Oberon's Orations

New High Score!

2010-04-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

Condor (Green Team, oh yeah!) has just set high score for an individual P.A.C.K.S. with the point total of 34, 752 during a Team Tag session this evening! During the debrief afterword, Condor had boasted that 35,000 was just around the corner (not if I have anything to say about it! 35K is mine!)!

Not This Time, Parnelli!

2010-03-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

Two months ago, I posted a blog (how do you humans create some of the words you use? "Blog"? Translation from our native language of Nexus to English is very difficult sometimes!) describing how one P.A.C.K.S. outscored a team of five P.A.C.K.S. during a Team Tag Exercise. Red Team's Parnelli was this single P.A.C.K.S., and after that event was not hesitant to remind the other P.A.C.K.S. of this achievement. I've got some very different news to post today about Parnelli's attempt at a repeat performance.

During a Team Tag Exercise comprised of 11 Blue and 11 Green vests, Parnelli decided to go it alone and see if lightening can strike twice by outscoring an entire team again. I am (happy, to say the least!) here to report that Parnelli failed miserably on this quest, and the Green Team was the overall victor! Parnelli had only managed to score 50 points, and was tagged 81 times during the exercise. Parnelli's tag ratio (refer to my post of 9 October 2009 for the explanation of tag ratios) was a new (low) record: 1.23%. Domino from the Green Team claimed high individual score of the session with 17,002 points, and I contributed 11,550 points. I don't think Parnelli will try the "one vest team" experiment anytime soon!

And The Winner Is..........

2010-03-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

Last month during an Individual Tag exercise, a first occurred when the scores were published. A tie score! Whitecap (Red Team) and Darkstar (Blue Team) finished the exercise with identical scores of 17,103 points. This had not happened before during our time here on Earth, and myself and the rest of the other P.A.C.K.S. had a difficult time remembering when the last time a tie score had been posted. The rare feat also presented us with a problem: who won?

To help us decide the victor, myself and the other P.A.C.K.S. reviewed Whitecap's and Darkstar's score cards, more specifically the numbers in the Vital Game Stats column. At first glance, Darkstar had the upper hand, with a higher accuracy rating (31% vs. 15%), and had fired less shots (335 vs. 699) to achieve the same score as Whitecap. However, Whitecap had a much higher tag ratio (247% vs. 191%), and tagged a higher number of other P.A.C.K.S. (99 vs.94). Since both had the same effectiveness score (15.97%), we still could not decide a winner! After a long and heated debate, Wazee made the final decision in giving Whitecap the victor's honors. Wazee has yet to give the reason why Whitecap was chosen (and none of us P.A.C.K.S. dare ask for the reason!), but Whitecap now has a bit of an attitude towards the other P.A.C.K.S. Which is fine with me, because that gives me one more reason to make Whitecap target #1!

The Importance Of Tagging Bases

2010-01-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

A recent Team Tag exercise demonstrated the importance of tagging and destroying the opposing team's bases when it comes to determining the individual and team point scores. A bit of explanatory information: tagging an opposing team member's vest scores anywhere from 50 points to 200 points (determined by which sensor on the vest received the tag). Tagging and destroying an opposing team's base scores 2001 points. So in theory, a vest can tag 10 other vests to score 2000 points, and lose to a vest that tags and destroys 1 base. That just about happened when Napalm (Blue Team) tagged nothing but other vests during this game, and Inferno (Blue Team) tagged and destroyed 2 bases (as well as tagging other vests). Inferno was the individual point winner for the exercise by two points: 11752 to 11750. After the exercise Inferno was overheard laying a little smack talk on Napalm on how to score points. I see an inter-team rivalry brewing!

Another Record Falls To The Red Team

2010-01-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

Red Team member Sable set the record for accuracy during a Team Tag exercise held yesterday, by posting a 58.33% accuracy rating. That makes three records that belong to the Red Team: accuracy; tag ratio; and individual high score. The Green Team still holds the record for team high score though!

Giving Recognition When It Is Due

2010-01-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

Being a member of the Green Team makes it very difficult to report on the successes of any other P.A.C.K.S. other than Green. However, a member of the Red Team accomplished something recently that no other P.A.C.K.S. has done since our arrival here on Earth: score more points as a single member of a Team than a 5-P.A.C.K.S. Team during a Team Tag exercise. Parnelli, who normally is a member of the Red Team (and was coloured Cyan for this exercise), entered a Team Tag exercise against three other Teams that had five P.A.C.K.S. each. After it was over, the Red Team finished first, with the Blue Team finishing second, and Parnelli finishing third (with the Green Team finishing fourth). After overcoming the urge to pound Parnelli into a useless pile of polycarbonite for scoring higher than my own Team, I thought it would be best to recognize the event. Besides, Wazee would have eventually found out who had taken Parnelli out of existence, and I would follow Parnelli down the road to non-existence in a very short fashion!

With all that being said, after I discipline the five Green P.A.C.K.S. that had allowed one P.A.C.K.S. to beat them, I'm going after Parnelli's record!

Welcome Home!

2009-12-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

My fellow P.A.C.K.S. and I would like to say a hearty "Welcome Home!" to two returning Armed Forces members from their recent deployments: David and Matt. All of the P.A.C.K.S. here have great respect and gratitude for our returning brothers-in-arms for keeping the United States safe!

S.W.A.T. + P.A.C.K.S. = Success!

2009-12-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

One of the regional security and law enforcement bureaus (I believe humans call it a police department) had organized a Team Tag competition with a local education facility this past Tuesday evening, and had sent over their elite tactical unit to represent them (S.W.A.T., or Special Weapons And Tactics). Since recon and familiarization are key elements to success in any type of tactical endeavour, the S.W.A.T. Team got in some Team Tag exercises prior to their official competition. To say that these transportation units had a completely different way of preparing and executing a Team Tag exercise compared to our usual transportation units would be a huge understatement, and I know Blade and Quazar both enjoyed the strict planning and tactical maneuvers the S.W.A.T. team brought to the sessions.

Later on in the evening, when it came to Team Tag time with 5 other teams from the education facility (school), the S.W.A.T. Team found out very quickly it was not 6 Teams against each other, but 5 Teams against S.W.A.T.! Needless to say the first Team Tag competition was not very successful for the S.W.A.T. Team (they placed 5th out of 6 Teams). However, after a serious tactical planning session (and one where this P.A.C.K.S. learned a thing or two about teamwork. Thank you S.W.A.T.!), the second Team Tag competition was won by the S.W.A.T. Team by a large margin of Tag points! At the end of the evening, the S.W.A.T. Team and the various school Teams agreed that the event was a enjoyable success for all transportation units (sorry, humans) involved, and there was talk of a possible rematch in the future. I for one would trade some silica to view that event!

Wazee, and all of the P.A.C.K.S. of Wazee's World would like to thank the city of Peoria S.W.A.T. for participating in this event, and we extend an invitation to them to return at any time.

One last item: during the S.W.A.T. Team's last practice session, myself and my regular transportation unit made an unannounced entry into the session. The S.W.A.T. Team was divided into 2 Teams: a 6 unit Blue Team, and an 8 unit Red Team. Since I was the only Green Team participant, on a strict Team scoring basis I was a distant third. But, looking at the scores from an individual standpoint, I was merciless in my deactivations to any P.A.C.K.S. that was not Green (mainly, all!). I do have photographic evidence of my domination, and it is posted above, along with a S.W.A.T. Team photograph outside of Wazee's World.

I Normally Do Not Like The Colour Red,.....However

2009-10-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

I am a very proud member of the Green Team here at Wazee's World, and if electronics could bleed if opened up, I would most definitely bleed green. However, this past weekend during an Individual Tag session, I wanted the other P.A.C.K.S. to see me in red. You see, one of the Individual Tag sessions Wazee has us train with is capable of broadcasting real-time scoring by changing the colours of the P.A.C.K.S. in the session. The scoring-colour scheme is based on the colours of the spectrum, with cool colours (purple, blue, etc.) at the lower end of the scoring, and warm colours (red, orange, etc.) at the top. Red is the colour of the P.A.C.K.S. that is the current scoring leader, and the scoring status is updated every 5 seconds throughout the session. And I was showing red for quite a long time during the session, and stayed red until the finish! It did feel strange emitting a colour other than Green though!

Don't worry Minux, I'm still Green through-and-through!

Shilling Away!

2009-10-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Wazee has asked me to post this commercial for his World, and (for the most part) Wazee asking one of us to do something is akin to giving a direct order! So, without further ado, here is the commercial:

High Scores (visited once again!)

2009-10-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Red Team's Reaver has just reset high score for an individual P.A.C.K.S. with 32,900 during a Team Tag exercise this evening. One of the most impresive statistics from this exercise was the tag ratio (a divisional equation using the amount of instances a P.A.C.K.S tagged other P.A.C.K.S. during an exercise, and the amount of instances that particular P.A.C.K.S was tagged). Reaver's tag ratio for this exercise was 1026.67%! Reaver tagged other P.A.C.K.S 308 instances, and was only tagged by other P.A.C.K.S. 30 instances. Although Reaver is part of the Red Team, we have had mutual respect for each other for a long time. Kudos Reaver!

Get Well (update)

2009-10-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

Dayglow and Napalm have recovered from their ailments, and are currently attempting to catch up on their Team and Individual Tag exercises. Welcome back both (especially Napalm, who seems to pass in front of my laser on a regular basis)! I do have to report that Dayglow's recovery prompted a change in name, and now the Red and Green Teams have to be on watch for Darkstar. Well, at least the name change wasn't as drastic as Yeldarb's!

Sorry Yeldarb!

A Change in Transportation

2009-10-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

During one of our Team Tag exercises last week, I had the opportunity to have as my transportation system the owner of the facility in which my fellow P.A.C.K.S. and I train in. I have to admit I performed quite well during the exercise, and gave Parnelli a surprise as well. Parnelli's transportation device was normally the human who is mine, and lets just say Parnelli's LCD on the laser displayed "Oberon" quite a lot! One thing: the owner has a very different style of play!

Green Team takes over Wazee's World!

2009-09-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Green Team just put up a new Team Tag scoring record with 159,963! I was personally responsible for 13,400 of those points (which placed me 8th out of 33 P.A.C.K.S. that participated). Finally some good news to report on the Team side of things! I grudgingly do give credit where credit is due though, and point out that Parnelli (Red Team) had the top individual score for the session, 21,801.

High Score (revised!)

2009-09-20T13:41:00.001-07:00

Minux (Green Team!) had heard of my posting high scores last night, and came to me this morning to set the record straight. On a Team Tag exercise on 12 September, Minux was able to post a score of 31,800. As the only member of the Green team during this particular exercise however, Minux finished last. Team exercise Minux! At least call me for help next time!

High Scores

2009-09-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

My fellow P.A.C.K.S. sometimes talk a good Tag exercise, but the real talk comes after the session when the scores are posted. Tonight, there were new high scores posted for both Single and Team Tag exercises. The Single high score now belongs to Inferno, with a Tag score of 24,351. And the Team high score was achieved by the Blue team, with a Tag score of 119,907. Both were done during the same exercise. I am hearing whispers among my fellow Green P.A.C.K.S., and the Red P.A.C.K.S. as well, that these new records will be short lived!

Edit: Blue team just upped the ante, and posted a Team Tag score of 131,006.

2nd Edit: Blue team (darn!) again raised the Team Tag record, this time scoring 141,407.

3rd Edit: The team that is neither Red or Green has raised the record to 148,708.

4th Edit: Finally some good news from the Green team! Klever has just broken Inferno's high score for Single Tag with 26,402!

5th (and final for the night) Edit: The Blue team took back the Team score record on the last game of the night by posting a Tag score of 156,757.

Salute!

2009-09-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

A very proud moment for the human residents occurred at Wazee's World two weeks ago. A member of the human armed forces celebrated his honorable tenure by having a retirement celebration, and he included the P.A.C.K.S. as part of the ceremonies. Each P.A.C.K.S. wanted to participate, because we firmly believe in giving support to the armed forces of any species, and it was decided that the teams who would participate were the Red and Blue teams. Many Team Tag exercises were organised, with the Blue team sweeping the Red team 4-0. The last Tag exercise included members of the Green team, but the lack of becoming acquainted with the style of play of the armed forces members put us at a disadvantage, and we were woefully third in a field of three. As a side note, when the Red and Blue teams were exercising amongst themselves, I included myself to do a little showing off. The accompanying screen shots of the scoreboard tell the story!

Team Exercise (gone wrong)

2009-08-11T16:39:00.001-07:00

Recently, after an afternoon of being the top three dominant vests during individual Tag exercises, Condor, Jester, and myself took on 19 other P.A.C.K.S. in a (considerably lopsided) Team Tag exercise. Our sense of domination was given back to us in a team sense, with our Green team of three finishing way behind the Red and Blue teams. We defended a section on the upper tier of the Red Base's platform for as long as we could, but the numbers game eventually sided with the other two teams, and we finished third. But on an individual scoring sense, we took three out of the top five spots, and being the preverbal "thorn in the foot" of many Red and Blue P.A.C.K.S. So much so, that for approximately seven minutes of the exercise, two Red P.A.C.K.S. (Whitecap and Zenith), and three Blue P.A.C.K.S. (Falcon, Inferno, and Macro) made it their mission to deactivate us as many times as they could. Needless to say the three of us finished way ahead of them on the individual scoreboard, and made those seven minutes their worst nightmare!

This isn't the last you will hear of the three of us teaming up to kick some polycarbonate!

The Origin of Yeldarb

2009-08-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of the humans that help us in our training have been asking as to how Yeldarb got its name (even after I had blogged "don't ask"). After relentless questioning by the rest of the P.A.C.K.S., Yeldab finally relented and told us (even we didn't know, but Gothyk was strangely quiet during the questioning. We found out why when the story was told!). Yeldarb's original name was Yozan (which means "great clan ruler" in the native language of Nexus) until a long night of playing the game fizbin found Yozan (Yeldarb) owing Gothyk a serious amount of silica. They agreed to play one last game, with the provision of Yozan putting his name up against the silica of Gothyk. Needless to say, Yozan lost, and Gothyk got to choose the new name. It took three Earth years after that episode before Yozan (now Yeldarb) communicated with Gothyk again. And during every Tag Training exercise, those two still battle each other harder than they do with any other P.A.C.K.S.

By the way, Yeldarb means (loosely translated) "door mat" in Nexus' language!

Get Well

2009-08-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Two of my fellow P.A.C.K.S. are currently suffering from laryngitis, Dayglow and Napalm, and are at this moment in the Wazee's World hospital. Here is to a speedy recovery you two (especially Napalm, because you are my favorite target!).

Showing Off

2009-07-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

One of the humans who maintains the facility which we train in caught us showing off our colours recently. My fellow P.A.C.K.S. thought it would make a good post to my blog (except for Lassoo, who for some unknown reason was asleep in the right foreground) so here it is.

Greetings!

2009-07-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

My name is Oberon, and I am from the planet Nexus®. Myself, and 39 other Laser P.A.C.K.S. (Particle Accelerating Cytronic Kilo-beam System) have been deployed to your planet to hone our skills in Team and Individual laser tag. Over the years, we have determined that humans make the best activation and transportation system, and that is why we are currently here. Our Commander, Wazee, oversees all of our training, and he is both an excellent mentor and a strict disciplinarian (when needed!).

When we are performing Team training (out default mode), we are separated into three teams by colour: Blue, Red, and Green. Each P.A.C.K.S. has a name like myself, and that is how our human assistants receive the results of our training exercises (by name). The names of each team are as follows:

Blue: Blade, Celcius, Darkstar, Eclipse, Falcon, Gauntlet, Halo, Inferno, Javelin, Krieger, Lithos, Macro, and Napalm.

Red: Olympia, Paragon, Quazar, Reaver, Sable, Talon, Umbriel, Vortex, Whitecap, Xyon, Yeldarb (don't ask!), Zenith, and Argus.

Green: Blakwolf, Condor, Domino, Element, Fireseer, Gothyk, Hornet, Icefury, Jester, Klever, Lassoo, Minux, Neutron, and myself (Oberon).

When we train as individuals (which is very tough!), we can be any of eight different colours: Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Yellow, Pink, Purple, and Cyan (Wazee's current colour).

I will be reporting and commenting about our various training exploits on this "blog" (as it is known on Earth), and possibly some off-duty drama as well! Forty P.A.C.K.S. in such close quarters lends itself to some major drama! For instance, there was this time while we were on a planet in the Cygnus constellation when……………………well, that is for another time I'm afraid!

Until next time!