Dan Verssen

The bombers are very cool. Your pilots will be able to fly escort and intercept missions! Of course you get extra experience points for successfuly intercepting or escorting them, and lose points if you fail... Right now I am working on getting the animated turret fire to come out of all the right places.

OS 9? and OS 10? I'll take good old OS 6.8 with Multifinder any day.

I would like to find a publisher, but right now I am planning on the DTP route. I will be putting some sample cards and such on the DVG site in the coming days/weeks as I get time. If you know of a publisher, please pass along the info I would be happy to talk with them.

Phalanx is taking a serious look at it on the tabletop side. On the computer side, it is much, much too far down the road for any talks to have started. But it's systems are heavily based on DIF WWII, so it would make sense for to keep all the games under one roof. The thing that makes me really excited about the WWI game is the WWII game features the Gloster Gladiator II, as the first (weakest) UK plane you get to fly, and its animations look very cool. So, to have an entire game of biplanes would be great.

Frenchy, Thank you for remembering the WWI DIF game! The WWI DIF design is finished and ready to go. It is being looked at as a tabletop game by a European publisher, and there is always the possibility of it appearing as a computer game also.

I'm working on it! The ship cards posted are of an early version. The updates should be up soon.

Brian has done a couple tests and the number of bytes sent during each game is very low. I think he said it is in the order of 100k give or take.

Hello Ron, Sorry about the lack of details. I haven't wanted to post any details that might turn out to not be true. I should know more in the next few days.

John, Thank you, it's great to be here! I met up with the BFC guys through email after I downloaded a CM demo. I thought the game was great and offered something new in computer gaming. FPS's are great and all, but how many do we really need released each month . I asked if they would like to publish a computer version of DIF and MNB. In the emails, Martin mentioned he worked with a 'Charles Moylan'. To which I replied, "Not THE Charles Moylan from Big Time Software?!?" It turns out I had talked and emailed with Charles about ten years ago after playing his jet fighter game on the Mac.

MikeT, I designed Hornet Leader and Thunderbolt+Apache Leader back in the early 90's. Thank you for remembering them! I'm very happy with how they came out. One project that I am currently working on is Hornet Leader II. Basically, it takes a new look at the original game and streamlines the mechanics to make it faster and easier to play while keeping the original content. If you have time, please visit the Hornet Leader forum on www.consimworld.com to see some of the new cards and ideas.

Thank you for the 'welcome aboard'! Thank you also for the warning about the General Forum. I poked around there a bit and was curious about what the padlock icons meant. Then I looked at threads. Wow! I think BFC might need to add a flashing red padlock for special occassions. Once we get a few screenshots up it will give everyone a much better idea of what we've tried to achieve, but in the meantime... We've tried to take the basic concepts of DIF and add more to them in every area. Graphically, we have had accurate Lightwave 3D models created for each of the 28 aircraft. Each time an aircraft performs a maneuver a short animation plays to show the action. Also, unqiue animations are played for each aircraft when they take hits or are shot down. For pilot skills, we have added an entirely new section for the RPG aspect of creating pilots for different nations, gaining experience points, and purchasing skills. We have added pilot fatigue, as your pilot flies missions he will accumulate Fatigue Points, that will give him skill penalties, until he has had a chance to rest. The game includes an in-game chat so you can talk with your opponents and allies. Each game will support up to 4 elements of aircraft. We have added the much waited for AI feature that allows the game to be played solitaire. It is our goal to take all the good features that DIF has, and add to them all the possibilities that computer technology provides.

Hopefully, we will have screenshots soon. Along with them will come more detailed info on the game. If you have questions about the DIF system in general, please ask away, we'll do everything we can to help. There are also a few fan sites devoted to the card game.

With any luck we should have a website soon. The guys from BFC will need to comment on the exact timing. We have been waiting to develop the final user interface artwork until the mechanical systems were in place. The good news, I think we're pretty much there now. The final piece to be added was in-game chat. This allows players to chat with the other guys in the dogfight. Very handy for taunting them, gloating over their flaming aircraft, hearing their schoolgirl-like shrieks as you Half Loop on to their Tail and blast them with an Out of the Sun attack...

To clarify, DIF is not a flight sim. It is a turn-based decision-based wargame. The game is designed to give players the feel of a dogfight without turning it into a reflex-based game. While each decision is DIF is simple, they tie together in such as way as to allow a more skilled player to win most of the time. This will be even more true when a player developes a pilot with skills. How the player uses his aircraft's capabilities, and pilot skills, will be vital to winning.

I don't think it is being published anymore. I haven't seen anything new from them in 10 years. I think the games were published by Nova games, but I'm not sure.

B-17 was great! I probably played a couple hundred missions. I really liked their system for positioning the German fighters around the bomber to determine which Turrets could fire on them.

Wodin, I can't go into details just yet, but, I think you will like what we have done along these lines!

Ace of Aces! One of the coolest games ever made. My friends and I spent hours flipping back and forth through those books. They also came out with a Jets, BattleTech, and fantasy melee. They were all good, but my favorite was always the original WWI.

Threadkiller, Down In Flames (DIF) uses a realtive positioning system. Every leader holds one of five positions relative to an enemy Leader: Tailing (really good), Advantaged (good), Neutral (ok), Disadvantaged (not so good), Tailed (very bad). Your position is indicated by the facing of the aircraft. If your nose is pointing at his tail, you are Tailing. If your nose is pointing at his side, you are Advantaged. Nose to Nose is Neutral. His nose to your side puts you at Disadvantaged, and his nose at your tail places you as being Tailed. Position affects who can shoot, and how many Bursts of attack they can play. You use maneuvers to adjust your positioning and attack.

Hello All, My name is Dan Verssen, and Down In Flames is my first entry into the world of computer gaming. I have been designing tabletop wargame since 1989 when Modern Naval Battles was published. The Down In Flames series of card games were published by GMT Games and covered both the European and Pacicifc Theaters of WWII. To briefly describe game play... The Aircraft- Each player begins with a Leader and Wingman. Each plane is rated for Performance (maximum maneuvers you can use at any one time), Horsepower (how many new maneuvers you get each turn), Bursts (how many attacks you can make each turn, and Airframe (how much damage you can take before the plane is damaged or destroyed). The Maneuvers- Offensive maneuvers allows you to either gain an advantageous position on an enemy aircraft, or shoot at him. Reactive maneuvers allow you to cancel the maneuver just performed by the enemy. What gives the system its unique feel is how the Offensive maneuvers can be reacted to by Reactive maneuvers, which in turn can be reacted to by other Reactive maneuvers. For example: The UK player with his trusty Spitfire I fires an "In My Sights" attack on the German player's already damaged Bf-109E. The German player checks his maneuvers and sees that a "Tight Turn" will counter an In My Sights, so he uses it. The UK sees the Tight Turn get played and is not about to let his attack get spoiled, so he looks through his maneuvers and sees that Scissors will react to Tight Turn, so he plays it. The German player is now feeling desperate and reacts with a Scissors of his own... but to no avail, the UK player reacts with an Ace Pilot. The German player looks through his remaining maneuvers, but alas, none will respond to an Ace Pilot. His plane suffers damage from the original In My Sights played, which is more than his plane can take, and he goes Down In Flames! If you have any questions about the game, please let us know. It is a privilege to join the BFC community and I look forward to meeting all of you!