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Relic is now looking for approximately 8 participants to take part in some all-day Opposing Fronts action.

Players will be paid for their appearance, have snacks and lunch provided and experience an all-around good time.

We are looking for the following player types:

1. Experienced RTS players.
2. Experienced Gamers.
3. Casual Gamers.
4. Experienced CoH’ers.

If you are interested, please e-mail ahenze@relic.com with your contact details including level of experience, full name, phone number, and e-mail address.

Our current dates planned for this are August 8 & 9^th. Participants will be here all day from approximately 10 to 5 and must be willing to sign an NDA.

Thanks!

Go download the beta my dears! I’ll see you online

(Sorry for the wait )

P.S.

Vista™ users:

• You should run the installer “As Administrator”. Some configurations will fail the install if you do not do this.
• The BETA installer will take a long time to start on Vista (possibly several minutes). This is due to security checks that it performs on the installer executable.
• For more advanced users who are having install issues, please run the install executable from an administrative command prompt. (see instructions below)
  

P.S. also:

Some UI features have been disabled, but the on-screen buttons have not. These will either be removed or implemented over the course of the BETA in accordance with items we will want to test.

P.P.S. Some more help from a forum user if you get “Invalid Code” error:

Hi everyone,

We’re currently in the process of figuring out why the beta isn’t live yet with Fileplanet. Sorry for the delay and inconvenience. I’ll keep you updated.

Update: 9:35 AM PST, talked to Fileplanet and they are scrambling to get it up. There was a mix-up with times. Urgh. Sorry guys. I am truly sorry for this.

Update: 9:58 AM PST, Fileplanet is putting final testing touches before pushing the pages live. The download link should be up shortly! Sorry for the delay everyone. We know how excited everyone is about the beta.

Update: 10:46 AM PST, Fileplanet is saying 25-30 minutes for the beta to go up. *fingers crossed* Let’s hope this happens!

Okay guys… here’s the deal, the closed beta starts tomorrow (Tuesday, July 31st) at 9:00 AM… so there isn’t much time… BUT… I have some extra keys!

I only have a few available (less than 50), but I thought I’d give everyone a chance at ‘em. Here’s what you have to do:

a) E-mail ahenze@relic.com with “LASTCHANCE, username, e-mail” in the SUBJECT line of the e-mail. Not doing this correctly will automatically disqualify you.
b) Include a paragraph with why you think you should receive a beta key over anyone else.
c) Don’t lie! Sure, it is the honour system, but don’t make up some grand story. Karma will get you in the end Better to be honest and tell me why you’d really like a beta key.

Thanks guys!

Disclaimer: The beta starts tomorrow and by the time I get through these e-mails, the beta will have already started before you receive your key. No worries though, you’re still be days ahead of the rest of the world.

In the meantime, check out this awesome comic by Ratbones!

Click here for the full comic 

Rizz just sent me in this awesome countdown clock for the OF beta! Just in case you’re not sure of the time difference etc… THIS IS WHEN THE BETA STARTS… make sure you queue up your download as soon as you can get it because it may take a while to download a couple gigs.

Thanks Rizz!

http://www.rizzot.info/of.php

Hi everyone,

All beta keys for all forum contests and tournaments etc have been sent out now through e-mail.

If you have not received yours, please check your spam mail folders. If it isn’t there, please e-mail me at ahenze@relic.com and we’ll sort out what happened.

Thanks!

P.S. In celebration of this momentous event… I present to you, a few of the guys working on CoH. They had a moustache growing thing going on right up until “Content Complete” for Opposing Fronts. They then shaved it off afterwards, but it makes for a pretty hilarious photo.

It might only be funny because I see these guys on a regular basis so cleancut without a moustache, but they just look full on dirrrrrrrrty

Click here for bigger link

Hey guys, a lot of people have asked about the minimum system requirements for the Opposing Fronts BETA, and I’ve got some rough estimates for you here. But keep in mind that for Opposing Fronts itself, the min spec will be a LOT lower after all the tweaking we do

Here’s a screenshot from a programmer’s computer who is working on the build

If you can’t see the above very well, click here for just the image.

Hi everyone,

There was a power outage in Montreal this morning, where Quazal is hosting Relic Online’s servers. We’re not sure how long it is going to take them to get power back, but we hope it is soon!

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Edit: Servers are back up!

First of all, sorry every single post on this blog lately has been about beta keys!

Also… some info on the beta…

Beta Download available and Beta Start on: Tuesday, July 31st at 9:00 AM PST.

Yes, anyone who won keys through me for the community closed beta WILL get to play before Fileplanet subscribers and Relic friends and family.

Finally, ALL KEYS FOR THE TOURNAMENT have been sent out already. If you have not received your key yet, please check the following:
a) Your junk mail folder, spam filter for an e-mail from ahenze@relic.com (me)
b) That you have played in all the games you needed to play in (if you missed a game, you won’t receive a key)

If you still haven’t received a key from the tournament, please e-mail me and we’ll figure out what happened.

I am still sending keys out to everyone who won contests or to fansite staff… I will have all keys sent out by the end of the week. Receiving your key earlier or later won’t make a difference since the beta doesn’t start till next Tuesday anyway. Thanks for your patience!

Hi everyone, Patch 1.71 is set to be released today at 11 AM PST on Relic Online (at which time the servers will go down for approximately 30 minutes to an hour). Here are the release notes

v1.71 07/24/2007

General Fixes and Features
- Warning on option screen for excessive memory usage
- Crash fix on entity spawn (occurs with several mods)
- Various other crash fixes.
- Various memory leak fixes.
- Window maximize button switches windowed mode back to full screen.
- D3D10 sky shader fixed.
- D3D10 stippled scarring fix.
- Better colour for HTML news links.

Gameplay
- Allied War Machine has had its duration reduced to 25 seconds, cost increased to 250 munitions and cool down increased to 150 seconds.

***************
You will need to reconfigure your options from the default settings after this patch is applied.
***************

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know the Opposing Fronts beta is going to be postponed slightly, by a few days.

The date for the official Fileplanet subscribers to get into the Opposing Fronts beta will be pushed back as well. Don’t worry, anyone who got a community beta key through contests or the tournament will still get into the beta before Fileplanet subs or Relic friends and family. It’s just being moved back a couple days.

I will be sending out the beta keys early next week, probably starting Tuesday with more information on where to download it and when the beta starts exactly. So stay tuned!

There are a few beta keys still floating around, you can get a couple from the amazing guys Bridger and Vitensby’s show Tales of Heroes this coming week. I may be able to get my hands on a couple more… I’ll let you know!

Thanks for your patience.

76 new e-mails in exactly 2 minutes… 744 e-mails in the past 2 days… this beta is out of control! I had 1000 keys to giveaway for the beta and they are all gone now. Still waiting for e-mails to filter in.
Nah, it’s under control. Beta is expected to start next week. And yes, anyone who got community keys will get theirs before Fileplanet subscribers.

I’ll be sending out the keys as soon as I receive them. Thanks for your patience. And yes, anyone who participated in all their games for the official tournament WILL get their keys (I’ll send those out first)… so no need to e-mail me if you were in the tournament!

See you all in the beta soon

The first 10 people to E-MAIL ME the following with correct answers will win a key:

What’s my favourite sport to watch?
What is my favourite thing to eat at home during Christmastime?
What new sporting object did I buy recently?
What new game am I enjoying on my Xbox 360?
Complete this sentence from a previous blog post about Relic employees: “There is an employee with over 100 ______   ______  at his desk…”

Send your answers to ahenze@relic.com with the subject line “BLOGGOCONTEST2″.
(This key is for you and you alone. It is non-transferable and cannot be sold. You may not enter this contest if you have participated in the official CoH tournament or entered a contest on any other site! You may only post once!)

First 10 people to make a comment on this post get a beta key!

This key is for you and you alone. It is non-transferable and cannot be sold. You may not enter this contest if you have participated in the official CoH tournament or entered a contest on any other site!

You may only post once!

Cheers!

Oh Buggo, Buggo my favorite girl,
This quest you’ve sent is quite a pearl!
I may not be the a forum leader,
But I am an interested and informed reader!

Gamereplays and RelicNews,
Offers hints and tips I can’t refuse!
From micro-strats to resource plans,
It delivers gems to all us fans!

I may be one who’s known to LURK,
but trust me Bug, I’m not a jerk!
I watch all of 12azor’s awesome plays
and beat my enemies for days!

Vitensby is a true hero,
Before him all my wins were ZERO.
Rogers, Rizz and those guys too.
Those shoutcast mods work throught and through.

Surprise and Seph are good as well,
Their strats and plays can really gell.
I look for posts from Gunnersmate,
Because his plays are just THAT GREAT.

AfTeRShoCk…what a guy!
He shuts down posts that just won’t fly.
Kiltec runs the the whole damn site,
That guy knows how to flex his might.

Heroic-C…oh la dee dee,
He beat me once in 3v3.
But I don’t hate him, he’s the boss!
The things I learned were worth the loss.

PyRo is a game admin,
I’m sure his tips would help me win.
Kleatus, boy, that guy can review!
I swear each time it’s something new!

Sturmtruppen goes way, way, beyond,
Building strats of which I’m fond.
HERO, man, that guy’s a hoot!
Plus his posts are quite astute.

Guderian used to post way more,
His advice could really help me score.
Bladed, Gol and Surprise
I wish I played just like those guys.

Did I forget the Google Bot?
It’s in every single post you spot.
It’s constant as the riflespam,
Can you tell that I am quite a fan?

I know this poetry is really bad,
But COH is no passing fad.
This brings me to my final post,
The character I love the most.

The funniest moment of all time,
Consisted of a grammar crime,
Written by a man one day,
A man known only as CONWAY.

His sandbag didn’t know the trick,
to stopping “mans” with just one click.
It was funny, it was cheesy,
He stated that he “owned with easy.”

He did it HIS WAY, true and true,
And with that I will say to you,
I hope you enjoyed my little rhyme,
And found the read was worth your time.

I really do love this game,
And even those this poem’s lame,
I’ll play COH until I die,
Or at least until the beer runs dry.

-Yoink15

… I will be sending your keys out hopefully before the end of the week. We are just waiting for the beta server to be set up so we can generate keys. So please be patient!

If you participated in the tournament, Sledgehammer from BTT will be sending me a list of players and I will send out your key through that. No need to e-mail me

If you participated in a contest, I’ll be shortly posting the names of winners and you’ll get your key later in the week as well.

And if you don’t have a key yet, don’t worry! More contests and ways to get keys coming soon!

Buggo: Hi Glenn, thanks so much for doing this interview with me! I’m going to be incorporating some community questions as well as some of my own. Can you tell us what your job title is at Relic and describe what your job is?

Glenn: My position at Relic is Audio Lead. My job is to manage the entire audio portion of a project. This includes sfx, speech and music. I work with on staff and external sound designers, editors, composers and programmers. During the initial stages of a project, there isn’t usually an audio “team”, it’s pretty much just the lead. At that stage a lot of planning takes place, figuring out what resources will be needed, who’s going to do what etc. Ideas get proven out through prototypes. As production ramps up, the audio team increases in size. I do a lot of sound design and implementation myself. Music and most of the editing is for the most part done externally.

Click the link to read more

(more…)

What do you guys think would be some good ideas for contests I can run to give away beta keys?

I have some ideas but it can’t hurt to have more!

Cheers!

P.S. This weekend I went BUNGEE JUMPING for the first time! Pics soon.