1FSTCAT

I understand! Perhaps whoever answers your question can answer this one - if I buy the Battlefront version, can I use the key that I receive to activate the Steam version? I find Steam to be VERY convenient, yet I would like to support Battlefront.

Use Steam (assuming it's available in Europe).

I think this engine would work perfectly for a mech combat simulation (Like Mechwarrior) or a Car Wars (vehiclular combat) simulation. Allow the user to easily create and design units (cars, robots, tanks, planes, etc.) and one would have as much fun designing and building vehicles to blow up, as they would have blowing them up, in game!

Where's all the buzz from this game? I've seen a couple of videos on the game news sites now, but nobody's posting?? I'm interested in the damage modeling. Can anyone with Battlefront, or the developer, give us details about how damage is modeled for the planes and ships? Do the vehicles have a fixed number of hit points that tick down as they take damage, or do they use damage modeling similar to Theater of War? Are ballistics and angles and armor thicknesses calculated?

I too have had several crashes. Never during the game, unless I'm actively saving and loading. Usually I can load or save 1 or 2 times and then the next time I go to do a load or save, it will begin and I'll get a windows ding in the background (like an error code is popping up) and my computer will be completely frozen. CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't work and the mouse locks up solid. During the time I get to play though, I'm having great fun! --Ed

I'm going to have to agree with the perception that the changes make the game more technically accurate, at the expense of gameplay FUN. Some people will enjoy the added complication, but not only have you added that, but some planes are entirely too fragile when fighting other planes. I'm going to have to throw my hat in with the "put it back" crowd.

Well, I had also planned to participate, but also jumped one of my pilots from 520 to 620 in one fail swoop. I was working on another pilot tonight when Tornado told me the tourny might be cancelled due to lack of registration. I did post here, but I forgot to register. I'll look around tomorrow and maybe we can still do something? --Ed

I mentioned the filter to Dan the other day, and his response was "where would we get a definitions list"? My question to Dan is: while your 11 year old is playing DiF, do you really want him exposed to the occasional "Cr**, Fu**, and Sh**" that I've seen posted recently? Make up your own definitions. I'll type them for you, if it's a time issue. Even if it's only a few words long, it will let people know that this is a family game and cursing is not coshire. Also, several people have mentioned a friends list. I think this is a good idea. If you have someone toggled as a friend, they sort to the top of the players list, maybe with a different colored name.

A couple of suggestions: You can keep having tournaments that require a license to play in. If you did develop a method to track the pirates vs. the registered users, then maybe you could cap them at a certain level of experience. Say -- their character won't grow over 250 XP if they're not a registered user. This would give them a chance to "demo" the full version, and just when they're getting into it, stop them cold! If Battlefront can't assist the tournament organizer in determining whose registered or not, someone could build a database of questions and answers based on the manual, and the organizer could ask those questions of the prospective players. --Ed

Oh, goody!

I agree that these players flat out stole the game, but you're not seeing the other side of the coin. When I first logged into this game 2 weeks ago, I struggled to find people to play against. Everyone that owned the game had pilots well beyond my skill level. I find it BORING to play against the computer. People just were not downloading the demo. The game was not getting out, the press had "expired", IMHO the game was being kept alive only by the existing hardcore players and other hardcore simmers that wander acrossed Battlefront.com. This illegitamate circulation, in my opinion, has actually brought some life back to the game. I would be interested to hear, a month from now, if Battlefront sold more copies of DiF in January, then the previous months. I would think that the answer would be YES, but only time will tell. --Ed

I like the time that we played the last tourney at. That worked well for me.. I'm in whether it's 2v2 or 1v1 or 7v7. (That would be cool!) If it's 2v2, I call Mistura as my ally. --Ed

Wow, thanks for everyone's opinions! I'm glad that Dan and Moon posted. Thanks again. I used to think it was easy to make games, to program software. That might legitimize it to some people. For some, I think it's a faceless crime. In this instance - there are your faces - people like Dan and Moon. I've followed the development of different projects now, over several years, and there's an incredible amount of time and heart-ache involved. In my own experience, I've poured my heart out for a year or two building a car that I wanted to drive. The thought that anyone would take advantage of that, by "borrowing" or stealing it is incredibly frustrating. It's in the top 10 list of things that could go horribly wrong in my life. My point is, I grew up with piracy, (like Moon was saying) and I don't think I fully understood the impact until I was 28 years old (4 years ago -- not yesterday ). Hopefully some of these newbs will see that there's a great game here, and they'll invest in it. Big thanks again to Dan and Moon and everyone else involved with the game. Also, thanks to the players like Mist, Tornado, Sixx, Stalin, who play with the newbs and help them learn the game. They are at least half of the gameplay experience from my perspective. --Ed

It was pretty obvious to me, what was happening.. But I see a debate here. While the kneejerk reaction is to find a way to get them out of the game, I also see some positives... They created a lot of cannon fodder for the Vets amongst us.. They've created a ton of activity that the game lacked before.. They MIGHT tell their friends, and they MIGHT decide to order it themselves.. It seemed pretty obvious to me in the last few weeks that this game needed some word of mouth, or something to get more players involved. Is this it? Is this the solution? Did Dan or someone at Battlefront make the decision for free distribution? (If you believe in black helicopters -- LOL) While I believe that I'm wildly using my imagination here, I think there would be great benefit to Dan and/or Battlefront to capitalize on this. Maybe find a way to verify the legit owners, and only they can compete in the tournaments. Maybe only they can get on the leaderboards. Suggestions? I'd love to hear from Battlefront or Dan Verssen on this. **I'm a legit owner, by the way. (Just wanted to get that out of the way) If those pirates are reading this post, I hope they'll consider buying the game. It's pretty easy to see the people that have their lives invested in this. Battlefront, and Dan & Family, deserve their reward for creating and publishing a great game. Thanks, --Ed AKA 1FSTCAT

You guys will all be crying when the Noob (me) whoops you're collective butts. All that playing against the computer is making ya'll soft!

I'm *IN*. Dick (relief) couldn't make it, so instead, he's sending his friends, Soaring Tiger and Floating Bee.

How far are we?

January seems optimistic, after reading the state of the engine. I would guess more like 2nd or 3rd quarter of '06. Of course, this is just coming from a guy who has watched countless new games release over the past 10-15 years. --Ed

Things I'd like to see: 1: Improved ballistics physics from CMx1. This is something that the CM series has done well, and I think could be expanded upon. 2: Improved damage modelling for vehicles. Again, CMx1 did well at this, I'd like to see more. 3: Accurately display hit locations. There's always that need to zoom in and see just how good a hit that 105mm AP shell got on that Sherman. 4: Improved physics for damaged buildings and vehicles. Soldiers: Hero's of WW2 is a good example of the carnage I'd like to see. 5: Campaign asset management. I'd like to see resupply and repair expanded on, for campaigns. Maybe add vehicles or crew specifically dedicated to repair and rearming of vehicles. Don't change: 1: Turn / Movie system 2: Emphasis on ballistics 3: Ability to create custom battles, where different units are purchased with points and applied to the battle 4: Emphasis on realism/history 5: PBEM/LAN/Internet Multiplayer

I haven't read a whole lot into what's expected for CMx2, but I had a suggestion, anyway.. (I'm assuming CMx2 will keep the same turn based action) In one of my other favorite games (Laser Squad Nemesis), that uses a very similar turn based system, when you are commanding a piece on the battlefield, in LSN, there's an indicator for each "waypoint", as to how many seconds it will take for the unit to arrive at said location. In my current games of CMAK, I would like to better predict the movements of a group of vehicles, with dissimilar movement speeds. How will the order to "move fast" differ from the order to "move"? This would be easier if the game engine showed a movement timeline of some sort.

Actually this is another good hit on a suggestion I made to the devs. Since there's no way to restrict the level of pilots that join your game, naturally a host will want to kick those would-be new killers before the game starts. We need a kick button! --Ed

Are you guys going to take my money or what? Someone's dropping the ball here. --Ed

I would like to see if you could find a way to allow more than two elements to confront more than 2 other elements. Since a stack of bombers are almost double the strength of the fighters included in the demo campaign, it's currently pretty likely that the defenders 2 flights will lose. Maybe the defender could decide what two elements to include in the first combat (or that could be random), and then any additional elements could fight additional rounds in the same sector? That way, 6 planes (on a single side) could be stacked into one sector, making the defense a more even match.

So where do I preorder already?! By the time you guys get that on the web site, the warm and fuzziness from the demo will have worn off! Someone get on the ball here and take my money already!! --Ed