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October 4, 2006: Report Thirty-Three </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="5"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="50%" valign="top"> <center>

- The Jim Report -

- The Word -

- The GJW Ship Awards -

- The Upcoming OoB Changes -

- The Coding Update - </center></td> <td valign="top"> <center>

- The Heroes of the War -

- The Alacrity Progress Update -

- The Mail Problems -

- The JRDC Results -

- The Props -

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Jim Report</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

I like a bi-weekly schedule on these. Weekly is too much.

There's only one thing I need to talk about in RL this week: Football.

First some venting....screw you Brian Westbrook and your damned broken knee. You damn pussy -- you could have played on Monday night and done as phenomenal as you did the first few weeks...but nooooooo, my kneeee huuuuuuuurts. Well, my fantasy team is only tied for first now you son of a bitch. Peyton had a bad week -- the least you could have done was step it up. Ass.

Now that that's out of the way, did everyone else see Ohio State absolutely lay the smack down on Iowa. And this was supposed to be an upset? I had to watch the game twice, once on Saturday and then again on Sunday. You see, I was playing the Ohio State Football drinking game where you take a drink for every wtfomg teh r0x0r play that they make. There were so many awesome plays that I blacked out after Anthony Gonzo ran that amazing play for a touchdown. I was all like "Yes! First down! Yes Yes! No No! Don't run back wards! There you go run forwards! Yes yes! sweet block....TOUCHDOWN!!!"

All you Michigan fans better wtfomgwatchout cause OSU is gonna be undefeated and on a roll when you come in town for the 4th beat down in a row.

School's fine, btw.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Word</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Ok, I know I went a little hard on Brian Westbrook. I apologize. I no longer hope you die in a freak under-water rehab accident. I'll take some of my own advice, which happens to be this week's word:

Chillax

Ah yeah. I forget what decade we used that word. I think I'd put it back to the early 90's. (aka when I joined.) (I'm a loser) Brings back memories, eh? (Memories of my loser life in Junior High) Chillax doesn't only conjure up nostalgia -- it's a fitting and relevant word today (hence why I picked it, oh slow one).

All of us need to step back and cool off sometimes. The up and down drama of the DB can blindside people and stress you out without you even realizing what's happening (like a bad OSU-won hangover). People get testy and misread what is said and that can just throw everyone into a meltdown. Let's face it, a lot of us are just high strung (some unnaturally cough*high*cough).

Mellow is the way to go sometimes -- just understand that people are going to say the wrong things at times, there will be misunderstandings and don't let it bother you (easier said than done, I know). The DB is for fun, not for stupid drama (aw damn, Jac! You lied to me!). Fights between people over relatively nothing need to be looked at from a chillaxed point of view, and then dropped. It's a waste of time and energy to be caught up in the DB Soap Opera (As the Jedi Turns, daily at 3 PM). I don't want to be overly critical, and I'm especially ot pointing to any one specific instance -- it's just there's been about 30 things over the past month that have gone on and it's old. (like your mom. OOOOOOOOOOOH!) I think if we all took that chill pill and looked at what is real and true, everyone would have a better perspective of each other (aka, no more fighting. Communicate and resolve).

Like I never said in Junior High: Chillax dude!

And that's the word.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The GJW Ship Awards</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

I already posted this on the news page, but I like to keep things in my ever-so-frequent reports too for historical purposes. :) That and I have a few things updated from the clans:

1st Taldryan

• Venator-class Star Destroyer (VEN)

• • Support: 216x Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing starfighter, 168x Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor, 36x ARC-170 starfighter, 40x LAAT/i gunship, 12x AT-AP, 6x AT-RT, 6x AT-PT

2nd Naga Sadow

• Victory-Class Star Destroyer (VSD)

• • Support: 12x TIE Defender, 12x Shielded TIE Interceptors, 10x AT-AT, 15x AT-ST, 6x Landing barge, 4x Lambda-class shuttle, 6x Stormtrooper transport, 4x Gamma-class assault shuttle

3rd Arcona

• Acclamator I-class Assault Ship (AAS)

• • Support Option #1: 320x 74-Z speeder bike, 80x LAAT gunship, 48x AT-TE, 36x SPHA walker
• • Support Option #2: 156x V-19 Torrent starfighter

4th Scholae Palatinae

• Strike Cruiser (STRKC)

• • Support: 12x TIE Defender, 1x AT-AT, 2x AT-ST

• CR90 Corvette (CRV)

5th Tarentum

• Belarus Cruiser (BLC)

• • Support Option #1: 24x TIE Defender, 24x Assault Gunboat, 24x Shielded TIE Interceptor
• • Support Option #2: 12x TIE Defender, 12x Missle Boat, 12x TIE Advanced
• • Support Option #3: 18x T/D, 18x MIS

6th Plagueis

• 2x Crusader-class Corvette (CRV): "The Adjuta Pall" and "The Victorian".

• • Support: 12x G1-M4-C Dunelizard fighter, 12x Gladiator assault fighter, 12x M12-L Kimogila Heavy Fighter, 12x M3-A Scyk fighter

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Upcoming OoB Changes</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

I'm stealing Goat's thunder here: this is his idea, but I want to give the public a chance to comment before we start super discussions. This idea arises out of the conflicting "minimalist" and "maximalist" approaches to DB fleets and is meant to standardize our current system. The following are some excerpts from Goat's explanation to the DC:

---

I was thinking of doing down a kind of "Warhammer 40k" route of working out a kind of "standard Clan fleet" for two purposes. One, so that people could still keep accumulating ships up to a certain point, but two, so that once they reach a "cap" they can't keep getting silly numbers of Star Destroyers, but have to start upgrading other things as well, basically to keep things in proportion.

In a way, it'd just be a credit system for trading in old ships, but rather than worry about how much each ship costs with tedious numerical values we'd worry more about "Battleships", "Frigates", "Cruisers", "Corvettes" as our "sizes of currency". To go back to the W40k model, that divides armies into HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support. It still assigns actual point costs to each, but also forces people to split them between each 'class' of unit, so that people can't just fill up on a crazy number of HQ units, but have to actually fill out well rounded army.

The basic idea would be to say that the maximum number of "battleships" a Clan can accumulate is 1. The maximum number of "cruisers" is, say, 2 or 3. The maximum number of frigates 4, corvettes 6, fighter squadrons, 10, or whatever (those particular numbers are totally random choices).

Then, when a GJW or Vendetta or whatever is completed, rather than go "1st place gets a new VSD" we go "1st place gets 6 Points" or something. Then, the "cost" of doing stuff would be something like:

Buying/Upgrading Battleship: 6 points

Buying/Upgrading Cruiser: 5 points

Buying/Upgrading Frigate: 4 points

Buying/Upgrading Corvette: 3 points

Buying/Upgrading Fighters: 2 points

So, if they wanted to "buy" a new battleship, they'd couldn't due to the battleship unit cap, however they could cash the points in to upgrade it to a different type of battleship- say they wanted to upgrade the VSD to a Venator instead. We could easily enough work out a kind of Ages of Empires tree of "recommended" standard upgrades.

Alternatively, they could cash those points in for 6 new/upgraded starfighter squadrons. A new squadron would presumably be something like TIE Interceptors or X-Wings, an upgrade to one of their existing squads might be TIE Advanced or E-Wings.

There might also be the possibility to, say, "convert" slots from one classification to another. Say, you could trade in two Corvette slots for an extra Frigate slot. Meaning, you could get yourself an extra Frigate, but it would mean you would permanently lose the ability to buy two Corvettes (i.e. you could have a bigger ship at the expense of how many total ships you could have). The same might work for higher up, like, maybe you could trade in three Cruiser slots for an extra Battleship- i.e. allow you to have two VSDs if you really, really wanted, but you'd lose the chance to have any Cruisers.

The basic principle would simply be to stop the Clans with larger fleets from continuing to amass ever large numbers, but instead make them upgrade their existing ships to better ones instead. It still keeps the best ships with the winning Clans, but avoids amassing giant numbers of VSDs and stuff.

---

If you have any comments on this idea, please send them. Keep in mind, this is a rough idea for the start of a long discussion.

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Lots of random progress this reporting period on the coding front. I've gotten a ton more done on the new dossiers. I showed the Beta version to the Dark Council and got a few "WTFOMG you PWNz"s back in response as well as some good ideas for improvements. I've put that aside this week, unfortunately, for some more time-pressing matters (read: GJW Epilogue and ships) but I'll get back to it next week. I seem to be having that trade off - week of coding, week of little coding.

Rax is on a bit of an LoA for a bit btw while he studies for some certification tests. Once he's back fully, he'll begin coding a new gaming system for the DB.

I spent this afternoon making some much needed changes to the ACC. I am building a small subsystem that will let Dalthid restrict Judge access to certain halls. That means he'll be able to have Clan Trainers access their clan's halls and train people there. Good stuff.

I've also fixed some small bugs on the site, including some work ont he email problems (described below). I'll be giving Sildrin access to add her activity tracker for DB-wide use. She is also going to beef up some of her ASP skills and help clean files. Yay!

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Heroes of the War</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

We had three top players in the GJW: Lucius, Troutrooper and Duga. Those three put on a spectacular performance in every aspect of the war. For their work, all three were recognized with merit medals by their clans.

As recognition from the DB as a whole, the three of them will be honored in the GJW history write-up. Further I have place on each of their dossiers a title befitting them as the Heroes of the Great Jedi War.

Lucius is the First Hero of the Sixth Great Jedi War

Troutrooper is the Second Hero of the Sitxh Great Jedi War

Duga is the Third Hero of the Sixth Great Jedi War

Great job all!

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Alacrity Progress Update</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Making good headway on the Alacrity. I've added so many people to the staff that it's gotten to be a chore tracking things. :) I created a document to help with that. Here's the current tracking:

Alacrity 5. Unit Reports – Troutrooper – Final Draft

Alacrity 6. Email Habits – Troutrooper – Awaiting Initial Review

Alacrity 7. Knowing When to Step Down – Erinyes – In Progress

Alacrity 8. How to Deal with Problem Members – Erinyes – In Progress

Alacrity 9. Leading Transitions Between Subordinate Leaders – Erinyes – In Progress

Alacrity 10. How to Work with Subordinate Leaders – Erinyes – In Progress

Alacrity 11. How to Run an Effective Master/Student Program – Erinyes – In Progress

Alacrity 12. Unit Evaluations – Duga – Third Draft

Alacrity 13. Competitions – Halcyon – In Progress

Alacrity 14. Leading by Example – Shin’Ichi – In Progress

Alacrity 15. Effective and Updated Unit Websites – Derev – In Progress

Alacrity 16. Managing an IRC Channel – Derev – In Progress

Alacrity 17. Using Google Groups – Erinyes, Derev – Second Draft

Alacrity 18. Managing Google Groups – Derev – Second Draft

The main update is that I have sent the Self Evaluations Manual to the Dark Summit and they have given me some valuable input. I will be revising and posting next week.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Mail Problems</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

As most of you know, we've had some email problems lately. he thing I want to stress first is that this is not a DJB server problem. The server is sending the mail...This is a problem with receiving email through microsoft email domains.

I've done some experimenting today with the various email problems that we've been having. The email problems stem from the various Microsoft domains, namely Hotmail and MSN. Microsoft is classifying us as Junk Mail. I just signed up for a hotmail account, filled out the join form and the email went straight to the junk mail folder.

I think this may have something to do with us sending the mails from the MAA's address (gmail domain) but it really being send from the djb.com domain. I have fixed the code in the SA, ACC and MAA tools to make sure that the from address reads [Log in to view e-mail addresses]. Hopefully that helps.

I have also added the following to the join page: "ATTENTION HOTMAIL AND MSN USERS: Microsoft has wrongly classified mail from the Dark Jedi Brotherhood as Junk Mail. Please check your Junk Mail folder for emails from the DB. Adding the "darkjedibrotherhood.com" domain to your "Safe Email List" will correct this problem. Otherwise, email [Log in to view e-mail addresses] for an invitation to gmail."

Hotmail and MSN accounts will likely continue to to have trouble. Members need to add the djb.com domain to their safe email list or get a google mail account.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The JRDC Results</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

WooooooooooEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! JRD SEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The correct answer was: "Cause Bitches aren't turds, bitch! They ain't shit but hoes and tricks!" Grats out to the people who guess the right option:

• Seraine "Erinyes" Ténama

• freshjive taldrya

• Selene d'Tana

• Raven

• Kromtal Stormfyld

• Dalthid

• Tarax Eosphoros Kor

• MERLANCE

• Alanna Taldrya

• Sun Vail

• Michael Arkarso

• Frosty Romanae Tarentae

Also, wiii to the following correct answers:

• Most Fastest Answer: Aristan Dantes - Option 3

• Most Dumbdested Answer: Chaosrain...again! - "Da meen mAn is turn oN bye teh Jak's soung! It wus hiz weenerdat smaked Jak. Dat's no haar jel."

• Most Bestest Answer: Zekk - "The other guy was Rick James. Bitch! Back from the dead to, get vengeance on JacZILLA. For stealing all his bitches and hoes. So Rick James, walked up to JacZILLA and was all like hey JacZILLA, there's a new joke in town. What did the five fingers say to the face?" JacZILLA looked at him a little puzzled and suddenly Rick said "SMACK!" as he smacked da JacZILLA across the face. Well JacZILLA took great offence to that and turned around and fired off a green lazer poopy frying Rick Jame's brain more so then it already was leaving Rick James permanently saying, "Green lazer poopy is a Hell of a drug." JacZILLA turned around and faced Rick James, and said. "I'm JacZILLA... BITCH!""

• Most WTFIdon'tUnderstandest Answer: Maxamillian von Oberst-Tarentae - "What if yes?"

Congrats to the winners!

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Props</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

<center>- Props to Spears for always being right...still -

• Yaaaaay to everyone who played the JRDC! -

• Props to Sarin and crew for their work on the Antei Descriptions -

• Big congrats to the Clans for their new useful stuff -

• Yay for Halc on the SB! -

• Props Manesh on the AK! -

• Woohoo for Sarin on the AK! -

• Congrats to Welsh on the RS -

• Props to Telona for the AK! -

• Yay for Dakari and his SB! -

• Major Props to Duga on the ED! -

• Congrats to Lusankya on Battlelord! -

• Props to Dax on Battlemaster! -

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