Legions: Overdrive Launch
Today we're announcing the launch of Legions: Overdrive.
As Legions Players was just a temporary news post location until we got the Legions: Overdrive site ready, you should update your bookmarks to www.LegionsOverdrive.com.
Please visit the new site for more information on the future of Legions!
New forums
As the InstantAction forums are likely to go down at some point (we have no idea when), we've setup brand new forums for Legions:
http://forums.legionsplayers.com/
Please register and post all new topics there.
The Future of Legions
As many of you have heard, InstantAction has ended operations. This is a sad day for many of us who not only enjoyed their products but also who knew the people involved. The IA folk are a bunch of great people, and we wish them future success wherever they may end up.
For those who don't know, crash7800 mentioned today in IRC during the IA announcement that Legions was being developed by a dedicated team of community members. It is uncertain what the effect of IA's shutdown will have on development. We are currently investigating what impact there will be and if there will be a future for Legions. We are optimistic and encourage you all to check back here for more news and updates.
All hope is not lost. Stay tuned. :)
PAX Day 1
Day 1: Woke up at about 9AM and was at the event by 10. Met up again with the IA crew, the exhibitor booth was hopping! However most people gave up trying to fly and ski in Legions after about 3 minutes. I guess some games are just more difficult to play than the average newb cares to figure out.
Next, I took a stroll through the exhibition hall. I got to see Brink again! Paul Wedgwood is my hero embodied in a game developer. Man am I am excited for this shit. Other games that caught my attention: Muramasa: Demon Blade, Lost Planet, New Super Mario Bros, Starcraft II (obvi).
I tried to get into "How can we make online gaming communities suck less?" but the line was uber long by the time I got there and I didn't get in :(
So I headed over to the Alienware booth to hang out with my buddy from QuakeCon, Marcus (djWHEAT) who was emceeing over there. Played in their UT3 tourney and failed miserably (never played before).
At 9 PM we began the Fallen Empire: Legions deathmatch tourney. we had 3 full 16 person servers up. The top 3 players from each server then filed into one server and duked it out for a Razor DeathAdder mouse. After all was said and done, Paradox314 was victorious and went home with the mouse. Much swag was given, many people enjoyed some sweet Legions action. I *should* have shoutcasted this, but we didn't get the broadcast computer set up in time so QQ. To see my interview with Paradox, head over to www.LegionsPlayers.com/radio/ and check out "Paradox Interview" in our VOD player.
PAX Day 0
Day 0: After a relaxing day of wondering through West Seattle and the arboretum, I met up with Chris (BugsPray) and the InstantAction crew at around 4:30 or so. I got to go into the convention center using a spare Exhibitor pass they had to help them set up and move boxes. There's an IA booth in the main exhibitor hall and also another one up in the BYOC area to run the Legions and PlayTribes tournaments.
I got to see the PC's we are giving away for the tournies, holy hotness! Great artwork by Neolight
The BYOC:
Also, some exciting stuff for those who want to get a glimpse of some sweet Legions action: if all goes well, we WILL be broadcasting a live video feed of the Legions BYOC tourney! We have some speakers and a projector at the event as well, so everyone is gonna see / hear Legions as its being played. The tournament is scheduled to start Saturday @ 5 PM PST (8 PM EDT) and will be broadcasted from our usual stream.
Stay tuned for more info as the event progresses.
See you at PAX09!
Penny Arcade Expo '09 begins labor day weekend. Are you excited? Well, you should be, because myself and BugsPray are heading up (in his case, down) to Seattle to run and cover Legions and PlayTribes BYOC tournies @ PAX.
As some of you may know I do my best to shoutcast Legions stuff from time to time. Well, if all goes well we will be broadcasting Legions and Tribes action directly to your home PC via the wondrous interwebs. At the very least I will shoutcast the tournies @ PAX and we will have some kind of VOD for you to watch later.
I'm personally ridiculously excited to see PlayTribes in person. I mean, I've watched QuakeLive grow and have massive success resurrecting the Quake III scene. Nothing would make me happier to see Tribes competition return with the pending release of PlayTribes.
I am also quite excited to cover Legions at a big lan. While there are some huge, gaping issues with the game (in particular observer mode, making it very hard to shoutcast *cough*) I am still a huge fanboy and want to see this game succeed on the main stage! I also know that a few Legions players will be in attendance, so I look forward to meeting you all.
Again, as the weekend progresses I be trying to deliver you, the fans, as much content as possible. To follow my trials and tribulations, as well as get LPRadio updates, follow LegionsPlayers Twitter and FishStix's Twitter.
Thanks, and see you at PAX09!
(*if you missed it, check our media player to view our first BFCL VOD: Week 1 on Mirrage - Team Jenkins vs. Team Finland)
BFCL Season 2 Starts Today!
BFCL Season 2 starts today! With fewer teams that are more active, this season should prove to be an exceptional one with several top contenders. Here's a look at the schedules for season 2:
Week I - August 24th, 2009
Order with Authority vs Via Victus
Team Finland vs Team Jenkins
Intolerance vs Team Vorticity
Team Espada vs BYE
Week II - August 31, 2009
BYE vs Via Victus
Intolerance vs Team Finland
Team Espada vs Team Jenkins
Order with Authority vs Team Vorticity
Week III - September 7, 2009
Intolerance vs Via Victus
Team Vorticity vs BYE
Team Jenkins vs Order with Authority
Team Finland vs Team Espada
Week IV - September 14, 2009
Team Vorticity vs Via Victus
Team Espada vs Intolerance
Order with Authority vs Team Finland
BYE vs Team Jenkins
Week V - September 21, 2009
Team Espada vs Via Victus
Team Jenkins vs Team Vorticity
Team Finland vs BYE
Intolerance vs Order with Authority
Week VI - September 28, 2009
Team Jenkins vs Via Victus
Order with Authority vs Team Espada
BYE vs Intolerance
Team Vorticity vs Team Finland
Week VII - October 5, 2009
Team Finland vs Via Victus
BYE vs Order with Authority
Team Vorticity vs Team Espada
Team Jenkins vs Intolerance
Open Week - October 12, 2009
Season 2 Playoffs - October 19, 2009
For more info, check out the original post on BFCL: BFCL Season 2 Starts Today!
Featured Video - Double-Feature!
Can it be true?! We have videos (Two)?! A couple members from the community have put together two fantastic videos for us all to see. Dis_Ci from team Finland as well as MJ1284 whom we've seen before in his other video "Proximity Zero."
Enjoy!
You can also head over to the Videos section and check these out as well as all the other videos we've got available!
Gamasutra - Lou Castle Interview
New InstantAction CEO Lou Castle did an interview over at Gamasutra about his goals and aspirations in his new position. Here's a snippet...
Why did you join InstantAction?
Louis Castle: Taking a step back, it's really looking at the future of where games are going.
Games are always going to consumers, no matter what you do. There are always lots of different ways of getting them to the consumers. Clearly the best way to get entertainment to consumers is to get it directly to the consumers.
When I started looking at the ways that games are evolving, the kinds of markets, the incredible growth in social gaming, and seeing how well that fit together, it really became clear to me that I wanted to be involved in the social gaming space and the web distribution and gaming space.
I've done a little bit, obviously, over the years on all of these fronts, have made MMOs and things like that. So certainly I've been involved, but it certainly feels that the time has come. And that was really the impetus more than anything. I've had these very vague ideas of what kinds of things I might like to make; I'd like to build games around the social gaming platforms. Not to disparage anything that's out there, but the games are light.
I'm a gamer. I'd like to make richer experiences. Hopefully very easy-to-use experiences, like Boom Blox, which has a very easy-to-get-into but deep and rich experience as an entertainment experience. I'd like to build products around social networks and around a lot of different platforms simultaneously, and that was what excited me about the opportunity.
It's definitely exciting to hear some of his ideas. Go check it out!
Link to Article: Q&A: Former EALA Exec Castle On Plans For InstantAction
BFCL Season 1 Winners: Team NULL
My apologies for not posting this sooner. As many of you know the BFCL website was hacked and we have literally had to rebuid much of the site. We are now back up and running and I only recently learned how to recover the data from Legions Season 1. I am proud to announce that [null] has taken first place in Season 1 with a top score of 35 points, Omniscient was second with 28 points edging out Team Vorticity in third place with 27 points.
Please help me give a hearty congratulations to Liv and his crew for a great Season 1 performance. Here are the members of this winning combination:
Liv, petrified, kasityolainen, Agoria, Ajaxiss, GReaper, Impatient,
urmelody, oahra, Gheist, robke112, =THE_TROOPER= and rodein.
Congratulations to everyone! It was a great season and I look forward to Season 2.
Original Post: BFCL Season 1 WINNER [null]
BFCL Season 2 Signups Open
We've just received unofficial word that the BFCL Season 2 Signups are open, so send a message to 57thZaha if you have a team ready to join. Also, some new rules are in place and Zaha is encouraging all team captains to "give [them] a hard read."
ACTIVE PLAYER RECRUITMENT AND CLAN HOPPING
Battlefield Conquest League is a league based upon honor and trust between member teams. Player recruitment from one member team to another member team (whether the recruitment in question is initiated by a player or a clan) is considered a dishonorable tactic and will be addressed as follows:- Players who leave their current team and join another team within the BFCL will be subject to suspension from any and all competitions for a period of 90 days. At the completion of this period the player in question will be permitted to participate in all competitions his or her team is currently actively participating in.
Click "Read More" to see all the new BFCL rules.
- Teams found to be practicing inter-league recruitment will be subject to suspension immediately from all competitions for a period of 6 months. At the completion of this suspension, the team leaders will be required to meet with league administrators to discuss the future of the team at Battlefield Conquest League.
- There will be exceptions to this rule which the league administrators will examine on a individual basis. For example : players from a disbanded clan would be permitted to join another clan to continue playing in competitions. Contact a league administrator with any questions or concerns.
Earn Tokens - Oh Snap!
From the IA Blog:
With today's release you'll notice that you can now earn tokens by simply clicking the "Earn Tokens" button from within the InstantAction Store. Once there you'll be presented with several different offers, for example, signing up for Netflix or taking a survey.
Each of these different offers yield a different amount of tokens so be sure to take note of how many tokens you will be receiving from the offer you are completing. Also note the rate at which certain offers take to go through, so you may need to be patient for your token balance to update and reflect the offer you have completed.
In addition to this change in the store below you'll find some of the other updates that came with this release:
New Features
Super Reward (see above)
New Lore Build
Bug Fixes
- Users in a shazbot game should now have the game status panel after a game has been played
- Legions- Fixed an issue where Play Now button does not load on a mac
- Users with guests in their party should no longer get flash errors in Rokkitball
- Fixed an issue where exiting Legions from a DS make the party blank
- Resolved a conflict between Mav Lab and pre-roll ad block
- Clients in Legions Game should no longer get blue screen on game end when host goes home
- Chrome - Users will now be messaged to restart the browser after installing the plugin.
Original Post: Complete Offers, Earn Tokens
"Overdrive" - Legions Energy Drink
At the Intel Sacramento LANfest, InstantAction has shown up with their new "Overdrive" energy drink to promote Fallen Empire: Legions:
Looks pretty slick! I hear it tastes like Redbull.
Original Post: Who Wants to Enter "Overdrive?"
PDXLan - Recap
Here's the final comments from the LegionsBlog:
Wow was that a long weekend! It was awesome for us at InstantAction and I hope that everyone there enjoyed it. I would like to thank everyone that participated in our tournament. The exceptional turnout meant a lot to us. Also, to everyone that made the effort to come and talk to us about the game personally, I would like to thank you guys as well. To work on a game that you love and pour your heart into, to hear people get excited about it is precisely the reason we do this. It really is all about the fans. :)
The Tournament
We only brought 80 Legions shirts to the LAN to give to everyone who joined the tournament as I did not expect any more than that to sign up. We had such a high demand for it though, that we extended the amount we let in to be unlimited, giving the 80 shirts to the first ones to sign up. We ended up with around 125 people signing up!! With 24 teams playing, we had almost 6 hours of gaming the first night and had to hold off the winning match until the next day as it was approaching 4 am. The next match was held at 2pm the next day and shown on the main stage projector. I would say at least 50 people gathered chairs around to watch the action. It was a heated match, but team "Choppa 5!!" pulled out the win. Congratulations guys and I hope you enjoy the cases!
Choppa 5!! - Picture by "Slackin"Kill BugsPray Contest
I brought up with me a t-shirt signed by the developers of Legions and we decided to run a little contest to give it away. You probably saw it in the previous blog post, but as stated before, he dominated the competition. Two people ended up getting one kill against him in the entire five hours we ran the tournament. In the end, one of them gracefully conceded defeat and CoolSpot ended up with the shirt.
CoolSpot with BugsIt's good to be home, but at the same time, it's always hard to leave a place where everyone is having such a great time hanging out and playing games. Legions had a great showing and I'm hoping that I see a lot of those people online!
It's fantastic to hear about the amount of people who participated in the Tourney! Hopefully we'll continue to see those people around.
Original Post: PDXLAN Recap
First Bundle - Ra
From the IA Blog:
As previously announced, we will be introducing Legions skin, helmet, and voice pack bundles at a discount. Above is the first of many and will be available later this week.
Congratulations to Hardstyle_Pete for entering the winning bundle submission. Allow me to introduce Ra, the Egyptian Sun God Bundle! This includes the Sentinel Gold Skin, Spike Helmet, and Tribes 2 Robot Voice Pack. Unfamiliar with Egyptian mythology? Edumicate yourself.
Not bad Pete, not bad! We look forward to seeing more of these.
Original Post: New Legions Bundles on the Way