So, there...
We are going back to the promotion day procedure for accepting new members. The system which is currently in place was fine until the introcution of DP, RES and especially Intensifier stims. Reaching the old limits of 5k fXP and 10k fXP has become much much easier nowadays, so that the time was not enough to judge on new members. Additionally Red Cell is attracting more and more high level players, which can be attributed to our faction rank (12th at the moment) and the general rise in player levels.
All other system based on fXP are too inflexible and a hassle to maintain, at least if you want to judge on new members on a individual basis.

So therefore we have decided to reintroduce the promotion days!

How it works:
If you are a Initiate for at least 5 days before the weekend (saturday) the agents will vote on your further rank. You can be accepted as a regular member, or the decision can be postponed to the next weekend. Or the decision can be to kick you ;). You will only get one second chance.

So what happens if you join on monday? The decision will be made on saturday, as described above. And joining on thursday? Sorry, you have to be a member for at least 5 days, so your promotion day will be in the next week.

As we see that being in a faction without the right to recall is hard, and all our gear is tagged we will also grant the initiates the right to recall gear from day one. This should enable you to get a feel for RC with all its benefits (hey, in fact you only pay 5% tax instead of the regular 10% ;), and at the same time grant us enough time to get to know you.

For the current initiates: nothing will change for you, your decision will be made through the old system, as that was the knowledge when you first joined.

-Nestor-

DrgnMastr has done some statistics on our members count, below you can see two of the results:

Hi all readers,
this is just a life sign. Unfortunately i had not enough time to put something up worth reading here. Has happened something significant in SS2? In no special order:

* Thievery Board (LOL)
* multiple server crashes
* multiple skill resets by HCS (fixing a fix which should fix a bug...)
* tweaked elite set stats (slightly on elite, major on HK, YAY!)
* tweaked MS skill for purists
* major tweak for soldier skills (YAY, now they have some really good skills. Im tempted to rate Soldiers higher than cyborgs now...)
* some more i cant remember...

Hmmm, maybe i should continue to write without a plan. It seems more than one event worth of note has come up, LOL. On a side note: Red Cells merger with The Hitchhikers Guide failed, due to increased interest of HG players in the faction. Good for them (well, probably).

-Nestor-

After a longer time another blog entry here. The implementation of the new ranking system worked like a charm, and everybody likes it (as far as i know ;). We also upgraded our structures, first the energy silos which give all our members a +50 energy storage and today the target analyser (according to the vote on the forum). Great!

Red Cell is slowly developing as a truly mature and stable faction, gaining more and more mature and senior members. I hope we are recognized as one of the most interesting top (currently 28th) factions on sigmastorm2.

Speaking about members: Im really proud of all of our members, from the Agents to the Apprentices. We got (and still get) a good bunch of players and mates together, taking the game to a new dimension. A new dimension? Yes, i think for most of us here in RC the faction is more than a simple warehouse for all the fluxxed gear we are offering. Instead we all appreciate the friendship and relaxed, while still ambitious atmosphere.

Sure we too got these odd new initiates who didnt make it into our ranks, but thats exactly what the initiation is for: finding out if a player matches the rest of us. In the end we want to stay together as a community of good friends and players.

While talking about new players, it seems another faction is heavily on the way to the top. Recruiting only the top players from all other factions. I think i dont like that attitude, only focussing on getting on top without thinking about the community. It seems to be a random aquisition of players, unified by the simple goal of just being elite. And all that through poaching. Yes, now im sure i dont like it, and as far as im concerned i will not buy buffs from them, nor buff members or sell drops to them...

Hi all fellow readers (hellllooooo? are there any???),

Red Cell has a new ranking system! The former system prooved to be not suitable for this type of game. And (and this is something i did wrong) the promotion to Agent was done on wrong base lately. Initially it was thought to only have active Agents who acively pursuit bringing RC forward.
Lately this promotion was taken for granted when hitting the minimum requirements - and was also done (see, this was the part i did wrong).

To overcome this we implemented a new ranking system with basically two levels of play:

1) The Command ranks
These ranks are for the members who want to actively participate in the faction. Agents, Sentinels and all the other stuff ;)

2) The Regular ranks
This is the former "Members" level of Red Cell. It is now divided into different ranks by fXP. Its meant for the players who like to play and level, but dont have the time or interest to participate in the faction at an intensity expected from the Command Ranks. It is STILL important to show presence, but at this level we dont expect participation in the forums.
While we changed the system to fXP, it is still true that RC only accepts players who deem suitable for RC (system of trust), but see below:

3) Initiates
Initiates will basically stay as they were before. Every new player apllying for membership at RC will be put in as an initiate. Then you have the chance to get voted in by the Command Ranks, or you will be rejected if we think you dont fit into our nice, cozy faction ;). This process has also been changed slightly to reflect the new system.

4) Special Ranks
...and there are the special ranks. Like before On Probation, On Leave and Covert Operation.

Thats it! I hope everybody likes this new system. We think it now provides places for every kind of playstyle for our members.

Let me know what you think,
Nestor

After a longer period of time one more comment on the promotions and demotions. Lets first have a look at the new rankings:

New Agent: -none-
New Members: 2o3y, BlazeStorm
New Initiates: Annika, darthp, Gypsygirl6, JoeCaveman, Kellyn, Riftblade, zombie42
On Leave: MrDorian, NaomiAzzett
On Probation: tzabra
Leaves: megaeerie, Ariapro, viper4683, Natemck.

As you can see we have once more a good pool of new initiates, and im sure some of them will have a very brigth future with RC. Another thing is that we introduced a new rank, On Leave. This was done to split the players who are in 'detention' and the ones who are not showing not online for a longer period of time (unannounced or admitted quitting).

A guide on how to best play the game by fred123qwe by fred123qwe on Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:17 pm

Ok guys, here is a little guide on how to play the game most effectively. It may seem basic to some more experienced guys, but this is mainly aimed at the new initiates. So here are the twenty golden rules.


1) Always make sure that you have been buffed with the buff Data Processor. Lots of guys have this buff in Red Cell, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you one. It gives you 10% more experience per kill so its really worth it. And even if no-one is online, buy it off someone, its still worth doing.

2) Also, some missions make you find items and extract the components from them. To make this a lot quicker, ask someone for the Find Item Buff and the Salvage Buff. I have both, and a few other guys have them too, so just ask!

3) Use the faction gear! It's there for a reason - so everyone can use them and do better. Just ask one of the Agents or Members to recall their items if they have it equipped and are no longer using them, or take whatever is in the faction store. Always make sure you repair it to 100 though or you'll get fined.

4) When you're hunting, make the most of it by hunting in the right places. First, check around the repair centre and see if there is a decent amount of monsters. If there is, hunt there, as it means there is less walking backwards and forwards between the repair centre. If not, the most likely place to find the monsters is near the edges of the map. It takes longer to walk back and forth, but there is usually a great deal more monsters in these areas and will make levelling up faster. Also, try to plan how to spend your energy a bit. So If there is a mission in an area, keep killing monsters on the way to places and do the mission at the same time, but when on your way back to the repair centre, make sure you have some durability left to kill monsters on the way back, that way you won't waste as much energy.

5) Do the missions. Not only do they give you experience, they give you skill points which is very useful. Don't do what I did and leave some out - I had to go back and do them, wasting a whole day of hunting! But if you really can't do some of the missions, like the hunter killer one's, you can skip it out and come back later, but it is advised to do the missions especially the one's that give you Skill Points.

6) If you have buffs, sell them! Your only losing 10 energy, and you can make 500 credits or more. I myself have made over 4000 credits from selling buffs, so you might as well! When selling buffs, don't sell them if you have less than around 100 - 200 energy, because if you have less energy than that your probably regaining energy and you don't really want to be wasting energy at this point. But if you have all your stamina and your not in any hurry to get through a level, you can always sell your buffs and make some credits.

7) Spend your skill points on the right things, these are the best choices early on: Data Processor, Find Item, Salvage, and in the healing buff for each class (is very useful, will save a trip to the repair centre every couple of times, all you need is 1 point on this and you'll get 10 health per buff on yourself).

8.) A tip on how to make FC's (Flux Crystals) - When your in an elite area, have find item activated on you, so if you happen to come across an elite, there is more chance of getting a drop, and each elite drop is worth about 5 FC's!

9) I would spend most of your FC's on getting more max energy. This is an essential part of the game, especially later on when you are a higher level. The other thing that would be useful to get would be to buy extra backpack spaces with FC's. This will come in handy for storing items, mission items and other things.

10) If you have no problems with wasting credits, then a good idea is to be killed on purpose by monsters and this will send you straight back to the healing centre, and the repair centre is generally next to it. Sure you lose some credits (around 2000 at about level 20) and some XP (much less) but it will save you energy if your trying to get through a level efficiently.

11) Don't waste Evolution points on Armour or Defence: The most common use of evolution points is either a ratio of 3:1 of Damage to Attack, or 2:1. Also, make sure you have at least 20 points on Health, it is needed from about levels 40 plus!

12) Another thing I wouldn't waste is your free reset of skill points. It is very useful to have, as if you need different buffs or you realise that your class isn't the right one, you can change. It's just a waste if you use if early on (like I did, what a waste!). Learn from my mistakes!

13) In the missions where you need the drops from monsters, very often people are offering to give away there's for free. So just take it, it's a bargain. They simply want to get rid of the drops, as they have no further use of them. It's a nice way to do missions fast.

14) As soon as you have levelled up, move straight onto the next place (if you have finished the mission) that way, you won't be getting less experience for each kill. Also, if you don't know where the next area is, here is a good site that helps immensly: http://wyvernofvalk.forumotion.net/game-chat-only-f1/wyverns-travel-map-t19.htm

15) Here's a key one: Download Firefox, and then the Greasemonkey Add on. It will speed up Hunting tremendously, because it allows you to hit multiple targets at once (just like in FallenSword). Back when I had about 600 energy, it would take over an hour, but now, even though I have 1400 energy, It only takes 30-45 minutes. Its a must. All you need to do is Google Firefox, download it, then google 'greasmonkey add on' and download that. Easy! Another option is to download the OhNoes Firefox Plugin (see bottom of page, note - you need Firefox as well). The links are all at the bottom of the page if you can't find these sites.

16) When you have run out of energy, don't wait for your next load of energy, because it's less efficient hunting with 10 chunks of 50 energies, than 1 big hunt with 500 energy. Save it up and use all your energy at once.

17) Do your credit deposits at the end of hunts, when you should have more credits. It' s also a good idea to deposit most days, as when you get killed (It happens quite a lot if your not careful) you lose about 2000 credits (at about level 30). So its better to put it in your bank, or the factions, where its safe.

18.) Its also a good idea to check the red cell forums and website most days, there is usually an important subject going on, so get involved.

19) Remember, having fun is what this game is all about, so if you get bored, just take a break from the game one day and come back fresh.

20) Remember, if you ever need help or are stuck on something, anyone is willing to help you.

So If you follow these rules, you should do just fine. (By the way I didn't mention anything to do with PPV because I'm not a big fan of it and don't really know anything about it, you can see from my amazing PPV rating of 903!)

Hope this helps.

-fred123qwe

Ohnoes add on:
http://ohnoes.izfree.com/index.html

Firefox add on:
http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.5&os=osx&lang=en-US

Greasemonkey add on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/30326/greasemonkey-0.8.20080609.0-fx.xpi

SS2 Helper (note you need Greasemonkey to run this)
http://fallenswordhelper.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sigmastormhelper.user.jshttp://fallenswordhelper.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sigmastormhelper.user.js