Important Stuff for rAge

[ShadowOrphan]

Hi

Here is the overview of the most important aspects that you need to be aware of for rAge. Post that stray from the topic will be deleted. If you have a question that you are sure has not been covered, please post it.

The two main features:
1) rAge Exhibition
2) Open LAN hosted by VC

VC is in no way involved with Arena77 competitions, and Arena77 are in no way involved with the Open LAN. Therefore Open LAN and rAge related questions will only be answered on the NAG forums, and Arena77 related question may be posted on the Arena77 website. I am not in a position to clarify questions regarding A77 presence at rAge, competitions that they host, fees etc payable to them. So please refrain from posting A77 questions on the NAG forum as A77 staff do not monitor this forum in the same capacity as their own forum.

In the Open LAN area you can play at your leisure, bring your own computer and pretty much do your own thing based on what servers VC and/or the community will have up and running. This is simply a LAN, much like any other except that it is being held at rAge and consists of 1500 players.

What will be played in the Open LAN, basically anything that you want that does not cause a non-willing participant any harm. Any communities that want to organise any formal competitions for a specific game, please feel free to contact me. Do keep in mind though that there will be no trips to Korea, France, America or Disney Land in the Open LAN. No sponsor banners or related advertising will be allowed, not even if they sponsored you to attend from Finland.

When is rAge: 28 September – 30 September 2007

Open time: 10h00 Friday 28 September 2007
Closing time: 15h00 Sunday 30 September 2007
Entrance fee: R###.## per person, tickets must be bought and collected at Computicket before the event (I will confirm this later, sorry)

If your girlfriend, boyfriend, friend just wants to see what the weekend is about, they need to buy a day pass or weekend pass for the expo at the expo entrance. Regardless of whether gamers arrive on Friday or Sunday the price will remain the same.

Anyone who arrives with a computer will need to have a valid Computicket that is still 100% intact. No valid ticket, no entry.

Entrance fee to exhibition is included. Details on what is happening at the exhibition can be found at www.rageexpo.co.za This website will be up and running soon.

Registration opening: Still needs to be confirmed

Seating arrangements: First come, first serve. Thus you will not be able to reserve specific seating at compu-ticket

IP Addresses: Static, sticker on table

Parking area: Secured Public Parking Area opposite main entrance. Follow road markings

Off-loading area: Not applicable, since the entrance is separated from the parking area. Thus you park your car and bring your stuff from there.

Distance to carry pc: 100m to Reception, bit further inside depending on where you intend sitting.

Noise: Yes lots

Entertainment: Open LAN, exhibition and the rest is up to you!

Is it going to rain: Not the faintest idea, but do keep this in mind. Bring the odd plastic bag to cover up if needed.

Chill area: Yes

Sleep area: Nope. No tents etc. Please keep in mind that we are now partly downstairs and we cannot have three-day-old gamers stench emanating from their body bags. I know this seems harsh, but the Dome have rules to comply with. So if you collect your thoughts upstairs in the chill area on the mezzanine level and happen to think better with your eyes closed, I am sure nobody will disturb your deep thoughts.

What to bring:
PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse, headphones, power cord to pc & monitor
Please note that your power cord needs to have a red plug with the flattened earth pin. Without this red plug type you will not be able to plug into the power grid. Each multiplug that we supply is meant to have two PC’s plugged into it. So if you and your buddy only use two plugs because you have a power lead with multiple points, it does not mean you have two additional plugs to use for whatever. The power is calculated according to the PC’s, and deviating from this might cause power failures. Since nobody likes power failures, if you cause one due to ignoring our request and abusing the power, you will leave the event. I take this quite seriously, so please don’t test the waters on this.

What NOT to bring:
No Speakers
No UPS’s
No Multiplugs
No Double Adaptors
No Switches Or Hubs
No Additional Devices Requiring Power for e.g. Fans, Cell Phone Chargers, Etc

Power test station: PC’s will be tested for power at reception. You plug your PC and Monitor into the supplied power cords. You start to boot. If both your monitor and PC start without tripping the power, you can switch them off and carry on through to registration.

Two-pin Adaptors: Please note that due to the fact that we use the red plugs, two pin adaptors won’t work.

Security: Yes there will be guards. The safety of your equipment is however still your responsibility. So don’t leave your cell phone, mp3 player or camera on the table while you go for lunch. This will lead to unnecessary temptation. Take your mouse, headphones etc with you when you leave. Ask a buddy to keep an eye. No PC’s or monitors will enter or leave after 22h00 at night. Registration opens at 8h00 on Saturday morning. Laptops also count as PC’s.

Will there be viruses: Most certainly, the likelihood is very high. Therefore patch your systems, get firewalls, and get anti-virus software. We will have trial versions available, but that might be too late.

Hacking, Port-scanning: Will not be taken kindly. If you do, you will leave the event. If you need to copy, use normal network browsing. If the PC’s don’t display in your network neighborhood, read up on our website at the LAN on how to fix it.

Food and drinks: Food and drinks will be for sale inside the venue. No take-out food may be brought into the venue

Will there be patch servers?: Patches required will certainly be available. We will however limit the available bandwidth from this machine, so that somebody does not decide to grab 6 Gigs of patches from the machine, compromising the availability to other players.

How do I know what servers are up and running?: Servers hosted by us will be up for the entire duration of the event. Whether people will join them, remains to be seen. So we will not advertise general servers on the big screen.

We will have IRC set-up.



Common sense:

Please ensure that you PC has the latest service packs installed (SP4 for Win2000 and SP2 for XP)

Please ensure that the virus pattern file is up to date.

Do not share anything if you do not want it to be copied

Remember to bring any software, serial numbers that you may require. VC will not install a custom Linux onto your brand new machine that you bought the day before and forgot to bring your drivers along

Make sure your Shares are Read only if you need to share

If you find anything wrong with the event, please let someone from VC know at the event so that we can try and rectify it. If you do not give us the opportunity to rectify the problem, do not complain afterwards.

The Dome is a non-smoking area. No smoking inside the venue will be permitted

Neither NAG nor VC will make sleeping arrangements for anybody attending rAge. This is your own responsibility


Checklist
This might serve you quite useful at the LAN. These are guidelines from the
well versed in Lanning and should not be taken lightly.
Drivers for all your hardware
All the serial numbers that you require in case of re-installing
Screwdriver
Matches (If you need to burn your PC or keep your eyes open)
Eye drops
Headache pills (Panado seems to be working)
Any spare mouses, pads etc. that you might need in case of failure
Good luck kiss from ya girl/wife
Soft toy (stress reliever)
Something warm to keep the bones comfy
List of excuses for getting nailed by the gauntlet while having a BFG
Charged Cell Phone
Compu-ticket ticket for Entrance
Money for sustenance
Medical cards etc you may need in case of emergency
Reservations if you booked a place to stay
Enough money for petrol back
Mouse
Keyboard
Monitor
PC
Headphones
Spares if needed
Power cord from PC and Monitor to supplied Multiplug
Contact details of buddies that you are planning on meeting at rAge.

And most importantly a good spirit to come and have fun and enjoy your weekend.

:D

[brazed]

Sorry, I just need some clarity. Should your pc and monitor share a power cable?

[BLACKWOLF]

They don't, you have 2 power plugs but you can only use them for you pc and monitor, even if you only use one*

That was last year's thing, I don't expect it to have changed thou.

[Scorp1on]

My old PC had 2 plugs on the PSU and my monitor went into the PSU and one cable went to the outlet. Is that what you mean brazed?

[ShadowOrphan]

They don't, you have 2 power plugs but you can only use them for you pc and monitor, even if you only use one*

That was last year's thing, I don't expect it to have changed thou.

Thanks.

You may use two power cords, one for your monitor, one for your PC. Do however keep in mind that if you do not need both, they are not available to plug ?other? stuff into. Hope that is clear now.

Cee Ye

[brazed]

Thought as much, just needed to be sure. Thanks for the replies everyone.

[Etienne]

Are Xbox 360s allowed at the LAN? If they are, I guess we would have to switch off our PCs before plugging in the 360s?

[ShadowOrphan]

Not quite. You will purchase either an X-box ticket, or an Open LAN ticket. You will not be allowed to switch. The X-Boxes have dedicated seating. Thus you cannot bring your X-Box and swap it out with your PC if you feel like it. Also, the X-Boxes are only allowed to use LCD monitors, not television sets or huge plasma displays. I assume that there will be some people that will try and hook up their X-Box in the LAN area, hope they have their own transport since their weekend will become shorter than planned.

We are catering for 60 X-Boxes only to gauge the general interest in such a venture. Should there be sufficient support, it would obviously expand next year.

[X-Ploding_Shoes]

Is there any chance that Rage will come to Cape Town, ever?

[Miktar]

It's not impossible, but just very unlikely.

[Etienne]

Not quite. You will purchase either an X-box ticket, or an Open LAN ticket. You will not be allowed to switch. The X-Boxes have dedicated seating. Thus you cannot bring your X-Box and swap it out with your PC if you feel like it. Also, the X-Boxes are only allowed to use LCD monitors, not television sets or huge plasma displays. I assume that there will be some people that will try and hook up their X-Box in the LAN area, hope they have their own transport since their weekend will become shorter than planned.

We are catering for 60 X-Boxes only to gauge the general interest in such a venture. Should there be sufficient support, it would obviously expand next year.

Well, on that case...

I think you just decreased the chances of me pitching up. Why can't I swap my Xbox 360 with my PC? This is allowed at most major LANs, like Mayhem?

[Miktar]

To be fair - Mayhem is a casual affair and doesn't have to handle 1500+ gamers and the required networking, power, seating and etc.

[ShadowOrphan]

Sorry to hear, we miss you already is the default response that comes to mind. Fortunately I won’t be that nasty yet. It is a technical issue concerning increasing the possibility of failure. Now I know the standard replies about plan this, if this, maybe that etc. It’s because that we do plan, and the fact that this is not 100 people, that we have such rules. Very few people are privileged enough to own an X-box 360 and a decent PC capable of today’s games at decent resolutions. If you are fortunate enough to own both, maybe you could afford two tickets? If not, maybe just choose your favourite favourite.

[Etienne]

Fortunately I won?t be that nasty yet.

Too late, buddy.

It?s because that we do plan, and the fact that this is not 100 people, that we have such rules.

Yes, because the venue we are talking about only handles 100 people... oh wait... no.

Anyway, I just asked a simple question. Pitty about the answer.

Oh, and now for the deciding question: What about cordless headphones and rechargeable mice (Like the Logitech MX Laser)? These need extra plugs...

[ShadowOrphan]

Yes, because the venue we are talking about only handles 100 people... oh wait... no.

Anyway, I just asked a simple question. Pitty about the answer.

In your world the 100 reference might be seen as related to Mayhem, in my world it was a general reference to ?most major LANs? and LAN?s in general. I am quite aware of the size of Mayhem, since I have lanned there before and am not totally clueless.

The question was simple, the statement not, thus the reply.

As far as the mice and headphones are concerned, you only have two plug points available. Thus if you need more, then you have a problem since we do not allow that you plug your own adaptors or multiplugs into the power grid. If you use a dual power cord to your PC and Monitor and thus have one plug open, I will not be too difficult with allowing your mouse or headphone to be plugged in since it is a required gaming peripheral. It would still be advantages though to try and keep to wired peripherals that do not need chargers or additional power. And just to ensure there is no confusion, a cellphone is not a required gaming peripheral.

[Hfx]

Can you possibly confirm when the bookings will open for rAge tickets?

[Miktar]

1 August, 2007

[brazed]

My next question is bout security. I know this might sound daft, but if I do happen to buy two tickets (one for the lan, and one for the xbox-lan) I'd feel pretty uncomfortable to leave my xbox standing there, and I really don't want to pack and unpack it the whole time. Is this mainly a priority thing on my part? I allready know the answer, but it's just that I'd love to do both, but I'd feel to uncomfortable to do so.

[R4mzy]

How much will the tickets be? The same as last year (R195)?

[ShadowOrphan]

My next question is bout security. I know this might sound daft, but if I do happen to buy two tickets (one for the lan, and one for the xbox-lan) I'd feel pretty uncomfortable to leave my xbox standing there, and I really don't want to pack and unpack it the whole time. Is this mainly a priority thing on my part? I allready know the answer, but it's just that I'd love to do both, but I'd feel to uncomfortable to do so.

The layout is such that the X-boxes and PC do have some areas where they are next to each other. Thus if you rock up early, you could set up your X-Box on the one side, and your PC on the other, thus nirvana.

I do not have a fixed price on the tickets yet, but due to some developments, it would be safe to assume that they will be slightly more expensive than last year. And please do not beg for a detailed breakdown and explanation for the price tag, I assure you that it is not greed.