Torn City Times

sugarvalves [1963573] — In April 2016 Torn's military personnel numbered more than 80,000 for the first time in the city's history, maintaining an upwards trend which has seen a steady increase ever since the mass desertion incident of November 2011. At the present rate we could see a force of over 100,000 soldiers before the year is out, which begs the question, why is the military so attractive to Torn's citizens? And also who, if anyone, are they preparing to fight? The attractiveness of a military career is plain for all to see, and in November 2014 the military overtook Torn City Hospital to become the city's largest employer. Whereas Torn's citizens were historically described as too deranged, drunk and incapable of following simple instructions, this sudden period of mass military employment has flown in the face of such observations, but to what end? A continuous recruitment drive such as this does not merely occur; it is deliberately planned and executed ...

IIIlusionist [253384] — The United Kingdom's European union referendum and the United States presidential election pale in comparison to Torn's news bulletin announcing the current and upcoming projects that are in the works. Many projects were mentioned - from missions to other "2.0" revamps - no doubt stirring things up a tad and raising a number of questions in the community. As a result, the Torn City Times will be compiling a number of questions to pose to Chedburn regarding the latest bulletin. So, for all you players with burning questions that you need answered in order to sleep soundly at night, now is your chance. Send your questions to myself ( IIIlusionist - 253384) and a select few questions will be chosen to be answered. Deadline for questions: 06/06/2016 Original article

IIIlusionist [253384] — The faction scene has been somewhat quiet of late, with only a few wars here and there sparking a little drama from time to time. However, in the last week things spiced up to a rather tasty level, with a number of wars breaking out and stirring things up just a tad. We will start with the two less action-packed wars: Just Fer A**holes vs Itsi Bitsi Bikini and Ðestructive Anomaly vs BC-Vulpes Vulpes. JFA vs IBB had no real terms other than locked rosters and no guests. Initially, one would think that the match-up would be an interesting one. IBB have been on an extended training mode for the past year or three, meaning that they have had plenty of time to nurse those stats in order to become a tough faction to fight (at least on paper). The reality turned out to be quite the opposite - JFA ripped up the paper in six hours - strolling right past IBB without seeming to break a sweat. There was plenty for IBB to learn from the war, but they wouldn't have much...

IIIlusionist [253384] — Trigger Happy, along with The UnLeashed Sykoz, Memento Mori and Calculated, was another aggressive new generation faction that emerged a few years ago. Core, Trigger Happy's leader and founder, has since left the game, making comments difficult to obtain (due to an indefinite sentence in Federal jail). Core [1579950] had the idea to build a faction completely from scratch and work at building capabilities until the team was established in the Hall of Fame, his teams journey began on 15 June, 2013. The new gang started with just a few strong members and a number of new players that were learning the ins and outs of Torn. Trigger Happy quickly progressed, built up an effective member base and demonstrated an impressive talent for chaining (much to other factions' dismay). Why the name Trigger Happy was chosen isn't completely understood, but we can easily imagine, given their motto, "Pull the trigger, let the world slip through", that usin...

IIIlusionist [253384] — The updates to player activity statuses and the inventory system are all well and good, but what more do the citizens of Torn have to look forward to in the near future? We will start with a smaller potential update: Starter Jobs. At the moment, the starter jobs' role in the game is uncertain. Should they be a stepping stone to companies where new players can boost stats quickly before jumping to companies, or should they be a viable career choice with specials that rival that of companies? The demand for more employees from player-run companies often means new players jump into companies fairly early in the game due to various specials and high pay. A little attention may be given to adjusting starter jobs in a number of ways to give them a little more meaning and competitive edge. As it stands, new players are able to choose from three of the six starter jobs before eventually unlocking all six. One proposed change may open up all six to new players righ...

IIIlusionist [253384] — People play games for all sorts of reasons - enjoyment, passing the time, socialisling. However, for some gamers a game, much like some experience whilst reading books or watching movies, is something that they can lose themselves in. Often, those that don't have an interest in games label those that do as unsociable or "geeks", which may be true in some cases, however, these labels are often far from the truth. Gaming can be considered a hobby just like reading, playing chess, cycling or extreme sports. With a game like torn you rarely get to see the faces of those player with which you communicate and play the game with, and it is easy to forget that there are people sitting at the receiving end of messages, event and discussions. Perhaps more importantly it is easy to forget what type of person you yourself are. As Torn is a role-playing game a little chest thumping and smack talk is understandable, but with torn also being a place where peopl...

IIIlusionist [253384] — Back to the hall of fame where we will see what we can learn about Evolution. Evolution was created some time in October 2012, I was unable to narrow it down to a particular day. It was the resulting faction from a merge between two HOF factions, Bad Ass Mother F**ckers (BAMF) and Random Acts Of Violence (RAoV). SlickRick [654393] and JimmyJames [581165] ran BAMF, Todd [63384] and Scott [97570] ran RAoV. Puscifer [61736] and JimmyJames then took the main lead of the newly formed Evolution. The merger took over one year to finalize and complete, and happened largely because BMAF and RAoV were good friends even before the merger, and the two factions complimented each other quite well. RAoV had the stat monsters and BAMF had the chaining stamina, and these are two ingredients you need to make a chaining machine; chainers that never stop, and big hitters too keep the other faction in hospital. BAMF was created in October 2008. They were involved in many wars, and...

IIIlusionist [253384] — The weeks seem to be flying by recently, and I barely have time to reflect on what went on in the week. So for a little fun and enjoyment I thought I would share with you fine, and not so fine, citizens of Torn what I have been doing in our city as of late. My time on Torn has, unfortunately, been rather limited lately and my events page is starting to look like this more and more regularly, which is worrying: Sometimes I see the "Events" tab highlighted with one new event only to find an event from 5-7 hours ago telling me I had taken an Xanax. However, if you looked closely at the picture above, the more observant among you will have noticed the red box in the middle of all those Xanax events, where someone tried to attack me. After dealing 498 damage and receiving 2371 damage, thought to themselves "I just might not win this attack". It happens to the best of us; the amount of times I start an attack only to be thoroughly beaten. (Hint f...

Gholden [1786423] — As an editor and editing correspondent, I rarely get an opportunity to write some headline story. Today that changed, and I received the assignment to interview a member of our community: Pand0ra [132296]. I headed out of the office to the Headquarters of the JFK faction where Pand0ra had agreed to meet me and talk about her experiences in this city. We chatted for a few hours about her humble beginnings with the faction Impact. After running a faction of her own called Chaptastic, she decided to merge with Rotton Souls and created Vae Victis (VV) which was co-lead with Z_junior [247674]. Shortly after, they both decided to merge with JFK which was being ran by Nota [68062]. This has been her home ever since, spending almost 9 years as part of JFK. Reaching level 100 was one of her most significant achievements, but she is proud of many others. She has been part of a faction at the top of the HOF, became staff and Admin, and even has her own collectible! (Pand0ras...

IIIlusionist [253384] — Our attention turns to a faction that caught a lot of peoples eyes and had high expectation as they were rising through the ranks, The UnLeashed Sykoz (TuS). TuS was started a few years back by iiNsane [1006280]. He said the name was chosen because they want(ed) to be viewed as ruthless, although to this day I do not what "Sykoz" means. At present, whilst waiting for the factions updates, TuS war every couple of month, but it used to be the opposite, training every couple of months and chaining the rest of the time. As TuS are one of the "New generation factions", I find that their war history is quite interesting. Although they have not been around as long as other factions they have gained just as much respect as many of the HOF factions. Although TuS themselves are a HOF faction the speed at which they were able to break into HOF is a nice achievement, and are now respected in HOF. TuS's first major war was against Way Of The Warrio...