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YE OLD NEWS FROM MAY TO JULY 2001 COMRADES: |
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July 27, 2001: A new page is added to TTC for guess who?: If
you guessed Shellman, you win the cute, fuzzy plush Wojit doll (whatever
that is). On the Shellman page you will find "little known facts
about Shellman" and "links to interviews with Shellman".
You can access this humorous and informative page by clicking on her
B&W photo on the ABOUT TROIKA page or
simply by clicking here. Guess
who's next to recieve the honor.
July 26, 2001: A few words from Shellman about the ease of using the Arcanum WorldED: "If you just want to make dungeon romps, its pretty easy. If you want to make mods where you have intense dialog trees, you check all kinds of stats to determine responses, you script things like "A monster will appear next to you and try to kill your enemies once you've talked to so-and-so and IF you have the X in your inventory. But only when you walk through doorway Y at midnight" its going to take a lot more work. I just finished a medium sized dungeon romp. The only scripts are the teleport scripts. (which are 2 lines long and really easy to do) It took me a couple of days to lay out the dungeons the way I wanted, place the monsters, add lots of scenery and make it "interesting". I could have done it a lot faster if I hadn't been so picky and hadn't added lots of scenery. So what I'm saying is, it all depends on what you want to do." Thanks
Shellman. I certainly look forward to taking full advantage of this
remarkable powerful and versatile campaign editor. A new page is added to TTC for Tim Cain: I
finally have a page devoted to Tim Cain himself. On it you will find
"little known facts about Tim Cain" and "links to interviews
with Tim Cain". You can access this humorous and informative
page by clicking on his B&W photo on the ABOUT
TROIKA page or simply by clicking here.
Eventually, I will have a page for the whole team. Guess who's next.
July 21, 2001: The ABOUT TROIKA page is now current: I
finally have the entire Troika team's photos and bios completed on
the ABOUT TROIKA page (including ACTUAL photos
of Jason Anderson and Steve Moret). Also included are Troika's newest
team members; Sissie Chang, Tiffany Chu and Scott Jacobson. On a similar
note, I arranged the team in alphabetical order for easier reference.
July 20, 2001: Another successful developer chat comes to a close: Well
fans, the Troika developer chat is over. I think it went pretty well
for my first one (yes, there will be more, so if you missed this one,
there's always next time). You can read the edited chat script on
the CHAT ROOM page curtesy of skwerly. I
would like to thank everyone from Troika for taking the time to answer
their fan's many "pressing" questions today. Also, thanks
to Sawtooth for the modchat.ini script, to Enclave_Trooper for sending
news about the chat's date and time to all the online newsies and
to Saint_Proverbious, Heroman, Merlina and the entire TTC staff for
assisting with moderating. It was a pleasurable and memorable experience
to be sure
July 18, 2001: One final update on the developer chat: Shellman
had this to say about the dev. chat on Friday: "So far it looks
like we'll all be there. Woohoo! Party time on Friday!!! :-)".
Well, there ya have it. This should prove to be one hell of a chat
"party"!
July 17, 2001: A further update on the scheduled #Troika developer chat: The
chat IS CONFIRMED for 4:30 pm PST (NOT MST) on Friday, July 20th.
I still have no confirmation on who exactly from Troika will attend
other than Shellman herself, however I am certain it will be the usual
gang from other dev. chats in the past. I will, of course, let you
know who the others will be ASAP.
July 16, 2001: An update on the scheduled #Troika developer chat!: I have changed the dev. chat to a tentative date of Friday, July 20th. The time will be the same, of course [4:30 pm MST]. I feel that this would allow more time for the word to get out among the online publications and, thus, you the fans. Also, I feel that there would be a larger turn out on Friday. Sorry if this causes an inconvenience. Again, this date is ALSO tentative. I have been assured by Shellman that I would recieve confirmation of the date and time ASAP. P.S.
- I have enlisted the aid of Heroman and Merlina of Dimensions
of Arcanum as moderators during this upcoming chat, so E-mailing
me your questions is NO LONGER necessary. You can ask them live at
the chat! For more information on IRC (In Room Chat) and #Troika,
click on the CHAT ROOM link on the left scroll bar. I hope to see
you all there. A thought-provoking editorial on the consequences of warez: I
have been somewhat preoccupied with other things lately and missed
some recent news. For those of you who don't know, Saint Proverbius
of Terra-Arcanum wrote a scathing, but eye-opening editorial
on July 8th about the unethical consequences of downloading and playing
the warez ISO version of Arcanum (a nearly complete version). A definite
worthwhile read for both warez users and non-warez users alike. Here
is a quote from the editorial: "In other words, Arcanum has shifted
from a World Wide Release to World Wide Warez. A lot of people simply
won't wait those two months, and they'll just grab it now. This even
includes those people who have pre-ordered the game or actually intend
to buy it when it comes out." On that note i would like to add
a sympathetic plee of my own: If you are a TRUE fan of Troika and/or
Arcanum, PLEASE don't warez Arcanum. You would hurt Troika in more
ways than you realize. Thank you for your continued support of Troika
and Arcanum. While we are on the topic of warez badness...: Jonric
of RPG Vault Posted a short
article on July 3rd explaining just how much warez-ing hurts the gaming
industry. Bravo Jonric! The first ever Arcanum portrait gallery site is now up!: BlackBlade,
an avid Arcanum fan, opened the first Arcanum portrait gallery site
called Galleria Arcanum.
This site provides a large selection of character portraits for use
in Arcanum. There are also instructions at the top of the site for
those of you who do not know how to use the portraits. Good thinking
BlackBlade!
July 14, 2001: New Arcanum fan fiction to tied you over by your's truly: Being
the kind of person who seldom finishes what I start, I have written
the prologue to YET ANOTHER Arcanum fan fiction. This one is called
"The Gentleman Hustler". Check it out on the FAN FICTION
page. Don't worry, I'll soon get around to continuing the other two
fan fics I started.
July 13, 2001: Our own Shards now officially has his site hosted: Shards'
Arcanum fan site, the Tarant
Daily, is now hosted by GameStats.
On a similar note, Tonurics has joined Plastic_Couch and myself as
staff of the Tarant Daily. Congrats to Shards and welcome to TD's
happy home, Tonurics. I am currently looking into host options for
TTC and will keep you updated when I learn more.
July 12, 2001: TTC's guest book is now complete ladies and gentlemen!: YES!
The last of the current Troika team has signed our ever-growing guest
book. I would like to thank the academy, my mother and father, Mr.
Spielberg, the entire cast and crew...OH! and of course, Jason Anderson
and the rest of the way cool Troika team for making my dream come
true. You like TTC!...You REALLY like TTC! :-p TTC's first developer chat coming soon!: The Troika Connection will be hosting it's first ever Troika team developer chat on the #Troika chat channel. Questions will center on the Troika team rather than Arcanum itself with Arcanum questions allowed if time permits. The chat is "tentatively" scheduled for Tuesday, July 17th at 4:30 pm MST. I am giving notice now because, other than TTC staff, you will ONLY be able to have your questions asked if you E-mail them to me first at sci_fidave@hotmail.com. I feel that this is the best approach since this is my first dev. chat. I will select what I feel are the best questions for the time alloted. Thank you and I hope to see you all there. P.S.
- If you have not been to a chat channel before, please follow the
instructions on the CHAT ROOM page of The Troika Connection. July 11, 2001: Some New Art: Ok
last news item today I promise! Being inspired today I decided to
play around with Flash a little, and came up with a little Flash program
that has the Troika Connection logo inside of it and some other artsy
stuff. Please check it out and let me know what you think (preferably
in the forum). It is located in the Art Gallery Page. Thanks! An Important Guestbook Visitor: I
Am still making sure that its for real. However if it is I would like
to announce that Mr. Leonard Boyarsky has visited our humble site
and has added his name to the guest book. A Great Honour! Wow We Are OFFICIAL!: As
many of you have heard, the Troika Team has revamped their website.
What many of you may not have realized however is that we are now
the first link in the Links page! Congrats to all involved with TC!
Here is the link: http://www.troikagames.com/arcanum.htm. July 8, 2001: I'll be away for four days: I'll
be in Flagstaff from Monday until Thursday on a business/ski trip.
TTC will be in the capable hands of MelloJ, Shards and Aldin in the
meantime as usual. July 6, 2001: Get to know the "inner workings" of Shellman The Sensational: Shellman
was interviewed
today by Jonric of RPGVault. The interview was somewhat lengthy, but
interesting. In it, Shellman revealed her background, what it's like
for her working at Troika and her thoughts on females in computer
games and in the gaming industy. A one on one interview with Tim Cain: Many
of you are no doubt aware of the video
interview with Tim Cain by Jason MacIsaac of Electric Playground.
Well, for those of you with low bandwidths, I have the full interview
posted here courtesy of our own
Aldin. You can also access the text interview via TTC's new archived
interviews systems. All you have to do is go to the about Troika page
and click on the portrait of the Troika team member you want to see
an interview of. The interviews will be organized in date order. July 4, 2001: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! The
great U S of A is 225 years young today. Have fun, but please celebrate
responsibly! Troika needs it's fans.
July 2, 2001: TROIKA STRIKES AGAIN!...on TTC's guestbook: Today
Jesse Reynolds, code master extraordinaire, signed TTC's ever-growing
guestbook. Be sure to read what he had to say during your visit with
us. Please welcome Troika's newest team members!: I
have confirmation via E-mail from Tiffany Chu (a.k.a Chubaka) herself
that she, Scott Jacobson (a.k.a. wartoy) and Sissie (angryhippo) are
now official Troika team members (a.k.a. gods). Scott is an official
assistant to Jason, while Tiffany and Cynthia are official junior
designers. Congratulations to you all and I wish you all the best. Great new look!...same great ummm...taste?: After
much consideration, many changes and alot your basic "messin'
around", TTC has a great new look. Of course, that's just my
humble opinion. I would very much like to hear what you all think
so please, E-mail me or catch me in the #Troika chat room and let
me know what you think.
June 28, 2001: Another TTC change to confuse you further: After
only a few days, I have already switched TTC's chat room from #TroikaFan
to simply #Troika. It had just recently become available and I decided
it sounded more 'official'. Sorry for any confussion. I'll DCC ya
all a cold one from the chat room to make up for it. ;-) The Troika gods have blessed my guest book. YES!: That's
right; Shellman, Tim, Mike, Chad, Steve, Wartoy (Troika in-house tester)
and previously Chu have all signed TTC's guest book. Many have commented
on the site as well, so please do check it out. Thank you Troika.
This means alot to me. :-) P.S. - Leon, Jason, Jesse, and Yong will
get around to signing as well...RIGHT?...FELLAS? ;-) The official release date of Arcanum: Just
a late reminder for those of you who may not know or who are confused
about the actual release date of Arcanum: According to the official
Sierra Arcanum site, the game will be released on August 24, 2001
rather than the previous estimate of September 2001. Good news for
us because it is sooner and good news for Troika because they will
get a head start on the RPG competition.
June 27, 2001: You want a song AND you want it to be funny AND you want it to be about YOU?......ok, you got it: Stravaig,
with assistance form our very own Aldin, has put together a hillarious
parody about all of us Arcanum/Troika fans called 'Arcanumaniacs'.
Check it out, clear your throat and sing along on the Homor page. The TTC is proud to present it's newest staff member...ALDIN! YAY!: Aldin,
who for a while now has proven not only his usefulness to TTC, but
also his unwavering fanaticisim towards Troika, will now be an official
TTC staff member with all the rights and privilages thereof (whatever
the hell they may be *shrug*). Please stop by the TTC Forum and welcome
Sir Aldin the Correspondent (a.k.a Fly-On-The-Wall). Now you can shout out from the highest hilltops your love of all things Troika!: TTC
finally has a chat room of its very own, #Troika. To learn how to
access it, please visit the Chat Room page. I hope to see you there
often. Also, I posted the edited version of the #Arcanum developer
chat of yesterday on the Chat Room page if you happened to miss it
or wish to relive the excitment. Soon I will be moderating a devolper
chat for TTC and will post details as they become available.
June 25, 2001: Finally, a new chapter in the adventures of Delvun Oakwood: Well,
it's been three months now since I last updated my old fan fiction,
The Mechanics Of Peace featuring that adventurous and stalwart Elven
hero, Delvun Oakwood. Therefore, after hearing numerous requests,
I have decided to pick up my pen and continue the epic story. You
can read chapter nine (as well as the prologue and chapters 1-8) on
the Fan Fiction page. I hope you enjoy it. :-) A friendly reminder about the developer chat: Don't
forget Troika fans: Terra Arcanum will be moderating a major developer
chat from their chat room, #Arcanum. This highly anticipated event
will take place tomorrow at 4:00pm PST. Many Troika big-wig gods are
expected, so I hope to see you there. Of course, if you can't make
it, you can still read the highlights which I will post on the Chat
Room page of TTC. June 21, 2001: A new TTC exclusive: Troika team fan fiction!: First
of all I would like to say how nice it is to be back. I was away in
Germany for a much needed vacation, but neglected to mention it. Anyway,
I got back on the 16th and had trouble geting this new sitebuilder
MelloJ sent me to work, so I appologize for the lack of updates. Secondly,
I would like to thank MelloJ for the wonderful new upgrades he added
to the site while I was away. I think you'll agree he did an outstanding
job. Last, and perhaps most importantly, I have just finished the
Prologue of my new epic fan fic, Troika: Of Personalities And Situations
Obscura. It's a parody about the fictional exploits of the Troika
team. Check it out on the Fan Fiction page. June 13, 2001: Fun, Sorrow, Adventure: Ok
folks, a rather big update. So Listen Up. Our Friend Aldin, has
forwarded his list of Godly Remarks from Mount Troikimpus. Please
visit the Humour section for the details. Also! I have finally been
able to put up the *LARGE* stories written by Scratch and others.
However they have not been formatted yet, but you will see from
their lengths that formatting them will take a while :) Check these
out in the Fan Fiction section. They are QUITE good! Adios! June 11, 2001: Sunburns and other conditions: I
have been at the cottage for the last few days, hence there has
been a lack of updates, however I hope to put up a whole bunch of
fan fiction that has been so kindly provided by Scratch, ASAP. Also
if you have not heard, unfortunately Mark Harrison and Chris Jones
have left Troika to pursue their glory elsewhere...hmm I wonder
if that means Troika is hiring.....gotta brush up that Resume. June 3, 2001: Later that same day.....: Well
if you can see some funky moving stuff at the top, that means my
little Flash logo is working...otherwise its all your fault!. :)
Kudos to Pauly (a brother of mine) for the Flash Direction. May 25, 2001: Better
preformance for your site viewing and listening pleasure:
You
will, I am sure, be pleased to know that that a few changes have
been made to TTC for the better. First, our forum is now hosted
by Terra Arcanum, so traffic is sure to improve ten fold. YAY! Second,
I have just fixed all the photos and captions on our site so that
they line up correctly no matter how you view them (sorry about
the mess). Finally, I fixed the Monkey Magick MP3 so that you you
no longer have to download it. All you have to do is click on the
"silly monkey playing drums" picture to hear it.
---Lord Davidian--- MAY
24, 2001:
If
disco is a joke, then this is hilarious:
Ok,
for many the days of disco are days best forgotten (myself included).
However, I came across a MP3 disco song (with a touch of techno
in the begining) which was silly enough for me to put on the "HUMOR"
page, yet catchy enough for me to suggest it to Troika as the theme
to my proposed title of Arcanum 2: Of Disco And Magick Obscura...LOL.
It is called Monkey Magick. Visit the "HUMOR"
page and give it a listen. You won't regret it. ;-)
---Lord Davidian--- May
23, 2001:
More
great photos from E3:
Included
are pics of the Arcanum booth and, of course, more pics of the great
Troika team. Oh, and these latest pics were sent in by none
other than SHELLMAN
HERSELF! Thank you so much for giving us a little glimpse of heaven,
Shellman :-). Go to our "ABOUT
TROIKA" page and check them out.
---Lord
Davidian---
Bigger,
better, bluer:
No,
I'm not talking about a heaping pile of dead smurfs. I speak of
the large and nicely done preview
of Arcanum from Jin-Ning Tioh of BlueSmoke. This 6 page
preview covers every aspect of the game from the opening movie,
to the character editor, to gameplay and graphics/sound. It is rather
cumbersome for us to include every Troika game preview and at the
same time biased to include only certain ones. However, I feel this
particular preview is a good place to learn about the basics of
Arcanum (as well as Arcanum's
official site, of course ;-) for those just now hearing
of the game's existance. One warning: Some of the many very nice
screenshots are rather spoilerish.
---Lord Davidian--- May
22, 2001:
A
new page in the epic fan site that is The Troika Connection!:
That's
right Troika fans, the "FAN
GALLERY" page has been added to your gateway to all
things Troika. In it you will find the pictures and names of the
many Troika fans which continues to grow everyday! So come on people,
send me you pictures! I don't care how ugly you are. I mean...ummm...
---Lord
Davidian---
Jason
goes on a trip, hangs out with old friends and plays some fun games...WHEW!
exausting:
Jason
MacIsaac, author of the famous (and sometimes infamous) Gamesmania
Arcanum Journals, was one of the lucky Arcanum fans to brave
the endless crowds of people who swarmed E3 (Electronic Entertainment
Expo) in Los Angeles, California. He met with four of the Troika
team (Michael McCarthy, Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky and Chad
Moore) and even took a couple of nice photos of them which I have
added to the "ABOUT
TROIKA" page (YAY! Finally we have color photos of
our heroes!). After several "hard" days at E3 (hmmm...),
Jason still had the strength to pick up a pen...err type a brief
summary of his experience there.
---Lord
Davidian---
The
first first-hand account of the first day of E3 of the first year
of the new milleniun (MAN! That's a whole lot of firsts):
Vincent
"Baff" Austin, a reporter for RPGDot, wrote his first
impressions about many highly anticipated RPGs he was shown
during his first day at E3. Here is what he had to say about Arcanum
which was shown to him by Troika's lead programer, Jesse
Reynolds:
"You
create a character by choosing from 7 races and many character backgrounds,
which have both pluses and minuses. For example, you can have
famous parents, which gives you a +1 sword to start with but a bigger
penalty to reputation if you should do anything evil. Of course
you can always be a human with no significant background if you
don't want any modifications, or you can use one of the pre-made
characters and not worry about it. When you start and everytime
you gain a level, you get points to distribute to your skills. You
can specialize in either magic or technology, or stay middle of
the road (but that would limit you from the best abilities of either
side). There are about 80 spells and about 55 skills, plus
some bonus advanced abilities. You can acquire a large number
of followers (dependant on your charisma). You can select
path of training for each of your followers and change it anytime
you want, so that whenever they gain levels, they will automatically
distribute their points. You can also talk to your followers
any time you want. Be careful though, if you kill everyone
in sight, some of your followers will leave. There are several
settings for making multiplayer games, such as limiting characters
to certain level ranges. You can also set them up for cooperative
play or for player killing."
---Lord
Davidian---
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