The Deleted Logic Blog

No damned Logic

Novalogic (creators of the famed Delta Force game series) has gone completely to shit.

DF-Arena Forums keeps tabs on the developer, and continues to be ignored by the very software developers that owe their last few years paychecks to that very fan-base.

I'll break it all down for you like this:

Delta Force 1998
Novalogic came out with a shooter of immense scope... Literally.
You could now play a  shooter in 1st or 3rd person view while utilizing rifle-scopes, binoculars and even NVGs.
The scale of the terrains allowed you to snipe any pixels on the horizon line you suspected to be Opposing Forces.


Delta Force 2 1999
More of the same with intense environmental effects that had you scanning the fog and dreading the tall grass.

Delta Force Landwarrior 2000
The most intense of the series and my personal introduction to game modding.
More weapons.
More environments.
The most intense and populated multiplayer game of it's time.

A mission editor that allowed for some of the greatest custom maps and matches ever played across the net.

And the beginning of Novalogic's downfall.
The company begins to get swollen with Corporate pride and that ego begins to overshadow the fan community.
As far as the developer was concerned, the map editor was all the mod-support it needed to give.
Rates of fire on some of the weapons were unrealistic and yet the goal was on fairness instead of realism (which the company would painfully discover is the main driving force behind the FPS market).

Players wanted more help from the developers for handling cheats, adding new terrains and textures... and fixing glitches.

And why weren't the items from the first two games available for the last?

But the Gamers played on... And trouble for Novalogic was only beginning.

It was working on a project called "Necrocide"; A zombie shooter that would have the same engine and scale as DFLW.
They even got one of my personal heroes to do the art design: Oscar Chicconi (As well as a hack called Brom who recreates images from Heavy Metal Magazine and simply exchanges subjects and scenery).
But I knew the problem they would have immediately...
The scale was too high and the detail too low.
Other titles coming out around then were changin the face of the Shooter genre as well.
Half Life was a phenomenal achievement in storytelling and surprise.

Add that to the fact that Novalogic wanted to get in on the console market.

It came up with a title PC gamers had been looking forward to possibly seeing... Delta Force: Urban Warfare.
Fuck all you PS2 geeks, OK. 'Nuff said.

Anyhow...

Then the bastards of Calabasas dropped this steaming pile on us when U.S. Soldiers took Afghanistan:
Delta Force: Task Force Dagger
Capitalizing on a war that still had fresh bodies on the ground, Novalogic handed they keys and code over to sub-outfit Zombie and went in the back to shoot up on some freshly confiscated heroine.
No one is sure if the guys at Zombie were busy with other projects, or if they skimmed some of the dope... But Dagger sucked ass.
The turbans were WAAAAAY overdone and the arms on the soldiers were too short.
It was a hack job that could have been done better by any modder out there.
There were even missions you couldn't finish because the event scripting was jacked to hell.

Most of the fair weather fans were already jumping ship.

Then something magical began to happen... A new project in the wind. They even had a new PR man, Marcus Beer.
The new project was another strike at capitalizing on true events:
Delta Force: Blackhawk Down

They even had real Deltas and Rangers to consult them on the design.

This game had some new physics, a well featured (if slightly less intuitive) Mission Editor, realistic tracers and effects along with capturable spawn points... A small nod to Battlefield 1942.

Side Note: EA Games knows how to treat it's communities. After the successful Desert Combat mod took the 1942 players into the current war with Iraq, Trauma Studios was hired to work on content for the newest Battlefield title.
  

But what it failed to deliver on was it's promise for vehicles you could drive.
Players once again had to wait around for a Blackhawk to taxi them around the map so they could get blown out of it after a few kills.

But the promise of Integrated Battlespace was made good on with Joint Operations.
I got to Beta test this one alongside Ed and I had fun.
But there was still plenty of glitching and the vehicles are clunky due to the lack of physics.
I also miss the old-school HUD.

It's still fun to play, especially with the dirt-bikes...
But I think that Novalogic could still do better.

They pooped out DF Extreme as an experiment of sorts.
I love the engine and the editor like old friends... But they capped the bullet range so the Barret isn't as much fun anymore.
The level designs needed a lot more thought.

Honestly... If I had it my... Novalogic would use the mew engine to make one last game:
Delta Force Commander:

This would have EVERY item ever created in the DF universe with the ability to use every terrain ever made.
There would be an Official Mod Tool Kit with every fan-made editor ever created.

They would only have to put in a few missions from each game (voted or by the players) and then just discontinue every other title.

The money they would save on the other projects combined with the money made on the new one would give them enough bank to add physics into the next game engine.

Look at the forums...
Everyone is trying to get that to happen on their own.
They have editors and packs that will let you bring items from one game into the next.

Anyway... That's probably my last gaming post.
I'm done with it unless I get more interviews with developers about the social aspects of their games.

The calm after the Embrace

So I've been bumping into kids I knew in High School lately.

They are all a bunch of burn-outs.

Generation X is grown up and dying.


I got the CD player in the jeep working so I cranked up Vas and rode around The Valley of The Dead,   picking up fragments of myself that had been left scattered in memory.

I've been wandering those streets in dream lately; Attempting the same thing:
To regain all bits of consciousnes either frightened or beaten out of me in my youth.

As I drove along the forsaken trails, I wove around birds and beasts who barely regarded me... if they did at all.

Reliving moments so that I could leave them... Let them go like I should have when they happened.

Barrelling in and out of the Macrodimensions as the dust rose and settled behind me.


Once again falling in love with life's frailty and blowing it away with a kiss.


Goodnigh,t Everyone

Releasing Demons

I had another dream where I stabbed the fuck out of someone last night.

This time he kinda deserved it and kinda didn't.

He needed to know how angry I was but I'm not sure sticking a small blade into him over and over while screaming was the way.

Had a kinda shitty day.

I almost fucking lost it over trying to fix a seven year old computer in a shitty diner franchise at some strip on the edge of nowhere.

The DejaVu I had on the way up to the 8 Freeway while listening to FM94.9 was comforting though.

Made the drive home seem like the shortest I've ever had from that far South.

I'm seeing spiders everywhere but it's not freaking me out that much.

I'm in love with the young Christian girl that got me hooked on chai with an add shot.

The way she took a moment to talk to me tonight made me wonder...

But it's probably just another case of "The Nurse Who Loved Me".

The weirdest thing about being "in love" with someone is not even needing their participation or consent to do it.

It's the act of loving a person that takes all the work... or just the sacrifice of all your programmed actions.

I sipped my chai and watched "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" while my youngest child fell asleep in my arms.

It put me right after a day like today.


Goodnight, Everyone.

Stomping the fuck out of Gremlins!

You want a tangible version of the faerylike creature we call the "Gremlin"?

It's the settings a grumpy old hack puts into a simple product he installs on a network so that when he either dies or gets canned, it's damned near impossible just to move the data onto a new server and have the workstations point in the right (write?) direction.

Side Note to the random geek: Yes... I am talking about the Unholy war between Novell and Pervasive over DBA. As a "Newbie" on this front, I have found myself an unchallenging target. Go ahead and luagh... But if you can read this message it may be too late:
         0100100100100000011000110110000101101110001000000111001101110100011010010110110001101100001000000111001101101000011011110110111101110100001000000111100101101111011101010010000001100110011100100110111101101101001000000110000100100000011011010110100101101100011001010010000001100001011101110110000101111001001011000010000001111001011011110111010100100000011011000110100101110100011101000110110001100101001000000110011001110101011000110110101100100001

Anyhow...

It's the little malignant thought beaten into a product at the time of manufacture. That residual anger left over from the malcontented line worker.
Never buy into an angry product.

So...

I dreamed of stabbing a killer with his own knife last night.

My new heroes....

These cops are on my cool list for good.

Little Johnny on American Justice...

 Little Johnny's kindergarten class was on a field trip to their local police station where they saw pictures, tacked to a bulletin board, of the 10 most wanted men. One of the youngsters pointed to a picture and asked if it really was the photo of a wanted person. "Yes," said the policeman. "The detectives want him very badly." So Little Johnny asked, "Why the fuck didn't you keep him when you took his picture?" 



Gnight, America

Soothing tha savage beats...

You've got an Hasidic Jew who can rock the Reggae like no one else these days.
                    MATISYAHU
Who also works with a Muslim Beat-Boxer who performs occasionally with a live orchestra.
                    KENNY MOHAMMED


Rhythm and movement being the universal language.

Another for my cool list...

You can say what you want, but I think John Stewart kicks ass.


I'm with him all the way on this.

Dennis Miller... He's a fucking monkey.

The savage cycle of society's programming... Lead and Dust my friends

Make no mistake, people... The West is still wild.

There are places in this world where the only justice you can be sure of is the kind you keep locked and loaded.

I went up to Big Bear Lake the other day to service the computer terminals in a restaurant there. I also took an assortment of weaponry since there is a remote range out there that is open to the public. While I saw several Highway Patrol vehicles winding through routes 18 and 330, there was only one visible law enforcement vehicle in the town.
You can be sure that he stopped me for questioning; I just look like trouble.
I was walking about and he checked me on the street and sent me on my way. Nice chap concerned about burglary in the area.

Too bad he wasn't there to see the guy who bumped me from the rear on the road in the middle of Fawnskin.

I was rolling through town, looking for a good stop to get some snow and pine cones for the kids when the green minivan in front of me started slowing down. With no place of interest to stop I just slowed behind them. The guy behind me had some kind of problem with that and struck bumpers as he passed on my left... glaring at me.

No... I didn't whip out a gun or chase him down and hack him with the machete into bear-chum.
I just threw up my hands like "Must really suck to be you, Dude."

I see a hunting accident in his future anyway. He's just that kind of guy. He looked like he was suffering from the effects of some kind of addiction and (knowing the area) it was most likely speed or alcohol.

Maybe he'll run into those freeway shooters sometime soon.
Yeah... Tell me we can count on a police presence to help deter criminal activity and I'll remind you that cops only show up AFTER the damage has been done.
I personally feel more assured that they will arrest the wrong guy.

You guys remember that sniper in Washington?
What did the authorities advise people to do?
Zig-zag when walking around.
Cute...

They didn't say "Fucking look around you, pay attention and NOTICE THINGS!"

I'll give you folks a good piece of advice...
You're on the freeway and somebody pulls a gun, pointing it at you intending to open fire....
RAM THEM!

That's right.
I travel a LOT these days and if I peep some motherfuckers pulling that shit I'm gonna duck quick and heave that Chevy right into 'em.
You can't shoot straight when another car is careening into yours; Trust me.
Besides that... If they still manage to get me, I'm taking those fucks down too.

Maybe it'll happen on an overpass.

But you see the difference in situations here:
The guy in Big Bear didn't threaten my life.
He's just a prick.
These dudes blasting bystanders on the freeway need to be taken out.

Don't mistake what I'm saying either...
I'm talking about vigilance...
Not vigilantism.

A vigilant person is aware of their surroundings and can avoid trouble or confront it if need be.

A vigilante is an ignorant buffoon who is in just as much disregard for public safety as the "bad guys" their after.

Sgt. Patrick Haab was essentially serving an extension of his duties as a U.S. Serviceman while most of the Minutemen are Rednecks who've grown tired of their daily mediocrity and are looking to revive the glory days in a good old-fashioned lynching.

I don't know how you feel about your neighbors, but I get nervous when I see mine with a piccolo-pete.

Armed bands of citizens are a very small notch above common mobs and are mostly ruled by the same mentality. All it comes down to is another form of gang fighting over turf. I'm not happy with most law-enforcement officers that are TRAINED in their field; So the idea of a bunch of aging coots that couldn't pass a physical or I.Q. test killing a few six-packs while armed to the teeth and talking about what they'd do to some "beaner" if they had five minutes alone just isn't my glass of imported beer either.

Is it hypocritical of me to ride around with hardware and preach against others doing the same?
Not when you consider the purpose... and the one weapon I have that a mob lacks:
A free-thinking mind.

In any bad spot, that's the first thing to sling.
Most groups of armed people have a collective I.Q. that gets divided by every member.
The larger the group... The dumber the actions.

I don't trust the Police to protect me.
They are in the same shit everyday that I am and they are mostly just looking out for themselves.
Can't blame 'em too much.

I don't trust the government to protect me.
You think any politician gives two squirts of piss about a guy who's written himself in on every ballot he's cast?
Not that votes matter when weighed against dollars.

So you'll forgive me if I don't particularly warm to the idea of the local Elks lodge dusting off their old Winchesters, packing their retirement-rounded rumps off with a few brewskies and playing cowboy with live ammo.

America was founded by criminals and outcasts who ran out of luck in their own lands and stole this one from the people who already lived here.
And NOW you want to stop that proud tradition?

In my book, an asshole is an asshole no matter what flag he waves.
Shit... Grant them all citizenship upon entry... That way we can prosecute the criminals among them without any jurisdictional bruha and the ones that are honest among them can continue to pick our oranges, clean our toilets and landscape our lawns.
I sure as fuck ain't doing it and it's worth what I pay in education and extra taxes not to.

And speaking of taxes... That is something to consider. Even undocumented persons wind up paying taxes in one form or another. And guess what... California can't afford to lose that revenue.

I'm with Alexander The Great on Nationalism:

"I do not separate people, as do the narrow-minded, into Greeks and barbarians. I am not interested in the origin or race of citizens. I only distinguish them on the basis of their virtue. For me each good foreigner is a Greek and each bad Greek is worse than a barbarian. "

(The Sicilian reminded me of that one.)

What was I on about?

Oh yeah...


To sum it all up:

Don't sweat the small shit.
Goodnight everyone and stop fucking with each other.
It makes me sad.