<font size="6"> -> Fist of the Brotherhood Report <- </font>

Before reading this report make sure you go check out Solari's Headmaster Report directly under this one!

So, my first Fist Report... no pressure right? First, a quick thank you to Muz and Raken for allowing me the opportunity to serve all the members and gamers of the DJB. I've got quite a few projects in mind for Gaming, and am going to go over a few of these in this Report. And here... we... go...

ROC Streamlining & Notification

The Rites of Combat has grown as a document quite a bit over the years. Currently when copied and pasted into a Word File its a massive 14 pages long! In my opinion, that's too much for a document just covering how to play games fairly. Through July the Fist Staff will be working on cutting excess out of the Rites of Combat, with the assistance of the Justicar's Office. The intent is for this document to be completed prior to the August round of the Crusade, a News Post will be going out with details before it goes live so everyone is well informed of the changes.

Awarding of Gaming Matches

Moving forward during non-Crusade Weeks we're going to be targeting clearing out the Gaming Portal at least once per week. You all should be seeing a faster turnaround time between when you request and when you receive your Clusters of Fire. Requests during Crusade weeks will still be processed at the end of the Crusade window (by me), to assist in grading purposes.

In addition some people observed that in the past it was standard practice for Fist Staff to direct submit their Cluster of Fire requests, bypassing the Gaming Portal (I'm guilty of this). This led to them receiving their awards before others already in Gaming Portal que. The Fist Staff will no longer be operating this way, individuals on Staff will submit to the Gaming Portal the same as all other members. When the Portal is cleared they will receive their Clusters of Fire just like everyone else.

Pendants of Blood... these haven't gone out in quite a while since we just haven't been hitting the per week minimums to award them (10 members participate in Gaming Nights, winner played more than 10 matches in the week). We'll be looking at this award to see how to make it viable for the gamers out there.

GMRG

In some general news about the GMRG, the Shadow Academy Degree Requirements that are listed on the wiki for promotion to GMRG Ranks 7 and 10 will be removed. This was a requirement that was never enforced for promotion, so not really a huge change. At some point in the future, this will be getting replaced with another Gaming based requirement. Most likely Total PoBs (not by month) after the system for them is reviewed. Whatever system goes in place, there will not be retroactive demotions based on this requirement. The requirements will need to be met for future progression after implementation though.

GMRG members! We will be running a Gorefest Competition on the weekend of July 26th through July 28th. Not familiar with Gorefest? Check the GMRG Wiki... or continue reading for a short summary. It's a weekend long competition open only to GMRG Rank 2 or above members, double CF awards are given out during it, as well as 2nd Level Crescents to the three individuals with the best win/loss record.

Future Dark Crusade Events

To date the Dark Crusade Gaming Events have been pretty similar, expect changes starting in August. This could be as small as a setting change in the JA/JO Server (don't worry I'll tell you what we change), or as significant as a different platform altogether to use for that round. Who knows... maybe both?

JA/JO Servers

As many of you have already noticed, we managed to get our JA server back up and running prior to the launch of the Crusade. The JO server took us a few extra days, and after a ticket submission to Art of War Central we got that running as well. I've been resetting these servers every morning throughout the Crusade so far, to try to avoid any lag. Seems that most of you aren't interested in dueling around 6am EST? Very strange...

Related to the JA/JO Servers, one of the bigger projects over the last week that I've been working on was trying to sort out the Config File for the servers. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of the old Config File, so I had to start from scratch. While many people would think there would be a nice UI that allows me to tweak whatever I want on the server to my heart's content, in reality it's a bunch of gibberish commands that I've scoured 10 year old forums to decipher. I'll cover a few key elements to the server, and I have one request / mini competition for the Club as a whole...

• Weapons other than Lightsaber are disabled
• Force Powers other than Sabre Attack, Sabre Defend, Sabre Throw, and Force jump are disabled.
• You may notice that your Force Pool regens slightly slower than in the past. This was an intentional tweak.
• Timelimit for the server after starting a match was increased to 40 minutes.
• Lightsaber damage is cut in half from the standard for the game. After some testing the Strong Stance was able to routinely one or two shot people, so all Lightsaber damage was tuned down.
• Location based damage is enabled. Depending on where you hit your opponent your blow will deal appropriate damage (Not the face!)
• Shield boosters are missing! I disabled these until I can figure out...

How to make players spawn with 100 Shield and how to make shields reset to 100 after duels end! I seem to remember our servers doing this in the past, but even after hours of searching the internet I have not been able to find the correct line to add to the Config File to replicate it (example: seta g_saberdamagescale "0.5" is the command to set Lightsaber damage to 50%, I need a command similar to this to add to the Config File for the shields). Another bit of information related to this, the server is currently running the JA+ Mod, version 2.4.

If you can find the server command to do this and email it to me (and it works), you've earned yourself a Dark Cross.

TOR Guild

Recently the TOR Guild took a pretty significant hit on the Raider front. Arch and crew are working to rebuild it back to the glory days as we speak. There's a few things we have in the works to help with this. On the DJB TOR website we'll be scheduling Flashpoint Gear Grab Nights and Operations Gear Grab Nights to assist in the re-gearing process of members. This is the first step to get back to raiding. Be sure to read some guides on the boss fights for Operations if you want to be a raider!

Speaking of raiding and the guild in general, if you're interested in starting up a character in TOR the current needs are primarily Tanks and Healers. Sith Juggernaut, Powertech Bounty Hunter, and Sith Assassins can all tank or do damage. Operative Agents, Mercenary Bounty Hunters, and Sith Sorcerers can all heal or do damage. For overall flexibility and to give yourself the best shot at getting into a raid, choose one of those Advanced Classes. Note that each of them can switch to a damage spec if we get more Tanks or Healers down the road.

Timed Flashpoint Competitions will be returning to TOR soon, and once we get a few Operations Groups together we'll add some Timed Operation Competitions to the mix as well. Keep an eye on the Competition center, I'll also update the DJBTOR website Forum with info on these competitions as they come out.

Last bit of TOR News. Coming on July 15th there will be a 24 hour period where you can purchase the Title: "Revan's Heir" from the Cartel Market! It only costs 10 Coins per Character you want to apply it to, and is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of KOTOR. Get it while you can, its only here for one day!

New Gaming Platforms

I know there's been a News Post or two about this already, but I thought it would be worthwhile to throw in a link to the Teaser Trailer for the new Star Wars Battlefront game, check it out. Looking pretty sweet so far.

Another interesting game that's there's been quite a bit of buzz about is Star Citizen. Its a PC based Space Sim game. On the main webpage there's a 11 minute video on the game and its development so far and goals. I had never been much of a Flight Sim gamer, after watching that video I may have to contribute to a Pledge Package for this game though. It looks absolutely fantastic. Go check it out, its worth the 11 minutes. I didn't see any system requirements out there yet, it looks like the game will require a pretty stout computer though.

I've had a few folks come up to me talking about potential new Gaming Platforms, one of the questions I've been asked is are we only going to support Star Wars Genre Platforms. I'm open to proposals on any game genre, ultimately I want to be able to support the games that members of this club enjoy playing. If you feel strongly about a game write up a proposal on it and send it in to Arch and myself. We'll take a look at it and see if its something we can implement from there.

Useful Gaming Links

Rites of Combat Gaming Portal Gaming Information Gaming Servers

Valhavoc Fist of the Brotherhood