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Cherry [OSM STL]
Neseroth [OSM STA]
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What's your callsign?
JordonDummy
Let's get to know you – can you describe yourself in five words?
Respectful, laid-back, intelligent, leader, happy.
Tell us about your history in TAW.
I joined February 28th 2013 for the World of Tanks Division and was recruited by KennethR and he was also my Drill Instructor. About a month later I became a Drill Instructor myself and enjoyed my work. I then became a Server Administrator a week later which was mainly doing journalism and editing channels descriptions when needed. Roughly 2 and a half months later I became the SO still in the World of Tanks Division. On September 14th 2013 I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant because my COC thought I went above and beyond the call of duty when I was SO. Two weeks later I saw World of Warplanes enter Vanguard for take 2 so I decided to Transfer up for initial setup where I have been under the command of Tazmanian ever since. I am now the XO in the NA for World of Warplanes and happily enjoying my time here in TAW.
What was your initial impression of TAW?
My first impression of TAW was that TAW is a welcoming and well structured community. The two qualities I want in a gaming community.
Tell us about your division, and what you do there.
My current division is World of Warplanes and here we run a tight ship under the division level command of Tazmanian. I am the Executive Officer and the head of everything that goes on in the NA for World of Warplanes. My job consists of keeping PFC and up attendance up to date, reading the forums for recruits and helping my Staff Officer MrHowell with recruiting and the onboarding.
What would you like someone considering joining TAW to know?
I would like anybody considering to join TAW to know that we accept all players of all skills levels and backgrounds into our community.
Do you have any special hobbies or activities outside of TAW?
Outside of TAW I do biathlon (Cross-Country Skiing and shooting). It is a very fun activity when it's not too cold out. I currently hold no awards for it as I just started this year for it and I already enjoy the sport because I get to shoot .22 Caliber World War II era rifles.
If you could change one thing about TAW, what would it be?
There is nothing I would change about TAW as I think the community is fine the way it is.
Tell us about some of the people you've met during your time in TAW.
In TAW I have not met too many of the higher ups besides Tazmanian, ChicagoOne, Draxton, StealthMist (changed name to Stealth), SoonerOKC and, Subrat they are all very nice people but I have gotten the privilege to work with with Tazmanian closely with spinning up World of Warplanes. I have also gotten the chance to work along side with SteelRanger who is the World of Tanks DC and JayMorr who is the World of Tanks NA battalion's CO.
What's your favourite thing about TAW?
My favorite thing about TAW is that we accept players of all skill and backgrounds. That is truly marvelous to be apart of a community like that.
How does TAW affect your offline life?
TAW really has no effect on my offline life as my daily schedule is pretty non-time consuming.
What might our readers be surprised to know about you?
I have to say that readers might be surprised to know that I Japanese style music as well as rock and dubstep because it is generally not a common combination in tastes for music. I also enjoy anime as well.
What's your favourite retro videogame? Why?
My favorite retro video game would have to be one of the older Super Mario games as I always enjoy using power ups to destroy Gombas (little brown angry looking guys) or koopas (turtles with the green or red shells they sometimes have wings depending on the mission).
If you could choose any TAW member to be stranded on a desert island with, who would it be and why?
This is a tough question because I have met a lot of members in TAW that have some sort of military experience either it be from cadets, ROTC or in their country's actual armed forces. But if I had to pick one it would have to be Tazmanian as he has past medical experience so if either of us got sick we have some hope of curing the sickness.
Do you admire any celebrities? Why or why not?
I don't follow what celebrities or the gossip that follows behind them because their life is their business and not mine.
Who do you believe is going to be the most influential figure in gaming in the next three years?
I think Activision will be the most influential figure in gaming over the next 3 years as they sponsor some of the biggest video games around like the Call of Duty series.
For their time, effort and dedication, this member will be awarded our In-The-Scope member tab for completing the interview.
Djowatts
I'm a typical geek if I'm honest, in work and play. I am a software developer for a living, programming the server back-ends for mobile apps. Love a bit of football too, as well as the odd game of WarMachine (The table top miniatures game) and playing computer games obviously.
My history in TAW is very brief. I came in as a recruit to the Warthunder spin up division, and as soon as I hit PFC, the staff at the time saw me as a perfect candidate for FS, which I took on. There was then a re-jigging of the staff, which saw me bumped up to XO about a month later. Fast forward another couple of weeks and we got a transfer in who made a perfect XO, so I was bumped up to CO from there.
TAW was a bit daunting at first. One of the blokes I work with (Phenom, the NS2 DC) had been badgering me to join up with him, but I wasn't enamoured with that game, but when War Thunder started in Spin Up, I just had to get in. The structure and rules were a bit off-putting to begin with, but after a while, you see that they are there for a reason. I came to play games, and I have stayed for the people, there really are some fantastic people in TAW.
I am currently in the Warthunder division as the CO of the EU Battalion. My job is to make sure things are running smoothly and everyone is happy. I take a big interest in how the rank and file are feeling, and love nothing more than to get up in the air in a simulator battle with them and shoot some planes out of the sky. The Warthunder EU battalion is a pretty sweet place, the recruitment level is good, and we have a nice solid group of guys that there is never a dull moment with. We tend to keep ourselves pretty tight knit with the NA side of things too, flying together when timezones allow.
The main thing I would say is don't be put off by the initial formality of it. Everyone within TAW knows that Real life is more important than videogames, but the initial slap in the face with these rules, comms protocol and events system can be a bit daunting. The fun and the people are worth it.
I'm a musician, playing the guitar and the saxophone, as well as learning to play piano and a little bit of drums. Music is a huge part of my life and it actually was a massive help in helping me overcome anger issues as a teenager.
I think I would change the length of the recruitment process. I have played with many a people who are interested in joining a clan or a gaming community, and they are put off by all of the hurdles they have to jump to gain entry to TAW. I think we may have missed out on some great additions because of this.
I've met some cracking people while playing in TAW, from our slightly eccentric SUL MrHeadshot, to the very kind and lovely Garp from World of Tanks. I don't think I have met anyone that I would not gladly play with again!
As I have stated earlier on, I came for the gaming, and I stayed for the people! I have met some cracking people here, and I hope to meet some more cracking people as I go forward.
Sometimes the mandatories are a little inconvenient, but other than that, there is no other real negative impact. As an officer however, the leadership abilities that I have to exercise here have helped me in a professional manner in my career.
My family used to own the county of Dorset in the UK about 7 - 800 years ago.
I'm quite a big fan of space invaders, mainly because, in college, I replaced the space ships with my most hated lecturers face and shot them down instead.
Probably KalaniJ, he's in the navy so he could build me a boat!
I have recently gained a huge amount of admiration for Ashton Kutcher, as when he won an award or was handing out an award or something, he told a world full of teenagers that there is nothing sexier than being smart and working hard.
I am :) I'm going to turn the Warthunder world upside down!
This is the second time that World of Warplanes has been spun up. Several months ago when the game was in the end of Alpha and the beginning of the Beta testing, TAW tried to spin up a battalion, but had no success. In April of this year I received the key to participate in the closed Beta, and from that moment on I was addicted to the game. That was the reason that I contacted the Vanguard staff to see if I could help out with the spinning up of game if they needed it. I then found out that the game had been cancelled due to lack of interest from the World of Warplanes community and taw spin up members, due to the game's state at the time. Within the months that followed I had notice that the interest towards the game increased and new pilots took off to the skies. As I saw the changes in the game and the improvement in the community I contacted the Vanguard staff to update them on the games progress.I stayed within the community and kept in touch with the players and the state of the game and thankfully Vanguard staff contacted me to see if I still had interest in spinning up the game within TAW. This was an opportunity that I was hoping for and so I took it, and started spinning up the division for a game I like so much, and still love to this day. I am fortunate that I have found a group of good people to create a team around me that are really great guys and have good knowledge of the Game and of TAW. Without out these members, we would not be as far as we are now, with the great members we have joining the ranks of this division, for doing this with me I would like to thank, JordonDummy, Davsank, MrHowell, and TigerFang, who have stepped up and are doing everything they can to help with the tasks ahead. Gentleman I take my hat off for you.We now are at the point of building the battalions further and staff accordingly. I see potential in a lot of the members, we have some are good candidates for positions in the future. Now we have the time to build up world of warplanes to a full division within TAW. Please read the in the scope articles and the video and screenshots made by our division and its members.
~Tazmanian [CC SNC]Spin Up Leader World of Warplanes.
During one of 1st NA Spitten Kittens Mandatory Trainings, we decided to go into a training room and put 2 Tier X Artificial Intelligence planes (North American F-86A Sabre and the Messerschmitt Me 262 HG III) and 7 of us on the opposite team used tier V planes from a wide variety. We went into battle and no more than 15 seconds the enemy was at our base. We kept out maneuvering these planes as they were jet planes and their airspeed is high therefore, maneuverability is not as good a P-40 KittyHawk. For some reason the tier Xs only got a shot on one of us 5 times that match. It took about 8 minutes but we kept shooting these tier X and we chewed down their health. After 8 minutes we won using tier V planes and only lost 2 planes.This is absolutely remarkable how a 7 tier V planes could take out 2 tier X planes and only lose 2 planes. This goes to show that if you have skilled pilots like we had and strength in numbers, then you have the potential to do anything in World of Warplanes. This is what 1st NA Spitten Kittens loves to do, we train our pilots up and when the battles come we use this skill and strength in numbers which is exactly what the Russians do. We also have excellent staff members that are very skilled and are excellent teachers. These members go by the names: CooperKill, XenoZombie, Wolftotem. They are all very skilled pilots and I have had the honor of working with them. Gentlemen, a toast to your good work.
NA CO JordonDummy
I started out in another TAW division - World of Tanks, at one point I was the staff officer for the EU battalion for WT, even back then however I used to play WoWP (World of WarPlanes) while it was still in closed beta - especially with my best friend in TAW - Tigerfang. Real life then forced me out of TAW for a while but I still maintained contact with my mated from TAW. On one of the occasions when I decided to come on Teamspeak to visit my friends, TigerFang informed me that the SUL for World of Warplanes was looking for someone to take over the SO position for the EU battalion. As real life released its tight grasp over my schedule I decided to help out - what awaited me was a complete surprise, the game changed considerably in comparison to the closed beta I played in, and the changes were for the best! After a while, the Battalion started catching speed, with some good recruiting we became a full spinup after being in Horizon for a while - Tigerfang also transferred to World of Warplanes and I can say without a single doubt, we would NOT be where we are today if it wasn't for his help! My coolest story was during a match I played with one of our DIs as a wingman. I was flying my Japanese fighter, the A6M1 - Tier IV fighter with average fire power, but extremely high velocity and maneuverability for it's tier. At some point during match I saw that I was one kill away from getting my Ace medal which you get after destroying 5 enemy planes. I kept flying and then asked my wingman for assistance as an enemy fighter was sitting tightly on my tail and wouldn't let go - I was then informed that after killing the 5th plane I was the only plane alive on our team and I had 3 more on the enemy team. With that information in mind I kicked my plane into high gear - utilizing every last bit of my maneuverability to continue chasing my target while evading the other 2 chasing me - at the end of the long skirmish I came out victorious, with 8 kills and about 80% of my HP remaining.I highly suggest to anyone who reads this to register (or if you have an account for world of tanks it's valid for World of Warplanes as well) and come fly with us! I'm sure the NA guys will be happy to see some new pilots as well! Good Hunting!
EU CO Davsank
I first came to taw over a year ago when a few friends I played with invited me to TAW, I started just as my old division (World of tanks EU) was starting their new in clan championship called Steelwars, I quickly fell in love with TAW and its ethics and the people within the battalion. I quickly gained experience, stepping into the TI role, then PL and TS and working my way over the months to FS, I worked hard on the updates and continuation of the good work of the previous FS. After running 2 seasons of Steelwars, I moved up to temporary XO and then moving onto CO, after a year ii needed a new challenge so I stepped aside to give someone else the chance to lead the battalion and gain experience, this is when I joined Davsank in world of warplanes, who by then was a very good friend in TAW, to help spin up World of Warplanes.World of Warplanes is very similar to World of Tanks in a lot of ways and is still in its initial after release development phase where they have still got a lot to add both in terms of Content and features but is shaping up to be a good addition to TAW.Davsank and I have been working hard to spin up world of warplanes, starting not only a whole new game, but also a rare game type for TAW is not easy, a lot of things to think about, but the challenge is what makes it fun and exciting, We have a great team and great new players joining the TAW roster.I love working with the members in TAW, we have a few great people here, people like KingCheese, Tazmanian, Davsank and Dazz and I would like to also mention Mayungi, a very special friend of mine whom I met in TAW, people who have become almost family to me, i have learned a lot from these people, and make me the person who I am today, so thank you to everyone, especially those I mentioned personally for their help and support.I would also like to share with you a quick story of my time as a Ground Attack Aircraft Specialist. I started a game and took the path with most ground targets, I get across the small stretch of channel on the map. I find 2 bogies on my tail, 2 levels higher, one being a jet, I'm in a large slow, lumbering IL10, they come in for a pass and take me down to half health, I take a quick dive through a valley and into a small city area, make a left turn between 2 buildings with my wing almost touching the ground, I line up on a ground target thinking I might as well use my bombs as I'm going to die anyways, I drop just as my targeting shows over the ground target, the 2 planes come in for the next run right on my tail, I look behind me to see the bombs go off and a giant balls of flames and 2 dead aircraft, they were so busy trying to kill me that they didn't see they were so low, 2 air kills with 1 bomb and killed the ground target, I went on to get 10 ground kills and we won the match.
EU SO TigerFang
For a while, I had been debating whether or not to purchase some nose art for some of my planes. The biggest factor of this was whether or not I knew for sure that I wanted to keep the plane indefinitely. My sights were set on getting the red nose paint for my tier one AR 65 biplane, inspired by a History Channel video about a famous dogfight from World War I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx6fU64-ZhM). I gave the plane one test run, and came out with an ace medal to add to my stats, and so I was sold and got the nose art permanently applied. I admired the plane in my hangar for a while, then decided that I should take it out for one last battle for the evening; show off my new paint job. The matchmaker put me into a battle on El Haluf, with a handful of tier two planes alongside the tier ones. Once the match had started, I climbed to the upper range of my AR 65's optimum altitude, and proceeded to lead one group of my team over the outer edge of the southern lake. It wasn't long before a red blip appeared on the mini-map. I maintained my heading but kept an eye on the spotted enemy. My stomach turned a little though, as within seconds even more red blips appeared on the map, until it seemed like half the enemy team had flown the same way as us. As the enemy began to line up on their chosen targets, I maneuvered my plane to do the same, and looked for anyone looking to go head-to-head with me. The enemy seemed more interested in my teammates though, which was fine with me. As they went head-to-head, my twin MG-17 machine guns laid armor-piercing tracer fire into the side of the lead aircraft's fuselage, sending him spiraling towards the lake below. With one down, I opened fire upon the next-closest enemy. My shots left him damaged badly, but his plane was still flying as the survivors and I passed one another. I turned, along with everyone else, to face the enemy again, but now there were no more clear lines; the battle had morphed into a furball of death with me dead in the center. Allied and enemy planes surrounded me, flying in every direction imaginable. There wasn't any time to think about what I should do or where I should go, instincts took hold and guided my hands. From what felt like the eye of the storm, my guns ripped into the enemy, crippling and killing those unfortunate enough to pass into my crosshairs, while very few of them were positioned to return fire of their own. I don't know how much time had passed before the last of the enemy planes was sent to a watery grave, but when all guns went quiet on our side of the map, I and a few of my allies had survived, though some of my teammates had taken a serious beating in the fight. A glance at the mini-map showed that the other side hadn't fared so well, as there were still the last third of the enemy team mopping up. We made our way towards our other allies, hoping for the slim chance to arrive in the nick of time to help. As we closed the distance to the next fight, I glanced at my score for the first time since the start of the match: seven kills. In the chaos of the battle, I'd put myself one below my highest record! Now I was even more determined to eliminate the rest of the enemy.By the time we had arrived, the last of our team on that side had been shot down and the enemy was turning to face us head on. Leading the pack once again, I exchanged shots with their lead aircraft. My hail of 7.92mm bullets proved superior and my 8th kill fell to the arid ground below, but my plane had been pummeled in the process. Adjusting my facing, I joined one of my teammates in firing at another enemy, crippling him before my ally finished him. Another enemy had latched himself into an ally's tail, and I moved to drive him away or destroy him. My machine guns began to tear the enemy plane apart, but before I could react, one of my badly-damaged allies tried to move in to nab the kill, straight through my line of fire. Friend and foe both plummeted to the earth from my efforts, but I couldn't dwell on the accidental friendly fire; one more enemy plane remained.The last man on their team was a ground attack plane, a minor relief from the tense maneuvers I'd been doing before, but my plane was in rough shape and I couldn't afford a mistake. He tried time and time again to turn his eight heavy machine guns towards me, but the larger plane couldn't keep pace with me, and I swooped in from the sides time and time again, whittling him down until at last, he joined his comrades.When the dust had settled and the after-action screen appeared, only one ground attack plane and myself had survived to tell the tale. He'd taken out fifteen enemy ground targets, while I had shot down ten enemy planes and assisted in destroying two others. Along with the ace medal, I also had a shiny Goroverts medal added to my service record.
Geforce GTX 750 Maxwell test
First of all I would like to say that this has by far been the most dull month in a long time. But it is January and most companies tend to lay low this time of year to catch up to everything they had to do prior to the closing of the last.
Searching for something interesting happening has left me with a rather bleak news report about the new GTX 750 tested in Taiwan. The GTX 750 itself was presented already last year but this is the latest news about the “middle class” GPU section of Nvidia.
The Forum Coolaler published ,what they claim are, the first numbers of the Geforce GTX 750 Ti. Overall the GTX 750 is slower than the GTX 660 in all aspects. The funny thing is that right now it seems like the GTX 750 Ti also is slower in general than the GTX 650 Ti, and that seems odd since it is supposed to be the card that replaces the GTX 650 Ti, a possible explanation to why the figures are so low could be that the system used is an older version not optimized for Maxwell technology.
The details surrounding Maxwell are not yet known, but there is a lot of facts pointing towards that the first incarnation will stay at todays 28 nanometer tech and the newer circuits will possible go over to 20. Maxwell will also have support for “unified Virtual Memory”, which makes it possible for GPU and CPU to share address space.
Maxwell will also contain a 64-bit ARM processor with it’s own developed architecture from Denver. This is to avoid the reroute via the CPU, which results in a significant boost in GPGPU related scenarios.
The GTX 750 Ti will release in February and be in same pricerange as the GTX 650 Ti Boost started out in.
3 Fast Short news!
Arctic Launches CPU Coolers Freezer I11 and A11
Intel pays tablet developers to use Bay Trail-T
Valve foresee future in VR-Gaming.
Risk of Rain. January 20, 2014
You're on a freight ship laden with tons of cargo ranging from incredibly valuable to not-so-much, flying through the solar system when tragedy strikes. A freak explosion in one of the numerous cargo compartments sends the ship spiraling out of interstellar space, hurtling toward an uncharted and unexplored planet. Your escape pod crashes to the surface of the inhospitable planet and emerge, relatively unscathed. Just as you can gather your wits and most basic equipment, it becomes all to clear you are not wanted on this planet.
Risk of Rain is a 2D, side scrolling action game. Set on an unusual planet of mystery, you play as one of ten survivors from the crashed ship. You must traverse through several levels of the game, gathering equipment, defending yourself against the (literally) endless waves of enemies determined to stain this alien world with your blood, and, most importantly of all, leaning to master each of the four unique abilities of your class. Risk of Rain, like many Rogue-like or Rogue-lite games of its kind, on your initially attempt, starts you off on an incredibly watered down version of the game; you can only select one of the ten classes and only a handful of items are initially unlockable. However, as you progress through the game, completing various feats, you unlock a wide range of equipment that can be found randomly throughout the levels, or unlocking the rest of the classes.
Advancing through the game numerous times is made less repetitive with the pseudo-randomly generated levels. Each tier of the first four levels have a small pool (two or three per level tier) of areas from which the game picks your destination. In each of these areas, a multitude of different terrain features can be altered through each play through and the location, type, acquisition of the numerous pick-ups varies with each game. The combination of these three randomized elements leads to games that have a strong potential to very different from game to game.
Each of the classes in the game adds another degree of replayability to Risk or Rain. Each character has a potent set of four active, surprisingly varied, abilities to help each class on his or her journey to escape the hostile planet. Play styles range from the almost tower-defense-like engineer, the jack-of-all-trades commando, the slow but incredibly sturdy enforcer, and powerful but limited sniper, just to name a few. As the difficulty of the game increases and more and stronger enemies come at you, the strengths and weaknesses of each class must be respectively utilized and avoided to progress through the game (the enforcers combat shield does nothing against enemies behind him, the sniper is well suited to long-range engagements, etc.).
Additionally, likely one of the most unique aspects of Risk of Rain is its difficulty mechanic: the longer you spend in the game, the harder things get. This raises an interesting dilemma on how to play the game: do you rush through each level, fighting weaker monsters with a weaker character, or do you hunt through every nook and cranny, trying to discover all the items in the level, but desperately rely on those items in the heat of battle? Often if you don't play wisely or just get unlucky (a high probability in almost any Rogue-like game), you'll find yourself falling further and further behind the curve as your battles take longer and longer to win, soon leaving you swarmed by over-powered enemies that your equipment (or lack there of) leaves you almost helpless against.
Finally, Risk or Rain allows for up to 4-player cooperative games. The intimidation of being stranded on a alien planet with numerous hostile creatures in greatly lessened by playing with friends, but each friend who joins also makes the resources more scarce. While the same number of experience, money, and items are found in the game, only one person can get each piece of equipment found, and money and experience is not shared equally. This means that a poorly organized game can quickly lead to disaster. However, the opposite is true: a team who works together, combines their skills creatively, and distributes the wealth wisely can easily surpass waves of foes that would have crushed a single lone player.
While Risk of Rain can be quite infuriating at times due to getting poor equipment or a lack of other resources, I keep going back to the game. While I can't say the game is ALWAYS fun, it is ALWAYS challenging. Risky moves are occasionally rewarded if fortune smiles upon you, and yet other times an almost certain probability will almost never seem to occur. Risk of Rain wears its mantel of "Rogue-Like" proudly; I have never felt as though the game has cheated me when I've died, and the game is one of the most rock-hard games I've played in quite some time. I love this game because when you fail, you fail hard, but when you succeed, you feel like you've gone against impossible odds and still managed to come out on top.
2013 has been a successful year not only for TAW as a whole, but also for Operations Support. As some of you know, Operations Support consists of various units including our Website Development Team (OSD), TAW Treasury, Digital Media and News Team (OSM), and last but not least, Information Security (ISC). I would like to take the time to recognize all the accomplishments and hard work by the members of these groups over the past year. I am truly blessed to be able to work alongside many talented people within TAW.
For those who don't know, the Information Security team is primarily responsible the upkeep of TAW infrastructure including various system administration tasks involving: system security updates, OS and application patching, upgrades, security auditing, and responding to network threats. We do our best to ensure that TAW's critical services are up and running with little downtime. As a member of the Information Security group, I would like to reflect on some of our accomplishments in 2013 and also focus on some of our goals for the upcoming year.
Here are some of the accomplishments of ISC over the course of 2013:
2014 brings us a window of opportunity to make additional improvements.
Here are some of ISC's Future Goals for the new year:
I am pleased to see our success over the course of the year and can't wait to see what is achieved in 2014. Please assist me in thanking all of our membership for their contributions and support. I am excited for the upcoming new year as we all work towards our 2014 strategic goals and focus on providing our community with the best gaming services.
Happy new year!
Regards,
Lieutenant Colonel Juvix
Division Commander
Operations Support - Information Security