Participants: Fallen Angel, Mr. Ekted Description: Mr. Ekted Interview Created: September, 2003 FaLLeN AnGeL+: How did you get involved with Subspace? Mr. Ekted: It was back in 1997. I was playing some other game, maybe Quake. I got bored and started looking online for something new. I stumbled across Subspace on some forum or game review site. It was a few months before the game was available in the stores. And I was already hooked. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Good reviews back then? Mr. Ekted: Honestly I dont remember, but the descriptions of the game were compelling enough for me to try it, especially being a free game at the time. I still remember buying the Subspace box at Staples. FaLLeN AnGeL+: How much was the game? Mr. Ekted: $35. About average for 1997. FaLLeN AnGeL+: So I gather they had a beta back then before release? Or a demo? Mr. Ekted: Most of the development of the game took place before I got involved. But yes, it was basically a public beta. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Which zones did you first fly? Mr. Ekted: I started in Alpha, as many did. You learn the controls, the weapons, the specials, and how to communicate. But it got boring pretty quickly. I went on to Warzone. Team games with real goals other than just killing appeal to me. I played under the name Crunchy or Crunchy Frog for a long time. FaLLeN AnGeL+: How did you select that name? I have to ask. =) Mr. Ekted: Its from Monty Python. FaLLeN AnGeL+: How long did you keep Crunchy? Mr. Ekted: About as long as I played Warzone, maybe one year. FaLLeN AnGeL+: When did you take Mr. Ekted? Mr. Ekted: Some time in 1998. I was at work. We were playing around with word games. You know: Al Kaseltzer, etc. My friend writes Mr. Ekted, and I dont get it at first. After I realized what it meant, I immediately created the name in Subspace. FaLLeN AnGeL+: I know a few people thought it to be your proper name. What does it mean? Mr. Ekted: Misdirected. Looking back...Id probably choose a different name, but its unique enough that if you Google "ekted", almost every link is something to do with me. FaLLeN AnGeL+: It is a very unique name yes. Mr. Ekted: I dont even think I knew how to add new zones to the list at the time. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Where did you go after Warzone? Mr. Ekted: Once I figured out you could add more zones to the list, I saw the name Powerball. This was a name too cool to ignore. The game format was teams and scoring, which is very fun. Killing was still part of the game, but not the goal. FaLLeN AnGeL+: How long have you been with Powerball? Mr. Ekted: Mr. Ekted was created on August 23, 1998. That makes it about six years, 4308 hours. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Thats outstanding. What position do you hold in Powerball? Mr. Ekted: I am currently one of the seven sysops. When ZippyDan stepped down, no one wanted to run it alone, so seven of us who had been doing various things in Powerball agreed to run it as a group. FaLLeN AnGeL+: I like that idea. It seems to work well. Mr. Ekted: I have only been in this position for 6-9 months. My only real activity as an admin is bot development and supporting other developers. FaLLeN AnGeL+: I understand that you wrote the bot core for Powerbot? Mr. Ekted: Yes, and most of the plug-ins for Powerball. Other zones that use Powerbot have their own developers for plug-ins. I started working on bots on February 24, 2000. I already knew how Subspace worked, so it was easier to figure out the inner workings of the executable. By March 12, I had figured out the basic protocol, reliability, packet encryption system, and security code. On March 17, 2000, my first test bot logged into Powerball. When I approached Zippy with what I was doing, he immediately gave me sysop access, no questions. He was excited about bots. At first, my bots were hard-coded to do various things, included some stats. Every time we wanted a new feature, Id have to re-write the core, and re-build it. Eventually Zippy wanted more people involved, so I changed Powerbot to be just a generic core. By itself, all it does is log-in and sit there. You need to add plug-ins to get any functionality. A single Powerbot executable can run 100+ bots, each with dozens of plug-ins. And each bot can log-in to a different zone. This was when it really started taking off. Developers started making all sorts of plug-ins. The bots in Powerball typically have 6-8 plug-ins. FaLLeN AnGeL+: You benefit a lot of zones with your programing skills. How many bots are in Powerball now? Mr. Ekted: Well, theres one copy of powerbot.exe running, but there are seven bots logged into Powerball right now. FaLLeN AnGeL+: How many players can a bot handle? Mr. Ekted: As many as there are. A bot looks just like a normal client to the server. The computer running our bots sits right next to the SSCX, so the ping is nearly 0ms, and the packetloss is next to 0%. FaLLeN AnGeL+: By working on Powerbot, was this the time in which you started doing work for the community at large? Mr. Ekted: Yes, Powerbot was my first work for Subspace. And its always evolving. I just completed a major update in April, 2003. We are up to version 0.26. :) FaLLeN AnGeL+: Thats outstanding. Mr. Ekted: It looks like I may catch up to Continuum :) I was put into contact with PriitK by ZippyDan when PriitK started working on Continuum. He was looking for someone to write the front end. So I agreed to do that. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Can you tell us what the term "front end" means? Mr. Ekted: The "front end" is the interface presented to the user. In this case it means the menu, skins, profiles, zone download, keyboard/controller setup, macros, trace, and of course the chat window. I am not a graphics person, but I still wanted to make a starting skin for the menu. We went through several versions before I made something people liked. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Well I use your Captains Log skin. Its been the most visually pleasing for me. =) As well as easy to interface. Mr. Ekted: Basically, everything inside Continuum.exe is PriitKs and everything inside menu.dll is mine. That was a tough skin to make. It has many odd shaped animations. I use a skin called Macabre, written by Propeller, who sadly doesnt play much any more. He also made the current tileset used in Powerball public arena. FaLLeN AnGeL+: We just had a recent update to the Continuum client from 0.38 to 0.39. What has that upgrade done for us? Mr. Ekted: The main reason for the 0.39 update was the prox bug introduced in 0.38. There was a problem with the timing between ship movement and weapon movement (so Im told) that caused bombs to explode at unexpected times. It was adversely affecting many zones. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Well it sounds like an update we needed badly. Mr. Ekted: So PriitK fixed it, and we also threw in a few known crash fixes, and shipped it. Unfortunately, people expect more changes. FaLLeN AnGeL+: When do you expect the next update? Mr. Ekted: I just e-mailed PriitK some stuff today, and asked him that very question. Your guess is as good as mine. FaLLeN AnGeL+: What do you think could be improved upon on future updates? Mr. Ekted: There are lots of little things, but the biggest one in my mind is to redesign the way weapons and settings work. Right now, they are all inter-connected in ways that make it painful or impossible to make them work like you want. Bullet damage affects shrap damage, bombs, mines, and thors are related and various unexpected delays occur between different weapons and specials. On and on. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Yes I know that is a big problem. Mr. Ekted: What I think we need is a completely generic system for defining the behavior of all weapons and specials. As well as a change in the way the LVL info is defined of course. For example, I may want to define a weapon that uses X energy, has a delay of Y, a damage of Z, that passes through tiles of type T. This should all be independent of all other weapons. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Ahh, I see your point in variations. Mr. Ekted: A given arena should not have to even have a bullet or a bomb defined. All new features that require changes to the protocol or a different behavior from the server have come with subgame updates. FaLLeN AnGeL+: There were rumors of a new "Subspace 2" game that went defunct. Do you know anything about that endeavor? Mr. Ekted: As far as I know, they were trying to use the old Subspace code with new network code that would offload the bandwidth from the server onto the clients. Players would actually be sending packets to each other, instead of the usual client to server to client path. This makes the server much cheaper to run. I dont know the specifics of this technology, but my gut instinct says it cant work well, and can be easily abused. I was actually contacted by Kevin Bermeister, the owner of the Subspace copyright, before the news of Horizon came out, about peer to peer technology for Subspace. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Well they may have found that out given they are no longer working on it. Is there anything you are currently working on that you would like to tell us about? Mr. Ekted: I am trying to understand some of the aspects of Subspace that I have neglected thus far, for some potential future bot enhancements. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Well we will all be looking forward to any new work you will produce. FaLLeN AnGeL+: What can you tell players that are interested in contributing to the game? Mr. Ekted: Volunteer. Become a ref. Help with your zones web site. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Where do you see the Subspace/Continuum community in the next two years? Mr. Ekted: I think PriitK will be releasing 0.40 by then. :) I would like to see some major updates to functionality of the game, including the use of ASSS, a new server written by Grelminar. FaLLeN AnGeL+: Grelminar wrote this for Linux I understand. Mr. Ekted: It is portable for the most part. Theres already a windows version I understand. But Linux is not an issue, as many hosts would prefer it. FaLLeN AnGeL+: What are your thoughts regarding the longevity of Continuum and its future? Mr. Ekted: It will continue to live as long as people keep playing it. There are many conflicts over the game: who has control, seasoned vets getting bored, people who abuse their privileges, etc. But there is a steady flow of players. New versions will allow new types of games. This will attract new players and keep some from leaving. FaLLeN AnGeL+: I would really like to thank you for giving us this interview. You have been an outstanding contributor to the players and the game. Mr. Ekted: Thank you. My pleasure. In closing Id like to say hi to Zippys mom.