We never really start a round with huge plans. Although, last round we kinda did. We worked out what we needed to be able to raid lvl 50 ports and that was our goal. This round we decided to get some planets and hold on to them. We also chose that we would not ally with anyone but Discordia, in order to prevent any super alliance coalitions forming. DiscoGuild believe that ruined last round, and every round that is like it. Disco is made up of some SG members, who, like us, feel a little responsible for it from last round, as we started the anti K war (although K really made it worse for themselves). We will try and avoid it again, even if it costs us everything.
Because our goals are quite simple, its easy to achieve them. We dont expect to get in big wars and win them and so on. If we do, and we win, its good, if we lose, well, bummer, but we'll have done our best and blown up some stuff on the way.
L: If GTG wasn’t around, what alliance would you definitely want to join, and which would you definitely not want join? And why? I: Definately NOT SH :)
And not FURY, mainly cause everyone seems to be joining FURY...
Personally, i dont really know who I would join. I think though, that I would like to have been in the v1 KAOS or ID. I've been fortunate enough to have a few ex-K come through GTG while I have been there, and I have learnt alot from them. It would be great to learn a bit from Baba and Aralis though. They are legends.
Although I will say this, any competent leader can make an alliance successfull, however, without the right kind of people in their alliance, they wont make it to the top. K and ID had top people. GTG has some excellent people. None of us are players of legendary status, but the one thing we do, is work like a team. They make me look good. In reality, I am the biggest noob in tdzk :)
Recent Events
L: About GTG/Dis vs SHHCC, why did you decide to attack their planet, and what are your goals in this war? I: Firstly, let me say, I love you lemmy .
Secondly, well, we podded a few SH, as you do when you share airspace. They raided a few of us out (who were dumb enough to dock in said airspace).
We needed access to this system because it was the only way in and out. Perhaps they got a bit paranoid about it, I know I probably would.
Anyway, end result is they started jumping our raids and we had intel that they were coming for our planets (these raids werent in shared airspace, but in our airspace).
Discordia decided that the only way to prevent this was a pre-emptive strike and to take out their raiders and/or escorts, which we knew to be there. GTG went along as well. We are, as you know, loyal to our allies, thick and thin.
L: House Harkonnen recently reorganized, what do you think this reorganization will bring them? I: To be honest, I dont know. GTG has been allied to HH for 2 rounds. Although we've never really worked together, due to circumstances, we know, and respect them alot. Hunting them, in 2.0, soon turned to uNAP, and then CFA.
Darke, who has taken the burden of leadership, is a good man, who I have utmost respect for. He is a fellow southern Hemispherian (and New Zealand is gonna KICK SA butt in the rugby !! ;)), and a tough customer.
I think, knowing HH, that restructuring will most probably weed out their inactives, and focus them more. Making them more dangerous. Never ever underestimate these guys.
L: Legion/Cartel recently lost their biggest planet, what do you think of their chances against xF/DR/UF? I: Ummm, I'd like to comment, but I may have to refrain, for nicety reasons.
I'd say that XF/DR/UF should probably walk all over them. However, I hear rumours that people are a bit annoyed with XF/DR/UF, and might sneak up on them from behind. Or from the front. Or not sneak up at all. Or.. I might be wrong. Of course, I am never wrong (dont you dare ask my wife!), soo.. hmmm :)
I'd like to add a comment, if I may. One thing I would really like to see, is K/STS go and give someone a big slap in the face. I reckon the only real challenge for them would be LoF. These are 3 big sleeping giants. KAOS/STS are really just podding (and being podded by) noobs. LoF are really just raiding ports for.. well.. no one really knows why. LoF would be the only ones IMHO, who could really challenge them. What would make it REALLY interesting would be LoF/X vs K/STS
One can dream :)
Wolfi
March 25, 2004
Note: This is a partial interview, as Wolfi retired before the remaining sets of questions could be asked.
Pilot name: Wolfi
Player race:
Alliance: Renegades
Occupation: Leader
Playing since: Pre-1.0
General Questions
L: How did you find out about TDZK? W: I got lucky. Found it off a link to MPOG ranking site while playing another game.
L: At first, what made you stay and play the game? W: I liked the aspect of being a single ship, not a country etc. I like being able to chart my own path -and it fits in well as a distraction from "real life" ... that is until i found out about combat.
L: And what’s keeping you here now? W: Combat. And Renegades...friends.
L: How did you experience TDZK in your first days? Was it easy to learn for you? W: TDZK was pretty much in infancy itself, i think, when i started - we were all pretty n00b...my first "real" ship was a cruiser with 600 holds, that survived several shots from a Kaos camp over concentric. Not the best ship design...it did get me a fair few NPCs tho. Probably my worst newb "mistake" was building one of every ship.
L: How did you learn most of your TDZK knowledge? (spent time in an alliance/ask on the forums/ask on irc/find out the hard way/etc) W: I learned TDZK first by playing with numbers on trade routes, then combat NPCs, then KAOS taught me more than I ever could have learned had we not been shooting at each other. Running the alliance - IGF-R at the time, put me in my element. Mostly, I learned and am still learning, as I go along.
L: Can you give us a summary of your TDZK career up till now? W: I started TDZK pre 1.0 in a newbie trading alliance that tended to stay around Wraith and Tamara...Then i found the forums, and read the alliance recruitment message for IGF. A merc alliance that "blows things up" with a deep RP background. I asked to join and was taken in. (unfortunatly I didnt have as much time for the RP aspect as I would have liked). But in IGF i found myself pretty much solo hunting newbs and NPCs...about 1/4 into 1.0 I had a problem with IGFs mentallity of suiciding 12b ships in order to "win". So I left, and formed IGF-R with intentions of showing IGF how mercenarys should work...and I figured we would start with IGF :) Didnt work out that way.
Natural progression lead me to leading Renegades as it stands today.
L: What was your personal best experience in TDZK? W: I have several...my favorite combat was against Jai master in nexus. ACME had wanted to bait KAOS into jumping them with a port raid. IGF-R was fairly new, but I went along with a wingmate and KAOS did as expected. I ended up IS with Jai for a few rounds before I saw my first pod screen from ship to ship combat. (Before then I had been podded in a planet raid)
My favorite op is the one against Babaloo in 1.0...I think Rens were all totally drunk, it was a failed op...but it was a helluva lot of fun.
There have been so many "fights" that have ended on friendly terms...my favorite part of the game is when it is just a game. Win or loose, both sides remain amicable...unfortunatly that was rare in the last couple rounds.
L: What do you think is the most important event in TDZK? W: Last rounds events, coupled with the game mechanics we saw a mass coalition form and become virtually unstoppable as they raided at will...killing ships and player morale without concern for the game. I think that was pretty signifigant, although predictable based on the mechanics.
In game related events I would say the scourge war. I was fortunate enough to be involved in a coalition with several major alliances who were at war with one another in 1.0. This war was summarily dropped as the alliances joined force to defeat the 9xx series scourgies. It was quite interesting to see how the alliances that were at odds with one another, were also respectable friends when it came to doing what needed.
In more recent events. A change back to a good combat ruleset and...seeing an admin ship rated at planet stats belonging to a level 6 pilot.
foamy
April 22, 2004
Basic Info
Pilot name: Foamy
Player race: Zallun
Alliance: STS
(Previous) Occupation: Henchman, leader of the second SoF wing.
Playing since: approximately September of 2002 ( registration date at the WB )
The Interview
Interviewer: Sardukar (S)
Player: Foamy (F)
General Questions
S: How did you find out about TDZK? F: Well, I played another online game by the name of Earth:2025. Around that time, one particular alliance, SoF, was having issues with cheaters targetting them ingame, and some of it's members were looking for different games. One of 'em, I don't know which, came across TDZK, and started publicising it.
S: are they still playing? F: Some, yes. Not all of 'em, though. But that migration is what ended up getting TDZK it's new servers, you know.
S: Could you elaborate a little more about that last comment, about the new server? F: See, along with the SoF’ers, a couple of other alliances shifted a few members over, though neither lasted. They were by the names La Cosa Nostra [LCN] and Paradigm [PDM]. LCN eventually ended up merging into SoF, and a good thing, because we needed the talent, and PDM just kinda dissolved... but one of the guys that came in as PDM was a fellow by the name of Comwood. Now, Comwood was running an alliance hosting site, but he had lots of surplus capacity on his servers, and so TDZK and him worked an agreement of some kind out, and he started hosting them. Still does, even though - to my knowledge, anyways - Comwood doesn't play any longer.
S: Ok, lets move on. When you arrived, what made you stay and play? What attracted you towards the game? F: Well... The active admins were a HUGE part, and part of what we used to recruit players out of Earth, because the admin there is a negligent POS. The other big part was the community we had going in SoF. Trying to start a new alliance is a challenge I'd not experienced in quite some time, and it was one I enjoyed. See, in Earth, I was a founding member of an alliance called 'The Devil's Advocates', what would be... over four years ago now, I think. But after two years with it, and it cruising, I'd lost some of the interest I had in it. SoF-TDZK provided a fresh challenge in a fresh game.
S: And what is keeping you here now? SoF dissolved a few rounds ago? F: SoF didn't really dissolve, you know. We essentially renamed ourselves. S: Into STS? F: You see, by the end of 2.0, a lot of the early SoFers had left, which is only to be expected, and we decided to re-brand ourselves, as we were no longer SoF-TDZK branch, but a separate entity. So yes, at the end of 2.0, we had a thread up on our alliance forums, and we eventually renamed ourselves STS. 2.1 was really our break-out round.
F: In 1.0, and 2.0, we'd mostly been learning mechanics, co-ordination, things like that. We weren't a top tier alliance, though we certainly wanted to be. We weren't n00bs, either - we'd done some port and planet raiding, some joint ops, stuff like that, but we weren't a match for K, or PG. Or LoF, at the time. But in 2.1... Ah, in 2.1, we put all our hard-earned experience to use. Fought some wars, against good opponents. Closed out the round fighting with FURY against SH. 'twas a lot of fun… Louis terrorised Quelaar all round... we took down a warbird with a ressy hunt pack, heehehee, and all in all, it was a good round for us.
S: So, how did you experience your earlier days? How did you learn the game? Trial and error, or just trial? F: Trial, error, and the webboards, mostly, in 1.0. More just trail in 2.0, and by the beginning of 2.1, I knew enough of the mechanics to code up a combat sim. I meant to alter it for this round, but then Lemmy released his, so I didn't bother, S: And did you have a mentor or something? Somebody from LCN? F: Nah, not a mentor as such. I did have a bunch of people I listened too, though. Madox, AKULA and Helios were the big ones.
S: I was gonna ask for a summary of your TDZK career, but you gave it for the first part already, could you finish it perhaps and include this round? F: Well... In 2.0, I had tons of fun provoking AL. Eventually led to a war, which they won, but it was amazing how irritated I got them. See, I'd flown down to their homesystem to level in the early part of 2.0. And I'd found myself earning more cash than I knew what to do with. So, I kept adding drones to my trade frigate. End result was an evil sucker.
F: 2.0's combat mechanics gave no drone penalty for shipsize, and did give initiative for speed - and I was Kit, and they had +3 speed… So I had this highspeed lowhold highdrone frigate with unstoppable initiative. So in ADDITION to trading, I spent a bunch of months down there shooting all the other traders. zzz was floating around, he was the only trader I didn't at least try to shoot, 'cause his freighter had an absolutely ridiculous amount of defence. We had fun times down there together. I died a couple times though.
S: And 2.1 was the breakthrough for STS… F: Yah. It's when louis went nuts. S: As in, on a killing spree? F: Yeah, on a killing spree - which hasn't ended yet. =) And we had Iccyh around to coordinate our hunters. If Iccyh comes back - he's not got time for TDZK ATM - I'd advise you to never, ever face him. I'd actually say - with full respect to louis, whom I consider an amazing player - that Iccyh is, by far, the more dangerous of the two.
S: And do you call last round STS' best round, or the current round? F: Last one, in my opinion. This round we've been less coordinated than I'd like to see.
F: I'll let you in on a poorly-kept secret though. S: Goody =)
F; The ASSTAKO offensive against LoF was under consideration from day 1 of 2.1. Even though ASSTAKO, as such, didn't exist then. =) S: Hehe, lol, ok =)
Player/Alliance Specific Questions
S: Ok, the most obvious question now is the relation between Asstako and LoF, and your own relation with LoF. Could you tell a little more about that? F: Sure: Ghent12… Ghent irritates me, and a lot of other people, and LoF's constant LoFian Imperialism strategy bothers the few people that don't dislike Ghent. So really, convincing people that LoF should be attacked wasn't the difficult part. The difficult part was in actually convincing people they should do it. S: Are you talking about STS, Asstako or the entire TDZK community now? F: STS. And then, later, K. And I think the TDZK community in general doesn't particularly like LoF, either, but that could be wishful thinking.
F: Now, I should clarify something here. I dislike LoF. I really dislike Ghent. But I like some of the other people in LoF. Panther Lotus, Velox Nex come to mind. Affiliated with the wrong crowd, if you will.
S: And now you personally declared this eternal war on LoF... why? F: Because I'm a showboat and I like attention. S: Is STS/Asstako not going far enough (in your opinion) on their 'war' against LoF? F: You could say that, but I think that's more logistical problems than political.
F: The eternal war was... are you familiar with the concept of psych-ops? S: I think I am, but for our readers it might be nice if you explain =) F: It's there as a distraction, and a way for me to have a little fun tweaking LoF noses. Perhaps force them to make a bad decision or two.
S: And.. eternal... when will that end? When LoF disbands? When the current LoF management leaves? Or does it end after the round? S: Do you hold grudges over rounds? F: Oh yes I do. I still hate 1.0 K members, the arrogant pricks. And those IR scumbags that backstabbed STS in 2.1, I hate them too, even though we punked them so hard they disbanded. F: And eternal means until LoF disbands. =) S: So they are up for a wild ride =) F: Heheheh…
S: And what has the future in store for STS? Any plans left for this round (clasified ofcourse: =P) or plans/goals for 2.3 already? F: No comment… S: Not even goals for 2.3? F: Although… I wouldn't mind seeing STS stomp LoF's fingers before they get too big. F: Well... I'm not the goal setter, you see. =) S: Ok then :)
S: Any comments or remarks you would like to make which I might not have thought off? F: Flames will win the Stanley Cup, ZZ smells funny, LoF smells, Foamy rules, and I am OUT! S: Ok mate, thanks for your time :) F: No problem.