[Akira] So I have some really good news today! Yes, good news is the best news, so I bring you... The best news! Lets start out with the small, and lead up into the big news, shall we? I think we shall!

So first up, we have finally gotten a Dystopia server setup and running. It is linked under the other two servers just above this post. Game Servers was able to get it running late lastnight and Moe is working on SourceMod and getting everything setup with Schmitty helping him (since Schmitt knows Dystopia best out of all of us). The server is listed as a HL2:DM server but that is because Dystopia is only a mod, not an official Valve game. If you haven't gotten it already, I suggest picking it up, especially while we have a server going!

What could be better then that? Simple, our first applicant! You heard me correctly, an applicant. I (with help of Schmitt) was able to finish up the Recruitment Section on the forums along with the application! A few hours later we got our first applicant, Megaman! He was in a game of ours in Dystopia and wished to be part of this fine community. So exciting... So if you see Megaman, give him a "what's up?" and catch him in Dystopia, along with anything else he may play. Also be sure to check out his application and give him a vote, very exciting indeed.

So what else? WHAT ELSE AKIRA!? Did you finally release the kids from the basement? Yes, but you can read about that here. So what could possibly be this big secret? WHY ARE YOU HIDING IT FROM ME!? Ok... Ok, I will be nice and tell you. At Midnight of February 19th, 2009, we will be releasing the new website layout. Please, shout and scream and cheer now... OK TIMES UP! Yes, at midnight, hopefully EST midnight, we will finally be releasing the new site! The new site has a few new things that are going to be very nice. The one I like the most is the clock, so now you can see exactly what time it is right here on the site (Blue Turret EST time that is).

We are still not 100% done with it all, but it is about 90-95% complete and it is looking EXCELLENT! We are still re-linking the video section, changing up the recruitment application and the calendar, among a few other things. Very exciting indeed, especially for those who have been around for 5 years and are tired of the same looking website. This new one is just... dead sexy, in my opinion. What else might drive people to go insane before the release... How about an RSS feed? You can now subscribe and simply find out if a new news post is up in the click of a button. How does THAT suit you? Pretty good? I thought so.

Now the site may be down for alittle bit before midnight, so if you try to visit blueturret.com you may get a new message, a maintenance message. I may close it down a few hours before hand just to get the excitement heightened, we shall see. I do know that Schmitt, Moe and I are going to be working our asses off to finish everything up. We've been pretty busy making alot of changes in the past few days, and within a week we already were able to accomplish what you will soon be able to see for yourself! Have a great day and I hope to see you back here at midnight, Eastern!

[Akira] So it would seem that the new layout is going to stick and we just have to finish up a few final things, like converting the current pages for the new layout, and then we will be finished! The next few weeks are going to be holding alot of good changes that should help us keep going for a long, long time.

The obvious is the new site layout. The screenshot I showed in the last news post is now quite old to how the layout is now. The layout at its present state is something to behold! It will give us more of an option on expansion by way of plugins. One of the plugins that we are trying deperately to make work is a calendar which can be updated and show everyone what new events are coming up. This is very important since we want birthdays to show up and hold weekly events for gaming. A new look and a new feel should definitely bring some more people to the site... I am kind of sad that we are losing "Core 17" but my coding just can't compare to what we are about to unveil.

Another big thing coming is a revamp on the forums. Schmitty is leading this project by re-making sections and organizing everything once and for all. He's been bugged by that, but from the looks of what I can see, it's going to be very nice when it's finished. Everything will have it's own section and finding things won't be too much of a hassle anymore... Hopefully he can figure out what to do with the Member Section haha.

Another thing, is something we decided to take a risk on. Dystopia is slowly making its way into Blue Turret, so in order to help support this is by buying a HL2 server (to be modded to Dystopia). We want to try and cradle this game with a server we can have some control on (I mean "griefers", exploiters, etc) and get the community in one place. We have been scattered the past few months but we are now trying to get everyone back together into one solid place, and this game and server should help that happen alittle faster. Also, the server has to be a HL2: Deathmatch server, but if we get away from Dystopia there may be another HL2 mod that is worth trying out, and with this server we can have it switched over and be good to go without any extra cost (I think).

Recruitment, god damn... Yes it is still coming, i'm still quite sick but i'm sucking it up and waking up to finish that damn thing once and for all. It's still very close, just needs a few tweaks and a test or two and it will be ready to go. So hopefully tomorrow will be the release of the system that has sadly been delayed for this long.

So we have recruitment, a new site layout, improved forum setup and a new server coming to bring some life back here. The news few weeks will definitely be alot of fun, so I would highly suggest downloading Dystopia as a main game to try out. We are of course still rocking The Specialists every so often, so if you have Half-Life it may cure your boredom to pick this up as well.

I will leave you with that update! Expect some changes to happen, changes for the better. We are actively working on fixing what could be wrong, by hopefully the next few weeks can clear those problems up and bring is back to where we should be. Stay tuned!

[Akira] So we had a mini-meeting on Friday night, it went pretty smoothly but there really wasn't much to discuss. I will go over what was discussed here and now, so anyone who wasn't there can be fully caught up on the happenings of Blue Turret.

So first off, there's a few things wrong, but some of that is on the admin's. We have been alittle unorganized and expecting this to be like bT v1.0, which it's not, it's now bT v2.0, so alot of stuff has to be changed in order for that to work. First off, we have fixed that by nipping it in the butt straight on. Recruitment is nearly done and once it is Homer will be placed on that and everything having to do with it. I will keep up with the servers and website with help of Moe, and Schmitt will do his awesome work with public relation. This does not mean we are limitting ourselves only to these positions but we are atleast knowing what each admin is assigned to do.

So our oragnization is worked on and up there. Recruitment has a form to be messed with slightly before it's up (won't be pretty, but it will be up), and the forums still have to be tinkered with in order for it to work properly. Then recruitment is ready finally and can be tested once more. Now that project is fighting with another project... a new website layout.

The new website layout is very easy to update and control, hopefully we can release that soon, but it's fighting (as I said) with recruitment. The design needs some tweaks which will take time for me to do, since it's a code I did not create, so I have to track down and figure out what controls what. For the time being it is pretty basic, but we have the freedom of adding plugins at will and easily making news posts, updates, etc. There is a quick look at part of the site if you look here. As you can see it's black and white but the banner that Moe made is kick ass. I am linking all content onto this new layout, then prettying it up with some shades of blue, not just black and white.

We also discussed that, again, we are a family. Family's will hate eachother at one point or another but in the end we love one-another (in a totally non-gay way... unless ur into that... i mean no problem if you are... I mean then it's fine... if everyone else doesn't mind u loving them... and... and... Oh god >.<). The most important thing to realize is that we are all in this together, so if someone is causing a problem nicely ask them to stop, or leave the channel, etc. If they do not or give an attitude, find an admin. We will always handle an issue that the public cannot handle on their own, never be afraid to tell us, and with us knowing we can handle the issue accordingly. This goes with trolling channels, going behind funny into hurtful, etc. Just always remember as i'll always say, we are in this together, we're friends and family in one... if a friend in RL were to say something or do something that pissed you off, wouldn't you say something like "Dude... seriously... what the F$@%!"? EXactly.

If you would like a department head job OR (more importantly) have an idea for a department head job, please goto the member section on the forums (bT members only) and tell us. We are still confused by that (or atleast me and my crummy memory are), so getting info on it now, will be... very good.

We plan to drop the L4D server since we think an update may have screwed up the sv_search_key command, which is a good reason why the server has had ZERO traffic for closing in on a month. The server may be converted into a Dystopia server (which is getting more and more people coming to play), and remain as that, or continue changing into whatever game we are all playing at that time. TF2 will remain but we really need more support, only problem is the majority of the community are burned out from the game. Either way we will figure it out, and on the topic of servers the Paypal is (I think) about $47 strong, so you can donate if you wish but we should be okay for the next month and there is no pressure.

That was about it, so as you can see it was about nothing. Oh actually we may start doing major meetings every 3 months while the 2 months in between will be fillers, just to get together and discuss any problems, any ideas, etc. This way every month we can all as a community get together and become stronger, without having the hassle of my 50 items every single month haha. Have a great weekend!

[Akira] We have a meeting tonight for those not going to see the new Friday the 13th movie haha. I hope to make it short and simple, so the audio file shouldn't be too long to listen to. There are a few things to debate, few things to clear up, but mostly just new things coming to bT in announcement form.

NEW THINGS!? Yes new things. We have a new system that we are going to try out for the website, something new and exciting with features we need. I am uploading it as we speak and of course it's going to take time to setup, but i'll give some news out for those interested as the project proceeds. What else is coming?

Recruitment. Oh yes that bastard of a project that seems to go on and on and on... As I said we now have an e-mail system that will work thanks to Schmitt and i've been fiddling with that and setting it up, I plan to just put it out there and fix it up later (doesn't look it's best yet, but atleast people can apply). I am also going to work with Schmitt to get the Guidelines up and running (which will be discussed at the meeting), along with everything else in this project... It's a long process but it will be completed quickly now that we have everything we need. I was hoping to get it done by tonight but I may only have a few of the things up and ready.

We also have some games coming back into style. I mentioned three of them in a news post a few days ago, I would go pick them up! We may be getting another one, and I will continue to advertise them. This should fix most of the problems we have been running into, or atleast it should help aid them. They may be a few years old, but these games are the winners of our hearts. Scroll down and download!

[Akira] Sweet, so recruitment no longer is going to need a temporary setup, thanks to Schmitt we are back on the track that we wanted to go onto! He was able to find an e-mail script that is handled by PhP, and very easy to code for. I'm working on the application at the moment and hope to have the majority of it (if not all of it done) by the meeting on Friday (tomorrow). It may not look it's best but it will be operational until I code in the detail. So... Thank Schmitty because he just like... made recruitment alot easier, and alot better!

With that being said, lets jump into two games here. Two games that Moe and I are trying to bring back into Blue Turret. We will flip on and off of games quite a lot, but some games always return and these are two of those games, so pay attention!

First up we got Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, which is an RTS (Real-Time Strategy) with options of 1v1 to 4v4 and all of those in between. It's fast-paced with big armies going head-to-head. It's a few years old (released in 2006) so most graphics cards can handle the game with ease (even my AGP can on complete high). If you don't have it, go buy it or get it from a "garage sale". One thing about this game is that you are supposed to have the original game and both expansions to play it all BUT if you just get Dark Crusade we can have it all work 100% with one simple fix. So go out, and get it!

Next game is alittle more simple, an FPS back on the original Half-Life engine. The Specialists is an older game that reminds most people of "The Matrix". It's a fast-paced deathmatch mod where you can select your own weapons, character and then go kill people. Sounds like every other FPS but this one mod has a great perk, you can slow down time. There are power-ups all around the maps and after you kill enemies you also get one. The power-ups are for slowing time, slowing it down even more, double clips, faster firing rates, etc. Weapons from throwing knives, katana's, glock's, AK-47's and more, even straight-up kung-fu to really piss people off.

Now The Specialists uses the Half-Life engine so you HAVE TO HAVE HALF-LIFE the original in order to play. It is only $10 at the current moment, and the mod is free. When we have a week-long event some of the games we play require half-life 1, so pick it up, sure it's out-dated, but some of the oldies are goldies.

There is some talk of getting Dystopia back on the playing list, and we may do that as well. It's a very unique game where there is a fight in the real-world and a small fight in the cyber-world. One team usually must defend objectives while the other team must destroy those objectives. Cyber-space is used to open doors, complete objectives, etc, so it is a constant fight in that world just to make things easier for your team. Think of Team Fortress 2 but totally bad ass. This game I believe is for the Source engine, so most of the people here are fine, but you mine as well pick it up now, so you don't have to wait later. Oh... and this mod is of course... free.