The Syndicate Outlaws Posse Excellent "Newz" page by man-in-the-trenches Doses. Keep those daily updates coming and I'll keep coming back!

Now for multi-player. Will we have all the standard modes: DM, CTF etc? Also will there be any coop modes?
 
As we mentioned in the PC Accelerator piece the multi-player will be a key selling point. There will be two key portions. The massively multi-player persistant universe (ala Everquest, UO) and the straight team-based (ala Tribes). The persistant world will involve gangs of goods and bads, lone soldiers, and scripted events like Indian attacks. The team mode will be very much in the Rainbow Six mold, where the goal will be robbing a bank (or defending it) and so on for all the different level types (for a complete list of levels check out the piece in PC Accelerator, it has all the info we can give out at this time and would take me too long to go through right now)

DTG_Walkertr's Outlaws Page Home of this Outlaw, his wife Ms. Kitty and his multiplayer maps. Straight, bold layout, great pic of the couple in period dress, and easy to download maps.

The Dalton Gang Visually strong site for this all-Swedish posse featuring info on the members and a lively news section. Also the host site for the SVLadder which seems to be an Outlaws ladder for Swedish players but of course it's all in Swedish so I can't be sure. ;)

Dartagnan's Outlaws Site All-German site with general tips and info on weapons and characters, maps to download and info on the other members of Dartagnan's "MKB" posse. Pretty solid layout, only trick is you have to translate it from German.

DML Headquarters Nice menu, quickloading pages make th' "Defenders of Marshal Law" site a pleasant read. A couple rough spots an' not much content as yet, should be a good one when it's done.

Dons Ramoses' Lawmakers & Levels Page Pretty much all in German but the very colorful icons make it pretty clear what's going on: this is a site meant to help folks use LawMaker, the Outlaws level editor utility. Downloadable files and tutorials plus a messageboard and useful links. So you don't speak German? Well that's why you use the babelfish.altavista.com translation service. Great to see people wanting to help others get started in LawMaker.

Dons Winz & Outlaws & Die Don Gang Yet another site by a German "Don" posse member, this being the most visually delightful of the bunch. Nice layouts and lush graphics abound in these playful pages about the "Don" gang and its various members. Yeah it's in German but you can always to translate it with babelfish.altavista.com.

Outlaws is a great game. It's multiplayer is unsurpassed by even the most stunning visuals of todays newest games. With the vast number of user created "worlds" to battle in, and the ability to have anyone host a game, you could play for years and never get board.
     Many people play the game just for the fun of it. Others feel the need to be the best. Some form posse's to better enhance their gaming experiance. Some participate in tournaments to prove there skill.
     This all sounds good, until you take a close look at some of the mechanics of the game and the tournament setup and rules.
     First the game. The game needs a host. There can be only one host. The game can never be less "lagged" than the host. The person that host should have the best online connection and a fairly fast PC. This does, however, give the host a slight advantage. Second, there are over 500 available levels to choose from. The levels differ in color, cover, depth, and so on. The host selects the level as part of the game setup. This too can give the host a slight advantage. Lag also is a part of the game. If you are playing against someone that is physically very far away, there will be some lag. Lag can do odd things. I have seen sanchez that would take an entire rifle or more to kill. I have seen DOC unable to use his med kit (hearts all go in one fell swoop). Don't take this wrong. I am not whining, just stating the nature of the game and lag.
     Now for the tournement structure. Ladders are ment to show who is first, second, third, and so on. The theory is that after all players have played several games, they will move up or down to aquire there real skill status. This rarley works. Most often, the ladder dies before enough games have been played to show any kind of realistic structure. The whole lag thing comes into play here too. For example: I am currently rated as the #5 player. I may only challenge the #3 and #4 players. I must beat one or the other of them before I can challenge the #2 player (basic ladder rules). If #3 and #4 are both in the UK, and I am in the USA, I know I will have a hard time killing them. On the other hand, I have played against #2 before and feel I could beat him.
     I closing, I have been told that "lag is always a two way street", but I just don't belive it is so. Those lagged out sanchez that took me out before I could med up and took four shotgun blasts show that there is more too it. Until we can all play on a lag free LAN, I will not be playing any more tournaments. That is, except for just the fun of it.

Back in the days of wild west, there were rumors around everywhere. The most famous and the most haunting one was the rumor about a ghost rider with paleface. No one really knew his name, not to mention his history. For he only appeared once in a while, usually in a desert at high noon of a windy day.

LMS_Nikita's Outlaws Page "Big Sexy" hosts his girl LMS_Nikita's page on his own site, izzat sweet or what? Aww... learn all ya ever dreamed an' more here ("I'm female and a Canadian") about this self-confessed Outlaws addict. Warning to insecure men: contains "girly" purple font that you will be extremely embarrassed to be caught looking at!

Savior's Outlaws Ladder Very nicely done, attractive home of a one-on-one Outlaws ladder. Lots of top Outlaws are signed up, should be one heck of a shootout fer th' top spot!

Southpeak Goes West - 2:00:PM - Jeremy Allford Southpeak Interactive announced today that they will be publishing a PC game based upon the upcoming summer movie, The Wild Wild West. Here is the info:
 
The PC game based on WILD, WILD WEST - THE MOVIE is an action-adventure title that will take game players on a brand new quest beyond the film. Gamers will embark on missions as James T. West and Artemus Gordon as they battle the conspirators behind the Lincoln assassination who plan to murder another President, Ulysses S. Grant. Faced with a series of puzzles and gun-toting enemies, players will be challenged to use both a keen mind and a quick trigger-finger in a race against time to save President Grant.

Blacksmith's Lament
 
An old blacksmith realized he was soon going to quit working so hard. He picked out a strong young man to become his apprentice. The old fellow was crabby and exacting. "Don't ask me a lot of dumb questions," he told the boy. "Just do what I tell you to do."
 
One day the old blacksmith took an iron out of the forge and laid it on the anvil. "Go over there and get that big hammer," he said. "When I nod my head, hit it real good and hard."
 
The following day an ad in the opportunity section of the town's newspaper read, "BLACKSMITH WANTED".

To hades with FPS and who can shoot the fastest at close range... I could care less if my fps is 80 and a decent looking map then 200fps and the average shot is 2 ft...Sorry guys...I don't see any skill or strategy there :)

Hey all you guys out there in outlaws land! This is Dusty-DR, famous level maker, (no autographs please) pie eater, and controversy maker. I'm trying to reach the master lawmaker once known as Mr. Burrito, who has now seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Mr. Burrito, i need your permission to release a modified version of your classic level, ten-paces. i've sent a letter to the address you put in the text file, including the level with all my modifications. In two weeks ill assume that 1) you don't care about it or 2) that you've disappeared completely from outlaws land and wouldn't ever know about my changing your level. in which case ill go ahead and publish it. Please, all you die hard fans of ten paces, quiet down your hissings and booing, the level lay-out is barely different, most of my changes were in the textures. Special thanks to paleface for posting this so that the word will spread around and hopefully mr. burrito will be find out. if he does hear of this he can mail Dusty_DR at hotmail.com.

Here's an excerpt from TJG_LoneWolf's excellent site...
 
Party!!!! Party!!!! Party!!!!
 
That's right a Party. We would like to see if we can set up an Outlaws Convention (party) in Las Vegas. We need to know if people would be interested in attending something like that.
 
Where better to hold an Outlaws party but in a Western town like Las Vegas! We need your support to try and convince Lucas Arts to back it. We hope bringing attention to one of their games will be enough incentive for them to get involved.
 
We are looking at possible sites here in Las Vegas to hold it at. (More to follow as we go) So if the idea sounds good to you let (TJG_Msvegas, Waw Timestalker, or Waw Beignet know) This could be a great time, Outlaws from all over the world in one place what a idea!

	Frisky One's Outlaws Site Colorful menu looks promising, nothin' much there yet except fer his first news update with a promise to bring more on a daily basis.
	Cowboys from Hell Jus' about th' mos' disgusting, juvenile Outlaws site I have ever had th' misfortune ta see. These guys are gonna run out of people ta play with pretty quick. Then maybe they'll grow up a little. ;P
	The Four Horsemen Not th' easiest page ta browse but th' gorgeous western graphics an' thoughtful commentary will keep ya movin' through it. Doesn't look too good on a small screen.

In the main pond, if you skim along the top of the water instead of wading right through, you will barely lose any health. As a matter of fact, I can go all the way around the pond without losing a heart when I use this method. Just thought this might make the map a little more fun. :)

GS_Karrde's Web Page He's got a funny little animated logo and some mysterious screenshots. What more do you want??

I just thought it sort of funny how one day (many months ago), as a test I entered the zone under an alias.... it's amazing how differently people treat you if they think you're 'just another newbie' as opposed to if you're a 'well-known gunslinger'. Many of the reputed 'elite' players flat-out refused to play a game with me, and were downright rude. Hehe, one personal friend of mine was quite rude to me as well. It seems aliases don't always have an advantage:> Just thought I'd pass this along, I found it a bit interesting personally.

Aliases and the reason I use them. ANONYMITY. The internet allows you to act as a character that you really are not in real life. This is an integrated and important fact of internet life. As you yourself know, some webmasters do not release personal information, this allows these webmasters to paint a picture of themselves that they want the public to see. I think that you would agree that the ability to do this is a good thing. Whether you're chatting on aol as a beautiful woman even though you're really a 13 year old boy, or just designing websites for people to enjoy. It is part of what makes the internet more fun. How it pertains to Outlaws and why I personally use alias'. I like to use aliases for several different reasons.
 
Reason 1)Firstly to practice, I like to practice with characters I'm not good at. I don't want to give my opponents bragging rights because they defeated me on an unpracticed character or an unfamiliar map.
 
Reason 2)As I am fairly good at playing Outlaws some folks get to know a particular nickname and after defeat many many times will begin to refuse to play against that nickname.
 
Reason 3)Some so called elite players after defeating you once or twice will refuse to play you further or give you rematches, so your only chance to play these people again is under a different name.
 
Reason 4)As my primary nickname is fairly well known, when entering the game server I am bombarded with personal messages and greetings. This is not a bad thing, but sometimes I just want to get in and play a quick short game and get out, but cannot without seeming to be short, rude and too busy for them and I do not like to appear that way. So using an unknown nick allows me to move freely and with true anonymity.
 
Reason 5)Tactical advantage. You may consider this one sinister but it helps me play. Many people play in what I call a pattern, that means they never change their game. These people are very easy to learn and memorize, so therefore easy to defeat time and time again. I also have patterns. By changing my nick, it does not allow others to memorize my patterns. Therefore I have the element of surprise more often than not. I know their pattern but they do not know mine.
 
If you want to figure out who I am, simply pay attention to the way I play. To the way I taunt. To the way I speak. I have figured out several peoples different nicknames this way. But keep in mind I have this on my mind as I enter each game. So you won't find me playing the same character on the same map every single time I play.
 
Final conclusion is that RW while very fun, it will remove the ability to roam freely as mentioned above, as we only have one distinct voice. So you see I will only have one nickname when using RW. For that reason, I believe it may not be as successful as it should be. Keep in mind TV telephones still aren't popular.

Outlaws Programming Team This is really just a section of KaReFree's Outlaws Cavern but he hasn't crosslinked it so geez what am I to do. Sounds suspiciously like th' "Outlaws Editing Team" and in fact has one of th' OET's primary members, Raptor, aboard. Hmm. Well anyhow they're s'posed ta work on handy utilities an' stuff fer Outlaws players, first project looks like a real good one.

    While working on Pearl River, I thought I would check the map in Direct Draw, just to see FPS, etc. I discovered a glitch that has not been reported before, although I am at a loss to understand why not.
    The textures that have a see through area were not behaving. The area in question appeared as just a black nothing. No sky or anything showed through. I thought this might have been just a function of having a VooDoo card, but having it turned off in the game, but still active on the system. I proved this untrue by checking Buckshot. It was not manifested there. Unfortunately, I can't find Buckshot in an openable .LAB, so I had no clue how they did it.
    After several hours of frustration, I hit upon it. In order for the PCX to show through, there must be a sector behind the wall with the walls adjoined. The walls must have the following flags set, Adjoin Mid Texture, Wall Texture Anchored, and (assuming you don't want people walking through it) Non-passable.
    I loaded up various maps by other LawMakers who have used these types of textures. They all showed the blackness, so I am assuming this is a common problem.
    Help me spread the word. I know that it is a natural for my own page under LawMaker School, and I will put it up eventually. Although I would encourage all to get 3Dfx cards, I really don't want to have my name on something that is patently ugly to many Outlaws.
    Thanks,
GoJo

	Hunt's Outlaws Page Just a big page of graphical Outlaws links with a comical and appropriate audio clip from Toy Story -- check it once, anyway. Linking is a bit sloppy so watch where you click.
	The Comancheros Webpage Extremely attractive homepage of th' second incarnation of th' Comancheros gang. Gang seems defunct yet again (or at least th' page is) but, like Harmonica's old Comancheros page this one is well worth it fer th' graphics alone. You will need to be running at at least 1024x768... but just get a load of those posse member portraits! Bee-yoo-ti-ful.

here is an easy way for those who donīt want to play through the whole historical mission to take a short glance at those lilī dinos. If you host a game in bunkers you can see them as well. (Host only) Go to the room where the gatling and the box of TNT is and look out of that small hole in the wall (Yup, the one where all those rookies hide with the gat in....) There you can see them from a distance, which is safer anyway (remember, not all dinos only eat plants...)

I played a CTF last night on sleepy's map Dyansty. There were six players and we all had Roger Wilco. This is the best thing to come out for outlaws since 3DFX. We had a blast and the lag was hardly noticed. I bought my microphone for $3 at a computer show and the software is free (for now). I think someone has already hacked the registration. In all I played about five games and 80% of the players had roger wilco. The people who do not have it are missing most of the conversation. It is my hope that you will encourage all Outlaws to get this. http://www.resounding.com/

gotta say I agree with Cutter though, levels are damned hard work & if you just please yourself with them I think thats enough :)

	Senorita's Saloon Great Old West style in this small site. Levels, links and some info on the Lil' Senorita herself.
	Gryphon's Outlaws Surf Shack What does Outlaws have to do with surfing? Find out here! A very readable site with lots of hilarious Outlaws commentary by the Gryphster, embellished by some lovely aquatic graphics by Fallsdown.
	The Outlaws 2 Man Ladder If anyone knows how ta run an Outlaws ladder it'd be Diky. This's his second great ladder tourney site an' if it's anything like th' last it'll have incredibly detailed stats on shootouts between th' greatest bunch of Outlaws ever assembled. Yee-haw!

Anyhow I made a flue NWX & ITM for the Outlaws potbelly stove, made it for a new map I'm working on. I thought it looked so damned good that I made a second version of Cactus Flat, seemed odd without flues on those potbellies, they have them now. Also fixed that bug (ya probably never noticed) of the TNT showing through the hotel floor, added a rifle next to the scope at that way out start position, to please the sniperin' community :) They are the about the only changes, couldent help myself, that flue came up so good ehhe, might even stick one on the roof of Cowboys tommorow night. Anyone is welcome to use the flue ITM & NWX, as I have mentioned in the read-me. The new level should be done in a couple of weeks, has lots of new goodies...

Yesterday was an interesting discussion going on in High Noon about the different cards ppl use. Some said, that the V2 in SLI mode is best. Some said the new AGP cards are faster and get higher fps out of the game. I think we should do a survey on that subject to find out how much we really can get out of the graphic cards. Tell me when Iīm wrong, but I think hardware affected to this is CPU (included the type of (AMD, Intel, etc.), the RAM, the graphic card (AGP/PCI plus RAM), the Add-on cards and the resolution you run OL(should be 512x384 and 640x480).
 
I would collect all the information sent in by the OL players, make a graphical overview or anything comparable and hand it over to you to post it on the 2 most frequented OL pages. Advantage would be that ppl can compare to others and find our if they have the right settings for their system or if the can get some more frames out of the game. To get comparable information Iīd say we use two different levels to check the fps. First OL single player level one. Launch and donīt move James. Then type olfps and check the framerate in BOTH resolutions (512x384 and 640x480). Second could be the civil war level in the historical missions. Do as in first level.

The LAW Lounge Only th' first page here so far. Resizing animated GIFs in HTML isn't a great idea, but otherwise looks okay, with a news feature.

Get An Extra Mouse Button Function
 
Thanks to GoJo's experimention you can get an extra Outlaws function out of your ps/2 mouse -- don't try this with a serial mouse, Outlaws crashes as soon as you even move it.
 
By now you're an expert at editing your mouse registry settings so this'll be a snap. Find a function you want to use for your new "button" and set its "Sel" value to "3." Now load up Outlaws and once in-game click your first two mouse buttons (usually the left and right, not the middle) simultaneously -- the new function should be performed!
 
This is potentially handy but a bit tricky; in hot firefights you might accidentally click the buttons one-after-the-other when you mean to click them together, or you might accidentally click them together when you mean to click them separately. So it's probably a good idea to set this function for a non-critical one. GoJo himself suggested setting it to "Use" for your medkits and that could be the best option.
 
If you have a third mouse button but can't assign it in Outlaws' mouse setup, see the other helpful files page for drivers and instructions to get it working.

St_Harmonica here. Now Iīve had it... People who wanna ban Mary are a bunch of wussies who should look in the mirror when wondering why Mary kicks their sorry butts. I wrote a lenghty article about the matter to Mallardīs Saddlebagīs Messageboard, which btw has some real potential to become a place for opinions and dialog on the Outlaws scene. So go check the place out!
 
Also, couldnīt resist on posting my keyboard setup when Killer "Bad FPS" Craig posted his. Using the default keys as a base for a keyboard setup is of course the simplest thing to do, but my setup has some major advantages too. Iīve placed almost evererything on the numpad. Not only is the numpad separated from all the other keys so you can easily find the right position fer yer hand even when blindfolded, but the best thing is that they keys unlike in the rest of the keyboard are aligned both vertically and horizontally.
 
So hereīs the setup: fire 2 and reloading in the mouse, forward and backward movement and side strafing are on the arrow keys (8,4,6,2), crouch in 7, jump in 9, use (medbags) in 1, fire 1 in 3 (if I were to own a three button mouse I would assign both fire buttons to it), run in "," (del) and nudge (opening doors) in Enter. Iīve also placed (my) most used weapons in the numpad, pistols in "/", rifle to "*", sb shotgun to "-" (though I donīt think Iīve ever actually used it) and for lighting fast scalping the knife to "+". I know the db shotgun and TNT arenīt at my reach, but I hardly ever use them. If you need them there are still free buttons in the numpad.
 
Only weakness with my setup seems to be that not too many keyboard support enough simultanious keypresses on the numpad (dunno if the same problem is with the "usual" keysetup) It may not sound like much if you canīt use move forward, strafe left, run, crouch and jump all at the same time, but i find it extreamly frusturating if I hear that "click" that indicates the command hasnīt gone through. Especially when when you have bullets flying around ya! At least Keytronic keyboards are up to the task, but I bet any "serious" gamer knows that without saying ;)
 
"When things look bad, and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb mad dog mean. Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win, that's just the way it is." - Josie Wales

In light of the literally hundreds of new players i see on zone and even for some vets out there looking to kick their game up a notch , i want to explain a very good logical keysetup that i beleive will get the most out of any player, as well this setup has a nice lil bonus that u get extra speed in moveing at certian times ill explain later, first let me outline the keys and the theory behind the setup.. first let me say when i designed it i had 2 priorities in mind. 1. ease of movement and strafeing 2. instant medbag useage (instant meaning there is always a finger on that key) 3. Had to be usable in all games OK here goes. Q=strafeleft , W=Forward , E= straferight , A= jump , S=backwards , D= crouch SHIFT=speed , SPCBAR=use item (meddies :P) , I only have a 2 button mouse so i have CONTROL as my fire 1 , then i use ZERO on the keybad for the nudge, i only use this key to respawn the "use item"(spcbar) will open all doors etc. the mouse is simple , left button=fire2 , right button=reload, i also have 2 handy keys i use alot they are , R=gattlin gun and F=knife , both of these are real handy for quick use. The benifit of this setup is that all functions are easy to get to wiht the left hand , no moveing of the hand needed , i always rest my fingers on (starting with pinky) shift. Q , W , E and thumb on spcbar, that way the three middle fingers controll all your movement and its all logically correct ie. your fingers move in the same directions u do, also the weapons keys 2,3 and 4 are just a quick tap one row up and the A, S and D keys are just one row down , fingers fall normally on the keys :), also u may notice your thumb rests on the spcbar, so medbag use is nearly instant.

	Great Northern Pistoleers Hideout Large, florid site, generally well laid out if you have th' screen size to accomodate its swelling girth. Lots of info on the GNF posse, somewhat marred by unoriginal graphics throughout.
	World Wide Outlaws Gang Another large, fairly unoriginal site with lots to see that you've probably seen before. Not too bad, nice little info pages on the individual gang members.

My complaint about Mary
 
    Do you ever wake up in the morning thinking, "You can truly assume serious trouble is brewing when unregenerate shysters infringe upon our most important constitutional rights?" Well, so do I. To organize my discussion, I suggest that we take one step back in the causal chain and exercise all of our basic rights to the maximum. Considering that Mary is incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, I offer that most of us are now painfully aware of her unreasonable disagreeable tricks. The ability of her secret police to impact public policy for years to come is astounding. Is Mary out of her mind? What our nation needs is more respect for the law, not less. The popularity of her solutions among useless undesirables is a harbinger of stuck-up things to come.
    As it turns out, Mary has announced a number of contentious ideas on how to run -- or is that ruin? -- everyone's life. As unbridled as her foot soldiers may be, they are also insincere propagandists. Not to belabor the point, but her musings are nothing short of putrid. Should you think I'm saying too much, please note that Mary expresses insufficient concern about the ozone layer, the Bhopal tragedy, and lesbian theater.
    I could substantiate what I'm saying about ostentatious traitors, but I don't feel that that's necessary, since we all know what they're like. Given what I know about vengeful prophets of larrikinism, I can say with confidence that I will not stand by and let anyone twist my words or change my position in order to serve some pretentious political strategy. Is Mary just trying to pander to raving misfits? It saddens me that I hope that she regrets what she has done. To recap the main points made in this letter: 1) there's something wrong with this picture, 2) Mary's hijinks must not go unchallenged, and 3) to enter into philosophic disputations with such piteous (or at least, incomprehensible) underachievers is both counter-productive and infernal.