Final post

After 2 years and 8 months, it's time to call it a day. Henceforth there will be no further posts on this blog, though the site will remain open as a archive and the angerbox will be forever accessible at swatnews.freeshoutbox.net (however it's dead too anyway). For old visitors and rare new ones that come in the future, you can find the overall summary below:-

Facts and Statistics

Including this post,
there were 411 articles in total
 spanning over 975 days

- The post that received the most comments overall was: TWT clan is reborn (132).

- There were 33 clan profiles published and 22 interviews. The most viewed profile was {|4U|}'s, while {FAB} had the most comments (85). The most viewed interview was with KoN's leader, while the most commented was with the «|US|» co leader (81).

- The most active visitors came from Poland (15%).  After that there was a large gap before the next level of countries with regular viewers, including India, the UK, Russia and Germany.

- The most downloaded (72) piece of media was: This image showing quality player recruitment.

Note that the above stats are not written to imply anything, but are just for those who like numbers.

Valuable/interesting articles (as agreed by editors)

- History of Tournaments: from 2005 till the present day. Related to this are a few tournament summary articles since S4N started, including 2012 VIP League, 2013 JF RD, 2013 VIP World Cup, 2013 ESA VIP and finally, the 2014 GS4 VIP tournament.

- SWAT4 Global Awards: with categories ranging from the greatest clan to the most embarrassing cheater, as well as the most popular maps for each specific game mode.

- «|SoH|» Clan EXPOSED: the truth about (probably) the worst clan in SWAT history; some links inside there are broken now though. Look out for Raptor (ENO) in the comments.

Not to mention all of the various cheater reports that were made and can be found >>HERE<<.

Game related

- Improve your computer performance: tips to help improve the smoothness of your game.

- Controversial SWAT modifications: discussion on respawn timer, gas mask overlay and sound mod.

- Crazy FPS = Crazy Gameplay: showing that too much of a good thing can be bad.

- Unknown console commands Part I and Part II: alternative wallhack, ghostmode and more.

- Why .45 should be unblocked: explaining the ammo replacement that is required.

Misc/humour articles

EA Games failed to deliver
a 2014 version of the game

- SWAT4 Manager 2012: reality PowerPoint game based on the popular Football Manager series, simulating life of a S4 player.

- SWAT4 University: earn a degree playing SWAT4 but be prepared for some heavy fees, especially if you are a Polak.

- SWAT4 Stock Market: buy shares in your favourite clan and watch your wealth rise as your stock grows in value.

Final comments

It's been a pleasure doing this but its just a pity seeing the current state of the game. Hopefully, next year's release of Rainbow Six will provide SWAT players a worthy successor. But until then, it's about a choice of around 7 populated servers to play on, or alternatively move to another game. 

S4N has had many different writers who have all contributed with posts, so a thanks to those guys - James, PimpMyGun, Troczu & Actind, Dida, Linux and Ghost_Assassin.  This chapter is now finished and so on behalf of Mig and me, see you around!

WM & qRage crowned joint winners of final tourney

After a closely-fought final that spanned nearly 3 hours, |WM| and qRage drew 10-10 and agreed to share the GS4 tournament trophy. Congrats to both of them. You can find the full summary of the major tourney events below:

Group Stage

Semi-Finals

The first SF pitted Cartel against WM, a fixture that is usually seen in the final of recent VIP tournaments. WM won quite comfortably 8-1, but there was more drama in the second semi-final as ESA drew 6-6 vs qRage, before some communication errors lead to the two teams having to play a winner-takes-all round to act as a decider. The event was slightly farcical but there was little other choice and qRage eventually wrapped up the victory to secure a place in the final.

Key to success

For qRage, the preference was (understandably) to choose smaller maps (Qwik Fuel x3, Food x3). In 5 of the 6 matches, they won the six-round mini-game on their chosen map, making the task of playing on the opposition map - that was maybe unknown - far more manageable. As for WM, it was about the experience shining through, as a team that seemed quite rusty from CS:GO still managed to navigate through to the finals.

A big thanks to:

-All the referees, who were much harder to employ this time round. Most notably ||ESA||Sex, who was prominent throughout, as well as Dida, Alien, Braveheart, Actind, Mig, Reverend, Unna, Yazan, Edward and Innocent.

-Rugi for providing complementary server hosting facilities.

-All the teams for taking part and fulfilling their matches (bar the Trilogy of Noobs) 

Note that the end of this tournament also signals the end of S4N. There will be a final summary article next week before this chapter closes in SWAT4.

Custom maps: Stamford Bridge & Sky Tower Offices

For those who follow football, you can now visit Chelsea FC's home stadium in SWAT4 with the Stamford Bridge custom map. As the author gohnarjohn describes, this is not a proper map because I believe you can only run around the field and there aren't extra rooms or stands that you can explore. There are a few civilians you can deal with though (if one of them represents Jose Mourinho, you could shoot him).

The second map - Sky Tower Offices - was created by induktio and is more complex, with different entry points and many suspects. There are also a few easter eggs in this map, one of which could cause you to die very easily if you are not careful. It is well worth a look and the download links for both of these maps can be found below (tested working on 1.0). 

Stamford Bridge stadium                                                          Sky Tower Offices
                             

One semi-final spot remains open in tournament

Cartel, ESA and WM have booked their places in the semi-finals, while the winner of qRage vs MYT next week will take the 4th and final spot in the semi-final stage. Since the last update, both SoH and DoK have dropped out meaning some results have become void and Group B now has only 3 teams unfortunately. As always, all tourney developments can be found at the tournament forum.

Tournament update

Two weeks have now elapsed in the GS4 tournament with 5 (and a half) games complete. In Group A, qRage have taken top spot with two comprehensive victories over JF and SoH, while MYT remain close behind after beating SoH and currently holding a 4-2 lead over Cartel, with the 2nd half of that match to be played later. Meanwhile in Group B, ESA and WM reside in the two qualification spots, but Freelancers team pushed the latter very close in the previous game so the group remains wide open. There have been a few server problems lately due to a hacker crashing the tournament servers, but contingencies are in place. The latest, updated group tables can be found here.

|SRV|

Clan Name and Tag: Survivors, |SRV|
Primary SWAT Game Mode: BS 1.0
Date Clan was founded: 2007
Past + Current Leader(s): |SRV|Hitman + |SRV|Kinnngg
Reason why Leadership changed (if it did change): Hitman left SWAT4
Major Tournament(s) participated in: GR BS Tournament
Best general out-clan war performance: Dont know
Clan video link(s): Working on it
Clan motto: All for One and One for All

Clan website: http://srvclan.iclanwebsites.com

Groups and schedule drawn for final tourney

10 teams have signed up overall and Group A seems to be the tougher group with Cartel, JF, MYT, qRage and SoH. Group B contains DoK, ESA, Freelancers, WM and TWT. The random group generator video can be viewed here. Information regarding the tournament servers and their respective configurations will be released later in the week. If a clan has a server which is not in use and they are willing to donate it, please leave a comment or write on the tournament portal.

Invites sent for final tournament

All the major VIP clans will have their forums spammed within following days as we look to see whether people backup their votes in the poll. To sum it up briefly, a 1.1 tournament with Antics that will only go ahead if atleast 6 active squads (clan or mixed teams) sign up. For more info, visit http://swat4tournament.forumotion.com/.

Interview with S4N|Sun

Please Note that these questions were choose by different members of swat 4 community.

Question 1) Tell us something about yourself. Your history with swat, your previous clan, etc., prior to Swat 4 news.

I got the 2-pack SWAT CD as part of a purchase for an old computer in late 2007. I started playing multi-player in 2008 and loved the VIP Escort mode. Being born and brought-up on 1.0, I got accustomed to the rules of no camping, spawning etc. I wanted to join a clan and considered the 3 most popular servers on 1.0, which were «|US|», {FAB} and |Fs| at the time. The two latter choices only had servers based in America which wasn’t ideal ping-wise, so I chose USA Swat Team. They also had a pretty nice and unique clan tag lol, although many other clans have now since copied it.

SWAT4 wiki releases biggest mappack ever made

To continue the recent theme of customized SWAT4 maps, there has been a new map pack released on SWAT4 wiki maintained by a guy named induktio which contains hundreds of SP and MP maps compressed into a 1.2GB torrent file. The maps are compatible with all versions and there are screenshots included from the original authors.

Of course, it is impossible not to mention the many other facets of this old website that are useful for SWAT players. There are sections on console commands and tutorials of creating your own custom map, as well as basic tweaks such as the ability to use special characters and colored names, skipping initial dispatches on Co-Op mode etc.

There are also downloads such as the Advanced Tactical Center, which "provides floorplans for all Swat4 and TSS maps, drawing tools to work out tactics". In summary, it is a very comprehensive site with a range of features that are sure to interest the common player.

Stats-tracker website now available for your server too

After lengthy development new statistics tracker by |MYT| clan wizard Serge was released for public. Apart from various stats (which can be seen in similar mods of other authors too) it now comes enhanced with a brand new standalone website that provides features such as:

• Scoreboards of all almost 300,000 rounds played on MYT servers since August 2007
• Server browser with the ability to join servers (works only for one version of the game)
• Player profiles and stats searchable by name

This server mod had been private until recently but now you can bring new dimension also to your server by following this tutorial. Contact Serge via xfire (mytserge) and start tracking and preserving history of each and every round played on your own clan server. All your game statistics will be displayed on the website linked below.

Note that we added link to the tracking website to our main menu as well.

Need challenge? Two SP maps with tons of suspects

In last article we discussed about a barricated suspect map "battleship". There are two more interesting custom maps which can be downloaded from here. They are in co-op mode.

First one is the SP-Newfort100Sus map which is developed by Wamplet and modified by ||ESA||Riddick. It is a big map that mainly comprises of open places and a dark tunnel which makes it interesting. Originally it was a 32-suspects map which has been modified to 100 suspects. This makes it more tactical as efficient use of weapons and nades is very important in order to complete the mission. This map can also be used for VIP escort version by using MP-NewfortBetaV2 from download.

Another one is SP-ApartmentNew map which is developed by Toktotte and again modified by ||ESA||Riddick. It's a very small map which has only one room, and because of modification, that room has over 30 suspects. It's a quite funny map as all suspects will rush towards you and all you have to do is sit at one place and shoot them. This can remind you of Left 4 Dead 2 where all zombies rush towards you from one door.

Battleships map by unparalleled |ELITE|KENNY

After previously re-introduced Swatball mod now we will focus on another special map by |ELITE|KENNY named Battleships. It it not new (hardly anything in this game is), but it surely deserves attention one last time. Quoting from the author:

"BattleShips is a map in which each team has their own ship. The idea is to take over the enemies ship... or just kill dudes for fun :) To do so, you can launch nades through the cannons (yes they work), fly above the enemy ship with a mini-blimp or dive underwater and get into the ship unnoticed. There's also an island if you want more open space combat."

Download it from this link (8 MB) and install to your SWAT4\Content directory. Should work with both 1.0 and 1.1 versions.

Thanks to guys from ||ESA|| clan you can now try this map on one of their 1.0 servers. Server IP is 77.248.180.193:10480 or use one of the server browser alternatives to join.

Unknown console commands - Ghost mode

Here are two videos showing the use of this command, the first one from the viewpoint of the victim (VIP) and the second one from the eyes of the ghost. This is carried out using two barely-known console commands, of which only one needs to be entered every time you wish to become a ghost.

Thanks to |MYT|BaDTimE for providing the ghost video footage.

Troubles with chat spam via webadmin

Do you consider double-switching annoying? Sure, it spams the chat window and makes you miss potentially vital game information. Fortunately, solution is easy - kicking or even banning the abuser. However, a more insidious way of disrupting the chat flow is out there. As primitive as it is, it is also very effective in achieving its malicious goal. It affects only servers running MarkMod and only players with admin rights and webadmins.

MarkMod broadcasts a message to these people whenever someone attempts to login via webadmin. If the attempt is unsuccessful, the message looks like: Player (WebAdmin) failed to login as webadmin followed by his IP address. Now when the attacker chooses very long name, the chat will look like this:

Too bad this message cannot be turned off. Neither you can easily ban this player, and even if you could, he can still come back via proxy. WebAdmin form also seems to miss validation of input fields for maximum length. So what's left to try? Changing webadmin port and keeping it private could hold the attacker back for a while. But without the option to switch this broadcast off implemented in the mod, all servers running it are at risk.

9th Birthday for SWAT

It's now been 9 years to the day that SWAT 4 was originally published by Vivendi Games on April 5th, 2005. That's over 3000 days of existence, which puts into perspective some people's xfire hours (10,000hrs = average 3hrs everyday for 9 years straight, assuming play started from day 1).  Unfortunately, the competitive scene is currently defunct and, excluding the latino community, there are less than ten active public servers remaining across 1.0 and 1.1. What will this number be next year?

Buy shares in your favourite SWAT4 clan!

Are you a budding financial investor? Has it always been your dream to buy shares in a SWAT4 clan? Very few people know that there is in fact a live SWAT4 stock market, which lets you view the latest prices of stock in every major SWAT4 clan and gives you the ability to purchase shares! Access the stock market >>HERE<<.

{WRS} members join ||ESA||

The final set of remaining active {WRS} members have joined ||ESA|| clan. There is a clan closed message written on the WRS forum, signifying the end of one of the oldest SWAT 4 clans in the history of the game, although they have been quite inactive as a clan in recent years.  This is the second major merge of 2014 after {KL} joined alliances with |WM| in January - which community will be next in line?

2on2 BS tournament by «|PGÖ|»

«|PGÖ|» is intending to organize a new BS tournament on 1.0 version. For more info visit its website here: www.polski-turniej.aaf.pl. Rules are written in google translator English thus some are hard to understand but basic principles to follow include "no spray" and "4 x 15 minutes" played on usual BS-mode maps.

Barely-known console commands

There are a set of console commands that are known by the vast majority of players. However, the following video shows the use of 3 different codes which are scarcely known in the community. Due to the dangerous nature of these commands, the specific codes will not be shared publicly. 

SWAT4 Global Awards - Results

Congrats to the winners - please CLICK on the graphs for clearer viewing!

|WM| absorbs {KL}

World Mafia today welcomed a group of new members from {KL}. The integration of the former Kahunies has coincided with a new |WM| VIP server going online in 1.1, which is likely to see healthy activity as an alternative to |MYT|. It is the yet another example of clans joining forces as times get tough in SWAT 4.

{SWT} clan returns

The well-known BS clan Slys World Team has just been re-opened. It may seem a strange time to do this, but a collection of their old members have become quite active again and could be seen playing together on many other public servers recently. Wars-wise, there is still some life in the BS world so {SWT} will be hoping to be just as successful the 2nd time round, having announced closure in May last year.

2nd birthday & future direction

Today marks the second full year that S4N has been in existence! However, the current situation in SWAT means that it would be foolish not to consider what lies in the future. We have therefore opened a poll on the right hand side asking what should happen next, and would appreciate if you give your views.

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year

Remember to write your result in the comments!

Clan War Report (1st December - 1st January)

BS

nRs| beat wtF| (218-198)
qR| beat nRs| (Score unknown)
wtF| beat nRs| (216-194)
nRs| beat qR| (217-180)
nRs| beat wtF| (3-1)
qR| beat nRs| (3-1)

|WM| Awards for 2013

World Mafia's yearly award ceremony took place yesterday with many well-known names gaining recognition for the achievements in 2013. There were numerous different categories at the gala dinner event, below are the SWAT-based results:

1. Most Useless player in SWAT 4 - "Cheater-hunter" |MYT|Mazso with almost 60% of the votes.
2. Most Useless player in SWAT 4 for WM - French shooter Ash scooped this award.
3. Most Valuable player in SWAT 4 - Our very own FoX|Mig earned this accolade.
4. Most Valuable player in SWAT 4 for WM - This was a tie between German hitman RugiZugi and Polish veteran SabbatH with 5 votes each. 
5. Most "Noobish" clan in SWAT 4 - Pro Gaming «|PG|» was crowned the winner of this category.
6. Most Valuable clan in SWAT 4 - A tie between |MYT| for their ever-present active server in 1.1 and ||ESA|| who successfully organized the winter VIP tournament.
7. Cheater of the Year in SWAT 4 - There were a few memorable self-busts this year but it seems the Photoshop drama helped StoneCold to be adjudged No.1.
8. Troll of the Year - With just under 90% of the votes, Sonny unsurprisingly won the final award.