ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT - PLAYING SAFE IN MADNESS It is with great difficulty that I am restraining myself from cracking a pun, especially in context to the article that's about to follow. Okay, I cracked under the pressure. Playing in this map is Madness. Ha ha ha. Now, it is common knowledge among all players (or at least, all players I know) that one can't play in this map without tumbling off a bridge and plummeting into the infinite chasm beneath. Obviously, you can't feel a thing, closeted in the secure world outside your monitor screen and hence unable to experience the dizzying feeling that is generated as your tank falls into nothingness. But one does tend to concede that all this exercise just leads to a terrible waste of five points. And thus, we come to the point. A means of navigating this treacherous terrain and gain the best possible results of whatever combination you use, and oh, also the art of maintaining balance as you take leaps of faith off those bridges. So let's start! 1. Terrain Awareness Credits to @DarthvaderjonGTR for the pic The first step to mastery over any map is to familiarize yourself with the domain; all the bridges, potholes, bumps and inclines. Only then can we move on to the advanced tips. So, the first bit of advice : Go only where you have to go. This is kind of a golden rule for Madness enthusiasts. In the labyrinth of bridges, one can easily get disoriented and lost with no idea of where to go, and lose track of what is going on around them. In a last ditch effort, they jump off the ramp (more on that later) and fall majestically through the pothole beneath into the chasm. Right, so that's the basics out of the way. I'd suggest playing from the bird's eye viewing angle. You can do so by pressing 'Q' or the PageUp button. This way, you can see what is going down below and hence can time your jumps accordingly. Tankers mostly respawn in any random place in the map, and this makes it even more difficult for players to get down. There are only two ramps starting from the bottom of the maps, and I've noticed that hardly anyone uses them, except for Snipers lying unchallenged. So, if you find yourself near the main ramps, use them. There is a time and place for everything, including suicidal, point-losing jumps. It saves a lot of time, seeing that it takes ten seconds to self-destruct. Secondly, I hope by now that you'll have noticed that all gameplay takes place on the bottom surface of the map. So, unless you are playing a death match or are launching a vendetta against the opposing team, or specially training for skydiving camp, stick to the bottom of the map. The flags are placed at the extreme ends of the map. The route between the two flags leaves you completely exposed, but wise tankers tend to go through the centre, where they find a good supply of boxes (I'm getting good at puns). Pay attention to these tips, and that's terrain done for you. 2. Taking the leap Right, so one can't just jump from anywhere in the map. Sometimes you don't have the desired height, sometimes you have the wrong angle, sometimes you have those pesky towers in your path which knock you off balance, or even the holes in the floor or the boundary of the centre of the map. So the first tip, look before you leap. If the coast is clear, feel free to jump. If not, find a better place and jump again. Jumping going wrong can set you back a long way in Madness, especially in TDMs. Especially when jumping from lower altitudes with a recoil weapon, and jumping from higher altitudes with a non-recoil weapon, one needs to be careful. Now, coming to the weapons, I'll be classifying them into recoil and non-recoil and telling you how to use them properly during a jump. Recoil Weapons - These include Railgun, Ricochet, Shaft (maybe), Hammer, Smoky and Vulcan. Twins isn't much use here - it just doesn't provide the required amount of recoil. Personally, I'd recommend Railgun or Ricochet. Shaft is too lazy to shoot properly, and due to the delay in shooting of Vulcan, one tends to tip over before the recoil kicks in. Of course, one can deliberately tip himself over if he is high enough; it saves plenty of precious ammunition. One needs to shoot forward as soon as he leaves the ramp, keeping himself upright till he touches down. Non-recoil Weapons - These include Firebird, Freeze and Isida. The first tip to using them - don't. Madness is too big a map for you to put them to any good use and it's almost nearly useless to use them while jumping off cliffs. However, if you are hell-bent on doing so, I'd suggest this trick I call the 'hula hoop'. Soon after jumping, turn your turret and hull in opposite directions. For example, if you turn your turret left, turn your hull right. You'll land upright most of the time. 3. Utilitarian Combinations I won't say much here, it depends on your choice. However, I can make the following recommendations - Heavy hulls - Only to be used if you plan to snipe down enemies from high altitudes, or on the ground from the first level of the main ramp. Use Dictator, it can come in handy if you are jumping down as well. Medium Hulls - Good all-round performers, can perform well from a height and can take the aerial route quite quickly. I'd recommend Hunter, it has good HP as well as speed. Light hulls - Man, these hulls were built keeping Madness in mind. I don't need to say anything more. These hulls fit perfectly into all the requirements needed to dominate Madness. Use them properly, and you'll find your D/L ratio shooting up. You can rack up the points in the air as well as on the ground. Far range turrets - They serve the best use here, you can pick out enemies from afar and also knock them off balance while driving along. Near range turrets - Serve almost no use here, unless of course, you're guarding the flag or you are a mult or saboteur (let's hope not!) 4. Scenarios DMs - Probably the best way to waste your time playing in Madness. Not much happens on the ground, people keep getting confused as to where to go, and as a result , 'A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down!' and the customary point wastage follows. My advice will be to take a sniping weapon like Railgun or Shaft along with Viking, and stay in a vantage point where you can keep all the opponents in your sight, and calmly shoot 'em off one by one. The result - first place. TDMs - The most intense mode of gameplay one can see in Madness. The deaths go up fast, and come down equally quickly. What with self-destructs happening a lot (this can happen if you are shot while jumping), the match ends in a neck-to-neck contest, and everyone gets a nice chunk of battle funds.I'd suggest using Hornet and Ricochet, as you need to travel the whole map to rack up the points. CTFs - It's kind of average to play here, but requires a lot of concentration. All the action is at the bottom, and shooting people in the air won't be of much help. Get a recoil weapon and Hornet to make your way below, and then while taking the flags, always travel through the route with more supplies in it. CPs - No strategy is much use here, self destructing doesn't affect the team score, and the points are littered all over the map. However, it is a rather good way of gaining a lot of XP in quick time, but of course, if you want to do it the pro way, go for an Iran CP. Gold Boxes - I can't be of much help here. What I'll say is that if you spot the drop zone, stay a little away from it, near enough to drive to it fast and far enough for people to think that the zone is elsewhere. When the gold falls, zip along and - voila! Parkour - Absolutely no scope for it here, unless you're planning to break the 'most flips' record, for which I'd suggest going up to the highest point in the map, and shooting behind while having another person shoot at you. True, all the flipping TWRs are set in Madness. 5. Conclusion Madness is a map which requires skill, concentration, and a sense of when to jump to successfully navigate the terrain. Use the tips given above, and above all, play seriously. Have fun and people will think you are a mult and you'll most likely get banned. Oh, and enjoy yourself playing, and stick to one place, and stick to one role. That's the mantra of many points in this map. As said before, this is one of the toughest maps to play in, so play safe, play well! This is TriNitroToIuene signing off. See you in the battlefield! TNT

Didn't mean to argue :P

Teach me master... :mellow:

I vote for Android

Hey guys check the articles I sent through PM (Tony, Darren and the group)

Wow. Just wow.

This is one of the most enthralling stories I have ever read! Kudos!

PS Can you start a PM conversation between both of us? I want to show you two articles I wrote for the writing club.

Thanks Mr. Darren :lol:

Ha ha XD Guys, I have an idea for this newspaper. Why not we publish as a sort of ebook, so that instead of creating new topics for every article, we can just create one topic for each issue. Upvote if you like this idea.

See the PM I sent you

fairly good, though you copied that last sentence from my editorial article :P

Topic is already created

I changed it from pratyushpadmanabhan to this one.... so i think my old name will be my second choice.

Heheheh :P I've just been drawing sketches of it and deciding where to put in the architect's name...... :lol: :lol: :lol: I've been on holiday, was kinda inactive, so...... I'm fine. How are you, buddy? I've been catching up on your articles for the past two months..... how's that plan for becoming the dictator chief journalist of that high end magazine? :D

This is one of the best sci-fi short stories I've ever read! You should consider combining all the chapters and publishing them in a book, Kev ;). Btw I like your title picture theme. It's pretty simplistic.

Speechless. Just. Speechless.

INNER TRUTHS PART TWO:IDENTITY My eyes were immediately greeted by a sight nobody in their lifetime can see and come out sane - a corpse, lying cleanly in two halves in a pool of blood. I saw a beard, and a heavy jaw, with thin eyelids. I knew enough to tell that this wasted face was once a handsome man. I rubbed my eyes, still dazzled by the harsh sunlight, and pretended against hope that I was hallucinating, but when my pupils cleared, the same gruesome sight lay before me. I was immediately hailed by a dose of nausea. I couldn't stand it. I veered aside and threw up. Retching and limping, I looked at my surroundings. I was in a street. A street that looked as if it had been vacated in a hurry - and quite recently. A board advertising hot dogs lay on its side, hanging on by one hinge to a building with half its windows broken. The road was black; the asphalt looked brand new, but one thing looked really suspicious - a gaping hole in the middle of the road. It was surrounded by black cinders, spreading in an arc as if the road had caught fire. Not fire, I thought. The place looks as if it has been bombed. On an impulse, I looked around the corner, and sure enough, I found an empty grenade shell. That's a Herrscher grenade, I recollected. A stabbing headache broke through my body. How did I know that was a Herrscher grenade? I had just woken up minutes ago with no memory, and now I ended up in a bombed street, probably in the middle of a war, and exactly identified a lethal weapon used by the military or........... What am I? WHO am I? Again, I tried to recall my past. A flash of red greeted me. I looked at the corpse, expecting to see blood, but instead, found a bloodstained diary, near the pocket of the lower half of the dead body. With an increasing feeling of apprehension, I opened the diary, and flicked the pages till I found a date of a week ago (I referred to the clock mounted on the streetlight in the process). 1st June The Interpol has issued a code-red alarm for this unknown male, known to operate under the alias 'Braudy'. His specifications are six feet of height, and a long, thin sallow face. We have issued a ten million euro reward for information leading to his capture. He is convicted of storming the Congress Round Table Conference and killing at least a hundred and forty politicians and support staff on his own. Is currently known to be hiding at a location around fourteen kliks from our headquarters. Search operations are on from tomorrow. I was shocked. This Braudy person had killed a hundred and forty people in cold blood. No wonder Interpol were looking for me. Another headache. Why am I referring to Braudy as 'me'? I shook my head clear and turned some more pages. 4th June We have zeroed into Braudy's location. We have asked for S.W.A.T backup and should be storming his fort in three days. The President has issued a death warrant. If caught, he faces death by firing squad. Oh, god. I am in trouble. Yet another headache. Why am I referring to Braudy infirst person? I am not a murderer. Stop these thoughts!. I chided myself. I arrived at the last page, reading today's date, the seventh of June. 7th June Braudy is now in a coma. We stormed his quarters and found a dead body of a boy who couldn't have been more than four years old. There were six bullets in him, and all came from a rifle in Braudy's hand. There is nothing different in his appearance, except for a fresh scar in his right arm, which is still oozing blood. We have decided to leave him unsecured as he is of no danger to anyone in catatonia. Code Red Operation is a success. My hands trembled as I dropped the diary. Sweating profusely, I felt a medley of thoughts run through my mind, none of them comforting. The recollection of the boy..... the rifle..... the scar on my arm...... the catatonia...... all led up to one thing - my true identity, and that a flurry of realization went through my mind. I am a terrorist. I am a murderer. I am Braudy.

Reserved

Thanks a lot kirb! :) Congrats to all the others. I enjoyed GoldRock's entry a lot!!! To all those who think this story rings a bell in their minds, I didn't get any inspirations for this. I don't know about Saw or Hull Zero Three, i just got a stroke of this idea and penned it. Good luck to everyone participating in this issue!

Worth a read! Try out for reporter, bro

See you next week

Well, applications are open for two months right now, you might want to give it a shot :) I've seen your entries for the editorials, you have serious potential ;)

Okay, I'll inaugurate it. Somebody's Mama so stupid that she walked into an antique shop and asked, 'what's new'?

Hey guys, we've seen many topics for jokes like 'Jokers in our chat and forum', 'Anti-joke topic', 'pun of the day' etc. But this is a generalized topic in which one can post any jokes of any type (Just keep it clean, guys :P) Let's start!