,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of SveinR (Kuski of Month on September 2004): '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I started playing Elma in April 2000, 10th April to be excact. Across I started playing about a week before that :) The first time I tried the game, however, was back in 98 I think. Across was installed on a school computer there, and I played it a bit (not as much as I wanted though, there was some competition to get to play it ;) ) -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- The first team I was ever in was RHB. Rælingen Höylä Brothers. This was a team I made with my brother Are, basically just because we wanted that cool [team] tag behing our names in Top 10 Official Levelpacks contest on moposite :) We (or mostly I, perhaps) also pondered about making some sort of site for the team on the internet, but it never got so far as we uploaded one. After we had made some records in the contest, we were maybe number 3 and 4 in the standings, I don't remember excactly, Dr. Leviathan and NyctoPhoBiaz asked if we wanted to join their team, TAAF, so we could "rule the Top10 Levpacks" :) So we did, and our teammates turned out to be really great guys. After a little while also Myrdhel joined the team. Later Dezz and NPhoBiaz (as they now were named) left and joined team CC with MoorZe and JAnen. I and Are were now the oldest members of TAAF and with Myrdhel we decided to keep the name though the founding members had left (they told us we could well keep the name). I've been in TAAF since, counting over 4 years now, and won't change teams for anything :) -= Current total? =- 41:53:72 SveinR -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- Newest: 31.08.2004, Tricks Abound: 46.89 29.08.2004, Gravity Ride: 26.13 29.08.2004, Freefall: 13.24 24.08.2004, What The Heck: 42.28 24.08.2004, Flat Track: 16.02 Oldest: 20.10.2000, Enigma: 30.29 14.03.2001, Double Trouble: 1:30.19 18.03.2001, Sink: 33.68 19.03.2001, He He: 59.94 07.06.2001, Downhill: 59.82 -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- Well, I only played the shareware version of Across for one week before I found out about elma, so the 'career' was very brief indeed :) -= Elma career? =- As said, it started in April 2000. The first thing I did in elma that has anything to do with the scene, was to get some records in moposite's top10 levpacks. I also participated in World Cup 3, from day one, but the first event in which I sent in my time was number 8. This was just because of the basetimes; it was the first event where I actually managed to beat the base time :) Later I also managed to get a good enough time to send in in event 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. The only event I managed to get some points was number 18, and I got as much as three points :) Event 12 I hoyled like hell and thought I was gonna win (seriously) and didn't even get a point... In September/October 2000 I and Are actually managed to get a multi WR on spiral, with the time being 20.63 (I suppose not too many people played those back then, there even was an Official and one Unofficial multi WR page). It got beaten again, but then we took it back with 20.44. Later I started updating the page, and then of course we couldn't try getting the record back again if it got beaten. In World Cup 4 I did a bit better than in the previous one (anything else would be pretty embarassing though, with 2 more years of elma playing behind me..), with the best placement in event 15, where I became seventh. In overall standings I became 22nd, which I am very satisfied with :) Of other cups I won the first event of Los Cup 2, and I actually won 2fast's cup overall, but noone played that.. My elma career hasn't really been much about cup success or longstanding success in other contests, but that doesn't matter much :) -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- I haven't had across installed for a long time, and when I do try it I don't like it so much, mainly because of the tendency the wheel has to get stuck in verteces.. -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- The first time I tried Across was, as mentioned above, at school in 1998. Later I forgot about the game, until once in 2000 I asked one of my friends 'what was the name of that game we played at school some years ago, with the motorbike and stuff', and he told me it was called Across. The reason I thought of the game again was that I had watched some trial contests on Eurosport, and that reminded me of the game. So when I got home, I went and downloaded the shareware version of Across. Then, a week later, I found out about ElastoMania (how I had managed to find the demo of Across without coming across elma, I don't know..). I immediately loved the game, and so did my brother, Are, and in May he went and bought the full version. I won't say it was a mistake to get this game, as it has given me just so immensely many hours of joy, frustration, excitement etc that no other game in the world has the possibility to do. I don't regret for a second that I downloaded Across that day. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- This is a bit of a tough question as this tend to varies with what level I'm playing at the moment, and right now I don't play any internals :) But those who most often come across as favorites to me are Headbanger, Labyrinth Pro and He He, as it is just really fun to cruise these levels once in a while. Lab Pro is the funnest lev to play in the game. The most irritating internals, well, I wouldn't really say there are any. If I used to think one lev was really irritating; when I did go and play it, and it all came together, voilá it's no longer irritating but really fun to play :) In August, I really tried and also made a bunch of styles I never really had bothered to really hoyl before, and if I am to pick the most frustrating of these, it would be Animal Farm. I hoyled it for five hours straight, and the few times I made the start trick, I managed to die when going for the last apple. I did make it finally though.. So yeah, that was really frustrating, but I won't say I like that level less than others, in fact it IS pretty fun to play. -= Your own best WRs? =- Since I've had two multi WRs, both in Spiral, I'd say the best one is the one with the best time; 20.44. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- I don't think I know too much about this, since I've never played for WRs myself, but psy's Apple Harvest and Luther's Downhill are two that just seem really good and pretty unbeatable at the moment. -= What's the limit of WR times? =- This is really hard to judge, as in the past people have said a TT under 40 was impossible, and then under 39 impossible, and 38 and 37. The WR TT is now under 37, and I do believe it could go under 36, but I'm not really one too judge as I'm not one of the big hoylas who really understands this the best. I'm pretty confident it can't go below 35 minutes though. -= Are there some kind of external contests you like? What kind of contests do you like? Are there any new competitions you would like to see? =- I love to play cups, and then especially World Cups. They're the biggest event in the elma scene, gathering over 200 kuskis in single events, and it's amazing that we all have hoyled this same level over this same week. Other cups are really a treat as well. The most fun contests in elma however, would have to be battles. There isn't anything in elma you can have more fun and excitement in, and I guess everyone has the chance to win a battle sometime. Even if you're tired of elma playing in all other aspects, battles are always something you can enjoy, and it's mostly battles that my elma playing consists of these days, as well as playing some minor other stuff. New competition I would like to see? The revitalization Of Elasto Mania League. This was perhaps the most interesting and original contest to have come in my day, and it was extremely fun to be a part of. It's definitely something that should be arranged again. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- The LGR I use is HighQ. I love the tradition Default.lgr, but the pics and the sky can be somewhat disturbing for the hoyling experience. Having low detail turns off the grass, and I really like to play with grass, therefore HighQ is just perfect. Of other LGRs, Horror has some really nice pics, the driver in Cemetery is pretty neat, and Nice Textures has really nice scenery. And of course, Ville J's Pirate is stunning. But HighQ, ye, that's the LGR for me :) -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- Hour and hours of fun playing the game, lots of fun on #across and Mopolauta, having talked to and gotten to know a bunch of great guys in the scene ++ -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- Staying up too late and not doing more 'sensible' stuff perhaps? But I don't care, I wouldn't do this if I didn't want to. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- Nothing too big to mention it I think. -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- Can't really point out anything here. But I guess I can call it a mistake that I didn't save the multi WR tables on my site from table #1. I regret that I didn't do that, if I had I could have made nice statistics and had the overview of a bunch of things regarding the development. I also should have kept the table numbers from Tumex's page, instead of simply starting on #1. -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/1.11hb/1.2 etc? =- Cheating is something that is only a destroying factor, and it should be removed completely from the elma scene. I deeply admire the work milagros puts into to put a stop to cheating. I don't have any hard personal feelings towards those individuals who cheated though. I did use level unlocker a few times in the past, to view some World Cup levs in the editor. I use the patch 1.11hb nowadays, and I just feel it's great that Hibernatus has made us this to greatly enhance our elma experience. To those who claim it's cheating to use it and to have an alovolt button, I just have to say, it's not. It only makes elma more fair. In the past, some people couldn't do the alovolt at all, while others managed to do it almost half of the times they tried. How is that fair, when this difference mostly had to do with motherboards and keyboards? -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- I haven't tested tuning, by which I suppose is meant largely to turn VSync on or off. I don't think my graphics card supports it, at least not in an easy way, and also I wouldn't bother checking it out. For those who use it, fine, it's ok with me, but I'd wish there weren't these differences. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- There are so many great kuskis it wouldn't almost be fair to pick just a few :) But those who come to mind more than others would be Markku, Zweq, TorInge, psy, Karlis and of course the kings of old, Champi0N and KingKong. The best team is without a doubt FM. They have it all, great friendship within the team, great kuskis and times, big success, have been around for ages, well respected and more. -= Your best achievements? =- That would be the 7th place in World Cup 4 Event 15. Also I am greatly honored that I have gotten to be judge in both GAAs. -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? Sadly, no. I would love to be able to play the guitar, but I've never gotten around to really having given it a try. -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- I guess I have in certain periods played about 10 hours in a day, I can't say anything concrete as I haven't really kept score :) Nowadays it can vary quite a bit. Just this August I played quite much when I was in a little period to improve my internal times, and it can also happen that I play much in a contest, or many battles etc. I guess I play perhaps one hour a day nowadays, averagely. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- Ye, I have. Quite a number of them actually. In the latest one I dreamt about elma 2, which had just been released. I can't say it was an improvement: About all of the internals were now pipe levs, and not good pipe levs either. Really, really thin pipes who were close to impossible, and not even very interesting ones. And the biker looked like R2-D2 from Star Wars :) The very graphics were improved though, but that's the only good thing I can say about it. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- My strengths? I really don't know. I guess I have more weaknesses :) Maybe that, if I have a concrete goal to work against, I won't stop until I reach it. But then again, my stamina can be pretty weak in other cases. And my goals aren't too high I guess either.. One of my weaknesses might be that I tend to take some time to find the right styles, in battles and such. So I might not have found it until the battle is actually over. But maybe it's a strenght if I tend to find it eventually? What moves i like/dislike? Well, I love playing pipe levels. It doesn't need to be in a contest or anything, if it's a pipe lev I'll take some time on it anyway. If I idle in #battle and see someone saying 'pipe' I go right ahead and download the lev, even if I wasn't planning on playing :) I also like to, if I'm just cruising randomly around on a lev, to do a bit of brutal volts. I think it's a really fun trick to do when it's mastered. Also bounces in general are very fun. I don't know if I particularly dislike that many moves. It's not really a move as such, but I really hate invisible levels =) -= Tips for average players? =- I don't know if I see myself as much more than an average player either, but the only tip I feel appropriate is: Play. That's really all that helps. Play, play, watch recs, play again. -= Best memories with Elma? =- Oh, there have been many fun occasions when talking to other kuskis in irc, but I'd say the best memories I have had with one, one of them has to be the first time I saw my name on a records list (this was Top10 levpacks on moposite of course). That was a really great feeling. Also, first getting points in World Cup 3 was really nice. Of course, that 7th place in event 15 of World Cup 4 ranks very high up there as well :) Recently I got some good memories also, when I lowered my tt from 43.20 to 41.xx in two weeks, mastering lots of the styles I'd just I'd just never do. But the most exciting time I've had with elma, has got to be when watching professional replays for the very first time. I remember I had been playing Flat Track, and I'd come up with this "great" style, and drove really well and got 20.08, which was alot better than I previously had had. So I couldn't wait to go and tell Are about it. But of course, he had discovered these replays by some guy named Peter, and before he told me this he just said plainly that he had gotten 19.2x or so. So you could say I was a bit stunned (and a bit irritated that my new time wasn't so great after all...), and then Are showed me this replay of 17.20 by Peter (I now know that Peter was of course Oizo). Then, we got more replays and the excitement when watching those for the first time surpasses just about everything. -= First time at #across? =- That would be in late January or early February 2001. I didn't have logging on when I first joined, so the first logs I have are from.. 15th February 2001. -= Best Elma friends? =- How can I answer this without forgetting someone? I will list those I first and foremost remember: Are (well, he IS my brother and all..), Xhomaz (the only other kuski I've met irl), mick0r (one of the first in #across I got friends with), \DC, Jalli, dz, psy, LazY, Myrdhel, MagnusB, BarTek, DaFuZ, MopoGirl, Karlis, darm, ramone, TorInge and many more :) -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- I would absolutely love to be in an elma meeting myself. Whenever there has been a new one, and I watch the pics and read the stories, I get a real desire to want to go to one. I really hope I will get the chance one day, preferrably pretty soon :) For those of you who have been to some, well, I envy you :) -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? =- Well, there are some issues in the editor that needs improvement, and in the game itself there are a lot from Hib's patches that should be incorporated into a new version. The alovolt button, jumping to letters inside lev and rec folders, vcr style viewing of replays.. He really did great work, I must say. Also there should be some really nice statistics, how many times started/finished lev, average playing time on lev, total playing time on a lev and the entire GAME (so you could REALLY see how many hours this has taken from your life..), and more. It would also be nice to remove the most common bugs, and make the game a lot more cheat proof. The new internals in the game should also be made exclusively by Balazs and Csaba (a few like MUe's Bowling in elma would also be ok). When saving a replays, the level name should be on screen as well, so we would get rid of those annoying guesses :) An online version would also be really nice if possible to make good. -= How about battles? =- I love battles. There is nothing more fun you can do in the world of Elasto Mania. Now that the channel has grown so big as well, it's not a problem at all to get to play a battle almost whenever you want to. And with skint0r's and MagnusB's work with the battlebot, the battling experience has just become so much more efficient, easy and..... just better. Battles were great in the first place, and now they're just more awesome. If you haven't tried to battle, well, you're really missing out on something fantastic and unique in the elma scene. Try it! -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- They can't really understand how i can play this 'stupid, boring 2d game' for so many years, so ye, I've gotten some comments about it. But how can they know about the real reason we do play this game for so many years, which is the fantastic community we have here? Had this kind of community not existed, very few, none of us, perhaps, would play this game for very long. -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- Right now I play very few games, but some favorites of mine include Rollercoaster Tycoon, Championship Manager, Unreal Tournament and The Sims, and of other small games there are Deluxe SkiJump and Rival Ball. Some oldies I love are Scorched Earth and Secret Agent ;) -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- I did not, for a long time. The reason to this is that it was my brother, Are, who firstly bought the game for us back in May 2000, and I got it from him. For one thing I didn't really feel like i was warezing the game, as it was bought by someone who actually lived in the same house as myself. Another thing is that I didn't have a credit card, and didn't get one until June this year. Then, a few weeks ago, finally I took the step and bought the game for myself. It's the least I can do to repay Balazs for making this game that has brought me so insanely many hours of joy, it's quite unbelievable really how big part of life this game has become. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- I haven't really given this much serious thought, as I don't see this happening in the near future. In fact, I don't see it happening in the distant future either, but I guess the day once will come when I realise I no longer am a part of this. But that seems so unbelievable to me I can't even imagine it. So, no, I can't stop playing Elma anytime soon, nor do I want to. Something really big has to happen for me to just quit this. As said, I can't imagine it. -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- Basically, the scene. The way I see it, no scene, no elma. At least not extensively. But just the scene isn't enough either of course, it's the utterly compelling gameplay of this game, the addictiveness it creates, and the plain, simple FUN it is to do this. Elma is the best game ever created. THAT's why i still play it. The scene wouldn't be as it is if elma wasn't this great. -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- Sure. I believe one just gets better over time, as long as one continues to play this game non-stop. My skills will just keep on improving as long as I play this game and am a part of this. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- I hope the scene will be as it is now in five years from now. Of course, quite a lot of kuskis will have quit by then, and many new ones will have come. If Elma 2 will come along, I can't really say what an impact it will have on the current scene until I see how the game is. It all will depend on how much it differs from this version, and if people will really like it and start to höyl it as extensivelly as they have elma 1. Hopefully, Elma 2 will blow everyone's minds away and be loved just as much as this game. -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? If it was who should have won in your opinion and why? =- Well, it wasn't much of a suprise to be on the poll at least, as I'm the one making it :) But to win it..and with more than twice as many votes as number 2, who is such a great battler as veezay...Yes, that surprised me. Eventhough it may seem some people doesn't recognize a KOM title as very honorable these days, I for one am very honored to have won one. -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- Mopolauta is a great message board, and I'm not saying that only because I'm a moporator ;) It's a great place to discuss all different aspects of this game, and also, seemingly, a great place to talk a lot of bullshit =) It's not going overboard though, I think the lauta has a fine balance between serious and not so serious stuff, and few people have come to just act idiotic (granted, those who have have been very idiotic indeed..). As a moporator I have to read every single post made on the board, and it doesn't really get too tiring. Some topics aren't as fun to read as others, but quite often there comes along posts who make me laugh a little by myself. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- I think it's great that people take the time to make stuff like this. It really adds to making the elma scene something special, and all the animations and cartoons, by MUe, BarTek and others, are really fun to watch. Elma Crime exceeded all my expectations when watching it, I can't wait for if there were to come a sequel :) Keep it up making these gems, it really is appreciated. -= You are the updater of the multi WR page. How's that feeling? =- I like it. I've been in charge of that site for more than 3,5 years now, and the development in the multi WR part of elma has been quite big. I believe it is way harder to get a multi WR these days than it were 3 years ago, and the people getting them should be recognized more than they are in the scene today. I wish, as mentioned somewhere up in this interview, that I had made some different choices when I first got the responsibility of this task, so I could have made some really nice statistics and other stuff that would, perhaps, have widened the popularity of hoyling for multi WRs. So if anyone has saved some old tables, send them to me! :) Of the further development of the multi WR table, I hope we will see not too long from now that the multi WR TT will go below 23 mins, and that somewhere along the line a kuski will also break that magic limit. -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- I don't really visit any other Elma related websites regularly, but there are some that stand out from the rest. The Danish Elma & Across Page has always nice news, and the site contains a lot of information regarding the Danish Elma community. Also the Russian and the Hungarian page seem really good for those who belong in those national communities, but I haven't really visited them that much. The Darkzidhe is a very well though together personal website though, which it is always a pleasure to visit. The site is really helpful as well as containing very nice contests (which I really should play..), with and article about dz's own batching system, and the availability to download all of the patches that have come to elma. The sites I use the most, though, would be the upload sites of Viper_KillerGuy and mxb.dk. They are visited more than moposite (if I exclude Mopolauta), but I guess they're not really 'real' sites. Another page I've visited a bit the past time, is skint0r's skintatious site, where he has some really nice levels and contests. -= Your relation to OLP? =- I tried the levels a few times when the pack first came out, then I've pretty much never played them again. The levels don't appeal to me at all, and to me it's pretty much a fiasco, sadly. -= Why that nick, SveinR? =- Well, my real name is Svein Rune, and somehow my extremely innovative and creative mind managed to come up with the nick SveinR. -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I got to school, I'm now at my third year of high school. Next year I will either go to a university, or the army. I haven't quite made up my mind about it yet. I don't have a job now, at the moment, but I did work in the summer and I'll probably work at the same place next summer. Of other interests, well, I don't really do much right now. I used to do ski jumping, but I've quit the training now, and I'm not really sure if I will continue doing it 'just for fun' either. We'll see. In any case, it's not as if elma is the reason I'm not doing much right now. If I want to do something else, I could, and elma isn't really what I do most these days either (I don't know what is though, the days just seem to go by..). But ye, I have a real life, though hopefully that life will have a bit more 'action', so to speak, in a little while. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- We can see ourselves lucky we have this little game to pass our days with, and that we have this great community :) -= How did this interview make you feel, like a moviestar? =- Well, if anyone's actually genuinely interested in reading my interview, I will feel very honored :) And I've always admired those who have won KOMs in the past, I remember reading those 3 years ago and thinking "what would I answer to these questions" and so on. So now, having gotten to actually do this myself, ye, I feel.. happy :) SveinR 17th November 2004