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GXL Battlefield 2142 2007 Season 1 [BF2142]
Introducting Gamestah Radio
Who are we?
Gamestah Radio is a volunteer shoutcasting organisation based in Australia. We cover a range of games including Counter Strike, Battlefield (2 and 2142), Enemy Territory, Call of Duty and Unreal Tournament. At present the Battlefield division is the most active and we cover between 2 and 5 ladder matches each week on the GameArena and Gamespace ladders. We also have a dedicated 1 hour show every Sunday night which reports the news and latest clan /ladder information from the Battlefield communities in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
Is Gamestah covering the GXL BF2142 Season #1 Tournament?
Yes. Gamestah has an agreement with GXL to provide support and publicity for the Tournament. Gamestah is a voluntry organisation and no money has changed hands with this agreement. The shoutcasters will cover as many matches as we can based on our availability. Time zones may also present a challenge as most of our casters are based in Eastern Australia. This means that a normal start time in Singapore / Malaysia of 9pm or 10pm means that its a start time of 11pm or 12pm for the shoutcaster. This may prove difficult for matches on a Saturday night
Are the shoutcasts broadcast live over the internet? Yes. As a general rule all matches that are cast are covered live and broadcast over the interest. Anyone is able to tune in and listen free of charge. All a listener needs to do is go to www.gamestah.com and on the right hand side there are 4 shoutcast servers. Active and streaming servers show up in green and it is simply a matter of clicking on the media application the listener wants to use. Gamestah supports WinAmp, Media Player and Real Player. What if I can't listen live, can I download it later and listen?
Yes. Gamestah publishes all shoutcasts within 24-48 hours after the match has finished. In the files section under Battlefield, there will be a specific category established for the GXL Tournament and you'll be able to find all of the matches available there for download. The file sizes vary between 20-70 Mb depending on the duration of the match.
If you shoutcast live, can the other team listen in a find out where we are?
In short yes. Anyone can listen in over the internet so a player could be on the other team and be listening in to the commentary at the same time. To ensure that there is no effect on the gameplay and to ensure that no team is disadvantaged, the shoutcast is delayed by between 30-45 seconds. This means that if the casters report on the position of two tanks, a walker or mention an sneak attack on a specific flag - this information will not be heard live until 30-45 seconds later. By this time, both teams on the map will certainly already know about it. Do your casters know how to play the game or are they just commentators?
All shoutcasters at Gamestah not only own the game and play it, they come from a clan background and have played in a ladder somewhere. Therefore the casters understand the vehicles, weapons, kits, flags and maps sufficiently to be able to describe exactly what is going on. It also means that they understand clan tactics and strategies and can interpret what is going on at any point in time. Do the casters add lag to the server?
The casters are the equivalent of an extra player on each team. Connecting from Australia it may mean that the casters have a ping of 100-200 however experience has taught us that this doesn't impact the game. This is because the caster isn't alive and isn't contributing to the gameplay - hence information is generally flowing from the server to the caster but little or no information is flowing from the caster to the server. Thus there is minimal load on the server as a result of casters being there.
Do the shoutcasters use Spectator mode?
No. Spectator mode is wonderful to be able to see what is happening around the map using freecam map. However... when in spectator mode, you are unable to see the ticket scores of either team. Thus it is impossible to know who is winning and by how much. This is very bad for shoutcasting and therefore we do not use spectator mode. So do you join the teams to shoutcast?
Yes. A shoutcaster will join a team during the warm-up round. After the round has gone live, the caster will wait 10 seconds to ensure that all of the vehicles/infantry are away from the main base. The caster will then spawn and immediately suicide costing the team one ticket. This enables the caster to then cycle through each of the players in 3rd person view and hence shoutcast the match. This occurs for each team. Therefore each team is affected equally with one ticket lost. So does this mean that there are always 2 casters?
No. It is easier if there are two casters to share the commentary however it is possible to cover a match with just one caster. In this case, the caster would spawn/suicide on one team and then swap to the other team and do the same. This ensures still that both teams are affected equally with one ticket loss.
What happens if a caster is disconnected and rejoins. Will this cost my team another ticket?
No. If a caster is disconnected from the server and reconnects, they will not spawn and suicide again and therefore will not cost that team another ticket. The caster will only be able to cast using the map screen and watching the kills. It makes it a lot harder but it is the fairest way.
Have you had problems with teams in the past with the ticket loss?
No. Teams that understand how we shoutcast and the single ticket loss system are very supportive and understand how it works. The only problems occur when a team doesn't understand the system and starts to ask questions in global chat about what is going on. This can disrupt the start of the game and to ensure a smooth match, the shoutcast is generally cancelled to avoid any problems and the casters leave the server.
How do we know who the casters are?
Each shoutcaster will enter the server with the clan prefix CASTER. This ensures that both teams know exactly who they are and they don't claim the other team has an extra person in the server. Have you ever delayed the start of a match for technical issues?
Never. We will never ask teams to wait or delay a match because of problems at our end.
How do you find out about the server details? The captains of each team will be contacted by Gamestah to find out the server IP, the server port and the client password for the server. This information is limited to the Gamestah Battlefield team and is not given to anyone else. Contacting Us
MSN: Momowang
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
<- appears as Skip Fulton (MomoWang)
If you have any questions please feel free to post them here or contact me directly.
Good luck to all the teams who have entered.
Cheers
Momo Source: http://www.gamestah.com |
Battlefield 2142 Patch 1.40 Update (119)